Category Archives: Evolution

GeekDad (blog)

'Evolution' Is Evolving Again GeekDad (blog) And, in case you missed it in our Re-Roll column last week, Evolution is going deeper: into the oceans! Nick Bentley, one of the developers of Evolution, announced on his blog that he's working on a marine-based version of the game, to be Kickstarted ...

Continue reading here:

'Evolution' Is Evolving Again - GeekDad (blog)

Science Daily

Promiscuity slows down evolution of new species Science Daily Darwin's theory of evolution showed that new species evolve when natural selection favours individuals with particular characteristics, allowing them to survive, breed and pass on their genes more successfully than their peers. Over time, a group of ... Animal Sex And Evolution: How Sex-Obsessed Snakes, Birds Are ...International Business Times all 2 news articles »

Read this article:

Promiscuity slows down evolution of new species - Science Daily

In BriefThe evolution of video games is impressive when you considerthe relatively short time span since the first commerciallyavailable video game hit the market in 1972.

We all love video games. Whether its a classic gamelikeMario Party or a mobile game likecandy crush saga, everyone has their pick of the litter. But while video gamesprovide us with a fun, light-hearted medium to escape our everyday lives, the industry itself is a behemoth. Just last year, the gaming industry made $91 billion in revenue from mobile, retail, and free-to-play games.

The industry itself is evolving with new innovations. From virtual reality so convincing that you might just vomitto AI interfaces that makecomputer opponents ruthless,were just beginning to realize the potential of gaming. But did anyone truly imagine the capacity for growth that weve seenin the gaming industry today, just 40 years after it all began?

While there were other video games before pong, they werent commercialized like the grandfather of all games. Ataris arcade legend featured a two-dimensional, graphical representation of table tennis, with which players used paddles to hit the ball back and forth until someone scored. The arcade version ofPongwas so successful that Bushnell, Ataris developer, pushed for a home console that could connect to the television, marking the beginning of what was to come.

Nintendos Donkey Kongbrought something new to the table. While the giant ape took the role of the villain, the main character was at the time known as Jumpman but we would recognize him today to be the one and only, Mario. The birth of Mario and the immersive gameplay set the precedent for future games.

Doom provided an entirely different experience for users. The graphical interface offered immersive three-dimensional gameplay while also inspiring many other first-person shooter games after it. The science-fiction horror gameis considered to be one of the most influential games in history.

MicrosoftsHalois almost like a rite of passage for gamers today. The multiplayer, military science fiction, first-person shooter is universally praised for its mastery of gameplay and graphics and continues to captivates users even today.

Square Enixs Final Fantasy series is known to blow fans minds with its graphical interface. Final Fantasy is a role-playing video game that allows players to roam in an open world, battle enemies, and customize their own characters. The progress in photo-realistic facial effects is prominent in the video game series.

The action role-playing game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, gave us far more depth than just great graphics. The characters in the game spoke volumes just by nuances in their gestures. The body language of the characters often told part of the story, and players were only able to pick up on the atmosphere of the conversation once they paid close attention to the details packed in with the impressive graphics.

When you combine impressive graphics with horror virtual reality (VR) games, you get The Brookhaven Experiment. The game is terrifying on its own, but VR survival horror game might just make you wet your pants as it pushes us into a new generation of video game graphics that surround us.

This augmented reality (AR) video game promises to mix reality with you guessed it magic! The game makers claim to be developing ahead-mounted device virtual retinal display that overlays the games graphics onto the real world, but they havebeen experiencing delays for years. We dont know whenMagic Leapwill finally be available to the public, but its demos have some gamers excited to try it.

Our progress in developing video game animations is astounding, so much so that it helped bolster billionaire Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, Solar City, and SpaceX, in his claim that were living in a simulation.The overwhelming progress in photo-realistic effects in such a short timespan makes you ponder what humans will be able to develop in the years ahead.

Go here to see the original:

Witness the Remarkable Evolution of Animation in Video Games - Futurism

Most people think of science and theology as standing on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to things such as climate change and evolution. But in a lecture on Thursday titled Climate Change as a Consequence of Human Presence: A Dialogue between Anthropology and Biblical Studies, Carol Newsom explained how the two are not as opposed as people believe.

Newsom is the Candler Professor of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. She is known for her work translating the Dead Sea Scrolls and challenging long-held assumptions about women in the Bible. This lecture was part of the annual lecture series given in honor of Rev. Richard J. Clifford, S.J, sponsored by the by School of Theology and Ministry and supported by the Kitz family.

Newsom then discussed climate changes relationship with theology. In her interpretation, the creation story of Genesis 2-3 is not against the theory of evolution but instead supports it.

Newsom elaborated, saying that when God first created human beings, they did not have rational thought and were on the same level as other animals. When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, they gained rational thought that was meant only for divine beings. Newsom likened this transformation to evolution.

Newsom also cited Adam and Eve eating from the tree and gaining rational thought as the driving force behind why humans speed up climate change.

Newsom spoke about the impact that climate change has on peoples lives. In the past few years, the World Bank, the Pentagon, and other organizations have published reports that predict a bleak future for Earths climate, showing that the global temperature has gone up 1.5 degrees celsius, approaching the 2 degree Celsius point which has been regarded as the critical temperature.

She also talked about how scientists have said that the earth is currently in the beginning stages of the next mass extinction. This man-made extinction is different from the first five mass extinction events in the earths history, which were caused by natural events.

Over the past 250 years, the Industrial Revolution and growth of technology has sped up climate change exponentially, but humans have altered the world around them long before then. Since the time of hunting and gathering, humans have contributed to the extinction of prey species, and because the prey species would die, so would the predators that would hunt them.

The biodiversity, the vast amount of biologically different species, on earth has been able to exist because of the separation of different ecosystems. Before humans were able to migrate easily from one continent or country to another, these ecosystems existed apart from each other without any contamination. When humans began to migrate to other parts of the world, they brought new species to ecosystems and these ecosystems were not able to adapt quickly enough and were harmed.

This is a time of immense change for the earth, but this is also a time for change for us as the human species and I hope that well be more self aware, more humble, more wise than we have been, she explained

Human beings have rational thought but do not wield it correctly, according to Newsom. She explained how the knowledge from the tree that Adam and Eve ate from was only meant for divine beings and, in human beings, it leads them to make decisions that harm the environment. The rational thought that makes human distinct from other species is that same thing that makes us incompatible with the earth and its biodiversity.

Newsom talked about reasons to be hopeful. She explained that along with research into the degree of damage done to the earth so far, there are also a positive things that are being discovered, like cheaper and more efficient ways to harvest wind and solar power.

While there are reasons to be optimistic, we have to realize that not everything will be saved, she said. The world that comes after this century will be very different than the one that existed before but I dont see it in dystopian terms.

The realities of climate change are very serious, but Newsom holds hope in human beings ability to reverse or lessen its effects.

The resources of both science and our religious traditions offer us ways of living with an understanding of who we are, with seriousness of purpose and yet with humility, that our actions, successful or not, are involved in a process that will incorporate them into a larger story of this marvelous world and Gods intentions for it, she said.

Featured Image by Jake Catania / Heights Staff

See the original post:

Bible Supports Theory of Evolution, Newsom Says - The Heights

On Friday, President Donald Trump got the first real win of his presidency with the confirmation of Colorados Neil Gorsuch to be the next justice of the Supreme Court. Although there have been other useful actions by the president during his first 80 days such as his welcome assault on the growth of the regulatory state, those were lightly covered by the media and did not involve showing any ability to maneuver Congress into accomplishing any of his or any other Republicans major campaign goals.

On one hand, it may have been overly ambitious to hope for a repeal of Obamacare within the first dozen weeks of a Trump presidency. On the other hand, the failure to do so was a spectacular example of Republican legislators still unsure how to operate as the governing party, of spineless GOP moderates who cant bear to take away an entitlement no matter how harmful to the literal and figurative health of the nation, and of a president whose lack of political experience is not the unvarnished blessing that his supporters thought it to be.

At this point, Mr. Trump is in the unenviable position of needing to expend political capital to nudge House (and then Senate) Republicans to yes on a real Obamacare repeal bill (and later on tax reform and other major agenda items) but having begun his presidency with far less political capital than a new president typically does and having lost much of that through a combination of his own unforced errors, uncompliant members of Congress, and incessant and often unfair attacks by the mainstream media.

When a new presidents approval ratings are hovering around 40%, he has little leverage over members of his party, particularly those very moderates and Tea Party/Freedom Caucus types who are trying to get to yes on Obamacare repeal but who do not see their political fortunes tied to Trumps.

A modest bump in Mr. Trumps approval ratings is to be expected following the missile strike on Syria, but even that may fade quickly if the public sees it as no more than the unbelievably small strike that former Secretary of State John Kerry promised more than three years ago. Reports that Syrian Air Force jets were taking off from the Shayrat air base less than a day after Mr. Trump ordered it targeted with 59 Tomahawk missiles are something of a propaganda win for Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin. Within a few hours more, the town of Khan Sheikhoun, where 86 people died in the chemical attack that stirred Trump to action, was bombed again. That it was not a chemical weapon this time probably does not make the towns remaining population feel much better. Russia and Syria are all but daring Mr. Trump to take more significant action, knowing that he probably wont. With each passing hour, the strike feels to have been much more bark than bite.

However, the fact that there was a U.S. strike on Syria is far more important than what the strike accomplished. To wit: It put distance between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, helpful for Mr. Trump both domestically and internationally. It told the world that this is no longer Barack Obamas U.S. foreign policy. It reminded Chinese and North Korean leaders that Mr. Trumps recent statements of willingness to act unilaterally must be taken seriously. (Whether that increases or raises risks on the Korean peninsula in the short term is another matter, with North Korea claiming that the U.S. air strike on Syria proves its need for nuclear weapons. A DPRK statement Sunday blustered, We will bolster up in every way our capability for self-defense to cope with the U.S. evermore reckless moves for a war) Back on the home front, the strike distracted from the ongoing media-fueled conversation of an administration at war with itself.

And perhaps most importantly for the longer-term prospects for Donald Trumps presidency, it showed a man willing to change his position on an issue that had been a consistent campaign theme for him: that Syria is not enough of an American strategic interest to justify our military involvement.

We can debate whether his campaign position remains the correct one certainly many of his supporters continue to believe it does and are unhappy with last weeks actions or whether other changes in the strategic situation justify what appears to be an emotional reaction by the president to images of dead children.

The change in Trumps Syrian position would be less remarkable were it not for its being one of many recent changes in Trumpworld and an increasing separation between the presidents current actions and his campaign rhetoric.

For example, on Wednesday, President Trump removed his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, from the National Security Council, a group that Mr. Bannon should never have been a member of in any case. There are opposing assertions among White House leaks as to whether Mr. Bannon had to be cajoled into not resigning from the administration over the move.

Given the presidents undoubted respect and appreciation for Mr. Bannon, removing him from the RSC shows that Trump is taking guidance from elsewhere, in this case Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. It is unlikely to be a coincidence given Mr. Trumps obvious admiration for military leaders that all three are/were U.S. Army generals.

It has also been impossible not to notice the prominence of Jared Kushner in surprisingly many reports of the president assigning him to oversee tasks from restarting an Israeli/Palestinian peace process to overhauling the way the federal government operates, each of which is a near-impossible feat, not least for a 36-year old with approximately no relevant experience.

This represents a significant change in which faction currently has the greatest influence over the president. If the New York Times is to be believed (a significant if, I grant you), the relationship between Bannon and Kushner has deteriorated to the point where Bannon has called Kushner a Democrat (which may in fact be true, but which cant be viewed as a compliment in the Trump White House, nor in my house). On Friday, the president told Bannon and Kushner, We gotta work this out, leading to a meeting moderated by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. If I were a betting man, Id put a few bucks on Steve Bannon being out of the White House by Labor Day, perhaps with policy advisor Stephen Miller, representing a major transformation of Trumps inner circle.

Another story that received less media attention was the recent signing by the president of two executive orders regarding trade. Despite all the sturm und drang of months of railing against China and TPP (which the president withdrew the U.S. from as one of his earliest actions) and NAFTA, the executive orders were something of a yawn. One aims to ensure the collection of duties based on existing tariffs and anti-dumping regulations. The other orders various departments of government to work together to create an Omnibus Report on Significant Trade Deficits.

No sudden tariff hikes, no renegotiating of NAFTA, no trade war at least not yet. It is a welcome change from the ill-considered anti-trade rhetoric of Mr. Trump and some of his advisors, though the executive order itself does contain some economic illiteracy when worrying about the challenges to economic growth and employment that may arise from large and chronic trade deficits.*

Mr. Trump has turned into a supporter of NATO since alliance leadership seems to have taken seriously his insistence that its members spend their treaty obligation share of GDP on defense and look at increasing their counter-terrorism activities. At the same time, the president seems to have become more in favor of supporting Japans defense even if Japan does not raise its own military spending.

Recent inside baseball stories suggest that Trump loyalists who were placed inside of executive branch agencies are being pushed into irrelevant roles or out of the buildings entirely as the establishment pushes back. This even as leaders like Rick Perry (Energy), Scott Pruitt (EPA), and Tom Price (HHS) bring a distinctly revolutionary approach to those bloated petty tyrannies.

Not even three months into Donald Trumps presidency, the administration seems to be a very different creature from what it was on Inauguration Day, or from what it promised to be three months before that. And thats probably a good thing.

Last weeks U.S. missile strikes on Syria have wide-ranging implications, but probably none as significant as proving what these other pieces of evidence have increasingly suggested: that, to the chagrin of many in his nationalist-populist base, Donald Trump is a man rapidly evolving in office.

- * If trade surpluses cause economic growth, one might wonder why the U.S. ran trade surpluses throughout almost the entirety of the Great Depression and, as a 2011 Cato Institute report notes, since 1980, the U.S. economy has grown more than three times faster during periods when the trade deficit was expanding as a share of GDP compared to periods when it was contracting.

See the original post here:

The Trump Evolution - American Spectator

From pacemakers that keep the heart beating to swallowable sensors that can tell when someone takes their meds, people have been implanting machines into their bodies for decades.

But a growing trend in bodily implants inserting a computer chip under the skin is more about morphing people into literal cyborgs than addressing a medical condition.

Im turning the internet of things into the internet of us, said Jowan Osterlund in an interview with Recode. Osterlund is the founder of Biohax, a Swedish company that specializes in injecting small microchips, about the size of a grain of rice, under peoples skin.

The microchips, says Osterlund, can be programed to speak to other networked devices, like coffee makers, speakers or doors with electronic locks. The idea is that its more convenient to wave your hand in front of the door than use a key card.

Inserted by a syringe into the skin between the thumb and the index finger, the chips communicate with other devices using Near Field Communication. Its a wireless way of linking devices in close proximity to each other, similar to the way Bluetooth works. Contactless payment systems, like Apple Pay, also use NFC.

Last year, Microsoft invited Biohax to its TechDays conference in Sweden to implant some of the speakers at the conference, as well as a few Microsoft executives in attendance, according to Osterlund.

Scientists have been implanting animals with microchips for years to help track down lost pets or monitor endangered species. In the U.K., microchipping dogs became a mandatory practice in 2016.

The procedure for humans, though, could raise concerns about security. If hacked, microchips implanted inside the body could be read to reveal a persons location and length of time spent somewhere, as well as information about your health or any data stored on the chip.

All kinds of medical devices can be hacked, after all. In 2015, the Food and Drug Administration recommended hospitals stop using a line of drug infusion devices after a security researcher discovered how easy it would be for a hacker to commandeer the device and overdose a patient.

Biohacking has become kind of a niche community in the past few years. Companies like Dangerous Things, a biohacking supply company based in Seattle that sells microchips and all the gear needed to insert the devices under the skin, have sprouted up. Theres also Grindhouse Wetwear, a biohacking company based out of Pittsburgh, thats created a LED star that can be implanted under the skin to light up when activated by a magnet.

Elon Musk is even reportedly starting a new company, Neuralink, which will make implants for the human brain that can wirelessly interface with a computer. Though details on the new venture are thin, Musk hinted at the idea at Recodes Code Conference last year, when he described a digital layer located above the cortex, built into the brain.

Musk hopes that one day the technology, which he calls neural lace, could be used to improve brain function and help humans keep apace with rapid advancements in artificial intelligence.

More:

The next evolution in office working could be employees getting implanted with a microchip - Recode

But while the decision to strike Syrian government targets marked a sharp reversal in the President's stance on Syria -- one that called for a laser-like focus on ISIS and largely ignoring Assad -- the sharp, 180-degree turn didn't happen over a matter of days.

Months earlier, during an off-the-record holiday gathering with reporters at his opulent Mar-a-Lago estate a week before Christmas, Trump spoke at length about the carnage of the Syrian civil war, revealing that the issue was weighing on him as he prepared to take office. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks authorized CNN on Friday to report the contents of his remarks on the topic at the gathering, which CNN attended.

He described the slaughter of civilians in Syria as a "holocaust," and remarked on the "high pain threshold" of the population there.

Trump also described in detail a video he had seen of an elderly woman being shot multiple times in Syria, struggling as she tried to continue to walk.

And then, he acknowledged that the US had a "responsibility" over the devastating Syrian conflict -- the same word he would use months later before approving the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles to target a Syrian Air Force base.

"I now have responsibility. And I will have that responsibility and carry it very proudly, I will tell you that. It is now my responsibility," Trump said Wednesday during a White House news conference one day before approving the airstrike.

Trump said that the chemical weapons attack "crossed a lot of lines for me," a telling comment that signaled his shifting willingness to strike the Syrian regime.

But even as he spoke broadly during the December cocktail gathering about a US responsibility over the horrors taking place in Syria, he was clearly undergoing a shift in his approach to the conflict there as his moral responsibility as the US President and "leader of the free world" began to sink in.

It was clear Trump was giving more thought to the Syrian conflict that he would soon inherit as president, and he indicated he would be weighing different ways the US could act to stop the atrocities that continued to unfold in Syria.

He declined to say if he would take military action, parroting his oft-repeated line that the US should act first and talk later, rather than telegraph military actions in advance.

Trump spoke at length about the "tragedy" unfolding in Syria and the atrocities the world had grown all too accustomed to seeing and his demeanor and thoughtfulness as he addressed the topic struck reporters who had covered Trump's campaign since its early days as a crucial piece of insight into how Trump was becoming more clearly aware of the real world implications of his startling election victory.

With his strikes against a Syrian government target on Thursday night, Trump made clear that his Middle East policy won't just be driven by a single-minded focus on terrorist groups like ISIS or core national security threats -- but could be expanded to address the United States' moral responsibility in the world.

That's not something Trump spoke about during his campaign for president. Rather, Trump touted an "America First" philosophy that he said would drive his domestic and foreign policy. He decried the Iraq War as a "stupid" decision that had led to needlessly spilled blood and treasure in the Middle East.

Trump called for keeping US military action in the Middle East singularly focused on eliminating ISIS and argued that the US had "bigger problems" than Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"We cannot be the world's policeman," Trump said at his first presidential debate against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, whom Trump called out for her role in some of the very foreign interventions Trump railed against on the stump.

Trump's internal shift didn't translate into US policy until this week after the latest images of the Assad regime's horrific violence against civilians were broadcast around the world.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insisted that the decision to strike was not triggered by an "emotional reaction," but made clear the decision was driven by Trump's refusal to "turn a blind eye" to the Syrian violence.

The chemical weapons attacks that prompted Trump to strike had happened "on his watch," Tillerson said of Trump.

As recently as last week, the administration's top officials continued to articulate Trump's realpolitik view of the Syrian civil war as he articulated it on the campaign.

"With respect to Assad, there is a political reality that we have to accept," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said last week. "The United States has profound priorities in Syria and Iraq, and we've made it clear that counterterrorism -- particularly the defeat of ISIS -- is foremost among those priorities."

Thursday night's strike sent a clear message that Trump was willing to act beyond those counterterrorism priorities, but US officials made clear that the strike was meant to send a message -- not fundamentally alter US policy in the region.

"I would not in any way attempt to extrapolate that to a change in our policy or posture relative to our military activities in Syria today. There has been no change in that status," Tillerson told reporters after the cruise missiles had struck their targets.

Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the president's national security adviser, said the strike "should" shift Assad's calculus on chemical weapons.

Still, he acknowledged that the strike did not eliminate Assad's capacity to conduct the ghastly attacks.

CNN's Noah Gray contributed to this report.

See original here:

Trump's evolution on Syria didn't happen overnight - CNN

Evolution is a 2001 American comic science fiction monster film, directed by Ivan Reitman and starring David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, Julianne Moore and Ted Levine. It was released by DreamWorks in the United States and by Columbia Pictures internationally.

The plot of the film follows college professor Ira Kane (David Duchovny) and geologist Harry Block (Orlando Jones), who investigate a meteor crash in Arizona. They discover that the meteor is harboring extraterrestrial life, which is evolving very quickly into large, diverse and outlandish creatures.

Evolution was based on a story by Don Jakoby, who turned it into a screenplay along with David Diamond and David Weissman. The movie was originally written as a serious horror science fiction film, until director Reitman re-wrote much of the script. Shooting took place in California with an $80million budget, and the film was released in the United States on June 8, 2001. The movie grossed $98,376,292 internationally. Reviews for the film were mixed, as the movie review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 42% positive rating.

A short-lived animated series, Alienators: Evolution Continues, loosely based on the film, was broadcast months after the movie was released.

Wayne Grey (Seann William Scott), a fireman trainee practicing in a shack in the desert near Glen Canyon, Arizona, sees a meteor strike his car and land in an underground cavern. College professor Ira Kane (David Duchovny) and his colleague, geology professor Harry Block (Orlando Jones), investigate, taking a sample of strange blue liquid that oozes from it. Ira discovers that it harbors extraterrestrial single-celled nitrogen-based organisms multiplying exponentially, condensing millions of years of evolution within a matter of hours. The next day, they take the science class to survey the meteor site and find it already surrounded by evolved oxygen-converting fungi and alien flatworms. Ira and Harry discover that the cells and organisms reproduce rapidly through mitosis after seeing one of the flatworms they collected in a jar split into another.

Soon, the site is sealed off by the Army, who set up a base. Ira and Harry take General Russell Woodman (Ted Levine) and the clumsy Dr. Allison Reed (Julianne Moore) to court for the right to be part of the research of their discovery, but their efforts fail when it's revealed Ira was discharged from the army after creating an anthrax vaccine that led to terribly debilitating side effects, which the soldiers dubbed "The Kane Madness". Woodman steals Ira and Harry's research, forcing them to infiltrate the base to get another sample; they find an alien rainforest teeming with life. They are caught by Allison as a mosquito-like alien gets inside Harry's body; they are forced to rectally remove the mosquito, which then dies.

Wayne arrives at the college and shows the two the dead body of an amphibian alien which killed a country club owner, much to his delight; they later investigate an animal attack, finding a dead dog-like alien in a woman's home and more dead flatworms. They find a valley behind the home filled with dead flying dinosaur-like aliens; Ira and Harry theorize the aliens are spreading through the caves connected to the main cavern, but can't breathe oxygen. One of the dying creatures spits out a pod containing a newborn, which then hatches into an oxygen-tolerant alien. The alien attacks a mall, where it nearly takes a shoplifter for a meal before Ira, Harry, and Wayne shoot it down.

Unfortunately, other alien encounters have made the news; this forces the Governor of Arizona (Dan Aykroyd) to demand answers. Allison explains the aliens will engulf the United States in two months. Woodman attempts to blame Ira, when he, Harry and Wayne arrive. However, the governor demands a solution; Woodman suggests evacuating the area and burn the aliens with napalm. At that moment, primate-like aliens attack them, but are fought off. The shaken governor approves Woodman's plan against protests from Ira and Allison that they don't know how the aliens will react. Allison quits the CDC and leaves the site, procuring Ira's original research and samples for him.

At the college, Harry accidentally tosses a match into a petri dish of alien liquid, causing a mass of flesh to rapidly grow from it. Ira realizes heat causes the aliens to evolve, and the meteor crashing to earth activated the alien DNA. Alison attempts to warn Woodman that napalm will only make the aliens stronger, but he ignores her call. Looking at the positions of nitrogen and carbon on the periodic table, Ira theorizes selenium might be poisonous to the aliens, since they are nitrogen-based, as arsenic is poisonous to Earth's carbon life. Much to Ira's surprise, his dumbest students Deke and Danny (Ethan Suplee and Michael Ray Bower) recall selenium sulfide is the active ingredient in Head & Shoulders. This makes Ira award the Donald brothers with an A, much to their excitement. So Wayne procures a firetruck and the team fills it with the shampoo, with help from the Donald Brothers, who tag along with them.

Just as the team arrives at the cave and prepare to fire the shampoo, Woodman's napalm strike causes the aliens to merge into an enormous amoeba-like creature, which reabsorbs the aliens in the cave. As it prepares to divide, the team drives under the organism, finds what looks like its rectal hole, and Harry (intending to settle a score for the insect incident) pumps a firehose of shampoo into the beast, causing it to explode. Governor Lewis declares Ira, Harry, Wayne and Allison heroes, making Wayne a fully credentialed firefighter while Ira and Allison skip the festivities for romance in the fire truck. Later, Harry, Ira and Wayne are shown chasing the flying alien from earlier and promoting Head & Shoulders for both hair care and fighting aliens.

Kyle Gass, Sarah Silverman, Richard Moll, Tom Davis, Jerry Trainor, Miriam Flynn, Caroline Reitman, Steven Gilborn and John Cho have smaller roles.

The film's music score was composed by John Powell, conducted by Gavin Greenaway, and performed by the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra. The soundtrack to Evolution was released on June 12, 2001 and is available on Varse Sarabande.

Soundtrack references:[2][3]

Evolution received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 43%, based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Director Reitman tries to remake Ghostbusters, but his efforts are largely unsuccessful because the movie has too many comedic misfires."[4] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 40 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5]

Evolution was made into an animated series called Alienators: Evolution Continues, which ran on Fox Kids from 2001 to 2002.

See more here:

Evolution (2001 film) - Wikipedia

On topics ranging from astrophysics to public health, rejections of scientific consensus can prove quite inflexible when bolstered by religious doctrine. Buta new approach to teaching evolutionary biology appears to ease such tensions. It involves airing perceived conflicts between religion and evolution in the classroom rather than simply presenting a mountain of evidence for evolution. Such a curriculum could help biologists (most of whom claim to hold no religious beliefs) more effectively prepare students (most of whom profess belief in God) to meet the nations growing need for scientists and technologists.

During a two-week module on evolution that was part of an introductory biology course at Arizona State University, the instructor explored a variety of viewpoints about the relation between some religious beliefs and the development and diversification of life, ranging from evolution without the involvement of a deity to various types of creationismincluding theistic evolution. Students were encouraged to express their opinions and concerns.

Surveys filled out by 60 students before and after the module revealed that the number of students who perceived a sense of a conflict between religion and evolution at the start was cut in half by the end. An analysis of the results is detailed in the February issue of the American Biology Teacher.

In response to instructors concerns about limited classroom time, a follow-up project compressed the two-week module to six minutes. Remarkably, unpublished results suggest this brief exposure also proved effective at reducing students perception of a conflict. If we encourage national policy documents that promote these teaching practices, says study co-author Elizabeth Barnes of Arizona State, perhaps we can increase acceptance of evolution among our students, future teachers and future political leaders.

Read more:

Dissent with Modification: Soothing EvolutionReligion Tensions in ... - Scientific American

As President Trump was wrapping up his dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago a hearty menu that included pan-seared Dover sole and dry-aged New York strip steak, paired with California wines he delivered the news: The U.S. had launched strikes on Syria.

By this point, the first of 59 missiles already had started to rain down on the Assad airbase alleged to have been used to carry out this weeks deadly chemical attack. Planning for a U.S. response had been underway since Tuesday but the final decision to order missile strikes, and the militarys execution of that directive, took place over the course of just a few hours Thursday evening.

The timeline of the presidents decision-making and the mission itself was detailed late Friday by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and other U.S. officials. The presidents top spokesman described the course of events as a 72-hour evolution that involved updates and options and refinements before a final decision.

OBAMA OFFICIALS UNDER FIRE FOR CHEMICAL WEAPONS CLAIMS

Hes not going to telegraph his next move, Spicer cautioned, but described Thursdays actions as carefully planned, decisive and justified.

According to Spicer and other officials, the timeline played out as follows:

Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. ET: Trump was informed during his daily briefing about the suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria. Trump asked his team for more information. The team developed initial options.

Tuesday at 8 p.m.: Preliminary options were presented and refined.

Wednesday morning: Another restricted principals meeting was held where options were further reviewed and refined.

Wednesday at 3 p.m.: Trump was briefed on updated options at a national security meeting. He reviewed them, asked questions, and requested more information including options for strikes on Syria.

Thursday at 1:30 p.m.: En route to Florida, Trump convened his national security team aboard Air Force One.

Thursday at 4 p.m.: Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and others met in a secure room in Palm Beach. The president gave the okay to move ahead. This decision was made at about 4:30 p.m.

Thursday at 7:40 p.m.: Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean launched Tomahawk missiles into Syria.

Thursday at 8:30 p.m.: Foreign leaders and congressional leaders started to be notified. Around that time, the first missiles were hitting. Trump informed President Xi as their dinner was ending. According to Spicer, all 59 missiles hit their target. After dinner, Trump held a secure call with the Joint Chiefs.

He asked about reaction from the world community as well as congressional leaders and was informed that there was fairly unanimous praise for the decision and the actions the president took, Spicer said.

Trump mostly has won bipartisan praise on Capitol Hill for the response, though some have warned that he must seek congressional authorization going forward. The strikes also fueled a fiery U.N. Security Council session on Friday, where Syrias allies condemned the action.

The strikes took some by surprise, considering Trumps past criticism of intervention in Syria. Spicer, and the president himself, say he was moved by the horrific images of victims of this weeks chemical attack.

It was very disturbing and tragic and moving to him, Spicer said.

Fox News Judson Berger, Lucas Tomlinson and Lesa Jansen contributed to this report.

See more here:

Syria strikes: The story behind Trump's '72-hour evolution' - Fox News