According to some philosophers, you mustn't say something is an absolute fact. You can only say it's a hypothesis that's never been disproved despite strenuous efforts to disprove it. So, in the same sense that it's a fact that the earth is round and not flat, evolution is a fact.
My response," he says, "is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you also say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball? Because that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a God who's full of mercy'.
2000: The Emo
The proto-hipster’s white belt and guyliner make for a soulful combination.[,,] source
** large view
Btw : I found it over here - a nice overview called : chartporn
Hello World!
Its the 21st century. In the history of human evolution, I consider - the tools that we use(d) - as a very important part of how / what and why we did things the way we did. Necessity is certainly the mother of invention.
Its about time that we add that extra step in the evolution picture, where ubiquitous computing has arrived and is more of a reality and no longer just a part of the fiction books..
Those tools / systems , surround us everywhere - the smart card readers at TOLL booths, access badges, temperature control systems, real time analytics etc. If I look at the picture above, I feel its really difficult to represent the omnipresent smart tools (systems). We are certainly at the cusp of very interesting phase of how human being would live.
This evolution IMO is 2 steps -
1) With the iPhone and likes, being the necessary client for all this systems to work with.
2) the inevitable chips embedded into our biological systems - aka we becoming Cyborgs.
Smart systems have become a part of our surrounding.. and now THEY would evolve to be more intelligent.
Last few years have seen the internet become social and since, all of this meta-data can be understood by systems - its a much more powerful engine -giving us insights on 'n' subjects .
Its the EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES that make us what we are.. and what we would be .
[Needless to say that I am a programmer. You might have figured that out by the first sentence of this post. The primary objective of writing posts on this blog - is for my own learning about emerging technologies and sharing with you all whatever I learn.]
The development of the skeleton was one of the big events in evolution. For all big animals, except squids and octopuses, it is essential to move and hold their body in position. In 1753 the french natural scientist Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon compared the skeletons of different mammals and hypothesized about the possibility of a common ancestry. Today more then 50'000 vertebrates are know of all kind and size, starting with the 30m big blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) to the 7mm small anglerfish (Photocorynus spiniceps). However, the construction materials and principles of the blueprints are always the same.
1 of 10
Click to view largePhotographs by Patrick Gries.
Amazing evolution of animals - teaches us not only why and how we evolve but also questions us why we could be also cruel to beings who don't harm us ?
How many of you folks are still using desktop clients for handling emails? Gmail vs Evolution vs Outlook. I'm still fighting the fight.
November 30, 2009 11:00 AM
Amanda Gefter, Books & Arts editor
Religion's deep history and universality across cultures has led many scientists to suspect that it, like other human behaviours, is a product of evolution.
New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade's enjoyable and highly readable book The Faith Instinct builds a case for religion's evolution beginning at least 50,000 years ago, from its roots in the basic moral instincts observed in non-human primates and perhaps, intriguingly, owing its emergence to our evolving capacities for music and dance.
Wade argues that religion provided the best solution against the two main threats to early human societies: lawlessness within the group and warfare from without. Religion motivated individuals to put their society's needs ahead of their own, which meant, at times, sacrificing their lives for the greater good.
The notion that religion evolved thanks to its skill at social cohesion is compelling, but it requires natural selection to act on groups as well as on individuals - an idea that remains controversial. And without the identification of specific genes or neural modules responsible for religious behaviour, Wade's case at times has that just-so story feel.
Wade sees a future in which religion serves only its societal functions, stripped of obsolete beliefs in the supernatural. It's a nice idea, but hard to reconcile with today's climate, when those who cling to superstition and those who turn to reason seem more polarised than ever.
Book Information:
The Faith Instinct: How religion evolved and why it endures
by Nicholas Wade
Penguin, $25.95
