Category Archives: Evolution

PARIS, France Humans likely developed large and powerful brains, researchers said Monday, with the help of what is today the simplest of snacks: fruit.

Eating fruit was a key step up from the most basic of foodstuffs, such as leaves, and provided the energy needed to grow bulkier brains, the scientists argued.

"That's how we got these crazy huge brains," said the study's corresponding author Alex Decasien, a researcher at New York University. "We have blown up the quality of our food that we are eating."

The study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution looked at the staple foods of over 140 species of primates, and assumed their diets haven't changed much over the course of recent evolution.

According to the research, the animals which feast on fruit have brains that are about 25 percent bigger than those filling their bellies primarily with leaves.

The results call into question the theory that has prevailed since the mid-1990s, which says bigger brains developed out of the need to survive and reproduce in complex social groups.

Decasien said the challenges of living in a group could be part of getting smarter, but found no link between the complexity of primates' social lives and the size of their grey matter.

What did correlate strongly with brain size was eating fruit.

Foods such as fruit contain more energy than basic sources like leaves, thus creating the additional fuel needed to evolve a bigger brain.

At the same time, remembering which plants produce fruit, where they are, and how to break them open could also help a primate grow a bigger brain.

A larger brain also needs more fuel to keep it running.

"We've heard that fact saying (our brain) is two percent of our body weight, but it takes up 25 percent of our energy," Decasien said.

"It's a crazy expensive organ."

While the study challenges some of the orthodoxy of how our brains evolved, the research is likely to continue.

"I feel confident that their study will refocus and reinvigorate research seeking to explain cognitive complexity in primates and other mammals," wrote Chris Venditti, a researcher at the University of Reading in Britain in a comment on the study, also published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

"But many questions remain," he added.

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Fruit fuelled evolution of a bigger brain, study says - Philippine Star

In 1905, a group of men in Chicago began meeting, socializing and volunteeringto make their community a better place. What started as the Rotary Club of Chicago so-called because meetings rotated among the offices of those initial members became Rotary International, now 1.2 million members strong in 200 countries.

In its long history, the nonprofit service organization has encountered many changes and challenges. Perhaps known best for working to help eradicate polio and for funding scholarships that send students to study abroad, Rotarians from more than 35,000 clubs contribute to a dizzying array of projects in their communities and around the globe. Members put in an estimated 16 million volunteer hours each year.

But while the organizations mission of Service Above Self hasnt changed over the past 112 years, leaders here say that members have found it necessary to adjust to the challenges of todays 24/7 lifestyle and to work harder to boost membership, which is by invitation.

If we dont keep our numbers up, we are in danger of needing to merge with another district, Stuart Benson of the North Boroughs Rotary Club said. We are really looking for young blood while at the same time recruiting retirees, said the attorney who lives in Hampton.

Indeed, last month Pam Moore of Uniontown, governor of RotaryDistrict 7330, acknowledged that the numbers are slipping in her district, which covers 39 clubs in seven counties, as well as in Mr. Bensons District 7300, which oversees 46 clubs in Allegheny and parts of Westmoreland and Beaver counties.

The decline in active members, Ms. Moore said, is due to an aging Rotarian base some online reports claim the average age is 60-plus and the demands of todays mobile, busy lifestyles.

In a nod to the changing times, Mr. Bensons district early last year chartered an e-club, which, rather than holding the traditional breakfast, lunch or dinner meetings, meets via conference call. The 20-some members gather by phone at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays.

This way members dont need to make weekly in-person meetings but instead participate on their own time and at their own pace through anonline meeting layout on the groups website, Ms. Moore said, adding that her district may at some point look to implement the new tool.

Such e-clubs may be the the next generation of Rotary, she said. The new format gives members all of the benefits of Rotary but in a streamlined process, she said.

The e-club model is directed at attractingmillennialsin this mobile world, she acknowledged. But the work and service of Rotary will not change nor will the traditional face-to-face meeting ever go away.

In the past, Rotarians were mostly professionals, business owners or corporate executives.

That profile has changed, according to Mr. Benson and Stephanie A. Urchick, a member of the Canonsburg-Houston-Southpointe Rotary Club.

Membership is open and every club has a lot of latitude in accepting members, Mr. Benson said.

The requirement is you want to give to the community, Ms. Urchick said. We are looking for people with a desire to make the world a better place.

2017 milestones

Rotary International has two big milestones this year: the 100-year anniversary of the Rotary Foundation, the endowment arm that has raised $3 billion for the organizations work over the past century, and the 30-year anniversary of Rotary admitting women into its ranks.

Where would Rotary be without women? was the topic of a talk Mr. Benson gave at a recent meeting. He joined Rotary in 1978, before women were part of the organization, and now serves as parliamentarian for District 7300.

Ms. Urchick, of Canonsburg, knows all about the impact women have had on Rotary. She joined Rotary in 1991and has become steadily more involved. From 2012-2014, she was a trustee of the Rotary Foundation only the third woman to serve in that capacity.

Her club, the Canonsburg-Houston-Southpointe Rotary Club, has undertaken local projects that include giving a dictionary to every third-grade student in the Chartiers-Houston and Canon-Macmillan school districts and making regular visits to senior citizen facilities for game days and dessert socials.

I have been all over the world for Rotary, Ms. Urchick said, including India, Nigeria, Poland and the Dominican Republic.

Humanitarianism should start in your backyard, but it should not end there, she said.

Her professional resume includes 30 years in administration at Westmoreland County Community College and California University of Pennsylvania. She received a doctorate in leadership from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2004 and is currently executive director of the Southpointe CEO Association and co-founder and partner of Doctors at Work, a consulting and training company in Cranberry.

Ms. Urchick chairs the Rotary Foundation Centennial Celebration Committee and its Strategic Planning Committee, which is looking at ways to maintain and expand membership.

A few years ago, Jennifer Miele came to the White Oak Rotary Club as a guest speaker and, I have never left, she said.

I have never met a group that is so committed to helping community, she said. As a millennial, I felt like a piece of my pie was missing. Other organizations never really harnessed my energy.

Rotary members use their knowledge of their community to find projects and use their life skills to implement them, said William Latta, president of the White Oak club. Members of his club recently put in a paved sidewalk, deck and ramp to make a house accessible for a high school student who uses a wheelchair.

We did not have to hire a contractor and we got it done in a week, Mr. Latta said.

Four years ago, the club raised $17,000 at a spaghetti dinner and auction for a 5-year-old child with cancer, he said. The club has raised $72,000 in scholarships for students at Serra Catholic and McKeesport Area high schools and that is only a partial list of what the club has accomplished, he said.

Dan Dougherty handles the White Oak clubs Facebook page and other communication efforts. The biggest thing I wanted to do was raise awareness, he said.

The right fit

Every club has a different personality, said Mr. Benson, and hes willing to help prospective Rotarians find the right fit.

For information: email Mr. Benson at stubenson3@gmail.comor go to http://www.rotary.organd click club finder or join at the top right. Members pay dues.

Linda Wilson Fuoco: lfuoco@post-gazette.comor 412-263-1953.

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Rotary evolution: Nonprofit looks to E-clubs to recruit millennials - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Updated / Thursday, 30 Mar 2017 19:02

Stephen Kenny believes Pete Mahon's evolution is triggering a Drogheda United revolution that the Lilywhites must be prepared for ahead of Friday night's Louth derby (Live, RTE 2, 7.30pm).

It's 18 months since the Drogs received a 6-0 Oriel Park thrashing in the Airtricity League Premier Division.

They went down that year, watching their rivals kick on to lift the double, but Mahon has steered them back to the top flight and, according to Kenny, instilled in his team all the right qualities to stick around.

Pete Mahons longevity in the game is very impressive," he told Dundalk's club website.

"I think a lot of younger managers and coaches could learn from some of the values that Pete has instilled in his Drogheda United team and his various teams over the years.

He is nearly 70 years of age but he has evolved. He hasnt sat still because you cant. You cant keep sending out the same message from 25-30 years ago. You have to evolve and move with the game. He has been willing to do that.

A lot of the young managers could learn from the values that he has instilled in his teams and his squads. His longevity in the game has been superb. His motivation and desire to keep going and improving is very impressive.

The Lilywhites are licking their wounds from last weekend's 2-1 defeat to Cork City, a setback that left them six points off the top.

They're missing some key men, but Kenny is demanding an instant reaction.

For ourselves we have Robbie Benson, Shane Grimes and Stephen ODonnell ruled out along with Stephen Kinsella. Ciaran Kilduff is suspended," he said.

We are waiting on a couple of others who have knocks. They should be okay but Paddy Barrett and Patrick McEleney have knocks from last weekend so we will see how they are.

From our point of view we have to regroup this week and our performances at home since the start of the season have been very, very good. We have picked up three wins at Oriel Park.

We have a passionate home support here at Dundalk. It is important to bounce back and get a victory after the defeat last week. Our objective is to bounce back and win the game.

McAuley pens new West Brom deal

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Mahon's evolution has Kenny fearing Drogs revolution - RTE.ie

An old and cherished colleague from National Review, Linda Bridges, passed away at an untimely age over this past weekend and this caused me to look back on things including the evolution debate. Linda edited among much else a volume of collected columns and other writings by the magazines legendary founder, William F. Buckley Jr.

I was looking at it as I remembered Linda. The book is Athwart History, and it includes a column Buckley wrote in 2007 that starts out with a reference to Discovery Institute.

It is So Help Us Darwin described in the table of contents as dealing with Darwinist absolutism and the controversy over intelligent design.'

An intimidatingly learned colleague has written to a few friends to deplore the latest bulletin on Senator John McCain, who is of course running for president. The news is that McCain has agreed to speak at a luncheon hosted by the Discovery Institute in Seattle. What offends my friend is that the think tank in question supports the concept of Intelligent Design. And the question raised believe it or not is whether such a latitudinarian thinker should be thought qualified to be president of the United States.

It seems an ancient controversy, and of course it is.

In fact, McCain did not end up speaking on that occasion, which is neither here nor there.

Read the rest. Buckley writes that the intelligent liberal community should not impose on anyone a requirement of believing that there is only the single, materialist word on the subject (of evolution). He also refers to a Firing Line debate, conducted for television before an audience at Seton Hall University in 1997. You can see it here on YouTube courtesy of the Hoover Institution. That is twenty years ago, and Im struck by something.

The debate is presided over by Michael Kinsley, with Buckley, David Berlinski, Michael Behe, and Philip Johnson arguing for the Darwin-skeptical position. Kenneth Miller, Michael Ruse, Eugenie Scott, and Barry Lynn argue on behalf of the Darwin faithful. There is much wit, some sharp words and banging of Kinsleys gavel, and a great deal of intelligence on both sides.

Im struck by how difficult it is to imagine such an event today. The anti-evolution debaters are all excellent, and many of their points (as well their names and faces) will be familiar to readers of Evolution News. They are of course, except for Buckley, affiliated with Discovery Institutes Center for Science & Culture.

This debate took place just a few months after the launch of the CSC, and arguments for intelligent design against Darwinian evolution have deepened considerably since then. In 1997, major books by Stephen Meyer, Douglas Axe, Jonathan Wells, William Dembski, Jay Richards, and others had yet to be written. For a history of Dr. Behes argument for ID, see our recent documentary Revolutionary: Michael Behe & The Mystery of Molecular Machines.

Has the Darwinist counterblast strengthened, meanwhile? No, and that is the point. I would say it is either static, or it has devolved, at least in relationship to the argument for ID. At least, twenty years ago they answered us. As ID has extended its inference from the scientific evidence, however, Darwinists today are largely content with ad hominem attacks and dishonest attempts to conflate ID with Young Earth Creationism.

Its a pleasure to see David Berlinski and Ken Miller going at it in a one and one. Darwinists today would tend to shrink from such encounter. Why? The question, I think, is self-answering. Darwinism is more absolutist and closed to discussion than ever.

A lot changes in two decades. For my own reminiscence of Linda Bridges, by the way, see here at National Review Online. And for wonderful and moving portraits contributed by other colleagues (Jack Fowler, Lacey Washington), I encourage you to see here and here.

Photo: William F. Buckley, Firing Line, via YouTube.

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How the Evolution Debate Devolved - Discovery Institute

Northwestern University promotes the research of one of its scientists with this adorable video about the evolution of fish to man, Our short-sighted inner fish: Vision explains why our fish ancestors came on to land.

400 million years ago, fish made the evolutionary leap from water to land. If they hadnt, you might not be reading this sentence. Why? Because it led to more complex cognition. A new study by Northwestern professor Malcolm MacIver and Claremont Colleges professor Lars Schmitz discovered a near tripling of eye size might be what triggered the invasion of land.

Molecular biologist Douglas Axe watched it and was impressed by the persistent use of language inflected with teleology, attributing intelligent motivation not only to animals, but to their individual organs, and to the process of evolution as a whole. So, how did fish come on to land?

It all seems to have started when the first fish peeked above the waters surface.And behold a smorgasbord of tasty land dwellers! To capitalize on this discovery, the fish would have to evolve. Its eyes soon moved to the top of its head and tripled in size. And its fins began evolving into limbs so that it could stalk its new prey like a crocodile. [Emphasis added.]

Dr. Axe tweets: Evolutionary reasoning is all about storytelling. Hard to tell stories without invoking purpose, as this vid shows.

Yep. On that note, heres an exercise for evolution proponents. Try rewriting the script of this evolutionvideo without using any teleological language. Tough, isnt it?

As a side point, too, look athow the video ends. The fish evolves into man, but man has a problem. Despite his keen vision, he doesnt look ahead to see the consequences of his actions. We see him mowing the law, and he pulls off his shirt and gets a sunburn. To cool off, his neighbor hands him a beer, which he drinks and immediately gets fat. Meanwhile, perhaps from the exhaust of the lawn mower, he causes global warming, resulting in melting glaciers and sad polar bears.

In the final scene, a group of human beings are show donning virtual-reality headsets. The narrator concludes:

Understanding the relationship between vision and planning may help us engineer solutions, like using technology to bring far away things closer. That just might give us the evolutionary advantage we need to survive the next 400 million years.

Right. So well save the planet by cutting ourselves off from other human beings and interacting not with the reality in front of us but with computers and simulated reality. Thats the solution to human problems stick a computer in front of everyones face.

Someday, thoughtful people will look back and see the madness of that pervasively influential way of thinking quite apart from the silliness of trying to deny the obvious workings of purpose in nature. But that time has not yet come.

Image: Fish in the process of evolving into man, via Northwestern University.

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Evolution Proponents: Try Rewriting This Video Without the Teleological Language - Discovery Institute

WATCH THE LATEST FINAL FOUR ARIZONA VIDEOS FROM AZCENTRAL SPORTSNorth Carolina on being back to the NCAA Final Four | 0:37

North Carolinas Justin Jackson and Joel Berry II discuss being back to the NCAA Final Four and trying to win it all, in the locker room at University of Phoenix Stadium on March 30, 2017. (David Wallace/azcentral sports)

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Oregons Dillon Brooks, Dylan Ennis and Casey Benson, discuss counting their blessings, meeting Kobe Bryant and playing a Final Four in their home state, respectively, in the locker room on March 30, 2017. (David Wallace/azcentral sports)

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Gonzagas Przemek Karnowski, Jordan Mathews and Nigel Williams-Goss talk about rising to the moment of the NCAA Final Four in the locker room at University of Phoenix Stadium on March 30, 2017. (David Wallace/azcentral sports)

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South Carolinas PJ Dozier and Duane Notice talk about their confidence and under dog status for the NCAA Final Four in the locker room at University of Phoenix Stadium on March 30, 2017. (David Wallace/azcentral sports)

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Downtown Phoenix gets ready to host the NCAA Final Four Fan Fest and house the teams as they play in nearby Glendale for the NCAA Final Four games. David Wallace/azcentral.com

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Luke Maye connected on a last-second jump shot to defeat the Kentucky Wildcats and send North Carolina to the Final Four. Time_Sports

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USA TODAY Sports' Nicole Auerbach goes behind the scenes of South Carolina's win over Florida, which sends the Gamecocks to their first Final Four. USA TODAY Sports

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The Oregon Ducks have reached the Final Four for the first time since 1939 after a 74-60 win over the Kansas Jayhawks in the Elite Eight. Time_Sports

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USA TODAY Sports' Dan Wolken breaks down Gonzaga's Elite Eight victory over Xavier. USA TODAY Sports

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The court for the NCAA Final Four tournament is put together at the University of Phoenix stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Thomas Hawthorne/azcentral

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azcentral's Paola Boivin breaks down Arizona's loss to Xavier in the Sweet 16. Video: Michael Chow/azcentral.com

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The Arizona Wildcats, who many had in the Final Four, are bounced from the NCAA Tournament. Plus, the Oakland Raiders may soon be the Las Vegas Raiders. Will that actually happen? Video: azcentral sports

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USA TODAY Sports' George Schroeder looks at how the Jayhawks and Ducks prevailed to set up their upcoming matchup in the Midwest region of the NCAA tournament. USA TODAY Sports

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ULCA head coach Steve Alford acknowledges the game against the two 'bluebloods' of NCAA basketball with the most championships between them.

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Considered all but done after losing their star point guard and dropping six straight games in February, Xavier has improbably made a run to the Elite Eight after defeating No. 2 Arizona in the Sweet Sixteen. Time_Sports

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Arizona Wildcats head coach Sean Miller is the third highest-paid head coach in the NCAA Tournament and can earn close to $1 million in bonuses for winning the national title. Wochit

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Take a look at some at the faces of celebration and dejection from the tourney. USA TODAY Sports

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The massive scoreboard known as Colussus TV is installed at University of Phoenix Stadium for the upcoming NCAA Final Four games. David Wallace/azentral.com

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Being on network TV means this years NCAA tourney should easily overtake last year's viewership. Richard Deitsch explains how to watch the Madness. Time

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North Carolina on being back to the NCAA Final Four

Oregon on counting their blessings

Gonzaga on rising to the moment

South Carolina on their confidence and underdog status

Downtown Phoenix gets ready for NCAA Final Four

North Carolina headed to Final Four with win over Kentucky

South Carolina makes history with Final Four berth

Oregon advances to first Final Four since 1939 with win over Kansas

Gonzaga advances to program's first Final Four

Piece by piece, the court for the NCAA Final Four tournament is put together in Glendale

Paola Boivin recaps Arizona's loss to Xavier

Shot Clock: Arizona knocked out; Raiders moving to Vegas?

Kansas and Oregon set up intriguing Elite 8 matchup

UCLA's Steve Alford talks about playing Kentucky

No. 11 Xavier upsets No. 2 Arizona to head to Elite Eight

A closer look at Sean Miller's salary and bonuses

March Madness: Craziest faces of the NCAA tournament

Scoreboard installed at University of Phoenix Stadium for Final Four

Media circus: A guide to March Madness

Oregon forward Jordan Bell (left) has stepped up in the absence of Chris Boucher, especially in the Ducks' Elite Eight win over Dwight Coleby (right) and Kansas.(Photo: Denny Medley/USA TODAY Sports)

Oregon's ability to reach the NCAA Tournament'sFinal Four without Chris Boucher is born out of a two-year evolution of Boucher'srelationship with Jordan Bell more than any postseason revelation.

When the 6-foot-10 Boucher, among the nation's topshot blockers, suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals March 10, the immediate assumption was that the Ducks' chances of a deep NCAA Tournament run were irreparably torn. It was, after all, Boucher on the cover of Sports Illustrated in November as a central reason why the Ducks were a preseason pick for the Final Four by SI and No. 5 in the Associated Press preseason top 25.

Boucher had a school-record 110 blocks in 2015-16, his first year at Oregon after transferring from Northwest College (Wyo.). He started all but three games with 6-9 Jordan Bell, who had a then-school-record 94 blocks as a freshman in 2014-15, coming off the bench. Their co-existence was uneasy at times particularly with Boucher's emergence in fall 2015 while Bell was still recovering from a broken foot.

"At first, people wanted it to be a competition between us, and I fell into that," Bell told The Oregonian. "That didn't work for me."

RELATED:Gonzaga center takes long, arduous route to Final Four

Bell finished strong last season, when Oregon lost in the Elite Eight, and after a summer in the pro-am Drew League, he came into his junior yearprimed for a breakout season regardless of his role.

Oregon coach Dana Altman started Boucher and Bell together for 10 of the first 11 games. Then, Boucher missed two games in December with a foot injury, and Altman decided to stick with 6-7 Dillon Brooks in the starting lineup and bring Boucher off the bench. Brooks went on to win Pac-12 Player of the Year, Bell raised his game tocareer high averages(10.9 points and 8.6 rebounds) and Boucher continued to be the big swatter with a Pac-12-leading 2.5 blocks per game plus 11.8 points and 6.1 boards.

"They get along really good," Altman said of Bell and Boucher. "Last year, I noticed more of a competition. Chris came in and started blocking more shots and Jordan was hurt and didn't play the first 10 games (in 2015-16). That bothered him. When they played together, they were both unselfish, and we had two guys out there that could change shots, which really made our defense more effective. Our defensive numbers are good because of those two guys. It was good to see them compete against each other for blocked shots. In practice, they went after reach other and made each other better."

With Boucher already coming off the bench, Oregon's starting lineup was not disrupted by the Boucher injury. Kavell Bibgy-Williams, a 6-11 junior from England, became the backup post with others asked to fill in part of the hole created by Boucher's injury.

MORE:Complete Final Four Arizona coverage

"It's everybody just stepping up and doing one extra thing," Bell said. "It put pressure on Kavell to be Chris, but Dillon (Brooks) and Casey (Benson)and everybody has to score two more points, get more rebounds, box out one more guy, do one more little thing."

Bell has done more than his share in four tournamentwins with the highlight being a school-record eight blocks in an Elite Eight win over No. 1-seed Kansas. He is averaging 13.2 points and 12.0 rebounds in the past five games, starting with an 83-80 loss to Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament final that actually laid the groundwork for a run to the Ducks' first Final Four since 1939.

"We realized what we needed to do without Chris (against UA),the void we had to fill with him being out," Bell said. "Rebounding, scoring, defending. Guards knew they couldnt get beat as much. Everybody is just stepping up, keeping guys in front of them, not putting me in a difficult situation (for getting into foul trouble).

"When I got in the tournament, I really started focusing on rebounding. That makes the game so much easier for me because two things I can always control is me rebounding and me defending. Offense, all that stuff just comes better when Im doing those things better. Maybe I've been playing harder knowing that I have to do more on this stage that we're on."

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Lineup evolution helped Oregon Ducks overcome Chris Boucher injury en route to Final Four - AZCentral.com

Michelangelo, Creation of Adam (detail), Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1508-1512)

Blogs | Mar. 28, 2017

Biological evolution will never fully account for humanity because we are persons, made in the image and likeness of God. It is not unreasonable to assume humanity began with a miracle.

Tell a Catholic kid about evolutionthat there was a Big Bang and that in this expanding cosmos our sun is a star in a cluster of 200 billion stars in the arm of a spiral in a galaxy among thousands, and that eventually on our planet there appeared early life forms, single-celled bacteria, trilobites, mollusks, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, primates, and that from a common ape-like ancestor the Homo genus emerged, including Homo rudolfensis, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo floresiensis, Homo neanderthalensis, and last, Homo sapiens, or wise man, the hominin species that is modern human. The very next question that kid will ask is, So where do Adam and Eve fit in? (Ask me how I know!) It is a logical question.

Adults have varied reactions. Atheists tend to guffaw at the mention of those names in the same sentence as evolution. Fundamentalists propugn their version of dogma as if they are the sole authorities, disregarding science and any Magisterial documents they deem unacceptable. I remember feeling frustrated because I just wanted to know how to sort the question out without being ridiculed, scolded, or accused of heresy. Fortunately, this is not an either/or question. We do not have to pick between atheistic evolution and Young Earth Creationism. The Church does not teach those extremes at all.

The first thing to get straight is this: We do not know the exact biological details of Adam and Eve, and we never will. Once you understand that, it is easier to navigate the rest. An analogy is useful here.

Like Sand on a Beach

Suppose someone asks where two grains of sand fit into the history of a beach not just any two grains, but the first two grains that ever existed on that beach. How do you answer such a question? Do you go get a John Deere excavator and start digging? Hopefully not, because there is no conceivable way a 1-cubic meter bucket could find two lone millimeter-sized particles of silica. Your response might be, Hold it! Beaches do not form one grain of sand at a time! And you would be correct. The erosion of rocks over time produces the sand which forms a beach as waves deposit sediment on the shore. Asking a scientific question about how to find the first two grains of sand on a beach is nonsense.

However, the lack of a scientific explanation does not rule out a miracle. God could have created two first grains in a space that would become a beach. The atoms and subatomic particles could even disperse over time. Science, and all its tools, could not find them though because (1) the scientific explanation for beach formation does not involve miracles, and (2) scientific methods cannot decipher the past successive production of individual sand particles.

Just like a beach, evolution occurs in events that can be described at the individual level but not determined as they happened historically. Generation by generation, parents begat offspring, offspring became parents who beget offspring, genetically alike yet genetically unique, and so on. Even so, we cannot know all the historical scientific details. There is a limit to the ability of evolutionary tools to resolve past successive events. Evolution is understood in terms of populations of thousands of organisms giving rise to new species over geological time. No evolutionary model implies a first pair of human individuals because no evolutionary model would. Why? There is no known species that arose by the sudden appearance of the first two parents.

Furthermore, even if the remains of the first man were foundimagine, for instance, Adams jawboneno radiometric dating, genetic dating, nor any other analytical system could ascertain that the fossil came from the first man. Dating techniques rely on comparison. When a new specimen is found, it is compared to other samples that have been dated. Scientists have no way to know if the oldest generation found is the oldest generation ever to be found. The genetic molecular clock uses the rate at which molecular changes accumulate in successive generations to estimate evolutionary timing. These results, too, must be calibrated with the fossil record, and radiometric dating methods can only be resolved to geological timescales of thousands or millions of years for remote pasts. Hence, asking a scientific question about how to find the first parents of the human race is (like looking for grains of sand) nonsense.

A Remarkable Fact and a Unique Finding

Note however, Homo sapiens eventually spread throughout the planet and is the only surviving hominin species. That is a fact, and it is stunning when you stop and think about it. Humans filled the earth.

If we follow generations back far enough, conceptually we come to the most recent common ancestor an individual who is a progenitor of all present-day people. Genealogical computation models suggest this ancestor lived around a few thousand years ago (Rohde, et. al., Nature, 2004). If we continue further back, we come to the first human population, thought to have lived some 50,000 to 200,000 years ago (Noonan, Genome Research, 2010).

A worldwide survey of human mitochondrial DNA using genetic molecular clocks has shown that all mitochondrial DNAs stem from one woman, known as Mitochondrial Eve, who lived about 200,000 years ago in Africa (Cann, et. al., Nature, 1987). Similar genetic studies suggest a Y-chromosome Adam lived roughly the same time (Francalacci, Science, 2013). These results do not conclude that there was only one woman or man living in the same place. They absolutely do not point to a monogenetic pair of parents. They only suggest that there may have been a genetic bottleneck, i.e. a time when a relatively small population of around 10,000 early humans lived. Rather than pointing to this conclusion as evidence against the existence of two first parents, I would rather say that this finding is consistent with a unique emergence of human beings. However, I am quick to add that such studies are provisional and ongoing, intended to calibrate and increase the resolution of the human phylogenetic tree. They neither prove nor disprove what we profess in faith.

The Limits of Knowledge

What lies between a population of 10,000 and 2 some 200,000 years ago? It is hidden to us. Some people opine that Adam and Eve did not literally live, that they represent a real story but not a literal one. Some people quote Humani Generis (37) on polygenism and leave it at that, but the document does not answer the question about how to figure Adam and Eve in the context of evolution. The encyclical was written in 1950 before genetics was understood. Pope Pius XIIs statement that it was in no way apparent how to reconcile evolution with divine revelation left a crack in a door that remains to be addressed. Will it someday be apparent?

Meanwhile, reason does not compel us to claim that Adam and Eve were figurative. I accept, and teach my children, that Adam and Eve really lived, and I teach them about the fall from grace and original sin. As I hope I have sufficiently explained in this essay, if Adam and Eve began to liveliterallyas a grown man and woman through a miraculous act of God, science can only shrug and keep on digging. Evolutionary biology has no say here. Do not mistake this for a God of the Gaps argument, but rather take it as honesty that our knowledge has limits. If we cannot rule them out, then we should not.

What We Know

What are we sure of? We can say that God created our first parents, as He did all creatures, and that they were highlycomplex organisms. That description applies whether Adam and Eve began as zygotes with human souls growing in maternal bodies or as naked adults in a garden. As we know, biological evolution will never fully account for humanity because we are persons, corporeal body and rational soul, made in the image and likeness of God. It is not unreasonable to assume humanity began with a miracle. And if this biological mystery of life from inanimate matter and remote human origins from a common ape-like ancestor troubles you, then consider something nearer. Biology tells us that sperm and egg fusion is the beginning of life, but none of us know down to the subatomic event on a femtosecond timescale what exactly happened as our electrons swirled when we began to live. And we never will. At its most precise resolution, all our lives begin mysteriously.

Using reason and revelation, Catholics can both roll up their sleeves to explore what evolutionary science discovers about human origins and, simultaneously, believe that Adam and Eve existed. Besides, we are forward-looking people of faith, hope, and love. Until we have our answers, we can be assured of a truth St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. I can live with that.

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How Do Adam and Eve Fit With Evolution? - National Catholic Register (blog)

Promo To many Internet users it must look as if ransomware arrived out of the blue. Pioneers such as Cryzip started circulating at very low levels in the UK as early as 2006 and yet it wasnt until 2013 that this type of malware suddenly spiked with the appearance of its first big global superstar, CryptoLocker.

CryptoLocker, and its follow-up rival CryptoWall, were an object lesson in what made ransomware potent. Delivered using simple attachment and eschewing fancy evasion techniques, the modus operandi wasted no time finding and encrypting its victims data. The social engineering was brilliant - did the user want their data back badly enough to pay a Bitcoin ransom?

At first, the targets were consumers but the genius of ransomware was that anyone could be a victim, including SMEs and even departments in larger organisations. Unfortunately, a lot of security companies were caught as unawares as their customers, stuck in a reactive model of security that made assumptions about how malware was evolving.

For ransomware makers, its been too easy. Profits have soared, reaching a total ransom figure according to FBI estimates of $1 billion in 2016. If defences have improved and awareness risen, ransomware shows no signs of slowing down as the public body count of small businesses, hospitals, libraries, police departments, hotels, and uncounted lone consumers continues to grow.

If it sounds as if the world is falling off a cliff, James Lyne, head of security research for security company Sophos, is keen to demystify the dread of ransomware. After analysing numerous samples of ransomware in his day job, he comes bearing an urgent message of hope: ransomware can be stopped as long as defenders take the time to understand the enemy.

Everyone is a potential target. It doesnt matter whether you are a large enterprise, an SME or a consumer everyone is being affected by this, explains Lyne. This universality has turned out to be a clever innovation for the criminals who no longer need to think about who they are attacking so much as how much victims value their data.

Technically, the payload is the bit of the malware that finds and encrypts the victims data. But another way to understand the payload is to see it as the psychological ratchet in which the price is increased to match the pain and inconvenience the extortion gang thinks it is inflicting.

In extortion, then, the payload is as much the mental state it engenders in victims as lines of code. The social engineering is to make paying the ransom look like the easiest way out.

Lyne mentions having conversations with businesses which have pondered whether it might not simply be easier to hold funds back to pay off ransomware attackers as if it were another transaction. Bad idea, argues Lyne.

There is the obvious moral and ethical question of whether you want to be paying money to a cybercriminal. But if you show yourself as someone who will pay, you are all the more likely to be targeted again, he warns.

He recalls the case of a company that paid to stop an attacker releasing personal information stolen from a website by exploiting an SQL flaw. Although not involving ransomware, the strategy typified the direction extortion crimes are heading.

They did a deal and the attacker came straight back, found another flaw, and repeated the attack with higher prices. Remember you are dealing with criminals and cant expect honour among thieves. Lyne also cites the growing unreliability of the payment mechanisms used by cyber criminals, either because police have shut them down or the criminals have had to abandon them to avoid detection.

There might not be any way to pay and that ransomware has inadvertently become permanent lockware. It isnt safe to say I will be able to pay to get my data back. There are instances where you wont be able to do that.

The idea that victims could be attacked twice or more in succession using the same tactic seems counter-intuitive until you grasp the trick of all social engineering is to impose a degree of control in the minds of its victims. When criminals write the rules of the game, it is the captive who must adjust their understanding of reality. So where should companies and individuals look for salvation?

Before even mentioning anti-ransomware technologies, Lyne reels off a list of simple protections that should form the first defensive layer. These range from obvious suggestions such as comprehensive backup routines and more rapid software patching (patch early, patch often) to more careful network segmentation (keeping servers and workstations apart), and limiting overly-permissive user rights to network drives. Some admins block executables in attachments but forget to do the same for document macros, he says.

The best tweaks are often the simplest and cheapest: install Microsoft Office viewers so that recipients can see what documents look like before opening them and always enable file extensions so that recipients have visual information on an attachment. Microsoft has made specific, more granular controls available for Macros, which are one of the prime ways ransomware gangs get their malware deployed within well-constructed office documents.

Always set JavaScript (.JS) files to open by default in Notepad and make sure Office 2016s protected view is set up to automatically stop Office macros running when documents are received from the Internet.

But dedicated anti-ransomware protections also have their place even if working out which one is often not straightforward. Some traditional anti-virus vendors were caught out by ransomwares sudden rise from obscurity, which caused blocking rates to drop.

Customers started asking themselves whether their expensive licenses were worth the annual retainers. Although protection has improved a lot in the last three years, confusion still reigns. With numerous fancy technologies hyped up to stop ransomware, which ones are worth investing in?

It is hard to see through the mass of marketing and conflicting advice. Figuring out which technology is effective isnt that easy, accepts Lyne. The first thing Id do is ask my security vendor what they do in this area.

For business customers, Sophoss response to tricky threats such as ransomware is Intercept X, a modular endpoint security product launched in late 2016 that integrates multiple protections and boosts the ransomware protection already available in its existing endpoint products.

Intercept X includes exploit prevention (watching for the techniques that indicate ransomware such as opening lots of files), the detection of zero-day attacks and the sort of forensic analysis that can strip a malware event back to its source.

If ransomware manages to execute and start encrypting files, Intercept Xs CryptoGuard protection immediately engages its remediation. It keeps state of what has happened to files and has the ability to roll back, enabling you to undo any damage, Lyne says.

This underlines the way tackling ransomware has become as much about response as simple detection and blocking. Having an automated system on hand to help with this is a major advantage.

And the future? With the recent growth of targeted ransomware, ransomware-as-a-service, and the mass encryption of poorly-secured MongoDB databases, it doesnt seem over-anxious to worry about where ransomware might be heading.

We havent launched into the world of super-targeted ransomware yet. But we are dancing on the edge of it, concedes Lyne, who remains surprisingly optimistic. Defenders simply need to overcome their fear and adapt.

The majority of campaigns that we see are still opportunistic, says Lyne, who downplays the issue of sophistication. For sure, ransomware is improving but what will make the difference in the end is how rapidly defenders adapt to stop it.

Technology will only take defenders so far - in the end it is the mental battle that will sort those who will resist ransomware from those who will succumb.

Read the rest here:

The evolution of ransomware: How a nuisance turned into a business menace - The Register

Cotton Hill LP school art work.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Next time when you take your children to Cotton Hill Road be prepared to answer questions on dinosaurs and mammoths depicted on the compound wall of Cotton Hill LP school.

Drawings of atoms, animals and a little girl holding earth on a blue background have already been subjected to intense scrutiny by children. Parents will have to brush up their knowledge of Charles Darwins theory of evolution in order to sail through the sea of questions. But may be that wont be enough and there is a reason why.

The typical depiction of the Theory of Evolution shows the linear transition of a monkey to man. The drawings have all these elements but not in the order. One has to spend some time looking at the drawing and connect with the artists idea of evolution explained through various forms. The forms start from a simple round atom to more complicated ones including humans. The right side of the wall shows sea and land with simple organisms. The left side has more developed animals, civilisation and the message of conservation. It is an artists version of evolution, says Suvarna P, an award winning artist who created the concept and design.

She along with her husband Bijoy Balachandran and six other artists- Sabitha K, Akhil V, Ananda Krishna, Ananthu Krishnan, Jikky Christopher, Abhilash M - created the art work titled Kalachuvadukal with the funding from Department of Forest. The drawings are made in such a way so that children are able to connect it with many things. They can form different stories as per their interpretation, says Bijoy who runs Blueberries Animation in the city. The couples daughter Chandrabala studies in the LP school in third standard.

Suvarna won two state awards in 2007 and 2014. She is currently completing her Master of Fine Arts from Government Arts College here. The artist couple along with 100 students from the school had painted pictures on the walls of three classrooms last November. Forest Minister K Raju inaugurated the project on Tuesday.

School headmistress Celine M, who spearheaded the project, urged the minister to sanction funds to paint the walls of all the classrooms in the school with art works. The project has many stories to tell, not just to us but to the future generation as well, says the headmistress.

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Theory of evolution in new avatar - The New Indian Express

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

When you think of someone with autism, what do you think of? It might be someone with a special set of talents or unique skillssuch as natural artistic ability or a remarkable memory. It could also be someone with enhanced abilities in engineering or mathematics, or an increased focus on detail.

This is because despite all the negative stories of an epidemic of autism most of us recognize that people with autism spectrum conditions bring a whole range of valued skills and talentsboth technical and socialto the workplace and beyond.

Research has also shown that a high number of people not diagnosed with autism have autistic traits. So although many of these people have not been officially diagnosed, they might be were they to go for autism-related tests. These people were unaware they have these traits, dont complain of any unhappiness, and tend to feel that many of their particular traits are often an advantage.

This is what we mean when we talk about the autism spectrumwe are all a bit autisticand we all fit somewhere along a spectrum of traits.

And we know through genetic research that autism and autistic traits have been part of what makes us human for a long time.

Research has shown that some key autism genes are part of a shared ape heritage, which predates the split that led us along a human path. This was when our ancient ape ancestors separated from other apes that are alive today. Other autism genes are more recent in evolutionary termsthough they are still more than 100,000-years-old.

Research has also shown that autism for the most part is highly hereditary. Though a third of the cases of autism can be put down to the random appearance of genetic mistakes or spontaneously occurring mutations, high rates of autism are generally found in certain families. And for many of these families this dash of autism can bring some advantages.

All of this suggests that autism is with us for a reason. And as our recent book and journal paper show, ancestors with autism played an important role in their social groups through human evolution because of their unique skills and talents.

Going back thousands of years, people who displayed autistic traits would not only have been accepted by their societies, but could have been highly respected.

Many people with autism have exceptional memory skills, heightened perception in realms of vision, taste and smell and in some contexts, an enhanced understanding of natural systems such as animal behavior. And the incorporation of some of these skills into a community would have played a vital role in the development of specialists. It is very likely these specialists would then have become vitally important for the survival of the group.

One anthropological study of reindeer herders said:

The extraordinary old grandfather had a detailed knowledge of the parentage, medical history and moods of each one of the 2,600 animals in the herd.

He was more comfortable in the company of reindeer than of humans, and always pitched his tent some way from everyone else and cooked for himself. His son worked in the herd and had been joined for the summer by his own teenage sons, Zhenya and young Sergei.

Further evidence can be found in traits shared between some cave art and talented autistic artistssuch as those paintings found in the Chauvet Cave, in southern France. This contains some of the best preserved figurative cave paintings in the world.

The paintings show exceptional realism, remarkable memory skills, strong attention to detail, along with a focus on parts rather than wholes.

These autistic traits can also be found in talented artists who dont have autism but they are much more common in talented autistic artists.

But unfortunately despite the potential evidence, archaeology and narratives about human origins have been slow to catch up. Diversity has never been a part of our reconstructions of human origins. It has taken researchers a long time to move beyond the image of a man evolving from an ape-like form that we so typically associate with evolution.

It is only relatively recently that women have been recognized as playing a key role in our evolutionary past before this evolution narratives tended to focus on the role of men. So its no wonder that including autismsomething which is still seen as a disorder by someis considered to be controversial.

And this is undoubtedly why arguments about the inclusion of autism and the way it must have influenced such art have been ridiculed.

But given what we know, it is clearly time for a reappraisal of what autism has brought to human origins. Michael Fitzgerald, the first professor of child and adolescent psychiatry in Ireland to specialise in autism spectrum disorder, boldly claimed in an interview in 2006 that:

All human evolution was driven by slightly autistic Aspergers and autistic people. The human race would still be sitting around in caves chattering to each other if it were not for them.

And while I wouldnt go that far, I have to agree that without that dash of autism in our human communities, we probably wouldnt be where we are today.

Penny Spikinsis a senior lecturer in the archaeology of human origins at theUniversity of York.

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How Autism Influenced Human Evolution - Newsweek