Daily Archives: July 19, 2017

Turkey's new school curriculum drops Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and adds the concept of jihad as patriotic in spirit.

The move has fuelled fears President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is subverting the republic's secular foundations.

The chairman of a teachers' union has described the changes as a huge step in the wrong direction for Turkey's schools and an attempt to avoid raising "generations who ask questions".

Turkey's president RecepTayyip Erdogan wins referendum to greatly expand powers

Ismet Yilmaz, the country's education minister, said the controversial decision to exclude the theory of evolution was "because it is above the students' level and not directly relevant."

A member of the opposition Republican People's Party, Mustafa Balbay, said any suggestion the theory was beyond their understanding was an insult to high school students.

"You go and give an 18-year old student the right to elect and be elected, but don't give him the right to learn about the theory of evolution...This is being close minded and ignorant."

The theory of evolution is rejected by both Christian and Muslim creationists, who believe God created the world as described in the Bible and the Koran, making the universe and all living things in six days.

Mr Erdogan, accused by critics of crushing democratic freedoms with tens of thousands of arrests and a clampdown on media since a failed coup last July, has in the past spoken of raising a "pious generation".

The curriculum, effective from the start of the 2017-2018 school year, also obliges Turkey's growing number of "Imam Hatip" religious schools to teach the concept of jihad as patriotic in spirit.

"It is also our duty to fix what has been perceived as wrong. This is why the Islamic law class and basic fundamental religion lectures will include [lessons on] jihad," Mr Yilmaz told reporters. "The real meaning of jihad is loving your nation."

Jihad is often translated as "holy war" in the context of fighters waging war against enemies of Islam; but Muslim scholars stress that it also refers to a personal, spiritual struggle against sin.

A woman takes a selfienext to the statue of Omer Halisdemir in Istanbul, in front of a memorial with the names of people killed last year during the failed coup attempt(AFP/Getty Images)

Mehhmet Balik, chairman of the Union of Education and Science Workers (Egitim-Is), condemned the new curriculum.

"The new policies that ban the teaching of evolution and requiring all schools to have a prayer room, these actions destroy the principle of secularism and the scientific principles of education," he said.

Under the AKP, which came to power in 2002, the number of "Imam Hatip" religious schools has grown exponentially. Erdogan, who has roots in political Islam, attended one such school.

He has spent his career fighting to bring religion back into public life in constitutionally secular Turkey and has cast himself as the liberator of millions of pious Turks whose rights and welfare were neglected by a secular elite.

Liberal Turks see MrErdogan as attempting to roll back the work of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Western-facing founder of modern Turkey who believed education should be free of religious teachings.

A woman holds placard depicting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan during 'National Unity March' to commemorate the one year anniversary of the July 2016 botched coup attempt (AP)

Some government critics have said the new curriculum - which was presented for public feedback earlier this year - increased the emphasis on Islamic values at the expense of Ataturk's role.

But MrYilmaz said nothing about Ataturk or his accomplishments had been removed. Changes only emphasised core values such as justice, friendship, honesty, love and patriotism.

He said discussion of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Isisand the network of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for last year's attempted coup, would also be added.

Mr Balik, the head of the union, said the changes were being made in an attempt to stamp out dissenting ideas.

"The bottom line is: generations who ask questions, that's what the government fears," he said.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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Turkey's new school curriculum drops evolution and will teach concept of jihad - The Independent

MGM has acquired unscripted television production company Evolution Media, the company announced Tuesday.

Evolution Media is behind hit unscripted series like The Real Housewives of Orange County, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and Vanderpump Rules for Bravo, as well as Botched for E!. The company will operate as Evolution Media, an MGM Company, with founder and CEO Douglas Ross to become the president of the acquired business and executive vice president of programming and development Alex Baskin to become its president of programming and development, both reporting to Barry Poznick, MGMs president of unscripted television. The business will continue to operate out of its current Burbank headquarters under Ross and Baskin (pictured above).

Founded 30 years ago by Ross, Evolution Media has produced over 50 series including the inaugural seasons of CBSs Big Brother and NBCs Fear Factor, as well as Disney Channels Bug Juice and TLCs 10 Years Younger.

The shows that Evolution produces are a perfect complement to our slate. Their slick style, high quality and one-of-a-kind casts connect with audiences and generate epic social media engagement. Im proud to welcome them to the team and together we will continue to produce content that makes headlines, Poznick said.

The acquisition of Evolution Media further enhances MGM Televisions position in the unscripted space. MGM Television, which is headed by Mark Burnett, currently has unscripted series on all four major TV networks, including Survivor for CBS, The Voice for NBC, Shark Tank on ABC, Beat Shazam on Fox, and Steve Harveys Funderdome on ABC.

After 30 years of being fiercely independent, we couldnt be more proud and excited to join forces with the dynamic, creative and supportive leadership team at MGM, Ross said. We look forward to working with Gary, Mark and Barry to supercharge Evolution and to write the next chapters in the companys history with them.

Evolution Media is represented by Alan Braun and David Gross at CAA and was represented in the transaction by Bryan Bowles and Ron Milkes of Bryor Media Partners and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. MGM was represented in the transaction by Latham & Watkins LLP.

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MGM Acquires 'Real Housewives,' 'Vanderpump Rules' Producer Evolution Media - Variety

That's mostly a good thing. The original Splatoon was something of an experiment, a Nintendo game that focused on online play as the primary selling point. The game succeeded by being something unique: a frantic, multiplayer shooter that dripped with personality and cultivated a ravenous community of loyal fans. Splatoon 2 basically picks up where the original left off, starting with the same core game mechanic that incentivized teamwork over individual victory: Turf War.

To understand Turf War -- and Splatoon 2's primary multiplayer modes -- you need to know a few things. First, there are no bullets in Splatoon. Instead, players use a mix of squirt guns, paintbrushes and buckets to spray, fling and slosh colored ink across the battlefield. Battles aren't won by how many enemies the player defeats but by how much of her team's color covers the ground at the end of a match.

Sure, you can take out other players in these matches, and you'll need to to win, but it's not the end goal. By rewarding players based on how much ground they cover, the game passively changes the focus from being the best fighter to contributing the most to the team victory. It also takes the pressure off casual players. No good in a firefight? You can still contribute by focusing on keeping the ground your team's color.

The paint mechanic is more than just a gimmick to promote teamwork -- it also changes how you can move. If the ink on the ground belongs to the player's team, she can turn into a squid and swim through it to replenish ammo and move faster. If it's the enemy team's color, she'll be slowed down and take damage. There are a few more rules, of course, but the long and short of it is that Splatoon 2 offers a multiplayer experience unlike anything in other games. Its unique twist on movement, weapons and ink-based victory helps keep game modes like tower defense, control point and capture-the-flag feeling fresh.

So what's new about Splatoon 2? Well, a few things. For one, the entire experience just looks better: Colors are more vibrant and bright; player characters, weapons and clothing are far more detailed; and best of all, the entire game runs at a noticeably higher frame rate. There are also new levels, weapon upgrades and special moves that change the way the game is played. The new Splat Dualie pistols, for instance, open up player movement by adding a dodge roll to the game, which drastically changes how close-range combat unfolds. Other weapons have been tweaked to give them more balance, adding a long-range attack for roller weapons, for instance, or allowing long-range weapons to hold a charge while players swim through ink.

Nintendo's decision to stick close to the original mostly works: Splatoon 2 strengthens the series' core gameplay, gives players more tools to use in battle and retains the spirit of fun that made the first entry a hit. Unfortunately, it also retains a handful of the first game's awkward flaws.

Multiplayer modes and maps are still limited to a two-at-a-time rotation that changes every few hours, for instance. Players still can't change weapon and gear loadouts without quitting multiplayer and jumping back in either. (Being able to switch weapons between matches would have been a huge quality-of-life improvement.) These aren't deal breakers, but it would have been nice to see some more of the game's rough edges ironed out in the sequel.

The sameness of Splatoon 2 falls flat in the single player campaign, however. The game's Hero Mode very much follows the vein of the original, serving as training for the main event: multiplayer. It's basically a set of linear levels that introduces the game's core concepts. Here's a level that teaches you how to swim through ink to make longer jumps. Here's one designed to teach you how charge weapons work.

As a basic gameplay tutorial, Splatoon 2's single-player mode is a good introduction for folks new to the series, but players who have sharpened their teeth on multiplayer (or just played the first game) might find it a bit tedious -- and that's a shame, because it's framed around a light and fun story that revisits characters from the first game.

The entire time I played Hero Mode, I felt like it could have been something great. It almost was too: Every now and then, the campaign will throw an incredible boss fight at you or a complex, joyously fun level that calls back to the best of games like Super Mario Galaxy. Instead, the single-player campaign is merely an OK experience with a few great moments.

Despite this, Splatoon 2 is still a fantastic experience for Nintendo Switch owners looking for a fun, addictive multiplayer game. It didn't learn every lesson it could have from its predecessor, but it delivers on the core gameplay mechanics that made the original an unexpected hit. Better still, it retains the original game's cultural identity by building a community around Splatoon's in-game hosts and by showcasing artwork made by players in a Miiverse-like drawing app.

Splatoon 2 is everything it needs to be and nothing more. If you're OK with that, you'll love it. Just don't buy it for the single-player campaign alone.

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'Splatoon 2' is a cautious but excellent evolution of the original - Engadget

NASHVILLE, Tenn. The famed Scopes monkey trial pitted two of the nations foremost celebrity lawyers against one another, but only one of them was memorialized outside the Tennessee courthouse where the landmark case unfolded until now.

On Friday at the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton the public will behold a 10-foot statue of the rumpled skeptic Clarence Darrow, who argued for evolution in the 1925 trial. It will stand at a respectful distance on the opposite side of the courthouse from an equally huge statue of William Jennings Bryan, the eloquent Christian defender of the biblical account of creation, which was installed in 2005.

The trial that unfolded there nine decades ago garnered national headlines in what historians say started as a publicity stunt for the small town. Formally known as Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes, the case generated front-page headlines nationwide and was immortalized in songs, books, plays and movies. Dayton hosts its annual Scopes Trial festival for 10 days, starting Friday, featuring a theatrical production.

Historians say the trial came about after local leaders convinced Scopes, a 24-year-old high school teacher, to answer the American Civil Liberties Unions call for someone who could help challenge Tennessees law that banned teaching evolution. He was found guilty but didnt spend time in jail.

Bryan, a three-time Democratic candidate for president, died just five days after the trial ended.

In Dayton, home of a Christian college thats named for Bryan, its not hard to envision the community accepting a statue venerating the august champion of the faith.

But Darrow is another matter.

Rifts over evolution and creationism continue almost a century later, and the Darrow statue was requested by atheist groups.

Pockets of opposition in the town suggest many Christians still see the science of evolution as clashing with their faith. Dayton resident and minister June Griffin has led much of the backlash against the Darrow statue, citing religious convictions.

This is a hideous monstrosity, Griffin said. And God is not pleased.

Two weeks ago about 20 supporters and 20 protesters clashed peacefully at the courthouse over the statue, said Rhea County Sheriffs Department Special Projects Coordinator Jeff Knight.

Nevertheless, the Darrow statue hasnt drawn teeming crowds in Dayton like the ones that forced some of the 1925 trial proceedings to be moved outdoors.

Regardless of how peoples beliefs differ, the statue helps represent history, said Rhea County historian Pat Guffey. Most people seem OK with it, she added.

I just think that something that is history should stay, or should be put up, no matter what, Guffey said. I dont think we should try to change history.

Philadelphia-based sculptor Zenos Frudakis crafted the new statue, funded largely by $150,000 from the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The group said the project would remedy the imbalance of Bryan standing alone.

Bryan was there as an attorney, a prosecutor, and Clarence Darrow as a defense attorney. And now, the history has been restored, Frudakis said.

Frudakis, an admirer of Darrow, said the sculpture offers an honest look at the lawyer.

He looks like he slept in his suit, which he often did. Sometimes his shirts were torn, Frudakis said of Darrow. He smoked too much. He drank too much. He was a womanizer. I got as much of that as I could in the sculpture. (AP)

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'Scopes monkey trial' town erects evolution figure's statue - The Philadelphia Tribune

July 18, 2017 In his lab, Lang employs robotic technology to deposit yeast dilutions into culture plates, propagating 288 populations at a time. He then freezes these samples at -80 degrees, which allows him to create fossil records of his experiments. Credit: Lehigh University

Genes provide instructions to cells in the body telling them what to do and not do in order to function optimally. Small changes in genes, called mutations, can have major consequences. Similar to a glitch in a computer's coding, a glitch in gene coding can cause a cell's system to go haywire. Not all mutations are bad, however. The process of adaptive evolution selects for mutations that promote rapid and unchecked growth, both in yeast populations and in cancer.

As a cancer cell reproduces by cloning itself, a number of mutations are passed along to successive generations. Some of these are "hitchhikers"along for the ride, but basically harmlessand others are "driver" mutations, responsible for cancer's growth.

Such mutations may be cancer's greatest strength, but they could also be its Achilles' heel: targeting driver mutations with treatment could inhibit the cancer's growth.

Precision medicine in cancer treatment proposes to use genome sequencing to identify which gene mutation or mutations are responsible for driving the growth of a patient's cancer cells, but for this to be practical, it must be possible to identify the cancer-causing driver mutations.

Unfortunately, identifying exactly which mutations are drivers in the human genome is like trying to find a needle in the proverbial haystack.

One possible solution: look at mutations in a smaller haystack.

Gregory Lang, assistant professor of biological sciences at Lehigh University, and his team are exploring how genomes evolve over thousands of generations using laboratory populations of yeast, which has a genome that is one thousandth the size of the human genome. Yeast, the same one used in baking and in brewing beer, reproduces rapidly by division making it a good model system for studying adaptive evolution in an asexual population, like cancer.

"Yeast undergoes one generation every 90 minutesten generations within 24 hours," says Lang. "Unlike human cancer cells, we can maintain hundreds of identical yeast populations in the lab and then evolve them for thousands of generations."

Lang and his colleagues recently applied such a large-scale approach to quantify the effect on growth of 116 mutations from 11 lineages of experimentally-evolved yeast populations. They found that only 20% of the mutations that succeed are drivers; the rest are along for the ride. Their results have been published in an article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) called: "Hitchhiking and epistasis give rise to cohort dynamics in adapting populations," co-authored by Sean W. Buskirk and Ryan Emily Peave.

"If you want to get a realistic picture of the evolutionarily significant spectrum of mutations that promote growth, a comprehensive study of individual mutations is neededsomething that would be very difficult to conduct using the human genome," says Lang. "In our experiments with yeast, we are able 'shuffle the deck' to isolate thousands of sporesall from the same ancestoreach with a random combination of evolved mutations to analyze. This large-scale approach allows us to measure, with great precision, the fitness effect of each mutation. We can then quantify how important certain mutations or combinations of mutations were to growth."

"Shuffling the deck" to understand gene mutations

Once Lang and his colleagues shuffled the yeast population's genetic deck, they used whole genome sequencing to infer which mutations or combinations of mutations were driving growth.

"The hitchhikers would not increase in frequency," says Lang. "The drivers would increase at a rate that's proportional to their fitness effect."

Instead of searching for common mutationsas is being done for some cancer genomesand then inferring that those mutations must be the drivers, Lang's approach measures the effects of all mutations, enabling the identification of subtler dynamics.

By directly measuring the fitness effects of all mutations in 1,000 generations of a single yeast strain, the researchers were able to unambiguously identify and quantify the fitness effects of driver mutations that could otherwise be missed by recurrence-based methods.

"Comparing our results to previous recurrence-based methods we had tried, we found that we had missed dynamics that had 'weak' or small effects, as well as rare mutations," says Lang.

The team identified one mutational group in which mutations combined to provide a fitness benefit greater than the sum of their individual effects. In other words, the interaction of two mutations that were passed down together positively impacted growth. Neither had an substantial effect on its own.

Though the yeast genome has been studied extensively, this genetic interaction had not been previously identified.

According to Lang, the discovery is an illustration of the power of experimental evolution to select for combinations of mutations that increase growth and of their approach for identifying such interactions.

Lang says it is unlikely that the exact mutations his team discovered in yeast occurs in cancer. However, he believes that understanding the dynamics of adaptation in yeast could provide insight into gene mutation dynamics in other systems, such as cancer.

"In yeast we have the tools to answer types of questions that we would love to be able to answer for cancer populations," says Lang

"Future work will include identifying additional genetic interactions in yeast," says Lang. "Experimental evolution is a good way to enhance our current understanding of the role in adaptation of individual mutations and the interactions between themknowledge that could one day lead to advances in human healthcare."

Explore further: New statistical analysis reveals thousands of rare mutations linked with cancer

More information: Hitchhiking and epistasis give rise to cohort dynamics in adapting populations, Sean W. Buskirk, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1702314114 , http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/07/17/1702314114.full

Scientists have identified thousands of previously ignored genetic mutations that, although rare, likely contribute to cancer growth. The findings, which could help pave the way to new treatments, are published in PLOS Computational ...

Scientists have mapped how thousands of genetic mutations can affect a cell's chances of survival.

In a twist on "survival of the fittest," researchers have discovered that evolution is driven not by a single beneficial mutation but rather by a group of mutations, including ones called "genetic hitchhikers" that are simply ...

COSMIC-3D, the most comprehensive system for exploring cancer mutations in three dimensions, is launched today by COSMIC, based at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, in collaboration with Astex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, ...

As for many other biomedical and biotechnology disciplines, the genome scissor "CRISPR/Cas9" also opens up completely new possibilities for cancer research. Scientists of the National Center for Tumor Disease (NCT), the German ...

Einstein researchers have developed and validated a method for accurately identifying mutations in the genomes of single cells. The new method, which can help predict whether cancer will develop in seemingly healthy tissue, ...

Sharks don't have tongues to move food through their mouths, so instead some use their... shoulders?

From the tiny chihuahua to the massive Saint Bernard, domestic dogs today trace their roots to a single group of wolves that crossed the path of humans as long as 40,000 years ago, researchers said Tuesday.

Genes provide instructions to cells in the body telling them what to do and not do in order to function optimally. Small changes in genes, called mutations, can have major consequences. Similar to a glitch in a computer's ...

Bornean orangutans living in forests impacted by human commerce seek areas of denser canopy enclosure, taller trees, and sections with trees of uniform height, according to new research from Carnegie's Andrew Davies and Greg ...

Male live-bearing fish are evolving faster than female fish, according to a Kansas State University study, and that's important for understanding big-picture evolutionary patterns.

Researchers led by Martin Jinek of the University of Zurich have found an unprecedented mechanism by which bacteria defend themselves against invading viruses. When the bacterial immune system gets overwhelmed, the CRISPR-Cas ...

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Large-scale study of adaptation in yeast could help explain the evolution of cancer - Phys.Org

The Reading Way is dead, long live the Dutch Revolution. Whatever that is.

One could be forgiven for thinking that there isnt really a master plan behind the current set of Readings incomings and outgoings, more a wheeler-dealer mentality that comes from being a middle of the road club, in financial terms. Not poor enough to be a selling club, not rich enough to be a buying club.

And thats fine. There is a good case to be made for if it aint broke, dont fix it at the Madejski Stadium this summer.

Lets first analyse where the Royals are definitely spending money. There are both medium and long-term investments on club infrastructure; the relaying of the pitch, the training ground, Royal Elm Park, to name but three such projects floating around right now. Some would call these long overdue.

The only problem with that is, well, theyre quite boring. When Middlesbrough are out throwing 15 million on a strikers with dodgy knees and Aston Villa continue to spaff Premier League wages on mercernaries, why cant Reading just spent a teeny-weeny few million quid on a striker whose scored more than Cedric Baseya?

Reading fans are wise enough to know how important Yann Kermorgants very particular role was to the side last year, and combining that with the difficulty of said role suggests why it pays to avoid big names this summer. Assombalonga, Rhodes, even Matej Vydra, can boast great scoring records over one or two seasons but we all know theres far more to playing in Jaap Stams system than poachers goals.

Furthermore, the leaps and bounds many still-young players made last year can continue. Looking at Liam Moore, John Swift, Tiago Ilori, Liam Kelly, and more, theres plenty of room for improvement in already good Championship players.

We can even add in the returning injured players and loanees; Stephen Quinn, Callum Harriott, Liam Cooper, to satisfy that old cliche of players feeling like a new signing. To look further down the food chain, there are the academy players that may well step up, too.

This club tends to work best when acting with a cool head and underdog status, so a summer of evolution rather than revolution should suit us down to the ground after a play-off run and third place finish last time out.

Of course, two good players have left and there is little sign of bedazzling replacements, but thats exactly how it was before 2011/12 when Shane Long and Matt Mills were replaced by a League Two striker and a wonky Latvian.

In those years where we test our luck, we tend to get lucky.

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Evolution, Not Revolution, The Key For Reading FC This Transfer Market - The Tilehurst End