quote:

In addition it would be good to teach the history of science, and to see that theories can change over time as new discoveries are made.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kirata

PHYSICS PRIZE: Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, USA, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, USA, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, USA, for analytically determining why pregnant women don't tip over.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

The author makes the claim that because science must pass rigorous review by experts (which he defines as people who have a certain unspecified level of education and "competence"), it's gotta be right. Then he derides the criticism by people who evidently don;t have the education or competence he likes.  That's called elitism, and he handles it as deftly as a meat cleaver.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

The guy really cheesed me off when he claimed that the "denialists" pick their battles and that somehow that is wrong.  Tough noogies - if someone believes in creationism, then he will disagree with evolution, and expecting them to pick another disagreement is ridiculous.

quote:

For me the highlight of the evening was when I polled the audience as to how
many agreed with Gish that the creation story should be taught in public
schools. A veritable phalanx of hands shot up. I then went through a series
of slides of different creation stories from around the world, asking for a
show of hands as to how many think that this creation story or that creation
story should be taught in public schools. Of course, no one raised their
hands because they think all these other creation stories are silly myths.
These are from the chapter in my book Why People Believe Weird Things on how
to debate a creationist:

--No Creation Story from India, where "The world has always existed as it is
now, unchanging from eternity."

--The Slain Monster Creation Story from Sumeria-Babylonia, where "The world
was created from the parts of a slain monster."

--The Primordial Parents Creation Stories from the Zuni Indians, Cook
Islanders, and Egyptians, where "The world was created by the interaction
of primordial parents."

--The Cosmic Egg Creation Stories from Japan, Samoa, Persia, and China, where
"The world was generated from an egg."

--The Sea Creation Stories from the Burmese, Choctaw Indians, and Icelanders,
where "The world was created from out of the sea."

--The Spoken Edict Creation Stories from the Mayans, the Egyptians, and the
Hebrews, where "The world sprang into being at the command of a god."

When I got to this last slide no one raised their hand, so I left if up and
said, "Uh, are you SURE you don't want this last one taught, because THIS
creation story is YOURS." Slowly it dawned on them what I was doing. Some
hands started to go up, but the rest didn't want to be trapped any further. I
then drove home the point that to insist that the government force public
school children to learn one religious creation story to the exclusion of all
others is not only in violation of the First Amendment's establishment
clause, it is religious bigotry. Since they didn't seem to be getting my
point, I went over the top and yelled out "Shame on you. SHAME ON YOU. This
is bigotry. It is racism. And it is wrong."

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kirata

PEACE PRIZE: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining — by experiment — whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Brain



I am a pretty scientific person these days and if you can prove something to me based on evidence and facts I'm okay with it.


Science Denial on the Rise

From evolution to global warming to vaccines, science is under assault from denialists--those who dismiss well-tested scientific knowledge as merely one of many competing ideologies. Science denial goes beyond skeptical questioning to attack the legitimacy of science itself.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-newton/science-denial-on-the-ris_b_413848.html

quote:

ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda


Better as defined.... how? Better in the sense that one doesn't hurt as much as the other, or better in the sense that one doesn't waste as much beer? We need to know what they mean by "better," because their idea of better may not be the same as my idea of better.