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Lorimers at it again?

Looks like the ex foster parents that were found guilty of abusing children in their care have been at it again.

Apparently Mrs Lorimer has been charged with assaulting an OAP and it seems police may have known about it but it took the intervention of the Canadian Police to get action. The fuller story is at the Ayshire Blog

 

 

Windy tonight!

I have had to break out the gas mask tonight because of a serious attack of "problem posterior" from my partner. I had hoped to settle down for a cosy night in front of the telly but I am afraid its so windy in the livingroom that I have had to admit defeat and retreat to the kitchen!

Current mood: Sad


When the flu bug bites

With confirmed case now in France and people being tested for having caught it in India I wonder if we are getting clodser to a human pandeic. This site has links re flu treatment and prevention and things like masks. www.treatyourflu.blogspot.com

Scottish review of Social Work

The recent review of scoial worl in scotland has made a number of proposals. The most controversial seems to have been the proposal to use para-professionals in support of social workers. A fuller report can be found at www.carewatch.blogspot.com

Three fundamentalists

Two fundamentalists a Muslim and a Christian and an Atheist are on a plane which is about to crash. There is only one parachute. The Fundamentalist Muslim grabs the Fundamentalist Christian and starts to slap him on the face shouting "death to infidels!". The Christian, true to his fundamental beliefs turns the other cheek. So the Atheist seeing the other two are busy grabs the parachute and jumps out shouting "Long live Evolution!"

Ok so its not very good but at least I had a go!

Topic of the week suggestion

Go to scotland info/resources on the home page then look in list on the left for members notice board. (only visible if you have signed in!)

Churches should back evolution

US scientists have called on mainstream religious communities to help them fight policies that undermine the teaching of evolution.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) hit out at the "intelligent design" movement at its annual meeting. Teaching the idea threatens scientific literacy among schoolchildren, it said. Its proponents argue life on Earth is too complex to have evolved on its own. As the name suggests, intelligent design is a concept invoking the hand of a designer in nature. There have been several attempts across the US by anti-evolutionists to get intelligent design taught in school science lessons. At the meeting in St Louis, the AAAS issued a statement strongly condemning the moves. "Such veiled attempts to wedge religion - actually just one kind of religion - into science classrooms is a disservice to students, parents, teachers and taxpayers," said AAAS president Gilbert Omenn. "It's time to recognise that science and religion should never be pitted against each other. "They can and do co-exist in the context of most people's lives. Just not in science classrooms, lest we confuse our children."

'Who's kidding whom?'

Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, which campaigns to keep the teaching of evolution in public schools, said those in mainstream religious communities needed to "step up to the plate" in order to prevent the issue being viewed as a battle between science and religion. Some have already heeded the warning. "The intelligent design movement belittles religion. It makes God a designer - an engineer," said George Coyne, director of theVatican Observatory. "Intelligent design concentrates on a designer who they do not really identify - but who's kidding whom?" Last year, a federal judge ruled in favour of 11 parents in Dover, Pennsylvania, who argued that Darwinian evolution must be taught as fact. Dover school administrators had pushed for intelligent design to be inserted into science teaching. But the judge ruled this violated the constitution, which sets out a clear separation between religion and state. Despite the ruling, more challenges are on the way.

Fourteen US states are considering bills that scientists say would restrict the teaching of evolution.

These include a legislative bill in Missouri which seeks to ensure that only science which can be proven by experiment is taught in schools. "The new strategy is to teach intelligent design without calling it intelligent design," biologist Kenneth Miller, of Brown University in Rhode Island, told the BBC News website. Dr Miller, an expert witness in the Dover School case, added: "The advocates of intelligent design and creationism have tried to repackage their criticisms, saying they want to teach the evidence for evolution and the evidence against evolution."

 However, Mark Gihring, a teacher from Missouri sympathetic to intelligent design, told the BBC: "I think if we look at where the empirical scientific evidence leads us, it leads us towards intelligent design. "[Intelligent design] ultimately takes us back to why we're here and the value of life... if an individual doesn't have a reason for being, they might carry themselves in a way that is ultimately destructive for society."

 Economic risk

 The decentralised US education system ensures that intelligent design will remain an issue in the classroom regardless of the decision in the Dover case. "I think as a legal strategy, intelligent design is dead. That does not mean intelligent design as a social movement is dead," said Ms Scott. This is an idea that has real legs and it's going to be around for a long time. It will, however, evolve." Among the most high-profile champions of intelligent design is US President George W Bush, who has said schools should make students aware of the concept. But Mr Omenn warned that teaching intelligent design would deprive students of a proper education, ultimately harming the US economy. At a time when fewer US students are heading into science, baby boomer scientists are retiring in growing numbers and international students are returning home to work, America can ill afford the time and tax-payer dollars debating the facts of evolution," he said.

Churches urged to back evolution

man eats underwear

you couldnt make it up you really couldnt!

 

Mar1shan is not very well

mar1shan is down with a kinda flu/cold thingy so she is not her usual sparkly self. Poor Mar1shan!

Quote of the day

A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice. Bill Cosby

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.  Groucho Marx

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