If you’re reading this, it means the physicists running the new Large Hadron Collider at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) haven’t blown up the world or sucked it away inside a miniature black hole. Yet.
First up, what does the selection of Sarah Palin for the Republican presidential ticket mean for the cause of secular government in America? (Spoiler Alert: It won’t be good.)
Next, we offer a wrap-up of the extremely successful Skeptics Track at this year’s Dragon*Con. If you were in attendance, send an email to dragoncon@dragoncon.org and let them know what a fantastic job Track Director Derek Colanduno did.
Plus: A special, super-secret guest panelist joins us for the first (and hopefully not the last) time!
[Apologies for the sound glitch at the very beginning. The theme music overpowers the voice track, but it only lasts a few seconds.]
Presenting our first-ever live episode, recorded August 30th at Dragon*Con as part of the Skeptics programming track, directed by Derek Colanduno of Skepticality fame. (Derek’s pod-partner Swoopy directed Dragon*Con’s Podcasting track.)
Science Debate 2008 reports that Senator Barack Obama has answered their 14 questions, and they say Senator John McCain has promised to answer them. Half a loaf is better than none, I suppose, but they didn’t call this thing Science Mail-In Questionnaire 2008. With less than two months before the election a REAL SD2008 is looking exceedingly unlikely.
Point #1: When abstinence-only education fails, what’s Plan B? Oh yeah, there’s no Plan B.
I have no idea what to make of the rumors floating around that Palin’s fifth child is actually her grandchild. Whether or not it’s true is largely immaterial to me; it’s a family matter. Nonetheless, if it turns out it is true and if it turns out the Palins concealed this truth from McCain’s vetting committee…
More problematic is the new revelation that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is pregnant and that she plans to marry the boyfriend who is the father. Again, this would normally be a family matter I would care nothing about, but… this is a governor who advocates abstinence only sex education in public schools. (more…)
PZ Myers - We talk to the University of Minnesota Morris biologist and author of the popular science blog Pharyngula [scienceblogs.com/pharyngula]. Dr. Myers is an atheist whose outspokenness often raises the hackles of fundamentalists. His recent missives on the controversy centering on University of Central Florida student Webster Cook’s “stealing” of a Eucharist wafer has brought him to the attention of Blowhard Bill Donahue and his Catholic League.
Science Debate 2008 - We take a look at the grassroots movement aimed at getting the presidential candidates to talk about issues relating to science and technology, including their “14 Questions”. For more visit ScienceDebate2008.com.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2719223520080627
The day before we recorded episode #20 of the podcast, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed the Louisiana Science Education Act, which is essentially designed to protect teachers who might want to insert creationist teachings into public school biology classrooms. It’ll be interesting (and probably frustrating) to see how this thing plays out in practice.
Barbara Forrest - We talk to Dr. Barbara Forrest about SB 733 [link], the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, a piece of legislation sitting on the desk of Governor Bobby Jindal that, if signed, would enable teachers and administrators in state schools to sneak Creationism/Intelligent Design in under the radar. Dr. Forrest is a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University, the co-author of Creationism’s Trojan Horse [link], and was one of the star witnesses in the celebrated Kitzmiller v. Dover court case. She’s also a co-founder of the Louisiana Coalition for Science [lasciencecoalition.org] and active in defending science against religio-political encroachment at the national level.
Happy 150th Birthday, Evolution! - In 2009, the thinking world will celebrate Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his Origin of Species [link]. But we’re popping the cork early - a landmark in the history of science occurred on July 1, 1858. That’s the day that the theory of evolution by natural selection had its first public reading (at London’s famous Linnean Society). We’ll talk about how Charles Darwin and his associates gave naturalist Alfred Wallace the subtle shaft, ensuring that religious nutjobs in the 21st century would be railing about “Darwinism” instead of “Wallacism”. (For an excellent analysis of this episode, read Robert Wright’s fantastic book The Moral Animal [link].)
Independence Day- Now, here’s a holiday even the grumpiest atheist can get behind. Everybody knows that on July 4th, 1776, the American Colonists told the Brits where they could shove it. Sort of. We’ll look at some of the myths surrounding the birth of America, and revisit that pesky semi-religious language that has the fundies crowing about how this is a Christian Nation.
Goodbye, George Carlin- The skeptical world lost one of its funniest and most adamant stars. Carlin fought for free speech (and even pissed off politically correct left-wingers in the process) during the course of his five-decade career. He will be missed.
Ummm…yeah. Good Morning America’s Chris Cuomo reports the fantastic news that “archaeologists have unearthed the remains of six dinosaur species” in Utah. Well, maybe not. According to thefreedictionary.com, archaeologists study “past human life and culture by the recovery and examination of remaining material evidence, such as graves, buildings, tools, and pottery”, while paleontologists study “forms of life existing in prehistoric or geologic times, as represented by the fossils of plants, animals, and other organisms”. I’m willing to forgive the occasional basic typo, but this error was repeated both on the air and in print online, and nobody caught it, from the writer to the editor to the newsreader. Or am I being too picky?
