Richard Dawkins, the holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, was on Al Frankin’s show a few days ago, speaking about the deceptively fresher-tasting flavor of Creationism being marketed as “Intelligent Design.” (For the audio, visit our friends at One Good Move.) It’s good stuff.
And, here, in case you aren’t planning to follow that link, is a really brief clip from a December 2004 interview Dawkins did with journalist Bill Moyers:
“…But, among the things that science does know, evolution is about as certain as anything we know… Evolution has been observed. It’s just that it hasn’t been observed while it’s happening.”
Fortunately, it seems as though some American museums are beginning to fight back, using the work of Dawkins and others, to educate their employees as to how they should handle attacks from religious extremists who feel it necessary to push their anti-evolution agenda in front of other museum patrons.
While I don’t think that there have been instances of “fossil smashing” yet, I predict that will be the next phase of their attack on science… If you can’t disprove the science, eliminate the evidence.
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I would recommend that all of the more “controversial” fossil finds, especially those that demonstrate an evolutionary line between modern man at the ancestors of apes, be hidden away somewhere before someone gets the bright idea to blow them up.
more equine to teh rescue.
Costly gas makes Utahns creative
Alternative Fuel? Try Hay
By Lesley Mitchell
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Mellissa Evans thought she had found a new way to rein in her expenses as gasoline prices escalated.
The Tooele High School senior began hoofing it to school this week on her 11-year-old gelding, Nighthawk. Joined by junior Chapa Stevenson and her horse, Wink, the pair made the 30-mile trek between their homes in Rush Valley and school twice a day on horseback.
But school officials told them Thursday that horses on school grounds are against the rules.
“I guess we have to go back to carpooling,” said Evans, who kept her horse in a stall inside the high school’s animal laboratory while she was in class. “When you have a car that gets 10 miles per gallon, you have to do something.”
In the weeks since gas prices reached record highs, people throughout Utah have taken creative steps to reduce their gas bills.
Some are taking big steps, such as trading in gas-guzzling vehicles or trying to find a job closer to home. Others are making smaller changes, telecommuting one or more days a week or trying to drive less on weekends.
The average cost of a gallon of unleaded gasoline rose to a high of $2.91 per gallon on Sept. 10 after Hurricane Katrina took several Gulf oil refineries off line. In recent days, gas prices in Utah have fallen by five cents to $2.86 per gallon.
More drops were expected. But with Hurricane Rita now bearing down on the nation’s largest group of refineries, prices nationally and in Utah are set to rise again, said Rolayne Fairclough, spokeswoman for travel services company AAA Utah.
Ken Stern, managing director of FTI Consulting, which advises refineries on business strategy, predicted $4 a gallon at the pump for gasoline within two weeks. In Utah, which has one of the lowest average gas prices nationwide, consumers easily could pay more than $3 a gallon again. How much more, no one knows for sure.
”In an environment where capacity is constrained and demand continues pretty much unabated, that’s a formula for significantly higher prices,” Stern said.
More refineries, and oil and natural gas rigs along the Gulf Coast and potentially in Rita’s path, were shut down Thursday in anticipation of the hurricane hitting shore early Saturday.
About 5 percent of the nation’s oil-refining capacity is still off-line due to damage from Hurricane Katrina, which hit Louisiana and Mississippi. Refineries in the Houston area represent another 13 percent of the nation’s capacity.
”It’s potentially a bigger threat than Katrina because there is more refining capacity in the Houston area,” said Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petroleum & Refining Association. ”This is a double whammy for the industry – it’s an amazing thing to contemplate.”
In Rush Valley, Mellissa Evans’ mother, Karren, is disappointed her daughter can’t ride her horse to school anymore to help offset the expected price increases.
“It took hours for her to get to school,” she said. “But hay is much cheaper than gas.”
lesley@sltrib.com
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The Associated Press contributed to this story.
That is a crying shame. I cannot think of anything more organic, educational, and downright pleasant than to have the opportunity to ride one’s horse to school or work.
So then, why isn’t the school providing bus service?
I wonder what takes place in the high school’s “animal laboratory.”