The Vatican newspaper has published an article saying "intelligent design" is not science and that teaching it alongside evolutionary theory in school classrooms only creates confusion.

Vatican paper article says 'intelligent design' not science

Thank you New York Times. Jesus, it's about time for this article to come out.

The truth of the matter is that ID isn't supported by science. It *is* a political issue and it *is* a religious issue. And one supported only by a relatively narrow religious viewpoint too.

John G. West, a political scientist and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, the main organization supporting intelligent design, said the skepticism and outright antagonism are evidence that the scientific "fundamentalists" are threatened by its arguments.

"This is natural anytime you have a new controversial idea," Mr. West said. "The first stage is people ignore you. Then, when they can't ignore you, comes the hysteria. Then the idea that was so radical becomes accepted. I'd say we're in the hysteria phase."

...

"The future of intelligent design, as far as I'm concerned, has very little to do with the outcome of the Dover case," Mr. West said. "The future of intelligent design is tied up with academic endeavors. It rises or falls on the science."

This guy's pretty savvy, because he knows that if you make your opponents look unhinged, you undercut their credibility. It's good politics. But then, if the scientific community is hysterical, it's because there are actually people claiming to be scientists working as hard as possible to destroy the very notion of science. That makes me angry too. But that doesn't mean i'm unable to make a rational argument. I'd like to think he's right about his last statement, because it works to the advantage of the scientific standpoint. This segment from earlier in the article is very telling :

The Templeton Foundation, a major supporter of projects seeking to reconcile science and religion, says that after providing a few grants for conferences and courses to debate intelligent design, they asked proponents to submit proposals for actual research.

"They never came in," said Charles L. Harper Jr., senior vice president at the Templeton Foundation, who said that while he was skeptical from the beginning, other foundation officials were initially intrigued and later grew disillusioned.

"From the point of view of rigor and intellectual seriousness, the intelligent design people don't come out very well in our world of scientific review," he said.

That says an awful lot to me. You keep hearing about the "science" behind ID, but I don't see it being produced. Here's an organization who's dedicated to reconciling science with religion *asking* to spend money on this research. But no, nothing. So the claim that the liberal academic elite have been blocking ID from the journals falls a little flat. If the science was there, someone could have published it by now.

But that's not the point is it. Mr. West's claims not withstanding, this issue has almost nothing to do with teaching science or doing science. It's a fron... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Intelligent Design Might Be Meeting Its Maker

This pretty much sums up why I hate apple weenies.

[ Yeah, tards come in all flavors. Fortunately it doesn't matter. What will kill real is the fact that they have *no* product differentiation, and a nasty stigma from past indiscretions. I have somewhat mixed feelings on this particular case, but it seemed pretty pointless. If they offered a bigger or better selection than iTMS, then there would be incentive to care. But they never bothered to convince anyone why they should bother to use the Real store. -k]

Apple zombies attack RealNetworks

] Oprah's Book Club may help sell millions of books to
] Americans, and slam poetry may have engendered a youthful
] new breed of wordsmith, but the nation is still caught in
] a tide of indifference when it comes to literature. That
] is the sobering profile of a new survey to be released
] today by the National Endowment for the Arts, which
] describes a precipitous downward trend in book
] consumption by Americans and a particular decline in the
] reading of fiction, poetry and drama.

[ Lots of good statistics to chew on here and lots of discussion to be had... i hope everyone will read this.

I for one, know, categorically, that i read more now than i ever have in the past, even during school (where i was, granted, a physics & CS student). I read constantly and not a day goes by that i don't read for at least an hour. And I'm not talking about reading memo's at work... I read blogs and memes, aritcles and journals, and then i go home and read books, sometimes fine literture, but more often science fiction, or interesting non-fiction related to philosophy or computing or biology or physics.

It may be that my peer group and I are vastly different from the norm, but even among avid readers, i believe there's been a shift in the kind of materials they pursue. I think more people are driven to be "productive" with their time, even their "free time", and have demphasized fiction in general, or feel that they'd prefer to recieve their fictions in the form of movies, TV shows or video games (which get more immersive every cycle). Doing a quick mental survey of my closest friends, i'm confident that most of them spend a great deal more of their reading time on non-fiction, magazines and technical books than they do on fiction.

The more interesting, and harder, questions to answer are those regarding the level of civic involvement, or engagement with culture and society, that follows this trend. Are we cynical from reading blogs and news feeds all day, without the buffer of literary engagements of the very topics we still face? What are the consequences of focusing on "reality" over fiction, if that's what's happening?

I certainly have argued in favor of fiction many times in the past and i continue to hold strongly to that stand. I think a good novel can often convey more information, and in a more meaningful way, than a nonfiction work covering the same conceptual bases. Not always, but often enough to make it worthwhile. Addtionally, I strongly believe in not addressing everything in a purely pragmatic sense, and feel that escapism, in moderation, is every bit as important as ticking off accomplishments. The best literature, of course, is the kind that lets you do both simultaneously, and perhaps that's the real danger... missing out on the experience of being both enlightened and entertained.

In the end of course, it's all about choices... I prefer books, and my connection to them is as much experiential as it is functional... I still like the feel of the paper and the choice of type, size, weight, design and so on. I'll be interested to see other, similar anlyses, particularly ones which investigate the amount of non-fiction reading and levels of "new media" investment.

-k

p.s. anyone find it interesting/disturbing that religious texts jumped? i wonder what qualifies too, incidentally... does my copy of The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama (which i admit isn't religious, but certainly qualifies as spiritual) count, or only my bible?]

Fewer Noses Stuck in Books in America, Survey Finds

] Mr. Hatch also said the induce bill - the name is short
] for "inducement devolves into unlawful child
] exploitation" - was intended to defend children, who he
] said make up about half of the users of file sharing
] software. "This for-profit piracy scheme mostly endangers
] children, who are ill equipped to appreciate the
] illegality or risks of their acts," he said.

[ Ooohhh, it's for the children now... i see. Please, everyone, think of the children! If we don't continue to prop up the business model of this behemoth RIAA represents, what will become of the poor, doe-eyed, children?

Fucking please. You want to come out and say 'We need to strengthen IP laws in this, this and this way, to the benefit of such and such.' then just fucking do it. Couching this issue in some kind of drug-pusher, corrupting-the-minds-of-the-youth bullshit is cheap and insulting, not to mention absurd. I guess saying 'I want to remove some traditional rights given to consumers and makers of independent products, for the benefit of these record companies.' doesn't sell too good. -k]

Bill to Curb Online Piracy Is Challenged as Too Broad

] WASHINGTON -- Digital radio broadcasts that bring
] CD-quality sound to the airwaves could lead to unfettered
] song copying if protections are not put in place, a
] recording-industry trade group warned on Friday.

Sigh ... here's the "broadcast flag" for digital radio...

Wired News: RIAA Moves In on Digital Radio

] Federal safety data has shown for years that booming
] sales of S.U.V.'s and large pickup trucks are adding to
] the death toll of people riding in cars, particularly in
] side-impact accidents. At the same time, S.U.V.'s and
] pickup trucks do not, as a class, better protect their
] own occupants, because they tend to be less stable and
] more prone to rollovers than passenger cars.

Guess what: if you're in a sedan and you get t-boned by an
SUV, you're fucked.

[ Proper fucked. This is a disturbing trend. Bad drivers want to feel safer so they get into massive trucks which are presumed to be more likely to protect them. Meanwhile they obliterate the poor sap they've caromed into because they were busy yammering on they cell phone while hauling their 4 rugrats to soccer practice. It'd be a lot safer to just put down the cell phone and learn how to drive.
p.s. most volvo drivers suck too. for the same reasons. -k]

Struck in Side, Many Cars Fare Poorly in Safety Test

] Voters in Inglewood, Calif., a racially diverse and
] economically struggling suburb of Los Angeles, soundly
] rejected on Tuesday a ballot initiative to permit
] construction of a Wal-Mart complex that would have
] exempted the 60-acre development from virtually all local
] oversight.

Yay.

California Voters Reject Wal-Mart Initiative

] Internet music piracy is not responsible for declining CD
] sales, claim the researchers behind a major new
] statistical study.

[ Yeah, I've seen a few of these recently. Too bad it's irrelevant. RIAA's gonna keep suing traders, which is just what I predicted last year. Sue little Suzy, and see Suzy's mom limit her computer usage in a heartbeat. And see all Suzy's friends' moms do the same to their kids. It *is* working for now, though I don't think it will forever...

The main reason the RIAA's actions are so despicable is that the industry should have been in on this whole "internet" thingie from the get-go. If the labels hadn't been so fucking backwards in the first place, none of these lawsuits would've been necessary, because we'd have had decent, legal download services 5 years ago. The labels figured they could avoid the costs of changing business models and ignore what consumers want. Napster showed them the error in their thinking. If someone in the big 5 had had the balls to push for modernized distribution models, we all could have avoided the massive war and grown naturally into the 21'st century. I still think it'll happen eventually... as long as consumers keep demanding what they want.

Of course, in my perfect world, the major labels all bite it, less money gets spent for promotion and marketing and more gets spent on offering a wider variety of music... -k]

Net music piracy 'does not harm record sales'