Off again…

I should be flying through the air right now, on my way to Los Angeles for another long travel weekend. I was also out of town last week, and to my shame was too busy to post a Friday Cephalopod. I will not make that mistake this time: in recompense, tomorrow I will post THREE (3) Friday Cephalopods and recite 10 Hail Cthulhus while lashing myself with a wet tentacle. The latter will, of course, be done in private, but look for my public penance on Friday.

A review of Explore Evolution

The Discovery Institute has been gearing up to pollute classrooms across the country with a new ‘textbook’ called Explore Evolution, which is to replace their old propaganda of choice, Of Pandas and People (which had its sorry creationist origins exposed in a little trial in Dover, Pennsylvania). John Timmer of Ars Technica has now reviewed the DI’s masterwork and…well, I hate to give the ending away, but he didn’t like it.

But the book doesn’t only promote stupidity, it demands it. In every way except its use of the actual term, this is a creationist book, but its authors are expecting that legislators and the courts will be too stupid to notice that, or to remember that the Supreme Court has declared teaching creationism an unconstitutional imposition of religion. As laws similar to Louisiana’s resurface in other states next year, we can only hope that legislators choose not to live down to the low expectations of EE’s authors.

I’ve read it, too, and it is as awful as Timmer says. Don’t buy this book. Watch your local school board, and make sure they don’t buy it either. Some will be trying to do so.

Chicken

Unbelievable—John McCain runs away and begs for the imminent presidential debate to be delayed, citing the need to address the financial crisis, as if he actually matters and has a plan other than to do whatever the Bush administration orders.

I smell fear.

I was sent a great suggestion: if McCain is going to be curled up in a foetal position somewhere, perhaps they should have the vice-presidential debate instead. She’s ready, right?

Nature discusses the US election

Good ol’ UK-based Nature has a special section dedicated to the US election. I’m not surprised — the whole world has a stake in this one, and I sure hope we don’t disappoint them, for our sake and theirs. Both presidential candidates were asked their opinion on various issues of science policy, and the answers are publicly available, in two parts. Unsurprisingly, only Obama bothered to reply; in an attempt to be fair, Nature dug through McCain’s old speeches to charitably cobble up the kind of answers he might have given if a) he weren’t an incompetent old coot who can’t get his act together, b) he actually cared what the universe outside the right-wing electorate thought, and c) he wasn’t going to heedlessly gut science as quickly as possible if given the opportunity.

If only they’d gotten Sarah Palin to submit something…but since Nature is not Punch, they probably thought that throwing a comedy routine into a prestigious science journal would be inappropriate.

I did like this short, sweet answer:

Do you believe that evolution by means of natural selection is a sufficient explanation for the variety and complexity of life on Earth? Should intelligent design, or some derivative thereof, be taught in science class in public schools?

Obama: I believe in evolution, and I support the strong consensus of the scientific community that evolution is scientifically validated. I do not believe it is helpful to our students to cloud discussions of science with non-scientific theories like intelligent design that are not subject to experimental scrutiny.

(Before you jump on him about using the word “believe”, read this.)

I also thought this one was very good. Science is an international enterprise, but it would be selfishly nice if my country did more to recruit and support it.

Would it make sense for more overseas students who receive PhDs at American universities to stay in the country and contribute to its research base and its wealth? What immigration reforms would you support?

Obama: I believe that we must enact comprehensive immigration reform to restore our economic strength, relieve local governments of unfair burdens stemming from an inefficient federal immigration system, ensure that our country and borders remain secure and allow a path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants who are willing to pay a fine, pay taxes, and learn English. A critical part of comprehensive immigration reform is turning back misguided policies that since 9/11 have turned away the world’s best and brightest from America. As president, I will improve our legal permanent resident visa programmes and temporary programmes to attract some of the world’s most talented people to America.

My enthusiasm is not unreserved, but I know exactly who I’ll be voting for in November.

Minneapolis is getting a new planetarium!

I’m so used to seeing nothing but bad news, it’s surprising to see a community actually making a substantial investment in its educational infrastructure. We’re adding a $40+ million planetarium to the downtown library. That’s terrific!

It also adds a useful perspective. Remember how appalled we all were (and are) that Answers in Genesis could raise $27 million for a creationist museum? Well, that is a lot of money, and it’s depressing that slack-jawed yokels would sink that much cash into an edifice to ignorance, but on the grand scale of what real educational institutions have to spend to build and maintain genuine museums and planetariums and similar facilities for public edification, it’s a cheap outfit.

Cosmic Variance brings up John McCain’s opinion of planetariums. He’s ag’in ’em. Of course, with McCain and Palin, one has to wonder if they even know what they are.