New FL education standards use word ‘evolution’

For the record, Florida is now teaching evolution:

Florida’s public school science standards for the first time will use the word “evolution,” although the biological concept already was being taught under code words such as “change over time.”

The new standards, part of a set of overall science changes adopted by the State Board of Education Tuesday on a 4-3 vote, require schools to spend more class time on evolution and teach it in more detail. AP

Can you believe a decision like this scrapes by with a 4-3-split vote?

Florida schools await board’s vote on evolution

Nearly 150 years after Charles Darwin revolutionized biology, evolution will become required study in Florida classrooms if the state Board of Education approves new science standards Tuesday that explicitly names the ”E” word for the first time. (…)

Naturally that is just outrageous. Sure, it’s a widely accepted fact that evolution is what governs pretty much any hard science out there, but it’s not in the Bible. So how could it be true? Enter outraged mob:

Their refrain: The new standards need to call evolution a ”theory,” so that evolution does not appear to be the fact that mainstream science says it is.

The outcry at so many public hearings led the Florida Department of Education to schedule an extra hour of public testimony and, late Friday, offer an alternate version of the standards that calls every theory a ”Scientific Theory” — whether it’s about evolution or atoms — and identifies every natural law as such.

Many want more. One expert who sat on the framers committee that formed the standards wants the board to consider his ”minority report” to teach kids about scientific differences over evolution. Lori Muller, a mother from St. Augustine, said at a Monday public hearing in Orlando that she liked this idea.

“Just by tweaking some of the words in the standard, we can all win,” Muller said. “We are not supposed to be pushing any secret and biased agenda, but just making sure the children of Florida receive the best education possible.” Miami Herald

This will henceforth be known as the “Scientific Theory of how the United States lost its leading edge in science.”

US plans to shoot down own satellite

The US military is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite due to crash land on Earth in the next few weeks, the Pentagon has announced.

President George W Bush approved the option to fire a missile from a US Navy ship to destroy the satellite before it enters the atmosphere, officials said.

(…) The US Navy plans to modify a Standard Missile 3 to be launched from an Aegis destroyer - usually part of the US Missile Defense System designed to intercept ballistic missiles.

Gen Cartwright said they planned to have one missile shot, but there would be three missiles available on three ships. If the first attempt was unsuccessful, a decision would be made whether a second attempt was required.

It must be done before it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, otherwise the craft would be “next to impossible” to hit because of atmospheric disturbances.

“We are better off taking the attempt than not,” Gen Cartwright said. BBC

It will be interesting to see if this actually works.

If it does, the US will have publicly admitted that it has the capability to down satellites.

If it doesn’t, the US will have publicly admitted the system it claims can shoot down missiles it quite literally tracks on the fly cannot shoot down a satellite the location of which is exactly known. The the new defence system Putin, the EU, and the US are facing off about (entry) is also based on this technology and failure to down the satellite would call its effectiveness into question.

Ruptures call safety of Internet cables into question

Here’s something to ponder: if a country loses access to the internet, what happens?

Four undersea communication cables have been cut in the past week, raising questions about the safety of the oceanic network that handles the bulk of the world’s Internet and telephone traffic.

Most telecommunications experts and cable operators say that sabotage seems unlikely, but no one knows what damaged the cables or whether the incidents were related.

One theory - that a wayward ship traveling off course because of bad weather was responsible for cutting the first two cables last week - was dismissed by the Egyptian government over the weekend.

No ships passed the area in the Mediterranean where the cables were located, the country’s Ministry of Communications said Sunday.

“This has been an eye-opener for us, and everyone in the telecom industry worldwide,” said Colonel R.S. Parihar, the secretary of the Internet Service Providers Association of India. Herald Tribune

Beatles. In space!

Did you hear that?

NASA will send the Beatles song “Across the Universe” across the universe on Monday, the agency said.

At precisely 7 p.m., E.S.T. the song will be beamed by the agency’s Deep Space Network of antennas at the North Star, Polaris, which is 431 light years away. The transmission is to mark the 40th anniversary of the recording of the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of both NASA and its first satellite, Explorer I, and the 45th anniversary of the Deep Space Network, which carries out communications between NASA and its far-flung fleet of spacecraft. In a message to the space agency, Paul McCartney, one of the two remaining Beatles, said, “Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul.” NY Times

Lyrics of the song after the jump.
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Gore: No equal time for nutcases

Where was THIS Gore in 2000? Watch him slam CNN’s and the mainstream media’s practice to always show two sides to every story, no matter how ridiculous the “opposing view” is. (For example showing a Holocaust survivor splitscreen next to a Holocaust denier.) The good part starts at minute 2:13.

new US policy: space travel only by our rules

The nonsensical “with us or against us”-Bush doctrine now extends into space:

President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone “hostile to U.S. interests.”

The document, the first full revision of overall space policy in 10 years, emphasizes security issues, encourages private enterprise in space, and characterizes the role of U.S. space diplomacy largely in terms of persuading other nations to support U.S. policy.

“Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power,” the policy asserts in its introduction. Washington Post

In other words: The only way into space is past us.

International Space Station successfully unfurls new solar panels

In the category totally cool: The International Space Station now has an even bigger solar panel:

The International Space Station continued to grow Thursday when the STS-115 crew unfurled a new set of solar arrays to a total length of 240 feet. (73 meters) NASA

Supernova captured in ‘real time’

400 million years ago a star went poof. The cool thing: astronomers followed the event live a few hours ago since the light took that long to travel to our corner of the galaxy. The BBC has more.

How the shuttle returns to Earth

Somewhere above us, some humans are plummeting toward Earth. Good luck guys!

Vatican: Intelligent Design is NOT Science

The Vatican’s chief astronomer said Friday that “intelligent design” isn’t science and doesn’t belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States.

The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was “wrong” and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.

“Intelligent design isn’t science even though it pretends to be,” the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. “If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science.” AP

Space Shuttle launch delayed

Watching NASA TV now and there seems to be a problem with one of the fuel cut-off valve sensors. The launch director has halted the countdown and has said the shuttle will not be launching today.

The crew was already in the Shuttle, strapped in and ready to go. They are now disembarking.

There is talk about emptying the fuel tanks entirely to troubleshoot the problem, which of course would cause further delay.

Press conference will follow.

NASA clears Shuttle for launch

Good news:

The countdown to launch Discovery remains on schedule for Wednesday at 3:51 p.m. EDT. NASA

Deep Impact mission a success

NASA’s Deep Impact mission that had a probe impact with comet Tempel 1 has been a success. More info, images and video at the NASA site here.

STS-114 shuttle mission summary

NASA has a really neat summary of what the shuttle mission is about, what has been changed since the Columbia tragedy in 2003 and who the crew members are. It features an introduction by Scott Bakula from the NX Enterprise’s bridge. (And there I thought I’d seen the last of Captain Archer.)

Watch it here: link

Space Shuttle launch set for July 13 - Deep Impact mission

This is excellent news:

NASA said on Thursday it planned to launch the space shuttle Discovery on July 13, the first shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

The U.S. space agency had previously hoped to launch Discovery in May, but halted that plan in April, saying more work was needed on a redesigned fuel tank. Since then, Discovery has been rolled back out onto the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. Yahoo! News

I went to Kennedy Space Center with my wife on June 18. The Shuttle had just been put on the launch pad a few days before. It’s impressive to see even from a mile away, which is the closest they will let you get to the launch site while a shuttle is being prepared. (That’s also how I took the photo above)

NASA offers a lot of Webcasts concerning this mission, which can be viewed here. I’ll definitely try to see it in person, maybe even snap some photos. This is probably one of the last chances I’ll get to see one of these.

Also keep your eyes peeled on news concerning this mission that will have a probe crash into a meteor at 23,000 mph/37,000 kph. It is scheduled for this weekend with the actual impact occurring on Monday.

Wired: Life on Mars Likely; new space race on

Tantalizing evidence is accumulating that suggests the red planet is alive, but incontrovertible proof is still lacking. And while the European Space Agency is keen to send a lander to find it, a history of failed life-finding missions at NASA makes Americans more cautious.

“The life on Mars issue has recently undergone a paradigm shift,” said Ian Wright, an astrobiologist at the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute at the Open University in Britain, “to the extent now that one can talk about the possibility of present life on Mars without risking scientific suicide.” Wired

(I filed this under “foreign policy.” Get it?)

Florida education bill would open pandora?s box

Florida House Bill 837 has the chance to wreak havoc in our education system. As The Oracle detailed Tuesday, the bill was created to ensure ?access to a broad range of serious scholarly opinion.? But the result of the bill would be to allow nonfactual discussion, including on such definite matters as whether the Holocaust actually occurred.

The idea behind the ?The Academic Bill of Rights,? as the bill has been cleverly dubbed, is to force open debate in classrooms. This in itself is a worthy goal. But to force any topic to be discussed will also open the door to outlandish discussions that have no basis in fact whatsoever.
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Tapping Alaska for oil is the wrong approach

The Senate passed a measure, Wednesday, that makes oil drilling in Alaska?s protected wilderness likely. But even in the best-case scenario, such measures only promise to supply a fraction of U.S. oil needs. At the same time, drilling and transportation of oil could come at disastrous ecological costs, making the decision to drill there even more shortsighted.

Oil prices are rising. Even members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), who supply about two-thirds of the world?s oil, stated it is unlikely oil production would increase significantly. Experts predict oil prices could easily double in the near future. This makes for a good argument to bolster the attempt of America to become less dependent on oil imports.

The rising costs have garnered support for the drilling in Alaska?s protected areas. But even though Americans feel the pinch at the pump, popular support is lacking. Fifty-three percent oppose the measure, while 38 percent condone it.

The goal to become less dependent on foreign oil is a worthy one. Having to rely on foreign countries, the United States can be taken hostage, as has happened in the past. When OPEC countries did not agree with U.S. foreign policy, oil supply to the United States was cut, leaving the nation in economic turmoil. A crisis like the ones that occurred in the 1970s should be avoided at all costs.

But to drill in Alaska is the wrong approach. Estimations vary, but most studies put the best output numbers from 5 to 10 percent of America?s oil consumption. The reserves would also likely tap out after only a few years.
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Guardian: Coral reef clue to fast sea rise

Looks like sea-level rise may be a much bigger problem than we thought:

The discovery of ancient mangrove forest remains under the Great Barrier Reef has cast doubt on some theories about how quickly the sea level rose after the last ice age.

Most scientists believe it was a gradual rise over the past 9,000 years. But the existence of relic mangroves 70cm (27in) below the floor of the Barrier Reef, some with leaves and branches still intact, suggests an abrupt rise.

Dan Alongi, a biologist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, said it appeared that sea levels rose about 3 metres in less than 30 years, drowning forests and flooding estuaries, 20 times faster than previously thought.

“Material was very much intact, it didn’t even have time to fully decompose when it was buried,” he said. “So it does tell us that when climate change last happened it was comparatively quick.”

It could indicate how quickly the climate might change in future, he said, adding that a sudden rise in sea level of the same magnitude would cause widespread damage to coastal areas.

Ocean current modelling suggests that sea levels could rise anywhere from 1cm to 10cm in the future. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that at worst it could be 50-88cm this century. Guardian

It would certainly take care of any pesky electoral problems Florida has. With a three meter rise most cities in the state would be wiped out.

United States should set example by ratifying Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol went into effect Wednesday. Notably absent from countries committing to the protocol is the world?s biggest producer of such greenhouse gasses: the United States.

The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997. Its full name, Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, illustrates what it was intended to do. The increasing emissions of greenhouse gasses had been linked to a rise in the Earth?s average temperature. To counteract this trend, the international community agreed to impose standards to keep emissions at the level they were at in 1990, if not lower them.

All member countries of the European Union ratified the protocol in 2002 and have successfully lowered the emissions. The EU accounts for about 21 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and has proven that stricter guidelines do not necessarily adversely impact the economy.

Meanwhile, the United States is pouting. While being instrumental in drafting the protocol, the United States never ratified it. The official stance taken was last reiterated by President George W. Bush, who said, ?America?s unwillingness to embrace a flawed treaty should not be read by our friends and allies as any abdication of responsibility.?
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Disney?s utopia has arrived, but do we like it?

A few weeks ago, my wife and I took a trip to Walt Disney World?s Epcot. The park left me thrilled about the positive outlook it portrayed, but at the same time was depressing, as the vision was largely outdated. The park also does not come close to the bold vision Walt Disney had had for the project; at the time nicknamed E.P.C.O.T. ? the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Yet the original proposal, while being largely non-existent in the park itself, can be found elsewhere in almost all aspects of our daily lives.

Disney himself filmed a presentation two months before he died in 1966 that was intended to help sell what was later to comprise Walt Disney World. The film was a pitch to the Florida Legislature and general public, but also intended to win over key industries in order to help finance the project. (It can be found on the DVD set Walt Disney Treasures - Tomorrowland: Disney in Space and Beyond.) The city was never built, and the park that was built in its stead did not open until Oct. 1, 1982, and is more a world fair than a self-contained community.

Disney considered E.P.C.O.T. to be the most interesting and important part of Disney World. It was intended to house about 20,000 inhabitants, as well as establish a nearby industrial park. A large mall-like structure in the middle of the proposed community was to feature offices, themed shopping areas resembling European cities, and host a large hotel that towered over the rest of the structure.
Surrounding this, the proposal featured individual housing for those working in the city center. Such housing was to radiate out from the center, much like the spokes of a wheel.
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Hubble still has some photos to take

Last year NASA announced the Hubble Space Telescope would not receive any further maintenance, effectively ending the mission. The public outcry was so immense that the decision was reversed. Now it seems again as though it will be lights out for the Hubble relatively soon, as the Bush administration will not fund the project anymore.

Thursday The Washington Post reported the Bush administration was scrapping its plans to come up with the needed funding, which could exceed $1 billion. The Post also stated that NASA’s overall budget is expected to be increased to $17 billion, a hike of 4.6 percent. But the increase is mainly intended for other projects, such as the proposed missions to Mars and Earth’s moon.

When the Hubble was lifted into Earth’s orbit in 1990 as part of a joint venture between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), problems arose with the telescope’s lens. Soon the public began voicing concerns that the project was too costly. But once the problems were repaired, the telescope started sending images down to Earth that were of such breathtaking clarity and beauty that it soon became a sensation with the general public.
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Worst. Monday. Ever.

The BBC tells me today is statistically the worst Monday of the year. They also have the formula with which a UK scientist arrived at this conclusion:

JANUARY BLUES DAY FORMULA
1/8W+(D-d) 3/8xTQ MxNA. Where:
W: Weather
D: Debt
d: Money due in January pay
T: Time since Christmas
Q: Time since failed quit attempt
M: General motivational levels
NA: The need to take action. BBC

I agree.