Update: Welcome, readers of Crooks and Liars! You may want to read the next blog post in this series when you finish the one below. This story gets better and better.

What the heck is wrong with Texas?

First, they get a creationist governor. Then their creationist governor appoints a creationist to head the State Board of Education.

And now, when Chris Comer, the Texas Education Agency’s director of science curriculum, sends out an email announcing a talk by anti_creationism advocate Barbara Forrest, the TEA forces her to resign.

Why? Hold on to your seats here, folks, because you won’t believe this:

[Texas Education] Agency officials cited the e-mail in a memo recommending her termination. They said forwarding the e-mail not only violated a directive for her not to communicate in writing or otherwise with anyone outside the agency regarding an upcoming science curriculum review, “it directly conflicts with her responsibilities as the Director of Science.”

The memo adds, “Ms. Comer’s e-mail implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker’s position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral.”

That’s right, the Texas Education Agency must remain neutral when it comes to science versus antiscience!

If a speaker came advocating astronomy over astrology, would that cause problems for TEA? How about an HIV denier? Could they speak out against such a person?

Funny. I would think that it would one of TEA’s biggest goals to promote science over antiscience, and to actually teach people the difference between reality and fantasy.

So Ms. Comer has been forced to resign, and she claims that it is political in nature, and that she is being railroaded. I am of the very strong opinion that she is absolutely correct. It’s very clear that at most she might have deserved to be reprimanded for sending out the email, even if the TEA policy about neutrality is really stupid. But if you read the whole article you’ll see that petty politics and pro-creationist administrators are behind this.

As noted anti-creationist Genie Scott commented in the article,

“This just underscores the politicization of science education in Texas,” Scott said. “In most states, the department of education takes a leadership role in fostering sound science education. Apparently TEA employees are supposed to be kept in the closet and only let out to do the bidding of the board.”

As you might expect, PZ has some things to say about this as well. So does Josh. In fact, expect to see this news hitting the science blogosphere like a bomb.

The fight against antiscience, the fight against theocracy, the fight against nonsense will never stop, because their minions are always lurking somewhere. Keep fighting, people. We must never tire. Because if we do:

Texas:

I will never, ever get tired of Hubble stunners.

That’s M74, a relatively nearby spiral galaxy in Pisces. Even at the terrifying distance of 100 30 million light years, this object can be seen with binoculars. It’s about 100,000 light years across, the same size as the Milky Way, and spirals that massive are rare in the Universe.

It’s face on to us; with almost no tilt at all. If you could transport yourself to M74 and look back toward home, we’d be tilted about 45 degrees with respect to your view.

This image is lush with treasure (click it to get the bigger versions; this compressed view I have here really drains the quality away). Where you see blue are regions where there are bright stars (which tend to be blue). The red areas are gas clouds of hydrogen (which glow at a characteristic red wavelength). Stars are being born there as you look. The yellowish center is where stars have not been born for billions of years; the majority of stars there are older, less massive, cooler, redder. The dark regions are dusty, filled with complex organic compounds which are very efficient at absorbing visible light. Like a city shrouded by fog, the galaxy’s starlight is hidden where dust lingers.

In M74 in 2002, a massive star, 20 times our Sun’s mass at least, detonated in a titanic explosion. It was an epic blast, and astronomers wondered if it might be a hypernova, a particularly energetic supernova. It had many of the same characteristics of a hypernova, though not all of them. Still, how big is such an explosion? Think on this: in the event, the thermonuclear heat and pressure were so high that alchemy took place. Lighter elements fused into heavier ones. The amount of nickel alone created was about 0.07 times the mass of the Sun. That is more than 20,000 times the mass of the Earth. It’s far more massive than all the planets, moons, and asteroids in our solar system combined. That nickel was ejected from the explosion at many kilometers per second, and will be scattered into the gas and dust in M74, where it will get mixed in and become part of a new generation of solar systems.

That image above is, at first glance, one of serene beauty and eminent permanence. But there are layers to it, veiled dangers beneath the luminescence, struggles between forces beyond our experience. Sometimes these struggles result in birth: stars, planets, even more basic building blocks. Sometimes they result in the destruction of these same things. But seen from the vast remoteness of a hundred million light years, they simply combine to form the magnificence of a grand design spiral galaxy.

I am busy and there’s too much to write about! So.

1) Go see Emily. She has cool stuff about 3D animations and very pretty pictures of the Moon from Kaguya!

2) Go see Fraser. He has cool images of Deimos and Phobos, the moons of Mars.

3) Go see Wired. They have a hilarious story about Futurama.

Tomorrow: new cool Hubble image. Stay tuned.

Many people dismiss space exploration as a luxury, but this attitude is not only wrong, it’s dangerous.

Satellite technology has revolutionized our planet in almost every way. Weather satellites help us track developing hurricanes, allowing meteorologists to warn people days in advance. That saves thousands of lives. Communication satellites allow us instant access to information all over the world using radio, television, and phones. Some people credit in part the fall of the Soviet Union to ease of information access; the people in those countries saw what the rest of the world was doing, accelerating the process of reform. GPS satellites allow us to track ships, airplanes, and even people who may be lost or in need of help.

Reaching outward into space has helped us in other ways as well. A fleet of satellites (YOHKOH, SOHO and others) study the Sun so that we can better understand it. Huge solar eruptions can damage satellites and cause power blackouts (like in Quebec in 1989), and the Sun directly influences our environment. Understanding the Sun is a critical use of space technology.

Exploring the other planets helps us put the Earth in context. Why is Mars dry, cold, nearly airless, and dead? Why is Venus covered in thick clouds and suffering a runaway greenhouse effect? Why do hurricanes on Jupiter last for centuries? All these questions (and thousands more) help us understand our own planet, and allow us to see how humans are affecting it. Certainly understanding asteroids is important– we need to learn how to move them in case one is heading our way; an asteroid impact could wipe out all humans on Earth, so our very future is tied to space travel.

There are simple technological reasons for space exploration as well. Some estimates say that for every dollar invested in the Apollo program, more than 20 have been returned. That’s a huge payoff! Computer tech, communications, rocketry, and many other fields have benefited hugely from space exploration.

And there is one more reason. Humans strive to learn, to explore, to push boundaries, to see what’s around the corner. This is in many ways a fundamental need, and space exploration is a fantastic manifestation of that. The Universe is huge, beautiful, mysterious, and, ultimately, knowable. Even if the other reasons were not there, this alone should be enough for us pursue our exploration.

It’s been a while (grumble grumble book was a huge timesink grumble) but it’s finally time for another BA Giveaway! This is the best one yet.

My friend and BABloggee Jack Hagerty is an author, but not just any author: he is a geek among geeks. He has a fantastic book called Spaceship Handbook that is an astonishing compendium of spaceships both real and imagined. This textbook-sized tome has details to satisfy even the nerdliest among us. Section upon section of George Pal! Chesley Bonestell! Movies you’ve never heard of but had awesome rockets!

If you read this blog — and you do — then you want this book. And now you can have one. Jack has graciously agreed to send the winner a copy of the book, and if you don’t win, he’s still showing the love by giving 15% off cover price if you order it. The holidays are coming, folks…

The rules are the same as before. All you need to do is go to the Bad Astronomy and Universe Today bulletin board. I’ve created a thread in the Fun-n-Games section called "Spaceship Handbook giveaway contest!" If you’re already a registered user, just post something in that thread, like "I’m a geek and I want this book!" It doesn’t matter what you post as long as you post. Post ONLY ONCE. If you post more than once I will delete the extra posts.

If you are not already registered at the board, it’s easy and free. We don’t charge anything, and we don’t do anything with your emails or info. I hate spammers more than you do, guaranteed (I get thousands of spams a day– and not just email but also comments on this blog and on the BAUT board!), so I swear that info stays in our database and that’s it.

On Monday, December 3rd at noon Mountain time I will close the thread. I’ll generate a random number, and whoever has that number post wins the book! I’ll send you a private message or email confirmation, and you can send me your snail mail address, which I will forward to Jack. There will be no cost to you at all.

This book has a section on the rocket used in the Josie and the Pussycats cartoon. You so want this.

To raise money for scholarships to help people get to The Amaz!ng Meeting 6 next June, there is an auction on James Randi’s forum. There is a picture there that might pique the interest of some BABlogees:

That’s Richard Saunders, Randi his own self, and me my own self, all gussied up for the formal night on the Amaz!ng Cruise to Alaska last September. The picture has been signed by all three of us, and is framed.

If you want to bid on it, hurry! The auction for this ends December 7th.

Phill Kline used to be Attorney General for Kansas, but lost out to Republican-turned-Democrat Paul Morrison in 2006. While he was AG, he was involved in the humiliation that was creationism and Kansas when the State Board of Education tried to downplay evolution in the science standards. Kline’s involvement was thus:

Also on February 9th [2005], State Attorney General Phill Kline announced during private meetings with the Board’s conservative majority members that he would defend the use of textbook stickers that say evolution is a theory, not a fact. Kline held two meetings, each attended by three members. Sue Gamble, a moderate Board member, said the meetings violated, in spirit, the state’s open-meetings law, which requires meetings of six or more board members be open to the public. Kline denied any violation, saying that discussions that took place were not kept secret. But the topic has already captured the attention of the press, particularly following last month’s ruling in Georgia that such stickers are unconstitutional. One op-ed contributed to the Kansas City Star cautioned that “sticky notes that challenge evolution as not factually based will invite a lawsuit, as they did in Georgia. That would cost the cash-strapped state money to mount a defense.”

One would expect the State AG to understand the idea of unconstitutionality, wouldn’t you?

Ah, but Kline, now a district attorney for Johnson County, has trouble with the law quite a bit. The most recent turn? It appears that he’s not a Johnson County resident:

Law requires that Phil Kline reside in Johnson County, where he serves as DA. If he doesn’t he must “resign or be removed from office.”

After weeks of staking out a crummy apartment–located on top of a storage facility owned by Phil Kline supporters where he pays $400 per month–KCTV5 never once saw Mr. Kline or his wife come home to the apartment.

Then after following Mr. Kline and his wife on camera numerous times from work they found both Phil Kline and his wife driving to Topeka and staying at a residence they own there. His wife also regularly picks up his daughter from a Topeka school and she too stays at the Topeka home with her parents.

Topeka, incidentally, is in Shawnee County, not Johnson County.

Oops! I guess when you spend a lot of time defending the falsehood that is creationism, you get used to bearing false witness. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Hard to say. Maybe Kline can ask Kent Hovind for advice.

Kline has a very skeevy past (google Phill Kline and Bill O’Reilly if you can stomach the results), with lots of shady goings-on. It sounds to me like we may be about to see another creationist (or at least a defender of such) go down in flames. If what they believe is true, then Kline better get used to flames.

Tip o’ the 1940s press fedora to C&L.