Contents:

• We're moving!
• Feb topic, "Evolution in School" in the news

This is our first special announcement, sent because of a significant change in how we will meet for Café Scientifique Orlando. Additionally, there's news about the same topic as our last event.

We're moving

We love Stardust, but it's not working very well to meet there. For the event of March 4th, we will meet at Taste, in College Park.

Meeting at Taste gets us a dedicated room with less noise, a P-A system if we need it, and waiters at the tables to take orders. The parking should be better too, especially in comparison to (literally) no parking at Stardust on those farmers'-market Wednesdays.

Directions

Taste is near the corner of Princeton St (really Smith St after the fork) and Edgewater Drive, so about 2 minutes from I-4 to parking. One can park on the street or in the parking lot behind Taste.

• From Downtown and south, drive north ("east") on I-4 through downtown. At the exit for Princeton Street, exit and turn left/west.
• From Altamonte Spring and north, drive south ("west") on I-4 toward downtown Orlando. At the exit for Princeton Street, exit and turn right/west.

From I-4, drive 0.2 miles to Edgewater Drive. At the intersection, you should see a orange building ahead of you, labled "Taste". Park on the street or behind Taste.

"Evolution in School" follow-up

Fresh on the heels of our COPUS-themed February topic, Evolution in School, The Florida Times-Union reports that State Sen. Stephen Wise, from Jacksonville, plans to require science teachers to spend time teaching intelligent-design creationism. Last year, a similar bill failed to be enacted only because the two legislative bodies couldn't reconcile the already-passed versions.

For those unfamiliar with "intelligent-design", the television series "Nova" (incidentally, a supporter of Cafés Scientifique in the U.S.) produced a fascinating program chronicling a I-D creationism disaster in Pennsylvania. (Science won, but at great cost to the state.)

The latest effort to leapfrog state education standards seems to be to ignore the Department of Education and legislate that on the single topic of evolution, no teacher would be held responsible for what they teach. Its proponents call this "academic freedom." Expect to see this in this year's legislative session.

For ongoing information about promoting science in local education and how you can help, consult Florida Citizens for Science and its web-log.