Free Republic

Syrian opposition forces in the northern province of Aleppo have declared the formation of a “Revolutionary Transitional Council” as future umbrella for all the opposition groups battling to bring down the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. “[The Revolutionary Transitional Council] includes all those working in the revolution; civilians, politicians and military men,” one member of the newly formed council said in a statement aired by Al-Arabiya television on Friday. The council aims to “facilitate the formation for a [wider] national transitional council to include all of the Syrian provinces,” the statement added. “In a time when the Syrian revolution has...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged continued U.S. support for the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and called on Eritrea to halt interference in Somalia. Clinton appeared at a joint press conference at the U.S. Embassy August 6 following talks with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. She said the talks with the TFG leader were "a thorough and productive discussion about the challenges facing his country and the efforts of the international community to support the Transitional Federal Government as it stands up for the people of Somalia and against the threat of violent extremism." Clinton pledged continued...

150 Years Later, Fossils Still Don't Help Darwin by Brian Thomas, M.S.* “Creationists claim there are no transitional fossils, aka missing links. Biologists and paleontologists, among others, know this claim is false,” according to a recent LiveScience article that then describes what it claims are 12 specific transitional form fossils.1 But do these examples really confirm Darwinism?Charles Darwin raised a lack of transitional fossils as a possible objection to his own theory: “Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms?”2 Later in this chapter of his landmark book, he...

<p>In a new study of a fossil fish that lived 375 million years ago, scientists are finding striking evidence of the intermediate steps by which some marine vertebrates evolved into animals that walked on land.</p> <p>Get Science News From The New York Times » There was much more to the complex transition than fins morphing into sturdy limbs. The head and braincase were changing, a mobile neck was emerging and a bone associated with underwater feeding and gill respiration was diminishing in size — a beginning of the bone’s adaptation for an eventual role in hearing for land animals.</p>

The discovery of four fossil skeletons of early human ancestors in Georgia, the former Soviet republic, has given scientists a revealing glimpse of a species in transition, primitive in its skull and upper body but with more advanced spines and lower limbs for greater mobility. The findings, being reported today in the journal Nature, are considered a significant step toward understanding who were some of the first ancestors to migrate out of Africa some 1.8 million years ago. They may also yield insights into the first members of the human genus, Homo.Until now, scientists had found only the skulls of...

There's a couple of problems with this "missing link" that recent articles have been promoting. Some of the articles also mention this new "link" is "like Archaeopteryx, the famous fossil that bridged the gap between reptiles and birds." Here's the problem with these fossils labeled as "transitionals" : It has long been predicted that fossils should reveal many organisms “in transition” between different types. What the record does reveal is a history of mass extinctions and sudden appearances of new complex types. After each extinction (brought about by various mechanisms such as impact events), hundreds and sometimes thousands of life...

Paleontologists have discovered fossils of a species that provides the missing evolutionary link between fish and the first animals that walked out of water onto land about 375 million years ago. The newly found species, Tiktaalik roseae, has a skull, a neck, ribs and parts of the limbs that are similar to four-legged animals known as tetrapods, as well as fish-like features such as a primitive jaw, fins and scales. These fossils, found on Ellesmere Island in Arctic Canada, are the most compelling examples yet of an animal that was at the cusp of the fish-tetrapod transition. The new find...

I don't know how many of you had the opportunity to read the front-page, above the fold article published in today's edition of the New York Times, which dealt specifically with the concerns surrounding the first (democratic) elections held in Iraq since 1954. It was an telling article, mainly-at least, from my perspective-because it was an indication that John Burns-a British journalist whose previous reportage from that country stood out for its clarity of purpose and sharp divergence from the standard "America is bogged down in an irretrievable quagmire" line-had finally subscribed to the press corp's generalized hostility for Operation...

Ancestors of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex were clothed in delicate feathers, a fossil discovered in China suggests. The find may come as a surprise to people used to images of Tyrannosaurus as a scaly monster. But many palaeontologists have been predicting just such a find ever since the first evidence of a dinosaur with a feathery coat came from the same site in Liaoning in 1995. The 130 million-year-old fossil is the oldest member recorded from the tyrannosauroid family, and the first in the group with a feather-like covering. The discovery of its skull and other fragments is reported today...

<p>WASHINGTON — The Army has decided to cancel its Comanche helicopter program, a multi-billion project to build a new-generation chopper for armed reconnaissance missions, officials said Monday.</p> <p>The contractors for Comanche are Boeing Co. and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.</p> <p>With about $8 billion already invested in the program, and the production line not yet started, the cancellation is one of the largest in the history of the Army. It follows the Pentagon's decision in 2002 to cancel the Crusader artillery program — against the wishes of Army leaders.</p>

  Basic Training Brigade tests intensified schedules FORT BENNING, Ga. (Army News Service, Feb. 2, 2004) -- The Basic Combat Training Brigade at Fort Benning is piloting two programs of instruction that provide more time in the field and focus more on warrior skills. The “immersion” and “alternate” courses include the original POI from today’s basic training, but add military operations in urban terrain and training with more weapons, without increasing the overall eight-week length of instruction. The pilot class for the immersion POI started Jan. 29, and the class for the alternate POI picks up Feb. 12. The...

<p>A U.S. Army that for decades has fought in brigades and battalions is taking on new-age terms such as "units of action" and "modules."</p> <p>The new terminology is the brainchild of Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the once-retired former "snake-eating" commando who was reactivated last summer by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to remake the Army, from tail to tooth.</p>