Blogs / Bad Astronomy

We are currently in the middle of the second anniversary of the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District case, wherein the lying liars of the procreationism Discovery Institute were handed their collective heads in a humiliating defeat for them, but a major triumph for science and reality.

To honor this wonderful event, Tuesday night PBS Nova will be airing their episode "Judgment Day", about the trial. I am still in DC, so I’m not sure I can get home in time to see it, but it’ll be available online as well. I hear it’s excellent. If you’re a science teacher, maybe there is some use you can make of this video.

Several of the folks involved with defending reality at Dover are traveling there for a reunion of sorts and to watch the show together. Eugenie Scott and Barbara Forrest were expert witnesses at Dover, and Richard Katskee was a lawyer with Americans United for Separation of Church and State who worked for the good guys and wrote up a lot of the case. All three of these incredible people are here at the meeting I’m at in DC:

I’ve known Genie for some years, but met Barbara and Richard at this meeting. These are three tremendous people, fighting for your rights, and defending reality against the lying horde that would legislate brainwashing children. These are the Good Guys, but they’re far more than that: they are heroes, in every sense of the word. They are good folks fighting for what’s right, and devoting their lives to it.

Take a cyberwalk over to the National Center for Science Education and show them your love, on this anniversary of the triumph of reality over lies.

Via Kos comes the story of Johnathan Goodwin, a guy who may revolutionize cars: he’s tricked out one car to get 600 horsepower, 60 miles to the gallon, 2,000 foot-pounds of torque, and will do 0 to 60 is five seconds.

Did I mention that car is actually a 5000 pound Hummer?

If this story is true (and it appears to be so) then this is amazing. The mods this guy makes retrofit cars to use biofuel, which is fraught with controversy… but if the efficiencies quoted are accurate, it will still make a huge impact on the car industry.

I have owned American cars in the past, and found them to be far too much trouble. Even when we bought new cars there were bad issues right off the rack, customer service was awful (with one issue we got buck-passed constantly between the manufacturer and the service station, each blaming the other for the problem… once we got them to admit there even was a problem), repair times long, and even minor fixes expensive. I now own a Volvo, which I love. I wish the gas mileage were higher, of course, but I hardly drive it anyway. It’s not hard to imagine a lot of people in my situation, though.

I’d prefer to drive an American vehicle all things being equal, but all things are not equal. I have heard too much whining from Detroit and not enough innovation. Maybe Goodwin can change their attitude. If not, I bet a lot of folks at GM and Ford will be working for him someday.

I’m not exactly sure what to make of this, but Variety is reporting that Winona Ryder will play the role of Amanda, Spock’s mother, in the new Trek movie.

I like Ms. Rider, so I’m OK with that. I always thought Hillary Swank would make a good Vulcan (of course, Amanda is human, but I’m just thinking generally here). I wonder if they’ll put in an aging T’Pol in there…?

And does anyone else think that the Nathan Petrelli character from "Heroes" is like a younger, skinnier Scott Bakula?

And could I be any more, like, y’know, shallow?