Pareidolia – What’s That?

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Pareidolia

Pareidolia is the phenomenon of recognizing patterns, shapes, and familiar objects in a vague and sometimes random stimulus. It’s the result of your brain trying to “make sense” of input that really has no sense to find in it.

Pareidolia – Chiesa Madre di Nereto – Teramo, Italy

 

This is seen often in inkblot tests, where random splatters of ink suggest different images to different people (look, it’s a conspiracy, they’re all deliberately made to look like vaginas!) but also in cases of people seeing visions, ghosts and other likenesses in what is actually just random patterns that happen to look like those things.

Examples
The Rorschach test, or the famous “inkblot” test asks people what they see in otherwise random blobs of ink. The accepted standard answers for the first four are A) a bat, B) a bat, C) a bat, and D) my father killing my mother with a hypodermic needle

inkblot test – Google Search

1-dollar bill
($1 bill must be not too new and not too old) Hold dollar bill with pyramid and eagle facing you. fold eagle behind the pyramid. If folded exactly in half the two circles will align on top of each other and touching on both sides. Hold up to an old light bulb to see the face of Baphomet come through the pyramid side. (The eyes will come through in the two circular clouds just below the eye on the pyramid).

_Baphomet.png – RationalWiki

5-dollar bill
Repeat the same steps. The result is the Pentagon before the attacks.

-5d.jpg (350×189)

]10-dollar bill
Repeat the same steps again. The result is the Twin Towers on fire.

10a.jpg (360×249)

50-dollar bill
And again. This time, you get the building collapsing.

50c.jpg (360×259)

100-dollar bill
All you get this time around is a bunch of smoke, which looks more like someone played around with the MSPaint airbrush tool. Just a bunch of smoke, presumably a result of a fallen building, perhaps after being hit with an airplane. When was this dollar bill made? Well before 9/11. So what is with the Twin Towers, in a mass of smoke?

100c.jpg

A picture made by NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter in 1976 showing a hill that looks like a face started a new hobby – looking closely at images returned by Mars probes and trying to find as much “evidence for extraterrestrial life” as possible.

RationalWiki

 

Contrary to expectations, magnifying images to the pixel level and repeatedly applying the “sharpen” tool are not considered cheating. Notable participants in this quaint activity are Richard Hoagland and the Mars Anomaly Research team. Not only a ‘face’ but whole pyramids and causeways are claimed to be seem – with the ‘face’ being ‘identical’ to that on the Sphinx at Gizeh. Sci-fi pedants have been amused to note that long-running BBC sci-fi show Doctor Who broadcast a serial in 1975 called The Pyramids of Mars, featuring a baddie called Sutekh the Destroyer who was imprisoned in a pyramid. On Mars. “coincidence??” etc. etc.

Giant Amphibian Ruled Ancient Rivers

by Jeanna Bryner, Live Science Managing Editor   |   March 23, 2015 08:01pm ET

http://www.livescience.com/50225-giant-super-salamander-photos.html?cmpid=559229

Researchers have discovered a mass graveyard filled with the bones of a giant amphibian that lived between 220 million and 230 million years ago in what is today southern Portugal. Here’s a look at the dig site, bones and what the creature would have looked like so long ago. Images are courtesy of Steve Brusatte/Richard Butler/Octavio Mateus/Seb Steyer. [Read the full story on the super salamander]

Digging for treasure

 

The team uncovers fossils of the new amphibian, now called Metoposaurus algarvensis, from the Algarve region in southern Portugal, where a gradulate student, Thomas Schroeter, in the late 1970s to early 1980s found speciments possibly from the same group of amphibians. The researchers relocated this bonebed in 2009, where they have found nearly 10 different skulls and several other bones from this newfound species.

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From beyond the grave

 

Here, a model of the Metoposaurus algarvensis amphibian, a member of the metoposaurids, which had yet to be found on the Iberian Peninsula. The creature, which was equipped with hundreds of sharp teeth and a big, broad head (like other metoposaurids) would have filled crocodile-like predator niches when alive.

---

A peak into the past

 

This artist’s conception highlights the flat “toilet-seat-shaped” head ofMetoposaurus algarvensis, as co-researcher Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh describes it. The beast would have swung its flat head around to snag fish in the rift valleys on the supercontinent Pangaea.

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Digging for history

 

Brusatte uncovers some of the bones of Metoposaurus algarvensis at their dig site. Hundreds of these creatures may have died at once when their lakebed dried up, leaving behind a jackpot of bones for paleontologists to discover. The rest of their kin, along with most metoposaurids and half of the planet’s species, went extinct around 201 million years ago. That mass extinction at the end of the Triassic is thought to have paved the way for the rise of dinosaurs.

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A strange sight

 

Here, the clavicle of a Metoposaurus algarvensis. The creature would have grown to about 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length, ruling the waterways where it lived. “This new amphibian looks like something out of a bad monster movie,” Brusatte said in a statement. “It was the type of fierce predator that the very first dinosaurs had to put up with if they strayed too close to the water, long before the glory days of T. rex andBrachiosaurus.”

---

What a large mouth it had…

 

The lower jawbone of the recently uncovered Metoposaurus algarvensis. Various features distinguished this animal from other metoposaurids, including some differences in the brain region, the lower jaw and openings for nerves and the spinal cord. Though it would not have been any match for the larger dinosaurs and mammals, some of the smaller land dwellers likely stayed clear of the giant amphibian, the researchers speculated.

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More fossils

 

The shoulder girdle bones of the newly discovered Metoposaurus algarvensis. The animal’s puny limbs suggest that while it was a good swimmer, it was likely pretty awkward on land, Brusatte said.

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A huge find

 

The skull of the newfound amphibian Metoposaurus algarvensis. The researchers have excavated just a small portion of the bonebed and hope to continue digging there, where they expect to find even more bones like this one.

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Unusual bones

 

Part of the Metoposaurus algarvensis amphibian’s palate and skull.

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Evidence uncovered

 

Skulls of the Metoposaurus algarvensis discovered together at the site in Portugal.

Follow Jeanna Bryner on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience,Facebook & Google+.

SECRETS OF ARCHAEOLOGY: A Place Called Etruria (Ancient History)

A Place Called Etruria (Ancient History)
Published on Apr 6, 2014
SECRETS OF ARCHAEOLOGY: A Place Called Etruria (Ancient History Documentary)

Take a virtual reality tour of history’s most intriguing ancient civilizations. Uncover the secrets of the pyramids as the Pharaohs reach for immortality, walk the streets of the Eternal City of Rome, relive a step-by-step reconstruction of Pompeii under the shadow of mighty Vesuvius, experience life in bustling Baghdad and journey to Latin America to the mythical “El Dorado.” SECRETS OF ARCHAEOLOGY makes history come alive!

A PLACE CALLED ETRURIA
Go on a journey to the ancient cities Volterra, Populonia and Cervetari and see why Etruscan civilization was famous for its extravagant wealth, fine ceramics, handicrafts and bustling trade, and how it was all lost in battles with the Greek colonies in southern Italy.

Enigma Of The Etruscans part 1 – Documentary

Published on Feb 4, 2014
They taught the French to make wine and the Romans to build roads, and they introduced writing to Europe, but the Etruscans have long been considered one of antiquity’s great enigmas. No one knew exactly where they came from. Their language was alien to their neighbors. Their religion included the practice of divination, performed by priests who examined animals’ entrails to predict the future.

Much of our knowledge about Etruscan civilization comes from ancient literary sources and from tomb excavations, many of which were carried out decades ago. But all across Italy, archaeologists are now creating a much richer picture of Etruscan social structure, trade relationships, economy, daily lives, religion, and language than has ever been possible.

Excavations at sites including the first monumental tomb to be explored in over two decades, a rural sanctuary filled with gold artifacts, the only Etruscan house with intact walls and construction materials still preserved, and an entire seventh-century B.C. miner’s town, are revealing that the Etruscans left behind more than enough evidence to show that perhaps, they aren’t such a mystery after all.

Enigma Of The Etruscans part 2 – Documentary

Strange Objects & Tool – Curiosity Rover Mission

Strange Objects & Tool / Handle On SOL 925 Of Curiosity Rover Mission

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e44RWIkSX6s&list=TLCjfTNEw0zfQ

Published on Mar 20, 2015

This whole area has caught my eye. It almost looks like coral or possibly something that has been under water. I didn’t mention this in the video but there also seems to be tracks from something other then the rover maybe? Could just be the soil. It also looks like this area had been very ornately carved. To the bottom right of the image is a perfectly straight cylinder that looks to be a tool of some sort. You surely could surely pick it up and turn it into a pret

What Is This Object On The Moon? Anomaly? Submitted By John e

Published on Mar 18, 2015
This was sent to me by a friend of mine named John Endersby. He is an amateur astronomer who lives in a great area to catch images of the Moon and Sun with his telescope. During the lunar eclipse of 8/10/14 he caught this with his telescope and webcam.

The quality is not sharp sharp but we would love to hear your comments on what you think this huge thing is! He has not seen it since that day or in any footage since then other then the image from the UFO article that is in the video. Enjoy and please comment below!

John’s Photos: https://www.facebook.com/john.endersb…

WUITS Article and Enhanced Images: whatsupinthesky.com/index.php/2013-04-24­-00-44-09/moon/836-what-is-this-on-the-m­oon-possible-anomaly-submitted-by-subscr­iber-john-e

Request that I review a picture or send me a video tip by emailing me at will@willfarrar.net and sending me what you have along with the links! Also check me out online at:

http://www.whatsupinthesky.com – Anomaly Website

http://www.willfarrar.net – Personal Website

http://www.facebook.com/willfarrar – My Facebook Page

http://www.mikeejonesmemorial.com – Scholarship for Music

http://www.youtube.com/WhatsUpInTheSky37 – My Channel

http://www.facebook.com/energyfield – Energy Field Information Network (WhatsUpInTheSky)

Volcanic Lightning Forms Glass Balls

by Becky Oskin, Senior Writer | March 13, 2015 02:12pm ET
http://www.livescience.com/50137-volcanic-lightning-glass-balls.html?cmpid=559238

Inside towering clouds of volcanic ash, stunning lightning storms can create tiny crystal balls, a new study reports.

Researchers recently discovered smooth glass spheres in ash from explosive volcanic eruptions. Kimberly Genareau, a volcanologist at the University of Alabama, first spotted the orbs while scanning ash from Alaska’s 2009 Mount Redoubt eruption with a powerful microscope. She also found them in ash from Iceland’s 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

-Forged in a Flash_ Volcanic Lightning Forms Glass Balls

Both volcanoes blasted out billowing ash clouds that triggered spectacular displays of volcanic lightning. Inside these murky clouds, ash particles rub together, generating static electricity that discharges as lightning. [Big Blasts: History’s 10 Most Destructive Volcanoes]
https://www.youtube.com/user/NaturalezaSalvajeHD
Genareau and her colleagues said they think the lightning displays forged the glass balls from particles of volcanic glass. Their findings were published Feb. 27 in the journal Geology.

Volcanoes spit out jagged glass shards during eruptions, along with sharp scraps of rocks and minerals. But lightning within the ash cloudcan heat the air to 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit (30,000 degrees Celsius) for a few millionths of a second, melting the glass particles. These molten droplets then form into balls as they fall through the air, Genareau said.

Electrifying Images of Volcano Lightning

Researchers previously knew that volcanic eruptions could produce glass, but the new findings show how that glass can be made into spheres.

“You don’t need volcanic lightning to make glass [in ash], just to get that unusual shape,” Genareau told Live Science.

The round spherules from Mount Redoubt and Eyjafjallajökull are only 50 microns across (1/25,000th of an inch), hundreds of times smaller than the spherules that can be ejected during meteorite impacts. Fountaining lava caught by the wind can also form such glass spherules, called Pele’s tears.

-pele’s tears – Google Search

Some of the glass spherules examined in the study were as smooth as crystal balls, but others were hazed by cracks and pits that may have formed when water expanded into steam as the glass melted.

The research team is planning further studies into how and why the spherules formed. For instance, the scientists verified that a violent shock can produce glass spheres in ash when they found a version of the tiny balls in ash left over from experiments by researchers at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. In the experiments, the Canterbury researchers, who are also co-authors on the new findings, zapped artificial ash to investigate how volcanic ash disrupts high-voltage insulators. Their tests were similar to lightning discharges inside an ash cloud, Genareau said.

Electrifying Images of Volcano Lightning

Now, after studying samples from several eruptions, the researchers suspect that it is the size of the ash particles that determines whether the glass spheres appear after volcanic lightning strikes, Genareau said. All the spherules found so far are about 50 microns or smaller in size, she said. Larger ash fragments were partially melted, but didn’t completely transform into spherical shapes.

Forged in a Flash_ Volcanic Lightning Forms Glass Balls

Genareau said she hopes that the new discovery will spark a search for similar spheres in older ash deposits, which could provide new clues about where and when volcanic lightning strikes.

“Not much is known about how often volcanic lightning occurs, and this provides physical evidence that may be preserved in the geologic record,” she said.

Electrifying Images of Volcano Lightning

Follow Becky Oskin @beckyoskin. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.
http://www.livescience.com/50137-volcanic-lightning-glass-balls.html?cmpid=559238

15 Craziest Natural Phenomena on Earth

15 Craziest Natural Phenomena on Earth

From oceans of blood to colossal blue holes filling the ocean floor, we count 15 of the most mysterious and beautiful natural phenomena ever to grace our planet.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDDGuides

Bizarre Sea Scorpion

Hey! What’s that in your pond? I wouldn’t go in there if I were you. Whatever that thing is, it’s big and scary looking.

Puzzling sea creature caught in pond. I first discovered this strange scorpion looking monster a few weeks ago when it was brought to my attention through FB.

11 Things You May Not Know About Ancient Egypt

November 12, 2012     http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/11-things-you-may-not-know-about-ancient-egypt

By Evan Andrews

Ancient Egypt stood as one of the world’s most advanced civilizations for nearly 3,000 years and created a culture so rich that it has spawned its own field of study. But while Egyptian art, architecture and burial methods have become enduring objects of fascination, there is still a lot you probably don’t know about these famed builders of the pyramids. From the earliest recorded peace treaty to ancient board games, find out 11 surprising facts about the Gift of the Nile.

1. Cleopatra was not Egyptian.

Along with King Tut, perhaps no figure is more famously associated with ancient Egypt than Cleopatra VII. But while she was born in Alexandria, Cleopatra was actually part of a long line of Greek Macedonians originally descended from Ptolemy I, one of Alexander the Great’s most trusted lieutenants. The Ptolemaic Dynasty ruled Egypt from 323 to 30 B.C., and most of its leaders remained largely Greek in their culture and sensibilities. In fact, Cleopatra was famous for being one of the first members of the Ptolemaic dynasty to actually speak the Egyptian language.

2. The ancient Egyptians forged one of the earliest peace treaties on record.

For over two centuries the Egyptians fought against the Hittite Empire for control of lands in modern day Syria. The conflict gave rise to bloody engagements like 1274 B.C.’s Battle of Kadesh, but by time of the pharaoh Ramses II neither side had emerged as a clear victor. With both the Egyptians and Hittites facing threats from other peoples, in 1259 B.C. Ramses II and the Hittite King Hattusili III negotiated a famous peace treaty. This agreement ended the conflict and decreed that the two kingdoms would aid each other in the event of an invasion by a third party. The Egyptian-Hittite treaty is now recognized as one of the earliest surviving peace accords, and a copy can even be seen above the entrance to the United Nations Security Council Chamber in New York.

3. Ancient Egyptians loved board games.

After a long day’s work along the Nile River, Egyptians often relaxed by playing board games. Several different games were played, including “Mehen” and “Dogs and Jackals,” but perhaps the most popular was a game of chance known as “Senet.” This pastime dates back as far as 3500 B.C. and was played on a long board painted with 30 squares. Each player had a set of pieces that were moved along the board according to rolls of dice or the throwing sticks. Historians still debate Senet’s exact rules, but there is little doubt of the game’s popularity. Paintings depict Queen Nefertari playing Senet, and pharaohs like Tutankhamen even had game boards buried with them in their tombs.

4. Egyptian women had a wide range of rights and freedoms.

While they may have been publicly and socially viewed as inferior to men, Egyptian women enjoyed a great deal of legal and financial independence. They could buy and sell property, serve on juries, make wills and even enter into legal contracts. Egyptian women did not typically work outside the home, but those who did usually received equal pay for doing the same jobs as men. Unlike the women of ancient Greece, who were effectively owned by their husbands, Egyptian women also had the right to divorce and remarry. Egyptian couples were even known to negotiate an ancient prenuptial agreement. These contracts listed all the property and wealth the woman had brought into the marriage and guaranteed that she would be compensated for it in the event of a divorce.

5. Egyptian workers were known to organize labor strikes.

Even though they regarded the pharaoh as a kind of living god, Egyptian workers were not afraid to protest for better working conditions. The most famous example came in the 12th century B.C. during the reign of the New Kingdom pharaoh Ramses III. When laborers engaged in building the royal necropolis at Deir el-Medina did not receive their usual payment of grain, they organized one of the first recorded strikes in history. The protest took the form of a sit-in: The workers simply entered nearby mortuary temples and refused to leave until their grievances were heard. The gamble worked, and the laborers were eventually given their overdue rations.

6. Egyptian pharaohs were often overweight.

Egyptian art commonly depicts pharaohs as being trim and statuesque, but this was most likely not the case. The Egyptian diet of beer, wine, bread and honey was high in sugar, and studies show that it may have done a number on royal waistlines. Examinations of mummies have indicated that many Egyptian rulers were unhealthy and overweight, and even suffered from diabetes. A notable example is the legendary Queen Hatshepsut, who lived in the 15th century B.C. While her sarcophagus depicts her as slender and athletic, historians believe she was actually obese and balding.

7. The pyramids were not built by slaves.

The life of a pyramid builder certainly wasn’t easy—skeletons of workers commonly show signs of arthritis and other ailments—but evidence suggests that the massive tombs were built not by slaves but by paid laborers. These ancient construction workers were a mix of skilled artisans and temporary hands, and some appear to have taken great pride in their craft. Graffiti found near the monuments suggests they often assigned humorous names to their crews like the “Drunkards of Menkaure” or the “Friends of Khufu.” The idea that slaves built the pyramids at the crack of a whip was first conjured by the Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century B.C., but most historians now dismiss it as myth. While the ancient Egyptians were certainly not averse to keeping slaves, they appear to have mostly used them as field hands and domestic servants.

8. King Tut may have been killed by a hippopotamus.

Surprisingly little is known about the life of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen, but some historians believe they know how he died. Scans of the young king’s body show that he was embalmed without his heart or his chest wall. This drastic departure from traditional Egyptian burial practice suggests that he may have suffered a horrific injury prior to his death. According to a handful of Egyptologists, one of the most likely causes for this wound would have been a bite from a hippopotamus. Evidence indicates that the Egyptians hunted the beasts for sport, and statues found in King Tut’s tomb even depict him in the act of throwing a harpoon. If the boy pharaoh was indeed fond of stalking dangerous game, then his death might have been the result of a hunt gone wrong.

9. Some Egyptian doctors had specialized fields of study.

An ancient physician was usually a jack-of-all-trades, but evidence shows that Egyptian doctors sometimes focused on healing only one part of the human body. This early form of medical specialization was first noted in 450 B.C. by the traveler and historian Herodotus. Discussing Egyptian medicine, he wrote, “Each physician is a healer of one disease and no more…some of the eye, some of the teeth, some of what pertains to the belly.” These specialists even had specific names. Dentists were known as “doctors of the tooth,” while the term for proctologists literally translates to “shepherd of the anus.”

10. Egyptians kept many animals as pets.

The Egyptians saw animals as incarnations of the gods and were one of the first civilizations to keep household pets. Egyptians were particularly fond of cats, which were associated with the goddess Bastet, but they also had a reverence for hawks, ibises, dogs, lions and baboons. Many of these animals held a special place in the Egyptian home, and they were often mummified and buried with their owners after they died. Other creatures were specially trained to work as helper animals. Egyptian police officers, for example, were known to use dogs and even trained monkeys to assist them when out on patrol.

11. Egyptians of both sexes wore makeup.

Vanity is as old as civilization, and the ancient Egyptians were no exception. Both men and women were known to wear copious amounts of makeup, which they believed gave them the protection of the gods Horus and Ra. These cosmetics were made by grinding ores like malachite and galena into a substance called kohl. It was then liberally applied around the eyes with utensils made out of wood, bone and ivory. Women would also stain their cheeks with red paint and use henna to color their hands and fingernails, and both sexes wore perfumes made from oil, myrrh and cinnamon. The Egyptians believed their makeup had magical healing powers, and they weren’t entirely wrong: Research has shown that the lead-based cosmetics worn along the Nile actually helped stave off eye infections.

http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/11-things-you-may-not-know-about-ancient-egypt

Creationism Or Evolutionism?

Well here’s something to get everyone wondering where I’m coming from. I believe in God and I believe there is an intelligent design to the universe. I don’t believe all of what we are capable and can see and do, is just a fluke.

I also believe in evolution. If we say: On the first day God created….What day would that be?

I am a Latter-day Saint, a member of the Mormon Church. If our Heavenly Father resides on ” Kolab ” as in the ” Pearl Of Great Price ” according to the book of Abraham, one day there represents 1000 years here.

There is nothing in Biblical scripture that says ” On Monday this, and on Tuesday that. The Bible only states ” On the first day ” and then it states, ” On the next day….Who is to say how many days went by before the next day was to happen.

That allows for evolution….A friend of mine, a former Bishop of the L.D.S. Church had a theory. It suggested while Adam and Eve were hanging out in the Garden Of Eden, there was no sickness, death, or anything except the two of them frolicking.

Until the serpent convinced Eve to taste of the forbidden fruit, countless eons may have passed. The ” Fruit ” was Knowledge. Eons is considered more than 1, and an eon is thought to be about half of a billion years.

Even if Creationism is correct, there was plenty of time for an intelligently designed system to evolve, and we are constantly evolving, as per our own scientific observations.

Overview: The Conflict Between Religion and Evolution
http://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/overview-the-conflict-between-religion-and-evolution/

Almost 150 years after Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Americans are still fighting over evolution. If anything, the controversy has grown in both size and intensity.

(See The Social and Legal Dimensions of the Evolution Debate in the U.S.) http://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/the-social-and-legal-dimensions-of-the-evolution-debate-in-the-us/

But beginning in the 1960s, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a number of decisions that imposed severe restrictions on those state governments that opposed the teaching of evolution.

Teaching creation science, either along with evolutionary theory or in place of it, is also banned.

In the last decade, some local and state school boards in Kansas, Pennsylvania and elsewhere have considered teaching what they contend are scientific alternatives to evolution –
Notably the concept of intelligent design, which posits that life is too complex to have developed without the intervention of an outside, possibly divine force.

(See Fighting Over Darwin, State by State.)
http://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/fighting-over-darwin-state-by-state/

Evolution is “a theory, not a fact [and] … should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.”

(See Darwin and His Theory of Evolution.) http://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/darwin-and-his-theory-of-evolution/

Others dismiss creation science as religion, not science, and describe intelligent design as little more than creationism dressed up in scientific jargon.

(See Evolution: A Timeline.) http://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/evolution-a-timeline/

So if evolution is as established as the theory of gravity, why are people still arguing about it a century and a half after it was first proposed?

For many, the Darwinian view of life – a panorama of brutal struggle and constant change – goes beyond contradicting the biblical creation story and conflicts with the Judeo-Christian concept of an active and loving God who cares for his creation.

(See Religious Groups’ Views on Evolution.) http://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/religious-groups-views-on-evolution/

Evolution: A Glossary of Terms

Creationism – The belief that the creation story in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible book of Genesis is literally true and is akin to a scientific explanation for the creation of the Earth and the development of life.

Creation science – A movement that has attempted to uncover scientific evidence to show that the biblical creation story is true. Some in the creation science movement, known as “young Earth creationists,” reject not only evolution but also the idea that the universe and the Earth are billions of years old.

Darwinian evolution – The theory, first articulated by Charles Darwin, that life on Earth has evolved through natural selection, a process through which plants and animals change over time by adapting to their environments.

Intelligent design – The belief that life is too complex to have evolved entirely through natural processes and that an outside, possibly divine force must have played a role in the origin and development of life.

Social Darwinism – A belief that Darwin’s evolutionary theory can be applied to human society and that groups of people, just like life in the wild, are subject to “survival of the fittest.” The now discredited idea influenced many social theories and movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from laissez-faire capitalism to various eugenics movements.

Scientific theory – A statement or principle, honed through scientific observation, reasoning and experimentation, that explains a natural phenomenon.

Theistic evolution – A belief held by some religious groups, including the Catholic Church, that God is the guiding force behind the process of evolution.

This report was written by David Masci, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project.
_______________________________________________________________________
The above post is a short summary of the article. The article explains what “evolution is, as opposed to “creationism”. The post was very explicit, in that it was totally neutral.

Because of the Church and State, separation issues, it has been mandated Creationism, is a religious belief, and therefor can not be taught in schools.

If someone were to gather enough scientific evidence for the proofs of Creationism, the debates over what to teach in schools might turn the other way.

The Bible is not considered a proof as it was a compilation of many different books, written over a great timespan and heavily edited numerous times.

Although the Bible may be a narrative of the beginning of this world and the people here, there are no scientific proofs that it is anything more than a story.

There are torches and pitchforks in the corner, should you feel the need to use such tools to make your beliefs known. This website is protected by a shield of energy ( Force Field ) which uses all negative energy as further protection.

I hope no ideals or beliefs were hurt in the writing of this post.

Himalayan Yeti ‘Mystery’

Himalayan Yeti ‘Mystery’ Looks Even Less Mysterious, Scientists Argue
BY ALAN BOYLE

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/yeti-mystery-even-less-mysterious-scientists-say-n324091

http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/nbcNewsOffsite?guid=tdy_yeti_tracking_120903

Mystery solved? Not Yeti, but close.

A year ago, geneticists reported that RNA extracted from hair samples attributed to the Himalayan Yeti monster, a.k.a. “the Abominable Snowman,” were actually most similar to the 40,000-year-old genetic signature of a now-extinct breed of polar bear. They suggested there might be a yet-to-be-discovered bear species lurking in the remote Himalayan snows.

Now a different research team says the hairs were just as likely to come from a type of brown bear that’s common in the Himalayas.

The scientists behind the original study, led by Oxford University’s Bryan Sykes, are holding to their claims about the polar-bearish RNA. But Eliecer Gutierrez of the Smithsonian Institution and Ronald Pine, who’s associated with the University of Kansas’ Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, say there’s too much genetic overlap in the RNA results to rule out the Himalayan brown bear. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_brown_bear

The analysis from Gutierrez and Pine was published online Monday by the open-access journal ZooKeys. http://zookeys.pensoft.net/browse_articles

Is an exotic bear out there?

http://www.nbcnews.com Yeti

Sykes’ results made a splash when they came out last year in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The project involved gathering up dozens of samples of hair that had been collected over the years by monster-hunters and fringe researchers known as cryptozoologists. Sykes and his team looked specifically at mitochondrial RNA extracted from the samples.

Most of the hairs matched run-of-the-mill species, ranging from cows and canines to humans. But two of the samples, from northern India and Bhutan, matched up with genetic markers from a 40,000-year-old polar bear fossil from Norway. That led Sykes to call for an expedition to seek evidence of such a species in the Himalayas.

Since then, other researchers have suggested that the results may have been affected by contamination, and that it’s too great a leap to assume there’s an exotic bear species waiting to be found. The newly published results echo those conclusions.

In an email to NBC News, Sykes said he stood by last year’s findings. He noted that the findings published in ZooKeys were “entirely statistical” in nature.

‘Getting off your butt’

“The explanation by Gutierrez and Pine might be right, or it might not be,” Sykes wrote. “The only way forward, as I have repeatedly said, is to find a living bear that matches the 12S RNA and study fresh material from it. Which involves getting off your butt, not an activity I usually associate with desk-bound molecular taxonomists.”

Sykes said “the real heroes of the piece are the people who actually went to the Himalayas, spoke to the local people, found these hairs, had the wit to keep a few, and then contributed them to the study.”

He noted that his book about the project, titled “The Nature of the Beast,” is set for publication in April. As for the expedition to the Himalayas, Sykes said he was “not in a position to comment.”

In addition to reviewing the yeti results, Gutierrez and Pine noted that the DNA signature of an Asian black bear in Japan was not closely related to those of the species’ mainland members. In a news release, Gutierrez said further study of Asian black bear diversity “would surely yield exciting results.”

The study by Gutierrez and Pine is titled “No Need to Replace an ‘Anomalous’ Primate (Primates) With an ‘Anomalous’ Bear (Carnivora, Ursidae).”

First published March 16th 2015, 9:01 am