Category Archives: Evolution

This week's State Board of Education debate about high school biology standards and governinghow to teach students about the theory of evolution could come down to a single word: evaluate.

At a February meeting, board members took a preliminary vote to modify those curriculum standards, keeping in language that would require students to challenge evolutionary science.

Republican board member Barbara Cargill, who led the charge to keep in the controversial language, has said requiring students to "evaluate" certain biological processes is necessary for thorough biology instruction.Critics say keeping the word "evaluate" in those standards casts doubt on evolution in a way that could open the door to teaching creationism.

The board is set to hold that debate Tuesday and will take another preliminary vote on whether to modifythe standards Wednesday, with a final vote set for Friday.

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At the board's request in July, a 10-member committee of teachers and scientists took on the challenge of narrowing the biology curriculum standards known as Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS. The committee removed four passages that Democrats on the board and activists say allow teachers to challenge evolution in the classroom, advancing creationist ideas.

After the board voted in February to put a few of those controversial standards back in the TEKS, educators on the committee were not happy. A few have said they did not intend to make a political statement by taking out the controversial standards. They did it to cut down on instructional time, as was their mandate, and to allow teachers more leeway for depth in the subject, said committee member Ron Wetherington, an anthropology professor at Southern Methodist University.

He called the board's changes to the standards"pretty toxic ... We just said, 'Evaluate is out the window and we're not even going to talk about it.'"Cargill's proposal would add nine additional days of teaching to a high school biology class, he said.

Republican board member Marty Rowley said he has received a lot of letters from constituents "wanting to make sure we allow teachers the space to teach the strengths and weaknesses of evolution, and that we cover them with the depth that allows our students to compete globally in science."

He said any suggestion that the standards would open the door to creationism is "unfounded. I don't think there's been any evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, that Texas biology teachers are teaching creationism in biology."

After February's vote, the committee sent the board a letter proposing a compromise.

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In the letter, signed by all 10 members, the committee recommends the removal of the word "evaluate" from two of the science standards Cargill had pushed to add. The first standard asks high schoolers to compare and contrast eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells to "evaluate ... their complexity." The second asks students to "evaluate scientific explanations for the origin of DNA."

The committee wants board members to change the word "evaluate" to "identify."

"Although our recommended compromises will add some instructional time back into our calendar, they will not create significant instructional problems," the letter reads.

Rowley would not say Monday whether he planned to move forward with this compromise.

"When you have your classroom experts, your teachers, telling you this, it seems to me the board has some responsibility to give them some deference here," said Dan Quinn, who represents left-leaning State Board of Education watchdog Texas Freedom Network. "They know what they're doing."

Texas Freedom Network has been the main organization calling for the removal of the controversial science standards over the past several years, arguing they are a gateway to creationist alternatives to biological science. The proposed compromise, Quinn said, "looks very reasonable."

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Texas education board to consider compromise on evolution standards - Texas Tribune

A couple of quick hits this week from the wonderful world of board games.

A few of my crazy creatures

First a great first impression with Evolution: Climate. This beautiful card game captures all of the turmoil and drama of nature and evolution in a nice tidy one hour playtime. Players create new species, add various traits, increase the population and size of their creatures and then hold on and try to survive the round without anything going hungry.

The basic gameplay is really approachable, but immediately some really interesting strategies arise from these simple rules. Do you make your species a carnivore, hoping theres another players species that you can manage to eat this round? Do you focus on more herbivore traits and try to grab as much food at the central watering hole before other players snatch it all up? Do you change size or develop defensive traits to fend off that jerk across the table who keeps eating your mutant furry turtles? These are just a few of challenges of this deep card game. This particular version also includes a climate element so that animals that do not have the proper warmth or cooling can be in big trouble depending on how the weather changes!

And really, I cant say enough about the art. These water color pictures could happily be wall art, but here there are dozens of these pieces tucked into a great game.

Roll for It!

The second game is one that I am surprised no one invented fiftyyears ago or so, as the basic concept of the game is incredibly simple. Its called Roll for It!, and thats exactly what you do. Players each have six dice, and there are cards laid out each turn that have a certain goal of what dice to roll, along with the points that card is worth. Players take turns rolling and assigning dice to cards, and if they complete the goal, they get the cards and the points. Thats it, roll the dice, assign to cards. The tactical decisions come from whether to go for the cards with more challenging six dice goals, or to go for simpler goals that take less dice to complete. Any dice actively assigned are dice that you are not rolling your next turn, so going big can mean not scoring many points at all if your luck doesnt work out. A cute game to kill some time with, but not my favorite dice chucker by any means.

Red Scare

And finally, in news about upcoming games, heres a strange new concept. A game about Russian spies called Red Scare where the innovative new element is a pair of special glasses that allow you to see text that other players cant. I am always intrigued by a new gameplay concept, and maybe this will put a new twist on those betrayal and hidden role games Ive written about before.

Thats all for this week. Happy gaming!

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Evolution, rolling dice, and Russian spies - Albany Times Union (blog)

Welcome to the IoT Evolution Week in Review, my friends. This week, weve been talking about Smart Homes, Smart Agriculture, Smart City, and Smart technological improvements. Lets get into it, shall we?

In our lead story, the U.S. FCC has launched a new Web portal to allow radio spectrum researchers to apply for an experimental license for 5G spectrum projects, and the first to get one is New York University. The new application system is designed to reduce barriers to experimentation for universities, research laboratories, healthcare institutions, and manufacturers with demonstrated experience in radio frequency technology, and provide an overarching licensing program for innovative entities to rapidly acquire specific experimental licenses on an ongoing, as-needed basis in designated campus areas.

We had a great guest post from Jason Porter, VP, Security Solutions, AT&T, who wrote about how cybersecurity threats in the IoT are much bigger than any single organization. At RSA 2017 and Mobile World Congress, while technology companies were focused on delivering new solutions to help mitigate security vulnerabilities or reduce potential threats, he identified three themes resonating across both conferences.

And now, the news: At the moment, there are more than 250 smart cities projects in progress all around the world, according to recently released numbers from Navigant Research, and everyone expects that number to increase significantly over the next several years. CommScope, a global infrastructure solutions company for communications networks, has announced that it has become a Lead Partner of the Smart Cities Council with the goal of helping transform cities into Smart Cities and support the growth of digital technology and intelligent solutions.

Sensify Security, a company that delivers intelligent IoT security services at the edge to help customers find visibility, control and automation capabilities in industrial cybersecurity operations, has joined the OpenFog Consortium with the goal of helping to establish global security and privacy requirements for Fog Computing.

Its well-recognized that cellular connectivity is an extremely versatile tool in the hands of an IoT implementer. But what, exactly, can it do for a business, and how can it best be used? To answer some of those questions, Get Wireless, Sierra Wireless and IoT Evolution will jointly host a new webinar, Top 5 considerations for LTE in your business.

Farmnote Holdings, an IoT solutions provider for dairy and livestock farming, has procured a new investment of 500 million yen, or about $4,580,000, in funding from four companies: Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, the Norinchukin Bank and Sumitomo Corporation.

Over the last few years, I have seen some major trends forming across nearly every vertical in the consumer and industrial spaces, and these trends looked like they were pointing toward a future where the IoT would indeed be improving the lives and living conditions of people all over the world, and so I decided to begin writing a book in order to look for patterns in those trends. That book, published recently, is called IoT Time: Evolving Trends in the Internet of Things. In a new weekly series, well be previewing chapters for you to read in the hopes that youll like enough to read the whole thing.

On the IoT Time Podcast, I sat down with Dave Murray, Head of Thought Leadership, BPI Network, about a study newly release by BPI that indicates that although enterprises see the value of IoT in the industrial space, the IIoT is lagging in adoption.

Theres plenty more to read, listen to and watch, so visit us on IoT Evolution World for all the IoT news, my friends. Now is the time to put into your calendar the next IoT Evolution Expo, to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Also, please get in touch with us when you have stories. As always, if you have questions, comments, complaints or compliments, please send them to me, editorial director Ken Briodagh at kbriodagh@tmcnet.com or on Twitter @KenBriodagh.

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IoT Evolution World Week in Review: NYU, AT&T & More - IoT Evolution World (blog)

When Kentucky governor Matt Bevin warmed up the crowd in Louisville ahead of Donald Trumps speech in March, he seemed to share the president's taste for superlatives:

"I defy anybody in the national media, local media, anybody who is a political expert among you to find one state in America anywhere in the history of America that has more profoundly transformed itself ideologically, politically, legislatively," Bevin said, "than Kentucky in the last year of change."

That might seem like an overstatement for what is, after all, a conservative state. But Kentucky was, until recently, the rare Southern state that retained a blue Democratic hue. In November, Republicans captured the majority in the state's house of representatives for the first time in 96 years. And Bevin himself is only the third Republican governor in the last half-century. When I asked the governor about the extravagant claims in his Louisville speech, he said they were more than justified. Finally having a GOP legislature, Bevin says, "has allowed us the opportunity for policies to be heard in committees that were never heard before, such as the right to work, pro-life legislation, and charter schools."

Kentucky Republicans have wasted little time, fast-tracking bills in the first five days of this year's general assembly session. Bevin signed right-to-work legislation, repealed a prevailing-wage law that was driving up the cost of state projects, signed a paycheck-protection bill, and banned abortions after 20 weeks. The governor signed a charter school billKentucky had been one of just seven states with no competition for public education dollars. And in an effort to reduce cronyism, he eliminated 65 separate state boards and commissions.

When the regular session was over (which happens pretty quickly in Kentuckyin odd years, the general assembly has to wrap up normal business by March 30), the governor plans to call legislators back for a special session to address tax reform and pension reform.

Conservatives could only dream of such rapid action from the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. Bevin blames Congress for the pace in Washington more than Trump. "The guy has been president for just three months," the governor says. "We have had the same Congress dragging their feet for a while."

Bevin has been, in some ways, the Trump of Kentucky, a businessman without political experience who came to office to shake things upthough he's more of a doctrinaire conservative than the president. Bevin grew up in New Hampshire. He served in the Army before a career in finance. In 2008, he took over his family's bell-manufacturing company.

Bevin, today a polished political pro, entered politics in 2014 as a rabble-rousing primary challenger to Mitch McConnell and very new to the game. He accused the Senate Republican leader of being too accommodating to President Barack Obama and blasted him for voting for the bank bailout. That proved to be an amateur mistake: Politico dug up a report to investors of Veracity Funds that Bevin had signed in 2008 supporting the Troubled Assets Relief Program. McConnell had a field day with that.

Bevin learned other hard political lessons in that first campaign. There was the rally fiasco in Corbin, Kentucky: A local newspaper reported that the group he spoke to at the event advocated the legalization of cockfighting. Bevin said he thought it was a states' rights rally and later issued a statement in opposition to cockfighting. But the damage was done. In the May 2014 primary, Bevin got 35 percent of the vote against McConnell. Maybe not so bad, all things considered.

Bevin, it should be noted, describes his relationship with McConnell today as "excellent," though not chummy: "We don't hang out and have coffee."

The longshot Senate campaign wasn't for nothing. Taking on one of the nation's most powerful Republicans built both name recognition and a political base to fight another day. Bevin entered the Kentucky governor's race the next year, running against three seasoned politicians in the Republican primary. He won the 2015 primary by just 83 votes statewide. In the general election, he trailed in polls the month before Election Day, but eventually carried 106 of the state's 120 counties. "I was never an elected official or a political mover and shaker, and people said I had no chance of winning," Bevin says. "I ran on issues others were afraid to talk about."

After coming into office in December 2015, he found a conciliatory middle ground on a wedge issue by allowing marriage licenses to be issued without the signature of a county clerk. This defused the controversy involving Kim Davis, the Rowan County clerk who had been jailed for refusing to sign same-sex marriage licenses.

But it didn't take long for things to become partisan. When Bevin moved to dismantle Kynect, the state's version of Obamacare, and pushed budget cuts in other areas, he ran up against Democratic house speaker Greg Stumbo: The longtime state powerbroker obstructed much of the governor's agenda. But in 2016 Stumbo was one of the casualties as Republicans gained control of the Kentucky house, with the GOP going from just 46 of 100 seats to 64.

With a Republican legislature to work with, Bevin now has a 50 percent approval ratingnot great, but a big upswing from his 33 percent approval this time a year ago, when he was fighting with Democrats.

Does Bevin represent a new political balance of power in Kentucky, or is he just another GOP aberration there? The last Republican governor, Ernie Fletcher, was a one-termer. He was a creature of the political establishment, having served in the state legislature, then the U.S. House, before being backed for governor in 2003 by McConnell. Once Fletcher was in office, Democratic attacks paralyzed him. By contrast, Bevin is anything but paralyzed.

McConnell is rightly credited with making Kentucky a two-party system, leading to GOP dominance at the congressional level. But Bevin deserves much credit for the change at the state office level. He also demonstrates how an anti-establishment rabble-rouser can evolve into a successful politician, a lesson that could be valuable for Donald Trump.

"If anti-establishment means cutting red tape and ignoring the hot air, I'm anti-establishment. But, if the establishment includes people working hard for the good of the public, I'll work with anyone who has good ideas, Democrat or Republican," Bevin says. "I try to create dialogue and avoid the noisemakers. I don't watch TV. I don't sit down with editorial boards who are never going to support me. I go out and listen to people."

Fred Lucas is White House correspondent for the Daily Signal and author of Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections (Stairway Press, 2016).

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Gov. Bevin already called a special legislative session. He has not, but sources in the Governor's office say he plans to.

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The Evolution of Matt Bevin - The Weekly Standard

The Dallas Morning News has a piece on the latest round in the battle over evolution education in Texas a hearing Tuesday in Austin I participated in. The articles reporting was better than some, but still a mixed bag.

Heres my quick take on the goings on, and on the Dallas Morning News story.

The Texas State Board of Education heard testimony over proposed changes to the states curriculum standards for public high school evolution education. I testified along with CSC Fellows Ray Bohlin and Walter Bradley. We were three of about 26 who did, though probably no more than half of these were focused on the evolution issue. Each of us spoke for a couple minutes, and then answered any questions put to us from the board.

The Texas governor had earlier instructed the board to streamline the state curriculum standards. A committee tasked with suggesting cuts and clarifications for the biology standards recommended deleting various parts that called on biology classes to evaluate evolutionary theory instead of simply memorizing its claims and the evidence for it.

This committee argued that there wasnt time to evaluate evolutionary theory, and besides, that kind of critical thinking about evolution isnt developmentally appropriate. We disagreed.

Tuesday was the third round in the tug-of-war. The first round was last fall. The second round was early this year.

Dont Push the Mystery into the Shadows

We assured the board that there were age-appropriate ways for teachers to get their students to wrestle with some of the peer-reviewed scientific evidence against evolution, and that they could do so without taking weeks and weeks. They can open a door to the sort of mysteries that the scientists wrestled with at the Royal Society meeting last year. And no, the ninth-grade biology classes dont have to go through the door and on a weeks-long journey for it to be educationally valuable. Just knowing the doorway is there; just knowing there exists a realm where origins scientists grapple with some big unsolved mysteries thats enough.

While I was at the hearings, I met the Dallas Morning News reporter assigned to cover the event, Eva-Marie Ayala. She had the challenging task of boiling down to a few hundred words the parade of speeches pro and con, along with the Q&A among board members and testifiers.

She rightly underscored the controversy over a single word in the biology standards. One of the standards, 6a, calls on biology classes to evaluate theories about the origin of DNA. And a majority of the biology committee recommended changing the word evaluate to identify. In my testimony I urged the board not to adopt the word identify, but to go with evaluate or some similarly strong term.

When you identify a theory, you merely regurgitate information about it. Theres a place for that, of course. But when you evaluate you critically analyze. Thats a skill essential to doing good science.

Also, we want to make sure high school biology teachers have some cover from the state curriculum standards for critically analyzing evolutionary theory. As the movies Expelledand Icons of Evolution showed, biology teachers brave enough to question Darwinism can use all the cover they can get from enforcers of evolutionary orthodoxy.

Ayala accurately quoted from my testimony. I appreciate that. But one part of her reporting that I think leaves a poor sense of the hearings is where she makes the clash sound like something out of Inherit the Wind. She does so with her lead sentence, and then a bit later she has this:

The standards say students should evaluate certain scientific explanations in the biological processes. But critics say that kind of language comes from those pushing creationism because it opens the door to allow questioning of scientific explanations.

The board voted in February to scale back language that would have required students to consider all sides of evolution science. But some say the compromise still includes wording along the lines of investigate or examine that could encourage creationism.

Of the more than two dozen people who testified, I think only two leveled this charge. It wasnt a primary point of discussion. Also, the CSC position is against pushing for intelligent design in public school science classes, and certainly not for creationism. Just expose students to the peer-reviewed scientific material underscoring some of the glaring weaknesses in evolution, and let students critically analyze. Yes, we want this because we are convinced that modern evolutionary theory is bankrupt. But we also support this approach because its good science education.

My friend Ide Trotter (pictured above), a chemical engineer with a PhD from Princeton University, had this to say in a letter he submitted to the Dallas Morning News:

Twenty-nine individuals were registered to testify, I among them. Twenty-six did testify. In contrast with previous Board meetings on this topic, only two focused on the long discredited argument that it is all about creationism vs. evolution. How in the world could that be your articles lead sentence?

SMUs Dr. Ron Wetherington, who chaired the panel that made the recommendations to be discussed, presented well-balanced opening remarks. Creationism was never mentioned. Nor did he suggest that the issue was denial of evolution.

Three areas came in for most of the testimony. Quite a bit was very helpful review and critique of the need for improved coordination of proposed TEKS, (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) for progressive levels of science instruction related to biology. This was uncontentious and understandably not exciting enough for your reporter to mention.

Thats not to say there were no contentions. There was serious discussion of the appropriateness of the term evaluate as employed in several of the biology TEKS. But this was not debated in the context of evolution denial. Evolution was not being denied at all. However, given the current lack of understanding of the detailed chemical steps required for evolution to take place, there were two fundamental issues addressed.

First, there was limited discussion of the real scientific challenges to understanding how fast and far evolution can progress when limited to material explanations.

Also, biology is now taught in the ninth grade where students are not yet well prepared to appreciate the underlying scientific issues. Then too, and most important, was the pedagogical issue. How should current evolutionary understanding be appropriately presented to ninth grade biology students? Those on my side argued against overstating the plausibility of any of the various postulated explanations currently on offer for a material origin and further diversification of life.

My sense is that there are members of the biology committee who are not interested in opening that door wide. Some of these may be teachers who feel overwhelmed with curriculum demands and simply want as many things as possible taken off of the high school biology table. It may be that some of the committee members dont want evolutionary theory questioned or challenged.

The motives, though, are less important than the effect. What is the effect of watering down the language that encourages critical analysis of modern evolutionary theory? The effect would be to impoverish science education in Texas, and enhance the teaching of modern evolutionary theory as unquestionable dogma.

Video of the testimony is here. Ide Trotter begins speaking at around -2:28:30. Walter Bradley, who co-authored the seminal 1984 work The Mystery of Lifes Origin, testifies beginning around -2:21:10. My testimony begins around -0:49:40. And biologist Ray Bohlins begins is at -0:23:20.

Ray delivered mostly prepared remarks, but they were an eerily fitting rebuttal to the two people who testified immediately before him. Their testimony begins at around -0:28:12, in case you want to compare and contrast.

One other piece of testimony I want to highlight: Sherry Joslin, a mom and former teacher and NASA engineer. Her testimony starts around -1:46:50.

The board will take a final vote this Friday.

Photo: Ide Trotter, PhD,Princeton-trained chemical engineer and Darwin skeptic, delivers testimony before the Texas State Board of Education.

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Our Day in Austin, Defending Critical Analysis of Evolution - Discovery Institute

The IU Soul Revues Spring Concert is a celebration of African-American musical tradition, but this year, there will be a show unlike any other the ensemble has performed.

The concert, titled Evolution of Soul, will take place starting at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater and will incorporate elements of theatricality in with their traditional lineup of funk, rhythm and blues, and soul music.

Theres also going to be the first half which is more of a musical performance and the second half is going to be more of a concert type, IU Soul Revue director Crystal Taliefero said. Were going to have props, which weve never had before, and were going to have more stage and light design than weve ever had before its just going to be a pop rock concert.

The theme of evolution deals not only with the music, but with the transformation of oneself through that music, Taliefero said.

One student will narrate this transformation through the performance. He will begin speaking as an African storyteller or music man at the shows start and eventually turn into a present-day emcee.

Youll see the transformation takes place visually and orally, Taliefero said. Theres also the context of the history of evolution of African-American music. Hes going to give you the background and story behind how all of this is changing and what took place during the times.

Raynetta Wiggins, road manager for the group, said the incorporation of the history is one of the most compelling new elements of the performance, along with the incorporation of visual storytelling via projection during the concert.

The Soul Revue always has some sort of message with the music and the fun, Wiggins said. Its not always serious. Its not always happy and dancing, but you get both of those components in their show. It takes that a step further this year with the breadth of the story its trying to tell.

The story of the music moves from the late 1800s to present day.

Its informative and visually stimulated, Taliefero said. Its a show the Soul Revue hasnt performed before in this capacity. Its just going to be an entertaining show I come from the rock world of performance, so were definitely going to have those elements in there.

Taliefero said when she met these students at the beginning of the year there was the hurdle of unfamiliarity facing them. Now, she sees them dedicating themselves to putting on this show and learning to trust one another along the way.

Wiggins said, from the perspective of a performer and an observer, the amount of work that went into planning this show along with all the other performances this year has been impressive.

Any group takes sacrifice on the part of the students and director to show up and give their best every rehearsal and really give your best in the final performance, Wiggins said. Theyve shown a lot of flexibility, the choreography is going to be amazing, and the vocal coach is amazing.

The multi-cultural and multi-ethnic Soul Revue is one that continues to make Taliefero proud, and she said she looks forward to seeing auditions for next years ensemble. The first round of auditions will take place April 24 at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, the second during the fall semester.

We all have one thing in common, and that is that we love funk, we love soul, we love R&B, Taliefero said. It doesnt matter your race, creed, sexuality you have a common bond that is to play African-American music.

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Soul Revue plans show full of visual, musical mastery in "Evolution of Soul" - Indiana Daily Student

Ford Motor Company [NYSF: F] has been cranking out cop cars for Jonny Law for decades now. The automaker says that cooperation with the police goes all the way back to the Model T. The first official Police-prepped Ford vehicle, however, dates back to 1950 and the Mainline. This was the base trim for Ford sedans, and it became the car for the boys in blue.

In honor of its new Fusion Hybrid Responder, Ford has produced a neat video highlighting some of the evolutionary changes to Ford police vehicles through the decades. Our favorite is the 1971 Galaxie, which came prepared with a 429 cubic-inch V-8 engine mounted under the hood. It was good for 400 horsepower and making sure the long arm of the law was able to catch up with any baddies who thought about making a run for it.

Other cars highlighted in the video include the 125-hp 1952 Interceptor, the 215-horse 1956 Interceptor, the 1982 Mustang SSP with its high-output 5.0-liter V-8, the 165-hp 1983 Crown Vic, the 150-mph 1998 Crown Vic, the 2009 Crown Vic, and the 2013 Taurus Interceptor powered by a twin-turbocharged V-6. The video provides information on many more innovations on each of these cars.

These days Ford has the Taurus and the Explorer as its main police offerings. The lineup that's evolving, though, as Ford has also added the new Expedition and the first hybrid pursuit-rated vehicle in the latest Fusion. It's that last one that is making a bit of a splash, as it could benefit police departments in a number of ways.

The most obvious advantages of the Fusion Hybrid Responder are the reduced fuel consumption and emissions. That lends a helping hand to the environment while also saving departments money on their fuel bills. Yet it's still built strongly enough to handle the rigors of daily police duty. That means it can sit quietly for hours on end as the batteries and electric motor keep the computers running, or it can fire to life and respond to the call of duty.

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Watch the evolution of Ford's police cars - Motor Authority

Live dealer online casino specialist Evolution Gaming says it started 2017 off at the same accelerated pace with which the company closed out 2016.

In a Q1 trading update issued on Thursday, Evolution reported revenue of 39.7m and earnings of 17m in the three months ending March 31, representing year-on-year gains of 60% and 66%, respectively, while profit rose 67% to 12.7m. Evolution says the quarter enjoyed generally high player volumes among all types of customers, both small and large well-established operators.

Evolution has undergone significant growth since Q1 2016, a fact underscored by its payroll rising to 3,780 employees from 2,128 a year ago. Accordingly, operating expenses shot up 56% to 25.7m, but the companys earnings margin still improved one point to 43%.

Evolution CEO Martin Carlesund credited the continued success to the addition of several new customers in Q1, including myBet, Matchbook, White Hat Gaming and Codere, the latter deal marking the companys entry into the Mexican market. Meanwhile, many of Evolutions existing customers launched new environments and added additional tables, and the companys new poker products including Three Card Poker and Ultimate Texas Holdem are proving a hit with these clients end users.

The quarter also saw Evolution launch its new Speed Baccarat and Speed Roulette games for the patience-challenged gambler, while enhancing its mobile offering by enabling gambling in portrait view in addition to the existing landscape format. Evolution also has high hopes that its new Live Lucky Wheel game category will introduce a whole new audience to the wonders of live online casino gaming.

Since the quarter ended, Evolution announced its entry into the Canadian market via a deal with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC). The plan is for the custom studio that Evolution is building in Vancouver the companys eighth to eventually serve the gambling monopolies in other Canadian provinces, as well.

Looking ahead, Evolution says it plans to support its future expansion by building its third major studio in Europe this year, joining its existing facilities in Malta and Riga, Latvia. That said, Evolution is projecting somewhat slower growth in Q2 and Q3 given this summers lack of a major sporting event to draw gamblers online.

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Evolution Gaming starts 2017 on a profitable roll - CalvinAyre.com

The Texas State Board of Education found common ground Tuesday between key players on both sides of a contentious debate about what language to include in high school biology standards.

Currently, the curriculum requires students to evaluate scientific explanations for the origins of DNA and the complexity of certain cells, which some say could open the door to teaching creationism.

A10-member committee of teachers and scientists, appointed by the board in July to offer suggestions to narrow the biology curriculum standards, wants to replace this language so it no longer requires students to challenge evolutionary science.

At a February meeting, board members took a preliminary vote to modify curriculum standards and kept in language that would require students to challenge evolutionary science. Another preliminary vote will take place Wednesday, and a final vote on the issue will occur Friday.

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In a recent letter, the committee signaled its desire to remove the word evaluate from two teaching requirements in a letter, arguing that it would save valuable instruction time without creating significant instructional problems.

The committee proposed replacing the word evaluate with language that didnt challenge scientific theories. In the standard governing how to teach high school students aboutDNA, itrecommendedchanging the phrase from evaluating scientific explanations for the origin of DNA to identifying scientific explanations for the origin of DNA.

At Tuesday's meeting, several key board members as well as activists and experts on either side of the issueexpressed a willingness to compromise and use the word examine instead of identify or evaluate.

Those on board included conservative organizations The Discovery Institute and Texas Values which strongly objected to stripping the word evaluate, and Republican board member Barbara Cargill, who championed the effort to keep the controversial language in the curriculum.

Cargill said people who testified on both sides of the issue seemed OK with the word examine.

"I prefer 'evaluate,' but in trying to be thoughtful about the fact that this is streamlining and after talking to teachers, I think 'examine' is something that I could be OK with, too, she said.

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The search for a consensus began after Republican board member Keven Ellis asked Ron Wetherington, a Southern Methodist University professor who was one of 10 committee members who wrote the letter, if there was a middle term that didnt stray too far from the word evaluate.

Wetherington, who testified in favor of narrower language, floated the words examine, explore and investigate, which he said were stronger than identify but still not unreasonable.

Several teachers were also present to testify about how they thought any changes could affect their classrooms.

Sherry Joslin, a middle school math and science teacher, mother of two Houston public high school students and a former NASA engineer, said students need to be able to evaluate different scientific viewpoints, including those on evolution, to learn critical thinking.

When people ask me why I quit my job at NASA, I tell them that children are more complicated systems than space shuttles, Joslin said. Avoiding the evaluation of ideas hinders progress.

But for some teachers, the question isnt about the benefits of evaluating ideas; it's about the practical constraints of doing so.

Scott Lane, a semi-retired educator with 33 years of experience as a public school math and science teacher, said evaluating scientific concepts is not beyond a student's abilities, but he also highlighted that public educators have six months to cover a years worth of curricula.

This language must be translated as it is into the performance indicators for [the state's standardized test system], or the material will never be taught in the way the language intends, Lane said.

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Board members drew criticism fromKathy Miller, president of the left-leaning Texas Freedom Network. She said they have too often ignored recommendations about curriculum standards and textbooks that they've requested teachers and scholars to make.

Miller said the proposed changes would not silence students or take away their ability to ask a question, and they would still allow teachers to go beyond the curriculum.

Although Republican board member Marty Rowley has said suggestions that the standards would open the door to creationism are unfounded, a few who testified Tuesday raised concerns about the belief creeping into science class.

Aron Ra, author of a book called Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism, said that "high school students have no proficiency to 'critique' scientific evidence and neither do most of their teachers.

Raymond Bohlin, president of Plano-based Probe Ministries, which advocates for integrating faith and learning, indicated that creationism may have a seat in the classroom.

Bohlin said instruction in evolution needs to consistently avoid a commitment to materialism and that using the word "identify" would reveal a religious bias towards materialism.

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Texas education board nears compromise on evolution standards - Texas Tribune

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