Scientific America

American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.

[...] While scientific literacy has doubled over the past two decades, only 20 to 25 percent of Americans are “scientifically savvy and alert,” he said in an interview. Most of the rest “don’t have a clue.” At a time when science permeates debates on everything from global warming to stem cell research, he said, people’s inability to understand basic scientific concepts undermines their ability to take part in the democratic process.

Now I understand why the alleged merits of Intelligent Design can even be debated in that country. It is because millions of Americans have no clue what science is, don’t know what a theory is, and cannot judge the merits of one theory vs another. This is why they can consider the untenable theory of ID along the same lines as the provable Theory of Evolution.

My Heart Aches

As many as 1,000 people may have died in a stampede of Shia pilgrims in northern Baghdad, Iraqi health officials have said. The incident happened on a river bridge as about a million Shias marched to a shrine for a religious festival. Witnesses said panic spread over rumours of suicide bombers.

Compensation for All Victims of Terror

The teenage Israeli soldier who killed four Israeli Arabs in a shooting rampage on a bus has been branded a Jewish terrorist, but the people who died cannot be recognized as terrorist victims, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday. Under current law, an assailant must be a member of the “enemy forces” against Israel for the action to be considered terrorism, said Mayan Malkin, a spokeswoman with the Defense Ministry. But in this case the shooter was Jewish and his attack cannot be designated as terror, said Malkin.

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One might posit that anyone who shoots citizens of Israel – 20% of the population of Israel is Arab – is an enemy of Israel. A true “Friend of Israel” seeks to change this xenophobic situation, not defend it. Luckily, not only is the Israeli Prime Minister’s office seeking to change, or at least review, its compensation laws, and Knesset member Mohammed Barakeh is seeking to amend the law to include any one hurt by “hostile activities by a terror organization“, much better definition.

Prezzie From the Land of Oz

I received a very thoughtful gift from Melbourne this morning.

Intelligent Design’s Flawed Methodology

First you misuse or misdescribe some scientist’s work. Then you get an angry rebuttal. Then, instead of dealing forthrightly with the charges leveled, you cite the rebuttal as evidence that there is a ‘controversy’ to teach.

Note that the trick is content-free. You can use it on any topic. ‘Smith’s work in geology supports my argument that the earth is flat,’ you say, misrepresenting Smith’s work. When Smith responds with a denunciation of your misuse of her work, you respond, saying something like: ‘See what a controversy we have here? Professor Smith and I are locked in a titanic scientific debate. We should teach the controversy in the classrooms’.

By the way, I believe that the universe was created by a colossal, multi-tentacled pan-dimensional (it would be, since it invented them) anteater-like entity with magenta fur (click on the thumbnail above for the full impact). Is that kinda what the IDers had in mind?

Very Pretty

Israeli singer Ivri Lider (עברי לידר)

Very Pretty

Egyptian singer Amr Diab

Lucy in the Field with Flowers

“The motion, the chair, the sway of her breast, the subtle hues of the sky, the expression on her face — every detail combines to create this transcendent and compelling portrait, every detail cries out ‘masterpiece’.”

– Courtesy of the Museum of Particularly Bad Art

Evil Scourge

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan — He has outlawed opera and ballet and railed against long hair and gold teeth, but now President Saparmurat Niyazov is determined to wipe out another perceived scourge: lip synching.

Mr. Niyazov has ordered a ban on lip synching performances across the tightly controlled Central Asian country, citing “a negative effect on the development of singing and musical art,” the president’s office said Tuesday.

Good thing for Milli Vanilli they weren’t from Turkmenistan.

Further to: In an effort to protect society, Turkmenistan’s president has taken one step further and banned all recorded music at public functions. The general population of that country, who make on average under US $100 a month, must be very happy he’s making so much effort for their well-being.

Contemplating Infinity

Humans began to understand the true scale of geological time in the early 19th century. The probable depth of cosmological time and the extent of the history of the human species have come to light only within our own lifetimes.

That is a lot to absorb and, not surprisingly, many people refuse to absorb it. Nearly every attack on evolution – whether it is called intelligent design or plain creationism, synonyms for the same faith-based rejection of evolution – ultimately requires a foreshortening of cosmological, geological and biological time.

Humans feel much more content imagining a world of more human proportions, with a shorter time scale and a simple narrative sense of cause and effect. But what we prefer to believe makes no difference. The fact that life on Earth has arrived at a point where it is possible for humans to have beliefs is due to the steady ticking away of eons and the trial and error of natural selection.

The only intelligent discussion I have found on Intelligent Design (please note the sarcasm) may be found here.