You may recognize the title most recently as a humorous jab at people who want to teach religion in science classes and, failing that, at least teach why they think there is a controversy.    Of course there isn't any controversy at all.    Biology is as imperfect as every science in existence and explaining the world we live in according to natural laws is tough because there are always new things to learn.

The only place where rock solid 'proof' exists is in mathematics, which some people think is science.    Yet even in mathematics there are disputes and one of them has long been Pi - or π, if you prefer.   That's right, someone once may have insisted we teach the controversy about Pi, which is a delightful sort of irony.

You wouldn't think that tanking an economy would make anyone happy but it puts a spring in the steps of a small group; economics professors.    

If the lousy economy is cause for a party, the election of Barack Obama and more government meandering is apparently icing on the cake.    Witness Professor Panicos Demetriades of the Economic and Social Research Council's World Economy and Finance  Programme, who is today speaking at the 'Politics of Macro-Adjustment and Poverty Reduction' Conference.

Economics is always called the dismal science, because it has science pretensions yet never makes accurate predictions.   The outlook, according to economists, is always rather bleak.

But given the current state of the economy, economists are downright ecstatic, because they can be relevant again.  And, in this case, it turns out they are a lot more optimistic than unemployed people are about the future.

You know when economists are cheery things must be pretty bad.