For example, a Giant Panda can be viewed as a large white bear with black patches. Or, a Giant Panda can be viewed as a large black bear with white patches. OR, a Giant Panda can be evaluated as just another carnivore, essentilly no different than a Lion or Weasel.
And so on.
Just say "can be" in front of whatever story you want to talk about, and there you have it.
Think of "can be" as an expression where you should prick up your ears and check to see if your wallet is still there.
And you correct people on their english and understanding of English?
Too funny.
Please stop.
Posted by muawiyah to js1138
On News/Activism 09/15/2006 4:00:24 PM EDT 893 of 938
Look, I can read as well as you can. NOWHERE is anyone, not even biologists, using the word "evolve" to mean the word "change".
Heretofore it has been used exclusively to mean a conceptual process of a very special kind.
When you elect to change a word you'd best be careful to try to escape the notice of the nomenclatura.
Posted by js1138 to muawiyah
On News/Activism 09/15/2006 4:08:06 PM EDT 895 of 938
Look, I can read as well as you can. NOWHERE is anyone, not even biologists, using the word "evolve" to mean the word "change".No?
One of the most respected evolutionary biologists has defined biological evolution as follows:
"In the broadest sense, evolution is merely change, and so is all-pervasive; galaxies, languages, and political systems all evolve. Biological evolution ... is change in the properties of populations of organisms that transcend the lifetime of a single individual. The ontogeny of an individual is not considered evolution; individual organisms do not evolve. The changes in populations that are considered evolutionary are those that are inheritable via the genetic material from one generation to the next. Biological evolution may be slight or substantial; it embraces everything from slight changes in the proportion of different alleles within a population (such as those determining blood types) to the successive alterations that led from the earliest protoorganism to snails, bees, giraffes, and dandelions."- Douglas J. Futuyma in Evolutionary Biology, Sinauer Associates 1986
Posted by js1138
On News/Activism 09/15/2006 7:44:44 PM EDT 934 of 938Evolution in sexually reproducing organisms consists of genetic changes from generation to generation in populations, from the smallest local deme to the aggregate of interbreeding populations in a biologial species.
Ernst Mayr (2001) What Evolution Is
Posted by js1138
On News/Activism 09/15/2006 7:46:04 PM EDT 935 of 938
"In fact, evolution can be precisely defined as any change in the frequency of alleles within a gene pool from one generation to the next."
- Helena Curtis and N. Sue Barnes, Biology, 5th ed. 1989 Worth Publishers, p.974