The early days of third world country...

In this morning's newsfeed, two articles back-to-back only showed me that we are in the early days of becoming a third-world country. The first article is from USA Today, and it stares us in the face and we flinch, terrified. Entitled Poor science education impairs U.S. economy, the article shows that science education has declined over the past five years and there's nothing in the pipeline intended to improve it. 49% of Americans don't know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the sun; US mathematics teaching is 48th in the world; China has replaced the US as the world's top exported of high technology.

And we are doing nothing to turn that around: we are arrogant in our assumption of exceptionalism, we are cowardly in our unwillingness to face the truth, we are self-destructive in our tolerance for foolishness.

Foolishness like the second article, Speakers challenge Darwin’s theory, in which Southern Methodist University's campus newspaper reports on how Stephen Meyer moderated a panel among Intelligent Design proponents without any input from a competing viewpoint, and ended with this quote from a student at the business school: "We can have a positive future if we can convince people that Darwin's theory is just a theory like any other and not a fact."

It's a fact and a theory, just as gravity is a fact and a theory. Just as chemistry is a fact and a theory. Germs are a fact and a theory.

I'd like to ask the business student: "I can point to several successful pharmaceutical, zoological and agricultural research programs that depended upon Darwin's theory of evolution being true in order to be successful. These research programs have resulted in new businesses and billions of dollars in revenue. Can you point to a single similar initiave that depended upon Darwin's theory of evolution being incorrect or incomplete?"

Nobody can.

SMU is an accredited university. It's motto is "The Truth Shall Set You Free." Today, SMU administrators ought to be ashamed of themselves for allowing this kind of tripe. They'd never allow yoga instructors to claim they can levitate, or acupuncture woomeisters to give a symposium on how they cure cancer, and that's the level of respectibility "Intelligent Design" deserves.

White Bean and Onion Confit (recipe)

While Kouryou-chan didn't particularly care for it, Yamaraashi-chan ate down her entire portion of this particularly delicious half-hour stew.

• 2 very large sweet onions, sliced thin. I used a mandoline.
• 10 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 3 15oz cans cannelli beans
• 1½ cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1/3 cup fresh Romano
• Olive oil

In a very big saucepan with, put at least 1/3 cup of olive oil and heat until barely smoking. You may have to add more. Cook until the onions just start to turn brown; turn the heat down to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions carmelize, about 15 minutes. While this is going on, you can shred the cheese, drain and rinse the beans.

When the onion mixture is ready, add the beans and broth, bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until the beans are heated all the way through, about 5 minutes. Add the cheese and stir until melted. Serve immediately.

A strong wine and hearty bread compliments this very well. And it's cheap: about $3 a person. It would be even cheaper if you bought the beans dried and soaked them overnight, too.