The gods are smiling on me

They must be:

My healthy little boy is getting cuter and chubbier every day.

My candidate won the election. Change is coming.


My Gators won the SEC East. They should be ranked #3 today, and will likely be in the BCS Championship Game when they beat Alabama in the SEC Conference Championship. (Certainly so if Texas Tech loses to Oklahoma in two weeks.)

Great college football weekend

A good football weekend all-around for my two teams:

• We went to the UF-USC game -- see a picture here. We had great tickets, but had to pay $130 each (section 1, row 20, seats 3 & 4), close enough to Tebow for my wife to swoon (yet again). Watching him put up 7 touchdowns was amazing, and I can see why he's in the running for the Heisman. And do keep in mind that he's just a sophomore...wait until next year! Florida is #12 in the BCS, and they need Kentucky to beat Georgia and either Vandy or UK to beat UT to get a shot at the SEC title. Then, if they beat LSU in the title game, they would have an excellent shot at the BCS title. (yes, I'm being a little irrational here) More likely, they will end up with a nice top ten finish with no berth in the Sugar Bowl.
  


• VT finally beat FSU. They're now ranked #10 in the BCS. Go Hokies! They need to beat Miami this Saturday and UVA next Saturday. UVA looked really strong stomping the shit out of the 'Canes.

Is our children learning?

As I was reading about the FCAT science scores, it reminded me of some ground I covered a while back. Before that, some stunning facts:

Fifth graders leapt from 35 percent being at level 3 or higher last year to 42 percent at level 3 or higher this year. That’s a very encouraging sign and shows a wonderful commitment to science education at the elementary school level. Eighth graders climbed 6 percentage points to 38 percent this year, and 11th graders inched up 2 percentage points to 37 percent passing at level 3 or higher.

This despite the political pressure that led to,

...Wednesday's results were overshadowed by the state's admission that it made errors in scoring last year's FCAT. State officials are recalculating the third-grade reading scores after finding that the assessment was too easy.

That was no "error" -- it was a calculated move to reduce the bright glaring obvious failure of our science education system, and deflect a little of the responsibility from Jeb et. al during the election (to help the GOP).

"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"— King W, Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

I would say, "Nope. But neither "is" our adults."

The government recently released its 2006 Science & Engineering Indicators (SE). You can download the entire v2 as a PDF (2.7 MB). The SE serve many functions, but I wanted to highlight, in particular, its assessment of science literacy in America (and other countries), and consider its impact on our culture. The tables of interest are in chapter 7, "Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding". They are available as Excel files (.xls) and PDF files:

• 7-10 (PDF) "Correct answers to specific science literacy questions, by country/region: Most recent year"
• 7-11 (PDF) "Correct answers to scientific terms and concept questions: Selected years, 1995–2004"
• 7-12 (PDF) "Correct answers to science literacy questions, by respondent characteristic: 2004"
• 7-13 (PDF) "Public understanding of nature of scientific inquiry, by respondent characteristic: 2004"

I haven't yet had time to review the data extensively, but suffice it to say, 2004 (most recent year) was the worst year since 1995 for general scientific literacy, across most categories, if not all. I am not surprised.

Can we ever expect a scientifically-illiterate society to acknowledge rationalism, humanism, and atheism as valuable worldviews/positions? What hope do atheists have for expecting religious dogma and superstition to diminish, and reason and freethought to catch on, in a society where a large majority of the population has no grasp on basic scientific principles and methods, to substantiate a naturalistic outlook? If people have no scientific basis to give them answers to some of the basic questions of natural history and philosophy, should we expect them to have anything other than faith? Here are some numbers to consider, reported as the % answered correctly (2006 SE, Table 7-10):

1. The center of the Earth is very hot. (True) 78
2. All radioactivity is man-made. (False) 73
3. It is the father’s gene that decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl. (True) 62
4. Lasers work by focusing sound waves. (False) 42
5. Electrons are smaller than atoms. (True) 45
6. Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria. (False) 54
7. The universe began with a huge explosion. (True) 35
8. The continents have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move. (True) 77
9. Human beings are developed from earlier species of animals. (True) 44
10. Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth? (Earth around the Sun) 71
    

Jesus H. Frickin' Christ. 29% of US adults don't know THAT THE EARTH ORBITS THE SUN!!!!!! And this is about the same pie slice of Americana that abhors stem cell research, and stubbornly clings to approval of the worst (and most stupid) president in all US history. If you sample this same demographic for the percentage who identify as being: religious right, fundamentalist, home-schooled or church-schooled, what do you think you'll get? R² values ~1, I'll bet.

Now, compare these numbers to the 2002 SE report:

1. 70% of American adults do not understand the scientific process;
2. Double digit percentage gains in belief of haunted houses, ghosts, communication with the dead, and witches in the past decade;
   
3. U.S. depends heavily on foreign born scientists at all degree levels, as high as 45% in engineering;
4. Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread and growing;
5. 60% believe some people posses psychic powers or extrasensory perception (ESP);
6. 30% believe some reported objects in the sky are really space vehicles from other civilizations;
7. 30% read astrology charts at least occasionally in the newspaper;
8. 46% did not know how long it takes the Earth to orbit the sun (1 year);
9. 45% thought lasers work by focusing sound waves (they focus light);
10. 49% believe antibiotics kill viruses (they kill bacteria);
11. 66% don't believe the Big Bang theory widely accepted by scientists;
12. 48% believe humans lived at the same time as the dinosaurs;
13. 47% don't believe in evolution which is widely accepted by scientists;
14. 55% couldn't define DNA;
15. 78% couldn't define a molecule; (particularly sad to me, a chemist)
    
16. 32% believe in 'Lucky Numbers'.
    

And we call our period in history "progress"...There's always plenty of superstition, ignorance, and religious/pseudoscientific nonsense to fill in people's heads while these abysmal standards exist.

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Technorati tags: Intelligent Design, Evolution, Creationism

Cooler Than Jurassic Park, and Much Cheaper

Guess what's coming to Branford, a mere hour away?

Why, a great new scientific museum, that's what! It's called Noah's Park, and it's gonna teach us all about Jebus ponies...uh, I mean dinosaurs!

BRANFORD (FBW)—Noah's Park, a Gospel fossil park emulating the blockbuster movie, "Jurassic Park," is gearing up at the Middle Florida Baptist Assembly grounds thanks to the cooperation of several Southern Baptist associations.

The fossil exhibit, brainchild of former pastor and self-taught creationist Tom Baird, is a ministry that uses dinosaur fossils and a planetarium to prove that the biblical narrative of a great flood that destroyed nearly all life on the earth is true, he said. Not only do the fossils and stars show there was a great judgment, Baird said, but they also show God will keep His promise and come again.

With speech sprinkled with references to Scripture, Baird tells the story of the "glories of God" and his judgment on the earth, illustrating the account with dusty dinosaur bones and distant stars.

Awesome! I think Gator Freethought should take a field trip up there over the summer, with a video camera of course, to document the scientific wonders of creation. You can see the driving directions and map here. The lat/lon are from the campsite's webpage.
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Technorati tags: God, Religion, Intelligent Design, Evolution, Creationism

King George Was Divinely Appointed, Not Elected

And thus, contrary to this article's assertions, Gov. Crist's move to allow disenfranchised felons to vote in Florida would've had no impact on our Lord Bush's right to rule.

During his campaign for the Florida governorship last fall, Charlie Crist frequently expressed deep moral opposition to the state's practice of permanently prohibiting convicted felons from exercising their right to vote. But Crist is a Republican, and his promise to fix Florida's notorious felon-voting ban sometimes sounded like nothing more than campaign puffery. Felon disenfranchisement has long given Republicans a considerable boost at the polls in Florida; if the state's ex-cons had been allowed to vote in 2000, George W. Bush would now be the commissioner of baseball. Was Charlie Crist really going to kill this political golden goose?

On Thursday, he did just that. Crist, who became governor after handily defeating Democrat Jim Davis in November, ushered in a proposal that will quickly restore the voting rights of most of Florida's felons as soon as they are released from prison. The plan looks sure to alter the political landscape in the nation's most populous -- and electoral-vote-rich -- swing state.

"This is going to have a very big impact," says Christopher Uggen, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota who is coauthor, with Jeff Manza, of "Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy." Voting-rights activists say that there are about 950,000 felons in Florida who have served their time but are currently ineligible to vote -- making up roughly 9 percent of the state's voting-age population, and more disenfranchised felons than in any other state. The ex-cons belong to traditionally Democratic demographics -- many are African-American, and many are poor. If they're allowed to vote, they'll likely go to the polls at lower rates than everyone else; Uggen and Manza's work suggests felons turn out to vote at about the half the general turnout rate in any given election. But in a state as closely divided politically as Florida, that could still make all the difference. In the past several decades, say Uggen and Manza, at least two Senate races in Florida would have gone to Democrats instead of Republicans had felons had the right to vote. Buddy McKay would have beaten Connie Mack in 1988, and Betty Castor would have beaten Mel Martinez in 2004. And, of course, the 2000 presidential election would have gone to Al Gore. Uggen and Manza's research suggests Gore might have picked up 60,000 votes from felons.

9% of our voting-age population in Florida are disenfranchised felons? Wow.
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Technorati tags: Politics

Local Interest: Library Volunteers Must Piss in Cup

Vurrry Insurresting. If you've never visited Levy County, you aren't missing much. But, now the county has become an object of derision for its stupid new policy.

Levy Country Libraries now requires piss tests of its volunteers to have the, uh, "privilege" of donating their time to reshelve books and collect microfiche. The average-aged volunteer is Social Security eligible. There used to be 55 volunteers, now there are 2. Part of the reason is the cost and travel required to take the test -- they had to drive here to Gainesville. Part of the other reason just must be the ridiculous quantities of illegal substances these old coots were ingesting. Gotta make sure grandma isn't cracked out, or else she might screw up the shelving categories, right?

WTF?!?!?

Bill Maher writes about this on the HuffPo.

New Rule: We Don't Need Drug Tests for Librarians

They can't have very nice lives - librarians. It's like being a teacher, only without the opportunities for dating, because the only kids you meet are the nerds. So the last thing America's shsssshing minority needs is the indignity of a urine test. But that's just what we're doing. I'm not sure this is the best use of our time.

The last time a librarian did something really stupid and reckless on drugs was when Laura married George.

Last year, Florida's Levy County introduced drug testing for library volunteers. Whose average age is between 60 and 85. The volunteers were required to drive to another city - Gainesville - and urinate in a cup "within hearing distance" of a laboratory monitor. That'll teach 'em for offering to work for free. "Okay, grandma, now get pissing. And I'd better hear a nice even unbroken stream."

And then something weird happened. Inexplicably, the number of volunteers dropped from 55 to two. It's almost like they didn't enjoy being degraded. And they call themselves the greatest generation.

I know what you're thinking. If Aunt Iris has nothing to hide, she can get a little of her own urine on her hands and prove she's not strung out on junk. Then we can feel safe, and she can go back to mis-shelving the Readers Digests. But then a second thought occurs to you, later, when you really, really think about it. And that thought is this: What the fu*& is wrong with us? Are we high?

They're not flying planes. They're showing the homeless how to use the microfiche readers. For free. The only people who profit from this are the stockholders of the drug testing company, who stood to make $33 a head, money the library would have otherwise just wasted on books.

A spokesman for the libraries said she wouldn't make the volunteers drive to Gainesville for their cavity searches anymore. And she also thought the problem wasn't the drug test itself, but the method they used. That's why they're looking into switching from urine tests to mouth swabs. The same method used by the Florida Department of Corrections.

Bill Maher is the host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" which airs every Friday at 11PM.

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Technorati tags: Humor

Secular Scorecards

Here are the scorecards from our House Reps and Senators from FL:

FLORIDA HOUSE	Party	RC24	RC46	RC48	RC204	RC283	RC492	RC378	RC385	RC386	RC388	Score
Bilirakis, M, 9th	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Boyd, A, 2nd	D	-	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	-	+	60
Brown, C, 3rd	D	-	+	+	+	nv	+	+	+	-	+	70
Brown-Waite, V, 5th	R	-	-	-	+	-	-	-	-	-	+	20
Crenshaw, A, 4th	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Davis, J, 11th	D	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	+	80
Diaz-Balart, L, 21st	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	+	-	-	-	10
Diaz-Balart, M, 25th	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	+	-	-	-	10
Feeney, T, 24th	R	nv	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Foley, M, 16th	R	-	-	-	+	-	-	+	-	-	+	30
Harris, K, 13th	R	-	nv	nv	-	nv	-	-	-	-	-	0
Hastings, A, 23rd	D	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	+	80
Keller, R, 8th	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Mack, C, 14th	R	-	-	-	+	-	-	-	-	-	+	20
Meek, K, 17th	D	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	+	80
Mica, J, 7th	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Miller, J, 1st	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Putnam, A, 12th	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Ros-Lehtinen, I, 18th	R	nv	-	-	-	-	-	+	-	-	-	10
Shaw Jr, E, 22nd	R	-	-	-	+	-	-	-	-	-	+	20
Stearns, C, 6th	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Wasserman Schultz, D, 20th	D	-	+	+	+	nv	+	+	+	+	+	80
Weldon, D, 15th	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Wexler, R, 19th	D	-	+	+	+	nv	+	+	+	+	+	80
Young, C, 10th	R	-	-	-	+	-	-	-	-	-	-	10
FLORIDA SENATE	Party	RC24	RC46	RC48	RC204	RC283	RC492	RC378	RC385	RC386	RC388	Score
Martinez, M	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
Nelson, B	D	-	+	-	+	-	+	-	+	+	+	60

Unsurprisingly, as a general rule, the GOP sucks ass at honoring the constitutional principle of church-state separation, while Democrats do fare better (although not as well as they ought).