Maine governor appoints creationist as head of state education commission

October 22, 2015 • 9:30 am

According to the Raw Story and an article in the Bangor Daily News, Maine’s ultra-right-wing governor Paul LePage has appointed one of his political cronies, Bill Beardsley, as head of the state’s education commission. Beardsley is a creationist. Can it get much more ridiculous than that?

But it’s worse, for the governor is a creationist as well. As the Daily News reports (their bolding):

Beardsley and LePage are both on record supporting the teaching of creationism alongside evolution in Maine public schools.

Dating back to 2010, when the two were sparring for the GOP nomination with several other hopefuls, the candidates were asked about creationism in a televised debate.

The debate’s moderator, Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s Jennifer Rooks, asked, “Do you believe in creationism, and do you think it should be taught in Maine public schools?”

To the question, which was asked in a “lightning round” format, which gives candidates limited time to answer, LePage responded, “I would say intelligence, uh, the more education you have the more knowledge you have the better person you are and I believe yes and yes.”

Beardsley answered simply, “I would teach creationism.”

Also in the same debate, Rooks asked candidates, “Do you believe global warming is in large part caused by human activities?” To which Beardsley replied, “I believe we should be focusing on our economy rather than chasing after issues that haven’t been proven in science.”

Because Beardsley is replacing a retiree, his appointment lasts only six months, but the governor can reappoint him, subject to the later approval of the Board of Education and the State Senate. Let’s hope he’s deep-sixed then, and doesn’t do too much damage in the interim. Meanwhile, Maine’s teachers and university professors should be applying heavy pressure to the governor and legislature.

UPDATE: According to the October 20 Portland [Maine] Press Herald, Beardsley has walked back his statement on creationism:

On Monday, [Beardsley] said he doesn’t believe schools should teach creationism in science classes, and that he will not put forward any effort to change Maine’s current science standards to include creationism, the idea that the universe and life originated as a result of divine intervention.

“There’s a place for religion and a place for science,” Beardsley said. “Do I believe in science? Of course I believe in science. My mother was an astronomer. Am I a person of faith? Yes, I happen to be a person of faith.

“I keep my faith separate from my secular work,” he added.

He said the Maine Department of Education doesn’t independently determine what is taught in classrooms. The state sets standards, while local school districts select the curriculum used to teach those standards. The state, for example, does not dictate the books teachers use in the classroom.

Well, that’s better, but the news isn’t all good:

A bill to update Maine’s science standards last year passed the Legislature, but LePage vetoed it. In his veto message, LePage said there was not enough funding to ask schools to review and update the science standards.

h/t: MonkeyBusiness via Progressive Secular Humanist

Facing drug shortages, states consider execution with electric chairs, firing squads, and lethal homeopathic injection

October 22, 2015 • 8:30 am

The principled objection of pharmaceutical companies to supply drugs for lethal injections of condemned prisoners has led states like Ohio to delay executions for want of those drugs. Nebraska is desperately trying to import them from India. (Of course, the governors could also call off the execution.) Meanwhile, some states and legislators (Republicans, of course) are considering going back to the tried and true methods of hanging, firing squads, and even electric chairs. Alabama.com reports;

Other death penalty states also are looking at alternatives to lethal injection. Tennessee passed a law last year to reinstate the electric chair if it can’t get lethal drugs, and Utah has reinstated the firing squad as a backup method.

Oklahoma approved nitrogen as an alternative method. But that’s just as flawed as lethal injection because it confuses medicine with punishment, said Robert Blecker, a New York Law School professor who favors capital punishment for the worst offenders.

Blecker, author of “The Death of Punishment: Searching for Justice Among the Worst of the Worst,” notes there has never been a botched execution by firing squad.

“How we kill those whom we rightfully detest should in no way resemble how we put to sleep beloved pets and how we anesthetize ourselves,” he said.

But of course we shouldn’t confuse “medicine with punishment,” for that leads to less violent and more humane ways to kill someone. We mustn’t have that.

The electric chair is, of course, a horrible way to die, and many executions using it have been botched. The firing squad used to be standard procedure in Utah: it’s how Gary Gilmore was executed in 1977 (he had requested the execution). Here’s what the Utah setup looks like (photo from Ala.com):

19011708-mmmain
In this June 18, 2010, file photo, the firing squad execution chamber at the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah, is shown. With lethal-injection drugs in short supply and new questions looming about their effectiveness, lawmakers in some death penalty states are considering bringing back relics of a more gruesome past, including firing squads. (AP Photo/Trent Nelson, Pool, File) (Trent Nelson)

When opposing lethal injection, Robert Blecker clearly desires MORE SUFFERING. What a horrible man he must be! But there is still no rational excuse for executing prisoners when compared to the alternative of life in prison without parole. Executions are not deterrents, they eliminate the possibility of exoneration if new evidence is found, and of actual rehabilitation, which can occur. (See my earlier piece on Norway, whose maximum sentence is 21 years for any crime, but can be extended if prisoners aren’t considered rehabilitated.) The only motive for state execution is retribution, pure and simple—the motivation touted by Robert Blecker.

By the way, here’s Blecker, and part of his profile—taken from the New York Law School’s own faculty page!

Robert_Blecker-235x225-235x224

“With a gleam in his eye, Robert Blecker, a nationally known retributivist advocate of the death penalty, has managed to alienate both sides of the debate on the politically divisive and morally complex issue of capital punishment.  But his position as designated outcast is nothing new, nor is his strongly held conviction that the most vicious and callous offenders deserve to die and that society is morally obliged to execute those “worst of the worst” criminals.”

Mocking Ohio’s efforts to get the drugs, The Onion has an article that is at once grim and hilarious, “Desperate Ohio now exploring homeopathic execution methods.” I’ll reproduce it all as well as the photograph atop the piece:

800

COLUMBUS, OH—Facing a critical shortage of key lethal injection drugs with over 100 inmates currently waiting on the state’s death row, desperate Ohio officials announced Tuesday that they were now exploring homeopathic execution methods. “Supply restrictions prevent us from obtaining the thiopental sodium or pentobarbital used under our old system, but we’re confident that our new combination of noxious herbs and lethal dilutions will allow us to swiftly and humanely execute our worst offenders via natural means,” said Ohio prisons spokesperson Michael Ewert, adding that the state had consulted with a number of leading homeopaths, gurus, and yogis to ensure their new, holistic method of capital punishment would be effective for killing inmates in mind, body, and soul. “The linchpin of our new system is a potent three-herb cocktail of foxglove, wolfsbane, and deadly nightshade, which will shut down the inmate’s chakras one by one before completely extinguishing their ch’i and then, finally, stopping their heart.” At press time, Ewert confirmed that the state had scrapped the new procedure after an inmate’s spirit had been trapped at the threshold of the natural world for three hours before finally passing into a state of infinite wisdom.

I’m not sure they get homeopathy quite right here, though they do mention “lethal dilutions” (i.e., execution by water), and there’s no water in the photo; but it’s still funny.

h/t: Barry

Readers’ wildlife photographs

October 22, 2015 • 7:30 am

Reader Ed Kroc, who’s just started his postdoc, sent some photos of Gulls Growing Up:

I spent much of the summer collecting data on our resident rooftop-nesting Glaucous-winged Gulls (Larus glaucescens) here in Vancouver, with the aim of studying both fledgling success rates and estimating the overall size and distribution of the breeding population throughout the city. I naturally have a ton of pictures to go along with this work; attached are photos of one particular family with chicks from hatching to fledging. These particular parents have raised a full brood of three chicks at this location each year for at least the past five years.

The first photo shows the father gull with his three hatchlings, June 20th. The youngest is newly de-egged in front, too tired to lift up his head or wiggle his rear out of the broken egg shell. The two one-day old siblings are visible just behind.

1-GWGull hatchlings

The very next day the eldest started exploring outside the nest cup. The second photo shows him napping with dad (on Father’s Day!), the other two chicks being warmed underneath. You can see the discarded eggs shells deposited behind the adult outside of the nest.

This nest site is situated six storeys above street level in downtown Vancouver, atop the ventilation and climate control utility structure on the roof of a short office building. The space is flat, about 15 meters by 15 meters, and inaccessible to people. The surface is mostly covered in moss, grass, and other greenery now, but a few old manmade items remain, like this rusty pipe that the chicks love to hide and play in.

2-GWGull father's day

The third photo shows the three chicks at about a week old hanging out at the pipe.

3-GWGull and pipe 1

Fast forward five weeks and the chicks are still hanging out together at the pipe, and still trying to hide in it despite their size.

4-GWGull and pipe 2

Two weeks later, the chicks fledged down to the roof below. They spent another week there practicing their flight skills before heading off to the water to start learning how to find food for themselves. The last picture shows them huddled up in the evening around some derelict electrical or ventilation unit.

5-GWGull fledglings

Thursday: Hili dialogue

October 22, 2015 • 5:10 am

There is no joy in the Windy City, for the Chicago Cubs lost four straight baseball games to the New York Mets, spoiling our chance to be in the World Series, which we haven’t won for—get this—107 years. (And we haven’t won a National League pennant since 1945.) Curiously, yesterday was the exact day that the 1989 movie “Back to the Future 2” predicted we’d win the World Series:

The Chicago Cubs were swept out of the playoffs on Oct. 21, 2015 – the exact day Back to the Future Part II predicted that they’d win the World Series.

In Back to the Future Part II, Marty McFly steps into a futuristic Hill Valley and is shocked with disbelief by a newsflash that the Cubbies have swept the World Series against the Miami Gators.

Well, so be it; I’m not a huge baseball fan anyway. The only news other than this (which is BIG NEWS in Chicago), is that I get my flu shot today. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, sweet Hili misses me! (Note the picture on the computer screen.)

Hili: Jerry is now in his home in Chicago.
A: And you miss him?
Hili: Yes, this sofa is empty without him.

Hili

In Polish:
Hili: Jerry jest już u siebie w Chicago.
Ja: I co, tęsknisz?
Hili: Tak, ta sofa bez niego jest pusta.

“Proof of God” Kickstarter about to expire, with a pitiful and hilarious take

October 21, 2015 • 12:45 pm

This Kickstarter project, which I wrote about in August, intends to PROVE that God exists by showing that evolution is bogus. Back then it had $0 in contributions. Well, they’ve gone up a bit, and the project expires about 4 p.m. Chicago time. Here’s a precis of the goals:

   In order to prove God exists we have to eliminate the idea that evolution is all-encompassing. I believe in evolution on a small scale. We see evolution from a maggot to a fly. However, to say that humans came from a single cell organism is a bit far fetched. I believe the populist has accepted the idea of evolution due to the lack of evidence of the contrary. Currently evolution is being taught in public schools as a fact, and new generations do not accept intelligent design.

I am graduating with my Maters degree in psychology and entering into my Doctorial program at Arizona State University. I plan to concentrate in Evolutionary Psychology and Child Psychology. I am currently working on my Doctorial thesis that will follow Charles Darwin’s journey to the Galapagos Islands. By following the steps and research of Darwin my researchers and I can detail the evidence and experiments that Darwin used for his Theory of Evolution. By following in Darwin’s footsteps, I hope to prove that evolution is confined into stages. Each stage will allow evolution to occur but is limited to a self-sustaining longitudinal circle. Publishing this theory with a documentary film and publications, we can eliminate the over all idea that evolution is all-encompassing. The above idea is step one of a multi step plan to change the view of evolution by proving that certain aspects could not have evolved without being created by an intelligent design. I am not out to promote a region or way of life. I just believe there has got to be a better answer than all in compassing evolution. Thank you for reading this.

Goal: Document and film the work of Charles Darwin to discover evidence of intelligent design. In order to prove intelligent design we must debunk the idea that evolution is all encompassing (from single cell to human).

I won’t highlight the misspellings and grammatical infelicities (the person can’t even spell his thesis). And I wonder how Christian Klingeler got into ASU’s doctoral program. Anyway, here’s the take from the $75,000 requested. Someone’s played a hilarious joke with the donation:

Screen Shot 2015-10-21 at 9.42.48 AM

h/t: Ben Goren

A tenet of nonbelief

October 21, 2015 • 11:45 am

Matthew Cobb sent me this tw**t that pretty much emphasizes a tenet of atheism: make the most of your life in the here and now, for you ain’t going anywhere after you die.

One of my other favorite anecdotes about our brief tenure on Earth comes from The Venerable Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. As Texified reports:

In Northumbria of the seventh century, King Edwin called a meeting to decide if missionaries should be allowed to preach.  Paulinus had tried to convert Edwin to become a Christian, but Edwin wished to consult his friends and advisors.  The chief priest Coifi recommended that Edwin follow the teaching of Christianity, and another advisor agreed saying:

“The present life of man upon earth, O King, seems to me in comparison with that time which is unknown to us like the swift flight of a sparrow through mead-hall where you sit at supper in winter, with your Ealdormen and thanes, while the fire blazes in the midst and the hall is warmed, but the wintry storms of rain or snow are raging abroad. The sparrow, flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry tempest, but after a short space of fair weather, he im-
mediately vanishes out of your sight, passing from winter to winter again. So this life of man appears for a little while, but of what is to follow or what went before we know nothing at all. If, therefore, this new doctrine tells us something more certain, it seems
justly to be followed in our kingdom.”

Well, the Christian overtones are unpalatable, but if you leave off the last sentence it’s lovely. Provided, of course, that you realize that we do know what is to follow: nothing.

Canadian scientists hopeful under Trudeau administration

October 21, 2015 • 10:45 am

Although I count myself (along with most Americans) woefully ignorant of Canadian politics, I do know what fellow scientists north of the border thought of the Harper administration: they uniformly hated it. Under Harper, funding was cut, especially to environmental research, scientists were muzzled, and, as I documented a while back a scientist at Environment Canada was even suspended for writing a song (in his off hours!) criticizing the Prime Minister. That’s unconscionable retribution, and smacks of fascism. When I went to the Evolution meetings in Ottawa a few years back, scientists marched from the meeting venue to the Parliament, dressed in lab coats and protesting the administration’s attack on science.

A new article in the Guardian documents these and other abuses of science and claims that the anti-science stance of the Harper administration helped bring it down:

All of these efforts began to attract significant domestic and international attention. There were numerous stories in the media. Opposition MPs took to the Parliament floor to denounce attacks on science. CBC ran a documentary, cleverly titled “The Silence of the Labs.” There was even a folk song, Harperman, which went viral after Environment Canada suspended geographer Tony Turner for performing it. “I knew the song was a little edgy but I believe I was within my rights to sing that song,” he told the Guardian.

Eight hundred scientists from thirty-two countries wrote an open letter urging the prime minster to ease restrictions on scientists and data. In October 2014, a Ryerson University professor wrote in Science magazine that the election presented an “opportunity to reboot the federal government’s controversial approach to science policy and research.”

All of this advocacy worked. Science became a major campaign issue during the election. There were all-party debates on science policy and extensive media coverage. The Green, Liberal and NDP platforms included significant commitments to restore science to its rightful place in society and public policy.

Well, I hope so, for it bespeaks an awareness of the importance of science by the Canadian public. The good news is that the Trudeau administration is vowing to reverse many of the previous administration’s attacks on science.

The issue that received the most attention was the so-called “muzzling” of government scientists. This week, Liberal MP Marc Garneau said that these restrictions would be eliminated “right away.”

. . . “We’ll reverse the $40 million cut that Harper made to our federal ocean science and monitoring programs,” said Liberal leader Justin Trudeau at a September campaign stop. “The war on science ends with the liberal government.” In tweetafter tweet after tweet, opposition candidates argued that they were best positioned to defend scientific integrity.

Now that it’s been elected with a healthy majority, the Liberal Party says it willmake data openly available, unmuzzle scientists, bring back the long form census, appoint a chief science officer, and make the agency Statistics Canada fully independent.

The Guardian calls for the appointment of a government science advisor and for adherence to Canada’s Science Integrity Project. calling for honesty and openness in scientific research. And it notes that optimism may be premature, for the wonderful things that were supposed to happen to science when Obama took office haven’t materialized (funding, for example, is at an all-time low). Still, I’m convinced that the secrecy and muzzling of scientists that characterized Harper’s tenure are now at an end.