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"Expelled" continues to be exposed

Expelled, the documentary film (in this case, crypto-propoganda) promoting the Creationist (ergo non-scientific) concept of "Intelligent Design," continues to have its falsehood exposed by many champions of science education.

Two recent additions to the effort: "The Expelled Case of Caroline Crocker: Academic Freedom Martyr or Pseudoscience Hack?" by Carrie Sager and Andrea Bottaro, and "Was Guillermo Gonzalez 'Expelled'? Intelligent Design and Tenure at Iowa State University," by Lauri Lebo.

Both come via Skeptic.com.

Also, Professor Richard Dawkins has posted, "Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda."

Expelled exposed

Ben Stein is a commentator and actor. He's produced a movie that's dying a quiet death--thankfully--entitled, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. In the film, Stein draws a connection between genocide and evolution as a scientific theory that he anachronistically refers to as "Darwinism," as many people do, unfortunately. His failure to distinguish between Darwin's contribution to the science of evolution and the science of evolution as a whole--which has post-Darwinian components and also includes the field of genetics--is representative of just one of several misunderstandings he has about evolution.

Stein advocates Intelligent Design, which is a faith-based, non-scientific understanding of the origin of species or life or both. Intelligent Design is wholly without merit by the standards of the scientific method because it lacks evidence and does not make testable claims.

Expelled Exposed is a website maintained by the National Center for Science Education that reveals some of the errors in Stein's film.

While we're on the topic of misunderstandings about evolution, New Scientist's Michael Le Page has drawn up a list of 24 common misconceptions about evolution. Check them out.

Red Ken can be a jerk.

Yes, I'm a Labour-lover, a registered Democrat who as an American intern worked for the Labour Party Spokesman on Trade & Industry, but "Red Ken" Livingstone--the Labour mayor of London--has been, at best, erratic and autocratic as late. A pity. Now Ken's blocked funding for the Gay World Football Championship. Ken, what are you doing? You're losing ground to Conservative candidate Boris Johnson. Do you think you have the LGBT vote that solidly?

One of Livingstone's opponents in the election is Brian Paddick, who I first mentioned on this blog in May 2006. A former London police commissioner, he's running as the candidate of the Liberal Democrat party.

The election is on May 1, 2008.

(Photo, L to R: Boris Johnson, Brian Paddick, Ken Livingstone.)

Le Carrousel in Bryant Park

Marvin Sylvor, the founder of Fabricon, a Brooklyn-based carousel manufacturing company, died this week. He was the creator of "Le Carrousel" in New York City's Bryant Park.

I chaired Manhattan Community Board 5's (CB5) parks committee when the idea of installing Le Carrousel was first brought to the board by the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation (BPRC) in 2001. I endorsed the proposal because though it went beyond the scope of park restoration well into the arena of development and gentrification, it was a child-oriented amenity in a park that on weekends was generally under-utilized, its music was going to be soft and not disrupt the oasis of relative calm that the park provides on the weekdays for the neighborhood's office workers, free rides for school groups were promised, it was of a different style and nature than the relentless, overpowering, unbalanced Disneyfication and big brand-name corporatization then and still now spreading along and around "New 42nd Street," and it fit into the Parisian-esque theme of the park. It failed by the single tie-braking vote cast by the community board's chair. (The board's chair--a friend, intelligent, professionally accomplished, excellent as a chairperson--and I on this matter didn't agree. It might have been the only such instance.) But the proposal was brought back through my committee again in 2002 when I presented it yet again, and CB5 approved it overwhelmingly.

In retrospect, I wish that I or somebody had thought to require that Bryant Park's management make the Le Carrousel free-of-charge, and that they actively solicit school groups from poorer neighborhoods. The potential for educational value went unspoken by me or anyone else at the time: a tie-in with NYC's various Bastille Day events, site visits for schools kids studying anything from the history of the Industrial Revolution to perspective drawing or drafting for art or trade classes. (Free rides 24/7 was suggested, if I recall correctly, but that struck many members--and BPRC, I'm sure--as unrealistic given the costs of upkeep and a part-time attendant for the carousel.)

I've not been on CB5 for several years. I've no idea if Bryant Park's management continues to honor the promise of free rides for children from daycare centers and schools, and if so how aggressively they solicit such visits, and from which institutions. I certainly hope that they honor their commitment and do so with a generous spirit. The Bryant Park Corporation / 34th Street Partnership newsletter says a "My Carrousel" Card has been introduced--the holder gets 10 rides at a 25% discount. Twenty-five percent off what amount, the newsletter doesn't say. The Times says that a ride on the "12,000-pound, 22-foot-wide carousel" costs $2 per ride--"top price." That's too much. Unless the child's been driven there in an SUV. Then it should be $15. If the SUV is garaged in NYC: $20. Hurry, dear, just one ride; your nanny's waiting curbside with a backseat of organic food from Fairway. Here, take some brioche with you.

Now, to set aside parochial narratives of Le Carrousel politics. Marvin Sylvor was an remarkable entrepreneur and craftsman. The animals on his carousels were charming and conceived of with care. Assuming Fabricon continues--I suspect it will, and will in fact grow (just how many 100's of carousels could Chinese developers order anyway?)--I hope the company's owners continue to create carousels with the same attention to detail that Marvin Sylvor did...and keep the company in Brooklyn.

(Photo from The New York Daily Photo blog. As always: click to enlarge.)

65 Years Ago . . .

Distributorcap NY reminds us that April 19 is the 65th anniversary of the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

If you're in New York tomorrow (April 18), there's a Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Commemoration at the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial (83rd Street, on the Promenade) at 2:00 PM. Children from the Metropolitan Montessori School will participate in the ceremony and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe will speak.

(Photo: a resistance fighter with a homemade flame thrower during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.)

Jeff dances (badly) all over Iowa

See one Jeff Hoskinson dance very badly all over Iowa...

Jeff got around…including to:

*The American Gothic house in Eldon

*Points of great Iowa cheesiness, including Adair’s smiley face water tower, McGregor’s Spook Cave, and the pink elephant in Marquette

*The old frontier fort in Fort Madison

*Lake Okoboji (one of only 3 blue water lakes in the world, the others being Lake Geneva in Switzerland and Lake Louise in Canada)

*The Blue Bunny dairy facility (Blue Bunny ice cream is amazing! but I hate their slick new logo) in LeMars, where I used to attend St. George’s Episcopal Church, a relic of a wee British immigration wave in the 1880’s into NW Iowa (spoiler: they pretty much all ended up going back to England *chuckle*)

*Some of Iowa’s more than 100 state and national parks (alas, not “Call Park” where I spend 100’s of hours with friends when I was growing up in Algona)

*That damn cornfield in Dyersville (I hated Field of Dreams)

*The Surf Ball Room in Clear Lake (where Buddy Holly, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, and 17 year-old Ritchie Valens performed before all three tragically perished later that night when their plane crashed after taking off from Clear Lake in a blizzard—the event Don McLean in the song “America Pie” refers to as “The Day the Music Died”)

*The Little Brown Church in the Vale (72,300 weddings (and counting) since 1855—one of which was that of my uncle and aunt Sid and Kathy Buffington)

*John Wayne’s birthplace in Winterset

*The Roman Catholic kitsch extravaganza that is the nonetheless oddly impressive Grotto of Redemption in West Bend

*One of the old covered bridges of Madison County

*The Vogel windmill in Orange City (the town where I went to college—“Orange” as in the Dutch royal house of Oranje, by the way, not the color -- which didn’t stop the town from idiotically painting their water tower orange. )

*The Sergeant Floyd Monument in Sioux City

*The old double-track railroad bridge in Boone (over the Des Moines River, which likes to flood)

*The wind farm in Alta

*Iowa high school football, one of Iowa’s two unofficial religions (the other being college wrestling) even makes an appearance, as well as RAGBRAI, of course

And more. Of course, there are countless conspicuous absences, like Effigy Mounds National Monument, the Old Capital in Iowa City, the Iowa Wine Trail, and . . . . . . the world’s largest Chee-to in, yes, Algona.

Obama takes advice offered. The Advocate interview.

Sen. Barack Obama was encouraged at a recent LGBT fund-raiser in NYC to grant more interviews to the LGBT press. It seemed he wouldn't follow the advice when he failed to given an interview to Philadelphia Gay News. But he recently granted an interview to The Advocate, a national LGBT publication.

From the interview:

[The Advocate:] I think the underlying fear of the gay community is that if you get into office, will LGBT folks be last on the priority list?

[Sen. Obama:] I guess my point would be that the fact that I'm raising issues accordant to the LGBT community in a general audience rather than just treating you like a special interest that is sort of off in its own little box -- that, I think, is more indicative of my commitment.

.....

An area that I’m very interested in is making sure that federal benefits are available to same-sex couples who have a civil union. I think as more states sign civil union bills into law the federal government should be helping to usher in a time when there’s full equality in terms of what that means for federal benefits.

The continuing call for Science Debate 2008

The candidates continue to dodge the call for a 2008 presidential candidates debate regarding science. You know, science? That thing that has been the engine of America's economic growth. That thing that discovered gravity, evolution, germs, and the genetic code. That thing that allows us to cure diseases, find new sources of energy. That thing that makes each war more potentially deadly than the one before it. That thing that gave humanity the industrial revolution, electricity, the telephone, the television, automobiles, the Internet.

The candidates seem to love to blather on about religion. They're doing it again on April 13 at Messiah College in PA.

But when it comes to the single most important human endeavor ever engaged in by civilization, which is science--the positing of solutions and the discovering of truths based on the accumulation of verifiable evidence subjected to peer review--the candidates get skitish. The candidates would rather talk about something almost completely the opposite of science, something largely rooted in unverifiable truth-claims and circular argumentation. Faith gives some people hope; scientists are exploring the possibility that faith (but that is not to say all organized religion) might even have evolutionary origins--i.e., it helped our species survive; but, that does not make faith in this day and age a more pressing matter than science, science funding, and science education.

"For the last 60 years, science and engineering have been responsible for half the growth in the U.S. economy. But if current trends continue, by 2010 90% of all scientists and engineers will live in Asia.  Do the candidates have a plan to keep the American economy strong and to tackle America's major challenges like climate change, energy security, education and healthcare - all of which revolve around science?  Who really deserves your vote?" - Shawn Lawrence Otto
CEO, Science Debate 2008

"This is not a niche debate, the future economic success of the United States depends on out-performing the competition with smart people and smart ideas. Without the best education system and aggressive investments in basic research and development we will become a second rate economic power. We hope the candidates for president take this very seriously." - Craig Barrett
Chairman, Intel

"The Happy Sad" - Extended for 3 weeks due to audience demand

A plug for The Happy Sad, a new one act by an acquaintance of mine, Ken Urban, founder of The Committee production company. He teaches at Harvard currently. The Village Voice and New York Magazine gave it great reviews.

Schedule:
Thu April 10 @ 7pm • Fri April 11 @ 7pm • Sat April 12 @ 7pm • Sun April 13 @ 7pm
Thu April 17 @ 7pm • Fri April 18 @ 9pm • Sat April 19 @ 7pm
Thu April 24 @ 7pm • Fri April 25 @ 7pm • Sat April 26 @ 7pm

Tickets: $20
Buying tickets @ The Flea is easy!
Online:  www.theflea.org
By phone: 212.352.3101
In person at The Flea Box Office, opens 1 hour prior to show time.
Special Committee Discount Code: Use code "COM15" and get $15 tickets for all shows excluding Saturday night.

The Flea Theater is located at 41 White Street, 3 blocks south of Canal, between Broadway and Church.  Subway: ACE/NRQW/JMZ/6 to Canal, 1 to Franklin.

"Judgment Day" wins Peabody

The NOVA program, "Judgment Day," about the Kitzmiller v. Dover case in which Intelligent Design was exposed as crypo-Creationism, a form of religious proselytizing, and rightly banned from the science classroom in American public schools, won a Peabody Award.

Congrats to NOVA for defending science education. You can help defend science education by joining the National Center for Science Education (NCSE).