Policy and Politics
tfk | January 29, 2009DaveScot, the semiliterate sycophant who used to administer Bill Dembski's ID blog, is in a tizzy. In addition to being an evolution denier, DS is a climate change denier and a promoter of medical woo, you see, and he thinks there's evidence that "[James] Hansen’s former boss at NASA declares himself an AGW skeptic." He is sure that:
The video below is U.S. Senator James Inhofe describing the letter he received from former NASA supervisor and senior atmospheric scientist Dr. John S. Theon
But no! As Tim Lambert points out, and as any fully literate person could tell from the email DS…
tfk | January 29, 2009The endlessly entertaining Zero out of Five collects catastrophically wrong test answers.
This one got 0 points, but I think that a recently passed law in Louisiana (and similar laws introduced in Oklahoma and elsewhere this year) might make that grade illegal:
I think that illustration was copied from a Discovery Institute meteorology textbook. Surely that's worth partial credit. 1 point out of 2?
tfk | January 29, 2009Tough economic times are squeezing university budgets in Europe, creating tension between sceintists and their governments.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is unhappy with French scientists. In a recent speech
Sarkozy lambasted the [French] research system as "infantilizing and paralyzing," argued that French scientists aren't productive enough, and announced that after decades of failed attempts at change, radical reforms are now his government's top priority. "The forces of conservatism and immobilism have always triumphed," he said, "and that has to stop."
French scientists responded…
tfk | January 28, 2009I suspect that when history remembers my Mayor, I expect they'll just quote Chip Johnson's summary of his state of the city address:
To say the least, if Dellums had a theme, it was lost in the chaos that converged around him.
I gotta say, focusing on crime was not the best move for Ron Dellums. Despite beefing up the police force, crime is basically constant in Oakland, and Dellums has shown no evidence of a clear plan to slow it. Bringing Guardian Angels in from LA is silly. It's a temporary measure, and it treats crime as something Oaklanders can't solve for ourselves. If the police…
tfk | January 26, 2009Slacktivist has an interesting plan for abstinence education:
Two things I've never been able to figure out about "abstinence only" sex education.
1. Isn't it necessary, at some point, to describe what it is, exactly (or even generally), that they're supposed to be abstaining from?
2. Since the goal here seems to be to put off or delay the onset of sexual activity, why bother with abstinence only sex ed at all? Why not just create a curriculum to instill a crippling social awkwardness?
I sometimes wonder if that's not the real purpose of religious home-schooling. And of "Christian T-shirts…
tfk | January 23, 2009The new science standards survived without reinserting "strengths and weaknesses." That phrase has been abused by creationists in the past, and its removal is a giant victory.
Disco. is trying to hustle a win out of some random changes to the evolution section of the Biology TEKS, but, as they say down here, that dog won't hunt. All they did was confuse the standards and take out specificity needed by teachers and textbook authors. Furthermore, how do they propose that anyone analyze and evaluate how natural selection doesn't apply to individuals but to populations? That's simply true,…
tfk | January 22, 2009President GOBAMA! closes Gitmo, rebans torture, and says of the struggle against al Qaeda:
We intend to win this fight, and we intend to win it on our terms.
Damn straight.
tfk | January 22, 2009An amendment by Cargill is being passed around. It changes ESS standards.
Will it change the age of the earth? Oh, I'm so anxious I could plotz.
Amendment is on the page listing "(4) Earth in space and time."
She says it adds qualifiers. Seeks "humility and tentativeness."
She wants to insert "differing theories about" such that "observations reveal differing theories about" the structure, scale, composition, origin, and history of the universe."
Dunbar and McLeroy go back and forth about tentativeness of theories, and how there used to be steady state theories.
Craig: This is superfluous…
tfk | January 22, 2009Ecto crash cost me a liveblog. Leo offered BS amendments which don't do much ultimate harm, but do hurt treatment of evolution. Each part of biology 7 gets "analyze and evaluate" at the beginning of the standard. This makes some sections ungrammatical or irrelevant.
McLeroy passed an amendment requiring students to know the definition of evolution in section b(2) and understands it has limitations. This is mostly harmless, but silly and confusing.
Insert new standard in evolution section.
"7B: Describe the sufficiency or insufficiency of common descent to explain the sudden appearance,…
tfk | January 22, 2009Miller: Real science is debate. Praises standards writers. Votes against amendment.
Nuñez is still missing.
Knight: Allen said everything that should be said.
Craig: This doesn't restrict discussion, doesn't infringe rights. It does better at encouraging freedom than old lines.
As Cargill speaks, I head out to see if Nuñez can be found. Without him, this vote will be 7-7, and will be delayed until tomorrow.
Dunbar claims to appeal to logic rather than emotion, thus disarming herself.
Knight: My logic is doing fine. Problem is in professional development around TEKS. S&W language…
tfk | January 22, 2009Agosto is playing for time. Praises energy on both sides. Says he's open-minded. Willing to listen to everyone.
He's the swing vote. Everyone's hanging on his every word.
"I echo Bradley's comments," about the amount of commentary, but will vote against the amendment. Standards are good, well-written, he'll listen to the experts.
tfk | January 22, 2009Mercer: Teach S&W of everything. It would be illegal to single out evolution. 6500 emails say keep S&W. He's been battered. This is a battle for freedom of speech. Teachers have a right to allow students to have questions. I note that teachers also have a right to maintain order in classrooms.
Darwin, apparently, claimed that a religion had been made of his theories. Possibly in his last month. It's a threat to religious freedom to base college admission on their understanding of evolution.
"History has not been kind to evolutionists." Piltdown had a human brain with the…
tfk | January 22, 20091:15 Dunbar just moved to amend the TEKS to restore the bogus S&W language rather than the language preferred by scientific and science education experts.
She's saying it will somehow stave off litigation. NO! It will bring litigation. Now she's saying other board members are disingenuous.
Insists that the language has been on the books for 20 years, which is bull. It goes back no further than 1996 in the TEKS, and 1991 in other Board documents.
Knight opposes the amendment. "Longevity is no indication of the quality of something." "S&W phrase has taken on a different meaning…
tfk | January 22, 2009Dunbar proposes that old TEKS be revise to say:
Analyze, evaluate, and critique scientific explanations by using empirical evidence, logical reasoning, experimental and observational reasoning and problem solving by examining scientific evidence supportive and not supportive of those explanations.
This adds the word "critique," and the bit at the end. She says the last bit just quotes Wetherington, but he's withdrawn that idea.
Hardy: Vote against because Wetherington opposes.
Leo: Cites his testimony.
But he withdrew that.
Knight: This language opens up too many problems. Oppose.
Nuñez is…
tfk | January 22, 2009Casey Luskin, Disco. Inst's attack caterpillar, posts an Epilogue on Dr. Meyer’s Texas Testimony: Stephen Meyer Demolishes Darwinist Personal Attacks:
The first question the Texas Darwinists asked was whether Dr. Meyer has a Ph.D. in biology. No, Dr. Meyer answered, he merely holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and History of Science from Cambridge University that focused on the history of evolution. As usual, the Darwinists are not being self-reflective, because one of their own experts--Gerald Skoog--doesn't even have a Ph.D.--he has an Ed.D. in Secondary Education. Thankfully, one board member…
tfk | January 22, 2009*chopper blades whirr, their flicker blending into the flickering of fluorescent lights in a vast chamber*
Austin… crap, I'm still in Austin. Every time I think I'm going to wake up back in the prairie. When I was in the hotel after the first day, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing...
When I was here I wanted to be there. When I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the hearings. I've been here a day now. Waiting for a vote, getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room I get weaker. And every minute creationists squat in the brush he gets stronger. Each time…
tfk | January 22, 2009Forgot to post this last night.
He's back to claiming phylogenetics is circular.
Not fair to say that IDers are not there, or that their numbskulls.
He is insisting that he's not a creationist, and yet:
Q. Do you accept the general principle of common descent that all life is biologically related back to the beginning of life, yes or no?
A. I won't answer that question as a yes or no. I accept the idea of limited common descent. I am skeptical about universal common descent. I do not take it as a principle; it is a theory. And I think the evidence supporting the theory of universal common…
tfk | January 21, 2009Leo: I know you won't defend your Cambridge PhD. Asks about Cambrian. Also, is Disco. creationist? Now she's getting pissy, and blithering about lots of topics.
Meyer: "Do you know what an argument from authority is?" Will you offer one now? Accuses experts of appealing to authority, rather than appeal to expertise which they actually used.
Whines about other people's testimony, ignoring Leo's many confused and blithering questions. Then accuses Hillis of presenting half-baked ideas. He then says the Cambrian explosion lasted less than 5 million years. He is literally filled with…
tfk | January 21, 2009It's worth noting something about Garner's statements. He claims that evolution is treated specially, but this is nonsense. The language in question is used everywhere. He claims that the standards related to evolution is somehow less in-depth, that evolution is less scrutinized.
Rick Agosto was chatting about investments with a couple of the creationists in the bathroom.
Hillis is speaking now.
It sounds like Tincey Miller is looking for a way to compromise between the S&W language and the language currently on offer. This is very, very bad. They seem to be talking about restoring S…
tfk | January 21, 2009Charles Garner, creationist chemist from Baylor: Are there weaknesses in theories? Sez we can substitute explanations or hypotheses, but these are not interchangeable. Claims theory is being redefined, which is nonsense. Can be weaknesses. Gets into origins of life, beginning with proteins, especially chirality. We're going to get several minutes of stereoselectivity in peptide formation; shoot me.
Now he's playing with big numbers, trying to scare people. Origin of life "astonishingly improbable," about like the odds of someone winning the lottery, and yet…
Wants a standard about OOL…