Pharyngula

Posted by: Brother Sport | June 12, 2009 12:00 PM

Petition signed. Few things frustrate me more than the anti-science & knowledge attitude that I see even in some of my close friends.

Posted by: Bernard Bumner | June 12, 2009 12:09 PM

It amazes me that states and governments see museums and libraries as non-essential luxuries, to be done away with in times of austerity. The short-term gains must be massively outweighed by the long-term cost to education, and to the inspiration of future generations of workers.

Posted by: Monado | June 12, 2009 12:12 PM

Somebody should remind them that the last remaining complete specimens of the dodo were consigned to the museum's furnace because the museum decided that the shabby old specimens weren't of any use, thus depriving us of modern scientific research on them. Or maybe not. Perhaps they think it could be replaced with a mural of Adam naming the dinosaurs.

Posted by: Jake | June 12, 2009 12:14 PM

Great points about ways we're wasting our money. It's not as often that you hear explicit mention from the left on what we could stand to stop paying for. It's an important topic whose luster is tarnished by right wingers whining about taxes who want to cut things for the wrongs reasons.

Posted by: Christoph Geisler | June 12, 2009 12:20 PM

Sorry for the double post :-(

Posted by: a_ray_in_dilbert_space | June 12, 2009 12:30 PM

One is reminded of the story about the President of the Oklahoma University going before the Legislature to beg for more money with a novel pitch: He said he wanted a University that the football team could be proud of. I mean look, is there any way we could offer the idiots their own country? They could make Dubya president for life. Faux News could take over all media. Hannity and Billdo O'Really Rush could be on 24/7. We could give them a bunch of fake nukes and other weapons. Hell, we could even play them in football once a year and let them kick our asses so they'd continue to feel superior. Then the rest of us could get on with actually understanding shit.

Posted by: Dr.Woody | June 12, 2009 12:37 PM

One is reminded of the story about the President of the Oklahoma University going before the Legislature to beg for more money with a novel pitch: He said he wanted a University that the football team could be proud of.

That was a remark made by in-coming Uni-Pres David ('Doughboy') Boren at his FIRST meeting of the Faculty Senate (upon which I sat at that time).

Posted by: Citizen of the Cosmos | June 12, 2009 12:42 PM

And meanwhile, the deceivers of fools invest millions building a creation museum... something is deeply wrong here.

Posted by: damnedyankee | June 12, 2009 1:22 PM

Sadly, it's not just Wyoming. Here in Pennsylvania the State Senate just voted to slash library funding by 50%. If any PA Pharyngulites can lend a hand here I'm sure they'd appreciate the support as the budget bill goes to the House.

Posted by: Nentuaby | June 12, 2009 1:33 PM

(Also, why do the very religious love to use the word "awesome!" so much?)

Because it's a genuinely religious word (lit. "evoking the feeling of being in the presence of god") with a very positive pop-cultural secondary definition.

Posted by: Deepsix | June 12, 2009 1:48 PM

Hmmm, thanks Nentuaby. I just always assumed it was part of the faux enthusiasm.

Posted by: ReBecca | June 12, 2009 2:37 PM

Thank you PZ for spreading the word!! The petition signatures have nearly doubled today!!!

Posted by: kabin | June 12, 2009 2:48 PM

Thank...

Kabin
Konteyner

Posted by: Fellow Traveller | June 12, 2009 2:55 PM

And here I thought conservatives wanted to preserve the past.

Posted by: Happy Tentacles | June 12, 2009 3:18 PM

I work in Worcester City Museum in the UK,funded by the local Council. For over ten years our budget has been kept desparately low; we've been running the service on a shoestring, receiving plenty of praise from the Council for what we've achieved, whilst being paid lower salaries than we'd get if we were working in McDonalds. Then this year (thanks to the incompetence of the Council's finance department) they had to make some very deep cuts, and as usual the easy option was to take most of it out of the Museum budget. The Museum Service is now barely functioning. Several of our staff-members have gone, and the opening hours have been cut by a quarter - which means that for those of us who remain, our salaries have ALSO been cut by a quarter. Some of us are scarcely earning any more than we'd get on unemployment benefit, which shows how much the Council really values us!

The cultural, scientific and artistic wealth of our historic town is being cut away piece by piece, the Council places no value on it, morale among the staff who remain could hardly be lower. It isn't just in Wyoming that the anti-intellectuals are in charge!

Posted by: Steve Dutch | June 12, 2009 4:22 PM

Infrastructure endures, services are ephemeral. Every government budget should have infrastructure at the top of its priority list. Yet the Wyoming budget, like all such budgets is clogged with petty regulatory agencies that only micromanage life for its residents, and services people should provide for themselves (the server doesn't come up, so I can't give a detailed summary). How about this: no services of any kind unless you finish high school? As long as we view the State as a provider of services, the only things left to cut are infrastructure.

Posted by: Polyester Mather DD | June 12, 2009 5:09 PM

Having troubled to defend our Veep Emeritus's shooting manners in The London Review Of Books, I call on my fellow paleoconservatives to remind him that Wyoming owes him a Vice presidential library, and that he can kill two birds with one stone by merging the incoming and outgoing institutions

Instead of shutting down the existing cultural asset, a microfossil or two can be shoved aside to accommodate Mr. Cheney's collected literary works, the cost of whose curation can be subsidized by auctioning the rights to re-date all the old paleontology displays , from the 4th millennium BC stromatolites, to the wooly mammoths that Archbishop Ushher's magisterial geological column dates to the era separating Custer's last stand and Malcolm Wallop's last birthday party.

Should the legislature persuade the Creation Museum to reopen the place as their western annex, more power to them- Ken Ham should pay handsomely for the privilege. But if they fail, right-thinking Pharyngee should donate a wing for the edifying display of neoconservative fossils from the tar and feather sands of the Blackwater Formation.

Every Vice Presidential Library deserves a literary garden beside its political graveyard, and one can but pray that, supported by Halliburton , the Wyoming project will keep turning to the right until it brings in a gusher of warm spit capable of watering both.

Posted by: William McBrine | June 12, 2009 5:29 PM

I signed, but the "petition text" is really not a proper petition. I don't just mean it's lacking in "wherefores" and "we the undersigned"; it doesn't express a request at all. It's more of a report (as it says in the beginning: "We are dismayed to report..."), and it ends by asking you (the reader, not the person or persons being petitioned) to write to others about the situation. All of which is fine, but none of which belongs in a petition per se.

Posted by: MadScientist | June 12, 2009 6:27 PM

It's typical for 'bestseller managers' to sell off what they can; it's all for self-promotion really. "I saved the government *this* much." "I turned an X million dollar loss into a profit." Such managers really don't care about society (or anyone else for that matter). They completely screw things up, get paid mountains of money for their incompetence, then move on to do damage elsewhere.

Posted by: wingerx | June 12, 2009 8:51 PM

As a native of Wyoming and an alumnus of UW, I cannot say I'm that surprised at this news. Saddened and amazed, yes. Surprised... no.

This is the same University that tried to eliminate the Physics Department in the late 90's. I wish I were making this up. Then-President Dubois and his mates eventually relented, claiming that they were simply presenting an elaborate ruse to "shake up," the department. This was done even though the appearance of trying to banish a discipline of science from the curriculum was appalling.

To the point: please, sign the petition (as powerless as it probably is). Also, as Christoph's message (#4) urges, please send your pleas to all of the people listed. You can also contact Wyoming's Governor at this page: http://governor.wy.gov/contact-dave/default.html

Let them know that this is simply unconscionable.

Tell them that, as one Wyoming native related to you, you certainly understand that the virtues of shrewdness and frugality are ingrained features of the very spirit of the State.

Let them know that, while it's understood that Governor Freudenthal and the State Legislature's new budget calls for massive cuts, shutting down this Museum should not even be an option, at least not at this point.

Let the Trustees and the President know that this is not shrewd, and frugality in this case is, quite plainly, unwise.

It does not behoove anyone to mention the new addition to the football stadium, however. Most (if not all) of the money that is paying for the stadium additions has been raised privately, or has been donated with the explicit understanding of being used for that sole purpose. I'm not trying to justify anything – I'm just saying that this argument will fall upon deaf ears.

Myself, I plan to tell them that my Parents, my Wife, my Sister, several close friends, and I have all received degrees in various disciplines from UW. BS, BA, JD, MS, MA, PharmD, and PhD. We all received a top-notch education. We are all proud to brag of our UW experience. We are accountants, engineers, scientists (including the rocket variety), teachers, journalists, doctors, pharmacists, veterinarians, artists, musicians, editors, managers, lawyers, professors, and more. Wyoming is more than just gawking at Cowboys on the way to Yellowstone. I try to convince any prospective college student to at least consider moving to Laramie for a few years... really, the winters aren't that bad.

I plan to tell them that I'm going to have to seriously re-evaluate that last part. I'm not sure I can recommend that anyone attend an institution which would travel down this road.

Posted by: astrounit | June 13, 2009 5:13 AM

It's incredibly sad that such a geologically and biologically magnificent and rich state, chock full of some of the greatest highlights on the entire North American continent (and, in at least one instance, the entire world, in the form of the super volcano district of Yellowstone), has been so overwhelmed by the so-called "conservative" attitude that is anything but conservational and has everything to do with self-serving interests.

I hope that the better minds of Wyoming acquire the balls to fight off that infection and learn how to prevail politically...or else - mark my words - before too long we'll not only start seeing overtures to exploit Yellowstone for it's geothermal energy and further exploitation of forests for its lumber, but increased so-called "exploration" of resources and exploitation in the Tetons, the Big Horn Mountains, the Wind River Range, and the area of Fossil Butte, just to name several out of dozens...

We cannot allow any of that to happen under ANY circumstances. Period.

Not to a state that encompasses an area that is literally unique to the planet.

We must agree that there are some things that ARE more important than that a small minority of wealthy corporate interests will find profitable, most of whom are NOT based in the state. (Some of them aren't even based in the UNITED STATES!)

Watch out, Wyoming. They're looking right at you, drooling uncontrollably at the prospects. They want to grab it away from you, pretend to give you economic dividends in the form of jobs, and in relenting to them you won't get any decent deal out of it at all (except those few "conservative" individuals who turn the "trick" whom you've placed your trust in because they've convinced you they have YOUR "best interests" in mind.

Put a stop to them now. It can't hurt anybody but the already obnoxiously wealthy (mostly out of state!) interests and their "conservative" enablers you've voted to place into positions of trust to secure YOUR interests...don't let them get away with it, and don't forget: you must deal with those who are a pathetic 0.5% minority who get their way because they can afford to control the governmental/regulatory situation with over 50% of the money that "talks". The only way to fight that kind of money is to drive them out by amassing public support. Honest public education does not cost nearly as much as propaganda does. Not when the message is sufficiently clear: it costs nearly nothing for an honest message to be spread by people.

Posted by: Steve P. | June 13, 2009 6:59 AM

Petition signed by this Wyoming voter. Thanks PZ.

Posted by: Eyeoffaith | June 14, 2009 9:25 PM

Unfortunately the pen-pushers and paper-shufflers rule the world and they have little understanding of the value of resources such as Museums and Libraries.

My work went through something similar a few years back when they decided to reduce the size or our library and the collection had to be reduced. Books were being thrown out without letting staff know. When we eventually discovered what was going on two full skips of books were ready to go to the dump. I grabbed what I could before it was taken away.

Amongst what I saved was a first edition copy of The Geographical Distribution of Animals by Alfred Russell Wallace in very good condition. Who knows what ended up as land-fill.

I kept revisiting the skips to save books as they were disposed of. Eventually our head libarian approached me and told me that if I was caught on the security cameras taking books from the skips again they would call the police. Fortuanately I knew the security guard well, so when I was going down I would give him a wave and he would rotated the camera to point away from the skips.

Posted by: Scott H | June 15, 2009 3:38 PM

Guys, the UW museum's budget is $80,000 a year. It doesn't take millions of dollars to keep it open, just the pittance of 1.5 salaries and some electricity to light it. Seriously.

Posted by: Toni | June 25, 2009 2:18 PM

I've got some information on helping out the museum. Checks can be made out to "Friends of the S.H. Knight Geological Museum" and sent to:
Friends of the S.H. Knight Geological Musem
PO Box 1752
Laramie, WY 82073

There is also a website at www.keeplaramiedinos.blogspot.com. Its seems there will also be info tables at Washington Park at Freedom Has a Birthday (July 4th) and at Jubilee Days downtown (in Laramie).