New Mexico school standards water down evolution, geology, and climate change

Why Evolution Is True

Mother Jones has an article by Andy Kroll about how the state of New Mexico has watered down a widespread and excellent secondary school science curriculum (grades kindergarden through 12): the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) developed in conjunction with National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  The state’s public education department released a document (here) that proposes changes to its existing standards that have changed some of the NGSS guidelines.

And these changes aren’t random: in the main, they water down evolution, remove evidence for the age of the earth, and imply that global warming is a “fluctuation” rather than a trend. Glenn Branch of the NCSE reacted:

“These changes are evidently intended to placate creationists and climate change deniers,” says Glenn Branch, the deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, a nonprofit group that…

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Archiving Oil – images

Experimental Geography in Practice

Just thought I would post some images taken by Neville Gabie of the Archiving Oil event we installed in the Earth Sciences Rock Collection Store on May 16th as part of the University of Bristol’s Museums at Night events.

We had a great turn out of 200+ over the course of the evening.

Archiving Oil- list of artworks

 

Neville Gabie

As part of his Leverhulme funded residency with the Cabot Institute at Bristol University, Neville Gabie has been working on a series of short films considering the materiality of oil and chalk amongst other materials. This evening he will be screening some of the oil based films.

Experiments in Black and White 1 – video installation – duration 13mins 13 seconds

[basement corridor opposite the lift]

Experiments in Black and White 3 – video installation – duration 13mins 29 seconds

[basement corridor]

Experiments in Black and White 4 –…

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Spring Break 2017 – Part 5- Utah- Zion National Park

Day8: Zion National Park:
This is the last post of this travel series. I did write our previous visit to Zion, it’s here and here. One hike we missed during that time was the famous Angels Landing. This time we had only 1 agenda and that was to do this hike as a family. It is recommended to start early to avoid crowd as well as the heat. We reached the visitor center early in the morning, checked the weather conditions and other safety precautions. The ranger who was assisting was against us taking Chucky to the hike. He repeatedly told he wouldn’t recommend this hike with a 7 year old. He warned us and said it’s up to us to decide then. My heart was breaking but as a mother I knew my daughter could do this. Thanks to my friend Mamata who had given me lot of…

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Going Global

Sapna's Blog

You had a good night’s sleep and you wake up refreshed in the morning. And as the millennial routine goes you pick up your phone to check messages/feed even before you brush your teeth. You see a burst of missed calls and you wonder what happened. Who called you in the dead of the night, what is the emergency and why is it that you did not hear the call? In a state of panic you call back to check.

What you do not realize is that the number is an International number usually starting with an international code of +3xxx or +2xxx and at the end of the month you get a bill with a large number.  +381 and +375 are the ones I have seen on my phone. But there are quite a few countries where these calls originate from. Russia, African countries – Nigeria, Burundi, Malawi, Mali……

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Rare Foods Series :Yubari Melon

Free Thoughts by Ranjit Singh

Yubari melons are the costliest melons around. It is a hybrid melon developed from Earl’s “favorite” and Burpee’s “Spicy” variety. It is raised in the greenhouses in Yūbari.

These melons are worth their weight in gold.

What makes them so special?
These are Prized for its juicy sweetness, perfect spherical shape, extra smooth rind and T-shaped stalks.

A couple of melons went for $27000 (17 lakh rupees) last year.

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Brown capped pygmy woodpecker

Free Thoughts by Ranjit Singh

One day I was going for early morning walk in the woods. It was all quite and only sounds you heard were that of birds. Most of the trees are old and dry in the jungle. As I was walking, I heard the pecking of the dry wood. On zeroing on the source of the pecking, I saw a very small object almost resembling the color of the wood, creeping along the branch of a tree. It was pecking the bark with its beak. Meet the Brown Capped Pygmy Woodpecker.

As the name suggests it is pygmy. It just is 13 cm in size and weighs 13–17 grams. Today I saw a dry tree where a Chestnut shouldered Petronia was sitting and making sounds. As I neared for taking its photographs, I noticed the woodpecker also there. There was a standoff between them. On close observation, I noticed two holes…

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Matter and Memory

This gallery contains 3 photos.

Originally posted on urbanculturalstudies:
There has been a lot written, tweeted, and argued recently about the place of statues and monuments in cities throughout the world. The arguments made by young scholars at elite British universities and citizens in American…