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From a helpful fellow scientist. Can’t you just feel the bonhomie? Prof. PZ Myers responds thusly:

#1: Science is a changing and growing collection of knowledge, characterized by transparency (all methods are documented, and the lineage of ideas can be traced) and testability (prior work can be repeated or its results evaluated). It is an edifice of information that contains all of the details of its construction.

and

#2: Science is what scientists do. We have institutions that train people and employ them in the business of generating new knowledge — contributing to that edifice in definition #1 — and we have procedures like the bestowal of degrees and ranks that certify one’s membership in the hallowed ranks of science.

and

#3: Science is a process. It is a method for exploring the natural world by making observations, drawing inferences, and testing those inferences with further experimentation and observation. It isn’t so much the data generated as it is a way of thinking critically about the universe and our own interpretations of it.

In other words, it is a dynamic body of knowledge, it is a profession and it is a process. This is a reasonable and comprehensive definition. I most certainly appreciate it and shall make use of it going forward. It’s particularly useful, in fact, as this provides a basis for delineating between scientage, scientistry and scientody.

We give you leave to henceforth refer to us as the Shakespeare of Science.

(Somewhere underneath a pile of snow, a fellow scientist is shaking his head and thinking, “well, he was lucid for one bright shining moment, anyhow.”)

By all means, keep your kids in public school. I’m sure the homeschooled elite will appreciate the cheap labor, doing those jobs illegal aliens don’t want:

An NAEP test of 12th-grade achievement was given to what the New York Times called a “representative sample of 21,000 high school seniors attending 900 public and private schools from January to March 2005.”

What did the tests reveal?

* Since 1990, the share of students lacking even basic reading skills has risen by a third, from 20 percent to 27 percent.

* Only 35 percent of high school seniors have reached a “proficient” level in reading, down from 40 percent.

* Only 16 percent of black and 20 percent of Hispanic students had reached a proficient level in reading.

* Among high school seniors, only 29 percent of whites, 10 percent of Hispanic students and 6 percent of black students were proficient in math.

This is only the half of it. Among the kids whose test scores on reading and math were not factored in were the 25 percent of white students and 50 percent of black and Hispanic kids who had dropped out by senior year.

Factor the dropouts back in, and what the NAEP test suggests is that, of black kids starting in first grade, about one in eight will be able to read at the level of a high school senior after 12 years, and one in 33 will be able to do the math. Among Hispanic kids, one in 10 will be able to read at a high-school senior level, but only one in 20 will be able to do high-school math.

You know, sometimes I’m almost ashamed to call myself a scientist. But it is amusing to think of the next-generation’s Richard Dawkins, who will no doubt require a particular talent for illustration.

I imagine that popularizing science – whatever that is, I’m still waiting on my fellow scientists to help me out here – among the illiterate herd will demand a certain skill in producing pretty pictures with bright colors.

Such as it is, anyhow:

* Ahhh, the talents of a person who might be intelligent attempting to argue that science is horrible…. This article was so bad that it actually had me laughing.

* It was probably a scientist who gave him that haircut. That’s enough to set anyone off.

* Irony (n) – Including an advertisement about “A new weapon in the War on Cancer” in an article entitled “The Case Against Science.

* Yeah, that Hitler was a great scientist, all right. We all remember his famous papers in the Zeitschrift fuer Physik. I’m amazed he never got the Nobel Prize. And without science, people couldn’t have committed any murders or genocides. That’s why in its long history of several centuries, the Inquisition never killed anybody. I suppose some science is required to light the faggots under a witch or tie a rope around her neck and hang her, so once again, we have science to blame for that. But let me get this straight: global warming is the fault of science, and capitalism is going to save the world. Clunk, clunk. Nope, doesn’t compute. And religion never started any wars. Oh no. That’s been demonstrated. All those Crusaders were just eco-touring in the Middle East.

* Well, there was certainly enough crackpottery in there to make one think it was a joke. I took particular note of this, “Most inventors are not scientists and most scientists are not inventors; whereas Oppenheimer and Einstein gave us the nuclear bomb, Steve Wozniak gave us the personal computer and Al Gore gave us the Internet.” What the hell…?

There’s more, but there’s certainly enough right there to convince me! I’ve now learned that science is engineering, science is also technology, all inventors are scientists and all scientists are inventors, all knowledge is inherently good, and no scientist can be held responsible for anything he does, says or creates. Also – and this was news to me – the German military machine was personally constructed by Adolf Hitler. By hand.

I further note that by virtue of my inventions, which are on record with the U.S. patent office, I shall be adding “scientist” to my increasingly grand list of credentials.

Please accordingly note that I may no longer be held responsible for anything I do, say or create in the future.

On this day in 1906, E. Lillian Todd becomes the first woman to design and build an airplane. Unfortunately, it never flew, thus foreshadowing the revolutionary academic field of Women’s Studies.

The wall of silence begins to crack:

Following the debate over MMR and its alleged link with autism, government documents just released under the Freedom of Information Act show there was another, earlier concern for which there was more evidence and, apparently, more immediate risk. Whitehall experts knew of it before MMR’s mass introduction into Britain, but the public was kept in ignorance….

The newly released documents include the minutes of a meeting of 15 experts and officials held in February 1988. According to the minutes, the group “read a report of cases of mumps encephalitis which had been associated with MMR vaccine containing the Urabe strain of the mumps virus. The Canadian authorities had suspended the licences of MMR vaccines containing the Urabe strain.”

This was bad news for the government: the Urabe strain was to be used in 85 per cent of early MMR injections. Canada did not withdraw the licences for Urabe MMR, but stopped using it as a precaution. In early 1987, just after the Thatcher government decided on MMR as an option in mass vaccinations, doctors in America had already reported “adverse reactions” to Urabe MMR. A few months later, the Swedes reported 52 cases of “febrile convulsions probably associated with MMR vaccination”….

In the same month, the JCVI’s “adverse reactions” sub-committee expressed “special concern” over reports from Japan linking Urabe MMR with high levels of meningoencephalitis.

It took until 1992 for Britain to stop injecting children with Urabe MMR, replacing it with MMR2, which contains a less potent form of the mumps virus. And, according to the minutes, that action owed more to the decision of the manufacturers of Urabe MMR to cease production….

American, British and Canadian governments kept quiet about known problems with vaccines then. Are you still 100 percent sure that they aren’t holding their tongues about known problems now?

I’m not being sarcastic here either, for once. Richard Dawkins aside, I can’t think of anyone better suited to provide us all with a conclusive definition of science from which to subsequently work. And I’ve read through several of Dawkins’ works, including his love letter to science, “Unweaving the Rainbow”, without finding one.

Dear Prof. PZ Myers,

I should very much appreciate it if you would be so kind as to send me your definition of the word “science”. I find myself in need of a definition that one could consider reasonably conclusive, and as you are one of science’s more outspoken defenders and advocates, I thought that you might be willing to provide me with one despite our obvious differences. While I am perfectly capable of perusing dictionaries and Wikipedia, and have in fact done so, I should not like my own biases to influence my selection from among the wide variety of definitions on offer.

Please be assured that this has nothing to do with any defense of ID, creationism or any of the presumably anti-scientific bete noirs that offend your professional sensibilities as a biologist.

Thank you,
Vox Day

More proof of the cowardly, obsequious nature of the so-called “conservative” commentariat, in case you needed it:

One of the points of CPAC is the opportunity it gives college students to meet other young conservatives and learn from our leaders. Unlike on their campuses—where they often feel alone—at CPAC they know they are part of a vibrant political movement. What example is set when one highlight of the conference is finding out what shocking phrase will emerge from Ann Coulter’s mouth? How can we teach young conservatives to fight for their principles with civility and respect when Ann Coulter is allowed to address the conference? Coulter’s invective is a sign of weak thinking and unprincipled politicking.

CPAC sponsors, the Age of Ann has passed. We, the undersigned, request that CPAC speaking invitations no longer be extended to Ann Coulter. Her words and attitude simply do too much damage.

Sean Hackbarth, The American Mind
James Joyner, Outside the Beltway
BoiFromTroy, Boi From Troy
Joy McCann, Little Miss Attila
Kevin McCullough, Musclehead Revolution
Fausta Werz, Fausta’s blog
Patrick Hynes, Ankle Biting Pundits
Ed Morrissey, Captain’s Quarters
Jane Stewart
Owen Robinson, Boots and Sabres
N.Z. Bear, The Truth Laid Bear
Michael Demmons, Gay Orbit
Mark Coffey, Decision ‘08
Russell Newquist, The Philosopher’s Stone
Marshall Manson

Lawsy, I nearly swooned when I heard Miss Coulter use that dreadful F-word! No, not that F-word, the other one. Needless to say, I won’t be joining this attempt to drum one of the few genuine conservatives left out of the conservative movement. Although now perhaps you understand why I am so content to remain completely outside both the conservative movement and the conservative commentariat; a more spineless group of useless, self-negating pussies have been seldom seen outside of France.

I wonder if Me So Michelle will dare to sign the letter. You know she’s just dying to, but she’s afraid it might sink her with Ann Coulter’s many fans.

A WorldNetDaily report demonstrating one way in which science does not facilitate war:

Syria ready with bio-terror if U.S. hits Iran

An American biodefense analyst living in Europe says if the U.S. invades Iran to halt its nuclear ambitions, Syria is ready to respond with weapons of mass destruction – specifically biological weapons.

“Syria is positioned to launch a biological attack on Israel or Europe should the U.S. attack Iran,” Jill Bellamy-Dekker told WND. “The Syrians are embedding their biological weapons program into their commercial pharmaceuticals business and their veterinary vaccine-research facilities. The intelligence service oversees Syria’s ‘bio-farm’ program and the Ministry of Defense is well interfaced into the effort.”

Bellamy-Decker currently directs the Public Health Preparedness program for the European Homeland Security Association under the French High Committee for Civil Defense. She anticipates a variation of smallpox is the biological agent Syria would utilize.

“The Syrians are also working on orthopox viruses that are related to smallpox,” Bellamy-Decker said, “and it’s a good way to get around international treaties against offensive biological weapons development. They work on camelpox as a cover for smallpox.”

One presumes that since we know that religion causes war… that is to say, FACILITATES war, it must be Islamic mullahs and imported Hindu fakirs who are developing these offensive biological weapons through a sophisticated ascientific method that combines meditation, fasting, extispicium and neo-Anselmian ontology.

As for the vaccine-research facilities, that research is obviously being conducted by Shinto priests performing blood sacrifices to appeal to the ancient alchemical wisdom of their ancestors.

From Newsweek:

In spite of the fact that more than 90 percent of Americans say they believe in God, only a tiny portion of them knows a thing about religion. When he began teaching college 17 years ago, Prothero writes, he discovered that few of his students could name the authors of the Christian Gospels. Fewer could name a single Hindu Scripture. Almost no one could name the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Prothero, who went to Yale in the early 1980s and speaks of his all-night bull sessions on politics and religion with reverence, realized that to re-create that climate in his classroom, his students first had to know something. And so he made it his job to (1) figure out what they didn’t know and (2) teach it to them. He began giving religious literacy quizzes to his students, and, subsequently, to everyone he knew. Almost everybody failed.

This is why most atheists are so woefully unequipped to even begin discussing theology, and why their omnipresent claims of having read the Bible are rightfully doubted until proven otherwise. It’s also the explanation for the idiotic scene that appears in so many science fiction novels, wherein the atheist hero triumphantly brandishes a certain verse from Matthew before the ignorant fundamentalist bigot, who recoils before this wildly exotic quotation.

In every church I have ever attended, you’d find more people who could quote the 1st Corinthians 13 in its entirety and could rattle off every book in the Old Testament in order than you could find that did not know the authors of the Gospel – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – or the first five books of the Bible – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

I mean, one of the things I still find most annoying about other fundamentalists is their habit of dropping Bible quotations into everything. They may not be up on the Hindu scriptures or the latest quibblings in evolutionary biology, but if they know one thing, it’s their Bible. Hence the ubiquity of Bible studies in nearly every fundamentalist-leaning church.

Of course, this doesn’t say much about the sort of Christians who attend Boston University either. But I’d be interested to know how everyone does on this little quiz, which is both pretty easy and improperly scored. After getting 14/15, (I missed one of the Mormon questions), I received the following message:

Thanks for taking our quiz. You answered 100% of the questions correctly.

Of course, it could be that Christians are graded on a curve, given that we’re less intelligent and less-educated and all.

On this day in 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to serve as governor of a state, in Wyoming. She was elected to succeed her deceased husband, William Bradford Ross, thus inaugurating the long American tradition of women obtaining elected office by standing on the corpses of their dead husbands.

It’s been said that behind every successful man, there is a woman. Usually left unsaid: beneath every successful woman, there is a dead body.