io9 
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San Francisco, 10:28 PM
Fri Dec 11
27 posts in the last 24 hours
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04/03/09
04/01/09
04/01/09
1. Reality is not decided by consensus.
2. That the earth's core is molten can (and has) been determined by testing the effects and strength of the magnetosphere at various locations, which fits predictions. This is what science allows you to do: make predictions, and check that they are true.
3. The "Theory != fact" canard is tired. A theory in science is the final step in the scientific method. It means "tested by experiment and fitting current results," not "some random guess".
04/01/09
04/01/09
Using McLeroy's (really?) special brand of magic monkey science, I've fixed all of the problems like this - I no longer believe in his existence, and the more evidence that is presented to me, the more I will disbelieve in him. Someone has to stand up to these nonexistents.
Now I'm off to keep planning tomorrow's Global Warming lesson for my 6th grade science classes.
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So, for certain definitions of the universe, under certain unproven theories, wouldn't the answer actually be many times more than 14 billion?
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04/01/09
It has margins of error.
If children are taught science correctly...as a PROCESS...and not just a bunch of facts, the children themselves will be able to see whats nonsense and whats not.
I mean think of it this way;
Conversation 1;
"a) How old is the universe
b) well, using light redshift, combined with various other measures we can see its accelerating at this speed. Now, assuming the gravitational constant say the same we can extrapolate back and say its roughly this old.
a) What if the constant doesn't stay the sam...."
Conversation 2:
"a) How old is the universe
b) This book told me its 6500 years old.
a) Umm...but tree rings alone can show the world is earlier then that.
b) The tree rings lie.
a) Who made them lie
b) err..."
It doesn't actually mater so much if a child believes the first explanation or not. If they can pick holes in the methods used to deduce the age thats FANTASTIC.
We -shouldn't- be teaching these things as hard facts for them to accept.
The important thing is they are educated so they can see themselves second explanation is nonsense.
Teach them the tools to seperate science from fiction. (...and science fiction from urban fantasy :p)
If they understand the scientific process, their doughts don't become holes for people to plug with nonsense.
In science, the goal may be certainty, but admitting the lack of it is its greatest strength.
04/01/09
a) Who wrote the book?
b) God.
a) Who made the tree rings lie?
b) The Devil.
Unfortunately for your theory, if one, especially a child who is totally open to accepting outside agency, accepts those two premises, it becomes very difficult to establish that anything is nonsense.
In other words, how do you get them to accept Process in the first place?
04/01/09
1. Curiosity is awesome. Always question and search for a deeper meaning.
2. Stop blindly accepting something as truth and find out WHY it is/is not the truth.
04/01/09
1. Who do you think I am? Eve?
2. Who are you? The Devil?
04/01/09
if the only way to aproximate the age of the universe was redshifting and i was so mentally deficenct i were incapable of understanding the analysis required to explain redshifting then i would have to take the age of the univese on faith and without question because i would have no idea how to question it.
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The other way is simply, "because I said so."
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[5 stars]
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A fun-filled romp, very exciting new idears, this wood be great for young readers! I cant wait for the next novel from this promising new writer!
you should all bye this books on Amazon.com right now!
[4 ½ stars]
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04/01/09
[5+1 stars]
04/01/09
Gotta love how the yung reeder wood love a bodiseripper adventure.
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[5+2 stars]
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04/01/09
superbgothicspaceagevictoriant...[5 stars]
A fun-filled romp!
It's full of
[5 stars]
[5 stars]
[5 stars]
[4 stars]
[3 stars]
[2 stars]
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04/01/09
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Whoopsie!
04/01/09
Texas hasn't changed, adapted, grown, or evolved, in at least 14 Billion Years.
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Our current governor is a lovely man by the name of Rick Perry, who has been in office since Bush left and is doing an admirable job of assuring the citizens of Texas (many of whom are very upset by this news item, stereotypes aside) that we won't have to change a bit of our anti-science, religiously-run administration.
You're welcome to move here and vote him out of office, we could use some help.
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Let them head back to Mexico. What good thing has ever come from Texas?
04/01/09
That is all.
04/02/09
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04/01/09
This isn't so much an example of science fiction as science versus fiction.
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These actions of the Texas Board of Education can be seen, through reason, to be (potentially) unconstitutional and un-American. They should not be treated with animosity and marginalization, but with fair, Constitutional justice (i.e. this should be taken up with the Supreme Court).
Do not take from this statement of my opinion that I am at all against religion. I am, however, against blatantly religious actions in what I think and believe should be a totally secular area.
04/02/09
And to be perfectly frank, to believe the universe is 14 billion years old requires just as much FAITH as it does to believe that an intelligent creator made it that way. Yes, we have THEORIES that lead to other conclusions, but there is no PROOF. If there is no PROOF, then schools shouldn't be teaching it as if it is proof. At least with this change, the teachers are free to explain ALL the possibilities to their students, and not shoe-horned into speaking about only one version that hasn't been proven to be 100% correct.
04/02/09
So what we've got here is evolutionary theory on one side, with scads of corroborating evidence that support the theory, and then on the other side we've got "God did it", buttressed by faith. To claim that those two concepts are on equal footing is... not scientific.
What cracks me up most is that as far as I know, evolution ISN'T put forward as fact, it's put forward as the most logical current scientific explanation for the factual evidence at hand. That's why it's called "the theory of evolution". But creative design and their ilk don't have the same mass of evidence, and most of their "evidence" is not scientific, so they should stay out of science class.
And I'm happy with the State staying out of the Church's business, but I'm a firm believer that the Framers were also pretty wary of the Church messing with the State. And I'm pretty happy making sure that Church dictates stay out of my happily secular life.
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04/01/09
If wishes was horses, we'd all be eating steak.
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But... if everyone had horses they wouldn't be that expensive...
Maybe he means horse-steak?
04/01/09
It's a Gorram quote from Firefly!
Sheesh, please hand in yo' geek/nerd card.
Oh sorry, y'all being ironical an' stuff! Heh.
04/01/09