Category Archives: Evolution

Forbes

Starbucks Gives Up On Its Evolution Fresh Concept Forbes Kevin Johnson isn't even CEO of Starbucks yet (officially) but the outfit he's inheriting from Howard Schultz is shedding brands and stores that aren't part of its coffee-centric mission. The latest casualty is Evolution Fresh, a five-year-old juice ...

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Starbucks Gives Up On Its Evolution Fresh Concept - Forbes

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- High atop the Washington, D.C.-area Gaylord National Harbor Hotel, where all of baseball aroused itself from its brief winter slumber below, the games best pitcher gave a nod to his newest subtle change.

Nothing major, Clayton Kershaw admitted. Just an adjustment to his between-seasons routine, the Los Angeles Dodgers ace said at baseballs winter meetings. Nobody would have known the difference had the question not been asked.

Kershaw denied it was related to the back injury that interrupted his 2016 season. More than anything, he revealed, the alterations were done as an acknowledgement of his nine major league seasons, his 1,760 innings pitched and his approaching 29th birthday on March 19.

The routine has been a little different, but its not drastic changes, which is great, Kershaw said upon reporting to spring training last week. I feel like I am able to still get in the work I need to get in. I just am a little more aware of just pushing through stuff, and things like that, just a little more aware. But I would say, for the most part, not a lot has changed. I feel good.

Locked into every season, every game, every inning and every pitch, Kershaw has worked himself into a baseball giant. He has elevated the art of pitching, and his place at Cooperstown already seems secure. He might be one of the best to ever kick the clay atop the mound, but even he is always tinkering with his formula for greatness.

During his first full season as a major leaguer in 2009, 71 percent of Kershaws pitches were fastballs. Nearly every year since, he has relied on his fastball less, which means his breaking ball usage has gone up. In 2016, his fastball/breaking ball usage was nearly identical at 51 percent to 49 percent.

If people get hits on stuff, you have to change stuff, Kershaw said. Ill stay the same until I start getting hit hard, and then Ill have to make adjustments.

While hitters continuously try to catch up to Kershaw, he always has been able to stay a step ahead to maintain his elite level.

He essentially developed his slider at the major league level after arriving in L.A. as more of a fastball/curveball pitcher. In 2012, Kershaws slider truly arrived and from 2012-13, while throwing it in the 85 mph range, opponents batted .195 against it, with a .334 slugging percentage.

At the start of the 2014 season, though, Kershaw threw his slider harder, at an average of 87.5 mph, according to ESPN Stats & Information. In 2015, he was throwing his slider at 88 mph, and last season he threw it 87.8 mph.

What kind of difference did a harder slider make? In those three seasons (2014-16), opponents hit .157 against the Kershaw slider, with a .232 slugging percentage.

If Kershaw has his slider complementing the rest of his arsenal in 2017, Cy Young consideration figures to be a foregone conclusion.

I think we can all say we have never seen a player like Clayton both physically and mentally, manager Dave Roberts said. But I think there is something to staying ahead of things. But also he just has a way to execute -- and consistently.

Another spontaneous evolution he integrated into his repertoire last season -- refusing to stand still even upon returning from the disabled list -- was a three-quarter sidearm delivery that he had not used since high school. He was inspired to do it after watching new teammate Rich Hill.

I think when we talk about success, you talk about the creativity that guys have and the passion they have for whatever it is they do. It doesnt matter what they do in life, but if you have the creativity and the passion to go out there and do what youre doing, then youre going to be successful, Hill said. And I think that is the perfect example of a guy like Clayton, who is creative out there on the mound and loves what he does.

So what changes could be in store this year?

Every offseason I say my changeup is getting better, so maybe Ill throw one this year, Kershaw said. It looks great in the bullpen, and then I dont throw it in the game.

Will he really use it?

I dont know. Who knows? Well find out.

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The evolution of Clayton Kershaw - ESPN (blog)

February 23, 2017 The Pachn cavefish live in deep, dark caves in central Mexico, with little food, oxygen or light, and have lost their eyes completely. Because of their harsh environment, they have evolved to get very creative in order to survive and suppress sleep. They are able to find their way around by means of their lateral lines, which are highly sensitive to fluctuating water pressure. Credit: Florida Atlantic University

We all do it; we all need ithumans and animals alike. Sleep is an essential behavior shared by nearly all animals and disruption of this process is associated with an array of physiological and behavioral deficits. Although there are so many factors contributing to sleep loss, very little is known about the neural basis for interactions between sleep and sensory processing.

Neuroscientists at Florida Atlantic University have been studying Mexican cavefish to provide insight into the evolutionary mechanisms regulating sleep loss and the relationship between sensory processing and sleep. They are investigating how sleep evolves and using this species as a model to understand how human brains could evolve to require very little sleep, just like the cavefish.

In their latest study, just published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, findings suggest that an inability to block out your environment is one of the ways to lose sleep. The study also provides a model for understanding how the brain's sensory systems modulate sleep and sheds light into the evolution of the significant differences in sleep duration observed throughout the animal kingdom.

"Animals have dramatic differences in sleep with some sleeping as much as 20 hours and others as little as two hours and no one knows why these dramatic differences in sleep exist," said Alex C. Keene, Ph.D., corresponding author of the study and an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. "Our study suggests that differences in sensory systems may contribute to this sleep variability. It is possible that evolution drives sensory changes and changes in sleep are a secondary consequence, or that evolution selects for changes in sensory processing in order to change sleep."

Because the cave environment differs dramatically from the rivers inhabited by surface fish, cavefish have evolved robust differences in foraging and feeding behavior, raising the possibility that differences in nutrient availability contribute to the evolution of sleep loss in cave populations. Furthermore, multiple cave populations have evolved substantial reductions in sleep duration and enhanced sensory systems, suggesting that sleep loss is evolutionary and functionally associated with sensory and metabolic changes.

Key findings of the study have shown that the evolution of enhanced sensory capabilities contribute to sleep loss in cavefish and that sleep in cavefish is plastic and may be regulated by seasonal changes in food availability.

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There are more than 29 different populations of cavefish and many of them evolved independently. This enabled the researchers to determine whether evolution occurs through the same or different mechanisms. The Pachon cavefish, the population they studied, appear to have lost sleep due to increased sensory input, but not the other populations.

"We were surprised to find that there are multiple independent mechanisms regulating sleep loss in different cave populations and this can be a significant strength moving forward," said James Jaggard, first author and a graduate student at FAU working with Keene. "This means that there are many different ways to lose sleep or evolve a brain that sleeps less and we are going to search to identify these mechanisms."

Keene, Jaggard and their colleagues use Mexican cavefish because they are a powerful system for examining trait evolution. In earlier research studies, they observed the evolutionary convergence on sleep loss in these fish. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this dramatic behavioral shift remained elusive. Since they already knew that cavefish also had evolved a highly sensitive lateral line (the groups of sensory neurons that line the body of the fish), they wondered if an increase in sensory input from these neurons contribute to sleep loss.

For the study, the researchers recorded the cavefish under infrared light set up in individual tanks. They automated video-tracking software that told them when the fish were inactive and they defined sleep as one minute of immobility because it correlated with changes in arousal threshold.

"Humans block out sensory cues when we enter a sleep-like state," said Keene. "For example, we close our eyes and there are mechanisms in the brain to reduce auditory input. This is one of the reasons why a sensory stimuli like someone entering a room is less likely to get your attention if you are asleep. Our thinking was that cavefish have to some degree lost this ability and this drives sleep loss."

The researchers recently generated transgenic fish lines and they will be able to image brain activity and genetically map anatomical differences between the Mexican cavefish populations.

Explore further: Through evolution, cavefish have lost sleep

Cave fish sleep significantly less than their surface counterparts, a finding by New York University biologists that reveals the genes involved in sleep patterns and disorders. Their study, which appears in the journal Current ...

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Sexual reproduction and viral infections actually have a lot in common. According to new research, both processes rely on a single protein that enables the seamless fusion of two cells, such as a sperm cell and egg cell, ...

The last Neanderthal died 40,000 years ago, but much of their genome lives on, in bits and pieces, through modern humans. The impact of Neanderthals' genetic contribution has been uncertain: Do these snippets affect our genome's ...

We all do it; we all need ithumans and animals alike. Sleep is an essential behavior shared by nearly all animals and disruption of this process is associated with an array of physiological and behavioral deficits. Although ...

Professor Robert Sinclair at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) and Professor Dennis Bamford and Dr. Janne Ravantti from the University of Helsinki have found new evidence to support ...

A common roundworm widely studied for its developmental biology and neuroscience, also might be one of the most surprising examples of the eat-local movement. Princeton University researchers have found that the organisms ...

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Tiny cavefish may help humans evolve to require very little sleep - Phys.Org

PIERRE, S.D. South Dakota legislators are weighing whether to let teachers decide how much skepticism to work into lessons on contentious scientific topics such as evolution and climate change.

A House committee on Wednesday is set to consider the measure, which would give legal protection to teachers who want to discuss in an objective scientific manner the strengths and weaknesses of the subjects.

South Dakota is one of at least three states, along with Texas and Oklahoma, considering such a bill. Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee have enacted similar laws, according to Glenn Branch, deputy director of the California-based National Center for Science Education, which opposes the proposal.

Branch said there are concerns that such a bill would embolden some teachers to start presenting creationism in their classrooms.

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Bill Nye "The Science Guy" taught kids on his popular TV show in the '90s. Now he's hoping to reach a bigger crowd. Nye joins "CBS This Morning" ...

Critics argue that the measure is bad for students and that allowing teachers to teach any science curriculum they choose could subject school districts to litigation. Federal courts have struck down attempts to present creationism in various forms at public schools, Branch said.

South Dakota Sen. Jeff Monroe, the bills prime sponsor, said teachers should be able to talk about weaknesses in scientific theories, but he disputed that it would allow for creationism to seep into school teachings. Rogue teaching of creationism instead of science wouldnt happen because its not included in South Dakotas science content standards, he said.

The Republican has said he has heard from concerned teachers, including one who was chastised for discussing how embryos develop and another who was frustrated that she was forced to teach climate change as a fact.

Thats how we got off the theory that man cant fly, thats how we got off the flat earth theory, by analyzing the theories, not by being stuck, told this is true and youre going to believe it and theyre going to teach it as true, said Monroe, who added that it could help students learn.

The effort may face a hurdle in GOP Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who said in a recent letter to a group of Augustana University professors that he views the bill as unnecessary.

Deb Wolf, a high school science instructional coach who helps teachers in Sioux Falls schools write science curriculum said the bill is superfluous. She said shes concerned that it would protect educators who teach things that arent truly science.

Pam Wells, a Mobridge-Pollock High School science teacher, said some parents have asked her to teach intelligent design during her 35 years in public schools. Wells said she read the textbooks they gave her on the subject, but decided not to include it in her curriculum because the theories werent based in science.

Wells said one high school senior told her that he wouldnt come to her class if she dropped evolutionary theory and picked up intelligent design, which holds that certain features of life forms are so complex that they can best be explained by an origin from an intelligent higher power. He said, If I wanted to learn about that Id go to church, said Wells, who plans to testify against the bill.

Shannon Schlomer is a father of five kids who have attended Mobridge-area schools. He has written letters to the editor of the local paper urging lawmakers to kill the bill, which he said aims to belittle established science and would hurt kids in South Dakota who want to go to college to become physicists, geologists or cosmologists.

Steve Matzner, an Augustana professor who signed a letter earlier this month urging House members to vote against the bill, teaches introductory biology classes every year. Some of the students come from small schools where evolutionary theory is breezed over, and they tend to struggle grasping evidence-based teaching, he said.

The biggest effect of the bill would be that it could underprepare high school students if their science education is being watered down, he said.

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Bill would leave evolution and climate skepticism up to teachers - CBS News

There's a trick to evolving new Gen 2 baby Tyrogue into one of three fighting Pokmon.

By Matthew Reynolds Published 23/02/2017

Pokmon Go's Tyrogue is one of many new Baby Pokmon added as part of the game's huge Gen 2 Johto update.

Like Magby, Pichu, Smoochum and other Babies, it evolves into other established Pokmon - but instead of one linear evolution, there are a total of three available, one of which is a new Gen 2 type, Hitmontop.

While on the surface it sounds like the Eevee evolutions, how you get from Tyrogue to Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee and Hitmontop works a little differently and requires a dose of luck.

First, you need to get a Tyrogue by hatching a 5km Egg. If you're playing just after the update has gone live, remember that Gen 2 Pokmon will only appear in Eggs collected after the update has gone live, so keep walking and hatching until one emerges.

Once you have a Tyrogue, how it evolves from into the three fighting types depends on its stats:

If the stats are the same - for example, all are a maximum of 15 - then the evolution will be random. If two are the same, then it'll choose between two of those possible evolutions at random. So if Attack and Defence match, it'll evolve into either Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan.

This is based on preliminary findings from the community of researchers over at The Silph Road sub-Reddit, who polled users on their stats and eventual evolutions.

How you find its hidden stats - or IVs - can be done in one of two ways. One is by using the in-game Appraisal tool, which you can access by viewing the Pokmon and selecting the menu icon in the bottom right corner. Your team leader will then tell you about its potential in battle, and it's most impressive stat out of its Attack, Defence and Stamina.

If you want a more precise reading, then you can find out its specific stats by finding out about its CP values and using an IV calculator. Our CP meaning and values article explains how these stats work, as well as several suggestions for IV calculators.

Want more help with Pokmon Go's Gen 2 update? Our list of new Gen 2 Johto Pokmon can teach you where to find each one, what you need to know about new Pokmon Go Berries, Special Items to evolve Pokmon such as King's Rock, Sun Stone, Up-Grade, Dragon Scale and Metal Coat, and how to get Eevee evolutions Umbreon, Espeon, and updated Egg distances and best Pokmon charts, as well as other Pokmon Go tips, tricks, cheats and guides.

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Pokmon Go's Tyrogue and how to evolve into Hitmontop, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan - Eurogamer.net

WASATCH RANGE, UTHaving spent thousands of millennia adapting to changes in habitat and climate, the American pika told reporters Wednesday that the 30-million-year-old species is worried it doesnt have another evolution in it. Honestly, I think the cycle where we developed longer, denser fur to live in cold, mountainous regions may have been the last hurrah, said the small herbivorous mammal, adding that differentiating itself from rabbits during the Oligocene epoch took an awful lot out of it. Lets face it, Im not 15 million years old anymore. Maybe I should just be proud of our distinctive high-pitched alarm call and accept that this is as far as natural selection is going to take us. At a certain point, you have to come to terms with the fact that you might be as evolved as youre going to get. The pika went on to say that while it might be evolutionarily advantageous to develop more nocturnal traits to help the species stay cooler during warmer seasons, it was getting exhausted just thinking about it.

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30-Million-Year-Old Species Worried It Doesn't Have Another Evolution In It - The Onion (satire)

Is natural selection still a major force in human evolution? As far back as high school biology, weve been taught to think the answer must be yes. But is it really true?

Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking On the Origin of Species back in 1859 around the same timethatanother Charles Charles Dickens was making a name for himself writing about social conditions in England. Dickens stories emerge from a period in which only 50 percent of British childrensurvived to adulthood a numbernot so different from animals in the jungle. In that vein, Darwin was right when he saidnatural selection was operating on humans full force.

Yet the forces that came into play in the 1850s are far different from those we experience today, prompting some high profile biologists to suggest thatour advanced medical capabilitieshave, in effect, blunted natural selection. In a 2013 Radio Times interview,science communicator David Attenborough describedit this way:

We are the only species to have put a halt to natural selection, of its own free will, as it were. We stopped natural selection as soon as we started being able to rear 9599 percent of our babies that are born.

Lowerchild mortalityrates arelargely due to vaccines, water purification, modern medical care and other technological advancements thathave allowed thehuman population toapproach the 7.5 billion mark.Why does this matter for natural selection? Its a simple matter that dying before producing offspring is the most effective filter for agene pool. Lesser traits are weeded out, while stronger ones are passed on.

Charles Darwin

And since natural selection is the most notable evolutionary force, there is a question about whether any significant human evolution will continue far into the future. Theres no clear answer yet, but compiling various proposals and hypotheses leads to a handful of future scenarios:

Scenario I: No major changes on the horizon

This is the boring scenario, so well get it out of the way first. While death before reproduction is an effective tool for culling out undesirable traits, there is a flip side to the equation.In the Stone Age, being less intelligent than ones peers would put an individual at higher risk of premature death by animal attack, for instance. But natural selection alsopromoted thedevelopment of valuable traits. Our smarter ancestorscould hunt better andfind more food leading to the development of farming and a host of other advancesthat enabled them to stay alive and reproduce.

But then a strange thing happened. Human society developed a sense of ethics and justice that led us to protect the weak. Today, we heal the sick. Infant mortality is low. Andchildren of low intelligence are put into special education classes. As a result,manyindividuals who would have been weeded out in the Stone Age are growing up to pass on their genes.

Finally, human populations are no longer genetically isolated. Along with natural selection, reproductive isolation such asfounder effects and population bottlenecksare major evolutionary processes that have shaped humanity. Buttoday, there is substantialgene flow as people from different continents frequently join to mate.The so-called races are blending, so humanity is evolving in that sense. But it is happening so quickly that within a couple of generations there wont be much left to blend. The planetary gene pool will be mixed about, leaving little room forhuman physical characteristics tochange in any significant way.

Scenario II: Natural selection continues

The main argument here is that currently were in a peaceful time, biologically speaking. Yet we could be on the verge of disease pandemics causing a Darwinian selective sieve.The jet-set age the very factor underlying the gene flow thats blending human races also can be a driving factor for the spread of a pandemic. The notorious influenza epidemic of 1918 came right at the end of World War I, claiming more lives than battlefield injuries.Today, we are much better at monitoring infectious disease threats the containment of the2014 Ebola virus outbreakin West Africa is one example but we also have a growing human population. Furthermore, there is some concern that antibiotic resistance could outpace the development of new anti-microbial drugs.

Alongside premature death, evolution is also powered by sexual selection. This means that although we support the survival of nearly every newborn to reproductive age, those who are better fit in terms of intelligence, ability to generate income, and physical attractiveness, could be more likely to attract mates who share those features.

Scenario III: Evolution shifts to off-world human colonies

In scenario I, we noted the absence ofreproductive isolation in modern times. Butthere is serious talk about sending humans to colonize other worlds. This could involve building freespace colonies (miniworlds constructed from asteroid material and shaped to rotate to provide gravity), floating cities in the atmosphere of Venus, or homes on the surface or below ground on various worlds. The most popular idea onepromoted by Elon Musk who hopes relocate thousands of humans within decades is to colonize Mars. Unless the colonists are placed completely underground, the Martian radiation environment could have a significant selective effect on human genetics.This is not because it would kill off colonists themselves, but it couldrender many of them sterile, or at least put significant selective pressure onreproductive cells.

Since we dont yet understandhow human embryos would fare in fractional gravity gravitational pull at the Martian surface is only 38 percent that of Earth theres a possibility of selective pressure in this regard too.

All of this is without assuming any isolation, because, of course humans would be arriving regularly from Earth, thereby adding to the Martian gene pool. On the other hand, should humans successfully colonize planets of other star systems, some biologists think that the reproductive isolation could be complete enough for notable evolutionary divergence away from Earthbound human populations.

Scenario IV: Transhumanism will drive evolution

Were already seeing humans using gene therapy to alter their genes. Transhumanists seek to change themselves through a range oftechnologies, includingrobotics, bionics, computer mind uploading,artificial wombs andgenome editing. These technologies are potentiallystrong enough to give humans the power to essentially take over their own evolution.

With a desire to improve both human performance and appearance,the transhumanist factor makes it hard to predict where this could go.Theartificial womb, for example, could remove constraints on fetal head circumference. Its not impossible to thinkwe could seehumans sporting heads like the science fiction alien, ET. The TV science fiction cloning thriller Orphan Black included a transhumanist character with a tail. Will there be people like that in real life? Or should we merely expect body additions that are practical, such as wings for colonists on low-gravity planets?

Importantly, the four scenarios outlined above are idealized. Each has its merits, and so all can occur. It could be thathuman evolution will continue,based on a combination of each of these scenarios.

David Warmflash is an astrobiologist, physician, and science writer. Follow @CosmicEvolution to read what he is saying on Twitter.

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Evolution debate: Are humans continuing to evolve? | Genetic ... - Genetic Literacy Project

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On February 22nd, 2017 NASA held a press conference to reveal they had found 7 exoplanets around a cool star, and that some of those planets could be habitable. Following this announcement, NASA held an AMA on Redditforthe public to ask questions.

When we heard of this announcement we were excited about the opportunity to not only hear what NASAwas going to share, but also aboutthe chance to ask an important question during the AMA. We felt our question, at the very least, would tell us what the pubic was thinking about the subject, and hopefully perhaps get a response back from NASA.

We got our cameras ready, went live on Facebook during the press conference and then joined in the AMA when it came time. Up to this point NASA madeno mention of alien life but they were mentioning that looking for signs of organic life was a priorityon these new exoplanets.

Now to be clear, doing the work we do here at CE, we know through years of researching and speaking with insiders that NASA has been upholding a veil of secrecy around the subjectof alien life for quite some time and that it wasnt likely they would say anything beyond the very public safe statements they made. In fact, NASA isnt even atthe top of the food chain when it comes to security clearance and whats known about ET happenings in our solar system. Its very likely that the people on the exoplanet panel didnt know much, if anything, about ET life at all. However we thought wed respectfully try to push the envelope.

So we asked:

Collective Evolution Media asks: When is NASA going to reveal what is known about ET life? Former defence minister of Canada Hon. Paul Hellyer has said there are at least 4 known ET species communicating with humans. He is certainly not the only high ranking whistleblower on this topic. When is NASA going to address this? Thanks!

Now you might be thinking Well of course they didnt answer! This has nothing to do with the exoplanets! To which I say, it has everything to do with it.

Here we are talking about potentially habitable planets that could already contain life, or could end up being planets we move to if ours is destroyed. The obvious question on everyones mind is What about alien life there?!

Given what is known about the entire subject of ET life, for those that keep up with it, you can draw a very simple conclusion: we are not being told the truth, and events like this are only a drip release of small amounts of information controlled by a number of agencies and organizations that are keeping very important information from the general public.

Now let me know, if this were true, does itfeel right to you that we would be kept in the dark?

Something to ponder, but lets move on.

We asked people in our private community to get involved in the AMA and support the questionif they felt they wanted an answer to it as well. Over the course of half an hour, the up vote count on our question reached about 20. This was an up and down swing between people up voting and down voting.

45 minutes later, a series of negative comments began to come through, calling out our question as silly and not serious. According to other reddit users, NASA was here to answer serious questions only, and not conspiracy theories.

We thought this was odd as we had not only asked a very valid question but also backed it up with credible information and links, including that of the testimony from the Hon. Paul Hellyer who is a former defence minister of Canada. He is the only cabinet member of G8 countries who has come out blowing the whistle on what government and defence knows about extraterrestrial life. And its fascinating. Something the public should know and Im sure would love to know.

Back in 2013, Hellyer, along with a number of ranking officials, UFOlogists and lawyers got together at the Citizens Hearing On Disclosure to testify as to what their knowledgeabout ETs and UFOs was. Among them was Daniel Sheehan who also testified. Sheehan is a decoratedlawyer who worked on the Pentagon Papers case, Watergate, the Silkwood case and the Iran Contra Scandal.

As Hellyer stated at the hearing: The American people and the people of the world have the right to know whats going on, because they are part of it () An investigation was launched into this whole subject and a document was prepared which concluded that at least four species have been visiting earth for thousands of years.

You can listen to his full testimony below.

Hellyer is part of a list of hundreds of high ranking and distinguished individuals who have come forward to blow the whistle on what they know about the subject. The point here is, this is not a topic that does not come with evidence, credibility, and highly decorated and credible people behind it. It is simply our own ignorance on the subject and cognitive dissonance that keeps us in the dark about it.

That said, during the NASA AMA today it only made sense to ask the question we did, and it wasnt just asked by us. Many other comments surfaced where people asked about NASAs knowledge of ET life. Obviously humanity is high engaged in this topic and would love to know more.

So what response did we receivefrom NASA? Nothing, which was fine, but sure enough, Reddit suspended our account permanently. We did not spam, abuse, nor ask anything more than 1 simple question.

I cant tell you why this happened,for all we know it is simply the action of a Reddit moderator wanting to control conversation in their own way. Perhaps they were told to keep questions safe and simple, about the subject only. But its curious that our account would be permanently suspended in the process.

The point of this story comes down to what Ive mentioned above. This subject is what I believe to be one of the most important subjects facing us today. It has the ability to change life as we know it entirely. And not in a way that would cause chaos but one that would create amazing beauty.

The technological implications of disclosing the truth about ETs and UFOs is astronomical. The question how are they getting here? on its own would reveal technological possibilities that would challenge our biggest industries. The admission of what is truly known about ETs and the technology that comes with them would make it so that our pharmaceutical industries would be no more, our economy would not be the same, we could thrive and live in a world where we all could explore our gifts and do what we came here to do. This sounds like a utopia, a world that is impossible on our planet given humanitys current state of consciousness, and this is exactly why there is secrecy. Mass control would be no more.

So my ask is this, truly take the time to learn about whats truly out there in terms of information on the subject. Watch the videos linked throughout the article and hear the testimony from hundreds of ranking individuals who share all they know about UFOs and ETs. Once you allow that information through your mind and heart, then make a decision as to what you believe, but do challenge yourself to not shut down at the very thought of the idea.

The realization of this idea has the power to truly change our world in an incredible way. Its up to us. There is a mass shift happening in our world and you are part of it. Be diligent with information out there and dont bow down to the perceived authority of institutions like NASA, they are not keeping you well informed.

Your life path number can tell you A LOT about you.

With the ancient science of Numerology you can find out accurate and revealing information just from your name and birth date.

Get your free numerology reading and learn more about how you can use numerology in your life to find out more about your path and journey. Get Your free reading.

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Reddit Permanently Deleted Our Account When We Asked NASA About Alien Life During AMA - Collective Evolution

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Youve surely heard the saying, You cant understand someone until youve walked a mile in their shoes. The person who first offeredthis wisdom is lost to history, but its become so ingrained in ourvernacularbecause of the importance empathy has in life.

Because each and every one of us is an individual, with our own unique outlook on life, it can be incredibly easy to disagree; to misunderstand; to offend. Think of a time you were crying, and someone couldnt seem to wrap their head around how your emotions matched the situation. That alone is enough to make your tears flow harder.

Empathy is truly about trying to understand other peoples experiences and perspectives. If you think about your strengths and weaknessesin this area,you might find its very easy for you, or people you know, to subconsciously practice empathy, like when you see a stranger get hurt. You find yourself truly concerned for their well-being. Our egos can make itdifficult, however, to see someone elses feelings as valid when they differ from our own. But just because someone has, for instance, different sensitivities, doesnt make them any less real, orany less important.

In an overwhelming way, empathy has been devalued in our society in recent years. One example, explainsauthor and child psychologist Michele Borba, is the seismic shift that our culture has undergone. She notes that one of the biggest culprits is technology.Self-promotion, personal branding, and self-interest at the exclusion of others feelings, needs, and concerns, she argues, is permeating our culture and slowly eroding our childrens character, and the outcome is a drop in youth empathy. This only creates peer cruelty, bullying, cheating, the inability to harbour moral reasoning, and a mental health epidemic in young people. And its adouble-edged sword the youth become adults, and the downward spiral continues.

So where does one start to fix the problem? Practice, and lots of it. We must not only teach youth to practice empathy, but also lead by example.

Start by listening intently when people speak to you. Even if you dont agree with what theyre saying, consider the motivation behind it being spoken. Rather than shutting off your brain to the rest of their words and formulating a response, digest all of it.

When you do respond, make sure you take time between the end of their thought and the beginning of yours, so as to respond in a waythat truly acknowledges what they said, and not what you were thinking while they said it.

When in a social setting, embrace it. If youre in the elevator, waiting to board a plane, sitting at a cafe by yourself, try to put your phone down, your book away, and simply absorb the world around you. Empathy is about understanding, and we cannot understand if we never look up and take it all in. Ask yourself how the people around you may be feeling, what they might be thinking. Try to wonder and care about these complete strangers.

Its also valuable to consider a tense situation you are currently in, or have beenin, with someone else. You may associate this situation with feeling hurt and angry, with them having wronged you. You are the victim here. Now, with that knowledge, consider the altercation from that persons point of view. Think about how you might have made them feel. You may realize that the issue stems from mere differences, not ignorance or hatred.

You can even try practicing internally the opposing viewpoint. This will take you away from your own ego, and put you in the shoes of the other person. Such an exercise will force you to open your mind to the issue at hand and to another perspective on it.

The following video by Devin Clark further dives into whyempathy is so important to have in everyday life, and shows how you can improve your own.

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With the ancient science of Numerology you can find out accurate and revealing information just from your name and birth date.

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Why Empathy Is So Important in Everyday Life (Video) - Collective Evolution

Two critically endangered Teleogramma brichardi, cichlids known to exist only in one stretch of rapids in the lower Congo River.

There are more than 300 species of bizarre and beautiful fish living in the lower Congo River. Now, research reveals why: Walls of water keep fish from breeding with one another.

Cut off by rapids and swift currents, fish species end up isolated. Over time, their genes become so different from their neighbors' that they evolve into entirely separate species, researchers reported Feb. 6 in the journal Molecular Ecology.

"What's particularly unique about the lower Congo is that this diversification is happening over extremely small spatial scales, over distances as small as 1.5 kilometers [0.9 miles]," study author Elizabeth Alter, a biologist at the City University of New York's York College, said in a statement. "There is no other river like it." [Photos: The Freakiest-Looking Fish]

The lower Congo is the last 200 miles (321 km) of a 2,920-mile-long (4,700 km) waterway that snakes through the Democratic Republic of the Congo and empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

The lower Congo is no lazy river; according to a 2008 U.S. Geological Survey report on its hydraulics, the first 80 miles (130 km) below Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are so treacherous that they were not navigated until 2008. Other sections, like a 21-mile (34 km) stretch between the cities of Matadi and Kinganga, aren't navigable at all because of rushing rapids and dizzying waterfalls.

It's these rapids that drive the evolution of fish in the lower reaches of the river, Alter and her colleagues found. The researchers focused on cichlids of the genus Teleogramma, a group that includes the large-finned, rainbow-banded Teleogramma brichardi. An analysis of more than 50 fish from different species in the Teleogramma genus revealed that species were geographically defined. The hydrologic forces of the river, such as its impassible rapids and swift currents, limited fish to particular areas.

"The genetic separation between these fishes shows that the rapids are working as strong barriers, keeping them apart," Alter said.

The barriers, formed by the hydrology of the river, explain how so much diversity could arise in the 3 million to 5 million years that the lower stretches of the river have existed, according to study author Melanie Stiassny, who curates ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

A similar phenomenon occurs on "sky islands." In these areas, species can't traverse steep valleys between mountaintops, so peaks right next to each other host species that never mix.

About 80 of the 300 fish found in the lower Congo are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world. T. brichardi is one of these endemic species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies this fish as critically endangered.

The IUCN cites urbanization near the only rapids where the sleek, colorful cichlids are found as the species' major threat. But proposed hydroelectric projects, such as the Grand Inga Dam, would fundamentally alter the fast-flowing river if they were to be built.

"Activity like that would majorly interrupt the evolutionary potential of this system," Stiassny said in a statement.

Original article on Live Science.

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Water 'Walls' Spur Evolution of New Colorful Fish Species - Live Science