Strange Juxtaposition

In today's New York Times, there are two interesting stories--actually at least three, but I'll get to the third in a sec. What's really interesting is how the article on jellyfish contrasts with the article on the Kansas school board and evolution. In the latter, the point is that scientists are "opting out" of the debate on creationism because the debate is really one of politics, not science--because you can't have a scientific debate with non-scientific creationists, whatever they call it today (i.e., "intelligent design"). But the Times reports the scientific work on " cnidarians," i.e., jellyfish, which is all about evolutionary theory. In other words, while scientists have become increasingly despondent about the politics of creationism, the elite consensus on eolutionary theory seems to be unaffected . . . . I would say that the "Two Americas" is alive and well.

The third interesting story was on the solar sail. Oh, my dreams of sailing the stars may some day come true. The best part, however, was that the satellite was launched from a Russian ballastic submarine! A peaceful use for military technology, at last.