It’s Pi Day! Go do some math and bake some pies, people.
- Anonymous has announced another peaceful protest to be held tomorrow as part of Project (or Operation) Chanology, their protest against Scientology.
- Argentinian gnome roams the streets scaring kids– Caught on tape!
- Biblefight!– You’re not really working on a Friday anyway, are you?
- Expelled still sucks– PZ reports that only about 100 people were at a showing in Florida.
A showing that they paid people to attend. - Shivani Sud takes first prize in Intel Science Talent Search– She won for her research into improving colon cancer treatment. I just love the picture of her with the huge smile, it made my morning.
Don’t forget to enter the Limerick Contest. Remember, you could win your very own personalized signature cocktail recipe.
Amanda,
Great lineup of skeptical news.
However, a clarification for the Ben Stein Expelled item. The Discovery Institute did NOT pay people to attend the Imax Screening. They paid for the space, and invited legislators and members of the public to attend for free.
I’m sure this was an unintentional error on your part. PZ’s article states: “They paid to have people attend for free…” with emphasis on the word paid, which does make it seem a bit ambiguous.
I agree that the Discovery Institute are in the wrong here, with the whole idea of making Expelled, but even so, they deserve an accurate representation of their foibles.
Not being able to fill half a theater for a free movie, to my mind, is still pretty indicative of the lack of interest on the part of the public.
Thanks for catching that!
Shivani Sud? Indian. Yeah man.
Zomg! That gnome is “creepy”! I wonder what it is…
To further expand upon things — the Discovery Institute actually WAS planning to pay people to attend screenings.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/01/expelled_not_even_released_and.php
And still is, as far as I know. But only Christians.
It is amusing that, despite all the claims about ID being non-sectarian and rational, only Christian schools are mentioned.
Note that a key fact here was that the public was NOT invited to attend. This was a showing for Florida lawmakers exclusively, meant to lobby them into voting for the ridiculous “science teachers can tell students that there are no transitional fossils without fear of being called incompetent” bill.
Damn, and I used to love watching Win Ben Stein’s Money.
Stupid bible fight, being all awesome and distracting me from my other video games…
But there are only 30 days in April!
Or you can rap about Pi!
Check out the pi song on teachpi.org called “Lose Yourself (In The Digits)”.
http://www.teachpi.org/music/rap.htm
See the Pi day cartoon at Savage Chickens: http://www.savagechickens.com/blog/2008/03/pi.html
I’ve only just realised why 14/03/08 has been designated Pi day.
Rebecca,
Thanks for the additional info. So, this one screening in Florida, nobody was paid to attend. But when the movie is in its main theatrical release, schools who turn in ticket stubs will get donations for the school. Huh. I’m curious to see if this will increase numbers or not.
You people who put the date first get Pi Approximation Day: 22 July.