Category Archives: Evolution

Over the past two decades, there have been a number of pivotal moments in which al-Qaedas ongoing war against the West has shifted the contours of global geopolitics. Most notably, the 9/11 attacks sent the war on terror into a whole new dimension first with the United States-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, and then with the subsequent invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Despite intensive military counter-operations, western understanding of al-Qaeda has been severely limited, primarily because governments and intelligence agencies tend to control and simplify narratives. No longer. A new book discusses the history of al-Qaedas forces with an insiders perspective.

Written by British investigative journalists Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, The Exile: The Stunning Inside Story of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda in Flight recounts the groups evolution through unique access to Osama bin Ladens inner circle.

The book documents the gradual formation of the Islamic State by bin Ladens lieutenants and captures bin Ladens rising paranoia in his final years in the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan where he was finally killed by US special forces in May 2011.

Frustrated this story was not being relayed in its totality, both Clark and Levy traveled to a host of countries in search of more information to tell what they feel is the real story of al-Qaeda as it evolved into a leading global brand of international jihadism.

Authors of The Exile Cathy Scott-Clark (right) and Adrian Levy (Caroline Forbes/Courtesy)

To this end, Clark and Levy held meetings with al-Qaeda insiders, as well as with relatives and friends of those associated with the organization, in places like Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait, the United States, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

The Exile by Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy (Courtesy)

Startling details emerge, such as how the Bush administration knew the whereabouts of bin Ladens family and al-Qaedas military and religious leaders, but rejected opportunities to capture them.

Details also surface relating to the development of the Central Intelligence Agencys (CIA) torture program in Cuba and Thailand, and the subsequent coining of the phrase forever prisoner, as does information relating to Irans secret shelter for bin Ladens family and al-Qaedas military council.

Its more than a fantasy the way the al-Qaeda narrative is constructed [in the west], says Levy, a senior correspondent at the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom. Its seen through a western-European-Caucasian police procedural, in the form of analysts, the CIA, or from European intelligence agencies.

I cant think of any other conflict where there is such an extraordinary act of control by western governments, the journalist adds.

Levy cites films like Zero Dark Thirty a slick blockbuster narrative that depicts the decade-long hunt for bin Laden as a perfect example of sanitized western propaganda at work.

Osama bin Ladens Abbottabad main house with front door visible. (Shaukat Qadir/courtesy)

What we are seeing is a Hollywood betrayal of this story, says Levy, which shows agents using torture successfully in an attempt to imbue the story with one single narrative.

This torture was conducted far away from US soil, often in secret locations, and thus was not obligated to human rights conventions or other international laws.

The book recalls, for instance, how on July 24, 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft, who then served in the George W. Bush administration, verbally approved to the CIA the use of 10 interrogation techniques on terror suspects who were arrested without trial. These techniques included walling, cramped confinement, and the use of diapers.

The Exile pays special attention to the prison diaries of Abu Zubaydah.

Born Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn in Saudi Arabia, Zubaydah moved to the west Bank as a teenager. Rejecting his middle class upbringing, he shunned his parents dream of him becoming a doctor and instead traveled to Afghanistan to train with al-Qaeda recruits. He was captured in Faisalabad, Pakistan, on March 28, 2002, suffering severe bullet wounds in the process. And, he famously lost an eye while under CIA interrogation.

The interrogation techniques used on him by the CIA have included stress positions, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding, among other forms of torture.

Abu Zubaydah in 2017 with eye patch around his neck. (Courtesy)

As Levy recalls, the CIA has accused Zubaydah of being al-Qaedas number three, Osama bin Ladens lieutenant, and one of the main planners of 9/11.

The US government now admits that most of those allegations against Zubaydah remain unverified. Still, Zubaydah remains at Guantnamo Bay, in Cuba, without trial, where he is classed as a forever prisoner.

Zubaydahs lawyers managed to get hold of his torture diaries, Levy says, and its the first primary source by someone who has been through the capture rendition in the Guantnamo process. This is yet another example how this [controlled] narrative has been imposed on this very complex situation.

Its deeply frustrating with the recent attacks in Manchester and [London], that we now have less material available [about jihadis] than we did post 9/11, Levy adds.

Levy believes the key to really understanding jihadi fundamentalists like bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures is not just to study their eschatological-fundamental-Islamic-vision of the world but to analyze their day-to-day domestic lives too.

One would have to emphasize the bin Laden family, the journalist posits. Primarily because its the story of an abusive father and a family in decay.

Osama bin Ladens son Omar and wife Zaina bin Laden while they were still together. (Courtesy)

Levy cites how a number of bin Ladens children, for example, were born autistic and with numerous other diseases which were essentially untreatable since the jihadi leader was against any kind of investment in medicine or science.

The journalist also explains how the eldest bin Laden daughter, Khadija, was married off in puberty to make pacts with other mujahed fighters. She then subsequently died in childbirth in Waziristan in 2007, despite the fact that she had been advised by doctors three years earlier to undergo a dilation procedure to cleanse her womb.

There is a real sense of [huge] human failings within the bin Laden family, says Levy.

The west, led by the United States, has attempted to purposely construct and control how bin Laden and the al-Qaeda story is portrayed in the mainstream media, but the narrative from the jihadi side has been just as carefully constructed.

Bin Laden understood the nature of digital terror, and was always shaping his image, explains Levy, whether it was the way he held his gun, the way he dressed, the shape of his beard, or the image of him as the messianic figure in the cave returning.

Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora, November, 1996. (Abdel Bari Atwan/courtesy)

One of the more intriguing narratives to emerge from Levy and Clarks book, however, is the revelation that the 9/11 plot to bring down the twin towers wasnt handed down through conventional means, by way of the al-Qaeda military or religious council.

[They] objected to the plans for 9/11 on the grounds that there would be too many civilian casualties, that it was an unjustified target, and that it would lead to the immediate dismantling of the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan, says Levy.

Since 9/11 we in the west have seen this in the framework of an al-Qaeda plot. But that is not what happened, he adds.

The journalists also document in their book how the two George W. Bush administrations widely misunderstood various countries roles across the Middle East especially in relation to how certain states harbor terrorists.

Pakistan, for example a country that the Bush administration viewed as a strategic partner in combating terrorism is what Levy calls a jihad factory.

Al-Qaeda objected to the plans for 9/11 on the grounds that there would be too many civilian casualties

There are elements of the jihad factory [in Pakistan] which are controlled by the deep state and then elements that are well beyond its control, Levy adds.

The 2003 Iraq War, however, is absolutely pivotal and critical to understanding the wests conflict with jihadi terrorism over the last 15 years, Levy believes.

After all, it was Iran, not Iraq, Levy says, that was harboring al-Qaeda terrorists in its country before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The Iraq War set back the normalization of relations between the US and Iran massively, the journalist says.

General Qassem Suleimani (right) with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran. (Courtesy)

Once Iran was named in George W. Bushs so called axis of evil speech, the country took a hardline approach to the west.

Iran was admitting that it had given finances, transit, and [support] to al-Qaeda, says Levy.

Its like a series of matryoshka dolls, and the echoes out from that are Syria and Libya

But because of the axis of evil speech, Iran went hardline. After this it chose not to hand over of the religious Shura, and the military and the religious council of al-Qaeda [to the west], Levy explains.

The Iraq War also upset the Shia-Sunni balance in Iraq, and subsequently led to the rise of IS.

Its like a series of matryoshka dolls, says Levy. And the echoes out from that are Syria and Libya. And that is how we have reached the point with the Manchester [and London attacks].

Throughout Clark and Levys book there are numerous quotes from al-Qaeda leaders about the need to constantly attack the Jewish state. Moreover, the United States and Israel are in many ways seen by fundamental jihadists almost as one single entity and viewed as the ultimate enemy together.

Still, while Israel is a target that al-Qaeda would gladly like to attack, there are subtle strands within this narrative that make sure its not that easy.

Illustrative: Salafi demonstrators in Gaza waving Islamic State flags during a demonstration that took place on January 19, 2015. (Courtesy MEMRI)

Levy argues, for instance, that much of the jihadi world that surrounds al-Qaeda is a hierarchy of nations.The Saudis and Egyptians are seen in this jihadi-worldview as the intellectuals. But the Palestinians, Levy explains, are not necessarily highly regarded in the jihadi world.

Levy recalls how Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, a Palestinian, who was known as the Godfather of Jihad in the Afghan conflict, ended up being up killed in a car bomb in 1989. Many suspect that he was killed by bin Laden.

Palestine and Palestinian politics arent given a lot of status within the mujahid and jihad world

Palestine and Palestinian politics arent given a lot of status within the mujahid and jihad world, Levy explains. And al-Qaeda have chosen different causes that were dictated by the ethnic makeup of the movement.

Levy also points out that al-Qaeda usually tend to carry out their operations in failed or failing states, such as Algeria, Libya, Syria, Iraq, as well as a host of other failed states across Africa, where fundamental Islam is growing all of the time.

So in that sense Israel could not be a worse location for al-Qaeda, says Levy. Its a small locked down country with a militarized zone with a hugely successful domestic and foreign intelligence force. And it would be spectacularly more difficult for al-Qaeda to set off something on the scale of 9/11 within Israel than it would be in, say, the United States.

Smoke rises in Egypts northern Sinai, as seen from the border of the Gaza Strip, amid fierce clashes between government forces and Islamic State-affiliated gunmen on July 1, 2015. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Levy claims that a number of journalists within Israel have written about the so-called al-Qaeda-ization of the Palestinian cause. But he believes this is a misguided view.

There is not yet an al-Qaeda brand within the Palestinian national liberation struggle, Levy explains. If one is to talk about al-Qaeda in Israel, the key question to ask is who would the local partners be?

It is true, Levy concedes, that in Sinai al-Qaeda are relatively successful primarily because they have local partners in Egypt. And in Jordan the group has had some level of success, garnering some support.

If one is to talk about al-Qaeda in Israel, the key question to ask is who would the local partners be?

But having no partners, no history, the wrong rhetoric, and a fear of the military intelligence apparatus in Israel, makes it enormously difficult for al-Qaeda to carry out an attack in Israel, Levy says.

Its far more profitable for them to be in Manchester, Birmingham and London, Levy adds. They are sprawling cities with different rules. They have lots of local partners and huge diasporas. And it makes much more sense than Jerusalem does.

Clark and Levys book concludes just as bin Laden gets assassinated in 2011 by US special forces in Pakistan. However, the journalists are keen to point out that al-Qaedas narrative has not ended there.

While IS is certainly pervasive, the geographic reach of the organization has diminished, says Levy. Moreover, he adds, IS depends on the contagious nature of its idea. He says the main problem with IS is that it has no structure.

Armed police patrol near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, northwest England on May 23, 2017. (AFP/Oli SCARFF)

With the politics of the Middle East in complete free fall, its hard to say what direction all of this is going in, Levy posits.

Still, Al Qaeda is blossoming and is massively resurgent, he says, pointing out that the jihadi world has moved on from bin Laden.

Al-Qaeda is far more ambitious, in complete resurgence and a massive force to be considered, Levy concludes.

Children of al-Qaeda members in Tora Bora, 1996. (Abdel Bari Atwan/Courtesy)

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As told by friends and family, an insider's dissection of the evolution of al-Qaeda - The Times of Israel

Garrett Sorenson as Steve Wozniak and Edward Parks as Steve Jobs in Santa Fe Opera's The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.( KEN HOWARD FOR SANTA FE OPERA )

SANTA FE, N.M.Many of us want to change the world. Steve Jobs did. Or so, plausibly, claims the brochure for this seasons Santa Fe Opera, which has just premiered a full-length, one-act opera titled The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.

The creative entrepreneur who gave the world Apple hardware and software, yanking even the most reluctant of us into the computer age, may not seem the likeliest of subjects for tenors and sopranos. But Santa Fe Opera, currently under the direction of Charles MacKay, is no ordinary opera company.

Housed in a strikingly modern, mostly outdoor facility, nestled literally in the desert outside New Mexicos centuries-old capital city, this innovative enterprise has been, for decades, an incubator for emerging as well as established operatic talent.

Read more: Opera in New Mexico desert draws Canadian musicians

Igor Stravinsky turned up for its first season in 1957 to attend a production of his only full-length operatic work, The Rakes Progress. And as recently as two years ago, every seat was sold for its entire run before the curtain went up on the premiere of Jennifer Higdons Cold Mountain.

Even so, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs represented a particular challenge, a first opera by an American composer who (like Higdon) is known largely for his instrumental music, based on the life of a recently deceased (2011) global superstar.

Although Mason Bates and his librettist Mark Campbell insisted that they were not about to produce a documentary theirs is an interpretation of the life and character of Jobs, without the co-operation of their subjects family or of his company neither can it be called a work of fiction.

The story begins in the garage of the Jobs family home in Los Altos, Calif., when Paul Jobs presents his son with a work bench for his 10th birthday.

Thereafter, the libretto moves forward and back through time, visiting pivotal moments in the grown-up boys career, all within Vita Tzykuns unit set, whose walls expand and contract to provide projection surfaces for changing locales.

The libretto is hardly hagiography. The Steve Jobs we meet appears driven, self-centred and only almost likeable when he finally faces his own mortality. In the title role, baritone Edward Parks may not even sound Jobs-like (the real person apparently spoke in a rather high-pitched tenor), but his characterization, complete with an Issey Miyake black turtleneck and Levis 510 jeans, is certainly credible.

Those who know the actual Jobs story, whether by reading Walter Isaacsons monumental biography or through the various other attempts to pin the butterfly, will recognize the cast of characters, from the girlfriend and child he abandoned to the best friend and partner (Steve Wozniak) he cruelly offended, all of whom are portrayed sympathetically under Kevin Newburys direction.

But of course, what matters most in an opera is its music and the music of Bates has turned out to be a clever amalgam of the live and the electronic (whirring electronica, in the composers own words), with Bates himself sitting at a console in the pit next to conductor Michael Christie.

This takes us back to the days of Haydn and Mozart, when composers routinely participated in performances of their own operas, yet it is no mere nostalgic stunt. Bates has sought to give his characters not identifying leitmotifs, in the Wagnerian manner, but individual sound worlds, using samples of what he calls Mac gear. To characterize Jobs spiritual adviser, a Buddhist monk, he even incorporates Tibetan prayer bowls and Chinese gongs.

The music is accessible and sufficiently transparent in its scoring that the words come through with surprising clarity (something that did not happen in the score for Cold Mountain). A major opera? Perhaps not but surely an effective one, with the power to bring an entire audience to its feet. An extra performance has already been added to its run.

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs is running this season in repertory with four other, more traditional works: Handels Alcina, Donizettis Lucia di Lammermoor, Rimsky-Korsakovs The Golden Cockerel and Strausss Die Fledermaus. I attended performances of two of them.

Lucia di Lammermoor offered in the American soprano Brenda Rae one of the finest vocal actresses I have yet witnessed in the operas famous mad scene. And The Golden Cockerel sported a set by Gary McCann marvellously evocative of the constructivist designs to come out of post-Revolutionary Russia.

Reasons enough for a trip into the New Mexico desert? You bet.

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Santa Fe Opera thinks different with The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs - Toronto Star

Health experts say the recent spike in flu cases is nothing out of the ordinary.

Three times as many people went to hospitals with a winter illness in July compared to the year before.

Public health physician Dr Jill Sherwood told Newshub the virus is changing, and catching people off-guard - but it appears worse than it really is.

"Although it seems bad they're three times higher, we've actually still only got what we would term low seasonal activity - last year we had unusually low activity."

The flu virus that was circulating last year had not changed much in several years, she said.

"We had a lot of people who, either from vaccination or from having the illness in previous years, were immune."

District Health Boards are advising people to visit their general practitioners in the first instance.

Dr Sherwood advises people to wash their hands often, and stay home if unwell.

Newshub.

Read the rest here:

Virus evolution behind spike in flu cases - Newshub

Yakima Herald-Republic

The evolution on the hop grower/craft brewer relationship Yakima Herald-Republic The evolution on the hop grower/craft brewer relationship. Aug 4, 2017 Updated 7 hrs ago; () Steve Dresler, retired brewmaster of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., talks about how the relationship between hop growers and craft brewers have changed over time. and more »

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The evolution on the hop grower/craft brewer relationship - Yakima Herald-Republic

The green anole lizard, a spectacularly bright reptile found throughout the American south, has difficulty handling temperatures below around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. This doesnt usually pose a problem in its subtropical habitats along the Gulf Coast and in southeastern states. But during the extreme winter of 2013-2014 (resulting from a southward shift in the polar vortex), the lizard endured temperatures so low that it faced selection pressures and evolved a greater tolerance to cold, according to a study published this week in Science by Shane Campbell-Staton, Ph.D. 15, and coauthors Jonathan Losos, professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, and Scott Edwards, Agassiz professor of organismic and evolutionary biology.

Relatively few studies have looked at the natural-selection effects of individual extreme weather events, Campbell-Staton explains, given the difficulty of anticipating those events. The concept for the just-published study emerged by chance in 2013, when he was doing dissertation research on a related topic: the evolution of cold tolerance in green anoles. Several million years ago, ancestors of that species migrated from present-day Cuba to the United States; today, their descendants live in regions as (relatively) cold as Tennessee and Oklahoma. Campbell-Staton was trying to understand what physiological and genetic processes allowed lizards farther north to survive the harsher winter climates.

Soon after returning from what he thought would be his last collection trip, he came across a photo in the Boston Globeof a green anole in Alabama, lying dead in the snow during the 2014 cold snap. I immediately went back to Scott and Jonathan with the idea of trying to measure natural selection in response to the event, he says. Because he already had data from the previous summer on the anoles, he could compare those findings to a new sample of lizards that had survived the winter.

The study compares data collected, before and after the winter, at four sites in TexasBrownsville, Victoria, Austin, and Arlingtonand a fifth in Hodgen, Oklahoma; taken together, they cover a latitudinal distance of almost 800 miles. Each city experienced substantially lower minimum temperatures that winter than during the previous 15 years. The team (which also included Zachary Cheviron, Nicolas Rochette, and Julian Catchen) focused on these sites, Campbell-Staton explains, because their green anole populations are closely related but also display significant variation in cold tolerancethe farther north their habitat, the more resistant they are to frigid conditions. To measure the lizards cold tolerance, the team put each specimen in a chamber and gradually lowered the temperature by one degree Celsius per minute. The lizards were placed on their backs and prodded with forceps, to encourage them to right themselves. The temperature at which they could no longer do so, or the critical thermal minimum, explains Campbell-Staton, is used as a proxy for the temperature at which an animal would not be able to escape the conditions that would eventually lead to its death. (The animals do recovery fully, Losos notes in an email.)

That winter, lizards from Brownsville, at the southernmost tip of Texas, experienced by far the most days on which the temperature was lower than their critical thermal minimum. When the team returned to collect samples in April and July 2014, those lizards surviving in Brownsville showed the most significant increase in their cold tolerance of anoles in any of the five cities: their critical thermal minimum after the winter was lower by about 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Green anoles from Victoria, about 260 miles to the north, displayed a cold-tolerance increase of 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Populations from the remaining cities didnt show such changes, probably because they were already relatively cold-tolerant. The Brownsville and Victoria populations that survived had converged with the other cities anoles in their tolerance for cold.

Changes in the reptiles cold tolerance were supported not only by their phenotypestheir outwardly observable behaviorbut also at the genomic level. The gene-expression and genomic-sequencing profiles of the surviving southern-dwelling lizards diverged after the winter from those of lizards Campbell-Staton had studied during the summer; they more closely resembled those of the northern groups, and showed greater differentiation within their own genomes. The genes that faced selection pressure during the winter, Campbell-Staton says, all seem to play a role in nervous-system function. We found that survivors of the storm had a high degree of genetic differentiation in a part of the genome that contains genes associated with the transport and breakdown of neurotransmitters.

Campbell-Statons advisers were initially hesitant about approving the study, because it was an apparent departure from his dissertation research. As it turned out, his instinct was not only perceptive, but prescient. If the extreme cold has made some green anole populations more resilient in low temperatures, it almost certainly has also come at a cost. Lizards that did not survive this cold event may have had genetic variants that would have made them more resilient to a heat wave or a droughtnow those lineages may be lost, Campbell-Staton says. Extreme weather events are likely to become more frequent and severe, and will threaten the viability of species more fragile than the relatively abundant green anole. We are only beginning to understand how anticipated changes in climate are going to affect biodiversity, he adds; the present study offers one promising way in.

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Extreme-weather Evolution - Harvard Magazine

Pro Evolution Soccer creators Konami aim to incentivise theircustomers who pre-order by allowing them to play as the Jamaican sprinter.

The eight-time Olympic gold medallist Boltcan be used in-game if you buy it ahead of its release in September, Konami have now confirmed.

The keen Manchester United fan, who is due to retire after the World Athletic Championships in London this weekend,hasregularly spoken of his desireto transition to football, with Borussia Dortmund CEOHans-Joachim Watzke confirming last year that the Bundesliga club would allow the 30-year-old to train with them.

But for now, you can play with him virtually when PES 2018 launches next month.

Bolt said: "I love football and have played PES for as long as I can remember;it's the best football game there is,and it's a great honour to be a part of it and its success.

"When the opportunity arose to be a player in PES 2018, it was too good to be true.

"Having my face and movements scanned for use in the game was a fascinating process and I hope those who pre-order the game make full use of my pace and skill."

We're confident his pace stats will more than do the job.

In Other News... on FourFourTwo.com

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Usain Bolt is going to be in Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 - FourFourTwo

Biology Professor Marcus Feldman, director of the Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies, is a pioneer in the field of cultural evolution. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

In 1973, Marcus Feldman, professor of biology, and L.L. Cavalli-Sforza, professor emeritus of genetics, published a paper that went on to inspire an entire subdiscipline of cultural anthropology, which applies models inspired by ideas from population genetics to cultural change. In it, the Stanford professors originated a quantitative theory of cultural evolution that described how cultural traits of parents can get passed on to kids.

We draw analogies with biological evolution where things that happen in one part of the genome can often influence whats happening in another part of the genome, said Feldman. In the same way, things that vary in one part of the culture-ome can influence or determine patterns of variation in other parts of the culture-ome.

Last fall Feldman and colleagues from the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) and the University of California, Irvine, led a colloquium on current research in cultural evolution, how cultural evolution and biological evolution overlap, and why this is an important field. That colloquium resulted in several papers, published in the July 25 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Feldman discussed these topics with Stanford News Service:

What is cultural evolution?

Its the change over time in characteristics of human behavior that can be learned and transmitted from person to person. They can be behavioral traits such as attitudes or norms or ethics or values or use of implements. As in biological evolution, the prevalence of these characteristics can change over time, but unlike most genetic evolution, the rate of change can be very fast, even within a generation.

For example, following the implementation of the fertility control program in China, there was a rapid decline in the number of children that people had, but in early surveys the desired number of children was still about three. Now, the cultural environment has changed so that, for the majority of people, the desired number of children is two or less. It took maybe one generation for that to happen. At the same time, attitudes toward the desirability of having a son did not change and thats why the sex ratio has been so extreme. There was a deeper cultural proclivity, related to carrying on the family name or who can perform rituals when youre buried, and those norms have been much slower to change.

How is cultural evolution different from biological evolution?

The main places where its different is in the transmission mechanism. When Cavalli-Sforza and I wrote our book on cultural evolution 36 years ago, we distinguished three main modes of transmission. One is learning from your parents, which would be very conservative in terms of rates of change. Examples are religious attitudes and political preferences.

The second mode of transmission is what you might learn from your peers. This might be literature or entertainment preferences, attitudes toward food or clothing preferences.

And then we differentiated a third, which refers to those beliefs or behaviors or attitudes that are transmitted by non-parents who are members of an older generation; teachers, for instance.

Is there a clear distinction between what we would consider cultural versus biological evolution?

There was quite a bit of discussion in the meeting about this question. After centuries of asking questions about what is genetic and what is learned and what is imposed, the question is not fully resolved.

For example, one of the things we know is passed on culturally and does not get transmitted through the genes is language. But, it may be that the rapidity with which we learn it or the fluency which we eventually achieve has to do with some parts of our biological makeup.

I think there is no such thing as determination by nurture or nature. The analogy that I like to use is this: A trait is like the area of a rectangle and only knowing one side only the genetics or only the culture doesnt tell you very much about the area.

What has your research focused on?

Right now, were working on figuring out what kinds of cultural advantage would have been necessary for the modern humans to replace Neanderthals. Oren Kolodny, a postdoctoral research fellow in my group, has been working on whether just the migration alone out of Africa would be enough. We also developed models that frame the competition like you would between two species only instead of the competition being based on some resource, like a food, its based on culture. That kind of mathematical model of the spread of modern humans has a lot of similarities with questions that come up in the physics of spatial diffusion, and William Gilpin, a graduate student in applied physics, is collaborating on this together with some wonderful Japanese colleagues.

Other research with Nicole Creanza, a former postdoctoral research fellow of mine now on the faculty of Vanderbilt University, compared genomic variation around the world with phonemic variation around the world the sounds that people make. We turned each language into a series of 1s and 0s based on whether or not they contained certain sounds; every language was a long string of 0s and 1s, and we looked for the patterns of similarities and differences between them. We came to the conclusion that you cant say one is the cause of the other but you could say the geography is the cause of both.

Ive also worked with anthropologist Melissa Brown to study marriage preferences in Taiwan and how they changed due to the prohibition by the Japanese in 1915 of foot binding. Before the ban, the Han Chinese did not want to marry into the aboriginal community because the aboriginesdidnt bind the feet of their women. We showed that there was a very rapid change in marriage customs following the ban on foot binding. One cultural change had a dramatic effect on another, apparently unrelated, aspect of culture.

Why is understanding cultural evolution important?

Worldwide, one of the important things that we can say is that making a cultural change in one area can have important cultural effects on other attitudes and behaviors. For example, prioritizing education for women in Kerala, India, led to them desiring fewer children and investing more effort in those children. Advertising the dangers of cigarettes led to a cultural shift in how people regard smoking.

I think one of the major reasons why China recently changed the fertility policy in the last couple years was that economic and sociocultural changes had reduced the desired number of children. It was also recognized that a pronounced shortage of women would affect the birth rate and population aging, thereby decreasing the available labor in 20 or 30 years. Those kinds of mathematical and statistical projections, if theyre taken seriously by policymakers, can affect and potentially improve the human condition. I think thats one of the significant things we do.

In PNAS, there are several papers about whether animals have cultural transmission. What are people discussing on this topic?

Naturally, if youre an evolutionist, you would want to know: Is there some kind of continuity between animal culture through to what we think of as human culture?

It appears there is cultural transmission of some animal behaviors. Some traits, such as whale songs and certain feeding styles, are correlated between relatives and over geography. In the chimpanzee, there may be up to about 40 different traits that have been identified as potentially being called cultural, but the thing about them is that they dont appear to accumulate. Doubt also seems to exist as to whether theyre actively being taught, whether young individuals are actually learning from their mothers and are then able to teach others.

The PNAS collection has an excellent review of anatomical and potentially cognitive evolution of cumulative culture from a neuroscience perspective. Another paper in the collection focuses on transmission of foraging techniques in songbirds. Even insects may have cultural transmission: Some bees are apparently able to learn to do totally uncharacteristic tasks by watching other bees that can do these unnatural things.

Overall, there appears to be a marked gap between what the scholars believe is animal culture and what we know about human culture. The papers in this collection discuss this problem of accumulation and how one would recognize it.

Feldman is director of the Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies; co-director of the Stanford Center for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genomics; a member of Stanford Bio-X, the Stanford Cancer Institute and the Stanford Neurosciences Institute; and an affiliate of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium Extension of Biology Through Culture was held in November 2016. It was funded by the John Templeton Foundation and the Stanford Center for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genomics.

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Q&A with Stanford's Marcus Feldman on the extension of biology through culture - Stanford University News

PERTH (miningweekly.com) Gold miner Evolution Mining will subscribe for A$2.5-million in the upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of gold explorer Riversgold.

Riversgold, which is led by Doray Minerals founder Allan Kelly and former Sirius Resources executive director Jeff Foster, is looking to build a portfolio of mineral projects through exploration and acquisition.

Initial projects in the portfolio include properties in Western Australia, South Australia and Alaska, as well as mineral licence applications in Cambodia.

Evolution VP for discovery Glen Masterman said on Friday that forming a partnership with exploration companies that had a strong technical team and strategy, aligned with Evolution in an important part of the companys discovery programme.

Evolutions investment in Riversgold is consistent with this objective, he said.

Riversgold is hoping to raise a minimum of A$5-million and up to A$8-million through its IPO, and was expected to list on the ASX in the December quarter.

Depending on the actual amount raised, Evolution will hold between 13.6% and 16.2% of the companys total issued share capital following the IPO.

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Evolution takes stake in Riversgold IPO - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly

The "where were you when you heard JFK had been shot?"moment in recent Scottish politics came on September 6, 2014. It was then, 12 days before the nation made its decision on independence, that YouGov produced a poll putting the Yes campaign ahead for the first time.

The lead was slender, just 51-49, but its hard to overstate the trauma it caused Unionists. Until then, few of us had taken seriously the idea that the nation might actually vote the UK out of existence. The Yessers had spent months dancing and chanting and painting saltires on their cheeks in Glasgows George Square which they renamed "Freedom Square" and Alex Salmond had belligerently insisted it was going to happen in that dead-eyed Kray Twin way of his, but it all seemed rooted in wishful thinking, a confidence trick they would say that, wouldnt they?

The science and the facts were on our side. We hadnt felt the need to make a psychological accommodation with the possibility.

That poll changed everything. We had, in effect, been given a week and a halfs notice that our country could be taken away from us. Despite the empty platitudes and dodgy statistics that had poured from the mouths of SNP politicians throughout the campaign, the very obvious economic, cultural and diplomatic shocks that would follow, the lack of a credible plan for the aftermath, it might be on. Many English readers will have found the decision to leave the EU and its aftermath tough going - for Scottish Unionists, a Yes vote would have been like a hurricane to Brexits stiff breeze.

By the time September 18 rolled around we had all calmed down a bit. The polls showed the the Union would almost certainly prevail. But that stout certainty had gone, and in truth it has never returned. I suspect it never will. The existence of the UK feels contingent, its ties transactional rather than emotional, our identity an ongoing negotiation. The independence debate refuses to die, while the separatists continue to dominate civic life and gnaw away at the bonds. Who knows how this ends, but many No voters will admit privately that theyve made the necessary psychological accommodation. I know I certainly have: the world wouldnt end, the sun would still come up, wed manage.

As the newly published British Election Study (BES) shows, those two big referendums on the UKs future arrangements, those big calls on who we are and whether we should stay or go, have remade the electoral weather. In Scotland, their outcomes have interacted with one another, as if in some constitutional petri dish, rewiring the electorates thought patterns, rerouting their voting habits and upsetting traditional allegiances.

In an article, BES team members Chris Prosser and Ed Fieldhouse say: "In the space of three general elections [between 2010 and 2017], the Scottish party system has been completely transformed. The SNP moved from third place to first Labour has fallen from first to third, and the Conservatives have risen from fourth to second. The last few years of Scottish politics have a clear tale to tell: referendums that cut across party lines can lead to major disturbances in the party system."

The study finds that among those who voted Yes to independence and to Remain in the EU, nine out of 10 backed the SNP in Junes general election. But among those who voted Yes and then Leave, four in 10 who had voted SNP in the 2015 election switched to another party in 2017.

No/Remain voters had predominantly backed Labour in 2015 but in June around one in five of them switched to the Tories. Ruth Davidsons more liberal Conservatism and her staunch support for the Union also attracted around a third of 2015 Liberal Democrat voters. Among No/Leave voters, Davidsons party scooped up around half of Labours 2015 support, 60% of Liberal Democrats and most Ukip supporters.

As Prosser and Fieldhouse write: It is not hard to see how the referendums on Scottish independence and the UKs membership of the EU have been the catalyst for these changes.

Its also not hard to see the fragility of these new voter coalitions. Davidsons charisma and nous might hold the resurgent Tory vote together for a while, but can she really please Yes and No and Leave and Remain supporters for long? As the prospect of a second indyref seems to recede, will Yes voters who abandoned the Nats in June give up on their dream of a separate Scottish state? If Jeremy Corbyns Labour continues its momentum, why wouldnt Kezia Dugdale benefit from the shift in the public mood?If the consequences of Brexit bite, can the Scottish Tories hope to escape public ire?

In short, nothing has been resolved and those "major disturbances"will play out for a long time to come. The summer break has been a useful pause for the party leaders and their teams, allowing them to gain some perspective, gather their thoughts and plan their tactics for when recess ends in September. But the complexity of the times means they will be playing multi-dimensional chess. It would be nice to think that we will spend the autumn having a serious debate about reforms to Scotlands struggling schools and how to inject greater dynamism into our economy. Sadly, its more likely that, like a migraine, independence and Brexit will continue to dominate.

More:

The evolution of "cuck" shows that different far-right groups are learning the same language - New Statesman

To continue the theme of innovation versus truth and beauty, I present to you, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. This new opera by Mason Bates had its world premiere at Santa Fe Opera on Saturday, July 22.

With Anne Aikiko Meyers

Yes, an opera about Steve Jobs. However, the title couldnt just be Steve Jobs they had to give us that artistic play on words (R)evolution. I hate it already. How good can it possibly be with a title such as that?

On Night of Too Many Stars, 2012

There are no clips of the music available but having listened to several other pieces by Mason Bates I have an idea of what to expect. If you like sound effects then you will like what Mason Bates does.

"Check out this cool sound. Now check out this cool sound. Here's another one. Have I blown your mind or what?"

I can say that his violin concerto shows promise but is in a constant state of distraction. Can someone please write something that is "on the beat" half the time? It's all monotonously off the beat. After a while one can only scream, "What's the point?"

This constant rhythmic masturbation is my main hang-up with modern music. There is no flow. Perhaps that is an accurate reflection of our current age of distraction which has been brought about primarily by the iPhone.

In one way, Bates is doing what Jobs did. Bates combines an orchestra with electronica and uses this to fuel his invention. Jobs took existing idioms and had them combined in order to create invention.

While were on the topic, lets be clear that Jobs is in the same vein as Thomas Edison not Nikola Tesla. Edison did not invent the lightbulb, the movie projector, or several other technologies such as the battery.

This quote from Inventions Edison did not make sums it up perfectly. Thomas Edison himself did not invent major breakthroughs. He often took credit for the ideas and inventions of others and most of his patents were little more than improvements on already existing products. He was an astute businessman, and as such, had greater impact on innovating existing products than inventing new ones.

The same can be said of Steve Jobs. If we take away his perceived creative genius, is Jobs worthy of an opera? He was incredible at executing ideas or rather keeping an entire company focused on the central idea but his leadership style was less than inspiring.

From what I've read of the reviews from Santa Fe, the story is non-linear and takes place over the course of 18 vignettes in the space of 85 minutes. The show reportedly gives us no further insights into the man or the milieu in which he existed.

The 85 minutes is the perfect length for an iPhone toting audience but feels short given the scope of the narrative which covers the entirety of Jobs' life. If we look to operas which have remained in play over the years, there are no biographies.

An opera completely dedicated to the struggle between the ideologies of Jobs and Wozniak in their early years could have been quite compelling. Woz is the Tesla to Jobs' Edison.

My response here is strangely negative for a show I've never seen. Ive been long-winded about my disappointment in most contemporary musical efforts and it feels as though Im looking for faults. I am looking for something of true stature.

San Francisco Opera will be producing it during their 2019-2020 season. The Santa Fe shows have been sold out and additional performances are being considered. Given the religious stature of Jobs in the Bay Area, tickets to the San Francisco Opera will be hard to come by.

I'm guessing by that point there will be an iPhone-augmented reality app to go with the production.

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The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs - San Diego Reader