Froth Slosh B'Gosh

Poop Provides Power Possibilities!

Now this is pretty interesting!

a Penn State University research team views wastewater as an important energy resource, a raw material. By combining and refining energy technology, the research team has developed a two-pronged method of using wastewater to produce a more abundant output of electricity than either method could do individually.

The Penn State study, "Energy Capture from Thermolytic Solutions in Microbial Reverse-Electrodialysis Cells," written by Roland Cusick, Bruce E. Logan and Y. Kim, was published Thursday in Science.

The microbial fuel cell uses microbes to consume plant or human waste to produce electrons that the fuel cell converts into electrical current. But that system, Mr. Cusick said, is inefficient.

Adding a system that uses reverse electrodialysis, the research team pumped solutions of salt water and fresh water across specialized membranes that only allow positive and negative ions through, while also separating them. The separation of salt water and fresh water by the membrane generates an electrical voltage that directly increases fuel-cell power. As the ions migrate from the salt water to the fresh water, their movement also increases electrical current generated by the microbes.

Using common waste to provide power is rather resourceful. The technology appears to be too expensive to be practical at the moment, but give it time. Now,if there was only a way to produce electricity via bloviation, we'd really be on to something!

Whack-A-Mole

Here we go again, this time in Indiana.

An Indiana Senate committee on Wednesday endorsed teaching creationism in public schools, despite pleas from scientists and religious leaders to keep religion out of science classrooms.

Senate Bill 89 allows school corporations to authorize "the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life" and specifically mentions "creation science" as one such theory.

Geocentrism is also a theory.  Its also wrong.  Just because you have a theory, doesn't mean it should be taught in a science class, especially if its clearly wrong and has no evidence to back its conclusions.  I'd also recommend that the elected officials in Indiana take a look at Kitzmiller v. Dover.   The only concrete thing this legislation will do if it becomes law is waste a bunch of taxpayer dollars defending the inevitable lawsuits resulting in the declaration that the law is unconstitutional.

Indoctrinating Elementary School Students

This is frightning. 

Stewart is not an atheist. She doesn’t go into this story telling the reader how awful religion is. She shows us how awful abuse of religious power is. She shows us how moderate Christians will be fooled into allowing this to happen. She makes it believable that such a thing could happen to us. The book does not read like a report of a fact-finding mission, but more like the story your neighbor will tell you over a cup of tea. She will tell you how this happened at the school of the child of a friend of her cousin’s hairdresser’s sister. And you’ll tut and nod and shake your head at all the right places. But when she leaves, the story niggles. You wonder if this could happen at your child’s school. But you would never stand for that, would you?

You can get the book from my friends at RBR Books.

Chip In For Jessica!

There is now a Chip In widget in the lower left hand corner of the blog to help fund a scholarship for  Jessica Ahlquist.  DOnate what you can for this bold young lady!

This post will remain at the top for awhile!

Prayer Banner In Public School Must Come Down

A win for the Constitution and the seperation of church and state.

A judge has ordered a prayer mural, that has been in Cranston West High School for decades, to be taken down immediately.

As usual, the comments following the story from OUTRAGED Christians upset that their own particular brand of religion cannot receive favored status in a government facility show utter ignorance of the law.  Why governmental bodies continue to waste taxpayer money by forcing the issues into the courts is beyond me.  The law is pretty damn clear, all we're asking is that you follow the law.

Hemant Mehta over at Friendly Atheist reports that the plaintiff in the case, 16-year old Jessica Ahlquist, was subjected  to threats and insults for daring to demand that the government obey the law.  A scholarship fund now exists for this brave teen.  Head over to Friendly Atheist at the above link and Chip In for this defender of church and state seperation!

JT Eberhard over at FreeThoughtBlogs has a great rundown on what Jessica did and the harassment she was subjected to when she asked the school to obey the law.  Its well worth the read.

More examples of Christian "love" and "tolerance" for viewpoints other than their own.

 

Pack Up Your Troubles

This is appalling.

The mother of a nine-year-old autistic boy who was placed in a duffel bag with the drawstring pulled tight has called for the teacher responsible to be dismissed and for the practice to be banned...

Baker, who was called to the school on 14 December by an official who said her son had been acting up, said she was horrified to find him inside the bag.

She said: "I can't describe the feeling of seeing him. It was so disturbing. I saw a big green bag in the hallway outside his classroom and I thought, 'no'. I was in shock. I froze. I stood up against the wall and I thought, 'What in the world?'"

  Who the hell thought it was a good idea to stuff a child into a duffle bag in the first place?

In a statement, Dennis Davis, the interim superintendent, said state and federal confidentiality laws forbade him from commenting, even to confirm or deny any allegations. He said the matter was being reviewed by the school and was being "handled consistently with school district policies and with state and federal law".

He said: "The employees of the Mercer County Public Schools are qualified professionals who treat students with respect and dignity while providing a safe and nurturing learning environment."

If they're shoving difficult  children into bags the employees of the school not qualified, and they're not treating children with respect or dignity.