New year brings new attacks on evolution in schools

Except the Victorians largely embraced scientific advancement.

While it's great that this kind of legislation can be brought forward, debated and (hopefully) quashed surely there are more important things for legislators to do?

You know why the fringe nutbags propose this stuff, when it will (at least in Indiana) never go through? Because people like livescience are dumb enough to report on it, and people -- even in HN -- are dumb enough to post about it.

The best way to make your fringe belief not seem so fringe is to keep a steady trickle of attention on it, so people get used to hearing about it. It gives the illusion that the fringe belief has a bigger following than it does, and to people not educated in logic and rhetoric, the bandwagon approach can be pretty powerful.