By the River

The other day I went for a walk after supper. I had been glued to the computer all day and hadn't been outside at all, and the sun was shining as it dropped. Almost as an afterthought I grabbed my camera. I'm glad I did.

2011-04-28 By The River

(click to see the photos)

Taking pictures of wildlife in low light, with a long lens, hand held is when you can never have good enough camera gear.

Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie

Just when I told people I was sure our mouse was gone because there'd been no sign of him for months.

(All the seed on the ground is fallen from the bird feeder.)

Easter Rabbit Visiting Innovation Place

Rootstrikers

Sawing off the branch you're sitting on

7 Science-Education Battlegrounds of 2011 from Wired Science

Do these people not realize that the science they are attacking is what supports their modern lives?

That if they succeed in killing science, they will destroy their own civilization?

We couldn't feed our billions without science.

Do they deny science when they or their families get sick and need a doctor or a hospital? *

Of course, they would say it's only certain parts of science they disagree with, like evolution. But science isn't a buffet. It makes no sense to say, "I believe in addition and multiplication but not division".

Science is a process with demonstrable results. It's not an infallible process. It's not foolproof. But we talk on cell phones that are a result of that process, we fly in airplanes that are a result of that process, we eat food that is a result of that process, we take medicines that are a result of that process. If you undermine and destroy that process, then you will lose the results of that process.

What's the goal? To go back to being ignorant sheep herders? All seven billion of us? And where would the lobbyists be then?

* There are a (very) few people that would refuse doctors and hospitals. And that might be happy to destroy civilization. But those aren't the people making anti-science legislation.