This story bugs me. It’s a heartwarming tale of an inspiring teacher in an inner city school, who gets young kids motivated to learn science. Or does he?
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
This story bugs me. It’s a heartwarming tale of an inspiring teacher in an inner city school, who gets young kids motivated to learn science. Or does he?
I have another short piece commissioned by Forbes magazine in one of their special reports. The section is called “Work Is…”, and there are some provocative ideas in there. My own article is answering the question, “Do Animals Work?” and as you might guess, the answer is yes. I think I got one of the easier topics, actually.
Zeno mentions a children’s book series that had some impact on him: Danny Dunn! Oh, man, I remember reading through every Danny Dunn book my library had when I was in first and second grade—but the excerpt Zeno includes tells me I shouldn’t try revisiting them, ever, lest my disappointment in their quality become even greater.
Other books I remember well from those kiddie days were the reference books of Herbert S. Zim (which also inspire unfortunate memories now), and of course, the usual suspects: Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. Come to think of it, last time I looked at those author’s work I wasn’t much impressed, either.
I saw it first at Virge’s place, but Mike Snider is also on the blogroll and I would have gotten to it eventually…but hey, if you’re a fan of fossil tetrapods and poetry, here’s a treat: a Tiktaalik sonnet. You can also view some drafts of its construction, which is developmentally interesting, I think, and not quite as messy as chopping up embryos.
I think my title reveals why I’ll leave the poesy to the pros.
Bazell wrote an irritatingly obtuse commentary on Intelligent Design creationism, and I dawdled about expressing my dislike for it…but Tara and Orac and John Pieret and even non-scientific humorists (and I’m sure there are others I’ve missed) have all chimed in now, so you’d think I could just let it pass. But no! This is the blogosphere! We will all shout out our condemnations!
A reader who has been stymied by TypeKey (I wish I could fix that bug) informs me that mturner, one of the creationists at the ARN message board, thinks he has rebutted my post on whale limb evolution, claiming that Thewissen et al. have actually found evidence for Intelligent Design creationism. It’s fairly typical nonsense from the ARNies, but it’s so amusing I had to rebut his rebuttal.
ARN is a weird place. There are several patient, intelligent people working it to correct the babble that the flaming idiots who dominate the board put up. I am not that patient, so I can’t stomach the fools who frequent it, and mturner is one of the nastiest and dumbest of the lot. You can read his comments at ARN, or just go below the fold here—I’ve put the full text in this post.
I almost feel sorry for Nancy Pearcey. Almost. Nick Matzke shreds the poor woman, and I felt a faint twinge of sympathy…but such ignorance and mendacity deserves the treatment she gets.
My smarty-pants daughter got accepted to UMM…she’s going to be starting at the university at the way too young age of 16 15*.
*She insists she’ll only be 15, which is technically true…but her sixteenth birthday will fall in the first week of classes.
Forget the Sermon on the Mount. Forget the Golden Rule. Turning the other cheek? That’s for sissies. Real Christians are militaristic thugs.
This is what happens when you build your beliefs on a foundation of nonsense, and refuse to examine it critically—you end up as willing prey to the next evil, bullying creep willing to lie to you.
