Friday, February 17, 2006
The Ohio Board of Education voted 11 to 4 on Tuesday to scrap a
requirement that "critical analysis of evolution" be taught in
biology classes. Ohio's "critical analysis" ploy for teaching
intelligent design had been hailed by The Discovery Institute as
a model for the entire nation. Rejection by the Education Board
came as a direct consequence of the Dover ruling by U.S. District
Court Judge John E. Jones III: teaching ID is unconstitutional
(WN 23 Dec 05) . A Discovery
Institute spokesman publicly scoffed that the Dover ruling was
not binding elsewhere, but Judge Jones expanded the blast radius
by awarding damages to the parents who brought suit. That got
the attention of school boards. The Discovery Institute has bet
the farm on selling ID as science, but the Dover effect has
blunted it in California, Indiana and Wisconsin, and now Ohio.
Go on! Yes, Sunday was the 197th birthday of Charles Darwin. At
450 churches around the nation it was celebrated with sermons and
programs that mingle biological evolution and faith. Something
is happening. The public is getting an unprecedented exposure to
evolution in books, museum exhibits, and news programs. Coming
soon to a theater near you is Flock of Dodos. Film maker and
marine biologist Randy Olsen has made a movie about evolution and
intelligent design http://www.flockofdodos.com . It has what
fundamentalists all lack a sense of humor. And we owe it all
to the Discovery Institute and intelligent design.
New data from satellite imagery show the glaciers to be melting
twice as fast as they were a decade ago, according to a report in
today's Science. The study focused on the rate of glacial ice
flow. Meanwhile, NASA's budget is focused on finishing the ISS,
which everyone now seems to agree is pointless, and preparations
for the Moon/Mars, which is equally pointless and won't happen
anyway. NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory, which was waiting
to be launched and would have given unique insight into global
warming, is terminated because it had Al Gore's Initials on it
(WN 6 Jan 06) .
The Bush budget cut the EPA's $2.5M library network budget by
80%. Well, you gotta cut someplace. Yesterday, Bush asked for
another $72B for the war on terror and $20B for Katrina relief.
Why was the White House so secretive about a Texas quail hunt and
what happened to Vivy, the champion whippet, in Kennedy Airport?
The NSA put it all together: The Vice President shot the whippet.
|
