Not only will yer bid benefit ye in the afterlife, but it will benefit the National Center for Science Education right away. All of the proceeds from the auction will be donated, and for a limited time, if ye bid before the end of the auction, I'll take advantage of the donation matching provided by my employer. 200% of the bounty will be donated up to 1000 gallions (a.k.a. USD) matching.

Y'arr! Way ta go matey!

eBay.ca: Handmade Flying Spaghetti Monster Plush FSM (item 6011889705 end time 15-Nov-05 00:39:19 EST)

According to a statement from the two groups, the new Kansas standards are improved, but as currently written, they overemphasize controversy in the theory of evolution and distort the definition of science. NAS and NSTA offered to work with the board to resolve these issues so the state standards could use text from the National Research Council's "National Science Education Standards" and NSTA's "Pathways to Science Standards."

This is not new either. NAS and NSTA refused Kansas their permission in 1999 too.

National-Academies.org | News

The new standards say high school students must understand major evolutionary concepts. But they also declare that basic Darwinian theory — that all life had a common origin and that natural chemical processes created the building blocks of life — has been challenged in recent years by fossil evidence and molecular biology.

Here's part of the problem. The Kansas standards say this (sort of), but I have yet to see the evidence that they are talking about. From what I have seen, the fossil evidence and molecular biology have done nothing of the sort.

Evolution Critics Score Win in Kansas - Yahoo! News

At a maximum of 96 feet tall, the turbines can be placed in industrial areas where taller propeller turbines are not allowed. The speed of the blades is very low, making them less noisy and less dangerous to birds, officials said. In fact, they said no dead or injured birds have ever been found at the sites of their test models west of Cheyenne.

Cool. And they've got ones rated to produce a megawatt? Sounds like they're really onto something.

Cheyenne firm's wind turbines get makeover

Biggest hurricane season ever. Three cat5 storms in a single year when there has never been ever a 4 and 5 in the same year. 200 cities with new record summer highs. The warmest fall on record.

Now, maybe some of that is improved storm tracking technology, but this is the kind of thing global warming predicts.

Tropical Storm ALPHA

Lehigh's biology department sought to distance itself from Behe in August, posting a statement on its Web site that says the faculty "are unequivocal in their support of evolutionary theory." He earned tenure at Lehigh before becoming a proponent, which lets him express his views without the threat of losing his job.

Wow, they picked a professor that the rest of the college has basically disowned. That's a ringing endorsement!

Prof Speaks at 'Intelligent Design' Trial

As of September 21, the Arctic sea ice area had dropped to 2.05 million square miles (5.31 million square km), the report said.

From 1978 to 2000, the sea ice area averaged 2.70 million square miles (7 million square km), the report said. It noted the melting trend had shrunk Inuit hunting grounds and endangered polar bears, seals and other wildlife.

Would someone opposed to the idea of global warming like to explain this without it being real?

CNN.com - Report: Ice-free Arctic summers possible by 2100 - Sep 28, 2005

"All the Dover school board did was allow students to get a glimpse of a controversy that is really boiling over in the scientific community," Thompson said.

The controversy is how anyone could be stupid enough to but into the idea that ID is science in any way shape or form. But I guess teaching ID in school is exactly how that happens.

'Intelligent Design' Court Battle Begins - Yahoo! News

Education Board Chairman Steve Abrams, a conservative Republican who has supported the proposed standards, said he was unmoved by the scientists' plea, which became public Thursday.

"I don't think anything should be taught as dogma," Abrams told the Lawrence Journal-World.

Oh! That explains it! He wants religious dogma taught as science!

Nobel Laureates Frown on Science Standards - Yahoo! News

It appears that there are enormous differences of opinion as to the probability of a failure with loss of vehicle and of human life. The estimates range from roughly 1 in 100 to 1 in 100,000. The higher figures come from the working engineers, and the very low figures from management. What are the causes and consequences of this lack of agreement? Since 1 part in 100,000 would imply that one could put a Shuttle up each day for 300 years expecting to lose only one, we could properly ask "What is the cause of management's fantastic faith in the machinery?"

Linked from Dagmar's 6 dumbest ideas in computer security.

[Richard Feynman was one of the smartest guys this country has ever seen, and in some ways one of the luckiest as well. If the guys at NASA didn't read this before he died, then they probably shouldn't be at NASA]

Personal observations on