Open Science Thread

Chris Mooney reviews the anti-evolution movie Expelled. After the obligatory and accurate recognition the film is a steaming pile of crap, he points out what most reviewers avoid:

From Michael Crichton’s State of Fear to Stein’s Expelled, there is nothing to prevent the most awful, misleading drivel from reaching and influencing mass audiences. There are no standards. There is no filter. And the truth is not just automatically going to win in the competition of ideas when the playing field tilts against it.

Regardless if the movie is a money maker, thousands of people will see it. Hopefully, most won’t walk out of the theater blaming evolutionary biologists for the Holocaust despite the intent of the producers to do exactly that and more. But I bet plenty of viewers will buy into the slickly packaged premise that evolutionary biology is built on a tottering foundation of lies propped up by a vicious cabal of modern day Lysenkoists eagerly persecuting those brave martyrs presenting the revolutionary evidence for creationism, or intelligent design, or whatever opinion poll tested pseudonym is chosen next. That same spurious public relations methodology will continue to win hearts and minds, on everything from stem cell research to climate change, until such time as we invest in and develop counter measures that can match the efforts of our highly motivated and often well paid anticognates.

• I've recently been highlighting right-wing lunatic Sun-myung Moon by way of author of John Gorenfeld. Let's take a trip down DKos memory lane and revisit Dr. Jonathon Wells who also appears in Expelled and whose science education -- intended in his own words to 'destroy darwinism' -- was paid for by Moon's Unification Church.
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering a one-million dollar prize for anyone who develops a process to produce meat in the lab, with no animal attached.
• A reader sent me this article which sounds dreadfully familiar to those of you who've followed the political attacks on James Hansen and NASA GISS, except the tax payer supported agency under seige this time is the EPA.
• I hope to be announcing a science panel at Netroots Nation 2008 next week, the subject of which will be, in part, repairing the extensive damage inflicted on US science policy over the last eight horrible years.

Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds

In a poll by Knowledge Networks, 55 per cent of respondents support a law requiring a nationwide ban on semi-automatic handguns, which automatically re-load every time they are fired. More than three-fourths of the respondents said people should be allowed to keep handguns in their homes.

Here are the questions:

Strongly support: 35%
Somewhat support: 20%
Somewhat oppose: 22%
Strongly oppose: 23%

Should be allowed: 77%
Should not be allowed: 23%

The Overnight News Digest is posted.

Open Thread and Diary Rescue

This evening's Rescue Rangers are smokeymonkey, PaintyKat, hhex65, shayera, Wes Opinion and joyful, with Patriot Daily as editor.

• Asinus Asinum Fricat encourages us to remember the importance of clean water in The Other Blue Revolution We Should Be Having. (shayera)
• markthshark reports on the new Disneyland-type Amusement Park Planned for Baghdad. (Patriot Daily)
• dogemperor brings hope to the horror of religiously-motivated child abuse in ACTION DIARY: HR 5876--a chance to protect kids from abusive "kiddie boot camps." (joyful)
• mosaicnews reports on peace overtures between Israel and Syria in Syria: Nukes or Peace? (Patriot Daily)
• Candidate for Oregon's 5th congressional district, Steve Marks, lays out his environmental policy in Higher Marks for Oregon's Environment. (smokeymonkey)
• Stranded Wind merges musings and magical photos to bring us Walkabout #6: Keeping the Powder Dry. (joyful)
• barbwire discusses the mild rebuke for the "appearance of impropriety" in the US attorney scandal in Domenici Admonished by Senate Ethics Committee for Calling Iglesias; More Serious Probes Continue. (Patriot Daily)
• "Prince of War" - a review of Cecil Bothwell's controversial 2007 book about Billy Graham, by CrustyPolemicist,  shines a light on the dark side of "America's most beloved pastor." (hhex65)
• Bobs Telecaster reminds us that our next President will inherit 5 years during which the US will not be in space in Lost in Space. (Patriot Daily)
• tinpantithesis knows Why Silence Matters today while Michiganliberal shares some thoughtful Reflections on Silence and the plight of all who suffer worldwide. (joyful)
• jwestfield reflects on Depression and the Politics of Difference as she escapes from a two-month grip in the jaws of the big Black Dog. (joyful)
• undercovercalico asks Kossacks to Give Me Directions in these difficult economic times. (shayera)
• Ramelle asks Could You Have a Primary Immune Deficiency? and describes his/her personal experience of diagnosis and treatment for one of the many kinds of immune deficiency. (smokeymonkey)

Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread.

Israeli Attack on Syria a Prelude to Arak, Iran?

Since about five minutes after Israel sent its warplanes to attack a site near Al Kibar, Syria, became known eight months ago, the speculation has been that Israel took out a nuclear reactor. Although the immediate public response from Washington officials was that the target wasn’t a nuke, we now know that those officials thought they knew better and had for months. The question now is whether this attack last September was a prelude to an attack on a nuclear reactor in Arak, Iran.

Six weeks after the attack, the Institute for Science and International Security provided some details and photos, a "confirmation" that the Syrians had been building a reactor near Al Kibar. Moreover, ISIS seemed to agree with U.S. officials who, in early October had said that satellite photos indicated the Syrian site bore the "signature" of a small reactor. ISIS made clear that this structurally resembled a site in Yongbon, North Korea, where plutonium has been extracted for that country’s nuclear weapons.  In December, Clayton Keir explored Syria’s nuclear capabilities for GlobalSecurity.org.

Subscribe with an RSS reader Older News Archive Add news to your web site