Hand of Death on new Droid X

Apple updates website with video of Droid X showing signal attenuation
[Via Edible Apple]

Apple today added the Droid X as the latest entry on its list of smartphones which display signal attenuation.

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Even the newest phones have attenuation problems. This time from 3 out of 4 down to zero.

So was the smear against Apple simply because they are were everyone’s minds or was it an orchestrated attempt to slow them down?

I think the former is more likely but the many episodes of active misunderstanding of what was going on makes one wonder.

Perhaps some of those political operatives are moving into commercial areas, bringing their swiftboating techniques to the market place?

Now it is Houston’s turn

Stop and Smell the Corpse Flower
[Via Discover Magazine]

At the the Houston Museum of Natural Science thousands of visitors are lining up for the smell of rotting bodies. They want a look at a five-foot-tall plant affectionately called the “corpse flower,” or more specifically, Lois. The flower will bloom for the first time in seven years and release its stench for an expected three days.

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These bloom rarely – the last one in the US was 7 years ago. I love the idea of people waiting in line to smell the worst smelling plant around.

A reason why the British know the facts

by acbo

Science in school is not just teaching facts
[Via Butterflies and Wheels]

Science lessons should equip students with critical thinking skills, the most important of which is to ask for evidence for truth-claims.

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I discussed a recent poll that revealed that the British have a much firer grasp of facts than Americans. Here is a nice article demonstrating why.

In Britain, when a science teacher honestly answers the question “Do you believe in God, sir?” by stating “No, I don’t” he can then discuss his purpose is to teach his students to rationally examine the world around them. He can also write an article where he states things like “The truth is that all science teachers must deal with the fact that, if they are teaching science properly, their lessons will necessarily challenge the religious beliefs of some of their students” or “If my colleagues and I do our jobs properly, our students should go away with a story about the history of life and the universe that is far richer, far grander and far more detailed than that presented in any religious text.”

Most likely any teacher who made those same statements in America would be looking for a new job. There might even be lawsuits.

So is it any wonder that Americans do so poorly on any question of science that might impact their religious beliefs in any way? He states exactly why science education in America is so ineffective,

Science lessons should equip students with critical thinking skills, the most important of which is to ask for evidence for claims about “truth”. If we’ve succeeded in teaching these skills, it’s inevitable that some of our religious students will ask “what is the proof for the existence of a god?” and it’s inevitable that some of these students will not be happy with the stock religious answers to this question.

Critical thinking skills are anathema to most religions. The ideal in Britain is something large groups in America work directly against.

It is a wonder that anyone becomes a scientist in America having to endure this approach to education.

Conversations

I’ve been having a couple of interesting discussions about Scienceblogs and community going on at my other blog, SpreadingScience. hey were so long that I decided to make them a blog post.

One was with David Croty, who is executive editor at CSH Protocols and blogs at The Scholarly Kitchen. I always appreciate what David writes, even if he has a very different perspective than me. Or, more likely, I appreciate it because he has a different perspective.

The other was with Greg Laden, a scientist and blogger at Scienceblogs, who got his PhD from the Rice of the Northeast*

The latter in particular may be a little longer than normal but it is late and perhaps a little hard to focus my thoughts.

Anyway, take a look and join in if you want.

* Having gotten my PhD at Rice University, which likes to bill itself as the Harvard of the South – along with about 10 other schools – I thought I would make a little dig at Greg for all his Harvard work. I mean, there is a Facebook group named Harvard Is the Rice of the North East so it must be true.