For many years, there has been a raging argument between engineers, scientists and the general public. This debate doesn’t center over whether humans and monkeys share a common ancestor. The brouhaha has nothing to do with whether God kicked the universe off in a big bang, or even whether God […]
“Kitzmiller vs. The Dover Schoolboard is scheduled to reach closing arguments this Friday, November 4”:http://www2.ncseweb.org/wp/. It’s remarkable to me that this first landmark trial in the new century over the zealous attempt to inject non-science into the science classroom has taken just a few months. Part of me wishes that […]
This is the “last week of the Dover trial”:http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-31/113074333546830.xml&storylist=penn, brought by parents in the school district against the administrators who forced non-science to be injected into the science classroom. The final witnesses are current and former school board members. The central question – whether the required language, which makes the […]
OK, here I totally cross-over into politics. In part, what I’m about to say is based on my deep devotion to data and evidence, and its interpetation based on a rational framework. The rest, however, is just plain human frustration. As you’re well aware, today the President tried to distract […]
In California, this is the week before the November special election to vote on seven ballot measures, several of which modify the state constitution. Trying to revisit my performance from last November as a “good citizen”, I am reviewing the actual text (I hate TV ads and I hate nearly […]
I’m having one of those moments of extreme clarity. Ever have those? I can’t say what sparked it. Perhaps it was a wonderful Braidwood collaboration meeting. Perhaps it was my excellent conversation with my colleague and, perhaps even friend by now, Dr. Herman White. Perhaps it was the wine, dinner, […]
Nice “article in Slate, comparing Michael Behe’s ID testimony to a famous Monty Python sketch”:http://www.slate.com/id/2128755/. Right on target, I’d say…
Yawn. I am BEAT. After my bout of insomnia the other night, I had a miserable day and then had to take a nightflight to Chicago for my Braidwood collaboration meeting. With only 3.5 hours to sleep on the red eye flight, I caught two more short hours after arriving […]
I can’t sleep. This happens a few times a week. I go to bed tired and early, with the best of intentions. Two hours later my wife is sound asleep (she’s sound asleep 7 minutes after lights-out) and I’m staring at the infinite void of the ceiling. Every part of […]
It’s been a while since I last put pen to paper and placed some thoughts in this blog. As is typical with most things at the bottom of the list, this gets shelved when I have more important things to do. These past few weeks have been full of such […]
The National Center for Science Education (“www.ncseweb.org”:http://www.ncseweb.org) is doing a nice job of tracking the case in Dover, PA, brought by parents against a schoolboard hell-bent on watering down the science curriculum. This week, the defense presents its case. Here, the defense is the school board, which tried to inject […]
Mmmm. Gigabit ethernet. GURGUGURGLE. I’m bored. With Jodi out of town and being throughly mentally lashed form this past week at SLAC, I needed a project to take my mind off spin and quarks and 38 decay modes of the B meson. I needed gigabit ethernet. With a lecture on […]