Thursday, January 19, 2006

Drexler discusses families without fathers:

Cornell University psychology professor Peggy Drexler discussed something that Lance Armstrong, Colin Powell, Bill Clinton, Jamie Foxx, and Drew Carey all have in common -- being raised without fathers -- at a Saybrook College Master's Tea Wednesday.

Speaking to a mostly-female crowd of 30 students and faculty, the author of "Raising Boys Without Men" discussed misconceptions Americans have about the effect of changing family structures on children, and boys in particular. In her new book Drexler studied boys being raised by two mothers, single mothers by choice, single mothers resulting from divorce or death, and intact families.

Drexler said her findings showed that there were no significant differences in the children's development, Drexler said.

...

Drexler's research showed that the boys raised without a father did not show exclusively masculine or feminine qualities, she said. These "alternative families" developed strategies to provide their children with additional adult role models and ensure open communication about feelings and problems, she said.


Not that all the evidence in the world would stop imbeciles from saying otherwise.

Also, regarding imbeciles (specifically in the creationist genre), this is how you get an unpopular theory to be supported:

According to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, enunciated a century ago, the speed of light - the "c" in his famous equation e=mc 2 - has been a constant 299,792,458 metres a second since the universe began with the Big Bang. Dr Joao Magueijo thinks Einstein, who did have second thoughts but never pursued them, got it wrong. He believes that not long after the Big Bang light hit a "speed bump" and is, in fact, slowing down.

His theory - published first in the scientific press and then in a popular book, Faster than the Speed of Light - The Story of a Scientific Speculation, was initially greeted with derision.

"That is not so surprising," says Portuguese-born Dr Magueijo, 38, who tonight will give a public talk on his theory at the University of NSW. "This is an emotional issue. We are attacking one of the pillars of modern physics."

Whether it comes crashing down will depend largely on research now being carried out at the university by a six-member team led by Professor John Webb and Dr Michael Murphy, one of his former PhD students.


You do research and experiments to support a theory, not @#$%ing talk shows.

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