Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

This page replaces the Short Takes sections of previous newsletter issues. I will add newspaper articles as I find them on the online newspapers. Some of these online newspapers may require registration.

December 24

December 26

Why psychic detectives should be hung by their short hairs...

January 1

January 13

Eddie, you are a great guy but we need to starting dating other people...

March 1

Oh, poor persecuted Discovery Institute...

March 8

When it rains, it pours ...lawsuits!

March 30

If it is natural, it's got to be good, right?!

April 11

Paradise lost ... and maybe regained.

April 24

I guess that we can take solace in the fact that transcendental meditation is not being taught in the science classes!

April 29

After being jerked around by these police psychics, it is a wonder that the police don't arrest the psychics!

May 2

NPR covers the creationism/evolution issue (Requires Real One Player or Windows Media Player)

May 6

The people have spoken in Darby - keep religion out of the science class!

May 13

Mystery fainting blamed on witchcraft! Everything sure has gone downhill since that Salem incident gave witches such a bad name!

Enough testimonials! Are you planning any long term scientific studies?

May 17

Well, Ms. McKeever. Nice to know that you didn't let all that science stuff get in the way of your religion!

May 18

Transcendental Meditation! That is like so 70s!

May 24

A few witches burning gets a little toasty here - Tori Amos "God"

May 30

Be careful! Peer review is not the cure all that some believe it to be!

June 3

Bacteria can be our friend as well as our enemy.

June 9

Sheep in wolf's clothing?

June 10

The battle of creationism Vs evolution rages on in Pennsylvania!

June 13

Evolution is so bloody boring! Let us hear a good creation myth.

June 19

Oh, no! It's Godzilla! Even worse, he has got a Bible!

June 20

I do not know which is worse - excessive government meddling through zoning or this New Age silliness!

June 24

Natural means safe - the alternative medicine mantra that kills!

June 27

Science has never claimed to be in the miracle business!

June 29

Polio! What better way for children to learn to suffer for God?!

July 1

Another unexplained fireball in the sky. I emphasize the word unexplained!

July 9

Question: Why does God perform so well for these studies that support the medical curative power of prayer, but does so little for all the other people who suffer every day from disease and injury?

July 20

If evolution and atheism are so intertwined, why is evolution proponent Kenneth Miller a committed Christian?

July 25

Superstition is like Lay's potato chips - You can't just have one!

August 3

This article reminds me of when in the movie The Year of Living Dangerously when Billy Kwan keeps repeating "What now must we do?!"

August 5

What! No projectile vomiting? No rotating heads? Maybe, these demons need to watch the Exorcist again!

August 6

Being half Irish, I kind of like this theory!

August 12

From Russia with bunk!

August 13

Hurricane Charley hit the Florida coast on Friday the 13th . Hmmmm....

August 14

Why do we look for a "miracle" at Lourdes when stem cell research can do far more!

August 16

Nothing like expanding markets to keep pseudoscience going and going!

August 17

What the hell! Ray meant well, right?

It is an uphill struggle for evidence based medicine in South Africa.

August 25

Drug prevention based on science! What a novel concept!

September 1

Baby snatching in the name of the Lord!

Is the lynching of witches really genocide against older women?

Government funds going towards psychics - Isn't that a faith based initiative?

September 7

Why stop there, Mr. Colic? Do we really need science classes? Let's replace them with Bible classes!

September 11

Another variation on the theme - the desire for a magical something that you can tap into to make your life better.

September 13

Talk about rocky relationships with your neighbors!

September 14

A program worth watching!

September 18

Sure, let her speak. But if she channels for a spirit, they will have to split the speaker's fee!

September 26

More on baby snatching in the name of the Lord!

September 30

Even if antioxidants do good things, eating fruits and vegetables is more satisfying than taking a pill!

October 15

If the spell works, she did it. If the spell does not work, there was no curse for her spell to work on. What a racket!

October 18

The brain is not a flawless video camera attached to an equally flawless VCR. Sometimes, it malfunctions.

October 19

Education, not excessive government regulation, is the answer to pseudoscience.

October 20

Is science what the politicians say it is?

October 26

Actually, I think that the Grand Canyon is God's bathtub...

November 4

Ouija boards - the pet rock of the occult!

It is a wonder that they can breath with their heads buried in the sand!

November 12

Again, superstition is not always innocent fun! It can hurt people!

November 17

Promoting creationism at the Grand Canyon - another faith based initiative?

November 18

Talking is good. However, the only thing that ultimately talks in science is evidence.

November 19

Kansas, are you listening? You want to teach science. You have to teach evolution.

November 22

Let us not forget that science is not subject to opinion polls.

November 23

Symbolic moves that make you feel good are sometimes counterproductive.

November 24

Contemplating our mortality is difficult even for atheists.

December 4

We must be patient. Sometimes, ending superstition may require the present generation to die off.

December 5

It is tough being a science teacher when your school system is run by idiots!

December 7

The Intelligent Design movement continues to evolve!

December 12

Dover is just part of a greater lunacy!

December 21

Intelligent Design - a creation of the Religious Right?

December 27

Thank you, Phyllis Schlafly, for your scientifically informed opinion! Do you want your Nobel Prize now?

December 30

Why didn't the roadkill along the side of the highway "sense" the oncoming car?

January 4

Yeah first, we show an exorcism! Next thing we know, Satan will want his own cable show!

January 9

Are we at a pivotal moment in science education?

January 14

Now we need warning stickers on the Cobb County school board members that says that they are nothing but religious zealots!

January 15

I have no problem with a debate over evolution. However, it needs to be argued among the experts before it reaches public schools.

January 18

As if day spas have even been scientifically sound!

January 19

If you can't beat them, join them! Thus started the marriage of faith and science that gave birth to a horribly disfigured child named Intelligent Design!

Intelligent Design has begun its triumphant debut in Dover. Who is going to tell the Emperor that he is wearing no clothes?

January 20

What Jeffrey does not understand is that discussion about Intelligent Design without a skeptical viewpoint does a disservice to PBS viewers.

January 22

Critical thinking requires sufficient knowledge before it can come to valid conclusions.

January 27

Here is a good textbook sticker: In this textbook is the consensus of human knowledge. Feel free to disregard it based on what your preacher tell you!

February 2

Watch for my April 2005 article on this issue!

February 10

I think that the glue on all those stickers are causing dementia in our school boards!

How can we make the right decisions without all the facts?

February 14

Horses are the perfect patients. They cannot tell you how full of crap you are!

February 17

Wow! Mankind, you don't look a day older than 6,000 years old! What is your secret for looking so young to the creationists?

February 23

Come on, creationists! Intelligent Design is a much better way to attack godless evolution.

February 28

Balancing science and religious belief in medicine can be tricky.

March 1

People need to know more about why evolution is the cornerstone of biology.

Faith based prison programs - solution or panacea?

March 2

Alternative medicine and cow dung - it is so hard to tell the difference!

March 7

Alternative medicine going mainstream!

March 14

What is not forbidden is allowed - words spoken by every idiot in human history who couldn't care less who is hurt by his or her actions!

March 19

Science suffers in the South - what else is new?

March 28

Charles Colson - the scientist!

April 1

If only this story was an April Fools Joke!

April 2

Staking your health and sports career on the Bible.

April 6

Kansas is not through battling science and the Constitution!

April 7

Home schoolers wooed back to public school with promises of including creationism within biology classes.

April 13

Supernaturally handicapping the horse race leading to the new pope.

Is anybody funding a study on whether skepticism safeguards you from life threatening pseudoscience?

April 20

Yeah, well. I saw Elvis in my soup last night!

Surf's up, dude! California has its own battles over evolution.

April 22

Here is my unbiased presentation on evolution vs creationism: Here is the evidence for evolution and here is the evidence for creationism.

April 25

Teach the misconceptions! That sounds so much better than "Teach the controversy".

April 26

Natural = Always Safe. Are you willing to base your health on this premise?

April 28

Richard Dawkins talks about evolution, religion and science.

May 2

Young earth creationism - how to cook up nature in a microwave!

May 3

Excuse me, teacher. I know that you have an advanced degree in Biology. But I got a certificate from my Bible summer camp and I believe that this certificate trumps your degree...

May 5

The day the science died - in Kansas!

Oh, yeah. Well, my father's blood type can beat up your father's blood type!

May 7

I love the way that the Florida Times Union ignores the need for balance when it covers pseudoscience in Jacksonville.

Wolves in sheep's clothing let the wool slip and reveal the wolf fur underneath!

May 19

A whole lot of wisdom from the Boss(Those of us raised on Dilbert may consider the phrase 'wise boss' to be an oxymoron, but the Boss is certainly wise here)!

Dover Pennsylvania evolution policy is causing quite a furor.

May 23

Brave teacher opens the door for the defense of evolution in the courts.

May 25

Miracles look so much better when you view them from a distance!

May 27

You had me at support for evolution, but lost me with the liberal politics.

May 28

Smithsonian Institute - science's Judas?

May 31

Evolutionary changes does not always need lots of little changes over time.

June 1

OK, Judas, you are welcome back into the Twelve! Just be careful who you hang out with!

June 6

Yes and Fred Flinstone is based upon the latest archeological evidence...

June 10

It is amazing that someone could take so many science classes and have no idea what science is about!

June 13

John, when you have a good theory, let us know. We will be glad to hear it. Just not in the classroom...

Just like the Catholic Church told Galileo to stop using reason and start reading his Bible, Kansas Christians tell scientists to throw out mountains of evidence backing evolution and instead read Genesis!

June 17

Sure,if you define God as an absent father, evolution makes a lot of sense...

June 20

After I read this article, I had to wash out my eyes to get rid of the sting that came from such illogic!

June 26

Hey, pseudoscience! Here's how to get false credibility. Stand next to science and try to convince everyone that you two are best of friends.

June 27

Umm, God. I am afraid that we are going to have fire you. We like you, but we have found you to be an incompetent engineer...

June 30

What's that sound?! Oh, that is just the Cleveland health education museum's credibility plummeting to the ground.

July 4

The more that things change, the more that they stay the same...

© 2004, 2005 Curtis Wolf