Incipient Speciation in Ensatina Salamanders

[houseisland]

Copyright Charles W. Brown Phd.



http://www.santarosa.edu/lifesciences2/ensatina2.htm


"Fossils! Fossils! Fossils! I win!" Lewis Black

[slgrieb]

Obviously, you're confused. God has just decided this critter could use some Intelligent Re-Design and is improving it because, well... the species needs it. See also: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39512

[Green_Eyed]

Copyright Charles W. Brown Phd.



http://www.santarosa.edu/lifesciences2/ensatina2.htm


"Fossils! Fossils! Fossils! I win!" Lewis Black

What I want to know is how you found Santa Rosa Junior College?

[houseisland]

"Obviously, you're confused."

I deny this most strenuously. There is only one and room for only one Confus-ed.

Anyway, I was hoping someone would bite. Thanks Griebster. This forum was getting a little dead.


"What I want to know is how you found Santa Rosa Junior College?"

Actually I didn't find it so much as I found the ensatina salamanders. I have an interest natural history -- fond of amphibians and dragon flies.

"Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams."

Try SP6a.

[El_Squid]

And thus, we come to the conclusion that life and nature are dynamic processes, rather than stagnant absolutes. What amazes me is that the Catholic Church and the Pope were able to accept the concept of Evolution as acceptable and non-threatening to their belief system, while many other Christian Denominations/Sects can not.

[slgrieb]

Should say, houseisland, I find your posts lots of fun, and I think the forum has been more than a little dead lately myself.

El, I'm deep in the heart (well, perhaps a different body part really) of the Bible Belt, and around here there are a couple of statistics at which we really excel: teen pregnancy (just say "No! No! Don't stop!"), and Offering to Punch Out Heretics.

One of my buddies who is a Baptist minister recently held a class in which he discussed the history of the Bible in translation. He traced the history of the Book from Aramaic to Greek to Latin to English and showed how biblical scholars had shown that some phrases in the King James version were due to transcription errors. A member of the congregation threatened to hit him because he was "sayin' that the Bible was in error!"

The most interesting experiences I have had as a Christian in a long time have been reading the Didache, the Gospel of Thomas, and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Collectively, these are some of the earliest writings in the Church, and provide real insight into the diversity of early Christianity (and contemporary Judaism). The Gospel of Thomas in particular reads like a string of Zen koans.

[El_Squid]

Ah, the Gnostic Bible, or the Lost Chapters!

I too live in the buckle of the Bible Belt and have in the past been involved in Free Will Baptist, Non-Denominational Fundementalism, the Moonies and several other "Christian" Sects and Denominations. Been a Sunday School teacher for several, for both adults and children. Had the pleasure of hearing a Southern Baptist minister proclaim the space shuttle disasters as God's punishment for trying to go to space, where we don't belong.

And, now I have returned to my cultural roots as a Catholic, where I feel comfortable. I guess I'll have to plow into the Gnostic Verses, if I am to stay current with the latest releases.

[confus-ed]

Should say, houseisland, I find your posts lots of fun, and I think the forum has been more than a little dead lately myself..

It's all this not mixing politics & anything else that we had to resort to due to the last Presidential Elections, makes the place 'less' - I don't like it, but I'm in a minority of one on the 'mod committee' & my suggestions to recombine the lounge & politico's have fallen on deaf ears

[NooNoo]

Perhaps this thread should be renamed "Interesting Dead Dinosaur of the day"

[houseisland]

Well...... there is no particular reason that this thread should stay on topic any more than others do. And even if its topic wanders, its fundamental theme and vague inscrutable purpose remain constant, well maybe.



But in keeping with your suggestion... I nominate Barney:



Oh but wait.... he's not interesting. And unfortunately he's not dead.



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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[houseisland]

BeeBeeC: Scientists have identified the oldest known bee

____________________________________________



It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[El_Squid]

Last night's SouthPark cleared the whole evolution thing up for me. Humans are the result of 5 mutant monkeys having anal sex with a frog-squirrel. Oh, and God is a Flying Spaghetti Monster. What did impress me is that they had Richard Dawkins in the episode, or rather a representation of Richard Dawkins. His "Selfish Gene" helped me get a better handle on the whole evolution concept.

[Platypus]

God is a Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I thought he's a slightly lumpy little green buddhist who lets the Mormons have heaven while everybody else gets on with whatever else there is to be done...

[NooNoo]

Vegetarians are fed by animal flesh... it breaks down into fertiliser which the plants use... Even a giant panda will eat meat if it's laying around the bamboo shoots.

[houseisland]

One for the vegetable matter.....


BBC: 385-million-year-old trees

BBC: "A Cardiff fossil expert has identified a pair of 385-million-year-old trees, thought to be among the world's oldest."

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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!