Recent Posts
weird things
Return To Blog Listing
A blog that explores the strange, unknown, technology, space and science with a skeptical and analytical eye.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'science education'
goodbye to the decade of the crank
In just a few days, the decade will come to a close and every major publication has been trying to give a name to the last ten years. Naming a decade is no easy task of course. The name has to give readers a fairly good idea of what characterized thi...
… and a bullhorn for every maniac
Right now, somewhere, Ray Comfort and his designated former child star stalker are handing out a mangled copy of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species at some hapless college. Lacking important chapters where a number of crucial questions abou...
undermining biology, one class at a time
We know full well that teachers bring their personal opinions into the classroom even though they’re not really supposed to do that. In some cases, that doesn’t matter. Your beliefs about today’s politics in the Middle East won̵...
review: the greatest show on earth
If it was Richard Dawkins’ goal to persuade the readers of his new book to believe in evolution, his effort was not successful with me. I’ve never believed in evolution. Not once. Instead, I read the available literature and came to the c...
answers in genesis takes on black holes
What could possibly be more shocking than finding a brutal maiming of some of the simplest scientific facts on a website ran by a fundamentalist group that created a museum of indoctrination which shows humans living with dinosaurs in the Garden of E...
a brief science abuse roundup
This morning, NASA will send a kinetic impactor into a lunar crater to study how much water we might find on the Moon for future missions. Ordinarily, it would be a neat science experiment for those with an eye towards space. But no. Apparently we ca...
you can hear einstein’s ghost weep…
Two of my favorite things about blogging are reading comments and talking to my readers, especially when it leads to a fun and engaging debate. However, some of the replies I get just beg for the kind of response that can only be done in a full blown...
a little song about science
Popular culture today portrays science as an incomprehensible, almost dogmatic concept used by those with countless degrees and a complete inability to engage in any meaningful way with the world outside their ivory towers. Of course this is rarely t...
another messy divorce with science
In this world there exist images so vile and offensive that I only dare post a link to it and the relevant story, a story of one school district’s fight for what’s right and to hold their institution to the highest letters of the law agai...
Weird Things talks to the NCSE
Over the last month, as debates about scientific literacy and who’s to blame for the lack of it, raged across numerous blogs, one organization was mentioned more than any other; the National Center for Science Education. The NCSE promotes comprehen...
The creationists’ unwitting butler
Philosopher Michael Ruse doesn’t like vocal atheists, especially the ones who actively speak about the merits of their ideas; the so-called New Atheists. He liked the old ones better. They old ones kept quiet and if you barked at them loud enough, ...
You too can be a rocket scientist
Here’s a tip for you. Never watch commercials with someone who studied marketing because he’ll start pointing out all its flaws and problems. I say this because I’m exactly that kind of person and while I try my best to restrain myself, sometim...
Mooney and Co. vs. the new atheists
Usually when you’ve managed to dig a hole for yourself during an argument, you don’t bring in heavy mining machinery and redouble your efforts. But then again, you have to realize what you’re doing and after all the debates and even a toxic spo...
The culture that forgot about science
Over the last few weeks, I’ve made a number of posts about scientific literacy in the U.S. and how blaming scientists for the lack of it is a case of blaming the victim for the sake of political expediency. And when we discuss what doesn’t contri...
Cryptozoology, creationism’s new friend
Unable to come up with any proof that today’s models of evolutionary biology are wrong in the natural world, it seems that American fundamentalists who publish textbooks for private Christian schools in the UK turned to fanciful tales of cryptozool...
