Just some miscellaneous science news:
> Mississippi is number two out of the gate in 2009 for antievolution nonsense. (Oklahoma was number one.)
An act to require the state board of education to include certain language explaining that evolution is a theory in the inside front cover of certain pubilc school textbooks; and for related purposes.
> Learning in Florida’s Environment (LIFE) is an initiative to establish a series of field-based, environmental-science, education programs around the state. Each program will represent a partnership between the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and a local school district. The goal of each LIFE Program site is increased student achievement and teacher professional development in science. Here’s a story on it in the St. Petersburg Times.
> A couple of useful science resources here in Florida: Hands On Wildlife and Tampa Bay Science Education Leadership Group.
> Observations made by NASA instruments onboard an Air Force satellite have shown that the boundary between the Earth’s upper atmosphere and space has moved to extraordinarily low altitudes.
> 2008 saw jump in newborn manatee deaths:
ST. PETERSBURG — A record number of newborn manatee calves turned up dead last year, but the state’s manatee biologists cannot explain why.
In all, 101 of the 337 carcasses that scientists collected in 2008 were very young calves, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg announced Monday. By comparison, they found 59 dead calves in 2007, and 70 in 2006.
>New lizard species on the Galapagos Islands:
Hard to believe a giant, pink lizard could be overlooked for almost two centuries.
Charles Darwin missed it during his 1835 study of the Galapagos Islands that led to his theory of evolution. Park rangers ignored the pink and black-striped reptiles after accidentally happening upon them in 1986. Some thought the stripes were just stains.
But scientists now have documented a new species, the iguana “rosada,” (pink in Spanish), which may be one of the archipelago’s oldest, according to research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
> You would know most of the above already if you were following Florida Citizens for Science on Twitter. Just sayin’.
I think I can fix the state boards cover statement:
The State Board of Education shall require that the Quran- Islam, the Vedas or Bhagwad Gita- Hinduism, the Guru Granth Sahib- Sikhism, the Bible- Christianity, which included the teaching of religion in its contents to include the following language on the inside front cover of the textbook:
“The word ‘faith’ has many meanings, including: systematical brain washing, dumb reasoning; a speculative idea or plan; or a biased statement of principles. Religious ideologies are not based on observations of the natural world,rather assumptions about the supernatural world. They are never subject to change in view of new and confirmed observations.
These books discusses religion, a controversial hunch some pastors,preachers, present as a non scientific explanation for the origin of living things. No one was present when life was puffed into existence on earth. Therefore, any statement about life’s origins should be considered a theory.
Creationism refers to the unproven faith that a invisible man in the sky produced all living things. There are many topics with unanswered questions about the origin of life which are mentioned in your holy books, including: Two contradicting stories of creation, the sun being created after light was created,Plants created on the third day before there was a sun to drive their photosynthetic processes,All animals were originally herbivores. Tapeworms, vampire bats, mosquitoes, and barracudas — all were strict vegetarians, as they were created.
Study your holy book hard (preferably the bible) and close your mind to anything that may contradict that book
Yep, that should do it
NCSE has a worthwhile article on the Mississippi proposal and similar items>
@ Ivory girl.
Wonderful!!
If you don’t mind I will copy your proposal and save it for a rainy day when try to introduce that crap here in Ohio, and I’m sure thats not far off.
As funny as your post is, I believe it is prepared in such a way that might help some ceationists understand why we are so offended by attacks on science.
RAmen!