Fan in Chicago

Awright, I am on board. Go crush them !

You might want to re-word that. You ain't no angel but a demon you are.

Okay, I am going to back off simply because this debate is getting too acrimonius. I will end by saying that teachers and scientists don't have to spend their valuable time because I am convinced the opposition comes from one group alone. It is not wide spread and their protests are not based in science. If the teaching methodology was wrong, we would all be confused by now which all involved in this debate in this thread do not appear to be. I say leave well enough alone. {exiting debate}

Too early to tell for MM , but can already proclaim Weis and Crennel as good NFL HCs ??

Yes, I appreciate that your point is to keep it out of schools. But, I am referring to the other point that you make - that a large enough section believes in it so science should evaluate it. To answer your question of how it hurts - it is time that scientists could be spending elsewhere. Resources are limited and the question is one of opportunity costs. If we had a boatload of scientists sitting idle twiddling their thumbs, then maybe their time is better spent on trying to analyze the merits of ID. As for the mass public, here is an example. A few years back, in India, many people claimed that statues of the Lord Ganesh was seen 'drinking' milk and that signalled the coming of an apocalypse. Given that a percent of population in India is much larger than that of KS and PA, shouldn't scientists try to analyze if an apocalypse is in the offing ? The arguments are similar, heck this is even based on 'observed' phenomena.

Okay, let me try something else. Back since the 40s, people believing in UFOs and existence/visits of aliens on earth were termed as 'conspiracy nuts', which they very well might be. By the same logic, shouldn't those advocating ID be called 'religious crazies' ? The belief of a fair section of the public in UFOs did not cause the scientific community at large to go about trying to prove the existence of aliens. Largely, scientific process looks at evidence and tries to build up a theory to support it. There was no evidence for UFOs besides visual sightings that could be misinterpreted. My point is, I am not convinced a large enough section of population believes in ID and even those that do have no real basis for making the claims save for theological ones. IF that is true, then it is a waste of scientists time to go about trying to prove it. given there is a lot more out there to be discovered.

I will add that the onus of providing proof lies with the person making a claim not on the person listening to it. It is like saying there is intelligent life out there but you prove me wrong. It should be up to me to go to mars, get soil samples, find biological material or a living alien to substantiate my claim. Why should scientists evaluate and try to prove what the ID theorists are claiming ?

You beat me to it and worded it a lot better too.

Totally agree. No proclamations go through so much voluntary and self-review as in science. Every theory comes under close scrutiny by institutions and organizations world-wide. This contributes to a healthy debate unmuddled by religious or capitalist interests. Try that yardstick for the ID theory ! I am entirely disgusted by this news. Thinking back to the time when I was in school, throwing a little seed of doubt would have confused my understanding of the enormous effort that has gone into the theory of evolution. It is not as if Darwin one day problaimed he had a theory and the world bowed in submission. Archeologists and scientists alike have pieced together a 10000 piece puzzle which is albeit missing one piece. But don't try to explain that one piece with a theory that does not explain the other 9999 pieces.

Fine, I am stupid then. Judging MM on one winning season and one yet to be decided is not fair. Billick had one great year with arguably fantastic talent on the D side. What else has be done to merit greatness ? And Jim Fassel ? Conversely, MM has not done much wrong considering he is in his second year as a head coach. He has shown the guts to make changes and largely tried to balance the lack of talent with creative plays. A little infusion of talent on both sides of the ball will have us as contenders. Grass always looks greener on the other side.

Dude, did you intentionally mess with Nick's ID ?

Talk about fickle fans, what did that say about Kraft's loyals ?

As Madden was saying last night "at some point everybody has to get beyond their own 'ya-buts' " Looks like NE is entering their ya-but era.

Counting from which year ? While I am slowly beginning to agree that TD may have made some critical mistakes, giving the Bengals as an example is not appropriate.

HD, I admire you for your bravery ! Getting bashed by fans of a team that sucks more than yours. I was among those that thought the run had to end sometime no matter how much the NE machine was primed with good drafting, good backups, good coaches etc. But finally it has come to pass and NE seems to be in serious decline. At such a time, previously dominating teams get smashed 'cos those that were formerly at the receiving end see their chance of getting revenge. See the Bills & Bulls in the 90s. But in all honesty, I wish the Bills will have a run like NE's and have the rest of the league hate/admire us. The Colts seem to be on their way to be the dominant AFC team but I don't think they will go undefeated this season. As a side comment, I really enjoyed the commentators and have aprpeciation for Al Michaels and Madden. They are levels above others of their profession. Name one duo that does such a kick-a$$ job.

The way they executed the last drive, it would have been a question of who won the toss in OT. So in a way you & smuvtalker are correct - that the overall odds are the same. But that 4th down was a sudden death play and I would rather have played sudden death OT ! There is no right or wrong in this argument so its all good.

I disagree. At that point, they should have taken the safe points (FG) and put the game into overtime. Just because the play worked out well does not mean it was a good call.

Disagree with you on that one. He marginally pushed off much before the ball got there. Most of the cases, the officials let it go. Fez's point is that these kind of calls - potentially game changing at critical times - is what always seem to go NE's way (esp in NE). Even the idiotic Paul Maguire initially said that is not PI and then the Pu$$y changed his tune after the official call.

Sure it is a hunch that TD is calling the shots on this issue. But that Bill Cowher wanted more control on personnel issues, which led to TD's departure. This is a published fact and not something I am deducing.

Problem is, I don't think it is MM's call. I am convinced TD is making that call to keep Bills tantalizingly on the edge of contendership. This is probably the reason for his fallout with Bill Cowher and his eventual departure to Buffalo. Much as I have supported TD in the past, I am now not convinced he is the right GM to help us win the big one.

Not sure if this form will help any more than the previous one. But I filled and sent it anyway. Thanx !

I agree with this post. We cannot chase away every non-superstar player on the team. I would like to see MW re-structure to a cheaper (cap-friendly, less total $$) contract and continue to play RT. Dumping players every year does us no good as we continually wait for the line to gel.

I do disagree with you on this one. There are several reasons why I liked the movie: tension without an obligatory background score; different subject line (not many monster movies during that time); compact storyline that did not waver from the subject; low special effects etc. I do think this is one of the most original scary movies and one of Hitch's best (others I liked from him are Frenzy, Spellbound, 39 steps, man who knew too much, North by Northwest, Rebecca). Too bad you did not enjoy it.

Atleast I hope seeing that has taught him two things (1) Dump offs are better than sacks/throwing out of bounds/inaccurate downfield throws. and (2) Don't JUST dump off but go for the deep throws and medium range throws consistently. We all saw what happened yesterday with the deep throw (1 inc + 1 TD).

And mine ... "I am writing to express my total disgust over your coverage of Oct. 30th, 2005's Sunday night game between the Patriots and Bills. - Were you covering the game or Bruschi ? I understand what he is doing is very brave. But you guys grossly over-did it. Every 3 minutes, every thing was related to Bruschi. Whatever happened to covering the game that is being played ? - During two key plays, Suzy Kolber cut in to talk about Bruschi and the Kraft interview. There was a turnover on the field of play and you continued to wax about something unrelated to the game. Sideline coverage should be reserved for breaks in game. - Your commentators don't have a spine. On two critical official calls, Paul said one thing ("That did not look like offensive pass interference on Moulds") but promptly changed it when the call was to the contrary ("Okay maybe it was PI, I agree with it when I saw it again"). Joe Theismann is the only saving grace of the three. I do wish you make some major changes to your format and style of coverage. else, I will hope you lose the next Sunday night contract."