Scientific Conventions Talk of Boycotting Louisiana

[Lisa0825]

http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55435/

News:
Is boycott best?Posted by Tia Ghose


The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology has moved its 2011 meeting from New Orleans to Utah in protest of Louisiana's decision to allow religious materials in science class, but it's too late for the Experimental Biology meeting to do the same, according to organizers.

...

Martin Frank, executive director of APS, added that he wasn't sure that a boycott would be the most helpful response. "Boycotts are blunt instruments that don't necessarily resolve the problem," he said. What's more, only 10 to 15 venues in the US can accommodate meetings with as many people as they anticipate--between 12 and 15,000, he said.

Instead, the Experimental Biology meeting plans to hold an open symposium, called the Evolution of Creationism, on April 20th. The group is inviting state legislators and high school science teachers to the free session.

...

In response to the passage of a Louisiana law allowing creationist textbooks in the classroom, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology cancelled plans to hold their 2011 meeting in New Orleans. Instead, the group will hold their meeting in Utah, which has enacted laws ensuring that evolution is a mainstay of science curricula.

...

Richard Satterlie, the head of SICB, sent an open letter to Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, explaining the organization's rationale. So far, Jindal has not responded.

[TheMightyFavog]

1. You want to protest Intelligent Design in schools, so you move your convention to fracking UTAH?

That doesn't make much sense to me.

[Lisa0825]

2. I was surprised too, but

the bigger surprise was that Utah has a law protecting the teaching of evolution! :wow:

[EndersDame]

3. I think they should be in LA just for that reason

Maybe people who normally wouldn't be exposed to scientific thought could have a chance. Scientific Missionaries if you will.