Items of interest:

• Tricks of the Psychic Trade (Psychology Today website)
• Naomi Oreskes, "The Verdict is in on Climate Change." LA Times. Jan. 22, 2012. An interesting comparison and contrast piece between public attitudes toward climate science and public attitudes toward innocence/guilt in the American Justice System.
• Peter Gleick on "Climate Change Misconceptions" Part 1: http://is.gd/kg6hIV and Part 2: http://is.gd/ozu5cT (1/19/2012)
• Researchers report evolving a multicellular organism from autonomous single-celled organisms in just 2 months. (Ars Technica, 1/17/2012)
• Climate change skepticism seeps into science classrooms (L.A. Times)
• Killer flu doctors: US censorship is a danger to science (The Independent)
• Richard Dawkins celebrates a victory over creationists (The Guardian)
• 2012 Challenges to Public School Science Education
  • Indiana: This bill was shelved by the Indiana House of Representatives on Feb. 14. The strategy in this bill called for "Creation Science" to be taught in school. There is already a Supreme Court ("Edwards v. Aguillard") ruling that found that "Creation Science" is a re-packaging of religion and therefore not science.; Senate Bill 89; Creationist Legislation in Indiana (National Center for Science Education); Creationist bill in Indiana shelved (NCSE);
  • Missouri: Note: the strategy pursued here is to call for "equal time" for a scientific theory and an unproven hypothesis.; "HOUSE BILL NO. 1227"; "HOUSE BILL NO. 1276"; "Intelligent design" bill in Missouri (National Center for Science Education); Update from Missouri (National Center for Science Education);
  • New Hampshire: Note: the strategy pursued here is based on a misunderstanding of the word "theory," where the legislators try to equate "theory" with "hypothesis." Bill 1457 demonstrates a misunderstanding of science and the scientific method.; HB 1148; HB 1457; Antievolution legislation in New Hampshire (National Center for Science Education); Bills seek to dilute the teaching of evolution in public schools (Nashua Telegraph) Monitoring antievolution bills in New Hampshire (National Center for Science Education); New Hampshire legislature dismisses anti-evolution bills. (NCSE);
  • Oklahoma: This one is extremely vague, except that it goes out of its way to state that the bill should not be construed as an attempt to promote any one set of religious doctrine or belief. The tactic here is to imply that students are not being taught to think critically, but only as concerns evolution, climate change, human cloning, and the origin of life; the bill then suggests this is a crisis that needs to be fixed by passing a bill to support critical thinking. It's a barely veiled "equal time for opposing ideas" bill. It's also very vague about what "supplemental material" could be used to counter a mainstream science textbook.; SB 1742; Oklahoma GOP Introduces Bill That Attacks Evolution And Climate Change;
• 2011 Psychic Predictions . . . Revisited (1/8/12)
• Deception on the Burzynski Clinic Website?