Welcome to The Tangled Bank 108 and to the little-known but still fascinating Wheat-dogg’s World. I hope that after you peruse the fine entries in this edition of The Tangled Bank you’ll stroll around and check out things here in my neck of the Worldwide Woods.

Today we have science bloggers musing on some of the greater profundities of the universe as well on more concrete issues closer to home. Some of these posts ask more questions than they answer, but heck that’s what science is all about, hey?

I’m the resident physics teacher, so we’re going to start the ball rolling with our lone physical-science submission, from Yoo Chul Chung at Yoo’s Ramblings. (Sorry, life scientists, a little physics never hurt anyone!) After reading the July issue of Scientific American, Yoo contemplates the meaning of hypothetical “building blocks” that can organize themselves to create the space-time we know and love. These “space-time quanta” curiously exist in two dimensions at the quantum level, but exhibit four dimensions at larger scales. Further, causality is integral to this system, closing any fancy relativistic loopholes to would-be time travelers hoping to jump through a wormhole to watch history unfold in real time. There goes about half the world’s Star Trek plotlines …

While Yoo ponders whether the universe is made of building blocks, the Evolved Rationalist considers whether William Dembski is clever enough to even play with blocks. In Dembski: The failure that keeps on failing, our author glosses on Bill’s seeming immunity to rational, logical thought as Bill gripes about the lack of theology in Kenneth Miller’s biology textbooks. Yes, dear friends, you read that right. Check out the Evolved Rationalist and see what we mean.

June 25th, 2008 | Tags: carnival, science blogs, The Tangled Bank | Category: Commentary, Science | Comments (11)

John Freshwater will burn crosses on students’ arms no more (see picture released by school officials to the AP, at right), at least in Mount Vernon, Ohio. He has been sacked.

On Friday, the Mount Vernon school board reviewed a 15-page investigative report on Freshwater’s actions in the classroom, and voted to dismiss the science teacher of 21 years.

Freshwater had been accused, among other things, of using a Tesla coil to burn a cross in a student’s arm, proselytizing students, teaching creationism contrary to school policy, and refusing to remove a Bible from his desk.

He and school officials still face legal action. The family of the student whose arm was burned filed a civil complaint in US District Court in Columbus last week, naming Freshwater and school officials as defendants. The law suit alleges Freshwater’s religious activities in the classroom violated the civil rights of the student, known only as John Doe.

The complaint also alleges school officials failed to reprimand Freshwater sufficiently after the arm-burning incident, and permitted him to proselytize students in class in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Freshwater, a fundamentalist Christian by all appearances, became a poster child for the so-called “war on Christianity” earlier this year when he refused to remove his copy of the Bible from his desk. Christian students in the school held rallies for his support, and a local right-wing Christianist radio commentator championed Freshwater as yet another victim of the secular war on religion. (See this story at WorldNetDaily, which quotes said commentator.)

June 21st, 2008 | Tags: arm burn, Bible, civil rights, cross, john freshwater, mount vernon | Category: Civil liberties, Commentary, Schools, Science, religion | Leave a comment

The Tangled Bank is a collection of the best science-blog posts as judged by the science bloggers themselves. Basically, you write something that you think is good, we publish it.

Having been included in previous editions of the Tangled Bank, I volunteered to host it at some point in the future. That time has come: Tangled Bank #108 will be here June 25.

For submission rules, visit the link provided above.

June 21st, 2008 | Tags: tangled bank | Category: General stuff, Science | Leave a comment

The saga of John Freshwater, part XII …

While Freshwater’s superiors at the Mount Vernon schools dither, the family of one of his students have resorted to the all-American method of getting to the root of things — they’re suing him and the school district.

The suit claims that Freshwater violated the student’s civil rights by allegedly burning a cross into his arm with a Tesla coil and and that his superiors were negligent in not disciplining Freshwater.

The school district hired an outsider to investigate the allegations against Freshwater, an otherwise popular seventh-grade science teacher. That report is due Friday, at which time the school board will make some decision about Freshwater’s future, supposedly.

Freshwater made a name for himself earlier last year by refusing to remove his Bible from his desk. Christians loved his “Christ’s warrior” decision, but civil libertarians demurred. It then came out that Freshwater was a bit of a religious nut, proselytizing students, teaching creationism, and on at least one instance, burning a cross on a student’s arm with a Tesla coil.

That apparently woke up his superiors from their overly cautious slumber. They put an observer in his classroom while the independent investigators did their thing, and delayed any disciplinary action until the investigators filed their report.

Anyway, the lawsuit was filed in US District Court in Columbus earlier his week. I don’t have a copy of the complaint, but Ed Brayton over at ScienceBlogs does. He is as aghast at this whole mess as I am. How any teacher could be allowed to get away with this kind of malarkey defies all logic.

June 19th, 2008 | Tags: Christian, john freshwater, lawsuit, religion, school | Category: Civil liberties, Commentary, Schools, Science, religion, teaching | Leave a comment

Not to me, really, but to my site’s visibility. Two years ago I wrote a post debunking the so-called “water gas”/HHO/Brown’s gas technology of running your car on water. Then, starting in January this year I have had several visitors commenting positively and negatively on the post. I suspect it has something to do with gasoline prices rising above $4 and diesel prices inching toward $5 a gallon.

I won’t go over the whole “water gas” scheme here, but the gist of my argument is that it (1) is unsafe and (2) not a cure-all. I won’t even get into the whole “oil company conspiracy” thing, since paranoid people cannot be made un-paranoid no matter how much you try to reason with them.

Rather than do the sensible thing and DRIVE LESS, PEOPLE!!, many US drivers are looking for a magic bullet to maintain their wasteful use of fuel to putter around town. We are so damn spoiled here. Despite our rising fuel costs, we still pay less than Europeans have to years. Detroit (and to some extent Japan) encouraged us to buy big-ass cars and SUVs (fancy trucks, in my book) that get crappy fuel mileage, which suckered US car buyers into these land yachts that now suck their wallets dry at the gas pump.

So now I guess they’re looking up ways to pay less at the pump on the ‘Net, and have stumbled upon the water gas guys, and my post. Good luck, suckers!

June 19th, 2008 | Tags: debunk, energy, HHO gas, scam | Category: Commentary, Physics, Science, Skepticism | Comments (1)

No roadtrip is possible, I suppose, without a mishap or two. The Nashville movie-extra jaunt may have forced me out of the 35mm dark ages into the new digital age.

Whilst attempting to pass a semi on I-65 somewhere south of Elizabethtown, my hatch flew open and stuff flew out of the back. The quick-witted Niece managed to save our clothing from being spread all over the highway, but something did get sucked out. It was my camera bag, containing one 30-year-old Nikon FM body, three Vivitar lenses, a motor drive and various other acoutrements of 35mm SLR-dom.

Bang. Smash. Tinkle. All gone, in the blink of an eye. What didn’t shatter on impact was quickly pummeled into oblivion by the semis that were behind and alongside us. The FM body is a tough little thing, but somehow I think its designers did not anticipate it being underneath an 18-wheeler going at 70 mph.

Sigh. I’m a little sad, since the camera has traveled with me through dozens of states and several foreign countries, and recorded all number of personal, family and school events. My dad bought it for me when he still worked at EPOI, the then-parent company of Nikon, and by company policy it had his (and therefore my) name engraved on the bottom plate in gold letters.

June 10th, 2008 | Tags: digital camera, film camera, nikon fm | Category: General stuff | Comments (2)

So, today I’ve been on location, being an extra in … “Hannah Montana: The Movie.”

You ask — why is a 50+ man in a Hannah Montana movie? Serendipity. The blame falls on my wife, who heard an announcement on a Louisville radio station about an extras casting call in Nashville in April. Her idea was to bring one of our suitably aged nieces down there (our daughter being a tad too mature to be a HM fan). We convinced our 16-year-old niece (and her parents) to give it a try. We sprang for some nice photos taken the day before the casting call, then zipped down to Nashville one sunny Sunday.

A casting call for a pop princess vehicle is more like a cattle call. Signups were at Sommet Center. The line started at the front entrance and by the time we three arrived had already circled the block. The line was just as long by the time we made our way around to the entrance three hours later. Girls aged 8 to 13 were overwhelmingly the bulk of the would-be actors in line, but of course there were plenty of adults, too.

We got the Niece through the line, walked into the arena proper to hand over her paperwork and there one casting director told me they were looking for adult extras, too. Who knew? They took a headshot of me, and sent us on our way.

June 7th, 2008 | Tags: extras, hannah montana, movie | Category: General stuff | Comments (4)

Meanwhile, in Mount Vernon, Ohio, a group calling itself the “Minutemen” is pushing the local school board to explain why a 7th grade science teacher cannot keep a Bible on his desk, or it will “recall” school board members.

School officials say the matter is still under consideration.

The teacher in question is John Freshwater, a popular but controversial teacher, who has refused his superiors’ demands that he remove his Bible from students’ view. Freshwater is also under investigation for allegedly burning a cross on a student’s arm, for disseminating religious literature during class, and for proselytizing students.

The Minutemen are undoubtedly affiliated with another Christian nutcase up there, “Coach” Dave Daubenmire, who quickly came to Freshwater’s support after the Bible incident. Daubenmire supports a rightwing Christian group, the Minutemen Unlimited.

In a letter to school officials, the Mount Vernon Minutemen say they will replace the school board if the school system does not announce its supports the Bible.

“Although we do not want this to be taken as a threat, we feel it is only right that we inform you that if a public statement is not made in support of the Bible by June 10 we will have no other choice than to begin a recall procedure on all members of the School Board who voted to ban the Bible from the view of the children.”

June 2nd, 2008 | Tags: Bible, john freshwater, Minutemen, mount vernon, ohio, school | Category: Civil liberties, Commentary, Schools, religion | Leave a comment