Nice Basement Tapes reference.

Good point, Simon.  I mean, they coulda been home watching football or burning witches or something instead of paying good money to go to a science museum.

18% of americans think the Sun revolves around the earth.  23% can’t name any scientist when asked.

I don’t think it is “never quite figured out how to demystify science for the masses”. I think it is an assumption by the masses that they don’t need to understand this stuff to get through life. 

How many times have you heard someone say they don’t need calculus to get a job some where?  It’s the same for many scientific fields that people fail to see the need for general scientific understanding.

For instance, there is no such thing as tie goes to the runner

While it’s not specifically a rule written as such, doesn’t the logic go:

For an out, the ball has to beat the runner to the bag.  Since they arrive at the same time, the ball didn’t beat the runner, ergo the runner is safe?

Appreciate the Holy Grail reference at the end ... and something like that event at the science museum makes you think.

The way it appears, scientific thought has become the new church of society, with a limited amount of people able to truly digest the scientific information, and those same people disseminating it out to the masses that understand the science a bit less (vs. clergymen reading the bible in latin and translating the ‘word’ for the masses).

At least we beat out >90% of people believe the sun orbits the earth and scientists are considered evil witches and wizards during the Dark Ages. So how about the Dim Ages instead?

BTW, this comes from a self-proclaimed engineer/scientist, or at least one holding a degree.

While I do think that the statement, “I think it is an assumption by the masses that they don’t need to understand this stuff to get through life” is accurate, I think that this assumption arises from a flawed education system, and part of that is a failure to demystify science (and math and statistics, and logic, and art). I don’t think the human brain is particularly well-suited to logical thought and clear, reasonable contemplation of the things that we come across in life. I do think that people can learn to embrace a logical, rational way of thinking, but they (we) need to be educated into such a mode of thought. I think of it this way: the human brain is like a computer whose hardware isn’t really made to perform a certain function (in this case, logical thought), but if you load the proper software (a good, well-rounded, dynamic education) then it is perfectly capable of performing the task.

On another note, having been born and raised in NYC and having been a Yankees fan since early childhood, I think I can safely say that Yankees fans as a whole are not Teh Greatestt fans Everrr!!!! (Just listen to sports radio in NYC, or easier still, check out the responses on NBC.) With the caveat that it’s fairly useless to try to speak about a universe of people as large as “Yankees fans,” let alone the entire population of NY, I would say this: Yankees fans are much like New Yorkers in general, vocal, irascible, impassioned, and self-centered. This means that they are loud and happy in victory, impatient and rude in defeat. More importantly, I don’t know where this meme of “Yankees fans are so knowledgeable” came from. Accepting the flaws of anecdotal evidence, allow me to present what just happened in my office: two Yankees fans just walked by discussing today’s game; fan 1 says “well the problem is Jared (sic [well, aural sic, if that makes sense])Weaver is better than that other Weaver.” Fan 2 says, “Oh, is this guy the guy who was on the Yankees way back?” Fan 1: “No, that guy’s his brother.” So our more informed fan’s analysis is “he’s better than Jeff Weaver” and our less informed fan’s analysis is “who are we talking about?”

* Was that COSI? I used to love that place when I was little, though I think they’ve moved or something since then.

* If I spend too long thinking about general science knowledge, I get depressed.

* I am a Red Sox fan, so my opinions of Yankee fans are probably not entirely helpful.

* “Churches?” gets my vote for funniest line in the movie. This is partly because most of the movie is quoted to excess, so many of the other lines have lost some of their humor to overexposure.

Hate bringing politics into a sports discussion, but the adults you described Craig I can guarantee you believe that everything in the bible is true and George Bush was a great President.

DonCoburleone; If you really hated to bring politics into a sports discussion, you wouldn’t have, because it was blatently unneccesary. The lack of understanding of basic principles of science, I guarantee, goes beyond republican/democrat differences.

“So how about the Dim Ages instead?”
I live in the Ozarks. Dim Ages is a great description but I think it may be optimistic.
The easiest way to teach science may be the way religion is taught: Just have faith.
And Craig, you obviously have a very warped sense of humor that compels you to comment on any article regarding the Yankees or Red Sox that can get a rise from the lowest common denominator. Are you trying to remind us that they are out there and reproduce and vote? Scary.