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POPSReligion: A Tool to Keep the Parasites Away? Sociobiology is criticized by many for promoting a sense of biological determinism reminiscent of social Darwinism or eugenics—although, one has to wonder, does that mean proselytization is a form of evolutionary suicide?
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POPSMegadiverse Countries I actually came across this wiki article by chance. It is a term I never heard of and find quite interesting. The list of 17 countries is unique in that it includes "highly developed" nations such as The United States and China and many nations with less "developed" economies. I put the terms in quotes because the only meaningful way of comparing nation states would be based on the humanity of their institutions and in that regard the US...well lets just leave it there. In any case, I would love to be at a meeting of these 17 nations. The environmental crisis facing the entire planet demands creative solutions and challenging efforts at cooperation. Perhaps humanity will rise to the occasion.
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POPSRUBBER DODO FOR PALIN The Dodo, extinct for a long time, is now getting closer to receive company. Alaska's polar would be one of the next were it up to to Palin.
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POPSExotic changes may facilitate evolutive processes It is estimated that humans move 7,000 species a day. that may cause some drastic changes, for example: Botulism, is killing tens of thousands of birds around the Great Lakes. Studies indicate that two invasive species triggered the outbreak. The quagga mussel, introduced from Ukraine, filters the water for food, making it clearer. The sunlight that penetrates the lakes allows algae to bloom, and dead algae trigger an explosion of oxygen-consuming bacteria. As the oxygen level drops, the botulism-causing bacteria can multiply. The quagga mussels take up the bacteria, and they in turn are eaten by another invasive species: a fish known as the round goby. When birds eat round gobies, they become infected and die.
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POPSBiological Diversity- Any and all people dedicated to these causes are important to support. By action, example and with a small monetary contribution.
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POPS"Worldshift" http://www.realitysandwich.com/worldshift_our_unsustainable_world_will_change
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POPSBig-brained Animals Evolve Faster a substantial body of evidence has confirmed that animals with larger brains, relative to their body size, have more developed skills for changing their behavior through learning and innovation, facilitating the invasion of novel environments and the use of novel resources. Despite the progress, the role of the brain in the adaptive diversification of animals has remained controversial, mostly due to the difficulties to demonstrate that big-brained animals evolve faster. Now, ecologist Daniel Sol of CREAF-Autonomous University of Barcelona and evolutionary biologist Trevor Price of the University of Chicago, provide evidence for such a role in birds in an article in The American Naturalist. Analyzing body size measures of 7,209 species (representing 75% of all avian species), they found that avian families that have experienced the greatest diversification in body size tend to be those with brains larger than expected for their body size.
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POPSScientists find unexpected key to flowering plants' diversity "As these plants gained the ability to grow pollen tubes faster and over longer distances," said Williams, "It gave them the ability to develop the much larger and more complex flowers as well as deeper ovaries with more seeds -- that is to say, larger fruits -- that we see around us today."
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POPSCan parasites influence the language we speak? "These costly interactions especially come from interacting with people who do not belong to your society or group, whose immune systems are adapted for a separate set of parasites than your own," adds Fincher. n the parasite-rich forest populations, interacting with others came with a high chance of contracting a lethal illness, making parasites an evolutionary driving force.
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POPSWill McCain Oppose $845 Billion Earmark? Obama/Smith Bill
Obama has been busy on the campaign trail but Rep. Adam Smith, the sponsor of the Global Poverty Act in the other body, has been busy complaining about my coverage of this matter! In addition to seeking to eradicate poverty, that Millennium Declaration commits nations to banning "small arms and light weapons" and ratifying a series of treaties, including the International Criminal Court Treaty, the Kyoto Protocol (global warming treaty), the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Millennium Declaration also affirms the U.N. as "the indispensable common house of the entire human family, through which we will seek to realize our universal aspirations for peace, cooperation and development." Does anybody seriously believe that? Does Rep. Adam Smith? Does Senator Barack Obama? Does Senator McCain? It is now on the verge of passage by the full S
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POPSLearn About Endangered Species at Bagheera. The human species, one of millions of life forms on this planet, is threatening the very existence of many other species. As the human population grows, more and more of the Earth's living space, food, and other resources are consumed. This is causing loss of biological diversity at an ever-increasing pace, an extinction crisis that threatens to surpass the mass extinctions that have occurred periodically during the Earth's history. Find out more at Bagheera.com
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