Tangled Bank – Snowy Valentine Edition is now available, so check it out for the best science writing from across the spectrum of disciplines.
Texas wants to turn schools into churches: “The second most powerful member of the Texas House has circulated a Georgia lawmaker’s call for a broad assault on teaching of evolution. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, used House operations Tuesday to deliver a memo from Georgia state Rep. Ben Bridges. The memo assails what it calls ‘the evolution monopoly in the schools.’ Mr. Bridges’ memo claims that teaching evolution amounts to indoctrinating students in an ancient Jewish sect’s beliefs. ‘Indisputable evidence – long hidden but now available to everyone – demonstrates conclusively that so-called “secular evolution science” is the Big Bang, 15-billion-year, alternate “creation scenario” of the Pharisee Religion,’ writes Mr. Bridges, a Republican from Cleveland, Ga. He has argued against teaching of evolution in Georgia schools for several years. He then refers to a Web site, www.fixedearth.com, that contains a model bill for state Legislatures to pass to attack instruction on evolution as an unconstitutional establishment of religion.” It should be noted that fixedearth.com advocates the premise that Earth is the center of the universe, rests in a fixed position around which all other astronomical phenomena orbit, and is but 6,000 years old. I’m embarrassed for my state.
Bats keep on surprising us: “It was until now believed that nocturnally migrating songbirds, while venturing into the unfamiliar night sky for accomplishing their long, challenging trans-continental migrations, could at least release anti-predator vigilance thanks to the concealment of darkness. A new study by Spanish and Swiss scientists — published this week in PLoS ONE — shows that migration at night is not without predation risk for passerines. [. . .] Actually, the newly uncovered danger comes from the deep black sky, in the form of a 45 cm wing-spanned aerial-hawking mammal, equipped with sharp canines and an efficient radar system which remains probably largely inaudible to songbirds.”
The 54th Skeptics’ Circle is now online, so go get your doubt on.
Just look at this sleeping kitten! Adorable…