Saturday, March 26, 2005

'Call to arms' on evolution

USATODAY.com - 'Call to arms' on evolution: "Nearly one-third of science teachers who participated in a national survey say they feel pressured to include creationism-related ideas in the classroom. And an alarmed science establishment is striking back in defense of teaching evolution.
'I write to you now because of a growing threat to the teaching of science,' National Academy of Sciences chief Bruce Alberts says in a letter to colleagues March 4. He calls on academy members 'to confront the increasing challenges to the teaching of evolution in public schools.' The nation's top scientists belong to the congressionally chartered academy." It seems the science community is finally getting up enough steam to deal with the nonsense in York, Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the great USA with regard to "Intelligent Design" and the topic in Biology which covers Evolution. It would appear from the article which covers a survey of science teachers, gives us a picture of those teachers and the battle ahead, one that is being lead by a minority opinion that is load and unimformed.

Sunday, March 06, 2005

End of Conspiracy Theories? Spacecraft Snoops Apollo Moon Sites

Yahoo! News - End of Conspiracy Theories? Spacecraft Snoops Apollo Moon Sites: "A European spacecraft now orbiting the Moon could turn out to be a time machine of sorts as it photographs old landing sites of Soviet robotic probes and the areas where American Apollo crews set down and explored. New imagery of old Apollo touchdown spots, from the European Space Agency's (ESA) SMART-1 probe, might put to rest conspiratorial thoughts that U.S. astronauts didn't go the distance and scuff up the lunar landscape. NASA (news - web sites) carried out six piloted landings on the Moon in the time period 1969 through 1972. Fringe theorists have said images of the waving flag -- on a Moon with no atmosphere -- and other oddities show that NASA never really went to the Moon. No serious scientist or spaceflight historian doubts the success of the Apollo program, however."
I don't know how many times I have heard the conspiracy that NASA never went to the Moon. I will be very curious about how these pictures affect the theory. To me, along with all the other evidence, it will confirm the obvious. The obvious is the greatest effort to date by any nation on an adventure of epic proportions, to establish that it can be done and bring back samples of this foreign body we see in the night sky. You can't kill a good conspiracy theory, so I wonder what rationalisations and fabrications will appear after this story to support the conspiracy theory?