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The biggest salmon in 29 years in California, 85 pounds and more than 4 feet long, was found washed up on a river bank last week, dead and spawned out. Fish and Game biologists discovered the giant fish on a creek that feeds the Sacramento River near Anderson in Shasta County. The salmon likely weighed more than 90 pounds before it died, a big buck, according to Fish and Game biologist Doug Killam, perhaps far more when in the ocean and beginning its journey through San Francisco Bay, the delta and up the Sacramento River to its place of birth...

Two top aides with the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain have denied the anonymous accusations circulating in the press about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate's vice-presidential pick. "The towel story categorically is not true," Steve Schmidt, top former McCain campaign aide, told The Washington Times in the course of telephone and e-mail exchanges Friday evening. Newsweek had reported that at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Mrs. Palin had greeted Mr. Schmidt and Mark Salter, a fellow top campaign staffer, in her hotel room while "wearing nothing but a towel, with another [towel] on her...

Hundreds of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians held a demonstration at the Mamilla Muslim cemetery in central Jerusalem on Thursday to protest a High Court decision to allow the construction of the Museum of Tolerance on a site that partially covers the medieval cemetery. Arabs march from east Jerusalem to Mamilla to demonstrate against construction of Tolerance Museum next to old Muslim Cemetery. But Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean and founder of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center which is building the museum, has rejected the Islamic condemnations as the voice of extremism and vowed that it will rise as "an...

Language, according to the American neurobiologist William Calvin, is “the defining feature of human intelligence”. With due respect to the communication skills of dolphins, chimpanzees, birds and bees, Homo sapiens is the only existing species with the power of speech. It seems to be among the qualities that separates us from other animals, that makes us human. When the FOXP2 gene and its role in language was first identified in 2001, therefore, it is hardly surprising that scientists immediately began to ask questions about its role in evolution. Might this be a “language gene” that sets humans apart, a passage...

Researchers have carried out the largest study of differences between human and chimpanzee genomes, identifying regions that have been duplicated or lost during evolution of the two lineages. The study, published in Genome Research, is the first to compare many human and chimpanzee genomes in the same fashion. The team show that particular types of genes - such as those involved in the inflammatory response and in control of cell proliferation - are more commonly involved in gain or loss. They also provide new evidence for a gene that has been associated with susceptibility to infection by HIV. "This is...

In memory of Michael Crichton, who died Tuesday, let us consider a question that preocuppied him: How do we separate science from religion in environmentalism? As a spinner of sci-fi horror stories himself, he had a finely honed skepticism for the apocalyptic scenarios presented by environmentalists. In a speech in 2003, he argued that environmentalism was a modern remapping of Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths: There’s an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there’s a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as...

Breaking News >> Coleman Narrowly Defeats Comedian Al Franken in Minn. Senate Race (headline only)

In the next 24 hours, a contest will take place that will determine whether the Washington elites will claim victory, or will it be the blue-collar, redneck, coal-mining, gun 'n God nuts of Western PA prevail? Yes, tonight the Steelers travel to Washington D.C. It will be close. It will be hard faught, and yes, African-American turn-out will be key. (Willy Parker may play). Of cource, Clinton will be helping his Washington buddies. All right thinking Americans should be pulling for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pray if you can.

On a rainy Friday evening in early August, six Taliban fighters attacked a police post in a village in Buner, a quiet farming valley just outside Pakistan’s lawless tribal region. The militants tied up eight policemen and lay them on the floor, and according to local accounts, the youngest member of the gang, a 14-year-old, shot the captives on orders from his boss. The fighters stole uniforms and weapons and fled into the mountains. Almost instantly, the people of Buner, armed with rifles, daggers and pistols, formed a posse, and after five days they cornered and killed their quarry. A...

Dinosaurs, dragons and Darwin were discussed Friday during the contract termination hearing of suspended Mount Vernon Middle School science teacher John Freshwater. David Millstone, attorney for the Mount Vernon school board, introduced several handouts allegedly distributed by Freshwater in class. Former Freshwater students Simon Souhrada and Kate Button testified the dinosaur handout implied that humans and dinosaurs probably coexisted, contradicting the generally accepted theory of evolution. Button said Freshwater told her class there was new evidence that dinosaurs probably were around when people were, because of the global incidence of legends of dragons. Both students also alleged Freshwater indirectly made...

Rejoice! In case you were jaded by the whole evolution vs. intelligent design exercise in masochism, there's a new front in the war on science: the mind. Apparently, creationists are no longer satisfied by throwing tantrums in front of Darwin's grave; they'd rather be throwing flowers on Descartes'. This past week there was a story in New Scientist that talked about a new movement in creationism called "non-material neuroscience." Basically, these guys claim that the traditional, biological approach to solving the mysteries of the mind has failed, therefore we need to look to non-material (non-physical) explanations for human intelligence and...

A second Mount Vernon student said his 8th grade science teacher burned a cross on his arm with an electrical device, but that he didn't tell his parents or complain about the incident. And two school teachers, one of whom spent most of last year in Freshwater's class, described being uncomfortable with what he was teaching. Simon Souhrada, 17, said Freshwater used a high-voltage static electricity device to burn a cross on his arm four years ago. But, he testified, "it never even registered with me as being anything, really." Simon, now a junior at Mount Vernon High School, said...

VATICAN CITY, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI cited Galileo as a scientist of deep religious faith as he opened a conference on creation Friday at the Vatican. In his address at the Pontifical Academy of Science, the pope said that scientific findings on the origins of the universe are compatible with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. ''Saying that the foundation of the cosmos and its developments are the fruit of the creator is not saying that creation is only about the beginning of the history of the world and of...

Stephen Hawking, the cosmologist and author of the bestselling A Brief History of Time, is to take part today in a conference at the Vatican on Darwin, evolution and intelligent design. Pope Benedict XVI this morning opened the conference, organised by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which will last until next Tuesday. He said that like modern Popes before him, he saw no contradiction between the Christian concept of Creation and science. He cited Galileo, whom, he said "saw nature as a book whose author is God in the same way that Scripture has God as its author." He added:...

The custody case that swept 439 children from a polygamist sect's western Texas ranch into foster care has largely evaporated, with state authorities dropping all but a few dozen cases against parents. All but 37 children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado have been released from court oversight after Child Protective Services found they had not been abused or that their parents could protect them from the risk of future abuse. Only one girl has been returned to foster care. CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said the agency is pleased with the case dismissals, because they mean the children...

The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Given the often amicable relationship between science and religion throughout the history of Islam and Christianity, the current hostilities, centred around creationism and evolution, seem something of a historical anomaly. And many commentators suggest that they are also a geographical anomaly, in that the promotion of creationism and intelligent design is restricted to Islamic countries and the United States. But the latter suggestion is not quite true. While creationism and ID enjoy more "official" support in Islamic countries than anywhere else, and while the...

Another student came forward during Wednesday’s session of the contract termination hearing for John Freshwater. The student, now a senior at Mount Vernon High School, testified at the end of the day’s proceedings. Upon questioning by David Millstone, the school board’s attorney, the student said he had Freshwater as his eighth-grade science teacher and learned, among other things, about electricity and evolution in Freshwater’s class. Regarding evolution, the student, who asked that his name not be revealed, said Freshwater taught that the earth may only be several thousand years old rather than the billions suggested by the theory of evolution...

The oldest known cases of malaria have been discovered in two 3,500-year-old Egyptian mummies, scientists announced. Researchers in Germany studied bone tissue samples from more than 90 mummies found in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, now called Luxor. Two adult mummies from separate tombs had tissues containing ancient DNA from a parasite known to cause malaria, the researchers announced at a conference last week. In addition, a separate team at University College London recently found that a pair of 9,000-year-old skeletons—a woman and a baby—discovered off the coast of Israel were infected with the oldest known cases of tuberculosis...

There are more than 40 photos at the site. OOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOO! Boo.

The Board of Education in tiny Dover, Pa., earned a dubious distinction in 2004, becoming the first public district to require teachers to introduce religion while casting doubt on evolution. Although Christianity is serious business in Dover, the idea of supplanting science with religion angered many parents. So, in 2005 - with the ACLU and the National Center for Science Education in Oakland - some parents sued to stop the religious requirement. The epic First Amendment case was Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District. One reporter covering the case was Lauri Lebo, who grew up near the town of about...