{"id":2232,"date":"2014-09-21T17:48:03","date_gmt":"2014-09-21T21:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2232"},"modified":"2014-09-21T17:48:03","modified_gmt":"2014-09-21T21:48:03","slug":"evolution-and-science-stuff-in-florida-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2232","title":{"rendered":"Evolution and science stuff in Florida news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some interesting evolution and science related stuff in Florida news lately …<\/p>\n

John Thrasher endures testy forum at FSU<\/a><\/p>\n

College of Communication professor Andy Opel pressed Thrasher on climate change, asking him if he believed it is real. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do you accept the science behind it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Opel said.<\/p>\n

Like Gov. Rick Scott, whose reelection campaign Thrasher co-chairs, Thrasher declined to give a specific response. At that point, two students in the front row appeared to Thrasher to be laughing at his answer.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The next person to pose a question, law professor Mark Seidenfeld, asked Thrasher if he believed in evolution.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have a great faith in my life that has guided me in my life in a lot of things I believe in,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Thrasher said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hinson: ‘Because he’s flippin’ Bill Nye, that’s why’<\/a><\/p>\n

After Nye’s talk was done, he received a rousing standing ovation. After a minute or so, he returned to the stage and fielded a few questions from students in the audience. That’s when things got real good, real fast.<\/p>\n

First question: “What would you think of a university president at a major university who doesn’t believe in evolution?”<\/p>\n

It was a direct reference to Florida Sen. John Thrasher (R-St. Augustine), a political bigwig who is aggressively trying to muscle his way into the president’s office at Florida State. Thrasher, who is not exactly a free-thinking intellectual with a lenghty list of academic credentials, has dodged questions about climate change and whether or not he believes Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory.<\/p>\n

Nye answered with: “I’m heartbroken, I guess.”<\/p>\n

A woman in the audience instantly shouted: “So are we.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

East Hillsborough School Board race has conservative focus<\/a><\/p>\n

There is a truism about eastern Hillsborough County: When it comes to politics, you can’t tack too far to the right.<\/p>\n

That adage is being tested this fall as Terry Kemple, possibly Hillsborough’s best-known Christian conservative activist, makes his third run for the School Board.<\/p>\n

He ran districtwide the first two times and lost, although he notes that in 2012 he would have prevailed if the votes were confined to District 4.<\/p>\n

This time he is running in the land of the Bell Shoals Baptist superchurch and former state Sen. Ronda Storms, a district where the pro-family, anti-Obamacare Stacy White defeated two better-funded candidates in the August primary for a likely spot on the County Commission.<\/p>\n

But Kemple, 68, takes it up a notch. He’s spoken out against gay rights and Muslim advocacy. He called it a travesty that the schools teach evolution as fact. And he isn’t just against the Common Core standards; he accused the state of trying to defraud the public on the issue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some interesting evolution and science related stuff in Florida news lately … John Thrasher endures testy forum at FSU College of Communication professor Andy Opel pressed Thrasher on climate change, asking him if he believed it is real. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do you … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-A0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1570,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1570","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":0},"title":"Florida legislature changes","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The ever vigilant Sensuous Curmudgeon spotted a couple of departures from our dysfunctional Florida legislature that have implications for the future of antievolution efforts in Florida. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll repeat the announcements here, but there are also a few other changes that escaped his notice that are definitely worth mentioning. First of\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1570#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":338,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=338","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":1},"title":"Miami Herald article","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Miami Herald jumps into the fray over evolution in the Florida public schools science standards. The reporter writes a comprehensive piece on what is going on, the history of attacks on evolution education, and interviews quite a few people to try to display everyone's views on the subject. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":223,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=223","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":2},"title":"Florida twist on Creation Museum","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"An article in the Orlando Sentinel talks about a theme park designer who made rides for Universal and had also made displays at the new Kentucky Creation \"Museum.\" Sad, sad stuff, but some good quotes from professor Lawrence Krauss. And the headline is funny: Inherit the spin. \"We don't find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1242,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1242","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":3},"title":"Three in the news","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"There were a few articles in the news recently featuring your very own Florida Citizens for Science folks! Joe Meert is in the news for his science work: Discovery by UF geologist rekindles debate on origins of multi-cellular life A recent discovery by a University of Florida geologist may lend\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1242#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1968,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1968","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":4},"title":"Disconnnect between citizens and science","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lakeland Ledger published a lengthy article about the disconnect between many citizens and science: Science and Skepticism: Amid a Push for More STEM Training, Many Reject Key Elements of Science Even as politicians and educational leaders pledge allegiance to science, many Americans are skeptical about key tenets of scientific\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 8 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1968#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":545,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=545","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":5},"title":"Dr. Kroto loves science","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Nobel Prize winner Sir Dr. Harold Kroto (yes, he's a sir, having been knighted) is the focus of this Herald Tribune article. TALLAHASSEE \u00e2\u20ac\u201d His mess of white hair rising with the wind, Nobel laureate Harold Kroto delivered what has become his standard speech on evolution: Humans and fruit flies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2233,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232\/revisions\/2233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}