Clipmarks | Evolution Clips

Life After Death: The Message of Evolution

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:14:29 GMT

clipped by: Jacob173

Life After Death: The Message of Evolution

Is there life after death? One way to answer this question is to examine whether nature reveals some kind of a plan for life.

Consider this passage from physicist Freeman Dyson’s A Many-Colored Glass, “Before the intricate ordered patterns of life, with trees and butterflies and birds and humans, grew to cover our planet, the earth’s surface was a boring unstructured landscape of rock and sand. And before the grand ordered structure of galaxies and stars existed, the universe was a rather uniform and disordered collection of atoms. What we see…is the universe growing visibly more ordered and more lively as it grows older.” So according to Freeman the universe has developed from a few simple things to many complex things.

The time will come when our bodies will irretrievably break down, but it is possible, indeed suggested within the script of nature, that a part of us might outlast these mortal coils.

Early Human Ancestors Not Like Chimps

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:40:35 GMT

clipped by: LOPix
clipper's remarks: When Darwin first published “Origin of Species” and later “Descent of Man,” detractors declared that they “didn’t come from monkeys.” One cartoon of the day (late 1800s) showed Darwin as an ape. I guess it now looks like apes may have descended from US!

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Fossils Shed New Light on Human Past

After 15 years of rumors, researchers made public fossils from a 4.4 million-year-old human forebear they say reveals that our ancestors were more modern than scholars had assumed, widening the evolutionary gulf separating humankind from apes and chimpanzees.

Although the differences between humans, apes and chimps today are legion, we all shared a common ancestor six million years or so ago. These fossils suggest that the common ancestor -- still undiscovered -- resembled a chimp much less than researchers have always believed.

Unlike modern apes and chimps, these hominids had supple wrists, strong thumbs, flexible fingers and power-grip palms shaped to grasp objects like sticks and stones firmly. They were primed for tool use, even though it would be another two million years or so before our ancestors began to fashion the first stone blades, choppers and axes.

Tags: ape, archeology, chimp, darwin, evolution, gorilla, human evolution, paleontology

Childless and happy

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:48:49 GMT

clipped by: beanz

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

9 Silly Things People Say When They Hear You Don't Want Kids (And Ways to Counter Them)

Wanting kids isn't just the social norm, it's said to be a biological imperative, the only supposed "duh" of evolution. But yet, some of us choose not to -- and for good reason.

It's been about five years since anyone asked me, "Why don't you have kids?"

"Just lucky, I guess,"

Now, in the interest of people who are made to feel defensive about their choice to be childless, and those who put them there, here are "Nine Things People Say When They Hear You Don't Want Kids" (and ways I've found to counter them).

1. Aren't you worried about ending up old and lonely?

there's no higher rate of depression or loneliness among childless seniors.

4. Don't you want a family?

I was raised in a family. That was plenty.

7. "It's a woman's greatest achievement."

just because your contributions don't get diaper rash doesn't mean you haven't made any.

Tags: children

Stone Age Humans Crossed Sahara in the Rain

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:46:26 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Wet spells

While about 40 per cent of hydrocarbons in today's dust come from water-dependent plants, this rose to 60 per cent, first between 120,000 and 110,000 ago and again from 50,000 to 45,000 years ago. So the region seemed to be in the grip of unusually wet spells at the time.

That may have been enough to allow sub-Saharan Stone Age Homo sapiens to migrate north: the first fossils of modern humans outside Africa date from 93,000 year ago in Israel. And both genetic analysis and archaeology show that humans didn't spread extensively beyond Africa until 50,000 years ago, suggesting a second migration at the time of the second wet spell.

Fossil record

Ian Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York is impressed by the findings. "They tie in approximately with the information we have from the fossil record."

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

It used to be wetter (Image: Sergio Pitamitz/Getty)

Wet spells in the Sahara may have opened the door for early human migration. According to new evidence, water-dependent trees and shrubs grew there between 120,000 and 45,000 years ago. This suggests that changes in the weather helped early humans cross the desert on their way out of Africa.

The Sahara would have been a formidable barrier during the Stone Age, making it hard to understand how humans made it to Europe from eastern Africa, where the earliest remains of our hominin ancestors are found.

Isla Castañeda of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and colleagues studied land plant hydrocarbons in Saharan dust that has settled on the sea floor off west Africa over the past 192,000 years. From the ratio of carbon isotopes in the hydrocarbons they can work out which types of plants were present at different times.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0905771106

Tags: anthropology, human evolution, migration, science

Space Launches As You’ve Never Seen Them Before

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:50:46 GMT

clipped by: xpersianx

Clip Source: www.environmentalgraffiti.com

Oh. My. Golly. What a shot. Taken in 1998, this awesome image shows NASA’s Lunar Prospector spacecraft shooting into the sky above Cape Canaveral, riding an Athena II rocket. Destination is in sight. Captured in time exposure, the fiery launch tail forms an arch in the foreground, while the moon, near its first quarter phase, looks on, some 250,000 miles away. Prospector will cover the distance in about 5 days. Prepare for blast-off as we explore stunning photos of space launches and wonder what it all means from an environmental point of view.

The Prospector mission carried an array of instruments to map the surface composition and other facets of the Earth’s only natural satellite. The results improved our understanding of the Moon’s origin, evolution and resources, yet we

Speaking of shots, check out the one above. It’s another stunner. According to NASA’s website: “Birds don’t fly this high. Airplanes

This next humdinger depicts

Shuttle launches undoubtedly affect the

Cosmic Harmony

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:20:44 GMT

clipped by: JULIE PENKOVA

Clip Source: www.cosmicharmony.com

Cosmic Harmony - The State of Enlightenment

"The Universe has been called the Cosmic Form of the Divine.
All the beings you see here are manifestations of the Cosmic Form.
This means that all are inherently Divine."

What is enlightenment? What is that state of Cosmic Consciousness, the ultimate awareness called variously - enlightenment, nirvana, satori, samadhi, self-realization, rapture, salvation, ascension, unity consciousness, voidness, and many other terms by many various religions? It is the goal of life, the ultimate destination of every individualized being. It is brought about when the individual personality ascends beyond the illusionary perception of self separateness to merge in the Universal Self from which it originated so very long ago. Spiritual evolution towards this goal takes place over ages but the final ascent of Spirit can happen in an instant of time.

FIFA 10

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:58:29 GMT

clipped by: andyga
clipper's remarks: Nuovo appuntamento con la serie calcistica di Electronic Arts,

Clip Source: next.videogame.it

FIFA 10

Nuovo appuntamento con la serie calcistica di Electronic Arts, che dopo aver compiuto il grande sorpasso su Pro Evolution Soccer prova a mantenersi sui raggiunti livelli di eccellenza grazie a una corposa serie di novità.

La casa madre ostenta fiducia nei successi di FIFA 10.
Attraverso il sito inglese Videogamer.com sono giunte in rete alcune affermazioni targate Electronic Arts di ambito calcistico che rinnovano (se ce ne fosse bisogno) la ...
di Alessandro Martini, 6 novembre 2009

Tags: fifa10, videogame, ea sports

FIFA 10

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:55:01 GMT

clipped by: andyga
clipper's remarks: Nuovo appuntamento con la serie calcistica di Electronic Arts

Clip Source: next.videogame.it

FIFA 10

Immediate funds for emergencies from Payday Advance

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:23:03 GMT

clipped by: ronald25

Clip Source: www.qwesz.com

Immediate funds for emergencies from Payday Advance

Online payday advance and other similar financial products are in huge demand these days. This is because most people are passing through the financial deficiencies during the current recessional scenario and when any emergency strikes, it becomes quite difficult for them to cope up with that. At that time, the evolution of online payday advance seems quite significant when people desire instant financial solution to meet their financial emergencies efficiently and effectively.

Mypayday encourages the borrowers to get quick funds in the form of online Payday Advance to meet their financial deficiencies efficiently.

Tags: payday loans, payday advance

How To Make Your Email Marketing Campaign Work?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:26:03 GMT

clipped by: sundayrichardson02
clipper's remarks: The recent consumer trends and fast evolution of technology is rapidly changing the arena of email marketing. Policies that email marketing campaigners adopted 12 months ago are becoming outdated and fail to work today.

Clip Source: emark-solutions.blogspot.com

The recent consumer trends and fast evolution of technology is rapidly changing the arena of email marketing. Policies that email marketing campaigners adopted 12 months ago are becoming outdated and fail to work today.

Here are some tips that will make your email marketing campaign tick:

Keep your email marketing lists clean. Any good response depends on your email marketing list’s integrity. Maintain your email lists’ quality by removing unwanted addresses. Delete all names and email addresses that are duplicate, opted-out and unnecessary.

Do your email marketing lists contain verified email addresses? Permission is the key to achieving good delivery rates. Make sure that all the records and data in your list are permission based. Review all stages of list building. The more fields collected, the more validation is required to avoid bad inputs. Test your data by sending a confirmatory mail to the recipients to ensure its validity.

Tags: append, appending, email append, email appending services, email marketing, email marketing campaign

Science Tattoo Emporium

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:15:20 GMT

clipped by: chestnut501
clipper's remarks: Scientists who have tattoos of their science.

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

Duygu writes, “I am a developmental biologist by training.

However, I have been an evolution enthusiast and also an activist for educating public about the theory of evolution for a long time. I could not imagine a better tattoo: Darwin’s finches arranged to look like a butterfly…I got it in 2009–Darwin’s 200th anniversary and On The Origin of Species‘ 150th anniversary.

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

All Creatures Great And Small

The Three Faces of Life

Let the Stars and the Ink Guide You Home

A Million Ankles And You’ve Got A Laptop

The Imaginary Vortex

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

Pandora’s Viruses

A Sea of Uranium

LSD Redux

Top Predators of the Past

Old Four Lobes

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

Jellyfish

Hidden Biology

A Trilobite

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

Dromeosaur

The Periodic Table

Carnivore Skull

Bugs, Etc.

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

Einstein v. Newton

Galileo

Cephalopod

Mobius Strip

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

The Guardian of the Genome

Tropical Newton

Eye of Newt, Oil of Meteorite

Tags: science, scientists, art, tattoos, evolution, biology

Should schools be allowed to have crucifixes?

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:04:53 GMT

clipped by: ronhuxley
clipper's remarks: This @breakingtweet shares how government orders a schools in Italy to hang crucifixes and then to take them all done. It makes me think about the arguments in America about prayer in the schools and whether we should teach creationism or evolution? What are your thoughts about this? Tweet us or leave a comment!

Clip Source: www.breakingtweets.com

The European Court of Human Rights has banned crucifixes in Italian schools citing that they run counter to a child’s right to freedom of religion, reports the BBC.

The ruling overturns a law dating back to the 1920s where it was a requirement to hang crucifixes in all classrooms.

Tags: creationism, crucifixes, freedom of religion, law, religion, schools and religion

The Savage Detective (CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS)

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:28:09 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie
clipper's remarks: He was talking about the genocide (not to mention ecocide) unleashed on the rest of the world by Western civilisation and imperialism.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS, anthropologist, writer and adventurer, died just over a week ago at age 100.

His edifice, structuralism — the theory of a structural unity in all cultures —

In his book “La Pensée Sauvage,” published in 1962, he showed these “primitive” people as the equals of those in the most elevated cultures of the civilized world.

his humanity and his melancholy kindness, which made him reluctant to go into the field for fear of intruding on the people he studied or finding himself disappointed by what had been lost to the evolution of modern times.

He expressed in his books the beauty and intelligibility of myths. And he kept in his heart the warmth and the modesty of the young man he once was, a man who was struck by a pessimistic sympathy for dying civilizations, dying people.

He was never sure that what he had put to light would even survive the present,

elucidated in “Tristes Tropiques,”

“The world began without the human race and will certainly end without it.”

Tags: 1-genocide, 2-increase, 3-research, 4-intl3 reported

ReviewReviewReviewReview The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:24:00 GMT

clipped by: loulairusa2
clipper's remarks: PRAISE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY OF WAR.
"Throughout our history' the impetus to using force sometimes has seemed as inevitable as water circling an open drain, but war is not always the best way to defend our security interests. Eugene Jarecki examines the evolution of America's views about war,up through the invasion of Iraq.He knows how to ask the important questions, and he keeps asking until he gets the answers. This is the kind of insightful dialogue that can help ensure that when we act, we act not of fear, but are grounded in confidence in our ideals"
- Senator Patric Leahy -

Clip Source: loulairusa.multiply.com

The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril

Educate yourself; do research and then make up your own mind. Don't let the media brainwash you!

Tags: the corporation, eugene jarecki, why we fight, munick, books

Evolution!!

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:43:52 GMT

clipped by: eudominguez

Clip Source: news.harvard.edu

Caught in the act

Scientists find a butterfly population that appears to be splitting into two species

Tags: evolution