Fossil find resolves ancient extinction mystery

Researchers have revealed remarkably well preserved fossils of soft-bodied marine creatures that are between 470 and 480 million years old.

Prior to this find, scientists were unsure whether such creatures died out in an extinction event during an earlier period known as the Cambrian.

The fossils were preserved in rocks formed by layers of ancient marine mud in south-eastern Morocco.

They are described in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

The research team that studied the fossils described them as marine animals that lived during the early part of a period that followed the Cambrian, known as the Ordovician.

Professor Derek Briggs from Yale University in New Haven, US, who was an author of the study, told BBC News that the discovery provided "a much more complete record of early marine life than we've every had before".

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Muhammad cartoonist defiant after attack

STOCKHOLM — A Swedish artist whose drawing of the Prophet Muhammad offended Muslims said Wednesday he hopes to get another chance to deliver a lecture on free-speech that was interrupted by violent protests.

But officials at Uppsala University said they doubted they would invite Lars Vilks again after police used pepper spray and batons to help him escape a furious crowd Tuesday.

"It's nothing that we're discussing right now, but it's not very likely given how it turned out here," university spokeswoman Anneli Vaara said.

While Vilks escaped the incident with broken glasses and a degree of shock, he said it raised concerns about the freedom of expression at Sweden's oldest and most prestigious institute of higher learning.

"What you get is a mob deciding what can be discussed at the university," Vilks told The Associated Press, adding he was ready to repeat the lecture if re-invited.

"I'm ready to go up again," he said. "This must be carried through. You cannot allow it to be stopped."

What a guy! Good on him, we can't fear these idiots. If we start to get scared and let their weird ramblings control our lives in the face of reason, we all lose.

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Clash of the Kingdoms

On the African savanna, a cheetah fights with a lion over the carcass of a gazelle. In a North American boreal forest, a black spruce tree spreads its roots and leaves to capture more light and water from pines trying to do the same. Closely related species often compete aggressively for resources. But researchers have now found a remarkable exception: a plant competing for food with an animal.

The species in question are sundews and insect-eating wolf spiders. Sundews (Drosera capillaris) cover their leaves in a sticky mucous to trap insects and consume them with digestive enzymes, whereas the spiders (Sosippus floridanus) weave dense webs. Both species live close to the ground in the damp bogs of southern Florida, and both prey on a variety of bugs, including flies, ants, crickets, and springtails. This overlap led ecologist Jason Rohr of the University of South Florida in Tampa to wonder if the two species competed for resources.

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Maya Adept at 'Building Green'

An article from Science Daily on how the latest technology has led to a discovery that the Mayan civilization "designed and maintained sustainable cities long before 'building green' became a modern term".

A flyover of Belize's thick jungles has revolutionized archaeology worldwide and vividly illustrated the complex urban centers developed by one of the most-studied ancient civilizations -- the Maya.

University of Central Florida researchers led a NASA-funded research project in April 2009 that collected the equivalent of 25 years worth of data in four days.

Until now, Maya archeologists have been limited in exploring large sites and understanding the full nature of ancient Maya landscape modifications because most of those features are hidden within heavily forested and hilly terrain and are difficult to record. LiDAR effectively removes these obstacles.

"It's very exciting," said Arlen Chase. "The images not only reveal topography and built features, but also demonstrate the integration of residential groups, monumental architecture, roadways and agricultural terraces, vividly illustrating a complete communication, transportation and subsistence system."

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The Imperfect Human Eye

As someone who has to wear contact lenses, I find the argument that the seemly perfect complexities of the eye throughout the Animal Kingdom is proof of a designer.

The eye isn't perfect, and not just because I am short sighted. If there were a designer then there are some serious design flaws including blind spots, short/long sightedness and our incredible ability to be fooled by an Optical Illusion.

This particular optical illusion was winner of the Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest 2010:

Click here to see all the BVIotY 2010 runners up

Click here for some information on why Intelligent Design has been rejected by the modern scientific community.

What is your theological stance on the idea of God?

I created a poll when I first started this Blog but some people have asked what they mean, so here are the simple explanations of each one.

Theist - Believes in a God that Created and Interferes in the world (listens to prayers)

Deist - Believes in a God that Created but doesn't interfere in the world

Pantheist - Believes that God is the world and the universe, not something that created it or interferes.

Atheist - Believes that there is no God and only the physical world we can see and prove. Some also think that Pantheists are really just spiritual atheists :P

I hope that helps :)

UPDATE: Atheist - Believes there are no deities, but can also mean the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.