I rented Stardust thinking it might be a movie I could watch with my 9 year old daughter, but as I do with all PG-13 movies, I watch them first to decide if it is appropriate for her to watch.  Well, I won’t be letting my daughter watch this movie given it has a bit too much killing and a bit too much implied sex, but I definitely will recommend it to others.  I was hoping it was going to be like The Princess Bride, and in some respects it is, but Stardust is not quite as good as that film.  Wow, The Princess Bride is 20 years old…time flies and so do characters in Stardust with a Babylon candle.

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No, not for any of the potential presidential candidates, but for something more concrete and certainly more interesting at this point, for your favorite pictures from the Cassini mission to Saturn.  Click on the link below to see the candidates and cast your vote. Unlike the presidential elections, every vote counts, so get over there and pick your winners.

Cassini Favorite Image Contest 2007

I picked my favorites, they were The Dragon Storm for best color picture, Prometheus on the Edge for best black and white picture and Soft Collision for best movie.

To give credit where credit is due, I first heard about this vote over at Bad Astronomy, it’s a great website, so I suggest you check it out as well.

Ok, so the headline never really tells the whole story, but a Jew did provide the funds to replace a stolen statue of Jesus for a nativity scene near Miami Florida.  Apparently, the original baby Jesus statue was stolen even though it was bolted down.  So, this guy, Jeffrey Harris from Cincinnati, heard about the theft and decided to help out.

The new Jesus statue has built-in GPS so if this one gets stolen, they will be able to locate it.

If you don’t believe me you can read the story at BBC News.

CBS Sunday Morning had a nice little overview this morning of the Establishment Clause in the constitution and some of the background on how it got to be part of the 1st amendment.  You can watch that segment of the show below.

Pretty nice report.  Hope you enjoyed it.  I may need to pick up a copy of Jon Meacham’s book to gain a better historical perspective on this battle over the wall between church and state.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a big proponent of the establishment clause and of keeping the wall between church and state intact.  I completely agree that everyone should be free to practice any religion they see fit including no religion.  I also do not think anyone has a right to impose their religious views on anyone else.  Religion needs to stay out of politics and the schools and stay in peoples homes and churches where it is best applied.

The Texas Resource for the Understanding of Theological History (TRUTH) has informed its members and participating religious organizations that they must take a neutral stance on Christmas.  Members have been informed that they should not forward any emails that gives any location of a nativity scene or be subject to disciplinary action including possible termination.

Quoting a member of the board of directors of TRUTH, “There are holes in the theory of Christmas that the public needs to understand, so we cannot advocate the Christian version of Christmas as the predominant theory at this time.  The public has a right to understand the commercialized alternative theory to Christmas as both are valid theories”.

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Keep this in mind as you read this…NOTHING happens in political ads that isn’t completely planned.

There’s been alot of hubbub about the recent Huckabee ad with what the media is calling a “subliminal” cross in the background.  I’m sorry, but that’s not subliminal, it’s blatant.  See for yourself.

Here’s the definition of subliminal…”something presented below the threshold of consciousness”.

In this case, I don’t think it was anywhere near subconscious, but definitely on the conscious level.  I and everyone else saw it immediately and if the Huckabee crew wants to play dumb, fine, but they know what they did.  In fact, it’s probably what they wanted…all the media hype to pump up the ad bigger than it ever could have been on it’s own.

It’s an ad about how Christ is the reason for the season and you think they didn’t know there was a cross in the background?  I guess the ad with Chuck Norris wasn’t working well enough, so they went for the big guy.

In case you missed the Norris ad, enjoy.

I’m actually looking forward to the next ad the Huckabee campaign will run that will have a floating cross with Chuck Norris nailed to it, subliminally of course, just to prove how tough he is.  Should be a good one.

One good and one not.  First the good…today, December 20th is the 2nd anniversary of Judge Jone’s ruling in the Dover ID trial, Kitzmiller v Dover Area School Board.  You can read the judge’s ruling here which basically states that ID is NOT science.  It’s been two years and there are still battles going on in this country in states like Florida and others including my own state, Texas.

Now for the sad anniversary.  Today is the 11th anniversary of Carl Sagan’s death.  I first came to know about him much the same way many people my age did, through his Cosmos series on PBS back in the 1980′s.  I’ve since listened to and read much of what he had to say and have come to admire him more as I’ve gotten older.

To honor his memory, I thought I would post some of my favorite Carl Sagan quotes about science, skepticism and religion.

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Sometimes I get pretty bummed about all the creationist crap going on here in the states and especially in Texas, but then I ran across this gem…

Natural Selection Not Same as Evolution

and this

Where are all the Half-Evolved Turtles?

And I thought to myself, this is seriously screwed up…here you have a clearly creationist author writing about how Evolution never happened and right in the Science section of what is a mainstream newspaper for Russia.  There isn’t even any hiding the fact he’s a creationist.  Both article have the same structure, they lead you in innocent enough, then bring on the creationist rhetoric to the point at the end where he drolls on about how Intelligent Design and Evolution should be taught together in the schools.  In fact, it’s the exact same four paragraphs at the end of both articles.

I love this quote…”It is only fair that evidence supporting intelligent design or creation be presented to students alongside of evolutionary theory, especially in public schools which receive funding from taxpayers who are on both sides of the issue.”  First off, I’d like to see any evidence for Intelligent Design, but really, what type of argument is this?  Since when has Science been a democratic endeavor?  I thought Science was based on evidence and peer-reviewed research and testing.  So by this logic, people who deny the Holocaust should have their views taught in History class simply because they pay taxes.  Right, that makes a lot of sense.  Kind of makes going to college to get a degree pointless if any schmuck with a notion can get it into the schools just because he thought it up.

Here’s a small idea of the difference.

So far, I haven’t seen this type of thing happen here and it seems this guy can only get published in Russia and South Korea.  Usually what you see here are veiled attempts to appear scientific without the obvious links to creationists.  The way it’s played out in this country so far is to try to convey to the public that you are a legitimate scientist and just being ignored by the Evilutionists!!

So, I guess I should feel good that we haven’t gotten to the point where creationists can blatantly print their crap in the Science section of our major newspapers…not yet anyway.

The Center For Inquiry has a video of Barbara Forrest giving her talk “Inside Creationism’s Trojan Horse” in Amherst New York last June.  When Chris Comer found out that Barbara Forrest was coming to Austin to give this talk, she sent an email letting people know about it.  For this she was fired.  I and many others have previously posted about this.

Well, you can watch the video here and make your own decision on whether this is a firing offense for someone who is responsible for the science curriculum for the state of Texas.  Her presentation is about 45 minutes long followed by about 20 minutes of questions.

In my view, helping people become informed about a politicized attack on science education by creationists falls well within the purview of a director of science curriculum.  But I’m funny that way.

I couldn’t resist posting this picture from Texas Monthly magazine.  It was selected by Advertising Age as one of the best covers of 2007.  You can see it and the rest of their selections here.  This cover is from the January 2007 issue, so it’s a bit old, but hey, it’s nearly 2008, so it’s time to look back and laugh a little.  You have to admit it’s a great image, just look at the expression on his face…classic.