Evolution Digital and Conax announced that Conax will provide its multi-DRM solution for Evolution Digitals eVUE-TV platform, which is being made available on the National Cable Television Cooperatives (NCTC) VU-IT!Platform.

eVUE-TV is a managed IP platform for linear and on-demand video, as well as network DVR and catch-up TV features, that Evolution Digital has been pitching to tier 2/3 U.S. cable operators. Last year, Evolution announced that eVUE-TV is the first offering to be introduced as an option for VU-IT!, a platform that includes a solution for backoffice integration, OTT apps and enhanced services that enable IP-based linear and VOD services.

RELATED: Evolution Digital Notches Another NCTC Deal

Support for Conaxs content security system will enable partners to support multi-DRM technologies that utilize PlayReady, Widevine, FairPlay and Nagra PRM, as well as THE next generation Conax Connected Access security client that combines CA/IPTV/DRM functionalities, they said.

They added that the Conax Contego security back-end has been integrated with the eVUE-TV platform in hosted and on-premises models, and that the platform meets the MovieLabs Enhanced Content protection requirements for 4K/UHD.

We have partnered with Conax to offer a best of breed comprehensive content security solution to our NCTC members with eVUE-TV, Brent Smith, president and chief technology officer of Evolution Digital, said in a statement. As cable operators move to IP distribution and begin offering a wide-range of content that can be viewed anywhere, Evolution Digital is committed to delivering content securely and providing operators with a low cost and hassle-free solution that eliminates complexities of technology integration.

Continue reading here:

Evolution Digital, Conax Connect on Content Protection - Multichannel News

Combiningtechniques from a field calledresurrection ecology with a look atlake sediments reveals surprising evolutionary responses to heavy-metal contamination over the past 75 years.

Mary Rogalski hatched long-dormant eggs of Daphnia, tiny freshwater crustaceans also known as water fleas, that accumulated in the lake sediments over time. After rearing the critters in the lab, she exposed them to various levels of two heavy metals to see how their sensitivity to the environmental contaminants changed over time. Surprisingly, she found that sensitivity to copper and cadmium increased as the levels of those toxic metals rose in the lakes she studied.

These findings are unexpected because evolutionary theory predicts that a population should adapt quickly to a stressor like this and become less sensitive to it, not more sensitive to it. It is difficult to explain the results of this study, says Rogalski, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Michigan department of ecology and evolutionary biology.

In one of the lakes, Daphnia hatched from sediments dating to around 1990when copper contamination was at its peakwere 46 percent more sensitive to copper exposure than individuals from the 1940s, a period with lower levels of copper contamination.

Rogalski reports her finding in the journal The American Naturalist. The study was part of her dissertation research at Yale University and involved fieldwork at three Connecticut lakes.

Rogalski then estimated sediment ages based on the presence of radioactive materials and measured concentrations of copper and cadmium in the layers back to the late 1800s. Copper contamination in the lakes was largely due to yearly applications of copper sulfate to control nuisance algae. The cadmium likely came from industrial and agricultural development in the region over the past century.

In the lab, Rogalski isolated dormant or diapausing Daphnia ambigua eggs from various dated sediment layers, then hatched and raised them. She measured Daphnias changing sensitivity to copper and cadmium by exposing them to various levels of the metals in glass flasks and determining the median lethal concentration.

In one Connecticut lake where copper contamination has declined recently, she found that Daphnia remain sensitive to the metal 30 years after peak exposure.

It is difficult to know what mechanisms are driving this evolutionary pattern, Rogalski says. Even so, this research suggests that we need to do more to uncover both the drivers and implications of maladaptation in nature.

Paleolimnology is the study of ancient lakes from their sediments and fossils. The branch of experimental paleolimnology that Rogalski used in this study has been dubbed resurrection ecology by its practitioners.

Human activities can drive strong and rapid evolutionary changes in wild animal populations. Those evolutionary responses often leave the population better able to cope with the new environmental conditions, a process called adaptation through natural selection.

For example, a newly introduced pesticide may kill the vast majority of the insects it targets, but the survivors can then give rise to a pest population that is resistant to the chemical.

Some populations, however, fail to adapt to changing environments or can wind up worse off than they were beforehand, an occurrence known as maladaptation. Maladaptive outcomes are less common than adaptive ones and are less studied. In many cases, it is impossible to examine a populations response to a stressor over multigenerational timescales without conducting a long-term study that could take decades to complete.

The Daphnia crustacean, with its diapausing eggs, provides a time machine of sorts, allowing researchers to examine long-term evolutionary responses to environmental stressors by reviving and rearing dormant organisms trapped in lake bottoms.

Daphnia offer a system where examining historic evolutionary trajectories is possible, Rogalski writes in the study. Hatching diapausing eggs from dated lake sediments and culturing clonal lineages in the lab allows us to examine how populations change through time and the genetic basis underlying those changes.

The Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies supported the work.

Source: University of Michigan

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'Resurrected' eggs reveal odd evolution of water fleas - Futurity: Research News

Seadras need a dragon scale to evolve.

One of the new features introduced recently to Pokemon Go are evolution items. These five additions help you evolve some Gen 1 and Gen 2 Pokemon when combined with a certain amount of candy. Here's everything you need to know about these items and where to find them.

Before Gen 2 was released, all you needed to evolve a pocket monster was collect enough candies. Now, for some special Pokemon, you need to collect the candies and an evolution item.

Here are the evolution items and how to identify them:

The taser-like upgrade item you need to evolve Porygon.

Right now, only eight Pokemon evolve using anything other than candy. Here's a list and what you need to evolve them:

To evolve Onix you need a metal coat.

There are two different ways to evolve a Slowpoke.

The only way to get evolution items is by spinning PokeStops. Like with the new berries, though, they don't drop as often as balls and razz berries. After more than fifty spins at various stops, I only got one sun stone. Your mileage may vary, but don't expect to collect them quickly.

There's a rumor that you're more likely to get an evolution item when you get your seven-day streak bonus, but that hasn't been confirmed.

The one sun stone I found after more than 50 spins.

Read the original post:

Everything you need to know about evolution items in Pokemon Go - CNET

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NASA announced today that they will be hosting a news conference providing updates about discoveries beyond our solar system. The question remains: what type of disclosure are we really going to hear?

NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 22, to present new findings on planets that orbit stars other than our sun, known as exoplanets. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agencys website. NASA

Attending the press conference will be astronomers and planetary scientists from across the world.

As stated by NASA, the focus will be on planets beyond our solar system, although no further information has been given. Many people believe this will be major information that could affect our understanding of our solar system, things beyond it and also potentially life beyond our solar system.

Its often thought exoplanets are the major hope for life elsewhere in the universe. Over the years, many have been found and information has been shared with the public about the existence of these planets, however, whistleblowers have come forward stating that NASA, intelligence agencies, our governments and others already know about intelligent life in our, as well as habitable planets, right here in our solar system as well as beyond.

For example, Canadas former minister of defence Paul Hellyer came forward after his retirementand began blowing the whistle on UFOs and extraterrestrials. His testimony is backed up by hundreds of other high ranking military and political personnel all over the world. This includes official documents released by dozens of governments worldwide that have officially acknowledged the presence of UFOs.

In one of the cases during the cold war, 1961, there were about 50 UFOs in formation flying South from Russia across Europe. The supreme allied commander was very concerned and was about ready to press the panic button when they turned around and went back over the North Pole. They decided to do an investigation and they investigated for three years and they decided that with absolute certainty that four different species, at least, have been visiting this planet for thousands of years. Theres been a lot more activity in the past two decades, especially since we invented the atomic bomb. They are very concerned about that and if we will use it again, because the whole cosmos is a unity and it affects not just us but other people in the cosmos. Theyre very much afraid that we might start using atomic weapons again and this would be very bad for us, and them also. Paul Hellyer

Below is footage we shot at Contact In The Desert in 2016 at Joshua Tree National Park.

NASA stated that the public will be able to ask questions using the hashtag #AskNasa during the conference. The agency will then hold a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session straight after the briefing.

Not surprisingly, most people are highly interested in the one thing I think is the most important next step for humanity: integrating with ETs on a mass scale.

#AskNasa where are you hiding the aliens??????

Ben Roberts (@Ren_Boberts) February 20, 2017

Is it Aliens? #asknasa

Sean Donnelly (@seanytime) February 20, 2017

Im going to be so very disappointed if its not aliens #asknasa

Anthony (@AnthIllustrates) February 20, 2017

My research over the years has led me to question the validity of what we hear in these public briefings due to the fact that NASA has lied many times in the past and many whistleblowers and declassified documents have made that clear to us.

Whether they believe they are keeping the public safe and out of chaos by withholding the reality of extraterrestrial life or not, I strongly believe it is time for all of humanity to know the truth. Its not a matter of proof at this point, its a matter of looking at the evidence available and seeing the reality.

What type of disclosure will this be? Will we be given more drips of disclosure? Will it be the entire truth? Or will NASA release information that continues to keep the public in the dark on key issues regarding our solar system, life in it and what lies beyond? We shall find out on the 22nd.

Expect full coverage of this event by us on the date and after. You can join over 200,000 others and stay in the know by signing up to our daily brief here.

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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NASA To Host Press Conference Regarding Discoveries Beyond Our Solar System - Collective Evolution

February 20, 2017 A photograph of a Solenopsis invicta fire ant queen (large), five workers (smaller), one larva (whiteish) on a subset of the DNA sequence of their social chromosome. Credit: Romain Libbrecht and Yannick Wurm / QMUL

Scientists from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have discovered that the chromosome responsible for the social organisation of colonies of the highly invasive fire ant is likely to have evolved via a single event rather than over time.

Red fire ants are found in two different types of colonies: some colonies have a single queen while other colonies contain dozens of queens. The team had previously discovered that colony type is determined by a chromosome that carries one of two variants of a 'supergene' region containing more than 500 genes.

In a new research paper, published in the journal Molecular Ecology, the team from QMUL's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences sequenced the DNA and compared the genomes of two types of individuals: those carrying the supergene version responsible for colonies with a single queen, and those carrying the supergene variant responsible for colonies with multiple queens.

"We found that the two versions of the chromosome differ homogeneously over the entire length of the supergene. This suggests that a single event, such as a large chromosomal rearrangement, was responsible for the origin of this remarkable system for determining social organisation," said lead author Dr Yannick Wurm from QMUL's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences.

The team also discovered a large number of unfavourable mutations in the version of the supergene responsible for colonies with multiple queens.

Dr Wurm added: "It is likely that only a few genes among the hundreds present in the supergene region are responsible for differences in social organisation. Our finding indicates that the advantages of having several queens in the colony outweigh the costs of the unfavourable mutations in the supergene region."

This finding can help scientists understand how chromosomes evolve over time.

Rodrigo Pracana, a PhD student at QMUL and first author of the study, said: "We know that the Y chromosome in mammals has also been affected by unfavourable mutations. It is exciting to see that the fire ant social chromosome has evolved in a similar way to the human Y chromosome, although it controls social organisation and not sex."

The red fire ant, which is a native species in South America, is infamous for its painful sting, and is known in many other parts of the world where its aggressiveness and high population density have made it an invasive pest. It was accidentally introduced to the southern USA in the 1930s and has since spread to many warm parts of the world including in China and Australia. Efforts at controlling the spread of this species have largely been unsuccessful, as indicated by its Latin name, Solenopsis invicta, meaning "the invincible".

Rodrigo Pracana added: "Our discoveries could help to develop novel pest control strategies. For example, a pesticide that disrupts the social organisation in this species without affecting other species would be beneficial.

"This might be achieved by targeting the genes in the supergene region. We find almost no genetic diversity in the version of the supergene specific to colonies with multiple queens so targeting genes in this region means there would be limited potential for the ants to evolve resistance."

Explore further: Team identifies new 'social' chromosome in the red fire ant

Researchers have discovered a social chromosome in the highly invasive fire ant that helps to explain why some colonies allow for more than one queen ant, and could offer new solutions for dealing with this pest.

Since Charles Darwin, biologists have pondered the mystery of "mimicry butterflies", which survive by copying the wing patterns of other butterflies that taste horrible to their predators, birds.

Invasive animals are often most abundant in habitats impacted by humans, especially man-made habitats, such as roadsides, suburban and urban developments, and areas of intensive agricultural activity. Understanding why this ...

Scientists have identified the cluster of genes responsible for reproductive traits in the Primula flower, first noted as important by Charles Darwin more than 150 years ago.

Picture an ant colony: up to a million ants, all looking identical, harmoniously going about their busy ant lives. But with so many ants around, how on Earth do they know who's friend and who's foe?

The ruff is a Eurasian shorebird that has a spectacular lekking behaviour where highly ornamented males compete for females. Now two groups report that males with alternative reproductive strategies carry a chromosomal rearrangement ...

Gene editing, which has raised ethical concerns due to its capacity to alter human DNA, is being considered in the United States as a tool for improving livestock, experts say.

Scientists from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have discovered that the chromosome responsible for the social organisation of colonies of the highly invasive fire ant is likely to have evolved via a single event rather ...

Forest elephant populations in one of Central Africa's largest and most important preserves have declined between 78 percent and 81 percent because of poaching, a new Duke University-led study finds.

The winter habits of Britain's basking sharks have been revealed for the first time.

What looks like a caterpillar chewing on a leaf or a beetle consuming fruit is likely a three-way battle that benefits most, if not all of the players involved, according to a Penn State entomologist.

By tagging individual bumblebees with microchips, biologists have gained insights into the daily life of a colony of bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) in unprecedented detail. The team found that while most bees are generalists ...

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Scientists explore the evolution of a 'social supergene' in the red fire ant - Phys.Org

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Re: Senate Bill 55: Neither creation nor macro-evolution is science.

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Glenn Fiechtner, Sioux Falls Published 7:38 p.m. CT Feb. 20, 2017 | Updated 9 hours ago

Letters to the editor tile(Photo: Argus Leader)Buy Photo

Macro-evolution through random mutations with natural selection is just one of many examples of wrong or one-sided presentations of evidence for evolution given in classrooms, today. Teachers and students should have the freedom to show the holes in these evolution arguments.

Science is defined as, Knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method. Merriam-Webster. Science is defined as, Knowledge by observation or experimentation.

Neither creation nor macro-evolution is science because neither can be observed or repeated. Both are based on belief.

Natural selection and artificial selection (selective breeding) do work, but only on the existing gene pool. Natural selection and artificial selection can be observed and repeated. This is micro-evolution and is real science. E.g., various breeds of dogs/wolves/dingoes. Also, Galpagos finches.

However, random mutations do not add new genetic information. Observed random mutations have only degraded (destroyed) information in the genes (blindness, albinism). This degradation is science because it has been observed.

The hypothesis that random mutations increase genetic information (macro evolution) has never been observed nor repeated. So, macro evolution (molecules to single-cells to fish to man) through random mutations is not science. It is a belief.

What this means is that the teaching of evolution, as taught in most classrooms and science biology textbooks, uses examples of natural selection (real science) and then mixes in a small amount of random mutations (which science shows only destroys) to explain what cannot be proved or observed macro-evolution.

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Letter: 'Holes' exist in evolution argument - Sioux Falls Argus Leader

Evolution on earth was delayed by two billion years because of low level atmospheric oxygen, according to researchers from the University of Exeter.

The scientists discovered that until there was a large rise in the number of land plants and photosynthesis increased, oxygen consumption and production remained in equilibrium. This balance ensured oxygen levels remained low.

Professor Lenton, from the University of Exeter and study co-author, said: This time in Earths history was a bit of a catch-22 situation. It wasnt possible to evolve complex life forms because there was not enough oxygen in the atmosphere, and there wasnt enough oxygen because complex plants hadnt evolved It was only when land plants came about did we see a more significant rise in atmospheric oxygen.

Using a bespoke computer model, the research attempted to understand why the great oxidation event 2.4bn years ago did not generate modern levels of oxygen. In their paper in Nature Communications, they explain how organic material accumulated in the Earths sedimentary rock. After exposure to the atmosphere, this material reacted with oxygen for the first time, creating a feedback loop of oxygen exposure and consumption.

After the increase in land plants and a doubling of photosynthesis increasing levels of oxygen disturbed the equilibrium. The scientists model suggests even though oxygen levels at the time were only between 1 and 10% of present day levels, this was high enough to help complex life to evolve on land.

Professor Lenton said: The history of life on Earth is closely intertwined with the physical and chemical mechanisms of our planet. It is clear that life has had a profound role in creating the world we are used to, and the planet has similarly affected the trajectory of life. I think its important people acknowledge the miracle of their own existence and recognise what an amazing planet this is.

The first life on Earth is believed to have begun with bacterial evolution almost four billion years ago. It was not until 600 million years ago that the first multi-cellular animals such as jellyfish and sponges were found in the ocean. Humans did not appear on Earth until 200,000 years ago.

Continued here:

Evolution held back by lack of oxygen - Lab News

Utah Jazz starting forward Gordon Hayward landed in New Orleans on Thursday, marking the first time in six years that a Jazzman has traveled to participate in the All-Star game.

Gordon Hayward described the whole experience as surreal, a description that could easily used when talking about his basketball career as a whole. His journey to becoming an NBA All-Star started years ago, long before he was considered a NBA heartthrob and long before he became Utahs first offensive option.

The once-lanky tennis player from Indiana has worked hard to transform into the reliable offensive power and decisive leader that Utah has needed for so long. Hayward has more than proven that his All-Star selection is well-deserved.

On Friday, after a long day of press interviews and while most of the other 2017 All-Stars were likely enjoying everything New Orleans has to offer, Gordon spent his afternoon working with Jazz assistant coach Johnnie Bryant. This incredible work ethic is central to the evolution of Gordon Hayward. His entire work-hard-play-hard mentality is what has driven his evolution into one of the 24 best players in the entire league.

Hes always been dedicated to the game and has made gradual improvement every season in the NBA. He has slowly bulked up, gaining pounds muscle since his sophomore year at Butler. His overall strength, both physical and mental, has increased, and that has translated into increased production on the court. But after failing to make the playoffs last season, Hayward decided that it wasnt enough. Gradual wasnt going to cut it.

Hayward went right to work after the season ended. Instead of going home to Indiana, Hayward decided to stay in Salt Lake City to work closely with Jazz coaching staff on improving his game. He even passed up the chance to play with Team USA in the summer Olympics. Instead, he stayed in SLC and challenged himself to make the final push that would evolve his overall game.

The 2016-17 season has been the best of Haywards career. Despite less game time on the court, hes averaging 22.2 points per game, a career high and the first time in his career that he has averaged more than 20 points. Hes shooting 46.5 percent from the field, 38.5 percent from the three, and 87 percent from the free-throw line. Hes also averaging 5.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, giving him a shot at being one of the most versatile players to represent Utah for quite sometime.

Hayward has helped the Jazz to a 35-22 record, and at just 26-years-old, he has time to make even more All-Star appearances. Hes just barely entering the prime of his career. With his obvious dedication and work ethic, Gordon Hayward will only continue to transform his game to higher levels. Hes key to a playoff run for Utah, and its clear that hes up for the challenge.

Before Gordon Hayward and the other NBA All Stars took could take the court on Sunday night, the Roots turned the Smoothie King Center into a visual time machine as they tried to answer the one question fans always come back to.

We are culture that is obsessed with one question: Who is the greatest? said Black Thought, as the Roots began their original musical-visual performance. With the help of a handful of cultural icons, including DJ Jazzy Jeff and one half of Run DMC Darryl McDaniels, the Roots guided viewers through a retrospective (and incredibly profound) journey of each era of greatnessfrom the beboppin beginnings to the powerful present.

After listening to celebs present their arguments as to who was the greatest era in the NBA, Black Thought gave his ruling: Who really is the greatest? None of you are. True greatness is not comparison; its evolution. If this is trueif true greatness is evolutionthen Gordon Hayward could very well go down in history as one of the greats.

All you have to do is compare the player he is now to the player who took (and missed) the final shot of Butlers historic NCAA tournament run. He has evolved and transformed more as a player than most NBA players do in their entire careers. His hard work has paid off. From scrawny rookie to Mr. Steal-Your-Girl, Gordon Hayward hardly resembles the player he was when his journey began.

Excerpt from:

The Great Evolution of Gordon Hayward - SLC Dunk

10.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin stands on the moon on July 20, 1969. The plexiglass of his helmet reflects astronaut Neil Armstrong, taking his picture.

Walking on the Moon's surface a quarter million miles away from Earth presented a new set of problems to spacesuit designers. Not only did the moon explorers' spacesuits have to offer protection from jagged rocks, but the suits also had to be flexible enough to permit stooping and bending.

The suits had to provide protection from bombardment by micrometeoroids, tiny particles that constantly pelt the lunar surface from deep space, but also insulate the wearer from the temperature extremes of space.

Without the Earth's atmosphere to filter the sunlight, the side of a suit facing the Sun may be heated to a temperature as high as 250 degrees Fahrenheit; the other side, exposed to darkness of deep space, may get as cold as -250 degrees Fahrenheit.

Read the original here:

From Mercury to Starliner: The Evolution of the Spacesuit - NBCNews.com

Visual effects in movies have advanced in a spectacular way in the relatively short history of cinema. What once was thought to be impossible to create in post-production has become a mainstay in blockbuster tentpoles. More recently, visual effects companies have become quite skilled in creating human faces entirely with computer generated imagery, and a new video essay shows us how this part of movie magic has evolved in a small window of time.

Watch the evolution of CGI faces in movies after the jump.

While there have been plenty movies that have used digital doubles, or used visual effects to replace a stunt persons face with a digital recreation of a performers face, this video focuses on visual effects used to bring a human face to life thats prominently used as a character complete with a performance. Thats why they dont include Avatar or Dawn of the Planet of the Apes or other movies with motion capture performance and visual effects used to bring non-human characters to life.

Instead, the video begins with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the earliest use of extensive visual effects used to create a human face with visual effects and utilize it for performance. Then theres bringing back young Jeff Bridges in TRON: Legacy, a visual effect that looks amazing in some shots and then like a video game in other shots.

There was an impressive leap in lifelike recreation in Furious 7, though that digital version of Paul Walker didnt have to do nearly as much as previous CGI creations. Meanwhile, Teminator: Genisys suffers from some of the same video game quality issues as TRON: Legacy, though the double of Arnold Schwarzenegger looks identical to some shots in The Terminator from 1984.

Then were brought up to today with footage of the somewhat controversial recreation of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Though some fans complained that it looks fake, I maintain that Industrial Light & Magic pulled off something incredible, if only because several people I know (who didnt know Cushing was dead) had absolutely no idea the character was created with visual effects in the movie.

Original post:

VOTD: The Evolution of CGI Faces in Movies - /FILM

Evolution methods for new Gen II Pokmon Bellossom, Sunflora, and how to get the Sun Stone.

By Chris Tapsell Published 20/02/2017

Gen 2 is finally here and with it come not just new Pokmon like Bellossom and Sunflora, but new items like the Sun Stone, too.

That, in turn, means new methods for evolution: the Sun Stone was used for evolving Bellossom and Sunflora in the main Pokmon games by simply 'using' the evolution stones on them - a mechanic that's not been featured in Pokmon Go before now.

So with that in mind, how do you evolve Gloom into Bellossom, and evolve Sunkern into Sunflora, and likewise how do you get the Sun Stone in Pokmon Go?.

The answers to all that can be found below, but while you're here, it's worth noting that there are several other new, special items which work in precisely the same way: the Metal Coat for Steelix and Scizor, the Dragon Scale for Kingdra, the King's Rock for Slowking and Politoed, and the Up-Grade for Porygon2.

Over in the main series of Pokmon games, Gloom evolves into Bellossom - as opposed to Vileplume - in a kind of branching evolution chain. To get Vileplume, you'd need to use a Grass Stone on Gloom, whilst to get Bellossom you'd need to use a Sun Stone.

Evolution stones themselves haven't been in the game until the current update - in fact the originals, like the Grass Stone, still aren't in the game - and so the mechanic itself is new, too.

To evolve Gloom into Bellossom, then, you'll need to get yourself a Sun Stone, along with the required amount of Candy, and simply head to the normal section of the menu where you'd go for evolving the Pokmon and carry on with the usual steps from there.

This one was originally up for contention, as it wasn't clear whether Sunflora would follow the Raichu-style method of evolving, where evolution stones from the original games were replaced with Candy in Pokmon Go, or the Bellossom method which uses the evolution stone, as above.

It turns out you do indeed need the Sun Stone to evolve Sunkern into Sunflora, and that can be done in the usual way from the game's menus.

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.

Regardless of Sunflora's evolutionary method, you'll be needing the Sun Stone for Bellossom. To get it, you'll simply need to get spinning those Pokstop wheels, because so far that's the only way of acquring one for now.

Fortunately, there is some strategy here after all! A special evolution item is far more likely to drop on the seventh day of your PokStop Daily Bonus streak. There's no guaranteeing which evolution item you'll get, but with only five in the game at least you hopefully shouldn't have to wait too long to get a hold of all the items you need.

See the rest here:

Pokmon Go Sun Stone - evolve Gloom into Bellossom, Sunkern into Sunflora, and how to get the Sun Stone - Eurogamer.net

Washington Post

From agitator to enforcer: The evolution of Breitbart Washington Post February 19, 2017 11:00 AM EST - Breitbart started out as a small site bent on exposing the liberal bias in mainstream media. Now, its former executive, Stephen Bannon, is in the White House, and the site has begun targeting political adversaries of ...

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From agitator to enforcer: The evolution of Breitbart - Washington Post

Is this the Hamiltonization of NBA history?

Maybe, but it was good. (Like Hamilton.)

The legendary Roots the hip hop/funk/R&B band that is the house band for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon put together this history of NBA greatness, along with help from other musical artists, that led to the introduction to the NBA All-Stars from 2017.

Check it out above.

DeMarcus Cousins signing a five-year, $209 million contract extension?

Thats out the window with his trade from the Kings to the Pelicans rendering him ineligible to become a designated veteran player.

Which could explain why Cousins agent, Jarrinn Akana, was making noise about not re-signing with another team. Dissuading potential suitors and staying in Sacramento was Cousins only path to the biggest payday.

Heres Akana, before the trade was set, viaMarc Stein of ESPN:

A straight contract extension next summer makes no sense. The most that could pay Cousins is $92,559,167 over four years ($23,139,792 annually).

If he simply lets his contract expire and re-signs in 2018, a new deal projects to be worth about $179 million (about $36 million annually).

The Pelicanscan try for a renegotiation-and-extension, but theywould need cap room to raise his 2017-18 salary from$18,063,850 toward his projected max of about $31 million. With significant money due to Anthony Davis, Solomon Hill, Omer Asik,E'Twaun Moore, Alexis Ajinca, Quincy Pondexter,Dante Cunningham,Tim Frazier,Cheick Dialloand, they hope, a re-signed Jrue Holiday, its unlikely the Pelicans clear enough room to renegotiate Cousins deal.

Cousins is probably headed toward unrestricted free agency in 2018. Then, New Orleans projects to be able toofferabout $179 million (about $36 million annually) to another teams projected max of about$133 million (about$33 million annually).

Its an advantage, but not a bulletproof one. I think Cousins will be more amenable to re-signing than his agent indicated now that a trade is actually happening, but he could still walk.

This is the risk the Pelicans took.

Back in 2015 there was already a push from people inside the Sacramento Kings organization to move on from the DeMarcus Cousins era. There were groundwork talks with a number of teams, but a lot of rumors circulated around the Lakers, where Jim Buss was trying to land a star for his franchise that would lead to a quick turnaround. While the deal was never finalized, reports had the Lakers offering both their first round picks that year, which became D'Angelo Russell (No. 2) and Larry Nance Jr. (27th), plus a few other pieces.

Kings owner Vivek Ranadive shot the deal down then as he did with every deal until Sunday night.

By the tine Ranadive came around to the idea of trading Cousins, the market had changed. And dried up. All the Kings landed was last drafts No. 6 pick Buddy Hield (who Vlade Divac has been higher on than most), the Pelicans pick this draft in the mid-teens, a high second round pick, and some pieces such as Tyreke Evans that are not part of the Kings future.

The deal has been widelypanned for the Kings, but what they got may well have been the best offer available right now. A lot of teams have concerns about Cousins impact on their locker rooms teams that liked their rosters didnt want to add drama. Plenty of teams would not talk trade. Also, there is a glut of bigs on the market right now. If teams wanted to give up multiple first-round picks for a center, they could have already because Nets have Brook Lopez on the block not as talented, but also not a challenge in the locker room. Jahlil Okafor, Tyson Chandler and other centers also are available.

The Kings went back to the Lakers, but when they asked for the young guy the Lakers are highest on, Brandon Ingram, it fell apart, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.

Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report added this interesting tidbit about the Kings and Lakers talks in recent days.

Then Buss, in particular, was sorely tempted to shift course yet again Sunday, break from those plans and trade whatever youth it took in the hopes of landing DeMarcus Cousins, according to a team source.

It wasnt just the Lakers who would not go in big on Cousins.

Calls to Boston found even worse offers, with Danny Ainge worried about Cousins impact in the locker room and if they could/would want to retain him. The Booklyn picks were never close to on the table.

Philly is no longer really interested thanks to Joel Embiid (even with the health concerns there).

There were talks with the Suns, but Sacramento didnt like Brandon Knight as the best player they would get back.

And so it goes down the list, teams were hesitant to give up much and the Kings were left to take the best of bad options. Part of the reason for the Cousins market being dry is that since he is traded, Cousins is no longer eligible for the designated player supermax deal, and the difference between what the team that has his Bird rights in 2018 can offer and what other teams can offer is not that great. Which is to say, a lot of teams think they can take a swing at Cousins as a free agent in two summers if they really want him, and they dont have to give up assets to get him.

The Pelicans were never going to get a seat at the table in those free agent conversations, so trading for him makes a lot of sense for New Orleans.

But for most teams, they were willing to pass. Which left the Kings without good options for a deadline trade.

Of course, what a more stable organization might have done is decide the offers were terrible and hold off on a trade until around the draft or into summer free agency. The deals are not going to get worse, and they might well get a little better. But for whatever reason concern that Ranadive would change his mind, again? the Kings moved now.

And that leaves them in a tough spot.

The Kings traded DeMarcus Cousins to change their culture.

So, Sacramento is also unsurprisingly dumping the player who allegedly partnered with Cousinsnightclub fight: Matt Barnes.

Marc Stein of ESPN:

Beyond fitting the Kings new vision, the move is necessary, because they have a full roster and are acquiring more players (Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans and Langston Galloway) than theyre sending out(Cousins and Omri Casspi) in the Pelicans trade.

Barnes, who turns 37 in a couple weeks, is slipping. But he could still add experienced depth to a contender as a 3-and-D wing. (Hello, Cavaliers?)

A hard-nosed player, hes a great teammate in many ways. And the veterans who comprise contenders would be less likely to be influenced by the ways hes not which wasnt the case in Sacramento.

Since Dec. 1, the Washington Wizards have been the best team in the East.

That is if you go by their record, which 28-10 since the calendar flipped to December. However, nobody sane thinks the Wizards could beat a healthy Cavaliers teams in the Eastern Conference Finals. Its fair to ask if they need more help to get by Boston or Toronto just to get a shot at the Cavaliers.

That need for a little more help has led to trade rumors about Washington heading into the trade deadline Thursday (Feb. 23), and John Wall confirmed the team is looking to J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com.

I think so, Wall said when asked if he expected president Ernie Grunfeld to make a move as he has done the last several years, and the most recent being for Markieff Morris. Were looking at some options to help our bench out. Other than that I dont know. I havent talked to him about it.

There are two scenarios for a Wizards trade that get the most traction around the league.

One is to get Lou Williams from the Lakers. This makes sense as a plug-and-play option, Williams is averaging a career-high 18.6 points this season and is a candidate for the Sixth Man of the Year award with his play. Hes a bit of a volume scorer, but that can work well with a sixth man (see Jamal Crawford for example).

The other rumor is Nets forward Bojan Bogdanovic, who brings more size up front (68) but can still shoot the three (35 percent this season). Bogdanovic is averaging 14.2 points per game.

Of course, the question is what the Wizards would have to give up to make these deals happen? Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical at Yahoo Sports has said the Wizards might well be willing to give up a protected first-round pick in a deal, and that could well be enough to get a trade done (depending upon the exact protections, and the year). That said, the Lakers, in particular, have been hesitant to make a move.

Dont be shocked if the Wizards make a move at the deadline. This is their best team in a long time, and they want to capitalize on it.

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Roots open All-Star Game with Evolution of Greatness NBA retrospective - ProBasketballTalk (blog)

Connecticut Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma looks on from the sideline.(Photo: USA TODAY Sports/David Butler II)

After winning for the 100th straight time last week, the UConn womens basketball team almost lost at Tulane Saturday, which would have been like pizza losing to lima beans.

The Green Wave cut the Huskies' lead to two twice in the last 1:15, but missed its final three shots. What would have been an epic upset became instead consecutive win No. 101 for Connecticut, 63-60. Still, the Tulane women did something almost no one else has been able to do since UConns streak began on Nov. 17, 2014:

Made a UConn game compelling.

Took it off the assembly line of Ws. Made it more than another Globetrotters win over the Washington Generals. Made it competitive.

Count me among the legions fawning over Connecticuts streak, which is now 13 games longer than anything John Wooden achieved. Excellence and the attendant work required should never be taken for granted. UConn lost its three best players this season they went 1-2-3 in the WNBA draft and was picked No. 3 in the country yet still rules the world, as if by habit.

Greatness is making the difficult look routine. If there were a word higher than greatness, wed use it in this case. The Huskies dont have to apologize for being 101-0. Everyone else does.

In the process of creating a kingdom all its own, Connecticut has turned the rest of womens college basketball into sharecroppers. In fashioning singular greatness, the Huskies have shown how far the rest of the league still has to go.

In 2015, 349 Division I schools had womens basketball teams. A total of 5,124 women took part. Each team could have a maximum of 15 players on scholarship. Not one school could find enough good players to at least compete with Connecticut?

Dominance requires partners. Otherwise, its just looking into a mirror. Given that womens college basketball has been ascendant for 25 years at least, why is itthat no school can come up with a roster that can keep UConn coach Geno Auriemma awake at night?

Here are some numbers. Here is statistical proof that UConn is the sneaker of womens basketball and everyone else is the bug:

Of the 100 wins, only two were by fewer than 10 points.

Twenty-five were by 50 points or more. Fifty-six were 40-plus. Fifty-six opponents were props. The average victory margin throughout 100-0: 38.4.

UConn is 9-0 this year against the top 5 teams in the country, winning by an average of 14. Earlier this year, the Huskies beat No. 20 South Florida, 102-37.

Cmon.

This isnt sports. Its performance art.

Why cant anyone give them a game? Why cant anyone given 15 scholarships and playing in a more prestigious league than the AAC recruit a roster capable of making the Huskies nervous? What does this say about the depth and breadth of talent in the womens game?

While we celebrate the greatness, shouldnt we also question the evolution?

The mens game is what it is now because no team dominates. March is Mad because none of us knows whose Moment might Shine. Seasons begin with a usual-suspects list of teams favored to win it all. But not even Kansas, Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina get automatic invites. And the fight for the crown always involves social strivers and climbers such as Butler, Villanova and, this year, Gonzaga.

There is mystery and genuine hope. Sports cant survive without both. There arent 38-point blowouts game after game.

I asked Scott Rogers about this. He coaches basketball at Mount Notre Dame. As the Cougars head coach, his teams have gone to the state title game three times and won it all twice. When Rogers was as an assistant, the Cougars won another. Rogers even sent a player, Mel Thomas, to UConn.

The frustrating part I see is teams subconsciously saying, If we stay within 10, weve done a good job, "Rogers said. Its almost like the streak has gotten inside the heads of some programs."

Rogers admires what Geno Auriemma has built. Not only does he get the top five players every year, he gets the top five he needs,"he said. But Rogers wonders if the lack of competition might turn off some fans. People dont want to watch people get beat by 50."

Thats the rub for the Huskies. Too good for everyone. Too good for their own sport.

See the rest here:

Doc: UConn's success speaks volumes on evolution of women's game - Cincinnati.com

With humans on the cusp self-evolution, a new report emphasizes the need for a societal conversation that were not likely to have.

Last week, a U.S. patent court and a prestigious science academy weighed in on a potent new method for editing human DNA with the funny-sounding name of Crispr-Cas9.

The media gave it the standard important science story treatment, with the Economist publishing a cover story about how gene editing and other reproductive techniques were replacing sex for making babies. This comes a couple of years after the customaty wow! stories that typically herald a major discovery like Crispr-Cas9, followed by a steady stream of reports about this technique that allows scientists to inexpensively cut and paste stretches of DNA almost at will.

Crispr-Cas9 is not, however, like most scientific discoveries. The culmination of decades of probing the secrets of whats encoded in our DNA, Crispr takes Homo sapiens on a new journey that almost certainly will allow us to do something weve long talked about, and have watched play out in science fiction films: the ability of a species (namely, us) to self-evolve.

We have within our grasp the technology to change evolution, said Paul Berg, a genetics pioneer from Stanford, about Crispr-tech. This could change the course of biological life.

Nor is Crispr-tech following the usual pattern of scientific and technological breakthroughs, which typically take decades or even centuries to perfect, and for society to absorb them.

For instance, it took us thirty or forty years to properly build and learn to use the Internet. Even with genetics, the pace has been one of mostly incremental discoveries over decades, with society very slowly absorbing the basics of the science, and what it means for real people beyond what they saw in Jurassic Park and Gattaca.

People now know that glitches in a persons DNA can cause cancer and rare and tragic diseases in children. And that genetics can tell you if youre predisposed to lactic intolerance (which you probably already knew), or if your ancestry is predominately Italian, Native American, or Southeast Asian.

Gene editing, however, is not following the usual, slow-roll-out pattern of most new discoveries. Crispr-Cas9 is still in its early days, but scientifically is moving at warp speed, playing out in years rather than decades.

Invented just five years ago, the technology allows DNA to be edited with an ease and at a lower cost than previous versions of the technology. Last year, a Pennsylvania high school senior named Michael Zhang even won a prestigious Intel Science Talent Search award for a project using Crispr.

The ability to cut and paste DNA virtually at will has tremendous promise to treat or cure diseases caused primarily by genetic glitches, such as Huntingtons Disease and sickle-cell anemia. The technology also has the potential to allow scientists to one day go beyond fixes for diseases to enhance people by editing in favorable traits like greater stamina, or possibly a higher IQ or good looks, although not right away.

Crispr stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, a natural process used by bacteria to remember the DNA of invading viruses so that that they can identify and destroy similar intruders, aided by DNA-slicing enzymes. In 2012 Jennifer Doudna of the University of California at Berkeley and Emmanuelle Charpentier of Swedens Umea University demonstrated in Science how to co-opt this process and intentionally edit DNA in any organism by using a slicer enzyme called Cas9.

Since Doudnas and Charpentiers breakthrough, a Crispr frenzy has generated thousands of scientific papers in hundreds of labs around the world. It has inspired the formation of companies like Editas, Intellia, and CRISPR Therapeutics that expect the gene editing market to one day generate billions of dollars. (All three companies have issued IPOs in record time). Last November, doctors began the first human trials in China using Crispr for patients with aggressive lung cancer.

Crispr-techs rapid deployment has also launched a brisk debate among scientists and bioethicists. In 2015, 18 prominent scientists and experts in law and ethicsled by Nobel Laureate David Baltimore and Jennifer Doudna published a call in Science magazine for a moratorium on some uses of this technology. As I reported at the time:

The group, which met in Napa, California, last January [2015] for a one-day summit, fretted about a possible slippery slope that might occur from using disease-curing applications that everyone wants, toward uses with less compelling or even troubling implications.They call on scientists to impose a voluntary stoppage while societal, environmental, and ethical implications of such activity are discussed among scientific and governmental organizations.

The group was particularly concerned about editing the germline cellsthe sperm and eggthat could pass alterations down to offspring. These are different than the somatic cells that make-up you and me and our organs and other body parts. They are not involved in reproduction, and wont impact progeny if edited.

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Not surprisingly, the Crispr-rush has led to a battle over rival patents. Last week, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued a 51-page ruling that sided with one of the first parties to file early patents, the Broad Institute in Boston. They won against an even early filer, the University of California at Berkeley. At issue was Berkeleys claim to patent uses of Crispr-Cas9 in all cells, versus the Broad claiming a patent for use in certain cells, including human cells. If this sounds confusing, it is, indicating that the legal wrangling over Crispr is just beginning.

Also last week the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) issued a 243-page report prepared after the call for the moratorium in 2015, and a subsequent international summit on gene editing held in December, 2015, in Washington, DC, sponsored by the NAS.

The report provides a detailed assessment of where the science is, and the ethical and societal issues. It lists a number of recommendations, most notably that in rare and limited cases, germline editing might be allowable to save lives, but only following much more research, according to the report, and only for compelling reasons and under strict oversight. One magazine called this a yellow light, although it does represent a big shift from traditional bioethics, which strictly forbade any modifications to the human germline.

The report is dense and written in academic-speak, but it does a good job of elucidating the science and the conundrums. It also cites polls suggesting that the public seems to be in favor of gene editing to treat grave illnesses and to save lives, but is very wary of using this technology for so-called "enhancement."

Last weeks pronouncements are important in beginning to create a scientific and societal undergirding for Crispr-tech. Yet we still seem a long way off from a societal zeitgeist. Even Hollywood has yet to start spinning Crispr-inspired plotlines, at least that Im aware of.

Nor does the politics of the moment bode well for a proper public conversation about Crispr-techor really about any new and fast-moving scientific enterprise that confronts us with a species-level set of risks and benefits. A failure to elevate this discussion, however, could cause this inevitable and rapidly moving technology to overrun our ability to absorb the implications, and our ability to make intelligent decisions about the future of us, our children, and humanity.

See the article here:

Gene Editing: The Next Step In Evolution - Daily Beast

Elizabeth Rcz knows she'll hear about the Sunday with a Scientist event for weeks.

Rcz, who is finishing her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's School of Biological Sciences, helps out with exhibits at the event and also gets to watch her 5-year-old son's reactions to the hands-on experiments.

"He loves it," she said. "He'll talk about the small things for days. ... He remembers the little details amazingly and sort of processes it over the next week."

On Sunday, the University of Nebraska State Museum celebrated Darwin Day with specialized exhibits focusing on evolution.

The celebration is part of the monthly Sunday with a Scientist series, where UNL students and professors set up interactive displays and games to get kids involved in science.

"It's always fun to see someone learn and take home a message from it," Abhilesh Dhawanjewar said.

He and Rudy Villegas, both graduate students at UNL's School of Biological Sciences, helped kids learn about plant seed dispersal by crafting miniature parachutes.

"What we really wanted to come up with was an activity with plants because everyone thinks they're really boring because they don't move," Villegas said. "We had a video, too, to try to kind of blow their minds with the cool stuff plants can do."

The event is beneficial for graduate students because it offers them an opportunity to share and talk about their work while also benefiting elementary-aged children, saidJen Shaughney, who helps to coordinate Sundays with a Scientist.

Each month has its own theme, so Shaughney said that with Darwin Day being on Feb. 12, it was a natural fit. About 150 to 300 people usually attend the event, which takes place on the third Sunday of every month.

LaVonne Uffelman, who brought her four grandchildren, enjoyed the variety of activities and had a hard time convincing the kids to leave.

"There's something for everyone," she said. "Even grandma got to learn something."

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Sunday with a Scientist makes evolution fun - Lincoln Journal Star

We're creating a positive news network. We need your help.

These worldwide protests have been a big wake-up call, and alerted masses of people to the fact that there are vast numbers who want change. People are starting to see that we all want the same things. But it is time to take the next step.

As long as there are demonstrations against what those in charge are doing, we the people send the message that we hope to be listened to and for their actions to change. We hope that these ones in control at the top will start to work for the same things we want: peace, health, freedom and harmony for all people, and care of the earth.

If that were their agenda, that is what we would already have.

Marching against their actions now in the hope that our outrage will make them change their behaviour is doing two things: placing our faith in these people, and threatening them. We are saying both, I believe you will listen and change your actions, and Youd better change your actions, or else!

That is where we will be pushed to. Those who have been in control all this time wont stop until they have no other choice. They hope to see things descend into chaos, so that people will look to them in desperation to create order again.

It is time now to move the choice away from them and onto us. We actually have a choice right now. To be free. The world we all want will not be made by the same peoplewhogot us to where we are today. It will be made by us.

We ourselves have placed conditions on our peace and freedom. We have believed that when we start earning enough, or have achieved xyz, or an event has happened, then we will feel peaceful and be free. True peace, happiness, and freedom dont appear as a result of outer conditions. They also cannot be found in any other moment than right now. This moment is all we truly ever have.

All of the chaos and unrest weve seen is happening toforce us to realize that we cant rely on outer conditions to bring our inner peace. It is happening so that we will turn within ourselves. There is a part of every one of us that is absolute peace, love, strength, and freedom. It cannot betaken away by anyone.

When Nelson Mandela was persecuted and jailed, did he lose himself to anger? When Jesus was ridiculed and killed, did he shout at those who were insulting him and cower in fear? When Mother Theresa saw the pain and suffering every day in Calcutta, did she become so traumatized she couldnt face it anymore and gave up? No. They had each been on their own journey within, and connected with the truth of who they were. They knew they could withstand anything and live in their truth.

I have seen this in working with survivors of trauma, and in myself when I was faced with my deepest pain. What I have seen is that when people go through something that feels like it just might break them, the way through it is to go within. All you want to do is run from the pain. You want to fight whoever caused it, eat, drink, or drug it away so you cant feel it, never leave the house again so you are never reminded of it, or throw yourself into work or partying to forget it.

You can never run far enough. Feelings of pain will never stop having a hold on you until you face them.

Going within means coming face to face with the pain whenever it hits you. Breathing through it. Allowing it to be there, part of your experience in that moment. Then something beautiful happens. The pain doesnt destroy you. And you realize that you are not the pain.

You are the eternal being underneath this pain, that can never be destroyed. You are a brave one that chose to come and live on this planet and be faced with pain like this so that you could learn through experience. You came here so that you could connect with the deep truth of who you are, and live that truth no matter what is going on around you. Now is the time to live that truth.

Find out why we are in the most important time in our history.

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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Will Protests Alone Produce The Evolution We Want? - Collective Evolution

A cautionary tale in evolutionary theory is coming straight from the horses mouth. When ancient horses diversified into new species, those bursts of evolution werent accompanied by drastic changes to horse teeth, as scientists have long thought.

A new evolutionary tree of horses reveals three periods when several new species emerged, scientists report in the Feb. 10 Science. The researchers found that changes in teeth morphology and body size didnt change very much during these periods of rapid speciation.

This knocks traditional notions that rapid diversification of new species comes with morphological diversification as well, says paleontologist Bruce MacFadden of the University of Florida in Gainesville. This is a very sophisticated and important paper.

The emergence of several new species in a relatively short time is often accompanied by the evolution of special new traits. Classic notions of evolution say that these traits such as longer teeth with extensive enamel are adaptive, enabling an animal to succeed in a particular environment. In horses, the evolution of such teeth might permit a shift from browsing on leafy, shrubby trees to grazing on grasses in open spaces with windblown dust and grit.

You cant live on a grassland as a grazer and have short teeth, says MacFadden, an expert in horse evolution. Youll wear your teeth down and thats not a recipe for success as a species.

Similarly, a big change in body size can indicate a move to a new environment. Animals that live in forests tend to be smaller and more solitary than the larger herd animals that live in open grasslands.

Paleontologist Juan Cantalapiedra and colleagues compiled decades of previous work to create an evolutionary tree of 138 horse species (seven of which exist today), spanning roughly 18 million years. The tree reveals three major branchings of new species: a North American burst between 15 million and 18 million years ago, and two bursts coinciding with dispersals into Eurasia about 11 million and 4.5 million years ago.

The researchers expected to see evidence of an adaptive radiation, major changes in teeth and body size that allowed the new horse species to succeed. But rates of body size evolution didnt differ much in sections of the family tree with low and high speciation rates. And rates of change in tooth characteristics were actually lower in sections of the tree with fast speciation rates, the team reports.

Its very tempting to see some change in body size, for example, and say, Oh, thats adaptive radiation, says Cantalapiedra, of the Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science at the Museum fr Naturkunde in Berlin. But thats not what we see.

Cantalapiedra and his collaborators speculate that during the periods of rapid speciation, the environment was so expansive and productive that there just wasnt a lot of competition to drive the evolution of adaptive traits. Perhaps, for example, North American grasslands were so rich and dense that there was enough energy for various species to evolve without having to develop traits that gave them an edge.

That scenario might be special to horses, says MacFadden, but it might not. Similarly, classic adaptive radiation scenarios might be true in many cases, but as this work shows, not always.

Read the original here:

Horses buck evolutionary ideas - Science News

BGR

How to obtain and use the new evolution items in Pokemon Go BGR Dozens of new Pokemon arrived in Pokemon Go this week, but in order to acquire some of them, you'll have to make use of the new evolution items that Niantic added to the game. In the following post, we're going to explain how exactly each of those ...

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How to obtain and use the new evolution items in Pokemon Go - BGR

New items, Evolution and Power Up mechanics explained with a flowchart.

By Chris Tapsell Published 17/02/2017

Once you've started collecting enough Pokmon, you'll want to turn your attention to evolving and Powering Up to discover new creatures and make them strong enough to defend and capture Gyms. It's a surprisingly complicated decision to make, now that we know more about how complex Pokmon Go can be, so we'll start at the beginning by explaining how the evolution process works and what you should be paying attention to, before talking about when you should evolve and when you should Power Up those Pokmon.

The higher the CP, the more powerful a Pokmon will be in battle. As you play and collect Pokemon, you'll discover that not every capture has the same CP level. You can read on what CP means in Pokemon Go and how to get the highest values for your team, but in short, CP is one of the most important factors when it comes to fighting, and aside from collecting it's likely the driving force behind your desire to Power Up or evolve.

Because of those complexities surrounding your Pokmon's CP, Powering Up and evolving is more than just a case of picking the one with the highest CP and throwing your Stardust and Candy at it until you run dry. As you'll see below, sometimes you should Power Up your Pokmon first, sometimes you should evolve it first, sometimes both, and sometimes you should leave it alone.

Powering up and evolving Pokmon requires in-game resources known as Stardust and Candy. Stardust is a shared resource you receive for each Pokmon you catch, for storing Pokmon at Gyms and leveling up, while Candy is an item specific to that species - so Pikachu Candy, Pidgey Candy and so on. We've assembled some quick tips on how to get Candy in Pokmon Go here, plus how to get Stardust easily to strengthen your Pokmon.

In short, the more Pokmon of one type you catch, the more Candy you get to power up and evolve that species in its family, so it's well worth catching those low level Pidgeys to get that eventual Pidgeot evolution. Remember you can use in-game radar to locate and catch the Pokemon nearby, as well as discover Pokemon Type by location using real-world habitats.

As well as using Candy to evolve creatures, as part of the Gen 2 update certain evolutions - for existing and new Pokemon - also require a special item to evolve into certain forms. These are:

There are several important points worth bearing in mind for when you're looking to Power Up your Pokmon:

As with Powering Up, there are some important things to bear in mind for evolving your Pokmon.

We've decided to put together a flowchart, which should hopefully clear up what is a fairly complicated decision-making process for you! All the information you need is here - such as an IV calculator, CP and IVs explained, and a list of the best Pokmon in Pokmon Go - if you need it. Beneath the chart are the rules we've applied, but in text form.

You should Power Up your Pokmon if:

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.

You should evolve your Pokmon if:

You should avoid Powering Up your Pokmon if:

You should avoid evolving your Pokmon if:

Essentially, the Power Up and evolving decisions that you make depend on what you want to achieve. For the collectors it's fairly simple - just evolve the Pokmon whose evolutions are particularly rare - but for those interested in getting the absolute most out of their Pokmon's battling capabilities, it's certainly less so.

Read more:

Pokmon Go - How to evolve, use Special Items, when to evolve or Power Up your Pokmon - Eurogamer.net