Whoever the "Astute Observer" was — Science and Factually Exact Are Not the Same

Does Genesis 1 through 11 have an author prior to Moses? · Whoever the "Astute Observer" was — Science and Factually Exact Are Not the Same · Should One NOT Read Donald J. Wiseman? · For Anyone Disputing the Relevance of Genesis 5 and 11, the Genealogy of Matthew is a Go To

There has been a time (or maybe even more than once) in the past 100 to 150 years, when the Seine was so high, it touched the feet of the Zouave statue on the Pont de l'Alma in Paris.

This is not usually the case. This* is from 2013:

La Seine atteignait samedi matin 9 février 3,86m de haut et le zouave du pont de l'Alma, célèbre statue qui sert de repère aux Parisiens, avait les pieds dans l'eau.

Mercredi, le fleuve avait été mesuré à 3,79 mètres mercredi, à l'échelle située au pont d'Austerlitz, alors que son niveau habituel est de 2 mètres.

The Seine is (in Paris) usually 2 m (6 ft, 6~7 in) above river bottom. As on Saturday, the 9th of February, 2013, it was unusually 3.79 m (12 ft 5 in), the Zouave had the feet in the water.

Here is a "dry feet" version of him, by the way:

The Zouave statue in 2004
Greudin and one more author - Own work | Public Domain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zouave_(Pont_de_l%27Alma)#/media/File:Paris-zouave-pont-de-l-alma.jpg

I think I had evoked this some time before 2013, on an early blog of mine. Cannot find it, was it perhaps taken down after the 2013 event?**

Anyway, the thing is, we have some even higher levels according to Le Parisien:

En 2001, la Seine avait atteint 5m21 et lors de la grande crue de 1910, elle a culminé à 8m62.

Grande crue means "big flooding" and the measures are 5.21 m = 17 ft 1 in; 8.62 = 28 ft 3 in.

The thing is, if I say that the Seine in 1910 went past its normal 6 ft 7 in to 28 ft 3 in, I am not claiming to be a hydrologist.

If a hydrologist said "that can't happen" and I say, "yes, it happened in 1910" I am still not claiming to be a hydrologist.

If a hydrologist asked me for a credible source and I said "Le Parisien" I would not be claiming this newspaper were a scientific committee of hydrologists. I would just state that I had confidence in Le Parisien's reporting, that one should have confidence in its reporting, that this primes over any a priori a hydrologist could come up with.

Now, a hydrologist might not be so stupid as to deny the flooding of 1910. But somehow, when some other types of scientific specialists come up with a priori's or other calculations against the account of the Bible, to some people this equates to misconstruing the Bible as "a modern science publication" ... it's no more that than Le Parisien is Journal of Hydrology, and it's no more claiming that than I am claiming that Le Parisien is Journal of Hydrology.***

Factual exactness is not the monopoly of either modernity or science. The alternative to "exact down to three decimal points" is not just "vastly exaggerated so the factuality if any cannot be discerned" and the problem with denying the globality of the Flood from an exegetical p o v is that "large regional flood" is not a kind of "more precisely" you can add to a "round number" ....

So, the "astute observer" may be ex-KGB Kirill of his partner in Ecumenical crime Ratzinger, or both, or someone else — but on this item, he was extremely far from being "astute" .../HGL

For the Zouave, see also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zouave_(Pont_de_l%27Alma)#/media/File:Zouave_du_pont_de_l'Alma_le_3_juin_2016.jpg

I am not using it, since I will not allow others to add to this work, according to the share alike condition, CC BY-SA 4.0, hence just linking to it. I think that lots of my troubles about getting an editor is some kind of French jurisprudence that sees only three copyright levels to a work, copyrighted, public domain, and between them the one and only CC BY-SA 4.0. No, one can dispose of one's authorship in other ways, which is what I did.

* Le Parisien : EN IMAGES. Le zouave du pont de l'Alma a les pieds dans l'eau
Le 9 février 2013 à 16h27
https://www.leparisien.fr/paris-75/en-images-le-zouave-du-pont-de-l-alma-a-les-pieds-dans-l-eau-09-02-2013-2554059.php

** Not by me, though.

*** Science Direct : Journal of Hydrology (Open Access)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-hydrology/publish/open-access-options