The sad truth about the education system in many districts (especially within the USA), is that the teaching of science is under threat by fundamentalist christians (more than any other religious group) who deny the scientific evidence, no matter how vast it is, that evolution does not exist. In some areas, creationism has effectively replaced evolution in the science curriculum. The American Association of Physics Teachers has come out with a very good statement of exactly why they cannot teach creationism or "intelligent design" in schools, at least as part of the science curriculum, and exactly why they must teach real science. I give you an excerpt:

No scientific theory, no matter how strongly supported by available
evidence, is final and unchallengeable; any good theory is always exposed to the
possibility of being modified or even overthrown by new evidence. That is at the
very heart of the process of science. However, biological and cosmological
evolution are theories as strongly supported and interwoven into the fabric of
science as any other essential underpinnings of modern science and technology.
To deny children exposure to the evidence in support of biological and
cosmological evolution is akin to allowing them to believe that atoms do not
exist or that the Sun goes around the Earth.

Unfortunately, the people who need to be reading this are probably too busy protesting abortion clinics, raising money for Bush, or teaching their children how to be narrow-minded. Hm. I guess my bias came through here loud and clear, eh? Crikey, I used to know a woman who home-schooled her son in order to give him a scientific education because his local schools had made creationism part of the manditory curriculum. And that was in Ohio. Ohio is close to Ontario. Anyway, you can read the rest of the piece here.

In other news, also of a scientific bent, Tutankhamun now has a face. This makes me very happy, as does the fact that no evidence of murder was found in scanning his remains. At least not by physical meas - he could have died of poisoning, or by more natural causes such as a very broken leg, or something. Heh. Check out the forgotten prince here. You know what's kind of neat, and yet also kind of creepy? The French model, which is extremely convincing in shape and painting, bears a striking resemblance to Rick, or at least to Rick when he was closer to 19. It's pretty wild, actually.