Hit a bad patch, you're saying?

I meant a bad batch of patches. Which sounds like something from a Dr Seuss PMS anthology.

I'm still unclear on why matters of science may be adjudicated by a jury.

The whole thing is just ridiculous. Why should religion be taught in science? Sure, there are still unanswered questions with evolution, but no more so than cosmology and yet no one advocates teaching supernatural causes for cosmic expansion.

I do! Or I will, if it means I get to make shit up and warp the childrens.

and yet no one advocates teaching supernatural causes for cosmic expansion.

Is the anti-evolution lobby okay with cosmic expansion? Or is it just that cosmology isn't taught in high school in the same depth that biology is? (This is a serious question.)

re: last week's Eyes:

and I was totally surprised by jeff telling Harlen about Nora. Esp. since I have decided he can do no good. Nora confuses me.

I thought it seemed really abrupt and ass-pull-y. Like, nothing really happened in the episode that made me think, "Oh, NOW Jeff will tell Harlan about Nora!"

I was also surprised -- in the good way -- when FBI dude asked black-guy-with-freaky-eyes out on a date.

And I am a TOTAL Meg/cute tech guy 'shipper. LOVE.

I wasn't surprised by the gay date -- kinda chastened, in fact. Because I really wanted it to happen, and felt all subversive and slashy about it. Oh, canon, you say? I guess that can still be fun, plus more visual.

ike, nothing really happened in the episode that made me think

Right before that scene, DH and I were wondering why Jeff was still around, when he really should have been killed off in the pilot. I guess now we know.

I was also surprised -- in the good way -- when

Me too. He's my favorite character.

[eta: Did it seem to anyone else like we missed an episode? The relationship between Harlan and Leslie seemed to have skipped a step.]

And I am a TOTAL

Yes!

Okay, they surprised me with the gay feebie date-thing, but I guess I wasn't paying enough attention. Also, Jeff telling Harlan about Nora -- seemed very incongruous there.

no one advocates teaching supernatural causes for cosmic expansion.

Nope. They just deny that it's happening at all: [link]

Re: Kansas wingnuts.

Did you read the interview with Richard Dawkins in Salon today?

It's often said that because evolution happened in the past, and we didn't see it happen, there is no direct evidence for it. That, of course, is nonsense. It's rather like a detective coming on the scene of a crime, obviously after the crime has been committed, and working out what must have happened by looking at the clues that remain. In the story of evolution, the clues are a billionfold.

There are clues from the distribution of DNA codes throughout the animal and plant kingdoms, of protein sequences, of morphological characters that have been analyzed in great detail. Everything fits with the idea that we have here a simple branching tree. The distribution of species on islands and continents throughout the world is exactly what you'd expect if evolution was a fact. The distribution of fossils in space and in time are exactly what you would expect if evolution were a fact. There are millions of facts all pointing in the same direction and no facts pointing in the wrong direction.

British scientist J.B.S. Haldane, when asked what would constitute evidence against evolution, famously said, "Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian." They've never been found. Nothing like that has ever been found. Evolution could be disproved by such facts. But all the fossils that have been found are in the right place. Of course there are plenty of gaps in the fossil record. There's nothing wrong with that. Why shouldn't there be? We're lucky to have fossils at all. But no fossils have been found in the wrong place, such as to disprove the fact of evolution. Evolution is a fact.