Wheat-dogg’s world
• • • • •

On the recommendations of other science bloggers, I ordered the book, The Devil in Dover: An Insider’s Story of Dogma v. Darwin in Small-Town America, by Lauri Lebo. It arrived Tuesday, and wantonly setting aside more pressing tasks, I put some jazz on and starting reading the book.

Since I already had some familiarity with the court case it narrates, the 224 pages went by quickly, and I finished it in an afternoon. [Yes, I do read fast. It’s how I survived four years at Princeton.] For a readable account of the Kitzmiller v. Dover case of 2005, I can recommend none better. Only the PBS Nova episode on the same case matches it for clarity and, yes, drama.

Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al., was a watershed lawsuit involving the teaching of intelligent design in the ninth grade biology classes of the Dover, Penn., Area School District. A conservative, religiously biased school board sought to weaken the teaching of evolution in the schools by requiring teachers (all of whom refused, as it turned out) to read a four-paragraph cautionary statement about the theory of evolution, specifically mentioning Intelligent Design as another explanation for the origin of life.

Lebo’s narrative clearly lays out the religious motivations of the board members, who before hammering out the four paragraphs, had discussed in open meeting the need to bring creationism into the science curriculum. (Those same members later stated, under oath, that they had never used the creationism and accused the two reporters covering the board meetings of fabricating the statements. During the trial, however, it became clear the reporters were in fact correct.)

John Lennon’s heirs have lost their copyright infringement case against the makers of the film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. A federal judge ruled today that the movie can legally use a snippet of Lennon’s song, “Imagine,” without express permission from the copyright holders.

The decision clears the way for Expelled’s creators and marketers to distribute the film in Canada in time for a June 6 opening, and to market DVDs in the fall. The film needs the added revenue boost; it’s bombing in the US.

On April 22, Yoko Ono Lennon, her husband’s two sons, and his publisher, EMI Blackwood, filed a copyright infringement suit in US District Court in Manhattan, claiming that Premise Media — the film’s creator — had used a part of “Imagine” without their permission. The heirs asked for an immediate suspension of showing the film anywhere, recall of all existing copies and at least $75,000 in damages.

Premise Media, meanwhile, contended its use of the song was within the “fair use” doctrine of US copyright law. The Fair Use Project of the Stanford Law School then announced it would defend Premise and the other defendants in court.

Judge Sidney Stein ruled in favor of Premise Media, saying the use of “Imagine” in the film was legal.

Opening April 18 in 1,052 theaters nationwide, Expelled’s theater count has shrunk to a mere 83 theaters, and its daily gross receipts have sunk below $20,000. It will soon probably drop out of first-run theaters altogether.

It’s easy. Take out any words suggesting a Divine Creator and replace them with words “intelligent agency” or “intelligent designer.” Then insist the new version is in a fact a science textbook that should be used in schools.

Too bad the ID crowd’s feeble attempt at subterfuge failed. Some fine detective work at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) revealed the genealogy of the new ID text, Of Pandas and People, as the center prepared briefs for the 2005 Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District legal case.

This YouTube video explains it all.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed continued to lose box-office share over the weekend, pulling in gross receipts that were half what it pulled in the weekend before. Meanwhile, more than 200 theaters dropped the anti-evolution flick from the line-ups.

Box Office Mojo estimates the movie had weekend gross box receipts of $302,000 for the 402 theaters still screening it. Expelled opened April 18 in 1,052 locations and pulled in almost $3 million its first weekend.

Since then, weekend receipts have dropped by about half each week. Total gross receipts are now estimated to be $7.2 million.

This clip from Ben Stein’s interview on Trinity Broadcast Network includes his amazingly stupid, misinformed crackpot idea that scientists murdered Jews during World War II.

I had always assumed it was Nazi soldiers “following orders.” My bad.

Watch it and weep. Someone took Ben Stein’s brain.

Actor/commentator Ben Stein appeared on the Trinity Broadcast Network on April 24 to discuss the anti-evolution flick Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Excerpts of the half-hour interview with Paul Crouch Jr. are now on YouTube.

In this clip, Stein talks about how the faithful can combat the Darwinist agenda of suppression and atheism, completely misinterprets the Kitzmiller v. Dover court decision, and relates the “crashing” of a private screening of the film by an Orlando film critic. He also spins the filmmakers’ expulsion of biologist PZ Myers from another private screening in Minneapolis, missing the irony that the producers of a film alleging suppression of ideas should expel someone from seeing the film.

Then, Stein states that science teachers should “teach the evidence” about the origins and development of life, and ask students to decide whether evolution or Intelligent Design provides the better explanation. “The role of science is to disprove itself,” Stein says in one jaw-droppingly stupid moment.

Finally, he alleges that “Darwinists” refuse to consider alternative theories, because it would mean the loss of their jobs and comfortable pensions, and makes ridiculous connections between evolution and atheism and communism.

Ben Stein, the “star” of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed reveals his appalling lack of scientific understanding in this excerpt from his appearance on Paul Crouch Jr’s show on TBN April 24.

Stein, who interviews several scientists in the anti-evolution movie, asserts that Darwin’s evolutionary theory cannot explain the complexity of living cells nor can it explain how life began. He continues by discussing his own religious beliefs and his comfort with the concept that there is evolution within species, but not with the evolutionary prediction that new species arise from existing ones.

In this excerpt of Ben Stein’s appearance on Paul Crouch’s TBN program, Stein talks about his involvement with Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed and his dismay “Darwinists” are restricting “academic freedom” by suppressing anti-evolution scientists.

Stein, who is Jewish, also reveals his interest in the connection between Darwinism and Nazism, and asserts that Darwinism/evolution has become a religion for some in academia.

Part 2 of 5, from YouTube:

Late last month, actor/economist/commentator Ben Stein appeared on Paul Crouch Jr.’s TV show on the Trinity Broadcast Network to talk about Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Stein made some incredibly stupid comments during the half-hour show, some of which have made it onto the ‘Net.

Most of the program featured three excerpts from the anti-evolution film, which is showing nationally in about 650 theaters. TBN has it in its entirety, but excerpts are now available on YouTube in five parts.

In this part, Crouch introduces Stein and invites him to summarize the movie and the reasons behind it. Stein repeats the movie’s assertion that “Darwinists” are restricting academic freedom.

The anti-evolution movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowedis now showing in only 656 theaters, down from the 1,041 it had the previous weekend. Monday’s gross receipts dropped below 100K, to $67,000.

The flick has a total of $6.7 million in gross box office receipts, which still puts in the top 20 for recently released movies. Its future in first-run theaters is murky at best, however.