Tennessee’s House Bill 368 was passed on a 9-4 vote, with no testimony or discussion, at the House General Subcommittee of Education meeting on March 16, 2011. A version of the “academic freedom” antievolution bill, HB 368 would, if enacted, require state and local educational authorities to “assist teachers to find effective ways to present the science curriculum as it addresses scientific controversies” and permit teachers to “help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught.” The only examples provided of “controversial” theories are “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.”

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More at NCSE

As we speak, several children lie gravely ill in Minneapolis, struck down by a preventable but sometimes fatal childhood disease.

One of the children is an infant who was too young to have been vaccinated, but caught the disease, apparently, from someone old enough to be vaccinated but who was not.

Get your children vaccinated.

Learn about measles here. Read about vaccination here.

When the Kentucky legislature adjourned sine die on March 9, 2011, House Bill 169 died in committee. A special session of the legislature will convene starting on March 14, 2011, but only to consider two unrelated items, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader (March 10, 2011). HB 169, if enacted, would have allowed teachers to “use, as permitted by the local school board, other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner.” No particular scientific theories were cited in HB 169, but the similar HB 397 introduced by the same legislator — Tim Moore (R-District 26) — in the previous legislative session explicitly listed “the study of evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning” as examples of scientific theories for which supplementary instructional materials could be used. The exact phrase appears in the Louisiana Science Education Act, Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:285.1, on which HB 397 was apparently based.

NCSE

I am (half) ethnic Irish and I grew up in a city that was as Irish as the Blarney Stone itself. When I was a teen armed with a false ID and a strong sense of purpose (that being to get drunk with my friends) we’d cruise the bars, starting on or near Madison, Lark and State (where I generally lived) in our regular hangouts, but quickly working our way up to the nominal Irish Bars (they were all Irish bars, but only some had Irish names). Somewhere between GJ’s and O’Heaney’s we would find the bar where Charlie Tapps was hoofing his Irish Tap Dancing act and … well, join in. If I recall correctly. Which, to be honest, I don’t.
Continue reading Some but not all Irish Celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day →

Daemonic underground gasses exploded to the surface in a fiery fireball in South Minneapolis today, blasting a huge hole in a parking lot, causing several cars to meltdown, and potentially damaging a newly rebuilt section of God’s Highway (I35 W).¹ The news agencies noticed it when checking the traffic cameras for their local traffic report.

Local Minneapolitonians: This was on 60thE and Nicollet, near the Crosstown Junction. Route 62, closed for a time, is reopened, but as of this writing, 35 W is closed both North and South as they are checking for damage. Of the just moments ago rebuilt nightmarish intersection from hell. Somehow it all fits together.

Continue reading How does today’s explosion in Minneapolis compare to TMI and Chernobyl? →

I am told that Scienceblogs.com has upgraded and hardened its server thingies, so you should no longer be experiencing technical difficulties in reading your favorite blog. However, if you still are, please send your IP address to Scienceblogs, using this email: webmaster AT scienceblogs.com

Thank you very much. You may now return to your regularly scheduled disaster.

A very good stab at addressing the question by Rachel Maddow:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From MoveOn:

House Republicans have declared an “emergency” today. Is it about unemployment? The situation in Libya? The disaster in Japan? Nope, it’s about defunding NPR.

They’re taking up an emergency bill that would ban any federal money from going to NPR or its affiliates.

A right-wing blogger’s hidden-camera video has NPR on the defensive, even though it was so misleadingly doctored that even Glenn Beck’s website questioned its credibility.1 But Republicans want to use this moment to take away NPR’s funding for good.

Unfortuately Moveon appears insufficently savvy to give me a link to give to you where you can do and do something. But you can call your house representative, whoever that is

This is not intended to incite panic… for panic, see the post “Where is the nearest nuclear power plant to my house that is currently melting down!!!11!!.” The purpose of this post is to facilitate addressing a question we’ve been discussing on my facebook page: If you lived near a nuke plant, would you routinely stock a reasonable supply of iodine/iodide tablets to take, just in case, and why or why not?

If you are in the US, click here. That’s the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and they are there to help you find out where your nearest operating nuke plant is. I don’t know about the non-operating ones and why that is not included.

The nearest one to me is in Monticello, and it’s pretty darn close. That’s 37 miles as one drives, but closer to 30 as the wind blows, and it is directly up wind most of the time. Ruh roh. Anybody want to go in with me on some bulk Potassium Iodide Tablets???

Because it’s not a person, it’s a radio show. Run by a person. And some other people.
Continue reading Most two year olds are immature and sometimes bratty. But not this one. →

Also born today was Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, the guy who identified the canals om Mars. And, in 1960, lisp was introduced, thus allowing the existence of emacs!

… according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Maybe. This seems not to be an official prediction stated my the JMA, as it does not appear on their web site, but agency director Takashi Yokata has made the statement to news agencies. There have been, of course, numerous aftershocks already. A 3.8 mag aftershock occurred in the immediate vicinity of the earlier 9.0 quake just as I was writing up this blog post. A 4.9 magnitude quake occurred a half hour ago. Oh, wait, there was another one down in Okinawa, 3.7 magnitude, a few seconds ago. It is impossible to keep up! Over the last 24 hours there have been close to 30 quakes ranging fom 3.0 to over 5.0 magnitude (most over 4.0) in Japan, most but not all more or less near the large recent quake.

Even though Japan gets lots of quakes, that’s a lot.

Over the last 48 hours, a 250 km radius circle around the cite of the 9.0 magnitude quake has had over 100 quakes of 3.0 mag or greater. Last year at the same time, the rate was closer to 6 such quakes ever 48 hours. The region is a bowl of shaking jello today. Normally, it is just semi-still jello.

I keep wanting to know this so I put it here:

  Tokyo Time

This webby thing called Opinionati is asking: Creation Museum denies admission to two men: What do you think?

Good luck trying to figure out how to use the site. But I thought you’d like to see it. Hat tip: Joe