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Read the following stories and much more by clicking the excerpt link at bottom: 1. ScienceDaily: “Discovery Raises New Doubts About Dinosaur-Bird Links" The allegation that birds evolved from dinosaurs is frequently treated as factual by evolutionists. Now, researchers have refuted that notion—and it starts with an unexpected discovery about bird anatomy. 2. LiveScience: “Do Dinosaurs Still Exist?” Creationists don’t claim that dinosaurs are still alive today. But because we believe at least two of each dinosaur kind survived Noah’s Flood (i.e., were on the Ark), we view the possibility as distinctly more likely than evolutionists. 3. BBC News: “Early...

Darwin Versus His Colleagues This is the second part of a review of The Darwin Myth by Benjamin Wiker. Part one is available here. An element of the Darwin story that may surprise many readers of Benjamin Wiker’s fine new biography The Darwin Myth is the ultimate disconnect between Darwin and many of his colleagues. Wiker points out that many of Darwin’s avid supporters, who accepted and helped popularize his theory, rejected Darwin’s materialistic reductionism. They argued, indeed, that the evidence did not support Darwin’s materialistic understanding of evolution. Biologist Asa Gray at Harvard was Darwin’s strongest champion in...

Faking scientific data and failing to report commercial conflicts of interest are far more prevalent than previously thought, a study suggests. One in seven scientists says that they are aware of colleagues having seriously breached acceptable conduct by inventing results. Around 46 percent say that they have observed fellow scientists engage in "questionable practices," such as presenting data selectively or changing the conclusions of a study in response to pressure from a funding source. However, when scientists were asked about their own behavior, only 2 percent admitted to having faked results.

Republicans will take their first shot at derailing a top Democratic priority — climate change legislation — by offering as many as 200 amendments when the House Energy and Commerce Committee begins marking up its bill this afternoon. The markup, which could stretch over several days, probably provides House Republicans with their best opportunity for offering changes to a bill that will likely see limited amendments on the floor. “Our folks are united against cap-and-trade,” Energy and Commerce member Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said of the carbon control policy being pushed by Democrats. Last week, Democrats agreed among themselves on a...

American Psychological Association revises statement on homosexuality A publication from the American Psychological Association includes an admission that there is no "gay" gene, according to a doctor who has written about the issue on the website of National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality. A. Dean Byrd, the past president of NARTH, confirmed that the statement from the American Psychological Association came in a brochure that updates what the APA has advocated for years. Specifically, in a brochure that first came out about 1998, the APA stated: "There is considerable recent evidence to suggest that biology, including genetic or...

"TOPEKA - Peace broke out in the long-running battle over coal plants in western Kansas today: Gov. Mark Parkinson and Earl Watkins, chief executive of Sunflower Electric Power Corp., announced they had reached agreement on a plan to allow a downsized coal power station near Holcomb. Under the settlement, Sunflower agreed to reduce its planned coal plants from two units with a capacity of 700 megawatts each to a single 895-megawatt unit. The company agreed to a package of environmental improvements, reducing the carbon dioxide from the proposed power plant from nearly 11 million tons a year to 6.6 million...

The Supreme Court of the United States is a redoubt of decorum in a casual-Friday world. The justices still wear robes. The assembled attorneys, journalists, and interested observers still rise when the robed ones enter the chamber. Lawyers still begin their oral-argument presentations by intoning the words, “May it please the court.” But when the justices convened last November 4, they were hearing arguments about whether the “S-word” and the “F-word” can be legitimately regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. In a decision handed down last week, the Court ruled 5–4 on behalf of the FCC. But the fact that...

In 1912 scientists thought they'd discovered the elusive missing link between human and ape. Found in a gravel pit in Piltdown, England, a set of intriguing skull and jaw fragments were later reconstructed by the British Museum into a human-like head with an ape-like jaw. In 1953 it turned out the find wasn't proof of anything—other than the skill of the still anonymous forger. The skull was a medieval human's. The jaw was an orangutan's. And the teeth were a chimp's.

WASHINGTON — The debate on global warming and energy policy accelerated on Tuesday as two senior House Democrats unveiled a far-reaching bill to cap heat-trapping gases and move the country quickly from dependence on coal and oil. But the bill leaves crucial questions unanswered and as of now has no Republican support. For those reasons, it marks the beginning, not the end, of debate in the current Congress on how to deal with two of President Obama’s top priorities, climate change and energy. The draft measure, written by Representatives Henry A. Waxman of California and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts,...

As the climate crisis mounts and Arctic icebergs slip away, polar bears are suffering starvation, population declines, and drowning as they must swim further and further to find food. Seeking to raise awareness for the endangered species' plight, ADDI Concepts has taken wildlife preservation literally by designing a life-vest for displaced polar bears struggling to stay afloat as their homes sink into the sea. Polar bears are facing a bleak future as Arctic icebergs continue to melt and ancient shelves of ice collapse. The species inhabits only the Arctic Ocean and its surrounding areas, and they and can hunt consistently...

A 25-year-old transsexual Spaniard claims to be pregnant with twins after artificial insemination in the first such case in Spain, local media reported on Sunday. "I am six-and-a-half weeks pregnant," Ruben Noe Coronado Jimenez, initially named Estefania, told the popular magazine Pronto, saying he took treatment to restart his menstrual cycle.

Wrinkles are good, eyebrows exude confidence and the bigger your ears, the more comfortable you are taking risks. Your personality is written all over your face, says Jean Haner, an expert in understanding facial features. "Your face is a blueprint for who you really are inside," adds the author of "The Wisdom of Your Face." Haner says she can predict which supermarket checkout clerk will scan her groceries fastest and why her clients' attempts to find Mr. or Mrs. Right often fall short.

After I came home from the fabulous sold out Maher -Coulter debate, I began to wonder something. The next big show on the MSG Speaker series is the Al Gore show on April 1st. If two circus acts like Maher and Coulter can sell out the Chicago Theater it should be no problem for an elder Statesman like Gore. A couple clicks on the Ticketmaster link assured me that there is no danger of a People’s Choice Award on that mantle anytime soon, since the public isn’t buying Gore. With a little more than two weeks before showtime, it is...

Last week, the White House invited me to a signing ceremony overturning the Bush (43) executive order on stem cell research. I assume this was because I have long argued in these columns and during my five years on the President's Council on Bioethics that, contrary to the Bush policy, federal funding should be extended to research on embryonic stem cell lines derived from discarded embryos in fertility clinics. I declined to attend. Once you show your face at these things you become a tacit endorser of whatever they spring. My caution was vindicated. President Bush had restricted federal funding...

CNN’s Sanjay Gupta filled in as host on Larry King Live on Wednesday, six days after ending his bid to be Obama's surgeon general. Despite his medical training, he did not see fit to correct former President Bill Clinton after he repeatedly referred to human embryos as not being fertilized.

Published online 4 March 2009 We cannot live by scepticism alone Harry Collins1 Harry Collins is director of the Centre for the Study of Knowledge Expertise Science at Cardiff University, UK. He is currently working on a book about tacit and explicit knowledge. Email: collinshm@cf.ac.uk Top of pageAbstract Scientists have been too dogmatic about scientific truth and sociologists have fostered too much scepticism — social scientists must now elect to put science back at the core of society, says Harry Collins. J. TAYLOR The term 'science studies' was invented in the 1970s by 'outsiders', such as those from the social sciences...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson opened Pandora’s box recently by agreeing to reconsider a Bush administration decision that excluded carbon dioxide from the list of pollutants the agency regulates under the Clean Air Act. Human beings and animals exhale the carbon dioxide that plants use in photosynthesis. A byproduct of photosynthesis is normally oxygen breathed by human beings and animals. So to even consider classifying carbon dioxide as a pollutant is, to put it mildly, quite a stretch.

In 2009, the eyes of the world will turn to commemorate the anniversaries of the births of the two most influential men of the last one thousand years — the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. No two men of the past millennium have done more to shape the thoughts of mankind or to affect the political and social destiny of nations than Calvin and Darwin — the former for the glory of God, and the latter for unimaginable evil. The following is a synopsis and excerpt...

early every candidate for pastoral ordination has been challenged with the charge given by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4:2-3: Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. So why will more than 10,000 pastors publically endorse evolutionary naturalism as "compatible" with Christianity during the month of February 2009?1 One word: Darwin...

Charles Darwin: The Man Behind the Monkey by Christine Dao* Who: Charles Robert Darwin When: February 12, 1809 - April 19, 1882 Where: Shrewsbury, England What: Father of the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is hailed in the mainstream scientific community as the unifying theory of the life sciences. He has been elevated to demigod status and given a place of esteem in the public arena, where any ideas outside his outdated theory are systematically and unfairly expelled. But Darwin wasn't a god. He wasn't even a demigod. He was a...