From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility via YubaNet and our valuable contributor Ron Avitzur:

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)....

"As one park geologist said, this is equivalent of Yellowstone National Park selling a book entitled Geysers of Old Faithful: Nostrils of Satan," [PEER Executive Director Jeff] Ruch added, pointing to the fact that previous NPS leadership ignored strong protests from both its own scientists and leading geological societies against the agency approval of the creationist book.

This reminds me of the controversy about Bush's NASA appointee.

George Deutsch, the presidential appointee to NASA who tried to change NASA's website to refer to the Big Bang as a "theory", has resigned in disgrace, following blogger Scientist Activist's discovery that he had not graduated college, as he had claimed on his resume. For more, see:

• A Young Bush Appointee Resigns His Post at NASA (New York Times)
• NASA Public-Affairs Appointee Resigns in Disgrace (Slashdot)

My favorite Slashdot commentary:

What you people don't understand is that he could have graduated from college in theory!

From The New York Times via Atrios and Cosmic Variance:

A week after NASA's top climate scientist complained that the space agency's public-affairs office was trying to silence his statements on global warming, the agency's administrator, Michael D. Griffin, issued a sharply worded statement yesterday calling for "scientific openness" throughout the agency....

The statement came six days after The New York Times quoted the scientist, James E. Hansen, as saying he was threatened with "dire consequences" if he continued to call for prompt action to limit emissions of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. He and intermediaries in the agency's 350-member public-affairs staff said the warnings came from White House appointees in NASA headquarters....

Other National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists and public-affairs employees came forward this week to say that beyond Dr. Hansen's case, there were several other instances in which political appointees had sought to control the flow of scientific information from the agency.

They called or e-mailed The Times and sent documents showing that news releases were delayed or altered to mesh with Bush administration policies.

In October, for example, George Deutsch, a presidential appointee in NASA headquarters, told a Web designer working for the agency to add the word "theory" after every mention of the Big Bang, according to an e-mail message from Mr. Deutsch that another NASA employee forwarded to The Times....

The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator...."

On Friday evening, repeated queries were made to the White House about how a young presidential appointee with no science background came to be supervising Web presentations on cosmology and interview requests to senior NASA scientists.

The only response came from Donald Tighe of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "Science is respected and protected and highly valued by the administration," he said.

The article does not state whether Tighe managed to keep a straight face while making the last remark.

I'm sure glad my husband is no longer at NASA, especially because he was working on AI for earth science, another area of concern to the Bush administration.

I was pleased to read on Slashdot that "the Vatican has issued a stout defence of Charles Darwin, voicing strong criticism of Christian fundamentalists who reject his theory of evolution and interpret the biblical account of creation literally". A Slashdot comment pointed to this Chick tract, in which a Christian quotes Genesis, causing a brainwashed believer in evolution to recant and beg Jesus to save him from Hell.

I recently saw an ad on fark touting The Lean as a right-wing Onion alternative. I visited the site and particularly liked these headlines:

• Scientists Still at Odds over "Bill and Ted vs. Back to the Future" Time Theory Debate
• Illegals Willing to Accept Welfare Checks for Amounts Americans Won’t Take

From The Lean, I followed a link to The Satire Awards, where I found these headlines

• Critics charge Harry Potter used performance-enhancing potions
• Pfizer, FDA Dismiss Claim Linking Infant Acne Medication with Baby Suicides as "Coincidence"
• Supreme Court ruling protects patients from Medical Marijuana

Actually, isn't that last one true?

From my earlier posts, you might think I oppose all aspects of creationism. That is not the case...

One of the hallmarks of creationists is that no scientific evidence can cause them to reject their belief. In other words, creationism is not falsifiable (and therefore not science). For example, when presented with fossils millions of years old, creationists say that God created those fossils when he created the rest of the world five thousand years ago.

I think that's a neat theory. By the same reasoning, it is also possible that God created the world yesterday, or even five seconds ago, creating us with false memories of a prior history.

This is not idle philosophizing but has been of practical use in my life. Whenever I have trouble making a decision, I consider the possibility that I was just created. For example, I have months worth of snail mail for the former owners of my house, which I haven't forwarded yet. Thinking ordinarily, I'd conclude:

• I've waited so long that forwarding the mail would just call attention to my lateness.
• I've waited so long that there's no hurry to forward the mail. Maybe I'll do it next week.

On the other hand, if I imagine that the universe was just created, it's much clearer to me that I should just send the mail on ASAP.

This is also helpful when facing criticism. I shouldn't feel bad about the negative code review because I didn't actually create the material being criticized. I was just created seconds ago with the false memory of having created it. With this viewpoint, there's no reason to feel defensive, and one can evaluate and incorporate suggestions without shame.

(Sorry to include something so positive on so cynical a site. Perhaps I should add a glurge tag.)

This week, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is running a series "Evolution, Schmevolution". The first episode was great. If you get Comedy Central, I recommend watching The Daily Show more than ever. (In case you missed the first episode, it will be rebroadcast Tuesday morning and afternoon.)