1) LiveScience has a post up with the various candidates’ stances on various science issues. It’s very interesting reading.
2) Florida, one of several potentially doomed states, is holding public hearings about the teaching of evolution in the schools. Let’s hope Spencer Tracy shows up.
3) As I write this, the good guys from the Texas Citizens for Science are on the radio talking about how potentially doomed their state is. Let’s hope they have good news, and that the interview is archived. Update: It’s archived! Thanks Christian!
4) Not evolution, but the new Carnival of Space is up at Music of the Spheres.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:50 am
The letters to the editor section of the Kansas City Star is having a lively debate about God vs. Evolution.
http://blogs.kansascity.com/unfettered_letters/2008/01/god-and-evoluti.html
Go. Play. Have fun!
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:53 am
Gravel’s response to creationism being taught in schools is awesome.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:03 am
I will try to get a link to the MP3 of the KPFT show discussing our problems in TX. It was a very informative show. Check back on this page in a few hours.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:30 am
The KPFT show on the Texas education authority can be found here:
http://archive.kpft.org/mp3/080103_110001thresh.MP3
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:59 am
Reading through the LiveScience post, I see a lot of seemingly arbitrary numbers (such as “80% below 1990 levels in 2050″) without much in the way of “this is why 80% and not 70 or 90%” or even an action plan to accomplish it beyond legislating it.
Aaand…
> As for creationism and evolution, Edwards thinks local school boards should decide what is taught in their schools, but said “I personally agree with the theory of evolution and believe it should be taught in our schools.”
Edwards fails. Local school boards should also decide whether they want to teach astrology instead of astronomy, alchemy instead of chemistry, phrenology instead of gene theory… ?
> Richardson said “yes” for stem cell funding, “yes” for federal action to slow down global warming and “no” to the teaching of creationism in public schools as part of the science curriculum.
Despite one-word answers, he seems pretty good on the issues.
> Gravel supports federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. He also supports a carbon tax and would invite other nations to do the same so all nations could pool the resources to create a global institute to get the world off carbon fuels in a decade.
Hey, an action plan! Bonus points!
> As for creationism in the schools, Gravel says: “Oh God, no. Oh, Jesus. We thought we had made a big advance with the Scopes monkey trial … My God, evolution is a fact, and if these people are disturbed by being the descendants of monkeys and fishes, they’ve got a mental problem. We can’t afford the psychiatric bill for them. That ends the story as far as I’m concerned.”
Actually, with the combination of taking God’s name in vain and intimating that people disturbed by evolution are insane, this is a surprisingly ballsy thing to say nowadays. While I normally don’t like it, in this case I do (seriously, when would you expect any other career politician to speak like this?). Then again, he’s the darkest horse, so he can get away with it.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Yes, Gravel’s comments made me laugh. I would probably vote for him if I thought he could win. He’s like the crazy step-uncle that you only see at family reunions, but you can’t help listening to him because you just want to see what he’ll say next.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Well, as a member of the “GW is real but nothing to panic over” camp, I *would* like more than a one word answer to “federal action to slow down global warming”.
That’s a LOT of wiggle room.
Does he mean better CAFE standards, or government agents randomly shooting people not driving hybrids?
Sticks or carrots? I like carrots.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
— Let’s hope Spencer Tracy shows up.
Or Gregory Peck.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056592/
Or Paul Scofield.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060665/
Or, failing those, we can always throw Sylvester Stallone at them.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113492/
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
It’s too bad that the candidates saying the best things, like Mike Gravel, are immediately labeled fringe candidates by the media and thus never have a chance to win a primary. I really think more Americans would objectively agree with candidates like Gravel on a lot of issues rather than candidates like Clinton. (PS - In case nobody remembers, Mike Gravel is probably the most experienced and accomplished candidate on either side, having been integral to ending the Vietnam Draft and almost singlehandedly getting the Pentagon Papers released in the 70s).
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I love the Gravel quote on Creationism. I might have barely heard of the man otherwise, but what an awesome quote!
QD, I might not support random shooting of people not driving hybrids, but could we randomly (or, better, systematically!) shoot smokers? That has to do something for carbon emissions, yes?
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Damn, Gravel seems to be a decent candidate (for once!) and yet he has fewer than 0.5% support from Democrats ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gravel#Run_for_President_in_2008 ). Though I think this is because he has received no media coverage. I didn’t even know the man existed! Unfortunately now that I’m interested in learning more about Gravel, it’s probably useless, as nobody in the voting world has probably heard of him either. Damn, if only there were a way to create an internet-based grass-roots campaign in under 11 months that doesn’t involve Ron Paul…
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
The KPFT show is excellent! I hope to be able to aid the cause thru the two organizations mentioned in the program — Texas Citizens United and Texas Freedom Network. Now, I’m off to buy a lottery ticket so I can afford to move out of Texas to the real world.
January 4th, 2008 at 7:41 am
JediBear:
I think we should randomly shoot people who call for people who call for other people to be randomly shot.
QD:
> Well, as a member of the “GW is real but nothing to panic over” camp, I *would* like more than a one word answer to “federal action to slow down global warming”.
Agreed, but at least “yes” is in the right vague direction as opposed to “no, and if it is, we’ll pray to God to protect us.”
January 4th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Good gravy… as a scientist and a human, Huckabee scares the poop out of me… reading his site got the “warning…. DANGER” hairs standing up on the back of my neck…
Am I the only one that finds him more than a little disconcerting?
January 4th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
NOPE, I Feel it too …
I was Especially Creeped out When I Saw Chuck Norris Behind him …
But The Numbers Make me Feel Better, 35% of The Non-Evangelical Voters Don’t Like Any of The Top Four Candidates in Iowa!
:-O
January 5th, 2008 at 12:48 am
I love gravel’s response in the first story!
January 9th, 2008 at 12:58 am
I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, but seems the Florida folks are backing down? Anyone have more info?
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/evolution-beats.html