>Mutations Make Evolution Irreversible

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A University of Oregon research team has found that evolution can never go backwards, because the paths to the genes once present in our ancestors are forever blocked. The findings — the result of the first rigorous study of reverse evolution at the molecular level — appear in the Sept. 24 issue of Nature.

The team used computational reconstruction of ancestral gene sequences, DNA synthesis, protein engineering and X-ray crystallography to resurrect and manipulate the gene for a key hormone receptor as it existed in our earliest vertebrate ancestors more than 400 million years ago. They found that over a rapid period of time, five random mutations made subtle modifications in the protein’s structure that were utterly incompatible with the receptor’s primordial form.

The discovery of evolutionary bridge burning implies that today’s versions of life on Earth may be neither ideal nor inevitable, said Joe Thornton, a professor in the UO’s Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

“Evolutionary biologists have long been fascinated by whether evolution can go backwards,” Thornton said, “but the issue has remained unresolved because we seldom know exactly what features our ancestors had, or the mechanisms by which they evolved into their modern forms. We solved those problems by studying the problem at the molecular level, where we can resurrect ancestral proteins as they existed long ago and use molecular manipulations to dissect the evolutionary process in both forward and reverse directions.”

via Mutations Make Evolution Irreversible: By Resurrecting Ancient Proteins, Researchers Find That Evolution Can Only Go Forward.

There is no such thing as “de-evolution” but traits that once existed to cope with a past environment can and will evolve again if the Earth’s environment changes back to what it once was (low oxygen, for example.)

>Mutations Make Evolution Irreversible

>

A University of Oregon research team has found that evolution can never go backwards, because the paths to the genes once present in our ancestors are forever blocked. The findings — the result of the first rigorous study of reverse evolution at the molecular level — appear in the Sept. 24 issue of Nature.

The team used computational reconstruction of ancestral gene sequences, DNA synthesis, protein engineering and X-ray crystallography to resurrect and manipulate the gene for a key hormone receptor as it existed in our earliest vertebrate ancestors more than 400 million years ago. They found that over a rapid period of time, five random mutations made subtle modifications in the protein’s structure that were utterly incompatible with the receptor’s primordial form.

The discovery of evolutionary bridge burning implies that today’s versions of life on Earth may be neither ideal nor inevitable, said Joe Thornton, a professor in the UO’s Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

“Evolutionary biologists have long been fascinated by whether evolution can go backwards,” Thornton said, “but the issue has remained unresolved because we seldom know exactly what features our ancestors had, or the mechanisms by which they evolved into their modern forms. We solved those problems by studying the problem at the molecular level, where we can resurrect ancestral proteins as they existed long ago and use molecular manipulations to dissect the evolutionary process in both forward and reverse directions.”

via Mutations Make Evolution Irreversible: By Resurrecting Ancient Proteins, Researchers Find That Evolution Can Only Go Forward.

There is no such thing as “de-evolution” but traits that once existed to cope with a past environment can and will evolve again if the Earth’s environment changes back to what it once was (low oxygen, for example.)

>French find prehistoric animal worship site

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French archaeologists have discovered the oldest known place of worship dedicated to the dugong, or sea cow, on an island just north of Dubai, two research centres said Thursday.

The sanctuary believed to date back to 3,500 to 3,200 years BC was discovered on Akab island in the United Arab Emirates, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Dubai.

The French archaeological mission in the Emirates and the Umm al-Quwain museum there said in the specialist magazine Antiquity that the sanctuary on the deserted island provided key details “on the rituals of prehistoric coastal societies in the Gulf.”

Akab was a tuna fisherman’s village more than 6,500 years ago with circular buildings and a pile of dugong bones detected in the 1990s.

The scientifically named “Dugong dugon” still exists in the Gulf, with adults growing up to four metres (12 feet) long and weighing up to 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds).

The sanctuary was first thought to be an abattoir but on analysis was found to be a carefully constructed platform on two levels containing the remains of around 40 dugongs as well as tools, stones and ornaments.

The archeologists said the Akab monument was used for rituals celebrating the giant mammal and “has no parallel in neolithic times in other parts of the world.”

Similar structures have been found off the Australian coast but are only several hundred years old.

via French find prehistoric animal worship site – Yahoo! News.

How is it determined that the humans of that time were “worshiping” these animals?

>French find prehistoric animal worship site

>

French archaeologists have discovered the oldest known place of worship dedicated to the dugong, or sea cow, on an island just north of Dubai, two research centres said Thursday.

The sanctuary believed to date back to 3,500 to 3,200 years BC was discovered on Akab island in the United Arab Emirates, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Dubai.

The French archaeological mission in the Emirates and the Umm al-Quwain museum there said in the specialist magazine Antiquity that the sanctuary on the deserted island provided key details “on the rituals of prehistoric coastal societies in the Gulf.”

Akab was a tuna fisherman’s village more than 6,500 years ago with circular buildings and a pile of dugong bones detected in the 1990s.

The scientifically named “Dugong dugon” still exists in the Gulf, with adults growing up to four metres (12 feet) long and weighing up to 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds).

The sanctuary was first thought to be an abattoir but on analysis was found to be a carefully constructed platform on two levels containing the remains of around 40 dugongs as well as tools, stones and ornaments.

The archeologists said the Akab monument was used for rituals celebrating the giant mammal and “has no parallel in neolithic times in other parts of the world.”

Similar structures have been found off the Australian coast but are only several hundred years old.

via French find prehistoric animal worship site – Yahoo! News.

How is it determined that the humans of that time were “worshiping” these animals?

>White buck at home in the Forest

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This buck could be the offspring of the white stag killed in 2007

I was saddened by the loss of our white stag in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, in 2007 and I thought I would never have the opportunity to see and photograph one of these magnificent beasts in our forest again.

However, this was until Tuesday, 22 September, 2009, when I found and photographed a young pure white buck, probably around four years old which could well be the offspring of our fallen giant.

In Pictures: Fallow deer in the Forest of Dean

Although not native to Britain, the fallow deer have been present since the Normans introduced them to our forests during the 11th Century.

via BBC – Gloucestershire – White buck at home in the Forest.

>Four-winged dino may be missing link in bird debate

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The stunning remains of a “four-winged” dinosaur have confirmed that birds owe their ancestry to two-footed dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago, the world’s most famous fossil-hunter said.

Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing is staking the claim thanks to an astonishingly-preserved fossil of a bird-like dinosaur called Anchiornis huxleyi.

Until now, A. huxleyi was thought to be a primitive bird. It was presumed to have been a near-contemporary of Archaeopteryx, the first recognised bird, which flew around 150 million years ago.

But these opinions were based on an incomplete fossil.

The new, nearly-complete specimen gives a different picture, suggesting that A. huxleyi is millions of years older than Archaeopteryx and has both dinosaur and avian features.

It is the long-sought evidence that proves birds descended from theropod dinosaurs, argues Xu.

His team, whose work was announced late Thursday by the British journal Nature, describe a dinosaur with long feathers covering its arms, tail as well as its feet.

This is an arrangement that Xu says is “four-winged”, although no guarantee that the creature had aerial ability. In contrast, its elongated lower legs suggest it was a good runner.

Some evolutionary biologists have suggested that a four-winged condition played a role in the origin of flight, but the idea is opposed by others.

The plumage attachment is especially important because it shows how bird-like dinosaurs developed skeletal and other features enabling them to have feathers, the paper says.

via Four-winged dino may be missing link in bird debate – Yahoo! News.

Exceptionally well preserved dinosaur fossils uncovered in north-eastern China display the earliest known feathers.

The creatures are all more than 150 million years old.

The new finds are indisputably older than Archaeopteryx, the “oldest bird” recognised by science.

Professor Xu Xing and colleagues tell the journal Nature that this represents the final proof that dinosaurs were ancestral to birds.

The theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs has always been troubled by the absence of feathers more ancient than those on the famous Archaeopteryx.

This has given critics room to question the idea.

But the new fossils, which come from two separate locations, are in most cases about 10 million years older than the primitive Archaeopteryx discovered in the late 19th Century.

One of the new dinosaur specimens, named Anchiornis huxleyi, is spectacular in its preservation.

It has extensive plumage covering its arms and tail, and also its feet – a “four-winged” arrangement, says Professor Xu from the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing. …

– via bbc

>Bus CCTV could predict assaults

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CCTV security systems could soon spot an assault on a bus before it happens, according to a major research project.

The system, part of which has already been tested in laboratory conditions, looks for suspicious behaviour associated with crime.

It would be able to send live CCTV pictures to operation rooms, from where controllers would be able to intervene.

The Queens University Belfast team say the software could make a significant impact on crime on transport.

Although much of the work is currently at the theoretical stage, the team from the university’s newly-founded Centre for Secure Information Technologies predict that within five years their software will be able to profile people as they board a bus.

The system would then compare who it thinks these people are, and what they are doing, with more general data on the bus’s location, time of day and historic crime rates.

Once it has sifted this data, it could be able to conclude whether someone is about to commit an assault and send live pictures to controllers.

Dr Paul Miller, head of the research project, said there were millions of CCTV cameras in the UK doing very little to fight crime.

“Their impact on anti-social behaviour and criminal behaviour is negligible – assaults on buses are a major problem and very little CCTV material is analysed in real-time,” he said.

Dr Miller said the 15-strong team were still developing initial databases to identify an individual’s gender and body shape.

via BBC NEWS | Technology | Bus CCTV could predict assaults.

Brilliant. And if the computer deems the person a sufficient threat, built in stun guns could zap them unconscious when they sit in the seat. If they do not sit, or if the person of a particular ethnicity reaches into his or her pocket to get some “gum”, for example, the computer could decide to shoot them in the head, killing them instantly with swivel mounted guns which would be built in to several locations on the bus.  I feel so much safer.

>Bus CCTV could predict assaults

>

CCTV security systems could soon spot an assault on a bus before it happens, according to a major research project.

The system, part of which has already been tested in laboratory conditions, looks for suspicious behaviour associated with crime.

It would be able to send live CCTV pictures to operation rooms, from where controllers would be able to intervene.

The Queens University Belfast team say the software could make a significant impact on crime on transport.

Although much of the work is currently at the theoretical stage, the team from the university’s newly-founded Centre for Secure Information Technologies predict that within five years their software will be able to profile people as they board a bus.

The system would then compare who it thinks these people are, and what they are doing, with more general data on the bus’s location, time of day and historic crime rates.

Once it has sifted this data, it could be able to conclude whether someone is about to commit an assault and send live pictures to controllers.

Dr Paul Miller, head of the research project, said there were millions of CCTV cameras in the UK doing very little to fight crime.

“Their impact on anti-social behaviour and criminal behaviour is negligible – assaults on buses are a major problem and very little CCTV material is analysed in real-time,” he said.

Dr Miller said the 15-strong team were still developing initial databases to identify an individual’s gender and body shape.

via BBC NEWS | Technology | Bus CCTV could predict assaults.

Brilliant. And if the computer deems the person a sufficient threat, built in stun guns could zap them unconscious when they sit in the seat. If they do not sit, or if the person of a particular ethnicity reaches into his or her pocket to get some “gum”, for example, the computer could decide to shoot them in the head, killing them instantly with swivel mounted guns which would be built in to several locations on the bus.  I feel so much safer.

>G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon

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US police spark outrage by using wartime acoustic weapon to disperse G20 protesters in Pittsburgh

Friday, 25 September 2009

Only a few hundreds protesters took to the streets of Pittsburgh to mark the opening day of the G20 summit of world leaders, but the police were taking no chances.

Sonic weapons or long-range acoustic devices have been used by the US military overseas, notably against Somali pirates and Iraqi insurgents.

But US security forces turned the piercing sound on their own citizens yesterday to widespread outrage. Pittsburgh officials told the New York Times that it was the first time “sound cannon” had been used publicly.

The sonic weapon appear to be more effective than the Metropolitan police’s highly contentious kettling tactics used against G20 protesters in London. But it is equally controversial.

It is feared the sounds emitted are loud enough to damage eardrums and even cause fatal aneurysms.

via UTV News – G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon.

Pittsburgh police on Thursday used an audio cannon manufactured by American Technology Corporation (ATCO), a San Diego-based company, to disperse protesters outside the G-20 Summit — the first time its LRAD series device has been used on civilians in the U.S.

An ATC sales representative confirms to DailyFinance that Pittsburgh police used ATC’s Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD). “Yes, we sold one LRAD unit to a government agency — I don’t know which one — which was used in Pittsburgh,” the representative said. American Technology Corp.’s stock was trading up over 15 percent in heavy activity late Friday.
ATC calls itself “a leading innovator of commercial, government, and military directed acoustics product offers” that offers “sound solutions for the commercial, government, and military markets.”

Pittsburgh officials said yesterday they believe this to be the first use of a LRAD “sonic cannon” against civilians in U.S. history.

“The police fired a sound cannon that emitted shrill beeps, causing demonstrators to cover their ears and back up,” The New York Times reported. For years, similar “non-lethal” products designed by ATC have been used at sea by cruise ships to ward off pirates.

“LRAD creates increased stand off and safety zones, supports resolution of uncertain situations, and potentially prevents the use of deadly force,” ATC spokesperson Robert Putnam told DailyFinance. “We believe this is highly preferable to the real instances that happen almost every day around the world where officials use guns and other lethal and non-lethal weapons to disperse protesters.”

Still, Putnam acknowledged the potential for physical harm. “If you stand right next to it for several minutes, you could have hearing damage,” he said. “But it’s your choice.” He added that heavy-duty ear-phones can render the weapon less effective. – dailyfinance

>35 Million Americans on Food Stamps: 12 Percent of U.S. Population on Food Stamps Highest Since Records Kept in 1969.

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… This is the highest percentage of Americans receiving food stamps since records started being kept back in 1969.  The average person receiving assistance now receives $133 per month but even a number this low with such a high number of participants is costing the government $56 billion on an annualized basis.

Here are the top 5 states:

-1. Texas –                 3.068 million participants

-2. California –           2.99

-3. New York –           2.57

-4. Florida –                1.77

-5. Illinois –                1.71

What is telling with the data above is that Texas has 24 million people while California has 37 million yet Texas has more people receiving food stamps. Florida and Illinois have nearly the same amount of participants although Florida has 18 million people while Illinois has 13 million people.

When we look at food stamp participation we see the real pain in the economy. I drive around many local areas in California. In many lower to middle class areas you will see department store traffic down to levels unseen in decades. Yet if you look at local dollar stores they are booming with traffic. People are asking about tent cities or soup lines but some of the “hidden” pain is mitigated by people simply buying at lower priced stores. After all, you can buy a loaf of bread, some sliced ham, a few cans of soup, and feed your family for a week. Although this is living on the margins you won’t be starving either but might explain why we haven’t seen a gigantic jump in tent cities or soup lines.

Yet there is a significant jump in traffic to local charities and shelters as you would expect in any deep recession. Those receiving food stamps will pump practically all the money back into the local economy. With $133 a month there isn’t much you can do. Yet it might be enough to provide a tiny buffer. I can only imagine how our country would look like right now if there were no food stamps or unemployment insurance. Can you imagine 35 million people out on the street in the United States of America?

via 35 Million Americans on Food Stamps: 12 Percent of U.S. Population on Food Stamps Highest Since Records Kept in 1969..