Hard Times for Science

• (1) A tractor-trailer driver with a load of bottled water tried to make it over a historic bridge in Paoli, Indiana, on Christmas Day, with the obvious outcome when 35 tons of water starts across a limit-6-tons span. The driver told police she saw the 6-ton sign but did not know how that "translated" to pounds.

• (2) Among the activists denouncing a proposed solar-panel farm at a December Woodland (North Carolina) Town Council meeting were a husband and wife certain that vegetation near the panels would die because the panels would (the husband said) "suck up all the energy from the sun." His wife (described as a "retired science teacher") explained that the solar panels prevent "photosynthesis" (and also, of course, cause cancer). The council voted a moratorium on the panels. [WDRB-TV (Louisville, Ky.), 12-25-2015] [Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald, 12-8-2015]

Comment by clicking here.