{"id":522,"date":"2008-04-02T05:48:29","date_gmt":"2008-04-02T10:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=522"},"modified":"2008-08-06T21:08:43","modified_gmt":"2008-08-07T01:08:43","slug":"wednesday-news-dump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=522","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday news dump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s an interesting hypothesis<\/a> about the legislature in tough economic times:<\/p>\n

I have this theory about the Florida Legislature: When money gets tighter, legislating gets stranger and bad ideas get respectful hearings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reversing a dumbed-down America<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Then there’s this embarrassing fact about the United States in the 21st century: Americans are as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution. Depending on how the questions are asked, roughly 30 percent to 40 percent of Americans believe in each.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

10 new planets found<\/a>:<\/p>\n

An international team of astronomers has found 10 new “extra solar” planets, planets that orbit stars other than our sun.<\/p>\n

The team used a system of robotic cameras that yield a great deal of information about these other worlds, some of which are quite exotic. The system is expected to revolutionize scientific understanding of how planets form.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kinky Creatures of Sea<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Marine biologists studying wild octopuses have found a kinky and violent society of jealous murders, gender subterfuge and once-in-a-lifetime sex.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some details would be nice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A teacher at Chain of Lakes Middle School in Orlando for 23 years, [David] Brackin said: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153As a young teacher many years ago I was brought into the office and told not to teach religion. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t teaching religion. I showed some weaknesses in evolution. I compared the strengths of evolution and the weaknesses of evolution.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What weaknesses were you teaching, Brackin? Why did someone in the administration say you were teaching religion? Maybe because there is a reeeeeaaaal thin line there, one that can’t even be seen by the naked eye. This example points out one troubling aspect of the creationism …. errr … “academic freedom” bills. The hoops school administrators would have to jump through to make sure religion isn’t being slipped into the classroom while also toeing the line on this so-called “academic freedom” would be daunting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s an interesting hypothesis about the legislature in tough economic times: I have this theory about the Florida Legislature: When money gets tighter, legislating gets stranger and bad ideas get respectful hearings. Reversing a dumbed-down America: Then there’s this embarrassing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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-8q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":938,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=938","url_meta":{"origin":522,"position":0},"title":"Kepler now on the hunt for planets","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Twitter was alive with lots of live updates about the launch of Kepler last night. The launch went off without a hitch, and now Kepler is ready to probe the heavens for other worlds. \"I think people everywhere want to know whether, with all the stars out there, do they\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1221,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1221","url_meta":{"origin":522,"position":1},"title":"Gainesville Sun opinion series cont.","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Gainesville Sun has been running a series of guest opinion pieces concerning the evolution\/creationism controversy. The newest one isn't reasoned out too well. I was thinking about the controversy of whether or not the theory of intelligent creation should be taught in our schools, and realized that the main\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1221#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=17","url_meta":{"origin":522,"position":2},"title":"I don’t think Pluto really cares","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 25, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I just love how newspaper stories about the demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf play up the whole personification of the solar system thing. It's as if there is some seismic shift in planet hierarchy and the planets' feelings have been hurt. It's just silly. Anyway, I do like\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":623,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=623","url_meta":{"origin":522,"position":3},"title":"Darwinmania, chocolate, extreme, sponge, lightning, martins","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"==> Darwinmania is almost here! Perhaps most importantly, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Origin\u00e2\u20ac\u009d changed our view of ourselves. It made us as much a part of nature as hummingbirds and bumblebees (or humble-bees, as Darwin called them); we, too, acquired a family tree with a host of remarkable and distinguished ancestors. ==> Long\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=623#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2245,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2245","url_meta":{"origin":522,"position":4},"title":"Carl Sagan Day","author":"Jonathan Smith","date":"November 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend and next weekend there are multiple events taking place throughout the state to celebrate Carl Sagan Day\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Florida Citizens for Science are to be one of the sponsors at an event in Clearwater FL on Saturday 15th of November. 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Rodriguez, who teaches at Swift Creek Middle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522"}],"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=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}