GazetteOnline

The regents met in closed session for more than one hour before voting 7-1 to reaffirm ISU’s final decision in the case.

The Discovery Institute is not pleased:

Stellar Astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez Denied Fair Hearing by Iowa State Board of Regents
The Board of Regents of the State of Iowa has denied the tenure appeal of Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Iowa State University (ISU). Dr. Gonzalez’s appeal has been ongoing since the summer of 2007, when he was first denied tenure by ISU.

“We are extremely disappointed that the Board of Regents refused to give Dr. Gonzalez a fair hearing in his appeal,” said Gonzalez’s attorney Chuck Hurley. “They say in Iowa that academic freedom is supposed to be the ‘foundation of the university.’ That foundation is cracked.”

The blogworld of creationist and cdesign proponentsists has been buzzing about the Altenberg 16 and the secret meeting coming up in austria. Typical of the commentary is this from telicthoughts.

What it amounts to is a gathering of 16 biologists and philosophers of rock star stature – let’s call them “the Altenberg 16″ – who recognize that the theory of evolution which most practicing biologists accept and which is taught in classrooms today, is inadequate in explaining our existence.

TelicThoughts specializes in analyzing science news and asserting new discoveries support creationism rather than supporting what the resesearchers say their findings support.

So is this the beginning of the end for Darwinism? Let’s see what the organizer of the Altenberg conferences has to say:
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The Dallas Morning News  – ERV – Pharyngula

AUSTIN – A former state science curriculum director filed suit against the Texas Education Agency and Education Commissioner Robert Scott on Wednesday, alleging she was illegally fired for forwarding an e-mail about a lecture that was critical of the teaching of intelligent design in science classes.

“The agency’s ‘neutrality’ policy has the purpose or effect of endorsing religion, and thus violates the Establishment Clause,” the lawsuit said.

Lawsuit filed by Christina Comer (text pdf)

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From Pharyngula we have a review of a new book on climate change.

I’m very fond of Chris Turney’s book, Bones, Rocks, and Stars. It’s a slender, simple description of the many tools scientists use to figure out how old something is, and when arguing with young earth creationists, it’s become the first thing I recommend to them. It’s short and easy to read, and focuses on explaining how dating methods work.

Turney has a new book out: Ice, Mud and Blood: Lessons from Climates Past. This is the one you’ll be able to hand to climate change denialists, and it’s a winner.

An interview with the author can be found here.

Panda’s Thumb

And so it is. Some of the most successful predators of small amphibians are another herpetological marvel, the garter snakes, Thamnophis. Unfortunately, if you feed ordinary garter snakes a diet of rough-skinned newts, they tend to move more and more slowly as the innervation of their skeletal muscles undergoes a toxin blockade, and if they eat enough, they die. This is not a good thing from the snake’s perspective, although the newts do get revenge and their relatives benefit from the subsequent reluctance of snakes to eat them. It also presents an evolutionary opportunity, in that resistance to TTX in snakes can be a real advantage, since they won’t die and they’ll be able to feast on squishy purplish-brown and orange tubes of meat.

This is happening right now. Populations of garter snakes, T. sirtalis, in California, Oregon, and Idaho are showing different degrees of resistance to TTX, and these differences are being traced right down to specific changes in the amino acid sequence of the snake sodium channel. It’s happening repeatedly, too, with different populations independently acquiring different variations that confer differing degrees of resistance.

Jindal watches goodwill evaporate

Of this, there can be no dispute: Gov. Bobby Jindal’s honeymoon is over.

The consensus at home is that Jindal lost his luster by declining to veto the Legislature’s lavish pay raise. But Jindal is also playing to a national audience these days, and on that front, he’s taking a different sort of hit.

While Louisiana voters are up in arms over the revelation that Jindal is not above cutting political deals, the deal killer elsewhere in the country could be an unrelated bill that he signed last week, state Sen. Ben Nevers’ “Louisiana Science Education Act.”

Slide show.

CSA News

Jun 12th, 2008

Press Release: Reject SB 733
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New group stands up for sound science education in Louisiana

LA Coalition for Science decries House support for SB 733, calls for Senate to reject bill
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Discovery Institute

Baton Rouge — By a vote of 94-3, Louisiana’s House of Representatives today passed an academic freedom bill that would protect teachers and school districts who wish to promote critical thinking and objective discussion about evolution and other scientific topics.

There was no vocal opposition, and the floor speech by Rep. Frank Hoffman made clear that the bill was about science, not religion.

Good luck guys. It worked for you in Dover.
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