Amazing the things you stumble into.
The boards in Feynman’s office, at his death. From Physics Today, 1989. Image posted at H. Kleinart’s site.
(Click on the image for a much larger view.)
Feynman's last boards
Feynman’s last chalk boards
April 1, 2009
2 Comments | 
Feynman, History, Physics, Science | Tagged: Chalk Boards, Feynman, Last Boards, Physics, Richard Feynman, Science | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Happy Birthday, too
April 1, 2009
Leave a Comment » | Family, Personal | Tagged: Family, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Happy Big Bang Day!
April 1, 2009Discovery of the Day reminds us of the importance of April 1 — no, not April Fools:
Let’s Start With a Bang
April 1, 1948: A paper published in the Physical Review proposes that the universe was created through a massive event that caused it to expand rapidly. This idea, developed by physicist George Gamow and his graduate student, Ralph Alpher, was later ridiculed as the “Big Bang” theory, although it never mentioned an explosion. Follow the debate between “Big Bang” and the competing “Steady State” theory of the universe. And check out the inside joke included in the Physical Review paper.
And when you click on that last link to see the joke, be sure to scroll down to Dr. Victor Alpher’s response, in which he suggests the joke may not have been exactly as I described it earlier.
6 Comments | Astronomy, Big Bang, Heroes, History, Physics, Science | Tagged: April Fools, Astronomy, Big Bang, Heroes, Ralph Alpher, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Quote of the moment: Einstein on nature’s secrecy
April 1, 2009
Einstein
Nature conceals her secrets because she is sublime, not because she is a trickster.
- Albert Einstein, attributed by the American Museum of Natural History (a reliable site, I’ll wager), quoted at the exhibit on Einstein, 2002-2003
4 Comments | Albert Einstein, Famous quotes, Natural history, Quotes, Science | Tagged: Einstein, Famous quotes, Nature, Quotes, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
FDR takes over
March 31, 2009Leisure Guy, in his leisure no doubt, has some time to look seriously at political criticism and its accuracy. For example, recently he wondered about the claim that FDR didn’t do anything to help the U.S. out of the depression, and perhaps helped prolong it. [I have corrected a minor error; he had FDR being inaugurated in January of 1933. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the last president to be inaugurated in March; the term was changed to start in January during his presidency.]
This graph is from an interesting post by Paul Krugman, but I was fascinated to see that you can tell when FDR took office. He was elected, as you know, at the end of 1932, and he took office in late January [March] of 1933. Can you find that spot on the graph?
But of course, Right Wingers will tell you that FDR made the Depression worse. Some will even say that FDR started the Great Depression.
Leisure Guy didn’t include a link to Krugman’s post, drat it. It doesn’t appear to be this one, though it covers some of the same territory. Update: Oh, here it is: “Partying like it’s 1931.”
3 Comments | Economics, Employment, FDR, Great Depression, History, John Maynard Keynes, Politics, Presidents | Tagged: Economics, FDR, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Depression, History, Keynesian Economics, Politics, Recovery | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Well, Texas! How do you like your culture war!
March 30, 2009Historical Item: William Randolph Hearst’s newspaper in New York favored war with Spain in 1898 — the Spanish-American War. When the war got underway, on the top of the newspaper’s first page, in the corners (the “ears”), Hearst printed, “America! How do you like your war!”
Creationism lost on the votes that had been planned for weeks, on issues members of the State Board of Education were informed about. But creationists on the board proposed a series of amendments to several different curricula, and some really bad science was written in to standards for Texas school kids to learn. Climate change got an official “tsk-tsk, ain’t happenin'” from SBOE. And while Wilson and Penzias won a Nobel Prize for stumbling on the evidence that confirmed it, Big Bang is now theory non grata in Texas science books. Using Board Member Barbara Cargill’s claims, Texas teachers now should teach kids that the universe is a big thing who tells big lies about her age.
Phil Plait wrote at Bad Astronomy: “Texas: Yup. Doomed.”
A surefire way to tell that the changes were bad: The Discovery Institute’s lead chickens crow victory over secularism, science and “smart people.” Well, no, they aren’t quite that bold. See here, here, here and here. Disco Tute even slammed the so-conservative-Ronald-Reagan-found-it-dull Dallas Morning News for covering the news nearly accurately. Even more snark here. Discovery Institute’s multi-million-dollar budget to buy good public relations for anti-science appears to have dropped a bundle in Austin; while it might appear that DI had more people in Austin than there are members of the Texas SBOE . . . no, wait, maybe they did.
SBOE rejected the advice of America’s best and greatest scientists. If it was good science backed by good scientists and urged by the nation’s best educators, SBOE rejected it. If it was a crank science idea designed to frustrate teaching science, it passed. As the Texas Freedom Network so aptly put it, while SBOE closed the door on “strengths and weaknesses” language that favors creationism, they then opened every window in the house.
Read ’em, and tell us in comments if you find any reason for hope, or any reason the state legislature shouldn’t abolish this board altogether. (What others should we add to the list?)
- Texas Freedom Network’s TFN Insider, here, here, here, here, here and here
- Steven Schafersman of Texas Citizens for Science blogs here at the Houston Chronicle site; watch for updates
- Jerry Coyne had a column in The Guardian, “Evolution is a fact — except, perhaps, in Texas, where the school board is trying to cast doubt on it.”
- Don McLeroy lobs grenades to start the culture war in the Austin American-Statesman
- Pharyngula
- Dispatches from the Culture Wars
- Tony’s Curricublog — doing great work from a long way away; read the other posts about this issue on the blog — McLeroy hopes you won’t
5 Comments | Biology, Education, Education quality, Environmental protection, Evolution, History, Physics, Religion, Science, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: Biology, Education, Environmental Science, Evolution, geology, Physics, Science, Science Standards, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, War on Education, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
New prize plaque for the Bathtub, a sunny day on the slopes
March 29, 2009Café Philos awarded a Sun Mountain Award to Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.
We’re flattered, thankful, and shy on words. It’s nice that someone is reading. It’s nice that readers of Café Philos may sneak over here for a look, and join in some of the conversations (as a few already have).
Sun Mountain Award
Café Philos is the blog that posted the best summary of the John Freshwater affair in Wisconsin that exists on the internet, and probably in daily media, too. Paul Sunstone writes good stuff, and has a good following of thoughtful commenters and readers.
Plus, I love the early morning sun on that mountain, that can only be part of the Rockies, where I grew up.
Welcome to the Bathtub, you readers of Café Philos. And, thanks for thinking of us, Paul. Now we have to write as if it really matters, as if people are really reading. You spur people to higher standards with these positive strokes.
It always matters, of course.
3 Comments | Administrivia, Personal, Weblogs | Tagged: Awards, Cafe Philos, Personal, Sun Mountain Award | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Big Yellow Taxi covers, from A to Z
March 28, 2009
Cover from the single release of “Big Yellow Taxi,” from the Joni Mitchell album, “Ladies of the Canyon.” Wikipedia image.
I was looking for lyrics to a Joni Mitchell tune. I discovered she has a very good website.
She lists bands and performances that covered “Big Yellow Taxi.” Silly thing to notice, but it’s a long list. A veerrrrrrrry long list. It looks like she’s been covered on that one song by bands with names starting with every letter in the alphabet.
Well, once I noticed that, I had to check. No band with a name starting with O, Q, or X has covered the song. The other 23 letters are all represented. Oh, but she lists bands whose names start with “the,” and there is a band named “The Quality Kids.” Does that count as Q? Nearly 230 different covers of the song all together.
Does that count as success?
Here’s Joni singing “Big Yellow Taxi” herself, in 1970 (39 years ago! as long ago as Jack Benny is old), at a festival at the Isle of Wight.
[Isle of Wight Festival video not available in U.S. at the moment; BBC tape substituted, below, March 2016]
P.S. — Mitchell also has a page that counts the covers. “Big Yellow Taxi” is #2 in most recorded, at 228 covers. #1 is “Both Sides Now,” with 615 covers.
More:
5 Comments | Environmental protection, History, Music | Tagged: Big Yellow Taxi, Entertainment, History, Joni Mitchell, Music | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Poll: Almost 90% say Texas should teach “evolution only”
March 28, 2009A television station in College Station-Bryan, Texas, KBTX (Channel 3, a CBS affiliate) ran a poll on what Texas schools should be doing about evolution in biology classes. After hearing for days from the creationists on the State Board of Education that most people think creationism should be taught, the results are a little astounding:
Results: How do you think science should be taught in Texas schools?
Evolution only – 89.62% Creationism only – 2.96% Combination of both – 7.42% Total Responses – 9126
It just goes to show what happens when people speak up, no?
8 Comments | Citizenship, Creationism, Education, Evolution, Humor, Politics, Religion, Science | Tagged: Evolution, Polls, public schools, Religion, Science, Science Classes, Teaching, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
What’s the difference between creationism and cold fusion?
March 27, 2009Science — cold fusion has it, and creationism doesn’t.
One of my favorite comebacks to creationism advocates is pointing out that creationism is biology what cold fusion is to physics, except for the deep experimental results supporting cold fusion. It usually makes creationists bluster, because they hate to be compared to something they think is pseudo-science.
To be sure, cold fusion’s corpse remain’s pretty cold. It’s not a science that will soon spring to life to deliver safe, cheap energy to your refrigerator.
But it’s still alive, and research is still being done on cold fusion — in stark contrast to creationism/intelligent design, which remains colder than cold fusion. Bob Park reminded us of another missed anniversary that passed last Monday:
4. COLD FUSION: TWENTY YEARS LATER, IT’S STILL COLD.
Monday was the 20th anniversary of the infamous press conference called by the University of Utah in Salt Lake City to announce the discovery of Cold Fusion. The sun warmed the Earth that day as it had for 5 billion years, by the high temperature fusion of hydrogen nuclei. Incredibly, the American chemical Society was meeting in Salt Lake City this week and there were many papers on cold fusion, or as their authors prefer LENR (low-energy nuclear reactions). These people, at least some of them, look in ever greater detail where others have not bothered to look. They say they find great mysteries, and perhaps they do. Is it important? I doubt it. But I think it’s science.
The Texas State Board of Education failed to require that Texas kids learn about cold fusion in their high school science classes. But had they done so, they’d have been on better, more truthful, more accurate and better researched ground than their rants against Big Bang, DNA and common descent.
4 Comments | Creationism, Evolution, Physics, Science | Tagged: Bob Park, Cold Fusion, Creationism, Evolution, Physics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Quote of the moment: Einstein, on nature
March 27, 2009
Cartoon of Einstein and FDR, making fun of FDR's "alphabet soup" - Basil O'Conner collection, Texas Parks and Wildlife
Look deep, deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
- Albert Einstein, attributed by the American Museum of Natural History (a reliable site, I’ll wager), quoted at the exhibit on Einstein, 2002-2003
Leave a Comment » | Albert Einstein, Education, knowledge, Natural history, Science | Tagged: Education, Einstein, knowledge, Nature, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Texas science under siege: Help if you can
March 27, 2009More bad news than good news from the Texas State School Board: Yes, the board failed to reintroduce the creationist sponsored “strengths and weaknesses” language in high school science standards; but under the misleadership of Board Chair Don McLeroy, there is yet <i>another</i> series of amendments intended to mock science, including one challenging Big Bang, one challenging natural selection as a known mechanism of evolution, and, incredibly, one challenging the even the idea of common descent. It’s a kick in the teeth to Texas teachers and scientists who wrote the standards the creationists don’t like.
Texas Freedom Network’s blog headline tells the story: “Science Under Siege in Texas.”
Do you live in Texas? Do you teach, or are you involved in the sciences in Texas? Then please send an e-mail to the State Board of Education this morning, urging them to stick to the science standards their education and science experts recommended. Most of the recent amendments aim to kill the standards the scientists and educators wrote.
TFN tells how to write:
You can still weigh in by sending e-mails to board members at sboeteks@tea.state.tx.us. Texas Education Agency staff will distribute e-mails to board members.
You don’t think it’s serious? Here’s Don McLeroy explaining the purpose of one of his amendments:
Live blogging of SBOE activities today by Steve Schafersman of Texas Citizens for Science, here, and by the Texas Freedom Network, here.
3 Comments | Creationism, Darwin, Education, Education quality, Evolution, History, Religion, Science, Science and faith, State school boards, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: Education, McLeroy, public schools, Religion, Science, Science Standards, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Listen in: Texas board considers science standards, and evolution
March 26, 2009Texas Freedom Network is live-blogging the hearings and proceedings from Austin, again today, before the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE). [I’ve changed the link to go to the TFN blog — that will take you to the latest post with latest news.] Testimony yesterday showed the coarse nature of the way SBOE treats science and scientists, and offered a lot of “balancing” testimony against evolution from people who appeared not to have ever read much science at all. The issue remains whether to force Texas kids to study false claims of scientific error about evolution.
As yesterday, Steve Schafersman of Texas Citizens for Science is live-blogging, too, here at EvoSphere.
Schafersman’s list of several ways you can keep up with the hearings still applies:
I will be live blogging the Texas State Board of Education meeting of 2009 March 25-27 in this column. This includes the hearing devoted to public testimony beginning at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, March 25. I will stay through the final vote on Friday, March 27.
Go to the following webpages for further information:
State Board of Education
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index3.aspx?id=1156March 25-26 SBOE Meeting Agenda
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=3994March 25 Public Hearing with Testimony, 12:00 noon
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=4034State Board rules for Public Testimony
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=3958#Public%20TestimonyCurrent Science TEKS as revised in 2009 January
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/home/sboeprop.htmlFor the live audio feed, go to http://www.tea.state.tx.us/ for the link.
Leave a Comment » | Creationism, Darwin, Education, Evolution, Politics, Religion, Science, State school boards, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Education Agency (TEA) | Tagged: Creationism, Education, Evolution, Politics, Science, Texas, Texas State Board of Educaiton, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
God save us from preachers fouling the waters of science
March 25, 2009Waylon and Willie might have done a great service for the world had they sung, instead, “Mamas, don’t let your children grow up to be preachers./ . . . make ’em be biologists and teachers and such.”
I’m moving my response to a poster, lowerleavell, up from the depths of the thread on this old post, “Why intelligent design shouldn’t bully Texas high school kids.”
Among other things creationists do which I find destructive, they tell people stories about what evolution theory “says,” or what happens in nature, that simply are not true. Very simply, creationists, especially preachers, paint such a vivid but false view of human nature “according to science,” that a lot of misbehavior can be blamed on the preachers’ convincing people, especially children, that they are supposed to misbehave.
I’ll just let the post speak for itself; Joe’s words are blockquoted, my response set without indentation:
Joe said:
Every presented “truth” has ramifications. If you tell people long enough and dogmatically enough that they are the result of some massive cosmic accident (Dawkins viewpoint) then eventually they’re going to start getting the picture.
We can hope. As Dawkins notes, the picture they should get is that we need to be human to one another, to treat each other well, to defend human rights, to cherish life while we live it. So far, I don’t see a lot of that happening, at least, not enough — and, as I’ve noted earlier, I think it’s because religion gets in the way.
You tell people that humans are simply evolved animals and are surprised when they act accordingly.
Actually, that’s what preachers say — you won’t find a scientist putting it that crudely, or that inaccurately.
We tell people that humans are evolved animals — a true statement, as any physician can tell you — and we tell them that we expect them to act as animals do. You seem to think that would be bad. But anyone who studies animal behavior will tell you that the bravery and altruism of the tiny sparrow defending her nest against marauding crows matches the bravery of any human, anywhere, any time. You seem to think that animals have no sense of morality, but that’s not what we see in nature. You seem to think that humans’ animal morality is bad, but as Darwin noted (in chapter 5 of Descent of Man), the foundation of our evolved morality is “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” That’s the principal that allowed us to survive as a species, and to thrive. Darwin even went so far as to lay out a scenario for how genes that produced the behaviors could be selected for in natural selection.
Make no mistake: “Animal behavior” is not immoral behavior. We didn’t thrive as a species by stabbing our friends in the back, at least, not until the invention of religion (the story of Cain and Able is a Bible story, remember — you don’t find siblings going after each other to the point of murder much in nature).
Joe, you’re preaching against the Golden Rule. Leave it to a creationist who claims not to be advocating creationism to preach against Christian morality and claim it’s evolution’s fault.
One of my concerns is that creationists — especially people who claim to have a ministry — get this animal morality thing exactly wrong. It only strengthens my feeling that we need to keep such people from innocent children.
It’s preachers who tell children that they’re animals, and that they can act evilly, Joe, not science. Preachers probably don’t even intend to do that, but they get the science dead wrong, they tell the kids that’s what science says . . . what’s a kid to think? Would a preacher lie to them?
I agree we shouldn’t teach immorality to children. Joe, will you join me in keeping Baptist ministers from doing that? You guys should stop telling children that evolution is untrue, that animals are immoral, and that our baser, animal instincts trend toward sin.
Incidentally, that’s not what the Bible says, either. It was Man who sinned, not animals. In your zeal to get evolution, you’ve departed a long ways from what the scriptures say. I’d say it’s time to rethink what you’re doing.
You tell people that they are the evolution of nature and are surprised when they act according to their natural impulses and emotions.
I wish they’d do it more often, rather than substituting the morality of organized religion.
Geese mate for life and look out for each other. Bonobos keep peace with an almost literal “make love, not war” ethic — it protects the children very well. Prairie dogs look out for one another, posting guards to keep everybody safe — they double the guards when their children are out foraging, to double the protection. Musk oxen, tiny things, really, defend their young with the entire herd, sacrificing an adult if necessary to protect the offspring. Gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, elephants, lions, whales and others protect and venerate their aged, the sages who can guide the herd/troupe/pride/pod/clan through difficult times. Throughout the animal kingdom, we find animals as exemplars of behavior, mostly. Murder is extremely rare in most species. War is even more rare.
What in the devil is wrong with that morality? Why wouldn’t we want our children to “act as animals?”
You know, if one studies the history of evolution in science, one is struck by the remarkable sterling character of most of the scientists involved. With very few exceptions — Haeckel’s dishonesty and rampant nationalism, Watson’s general unpleasantness — these scientists are paragons of moral behavior. Darwin was a giant of morality, an outstanding, faithful and loving husband, a caring and doting father. Wallace was a pillar, too — except for his dabblings in seances later, a function of his Christian beliefs. Dobzhansky, Wilson, the Grants, Simpson, Gould, Eldredge, Coyne, Myers, Majerus, Kettlewell, Mayr — these are people you would be happy to know, whose morality is generally beyond reproach.
Contrast that with the greats of religion — Calvin burned his friend Servetus at the stake. Luther was a rabid anti-semite. Various popes robbed, murdered and fornicated. Rasputin led the Russian court to debauchery and villiany. The occasional Billy Graham is an exception among preachers, it too often appears. We lost count of the famous preachers who were caught with their pants down and their hands on the wallets of their friends.
If evolution produced evil, wouldn’t we see that in its greatest exponents? Instead, we see the opposite — evolutionists living lives of saints, churchmen living lives of evil.
There’s a parable about the fruit of a poisoned tree. Do you know it?
You say that evolution is not immoral and in and of itself it may not be – but what is presented to people can contribute to dramatic ramifications, which is what I’m saying.
Evolution is immoral only when presented, inaccurately and basely, by preachers.
It’s not science, it’s not the study of evolution, and it’s not studying science in school that is the problem here.
You’re making a great case for licensing preachers, insisting on standards, and checking their work. I think I can see where the problem is, from your presentation.
How would you propose to fix it, without taking the pro-ignorance route?
21 Comments | Creationism, Evolution | Tagged: Altruism, Biology, Creationism, Darwin, Evolution, Human Behavior, Morality, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Up-to-the-minute reports from the science ramparts — today’s evolution hearings
March 25, 2009If you’re not thinking of Edward R. Murrow’s reports from the roof of the building in London as the bombs fell, you’re not aware of how grave things are in Texas.
The Texas Freedom Network is live-blogging the hearings in Austin, before the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE). Testimony of a sort is being offered on whether to force Texas kids to study false claims of scientific error about evolution.
Steve Schafersman of Texas Citizens for Science is live-blogging, too, here at EvoSphere.
Schafersman listed several ways you can keep up with the hearings:
I will be live blogging the Texas State Board of Education meeting of 2009 March 25-27 in this column. This includes the hearing devoted to public testimony beginning at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, March 25. I will stay through the final vote on Friday, March 27.
Go to the following webpages for further information:
State Board of Education
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index3.aspx?id=1156March 25-26 SBOE Meeting Agenda
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=3994March 25 Public Hearing with Testimony, 12:00 noon
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=4034State Board rules for Public Testimony
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=3958#Public%20TestimonyCurrent Science TEKS as revised in 2009 January
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/home/sboeprop.htmlFor the live audio feed, go to http://www.tea.state.tx.us/ for the link.
Leave a Comment » | Creationism, Evolution, History, State school boards, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network, Voodoo science, War on Education, War on Science | Tagged: Creationism, Education, Evolution, McLeroy, National Center for Science Education, NCSE, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedm Network, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
