It’s been a good week for science, and evolutionary science in particular so let me mention a few newsworthy events.
Expelled Theatre count
| Week | Theatres | Change |
| May 09 | 402 | -254 |
| May 02 | 656 | -385 |
| April 25 | 1041 | -11 |
| Launch | 1052 | 0 |
While legislatures focus on antievolution bills, a new video at Expelled Exposed helps students see how evolution works.
Oakland, California, May 6, 2008 As attacks on evolution education remain in the news, with proposed antievolution legislation in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, and Missouri in the headlines, a new video rebutting the basic premise of intelligent design creationism is now available on www.ExpelledExposed.com.
by Joe Felsenstein
http://www.gs.washington.edu/faculty/felsenstein.htm
Over at Uncommon Descent Sal Cordova has opened a dramatic new thread ”Gambler’s Ruin is Darwin’s Ruin”. Apparently improvement of a population by natural selection is now shown to be essentially impossible. He invokes the example of Edward Thorp, who developed the winning system for blackjack fictionalized in the movie 21.
Cordova uses the stochastic theory of gene frequency change of citing Motoo Kimura and Tomoko Ohta’s well-known 1971 monograph ”Theoretical Aspects of Population Genetics”, and argues that
Chris Bell at Prometheus Retold has some interesting comments on Jana McCreary’s article in the Southwestern University Law Review as well as Peter Irons’ reply to it, both of which you can read here.
Uh-oh, I almost missed it — the latest Tangled Bank is available. Get over there and read it belatedly!
I'm also looking for new hosts — if you're interested, volunteer.
Fast political action is needed to stop another anti-science bill in Louisiana. Below is a message from Barbara Forrest, who says it all better than I can.
Friends, fellow educators, and concerned citizens,
First, please accept my thanks to those of you who helped in the effort to stop SB 561, especially those who went to the Capitol to testify. Second, action is needed IMMEDIATELY to ask members of the House Education Committee to kill HB 1168, which is the House twin of SB 561. As far as I know, no newspapers have carried the story of its being filed on Monday, April 21. The bill could be heard in the House Education Committee as early as this week of April 28, so immediate action is crucial.
As you may know, SB 561 was amended to SB 733, the "Louisiana Science Education Act," in which form it is less pernicious but still bad because it contains code language that creationists can exploit. However, the creationists were unhappy with the amendments, so Rep. Frank Hoffman of West Monroe has introduced HB 1168 in the House of Representatives. HB 1168 is identical to the original SB 561. (Mr. Hoffman was the Asst. Supt. of the Ouachita Parish school system in 2006. He helped persuade the the Ouachita Parish School Board to pass its creationist "science curriculum policy" that is the basis for both SB 561 and HB 1168.)
SB 733 will probably pass the Senate and be sent to the House, where it could be merged with HB 1168, which means that we are back where we started with SB 561. So HB 1168 must be killed in the House Education Committee, which means that we must generate as much opposition to the House Education Committee **NOW.** The bill could come up in the House Education Committee this week, but we are not sure. We need to act immediately to request that House Education Committee members kill HB 1168. And please also contact everyone else you know INSIDE LOUISIANA to do the same. We want opposition from inside the state, not outside. We want the House Education Committee members to hear from people who live here and vote here. We may need to generate outside opposition later, but not at this time.
I have written a revised backgrounder for HB 1168 based on the one I wrote for SB 561. You may download it here:
http://www.creationismstrojanhorse.com/Backgrounder_HB_1168_4.27.08.pdf
There are talking points, contact information, and some instructions for you at the end of this document.
A shorter set of talking points, also with contact information, is here:
http://www.creationismstrojanhorse.com/HB_1168_Talking_Points.pdf
The contact information in these is for ten members of the House Education Committee who may be receptive to our contact based on what we have been able to learn. If you personally know another member who is approachable, please also contact that person.
I have talked personally to three committee members and found those three very nice and very interested. Some of the committee members have been teachers and served on their parish school boards. Some are attorneys. The three to whom I talked were aware of the Dover trial, Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District (2005), in which I served as an expert witness for the plaintiffs, a case that cost the Dover school board one million dollars. This seemed to resonate with them. You may wish to keep that in mind as you contact them. If I may make a suggestion: remember that this is a political problem, not a scientific one. Please try to avoid "science talk." As Eugenie Scott, our executive director at the National Center for Science Education says, we will not solve this problem by throwing science at it. We must appeal to the legislators as fellow citizens, parents, and educators. No academic-speak! :)
The children and teachers of Louisiana are being used as pawns by the Louisiana Family Forum and, most likely, the Discovery Institute, about which I have written so extensively. These people will assuredly not be around to clean up the wreckage they will leave in their wake if we don't stop them. We have to stop them.
The Florida legislature failed to pass either of two forms of the Discovery Institute’s draft ”academic freedom” bills, and adjourned Friday evening. We have until the legislative session next year to make sure that those in the legislature know exactly what the history and intent of bills like that are. But it doesn’t feel like a ”win”; those of us who invested our time in advocating for good science education in Florida essentially got lucky this time.
Some good news from Florida Citizens of Science
Let us take a moment of silence for House Bill 1483 and Senate Bill 2692, the deceptively named “academic freedom” bills. Time of death: 6 p.m. I doubt they will rest in peace, though.
In other hopeful news: According to Box Office Mojo, the theatre count for Expelled in its third week has dropped by 386 to 655 and the daily numbers have dropped to $157,191 or $151/theatre for Monday, $162,396 or $156/theatre for Tuesday and $159,273 or $153/theatre for Wednesday.
Farewell to bad arguments about good science.
John Derbyshire quotes Ben Stein (see here). This amazing utterance from the host of the pseudo-documentary Expelled! requires no commentaries, it speaks for itself.
We all know that Ben Stein thinks that ”science leads you to killing people”. The following is a quote from a 2002 article Stein wrote for Forbes magazine, in which he offers ”a few suggestions on how we can ruin American competitiveness and innovation in the course of this century”. Forbes’ readers probably thought that Stein’s ”suggestions” were meant as satire, but in light of recent events, it is clear that he was in fact serious about doing his part to tank America’s economic future (presumably to avoid all the people-killing caused by sound science education).
12) Elevate mysticism, tribalism, shamanism and fundamentalism–and be sure to exclude educated, hardworking men and women–to an equal status with technology in the public mind. Make sure that, in order to pay proper (and politically correct) respect to all different ethnic groups in America, you act as if science were on an equal footing with voodoo and history with ethnic fable.
Ben Stein, ”How to Ruin American Enterprise”, Forbes 12/23/2002
EDIT: Someone in the comments has argued that Ben Stein’s Youtube snippet and quote above must have been taken out of context. You can actually watch the entire TBN interview here. If anything, the thing is even more embarrassing in context, with Stein exposing his abysmal scientific ignorance for half an hour before casually condemning half a century of scientific progress as murderous. If you don’t have the stomach for the whole thing (and I don’t blame you), you can go to the quote itself just after minute 28.
Creationist Nathaniel Abraham’s lawsuit against the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution—which PZ Myers discussed in this post, and which Hyphoid Logic discussed at length last month—has been thrown out by a federal judge in Massachusetts for procedural problems. The judge did not need to hear oral arguments, or to issue a long opinion; in a single-sentence order he merely ruled against Abraham because he did not file the lawsuit within the proper time period after receiving a notice from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and because the defendant—Woods Hole scientist Mark Hahn—could not be personally sued under the federal law in question. Abraham argued that he did not actually receive the notice, but he failed to allege as much in his complaint, and the defendants pointed out that courts presume that such letters are received about a week after they are sent—while Abraham filed his lawsuit more than a year after it was sent.
The decision is not a ruling on the merits, and might be appealed. The case is Abraham v. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, et al., No. 07-12237 (D. Mass.)
I’ve been having a very interesting exchange with a noted First Amendment scholar about the degree to which the amendment does or does not bar the state from requiring children to be taught things. The question boils down to this: may the state require that children be taught certain substantive things (evolution/sex-ed/disputed historical events—what have you) in private schools? Or does the Constitution put limits on the state’s power to do so?
(Read the rest at Freespace…)
I think this willful act of deception has corrupted creationism irredeemably.
- John Derbyshire
Conservative author John Derbyshire, writing in the National Review Online, pulls no punches. His article is ostensibly a review of Expelled, with an approving nod to Expelled Exposed. One of the problems in discussing creationism with ordinary decent people is that creationism has become so bad that one can’t explain how bad it is without sounding extreme. Derbyshire:
These dishonesties do not surprise me. When talking about the creationists to people who don’t follow these controversies closely, I have found that the hardest thing to get across is the shifty, low-cunning aspect of the whole modern creationist enterprise.
…
My own theory is that the creationists have been morally corrupted by the constant effort of pretending not to be what they are. What they are, as is amply documented, is a pressure group for religious teaching in public schools.
Political creationists must pretend not to be creationists. This is in addition to avoiding any real understanding of how nature works, so that they can go on believing in their ”critical analysis of Darwinism”. The strain of all this pretending is starting to show very publicly. The excesses of Ben Stein’s Expelled go way beyond your daily quote mine, and will backfire with many people. Is creationism now a loser in national politics?
Continue reading A Blood Libel on Our Civilization at the National Review.
John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the makers of Expelled, on the grounds that they did not get Ono’s permission to use portions of Lennon’s hit song “Imagine” in the movie. The case is Yoko Ono Lennon, et al. v. Premise Media Corporation (S.D.N.Y., No. 08-03813).
(Read the rest at Freespace…)
I’m currently updating our website to use some new technology that I’ve come up with to improve our readers’ experiences: Xomment.
Comments will now be panelized.
Comment preview and response will be done on the same page. No more refreshes needed.
There will also be a bathroom wall hosted on this site, already linked to above.
The ”academic freedom” and ”critical analysis” bills currently being considered by the Florida legislature are old stratagems borrowed from antievolution efforts in other states. Ronda Storms and Alan Hays have been asked whether ”intelligent design” could be taught in science classrooms. Storms and Hays steadfastly refuse to answer the question posed. You have to look at what has been done in the name of narrow religious antievolution and not what is said.
(Originally at the Austringer.)
On Pharyngula, PZ Myers treats us with an incredibly accessible explanation why chromosome number can change.
The posting was in response to an email PZ received about the evolution of chromosome numbers.
How did life evolve from one (I suspect) chromosome to… 64 in horses, or whatever organism you want to pick. How is it possible for a sexually reproducing population of organisms to change chromosome numbers over time?
Firstly: there would have to be some benefit to the replication probability of the organisms which carry the chromosomes
…
Secondly, the extra chromosomes need to come from somewhere. I’m not sure about this, but I believe chromosome number are not determined by genes, are they? …
Ben Stein lies about Sternberg and Kitzmiller Lauri Lebo reviews Expelled
PvM: My apologies to Lauri Lebo for misspelling her name as Laurie
This interview is just too good to ignore. The Real Detroit Weekly reports on the movie ”Expelled”. The interview shows what had already become painfully clear to me having listened the SciAm interview: namely that Mathis is poorly informed on the issues of evolutionary theory. Whenever challenged by the SciAm editors, Mathis would first try to respond only to find himself overwhelmed by the facts and respond with ”I am just an associate editor” and claim unfamiliarity with the facts. Why is it that ID works best in the shadows of ignorance?
Point in case
I confront Mathis with this point, and he counters that evolutionary theory is also untestable. This is patently untrue—to give just one example, scientists have witnessed speciation, the arisal of a new species from an old one.
When I point this out, he interrupts me immediately: “Whoa! Wait a minute! Please send me whatever material you have that demonstrates that we can observe speciation because I have not seen anything. I’ve never heard anyone even claim that!”
Is he serious? He’s just produced a film about evolution, and he’s never heard of the fact that speciation has been observed and thoroughly documented in the scientific literature? I’m stunned. I send him peer-reviewed research confirming this fact via e-mail, and he later responds, “This isn’t an important argument for me.”
The God Connection
Baylor University’s newspaper the ”Lariat” reports on ”Expelled”, exposing once again that Intelligent Design is a theological concept.
Robert Marks, a professor at Baylor and Intelligent Design proponent, commented
“I thought it portrayed things pretty well as they are – that science by decree of entrenched Darwinism has no room for a God hypothesis,” Marks said. ”I on the other hand think that one cannot pursue truth without consideration of a creator.”
Marks said if science defines science as void of a creator, then it’s not a pursuit of truth.
Same with associate producer Mathis
“You have a science department that’s denying a god,” Mathis said
Reuters reports on an interesting development namely that Yoko Ono sues ”Expelled” filmmakers over Imagine.
John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, and his sons are suing the filmmakers of ”Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” for using the song ”Imagine” in the documentary without permission.
Lennon recorded the song in 1971 and in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it No. 3, in their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, according to the lawsuit.
Yoko Ono, son, Sean Ono Lennon, and Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s son from his first marriage, along with privately held publisher EMI Blackwood Music Inc filed suit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan seeking to bar the filmmakers and their distributors from continuing to use ”Imagine” in the movie.
They are also seeking unspecified damages.
Is this an issue of freedom of speech?
The title gets the principal objection of any creationist out of the way: yes, this population of Podarcis sicula is still made up of lizards, but they're a different kind of lizard now. Evolution works.
Here's the story: in 1971, scientists started an experiment. They took 5 male lizards and 5 female lizards of the species Podarcis sicula from a tiny Adriatic island called Pod Kopiste, 0.09km2, and they placed them on an even tinier island, Pod Mrcaru, 0.03km2, which was also inhabited by another lizard species, Podarcis melisellensis. Then a war broke out, the Croatian War of Independence, which went on and on and meant the little islands were completely neglected for 36 years, and nature took its course. When scientists finally returned to the island and looked around, they discovered that something very interesting had happened.
Continue reading "Still just a lizard" (on Pharyngula)
In Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein’s lying propaganda Richard Dawkin’s responds to a letter by someone who, after seeing ”Expelled” sent the following email
Now I truly understand who you atheists and darwinists really are! You people believe that it was okay for my great-grandparents to die in the Holocaust! How disgusting. Your past article about the Holocaust was just window dressing. We Jews will fight to keep people like you out of the United States!
I am posting this as a courtesy to Professor Hector Avalos. I did not add a single word to Avalos’s message, nor made any change in his text.
The Discovery Institute has written a glowing account of the debut of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed in Ames, Iowa, the home of Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, the pro-ID astronomer at Iowa State University. Prof. Hector Avalos, also of Iowa State University, tells a different story based on his eyewitnes account, and it does not bode well for Expelled nationwide. Continue reading Expelled pseudo-documentary bombs in Gonzalez’s backyard in TalkReason.
We have a confession! It was made by Michael Edmondson, and it was produced by the people behind Expelled. He wrote to me, and says, "The intent of the video has been questioned a lot…I suppose the answer is that I tried to make something that was funny to me and It's not really meant to convince anyone of anything." That's how I felt about it: it's amusing, and that's all that matters — it's vague enough that it can be read any way you want.
Edmondson has also made a brief sequel.
Note that Stein is wearing a t-shirt that says "Poe's Law".
The first Box Office numbers are in. Expelled opened in 8th place with $1.2M in revenues in 1,052 theatres resulting in a $1,141 per theatre revenue. You do the math. At an average of 5 showings this makes $220 per showing or 30-40 people. Expelled ranks 4th in the list of ”new releases”
While the weekend has just started the movie will have to do some hard work to match the expectations of the PR people:
”He said they would consider the opening weekend successful if the movie sold 2 million tickets (earning $12-15 million).”
[Update: Source: Brad in Stranger Fruit Comment section]
In context, Fahrenheit 9/11’s opening weekend grossed $23.9 million in 868 theatres grossing $27,558 per theatre and $8,565,000 on it’s first day
Remember that the movie is also heavily subsidized and Churches etc will receive large discounts.
Epsilon Clue puts the Rotten Tomato ratings of Expelled in the context of some real clunkers. A couple of selected entries:
Plan 9 from Outer Space: Ed Wood’s famously-bad movie starring Bela Lugosi, who died after shooting only five minutes of film: 62%. Granted, this is skewed by the camp value of the result.
…
The Dukes of Hazzard: Car chases and short shorts. Not exactly Oscar material. 14%
…
Left Behind: Sappy melodramatic Christian porn: 12%
and
And finally, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, the plucky new documentary that blows the lid off the anti-creationism conspiracy: 9%.
Shoot, Ben Stein can’t even beat the Britney Spears epic Crossroads (not the one PZed was interviewed for) which made a stellar 15%. Read the full post at Epsilon Clue.
From Dembski’s ’backyard’ comes a review by the Waco Tribune of ”Expelled”
Carl Hoover Wrote:Though Stein presents himself as a man of rational logic, his film’s arguments are a rhetorical mishmash of straw men, red herrings, guilt by association, quote harvesting, gotcha interviews and post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this) associations that may cause your head to pop. It’s a propaganda form highly polished by director/activist Michael Moore on the other end of the political spectrum.
Not bad for starters.
While ID proponents have spent much time on a ’documentary’ which misrepresents science, the scientific community and fails to present any scientifically relevant explanations related to the concept of Intelligent Design, real scientists have been working hard to unravel another mystery: the origin and evolution of the placenta
In a paper titled Genomic evolution of the placenta using co-option and duplication and divergence researchers Kirstin Knox and Julie C. Baker (soon to be published in Genome Research) describe how they have started to unravel the mystery of the placenta
The invention of the placenta facilitated the evolution of mammals. How the placenta evolved from the simple structure observed in birds and reptiles into the complex organ that sustains human life is one of the great mysteries of evolution. By using a timecourse microarray analysis including the entire lifetime of the placenta, we uncover molecular and genomic changes that underlie placentation and find that two distinct evolutionary mechanisms were utilized during placental evolution in mice and human. Ancient genes involved in growth and metabolism were co-opted for use during early embryogenesis, likely enabling the accelerated development of extraembryonic tissues. Recently duplicated genes are utilized at later stages of placentation to meet the metabolic needs of a diverse range of pregnancy physiologies. Together, these mechanisms served to develop the specialized placenta, a novel structure that led to expansion of the eutherian mammal, including humankind.
The NY Times has a hard hitting review titled ”Resentment Over Darwin Evolves Into a Documentary”
JEANNETTE CATSOULIS Wrote:One of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” is a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry.
and
JEANNETTE CATSOULIS Wrote:Mixing physical apples and metaphysical oranges at every turn “Expelled” is an unprincipled propaganda piece that insults believers and nonbelievers alike. In its fudging, eliding and refusal to define terms, the movie proves that the only expulsion here is of reason itself.
Steve Mirsky from Scientific America reports on Never You Mine: Ben Stein’s Selective Quoting of Darwin
Steve Mirsky Wrote:One of the many egregious moments in the new Ben Stein anti-evolution film ”Expelled” is the truncation of a quote from Charles Darwin so that it makes him appear to give philosophical ammunition to the Nazis. Steve Mirsky reports.
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