NationStates Jolt Archive


Scientific American pulls an April Fools Joke

Upitatanium
01-04-2005, 00:47
http://www.sciamdigital.com/browse.cfm?ITEMIDCHAR=8E45B3E6-2B35-221B-6E9314D45FCAD2B2&methodnameCHAR=&interfacenameCHAR=browse.cfm&ISSUEID_CHAR=8E3EADFC-2B35-221B-6A8455DA45AE8B50&ArticleTypeSubInclude_BIT=0&sequencenameCHAR=itemP

(hopefully the link will work. I only see a caption of the article since its a pay site)

SA Perspectives: Okay, We Give Up; April 2005; by Staff Editor; 1 page(s)

There's no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile defense and global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to be stung by the accusations that the magazine should be renamed Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even Unscientific Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were wrong.

In retrospect, this magazine's coverage of so-called evolution has been hideously one-sided. For decades, we published articles in every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it. Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.

Funny, huh? :)
Eutrusca
01-04-2005, 00:51
Funny, huh? :)
Mildly. :)
ElleDiamonique
01-04-2005, 00:52
Hmm...just a teensy bit funny.
Neo-Anarchists
01-04-2005, 00:55
That's pretty good. Not incredibly good, but decent.
http://www.evoforums.co.uk/phpBB2/images/smiles/lol.gif
Kreitzmoorland
01-04-2005, 00:59
Jolly good.
Scientific American is an awesome read.
Chocolate is Yummier
01-04-2005, 01:04
Last year in Australia they had this huge one where they said because Athens wasn't going to be ready in time they were going to have some of the Olympic events in Australia. All the coaches and athletes and all these celebrities were saying it and it was everywhere. Heaps of people rang up and cancelled their plane tickets and stuff for the Olympics and then they were ringing up the radio and abusing them. It was so funny. :p
Upitatanium
01-04-2005, 01:16
Last year in Australia they had this huge one where they said because Athens wasn't going to be ready in time they were going to have some of the Olympic events in Australia. All the coaches and athletes and all these celebrities were saying it and it was everywhere. Heaps of people rang up and cancelled their plane tickets and stuff for the Olympics and then they were ringing up the radio and abusing them. It was so funny. :p

Ah, the radio show host. Pranks would not be what they are today without them.
Unistate
01-04-2005, 01:20
This line is awesome;

As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.
Dempublicents1
01-04-2005, 01:36
The radio station in Atlanta does an April Fool's joke every year. Last year, it got a little ugly though. Their joke was that U2 was coming to Atlanta and they had call-in contests. A soldier stationed in Iraq used his one weekly call to try and get through - because his wife loves U2 and he wanted to win her the tickets - and was the correct caller. The radio station felt so bad about it after that that they actually got tickets to a U2 concert somewhere else and put the woman on a plane for the concert.
Straughn
01-04-2005, 04:11
And yet AGAIN surpassing my already high expectations of them.
They f*cking ROCK.
This made my day. Thanks for posting it! (BTW, sending it to a few people ...)

EDIT: The long version (the one in the magazine) is better, of course.