One way to try to prevent education from working

Is to deny that knowledge is both liberal and liberating. Cease questioning! Stop realizing there are more ways than one to find a solution! Stop it!

Because it's been very handy that stupid people obediently follow leaders like sheep....

I get comments....

On this post about Thomas Jefferson not being a Christian:

"Thomas jefferson was a a secret muslim and practised polygamy. They just found out that his ancestors were arabs."

Hmm.. This is either someone incredibly stupid or hilariously prankish. So... a quick google. This company: The Wellcome Trust funded this college: University of Leicester to have their geneticists do a DNA check on the DNA of Thomas Jefferson. One of the projects is:

Sequencing of the human genome at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

Ok, so far so good. So, what is this about Jefferson?: (my bold)

Almost 10 years ago, the University of Leicester team, led by Professor Mark Jobling, together with international collaborators, showed that Thomas Jefferson had fathered at least one of the sons of Sally Hemings, a slave of Jefferson’s.

The work was done using the Y chromosome, a male-specific part of our DNA that passes down from father to son. Jefferson carried a very unusual Y chromosome type, which helped to strengthen the evidence in the historical paternity case.

Now, new techniques have been brought to bear on Jefferson’s Y chromosome, in a study reported in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. The presidential chromosome turns out to belong to a rare class called ‘K2’, which is found at its highest frequency in the Middle East and Eastern Africa, including Oman, Somalia and Iraq. Its closest match was in a man from Egypt. Could this mean that the President had recent ancestry in the Middle East? A careful survey revealed a few K2 chromosomes in France, Spain and England. Together, the K2s form a diverse group that may, in fact, have been in western Europe for many thousands of years.

Further evidence for Jefferson’s British origins come from the finding that two out of 85 randomly recruited men named Jefferson share exactly the same Y chromosome as the President. Prof Jobling said: ‘The two men have ancestry in Yorkshire and the West Midlands, and knew of no historical connection to the USA. They were amazed and fascinated by the link, which connects them into Thomas Jefferson’s family tree, probably about 11 generations ago.’

The ultimate origins of K2 chromosomes remain a mystery, however, and need further investigation: while they may have been present in Europe since the Stone Age, another possibility is that K2s came to Europe with the Phoenicians, an ancient maritime trading culture that spread out across the Mediterranean from their home in what is now Lebanon. The US media has taken up a different theory, leading to the New York Times headline, ‘Jefferson – the first Jewish president?’: European K2 chromosomes may originate in Sephardic (Spanish) Jewish populations, who have their ultimate origins in the Middle East.

Prof Jobling said: ‘When we look closely at large collections of British Y chromosomes we find surprises, like this rare K2 lineage, and the African chromosome that we recently found in a Yorkshireman. These exotic chromosomes remind us of the complexity of British history and prehistory.’

So the poor benighted fool who frothed at the thought that Jefferson had 'impure' blood most decidedly has 'exotic DNA' in his lineage as well. In fact we ALL have African blood.

Welcome to the gene pool, pal!

The first clue was the abandoned beach umbrella?

Several studies in recent years have claimed evidence for shorelines and other features that suggest ancient lakes on Mars. Firm evidence has remained elusive.

Now a University of Colorado at Boulder research team claims "the first definitive evidence of shorelines on Mars" in a statement released today.

The scientists see signs of "a deep, ancient lake," which would have implications for the potential for past life on Mars. Life as we know it requires water, and while Mars is dry now, if there was abundant water in the past -- as many studies have suggested -- then life would have been a possibility. There is, however, no firm evidence that life does or ever did exist on the red planet.

Researchers estimate the lake existed more than 3 billion years ago. It covered as much as 80 square miles and was up to 1,500 feet deep -- roughly the equivalent of Lake Champlain bordering the United States and Canada, said Gaetano Di Achille, who led the study out of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The shoreline evidence, found along a broad delta, included a series of alternating ridges and troughs thought to be surviving remnants of beach deposits.

"This is the first unambiguous evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars," Di Achille said. "The identification of the shorelines and accompanying geological evidence allows us to calculate the size and volume of the lake, which appears to have formed about 3.4 billion years ago."

I bet he left the lid up, too

Because he certainly forgot to flush:

Washington D.C (AHN) - Fossilized feces, dating back some 14,000 years, is said to be the oldest evidence of human habitation found in North America. The ancient poop offers new DNA evidence about the identity of the first North Americans.

Researchers from the University of Oregon and University of Copenhagen made the discovery after examining DNA found in the oldest of the droppings recovered from caves in Oregon. The sample was carbon-dated and found to be approximately 14,340 years old.

The fossil contains two main genetic types of Asian origin considered unique to present-day Native Americans. The new findings offer proof that immigration took place more than 1,000 years earlier than otherwise believed.These genetic data suggest that the earliest North American settlers hailed from Eastern Asia and Siberia.

Researchers published their findings Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science.

University of Oregon archaeologist Dennis Jenkins found the feces in the Paisley caves, which are located in the south-central part of the state.

English majors are the new terrorists

They will explode your world with a well-placed comma, strafe your comfort zone with devastating puns, and nail you with an expletive.

Phyllis Schlafly, please attempt to have carnal knowledge with your most intimate parts in a manner known to be physically challenging. Chet Scoville of The Vanity Press explains.

Forsooth!

Update: I bet Schlafly would think Rumsfeld would balance out the evil liberalness of universities. Note the last comment. How much do you bet he's one of these dirty effing tolerant liberal hippie types?

STANFORD, California (CNN) -- Students and professors at Stanford University are protesting Donald Rumsfeld's appointment to a campus think tank, saying the former defense secretary does not uphold the "ethical values" of the school.

Shortly after Rumsfeld's appointment was announced in September, professor Pamela Lee began an online petition from faculty members opposed to bringing him to the Hoover Institution.

Since then, the petition has gained more than 3,500 signatures, including nearly 300 faculty members from such diverse disciplines as law, computer science, electrical engineering and drama.

"We view the appointment as fundamentally incompatible with the ethical values of truthfulness, tolerance, disinterested inquiry, respect for national and international laws, and care for the opinions, property and lives of others to which Stanford is inalienably committed," the petition reads.

[snip]

"Many of us believe that Donald Rumsfeld, in his role as secretary of defense, has behaved in ways that are dishonorable, disgraceful and always disingenuous," said Dr. Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology.

"Rumsfeld authorized a list of interrogation methods that violated the Geneva Convention and the Convention against Torture used on detainees at Guantanamo Bay ... and Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison," said Zimbardo, whose most recent book, "The Lucifer Effect," finds that given the right "situational" influences, anyone can be made to participate in violent and depraved acts.

Lee said her position does not discourage debate or public exchange of ideas.

"Let me stress that the petition objects to Rumsfeld's appointment as Distinguished Visiting Fellow, an appointment we find without merit," Lee said. "In fact, there is nothing in the language of the petition that says Mr. Rumsfeld is forbidden to air his views at Stanford or is not welcome for a public lecture or open forum."

But not everyone disagrees with the appointment.

"Personally I disagree with his politics," said Brett Hammon, a political science major. "But at the same time, I'm not sure I think it would be prudent for the university to refuse hiring him just because most students disagree with his politics. I know I would hate it if I went to school in Texas and the university refused to hire a prominent liberal politician just because most of the student body was conservative."

Andrew Card gets loudly and soundly booed

For more than a solid minute when he gets his honorary degree at University of Massachusetts:



Damned edjukated folks at them univer cities! They's supposed ta just accept stuff rather than read things and think! Looke what happens!

Update: More YouTubed goodness:

College professors are mysteriously hostile towards fundamentalists

Why on earth would this be so? Molly Ivors at Whiskey Fire quotes The Washington Post:

Tobin asked professors at all kinds of colleges -- public and private, secular and religious, two-year and four-year -- to rate their feelings toward various religious groups, from very warm or favorable to very cool or unfavorable. He said he designed the question primarily to gauge anti-Semitism but found that professors expressed positive feelings toward Jews, Buddhists, Roman Catholics and most other religious groups.

The only groups that elicited highly negative responses were evangelical Christians and Mormons.

Molly Ivors notes:

Nelson's point, that evangelicals oppose scientific and other forms of rational reasoning, is pretty indisputable, and likely to piss off those who dedicate their lives to serious study. But it's passed over quickly in the WaPo. Scholarship and intellectual inquiry--and the important pedagogical technique of pushing students past their comfort zone--are seen here as some wacky form of political correctness, some bizarre academic habit, like wearing hoods and beanies, running mandated national searches for positions for which there is an ample local talent pool, and unionizing.

Those weird zany ivory tower education guys! Just goes to show you how overly edjamicated we are and all the schooling we need is high school....

Outreach to Virginia Tech from those who really understand

Via the Guardian:

BAGHDAD (AP) - Students in Baghdad, where universities have been hard-hit by violence, said they were saddened by last week's massacre at Virginia Tech and hung up a banner to express their solidarity with ``our brothers in humanity and in pursuing knowledge.''

``We want to let the whole world know that we do not support terrorism anywhere,'' said Yassir Nazar, head of the student union at Baghdad Technology University, who organized the hanging of the banner near the campus gate.

It reads, ``We, the students of Technology University, denounce the attack at Virginia Tech. We extend our condolences to the families of the victims who faced a situation as bad as Iraq's universities do. The sanctity of campuses must be protected around the world.''

``We have lost many friends and professors,'' Nazar said Monday. ``But in spite of our wounds, we want to show our solidarity with the students of Virginia Tech who are our brothers in humanity and in pursuing knowledge.''

Mass purges at Iran universities

"Iranian students say there is a second cultural revolution under way in the universities with scores of professors forcibly retired and politically active students being threatened with expulsion.

Student anger exploded with an unprecedented show of defiance when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went to Tehran's Amir Kabir University on 12 December. "