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Tag: science

Earth at Night

Earth at Night

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NASA has a composite picture of the earth at night. Note the concentrations of light! I wonder how far out the lights would be visible to the naked eye. Can you find your favorite country or city? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earth’s surface, including the seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they…

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Reality will not be overthrown

Reality will not be overthrown

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The United States has, until now, been a (if not "the") world leader in scientific research and the development of technologies. This has been the backbone of public policies that navigate reality, and it has brought us our highish standard of living and our economy of relative priviledge. But I think we’re on the way out of that role. When ideologies replace knowledge, it is always the people who pay. Certain fundamentalist groups, suspicious of all intellectuals, "eggheads," and independent…

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Flying Spaghetti Monster

Flying Spaghetti Monster

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The Flying Spaghetti Monster made it into the Wikipedia, nice! The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of a religion, known as Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, started on the Internet by Bobby Henderson as a parody of the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to allow intelligent design to be taught in science classes alongside evolution. Henderson submitted an open letter to the Kansas Board of Education demanding that the Flying Spaghetti Monster be given equal time in classrooms…

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Navigating the Minefield of Teaching Evolution

Navigating the Minefield of Teaching Evolution

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Understanding Evolution This is a very good introduction to evolution, intended to help teachers navigate through the current minefield. “Do you believe in evolution?” is a question often asked of biology teachers by their puzzled students. The answer is, “No, I accept the fact that the Earth is very old and life has changed over billions of years because that is what the evidence tells us.” Science is not about belief—it is about making inferences based on evidence. The alleged…

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Intelligent Design a Boondoggle

Intelligent Design a Boondoggle

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In a roundtable interview with reporters from five Texas newspapers President Bush said yesterday that he believes schools should discuss “intelligent design” alongside evolution when teaching students about the creation of life. No problem. Just don’t ask science teachers to teach it. Teach it in religion classes, not alongside evolutionary theories in biology class. The principle of selection: what lives to reproduce passes on its genes. There are discussions about different theories within the science of evolution – debate about…

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Mobilize Nov 2 – Start planning now

Mobilize Nov 2 – Start planning now

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Not in Our Name is trying to launch an initiative for November 2, 2005 called “The World Can’t Wait – Drive out the Bush Regime.” They envision mass outpourings of popular protest on the anniversary of the “re-election.” Politics as usual isn’t going to work, and dependence on semi-magical “leaders” in the Democratic party or elsewhere doesn’t appear to be a good option either. Silence and paralysis are irresponsible – what you will not protest and fight you will be…

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