Can You Define a Conflict of Interest?

A committee has been selected in Texas to define the science curriculum for the next decade. The 6 man committee consists of 3 reputable scientists, two co-authors of a new Intelligent Design textbook, and one chemistry professor who is known for his Intelligent Design stance. Fair and balanced, right? Oh,…

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“Expelled” Redux

Duped from Ethics Gradient.

They’ve started advertising the DVD version of that infernal, mendacious, highly offensive, wilfully ignorant and misleading waste of megabytes known as Expelled. Bay of Fundie has scratched the surface of their advertising and revealed some new information.

Now, given that this is the DVD release of Expelled, it makes me wonder what kind of special features they’ll include. Of course no one can know for sure, but I have something of a wish list:

– a complete timeline of all the steps taken & communication entered into to secure the participation of such people as Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers, including a full explanation for the stark deviation from the premise of the original film: it was originally presented to Myers & Dawkins as a documentary named “Crossroads”, detailing the intersection of religion & science, which it clearly did not turn out to be, either by name or nature

– full, uncut, unedited interviews with the above-named

– a full explanation from the film’s producers of PZ Myer’s own expulsion from a screening of Expelled by security staff before he’d entered the theatre, despite the fact that he’d registered to attend under his own name and hadn’t attempted any kind of subterfuge, as was alleged early on by the producers (as well as an explanation of how Richard Dawkins, arguably more recognisable than PZ Myers, was allowed to enter unmolested)

– behind-the-scenes segments showing such things as exactly who comprised the audience in …

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Christian Libeler Threatening to Sue Atheist for Exposure

I am not one to encourage a lawsuit, and am no expert in the law. But if you read the details about this suit, you might want to give to the cause. In brief, a Creationist posted a long monologue rehashing many long-disproved arguments claiming to be original and irrefutable…

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Ignorance Rampant

The following is a quote lifted from Charlie Stross's blog and is pretty much In Full. We. Are. Not. Going. To. Die. On. Wednesday. The maximum energy the particles generated by the LHC (7TeV) get up to is many orders of magnitude below the maximum energy of cosmic rays that…

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Roosevelt, Palin? Specious!

I received an email today implying that Palin was the latest incarnation of Teddy Roosevelt. Sure, they both were tapped for VP when young, had been governor a short time, and both liked to shoot. But TR had been a military commander in a shooting war and later Assistant Secretary…

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