Yahoo's Cosmological Hall of Shame

Yahoo's category devoted to cosmology is dominated by erroneous theories. As of 12-May-98 only five of the eleven entries are correct. Since Yahoo is supposed to be a guide to what's best on the Internet, I am bothered by their promotion of incorrect models for the Universe.

The new entry which I first saw on 2-Jul-98 is also incorrect, bringing the Yahoo score down to 5 out of 12, but the new entry I saw on 20-Jul-98 is correct, giving a current score of 6 out of 13.

Here are my grades for the listed pages:

• Collapse of the Universe (New on 20-Jul-98) - B. Discusses the idea that the "arrow of time" would go backwards (entropy would decrease) in a contracting Universe. Points out that there is very little evidence for this idea, but no evidence against it. Actually, we could never observe evidence against this idea, so it is not falsifiable, and hence not a scientific theory according to Popper.
• Origin and its Meaning, The - (New on 2-Jul-98) - F. Claims the redshift is due to light from distant objects being emitted with higher velocities in the past, leading to a longer wavelength for the same frequency. This is really pathetic, since measurements of wavelength, frequency, and photon energy are all consistent with the same redshift.
• Creation of a Cosmology: The Big Bang Theory - B. Note that the misspelled ``Cosmolgy'' on the Yahoo listing is not due to Scott Siegel.
• Erk's Cosmology Pages - D: the critical density case does not approach a fixed size as t goes to infinity. The spelling ``Erk'' is due to Eric Baird.
• Hot Big Bang - A. The Cambridge University cosmology site.
• Introduction to Cosmology - A. The Microwave Anisotropy Probe Web site.
• NASA's Origins Program - B. This is a good site, but much of NASA cosmology is in the Structure and Evolution of the Universe Program. Look at both.
• The New Big Bang - D: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Special relativity does not work in the coordinates used by cosmology.
• Rufus's Galaxy - F: this is actually a tired light model, and is thus dead, but it also proposes that the redshift is proportional to the frequency, which is totally contrary to the evidence.
• Scientific American: Twist and Shout - A: a good site, a great magazine. Of course Nodland and Ralston are wrong about the "twist" in the Universe.
• Secret of Creation: F - ether! and H_o = 500 km/sec/Mpc to boot!
• Symmetric Theory: D - an unclassifiable mess. Example: "a flat rotation curve implies solid body rotation."
• Why the Big Bang is Wrong: F - more tired light but with the added failure of a mechanism that just won't work.

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© 1998-1999 Edward L. Wright. Last modified 25-Nov-1999