Always be careful of what you read

Some may have read this post at the Huffington Post just yesterday: Park Service Can't Give Official Age Of Grand Canyon For Fear Of Offending Creationists... The claim is that the Bush Administration is forcing the National Park Service into not giving the factual age of the Grand Canyon for "fear of offending creationists" and that a Creationist Handbook about an "alternative" view on the creation of the Grand Canyon is currently being sold at the Grand Canyon book store. I read this and was pretty appalled on a number of levels, not the least of which is that I'm a scientist and I do *not* like when religion attempts to insinuate itself in my life under another guise.

But something else that I noticed was the Huffington Post's lack of source links. I am loath to believe something that someone says, especially online, just because it's been posted. So, I attempted to locate some. First stop, the Parks Service. I mean, after all, if what has been said is true, I'd see it there.

A quick trip to the Grand Canyon site will show you that part of the claim is not true...at least on the website. The front page says that the Grand Canyon "is more than a great chasm carved over millennia through the rocks of the Colorado Plateau." However, a quick perusal through the online bookstore does reveal the name of the book in question, Grand Canyon: A Different View. I was extremely upset to see that this book is listed, among other categories, under the Natural History category (where it has no place).

In the comments section, people were pointing to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, in which I found this press release:

HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SAY

The PEER group charts these events from 2004 to the present, including now various NPS officials objected to the book's sale. Some source material is linked to. For example, they link to the original letter to the NPS from PEER about the book itself, and a response from US Dept of Interior regarding any information about the book, stating that no documentation existed (and thus, no review had obviously been performed, or we'd have documentation).

So, now I have some solid evidence that:

1) A Creationist handbook is being sold in the Grand Canyon bookstores (at least online, most likely in the brick and mortar equivalents as well) that claims a non-factual, religious history for the Grand Canyon under the guise of science.
2) the book in question was supposed to have been reviewed for continued sale in 2004 and never has.

What I don't still have is any evidence that park rangers and officials are not allowed to specify what the age of the Grand Canyon is, or other scientific aspects of the Grand Canyon that might contradict the Creationist viewpoint. However, I am more inclined to believe that possibility exists knowing that the book is being sold, especially that it is being sold in the "natural history" category (where I again stress IT DOES NOT BELONG!).

So, if anyone who reads my journal is intending on visiting the Grand Canyon sometime soon, I have a request. How about audio or video taping the park rangers talking about the Grand Canyon. Send me a copy of the audio/video, and I will put it together into a podcast and release it for free on the Internet. That will put to rest whether they can talk about this or not.

Yeah, that'll show her!

Yesterday Kouryou-chan decided that she wanted egg salad sandwiches for lunch. I told her that was a good idea, and I'd like one too. I was busy on my desktop downstairs and told her I'd be up in a minute to get it started. Kouryou didn't want to wait.

"Can I get it started?" she asked.

"Well, you can get part of it started, up till the part where we put it on the stove," I replied.

Basically, I figured that she could handle taking out a small pot, filling it with hot water, and putting two eggs into it. I was wrong. She never got past taking the two eggs out of the fridge first.

She came back downstairs shortly later and, with a very unhappy expression on her face. "I broke both the eggs," she said.

"What?! How could you break both of them?? Where you holding them both in one hand?" I accused.

"No," she said plaintively, "I had one in this hand, and I was trying to put the other one here," she pointed to her armpit, "while closing the refrigerator. "

"Okay, that's the reason you dropped that egg, Kouryou-chan, you don't stuff an egg into your armpit. You should have put it down. But how did you drop the other egg?"

"It just fell, it was an accident!"

Kouryou-chan had brought down a third egg, the last one we had. I grabbed that one and said, "Kouryou, you don't just drop an egg like that...it doesn't just drop out of your hand for no reason!" To demonstrate, I dropped the egg out of my hand onto my chair (I was sitting on the floor at the time, having readjusted some wires beneath my desk) and my hand was only a few inches from the chair. So the egg dropped harmlessly to the soft chair.

And rolled right off of it onto the harmful and hard carpeted floor...and broke.

"Like that," I ended, lamely. Then smacked my head in my hands.

Kouryou-chan started laughing.

Yeah, I showed her, didn't I.