Evolution

Blue whales perform underwater acrobatics in order to hunt krill more effectively, new research has found.

Baleen whales (a group that includes the blue whale) are lunge-feeders, meaning they catch their prey by moving forward with open jaws and taking in both water and food. Blue whales can take in 100 tonnes of krill and water in as little as 10 seconds. This ability is key to their survival, a

s not only can prey groups be patchily distributed in both space and time but krill also have great escape responses. When you don't know where or when your next meal will come, it becomes extremely important to get as much as you can out of this one.

To develop a better understanding of their feeding strategies, Dr. Jeremy Goldbogen (Cascadia Research Collective) and his team tracked blue whales with multi-sensor tags. Their results showed that when whales were feeding, they sometimes performed 360° rolls. As a whale approaches a group of krill, it rolls 180° and continues to turn as it engulfs the krill and water, having turned a full 360° when prey has been consumed and ready for the next patch.

Similar rolling behaviour has been seen in other rorqual (the largest group of baleen whales) species such as the humpback, but these creatures only execute 150° rolls. In these whales rolling ability was attributed to their long fins and tail flukes. However, given that the blue whale has shorter flukes, it must be putting in greater effort to pull off these acrobatics. "We did not expect to see these types of manoeuvres in blue whales and it was truly extraordinary to discover," commented Dr Goldbogen.

The researchers suggest two reasons for the rolls: orienting body and jaws to feed more effectively (perhaps by anticipating the krill's escape strategy) and helping the whales optimise their view. Since their eyes are positioned laterally, rolling could grant them a greater field of view. Given that searching whales were also observed using these turns, it's extremely likely rolling allows them to better assess the surrounding area.

Photo credit: photolibrary.com (2009).

To read the paper, click here: http://bit.ly/TvtoZK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/20509831

http://phys.org/news/2012-11-blue-whales-precise-acrobatics-video.html

http://www.livescience.com/25077-whales-turn-while-diving.html

Evolution

Siamese fighting fish have to incorporate surface visits into their fights so they can breathe, according to a new study.

Native to south-east Asia, Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) are named for the males' aggressive displays and are highly territorial. They belong to the suborder Anabantoidei, and like all anabantoids they possess a lung-like organ - known as a labyrinth organ and giving

anabantoids their other name, labyrinth fish - that allows them to obtain oxygen from air and water.

Researchers from the University of Queensland, Australia devised an study to examine the energetic costs of B. splendens' aggressive activity. They put two males (each in his own bottle) in a tank together and analysed the gas levels within from each fish's tank before and after its display. They found that the fish regularly surfaced because they simply couldn't get enough oxygen in the water. The additional oxygen needed for fighting was obtained solely by breathing air.

They also found that both fish surfaced at the same time. Rather than the gentlemen-like behaviour this may seem, it's purely for tactical reasons. This way neither fish will be attacked by the other. If you attack your opponent when he's surfacing for air, you'd better make it count - if you don't, he can attack you while you're breathing for air. No one benefits from this exchange as both sides take a hit.

Dr. Steven Portugal (Royal Veterinary College, London, and involved in the study) expressed surprise that the fish appeared to be operating "operating so close to their limits" during fights. "It seems they can't even take in more oxygen per breath, so these fights are seriously demanding for the fish," he told the BBC.

Photo credit: Daniel Jones.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/20462529

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1095643312005193

Analytical Chemistry Techniques

Have you smelled durian fruit before?
Several new substances that contribute to its fragrance have been characterized. The latest research to decipher the unique aroma signature of the durian -- revered as the "king of fruits" in southeast Asia but reviled elsewhere as the world's foulest smelling food -- appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

41 highly odor-active compound

s that contribute to durian’s characteristic smell were pinpointed, 24 of which scientists had not identified in durian before. Among them, prominent oniony smelling odorants belonging to a compound class that has rarely been found in food before were characterized. Four of the newly discovered chemical compounds were previously unknown to science. http://bit.ly/V6AS75

Journal article: Characterization of the Major Odor-Active Compounds in Thai Durian (Durio zibethinus L. 'Monthong') by Aroma Extract Dilution Analysis and Headspace Gas Chromatography-Olfactometry http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf303881k Image credit: American Chemical Society

Evolution

The Namib Desert in southern Africa is an arid place, receiving as little as 1.3cm of rainfall a year. But even in these inhospitable conditions, life still survives - and there's a lot we can learn from it!

The Namib desert beetle is a beautiful example of how organisms can adapt to such a harsh environment. The hardened shell that hides its wings is covered in tiny bumps and indents, with very

different properties - while the peaks of the bumps are hydrophilic, the indents are covered with a hydrophobic wax material. When a foggy dawn comes - an event that only occurs six times a month - the beetle tilts forward and captures minuscule droplets on its shell. These droplets accumulate on the hydrophilic bumps, and when they become heavy enough they trickle down the beetle's shell straight into its mouth. Without such an effective way of gaining water, the Namib desert beetle could not survive.

Now a US start-up, NBD Nano, is taking tips from this beetle in the hopes of providing a renewable water supply to people living in the driest regions of the world. The team plans to create a similar hydrophobic-hydrophilic mechanism in bottles so they can draw moisture from the air. They are far from alone in looking to nature for inspiration - a whole new field (biomimicry) has been built around this ethos.

Though this project is still in its early stages, the Namib desert beetle has already inspired award-winning designs (see below). Nature has had over 3 billion years to create effective solutions to an abundance of problems (water shortages being only one), and we can learn so much when we understand how organisms have evolved to deal with these issues.

Photo credit: ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-11/26/beetle-water-bottle

http://bit.ly/TpqmFX

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20465982

http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2001/11/1101_TVdesertbeetle.html

The Namib desert beetle previously inspired the Airdrop water harvester: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-11/08/dyson-award-2011-winners

Bill Nye

November 27, 2012

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On this date in 1955, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, television personality and inventor, William Sanford "Bill" Nye was born in Washington, D.C., where he was also raised. Nye, "America's stand-up scientist," says on his website that his parents fostered his interest in science. Nye's father was a prisoner of war during World War II, and his mother was a Navy codebreaker who excelled in math and science. In 1977, Nye earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University, where one of his professors was Carl Sagan. He then moved to Seattle to work as an engineer at Boeing. Nye invented a special sundial used during the Mars Exploration Rover mission, and engineered a hydraulic device for Boeing still used on the 747. During this time, Nye cultivated his comedy style, working nights as a stand-up comic, and eventually he quit Boeing to work as a comedy writer and performer on a Seattle ensemble show, "Almost Live." From this show, Nye and several others founded the incredibly popular educational television series, "Bill Nye the Science Guy" (1993-1997). The show won 18 Emmy Awards in its five year run, and Nye, who wrote, starred in, and produced the show, picked up seven of those Emmys. Nye has written five children's books, created several other television shows and currently hosts three television series, including "The 100 Greatest Discoveries" on the Science Channel, "The Eyes of Nye" on PBS and "Stuff Happens" on Planet Green. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Planetary Society. Nye was honored in 2010 as Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association for his role "as an activist for solid scientific policies to sustain society" (The Humanist magazine, Nov./Dec. 2010). "Science is the best idea humans have ever had," Nye said during his acceptance speech. According to Popular Science magazine, "the Science Guy" angered audience members at a lecture in Waco, Texas, after he criticized a literal interpretation of the bible ("Bill Nye vs. Intelligent Design," April 7, 2006). 

"Science is the key to our future, and if you don't believe in science, then you're holding everybody back. And it's fine if you as an adult want to run around pretending or claiming that you don't believe in evolution, but if we educate a generation of people who don't believe in science, that's a recipe for disaster. . . . The main idea in all of biology is evolution. To not teach it to our young people is wrong."

— Bill Nye quoted in a Popular Mechanics article, "Science Guy Bill Nye Explains Why Evolution Belongs in Science Education," by Sarah Fecht, Feb. 4, 2011

Compiled by Bonnie Gutsch - www.ffrf.org

Bruce Lee November 27, 2012 On this date in 1940, Lee Jun-Fan, better known by his English name, Bruce Lee, was born in San Francisco, Calif., while his parents were on tour with the Chinese Opera. Lee was raised in Hong Kong, where he studied martial arts and worked as a child actor. When he was 18, he immigrated to the United States and claimed his U.S. citizenship. He first worked as a dance instructor, then received his high school equivalency diploma and went on to study philosophy and drama at the University of Washington. Lee opened his first martial arts school, where he taught the traditional Chinese gung fu method. Lee eventually married one of his students, Linda Emery. He also taught martial arts to movie stars, and made his big break into acting with the role of Kato in the TV series “The Green Hornet” (1966-67). Lee guest starred on several TV shows and acted in the films “Fists of Fury” (1971) and “The Chinese Connection” (1972). Although Lee never received his degree in philosophy, his interest in the subject continued throughout his life. Lee sought to “infuse the spirit of philosophy into martial arts” (“Me and Jeet Kune Do,” reprinted in Words of the Dragon, ed. John Little). He developed a new style of gung fu, which he called Jeet Kune Do. Lee often expressed his distaste for the formalization of martial arts styles, and worked towards creating an effective fighting technique. Lee was raised by a Catholic mother and a Buddhist father, and was not personally religious. Lee and his wife Linda had two children: Brandon, born in 1965, and Shannon, born in 1969. On May 20, 1973, Lee collapsed and complained of a headache; he died later that day, of complications from painkillers that had been administered to treat his earlier symptoms. D. 1973. “When asked by journalist Alex Ben Block in the summer of 1972 what his religious affiliation was, Lee answered: ‘None whatsoever.’ Block then pressed him further, asking him if he then believed in God: ‘To be perfectly frank, I really do not.’ ” — John Little, The Warrior Within: The Philosophies of Bruce Lee Compiled by Eleanor Wroblewski - www.ffrf.org

Evolution

Exercise, Showing-off and Lizards: Part 1.

When you're trying to attract females, you want to show that you're a good quality male in peak physical condition. To some lizards, this means doing some good old-fashioned push-ups!

To communicate their condition, male anole lizards bop their heads rhythmically and display their colourful dewlaps (neck flaps). These gestures signal both male and femal

e lizards - to the females, they say "Look what good condition I'm in, come and mate with me". However to the males, they say "You can't compete with me, back off out of my territory", preventing an unnecessary fight. But what good are these displays if no one is watching?

Terry Ord (University of New South Wales) and his team noticed that these displays were sometimes preceded by an intensive push-up display. To investigate the reasons behind this, they designed an experiment using a visually-convincing robotic lizard. The robot lizard was programmed to bop its head after either push ups or dewlap extension. Both alerts got the real lizard's attention, demonstrating they are used as an alert. Analysis of 300 responses revealed that the lizards only used push-ups when their target was visually distracted, or when there was other visual "noise".

But why only use an effective signal sometimes? Well, push-ups use a lot of energy and may attract predators - if lizards were using them all the time, there's a good chance many would be detected by their predators and quickly caught due to their tired state.

These findings are an excellent demonstration of lizards' ability to change their signalling behaviour in response to less-than-ideal conditions. In the words of the authors, "Our results show that Anolis lizards are able to evaluate environmental conditions that affect the degradation of long-distance signals and adjust their behavior accordingly."

Photo: Rock agama lizard, who also does push-ups. Credit to Bill Given.

If you want to read their paper, it is available here: http://bit.ly/TiZCHs

http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2008/11/081124-lizard-pushups-missions.html

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/11/25/lizard-push-up.html

Evolution

When long-finned pilot whales detect a threat, they use synchronised swimming as a defence mechanism.

In a 7-year study uniting the University of Aberdeen, Doñana Biological Station (CSIC) and Conservation, Information and Study on Cetaceans (CIRCE) groups, pilot whales from two different populations were observed. The group living in the Strait of Gibraltar were regularly exposed to threats suc

h as boats, while the other group lived in Cape Breton (Canada) and were less threatened by these threats. The goal of the study was to learn more about the social structure of these whales and how mothers teach their young about dangers.

The researchers noted that both whale populations always reacted collectively to potential threats. "When we arrived at the watching area they were swimming at their normal rhythm but after 10 or 15 minutes near to them, the mothers and their young began to swim in a synchronized manner in alert position," explained Renaud de Stephanis (Biological Station of Doñana and co-author of the study). They also found that these whales have permanent relationships in their group, never leaving and joining another.

Unsurprisingly, the presence of boats and other vessels disturbs diving behaviour. Researchers found the longer they spent near a population, the longer those whales stayed submerged. This in turns other important damaging effects. "This behavioral change could affect their energy levels, since they then have to make more of an effort to protect themselves and their young. In turn this limits hunting time, which means that they cannot feed their young properly," says de Stephanis.

Photo credit: Renaud de Stephanis.

For those who would like to read the paper, it is available here: http://bit.ly/Uld5la

Other sources:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121123092740.htm

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112736069/synchronized-swimming-a-defense-mechanism-for-pilot-whales/

Evolution

The Loneliest Whale in the World

A lone whale with a voice unlike any other has been wandering the world's largest ocean for past 2 decades.

In 1989, a team of WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanic Institution) biologists first detected an unusual sound in the North Pacific Ocean. It had all the repetitive, low-frequency earmarks of a whale call, but at a unique frequency of 52 hertz, which was far higher th

an the normal 15-to-25-hertz range of blue or fin whales. The sound was detected again 1990 and 1991. (Source 4)

Later, with the end of the Cold War, the U.S. Navy partially declassified its Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), a hydrophone network built to monitor Soviet submarines. Using SOSUS, the team picked up the lone call of the same 52-hertz whale and have tracked it every year since, as it roamed widely through the North Pacific, from offshore California to the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.

The whale has been dubbed "52 hertz" and although scientists are uncertain of the species, it is surely a baleen whale, which is a group that includes blue, fin, and humpback whales. And it is precisely because of its unusual frequency that all of its calls and songs go unheard and unanswered, as most baleen whales will sing in the 15-25 hertz range.

Scientists speculate that the unusual frequency could be because that the whale is malformed, or it could possibly be a hybrid, or maybe even the last or only known individual of a previously unknown species.

Although it may be disheartening to know this tale of the loneliest whale in the world singing alone for 2 decades in the Pacific, there is some reason for hope, too. 52 Hertz seems to be healthy, in spite of his loneliness. In fact, the whale even seems to be maturing normally.

"The fact that this individual has been capable of existing in that harsh environment for so many years indicates there is nothing wrong with it," said Dr. Kate Stafford,a researcher at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle (source NY times)

You can also hear its recordings over here:
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics/whales/sounds/sounds_52blue.html

Also, the 52-Hertz whale doesn't follow a migration pattern of any other known baleen whale. Part of the gray whale's migration path covers the same turf as the 52-Hertz whale, but gray whales travel much further north.

Its migratory pattern:
http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewImage.do?id=10079&aid=4721

Source:
1) Journal reference: Deep-Sea Research (vol 51, p 1889)
2) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/21/science/21whal.html?_r=4&
3) http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/worlds-loneliest-whale-pays-visit-alaska
4) http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=4721&archives=true&sortBy=printed
5) http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_news/2012/05/52-hertz-the-loneliest-whale-in-the-world.html

Image: 'Gray Whale in Grice Bay'
Photograph by Flip Nicklin

Anne Nicol Gaylor

November 25, 2012

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On this date in 1926, Freedom From Religion Foundation founder Anne Gaylor, nee Nicol, was born on a farm near Tomah, Wisconsin. Her mother, Lucie Sowle Nicol, who died when Anne was 2, was descended from George Sowle, a passenger on the Mayflower (an apprentice, not a Pilgrim). On her father's side of the family she is a second-generation freethinker. Reading by 4, and soon out-reading her one-room schoolhouse's small library, Anne was grateful to freethinker Andrew Carnegie (who shares her birthday, see next entry) for endowing the Tomah Public Library. She graduated from high school at 16, worked for room and board and as a waitress to pay for college, and graduated with an English degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1949. She married Paul Gaylor in 1949, and continued to work through four pregnancies. She sold her successful business in 1966, the first private employment agency in Madison, Wis., and became editor of the Middleton Times Tribune, turning it into an award-winning weekly. After writing the first editorial in the state calling for legalized abortion in 1967, she began receiving calls from desperate women, and turned to volunteer activism. Among her feminist activities, Anne founded the ZPG Abortion Referral Service in 1970 and over the next 5 years, made more than 20,000 referrals for birth control, abortion and sterilization. In 1972, she co-founded the Women's Medical Fund charity to help low-income women pay for abortions. She has run that charity as a volunteer for 32 years and helped more than 14,000 women. (Who says atheists don't run charities?) Her book Abortion is a Blessing was published in 1975. "There were many groups working for women's rights," she realized, "but none of them dealt with the root cause of women's oppression--religion." In 1976, she founded the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with her daughter Annie Laurie and a Milwaukee gentleman, to promote freethought and the separation of state and church. After a string of successful legal and media actions, she was asked to go national with the Foundation in 1978, and served as its elected president for 28 years. She took the Foundation from a 3-member, dining-room cause operation to a group with more than 13,000 members, a national office, newspaper, other publications, and many successful state/church lawsuits. Since November, as president emerita, she is working as a consultant for the Foundation. One of her mostly widely-quoted aphorisms: "Nothing fails like prayer."

“There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

— Anne Nicol Gaylor, wording proposed to counter religious displays. Appears on annual Winter Solstice sign displayed at the Wisconsin State Capitol every December. Also see Women Without Superstition and Lead Us Not Into Penn Station.

Compiled by Annie Laurie Gaylor - www.ffrf.org

Andrew Carnegie

November 25, 2012

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On this date in 1837, tycoon turned philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was born in Dumfermline, Scotland. In 1848, he traveled with his family to Allegheny, Penn. He entered the workforce at 13 as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill, worked at Western Union and the Pennsylvania Railroad, then founded the Keystone Bridge Works and the Union Iron Works in Pittsburgh. In his book The Gospel of Wealth (1899), he proposed that the rich are obligated to give away their fortunes. He began his philanthropy in his thirties, first endowing his native town, and eventually establishing seven philanthropic and educational corporations. His principal desire was to promote free public libraries. When he began his campaign in 1881, they were scarce in the United States. His $56 million built 2,509 libraries. By the time of his death he had given away more than $350 million.

Carnegie rejected Christianity and sectarianism, and was delighted to replace those views with evolution: "Not only had I got rid of the theology and the supernatural, but I had found the truth of evolution," he wrote in his autobiography (p. 339). After encountering missionaries on an ocean voyage to the Pacific, Carnegie wrote humorously in his diary that he would "never forgive" the missionary for a particularly ridiculous sermon. When applied to for money by those same missionaries to China, Carnegie wrote them: "I think that money spent upon foreign missions for China is not only money misspent, but that we do a grievous wrong to the Chinese by trying to force our religion upon them against their wishes." (Carnegie to Ella J. Newton, Foochow, China, Nov. 26, 1895) When asked to sell five acres of his land for a "free" cemetery open to all Protestants, Carnegie wrote he would be delighted to give the land away, "provided it were open to all who desired to rest there of every sect or of none. . . . We poor mortals while living our short span are far too sharply separated. Surely, we should not refuse to lie down together at last upon the bosom of mother earth." (Carnegie to Benjamin M. Gemmill, Jan. 23, 1915). In making preparations for his death, Carnegie wrote of "deep regrets that one isn't allowed to live here in this heaven on earth forever, which it is to me. None other satisfactory." (Letter to John Ross, Feb., 11, 1913) To Elizabeth Haldane, he added, "More and more I realize we should think less & less of 'Heaven our Home!' more & more of 'Home our Heaven.' " (Letter, Nov. 21, 1913, Haldane Papers, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.) D. 1919.

“The whole scheme of Christian Salvation is diabolical as revealed by the creeds. An angry God, imagine such a creator of the universe. Angry at what he knew was coming and was himself responsible for. Then he sets himself about to beget a son, in order that the child should beg him to forgive the Sinner. This however he cannot or will not do. He must punish somebody--so the son offers himself up & our creator punishes the innocent youth, never heard of before--for the guilty and became reconciled to us. . . . . I decline to accept Salvation from such a fiend.”

— Andrew Carnegie, to Sir James Donaldson, Principal of St. Andrews University, June 1, 1905. Letters (except to Haldane) in Library of Congress collection, cited by Joseph Frazier Wall, Andrew Carnegie, 1970.

Compiled by Annie Laurie Gaylor - www.ffrf.org

Evolution

Spearer mantis shrimps use a much slower hunting method than smasher mantis shrimp, relying on muscle power instead of stored energy.

While smasher shrimps actively hunt their prey, spearers are ambush predators. They wait for a morsel to appear overhead and then strike it with one lightning-fast movement. Since ambush hunters have a smaller time in which to strike, as well as faster prey than sm

ashers, it was expected that spearers would have the faster mechanism.

However, when Maya deVries and her team (University of Berkeley, USA) examined spearers and smashers, it became clear smashers strike much faster. While smashers can strike at speeds reaching 23 metres per second, the two spearer species examined (Alachosquilla vicina and Lysiosquillina maculata) could only reach 5.7m and 2.3m per second respectively.

The explanations for these differences lay in the mechanisms each type uses to hunt. Smasher mantis shrimps are able to deliver a devastating punch to their prey - powerful enough to destroy a crustacean's shell or break aquarium glass - because of the "spring" mechanism they use. To ready a punch, they bring their arm back and locks it in place, building energy for its blow. A. vicina uses a similar spring-loaded method to spear, explaining why it is faster than L. maculata (which just uses muscle). Interestingly L. maculata has the same anatomical "catch" as A. vicina - it just doesn't use it. It never engages the spring.

Several explanations are being suggested as an explanation for this difference. L. maculata's size could be an issue - it is the largest mantis shrimp, and there may be a size limit on spring-loaded mechanisms. It could be spearers just don't need to be as fast, and that speed is far more key for an impact attack than a sharp "harpoon" strike. A spearer relies on a single strike, whereas a smasher may need multiple punches. deVries and her team are trying to gather more L. maculata in the lab to investigate.

Photo credit: Roy Caldwell, UC Berkeley.

http://jeb.biologists.org/content/215/24/i.1.full

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/11/21/why-are-stabby-mantis-shrimps-so-much-slower-than-punchy-ones/

http://jeb.biologists.org/content/215/24/4374.abstract

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112736007/mantis-shrimp-muscle-power-112312/

The Library of Evolution

This is the creepy Cymothoa exigua, or the tongue-eating louse. It is a crustacean that enters fish through the gills, and then attaches itself at the base of the fish's tongue. It extracts blood through the claws on its front, causing the tongue to atrophy from lack of blood. The parasite then replaces the fish's tongue by attaching its own body to the muscles of the tongue stub. Once it replaces the tongue, some feed on the host's blood and many others feed on fish mucus. This is the only known case of a parasite functionally replacing a host organ.

It is currently believed that C. exigua are not harmful to humans unless picked up alive, in which case they can bite. So stay away!

Richard Collins

Dear Thinkers,

The custom of forcing faith on vulnerable children is an affront to our notion of fairness and is simply a holdover from archaic ideas of patriarchy supported by institutional religions as a way of gaining or maintaining control of family life. There are many legal experts that now advocate changing the whole notion of parental prerogatives. Children are most certainly not the prop

erty of their parents to do with as they wish. Moreover, international law now recognizes children as person's in their own rights with legitimate interests and rights of their own that may indeed conflict with the wishes of their parents. The first step in overthrowing hereditary religion must start where all revolutionary social change starts: raising consciousness. Parents are the controlling vector for the practice of forcing faith on children and those most open to change are those wounded by the way religion treated them as a child. The web has hundreds of self help sites where such apostates pour their hearts out in poignant personal narratives. Fear is an obnoxious form of control and fear is at the center of religious hegemony.

American atheists and humanists may feel a greater sense of urgency on this issue than others. The blog Ending Hereditary Religion contains content that may surprise you.

http://www.endhereditaryrelgion.com/

The annual protest will be held again this year in cyberspace but the goal is to eventually hold events in the real world. If I somehow overlooked sending you an event announcement here are the details for this years event.

https://www.facebook.com/events/297429563701513/

Your participation will help make this event a historic happening on the road to a universal secular world.

Richard Collins

http://www.endhereditaryrelgion.com/

www.endhereditaryrelgion.com

A Year in Jail for Not Believing in God? How Kentucky is Persecuting Atheists | Alternet

A Year in Jail for Not Believing in God? How Kentucky is Persecuting Atheists | Alternet

• Evolution

  To avoid detection by predators, several species of butterfly larvae defecate by firing waste pellets at high speeds away from their homes.
  
  The mechanism behind this extraordinary behavioural adaptation is elegantly simple. They can hold a waste pellet (known as frass) in their anus until a rapid change of blood pressure occurs, expanding a segment of the abdomen and firing the pellet like a pea

  from a peashooter. This behaviour - informally known by some as "scatapulting" - can fire frass a distance of nearly 40 times the larva's body length and at a speed of 1.3m (4.2 feet) a second. To put this in perspective, that's like a 6-foot man being able to defecate 73m (240 feet) away from him.
  
  But this behaviour has not evolved for hygiene - it keeps these larvae hidden from predators such as wasps, who would otherwise locate them by these odour cues. This finding came from an experiment almost a decade ago, when Martha Weiss (Georgetown University) conducted an experiment using two groups of skipper butterfly larvae. The experimental group had fresh waste pellets added to their shelters, while the control group had odourless glass beads. Paper wasps (a natural predator of skipper caterpillars) were more likely to visit the shelters containing frass.
  
  Further support came when paper wasps were offered a choice between two shelters, one containing frass and the other glass beads. Out of 17 trials, wasps visited the frass-containing shelter 14 times. Chemical cues from frass attracts predators, and this great selection pressure has meant similar waste-expulsion systems have formed independently in distantly related caterpillar species.
  
  Photo credit: John Alcock.
  
  http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2003/05/0516_030516_caterpillars_2.html
  
  http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/emc26/marthaweiss/weissm/mweisspix/ecollett.pdf
  
  Alcock, J. (2009). Animal Behaviour (9th edition). Sinaur Associates: Massachusetts.

  

Benedict Spinoza

November 24, 2012

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On this date in 1632, excommunicated rabbi and philosopher Baruch Benedict Spinoza was born in Amsterdam, Holland, the son of Portuguese immigrants named d'Espinosa who traveled to escape the Inquisition. Bertrand Russell called him "the noblest and most lovable of the great philosophers. . . . As a natural consequence, he was considered, during his lifetime and for a century after his death, a man of appalling wickedness" (A History of Western Philosophy). Trained as a rabbi, Spinoza read Descartes and Bruno, studied Latin with a skeptic, and by 24 had rejected orthodoxy. Attempts were made to bribe him to keep quiet about his doubts, followed by an assassination attempt! He changed his name from Baruch to Benedict, left Judaism and Amsterdam, and resettled in The Hague in 1667. He supported himself at a poverty level by teaching and by grinding optical lenses, which worsened his health. Meanwhile Spinoza wrote his philosophical works, while enduring opprobrium as an "atheist" from both Christians and Jews alike, who spread scandals about him. Spinoza refused offers of help and a professorship at Heidelberg: "I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion" (c. 1670, Great Thoughts, edited by George Seldes).

Spinoza was at most a pantheist, whose deism rejected immortality and free will. Tractatus Theologico-Politicus was termed by Russell to be "a curious combination of biblical criticism and political theory," which "partially anticipates modern views." Spinoza cautioned that the bible should be scrutinized like any other literature. He did not believe that the Pentateuch was really written by Moses, that biblical miracles occurred or that Jesus was divine. In this work, Spinoza mused: "Philosophy has no end in view save truth; faith looks for nothing but obedience and piety." Tractatuc Politicus, a political work, was Hobbesian, concurring with Hobbes that the church should be subordinate to the state. Ethics was Spinoza's chief work, and it was published posthumously. Spinoza wrote: "Man is a social animal." Sin, he reasoned, "cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad." Spinoza mused, "How blest would our age be if it could witness a religion freed from all the trammels of superstition!" The heretic also wrote, "The most tyrannical governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts." Obviously from personal experience Spinoza noted: "Those who wish to seek out the causes of miracles, and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as the interpreters of nature and the gods." (appendix, Ethics). Spinoza, who never married, died of tuberculosis at 44. D. 1677.

“True virtue is life under the direction of reason.”

— Benedict Spinoza, Ethics, 1677

Compiled by Annie Laurie Gaylor - www.ffrf.org

Scott Joplin

November 24, 2012

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On this date in 1868, composer Scott Joplin, the "King of Ragtime," was born. Joplin's early musical career took place in centers of entertainment, not in church. He played piano in a brothel, and in a club (the famous Maple Leaf) that was shut down due to pressure from local churches, whose pastors were ashamed of the "iniquitous practices" (dancing and cards) taking place there. Ragtime was America's first uniquely national style of music. Scott Joplin, born in Texas and raised in Missouri, did not invent ragtime, but it was his incredible compositions that propelled the style to national prominence, especially after his 1899 "Maple Leaf Rag" became a huge hit, followed by dozens more, including "The Entertainer," which is still popular today. He was married in a home, not a church, and his funeral was not conducted in a church.

In the opera Treemonisha, dealing with the fact that the African-American community was still living in ignorance, superstition, and misery, Joplin tells his audience that the way out of this condition is through education. He does not propose religion as the solution. "Ignorance is criminal," he tells us. Treemonisha, a woman who promotes education, is a leader who is more persuasive than the useless pastor in town. To the conjurer Zodzetrick, she says: "You have lived without working for many years, All by your tricks of conjury. You have caused superstition and many sad tears. You should stop, you are doing great injury." Revealing a freethought attitude, Joplin named the pastor "Parson Alltalk"--all he does is talk and exhort the people to be good; he is totally ineffectual, unable to see the people's real needs and, being uneducated, unable to provide leadership. The opera contains no gospel music, no hymns or religious melodies that would have been expected of such a community. D. 1917.

“There is no harm in musical sounds. It matters not whether it is fast ragtime or a slow melody like 'The Rosary'.”

— Scott Joplin. Quoted in King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era, by Edward A. Berlin. Oxford University Press, 1994

Compiled by Annie Laurie Gaylor - www.ffrf.org

Billy Connolly

November 24, 2012

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On this date in 1942, Billy Connolly was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Connolly’s early years were difficult; his mother abandoned him and his sister Florence when Connolly was four. His father was at that time still away with the army. In the 2001 biography Billy, written by Connolly’s wife, psychoanalyst Pamela Stephenson, Connolly described being sexually abused by his father between the ages of 10 and 15. At 15, Connolly graduated high school with an engineering degree and worked as a welder in a Glasgow shipyard. In the mid-1960’s, Connolly began to perform as a folk singer in the duo “The Humblebums.” After the breakup of the duo, Connolly began to perform solo and transitioned from a singer who told long comedic stories to a comedian who sometimes sang funny songs. Connolly’s comedy became very popular throughout Britain in the mid-1970’s. In 1969, Connolly had married Iris Pressagh, and they had two children together. Connolly’s involvement with show business as well as his problems with drugs and alcohol caused the end of their marriage in the early 1980’s; they legally divorced in 1985. In 1981, Connolly moved in with Pamela Stephenson, then a comedian. After the birth of their three daughters, they were married in 1989.

In 1990, after featuring in an HBO standup special with Whoopi Goldberg, Connolly’s popularity in America grew. He was cast in the sitcom “Head of the Class” in the 1990-1991 season, and moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1991. Connolly has since featured as a character actor in many U.S. television and movie productions, as well as continuing his career as a comedian. Much of Connolly’s comedy is idiosyncratic and irreverent. He uses profanity freely and jokes about many of the more difficult, abusive experiences of his childhood. He also takes many potshots at religion, especially Catholicism. Connolly was raised as a Catholic, and blames the Catholic Church’s prohibition of divorce, at least in part, for the sexual abuse he suffered at his father’s hands.

I don’t like religion. I think religion is a con. 

— Billy Connolly to The SunBreak, March 18, 2010

Compiled by Eleanor Wroblewski - www.ffrf.org