I saw this on Times Online and thought you might be interested

For God’s sake, have Charles Darwin’s theories made any difference to our lives?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5488488.ece

What absolute nonsense goes for an article in the Times these days.  Straw dog version of Evolutionary Biology  (Darwinism) is shot down by exaggerated religious concerns and the odd reference to show that it no longer holds its place in science.  Nonsense, absolute rubbish.  Interview some real biologists and stay away from philosophers who haven’t kept up with the literature!!!

Adaptation in Humans

Dmitri Petrov, James Cai, Michael Macpherson, Guy Sella are Stanford Geneticists who have looked in on the adaptationist nature of humans trough the lens of the human genome. The news article at Physorg.com under the heading Stanford researchers show adaptation plays a significant role in human evolution. Here we find that they a have approached this by actually looking for the evidence in the genome itself.  Making a prediction, looking for the evidence, confirming or not, then publishing. What happens next with this I don't know, but we know it doesn't prove Lamarckism because it starts of early explaining that the random mutations are what the adaptations are made from.  The point is more about the preservation of advantageous adaptations and discarding those that are disadvantageous.

Beipaiosaurus was covered in the simplest known feathers

Beipaiosaurus was covered in the simplest known feathers

In Ed Yong’s blog above, these peculiar creatures are explained and further explanations on the origins of Feathers in Birds is covered. It seems that the more we dig, the more Homo Sapien Sapien keeps finding his origins and the origins of all the creatures that exist today, which is becoming more urgent as they too are becoming extinct rapidly.

More links on the feathers and dinosaurs are:

• Evidence that Velociraptor had feathers
• Microraptor - the dinosaur that flew like a biplane
• Argentavis, the largest flying bird, was a master glider

It seems that these variations have been going on for literally Millions of years.

Committee adopts new administrative handbook

It appears the controversy over Louisiana's changes to the Education curriculum has meant nothing to the Science Teachers.  The Discovery institutes bluster and smoke and mirrors has failed.  Maybe they will have to be more explicit in future so our recalcitrant science teachers understand that Evolution is evil and all text books that mention such a thing should be burned!  Burned I say!

 

Clifford M Dubery

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Committee adopts new administrative handbook

 

Posted: Jan 14, 2009 08:44 AM

 

Updated: Jan 14, 2009 09:06 AM

 

By Caroline Moses

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -A state education committee adopted a new administrative handbook Tuesday, as part of the recently passed Louisiana science education act. The handbook does not specifically ban teaching creationism or intelligent design. Supporters say it doesn't need to because teaching religion in public schools is already banned. But that's why opponents say this entire debate is a costly distraction from the real issues facing state public schools.

 

"It's up to BESE to implement this in our policy," said Dale Bayard who is chairman of the state education board.  Senator Ben Nevers of Bogalusa passed a law last session called the "Louisiana science education act." It gives state education committees the authority to decide what can be taught in state schools. But the committee was a little vague about what's allowed. "It's up to us to provide students with every possible element of new discovery and that's the intent of the act," said Bayard.

 

Gene Mills with Louisiana Family Forum asked Senator Nevers to sponsor the original legislation. He says the intent is to promote "critical thinking" in classrooms, especially science classes. "Where teachers can approach students to inquire about controversial science subject matter," said Mills. But Louisiana Federation of Teachers president Steve Monaghan says not a single teacher in his organization has complained about current science materials. "The time spent on this issue may be in total excess of what the problem was because we don't believe there was a problem in the science classroom anyway," said Monaghan.

 

Even the committee chair Dale Bayard who is in favor of the legislation agreed. Lesson plans may not change much. But he says their hours of debate do help further the discussion. "We don't discourage any discussion that's important," said Bayard.  "I believe what this has done is create a stage for what unfortunately seems to be an embedded political movement. We're going to find ourselves getting tied into knots over issues people are invested in by faith, emotion, and miss the big picture," said Monaghan.

 

Monaghan predicts there will likely be future legal battles over the new law and handbook. Bayard says he is not worried about possible litigation. Thursday, BESE will review the committee adoption. State school board and committee member Dale Bayard expects they will ratify the committee's decision. For more information on this discussion.. Go to Caroline's 9News extra on the home page.

 

Who Abandoned the Nest

What an excellent article about a paleontological report in science.

For years it was a problem understanding why this clutch of eggs was abandoned, but now we know. (follow the link on the picture.)

I have always maintained that science will enforce the Theory of Evolution and make the Creationists seem just plain ignorant, and here we are again with evidence and a story about an event over 70m years ago.

Intelligent design debate brews controversy in Texas

Here is a bit more information about the Texas Science Standards Review Panel.  Notice 2 of the anti-evolutionists on the panel are out of state.  Why is it necessary to appoint non local people from a state as big as Texas? 

I would guess the Republican Party members appointed or voted for  have appointed them for a reason, to establish a pro evolution point of view, or at least a voting duality.  I wander how flexible it will be in reality as they are not elected, just appointed.

The anti-science position of the literalist fundamentalist biblicalists group may be voted out as time moves on with the evidence of their Republican politicians being seen a failures in the Economy.

News 8 Austin Story : Intelligent design debate brews controversy in Texas - 10/15/2008 8:49:37 PM

3 evolution critics on advisory panel that will review standards for science courses in Texas schools

Well, Texas appears to be following the Republican Party policy document in Texas by opposing Evolution in Science class in the advisory panel by stacking at least three idproponents in it.  The advisory panels meetings should be interesting, evenly matched between creationists and real scientists.

3 evolution critics on advisory panel that will review standards for science courses in Texas schools | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Texas Regional News

The End of Evolution?| Christianpost.com

On October 9 a prediction of mine happened, well really, an open speculation on my part, yet it happened. The Christian Post is reporting the End of Evolution, a false claim by the Professor Steve Jones at University College London.  R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the writer of this and they both do not seem to understand the rate of evolution and the various paths.  Not only genetic changes but we should also understand that changes can occur afterward whilst development is going on in uteri.  So claiming evolution has stopped or evolutionists are wrong is false.  Changes can occur in our little grey cells inside our cranium as we developed.  It is all by EVO-DEVO which I know by Sean B. Carrol, an author of "Endless Forms Most Beautiful, The New Science of Evo Devo", 2005, Professor of Genetics at University of Wisconsin and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Institute, and Peter Gluckman and Mark Hansen, Mismatch, "Why Our World No Longer Fits Our Bodies".  Thus we all need to read more about how Evolution of Species works, even our selves.

 

The End of Evolution?| Christianpost.com

'Expelled' Approaches DVD Release Date| Christianpost.com

Good grief, I now have a chance of actually seeing this Ben Stein production that lies and lies and misrepresents and lies and ......

Perhaps I will be able to give a perspective that is unique, I doubt it, but when I get a chance, I will review it, but all the critques have been done, and I can't add anything new, perhaps I can link it to Religulous when I get a chance to see it, by all accounts constructed the same way.

'Expelled' Approaches DVD Release Date| Christianpost.com

Mysterious DNA Found to Survive Eons of Evolution - Yahoo! News

I wonder if the Anti-evolution Christian Fundamentalist Crowd will grab this story and use it by misquotes and false attributions etc., to establish the false claim that Evolution doesn't happen and all of science is wrong.

Maybe they will take Steve Jones talk at a UCL lunch-time talk in London on 7 Oct. to claim that evolution is over and it never happened?

We will have to wait and see I guess.  Perhaps you can understand my skepticism and prognostications as a factor of my experience reading and attending these creationist lectures and articles all around the place on the world wide web and here in Melbourne.

Mysterious DNA Found to Survive Eons of Evolution - Yahoo! News

Over 800 Scientists Stand Against Language Critical of Evolution| Christianpost.com

Although this article ends with a summary of the Intelligent Design definition of weakness's and strengths of Evolutionary Theory it appears the scientists themselves are working against the States Republican Party Policy and therefore needs to be watched as the curriculum moves closer to establishment in this large State and therefore a publishers guide as to what to publish in the science text book fro the whole country.

I would say it is about time science fought back publically, what will be next in this saga.

Over 800 Scientists Stand Against Language Critical of Evolution| Christianpost.com

Academics spat over intelligent design | Science | guardian.co.uk

 

Academics spat over intelligent design | Science | guardian.co.uk

What a debate taken from polar opposites can achieve any consensus I don't know, but this one goes on and on, this time AC Grayling vs Steve Fuller in The New Humanist.

Now the Guardian has discovered it, unfortunately little is said about the Christians who have no issue with Evolution, or that the parents who brought the Kitzmiller et al. vs. Dover Area High School Board were Christians who went to Church on Sunday and one family taught Science in School during the week.  With what can be described as EVIL letters and threats to the participants, some from the pulpit, it is a disgrace fro anyone calling themselves Christian IMHO.

Why do the Creationists consider themselves representatives of the rest of of us, I don't know, but they act as if they have never been exposed to what Truth really is or what others believe.  It is sad, because the debates will go on and on with no resolution.  Perhaps Stephen Jay Gould was right when he recommended that such debates should be ignored by Science.  At the same time Science should be better at promoting itself, particularly the Evolution Theory.  Note Theory not Hypothesis, established theory of Biology and various fields of research in Science and Medicine.

'Expelled' wins lawsuit over 'Imagine' song

Again the Expelled travesty gets some publicity, although the producers have won against an misconceived challenge to copyright infringement.  They still have to answer the inaccuracies and misquotes in the body of the documentary and the plain false claims about Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection bringing about the NAZI's Eugenics Movement which had been established in the UK and the US prior to German participation.  Further, it was established by Christians as the NAZI's were.   Of course there were notable exceptions thank goodness.

Such lies coming for self proclaimed Christians is breaking the Law, Thou Shall Not Bare False Witness.  One Law conveniently ignored by those same publishers of the "Expelled"  movie.

Accepting the Truth from Science and Religion is essential to all and sundry of this world, and falsely claiming Science is wrong when the evidence points to the truth of Science will make all who make such claims seem ignorant and make the rest of us seem intelligent.

Understanding the errors in the Scriptures and the Truth of Science and Scripture is a major study by us all.

'Expelled' wins lawsuit over 'Imagine' song

The Columbus Dispatch : 'Ant from Mars' might help clarify evolution of species

 

The Columbus Dispatch : 'Ant from Mars' might help clarify evolution of species .

Here at this news paper is an article that has been called "Ant from Mars" by E. O. Wilson at Harvard University, it is consider to be a relative to the exiting ants, however a better understanding would help by studying these underground ants via their DNA and how it is similar or different to ants and wasps as the current theory from E.O. Wilson has written some time ago now.

As we move along these years as the pass, more discoveries will assist in establishing without guesses, but as reason of the natural world moves.  Understanding speciation in this world from Evo-Devo, Evolutionary Biology, Paleontology and varies others.

What's next I wander?  Hmmmmm?

'Redesigned Hammer' That Forged Evolution Of Pregnancy In Mammals

An interesting reseach that is further prooving Evolution, this time about the placental mammals which includes us. So we are learning about regulatory genes and proteins that run around building us up brick by brick in a symphony which is a wander.

'Redesigned Hammer' That Forged Evolution Of Pregnancy In Mammals Discovered By Scientists 21 Sep 2008        Yale researchers have shown that the origin and evolution of the placenta and uterus in mammals is associated with evolutionary changes in a single regulatory protein, according to a report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.     "Many past studies have shown that genes are regulated and altered by changes within their own structures. This is the first work suggesting that the evolution of transcription factors - separate regulatory proteins - may play an active role in the origin and evolution of structural innovations like the placenta and uterus," said senior author Gunter Wagner, the Alison Richard Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Yale.     Pregnancy is a biologically unusual situation where one organism lives and develops inside another that is genetically different. Ordinarily, the immune system identifies and destroys the dissimilar tissue as if it were a parasite. But in some early mammals, changes 'turned down' the immune system, allowing the developing embryo to grow and thrive unchallenged by the maternal immune response.     With the evolution of the uterus and placenta, it became possible for mammals to protect their growing young and to ensure they were not exposed to an unpredictable environment, like their egg-laying relatives. This study identified one of the genetic switches that tempered the immune system and allowed formation of the placenta and internal development of young.     By analyzing DNA from many species of mammals, including resurrecting genes from the extinct ancestors of mammals, the researchers found that a crucial regulatory link in the evolution of pregnancy involved the altered function of a transcription factor protein, HoxA-11.     The specific change they found in HoxA-11 is present in all known placental mammals - from elephants, the most primitive lineage with a placenta, to humans - but does not exist in marsupials, like opossums or wallabies, where there is a brief and rudimentary pregnancy followed by development of the offspring outside the mother, or in egg-laying mammals like the platypus.     The textbook story is that regulatory proteins, like HoxA-11, are ancient, universal and unchanging tools, and that new functions arise by using an existing tool from the gene regulatory 'toolbox' in a new or different place.     According to Yale graduate student Vincent Lynch, lead author of the study, "We are writing a different chapter. In this case the function of a major regulatory tool was altered - it is like we found a redesigned hammer."     ---------------------------- Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. ----------------------------     Other authors include Andrea Tanzer and Deena Emera at Yale, Yajun Wang and Frederick C. Leung at the University of Hong Kong, and Birgit Gellersen at Endokrinologikum Hamburg, Germany. The research was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.     Citation: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (early online September 17, 2008)     Gunter Wagner Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Vincent Lynch     Source: Janet Rettig Emanuel Yale University   Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/122155.php Main News Category: Biology / Biochemistry Also Appears In:  Pregnancy / Obstetrics,  Genetics,  Immune System / Vaccines,     Save time! Get the latest medical news headlines for your specialist area, in a weekly newsletter e-mail. See http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/newsletters.php for details.

Send your press releases to pressrelease@medicalnewstoday.com

   

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Bacterial Flagella Revisited

Mark Perakh has written a definitive response to Michael Behe’s Irreducible Complexity of the Bacterial Flagella called Flagella – Real or Fictional. Remember Michael Behe? He is a professor of bio-chemistry at Lehigh University and author of Darwin’s Black Box, published in 1996. This was the lead book in the assault on High School Science in the US lead by the Discovery Institute in Seattle. He was a key expert witness for the Dover School Board Federal Court Case known as Kitzmiller et al vs. The Dover School Board, and was the subject of a successful demonstration of how Intelligent Design is not science, to put it mildly. The truth is, it was embarrassing and the prosecution wiped the floor with him. They introduced contrary evidence in the form of a stack of books that Behe had said he hadn’t read and that they were wrong. An extraordinary drama as an expert witness was made to be seen as a fool.

Bacterial Flagella is not the only arrow in the quiver of the ID movement and I must advise you to read Kenneth R Millers recent book, Only A Theory, 2008, an excellent rebuttal to a lot of the other so called evidence for Intelligent Design. Let me say, Perakh has nailed even the appearance of Intelligent Design in the real world.

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Articulation, forthrightness, subtle reasoning but lucid expression, skepticism--these are the traits of intellectuals, not of untrained and undeveloped minds, nor of neat scholars, capable only to serve as curators of the past, but not as critics of the present. Jacob Neusner, 1977, The Glory of God is Intelligence, p8

Evidence For Evolution 2

Exploding Chromosomes Fuel Research About Evolution Of Genetic Storage

ScienceDaily (Aug. 21, 2008) — Human cells somehow squeeze two meters of double-stranded DNA into the space of a typical chromosome, a package 10,000 times smaller than the volume of genetic material it contains.

"It is like compacting your entire wardrobe into a shoebox," said Riccardo Levi-Setti, Professor Emeritus in Physics at the University of Chicago.

Now research into single-celled, aquatic algae called dinoflagellates is showing that these and related organisms may have evolved more than one way to achieve this feat of genetic packing. Even so, the evolution of chromosomes in dinoflagellates, humans and other mammals seem to share a common biochemical basis, according to a team Levi-Setti led. The team's findings appear online, in Science Direct's list of papers in press in the European Journal of Cell Biology.

Packing the whole length of DNA into tiny chromosomes is problematic because DNA carries a negative charge that, unless neutralized, prevents any attempt at folding and coiling due to electrostatic repulsion. The larger the quantity of DNA, the more negative charge must be neutralized along its length.

Read the rest at ScienceDaily:

Darwin, Linnaeus, and One Sleepy Guy a good introduction to Linnaeus and his taxonomy, worth reading, Carl Zimmer always presents a well researched article or book and is a great spokes person for science and defender of Evolution. So visit The Loom as often as you can and learn, like I do about the many facets of Evolutionary Biology.

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...religion thrives through the use of the mind and intellect. Skepticism and critical thinking are friends, not enemies, of religion. Jacob Neusner, 1977

Rational Thoughts.

Dubery Bookshop

Evidence for Evolution 1

Molecular Sleuths Track Evolution Through The Ribosome

A new study of the ribosome, the cell's protein-building machinery, sheds light on the oldest branches of the evolutionary tree of life and suggests that differences in ribosomal structure between the three main branches of that tree are "molecular fossils" of the early evolution of protein synthesis. The new analysis, from researchers at the University of Illinois, reveals that key regions of the ribosome differ between bacteria and archaea, microbes that the researchers say are genetically closer to eukarya, the domain of life that includes humans. The study appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. read the rest at Medical News Today

Animal Evolution - The Development Of Nerves

University of Queensland researchers have traced the origins of one of the most important steps in animal evolution - the development of nerves. Professor Bernie Degnan, from UQ's School of Integrative Biology, together with PhD student Gemma Richards and colleagues from France, have traced the evolution of the nerve cell by looking for pre-cursors in, of all places, the marine sponge. "Sponges have one of the most ancient lineages and don't have nerve cells," Professor Degnan said. "So we are pretty confident it was after the sponges split from trunk of the tree of life and sponges went one way and animals developed from the other, that nerves started to form. "What we found in sponges though were the building blocks for nerves, something we never expected to find." Professor Degnan said the science involved came from the relatively new area of paleogenomics, which is the study of ancestral genomes to paint a more accurate picture of animal evolution.

Read the rest of this article at: Medicine News Today.

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...religion thrives through the use of the mind and intellect. Skepticism and critical thinking are friends, not enemies, of religion. Jacob Neusner, 1977

Rational Observer.

Dubery Bookshop

Beliefs on Religion and Science

Just read some of the Templeton Foundation Website about beliefs in Science and Religion worth a look. The Question is "Does science make God obsolete?" and the participants are Steven Pinker, Christoph Cardinal Shonborn, William D Phillips, Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy, Mary Midgley, Robert Sapolsky, Christopher Hitchens, Keith Ward, Victor J Stenger, Jerome Groopman, Michael Shermer, Kenneth R Miller, Stuart Kaufmann are the participants. Of course we don't need to know Richard Dawkins view on this subject, the debates between the participants are interesting though. Dawkins, of course has a point of view which we can characterise as Extreme Atheism or Fundamentalist Atheist, more commonly referred to as The New Atheists, where all religion is equivalent to child abuse and should be kept out of Primary and Secondary Schools with the exception of perhaps Comparative Religion, Referring to a child as a Mormon child, a Catholic child or a Moslem child, assumes too much and we can't expect our children to have such fully formed beliefs as their parents, etc, etc. I personally, take a view similar to Kenneth Miller and have the philosophical rule that, if you think there is a conflict between science and the scripture, you haven't read the scriptures correctly. This was held by Gallileo Gallilei amongst many luminaries and is a good place to start when a conflict, like evolution vs. creationism crops up in a discussion. I have recently been reading Stven Jay Goulds, Punctuated Equilibrium, a contraction to a specific subject of his great Opus The Structure of Evolutionary Theory.

Theory and Practice

I have now decided to be on Kenneth Millers side after reading his latest Only a Theory, which has given his view as an evolutionary biologist and a practicing Catholic. He has covered evolutionary explanations for so many creationist themes I highly recommend his book if you need the explanations in a readable format like I do. It covers the nonsense from Ken Ham (not the astronaut), Dembski, Behe, to nominate three of the anti-evolutionists. The understanding of Genesis as a creation myth rather than a true story to be understood literally is one of the fights amongst religionists, and I feel such threats to such people should be considered unchristian. They need to understand this too. Science is explaining how the world was created not why. Those who are the New Atheists need to back off a bit, however they too are getting death threats from so called Christians and remember the Dover School Board, after voting the creationists from the School Board were told they shouldn't pray for assistance from the Almighty because they have rejected God by a prominent Christian Politician. How hypocritical was that after a court case found that the creationists (Bonsell, Buckingham et al) were lying. The Religions in the US should be teaching their congregations to support the Constitution and not knocking it down. The Dominionists are trying to turn the US into a Theocratic state, resembling Fascism and Nazism of the past that my ancestors fought a world war to prevent. This goal will result in any non-conformists from their definition being named Heretics and we know what happened when governments enforced religion in the past. The trouble is we are not learning from history on many levels, not just the one under discussion here. So if your public school is teaching religion, not just creationism in science class, but every thing including prayers at assembly, then contact the ACLU and find others of the same concern in your community. This is not just about one thing, it is about freedom to practice your religion without being forced by others through the Government and their schools.