The bizarrest "logic" ever:

from the NYTimes:

'PENSACOLA, Fla., April 29 -- Robert and Schon Passmore took their children to Disney World last fall and left bitterly disappointed. As Christians who reject evolutionary theory, the family scoffed at the park's dinosaur attractions, which date the apatosaurus, brachiosaurus and the like to prehistoric times.

'"My kids kept recognizing flaws in the presentation," said Mrs. Passmore, of Jackson, Ala. "You know -- the whole 'millions of years ago dinosaurs ruled the earth' thing."

'So this week, the Passmores sought out a lower-profile Florida attraction: Dinosaur Adventure Land, a creationist theme park and museum here that beckons children to "find out the truth about dinosaurs" with games that roll science and religion into one big funfest with the message that Genesis, not science, tells the real story of the creation. ... there are dinosaur bone replicas, with accompanying explanations that God made dinosaurs on Day 6 of the creation as described in Genesis, 6,000 years ago.'

...

'Creationist groups are also promoting creationist vacations, including dinosaur digs in South Dakota, fossil-collecting trips in Australia and New Zealand, and tours of the Grand Canyon ("raft the canyon and learn how Noah's flood contributed to the formation"). ... At Dinosaur Adventure Land, visitors can make their own Grand Canyon replica with sand and read a sign deriding textbooks for teaching that the Colorado River formed the canyon over millions of years: "This is clearly not possible. The top of the Grand Canyon is 4,000 feet higher than where the river enters the canyon! Rivers do not flow up hill!"

[...at this point in my reading, I stopped and wondered to myself: is it possible that they're just metally impaired in their comprehension of mechanics somehow? That this whole bizarre imposition of a historical start-point is the result of a simple disability affecting their understanding of movement, change, of how time is itself a factor in cause-effect equations?

But no, I don't think so. I think it's just that some people like an idea so much, they go around happily looking to confirm it... and become capable of metal acrobatics that can only leave an observer standing amazed.

It won't be too much longer before they're burning witches at the stake.


In related news, Lake Powell (the lake above the dam that now feeds Grand Canyon) is disappearing, down to 40% of its former self:

PAGE, Ariz. -- At five years and counting, the drought that has parched much of the West is getting much harder to shrug off as a blip.

Those who worry most about the future of the West -- politicians, scientists, business leaders, city planners and environmentalists -- are increasingly realizing that a world of eternally blue skies and meager mountain snowpacks may not be a passing phenomenon but rather the return of a harsh climatic norm.

Continuing research into drought cycles over the last 800 years bears this out, strongly suggesting that the relatively wet weather across much of the West during the 20th century was a fluke. In other words, scientists who study tree rings and ocean temperatures say, the development of the modern urbanized West -- one of the biggest growth spurts in the nation's history -- may have been based on a colossal miscalculation.

...

Powell, part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, has lost nearly 60 percent of its water and is now about the size it was during the Watergate hearings in 1973, when it was still filling up. White cliffs 10 stories high, bleached by salts from the lake and stranded above the water, line its side canyons. Elsewhere, retreating waters have exposed mountains of sediment.

The tourist economy here in Page has been battered. The National Park Service, which operates the recreation area, has spent millions of dollars in recent years just to lay concrete for boat-launch ramps that must be extended every year, a process that one marina operator here called "chasing water."

...

If water levels continue to fall, Powell will be unable to generate electricity as early as 2007 or sooner, some hydrologists say. And it would be reduced more or less to the old riverbed channel of the Colorado River not long after that. Even now, the lake's managers say, it would take a decade of historically normal rainfall to refill it.

...

Insufficient water for the Glen Canyon Dam turbines would be only the beginning. At that point, much of the lake bottom would be exposed, creating a vast environment for noxious weeds like tamarisk and thistle. The next step in the spiral would come at what is called "dead pool," where decades' worth of agricultural chemicals at the lake bottom would begin mixing more actively with the reactivated river. The question then, environmentalists say, is what would happen to the Grand Canyon, just south of the dam.

...

Already in Las Vegas, the regional water agency is removing the equivalent of a football field of grass every day from front lawns, playgrounds and golf courses to save on outdoor watering. Farther downriver, Arizona officials are pumping billions of gallons of water into aquifers to save for an even less rainy day.

.[
Problem: too many people, too few resources.
Solution: All men, women, and children who believe that God created Grand Canyon in a flash must relocate to somewhere wetter.
Why: Because if God in His infinite wisdom created this region uninhabitable for large organized groups of Man, then it is the duty of His believers to hear His command and have their large organized groups collectively piss off.
And Anyway: Geologically stunning places are wasted on those who reject geologic time.  ¶ 2:43 PM

  from the NYTimes:

'California will prohibit the use of 15,000 of voting machines from Diebold Inc. in the November election because of of security and reliability concerns, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley announced today.

'Mr. Shelley also said that he was recommending that the state's attorney general look into possible civil and criminal charges against Diebold, and said that the company may have committed fraud in its dealings with the state.

'The move is the first "decertification" of controversial touchscreen voting machines, which have appeared by the tens of thousands across the nation as states scramble to upgrade their election technology. Opponents of the high-tech systems argue that the systems are less secure than what they replace, so that that the electoral process could be hacked. Without a paper trail in real time to show the votes, they argue, electoral mischief could go undetected and recounts could be impossible....'

One big step forward for the state of California, but the rest of the US needs to follow suit before it's too late!

  ¶ 8:48 PM

  British-born poet Thom Gunn, known for mastery of form

Associated Press


SAN FRANCISCO - Thom Gunn, the prize-winning British-born poet who
explored contemporary California counterculture in a variety of poetic
forms, died Sunday night, his partner said. He was 74.

Gunn died in his sleep at his home in San Francisco, his adopted city for
40 years, said Mike Kitay, his partner of 52 years. Kitay said he believed
Gunn died of a heart attack, but the medical examiner is still determining
the cause of death.

"I thought he was possibly the best living poet in English," said Wendy
Lesser, an author and editor of the literary journal, The Threepenny
Review. "Unlike most poets, he was equally at home in rhyme and non-rhyme,
in free verse and patterned rhythms."

Gunn was born in Gravesend, England, on Aug. 29, 1929. His parents, both
journalists, divorced when he was 9. His mother committed suicide when he
was 15.

Gunn, who graduated from Trinity College in Cambridge in 1953, was part of
a group of British poets known as "The Movement" that included Philip
Larkin, Kingsley Amis and Donald Davie.

Gunn was recognized early as one of postwar Britain's most promising young
poets, publishing his first book, "Fighting Terms," when he was 25.

In 1954, Gunn moved to California with Kitay, an American he had met at
Cambridge who inspired many of Gunn's love poems.

Gunn taught at the University of California, Berkeley from 1958 to 1966
and from 1973 to 1990, but gave up a tenured position because he couldn't
stand attending department meetings.

Gunn received many literary awards: the Forward Prize, England's largest
poetry prize, in 1992; a $369,000 MacArthur Fellowship in 1993; and the
prestigious David Cohen British Literature Prize last year.

But Gunn remained an "outlaw" in spirit, Kitay said. He wore leather when
he lectured, identified with biker culture, experimented with LSD, wrote
poems extolling the gay bathhouse culture of the 1970s.

Members of the literary community praised Gunn's work as a poet.

Robert Pinsky, a former U.S. poet laureate and professor at Boston
University, said: "His poems attain a cool clarity, an ability to be
morally discerning but not judgmental; amused but engaged."

Poet Philip Levine said: "He had such an affinity for the odd man out, the
non-belonger, the despised, the downtrodden. He had this sympathy and
insight, and he really humanized these people and made them loveable in
his poems."

Gunn is survived by Kitay and his brother, Ander Gunn, of Penzance, England.
  ¶ 3:59 PM