Adventures in air travel

I'm in Florida at this teacher workshop, so bloggery will be limited. I had a good talk with the assembled teachers about the history of creationism and education.

My ability to accomplish anything at all was a bit of a surprise. My flight was scheduled to arrive in Florida at 12:30 am, which was manageable. I got to my layover in Las Vegas on time and without incident. We took off without apparent incident.

I enjoyed watching the landscape out the window, and after a while I was fairly sure we were flying over the Grand Canyon. This was lovely. When we pulled a u-turn, and I got to see it again, I wasn't really unhappy, other than that Florida was the other way. No one else seemed concerned.

Then the copilot let us know he'd tell us more when we got back to Las Vegas, which surprised those of outside the cockpit, who didn't know we were going back to Vegas. The pilot came on shortly and explained that "a light had gone on, not a good light," so we were heading back. "It's probably just a problem with the warning system," he assured us.

"What happens in Vegas really does stay in Vegas," one passenger quipped.

So we went back to Vegas. The captain warned that firetrucks would be meeting us to check our brakes. We changed planes. Rather than a 12:30 arrival, we got in at 3:30, and I was at my hotel, unpacked, and asleep by 5 am.

I did get some time to start on Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future by Chris Mooney, Sheril Kirshenbaum. I'm liking it so far, and based on the first few chapters, I have to say that I find PZ Myers's criticism misplaced. I will reserve judgment on PZ and on Chris and Sheril until I'm done, though. It does rather focus the matter to be reading about the challenges of science literacy in America while planning how to help teachers negotiate controversies in the science class.