Endangered species

People who are snide and uncharitable would probably say that the reason I have a Logic Happens bumper sticker* on my car is that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to find it in a busy car park. That is not true. That is only true when I'm driving government or rental vehicles and only because they're always white and identical

The reason I have a Logic Happens bumper sticker (promoting our wonderful ABC) is that I think of it as a counterpoint to all those cars on the streets that proclaim that Magic Happens. I'm sure magic happens, but it's only magic because it hasn’t become science yet, such as the magical cult of John.

Yet in spite of the considerable achievements of science and the scientific method we still seem to have a collective image of scientists as geeks and geeks being somehow dorky. And it seems that they see themselves this way too. Otherwise pitiful articles like this wouldn't make it into the ranks of populicio.us.

So it was a nice surprise to come across this site where children were asked to draw pictures of scientists, taken out to meet some, and then asked to draw them again. Seems like a good way to counteract the anti-intellectualism that seems to pervade so much of our culture. And it sure beats the crap the so-called intelligence agencies come up with.

(*If you're looking for a scary bumper sticker story, you're in luck!)

My compliments to Ashlee for the great drawing