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rhmc



Posts: 340
Joined: Dec. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 30 2009,19:39   

Quote (stevestory @ Jan. 29 2009,23:22)
Florida is deeply weird. Deeply. Like chromozomically, DNA-level weird. It's a part of who we are. We are deeply wrong. Malfunctional on an atomic level. But it makes sense to us. We understand why we do what we do. We understand why Fark.com has only one tag specific to a state, and we understand why that tag says Florida. We understand Adaptation. We don't even know what the big deal is. We understand Carl Hiassen and Dave Barry. It's just the same old, same old for us. A loose monkey throwing feces is hardly even newsworthy. It's SNAFU.

you people will never understand.
and if it's that bad, why do you allow your parents to move there?
situation normal, all florida up.  
us natives had to leave....those of us that are left.

or right.

  
rhmc



Posts: 340
Joined: Dec. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 31 2009,09:49   

perhaps i need a breathalizer attached to the keyboard.
what i though was humorous last night does not appear to be so in the light of sobriety.

  
Lou FCD



Posts: 5455
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 03 2009,19:08   

Proto-whales gave birth on land, not at sea at Greg Laden's.

The paper in PLoS ONE.

--------------
“Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas?

Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

   
Henry J



Posts: 5786
Joined: Mar. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 04 2009,13:45   

Surely, but how long  did it take it's blow hole to move to the top of its head? Huh? Huh? :p

  
Lou FCD



Posts: 5455
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 04 2009,18:06   

That's one big-ass snake.

Quote
Titanoboa's fossilised vertebra showed that it was a whopping 13 metres (42 feet) long. By comparison, the largest verifiable record for a living snake belongs to a 10-metre-long reticulated python, and that was probably a striking exception.  Large population surveys of reticulated pythons have failed to find individuals longer than 6 metres. By contrast, Head's team analysed vertebrae from eight different specimens of Titanoboa and found that all of them were roughly the same size. A length of 13 metres was fairly ordinary for this extraordinary serpent. Not quite Jormungandr, but amazing nonetheless.


--------------
“Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas?

Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

   
khan



Posts: 1554
Joined: May 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 04 2009,19:01   

Quote (Lou FCD @ Feb. 04 2009,19:06)
That's one big-ass snake.

Quote
Titanoboa's fossilised vertebra showed that it was a whopping 13 metres (42 feet) long. By comparison, the largest verifiable record for a living snake belongs to a 10-metre-long reticulated python, and that was probably a striking exception.  Large population surveys of reticulated pythons have failed to find individuals longer than 6 metres. By contrast, Head's team analysed vertebrae from eight different specimens of Titanoboa and found that all of them were roughly the same size. A length of 13 metres was fairly ordinary for this extraordinary serpent. Not quite Jormungandr, but amazing nonetheless.

Gaack! ~40 foot snake.

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"It's as if all those words, in their hurry to escape from the loony, have fallen over each other, forming scrambled heaps of meaninglessness." -damitall

That's so fucking stupid it merits a wing in the museum of stupid. -midwifetoad

Frequency is just the plural of wavelength...
-JoeG

  
jeannot



Posts: 1201
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 06 2009,03:23   

Science has a special issue about speciation. Check it out.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/current/

  
JLT



Posts: 740
Joined: Jan. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 09 2009,15:14   

Not Exactly Rocket Science has a series of posts on evolutionary research. Nice reads so far.

--------------
"Random mutations, if they are truly random, will affect, and potentially damage, any aspect of the organism, [...]
Thus, a realistic [computer] simulation [of evolution] would allow the program, OS, and hardware to be affected in a random fashion." GilDodgen, Frilly shirt owner

  
Erasmus, FCD



Posts: 6349
Joined: June 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 12 2009,16:46   

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v3/n4/cave-critters

This is cutting edge research at AiG.

Wait.  No... go ahead, I won't spoil it.

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You're obviously illiterate as hell. Peach, bro.-FtK

Finding something hard to believe based on the evidence, is science.-JoeG

the odds of getting some loathsome taint are low-- Gordon E Mullings Manjack Heights Montserrat

I work on molecular systems with pathway charts and such.-Giggles

  
Lou FCD



Posts: 5455
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 12 2009,19:43   

Ancient Virus Gave Wasps Their Sting

Quote
By Rachel Zelkowitz

ScienceNOW Daily News

12 February 2009

There's no consent for these surrogate parents. Tens of thousands of wasp species lay their eggs inside caterpillars, injecting toxins that paralyze the hosts and allow their young to feast on the innards with impunity. Researchers have long wondered what exactly these toxins are and where they came from. The answers, a new genetic analysis reveals, have to do with a virus that infected wasps millions of years ago.


Quote
So in the new study, Drezen's team looked at DNA from wasp ovaries, in which the polydnaviruses are made. They analyzed DNA from three different wasp species and checked the sequences against those of known insect viruses. In one group of wasps, 22 genes matched those of an ancient family of viruses called nudiviruses, the researchers report tomorrow in Science. Further experiments showed that these genes code for key structural proteins in the wasps' polydnavirus toxins.


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“Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas?

Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

   
Kristine



Posts: 3061
Joined: Sep. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 12 2009,22:42   

Quote (Erasmus @ FCD,Feb. 12 2009,16:46)
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v3/n4/cave-critters

This is cutting edge research at AiG.

Wait.  No... go ahead, I won't spoil it.

Gaaaa! Quick, give me a paper bag!
*inhale* *exhale* *inhale* *exhale* *inhale* *exhale*

Whew. Curse you, Erasmus. That was a close one.  :angry:

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Which came first: the shimmy, or the hip?

AtBC Poet Laureate

"I happen to think that this prerequisite criterion of empirical evidence is itself not empirical." - Clive

"Damn you. This means a trip to the library. Again." -- fnxtr

  
Timothy McDougald



Posts: 1036
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 12 2009,23:09   

Okay, since no one else has mentioned it, I'll step up. J-dog's Genome has been decoded - well 63% of it any way...but the rough draft is complete.

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Church burning ebola boy

FTK: I Didn't answer your questions because it beats the hell out of me.

PaV: I suppose for me to be pried away from what I do to focus long and hard on that particular problem would take, quite honestly, hundreds of thousands of dollars to begin to pique my interest.

   
Lou FCD



Posts: 5455
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 15 2009,17:09   

The Peppered Moth (with some help from lepidopterist Michael Majerus) hands Intelligent Design Creationism Hoaxers their collective ass.


Quote
Received: 29 August 2008  Accepted: 10 November 2008  Published online: 6 December 2008

Abstract  The case of industrial melanism in the peppered moth has been used as a teaching example of Darwinian natural selection in action for half a century. However, over the last decade, this case has come under attack from those who oppose Darwinian evolution. Here, the main elements of the case are outlined and the reasons that the peppered moth case became the most cited example of Darwinian evolution in action are described. Four categories of criticism of the case are then evaluated. Criticisms of experimental work in the 1950s that centered on lack of knowledge of the behavior and ecology of the moth, poor experimental procedure, or artificiality in experiments have been addressed in subsequent work. Some criticisms of the work are shown to be the result of lack of understanding of evolutionary genetics and ecological entomology on the part of the critics. Accusations of data fudging and scientific fraud in the case are found to be vacuous. The conclusion from this analysis of criticisms of the case is that industrial melanism in the peppered moth is still one of the clearest and most easily understood examples of Darwinian evolution in action and that it should be taught as such in biology classes.


h/t Evolution: Education and Outreach, via RBH at The Thumb.

A really interesting read.

--------------
“Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas?

Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

   
JLT



Posts: 740
Joined: Jan. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 17 2009,09:06   

Polydnaviruses of Braconid Wasps Derive from an Ancestral Nudivirus
Science 13 February 2009: Vol. 323. no. 5916, pp. 926 - 930. DOI: 10.1126/science.1166788 Link

For some background: Not merely bioweaponized, but mutualistic bioweaponized wasps (Mystery rays from outer space)

The abstract:
 
Quote
Many species of parasitoid wasps inject polydnavirus particles in order to manipulate host defenses and development. Because the DNA packaged in these particles encodes almost no viral structural proteins, their relation to viruses has been debated. Characterization of complementary DNAs derived from braconid wasp ovaries identified genes encoding subunits of a viral RNA polymerase and structural components of polydnavirus particles related most closely to those of nudiviruses—a sister group of baculoviruses. The conservation of this viral machinery in different braconid wasp lineages sharing polydnaviruses suggests that parasitoid wasps incorporated a nudivirus-related genome into their own genetic material. We found that the nudiviral genes themselves are no longer packaged but are actively transcribed and produce particles used to deliver genes essential for successful parasitism in lepidopteran hosts.

And a bit from the article itself:
 
Quote
Comparative genomic studies have highlighted the role of symbiotic associations in evolution (1). Polydnaviruses (PDVs) are virus-like particles associated with wasp species that parasitize lepidopteran larvae. PDV particles are injected along with the eggs of the wasp into the lepidopteran larvae (or eggs) and express proteins that interfere with host immune defenses, development, and physiology; this interference enables wasp larvae to survive and develop within the host (2). Viral particle production occurs exclusively in a specialized region of the wasp ovaries (the calyx), and the vertically transmitted virus does not initiate particle production in the infected host tissues (3). The viral genome packaged in the particles is composed of multiple double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) circles, and it is surprising that it encodes almost no viral structural proteins, although it harbors immunosuppressive genes that are expressed in the host and are essential for successful parasitism (4, 5) (see PDV description at www.ictvonline.org). Because of this lack of genes coding for structural proteins, it has been debated whether PDVs are of viral origin or a "genetic secretion" of the wasp (6, 7).
PDVs are classified as either bracoviruses or ichnoviruses, when associated with braconid or ichneumonid wasps, respectively. Detailed phylogenetic studies have shown that the bracovirus-associated wasps form a monophyletic group known as the microgastroid complex (8), and it has been hypothesized that there has been a single integration event of a viral genome, as a provirus, in the microgastroid lineage. This predicts that vertically transmitted viral DNA may have been maintained because of its contribution to successful parasitism and that PDVs have contributed to the diversification of the microgastroid complex of at least 17,500 species (8).


And finally accompanying commentary.

--------------
"Random mutations, if they are truly random, will affect, and potentially damage, any aspect of the organism, [...]
Thus, a realistic [computer] simulation [of evolution] would allow the program, OS, and hardware to be affected in a random fashion." GilDodgen, Frilly shirt owner

  
Steviepinhead



Posts: 532
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 17 2009,16:25   

One of the local rags, the Seattle Times, did a write-up on stickleback fish research for the Sunday paper that came out closest in time to the 200th anno of Darwin's birthday...

Not bad, and a nice call-out for the researchers involved.

  
dvunkannon



Posts: 1377
Joined: June 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 18 2009,14:06   

A report of an omnivorous early dinosaur has created two new gaps in the fossil record.

So when the lion lies down with the lamb, this guy can lie down in between, eat the lamb's lunch for the salad course, then eat both the lion and the lamb...

--------------
I’m referring to evolution, not changes in allele frequencies. - Cornelius Hunter
I’m not an evolutionist, I’m a change in allele frequentist! - Nakashima

  
JLT



Posts: 740
Joined: Jan. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 23 2009,15:54   

This must be the strangest fish (YouTube video) I've seen so far:
Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).

The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils".

[edit]The video was removed from YouTube but can now be found at the press release link[/edit]

--------------
"Random mutations, if they are truly random, will affect, and potentially damage, any aspect of the organism, [...]
Thus, a realistic [computer] simulation [of evolution] would allow the program, OS, and hardware to be affected in a random fashion." GilDodgen, Frilly shirt owner

  
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 23 2009,16:37   

Quote (JLT @ Feb. 23 2009,15:54)
This must be the strangest fish (YouTube video) I've seen so far:
Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).

The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils".

Thanks - that is a beautiful fish.  I think I will like it even more with tarter sauce! MMMMM!

KIDDING!  This is actully totally cool.

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Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
carlsonjok



Posts: 3326
Joined: May 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 23 2009,16:46   

Quote (JLT @ Feb. 23 2009,15:54)
This must be the strangest fish (YouTube video) I've seen so far:
Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).

The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils".

ID predicted this.  Any good designer would have gone through at least a few different eye designs before finding the best solution.  It is clear that this is one of those eye prototypes.  

Take that Darweenies!!!!

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It's natural to be curious about our world, but the scientific method is just one theory about how to best understand it.  We live in a democracy, which means we should treat every theory equally. - Steven Colbert, I Am America (and So Can You!)

  
Henry J



Posts: 5786
Joined: Mar. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Feb. 23 2009,17:25   

I guess it's easy to see what that critter has on its mind...

  
ppb



Posts: 325
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 02 2009,12:48   

If you're not a Real Scientist ™, but are a scientist wanna-be like me, here's a web site that lets you analyze galaxy images and provide useful data for working astronomers.  It's called Galaxy Zoo, and it shows you pictures of galaxies and asks you a series of questions about them.  

It turns out that our brains do a better job of classifying galaxies than computers currently do.  Galaxy Zoo takes images from the robotic Sloan Digital Sky Survey and uses people's responses to sort the galaxies into categories for further study.  It is an easy and fun way to contribute to our growing knowledge of the universe.

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"[A scientific theory] describes Nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And it agrees fully with experiment. So I hope you can accept Nature as She is - absurd."
- Richard P. Feynman

  
dvunkannon



Posts: 1377
Joined: June 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 02 2009,22:15   

I just joined Folding@Home. Now my spare CPU cycles fold proteins for scientific and medical research. Dang! Science is more addicting than TARD!

Everyone should do this. Certainly everyone with a PS3 should do this. Please join!

--------------
I’m referring to evolution, not changes in allele frequencies. - Cornelius Hunter
I’m not an evolutionist, I’m a change in allele frequentist! - Nakashima

  
bystander



Posts: 301
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 03 2009,15:26   

Quote (JLT @ Feb. 24 2009,08:54)
This must be the strangest fish (YouTube video) I've seen so far:
Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).

The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils".

[edit]The video was removed from YouTube but can now be found at the press release link[/edit]

ID predicted this

  
bystander



Posts: 301
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 03 2009,15:27   

Quote (dvunkannon @ Feb. 19 2009,07:06)
A report of an omnivorous early dinosaur has created two new gaps in the fossil record.

So when the lion lies down with the lamb, this guy can lie down in between, eat the lamb's lunch for the salad course, then eat both the lion and the lamb...

ID Predicted this

  
JohnW



Posts: 3217
Joined: Aug. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 03 2009,15:40   

Quote (bystander @ Mar. 03 2009,13:26)
ID predicted this

Quote (bystander @ Mar. 03 2009,13:27)
ID Predicted this

A mutation!  And since there is no such thing as a beneficial mutation, we have learned that "p" has more CSI than "P".

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Math is just a language of reality. Its a waste of time to know it. - Robert Byers

There isn't any probability that the letter d is in the word "mathematics"...  The correct answer would be "not even 0" - JoeG

  
ppb



Posts: 325
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 03 2009,15:45   

Quote (bystander @ Mar. 03 2009,16:26)
 
Quote (JLT @ Feb. 24 2009,08:54)
This must be the strangest fish (YouTube video) I've seen so far:
Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).

The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils".

[edit]The video was removed from YouTube but can now be found at the press release link[/edit]

ID predicted this

Don't worry.  The ICR is on top of it.  :D

--------------
"[A scientific theory] describes Nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And it agrees fully with experiment. So I hope you can accept Nature as She is - absurd."
- Richard P. Feynman

  
Lou FCD



Posts: 5455
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 03 2009,15:58   

Quote (ppb @ Mar. 03 2009,16:45)
Quote (bystander @ Mar. 03 2009,16:26)
   
Quote (JLT @ Feb. 24 2009,08:54)
This must be the strangest fish (YouTube video) I've seen so far:
Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes (press release by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).

The greenish globes inside the head are the eyes. The black spots at the front are the fish equivalent of "nostrils".

[edit]The video was removed from YouTube but can now be found at the press release link[/edit]

ID predicted this

Don't worry.  The ICR is on top of it.  :D

This gave me a chuckle:

Quote

Ethical Use Policy

Nothing on our website may be reprinted or reproduced for other websites and media in whole or in part beyond these guidelines without obtaining permission from ICR. This applies to the website pages, content, graphics, audio and video, etc.

Guidelines:
1. You may print out pages in whole as evangelistic tools for churches, schools, etc. Our copyright notice and website address (© 2009 Institute for Creation Research. All Rights Reserved. http://icr.org) must be included with no exceptions.

2. You may quote up to 100 words,

(blah blah blah - snipped)

Example Footnotes:

[1] Henry Morris, Ph.D. Henry Morris, Ph.D. "Willingly Ignorant", Institute for Creation Research, http://icr.org/article/491/ (accessed July 29, 2008).

Thank you.


No, thank you.

--------------
“Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas?

Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

   
dvunkannon



Posts: 1377
Joined: June 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 04 2009,11:58   

The Origin of Phagocytosis and Eukaryogenesis

Or as Tommy Lee Jones said in Men In Black, "Eat me!"

--------------
I’m referring to evolution, not changes in allele frequencies. - Cornelius Hunter
I’m not an evolutionist, I’m a change in allele frequentist! - Nakashima

  
JLT



Posts: 740
Joined: Jan. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 04 2009,16:29   

Quote (dvunkannon @ Mar. 04 2009,17:58)
The Origin of Phagocytosis and Eukaryogenesis

Or as Tommy Lee Jones said in Men In Black, "Eat me!"

Damn it.

--------------
"Random mutations, if they are truly random, will affect, and potentially damage, any aspect of the organism, [...]
Thus, a realistic [computer] simulation [of evolution] would allow the program, OS, and hardware to be affected in a random fashion." GilDodgen, Frilly shirt owner

  
JLT



Posts: 740
Joined: Jan. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Mar. 04 2009,16:37   

Quote (JLT @ Mar. 04 2009,22:29)
 
Quote (dvunkannon @ Mar. 04 2009,17:58)
The Origin of Phagocytosis and Eukaryogenesis

Or as Tommy Lee Jones said in Men In Black, "Eat me!"

Damn it. Didn't see that one.

Argh, I hit send too fast and now it won't let me edit my original post :(

--------------
"Random mutations, if they are truly random, will affect, and potentially damage, any aspect of the organism, [...]
Thus, a realistic [computer] simulation [of evolution] would allow the program, OS, and hardware to be affected in a random fashion." GilDodgen, Frilly shirt owner

  
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