[LINK] "'Of course' I believe in evolution, Goodyear says"

The Globe and Mail's Anne McElroy tells the tale.

Science minister Gary Goodyear now says he believes in evolution.

"Of course I do," he told guest host Jane Taber during an appearance on the CTV program Power Play. "But it is an irrelevant question."

That's a different answer from the one Mr. Goodyear, a chiropractor and Minister of State for Science and Technology, gave The Globe and Mail when he was asked the same thing during an interview for a story that was published in Tuesday's paper.

"I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate," he said.

"I do believe that just because you can't see it under a microscope doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It could mean we don't have a powerful enough microscope yet. So I'm not fussy on this business that we already know everything. ... I think we need to
recognize that we don't know."

Evoking religion in response to a question about evolution drew heavy criticism from people like Brian Alters, an expert in evolution at McGill University in Montreal, and Jim Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

Yesterday, Mr. Goodyear said twice during the CTV interview that he believes in evolution.

"We are evolving every year, every decade. That's a fact, whether it is to the intensity of the sun, whether it is to, as a chiropractor, walking on cement versus anything else, whether it is running shoes or high heels, of course we are evolving to our environment. But that's not relevant and that is why I refused to answer the question. The interview was about our science and tech strategy, which is strong."

The Globe and Mail told Mr. Goodyear that the interview was for a profile, a way for readers to learn more about him, as well as a chance for him to defend the government's strategy from its critics in the research community.

A significant portion of the interview was about his background and personal life.

[LINK] "Plastic Paddies"

Thanks to nwhyte for linking me towards "Plastic Paddies", a post by Crooked Timber's very Irish Maria Farrell on St. Patrick's Day in the United States.

First off, it sucks to be Irish in the US on St. Patrick’s Day. Sorry, I know it’s churlish, and on my better days I agree that all the enthusiasm and interest and desire to party is actually quite sweet, but there it is. If I have to smile politely at one more person telling me they’re Irish (really? whip out your passport, then.), giggle appreciatively at one more crap – invariably Scottish – accent, or spend one more penny listening to Loreena McKinnit or some similarly bogus disneyfied version of Oirish music in the ladies’ loo of the Culver City Radisson where I am already suffering through a full-day operations planning session, I may stab someone. I know the day is not about celebrating Ireland, but about Irish Americans, who are a fine bunch of people now that their Noraid-supporting and parade-homophobia days are behind them. Another thing, no one I have ever known in Ireland has ever eaten corned beef. Ever. It’s the most Enid Blyton food there is, and not remotely Irish. Just saying.

Two notes.

1. I read, way back when, that at the same time the organizers of New York City's St. Patrick's Day parade were banning gay floats from their event, the organizers of Cork's St. Patrick's Day parade were giving gay floats awards.

2. Pearsall Helms noted back in 2005 that many elements of Irish-American identity, particularly the persistence of a very strong identity founded on religion and long-distance nationalism and shared histories of segregation in Ireland and in the United States, don't have parallels elsewhere in the Irish diaspora, in Canada for instance.

[LINK] "Saturnian Transits (and a Memory)"

Over at Centauri Dreams, Paull Gilster linked to this stunning Hubble shot of Saturn with four of its moons--planet-sized and atmosphere-possessing Titan, Enceladus of a subsurface water ocean, and icy Dione and Mimas--in transit.

( Here it is. )

[LINK] "Offering higher education in lower places"

The Globe and Mail's Anita Flash writes about how Québec is successfully attracting students from the heavily immigrant-populated Paris suburb and department of Seine-Saint-Denis to its universities.

Second-year business major Zine Rekik has been saving the euros he earns as a part-time supermarket cashier for two years so he could study abroad.

So when Mr. Rekik encountered Quebec university recruiters in the rough and tumble Paris suburb of Seine-Saint Denis last month, it was a match made in heaven.

It was the first time any foreign university had come searching for students in the Seine-Saint Denis or 93 region, an area that most French postsecondary schools ignore and most foreigners know as the centre of riots by disadvantaged minority youth 3½ years ago.

After a day of visits with students in the battered halls of the region's two universities, the recruiters had persuaded more than 40 young people, including Mr. Rekik, that Quebec was the place where they could "live the difference."

Mr. Rekik, 19, hopes to attend University of Quebec in Montreal this fall, where he wants to earn a master's degree in business. After that, he hopes to start his career in Quebec as a manager.

"It will be so good," he says of his hoped-for stay in Montreal. "I will go to class in the morning with a big smile. Then I will study in my little room in the student residence, then I will do some sports and I will make a lot of friends and maybe I will travel. I know I am going to blossom."