A
Citizens for Science organization has been finally organized for Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Citizens For Science (http://www.pacfs.org/) is "A non-profit group dedicated to strong science education in Pennsylvania public schools." The
mission of PACFS is
To make sure that the Pennsylvania Citizens for Pseudoscience, Bad Science, and Fake Science (they go by different names, of course) have no influence on science instruction in Commonwealth public schools. Our efforts are currently focused on protecting the ability of teachers to teach exclusively non-supernatural explanations for the origin of the universe, the origin of life, and descent with modification ("evolution") in science classes. Currently, teachers are often too scared to teach these topics, and thus evolution is given a mere 50 minutes or avoided altogether. The group does not oppose the discussion of supernatural phenomena in mythology, religion, or philosophy courses, or in private schools, homes, or churches.
We also try especially hard to promote the teaching of evolution in elementary schools, when children are most curious about dinosaurs, our similarity to other primates, and the origin of species and life itself. The group mascot is Phacops rana, a really cute trilobite from the Devonian, and the state's official fossil.
If you care about science education in Pennsylvania,
go join.
12 Comments
Bayesian Bouffant, FCD · 28 October 2005
That trilobite in the logo is huge! It must be over 300 miles long!
Are you sure that's a P. rana and not a P. imperator?
K.E. · 28 October 2005
I agree BB
How can we be sure it is not a doctored satellite image of a valley in South West China that PROVES Noah's Ark was REAL.
Bayesian Bouffant, FCD · 28 October 2005
K.E. · 28 October 2005
not to be confused with a unit of Heddle
I can see now that is going to pass into popular culture.
"Barman give me a Heddle of Hienikken Please"
Skip · 28 October 2005
Geez, you guys know NOTHING about science!
If you had been paying attention to Kent Hovind, you would know that before the flood the whole earth was like a giant hyperbaric chamber, causing animals to grow to enormous sizes. And, Kent tells us, this why we had:
1) "giants in those days," just as it says in the Bible,
2) lizards growing to the size we know today as dinosaurs (dinosaurs were just lizards that lived thousands and thousands of years in the pre-flood era and never stopped growing),
...and finally...
3) people like Hovind, who with all that pressurized oxygen pumping through their brains thought up crazy crap like 1 and 2, above.
See, if you had sat through 9 hours of Hovind, like I did one weekend, you'd know these things.
K.E. · 28 October 2005
Skip
You deserve an igNoble prize for endurance for services to science.
Your kidding about the 9 hours right?
Couldn't you have done something more enjoyable like going to a dentist or chewing off your leg ?
Sir_Toejam · 28 October 2005
Skip · 29 October 2005
K.E. & all,
I kid you not. When I was in the Bay Area, Hovind came and made three presentations one weekend on the Berkeley campus.
I sat through all three, nine hours total, within a 27 hour period. It was absolutely grueling, but I survived.
I saw Hovind one more time, also at Berkeley, and during the Q&A session had a good chunk of the audience shouting for him to "answer the question," when I nailed him for claiming in a rewrite of Jack Chick's famous Big Daddy tract that "nearly all experts agree Lucy was just a 3 feet tall chimpanzee."
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0055/0055_01.asp
I take special pride in having taken in many creationist presentations around the country, including a recent one in Post Falls, Idaho back in August. You can read about it, with some pretty cool shots with my new Canon 350D camera at:
http://venomouspenguin.com/modules/Pages/2005-08-07/index.html
K.E. · 31 October 2005
Skip forget igNobel perhaps a full blown Nobel hehehehe
Bayesian Bouffant, FCD · 2 November 2005
That trilobite/state outline icon is just crying out to be turned into a chocolate. Maybe a pecan brittle fossil on a dark chocolate substrate.
Clay Naff · 4 December 2005
The PCFS web site seems to be dead. All I get are a few keywords at the top of a blank page. Anyone know anything about this?
Clay Naff
Nebraska Citizens For Science
cpurrin1 · 2 February 2006
Site fixed: http://www.pacfs.org/wp/