Regardless of what pols want you to believe, it's an old, old, old, old world

If you're able to drag yourself away from a blogosphere now contemplating a Presidential debate that found most of the GOP field spluttering on about not "believing" the Theory of Evolution or making incredibly bad, ass-backwards "points" about Galileo (John Huntsman excepted), something of much more relevance to science - specifically, the type of science that evolution deniers in that debate would like to ignore (feel free to peruse Josh Rosenau's piece on this phenomenon or Howard Stern's [!] take on it) -  has been recently uncovered in South Africa:

Two fossil skeletons of early humans appear to mark a halfway stage between primitive "ape-men" and our direct ancestors. A year of detailed study has revealed that the skeletons are a hodgepodge of anatomical features: some bones look almost human while others are chimpanzee-like.

The two fossils, an adult female and a juvenile male, were discovered in the Malapa cave system near Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2008. Both about 1.2 metres tall, they are unusually complete and well-preserved and date from 1,977,000 years ago. Excavated by Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and colleagues, they were given the name Australopithecus sediba.

Let's face it, though: despite evidence such as Berger's find, certain career politicians will make a game of proving how much the evidence doesn't matter to them and how proud they are of their ignorance of it. Feel free to shudder at the possibility that one of them may be making scientific policy decisions in the future.   

If you can't sue 'em, lie about 'em

No one expects the Discovery Institute to be particularly honest about anything, but colluding with another like-minded organization in order to make a thoroughly dishonest attack on the California Science Center Foundation just about takes the cake:

The California Science Center Foundation has settled a long-running legal dispute with the American Freedom Alliance ("AFA"). The settlement agreement explicitly states that no party admits fault or liability, and the settlement is a means to avoid the costs of further proceedings. As part of the settlement, the Foundation and AFA agreed to a joint statement that the Foundation would invite the AFA back to hold its private event, and the AFA would decline that invitation. The Foundation is satisfied with the terms of the settlement, which includes a cost of defense payment from the Foundation's insurer, to avoid the expense of further litigation.


The dispute arose out of unapproved press releases that had been issued relating to a private event that the AFA (American Freedom Alliance) had intended to hold at the California Science Center's IMAX Theater. The press releases, for which AFA was responsible, falsely implied that the Foundation or the Science Center were sponsors of the AFA's event. They were not, and as a result of these false and misleading press releases, the Foundation cancelled the AFA's event.
 
The AFA then sued the Foundation and the Science Center for breach of contract and violation of the First Amendment, claiming that the Foundation's cancellation was based upon the purported content of the AFA's program. This was not the case, and the evidence demonstrated that the Foundation was right. Indeed, the fact that the Foundation booked the AFA's event in the first place affirmatively demonstrated the lack of merit to AFA's argument.

Through discovery, the Foundation also discovered other evidence that undermined AFA's claims. For instance, although the AFA asserted that the offending press releases were issued by an entirely independent third party (the Discovery Institute), it was uncovered that the AFA and the Discovery Institute actually had been secretly coordinating the publicity efforts (emphasis mine) and were intentionally trying to make the publicity that led to the cancellation as provocative and controversial as possible. One email among Discovery Institute individuals talked about "letting the jinnie out of the bottle" when "all hell will break lose." The Foundation was certainly entitled to cancel the AFA's private event.

You'd think that the DI and their buddies in the AFA would learn to leave well enough alone. No such  luck:

Unfortunately, it appears that neither the AFA nor the Discovery Institute have learned from their mistakes and false and misleading press releases continue to be issued. For instance, although the Discovery Institute's August 29, 2011 press release states that the "state-run Science Center" paid a settlement amount, the reality is that the Science Center did not pay a dime. Likewise, although the Discovery Institute contends that it was "dragged into the case," the fact of the matter is that the Discovery Institute knowingly and inappropriately issued offending and false press releases leading to the lawsuit. The court in Seattle agreed with the Foundation's discovery position, and forced the Discovery Institute to turn over its embarrassing emails. And although the Discovery Institute touts the fact that the joint statement includes the Foundation's inviting AFA back to hold its event, they ignore the fact that AFA declined such invitation.

Way to raise the level of debate, DI. So when do you start hiring people to leave burning bags of dog crap at the front doors of organizations like the CSFC? It would seem to be the next logical step.

Cretin of the moment

Ann Coulter, again. When does the hurting stop?

It bears repeating

I realize that this news item is over a week old by now, but if you ever run into anyone dumb enough to insist that scientific and medical research are useless, point them in the direction of a PC, Mac, laptop or netbook and have them read this bit of news from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Cretins of the moment (a two-fer!)

Ann Coulter, a co-star in one of the worst "films" in history (among other, equally vomitous pastimes or hers), this time largely for playing kissyface with the eminently forgettable Michael Behe.

And while we're on the subject of Michaels of ill repute, Michael Egnor ends up on the Cretin list again with his attempt to defend the Blonde Thing's collection of spittle-flecked drivel titled Godless from PZ Myers' Coulter Challenge.  

Cretin of the moment

Antivaccination twit "Mr. X" (i.e., Rh*tt S. D*n**ls) for the role he played in silencing science blogger and epidemiologist Rene Najera. Commentary via Orac, PZ Myers and lastly Pranab at Scepticemia, which caused an appearance by the litigious little creep in question in the Comments section.

Cretin of the moment

Part-time Texas governor and full-time clown Rick Perry, for reasons that Joshua Rosenau goes into gory detail about on Thoughts from Kansas here, here and here.

So when do the Theory of Relativity deniers start showing up?

The NCSE has a brief piece on a certain other breed of science denialist who's been showing up in state legislatures as of  late:

"The U.S. political debate over climate change is seeping into K-12 science classrooms, and teachers are feeling the heat," according to a report in Science (August 5, 2011; subscription required). Science educators are increasingly reporting attacks on climate change education: Roberta Johnson, the executive director of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, commented, "Evolution is still the big one, but climate change is catching up."

As for the somewhat jokey title to this post, don't laugh too hard: they actually exist.

Astounding signs of progress, 2011 AD

1) Creationism in Texas suffers an Epic Fail:

McLeroy's Folly (granted, he wasn't alone in pursuing it, but he was instrumental in making those clown shoes fashionable in the Texas State Board of Education) seems to have met a spectacular, 80's-era exploding car movie end:

Pop the champagne corks. The Texas Board of Education has unanimously come down on the side of evolution. In a 14-0 vote, the board today approved scientifically accurate high school biology textbook supplements from established mainstream publishers — and did not approve the creationist-backed supplements from International Databases, LLC.

"This is a huge victory for Texas students and teachers," said Josh Rosenau, NCSE programs and policy director, who testified at the hearings this week. In his testimony, Rosenau urged the board to approve the supplements — recommended by a review panel largely composed of scientists and science educators — without amendments, and to reject International Databases' creationist submission. The board did just that, and asked for only minimal changes to the approved supplements.

2) The Lamberth injunction ends, hurrah

I'll admit that I was worried about this, but not to the point that I couldn't see the following ruling eventually coming down:
  
A lawsuit that had threatened to end the Obama administration's funding of embryonic stem cell research was thrown out Wednesday, allowing the U.S. to continue supporting a search for cures to deadly diseases over protests that the work relies on destroyed human embryos.

The lawsuit claimed that research funded by the National Institutes of Health violated the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law that prohibits taxpayer financing for work that harms an embryo. But the administration policy allows research on embryos that were culled long ago through private funding.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, chief of the federal court in Washington, last year said the lawsuit was likely to succeed and ordered a stop to the research while the case continued. But responding to a swift protest from the Obama administration, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here quickly overturned Lamberth's injunction and said the case was likely to fail.

Lamberth said in his opinion Wednesday that he is bound by the higher court's analysis and ruled in favor of the administration.

"This Court, following the D.C. Circuit's reasoning and conclusions, must find that defendants reasonably interpreted the Dickey-Wicker Amendment to permit funding for human embryonic stem cell research because such research is not 'research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed,' " Lamberth wrote.

Good things come in pairs, if by "pairs" you mean roughly five days apart. Cherry-picking or no, these are both bits of very good news, IMHO.

About those anti-evo bills in New Hampshire

David Brooks (no, not that one) of the Nashua Telegraph authored a column on the bills submitted by Jerry Bergevin (R-17th) and Gary Hopper (R-7th) pushing ID in state classrooms, and - unsurprisingly - their comments say a lot more about them than it does about the dogmatic science it supposedly responds to:

In our phone conversation, Hopper said there was a second driving factor behind his LSR, born of concerns that cropped up when he was 17.

“I had been filled with this theory of evolution, which if you really boil it down, is a theory that we are here by accident, that there is no purpose. The conclusion is that we’re a bunch of accidents … you really have no purpose for existence,” he said.

“Teaching a child that it’s very possible that they were designed would infer that they actually have a purpose. There’s some purpose they were created, so that is a reason to live. Right now, we’re teaching children that basically they’re animals.”

Ah, creationist dog whistles. They never improve with age, do they? 

The NCSE piece that referred me to Brooks' column is a bit more direct about the ultimate point of all of this:

Brooks, for his part, disagreed with the legislators' view that accepting evolution is tantamount to nihilism, writing that on the contrary, "[c]reationism is meaningless, but evolution is a door to infinite wonder." "But," he concluded, "this is irrelevant here, because it has no bearing on what to teach in science class. My taxpayer dollars pay science teachers to teach science, not philosophy. Let's hope lawmakers don't try to get in the way."

Cretin(s) of the Moment

Homeopaths Without Borders (!), for "helping" Haitians in the following fashion:

So let me get this straight. A bunch of homeopaths go into an impoverished Third World country that is still recovering from a devastating earthquake. They find people still suffering from a variety of diseases, including ringworm, vaginal infections, and infectious diarrhea. They see malnourished, underdeveloped, dehydrated infants. And what do they have to offer? Arnica, Aconite, Ignatia, Causticum, Natu mur, Sepia, phosphorus acid, and sulfur, all diluted to the point that not a single molecule is left. In other words, all they have to offer is water and sugar pills infused with that water. They don't even have water with electrolytes in it, such as Pedialyte, which is what these infants almost certainly really needed, along with formula.