Daily Archives: July 15, 2017

How Cindy taught me a theory of evolution The Hindu Children are the greatest manipulators in this world. We parents believe foolishly that we are the ones who control our children! Our son had been trying to convince me to allow him to own a pet dog for quite some time, but in vain. Being a single ...

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How Cindy taught me a theory of evolution - The Hindu

DAYTON, Tenn. (AP)

The Tennessee town known for the famed 1925 "Scopes monkey trial" saw no protesters Friday as it unveiled a statue of the lawyer who argued for evolution near a sculpture of his creationism-advocating legal rival.

About 75 people were on hand at the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton as officials revealed the statue of skeptic Clarence Darrow, who argued for evolution. His likeness stands on the opposite side of the courthouse from a 2005 statue of William Jennings Bryan, the Christian defender of biblical creationism.

Though pockets of opposition to the statue exist due to religious objections, no protesters showed at Friday's ceremony for the sculpture championed by atheists. Some attendees donned 1920s-era garb for the festivities.

The new statue hasn't drawn teeming crowds like the ones that forced some 1925 trial proceedings to be moved outdoors. Historians say the trial started as a publicity stunt for the small town, and it succeeded in grabbing plenty of national headlines.

The one small hitch Friday had nothing to do with public backlash - the group had trouble peeling off the black cloth that covered the statue. Former Star Trek actor John de Lancie used an umbrella to help pry it off the Darrow sculpture's head.

Philadelphia-based sculptor Zenos Frudakis crafted the Darrow statue, funded largely by $150,000 from the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The group said the project would remedy the imbalance of Bryan standing alone.

Historians say the trial came about after local leaders convinced John Thomas Scopes, a 24-year-old high school teacher, to answer the American Civil Liberties Union's call for someone who could help challenge Tennessee's law that banned teaching evolution. He was found guilty but didn't spend time in jail.

Bryan, a three-time Democratic candidate for president, died just five days after the trial ended.

Formally known as Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes, the case was immortalized in songs, books, plays and movies.

The unveiling Friday helped kicked off Dayton's annual Scopes Trial festival, a 10-day event featuring a theatrical production.

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Statue of 'Scopes monkey trial' evolution backer unveiled - WYFF Greenville

If your sleep is getting worse with age, evolution might be to blame.

A study recently published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B found that humans' age-specific sleep patterns may have evolved to protect mixed-age groups from potential danger in the night. And in this scenario, the elderly members of these groups may have drawn the short strawtheir restless sleep made them perfect for the night watch.

Looking at sleep patterns is really relevant not only to basic science, but also to increasing our understanding of cross-cultural sleep, says Alyssa Crittenden, a study co-author and assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It provides crucial clues of how species evolved.

The study was conducted among the Hadza people, a hunter-gatherer group in Tanzania. They traditionally sleep outside, without the technology many of us now use to stay comfortable while we snoozefrom air conditioning to a roof over our heads to shield us from the rain. Crittenden has studied the Hadza for 13 years, and she emphasizes the people arent relics of the past. They are as modern and contemporary as you and me, she says. But when it comes to sleep, their chosen environment is unusually similar to that of our ancestorsso they make excellent study subjects.

Most human sleep research has been in sleep labs in Western societies, says first author David Samson, who was a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University at the time of the study and is currently an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. Its not a great model, they go from one temperature- and light-controlled room to another.

The researchers studied Hadza adults ranging from those in their late teens to the elderly. While the subjects slept, they each wore an actigraph, which Samson describes as a super Fitbit. Much like its commercial analog, the device is worn on the subjects wrist and can tell if they are asleep or awake based on activity. But the actigraph also has extra capabilities, like measuring the amount of light in the environment, and it can withstand much harsher conditions.

From the actigraph data, the researchers characterized each subjects sleep pattern: when they were sleeping or awake, and how long each period lasted. Some people were lighter sleepers who regularly woke up throughout the night, others slept undisturbed all night; there were subjects that went to bed early and woke up early, while other subjects tended to sleep later in the night and into the morning.

By layering the sleep patterns of all the subjects, they found that over the course of 20 nights, there were only 18 one-minute intervals when all the subjects were asleep at once. At any given time during the night, almost 40 percent of the Hadza were awake (or sleeping lightly) while the rest slept deeply. This lines up with the sentinel hypothesis, a pre-existing idea that having a variety of sleep patterns provided humans with an evolutionarily advantage. If groups of people had varying sleep patterns, they could more easily rest without being vulnerableand they'd all be more likely to survive and successfully reproduce, allowing the mismatched sleep patterns to persist in future populations. The sentinel hypothesis has never been tested in humans before, Crittenden says.

The biological roots of these patterns lie in circadian rhythms, the internal clock that dictates our behavior at any given time of day. Are you an early bird? A night owl? Well, those are actual biological characteristics, known as chronotypes (scientists actually use lark and owl to describe the two extremes). They can even be inherited. Chronotypes encapsulate the unique ways that each of our individual circadian rhythms drive our sleep behavior.

In this study, the researchers compared the subjects chronotypes with demographic variables, and only one seemed to be linked: age. Older subjects were, as the proverb says, "early to bed and early to rise"the lark chronotypeand they tended to wake up frequently during the night. The Hadza don't have official guards posted at night, but since older individuals were more likely to be awake, Crittenden says, they were more likely to be functioning as sentinelsif not in any official capacity. Their wakefulness made them the most likely ones to be alerted to danger.

People have thought about the evolutionary role of elders in human society before, in what is known as the grandmother hypothesis. It suggests that women live beyond their reproductive yearsa trait unique to humans, killer whales, and pilot whalesbecause they play an important role in their familial group's survival. They can help care for grandchildren and teach them how to survive, allowing younger females to focus on reproducing. The researchers expanded that idea to coin the poorly sleeping grandparent hypothesis: In mixed-age groups, grandmothersor grandparents in generalmay sleep discontinuously so that they can remain alert to potential dangers while their offspring rest.

According to Samson, this finding could provide an important new perspective on how people think about and stigmatize insomnia, a condition that is very common among older peoplealmost half of adults over the age of 60 report having trouble sleeping.

It may normalize things we consider to be disorders, Samson says. We tend to label things as a disorder if they dont match up with normal parameters. But insomnia may be an evolutionary mismatch with the modern context.

It could also impact how insomnia is treated in the elderly. For example, cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to be effective in treating insomnia: By identifying the cause of the insomnia, people are able to effectively manage it. Explaining the evolutionary origins of insomnia could play a similar role in treatment.

This was the first study of the sentinel hypothesis in humans, but it wont be the last. Samson and Crittenden hope to study sleep in populations around the world, ranging from rainforests to the Arctic, and compile the results into a global sleep database. If the patterns hold, then they might actually be able to show that the sentinel hypothesis is at play among humans, Crittenden says.

It could help us ask and answer questions about how humans adapted to different ecological niches around the world, Samson says.

So, kids, the next time your parents wonder why you dont wake up earlier, just remind them that you evolved to be this waygetting up early is grandmas job.

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Grandma's insomnia might be a product of evolution | Popular Science - Popular Science

Beijing Enterprises made history 20 years ago when it debuted on Hong Kongs stock exchange 1,300 oversubscribed, as the most sought-after initial public offering in the citys history.

The IPO, which drew huge crowds of people scrambling for application forms underscored the average Hong Kong investors sentiments and the fever pitch frenzy for the largest well-connected mainland government-backed company.

Raising HK$2.5 billion, it was the biggest amount at the time from any listing of the so-called red chips, or overseas-registered mainland enterprises. It also made the only listed conglomerate of the Beijing government in Hong Kong the talk of the town, with just one month before the citys sovereignty was returned to the mainland.

Beijing Enterprises was one of about 10 conglomerate window companies of various levels of mainland governments tasked to raise funds overseas to boost economic development at home.

Back then, the Beijing municipal government picked eight of its quality assets and put them into the newly set up Beijing Enterprises, and floated it, chief executive Zhou Si told the South China Morning Post in an interview.

The assets included the capital citys first department store called Wangfujing, its first Sino-foreign joint venture hotel called Jianguo, its first highway linking the city to the airport, the successful consumer brands Sanyuan dairy products and Yanjing beer.

The assets were well-liked by investors and the companys listing was hugely successful.

Today, there are close to 150 red chips listed in Hong Kong, either incorporated in the city or overseas.

The assets were well-liked by investors and the companys listing was hugely successful

Zhou Si, Beijing Enterprises

Shares of Beijing Enterprises, which attracted subscription 1,276 times the number of shares offered to Hong Kong investors and locked up HK$238.8 billion, surged 222 per cent from the IPO price of HK$12.48 to close at HK$40.2 on their first day of trading.

Two decades later, after multiple boom and bust cycles, its share price has yet to climb back above the debut close, ending Friday at HK$42.70, only over half that of its all-time high of HK$77.80 seen in late 2013.

It is fetching around 7.3 times this years forecast earnings, a fraction of the 19.4 times it debuted at, and half that of current valuation of the benchmark Hang Seng China-affiliated Corporations Index that track red chips.

Fellow red chip Shanghai Industrial, the municipal governments largest overseas conglomerate listed in Hong Kong in 1996, commands a multiple of only 8.6.

Window firms with operations in multiple industries have long lost their pre-eminence as investors prefer specialised firms that are easier to understand and value, said Kenny Tang Sing-hing, chief executive of Junyang Securities. Conglomerates generally attract valuation discounts.

From the shares issuers perspective, a red chip listing is preferred over a floatation of an H share a mainland-registered firm with mainland assets.

Window firms with operations in multiple industries have long lost their pre-eminence as investors prefer specialised firms that are easier to understand and value

Kenny Tang, Junyang Securities

This is because the red chip format has fewer restrictions and approval red tapes on post-listing shares issuance and original owners shares disposal.

However, tighter restrictions on the transfer of mainland state-owned assets to overseas vehicles in the past decade led to a sharp drop in new red chip listings , although mainland firms were still able to gain control of overseas already-listed vehicles and turn them into red chips via asset injection deals.

Data from the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has also demonstrated the trend of H-shares gaining popularity at the expense of the red chips.

The number of red chips rose 149 per cent from 59 in 1997 to 147 last year, while that for H-shares leaped 459 per cent from 39 to 218.

The gap had a lot to do with the jumbo floatations of state financial services and energy companies since 2000, and the divide is more accentuated by their market clout.

H shares accounted for 36 per cent of the Hong Kong bourses total turnover last year, up from 8.5 per cent in 1997. In contrast, that of red chips plunged from 27.6 per cent to 14 per cent during the same period.

For Beijing Enterprises, the past 20 years also saw a complete makeover of its business.

After the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, it dawned on us that having effective management influence over units in eight industries was quite difficult, said Zhou, who joined the firm in 2005 from the municipal government.

We also lacked a clear development direction which investors wanted us to have ... with our share price spiralling down, Beijing Enterprise lost its fund-raising capacity.

After a few years of soul-searching, top management in 2005 decided to sharpen its business focus and undergo major restructuring of its assets.

In 2007, the municipal government injected a natural gas distribution business into Beijing Enterprise, which contributed substantially to business growth as the capital replaced coal with cleaner-burning natural gas as fuel for power and heat generation.

Having also bought in 2013 a major stake in China Gas, one of the nations largest city gas distributors, its natural gas business contributed 76 per cent of its total profit last year.

After the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, it dawned on us that having effective management influence over units in eight industries was quite difficult

Zhou Si

Water, solid waste treatment and other environmental operations accounted for 23 per cent of the earnings, and the remainder was from its brewery operation.

After various asset transfer deals over the years, Yanjing Brewery, the nations fifth largest brewery, is the only one of the original eight business units that remains.

Beijing Enterprises now has a clear positioning as a utilities company, with a focus on industries that bring environmental benefits, Zhou said.

Last year, Beijing Enterprise clinched its biggest overseas acquisition to date. It agreed to pay 1.44 billion euros for a German company which owns 18 plants in Europe that burn municipal waste and generate power.

Zhou said the deal would allow Beijing Enterprises to transfer the worlds most advance expertise in building and running waste-to-energy projects from Germany to China, where the waste treatment industry is undergoing a boom that will last many years.

Beijing Enterprises shares plunge after buying minority stake in Russian oil and gas producer

Although such projects are not technology-intensive, he said China could learn from Germany the skills and know-how in project management and resources integration, as well its craftsman spirit and quality culture.

Looking forward, Zhou said Beijing Enterprises hoped to reap more synergies by tapping the business relations it has build with the governments of a large number of Chinese cities, to which it can cross-sell its expertise in the environmental protection sector.

The firm is also studying opportunities to invest in water and waste treatment projects in various nations in South and Southeast Asia, where Beijing is supporting Chinese firms to finance and build infrastructure along the old land and maritime Silk Road trading routes, he added.

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Beijing Enterprises' makeover traces China's evolution in capitalism over 20 years - South China Morning Post

NASHVILLE, Tenn. The famed "Scopes monkey trial" pitted two of the nation's foremost celebrity lawyers against one another, but only one of them was memorialized outside the Tennessee courthouse where the landmark case unfolded -- until now.

On Friday at the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton the public will behold a 10-foot statue of the rumpled skeptic Clarence Darrow, who argued for evolution in the 1925 trial. It will stand at a respectful distance on the opposite side of the courthouse from an equally huge statue of William Jennings Bryan, the eloquent Christian defender of the biblical account of creation, which was installed in 2005.

The trial that unfolded there nine decades ago garnered national headlines in what historians say started as a publicity stunt for the small town. Formally known as Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes, the case generated front-page headlines nationwide and was immortalized in songs, books, plays and movies. Dayton hosts its annual Scopes Trial festival for 10 days, starting Friday, featuring a theatrical production.

Historians say the trial came about after local leaders convinced Scopes, a 24-year-old high school teacher, to answer the American Civil Liberties Union's call for someone who could help challenge Tennessee's law that banned teaching evolution. He was found guilty but didn't spend time in jail.

Bryan, a three-time Democratic candidate for president, died just five days after the trial ended.

In Dayton, home of a Christian college that's named for Bryan, it's not hard to envision the community accepting a statue venerating the august champion of the faith.

But Darrow is another matter.

Rifts over evolution and creationism continue almost a century later, and the Darrow statue was requested by atheist groups.

Pockets of opposition in the town suggest many Christians still see the science of evolution as clashing with their faith. Dayton resident and minister June Griffin has led much of the backlash against the Darrow statue, citing religious convictions.

"This is a hideous monstrosity," Griffin said. "And God is not pleased."

Two weeks ago about 20 supporters and 20 protesters clashed peacefully at the courthouse over the statue, said Rhea County Sheriff's Department Special Projects Coordinator Jeff Knight.

Nevertheless, the Darrow statue hasn't drawn teeming crowds in Dayton like the ones that forced some of the 1925 trial proceedings to be moved outdoors.

Regardless of how people's beliefs differ, the statue helps represent history, said Rhea County historian Pat Guffey. Most people seem OK with it, she added.

"I just think that something that is history should stay, or should be put up, no matter what," Guffey said. "I don't think we should try to change history."

Philadelphia-based sculptor Zenos Frudakis crafted the new statue, funded largely by $150,000 from the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The group said the project would remedy the imbalance of Bryan standing alone.

"Bryan was there as an attorney, a prosecutor, and Clarence Darrow as a defense attorney. And now, the history has been restored," Frudakis said.

Frudakis, an admirer of Darrow, said the sculpture offers an honest look at the lawyer.

"He looks like he slept in his suit, which he often did. Sometimes his shirts were torn," Frudakis said of Darrow. "He smoked too much. He drank too much. He was a womanizer. I got as much of that as I could in the sculpture."

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'Scopes monkey trial' town erects evolution figure's statue - Fox News