DOWN AND OUT

I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan. I come by it honestly: my grandfather was a fan when they were an expansion team 48 years ago, and I've been a loyalist since the Danny White days.

So, I have a little perspective, and what that means is:

1) This most recent playoff loss hurts, but not worse than a 1-15 season hurts

2) The Giants deserved to win, because they outperformed the Boys on special teams, avoided costly penalties and once they realized that left tackle Flozell Adams wasn't 100 percent, they crowded that side of the field. Not only did quarterback Tony Romo get pressure that he wasn't used to dealing with, this limited the effectiveness of running back Marion Barber, who had been so strong in the first half. And, while we're mentioning it, our receiving corps had its share of drops, including two likely scores. If only, if only...

MILLER IN THE PALMETTO STATE

Hey, it's Ken Miller, author of one of the most-used high school textbooks in the country and definitely the most popular high school biology text. It's the one whose adoption helped spark the misconduct that led to the Dover case. It's the one with sticker shock in Cobb County, Georgia. And it's the one that I use in my classroom.

Check out Miller's address to South Carolina's Board of Education, in which he defends his pedagogy. Notice how he manages to be assertive yet good-natured while in the mouth of the cannon. No doubt about it, Dr. Miller's one of my role models.


By the way, don't get too aflutter about this year's kerfuffle in South Carolina. Thanks to people like Ken Miller and the South Carolinians for Science Education, the attempt to 'delist' Miller and Levine failed and South Carolina kids will continue to be able to take advantage of texts that strongly support the teaching of evolution and natural selection.

THE ROAD TO HECK

Is paved with good intentions, so they say. Well, I had good intentions. PZ Myers had encouraged people to call in to the first Minnesota Atheists radio show, and since I knew that the charming Kristine Harley of Amused Muse was interviewing Richard Dawkins, that sounded fine to me. I knew, from accounts on Kristine's site, that she and and Dr. Dawkins had shared some amusing times together on a cruise in the Galapagos, so I thought that I would mention that.

Now, much of my job (I'm a public school teacher) involves talking for a living, and I don't ordinarily get nervous or tongue-tied. But there I was, on the line with one of the scientific world's most distinctive and eminent voices, and I confess that I was nervous. I should've realized that, given time limits, an obscure anecdote wouldn't have been a good choice, but I barreled ahead and then awkwardly plopped off with a 'I'll take your comments off the air.' You can doubtless revel in my ineptitude by perusing the podcast.

However, if my stumbling isn't sufficient to entice you, you should know that PZ had a nice segment ("A Moment of Science") on whale evolution and that Dr. Dawkins was characteristically trenchant. I think, in particular, that his account of how he was solicited under false pretenses to be interviewed for the upcoming Ben Stein 'documentary' Expelled is required listening. So give the podcast a listen, there's some good stuff there, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

* * * * * *UPDATE * * * * * * * *

I am told the podcast will not be available until sometime Monday. Still, check it out when you can!