A national biological society has diverted its annual meeting to Salt Lake
City, snubbing New Orleans because of Louisiana's recent embrace of a law
widely panned as anti-science.
The Louisiana Science Education Act -- similar to a measure Utah lawmakers
rejected three years ago -- allows local school boards to introduce
creationist materials into the classroom under the guise of promoting
"critical thinking" toward the theory of evolution, critics say.
"This law undermines the integrity of science and science education in
Louisiana," wrote Richard Satterlie, president of the Society for
Integrative and Comparative Biology, in Feb. 5 letter to Gov. Bobby Jindal,
who signed the controversial bill into law last June.
"Utah, in contrast, passed a resolution that states that evolution is
central to any science curriculum," the letter continued. "As scientists it
is our responsibility to oppose anti-science initiatives."
I vaguely recall the point, not too long ago, when Stein was considered something of a mainstream figure at the intersection of politics and entertainment. He’d show up on Fox News, and then make a cameo on “Married with Children.” He seemed quirky, conservative, and harmless.
And now he’s going on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, telling a crazed televangelist that science kills, and that modern biology led to the Nazi Holocaust. It’s breathtaking.
Dumb, dumber, and dumberer. Are they so desperate to offend nobody they pretend to not know what they don’t talking about? Or is it worse – do they really NOT have a friggin’ clue?
I’ve been avoiding this because it pisses me off, so I’ll refer you to The Carpetbagger.
Imagine, if you will, a load of horseshit. And we’re not talking just your average load of horseshit; no, we’re talking colossal load of horsehit. An epic load of horseshit. The kind of load of horseshit that has accreted over decades and has developed its own sort of ecosystem, from the flyblown chunks at the perimeter, down into the heated and decomposing center, generating explosive levels of methane as bacteria feast merrily on vintage, liquified crap. This is a Herculean load of horseshit, friends, the likes of which has not been seen since the days of Augeas.
And you look at it and you say, “Wow, what a load of horseshit.”
“This little island could have a wide international significance,” said Stefan Talmon, professor of international law at Oxford University in Britain. “With the ice melting, more and more of these islands could emerge and play a role in maritime delimitations.”
Holy cow. You know, when people tell me they don’t believe in the “theory” of evolution – and we’ll dispense with the discussion that the twits don’t understand the difference between theory and hypothesis – I ask them how they feel about the theory of gravity. But this makes me want to cry for education in America:
I mean for heavens sakes people! Seriously, are these typical of the people with whom the US is preparing to compete in the world economy and marketplace of ideas? OMFH!
Earth’s polar temperature has swung wildly—by as much as 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit)—over the last 800,000 years, an Antarctic ice core has revealed.
An anonymous reader wrote with a link to the official Planet Quest site. Planet Quest has the goal of exploring the galaxy via sophisticated instrumentation for another habitable planet. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab is working to plan out missions for the project, and researchers are now theorizing that the instruments may be able to explore the system of 40 Eridani. Hardcore Trek fans may know 40 Eridani as the star associated with the planet Vulcan.
It’s hardly news to attentive folks that the religious wrong is among the most blatant and shameless abusers of reality when it comes to misrepresenting and outright inventing science and statistics.
The funny this is, all too often they seem to be lacking even a minimal sense of self awareness as to the nature of their lies. That makes it all the more interesting to see a piece like the aptly named Christian Smith’s at Christianity Today:
American evangelicals, who profess to be committed to Truth, are among the worst abusers of simple descriptive statistics, which claim to represent the truth about reality, of any group I have ever seen. At stake in this misuse are evangelicals’ own integrity, credibility with outsiders, and effectiveness in the world. It is an issue worth making a fuss over. And so I write.
Strong words. But Smith has a point, and it’s a good one. He concludes:
The real question is not whether evangelicals can clean up their statistical act. The deeper question is whether American evangelicals can learn to live without the alarmism that is so comfortably familiar to them. Evangelicals, by my observation, thrive on fear of impending catastrophe, accelerating decay, apocalyptic crises that demand immediate action (and maybe money). All of that can be energizing and mobilizing. The problem is, it also often distorts, misrepresents, or falsifies what actually happens to be true about reality. And to sacrifice what is actually true for the sake of immediate attention and action is plain wrong. It should be redefined as a very un-evangelical thing to do.
This reminds me of a talk I heard by Dallan Oaks in 1992 in which he stated:
There is great strength in being highly focused on our goals. We have all seen the favorable fruits of that focus. Yet an intense focus on goals can cause a person to forget the importance of righteous means. … We cannot be so concerned about our goals that we overlook the necessity of using righteous methods to attain them.
The righteous means angle is where so many good intentioned but policy foolish ideas come about on the right. It’s nice to see someone speaking up.
We know all too well that some evangelicals have been behaving badly when it comes to sex and hypocrisy. That provides endless entertainment here on the Blend. What isn’t funny is the damage done to the equality movement by fundies and their organizations, like Daddy D’s, by their misuse, misquoting and twisting of statistics to support bigotry.
In Proverbs 14:5, we read, “A reliable witness always tells the truth, but an unreliable one tells nothing but lies.” That proverb, like all of them, is profoundly true. When someone is caught in a lie, it destroys their credibility and from then on everything they say is treated with suspicion –a suspicion that is reserved for one who “tells nothing but lies.” After all, who has “ears to hear” once you discover someone has been caught playing fast and loose with the facts?
Researchers found those men who used a phone for four hours or more a day had fewer sperm and those they had moved less well and were of poorer quality.
We envision a future where wise science and technology policy can help every American live in a safe and clean environment, enjoy quality health and education, and benefit from a strong system of national defense. SEA is the only national organization dedicated exclusively to electing leaders who share this vision.
Have we had enough to Bush administration proposals that come out in spite of reasoned analysis rather than become of it?
