In the wake of the recent efforts of a School Administrative District in Maine to expel evolution from the curriculum, we now have a pointless poll seeking the vox populi on this badly worded question: “A school board member in SAD 59 wants the topic of evolution dropped from high school science curriculums. Do you agree?”
While I agree that a school board member wants to do that, I think the poll actually intends to ask whether you want evolution dropped from the curriculum.
By the way…
By hitting “refresh” on your browser, you can vote as many times as you like.
I put on my steel capped boots and kicked away. There was a very satisfying sound as sanity found its target.
A step further than just trying to get rubbish taught alongside evolution, they want it completely out too? I suppose its a more honest representation of their agendas…
Nutters.
I wonder how many times it will take for the polling community (whether political or social) to realize that the exact point of polling is to document the pulse of national opinion. The polling indusrty today – and it is a lucrative one – is more bent on skewing the circumstances and questions of the poll to fit their data.
I hope it isn’t a realization they make too soon in the religion vs. state arena — I do so enjoy seeing their poll crash and burn.
31% Yes
68% No
1% Undecided???
It doesn’t give a break down of the numbers, so we don’t know how many people have actually voted.
When I voted (right now), the poll was 72% for “No”
Um, yes it does.
Yes 124 26%
No 347 73%
Undecided 4 1%
Yes 125 25%
No 377 75%
Undecided 4 1%
Something about this doesn’t add up…
@ #4
That’s odd. It gave me a breakdown when I voted a few minutes ago. It was about 160/195/3 on the choices at that time.
Thanks Ted D. My brain is obviously still out for lunch.
I often try to make it a little less obvious one place is jamming the poll so much.
I right click and ‘copy shortcut’ and then paste it into a new browser or tab. If pollsters check the referrer info and 90%+ of the votes linking in from one page, it’ll pretty obvious they have a very skewed poll.
Just an idea. (I wouldn’t be surprised if this has been brought before and I am just unaware… if so, never mind me)
Yes 80%
No 19%
Undecided 1%
19%/80%/1%
Hehe!
Since Maxi’s post it’s
127 17%
596 82%
4 1%
And rolling up good and fast!
Oops, it was the contrary (in my message)… I suppose you rectified…
This is what these buggers do.
They propose something so radical that it shifts the entire spectrum of ideas so far to the right that things like teaching ID alongside evolution appears in the center.
This is why they are against embryonic stem cell research.
They know it’s a bat shit crazy position but it’s intended to simply shift the spectrum to the right until making abortion illegal is in the middle.
Yay! Poll crashing first thing in the morning! Just what I need to relieve my crankiness at being up already!
Yes 128 12%
No 900 87% and rising
And four people who just can’t decide. Argh.
By the way, PZ, there’s another poll in serious need of crashing. ;-)
This one looks mighty crashed to me….
Ah,now off to bed in good conscience lol
It’s at 89%/11% in favor of sanity and good science at the moment.
I was expecting the poll to have:
Yes
No
Unsure
&
ARE YOU FUCKING INANE!!!??
if not, I wanted a comment section that I could write in my answer that wasn’t provided. Sadly, they tore that option away from me too.
brokenSoldier wrote at #3:
That may be your point when you’re polling, but when a commercial Web site puts up a poll, the purpose is to draw hits. Think ad revenue.
The current results
Yes 136 9%
No 1380 91%
Undecided 4 0%
Well, I just voted on the poll. NO was ahead by about 10 to 1. So either there are a lot of people who don’t think we should remove evolution from the curriculum, or there are a lot of folk that think there isn’t a school board director wanting to eliminate it.
:-)
If anyone has trouble locating the poll on that mish-mash of a website, it is on the left side(ish), halfway down under the heading “Survey”.
Poll is crashed. As for the wording, it is amazing that these are people that write for a living.
Done.
PZ, did you see that the “Biologic Institute” is mucking about again? It’s on one of NewScientist’s blogs.
92%-8%!!!
They changed the question from “Do you agree?” to “Do you agree with the Board member?” which makes a little more sense.
Anyone wanting to have the subject of evolution dropped from the school curriculum should not be in a position of responsibility in the first place. How simple minded and naive are these people. In light of todays more enlightened scientific understanding how anyone not subscribe to the factual concept of evolution.
If you do not believe life is the product compounded biological evolutionary development then go ahead and bury your head back into the sand and just sit there while the evolutionary freight train runs you over.
This is the 21st century. you Id folks are very primitive and simple minded. This is the type of poll one would expect to find in the dark ages. Back in an era of time with limited education where simple mindedness prevailed. Hello people get a grip on reality, evolution is how life works. accept it and get over it. Or you could be like a good little sheep, fall back in line and silence you voice, and not ask to true scientific questions regarding the origins and evolution of life on earth.
Seazoria
http://www.hszoria.com
The very finest examples of how compounded evolution works can be found by an extensive examination and study of the oldest, largest, most evolutionary advanced forms of biological life ever discovered The HALLETTTESTONEION SEAZORIA DRAGONS. The Seazoria dragons experienced massive compounded evolutionary development prior to their extinction 540 million years ago. The Hallettestoneion Seazoria dragons are at the absolute pinnacle of compounded evolutionary biological development. Seazoria average – 180 feet long with teeth averaging 27 inches
Yes 150 7%
No 2003 93%
Undecided 7 0%
I’ve hit CTRL + R about 500 times now. More fun than my boring call centre job :/
Curriculums?
Curricula is the plural of curriculum.
But then I’ve seen signs for “Gymnasiums” on a nioversity campus too.
How damn ironic is that – a typo on a pedantic language quibble :blush:
For ‘nioversity’ read ‘University’
Evolution isn’t science??? WTF I watched the clip on the channel 8 website. Obviously people don’t even recognise what science is let alone how to teach it. The one student said they are told “IT’S ONLY A THEORY”. Where did the teachers get their credentials?? ARGH these people are fucktards.
My vote made the total:
Yes 157
No 2386
Undec. 8
156 voted in favor of removing biological evolution from biology classes.
The flat-earthers will try to get away with their academic freedom bills, but what they really want is the complete suppression of all science education that conflicts with their Bible.
The OED says you are being whiny, Quidam. (about gymnasiums, the plural of curriculum probably isn’t used enough to have been de-latinized.)
Oooops…I accidently voted yes. had to vote no 5 more time to fix my mistake. BTW the Seazoria Dragons prove evolution guys, their teeth are 28″ long. Wow! PZ keep that guy on the good list, it’s really funny if not a little sad, but he is entertaining.
When we steal a word for the English language, we get to do whatever we want with it. The words may have been Latin once, but they are English now and subject to our will. Pluralizing with an -(e)s is generally accepted for words that don’t have a well-known or standard alternative plural and are commonly used in English.
Credit to them, they fixed the wording.
It now ends:
“Do you agree with the board member?”
Yes – 161 – 6%
No – 2518 – 94%
Undecided 8 – 0%
But then, it’s early yet.
By the way, Quidam, why aren’t you complaining that we have a latinate ending for gymnasium? If the Romans can borrow a word from Greek and modify the endings to suit their language, why can’t we?
This news station should be fucking ashamed of itself…how dare they put such a ridiculous poll on their website. Let’s try a different question: Should schools cease to teach facts in science class?
Well, channel 8, what do you think?
CL
http://www.coulerlewkowitz.com
This sounds like a good time for a song.
All together now:
“Hi Ho Hi It’s off to Crash We Go!”
…
By Chri… Golly, I love the sense of a job well done crashing these polls gives. It may be an illusion, fallacy, a pointless waste of time, but it is FUN to take a symbolic stand against the lunacy.
Thank you PZ for making it possible:-)
Here’s some good news from today’s Waterville Morning Sentinel:
No vote Monday on evolution topic
By Morning Sentinel Staff Report May 13, 2008 11:03 AM
MADISON — School Administrative District 59 directors will not vote on or even address revising the school curriculum on Monday, Superintendent Michael Gallagher said today.
During their April 29 meeting, the SAD 59 Board of Directors tabled discussions about revising the curriculum and about how the district teaches the theory of evolution.
Board member Matthew Linkletter of Athens last month suggested removing evolution from the science curriculum. Linkletter said that evolution is not proven, and thus should not be taught as science.
Gallagher said that the board has no specific timetable regarding discussion and an ultimate vote on a revising the curriculum. Such a vote might not happen during the current school year, he said.
and I always thought my home state was free of such nonsense…
I also noticed that the athletes were fully clothed.
Harrumph, surely at a university they should know that it’s a room for training NAKED?
95% NO (3331 votes)
5% YES (175 votes)
0% Undecided (9 votes)
And I thought We were the disorganized heathen rabble.
p.s. There’s no need to vote more than once. Get your friends to vote. It gets them involved in the fun and doesn’t give the holy whiners a semi-legitimate reason to disparage our efforts.
You can refresh the page and vote again.
Obviously coded by a right wing ID supporter.
lol!
Actually you don’t even need to refresh…Just count to 5 and hit ‘vote’ again.
Latest count: 3,915 to 186, with 11 undecided. At least they fixed the wording.
Need to get more votes so that the YES votes become statistically insignificant (<0.05) :)
I did my part it’s now at 4167 (95%) to 193 (5%) and 11 (0%) undecided.
Pharyngula: making the world a saner place, one poll at a time.
They have obviously seen PZ’s criticism of the wording of their poll, they have changed the
on the end to
I wonder if these phenomena of polling and changing school science regulations can be turned around used as a form of pre-emptive strike. From time to time get a creationist-oriented topic up for some sort of vote. Before the science-intolerant get a chance to even bring up the topic and organize a following the idea is squashed. Once again. Then again. Maybe a few more times. Until it is declared dead.
This sounds more like a Monty Python skit than something that can actually be accomplished but why not propose (on Biblical grounds) the outlawing of the forward pass from the football program in an entire county. Stick with me here – the logic is impeccably IDist – we aren’t proposing outlawing football entirely; we only want to teach the controversy ;) The regulations would allow the quarterback sneak and the handoff or lateral. Oh, and no placekickers or -holders. The only field goals can be drop kicks. I imagine the games would be a total hoot but most athletes would move to another county or change to private school because they would only be getting a partial football education. Shame there are people who don’t see a problem with a partial science education.
Seazoria:
Where’s the evidence? Those things you found are just rocks, not dragon bones.
You say these “dragons are at the absolute pinnacle of compounded evolutionary biological development.” How can this be? Evolution is like a branching tree, rather than a ladder that you can just get to the top of. If anything is the pinnacle of evolution, all life living on Earth today is that pinnacle. It’s all on the same level, nothing is anymore evolved than anything else.
Also, what is “compounded evolutionary biological development”? I’ve never heard that term.
I would have to say that the pinnacle of biological evolutionary development on Earth are the Archaea, as they are the dominant form of life on this planet whether measured by biomass or longevity. And they have been the dominant form of life here for more than 3 billion years.
Plants & animals are the real “pond scum” on Earth.
WRMartin,
I had to read your post twice before I noted you are referring to changing a game’s rules in a specific COUNTY. I had read it as country. A big difference in meaning. Since game rules are arbitrary, it would make no difference to competitors if the rules are changed for everyone (and in Football, everyone really means just the U.S.A.)
The important difference between your game analogy and the Evo-ID conflict is in the nature of testing.
It is quite possible that if a football team trained without using certain techniques, they would perform better than a team trained in the full array of techniques. The test is in the specific results of games.
There are several ways this can occur. The “limited” team may just be stronger, faster & more coordinated than the “complete” team. The “limited” team, by focusing on improving the quality of a limited set of techniques, can avoid mistakes in their core strengths. The “complete” team, by practicing a greater number of techniques, can dilute the general competence of all of its techniques.
The test of Evolution vs. ID is in the evidence of reality, ie. the score. The score at present is roughly: Evolution-1,000,000 to ID-3 (I’m being generous here).
Objective achieved, your highness.
No was at 96% the last time I voted. I think the woomeisters and true believers would look at the poll and say “The results are inconclusive and we need more research”.
Not true. Probably other people were voting while you refreshed.
The Bierce-Hartman-McKean-Skitt Law of Prescriptivist Retaliation states that any article or statement about correct grammar, punctuation, or spelling is bound to contain at least one eror.
Of course not. He made it up.
Yes 208 4%
No 4691 96%
Undecided 12 0%
Wow. I give people too much credit. I was genuinely surprised that there were over two hundred yes votes. And what’s with the twelve who can’t wrap their heads around the issue? I was just feeling better about people in general, and this is going to make me grumpy all day. Poo.
I’m with you, Mr. Couchman. The amount of yes votes is worrisome to me. The “duh, I don’ get it” votes probably fit the parameters of the population.
5096 against, 214 for, 15 undecided.
5089 against, and more than one of them mine.
When I first went to vote on this poll this morning, the numbers stood at 42% Yes, 53% No, 1% Undec. I just kept going back to the site to re-vote till I brought the “No” percent up to 59; I could see each vote register as I re-entered the site (there were only about 150 entries, at the time).
I wonder if channel 8 will realize how pointless their poll is, now that the “No” votes stand at over 5000? Considering they are the lowest rated station in the area they’d have to be dense as shit to not realize there is something odd about those numbers.
@# —
I’m hoping that at least some of those were from creobots who visit PZ’s blog to troll and to counter-crash these polls. If there were really that many people who just happened to visit the WMTW site and voted yes…that is quite depressing.
Done … why do I take such joy in crashing these polls?
@ 30 seazoria:
For an honest assessment of your find, might I suggest you post your specimen on the message board http://www.thefossilforum.com/.
Most of the people who post there are not professional paleontologists,but collectively, they have thousands of years of experience identifying vert/invert fossils remains.
It’s like 94% against dropping evolution now.
The poll is now at 96%NO 3%Yes and 1%Undecided.
Guess more brights came along to the website.
That is just too funny. “Do you agree?” You’d think faculty members of a place of learning could at least formulate sentences.
On the cute/fuzzy side, the same news site reports that kittens awoke householders when their house was on fire. Six people scooped up the kittens and escaped. (I guess they didn’t have fire alarm regulations there.)
God is getting the credit for waking up the kittens. Not heat, not smoke, not funny crackling sounds or something strange going on nor even hunger. God.
With apologists like that, how can He lose?
What about this poll on the racist Obama tee-shirt?
http://tinyurl.com/3zlf4b