An Evolutionary Snapshot

Evolution in Action: Lizard Moving From Eggs to Live Birth

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
Published September 1, 2010

Evolution has been caught in the act, according to scientists who are decoding how a species of Australian lizard is abandoning egg-laying in favor of live birth.

Along the warm coastal lowlands of New South Wales (map), the yellow-bellied three-toed skink lays eggs to reproduce. But individuals of the same species living in the state’s higher, colder mountains are almost all giving birth to live young.

Amazing stuff – go and read the rest at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/100901-science-animals-evolution-australia-lizard-skink-live-birth-eggs

Some of the comments are fairly depressing, though. Why is it that people who obviously have no understanding of evolution whatsoever persist in insisting that they know so much more and better than people who actually study it for a living?

Nevermind, though; this is fascinating news.

On the way out? You should be so lucky, Bibleboy…

Shorter Joey Nelson, Spiritual Questions
Is Evolution On Its Way Out?
My strawmen, let me show you them.

I’m somewhat in awe of Joey Nelson’s post – I’ve never seen so many misconceptions, ignorance and plain old FAIL about evolution gathered together in one place before. Even AiG can’t do it as well as Joey has here.

Joey has taken internet discourse to a whole new level – by writing a post which actually fisks itself.

That is teh awesum.

General Update

Recently promoted from Colonel Update.

I’ve done my Idiosyncratica post, and have scheduled it for 00:01 on 1st September. Because I’m weird like that. My piece is fiction, rather than about fiction, and is dead on 500 words. Again, because I’m weird like that; I find it difficult to write over or under a word count. If someone gives me a word count of 500, there will be 500 words. OCD in action, I suppose; a little like my obsession with counting vertically-oriented objects, like books or DVDs on a shelf, for example. Even though, having looked back on it, Archie suggested approximately 500 words, so now I just look like a weirdo.

I believe the position of our next suggester is open for business; if I’m wrong, please feel free to correct me on that one.

A major source of hits recently has been found in the keywords: “Charles Darwin”, “Darwin” and similar. In that vein, I’ll be a short bio of the man himself fairly soon, plus some evolution-related stuff too.

I’ve been off work this entire week, just taking it easy and relaxing a little. I’m back to work on Monday, so unfortunately the spate of postings you’ve been seeing (ha.ha.ha. It is to laugh) will unfortunately recede to their usual minimalist level.

Everyone hates Ben Stein!

Thor is angry!

Thor is angry because I failed to do a round up in his honour on Thor’s-Day last. Ordinarily, I would’ve posted a late one on Friday, but I was busy putting out the fires caused by Thor throwing lightning bolts at my house.

First on the weekly round up is Part 3 of Lottie’s Getting to Know You series, in which she talks about a couple of things about long distance relationships which might sound funny or superficial in isolation but which are nonetheless legitimate concerns: What if the other person has personal hygiene problems, or you’re not sexually compatible?

Idiosyncratica, the readers’ and writers’ blog ring which Gary came up with, and of which I am now a member, is still high on the agenda. We’re still developing it, but we hope that aspiring writers of fiction will drop by and get involved; there’s hopefully going to be a certain amount of material for dedicated readers in search of new and interesting fiction.

Anxious Mofo has come up with a rather genius idea, which he has modestly entitled the Anxious Mofo Index. I think it’s probably going to come in handy; someone needs to invent some kind of algorithm or measurement for it (along the lines of the Hovind Scale).

Jill at Feministe details how reading fundie pro-life blogs rots your brain. I don’t pretend to be entirely comfortable with abortion, and I would, on an expanded definition which I get to define, call myself “pro-life” in one sense, but I’m also not so hide-bound as to think my uncomfortable feelings should constitute law.

Over at EvolutionBlog, Jason Rosenhouse reviews Dawkins’s latest book, which goes by the name of The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, an edited anthology of science essays by professional scientists. I stress the “professional scientists” part, because that is what makes it interesting; too many times in recent years, the Anxious Mofo Index in science has dipped towards 0, often as the result of ignorant journalists.

Current music:
The Filthiest Show in Town, by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult

Ten Summoner’s Tales, by Sting.

Coming soon – a new meme, zombie flicks and some other stuff.

The Anti-Carnival!

Well, thanks for waiting. The Anti-Carnival of Douchebags and Arseholes, alternatively known as the dancing festival of wankbags, is finally here. You were all waiting, right?

Anyway, it’s divided into the two categories, with linkage and short explanations for why said person is being put there. After the fold is NSFW, unless you live in an exceptionally weird office.

Just wonderful…

HT – PZ.

A wonderful example of the fiskative arts by Jeff Dorchen:

You wouldn’t think Ben Stein could sink any lower. Here’s an apologist for Richard Nixon, the author (ostensibly) of a book (or rather an Ann Coulter-style wad of airport toilet paper) on how liberals are more dangerous to America than terrorists, a man who has espoused the belief that the amount of assets one dies with is a direct indication of one’s value to society – here is a mind so mediocre that he regularly lost battles of wits against MTV game show contestants – you wouldn’t think a track record like that would leave room for further ethical and intellectual failure. But Ben Stein is a man of great determination. He is not content to rest on his laurels, or in his case to let such hideous, thorny laurels rest on him, though they threaten to crush him with the weight of their shamefulness.

Jeff Dorchen rules. I bow before his amazing fiskeriness.

Bad to the bone… B-b-b-bad…

Ok, couldn’t resist that one.

The enormously clever young man who writes the Bad Idea blog has written a review of Exposed, which elegantly reviews and deconstructs in one excellent blog post.

Go and read it immediately.

Courtesy of PZ Myers…

“Darwin Had Difficult Handwriting”
Find out for yourself. Darwin Online has acquired a huge digital collection of Darwin’s papers, everything from book drafts to personal letters, and has them scanned and available on the web. There they are in all their scribbled, crossed out, penciled over, rewritten glory — historians and antiquarians will drool over these, but me, I prefer the neatly typed versions.

Spanking Sirius… Again

The other day, as I was browsing around http://wordpress.com/tag/evolution as I often do, I was reminded of an old but funny joke, which goes something like this:

A hunter goes into the woods to hunt a bear and takes with him his trusty 22-gauge rifle.

After a little while, he spots a very large bear, takes aim, and fires. When the smoke clears, though, the bear is gone.

A moment later the bear taps this guy on the shoulder and says, “No one shoots at me and gets away with it. You have two choices: I can either rip your throat out and eat you alive, or you can drop your trousers, bend over, and I’ll do you in the ass.”

The hunter figures that anything is better than death, so he drops his trousers, bends over, and the bear delivers on his promise.

After the bear leaves, the hunter pulls up his trousers and staggers into town vowing revenge.

He buys a much larger gun and returns to the forest. He sees the same bear, takes aim, and fires. When the smoke clears, the bear once again is gone. A moment later, the bear taps him on the shoulder and says, “You know what to do.”

Afterwards, the hunter pulls up his trousers and crawls back into town. Now he’s really mad, so he buys himself a bazooka.

He returns to the forest, sees the bear, aims, and fires.

When the smoke clears this time, the bear taps him on the shoulder and says, “You’re not REALLY here for the hunting, are you?”