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Heads or Tails: The Problem of Evolving Animal Body Plans Ann Gauger May 15, 2015 3:17 AM | Permalink Nearly all the animals we know have bilateral symmetry at some stage of their lives, meaning they have right and left halves that are mirror images of each other. These animals also have a head and a tail, a top and a bottom to them. The technical terms are anterior/posterior (A/P) and dorsal/ventral (D/V) axes (plural for axis, not the wood-chopping instrument). The exceptions are things like sponges, jellyfish, sea anemones, and small creatures like the Volvox I wrote about last...

Police officers are more likely to be struck by lightning than be held financially accountable for their actions.—Law professor Joanna C. Schwartz (paraphrased) “In a democratic society,” observed Oakland police chief Sean Whent, “people have a say in how they are policed.” Unfortunately, if you can be kicked, punched, tasered, shot, intimidated, harassed, stripped, searched, brutalized, terrorized, wrongfully arrested, and even killed by a police officer, and that officer is never held accountable for violating your rights and his oath of office to serve and protect, never forced to make amends, never told that what he did was wrong, and...

And who hasn't brought this up? To think that what Bob McDonnell did is miniscule compared to what Liberals have been doing for years. Hopefully congress will take this matter up soon and take a vote to pardon Bob McDonnell. And they can use this matter to twist Obama's arm when it comes to giving him what he wants passed. It's like that classic scene from the Godfather. Obama! either you sign this deal or we will close every KFC within 50 miles of DC!

The headline to this post is meant to be provocative. In the last couple of days, I have received numerous emails from gun prohibitionists groups and have seen Everyday Moms for Illegal Mayors launch a media campaign all of which is intended to keep in place North Carolina's pistol purchase permit system. § 14-402 and § 14-403 of the North Carolina General Statutes were originally passed in 1919 and gave the Clerk of the Superior Court (later given to the Sheriff) of each North Carolina county the power to determine just who of their county's residents would be eligible to...

I am organizing the first annual "Prepper Fest & Survival Expo" in Grand Junction (Western Colorado), July 25th and am in need of some assistance. Specifically, I am seeking presenters who can present on a variety of Prepping, Homesteading, Sustainable Living, and general Survival topics. The presentations will be done in a classroom setting @ the venue, complete with A/V setup and PC/Projector. We will have the equipment necessary to do remote presentations, so this is not necessarily limited to those available to be @ the show. Each presentation should last approximately 45 minutes, and include an additional 15 minute...

The record busting growth of Antarctic ice is threatening the viability of Australia’s Mawson Antarctic research station. According to The Australian; Satellite observations show a new daily record being set for ­Antarctic sea ice every day for the past two weeks. Annual records have also been broken every year for the past three years. Rob Wooding, general manager of the Australian Antarctic Division’s Operations Branch, said expanding sea ice was now causing serious problems. Last year, fuel supplies were flown to Australia’s Mawson base by helicopter because the harbour had failed to clear. Dr Wooding said the situation was “unsustainable”.

I watched the summit today with my mouth agape. This couldn’t be the America in which I was raised, could it? There’s just no way. Obama referred to successful people as "society's lottery winners"... for real. This point-by-point rebuttal had to happen. It had to happen.

Brady and Keith look at some of The Royal Society's collection of standard weights and measures - including a particularly special one that even Keith had never unpacked before!

As a commentary guy, I'm rarely in the business of breaking news. But seeing as my show is out of Detroit, and I've done a lot of work in Dearborn... I managed to catch something that everyone else has missed. Please watch the video and support the site, but I've included a block-quote below. “She is a hatemonger. She is drawing incitement and violence.” … “Let me talk a little bit about ISIS. ISIS is a hate group exactly like Pamela Geller. She is drawing killers, she makes killers, she is inviting killers to come in.” … “She is worse...

SASSY Carly Fiorina Has a Unique Way of Dealing with Chuck Todd. The link takes you to the DC home page where the piece is proceeded by the super title "SASSY" while the article itself doesn't include that reference. I just find it interesting choice of words. Sassy? Has Ted Cruz been Sassy? I bet bitchy and hysterical will be used too at some point. I know it was meant lovingly but others might not see that way.

History of Mother's Day -- A Mother's Day Gift to You The following transcript is from the 1955 movie A Man Called Peter (1955 Henry Koster Film). The movie was adapted from a book by Catherine Marshall by the same name. Catherine was the wife of the late great preacher, Dr. Peter Marshall. The transcript below is directly from the movie. Catherine (prior to her marriage to Peter Marshall) was a college student. She and several other college students (one man and three women) were asked to accompany Dr. Peter Marshall to speak at a college event about their Christian...

And October is only five months away!, So just for fun, anyone want to make predictions for the 2015 October Surprise? What event or scandal will take down the Clinton's ever further? The one conservatives would love to see would be her polling in serious trouble throughout all of the swing states. If there is a God, we will be seeing Hillary never polling more than 40 Per-Cent in any of the crucial purple states, while Ted Cruz maintains his 10 to 15 per-cent lead over Hillary. But what else could topple Hillary this October?

Oliver Wendell Holmes made the analogy during a controversial Supreme Court case that was overturned more than 40 years ago. Ninety-three years ago, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote what is perhaps the most well-known -- yet misquoted and misused -- phrase in Supreme Court history: "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic." Without fail, whenever a free speech controversy hits, someone will cite this phrase as proof of limits on the First Amendment. And whatever that controversy may be, "the law"--as some have curiously...

There was a time when libraries had microfilm of old newspapers. I cannot find anything like that today. I am specifically looking for articles published in 1983 and 1984 by the Los Angeles Times.

The term "Fifth Column" came into popular use in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s and thereafter as socialism and fascism were sweeping into conflict to take over the nations of the West. It means a group of guerrillas, activists, intellectuals, etc. who work to undermine a nation (or some larger organization) from within. Its activities can be out in the open, or they can be secret. Today in America, the neoconservative political movement represents a "Fifth Column" for the forces of collectivism. Its intellectuals and activists promote themselves as conservatives who oppose the liberals, but their political philosophy has...

FUN THINGS TO NOTE FROM THE BIBLE: Remember what Jesus said: 'He will put His sheep on His right and the goats on His left.' (Matthew 25:33). Jesus also told Peter that if he wanted to catch fish do it from the right side of the boat. They did and filled the boat with fish. John 21:6 (NIV) ... He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish." Origin of Left & Right... I...

For those of you watching "The Five" as we speak, you can't help but observe how Juan just wont shut up and talking over each host as they take their turns making their arguments over the Baltimore Riots. From the very start of tonights edition, it seem like Juan just wouldn't shut up. As soon as a host makes his/hers rebuttal, 3/4/5 seconds later Juan tries to form an opinion or cut them off. And no one else on the panel does this. It's a mystery why FOX News wont take him off the show. Now we are really missing...

The 5-foot-long chart below has an ambitious goal: To record 4,000 years of history in a single graphic. Drawn by John B. Sparks of Rand McNally and Company in 1931, the chart traces world history from the Egyptian Empire through the Assyrians, Persians, Romans and Huns through the early 20th Century. It’s clearly a Eurocentric and dated view of the world’s history: The colors represent different racial groupings, as they were perceived in the 1930s – “Mediterranean People,” “Alpine People,” and “Mongolian People.” The width ostensibly shows the rise and fall of these groupings, though that metric seems far from...

Just ran across this nice poster: http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/rtnwcm/groups/ids/documents/content/rtn_242005.pdf

There's nothing that I could write which isn't better explained by Larry's own words in the video. But everybody, and I mean everybody, should be talking about this interview with Larry King. It is the most revealing slip-up into the mindset of liberal journalists, and the perversion of media that I've ever seen. And he doesn't even realize it...