Daily Archives: February 12, 2017

For 600m years, life has been responding to our changing world. Virtually every conceivable environment in every corner of the planet has been occupied as animals and plants have diversified. Environmental shifts and mass extinctions produce new evolutionary opportunities for organisms to exploit as they compete for survival.

But how do organisms grasp these opportunities? Do they evolve new traits in response to the pressures of new environments, or are they able to move into new habitats because they have already evolved the right adaptations? Much of evolutionary study rests on the the former idea being right. Yet a new study of the development of horses is the latest in a growing body of research that suggests the answer to this chicken-egg situation may be more complicated.

The chances of an organisms survival in a new habitat are governed by the areas biological and environmental conditions and whether these are compatible with the organisms basic requirements (its ecological niche). If they are compatible, the organism may be able to persist, adapt and thrive. The more specialised an organisms ecological niche, the harder it may be to move into a new environment.

For example, the caterpillars of the monarch butterfly feed almost exclusively on milkweed. Its hard to imagine the caterpillars successfully colonising a new habitat that doesnt have this vital food source. Another point to consider is that just because an organism can survive in a new environment doesnt necessarily mean it will be able to get there. For example, it would be practically impossible for polar bears to naturally spread from the North Pole to Antarctica.

Much of our understanding of how organisms evolve new traits to occupy new environments and ecological niches comes from the study of adaptive radiations. An adaptive radiation is the evolutionary process by which organisms rapidly diverge from a common ancestor into multiple different forms. There are numerous charismatic examples documented, including: Darwins finches on the Galapogos Islands, cichlid fish in the lakes of East Africa, and Anolis lizards on the Caribbean islands.

From this kind of research it has been shown that adaptive radiations are primarily driven by ecological opportunity, the chance for a species to thrive when its environmental circumstances change. Examples of these opportunities include filling a vacant niche after a mass extinction event when it has fewer competitors or predators, or taking advantage of a newly available resource.

As animals and plants exploit these ecological opportunities, we would expect them to go through rapid physical changes as they adapt to their new environments. The pace of change would then slow over time as the opportunities run out. This prediction has formed the basis of much of evolutionary research, although studies are beginning to question the validity of our assumptions.

The evolution of horses is remarkably well documented in the fossil record and is a textbook example of how evolutionary success is linked to trait evolution. Over the past 50m years, horses have evolved from dog-sized forest dwellers into the modern animals we know.

Along the way they have accumulated numerous environmental advantages, such as teeth adapted for grazing and modified hooves for speed. Although there are only seven species from this adaptive radiation alive today (the horse, donkey, plains zebra, mountain zebra, Grvys zebra, kiang, and onager), fossils of hundreds of extinct species have been unearthed.

Now a new study published in Science has looked at the last 18m years of horse evolution to ask whether the origin of new horse species was linked with rapid physical changes. As you would expect, horse evolution has seen bursts of diversification when there have been new ecological opportunities. These opportunities included increased food availability, which meant larger and more varied populations of horses could be sustained.

Another ecological opportunity horses exploited was being able to migrate from America to Siberia across the Bering land bridge. From there they were able to colonise Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.

But the fossil record shows these bursts of horse diversification didnt follow the rapid evolution of new physical traits such as body size and teeth shape. Horses didnt need to change to be able to colonise the Old World, presumably because they were already adapted to similar grassland habitats in America.

The physical features that distinguish modern horse species in different locations evolved later. They are likely to be a result of short-term responses to extreme environmental conditions and shifts in resource availability.

The results of this latest study not only increase our understanding of the evolutionary history of one of the most successful lineages of mammals on earth, but also adds to our broader knowledge of when and why organisms adapt to their environment. When it comes to evolutions which comes first? question, the answer is probably both.

Luke Dunning, Postdoctoral research associate, University of Sheffield

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

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How the horse can help us answer one of evolution's biggest questions - Raw Story

More order with less judgment: An optimal theory of the evolution of cooperation Science Daily Date: February 7, 2017; Source: University of Vienna; Summary: Mathematicians present a new optimal theory of the evolution of reputation-based cooperation. This team demonstrates that the practice of making moral assessments conditionally is very ...

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More order with less judgment: An optimal theory of the evolution of cooperation - Science Daily

Chicago Sun-Times

Evolution of baseball from power to speed has left SBs behind Chicago Sun-Times Evolution of baseball from power to speed has left SBs behind. The Cubs' Javy Baez tags out the Indians' Francisco Lindor on a stolen-base attempt during Game 5 of the World Series last season at Wrigley Field. | Jamie Squire/Getty Images. By Ronald ... and more »

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Evolution of baseball from power to speed has left SBs behind - Chicago Sun-Times

A hidden reference to the TV show allows you choose the way Eevee evolves.

By Matthew Reynolds Published 10/02/2017

How to evolve Eevee has proven to be one of the bigger talking points in Pokmon Go so far.

In the classic Pokmon games, Eevee can evolve into different elemental varieties based on the use of special items, its happiness level, moves it has available and even the time of day.

With the addition of Candy in Pokmon Go, the way you evolve Pokmon is much simpler, and as such, you cannot use the tried-and-tested method of using one of three elemental stones to turn Eevee into Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon. (Some are better than others depending on the situation - find out which you should get first with our Best Pokmon in Pokmon Go page, and our Pokmon Go Type Chart for their relative strengths and weaknesses.)

Once you have caught enough Eevees to evolve one - our pages on finding Pokemon by location, finding which Pokemon hatch from which eggs and locating Pokmon nests near you can help - a neat trick discovered by fans of the game on Reddit will get you the evolution you need.

If you choose to evolve Eevee without any meddling - by feeding it 25 Eevee candy - then it'll turn to one of the above three types at random. However, users have discovered a trick that allows you to target Flareon, Jolteon or Vaporeon, by renaming it in one of the following ways:

Why Sparky, Rainer and Pyro? These are the names of the Eevee brothers from the Pokmon television show, who meet with Ash and the gang in episode 40 to show off their respective Eevee evolutions:

Once you have called your Eevee into one of the above names, you should quit and reload the app to double check the name change has taken place, which is important considering the servers can lean to be on the unreliable side.

Once you've double checked the new name is indeed in place, then evolve the Eevee as you would any other Pokmon by feeding it Candy, and it should take the form of your chosen type.

You can see the trick in action below - and once you're done, you might be interested in reading about other secrets and Easter eggs in Pokemon Go too:

Note that while plenty of users have had success with this method - and that it's been confirmed by developer Niantic itself at this year's San Diego Comic Con - there are a handful of cases where it hasn't worked every time. Some say the trick will only work on the first time you evolve the creature, while others might have caught fowl of server issues not renaming their successfully first time, so be sure to check before you try.

Want more help with Pokmon Go? Read our Pokmon Go tips, tricks, cheats and guides for insights on how to improve your skills, including triggering the Eevee evolution with names for Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon, distances for both hatching Eggs at 2km, 5km and 10km and for the Buddy system, where to find Pokmon Go nests in London and beyond, as well as recent updates including new baby Pokmon, finding Ditto and the the seasonal Valentine's Day event update.

If you want to get your hands on one of Eevee's many other evolution in Pokmon Go, you can't just yet.

Unfortunately you can't get all of these evolutions in Pokmon Go right now.

Pokmon Go only features Pokdex entries from the Kanto region - in other words, the original 151 creatures from Red, Blue and Yellow - which means Eevee can only evolve into Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon for now.

It'll be interesting to see how game expands to cover more creatures in time, and if so, if there are any tricks required to access these other elemental types.

More here:

Pokmon Go Eevee evolution: How to evolve Eevee into Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon with new names - Eurogamer.net

Sunday is International Darwin Day the 208th anniversary of the birth of naturalist Charles Robert Darwin, whose 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, began a controversy that exists to this day.

Sunday also is being proclaimed as Take Darwin to Church Day in various parts of the world. Leaders of the movement, which was initiated by the Council for Secular Humanism, suggest that churches invite science advocates to speak to their congregations.

Darwin has been lauded and maligned over the past 150 years, depending on ones point of view.

Although some religious organizations stridently oppose biological evolution, other groups accept evolution with a twist: they allow for theological considerations.

Theistic evolution, also known as theistic evolutionism or evolutionary creation, allows for the belief that God is the creator of the universe and all life and that evolution is a tool that God used to create human life. That includes astronomical, geological, chemical and biological evolution.

In 2014, Pope Francis suggested a link between evolution and creation. Said Francis: God is not a demiurge or a conjurer, but the Creator who gives being to all things. The beginning of the world is not the work of chaos that owes its origin to another, but derives directly from a supreme Origin that creates out of love. The Big Bang, which nowadays is posited as the origin of the world, does not contradict the divine act of creating, but rather requires it. The evolution of nature does not contrast with the notion of Creation, as evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve.

A survey conducted by Pew Research last year found that while 98 percent of scientists associated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science believe humans evolved over time, only 62 percent of Americans overall believe that to be the case.

Among those least likely to believe in human evolution, according to the survey, were evangelical Protestants (57 percent) and Mormons (52 percent.)

In 2008, the Church of England acknowledged it was overly defensive when it dismissed Darwins ideas. In its public apology, the church compared its dismissiveness of Darwins theories to its rejection of Galileos astronomical observations in the 17th century.

Over time, a number of myths about Darwin have cropped up. In response to a request by LNP, Josh Fischel, who teaches religion in the philosophy department at Millersville University, debunked five myths about Charles Darwin.

1. Charles Darwin was an atheist.

While he despised the orthodoxy of traditional religious practices, his writings suggest that he was a deist not an atheist.

2. Charles Darwin had a deathbed conversion to religion.

Its untrue. This myth was started by a woman who never had met Darwin, but who sought to profit from telling a story about this end-of-life conversion experience.

3. The existence of humans is the goal of evolution.

Not true. The purpose of evolution, if you will, is more evolution.

4. The common claim that its just a theory implies that its some kind of speculation.

In fact it is a scientific theory. But scientific theories explain, through the gathering of evidence (in this case, from embryology, archaeology, genetics, etc.) observations we make about the natural world.

In fact, evolution is a descriptive scientific theory that helps us to better understand and predicate the nature and origin of life, but makes no pretensions to how we ought to act or what we should strive for as individuals and as a society.

Read more here:

A primer on Darwin Day: Some religious groups embrace 'Theistic evolution' - LancasterOnline

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94% of all sexual assault cases go unreported and 1 in 4 North American women will be raped (source). These statistics sadly arent much of a shock when you consider how much the media and society sexualize women. Given the enormity of thestigma surrounding rape culture, do you really blame survivorsor their rapists for not wanting to come forward?

Society often pities rape survivors, deeming them as damagedor even blaming them for what happened. Women are told their skirts were too high or that they must have somehow been asking for it. In some situations, survivors could even be killed for reporting their perpetrators. Its rare for rapists toown up to their crimes as well because theyre ostracized and dehumanized, as society has so little compassion for them even though they arguably need it most.

Survivor Thordis Elva and her rapist Tom Stranger are challenging that stigma together by discussing both sides of the story: from the rapists and the survivors perspectives. Although they both took part in the same story, they had opposingexperiences, which in turn affectedtheir lives very differently. In hopes of inspiring other rape victims and rapists to face their inner struggles, they gave a Ted Talk together.

If youve been raped, it can be easy (and completely understandable) to place the blame on yourself, be embarrassed, angry, or ashamed, suppress your emotions, or misplace your despairon others, or even worse, on yourself.

However, as Thordis so kindly points out, the only thing thatcouldve stopped me from being raped that night is the man who raped me. At the end of the day, you cannot control another persons actions. Yes, you have the power to manifest and create your own reality, but so does everyone else. Theres no point in over-analyzing or regretting youractions because the victims actions areultimatelyneverthe cause of rape.

As Tom says, Far too often the responsibility is attributed to female survivors of sexual violence and not the males who enact it. Far too often the denial and running leaves all parties at a great distance from the truth.

Part of the issue with rape culture is the victimization of sexual assault survivors and the immense amount of judgementplaced on the perpetrators. This prevents both parties from feeling comfortable in expressing their emotions or sharing their experiences with others.

Yes, the rapist is responsible for his or her actions and the blame should never be placed on the victim,but just because the rapist committed a violent act doesnt make him or her a bad person. Souls that succumb to violence are simply lost, so instead of judging them for their actions we need to help themsee their actions for what they trulyare.

Plus, by referring to survivors as victims, we further perpetuate the idea that rape survivors are somehow less than those who havent suffered similar traumas. This also encourages survivors to live in victim consciousness, the state whereby we continuously think poor me and ask ourselves, Why me?

As Thordis explains,Labels are a way to organize concepts, but they can also be dehumanizing in their connotations. Once someones been deemed a victim, its that much easier to file them away as someone damaged, dishonoured, less than. Likewise, when someones been deemed a rapist its that much easier to call them a monster, inhuman.

Since we encourage survivors to accept theirrole as the victim of sexual assault, this can cause survivors to place blame and anger on their attackers. Its natural to want to blame someone, even hate someone, when they hurt you, and its important to feel these emotions rather than suppress them. However, when you spend a lotof your energy thinking negatively about someone else, you are hurting no one but yourself.

As Buddha said, You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger. Forgiveness is one of the best ways to overcome anger, as it allows you to find the light within darkness. Evenif you dont think your rapist deserves your forgiveness, recognize that you deserve it.

Thordis found forgiveness through contacting her rapist, Tom. She wrote him a letter outlining her feelings and terrifying experiences that night, which proved to be very therapeutic for her. To her surprise, Tom responded explaining that he too had been trapped in a silent prison, just as she had. He hadnt spoken to anyone about the events that occurred that night, and neither had she.

Thordis, from Iceland, and Tom, from Australia, decided to meet partway in Capetown, South Africa, to discuss what had happened in person. They found solace in talking through the horrific events that transpired that night, and ended up extendingcompassion to one another.

I think its easier for many people to relate to Thordis pain, as she was the one who wasraped. We often hear the story from the survivors perspective, so its easier, in a sense, to paint that type of image in our heads. However, the fact of the matter is, 1 in 16 men are rapists, so odds are that youve met someone or are even friends or related to someone whos a rapist.

If you found out your father or your lover was a rapist, would you still consider them the same person? Does one single act have the potential to define our entire self? If someone commits an act of violence, I dont think this reflects their inner Self, but rather is a product of societal or behavioural issues. This is why I think Toms message is so crucial for us to reflect upon.

Tom was always too ashamed of what hed done to face it. He justified his actions by suppressing his true feelings, which in turn forced him to continuously feel like he needed to convince himself that he was a good person.

When he was finally ready to face his actions and take responsibility for what hed done, he referred to it as a paradox of ownership, saying: I thought Id buckle under the weight of responsibility and I thought my certificate of humanity would be burned. Instead, I was offered to really own what I did and found that it didnt possess the entirety of who I am. Put simply, something youve done doesnt have to constitute the sum of who you are.

Have you ever made a mistake that forced you to really question your humanity? We want to believe that everything we should do is right, which is why labelling our actions as right or wrong can lead to suffering. However, our humanity isnt defined only by that which we perceive as being right. Everything we do is human; our mistakes dont dehumanize us, theyre part of what makes us human in the first place.

Im not suggesting that every immoral act can be justified by simply stating, Im only human. To be honest, I think that statement is used far too often to bypass our emotions and avoid dealing with our problems. However, if you do something that you consider wrong, I dont think that makes you any less human.

As Thordis explains,But how will we understand what it is in human societies that produces violence if we refuse to recognize the humanity of those who commit it?

You can watch the full Ted Talk below:

Thordis and Toms story serves as a beautiful reminder that we are all capable of forgiveness. Even in our darkest moments where our sorrows feel as though they will define us forever, we can still find hope.

As souls, we come here to gain experience. However, the human experience is one that exists within a dualistic world, so we are bound to experience some darkness. Some of our darker experiences our souls actually want to go through (which may seem unimaginable now) so we can develop insight and learn more about ourselves.

In theory, prior to this lifetime, your soul could have asked another soul to commit a wrongdoing to you here on Earth so you could learn from it. Every experience is ultimately a learning opportunity, and some may have been predetermined by your soul contracts. Many of your perceivably darker moments in life arent being done to you, but rather for you. Everything serves you.

Even though these violent acts are indeeda part of humanity, its important to note that theydont reflect our true selves.We are not only the outer human shells that are governed by emotions; we are the souls that inhabit them as well.

One of the biggest problems cancer patients face is that their doctors aren't telling them everything they need to know and patients don't know the right questions to ask.

Our friend (and 13-year cancer survivor) Chris Wark just finished creating a free guide for cancer patients and their loved ones called 20 Questions For Your Oncologist.

Follow this link:

This Woman Was Raped & Forgave Him, So They Did A Ted Talk Together - Collective Evolution

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What is love? is perhaps one of the most pondered questions of our existence. Is it a feeling? An emotion? Is it who we are? Is it something we all feel? Love can make us feel and do many different things in our lives and today were going to explore the idea that there may be two types of love: healthy love and unhealthy love.

To set up the context for this exploration, lets quickly define whats going on here. Generally we hear love defined as either conditional or unconditional. Conditional love would be loving something based on a certain set of conditions being met. i.e. I only love this person if they do this for me, if they dont, then I dont love them.

Unconditional love would be more so regardless of your choices and the fact that they may have caused me to experience painful emotions, I still love you because I recognize the purpose of our journey. Note, this does not mean unconditional love means sacrificing, staying in unhealthy relationships or abuse etc. It simply means the feeling of love is always there. Like a mother or father loving their child.

Leaving the ideas of conditional and unconditional love aside for a moment, lets look at two types of love.

Unhealthy love can be seen as giving up aspects of yourself simply to please someone that you might be with. It can also come when you depend on the other person or need them for your own happiness or joy. Unhealthy love can be addictive and keep you locked up in stagnant periods of life where you use this form of love to avoid moving past your own challenges. Simply, unhealthy love is more about what the minds idea of love is. It can often involve playing games, manipulation, sacrifice and so on, all of which you will notice is quite draining to do, yet you cant let it go.

Healthy love is something that is mutual between two people and no one gives themselves up to experience it. It is based on a feeling within versus whats going on on the outside. Its about allowing your partner to go through their own experiences and not judge them. Support them and understand them regardless of if they may have triggered a button within you. Together, you are open, can communicate and grow. You dont need each other but simply work as a team to move through life.

The bottom line is, whatever experience you are having now is totally fine. Why? Because even if it isnt entirely what you want, it plays the role of showing you how you feel when you are outside of your souls desires. Accept the experience you have right now and thank it for showing you another colour of life.

To transform your experience of love, look at the many facets of unhealthy love and see if any apply to you. If they do, reflect on each piece and find the source of why you feel its there. For example, if you feel you are addicted to your partner or need them around, ask yourself why that is. Writing things down and reflecting on it or talking to a person with experience in moving past the challenge can also help.

In the end you are looking to find out why you are feeding that need for the other person (or whatever challenge is unique to you). It could be because you dont feel complete within yourself. It could be because of a past pain or reluctance to put yourself out there. Whatever the case may be, as you reflect and become aware of it you understand more about yourself and in turn can choose to move beyond it and process those emotions.

One of the biggest problems cancer patients face is that their doctors aren't telling them everything they need to know and patients don't know the right questions to ask.

Our friend (and 13-year cancer survivor) Chris Wark just finished creating a free guide for cancer patients and their loved ones called 20 Questions For Your Oncologist.

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The Difference Between Healthy Love & Unhealthy Love - Collective Evolution