Next time you have to bring treats to a school board meeting, or need something sacramental for your church, if you’re just looking for something fun to do with the kids, here’s what you can do:
It’s a completely edible FSM, and it sounds like it would be sweet, too.
Would you believe someone has received a copy of Harun Yahya’s epic tome, Atlas of Creation, and doesn’t want it? Weird, huh?
Let’s imagine, though, that someone for some bizarre reason wants one. Here’s your chance: write a comment here that testifies to your deep and unholy desire to possess a copy, and the current possessor of a copy will judge them and decide to whom he will impart this strange book of lunacy. All you have to do is pay the cost of shipping it to where ever you are.
Here’s the way it works. Leave a comment here using a valid email address. The current owner will pick one of you as the lucky recipient, and will contact me; I’ll give him your email address (he and I will be the only ones to see that), and then the two of you can negotiate the cost of sending it.
Easy. Just be aware that if you comment in this thread and say anything, you may win a copy of the book. I’ll be curious to see if this thread goes instantly dead, or becomes amusingly entertaining.
Some states manage to pull their collective heads out of their butts and and do the right thing. There’s good news from South Carolina:
Today, in a stunning reversal of votes, the State Board of Education approved the Miller/Levine Biology Textbook that was under scrutiny. The vote went from 9-7 (vote in December) in favor of dropping the Miller/Levine textbook to 10-6 in favor of keeping the textbook on the list. This is a major victory for science education in the palmetto state. Dr. Miller, along with approximately 20 SCSE members were on hand to offer advise, critiques and personal testimony in favor the Miller/Levine Biology text.
You go, South Carolina! Now all you have to do is get those 6 idiots who voted against evolution off the school board — you’re 62% of the way to joining the 20th century!
Answers in Genesis, fresh from their success at aping real science with their fake “Museum,” has a new dishonest enterprise in the works: they’re starting a fake science journal, the Answers Research Journal, which will publish “cutting-edge research that demonstrates the validity of the young-earth model, the global Flood, the non-evolutionary origin of’created kinds,’ and other evidences that are consistent with the biblical account of origins.” Isn’t it sweet how they declare up front exactly which answers they’ll accept?
I hope they’re planning to have a very tight review process. They’re going to face some Sokal-like challenges, as one person has already announced a competition to get a crank paper published.
Keeping in mind that this is the organization responsible for the disgraceful Creation Museum, I am issuing a challenge to the skeptical community and to those of you interested in maintaining high standards in American science education. The first biologist, historian, anthropologist, archaeologist, or astronomer who can get a crank paper published in the Answers Research Journal and reveals their hoax on this site will win…a very special award to be determined later!
Silly person. Don’t you know that everything published in that journal will be a crank paper?
Attempting to infect Spain
America should be ashamed: now our resident idiots are exporting creationism to Spain (Google translation). They’re staging a conference, Lo Que Darwin no Sabía (What Darwin Didn’t Know).
My apologies to the land of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Miguel Servet, Joan Oró, and José Celestino Bruno Mutis. We aren’t all morons over here in the US, I assure you.
Yep, another Florida county approves a goofy anti-science resolution. From their minutes:
Approval of the Resolution Urging State Board of Education to Direct Florida Department of Education to Revise the New Sunshine State Standards for Science Such That Evolution is Not Presented as Fact.
Texas really has some competition now in the category of most pig-ignorant state in the country.
This is hilarious. That wacky Islamic creationist, Harun Yahya, sent all those copies of his great big expensive book, Atlas of Creation, to biologists all around the country, and darned few of us have actually bothered to look at it in any detail. The general pattern of the book is repetitious and predictable: the book shows a picture of a fossil and a photo of a living animal, and declares that they haven’t changed a bit, therefore evolution is false. Over and over. It gets old fast, and it’s usually wrong (they have changed!) and the photography, while lovely, is entirely stolen.
Here’s the latest funny part: someone did scrutinize the photos a little more carefully, and discovered a few of the photos are actually of fishing lures, hook and all. That’s the level of competence we’re talking about in this book.
By the way, I recently got another copy of the Atlas — the only difference seems to be that the new version has an emerald green cover, while the previous was bright red. Man, it’s impressive that they’ve got so much money that they’ll send out new editions just to change the cover color.
The latest edition of the Tangled Bank is at Aardvarchaeology. I think you have to read it: I believe that is hypnotoad on the top of the page.
This is the time — you can give feedback on the Minnesota science standards, and you can also apply to be on the standards writing committee. Here’s where you have a chance to make a difference.
The Minnesota Department of Education is now soliciting feedback from the public on the current Science Standards via an online survey. The survey will be open until February 21, 2008.
First, review the current Science Standards on the Science Standards Web page.
Then take the Science Standards online survey.
Applications are also being accepted for individuals interested in serving on the Science Standards Revision Committee. Before applying to the committee, please read the Assumptions and the Timeline documents posted on the MDE Science Standards Web page. Serving on the committee means a commitment of at least one meeting a month, from March 2008 through February 2009. The initial 2-day meeting is scheduled for March 4-5, 2008, and is required of all committee members. Applicants who are selected for the committee will be notified on or before February 21, 2008. (Applications accepted January 8-21, 2008.)
First, read the Assumptions and the Timeline documents posted on the Science Standards Web page.
Then, apply for the Science Standards Committee.
If you have questions about the Science Standards or the revision process, please contact Clark Erickson, State Science Education Specialist, at 651-582-8753.
Please share this information with your district and school staff, particularly teachers or administrators involved in science education.
If you understand the science and want to contribute to the next set of standards for the state of Minnesota, get to work. Remember, the current standards were written under the malignant influence of Cheri Yecke, and they’re good given the difficulty of the conditions, thanks to the hard work of the previous committee. We can make these standards a shining example for the rest of the country this time.
This is probably a serious site. Probably. It could be satire, but the line between satire and Christianity is razor thin. Read Christian dating tips, and judge for yourself.
First rule of Christian dating: it’s pretty much like going to church. Boring, chaste, and offering nothing but faint hopes. No intimacy is allowed, not even a kiss.
