Quick Takes: Biologists Bypass New Orleans to Protest Anti-Evolution Law, Roadblocks to Helping Public Schools, Vandalism vs. Art

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The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology has written to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, to announce that it rejected a proposal to hold its 2011 annual meeting in New Orleans, citing a new Louisiana law that lets local school districts add materials to the curriculum to critique scientific theories. While the law is not explicit on the point, it is widely seen as a way to permit the districts to undercut the teaching of evolution. An aide to the governor told The Times-Picayune that Jindal had not replied to the letter.
The University of Pennsylvania has had demonstrable success in improving a Philadelphia elementary school. But as Penn and Drexel University are attempting to get involved with a high school, the city school district has been uncooperative, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The problems aren't a lack of appreciation for the universities' intentions. But the school district lacks funds and space for the universities to improve a high school that the universities want to help.
Officials in Sweden are denouncing the defacing of a subway car as part of an art student's project. The Local reported that a student at the University College of Arts, Craft and Design submitted a film called "Territorial Pissing," in which a masked artist splashes paint and then breaks a window in a subway car -- apparently a real car. Transit authorities are demanding an apology from the art college, plus $12,000 to repair the car.