memenest

I think that this was one of the finest single things that has ever aired on television. Few journalists have ever been more eloquent, passionate or absolutely correct as Keith Olbermann is in this monologue. Now if I could just pipe this into the oval office. Keep it up Mr. Olbermann, only a fool would not take note of this.

Ahh, the days of when we had an articulate, intelligent, and honest president. There is a sort of captivating quality and conviction to Clinton that makes him in my mind, a true leader sort of personality. He is a far cry from the insipid stupidity and lies that our current “leader” embodies. This is the first half of an interview that Clinton did on Fox News this Sunday. In true Fox form, they subjected Clinton to the banal interviewer Chris Wallace who course excreted some Neocon lies and “talking points”. It was wonderful to see Clinton soundly thrash him with fact. Watch…

I saw this news story about a month ago, but lost the link. Luckily, the Guardian has a story up on it. . Apparently Kenyan evangelical Christians are up in arms over the wonderful fossil record of human origins on display at Nairobi’s National Museum of Kenya.

In a move that has stunned scientists, senior clergy have demanded that the bones and skulls currently exhibited in Nairobi’s National Museum of Kenya be removed from display to prevent young Africans from being corrupted.

‘It’s creating a big weapon against Christians that’s killing our faith,’ said Bishop Boniface Adoyo, who is leading the hide-the-bones campaign. ‘When children go to museums they’ll start believing we evolved from these apes.’ Not surprisingly, the bishop’s remarks have infuriated scientists who consider the museum’s collection to be unrivalled anywhere else in the world. Its fossils include those of the 4 million-year-old apeman, Australopithecus anamensis, the 1.5 million-year-old remains of the Nariokotome boy, the most complete skeleton of an ancient human ever found, and a series of other bones that highlight crucial phases of our evolutionary past.

Yes Mr. Boniface, the reality infused by these bones might actually make your converts think! It is a massive weapon against your faith. Understanding evolution is a fantastic innoculant against infection by the religion you seek to infect people with. Congratulations on figuring that out. This really is the rallying cry of Christians everywhere, that evolution destroys faith. And you know what? It does. The response, naturally, is to hide the offending objects. Just conveniently bury them. I’ve seen these tactics before. I remember parents tearing pages out of National Geographic that dealt with new fossil finds, and the wider demonization by Christians around me of anything which had anything to do with evolution. You could not see or hear of it, for it was “evil.” It was the gigantic war-horse in the closet, waiting to trample over precious rituals and fearful submission to vengeful (yet “loving”!) deities. The funny thing is, the evidence is all around us, Christians cannot hope to hide everything. It’s not just the amazingly clear fossil record, our very own DNA tells the tale of our ancestry, as does the structure of our body.

This vehemence and fear of evolution is largely due to the fact that the entire christian religion is predicated upon the Genesis story. The story of the snake and the fall of man when he (ironically) found reason and the ability to think creates the entire backbone and supporting narrative of the need for the vicious and bloody human sacrifice that Christians hold Jesus to have performed. Without the fallen man and original sin, the Pauline doctrines also dissolve into wanton garbage. Genesis paints a clear picture of an idyllic situation, a fall, everything “bad” like animals hunting each other happened afterwards. From there you arch through the literary rubble of the Old Testament (I love hearing Christians try to explain books like Leviticus by the way) and into the New Testament where the need for killing a redeemer is set up and carried out.

What science and investigation have shown is that we are of humble origins. Some of our cognitive and emotional abilities are even shared by apes living with us today. Most beautiful of all, we are not cursed, we are not “sinners”, we are not bad people. We are Homo sapiens, a proud, usually quite irational upright member of ape family tree which has conquered the mystery of his origins, and ventured beyond his own planet. How much more beautiful is the picture that science paints than the idiotic drivel spewed by this ignorant Kenyan. It’s too bad that Christians have destroyed the intellectual abilities of so many Kenyans, and I deeply hope that the Museum maintains its prominent and important display, despite the pressure of fools.

Awhile back, I wrote about Jesus Camp, a new documentary which covers evangelical indoctrination camps which are designed to arouse huge emotional responses in kids in order to stamp firmly in their mind the odious ideals of their parents. Or, as the leader of the camp in question puts it, “Soldiers in God’s Army.” The trailer is already widely available, but a recent report on ABC news offers new footage, including that of kids worshipping with an image of George Bush placed prominently in their view.

Scary stuff.

Colugos are the sort of animals that defy taxonomic categorization, confuse one’s sense of aesthetics, and seem to largely fall under the umbrella of “weird.”

The Cologus feature ample folds of skin for gliding, but these are not mere flying squirrels. I’m sure that the Colugo would in fact be insulted by being called something as mundane as a sugar glider. This flap of skin is called a Patagium, and it puts lots of the other gliding mammals to shame, in that it stretches from the fingers all the way back along the tail and gives the animal a flapspan of some 70Cm, or 27.5 inches. This shot shows the flappy hands relatively clearly (make sure that you click these images for larger versions).

Colugos are herbivorous. This is certainly a relief as the slightly creepy/cute look they have going would really haunt you if you were traipsing around in tropical island jungles worrying about skin flap animals of doom gliding in for soft chunks of flesh like some primordial raptor. Instead, exudates like sap, tender leaves, flowers, or even fruit are the preferred dietary items.

Another odd aspect of the colugo is tied to their reproduction. A primitive, marsupial-esque system is in place. The colugo mother gives birth very early on to a poorly developed youngster who lives for about 6 months amongst a makeshift flaps in the patagium, much like a kangaroo in a pouch. Speaking of reproduction, here’s a couple of Colugos doing what all species love to do.

So what exactly *are Colugos? Well that’s a difficult question that I’ll answer rather simplistically. You can view them as primates. That’s a broad grouping, but here’s how the molecular and classical taxonomy shows things to be. Colugos and the (marvelous) Tree Shrews (which shouldn’t be insulted by being called Shrews) both seem to be from a family that is ancestral to the Prosimians. The prosimians include the lemurs and ancient lineages such as lorises. Accordingly, Colugos have been placed in the order Eurchonta, which can be viewed as a broad group containing everything from Tree Shrews to us. It’s marvelous, then, to see the relics of our mamallian past still alive and with us today. That isn’t to say these guys are thriving. Deforestation, particularly in the Phillipines, has resulted in steadily dwindling numbers of these marvelous animals. It should also be noted that while these are commonly called Flying Lemurs, these are NOT lemurs, and should be viewed as being of a distinct (yet ancestral) lineage.

As a side note, there’s a series of very remarkable photos of injured Colugos over here. These will give you a good idea of how large an adult is, as well as tell a tragic story.

Here’s some bonus images.

All the photos here are due to the kindness of Mr. Peter Loh, whose website containing these images, as well as a few others, can be found here.