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Daily Archives: February 13, 2017
Editorial: Brown puts political correctness above jobs – Daily Astorian
Posted: February 13, 2017 at 9:27 am
In an astoundingly ignorant and heavy-handed display of putting urban political correctness ahead of rural jobs, Gov. Kate Brown last week dictated that the citizen members of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission reverse their January decision that gave commercial fishermen a minimally fair share of the Columbia Rivers salmon allocation.
Addressing commissioners as if they are misbehaving children, Brown told Chairman Michael Finley the commission majoritys acknowledgment of reality is not acceptable and that I expect the commission to acquiesce to her interpretation of the facts by April 3.
The commission agreed at a meeting on Friday in Tigard to take up the issue in March.
Many of the most important facts are not in dispute: Former Gov. John Kitzhabers dictated abandonment of decades of carefully nuanced salmon policy has not worked. Kicking commercial fishermen off the Columbias main stem as of Dec. 31, 2016, as Kitzhabers plan called for, is manifestly unjust and will hurt the economy of Clatsop County and other fishing-dependent communities.
Fish and Wildlife Commission members are in an infinitely better position to judge the ineffectiveness of salmon policies than is the governor. They know that alternatives such as seine nets operated from boats and the shore have been a clear disappointment. Off-channel locations where nets might be deployed to catch only hatchery fish are in short supply. State legislators and agencies have failed to keep financial promises to fishing families.
The commissions former chairman was enthusiastic in applauding the January vote to back away from a rigid deadline to transition gillnets off the river. Salmon gillnets, in modern usage, are not the walls of death railed against by the governors urban friends, but are instead carefully crafted to catch a strictly limited number of hatchery salmon. Time, area and gear restrictions including live recovery boxes for any accidentally caught naturally spawning salmon limit impacts on wild fish.
In truth, the anti-gillnetting drive has never been about conservation, but about salving tender Portland sensitivities while delivering more salmon to recreational fishermen, especially those affiliated with the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, which owes its existence to fat-cat Texas oilmen.
Browns interference in this matter is a prime example of why some Democrats now struggle to connect with working people. Yes, all Oregonians want recreational fishing to prosper. But by rejecting any compromise on behalf of hardworking commercial fishermen, Brown places herself solidly against jobs for struggling rural voters. We all should remember that come Election Day.
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Editorial: Brown puts political correctness above jobs - Daily Astorian
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How evolution alters biological invasions – Phys.Org
Posted: at 9:22 am
February 13, 2017 by Todd B. Bates A paramecium, one of the protozoans used in the Rutgers evolution and invasions experiment. Credit: Peter J. Morin
Biological invasions pose major threats to biodiversity, but little is known about how evolution might alter their impacts over time.
Now, Rutgers University scientists have performed the first study of how evolution unfolds after invasions change native systems.
The experimental invasionselaborate experiments designed by doctoral student Cara A. Faillace and her adviser, Professor Peter J. Morintook place in glass jars suitable for savory jam or jelly, with thousands of microscopic organisms on each side. After entering the jarsuncharted territory - the invaders won some battles and lost some against the "natives."
"Oftentimes, we know the initial impacts of invasive species but we don't know the long-term impactsif things will get better or worse," said Morin, a distinguished professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution & Natural Resources in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. "Cara found that both things can happen, and it will depend a lot on the details of the biology of the species that's introduced and the biology of the community that's invaded."
The Rutgers scientists coauthored a study"Evolution Alters the Consequences of Invasions in Experimental Communities"that was published recently in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Typically, biological invasions unfold when humans introduce exotic species - either accidentally or on purpose - into areas where they are not native, Faillace said. Invasive species, a subset of exotic species, usually are ecologically or economically harmful.
"Invasions can cause extinctions and that's been documented globally," she said. "They can also reduce diversity through competition, predation and when they introduce a pathogen."
In their study, the Rutgers researchers compared the performance of populations of resident and invading species before and after they interacted, and potentially evolved, for about 200 to 400 generations. They used two different groups of resident species consisting of aquatic bacteria, ciliates - protozoans with hair-like projections called ciliaand rotifers, organisms with cilia-laced mouths and retractable feet. The ciliates and rotifers were collected from Bamboo Pond in Rutgers Gardens in New Brunswick.
For the nearly two-year experiments, one species from each group was designated as an invader of the other community. One group had five ciliates and a rotifer. The other group had three different ciliates and a different rotifer.
The organisms' worlds were loosely lidded 8.5-ounce jarsabout the size of a jelly jar. The jars contained food, vitamins, sterile water and two sterile wheat seeds for extra nutrients.
There were likely hundreds of thousands of protozoans in a microcosm, or jar, and populations turned over fairly quickly, with many chances for mutations, Morin said.
"Every time an individual divides, it's still alive and it takes six to 24 hours for most of these organisms to reproduce," he said.
The study's results showed that the microbes' interactions altered the performance of the resident and invading species, and the researchers think evolution led to differences in performance.
A couple of species were abundant in the beginning but went extinct (they could not be found in the jar) after being invaded, Faillace added.
In nature, most biological invasions are accidental, Morin said.
"It took several tries to get the European starling in North America established, and that was intentional," he said. "Now they're the bane of every native bird."
"Gypsy moths were brought to North America by someone who wanted to see if they could establish a silk industry using gypsy moths," Morin said. "The cage they were kept in was damaged, they were released and the rest is history."
Yet many organisms, such as the emerald ash borer, which kills ash trees, get introduced accidentally through commerce, Faillace said. They include the Asian longhorned beetle, which also attacks and kills trees and likely arrived in shipping containers or pallets.
Biological invasions are especially damaging when a predator or pathogen is introduced and when native species have never encountered a predator, the scientists said.
Climate change is a major factor in biological invasions and its impact is likely increasing, Faillace said.
"Presumably as climate shifts, the species that can invade will change or the ranges of species that have invaded will change," she said.
"The bottom line is that we should expect to see changes in the impacts of invasive species as invaders and native species evolve over time," Morin said.
Explore further: Predator or not? Invasive snails hide even when they don't know
More information: Cara A. Faillace et al, Evolution alters the consequences of invasions in experimental communities, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2016). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-016-0013
Recognizing the signs of a predator can mean the difference between living to see another day and becoming another critter's midday snack.
Biological invasions get less prime-time coverage than natural disasters, but may be more economically damaging and warrant corresponding investments in preparedness and response planning, according to three biologists writing ...
The second longest river in the UK, the River Thames, contains 96 non-native species, making it one of the most highly invaded freshwater systems in the world.
When non-native herbivores invade new geographic regions, the consequences can be devastating to the native plants. Epidemic levels of herbivory damage may ensue because the delicate biological interactions that keep everything ...
Invasions from alien species such as Japanese Knotweed and grey squirrels threaten the economies and livelihoods of residents of some of the world's poorest nations, new University of Exeter research shows.
For the first time it is now possible to get a comprehensive overview of which alien species are present in Europe, their impacts and consequences for the environment and society. More than 11,000 alien species have been ...
Biological invasions pose major threats to biodiversity, but little is known about how evolution might alter their impacts over time.
From eyes the size of basketballs to appendages that blink and glow, deep-sea dwellers have developed some strange features to help them survive their cold, dark habitat.
Growing up in tough conditions can make wild animals live longer, new research suggests.
Cells need to repair damaged DNA in our genes to prevent the development of cancer and other diseases. Our cells therefore activate and send "repair-proteins" to the damaged parts within the DNA. To do this, an elaborate ...
Previous studies of flocks, swarms, and schools suggest that animal societies may verge on a "critical" pointin other words, they are extremely sensitive and can be easily tipped into a new social regime. But exactly how ...
A team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has discovered how a promising malarial vaccine target - the protein RH5 - helps parasites to invade human red blood cells. Published today in Nature Communications, the study ...
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How the horse can help us answer one of evolution’s biggest questions – Phys.Org
Posted: at 9:22 am
February 13, 2017 by Luke Dunning, The Conversation Credit: Shutterstock
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 organism's survival in a new habitat are governed by the area's biological and environmental conditions and whether these are compatible with the organism's basic requirements (its ecological niche). If they are compatible, the organism may be able to persist, adapt and thrive. The more specialised an organism's 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. It's hard to imagine the caterpillars successfully colonising a new habitat that doesn't have this vital food source. Another point to consider is that just because an organism can survive in a new environment doesn't 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: Darwin's finches on the Galapagos 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.
Horse history
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, Grvy's 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 didn't follow the rapid evolution of new physical traits such as body size and teeth shape. Horses didn't 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 evolution's "which comes first?" question, the answer is probably both.
Explore further: Climate change responsible for rapid expansion of horse species over last 20 million years
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
A team of international researchers, led by Colorado State University's Michael Gavin, have taken a first step in answering fundamental questions about human diversity.
Exceptionally well-preserved fossil communities are always exciting, but some are more interesting than others. Fossils from particularly important times or environments can tell palaeontologists much more than those from ...
Humans may have ritualistically "killed" objects to remove their symbolic power, some 5,000 years earlier than previously thought, a new international study of marine pebble tools from an Upper Paleolithic burial site in ...
A new study has revealed that gills originated much deeper in evolutionary history than previously believed. The findings support the idea that gills evolved before the last common ancestor of all vertebrates, helping facilitate ...
Excavations in a cave on the cliffs west of Qumran, near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, prove that Dead Sea scrolls from the Second Temple period were hidden in the cave, and were looted by Bedouins in the middle ...
On a recent afternoon, a small group of students gathered around a large table in one of the rooms at the Stanford Archaeology Center.
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How the horse can help us answer one of evolution's biggest questions - Phys.Org
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See the Evolution of Movie Magic With Every Oscar Winner for … – Gizmodo
Posted: at 9:22 am
GIF
The Academy Awards are almost here and many people will be talking about red carpet fashion, comedic monologues, and who got robbed. But few will be paying attention to the most important awards categoryBest Visual Effects. This supercut pulls together all the past winners into a nice little reminder of how much has changed in the field, and how much visual effects changed the way movies are made.
Technically, the Oscar for Best Visual Effects has only been around since 1963. Before that, there was a category for Best Special Effects, an award that was shared by the visual and sound effects teams. But going back to the beginning of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, effects were recognized as a crucial part of filmmaking and in 1927, Wings received a special honor for Engineering Effects.
Along the way, thereve been a lot of no-brainer winners that set a new bar for effects like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and Jurassic Park. But there were also some surprising choices in there. Do you remember Innerspace? Id forgotten about it entirely but I think it was good. And can we talk about E.T. beating out Blade Runner? I love E.T. as much as anyone but I just dont see its effects as anywhere close to the Ridley Scott classic.
In two weeks, Deepwater Horizon, Doctor Strange, The Jungle Book, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will face off for the award. Until then, catch up on all the past winners below.
[Burger Fiction]
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See the Evolution of Movie Magic With Every Oscar Winner for ... - Gizmodo
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Community Viewpoint: Evolution, like gravity, is much more than theory it is a fact – Kdminer
Posted: at 9:22 am
Jason Cassella/Kingman Resident
In Blake Boggesss opinion piece that evolution is false he made several mistakes, assumptions, and plainly misinformed the public.
He says that evolution has never been observed. This is flat out false. There have been many cases where evolution has been observed in real time, including in species such as fish, moths, and foxes, to name but a few. But the most simple example: why do you think you have to get a different flu shot every year, or that there is a threat that antibiotics might not be as effective as they once were? Its because viruses and bacteria evolve; and we observe this in real time. You are entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts.
As far as the claim that scientists have not found the missing link, this is misconstrued. There have been many discoveries of intermediate species of human ancestors, over 29, and more are being discovered. The logic of even finding the missing link is outdated and fallacious. When one is found, it creates two more empty spaces around it. Think about it this way. If you lined up every human ancestor back to the divergence from the other apes (yes we are an ape; Homo sapiens means wise ape), 6 to 8 million years ago, you would be hard pressed to see an overt split from one species to another; its that gradual. Finding the missing link therefore, even if we found thousands, would mean that there would be an incalculable many more empty spots. It is a project of infinite regress.
As far as the unknown. Evolution doesnt have the answer for abiogenesis, or the beginning of life. It doesnt claim to. But it has proven that all of life on this planet related. We prove this genetically, through fossils, through observation, and more. The science is settled. Evolution is as much a theory as gravity: its a fact.
The argument that evolution is wrong because God created us is following just a few branches of Christianity (and other religions), mostly prominently Protestant Evangelical Christianity. But evolution is not incompatible with religion, exemplified by the Catholic churchs acceptance of the theory of evolution by natural selection. I personally know a Methodist preacher who is also an evolutionary biologist. The argument is partisan and doesnt hold.
Think of evolution this way: for thousands of years humans have bred animals and plants into various breeds and forms. Nature works the same way through natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, death and sexual selection. Its actually a very simple and elegant idea. Its one of the very best ideas and discoveries of our species.
Just think of the beauty of it. Mountains of evidence shows that at several points there were different hominins living on the planet at the same time. Just imagine coming across different human species, and what that must have been like. And genetically we can even see that if you go back far enough, were related even to the tree in your front yard, much less jelly fish and elephants. Its amazing really. Life is wondrous.
Evolution is the cornerstone of not just all of biology but of other scientific disciplines as well, based on change over time. The science is settled, and those rare few scientists that disagree are a certain brand of Creationists, who ironically attempt to use evolution to prove intelligent design. Those who flat out refuse evolution are of one of a few sects of religion and have none or no pertinent scientific background.
As Neil deGrasse Tyson so very well said, Science is true whether you believe it or not.
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Community Viewpoint: Evolution, like gravity, is much more than theory it is a fact - Kdminer
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China Is Now The World’s Largest Producer of Solar Power … – Collective Evolution
Posted: at 9:22 am
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Unlike fossil fuels, which use finite resources that could eventually become too expensive to retrieve, solar power, along with other renewable energy sources, is generally unlimited in availability. Solar power generation has become a popular alternative to conventional energy sources in recent years, even in less developed nations, whoare trying to reduce dependence on expensive imported fuels.
Of the countries of the world taking advantage of solar, it is China, the most populous in the world, who reigns supreme. The National Energy Administration (NEA) made the revelation after the nationdoubledits installedphotovoltaic (PV) capacity in 2016. By the end of the year, China had hit a capacity of77.42 gigawatts.
Worth celebrating? If just considering raw numbers, it certainly is. But Chinas massive population makes it much less impressive. In fact, solar energy only represents one percent of the countrys energy output.
However, the country has announced plans to focuseven more attention onclean energy, seeking to add more than 110 gigawatts within the next three years. Such a goal could help the nation increase theproportion of its renewable energy use to 20%by 2030. To date, that number stands at a mere 11%.
To help the nation reach its goal, China plans to put more than $360 billion into renewable energy projects, including solar, wind, nuclear, and hydropower. The country currently relies heavily on coal, theburning of whichcreatessmog, soot, acid rain, and toxic air emissions, while also generating waste likeash, sludge, toxic chemicals, and waste heat.
Mining, transporting, and storing coal alsopollutesthe land, water, and air. But Chinas new plan could help the nation to finally obtain cleaner skies. The plan will also boost the economy, creating over 13 million jobs.
Chinas expansive land makes the idea of large solar energy farms even more plausible. In fact,Shandong, Xinjiang, and Henan showed the greatest solar capacity increase of Chinas provinces last year. And Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, and Inner Mongolia lead the pack of the most overall capacity at the end of 2016.
The fact that China is willing to pour out such a hefty amount of money shows the commitment it is ready to make. And such a dedication to environmentally friendly sources ought to put pressure on other nations to work harder to achieve necessary goals for a cleaner and healthier planet.
Ireland recently joined the pack of noteworthy nations in this regard, passing a bill that would make it thefirst country to rid itself offossil fuels. And Iceland is among some of the countries seeking out creative ways to divest from fossil fuels, drilling the worlds largestwell for geothermal energy.
Though its unfair to assume every country will be able to complete with Chinas increases, it should give countries like the U.S., who are falling behind on improvements, some much-needed motivation to implement policies that move away from fossil fuels and take advantage of clean energy, as opposed to protect the fossil fuel industry, which is of current concern.
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Happy Darwin Day! German Natural History Museum Is Our 2017 Censor of the Year – Discovery Institute
Posted: at 9:22 am
The often-heard assertion that a scientific "consensus" exists in favor of orthodox Darwinian theory is true on the surface, but otherwise deceptive. Yes, a large majority of scientists if pressed, especially in public, would hastily affirm that neo-Darwinism explains the development of complex biological forms.
We know, however, that this apparent agreement conceals a great deal of intellectual and personal turmoil, just behind the facade. The unanimity is maintained by a tight discipline that includes outright censorship. That's why every year Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture recognizes a Censor of the Year, an outstanding example of a person or institution that contributed to this pro-Darwin "consensus" through intimidation, agitation, or professional retaliation.
Now, with the debate about intelligent design (ID) taking place on an increasingly international stage, we reach across the Atlantic to name Germany's Natural History Museum in Stuttgart as our 2017 Censor of the Year.
If you follow us at Evolution News, you'll already have an inkling of the story that lies behind this choice. On Friday we announced a new Senior Fellow with the CSC, the distinguished German paleo-entomologist Gnter Bechly, formerly curator of amber and fossil insects at the Natural History Museum. In welcoming Dr. Bechly, a specialist in dragonflies, we left out one thing. After coming out as an ID sympathizer in 2015, following his private exploration of the evidence for design in nature, Bechly was the victim of retaliation and censorship by his institution. Though the addition of Dr. Bechly to our scientific community is a wonderful boon to us, the ensuing parting of the ways with his museum came with heavy personal, professional, and health costs.
As told in the documentary Revolutionary (see an excerpt below), his doubts on evolution were first stirred in 2009 when he organized an exhibition to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species and the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. The exhibit included a display of a "scale" weighing the Origin against a collection of ID books by Michael Behe, Stephen Meyer, William Dembski, and others. Bechly's "mistake" was to actually read those books.
This commenced a journey for him, motivated by scientific curiosity, not religion. As he recalls in the film, he had no religion to begin with, but only a love of and fascination with nature and animals.
He kept his interest in and support of ID private until October 2015, when he broached the subject on Facebook and a personal web page. Even then, Gnter kept his ID writing strictly separate from his work for the museum. But word got out. He has shared it all with us, though some must be kept back, including names and positions, to protect innocent parties.
It began with strange smiles from colleagues, icy faces, and backstabbing gossip, moving on finally to open hostility. Without warning, his applications to acquire new fossil material -- say, a collection of mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber -- were blocked by unprecedented bureaucratic obstacles. He learned that a position he relied on, his amber preparator (handler), was proposed to go unfilled after its previous occupant retired.
Emails among his fellow scientists asked, "Have you already heard that Bechly has become a creationist? How shall we react and what can we do about it?" Conspiratorial meetings took place behind his back, as a colleague wondered, "How can we help Gnter?" as if he were unwell. Co-workers placed phone calls to scientists outside the museum to ask if they knew about Bechly's turn to "creationism."
He was told that the large amber collection he was responsible for as curator would be moved away from his office. He was directed to resign from a position as ombudsman for the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation), a research-funding group.
A colleague sought to draw out evidence of his heresy in a seemingly friendly email exchange, after which Gnter was summoned for a discussion of his future at the institution. Says Dr. Bechly, he was told that "as a big threat to the credibility and reputation of the museum," he was "no longer welcome, and that it would be appreciated if I would decide to quit." The museum also informed him that colleagues no longer want to collaborate with him.
To reinforce the impression that Bechly would no longer enjoy a comfortable, supportive, and productive professional life there, the museum deleted his webpages (which made no mention of ID) and erased him from its own website. It dismissed him as scientific head of a major exhibition he had conceived and designed, "Life in the Amber Forest." Dr. Bechly was now forced to report as an underling to a colleague with no expertise in his area. He asked if he was being accused of any misconduct, and received the answer that, no, that certainly wasn't the case. On the contrary, his 17 years of work at the museum had been exemplary.
Seventeen years of fine work! And he was being gradually forced out over privately held views. "After a few days of soul searching and long discussions with my wife," says Bechly, "I decided that it did not make sense anymore to continue working in a hostile environment that makes productive research and collaboration with colleagues impossible." He resigned this past December, and now joins us.
"It was offensive, humiliating, and unfair," Bechly concludes in an apt summary. A few weeks after his resignation he received a troubling medical diagnosis of severe heart problems. He faces heart surgery later this month.
His story reminds us of many other cases, some involving past Censors of the Year. It recalls in particular evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg's experience at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. That was after Dr. Sternberg published a peer-reviewed article by ID proponent Dr. Stephen Meyer in a journal that Sternberg edited, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. (I wrote about that in the Wall Street Journal and at National Review Online.) For his offense -- editing an article! -- Sternberg suffered retaliation including being denied access to specimen collections, having his master key taken away from him, and an internal investigation of his religious and political belief. As with Bechly, colleagues refused to work him, and he was eventually forced out of his position.
This is how the "consensus" for Darwinian evolution is maintained. Oh, not only or primarily through outright censorship. Vanity is the single most effective tool that ensures uniformity of opinion. Men are monsters of vanity -- males especially, but women too. The pressure to be on the prestige side of any significant disagreement is intense, a fact often unacknowledged unless you are pretty honest with yourself. This holds across science, the media, education, politics, religion, and other fields.
Dr. Bechly was among the contingent of ID-friendly scientists present at the Royal Society meeting ("New Trends in Evolutionary Biology") in London last November. Another scientist on hand, we noted, a senior figure with views on Darwin overlapping with ours but allergic to ID itself, was visibly skittish about even being seen talking with us. So it goes.
Doubts about Darwin are also held in check by fear of what will happen to you if the suspicion gets around that you're in league with the "creationists." That word alone -- a masterpiece agitprop tool in the hands of Darwin enforcers, applied to everyone from Biblical literalists to the most sophisticated scientists examining objective evidence of design in nature -- does all the work of intimidation needed to keep most people in line.
But fear of punishment is a major factor too. When a scientist really does cross the line, as Gnter Bechly did, the hammer almost always comes down, ruthlessly. So it proved at Stuttgart's Natural History Museum.
Gnter's case, like others, is revealing. We know of many science professionals whose career or research would be endangered if we said a word here about their ID sympathies. Instances like that come to our attention all the time, and prudence keeps us from saying more.
Someday, a tipping point will come. Numerous closets will open in a swell of confessions: "I've doubted the straight Darwin story for years." "I've long suspected that design or teleology of some kind must have played a role in evolution, but I would never admit it till now." And at that time we'll stop giving out Censor of the Year awards. But that day has not yet arrived.
I'm on Twitter. Follow me @d_klinghoffer.
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Happy Darwin Day! German Natural History Museum Is Our 2017 Censor of the Year - Discovery Institute
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South Carroll Robotics teams compete at Maryland State Robotics Competition – Carroll County Times
Posted: at 9:22 am
Using controllers to command their robots, South Carroll High School's robotics teams competed against other robotics teams from around the state. Mount St. Mary's University and STEMaction Inc. hosted 48 teams who competed in the 2017 Maryland FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge Championship Sunday in Emmitsburg.
A total of 107 teams from Maryland and Washington, D.C., went through six qualifying tournaments to determine which would attend the Maryland Championship. The top four teams will advance to the East Super Regional in Pennsylvania in March and from there to the FIRST Championships in St. Louis in April.
South Carroll High School teacher Sean Lee mentors FIRST Robotics teams 6284 RoboCavs Black and 10001 RoboCavs Silver. He explained that the teams each compete in five matches. During the two and a half minute matches, the teams create two-robot alliances who work together to shoot small balls into goals, claim infrared beacons and raise large balls.
"You have to accumulate as many wins as you can," Lee explained. "You have to learn to cooperate with your enemies. It's all about gracious professionalism. We encourage teamwork and cooperation as much as competition. We encourage the kids to go out and do their best."
The students build and program their robots throughout the school year. They continually update and modify the robots.
"It can take weeks or months to get the robots to do what you want," Lee said. "There's plenty of learning opportunities. We don't call them mistakes."
The students compete with two controllers and each button has a specific function.
"Each function is a design challenge that the kids have to work on," Lee said. "They have to decide what they want the robot to concentrate on."
The South Carroll High program is sponsored by Bechtel, Leidos and the W.R. Grace Foundation. Students also raise additional funds for the program through fundraisers and the tuition paid to attend a robotics summer camp.
Lee said the program started five years ago and only had eight students. Now 50 students are involved in it.
"They get real engineering experience," Lee said. "We've graduated 23 kids through the program. Twenty-one are in engineering or science related fields at major universities."
Lee said when the program began, there were no female students involved. The program now has 10 females who participate, and they have formed their own team, RoboCavs Silver.
"There's a friendly rivalry between the teams," Lee said. "The girls tend to be more focused on the engineering process, allowing them to produce a more reliable robot. The boys are more about thinking outside of the box. We hope to combine the two thought processes to make a great team next year."
South Carroll High School senior Lauren Bahnsen, of Mount Airy, said she joined the program because she wants to be an engineer.
"I'm learning to appreciate the difference between the physical and theoretical world," Bahnsen said. "Earlier this season, we wanted the robot to lift the ball, but when we were designing it we realized that it would be more difficult than we expected."
Bahnsen said they ended up "scrapping the whole idea and deciding to make a complimentary robot."
"We focused on doing things that other teams wouldn't think of," Bahnsen said. "We designed it to help our ally as much as possible by delivering balls and going after beacons."
Junior Chris Scalzi, of Westminster, said he "really liked the competition this year."
"It's neat to see the other robots. You see a lot of cool ideas," Scalzi said.
Senior Michael Shockey, of Mount Airy, said he joined the program because he was "into building things. I fell in love with it."
"It's an experience you don't usually get," Shockey said. "I love the challenge."
Shockey said the team members "really work together well and everyone put forth their best effort."
While neither of the teams were chosen for the finals, the RoboCavs Silver finished with 2 wins and 3 losses, and the RoboCavs Black finished with 1 win and 4 losses.
michel.elben@carrollcountytimes.com
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6284 RoboCavs Black
Scott Simpson, Sander Cochran, Chris Scalzi, Connor Gleason, Matt Dolecki, Alex Seidel, Jacob Sabonis, Zach Sweeney, Matt Graham, Cole Stricker, Michael Shockey, Jackson Foran, Jacob Wolff, Mat Erickson, Aidan Yeo
10001 RoboCavs Silver
Veronika Fermin, Joy Nunez, Sydney Arcuri, Lucia Hadsall, Chloe Kerwin, Lizzy Gabel, Allie King, Anna Plass, Madison Snyder, Lauren Bahnsen
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Cave Spring High School’s Robotics Club wins in the First Tech Challenge Robotics competition – Roanoke Times
Posted: at 9:22 am
Cave Spring High School's Robotics Club competed against 50 teams in the First Tech Challenge Robotics Competition at Norfolk State University on February 4.
The club won the following awards:
- Second place team alliance
- 1st Place Controls Award - Goes to team with best controls design.
- 2nd place Inspire Award - Goes to team that has a top robot, engineering designs, notebook, outreach, and shows a lot of effort to help other teams in competition
- 2 team members selected to state semi-finals for Dean's list award
- Qualified for States Championship
We had an amazing weekend and even though we had a TON of issues the entire day, we always found a way to overcome the challenge at hand.
Submitted by Scott Hudson and CSHS Robotics Rampage
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Young Alberta engineers face off in robotics showdown – CBC.ca
Posted: at 9:22 am
Alberta's top young engineers faced off in Edmonton this weekend with robots they designed and built themselves.
Telus World of Science hosted25 teams from middle schools and high schools across the province for the First Tech Challenge.
The students spent months working on their robots.Each teamhad two minutes in a ring on Sunday to show what it could do.
Trevor Dawyd, who attendsLillian Osborne High School in Edmonton, said there's a lot of pressure on the teams to get their robots to pick up little plastic balls and shoot them accurately into a round hoop in the short time frame.
"In two minutes, we try to get as many points as possible," he said.
His team's robot, which, like all the teams' robots, was supposed to haveboth self-operating and control-operating options, struggledin the early round with the autonomousfunction.
Dawyd said they took what they learned there to make improvements.
"We've learned troubleshooting skills and then also working with teammates to get along and overcoming obstacles,"he said.
Connor Bresee, who attends Lacombe Composite High School, said his team also had difficultywith the autonomous function.
"We just didn't turn it on because it has a chance to make the robot's driver-controlled one, which does work, not work, which was unfortunate," Bresee said.
He said the process, which has basically been one of trial and error,has taught him the value of not giving up.
"Resiliency and determination is a lot of what I learned today," Breseesaid.
"All the pieces to make it work really well are there, but they need to be refined so that they're more accurate."
Jennifer Gemmell, the program manager of Telus World of Science's science garage, said the competition gives students a taste of what engineering and robotics could be like as a career.
"There's lots of creativity. There's lots of different ways to express yourself with your robot. There's lots of different ways to complete the same challenge," Gemmel said.
"It's a really unique and exciting and modern way of kids getting to do something that will actually have an effect later on."
@roberta__bell
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Young Alberta engineers face off in robotics showdown - CBC.ca
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