Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

...Diamonds , as SHirey said, act like a good "thermos bottle" to keep all the decay products inside the crystal, so all the decay products from U/Th and U/Hf are safely inside. Im sure that the date wasnt 3 Billion years (It was probably rounded off from some compound number with a large error bar)

I have no idea what diamonds with inclusions are worth. Mostly they are "Imperfections", anyway, diamonds are only worth something because cartels keep the bulk of them off the market.

And more misogyny, as you keep demonstrating, in your last post. Pathetic.

Spendius has repeatedly tried to get some female to stick around and has failed dismally every time.

They say that each appearnace is a unique footprint of divine intervention (Or at least intelligent intervention) Most science arrives at a concluison that had there been ANY intervention , it was about the most incompetent "Design" ever. IDers dont like "Evolutionary trial balloons" it mucks up their waters.

diamonds are only worth something because cartels keep the bulk of them off the market.

9:10 a.m. - Of greatest importance today from a scientific viewpoint will be a new vote to allow Holt McDougal to defend its biology materials from the criticisms against their evolution content by a single member of the biology review panel. Yesterday, when the Holt materials came up for a decision, the Board was correctly told by staff that six pages of alleged errors by a biology review panel member listed several errors. Under normal circumstances these errors would be routinely corrected, but since all the identified "errors" dealt with evolution and all were written by one person (who turned out to be David Shormann, an aggressive and dogmatic Young Earth Creationist), some Board members wanted to examine the legitimacy of the identified errors. It was pointed out by one of the ultra-right Republicans that all the members of the review panel signed off on the list and should be accepted. This was true: yesterday TEA staff reported that all three members of the panel signed the error report, but besides two were biology teachers. Unfortunately in Texas, many biology teachers don't know very much about evolution and are easily misled by an aggressive Creationist who claims to hold superior knowledge. This is what happened here.



9:25 - The Board takes up the issue of Holt McDougal. Thomas Ratliff brings up the issue that Holt needs to be reconsidered. Anita Givens tells the Board that unexpectedly the three-person review panel did not sign the error report, but the error reports of all the other materials submitted were signed by their respective panel members. Michael Soto makes an amendment to strike the identified eight errors from the report. A huge debate now starts. Terri Leo and David Bradley attempt to defend the original Creationist error report.

Pat Hardy states that she has been told that scientists have objected to the error report. They claim that Shormann's alleged identified errors are not real errors. She said that other publishers had similar topics and similar wording and Holt was being singled out to make changes not demanded of others, and this was not fair. Bob Craig makes the point that if the Board accepts the original error report, the Board will be responsible for forcing a publisher to make changes that are in themselves in error if in fact they are as claimed by several scientists present in the hearing room and also by five science teachers who signed a statement written by TFN and NCSE the night before.

Michael Soto speaks in favor of his motion. He said that the Board members are not biologists and do not have the expertise to evaluate the alleged errors. He further stated that the alleged errors were identified in a style that was snide, unprofessional, and impractical and he thought this was unscientific and unscholarly and indicated to him that the alleged errors were probably incorrectly identified. He also said that he examined biology books in an education library and that four of the eight topics were treated similarly to the original Holt language.

George Clayton says that the vote yesterday to deny the publisher the opportunity to address the alleged errors was unfortunate and he regrets it. He does not want now to be responsible for inserting new errors in biology materials.

If you have a brick wall nearby, you could go bang your head against it. It would be far more productive than talking to Spurious.

The Texas State Board of Education gave final approval to supplemental high school science materials on Friday, delivering a blow to the board’s social conservatives after a brief flare-up over some lessons teaching the principles of evolution.

The lessons in question included a lab comparison on chimpanzee and human skulls, the fossil record and cell complexity.

A board-appointed reviewer had called the lessons errors and recommended changes, but a group of scientists objected on Friday, threatening to re-ignite a fierce debate over teaching evolution in Texas public schools.

The board’s social conservatives compromised when it appeared they would lose a vote to reject the reviewer’s changes in favor of the original lessons.

Instead of a showdown vote on evolution, the panel agreed to approve the material and have Education Commissioner Robert Scott continue working on the lessons in question with publisher Holt McDougal.

“Today we saw Texas kids and sound science finally win a vote on the State Board of Education,” said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, a group that supports mainstream scientists in the teaching of evolution and has repeatedly sparred with board conservatives over education standards.

“We saw the far right’s stranglehold over the state board is finally loosening,” Miller said.

The conservative wing in 2009 had pushed through controversial standards that called for schools to scrutinize “all sides” of scientific theory.

Several of the conservative board members disputed the notion of defeat on Friday.

Chairwoman Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, said she was pleased with the compromise because Scott will continue working with Holt McDougal to find language that is factually correct and fits the standards adopted in 2009.

“I feel very comfortable turning it over to him,” Cargill said.