And so upon Tue, 03 Feb 2004 18:31:17 +0000 didst Jason Spaceman speak
thusly:

Georgia has ambitions of becoming the next big high-tech state, a new center
of scientific achievement in fields ranging from cancer research to
nanotechnology.

So much for that idea...

And so upon Tue, 03 Feb 2004 18:31:17 +0000 didst Jason Spaceman speak
thusly:

Georgia has ambitions of becoming the next big high-tech state, a new center
of scientific achievement in fields ranging from cancer research to
nanotechnology.

So much for that idea...

On Tue, 3 Feb 2004 18:31:17 +0000 (UTC), Jason Spaceman
<I@eat.spammers.for.breakfast.com>, Message ID:
<bvof3k$v2h8e$1@ID-219258.news.uni-berlin.de> wrote in alt.atheism;

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0202-09.htm

Published on Monday, February 2, 2004 by the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
In a State That will Live in Infamy
by Jay Bookman


Georgia has ambitions of becoming the next big high-tech state, a new
center of scientific achievement in fields ranging from cancer research
to nanotechnology. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been
committed to that effort, which our business and political leaders say
is essential to the state's future prosperity. And the most important
factor in the success of that effort will be our ability to recruit
science-oriented companies and personnel to the state.

Meanwhile, Georgia is removing the word "evolution" from its middle
school and high school curriculum guide because it is deemed to be "a
buzzword that causes a lot of negative reaction," according to the state
school superintendent.

And it's not just the word that disappears: The proposed changes will
also gut much of the instruction that would allow an understanding of
evolution's underpinnings. Other changes are being made as well,
including deletion of mention that the Earth has a long history, because
such a statement conflicts with literal interpretations of the Bible
claiming that the Earth is young.

Yeah, this move to high-tech is gonna work out just fine.

As of last week, news of our backslide into the 19th century had been
published in newspapers all over the country, including The New York
Times, Los Angeles Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Kansas City Star and
the San Jose Mercury News, which serves the center of the high-tech
universe, Silicon Valley. Imagine the impact of that.

It is not merely that scientists will now be reluctant to bring their
families to a state where their children will be miseducated, although
that will hurt immensely. It is not merely that company executives will
now be leery of depending on a work force produced by such schools,
although that, too, will be damaging. More fundamentally, they will be
wary of an overall political climate so clearly hostile to science and
to scientific methods and inquiry.

Kathy Cox, the state school superintendent ultimately responsible for
this fiasco, has tried to defend the changes as somehow consistent with
science, since it opens up the curriculum to supposed challengers to
Darwinian evolution. As she points out, science and scientific theories
must always remain open to criticism, challenge and if necessary to
revision.

However, that struggle for truth can and must take place within science
itself. Notions such as "intelligent design" and creationism have failed
to make any headway within real science because they fail fundamental
scientific standards of logic and consistency. As a result, those who
believe in those theories have tried to move their struggle for
acceptance out of science and into the political world, where they can
make more progress.

Within science, Darwinian evolution is not controversial or considered
under serious challenge, and hasn't been for a century. Evolution is
real, it is observable and can be documented. In fact, adaption through
competition can be seen in other aspects of life as well, such as
economics.

In an increasingly global economy, Georgians will face more and more
direct competition for jobs and profits, a competition in which once
again the fit will thrive and those less adaptable will suffer. We
already know that we will not be able to compete with places such as
China for the low-wage, low-skill work that has long sustained Georgia,
and will have to instead rely on superior education and knowledge-based
skills to maintain our standard of living. That's why the move to high
tech is considered so important.

And yet last week, as Georgia was pretending that the word "evolution"
was too controversial to mention, scientists in China were announcing
that they had documented how the SARS virus had twice evolved -- excuse
me, had "changed biologically over time" -- as it migrated from animals
to human beings.

You think about something like that and you realize: If they're right
about the survival of the fittest, we're in a mess of trouble.

Jay Bookman is the deputy editorial page editor.

© 2004 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The whole Georgia evolution thing, and some people linking it to the
Kansas debacle of a few years ago, got me thinking. I seem to
remember a story, shortly after the Kansas/evolution controversy in
1999, about a bio-tech or some other high-tech firm that was
considering building a research facility/manufacturing centre/whatever
in Kansas; but they changed their minds around the time of the Kansas
school board's evolution decision and apparently the governor of
Kansas had to fly to this company's headquarters to try and convince
them to reconsider.

Does anyone have anymore info? Or was I just hallucinating?

J. Spaceman