ICR acknowledges neaderthal missinformation

From: R. Joel Duff (rjduff@uakron.edu)
Date: Fri Nov 24 2000 - 20:17:45 EST

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    Two months ago there was some discussion of a current ICR broadcast in which one of the guests cited evidence of neaderthal's using instruments from a April fools article in Discover Mag.   I noticed today that the December issue of "Acts and Facts" from ICR contains an admission of the error.   There is some interesting spinning of situation to make it not sound as good as possible.

    Here is the pertinent excerpt from the December 2000 Acts and Facts 28(12)

    CAUGHT BY AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE
    On September 9, 2000, the Institute for
    Creation Research released an episode on
    Science, Scripture, & Salvation titled,
    “Neanderthals.” During the broadcast,
    one of our guests cited evidence that Ne-anderthals
    may have produced musical
    instruments including a tuba-like instru-ment
    made from a mastodon tusk, a bag-pipe
    made in part from an animal blad-der,
    a triangle, and a xylophone made
    from hollowed out bone.
    It has come to our attention that this
    information was taken from an article
    published as a practical joke in Discover
    magazine. The magazine did not identify
    this as a joke and unfortunately it found
    its way onto our broadcast. We deeply
    apologize that our program conveyed in-correct
    information.
    However, on that same broadcast, we
    presented another artifact that resembles
    a flute carved from the thighbone of a
    bear. This information has appeared in
    such journals as Science (April 11, 1997,
    p. 205) and Scientific American (Septem-ber
    1997, p. 28,) as well as others. The
    evidence remains strong that Neander-thals
    had musical abilities. So while the
    information from Discover magazine was
    incorrect, the notion that Neanderthals
    produced musical instruments is not in-validated
    by the Discover hoax.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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    Dr. R. Joel Duff, Assistant Professor
    Dept. of Biology, ASEC 185
    Campus Mail 3908
    University of Akron
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    Office:  330-972-6077
    e-mail: rjduff@uakron.edu
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