Ok so today is science blogging day here Le Revue Gauche. Just one more little find to debunk the Creationist/ID/Christian Chumps;

Chimp-human segregation not beyond 7 m years ago: Study
By Sankar Ray

Scientists, working in a collaborative venture, at the Arizona State and Penn State Universities, inferred that the genetic divergence between the ape man and the man took place sometime between the last five and seven million years. The leading scientist, an Indian by birth, is Sudhir Kumar, director of the Center for Evolutionary Functional Genomics in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. Based on palaeontological appraisal of 167 different gene sequence sets from humans, chimpanzees, macaques, and mice, using "multifactor bootstrap-re-sampling approach", a modern stochastic method, the geneticists and research scientists of related disciplines, were able to narrow down the period of Chimpanzee-human separation time period from 13 million years to 5-7 million years from now.

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science
evolution
creationism
Intelligent Design

Well how did I miss this stunning scientific discovery of 2005? I dunno, I guess the White House wasn't to keen on announcing this;

- The guardians of animal nomenclature had mixed feelings over a proposal to name three newly-discovered species of slime-mould beetle after US President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. A pair of insect experts reserved the names Agathidium bushi, Agathidium cheneyi and Agathidium rumsfeldi for their latest creepy-crawlies. Science on a lighter note: offbeat tales of 2005

Speaking of beetles, or Coleoptera, it reminds me of this quote;

"I'm not sure, but he seems to be inordinately fond of beetles."

-- J.B.S. Haldane, when asked what the study of science taught him about "the creator"

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science
Bush
Cheney
Rumsfeld
entymology
beetles

Yesterdays Science News Today.

2005 ended with a court decision that reaffirmed the Scopes trial ruling, that Creationism and its offspring ID, were no match for the scientific theory of evolution. As the year ended it wouldn't be a court ruling that really nailed ID into the box labeled crackpot, it would be actual science. Revenge is sweet.

Stephen Jay Gould, so hated by the forces on the right and by Creationists and ID apologists, thesis of the Panda's Thumb had found further evidence in the discovery of a missing thumb like appendage on fossil remains of a Red Panda.

In The Panda's Thumb, a book of essays, Gould explained that the so-called thumb that allows the panda to strip the leaves off bamboo is really part of the wrist (the sesamoid bone) and evolved for this use because the panda lacks an opposable digit. He noted that "odd arrangements and funny solutions are the proof of evolution - paths that a sensible God would never tread but that a natural process. . . follows perforce." Evidence published on Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that the thumb of a second kind of panda, the raccoon-like red panda, provides what researchers claim is "an even more striking example of how evolution works opportunistically". A Spanish team has uncovered the earliest evidence of a "false thumb" in the panda fossil record, a finding that also clarifies the evolution of, and relationship between, the distantly related red and giant pandas. Both pandas share the unique false thumb. But the thumbs are structurally different and it is likely that they evolved independently.

In the Centennial year of Einsteins Unified Field Theory, it was found to be the explanation for all creatures great and small, having a common evolutionary basis for movement.

Unified physics theory explains animals' running, flying and swimming

The findings, published in the January 2006 issue of "The Journal of Experimental Biology," challenge the notion that fundamental differences between apparently unrelated forms of locomotion exist. The findings also offer an explanation for remarkable universal similarities in animal design that had long puzzled scientists, the researchers said.

"The similarities among animals that are on the surface very different are no coincidence," said Adrian Bejan, J. A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke's Pratt School. "In fact, animal locomotion is no different than other flows, animate and inanimate: they all develop in space and in time such that they optimize the flow of material." In the case of animal locomotion, this means that animals move such that they travel the greatest distance while expending the least amount of energy, he said.

"From simple physics, based only on gravity, density and mass, you can explain within an order of magnitude many features of flying, swimming and running," added James Marden, professor of biology at Penn State. "It doesn't matter whether the animal has eight legs, four legs, two, even if it swims with no legs."

First conceived by Bejan and published in 1996, the constructal law arises from the basic principle that flow systems evolve so as to minimize imperfections -- energy wasted to friction or other forms of resistance -- such that the least amount of useful energy is lost.

And all was right with the world without the mention of the word G*D.




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science
evolution
creationism
Intelligent Design
Panda's Thumb
Stephen Jay Gould
physics

Now watch somebody get offended. And it won't be Native Americans, just Nativist Americans.



APRIL: Dr. Mark Seraly, dermotologist, explains his sculpture, cast in bronze, titled "An American Holocaust, April 3, 1513 -- December 29, 1890." The inscription on the plaque on the base reads, "In memory of all Native American Indian men, women and children who died in their fight for freedom." The sculpture shows an American Indian streched out as if crucified on the horns of a buffalo skull.

Last year seemed to be made up of some strange animal love stories as well as stories about animals that we love to read.

Strange animal love; well I posted here about the Dolphin Marriage, and according to the Seattle Times their most viewed online story was about Horse Sex.

Speaking of horses, there is the story of the deaf, blind, diabetic
equastrian.

"When I'm on a horse, people can't tell I'm different. That is, they don't see me using a cane. They don't know I can't hear very well. They don't know I have diabetes."

Melissa Collins, 26, of Peters explaining one advantage of riding horses and being a member of the California University of Pennsylvania Equestrian Team.

Melissa Collins gives Breeze a quarter horse, a hug before riding him as she prepares to practice with the California University Equestrian Team. Ms. Collins has a significant hearing loss and is legally blind.


Cathie From Canada has one of those rescued cat stories that tugs at our heart strings.

But how about Sooty the Goldfish that survived being almost eaten by a Heron, dropped down a chimney, falling on potato peels covering the coals, tumbling out onto the hearth in front of a guy eating fish and chips? And this was no ordinary goldfish, it weighed over a pound, was 27 centimeteres long and would be called a Koe by most folks.

Then there was the cop who was attacked by five vicious Chihuahuas and suffered, wait for it, bites to his ankles. I can see a vicious dog bylaw in the making.

March of the Penguins was the sleeper hit in the theatres and is now out on DVD, it was a source of controversial debate around monogamy and the animal world, there was this other film about birds that got overlooked and should be in your collection as well; The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

"An "engrossing, delightful film" (The Washington Post), The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is the bonafide sleeper theatrical hit of the year.

The film's endearing guide is Mark Bittner, an aging bohemian, but the supporting cast members, a rambunctious flock of urban parrots, are the true stars, and their surprisingly humanlike behavior makes for a wondrous and rare experience. The film follows the ups-and-downs of these wild birds within the green niches of San Francisco as Bittner befriends, feeds, and names the members of the flock. Along the way, we meet many unforgettable characters: among them Connor, the grouchy yet lovable outcast of the flock, crying for a mate but luckless in his pursuits, and "the lovers," Picasso and Sophie, inseparable until Sophie is forced into mourning when Picasso disappears. More than a mere birdwatcher, Bittner finds solace in his immersion with these strikingly beautiful creatures - but how will he cope when he's evicted from his sanctuary and forced to live away from the parrots?


Now of course Birds are cute, well these birds are anyways. But what about Bats?
One of our most useful animal allies, but one that is badly misunderstood, and of course sterotyped. In Northern Alberta bat populations are crucial to the fragile ecology of the Aspen forest.

Merlin Tuttle is founder and president of Bat Conservation International (BCI), an organization dedicated to preserving bats and their habitats. He earned his Ph.D. in mammalogy from the University of Kansas in 1974 and conducted research full-time for 11 years before founding BCI in 1982. Tuttle is also an award-winning wildlife photographer whose pictures of bats have appeared in National Geographic and many other publications. He lives in Austin, Texas.

I started a top-down approach in Austin, getting to leading media people and community leaders and talking about the fact that these bats moving in to their renovated Congress Avenue Bridge were far more allies than enemies. I made bats relevant to human interest, and was very diplomatic in my approach. That's how I built BCI — not by saying that bats had rights. A lot of people now agree with me that they're incredibly fascinating animals, but we started with like 'em or not, you need 'em. They're just as essential ecologically and economically by night as birds are by day. For example, about 70% of all tropical fruits eaten by humans come from plants that in the wild rely on bats as their primary pollinators or seed dispersers. Think where the developing world would be without bananas, breadfruit, plantain, avocados, papayas, peaches, cashews, jackfruit, dates, mangos — those are all bat dependent.

When you travel around the world seeing all these crazy things long enough, it affects you. I got my start by getting the gray bats federally listed as endangered. I convinced the federal government to preserve several of their key hibernating and nursery caves. But even then, nobody wanted to do anything about them. It's one thing to get an animal listed as endangered, but if it's not popular, nobody puts any money or effort into it. So, I had to get more and more involved. It was kind of a nuisance side thing to what I really wanted to do, which was research. But I just couldn't sit back and ignore all this outrageous killing of beneficial animals. I'm not an animal rightist — I hunt and fish — but I don't like seeing people destroy the natural order of the world around them. So I started speaking out more and more.

In about 1978, the National Geographic Society asked me to write a chapter in their book WILD ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. I went to Washington to help their photo editors go over bat pictures. I was horrified. All the pictures they were going to put with my chapter were close-ups of tormented, snarling bats. In those days no one knew how to photograph bats. They'd just grab one, the bat would close his eyes and hunker down, thinking he was going to die, then they'd torment him until he snarled, then they'd take a picture. Then they'd blow the picture up to page size. No wonder everybody feared bats.

I said, "One of those pictures is going to completely undo everything I said in my chapter." So they agreed to send one of their staff photographers, Bates Littlehales, out in the field with me for six weeks to see if he could get better pictures. I asked him lots of photography questions. He got some good pictures. At the end he gave me the rest of his film and said, "Why don't you try taking some pictures now?" I ended up being the second most-used photographer in the book.

I used those pictures in talks to show the public what bats are really like. I found that they had a really big impact. One day, a little old lady came up after one of my talks and said, "You know, Dr. Tuttle, if you just founded a non-profit we could get a tax-deduction for donating to, some of us would like to try to help bats." So, with a grand design no bigger than I was going to hire a half-time secretary to help answer questions and produce educational brochures, I founded Bat Conservation International.

Then there were the stories of animals saving humans, which I wrote about here and here. And of course there was the tragedy of Katrina and Rita and the animals left behind, through no fault of their own or their owners, but rather by the bumbling bueracratic mishandling that overshadowed the entire disaster relief efforts.

So we still have to ask where are those U.S. military trained and armed Dolphins that got swept away during Katrina. And are they going to be the new threat in the Gulf coast, attacking swimmers and divers caused they have been trained too? And if they meet another pod will they transfer their training to them? Well don't expect anwsers to these questions since the military denies any knowledge of this program.

Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy’s cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying ‘toxic dart’ guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet’s smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

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animals
bats
horses
dogs
dolphins
cats
parrots