Evolution Bumper Sticker Contest!

I just received the following note from the National Center for Science Education, and I view this as a perfect chance to promote science in a fun and meaningful manner.  Read on 🙂

Two examples of previous NCSE bumper stickers

Announcing NCSE’s Bumper Sticker Contest!

Our classic bumper stickers…

“Evolutionists do it with increasing complexity”

“Honk! If you understand punctuated equilibria”

…will remain in the lineup. But it’s time to bring some new players onto the field.

This is your chance to speak loud, speak proud for evolution, by crafting a killer slogan that could end up on the tail end of thousands of cars. The aim of this mobile message: to spread the good word about evolution and evolution education. Your bumper sticker can be funny, profound, fierce—whatever, as long as it’s good.

Send your entries to bumpersticker@ncse.com

Rules & regulations:

• Be original. Run a Google search and make sure your slogan hasn’t been used or overused.
• Size constraints. Your basic bumper sticker is about 2.75″ high and about 15″ wide. That’s enough room for up to two lines of text, approximately 22 characters across (including spaces) per line. Remember: shorter is better.
• Submit as many bumper sticker slogans as you like. Winning slogans become the property of NCSE for all time. By emailing your entry to bumpersticker@ncse.com, you warrant that the slogan is your own work, to which you own the copyright, except for any phrases that fall within the scope of fair use, the public domain, or a Creative Commons license.
• Entries must include your full name and postal address.
• Winners will receive one of these prizes: 1) a bumper fun variety pack of evolution books, 2) NCSE’s famed “ooze” T-shirt, 3) a Darwin bobblehead, 4) the 2009 UK Charles Darwin £2 Brilliant Uncirculated 200th Anniversary Coin, 5) a copy of Greta Schiller’s new documentary, “No Dinosaurs in Heaven”, OR 6) an 11×16″ Darwin poster suitable for framing.
• Submissions will be accepted between July 5, 2011 and September 5, 2011

“Toyota Terror” and Media Scare-Mongering

Yes, we’ve all been hearing in the media lately about how Toyota is issuing major recalls for many of its most popular vehicles, such as the Camry & Prius.  The problems, we are told, range from sticky accelerator pedals to brakes that don’t function properly.  In addition, the media have made a really big point of noting that the accelerator problem has likely led to a whopping 19 deaths over the last decade!!!  ZOMG!!!11!1

Errr… that’s it?  19 deaths in a decade?  Really, that’s the big news?  Not to sound cold & heartless, but this seems so like the making of a molehill into a mountain in an effort by the media to keep a story going, when it’s obviously well past its “sell by” date.  To get a little perspective, let’s take a look at this responsible article by NPR on this issue…

Most Auto Accidents Caused By Drivers, Not Defects

Driving a Toyota may feel pretty risky these days, given all the scary stories about sudden acceleration, failing brakes and recalled vehicles. But that feeling has a lot more to do with emotion than statistics, experts say. That’s because defective vehicles are almost never the cause of serious crashes.

“The whole history of U.S. traffic safety in the U.S. has been one focusing on the vehicle, one of the least important factors,” says Leonard Evans, a physicist who worked for General Motors for three decades and wrote the book Traffic Safety.

To Err Is Human

Studies show that the vehicle itself is the sole cause of an accident only about 2 percent of the time. Drivers, on the other hand, are wholly to blame more than half the time and partly to blame more 90 percent of the time.

A look at data on Toyotas from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirms this pattern. The data show that in the decade ending in 2008, about 22,000 people were killed in vehicles made by Toyota or Lexus, Evans says. “All these people were killed because of factors that had absolutely nothing to do with any vehicle defect,” he says.

During that same period it’s possible, though not yet certain, that accelerator problems in Toyotas played a role in an additional 19 deaths, or about two each year, Evans says. And even if an accelerator does stick, drivers should be able to prevent most crashes by simply stepping on the brakes, Evans says. “The weakest brakes are stronger than the strongest engine,” he says.