Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Reader Barry sent in this beautiful picture of a serval (Leptailurus serval) tw**ted by Planet Earth. It was so statuesque and dignified that I just had to post it. As you can tell, these cats have the longest legs relative to their body size of any felid.
Servals are savanna cats, widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa. The green shows their range.
Wikipedia notes that white servals have been known, but only in captivity (and probably due to inbreeding). This looks like a case of leucism rather than true albinism:
Here’s a domestical serval (NOT RECOMMENDED AS PETS) jumping:
Finally, here’s a woman playing with Zeus, her pet serval. It shows how they can interact with humans, but again I would never want nor recommend these as pets. Besides, some day that woman’s gonna get nommed.
I was surprised—and distressed—to see a blatantly creationist article appear in a student newspaper at a decent university. The school is North Carolina State University (NCSU), the paper is The Technician, the article is “How to argue against evolutionists,” and the author is Nicky Vaught, who is the Deputy Features Editor of the paper.
At first I thought this was a joke, as did reader Lynn, who sent me a link, but if it’s a joke or parody, there should be some sign of it. There isn’t, so I provisionally assume it’s serious. Against that is the sheer idiocy of the article’s content. Unfortunately, readers’ comments on the article have been disabled.
How much fail can one student publish? Well, here are a few excerpts:
Nye and other scientists seem to think false evidences such as dinosaur bones and carbon dating can give us information about the past — namely, that the Earth is billions of years old. If he were a real scientist, he would know that science cannot tell us anything about the past, only the here and now and possibly the future. To learn about the past, we have religion.
Speaking of history, have evolutionists perhaps forgotten about all the times science has led humanity astray? Science told us the Earth was flat. Science told us our planet was the center of the universe. Science has been wrong countless times before, so why would this time be any different?
The Bible, on the other hand, has never been wrong. For instance, humanity had to wait for science to catch up with Leviticus 15:13 in telling us to wash our hands in running water to avoid disease. Why would the creation of the universe be any different?
Here, by the way, is Leviticus 15:13 from the King James Bible:
And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.
But wait—there’s more:
Evolutionists need to keep in mind the fact that their theory of, well, everything is nothing more than that — a theory. If they’re so confident in their beliefs, evolutionists should teach both sides of the controversy and let people come to their own conclusions. I’m sure a lot more people would choose intelligent design.
Especially in higher education facilities, it is important to get an education of the higher power. Universities that boast scientific-mindedness need to work more toward teaching open-mindedness.
Every evolutionist loves avoiding the big question: If we came from apes, why are there still monkeys?
Sure, they’ll say something like, “We all come from one common ancestor, not from monkeys directly.” Yet there seems to be no proof of any missing link. Never mind how irrational it is to demand a specimen of an interspecies creature that likely never existed. And if it ever did show up, we’d probably be able to do what we did with the dinosaur bones and deny its authenticity.
Besides, we all know the real common ancestor is God.
Evolution is fiction reserved for Pokémon games, so it just can’t be real. No one can explain what causes evolution whereas creationism has a clear, indisputable source. Charles Darwin was wrong, plain and simple.
Because evolution clearly isn’t right, it only makes sense that creationism is truth — just as we’ve known all along. It’s time we shut evolutionists up.
I’ve read this piece several times, and I still can’t figure out if it’s some kind of hoax. If it is, it lacks any sense of satire or humor, and in the end just parrots creationist arguments. Because they’re so dumb, I’m not going to waste any time refuting them. The only information I have is a “Nicky Vaught” on Vimeo giving a “Sunday meditation” in church, and that person bears a resemblance to some of the pictures on the public part of the “real” Vaught’s Facebook page:
The religious connection, of course, lends weight to the “true creationist” hypothesis.
I’m hoping I’m wrong, for I’d rather have a mistaken post than a mistaken student, one who spouts nonsense in the student newspaper. It’s either a poorly-done Poe or a poorly educated student. You tell me!
Reader Bob has just returned from Churchill, Manitoba, where he took lots of photos of the polar bears who live nearby. Here’s one he took of a mother and her cub:
Be sure to keep your eye on the Polar Bear Cams, mounted on robotic vehicles near Churchill. And remember, these animals are doomed by global warming. Your children will likely be able to see them only in zoos.
I took this screenshot from the BearCam a while back; it appears to be young bear having a grand old time biting twigs and rolling in the snow:
More children are dying because their parents belong to religious sects that reject medical care. An investigative report by KATU TV in Portland, Oregon, recently published on their website (please watch the heartbreaking video there), suggests that at least twelve children have died in Idaho since 2011 from medical neglect. The churches—in this case The Followers of Christ and The Church of the Firstborn—keep the deaths quiet, and legal authorities in Idaho can’t do anything about them. There have been some prosecutions in nearby Oregon, where exemptions were rescinded in 2010, but Idaho still allows religiously-based child manslaughter. Such is the deference paid to religion, even of this malevolent sort. From the report:
Peaceful Valley Cemetery sits on a windswept hill 30 miles east of Boise [Idaho].
Some of The Followers of Christ faith healers bury their dead there.
The same last names appear over and again, going back decades. Some – like Beagley – are the same names you’ll see in a similar cemetery in Oregon City.
. . . KATU’s Dan Tilkin covered that story, as he has so many faith-healing stories. That’s why he traveled to Idaho to trace the connections between Followers members in both states, and a new trail of dead children.
A former member of the Followers of Christ advised him to go to Peaceful Valley and look for two specific names.
He found them. He found many more.
The Followers of Christ manage to justify this murder in the name of “freedom of religion.” But of course the children have no freedom to seek medical care: they’re either too young or have been indoctrinated. And they see prosecutions as part of “an aggressive campaign against Christianity.”
KATU reported on his death [a two-year-old who died of pneumonia] in 2011, along with that of 14-year-old Rocky.
Rocky isn’t buried in the cemetery, but he lived nearby with his parents, Sally and Dan.
They didn’t want to talk about not getting him treatment.
“What I will talk to you about is the law,” Dan Sevy said. “I would like to remind you this country was founded on religious freedom, and on freedom in general. I would like to say, I picture freedom as a full object. It’s not like you take “a” freedom away. It’s that you chip at the entire thing. Freedom is freedom. Whenever you try to restrict any one person, then you’re chipping away at freedom. Yours and mine.”
That was that. Sevy didn’t want to talk any more about it.
“I told you I’m not going to do that,” he said. “You don’t understand the full story, and I’m not going to stand in front of a camera and give you the whole story. It’s just not going to happen. I see the way these things get edited out.
“All I see is an aggressive campaign against Christianity in general, it’s amazing to me in this day and age where Muslims get soft pedaled and Christians are under attack. It just blows my mind.”
Unfortunately, those weren’t the only names in the cemetery. There are 10 new graves that look as though they belong to children that have appeared since KATU’s last report in 2011.
The report also gives a list of child deaths from treatable conditions like pneumonia, diabetes, intestinal blockage, and, in the case below, food poisoning:
Arrian Jade Granden. [Her story is given on the KATU video.]
Arrian was 15 years old. She ran track at Parma Middle School.
In June 2012, she got food poisoning.
She vomited so badly she ruptured her esophagus.
She slipped into unconsciousness and went into cardiac arrest. She died.
. . . Of the 553 marked graves at Peaceful Valley Cemetery, 144 appear to be children under 18. That’s more than 25 percent.
Those deaths happened primarily in three different counties, which are manned by three different coroners who aren’t bringing the information to the public.
And this bit is perhaps the most horrifying of all:
The caretaker at Star Cemetery in Star, Idaho said a Followers member recently showed up saying he needed to bury a baby. The baby was in the back seat of his car. The caretaker said he made the church member get a death certificate before he buried the child.
Once again we see the absence of affect and emotionality in parents who let their children die. This defies all understanding—until you realize that following the dictates of their religion is more important to the parents than watching their children die agonizing deaths.
Here’s an interview with Dr. Charles Garrison, who performed the autopsy on 16-year-old Pamela Ellis, who died of pneumonia after a long (and untreated) battle with a pelvic infection. Garrison obviously hates this stuff, but keeps a tight rein on his emotions for the camera:
(1) Any person who, under circumstances or conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death, willfully causes or permits any child to suffer, or inflicts thereon unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering, or having the care or custody of any child, willfully causes or permits the person or health of such child to be injured, or willfully causes or permits such child to be placed in such situation that its person or health is endangered, is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one (1) year, or in the state prison for not less than one (1) year nor
more than ten (10) years.
. . . (4) The practice of a parent or guardian who chooses for his child treatment by prayer or spiritual means alone shall not for that reason alone be construed to have violated the duty of care to such child.
How many more deaths will it take before the legislators of Idaho do something about these exemptions? Why, when it’s illegal to refuse medical care to a sick child, thereby causing injury or death, does it suddenly become legal when the motives come from a socially-sanctioned delusion?
How many more children will we allow to become martyrs for the faith of their parents? And why does this issue get so little attention?
This was highlighted on NBC News on November 1 (there’s a video you should watch there, too). Meet Rudi Saldia and his female tabby, Mary Jane (“MJ”, now about 15 months old), who bike together through the streets of Philadelphia. MJ’s been riding on Rudi’s shoulder since she was two months old, and they’ve cycled up to 25 miles on a single ride. As you’ll see on the NBC video, MJ doesn’t like anybody but Rudi (she scratches the interviewer).
The film below was taken with a GoPro camera. I know people will worry about MJ falling, and I do, too, but so far it hasn’t happened. (Where’s his helmet?)
***
Finally, here’s a video of a kitten, obviously a bit stressed, who somehow got trapped behind a wall in California. As the New York Daily News reports,
Adorable but flea-ridden Valentino — named after the heart-shaped patch of fur on his head — was plucked to safety after the owners of the property cut him out.
Paula Tiberius said she had been hearing the cute kitty’s cries for help for several days, but couldn’t pinpoint where in her Canoga Park house they were coming from.
Then the sound of the meowing suddenly moved to the wall in the front hall.
With time running out for the three-week-old puss, abandoned by its mom, Paula’s husband Richard grabbed a jigsaw blade.
He slowly sawed his way through the wall.
Then, to their astonishment, they found the kitten — which had fallen and become trapped — staring straight back at them.
Shortly after the July 2012 incident, they took the kitten to the nearby Animal Rescue Alliance and Farm Sanctuary so he could be nursed back to health.
Now, more than 16 months on, Tiberius revealed that Valentino – who has now been renamed Atticus – has been adopted and is thriving with his new family.
Here’s the video showing the moment of rescue:
NOMS!!!! (Photo via Paula Tiberius from YouTube)
h/t: Su and others whose names I didn’t save (sorry!)
It’s been a long week, and I’m looking forward to a fine dinner and some postprandial Beerenauslese. Let’s celebrate the Slate stats for yesterday and today with a cat.
The last time someone tore off a chunk of the poster advertising my talks at Murray State next week, someone said it could have been to make a grocery list.
Well, that excuse won’t wash for this one.
My posters continue to be defaced and removed, and the students at the Murray State Student Organization for Reason and Science continue to replace them. (Thanks!)
Come on, Christians, stop making work for your brothers and sisters! Would Jesus deface those posters?
