Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs

Theocracy watch! I'm sure praying optimistic(?) this one will easily get kicked on appeal.

The Panda's Thumb: Creationist Fears, Creationist Behaviors

One of the best articles I've read on Inteligent Design/Creationist ideas.

Kansas and the Tylosaurus

Fun article.

The Teaching of Evolution on Trial

Hard to believe I haven't blogged on this topic yet. I've been watching it closely for the last few weeks, and the good news is that I believe claiming that "darwinism" is scientific dogma, and not well established and non-controversial, were largely exposed as fraudulent and biased. It may not actually make a difference in what the Kansas Science Curriculum Standards Committee decides, since the outcome was likely predetermined, but light was shined on the process.

Culture of Life?

The news from Darfur seems to keep getting worse. More people have died and been left homeless in the Sudan than from the December tsunami, yet the US and the world have done virtually nothing about it. It's time for the president and the country to give this problem some attention if we really believe in a culture of life.

Interesting Judicial Vacancy Fact

"[Bush has] nominated persons to fill barely one-third of the vacancies, including 10 of 16 vacancies in the appeals courts, 6 of 29 vacancies in the federal district courts, and nobody to fill the single vacancy at the US Court of International Trade."

It's interesting that the president is apparently itching for a fight on his 10 or so Judicial nominees that have been stalled, when so many other slots remain open with no presidential nominee at all.

The L Word

To call someone a liar is almost universally unhelpful in a debate, and is unable to persuade anyone about your position... unless of course it is demonstrably and indisputably true that the person is lying.

I'm afraid the president has clearly crossed that line. His statements on social securities solvency are a lie. In his so-called town meetings, he has repeatedly said that in 2041, the social security system is "flat broke", "it's out", "bankrupt", and there will be "nothing left". He has also advanced and repeated the view "People say, 'Well, I'm more likely to see a UFO than I am a Social Security check if I'm 35 and under.'" He is trying to give the clear impression, if not stating outright, that if nothing is done americans will receive no social security benefits in the future.

These statements are demonstrably false. The president is deliberately obfuscating the difference between the trust fund and the system as a whole, which will continue to take in revenue from workers and pay out benefits. By the most conservative estimates of the social security trustees, if absolutely nothing is done the system will continue to pay out benefits at 70% of that which have been promised after 2041. The CBO puts the figure at closer to 80%, and not until after 2052. Both these payout figures are payout levels higher than today's after inflation.

I'm sure if you polled people leaving these events, and asked them will social security be 100% dead in the future if we do nothing, the vast majority would agree. That is more than just misleading, it's a lie.

When is a Science not Actually Science?

Chinese medical practitioners some thousands of years ago determined that the body has 12 meridians and some 400 points through which one's qi (chi) flows. Regulating/correcting the flow of qi with needles on the appropriate points counteracts these imbalances, and thus restoring health and curing a wide variety of ailments is the practice of acupuncture.

Let's put aside the fact that this medical treatment predates knowledge of a circulatory system, germs, and virtually everything we know about the human body. Let's also put aside the fact that the mysterious energy force known as qi has never been detected, not has any evidence of its existence ever been found by modern technology.

My question is, how did it's discoverers determine where these points and meridians lie on the body? What research methods and analysis were used to document these findings? And why is it that this basic research apparently cannot be duplicated?

That's the thing about real science - you have to "show your work". Other scientists must be able to duplicate your research and analysis, or no one will take your work seriously. I don't have to just accept that the speed of light is 186,000 m/s squared, I can choose to get a telescope, measure the time it takes for moons to go around Jupiter, and do the math myself. You can't base an entire science around central facts that may simply be "made up".

There is plenty that we don't know. It's also true that we don't even have to understand how or why something works to prove that it actually does work. If you can measure and document an effect in a proper scientific double-blind, randomized study, then you can prove that the effect exists. And, oh, by the way, acupuncture doesn't work.