Hello all, Just to relate back to the original post... Not to sound humorless (or judgmental), but I am not sure that making fun of people is really the way for academics to relate to John Q. Public. -Johanna
Johanna Kraus PhD Candidate University of Virginia --On Wednesday, January 04, 2006 1:35 PM +0000 Bill Silvert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am suprised that no one responded to this posting with > reference to the Darwin Awards > (http://www.darwinawards.com/) which "... salute[s] the > improvement of the human genome by honoring those who > remove themselves from it. Of necessity, this honor is > generally bestowed posthumously." Of particular > relevance is a paper to which they link on the home page > which provides convincing evidence for intelligent > design - the abstract is as follows: "Penne Rigate will > spontaneously insert itself into Rigatoni (order pasta) > under liquid to gas transition conditions of H2O to > create the previously unobserved species Noodleous > doubleous. The estimated probability of this spontaneous > generation event is too low to be explained by > thermodynamics and therefore apparently represents > intelligent design." Also relevant is Project Steve > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Steve) - 'Named in > honor of the paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, Project > Steve is a parody by the National Center for Science > Education (NCSE) of creationist lists of scientists who > "doubt evolution".'. Unfortunately despite the publicity > that these efforts have received (the Darwin Awards are > well publicised and appear in many newspapers), they > have little impact on those who consider humour a sin > and shy away from communist propaganda sheets like the > New York Times. > > However, speaking as an expatriate who has not lived in > the US for over 30 years, perhaps the decline of science > education in the US is neither surprising nor > disastrous. The religious fanatics who are responsible > for the scientific illiteracy that is spreading across > the country also have a voice in government, and there > is a widespread feeling in the world that the US wields > too much power and wields it unwisely. That is why the EU > has started the Galileo project, for example. The drift > of scientific expertise from the US to other countries, > driven both by religious hostility to science (as in the > case of stem cell research) and by the imposition of > difficult visa restrictions on foreign scientists, may > seem undesirable from the viewpoint of those of you > living in the US (and costly too, as even American > scientific organisations are holding more of their > meetings in other countries), but from a global point of > view it may be a good thing. > > Countries that are driven by ideology are naturally > hostile to science, which is the opposite of ideology. I > suspect that as long as the US remains on the verge of > theocracy, patchwork solutions such as the Darwin Day > concept will have little impact. > > Bill Silvert > Portugal > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "David Inouye" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 3:42 PM > Subject: DarwinDay.org > > >> At a recent meeting of the Geological Society of >> America, Donald U. Wise, an emeritus professor of >> geology at the University of Massachusetts ... >> suggested that one way to do this "is with humor." Dr. >> Wise's first foray is a parody song about intelligent >> design called "Marching Song of the Incompetents," which >> had its premiere in October when hundreds of geologists >> sang it enthusiastically at the otherwise conventional >> meeting of the Geological Society of America.
