Corante: technology, business, media, law, and culture news from the blogosphere
OUR PUBLICATIONS:
Corante is a trusted, unbiased source on technology, business, law, science, and culture that’s authored by leading commentators and thinkers in their respective fields. Corante also produces premium conferences and publications that help decision-makers better understand their industries and the world around them.
Corante Blogs
Corante Blogs examine, through the eyes of leading observers, analysts, thinkers, and doers, critical themes and memes in technology, business, law, science, and culture.
Vin Crosbie, on the challenges, financial and otherwise, that newspaper publishers are facing: "The real problem, Mr. Newspaperman, isn't that your content isn't online or isn't online with multimedia. It's your content. Specifically, it's what you report, which stories you publish, and how you publish them to people, who, by the way, have very different individual interests. The problem is the content you're giving them, stupid; not the platform its on."
by Vin Crosbie in Rebuilding Media
There's a problem in the drug industry that people have recognized for some years, but we're not that much closer to dealing with it than we were then. We keep coming up with these technologies and techniques which seem as if they might be able to help us with some of our nastiest problems - I'm talking about genomics in all its guises, and metabolic profiling, and naturally the various high-throughput screening platforms, and others. But whether these are helping or not (and opinions sure do vary), one thing that they all have in common is that they generate enormous heaps of data.
by Derek Lowe in In the Pipeline
Now that the Web labor market is saturated and Web design a static profession, it's not surprising that 'user experience' designers and researchers who've spent their careers online are looking for new worlds to conquer. Some are returning to the “old media” as directors and producers. More are now doing offline consulting (service experience design, social policy design, exhibition design, and so on) under the 'user experience' aegis. They argue that the lessons they've learned on the Web can be applied to phenomena in the physical and social worlds. But there are enormous differences...
by Bob Jacobson in Total Experience
Clay Shirky, in deconstructing Second Life hype: "Second Life is heading towards two million users. Except it isn’t, really... I suspect Second Life is largely a 'Try Me' virus, where reports of a strange and wonderful new thing draw the masses to log in and try it, but whose ability to retain anything but a fraction of those users is limited. The pattern of a Try Me virus is a rapid spread of first time users, most of whom drop out quickly, with most of the dropouts becoming immune to later use."
by Clay Shirky in Many-to-Many
Over the last few years we've seen old barriers to creativity coming down, one after the other. New technologies and services makes it trivial to publish text, whether by blog or by print-on-demand. Digital photography has democratised a previously expensive hobby. And we're seeing the barriers to movie-making crumble, with affordable high-quality cameras and video hosting provided by YouTube or Google Video and their ilk... Music making has long been easy for anyone to engage in, but technology has made high-quality recording possible without specialised equipment, and the internet has revolutionised distribution, drastically disintermediating the music industry... What's left? Software maybe? Or maybe not."
by Suw Charman in Strange Attractor
Derek Lowe on the news that the Nobel Prize for medicine has gone to Craig Mello and Andrew Fire for their breakthrough work: "RNA interference is probably going to have a long climb before it starts curing many diseases, because many of those problems are even tougher than usual in its case. That doesn't take away from the discovery, though, any more than the complications of off-target effects take away from it when you talk about RNAi's research uses in cell culture. The fact that RNA interference is trickier than it first looked, in vivo or in vitro, is only to be expected. What breakthrough isn't?"
by Derek Lowe in In the Pipeline
Andrew Phelps: "Recently my WoW guild has been having a bit of a debate on the merits of Player-vs.-Player (PvP) within Azeroth. My personal opinion on this is that PvP has its merits, and can be incredible fun, but the system within WoW is horridly, horribly broken. It takes into account the concept of the battle, but battle without consequence, without emotive context, and most importantly, without honor..."
From later in the piece: "When I talk about this with people (thus far anyway) I typically get one of two responses, either 'yeah, right on!' or 'hey, it’s war, and war isn’t honorable – grow the hell up'. There is a lot to be said for that argument – but the problem is that war in the real historical world has very different constraints that are utterly absent from fantasized worlds..."
by Andrew Phelps in Got Game
Derek Lowe: "So, you're developing a drug candidate. You've settled on what looks like a good compound - it has the activity you want in your mouse model of the disease, it's not too hard to make, and it's not toxic. Everything looks fine. Except. . .one slight problem. Although the compound has good blood levels in the mouse and in the dog, in rats it's terrible. For some reason, it just doesn't get up there. Probably some foul metabolic pathway peculiar to rats (whose innards are adapted, after all, for dealing with every kind of garbage that comes along). So, is this a problem?.."
by Derek Lowe in In the Pipeline
Bob Jacobson, on shopping at his local Albertsons supermarket where he had "one of the worst customer experiences" of his life: "Say what you will about the Safeway chain or the Birkenstock billionaires who charge through the roof for Whole Foods' organic fare, they know how to create shopping environments that create a more pleasurable experience, at its best (as at Whole Foods) quite enjoyable. Even the warehouses like Costco and its smaller counterpart, Smart & Final, do just fine: they have no pretentions, but neither do they dump virtual garbage on the consumer merely to create another trivial revenue stream, all for the sake of promotions in the marketing department..."
by Strange Attractor in Total Experience
Kevin Anderson: "First off, I want to say that I really admire the ambition of the Guardian Unlimited’s Comment is Free. It is one of the boldest statements made by any media company that participation needs to be central to a radical revamp of traditional content strategies... It is, therfore, not hugely surprising to find that Comment is Free is having a few teething troubles..."
by Kevin Anderson in strange
Corante Developments
Here you will find the latest news from Corante including updates on upcoming events, new initiatives, product and publication launches, and more.
It was with shock that I returned home from a night out last night to hear the news of Russell's passing. How terribly, terribly sad. Most of all for him, as he'd seemed buoyant, healthier, and content when I'd last seen him several months ago when he was in town - he was happy that work was busy and rewarding and was having fun with it but most of all was thrilled about how things were going with his girlfriend, Ellen.
I've known Russ for what seems like ages now (in a good way) though in fact it's only been about six or seven years since the early days of "commercial" blogging when he started working on various projects at and around Corante. He was a diligent, committed, and prolific journalist who had impressively and more ably than others been able to make the transition from the old-school way of doing things to the new. He had his quirks, as we all do, but I greatly valued that he was good-natured, collegial, reliable, quick to adopt, trustworthy, eager to learn, and earnest in his interest in helping others better understand what he wrote about.
He was also, it should be said, a kind and thoughtful soul and it was the rare conversation in which he didn't ask, with sincerity, about what he knew of my life, e.g. our new babe, and we didn't talk as seemingly old friends about our lives and respective paths. I can't say I knew him very well, of course, but in our half-dozen get-togethers over the years and dozens of conversations I got a good sense of the man: he cared about learning and sharing and his bearing was earnest and ego-less and we'll miss him for that and more.
We wanted to let you know about a discount to New Comm Forum, the annual event event put on by our friends at the Society for New Communications Research. The conference, which runs from April 22-25, will feature many of the field's leading observers and is an important event for those looking, in the words of SNCR, to "better understand new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business, culture and society."
Check out the event's website and, if you're interested in attending, be sure to use the code supplied below for a special discount.
EARLY BIRD PRICING - NOW UNTIL FEB. 15th
NewComm Forum Conference - $995.
Pre-conference or post-conference session - $195.
SNCR Jam only - $75.
REGULAR PRICING - AFTER FEB. 15th
NewComm Forum Conference - $1095.
Pre-conference or post-conference session - $249.
SNCR Jam only - $75.
CORANTE READER DISCOUNTS
NewComm Forum Conference - save an additional $100
Use discount code: NCF08100
Pre-conference or post-conference session - save an additional $45.
Use discount code: NCF0845
We've been remiss in letting you know about two new independent blogs we've helped launch in the past month or so.
The first - the ConversationHub - is a companion blog to Supernova 2007, the latest edition of Kevin Werbach's excellent conference on all things connected. As the conference site says: "Supernova examines the effects of an increasingly connected world on business, life, and public policy. As disparate physical and social networks link with one another, a new societal network is rapidly evolving... The New Network is greater than the sum of its parts. It challenges us to re-create everything from the software and hardware we use...to the business models we employ...to the information and entertainment we encounter...to the ways we work and play."
Visit the ConversationHub and you'll find several dozen leading thinkers and doers, led by a few notable ringleaders, weighing in on the themes and trends of the day in technology and business. We encourage you to tune in - feel free to comment and even suggest topics and ideas for posts.
The second blog - Mobile Messaging 2.0 - convenes about a dozen top observers of the mobile messaging space for an intense discussion of the industry and where it's headed. Among its contributors are leading commentators, journalists and players in the field - tune in and you'll find them touching on topics such as mobile device design, messaging platforms, market pressures, user-generated content, interface design, and much, much more.
Also, if you visit the site, which is sponsored by Airwide Solutions, this week, you'll find live coverage and commentary from Global Messaging 2007, to which several of our contributors have traveled to hear about the latest developments from a broad spectrum of the industry's players and providers.
Be sure to catch the Office 2.0 Conference and hear from and engage with leading thinkers and doers in this exciting new market. Find out more here and be sure to use the code "GLDRK" for a special discount for Corante readers.
In the Pipeline: Don't miss Derek Lowe's excellent commentary on drug discovery and the pharma industry in general at In the Pipeline
From an article on how John McCain may be positioning himself for a presidential run in The Arizona Star:
McCain told the Star that, like Bush, he believes "all points of view" should be available to students studying the origins of mankind.
"Available" is a wonderfully vague word.
Senator, Senator, a follow-up question please? Just a clarification? Do you mean that teachers just drop some pamphlets by the door that explain how we were designed by aliens? Or should that be on the final exam?
Well, I'm all for teaching about the debate... in a social studies class. Just keep it out of biology classes, and teach biology. If that's what McCain means, then that's good. I suspect he's trying to thread a needle... I agree with darwinfinch's comment!
What really gets me is when people try to subtly equate the theory of evolution with creationism. They do it so much, and in so many different ways, I'm afraid it will sink in.
- Let's teach the other theories.
- "all points of view"
This attempt of teaching religion in science class will probably fail, but not before the general public is convenced that scientific theory is nothing more than a hunch.
4. Jeremy Wilkins on August 24, 2005 06:47 PM writes...
This attempt of teaching religion in science class will probably fail
Don't be so sure. According to recent polls, over 45% of Americans believe that we were created, much as we are now, 6,000-10,000 years ago by divine act. If recent elections are any indication, and if the Republican party's groupthink in Congress doesn't waver, our public educational institutions could be in serious trouble.
This is just a VRWC (vast right-wing conspiracy) to get us all in favor of vouchers—I just know it!
5. Greg Peterson on August 24, 2005 06:53 PM writes...
I saw this earlier and it disappointed me. I expected it from Bush and Frist, but always gave McCain a little credit. He is one of few--perhaps the only--Republican who I sometimes admire. It is distressing to see science, our best tool for objective reality, become a soccer ball in the culture contest.
Let's make an offer. A compromise. Agree that "intelligent design" should be taught in science class ... political science class.
The lesson would use ID as an example of how factions promote their agendas with think tanks and spin. And how they make professional politicians fidget.
7. Mike Hopkins on August 24, 2005 09:20 PM writes...
Why is this a surprise? Is there anything in McCain's background that suggests he knows more about science than the average Joe? Does he know anything in biology beyond a freshman introductory course taken in the 1960s? The vast majority of people (including non-fundamentalists) without a very strong knowledge about science in general and biology in particular are sympathetic to IDist claims.
8. Middleman on August 24, 2005 10:27 PM writes...
I haven't been in a high school biology class in about 37 years, but I do believe that Aristotle's Ladder Of Life and Lamarckian evolution are brought up. Of course, students are shown how these theories just don't hold up to scientific testing. I could imagine that bringing up Intelligent Design in this same context would be fine.
Honestly, this being "Merica" and all, people will probably change their tune when China starts out-performing the US in space technology and Mexico comes out with the first HIV cure.
I just can't imagine:
"Ok class, this semester, we will discuss evolution and Intelligent Design. We will start with Intellegent Design, ID is basically the notion that the things that are too complicated for the average person to understand were actually designed...any questions? No...we don't know who designed them...Ok...Now for evolution. First, let's talk about variation under domestication...
Maybe President McCain will finally mandate the teaching of the one true origin of life on earth, the Flying Spaghetti Monster: http://www.venganza.org/
Maybe Senator McCain would propose a "No Point of View Left Behind" act. So guys, let's make some "points of view" and get them into biology book. The number of points of view must be really large, so that students could have a biology textbook as large as Encyclopædia Britannica.
12. linguist on August 25, 2005 12:32 PM writes...
No DECENT person, not even any decent politician, would ever want to be the current "Republican" party candidate for anything.
Yes, yes, it's all too easy to bash "Republicans" these days. However, it is possible that a DECENT person would run in either party with an idea to change the current political climate.
What is the surprise? McCain got off the straight talk express long ago. Anyone who would cosie up to Bush after the screwing Bush gave McCain in the South Carolina primary in 2000 just shows how far a guy will go to kiss up to power in Washington to further one's political ambitions. There are very few politicians in Washington who will flat out admit to believing in evolution without mentioning some qualifier like ID. Too many people equate believing in evolution with atheism. How many politicians want that false stigma attached to them? No one with presidential ambitions for sure.
14. darwinfinch on August 26, 2005 02:28 AM writes...
In response to "linguist"'s huff-and-puff: what scenario can be imagined that would allow the many basically decent, and basically reasonable, conservatives in this nation to wrest control of today's "Republican" party from the - and I do not at all feel extreme in making this description - selfish, bigoted, smugly stupid, falsely pious, blinkered & cowardly, and simply evil cabal that have been, like Frankenstein's monster itself, assembled?
Until these conservatives have the gumption to, temporarily at least, work against these people, the worst impulses and desires of the worst portion of our population will continue to chart a course to destruction. But it's hard to admit you're wrong, especially when, as most conservatives anywhere always are, well-fed, relatively wealthy, and selectively sensitive.
16. Elliot Kennel on August 31, 2005 09:21 PM writes...
To me the issue is not whether evolution is or isn't "correct" (I'm not sure that the scientific method offers correctness anyway, but merely an opportunity to explain experimental data). What bothers me is the idea that we should take a vote to decide whether some idea is reasonable or not, and then require teachers to teach it a certain way. Then I suppose there would be a series of fines or jail sentences for teachers that did not meet the standards of the society.
This isn't the way we teach history or quantum physics, so why should it be the way we teach biology?
Anyway, I don't think there are any laws on the books that would prevent teachers from incorporating "intelligent design" in their lesson plans should they so choose. If this new theory wins acceptance in the scientific communtiy (which I doubt, but let's forget about that for a moment), there is nothing to prevent it from entering the educational system, just like quantum theory eventually augmented classical mechanics. We did not have to go pass a law outlawing classical mechanics or mandating the teaching of quantum theory, nor did we need to impose penalties or jail sentences for those who did not accept it.
Corante: technology, business, media, law, and culture news from the blogosphere
OUR PUBLICATIONS:
Corante is a trusted, unbiased source on technology, business, law, science, and culture that’s authored by leading commentators and thinkers in their respective fields. Corante also produces premium conferences and publications that help decision-makers better understand their industries and the world around them.
Corante Blogs
Corante Blogs examine, through the eyes of leading observers, analysts, thinkers, and doers, critical themes and memes in technology, business, law, science, and culture.
Vin Crosbie, on the challenges, financial and otherwise, that newspaper publishers are facing: "The real problem, Mr. Newspaperman, isn't that your content isn't online or isn't online with multimedia. It's your content. Specifically, it's what you report, which stories you publish, and how you publish them to people, who, by the way, have very different individual interests. The problem is the content you're giving them, stupid; not the platform its on."
by Vin Crosbie in Rebuilding Media
There's a problem in the drug industry that people have recognized for some years, but we're not that much closer to dealing with it than we were then. We keep coming up with these technologies and techniques which seem as if they might be able to help us with some of our nastiest problems - I'm talking about genomics in all its guises, and metabolic profiling, and naturally the various high-throughput screening platforms, and others. But whether these are helping or not (and opinions sure do vary), one thing that they all have in common is that they generate enormous heaps of data.
by Derek Lowe in In the Pipeline
Now that the Web labor market is saturated and Web design a static profession, it's not surprising that 'user experience' designers and researchers who've spent their careers online are looking for new worlds to conquer. Some are returning to the “old media” as directors and producers. More are now doing offline consulting (service experience design, social policy design, exhibition design, and so on) under the 'user experience' aegis. They argue that the lessons they've learned on the Web can be applied to phenomena in the physical and social worlds. But there are enormous differences...
by Bob Jacobson in Total Experience
Clay Shirky, in deconstructing Second Life hype: "Second Life is heading towards two million users. Except it isn’t, really... I suspect Second Life is largely a 'Try Me' virus, where reports of a strange and wonderful new thing draw the masses to log in and try it, but whose ability to retain anything but a fraction of those users is limited. The pattern of a Try Me virus is a rapid spread of first time users, most of whom drop out quickly, with most of the dropouts becoming immune to later use."
by Clay Shirky in Many-to-Many
Over the last few years we've seen old barriers to creativity coming down, one after the other. New technologies and services makes it trivial to publish text, whether by blog or by print-on-demand. Digital photography has democratised a previously expensive hobby. And we're seeing the barriers to movie-making crumble, with affordable high-quality cameras and video hosting provided by YouTube or Google Video and their ilk... Music making has long been easy for anyone to engage in, but technology has made high-quality recording possible without specialised equipment, and the internet has revolutionised distribution, drastically disintermediating the music industry... What's left? Software maybe? Or maybe not."
by Suw Charman in Strange Attractor
Derek Lowe on the news that the Nobel Prize for medicine has gone to Craig Mello and Andrew Fire for their breakthrough work: "RNA interference is probably going to have a long climb before it starts curing many diseases, because many of those problems are even tougher than usual in its case. That doesn't take away from the discovery, though, any more than the complications of off-target effects take away from it when you talk about RNAi's research uses in cell culture. The fact that RNA interference is trickier than it first looked, in vivo or in vitro, is only to be expected. What breakthrough isn't?"
by Derek Lowe in In the Pipeline
Andrew Phelps: "Recently my WoW guild has been having a bit of a debate on the merits of Player-vs.-Player (PvP) within Azeroth. My personal opinion on this is that PvP has its merits, and can be incredible fun, but the system within WoW is horridly, horribly broken. It takes into account the concept of the battle, but battle without consequence, without emotive context, and most importantly, without honor..."
From later in the piece: "When I talk about this with people (thus far anyway) I typically get one of two responses, either 'yeah, right on!' or 'hey, it’s war, and war isn’t honorable – grow the hell up'. There is a lot to be said for that argument – but the problem is that war in the real historical world has very different constraints that are utterly absent from fantasized worlds..."
by Andrew Phelps in Got Game
Derek Lowe: "So, you're developing a drug candidate. You've settled on what looks like a good compound - it has the activity you want in your mouse model of the disease, it's not too hard to make, and it's not toxic. Everything looks fine. Except. . .one slight problem. Although the compound has good blood levels in the mouse and in the dog, in rats it's terrible. For some reason, it just doesn't get up there. Probably some foul metabolic pathway peculiar to rats (whose innards are adapted, after all, for dealing with every kind of garbage that comes along). So, is this a problem?.."
by Derek Lowe in In the Pipeline
Bob Jacobson, on shopping at his local Albertsons supermarket where he had "one of the worst customer experiences" of his life: "Say what you will about the Safeway chain or the Birkenstock billionaires who charge through the roof for Whole Foods' organic fare, they know how to create shopping environments that create a more pleasurable experience, at its best (as at Whole Foods) quite enjoyable. Even the warehouses like Costco and its smaller counterpart, Smart & Final, do just fine: they have no pretentions, but neither do they dump virtual garbage on the consumer merely to create another trivial revenue stream, all for the sake of promotions in the marketing department..."
by Strange Attractor in Total Experience
Kevin Anderson: "First off, I want to say that I really admire the ambition of the Guardian Unlimited’s Comment is Free. It is one of the boldest statements made by any media company that participation needs to be central to a radical revamp of traditional content strategies... It is, therfore, not hugely surprising to find that Comment is Free is having a few teething troubles..."
by Kevin Anderson in strange
Corante Developments
Here you will find the latest news from Corante including updates on upcoming events, new initiatives, product and publication launches, and more.
It was with shock that I returned home from a night out last night to hear the news of Russell's passing. How terribly, terribly sad. Most of all for him, as he'd seemed buoyant, healthier, and content when I'd last seen him several months ago when he was in town - he was happy that work was busy and rewarding and was having fun with it but most of all was thrilled about how things were going with his girlfriend, Ellen.
I've known Russ for what seems like ages now (in a good way) though in fact it's only been about six or seven years since the early days of "commercial" blogging when he started working on various projects at and around Corante. He was a diligent, committed, and prolific journalist who had impressively and more ably than others been able to make the transition from the old-school way of doing things to the new. He had his quirks, as we all do, but I greatly valued that he was good-natured, collegial, reliable, quick to adopt, trustworthy, eager to learn, and earnest in his interest in helping others better understand what he wrote about.
He was also, it should be said, a kind and thoughtful soul and it was the rare conversation in which he didn't ask, with sincerity, about what he knew of my life, e.g. our new babe, and we didn't talk as seemingly old friends about our lives and respective paths. I can't say I knew him very well, of course, but in our half-dozen get-togethers over the years and dozens of conversations I got a good sense of the man: he cared about learning and sharing and his bearing was earnest and ego-less and we'll miss him for that and more.
We wanted to let you know about a discount to New Comm Forum, the annual event event put on by our friends at the Society for New Communications Research. The conference, which runs from April 22-25, will feature many of the field's leading observers and is an important event for those looking, in the words of SNCR, to "better understand new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business, culture and society."
Check out the event's website and, if you're interested in attending, be sure to use the code supplied below for a special discount.
EARLY BIRD PRICING - NOW UNTIL FEB. 15th
NewComm Forum Conference - $995.
Pre-conference or post-conference session - $195.
SNCR Jam only - $75.
REGULAR PRICING - AFTER FEB. 15th
NewComm Forum Conference - $1095.
Pre-conference or post-conference session - $249.
SNCR Jam only - $75.
CORANTE READER DISCOUNTS
NewComm Forum Conference - save an additional $100
Use discount code: NCF08100
Pre-conference or post-conference session - save an additional $45.
Use discount code: NCF0845
We've been remiss in letting you know about two new independent blogs we've helped launch in the past month or so.
The first - the ConversationHub - is a companion blog to Supernova 2007, the latest edition of Kevin Werbach's excellent conference on all things connected. As the conference site says: "Supernova examines the effects of an increasingly connected world on business, life, and public policy. As disparate physical and social networks link with one another, a new societal network is rapidly evolving... The New Network is greater than the sum of its parts. It challenges us to re-create everything from the software and hardware we use...to the business models we employ...to the information and entertainment we encounter...to the ways we work and play."
Visit the ConversationHub and you'll find several dozen leading thinkers and doers, led by a few notable ringleaders, weighing in on the themes and trends of the day in technology and business. We encourage you to tune in - feel free to comment and even suggest topics and ideas for posts.
The second blog - Mobile Messaging 2.0 - convenes about a dozen top observers of the mobile messaging space for an intense discussion of the industry and where it's headed. Among its contributors are leading commentators, journalists and players in the field - tune in and you'll find them touching on topics such as mobile device design, messaging platforms, market pressures, user-generated content, interface design, and much, much more.
Also, if you visit the site, which is sponsored by Airwide Solutions, this week, you'll find live coverage and commentary from Global Messaging 2007, to which several of our contributors have traveled to hear about the latest developments from a broad spectrum of the industry's players and providers.
Be sure to catch the Office 2.0 Conference and hear from and engage with leading thinkers and doers in this exciting new market. Find out more here and be sure to use the code "GLDRK" for a special discount for Corante readers.
1. darwinfinch on August 24, 2005 05:55 PM writes...
No DECENT person, not even any decent politician, would ever want to be the current "Republican" party candidate for anything.
Permalink to Comment2. Harlan on August 24, 2005 06:05 PM writes...
Well, I'm all for teaching about the debate... in a social studies class. Just keep it out of biology classes, and teach biology. If that's what McCain means, then that's good. I suspect he's trying to thread a needle... I agree with darwinfinch's comment!
Permalink to Comment3. Jeremy on August 24, 2005 06:36 PM writes...
What really gets me is when people try to subtly equate the theory of evolution with creationism. They do it so much, and in so many different ways, I'm afraid it will sink in.
- Let's teach the other theories.
- "all points of view"
This attempt of teaching religion in science class will probably fail, but not before the general public is convenced that scientific theory is nothing more than a hunch.
Permalink to Comment4. Jeremy Wilkins on August 24, 2005 06:47 PM writes...
This attempt of teaching religion in science class will probably fail
Don't be so sure. According to recent polls, over 45% of Americans believe that we were created, much as we are now, 6,000-10,000 years ago by divine act. If recent elections are any indication, and if the Republican party's groupthink in Congress doesn't waver, our public educational institutions could be in serious trouble.
This is just a VRWC (vast right-wing conspiracy) to get us all in favor of vouchers—I just know it!
Permalink to Comment5. Greg Peterson on August 24, 2005 06:53 PM writes...
I saw this earlier and it disappointed me. I expected it from Bush and Frist, but always gave McCain a little credit. He is one of few--perhaps the only--Republican who I sometimes admire. It is distressing to see science, our best tool for objective reality, become a soccer ball in the culture contest.
Permalink to Comment6. Gerry L on August 24, 2005 08:22 PM writes...
Let's make an offer. A compromise. Agree that "intelligent design" should be taught in science class ... political science class.
The lesson would use ID as an example of how factions promote their agendas with think tanks and spin. And how they make professional politicians fidget.
Permalink to Comment7. Mike Hopkins on August 24, 2005 09:20 PM writes...
Why is this a surprise? Is there anything in McCain's background that suggests he knows more about science than the average Joe? Does he know anything in biology beyond a freshman introductory course taken in the 1960s? The vast majority of people (including non-fundamentalists) without a very strong knowledge about science in general and biology in particular are sympathetic to IDist claims.
Permalink to Comment8. Middleman on August 24, 2005 10:27 PM writes...
I haven't been in a high school biology class in about 37 years, but I do believe that Aristotle's Ladder Of Life and Lamarckian evolution are brought up. Of course, students are shown how these theories just don't hold up to scientific testing. I could imagine that bringing up Intelligent Design in this same context would be fine.
Permalink to Comment9. Jeremy on August 24, 2005 10:51 PM writes...
Honestly, this being "Merica" and all, people will probably change their tune when China starts out-performing the US in space technology and Mexico comes out with the first HIV cure.
I just can't imagine:
"Ok class, this semester, we will discuss evolution and Intelligent Design. We will start with Intellegent Design, ID is basically the notion that the things that are too complicated for the average person to understand were actually designed...any questions? No...we don't know who designed them...Ok...Now for evolution. First, let's talk about variation under domestication...
Permalink to Comment10. Grodge on August 24, 2005 11:22 PM writes...
Maybe President McCain will finally mandate the teaching of the one true origin of life on earth, the Flying Spaghetti Monster: http://www.venganza.org/
We can only hope.
Permalink to Comment11. cats on August 24, 2005 11:45 PM writes...
Maybe Senator McCain would propose a "No Point of View Left Behind" act. So guys, let's make some "points of view" and get them into biology book. The number of points of view must be really large, so that students could have a biology textbook as large as Encyclopædia Britannica.
Permalink to Comment12. linguist on August 25, 2005 12:32 PM writes...
No DECENT person, not even any decent politician, would ever want to be the current "Republican" party candidate for anything.
Yes, yes, it's all too easy to bash "Republicans" these days. However, it is possible that a DECENT person would run in either party with an idea to change the current political climate.
People are so damn cynical these days.
Permalink to Comment13. lou on August 25, 2005 02:40 PM writes...
What is the surprise? McCain got off the straight talk express long ago. Anyone who would cosie up to Bush after the screwing Bush gave McCain in the South Carolina primary in 2000 just shows how far a guy will go to kiss up to power in Washington to further one's political ambitions. There are very few politicians in Washington who will flat out admit to believing in evolution without mentioning some qualifier like ID. Too many people equate believing in evolution with atheism. How many politicians want that false stigma attached to them? No one with presidential ambitions for sure.
Permalink to Comment14. darwinfinch on August 26, 2005 02:28 AM writes...
In response to "linguist"'s huff-and-puff: what scenario can be imagined that would allow the many basically decent, and basically reasonable, conservatives in this nation to wrest control of today's "Republican" party from the - and I do not at all feel extreme in making this description - selfish, bigoted, smugly stupid, falsely pious, blinkered & cowardly, and simply evil cabal that have been, like Frankenstein's monster itself, assembled?
Permalink to CommentUntil these conservatives have the gumption to, temporarily at least, work against these people, the worst impulses and desires of the worst portion of our population will continue to chart a course to destruction. But it's hard to admit you're wrong, especially when, as most conservatives anywhere always are, well-fed, relatively wealthy, and selectively sensitive.
15. Corante on August 29, 2005 10:51 AM writes...
testing
Permalink to Comment16. Elliot Kennel on August 31, 2005 09:21 PM writes...
To me the issue is not whether evolution is or isn't "correct" (I'm not sure that the scientific method offers correctness anyway, but merely an opportunity to explain experimental data). What bothers me is the idea that we should take a vote to decide whether some idea is reasonable or not, and then require teachers to teach it a certain way. Then I suppose there would be a series of fines or jail sentences for teachers that did not meet the standards of the society.
Permalink to CommentThis isn't the way we teach history or quantum physics, so why should it be the way we teach biology?
Anyway, I don't think there are any laws on the books that would prevent teachers from incorporating "intelligent design" in their lesson plans should they so choose. If this new theory wins acceptance in the scientific communtiy (which I doubt, but let's forget about that for a moment), there is nothing to prevent it from entering the educational system, just like quantum theory eventually augmented classical mechanics. We did not have to go pass a law outlawing classical mechanics or mandating the teaching of quantum theory, nor did we need to impose penalties or jail sentences for those who did not accept it.