Archives for February, 2010
Fundamentalism in Europe vs. US
Posted by Josh Rosenau on February 21, 2010 Jon Miller replies to my question about the difference in fundamentalist cultures in US vs. Europe that fundamentalism is so rare in Europe that it doesn’t matter, and can’t overwhelm long-standing traditions of hierarchal knowledge flows. Spain has a very conservative subculture within its Catholicism, which may influence the negative effect of religiosity on science…
AAAS Day 3: Social media in science
Posted by Josh Rosenau on February 21, 2010 Bora Zivkovic is telling the scientists here how to make social media work for them. His big point is that there’s no longer a relevant difference between blogs and traditional media – the war between blogs and print journalists is over. The existence of quacks on blogs doesn’t invalidate the enterprise of good bloggers, any more…
Lubchenco
Posted by Josh Rosenau on February 21, 2010 Who has two thumbs and met NOAA administrator, jetsetting ecologist, and hero to policy-loving scientists Jane Lubchenco? This guy. It wasn’t a long conversation, but we did chat about the wonders of cephalopods, the importance of science education, and similarities between creationism and global warming denial. And now electrons from her hand are wending their…
Called out
Posted by Josh Rosenau on February 20, 2010 The organizer of this education session caught me blogging her remarks, but I didn’t get sent to sit in the corner.
Highlights from TIMSS 2007 at AAAS
Posted by Josh Rosenau on February 20, 2010 I’m getting ready for a session at AAAS where researchers will explore the results of the multi-national TIMSS study of science knowledge by 4th and 8th graders. They’ll be comparing different US state results to draw lessons for improving science education, looking at Massachusetts and Minnesota’s dramatic improvements on these tests from 2005 to 2007.…
Global warming deniers want South Dakota’s teachers to deceive children
Posted by Josh Rosenau on February 19, 2010 By a 36-30 vote, the South Dakota legislature recently passed House Concurrent Resolution 1009, “Calling for balanced teaching of global warming in the public schools of South Dakota.” Fans of the creation/evolution struggle will recall that the US Supreme Court in 1987 struck down a “balanced time” law for creationism and evolution in Louisiana. In…
Chapman visits Tammany Hall
Posted by Josh Rosenau on February 18, 2010 Shorter Discovery Institute: Election Fundraising More Fun–and Constitutional–After Supreme Court Ruling: Thanks to the Supreme Court, corruption is now more fun, and constitutional! Meanwhile, real Americans hate the Supreme Court ruling in question.
Off to AAAS
Posted by Josh Rosenau on February 17, 2010 I’ll be at the AAAS meetings in San Diego until Monday. Leave a comment or send an email if you’ll be there and want to meet up.
Cothran fluffs up his illogic
Posted by Josh Rosenau on February 17, 2010 Martin Cothran, defender of Holocaust deniers and sometime friend to the eugenicists at the Disco. ‘Tute, unleashes his inner Freudian psychoanalyst to determine that I have “logic envy.” He seems to think his perverted logic is so big and beautiful that everyone else must want the same thing. The nubbin of his argument is that…
None of that “book learnin”
Posted by Josh Rosenau on February 16, 2010 Via ThinkProgress we learn that our old friend Chris Buttars has had a brainstorm about how to fix the state budget: The sudden buzz over the relative value of senior year stems from a recent proposal by state Sen. Chris Buttars that Utah make a dent in its budget gap by eliminating the 12th grade.…
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the