According to a story on the BBC, Charles Simonyi has described himself as “the first nerd in space”. Wonder how Mark Shuttleworth feels about that.
Category: science
Science vs Nonsense
And as it’s Darwin Day, we should take every opportunity to shine scientific light on unscientific nonsense. As a good example, here’s Ben Goldacre deconstructing “Dr” Gillian McKeith.
Happy Darwin Day
Happy Darwin Day! And if you’re enjoying this Darwin Day, then you should sign this petition campaigning to make Darwin Day a public holiday in the UK.
CNN on Atheism
A few days ago, CNN ran a segment on Paula Zahn Now where they discussed atheism. Unfortunately they forgot to include any atheists (or anyone who knew anything about atheism) on the panel. You can read the transcript online or watch the whole thing courtesy of YouTube. This strange omission was noted on a couple… Continue reading CNN on Atheism
Rise of Creationism in UK Schools
From the front page of today’s Guardian: Dozens of schools are using creationist teaching materials condemned by the government as “not appropriate to support the science curriculum”, the Guardian has learned. The packs promote the creationist alternative to Darwinian evolution called intelligent design and the group behind them said 59 schools are using the information… Continue reading Rise of Creationism in UK Schools
Teaching Creationism
I always thought the Canadians were eminently sensible people. From the Ottawa Citizen: The Quebec ministry of education has told unlicensed Christian evangelical schools that they must teach Darwin’s theory of evolution and sex education or close their doors after an Outaouais school board complained the provincial curriculum wasn’t being followed. Not going far enough… Continue reading Teaching Creationism
Science or Superstition?
Tony Blair apparently thinks that we should be encouraging more young people to become scientists. Well, maybe he should stop trying to send them to superstition schools.
The God Delusion
I wrote a review of The God Delusion on Amazon. Here’s what I said: For the last few years, Richard Dawkins has been becoming more and more open and confrontational with his views on religion. A few of the essays in “A Devil’s Chaplain” and this year’s Channel Four documentary “The Root Of All Evil?”… Continue reading The God Delusion
Happy Birthday Earth
If you believe Bishop Ussher (and, of course, in these enlightened days only a handful of idiots do) then the Earth was created on 23rd October 4004BC, six thousand and ten years ago today. I’m just sorry that I missed marking the 6000th anniversary ten years ago, but I think I was busy on my… Continue reading Happy Birthday Earth
Human Species ‘May Split in Two’
(The creationists are going to love this!) From the BBC (tho’ note that the research was carried out for the dodgy satellite channel Bravo – make of that what you will): Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years’ time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said. Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of… Continue reading Human Species ‘May Split in Two’