Graaagghg!

I always thought Wesley Crusher, from Star Trek:TNG was an insufferable know it all twit who should have been spaced at birth! Turns out, I am Wesley!

A brilliant learner with a knack for almost everything, you choose to spend your efforts in the pursuit of travels that extend your own potential.

Maybe I am sick of following rules and regulations!


Space me quick, before I turn into an insufferable twit!


Okay, That's better. I went and retook the test. I changed my answer to one, and only one question (I answered the one about the bribe with tongue in cheek the first time). And now I'm:

An accomplished diplomat who can virtually do no wrong, you sometimes know it is best to rely on the council of others while holding the reins.

There are some words which I have known since I was a schoolboy. "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." These words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie -- as a wisdom, and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.

The quotation is totally appropriate for todays political climate.

More on Bush and Intelligent Design

Statement from the American Geophysical Union:

American Geophysical Union
2 August 2005
AGU Release No. 05-28
For Immediate Release

AGU: President Confuses Science and Belief, Puts Schoolchildren at Risk

Contact: Harvey Leifert
+1 (202) 777-7507
hleifert@agu.org


WASHINGTON - "President Bush, in advocating that the concept
of ‛intelligent design' be taught alongside the theory of evolution, puts
America's schoolchildren at risk," says Fred Spilhaus, Executive Director
of the American Geophysical Union. "Americans will need basic understanding
of science in order to participate effectively in the 21st century world. It is
essential that students on every level learn what science is and how scientific
knowledge progresses."

In comments to journalists on August 1, the President said that "both sides
ought to be properly taught." "If he meant that intelligent design
should be given equal standing with the theory of evolution in the nation's
science classrooms, then he is undermining efforts to increase the understanding
of science," Spilhaus said in a statement. "‛Intelligent
design' is not a scientific theory." Advocates of intelligent design
believe that life on Earth is too complex to have evolved on its own and must
therefore be the work of a designer. That is an untestable belief and,
therefore, cannot qualify as a scientific theory."

"Scientific theories, like evolution, relativity and plate tectonics, are
based on hypotheses that have survived extensive testing and repeated
verification," Spilhaus says. "The President has unfortunately
confused the difference between science and belief. It is essential that
students understand that a scientific theory is not a belief, hunch, or untested
hypothesis."

"Ideas that are based on faith, including ‛intelligent design,'
operate in a different sphere and should not be confused with science. Outside
the sphere of their laboratories and science classrooms, scientists and students
alike may believe what they choose about the origins of life, but inside that
sphere, they are bound by the scientific method," Spilhaus said.

AGU is a scientific society, comprising 43,000 Earth and space scientists. It
publishes a dozen peer reviewed journal series and holds meetings at which
current research is presented to the scientific community and the public.

**********
Note for Journalists

Contact information for Fred Spilhaus: fspilhaus@agu.org
or +1 (202) 777-7510.

Statement From National Science Teachers Association:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Cindy Workosky
National Science Teachers Association
703-312-9248 (office)
703-798-8744 (mobile)
cworkosky@nsta.org


National Science Teachers Association Disappointed About Intelligent Design
Comments Made by President Bush


AUGUST 3, 2005, ARLINGTON, VA--The National Science Teachers Association
(NSTA), the world’s largest organization of science educators, is stunned

and disappointed that President Bush is endorsing the teaching of
intelligent design-effectively opening the door for non-scientific ideas to
be taught in the nation's K-12 science classrooms.

"We stand with the nation's leading scientific organizations and
scientists, including Dr. John Marburger the president’s top science
advisor, in stating that intelligent design is not science. Intelligent
design has no place in the science classroom,” said Gerry Wheeler, NSTA
Executive Director.

Monday, Knight Ridder news service reported that the President favors the
teaching of intelligent design so “so people can understand what the
debate is about.”
“It is simply not fair to present pseudoscience to students in the
science classroom,” said NSTA President Mike Padilla.
“Nonscientific
viewpoints have little value in increasing students’ knowledge of the
natural world.”
NSTA strongly supports the premise that evolution is a major unifying
concept in science and should be included in the K-12 education frameworks
and curricula. This position is consistent with that of the National
Academies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and
many other scientific and educational organizations.

The Arlington, VA-based National Science Teachers Association is the
largest professional organization in the world promoting excellence and
innovation in science teaching and learning for all. NSTA's current
membership includes more than 55,000 science teachers, science supervisors,
administrators, scientists, business and industry representatives, and
others involved in science education.

Dinosaur Embryos, Growth and Human Evolution

I recently wrote a post on Dinosaur Embryos. One of the more interesting aspects of the find was that differences in relative growth of various body parts turned a quadrapedal infant into a bipedal adult. To understand what is going on here look at the pictures to the left. The first picture shows a baby from the 2nd month after conception to the tenth. The second shows from newborn to adult.
Several things should be noticed about the pictures. First, the diminishing size of the head, relative to the body, in the series. At two months after conception the head is approximately 43% of total body weight. At five months it is 16%. For newborns it is 13%, at five years it is 8%, at ten years it is 6% at 16 years it is 3%. In the meantime, leg length has increased in total percentage of human height. Trunk size (body sans limbs) as also decresed somewhat. Although it is easy to slip into the idea that everything in the body grows at the same rate, this is, in fact, wrong. In humans most of the growth of the brain (and head) happens early in life. Growth in the legs starts later and accelerates till puberty. The same could be said for the arms (although they don't impact height).
That's all fine and good, but what does it have to do with human evolution?
KNM-WT 1500 is a 1.5 million year old Homo erectus skelton - one of the most complete ever found - of an 11-13 year old male.



Among the many studies performed on the skeleton one stands out. Since the skeleton was of a juvenile it was felt that some interesting insights into growth could be gained by comparing the cranium to adult Homo erectus crania. The problem is there are few Homo erectus crania (particularly in the facial region) complete enough for the comparison so a complete female (KNM-ER 3733)was used instead. A series of measurements were taken (using a 3-dimensional digitizer - that's a subject for another post). Basically, the digitizer records cranial landmarks as a set of 3-dimensional distances from each landmark to every other (similar to what Jantz did recently for Kennewick). The measurments were taken on juvenile and adult chimps, juvenile and adult humans (by that I mean H. sapiens) and the female H. erectus skull mentioned above (see Walker and Shipman's "The Wisdom of the Bones" for further info). The goal of the reseaqrch was to determine whether H. erectus had growth patterns like chimps or like humans. Along the way it was found that chimps and humans share a surprisingly similar pattern of growth - which implied that the differences in form between the two were the result of different starting points rather than different patterns of growth. Consequently, H. erectus shared a growth pattern to similar both.
More intriguing is the possibility that this type of analysis could be extended to earlier fossils. Interesting fossils have been found in Drimolen, South Africa (about five years ago). The finds consisted of the bones of two infants. One was 2-3 years of age, the other 8-10 months. One is tentatively assigned to the genus Homo, the other to Australopithecus robustus (the interesting thing about the A. robustus infant was that a lot of the robustus traits were clearly visible on the fragments - indicating that even early in life their are species differences among the australopithecines). Although the finds were fragmentary and only few bits of the crania were found one wonders if in a few years the above type of analysis could be extended to these fossils as well.
Which brings us back to the dinosaur embryos. The lucky preservation of the eggs of Massospondylus carinatus shed some interesting light on how the biped developed and grew from a quadrupedal infant and indirectly on the evolution of the rest of the giant sauropods. More importantly, it was discovered that differences in the growth rates of various body parts of Massospondylus carinatus were responsible.

Bush Comes Out in Favor of Intelligent Design

From here.

First, the relevant bits:

In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with a small group of reporters, Bush essentially endorsed efforts by Christian conservatives to give intelligent design equal standing with the theory of evolution in the nation's schools.

Bush declined to state his personal views on "intelligent design," the belief that life forms are so complex that their creation can't be explained by Darwinian evolutionary theory alone, but rather points to intentional creation, presumably divine.

The theory of evolution, first articulated by British naturalist Charles Darwin in 1859, is based on the idea that life organisms developed over time through random mutations and factors in nature that favored certain traits that helped species survive.

Scientists concede that evolution doesn't answer every question about the creation of life, but most consider intelligent design an attempt to inject religion into science courses.

Bush compared the current debate to earlier disputes over "creationism," a related view that adheres more closely to biblical explanations. As governor of Texas, Bush said students should be exposed to both creationism and evolution.

On Monday the president said he favors the same approach for intelligent design "so people can understand what the debate is about."

The Kansas Board of Education is considering changes to encourage the teaching of intelligent design in Kansas schools, and Christian conservatives are pushing for similar changes in other school districts across the country.

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. " You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."

The National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have both concluded that there's no scientific basis for intelligent design and oppose its inclusion in school science classes.

"The claim that equity demands balanced treatment of evolutionary theory and special creation in science classrooms reflects a misunderstanding of what science is and how it is conducted," the academy said in a 1999 assessment. "Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science."

Some scientists have declined to join the debate, fearing that amplifying the discussion only gives intelligent design more legitimacy.

But advocates of intelligent design also claim support from scientists. The Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank in Seattle that's the leading proponent for intelligent design, said it has compiled a list of more than 400 scientists, including 70 biologists, who are skeptical about evolution.

"The fact is that a significant number of scientists are extremely skeptical that Darwinian evolution can explain the origins of life," John West, associate director of the organization's Center for Science and Culture, said in a prepared statement.

Bush didn't seem eager to talk about the topic.

Evolutionary theory has yielded a rich a vibrant research program, thousands of experiments are performed yearly (with results supporting evolution) and hundreds of thousands if not millions since the theory was first advocated. Thousands of scientists have spent their careers studying evolutionary phenomena yet we are supposed to throw this all away because a couple hundred scientists (enlisted by the Discovery Intstitute) with religious convictions and no experimental results to report don't like the theory of evolution. It is important to note that none of the scientists on the Discavery Institute list have done any experiments that would cast any doubt on evolutionary theory. Nor do they use Intelligent Design in their ongoing research.
Intelligent Design, on the other hand, in over fifeteen years has yielded no experimental results and no research program.
Basically what Intelligent design advocates offer science is an application of Zeno's paradox to biology.
This is what ID advocates would replace evolutionary theory with...

It's no wonder that Bush declined to state his personal views and didn't seem eager to talk about it.

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. " You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."

Lacking any scientific research, this is what ID advocates are reduced to. They endlessly repeat "expose people to different schools of thought" like a mantra. Everybody believes in free speech and in exploring new ideas, and everybody believes in giving a fair hearing to opposing points of view. Intellectual diversity is a good thing, no doubt about it, yet all this amounts to is a cynical attempt, on the part of ID advocates, to manipulate people by appealing to their basic sense of fairness. When I was in college I did a term paper on bipedal locomotion in Autralopithecus afarensis. I took the view of Johanson and Lovejoy that locomotion in A. afarensis was fully as efficient as in modern humans - I though I made a good case for it too. Yet over the years I have had to modify my views as new evidence came to light and oloder evidence was re-evaluated. So, what is fair here? Should we continue to "teach the controversy" and talk about what is incorrect? Should I create the paleontological equivalent of the Discovery Institute and lobby school boards to teach my version of australopithicine bipedality? Wouldn't that be fair? Or should I accept the evidence that proves me wrong?

What this comes down to is a group of people, who can not accept the results of scientific research, so they are trying to replace science with mythology. It would be one thing if they merely disagreed, but unfortunately, they are trying to make every else live and learn within the constraints of that mythoogy. This is bad for science education, because it does not stop with biology. Anthropology, geology, even physics will be affected. One also wonders how we are to compete with China and India - both rapidly becoming dominant in the sciences and high tech industry - and in the global market place when are children are taught the mishmash of unintelligible concepts and pseudo-science that passes for creationism and intelligent design?

Added Later: Via Red State Rabble come this link to a Charles Krauthammer column decrying the embrace of ID by the by republicans. Some of the better parts:

Cannot? On what scientific evidence? Evolution is one of the most powerful and elegant theories in all of human science and the bedrock of all modern biology. Schönborn's proclamation that it cannot exist unguided--that it is driven by an intelligent designer pushing and pulling and planning and shaping the process along the way--is a perfectly legitimate statement of faith. If he and the Evangelicals just stopped there and asked that intelligent design be included in a religion curriculum, I would support them. The scandal is to teach this as science--to pretend, as does Schönborn, that his statement of faith is a defense of science. "The Catholic Church," he says, "will again defend human reason" against "scientific theories that try to explain away the appearance of design as the result of 'chance and necessity,'" which "are not scientific at all." Well, if you believe that science is reason and that reason begins with recognizing the existence of an immanent providence, then this is science. But, of course, it is not. This is faith disguised as science. Science begins not with first principles but with observation and experimentation.

And:

To teach faith as science is to undermine the very idea of science, which is the acquisition of new knowledge through hypothesis, experimentation and evidence. To teach it as science is to encourage the supercilious caricature of America as a nation in the thrall of religious authority. To teach it as science is to discredit the welcome recent advances in permitting the public expression of religion. Faith can and should be proclaimed from every mountaintop and city square. But it has no place in science class. To impose it on the teaching of evolution is not just to invite ridicule but to earn it.

...One of the few times I will ever agree with Krauthammer!

Creationism and Bisonalveus browni

My post on Solenodon and Bisonalveus browni has been linked to by a creationist (as has Pharyngula's)
You can also go here, here and here to get more info on the fossil. A picture of the venom delivery groove is below.

I was somewhat perplexed at first because the creationist titled his post "Killer Mice" - I thought he was talking about the albatross eating mice that has been all over the web. Then I read the post and man, oh, man is it a stinker.



Our creationist says:

Fox believes B. browni's teeth most closely resemble the solenodon's, but are still "unlike any venom-delivery system sported by living mammals."

The link is to a New Scientist (subscription only) article. The abstract qoutes Fox thusly:

According to Richard Fox and Craig Scott of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, the grooves are unlike any venom-delivery system sported by living mammals. But they are similar to those of a poisonous snake called the boomslang (Dispholidus typus).

Boomslangs are a species of venomous snakes that have fangs placed more posteriorly in the mouth than say rattlesnakes or cobras. Boomslangs have grooved fangs to deliver venom.

Why assume the grooves conducted saliva? And why assume the saliva was poisonous? Sure, it's possible, but to find a few fossilized teeth with grooves and conclude decisively that the mammal bit "like a snake," is throwing your own opinion in.

Because of their relationship to the salivary glands, because of knowledge of comparitive anatomy - which tells us grooves of this type exist for a reason.

Finally we get this:

Venom is, in my opinion, a product of the Curse which God pronounced on His creation in Genesis chapter three, following man's rebellion. It likely became more and more common as genetic mutations multiplied, and animals lost resistance to certain types of poison.

Leaving aside the fact that this sounds like god is punishing all of creation for the the sin of two - which hardly sounds just - lets examine this in more detail.

"...animals lost their resistence to certain types of poison" If venom only came into existence after god's "curse" then why did animals need resistence to it?

"It likely became more and more common as genetic mutations multiplied..." Actually, this is not the way it works. If mutations multiplied creating venom then natural selection would create resistence in animals not reduce it - kind of like antibiotic resistence in bacteria, for example. I mean if you are going to spew the standard creationist microevolution line for the orgin of venom at least try and understand how microevolution works.

Giant Cannibal Squid: The Invasion Has Begun!

Well not really. But according to this some species of squid engage in cannibalism:

Now Bruce Deagle of the University of Tasmania, Australia, and his team have analysed the gut contents of a male giant squid caught by fishermen off the west coast of Tasmania in 1999. Among the slurry of macerated prey, they found three tentacle fragments and 12 squid beaks. The beaks could not be unequivocally identified, but all of the squid DNA in the slurry, and the tentacle fragments, was found to be that of A. dux (Journal of Heredity, vol 96, p 417). "This strongly suggests cannibalism," says team member Simon Jarman of the Australian Antarctic Division in Kingston, Tasmania. The only other prey species identified was a fish, the blue grenadier.

And at the mosy inopportune times:

"The male giant squid has to use a puny 15-gram brain to coordinate 150 kilograms of weight, 10 metres of length and a 1.5-metre-long penis," he says"He physically plunges this penis into the female's arms, which are rather unfortunately right next to her beak. Because he is coordinating so much with so little, I think occasionally bits get chewed off when they inadvertently get too close to the beak."

I was looking forward to our squid overlords but if they are going to be biting penises, er, phalluses off I'm going to have to rethink that!

Mainstream Media Sucks Used Kitty Litter: Part Two

Here we go again. According to Eschaton The New Media Rules:

It looks like Republicans have learned a new trick in the media. If you give exclusive stories to journalists with the condition that no Democrats are to be allowed to comment on the story, journalists think that's a perfectly acceptable thing to do. Not only that, but they won't even bother to do any additional research for the story.

Go here and here for more.

From Media Matters:

Under a purported embargo, which the Post said prevented reporters from revealing the administration's decision until midnight -- "too late" to contact Democrats for a response -- staff writers Peter Baker and Charles Babington quoted anonymous White House officials spinning the decision regarding the documents(emphasis mine - afarensis). But while other contemporaneous print media reports noted Democrats' previously stated arguments for full disclosure of the documents, the Post omitted them for the second day in a row.

Form Kos:

Turns out Roll Call writer Lauren Whittington got the story from the GOP with the ground rule that she not call anyone else for the story.

After reading this article I couldn't help but ask myself which media outlets in West Virginia were going to be running these advertisements. I called up Lauren W. Whittington (columnist for the Roll Call) to ask her if Brian Nick went into any specifics pertaining to his comment that stated: "The initial buy, which will be concentrated in the large media markets in the state." I was interested in finding out, in specific, which television stations or "large media markets" Brian Nick was referring too. Whittington told me that Nick did not go into any specifics other than what she had presented in the article for "security reasons," security as in they do not want Democratic operatives finding out this type of information.

Security reasons? WTF?

It would be nice if these were isolated incidents - but they are not:

Days after financial services giant Morgan Stanley informed print publications that its ads must be automatically pulled from any edition containing "objectionable editorial coverage," global energy giant BP has adopted a similar press strategy.

According to a copy of a memo on the letterhead of BP's media-buying agency, WPP Group's MindShare, the global marketer has adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward negative editorial coverage.

Another magazine executive who had not heard about BP’s policy or of Morgan Stanley’s said his company has unwritten guidelines with advertisers from several industries, including auto, airlines and tobacco, to pull their ads if related negative stories are in the issue. These cases, the executive said, occur more with news magazines than lifestyle ones.

Go here and here for more info.

Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable indeed!

Humor

the Cutting Edge (52% dark, 43% spontaneous, 33% vulgar)

your humor style: CLEAN | SPONTANEOUS | DARK Your humor's mostly innocent and off-the-cuff, but somehow there's something slightly menacing about you. Part of your humor is making people a little uncomfortable, even if the things you say aren't in and of themselves confrontational. You probably have a very dry delivery, or are seriously over-the-top. Your type is the most likely to appreciate a good insult and/or broken bone and/or very very fat person dancing. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: David Letterman - John Belushi

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on dark You scored higher than 99% on spontaneous You scored higher than 99% on vulgar

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

Dinosaur Embryos

Dinosaur Embryos 


The above is a dinosaur embryo belonging to a species called Massospondylus carinatus which is believed to be an ancestor of the giant sauropods. It (the embryo) was discovered in 1978 and just recently exposed by scientists. Apparently, according to this article enough were discovered that they could work out growth rates and changes in bodily proportions, surprisingly:

That growth pattern turned out to be highly unusual. The hatchling had a huge head and forelimbs as long as its hind legs. As the animal grew, its neck stretched dramatically, while its head got increasingly smaller relative to its body. Its hind legs grew more than twice as long as its forelimbs.

An adult Massospondylus had a head that was only 8 inches (20 centimeters) long. Its upper limbs were only half the size of its thighbones. It grew to be about 16 feet (5 meters) long, with a beanstalk-like neck and an 8-foot (2.4-meter) tail.

The earliest sauropods may have also developed with quadrupedal proportions, like their Massospondylus cousins. But these early sauropods retained their four-footed stance into adulthood.

The growth pattern of the Massospondylus could therefore provide clues about how the giant sauropods evolved.

"These animals are essentially predecessors to those large sauropods," Reisz said.

Forgive Me for I Have Sinned...

No, I have not gone and got myself all religified. I'm still the same cynical smartass who thinks we are descended from monkeys!

You see, I have realized I have done wrong - that is I have spelled a bloggers name wrong. I am refering, of course, to evolgen. I had been spelling it Evolgen, but apparently this is incorrect, so I have corrected it in my blogroll.

I am particularly apalled since a lot of people mispell my name (it's "afarensis" not Afarensis - let's be taxonomically correct) and here I go and do the same darn thing to another blogger.

Sigh

Wells and Cancer: More Evidence He's Wrong

I have written several posts on this before. They can be found here and here.
From Well's paper on TOPS:

TOPS then explicitly rejects several implications of Darwinian evolution.
These include: (1a) The implication that living things are best understood from
the bottom up, in terms of their molecular constituents. (1b) The implications
that DNA mutations are the raw materials of macroevolution, that embryo
development is controlled by a genetic program, that cancer is a genetic disease,
etc. (1c) The implication that many features of living things are useless vestiges
of random processes, so it is a waste of time to inquire into their functions.

On Science Daily I stumbled across this paper on Multi-Species Genome Comparison Sheds New Light On Evolutionary Processes, Cancer Mutations

A team of researchers from the United States, France and Singapore studied the chromosomes of eight mammals. The mammals are humans, mice, rats, cows, pigs, dogs, cats and horses. Some interesting results emerged:

Using sophisticated computer software to align and compare the mammals' genetic material, or genomes, the team determined that chromosomes tend to break in the same places as species evolve, resulting in rearrangements of their DNA. Prior to the discovery of these breakage hotspots, the prevailing view among scientists was that such rearrangements occurred at random locations.

and:

In their paper, researchers report that the chromosomal abnormalities most frequently associated with human cancer are far more likely to occur in or near the evolutionary breakage hotspots than were less common types of cancer-associated abnormalities. Researchers theorize that the rearrangements seen near breakage hotspots may activate genes that trigger cancer and/or inactivate genes that normally suppress cancer. However, they emphasize that far more work remains to be done to clarify the relationship between cancer and the breakage hotspots. One thing researchers have determined is that the regions immediately flanking the breakage hotspots contain more genes, on average, than the rest of the genome.

Note the cause of chromosome instability has nothing to do with:

Centrosomes that are too numerous or too large would produce too strong a polar ejection force, damaging chromosomes and leading to chromosomal instability.

As Wells tried to argue.

It is interesting to note that the cancer aspects of this research was done within an evolutionary paradigm:

"Science tells us that the most effective tool we currently have to understand our own genome is to compare it with the genomes of other organisms. With each new genome that we sequence, we move closer to filling the gaps in our knowledge," said Dr. Ostrander, who is chief of the Cancer Genetics Branch in NHGRI's Division of Intramural Research.

The multi-species comparison published in Science also yielded surprising results about the rate at which chromosomal evolution occurs. Based on an analysis that included a computer-generated reconstruction of the genomes of long-extinct mammals, researchers found the rate of chromosomal evolution among mammals dramatically accelerated following the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.

Before the sudden demise of dinosaurs and many other types of animals, which is thought to have resulted from a massive comet or asteroid striking Earth, mammals shared fairly similar body plans and also fairly similar genomes. Researchers speculate that the mass extinction opened new ecological niches for mammals, spurring their diversification and the emergence of new mammalian orders. This situation would have facilitated opportunities for the isolation of mammals into more distinct breeding groups, speeding the development of species-specific chromosomes.

"This study has revealed many hidden secrets on the nature and timing of genome evolution in mammals, and it demonstrates how the study of basic evolutionary processes can lead to new insights into the origin of human diseases," said Dr. Lewin, who is director of the Institute of Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois.

Once again proving that nothing in biology makes sense without evolution and incidentally proving wrong, yet agian, those who say evolution has nothing to offer the field of medicine.

To learn more you can go to:

National Human Genome Research Institute

Mainstream Media Sucks Used Kitty Litter

This is absolutely despicable. Yet, the mainstream media keeps wondering why people are abandoning them in droves. It concerns a missing pregnant woman from Philadelphia.

From MSNBC

CRAMER: I think we got to focus on this ratings issue for a second, because I don’t think people—we all—we all understand this because we’re in the business. I didn’t get.

If you can get a huge number of people watching a particular story, it gives you the license to do a lot of other stories. Now, some people abuse the license by going to Aruba every single night, as far as I’m concerned. But I have to—I—I—I love programing that gets watched.

CARLSON: Yes. I do, too.

CRAMER: So, I’m not going to damn this kind of story.

CARLSON: I’m not either.

MADDOW: No. And the media makes decisions based on what is going to sell advertising. And so, what is going to...

(CROSSTALK)

CRAMER: It’s commercialism.

And a little later:

MADDOW: But it’s the per—again, it’s the perception. We’ve got a woman who has been missing for nine days. She’s pregnant. She’s a young mother. It has all the components of the other stories that get covered. But because of the race, because she’s from West Philly, it’s not getting covered.

CARLSON: But...

MADDOW: So, people are trying to drive...

CARLSON: But...

MADDOW: ... the media...

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: But the truth is, we are covering it. It was on our air today. And it’s on our air...

MADDOW: Because of an enterprising blogger.

CARLSON: It’s...

CRAWFORD: Where would you rather vacation, Aruba or West Philly?

MADDOW: West Philly has...

(CROSSTALK)

CRAMER: Forty-second and Baltimore is nothing like Aruba.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

CRAMER: I know that area.

(LAUGHTER)

So a white woman disappears in Aruba and the Mainstream Media loves it cause it brings great ratings and black woman (forgot to mention that) disappears and it is cause for laughter.

Pitiful, just pitiful.

New Species of Fly

Hybrid Fly 


According to National Geographic News the above is a relatively new species of fly that formed as a hybrid of two existing species:

The Lonicera fly evolved as a hybrid of two existing U.S. species, the blueberry maggot and the snowberry maggot, according to the study. The newfound species is named after the honeysuckle plant (scientific name: Lonicera), which the insect's life cycle revolves around.

Apparently, speciation by hybridization takes place in fish too:

German researchers have studied cichlids (a type of tropical freshwater fish) living in tiny volcano-crater lakes in Cameroon, West Africa. Their studies have shown that at least one cichlid species started off as a hybrid.

Among cichlids this process likely takes thousands of years. The Lonicera fly's evolution, however, has occurred only in the 250 years since its honeysuckle host plant arrived in North America.

You can also go here for more info.

What Democrats Need to Do

Athenae at First Draft has a perceptive post about Democrats and the need to not allow others to define us:

But what we have do, Will my love, is not "come to terms" with what our opposition says we are and promise, really promise, the American people we'll change. What we need, Will, is not some national apology session in which we say we regret opposing a war that was in fact wrong and that we did in fact lose. What we need is not some sort of press conference to announce that we're sorry we hurt all those segregationists' feelings all those years ago by opining timidly that perhaps police should not turn hoses on peaceful protestors and that we should all just drink out of the same fountain. Because when you talk about protest culture, Will, that's what you're talking about. That's what they're really mad about.

Go read it, it's great!

Tuesday Monster Movie Blogging

Although it sounds pretty cheesy (the science aspects suck), this is actually a first rate movie. Seems to be a low budget film and I don't recognize any of the stars. It was released in 1953 during the era of the "invaders from outerspace" but veers off in a different direction from most (another exception being "I Married a Creature From Outer Space").
The movie starts with some communications engineers trying to track down the source of a mysterious disturbance in their radio frequencies. They meet a lady who, along with her husband and a friend, has just been attacked by a strange person wearing what appears to be a deep sea divers outfit. Several other deaths occur and an oil refinery is blown up before it is realized the stranger is, in fact a visitor from outerspace who crashed on earth. From here the movie turns into a sensitive portrait of the alien's attempt to survive a hostile atmosphere and evade capture. Unfortunately, the protagonists realize too late what is going on and the alien dies (he is unable to survive in earths atmosphere for very long without his breathing apparatus).
Most of the films from this era dealt with horrible alien invaders hellbent on kidnapping earth women for deviant alien sex (one wonders if this would be the alien equivalent of bestiality?) and this film is a notable exception. Anyone with an hour to spare should check it out!

Bacterial Adaptations to Cold Environments

This article from Science Daily is pretty interesting. A team of researchers from The Institute for Genomic Research have sequenced the genome of Colwellia psychrerythraea - a species of cold adapted bacteria that lives in temperatures below 5 degrees celcius (brrr).

"...these analyses offer a picture of evolution in action, as C. psychrerythraea uses subtle tweaks in common bacterial biology to adapt to its chilly environs. For instance, the bacterium taps a group of four to five genes to generate polyunsaturated fatty acids and pack those acids into cell membranes, resulting in membranes that are fluid and functional--rather than a frozen chunk of biomass--below the freezing point. The genome also possesses a number of duplicated genes important to cell membrane biosynthesis. What's more, C. psychrerythraea dresses in layers, generating plenty of extracellular polysaccharides (sugars) that coat cell membranes.

Aside from its cellular outerwear, C. psychrerythraea generates a range of potential cold-protective compounds. One example is a family of polyesters, known as polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) compounds, that may also boost reserves of nitrogen and carbon, which could be in short supply in the extreme cold. The organism also engineers cold-hardy versions of ordinary enzymes found in free-living bacteria, such as enzymes that break down organic matter. C. psychrerythraea possesses genes that may break down complex compounds, including pollutants, as well."

Lest you think this is just pure science, the analysis does have applications:

More than just marvels of nature, cold-adapted enzymes hold industrial promise, as active ingredients in coldwater detergents, clean-up for industrial contaminants, and food treatments. Psychrophiles could hold clues to microbial life on other planets, as well, such as the frozen surface of Mars or one of Jupiter's moons, Europa.

So evolutionary theory could lead to a better way of cleaning up industrial contamination...

My Birthday

"It's my birthday and I'll blog if I want to..."
I took the day off because it's my birthday today. I plan on blogging a little , maybe watching a couple of monster movies and of course, my mom made me a german sweet chocolate cake (from scratch - not a mix) so I plan on eating some of that.

Added later: It is also, I just discovered, Josh Rosenau's birthday as well. Happy Birthday Josh! You can wish Josh a happy birthday (and see the great birthday candle) at Thoughts From Kansas

Ediacara Fauna

The above is a picture of a type of ediacaran fossil called a vendobiont.
From Geotimes:

Radiometrically dated between 551 and 538 million years old, the newly discovered vendobionts, preserved in a limestone matrix, have internal structures replaced by calcite spars, says Bing Shen, a graduate student at Virginia Tech and co-author of the paper, published in the July 11 Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The creatures have a unique body plan never before seen in living or extinct creatures, Shen says.

Shen and his colleagues plan to perform other analyses of the specimens, including some geochemical work. They will also return to the field in search of more Ediacara fossils in the previously overlooked carbonate rocks. "It is important to search more limestone for different fossil anatomies [and] ecologies," Shen says. What exactly the vendobionts were and how they lived is still a point of speculation.

Indeed, the team has several ideas about why the organisms went extinct during the Cambrian, including a change in the environment. Another possibility, they say, is that because the vendobionts were sedentary creatures — lying about on the seafloor — organisms that could burrow into and crawl across the ocean bottom may have disrupted the lifestyle of the vendobionts.

The Environmental Impact of Consumption

The Yale Journal of Industrial Ecology has an entire issue devoted to the impact of consumption on the environment. All the articles are free and dowloadable in pdf format. Check them out.

400 Million Year Old Microfossils

Although I don't know much about botany, I find this fascinating.



The above is a picture of (as near as I can tell) the fruit or seed of a type of green algae called charophytes. They are 400 million year old microfossils that scientists have recently found a new and important way to study.

Researchers at the ESRF have presented the possibilities that microtomography offers by showing the steps of a 3D non-destructive investigation by X-ray synchrotron microtomography on a gyrogonite from Late Cretaceous (Mesozoic) period, originating from the South of France. This charophyte doesn’t belong to the Sycidiales, but shows the possibilities of X-ray synchrotron microtomography on small fossils. The first step is a high resolution microradiograph (pixel size of 1.4 microns) showing the spirals twisted from base to apex. From a complete set of microradiographs taken during a half rotation, virtual slices are reconstructed (step 2). From all the slices, we obtain a 3D representation of the sample (step 3) showing its external morphology. Step 4 presents the internal cavity after the “virtual” removal of a part of the gyrogonite wall. Using these 3D data, the team reconstructed a virtual mould inside the gyrogonite (step 5). On this virtual oospore (step 6), numerous details are visible, such as the sutures, the apex, or the basal plate. Image number 7 is an observation with a polarizing microscope of a slide in an equivalent sample.

The applications of this new technique are, to say the least, extremely wide and varied:

The use of X-ray synchrotron microtomography for this pioneering study on fossil algae opens new doors to paleontology. Indeed, charophytes represent only one group among numerous others of very small fossils. This kind of investigation should hence become a reference for non-destructive three-dimensional approach of small fossils.

Incidentally, researchers found two types of structures in their study. The first, which you can see above, were a series of ridges in a spiral pattern. The second was a vertical pattern of ridges. An additional surprising find was of a uticule:

An utricule is a supplementary protective layer believed to protect the zygote (reproductive cell) against desiccation. The fact that such a structure was acquired during the evolution of these very old algae means that they probably lived in a harsh environment. This structure could be interpreted as an adaptation to strong seasonality with dry summers leading to ephemeral aquatic environments.

Amazing, the things science can do these days!