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While I love to see the bare geological history of a mountain in the summer, Shawnee Peak will be quite lovely tomorrow, especially since there’s a convenient chair to bring me to the top.
Credit to WCSH6.com for the image.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Maine, Shawnee Peak, Snow, Snowboarding, Winter | Leave a comment »
Quebec has a program of study which entails learning about different religions. It does not say “This is right. That is wrong.” It makes no endorsement of religion. It is simply a well-tailored course which educates students about what others believe, the culture surrounding those beliefs, and the diversity that is entailed in the world, with an obvious focus on Quebec’s diversity.
Of course, it comes as no surpise that some dogmatic mooks do not recognize the point of the class.
The course “is forcing children to learn the content of other religions,” Jean Morse-Chevrier, president of the Quebec Association of Catholic Parents, said yesterday. “Therefore it is the state deciding what religious content will be learned, at what age, and that is totally overriding the parents’ authority and role.”
The new course is the final step in a secularization of Quebec schooling that began with a 1997 constitutional amendment replacing the province’s denominational school boards with linguistic ones.
The notion that parents should have the authority to shelter their children from knowledge is obscene. The course is about learning how other people think and why. It offers insight, not harm. What these parents want to do is have the right to abuse their children by keeping them locked in an intellectual cage of uniformity and dogma.
A 2005 law changed Quebec’s Education Act and its Charter of Rights to eliminate parents’ right to choose a course in Catholic, Protestant or moral instruction, and the changes came into effect last June.
Am I reading this right? Students had to attend some form of “moral instruction”? Even with the options offered, this is inane. Looking beyond the oxymoron of Christian morality, at what point did Canada think it a good idea to indoctrinate children with particular notions of right and wrong beyond perhaps some basics (i.e., no fighting)? I thought you were better than that, O Canada.
Of course, such an article would not be complete without an example of the topic.
For Diane Gagne and her 16-year-old son Jonathan, evangelical Christians in Granby, the course teaches values that run counter to their religion.
Jonathan has been sitting out the course this fall, which is taught for about two hours a week. Last Friday he was told by J-H-Leclerc secondary school that he had been suspended for the day.
If he continues to skip the class, school rules could eventually lead to expulsion.
Ms. Gagne said her son remains determined despite the suspension. “He told me, ‘Mom, I am still standing, and I’m going to keep standing and fight this to the end.’ We’re prepared to go right to expulsion.”
Dear Ms. Gagne,
Best wishes.
Puh-lease. This is just sad. This kid is so indoctrinated in his mother’s particular brand of inanity that he is unwilling to so much as listen to what someone else believes. Such action is not the mark of an intelligent individual.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: canada, Diane Gagne, Drummondville, Ethics and Religious Culture, Jean Morse-Chevrie, Jonathan Gagne, Montreal, Protestant, Quebec, Quebec Association of Catholic Parents | 3 Comments »
The beauty that is science has suffered horribly in the past 8 years thanks to the idiocy of the Republicans. It’s such a relief to know that Jesus H. Obama is going to bring the United States up to code with the rest of the sane world and, again, put science at the top.
CHICAGO – Seeking to draw a distinction with President George W. Bush, Barack Obama named his top science and technology advisers Saturday and pledged to “once again put science at the top of our agenda.”
And what a distinction it is. From denying global warming for so many years, to having the gall to suggest that intelligent design is somehow related to science in any way, Bush’s level of interest in science and truth is about equal to Bobby Jindal’s.
Obama said history has shown that the greatest scientific discoveries – from landing on the moon to inventing the Internet – didn’t happen without support from the government and its leaders.
We love our toilet paper, but we don’t want to learn about the path that led to it. (I have to be fair here. It wasn’t simply science – necessity played its fair role.)
Taking a veiled jab at Bush, Obama said the scientific process is about evidence and facts that “are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.”
“It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient – especially when it’s inconvenient,” Obama said. “Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us. That will be my goal as president of the United States – and I could not have a better team to guide me in this work.”
He announced Dr. John Holdren, a Harvard University professor, as assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Jane Lubchenco, an environmental scientist and marine ecologist at Oregon State University, is Obama’s choice for administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Obama also named co-chairs of the Council of Advisers on Science and Technology: Harold Varmus, a Nobel Prize winner, and Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard.
It’s so nice to see a president who is making his appointments based upon the candidates actually being, I don’t know, qualified. No former International Arabian Horse Association commissioner for this administration.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Broad Institute, Bush, Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, Dr. John Holdren, Eric Lander, FEMA, Harol Varmus, Harvard, Jane Lubchenco, Michael Brown, MIT, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Obama, Oregon State University, Science, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy | Leave a comment »
Not long ago I wrote about misleading science articles, where it was claimed something in science was proved by a group of authors, one of which responded to the post (thank you, Christian Hoelbling). Now here’s a better article which is properly leading.
WASHINGTON – Mysterious dark energy, which likely causes the universe to keep expanding, seems to have another effect: It prevents the biggest clusters of galaxies from getting too fat. Astronomers used X-rays to study the formation of galactic clusters billions of years ago. Their research supports the hard-to-fathom concept of dark energy as a potent force that governs the growth of the universe.
It also means Albert Einstein’s century-old theory of general relativity passes another crucial, but not conclusive, real-world test.
Emphasis added.
Science is about disproving, not proving. By relativity “pass[ing] another crucial…test” it is meant that it was not falsified; it does not mean that anything was proven. The continued inability to falsify general relativity simply reinforces the theory.
Incidentally,
“[Dark energy] much more important and abundant in the evolution of the universe than the atoms that make us up,” said Princeton theoretical astrophysicist David Spergal.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Alexey Vikhlinin, astrophysicist, Chandra X-ray Observatory, Dark Energy, Einstein, General Relativity, Michael Turner, NASA, University of Chicago | Leave a comment »
Six new gene mutations linked to obesity
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – At least six new gene mutations linked to obesity that point to ways the brain and nervous system control eating and metabolism have been identified, researchers reported Sunday.
Joel Hirschhorn at Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston led a team called Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits, or GIANT, to screen 15 different studies of the entire human genetic map and pinpoint the six new genetic variations.
“Today’s findings are a major step forward in understanding how the human body regulates weight,” Dr. Alan Guttmacher, Acting director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, said in a statement.
“This study essentially doubles in one fell swoop the number of known and replicated genetic factors contributing to obesity as a public health problem,” added Dr. Kari Stefansson, Chief Executive Officer of DeCODE Genetics of Iceland, who led a team that made similar findings in a separate study.
The GIANT team found variations in six genes — TMEM18, KCTD15, GNPDA2, SH2B1, MTCH2 and NEGR1 — were strongly associated with the height-to-weight ratio known as body mass index (BMI).
“One of the most notable aspects of these discoveries is that most of these new risk factors are near genes that regulate processes in the brain,” added Stefansson, whose company hopes to sell genetic tests based on such discoveries.
“This suggests that as we work to develop better means of combating obesity, including using these discoveries as the first step in developing new drugs, we need to focus on the regulation of appetite at least as much as on the metabolic factors of how the body uses and stores energy,” Stefansson said.
“These new variants may point to valuable new drug targets,” he added.
Nearly one third of U.S. adults are considered obese, with a BMI of 30 or higher. Obesity is associated with more than 100,000 deaths each year in the U.S. population and trends are similar in many other countries.
“We know that environmental factors, such as diet, play a role in obesity, but this research further provides evidence that genetic variation plays a significant role in an individual’s predisposition to obesity,” said the genome institute’s Dr. Eric Green.
If there weren’t such a strong genetic factor, I would propse substituting obese with “unconcerned for my personal welfare, the welfare of those around me, living a life of quality, and frankly, life as a whole”.
These six newly discovered alleles strongly suggest predispositions to obesity. Of course, that was already known long, long, long ago. What wasn’t known was just how strong the genetic link was. In this case, 6 associated alleles is a surprisingly large number.
What’s tremendously important to note, however, is that we are not our genes. In very few cases is it overwhelmingly difficult to combat obesity – and in the majority of that minority, the cases are due to other, more serious diseases and genetic conditions. For most people, a healthy diet and regular excercise will combat the hell out of obesity.
Here’s something few obese people see in person.
Mount Katahdin
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: bmi, body mass index, Dr. Eric Green, GIANT team, GNPDA2, KCTD15, Mount Katahdin, MTCH2, NEGR1, Obesity, SH2B1, TMEM18 | 8 Comments »
I recently came across the blog Obsessed with reality. It’s really quite well written, especially this piece (which is the primary reason I am advocating for it).
Give it a looksie-loo.
Filed under: Administrative, Misc | Tagged: obsessed with reality | 1 Comment »
Filed under: Misc, News | Tagged: hilarious, Palin, thanksgiving | 1 Comment »
I found this video on why we believe in gods to be very interesting and worth watching.
Filed under: Evolution, Misc | Tagged: charles darwin, Evolution, J. Anderson Thomson, natural selection, richarddawkins.net, Washington & Lee Law School | 1 Comment »
For the Sake of Science 