In anticipation of the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s most famous book, Charlie’s Playhouse is putting together a really interesting project.
We’re asking parents to pose a simple question to their kids: “What is evolution?” and let us know the very first answer.
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We’ll weave their answers into a short, fun video, and release it to the world on November 24th, 2009, the anniversary of Darwin’s masterwork “On the Origin of Species.”
You’re not allowed to coach them beforehand. Just grab a video camera, ask the question, and let us all see how they respond! They’re looking specifically for children between 4 and 10-years-old, give or take a couple years. And, of course, if you submit a video, kids will not be identified by name in the final product.
All responses are welcome, and as a thank you, you’ll receive a coupon for a 20% discount from Charlie’s Playhouse!
So stop reading this, find that child you gave birth to a few years back, and start filming!
My dad puts special time and talent into carving unique and beautiful pumpkins each year. He bases his design on a specific story, sketches out an elaborate image, and uses special carving tools instead of a knife. I thought that looking at pictures would be a nice way to start the week. This pumpkin is actually from a couple of years ago, but it seems particularly appropriate for us. All descriptions and pictures were taken by my dad, Barry Galef, and more pictures from other years’ are up on his website.
As part of a charity auction, my dad was challenged to show all of 20th century physics on his pumpkin. My dad rose to the occasion:
The last few years I’ve donated a Jack O’ Lantern to a charity auction. A friend was the highest bidder this year, and I offered him the chance to weigh in on the design. He said I’d done enough old folk tales, and wanted something modern. “Oh, like Kafka’s ‘Metamorphoses?’”No. I want . . . the whole history of 20th Century Physics! It must have both the special and general theories of relativity, quantum mechanics, Schrodinger’s Cat, and Einstein insisting that God does not play dice with the universe!” At first I thought he was out of his gourd, but later realized he was truly inspired. I proceeded to try my best.
In my illustration, I show God the Father as pictured by Michaelangelo along with Albert Einstein. God is tossing the dice — but every face on his dice has only a single pip! Thus, any way they fall, we end up with snake eyes. So Einstein is both right and wrong: the dice are tossed, but God has no doubt of the result.
Einstein is shown as God’s right-hand man, perhaps an unintended blasphemy. Albert is flipping Schrodinger’s Cat, in a reference to the randomness of flipping a coin.
Einstein flipping Schrodinger’s cat
Alive, dead, alive, dead…
My take on Schrodinger’s cat is that (1) even before we open the box, the cat itself observes whether it’s been poisoned or not, thereby collapsing its own probability wave, and (2) unlike a flipped coin, which lands on heads or tails by random chance, a flipped cat always lands on its feet!
You could say that I’ve left out a lot of 20th century physics. In response, I can claim to have included dark matter, dark energy, and black holes in the design. You just can’t see them. And I do show the curvature of space.
I give my dad a lot of credit for my love of science and my cleverness, and I think this pumpkin is an excellent illustration of why. It’s a shame he didn’t pass on his artisic talent as well…
The various holidays that plague enliven the year have all gone through a complicated process of being co-opted. Each successive culture that has conquered or prevailed over a previous culture has adapted local holidays to fit its own agenda, drawing the conquered populace into participating in the new culture. So local animist holidays were co-opted into Celtic forms, then Roman forms, then Roman Catholic forms, then Protestant forms, and in the United States, the latest co-opting has been into Capitalist forms.
Last night, we celebrated Celtic Harvest, Livestock Slaughter and Passing of the Dead Festival Co-opted to Roman Pagan Harvest, Livestock Slaughter and Passing of he Dead Festival Co-opted to Roman Catholic All Saints Vigil/Feast Co-opted to Capitalist Subconscious Psycho-Sexual Sado-Masochistic Eros-Thanatos Paravestite Fetish Fantasy Catharsis and Candy Consumption Night, otherwise known to the less informed as Halloween.
Since it’s such a thoroughly co-opted holiday, I’ve been trying a little co-opting of my own, turning a tiny part of it into Turn Away From Superstitious Nonsense For a Brief Moment and Be Amazed at the Real Universe Night.
It’s the only night of the year when thousands of kids and their parents are outside in the dark. So each year, weather permitting, I set up one of my telescopes in front of my house and show them one of the wonders of the night sky. I dress up in a classic wizard costume because part of the co-opting process is to resemble the previous culture’s holiday.
Last night, Jupiter was very well placed high in the southern sky, and the full moon was far to the East. The weather was perfect. About 200 little kids dressed as princesses, ghouls and ghosts came by with their parents, as well as teens in their inexplicable costumes, all on their quest for candy. Several said, “Hey it’s the telescope man!” They remembered me from previous years. That feels good.
My wife handed out the goodies while the kids and grownups took turns viewing Jupiter, a pale disk with tan stripes bracketed by two pairs of tiny moons on either side, all lined up straight. They all seemed to enjoy it, giving exclamations of astonishment. Even the few teens who were feigning being jaded brightened up and got excited.
I told them a few interesting facts just to plant the seeds of the love of science. The bit of information that was the biggest hit was that the planet is so far away it takes the light about 40 minutes to reach us, so we see it as it was and where it was 40 minutes ago. A telescope is a time machine that looks into the past. The adults showed the same expression of awe as the youngsters.
I really love doing things like this. If there’s a secular version of a “calling” this is mine. There is so much wonder, mystery and beauty in the real universe, the real world all around us. So much to inspire our best emotions, our best thoughts and our best actions.
I wish you all a very happy Reality Day. That’s any and every day.
Dan Gilgoff of U.S. News and the God & Country blog recently wrote about Ray Comfort’s attempt to smuggle Creationism into a bastardized version of On the Origin of Species.
I don’t mind that he’s reporting on that non-story, because there’s an appeal to that story from both sides of that fence — the people who prefer sound science and rational thinking… and the people who agree with Ray Comfort.
When complaints started pouring in that the article about Comfort offered “coverage but no critical commentary,” Gilgoff decided to try something else.
He posted a piece by Comfort explaining why he wrote the prologue to this book. Later, he posted a rebuttal from science advocate Eugenie Scott. They’ll do another round of back-and-forth:
Here’s the first post from Comfort, explaining his new book, which he plans to distribute in the tens of thousands on college campuses. I’ll post a rebuttal from NCSE Executive Director Eugenie Scott later today. Next week, I’ll put up a follow-up post from each. And just a reminder: Neither God & Country nor U.S. News necessarily endorses their views.
This is the wrong way to handle the situation.
I understand the need for journalists to not be biased. But to suggest that there are two sides to this story and that they deserve equal time is ridiculous. Eugenie Scott knows her science. Comfort doesn’t know his.
You don’t give equal time to someone who thinks Obama was born in Kenya and someone who actually knows what he’s talking about. There’s no debate there. You don’t give equal time to a Holocaust denier and someone who experienced it firsthand. There’s no debate there.
It is perfectly fine for U.S. News and Gilgoff’s blog to take a position in this case! Eugenie Scott is not some polar opposite of Ray Comfort. She’s not some minority holding a fringe viewpoint.
She’s the voice of every educated, intelligent, pro-science person whose beliefs are based in reality — she holds the only position in this fake “debate” that is tenable. Why can’t U.S. News take the side of reality?!
Why can’t they simply say that they support her views and not his?
Why can’t they come out and say Comfort makes absolutely no sense and that his views have no foundation to rest upon? (Isn’t that what an actual reporter would write?)
Why do they have to pretend like there are two sides on this issue when there so clearly are not?
It doesn’t matter that there are millions of Americans who agree with Comfort. Every single one of them is deluded on this issue. A good reporter should just acknowledge that.
Due out in autumn 2011, What is a Rainbow, Really? will take on topics including who the first man and first woman were, why there are seasons, what the sun is, how old the world is and why there are so many animals, first answering the questions with myth and legend, and then with “lucid scientific explanations”.
I remember seeing something like that at the Creation Museum this past summer…:
I’m guessing Dawkins’ book will be just a bit more accurate.
Too bad the title leaves something to be desired. (Though it does sound like something Dawkins would say…)
“Of course that is not my title. It was just the title of the sample CHAPTER that Dave McKean and I showed to the publishers. Somebody, somewhere, decided to make that the ‘working’ title of the whole book. As for the real title, that will require much discussion and agonizing. Suggestions welcome.
Richard”
The book’s illustrator will be Dave McKean, who’s previously worked with Neil Gaiman. It’ll be published by Transworld, part of the Random House Group.
No word yet on what Dawkins’ advance is, but like his other works, this is sure to be a popular seller so I wouldn’t be surprised to see something in the million-dollar-or-more range.
I’m not a Biologist, but I’m still thrilled to hear that Richard Lenski has a new paper in Nature that talks about his 21-year-long (and still going!) experiment.
Lenski, Hannah Professor of Microbial Ecology at MSU, started growing cultures of fast-reproducing, single-celled E. coli bacteria in 1988. If a genetic mutation gives a cell an advantage in competition for food, he reasoned, it should dominate the entire culture. While Darwin’s theory of natural selection is supported by other studies, it has never before been studied for so many cycles and in such detail.
“It’s extra nice now to be able to show precisely how selection has changed the genomes of these bacteria, step by step over tens of thousands of generations,” Lenski said.
I’m about halfway through Richard Dawkins‘ The Greatest Show on Earth, and the section in which he highlights Lenski’s experiment in detail is absolutely riveting.
It’s page after page of predictions coming true and undeniable proof that evolution does happen just as Darwin predicted it would. It’s a Creationist’s worst nightmare.
Which makes it an anti-banana.
If anyone can send me a PDF of the paper, by the way, I’d love to read it.
… it looks like 3 of the front-runners for the G.O.P. nomination are rather frank Creationists… I’m skeptical about any of these as likely candidates (i.e., if you had to make a bet you’re going to be surprised), but if you keep adding individuals to the list it seems likely that we’re looking at a serious probability that the G.O.P. nominee in 2012 will be a Creationist.
Any candidate who doesn’t accept evolution is a candidate who doesn’t understand or support real science. In the world we live in, it’s vital that we have proper funding and incentives for scientific research and none of these Republicans have enough respect for the field.
Hopefully, good reporters will get them to admit as much in interviews. We have to be vigilant, too, calling them out on their ridiculous beliefs and spreading the word about their removal from reality.
Richard Dawkins appeared on The O’Reilly Factor last night (in a taped interviewed). It was pretty much what you would expect. Dawkins makes good sense. Bill O’Reilly thinks he’s right because he yells and he has Jesus on his side.
I think these screen captures explain the interview completely.
The beginning:
The middle:
The end:
Here’s the actual interview. With the slight time lag between O’Reilly yelling something and Dawkins hearing it, it’s quite entertaining to use the extra second to predict Dawkins’ reactions
And here’s the highlight of your day (at the 3:35 mark):
Dawkins: You must see that it’s quite a remarkable piece of illogic to say that because science can’t fill a particular gap, therefore, we have to turn to Christianity.
O’Reilly (shouting): You don’t have to turn anywhere; you just have to present it. You don’t have to turn to it. You present it.
Dawkins: Will you listen to me and stop shouting at me?
O’Reilly: Am I…? Well, turn your earpiece down. I’m not shouting. That’s the way I usually talk. Go ahead.
Dawkins: I know it is. I’ve been warned about it.
O’Reilly: [Laughter]
Beautiful. Dawkins handled himself well throughout. Too bad his responses will go over the heads of the viewers, many of whom will just associate the interview with the word “fascism.”
[Assistant Superintendent Brad] Pollitt said the district is required by law to remain neutral where religion is concerned.
“If the shirts had said ‘Brass Resurrections’ and had a picture of Jesus on the cross, we would have done the same thing,” he said.
Band parent Sherry Melby, who is a teacher in the district, stands behind Pollitt’s decision. Melby said she associated the image on the T-shirt with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
“I was disappointed with the image on the shirt.” Melby said. “I don’t think evolution should be associated with our school.”
The story has a bit of an update.
The print shop that created the design for the shirt, Main Street Logo, is getting so many requests from people interested in purchasing the shirts, they’re taking advantage of the opportunity and making the sales:
Initially, both men debated whether or not to reproduce the shirts but eventually decided it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.
“We have carefully tried to consider the feelings of the people that feel strongly about the shirts,” Ingram said. “But, to survive in small business we’d be fools not to.”
Secular Student Alliance Member Todd Stiefel has agreed to match all donations to us by 12/21/2009 up to a total of $50,000. Double the value of your support and help us get the whole match by donating now.
