Decrepit Old Fool

A depressing score

I took the Pew Research Center Science Quiz, and got 100%, so I should be happy. But I’m not, because the questions were really easy (every single one has been in the news lately) and I read the “scores by demographic” part. It gave me that “we’re all doomed” feeling.

Notes:

Hat tip to Greg Laden, who got all of them right too.
Cujo359 took an unflinching look at the demographics of these test results, and it ain’t pretty.

Posted by George on 08/23/09 at 08:57 PM
(7) Comments • Link

Page 1 of 1 pages

Members:
Login | Register

Most recent entries

Sidebar Spotlight

Five constantly changing, carefully randomized, interesting stuff
Gulf Oil Slick blog
Congress.org - easily find your representatives and how to contact them
The Oil Drum - a fascinating oil industry site with lots of discussion about the BP spill among other energy topics
Who are the climate change skeptics?
An Open Letter to Conservatives
My PHOTOS
Speakeasy Science
My Google Reader items
Lucas' Google Reader items

Decrepitude

A few selected articles from the last few years. Feel free to nominate others because really, I can't remember what all I've written.

A brief history of FAIL

One Impossible Thing
9/11: five years on
Story from a picture
The Authority Gradient
If our lives are to have any meaning
What was lost
Cold and broken alleluia
Mary Mallon: being evil vs. being an evil
Artifacts of the long-gone man
Apple software review:
Because nature isn't waiting for us to wise up

About

Decrepit Old Fool is the online pseudonym I use so people won't know my real name is George Hussein Wiman. Scroll down for more boring information about me including my email address.

Go to Advanced Search

Currently reading:

Science and History

In semi-alphabetical order
Aetiology
Bad Astronomy
Baloney Detection Kit
Berkeley Understanding Evolution
Climate Progress Blog
Climate Denial Crock Of The Week
Deltoid
Damn Interesting (on hiatus)
Discovering Climate Change
Richard Dawkins portal
Earth Observatory
Evolutionary Timeline
Scott Hatfield's Monkey Trials
NCSE YouTube Channel
Wayne Hale's NASA blog
Greg Laden's Blog
International Polar year 07/08
JPL Blog
Logical Fallacies
Mike, The Mad Biologist
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub
National Center for Science Education
North State Science
Paulos, John Allen, Who's Counting
Open Mind
Panda's Thumb, The
Pump Handle, The
Randi, James
Real Climate
The Way Things Break
Respectful Insolence
Carl Sagan portal
Scientific Activist
Speakeasy Science
Swans On Tea
9/11 myths
Talk Origins dot org
Thoughts in a Haystack
Understanding Evolution at Berkeley
Unscrewing the Inscrutable
The Volcanism Blog
What's New
Carl Zimmer Blog

Science News and Sources

In no order yet
A few things ill-considered
Basic Concepts In Science
Science Daily
MIT Technology Review
New Scientist
...and Climate Guide for the Perplexed
Scientific American
Science News
World-Science
Wikipedia
How Stuff Works
What's New

Solutions

Websites that propose fixes to the big problems
The Algebra Project
Congress.org - easily find your representatives and how to contact them
Just Foreign Policy
Campaign For America's Future
American Friends Service Committee
Leroy pedals: Cycling For Scholarships
Cape Town Open-Education Declaration
Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation
Grist climate blog
World Changing
Bill & Melinda Gates
Climate Crisis
Department Of Peace
Make Poverty History
MIT Open Courseware
One laptop per child
American Energy Independence

Richard Dawkins' Out Campaign scarlet letter

Religion and Humanism

American Humanist Association
American Atheists
Daylight Atheism
Ethical Atheist
Evil Bible
Ex Christian .net
The Freethinker
FFRF
Friendly Atheist
Internet Infidels
Minister Turned Atheist
Rational Wiki
Religious Freedom Page
The Revealer
Why won't God heal amputees?
Council For Secular Humanism
Skeptics' Annotated Bible
Humanism
Atheist Revolution
PHACT.org

Comics!

Atheist Comics
Bizarro comic blog
Candorville
Cetic
Chaospet
Ctrl+Alt+Del
Real Life Comics
Slow Wave
Atheist Eve
Joy Of Tech
xkcd
SubNormality
Utopia Theory
Jesus & Mo
PartiallyClips
Odd Fish (pun warning)
Unshelved
Yahoo Comics

Favorite Podcasts

Skeptic's Guide To The Universe
Skepticality
Science Friday
Earth And Sky
Non-Prophets Radio

News

I check BBC news most
BBC News Online
BBS News
Economist, The
Yahoo News
Google News
Arab News
Jazeera, Al
Excite news
Fact Checker dot org
US National Debt Clock
Boston Globe's The Big Picture

Issues

End Software Patents
FIRE
First Amendment Center
Chilling Effects
American Civil Liberties Union
Media matters

Security

Security-specific links
Security Mentor
Bruce Schneier on security

Still unclassified...

A constantly rotating, changing, mutating list of the recently visited, people who post occasionally but wonderfully, and even people who use prepositions to end sentences with. Drop in on 'em!
New:

A through M
Bag News Notes
Beyond School
Boulder Dude
Buridan's Ass
Cafe Philos
Coyote Crossing
***Dave Does The Blog
Detroit Blog
Digital Cuttlefish (He's back!)
Dissident Voice
Doug's Dynamic Drivel
En Tequila Es Verdad
Eunoia
Fallacio.us
Fox, Hank
In These Times
Joe's Big Blog
I see Invisible People
Justice Day
KeesKennis
Life Cycle Analysis
Margaret And Helen
Monday Evening
MorningGlory2
Mostly Cajun
MrsDoF
N through Z
Negative Smart
Nobody Asked
One Happy Dog Speaks
Questionable Authority
Slacktivist
Slobber And Spittle
Smug Baldy Speaks
Testing the water
Terminal Ward, notes from
TwoBlueDay
Webs' Random Ideas
Wee Dram

Tech links

Make Use Of
Lefty.crupps' GNUski Bacon
HowTo Geek

Quote code experiment

Playing with a php script to insert a daily quote. Apparently, something about Expression Engine paths I'm not grasping.

Quote string goes here

; ?>

Creative Commons stuff

I tried to figure out the Creative Commons and Wikimedia stuff but it was like doing your taxes in another language. Short version: it's OK if you copy my stuff as long as you give attribution and you're willing to share what you make of it with others. Here's the little logo:

This work by George Wiman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

More boring information about me

'Decrepit Old Fool' was intended to be an ironic/humorous pseudonym; I am only one of those things but the other two are creeping up on me. It refers to being over fifty and working in a technology field, or to having grown children who are much smarter and hipper than I am.

I started blogging to improve my writing skills, and discovered I simply enjoyed it so that is why I do it now. I am a computer support specialist at a great MidWestern university, am married (sorry girls), and have three children of whom the youngest is a junior in college. After a (brief) term as a Christian minister, I have had a series of technical service jobs including darkroom printing, advertising layout, production xerography, photography, camera repair, and computer repair. I have a bachelor's degree from a good liberal-arts college in Tennessee and my home is cluttered with a tangle of books and periodicals.

I have a hard time with political groups; the 'liberals' are right about some things, 'conservatives' are right about others, and 'libertarians' about still other issues (of course, that's in the world view where I am right about everything).

I don't believe in the supernatural, including assorted spirits, gods, demons, afterlife, or miracles - but I once did so I am sympathetic to those who do. I am not sympathetic to those who want to use the power of government to further their supernatural beliefs, however.

My Unitarian Jihad name is "Brother Pepper Spray of Quiet Reflection" ... Get yours

And about Lucas...

'Lucas' is a co-author on this blog, and when he sends me some text for this column, I'll paste it in here.

Comment Policy

Please feel free to leave comments; strong opinions are welcome but let's try to keep it civil. Abusive comments are simply deleted; repeat offenders will be banned. For more information please visit my DOF Comment Policy Page

You can email me at:

... but if it's about a post, I'd prefer you leave a comment so others can respond too.