The Age reports on the pressing issue of the growth of independent schools teaching from a faith-based curriculum in Australia. Presenting religious indoctrination in the Howard era clothing of “choice”, some such schools are teaching creationism in science classes and directly counteracting government efforts to provide sex education to students.
For example, the principal of one […]
Archive for the 'science' Category
two thoughts on nuclear power
20Jul07There are increasing signs that Australia is going to go nuclear in the medium term.
First Thought
One way of looking at the benefits of nuclear power versus the risks is to consider the worst case scenario of an accident, rather than the base likelihood of an accident.
As an analogy, consider the difference between a plane and […]
what are you, gay?
09Jul07I’m sure you’re familiar with the old “homophobes are really closet gays” line of reasoning. Interestingly, this research seems to confirm that theory. From the abstract:
The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men and a group […]
petitio principii
29Jun07This is a dangerous piece of circular reasoning: the solution to the problems created by an ageing population is to increase population growth.
The ‘logic’ employed appears to be that, in order to sustain the current number of wrinklies in their retirement, society requires a greater number of youngsters to be working, paying taxes, and generally […]
on teaching science
26Jun07I enjoyed this article about the teaching of physics to school children in the United Kingdom, and reforms which seem to be focused on teaching kids to talk “about” science rather that teaching kids science itself.
Perhaps the most startling point is that calculation has been removed from the physics syllabus. Everything must be […]
This is the headline this afternoon from the ABC news website:
The headline is a reference to the proposal that Australia implement a carbon trading scheme to (finally) start doing something about our greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon trading works, in part, on the basis of charging businesses for the greenhouse gases they produce. […]
You have probably heard about this by now: evangelical Christians will today open a “Creation Museum” (or, ‘moron magnet’, as this blog eloquently puts it) in the USA. Rather than being designed along the lines of a giant roach motel, as one might naturally assume, the ‘museum’ is actually dedicated to teaching people about […]
You may or may not recall that over the last few years, the federal government has carefully stacked the ABC’s board with right wing nutcases, including Keith “we never did nuffink to the Aborigines, it was like that when we got here” Windschuttle and Janet “Islam promotes rape” Albrechtsen. The ABC later dropped a […]
This story is a typical example of the amazing moral contortions that reactionary social conservatives seem to be able to perform to justify interfering with, and indeed harming, others to satisfy their own arbitrary and irrational beliefs.
As you may know, Australian scientists recently developed a vaccine for HPV, a sexually-transmitted virus directly linked to cervical […]
one more cup of coffee
24Apr07Coming soon: soap which stimulates you in the shower. No, not like that, you pervert - for people too lazy to make a cup of coffee in order to get their caffeine fix, the option may soon exist of just rubbing caffeine all over your naked body.
There is evidently no limit to how hard […]
This is a great example of a new approach to an old problem: an alarm clock that literally jumps off your bedside table, rolls away and hides, and then goes off again a few minutes later, forcing you to get up and rummage around looking for it, and helping you to wake up in the […]
This Newsweek poll (full results here) of Americans contains the following statistics about religion:
- 48% of Americans believe that mankind was ‘created in its present form’, with only 13% believing that humans evolved in a process not guided by god
- 48% believe that the theory of evolution is ‘well-supported’
- 91% identify themselves as religious, with […]
You may have come across this already: there is currently a heated debate about the fate of a baby polar bear named Knut, currently residing (or being held captive, depending on your perspective and level of insanity) in a German zoo. Should he live happily in captivity, or should he be put to death […]
As anyone who lives in Australia is acutely aware, water is a big issue at the moment - it tends to be when you found a country in a massive desert - and we’re all being harassed endlessly about water conservation and water use.
So for any city-dwellers who are currently showering once a month, driving […]
this monkey’s gone to heaven
16Mar07A bit out of date now, but in February it emerged that the University of Sydney has agreed to ban stem cell research at a new facility built on land it acquired from a Catholic residential college.
According to the ABC:
The church’s deed on the land stipulates there should be no foetal stem cell research or […]
