One thing to note re: mutation rates is the relatively recent realization that major changes in body plan can occur by alteration of small suite of master control genes.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

I meant for teachers.

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"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire

These discussions about creationism vs evolution will most probably go on forever because creationist don´t (want to) listen to intelligent religious people.
If they were really interested in seeing/knowing the “truth” they would read “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Cosmology and Biological Evolution” (ISBN 0-95863-999-X).
In his paper “Evolution and the Christian God” Denis Edwards (citing the theologian John Haught) says: “.. the theory of natural selection can actually be considered as ´Darwin´s gift to theology´, enabling theology to move beyond fruitless design arguments towards a deeper evolutionary theology.

(Denis Edwards teaches theology at the Adelaide College of Divinity)

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If everyone had even a basic grasp of scientific principles, this planet would be a better place (Phil Plait)

Die Lücke, die wir hinterlassen, ersetzt uns vollkommen (Carl Heinz Schroth)

1 + e^i*pi = 0

This species probably has billions of years left in it at least, maybe trillions. (Even without some kind of hyperdrive, we'll be able to travel to other stars the slow way by the time this one becomes unusable, so then the question will be how long it takes before we run out of other usable stars within range of that kind of transportation method.) "Never" is an awfully long time, Peter.

There have been other conflicts of a similar nature before, and they have ended. We're not arguing about the world being made of four or five elements such as "water" and "earth", or whether the world is round, or whether the stars are small lights hanging around locally right over the Earth, or what behaviors or personality quirks of which gods are responsible for weather, earthquakes, or volcanoes.

GB, Jr. started 10th grade (14 yr old) in 1984. Came home after a week or so and said "Dad, I think I'm in trouble in physics". When I asked why, he said "I don't think my teacher knows the difference between weight and mass". I assured him that he was probably just jumping to conclusions, and he bought it. The next Fiday I met with a group of friends (writers, artists, lawyers, newspapermen, policemen and other disreputible types) for happy hour. Most of the writers were ex-teachers. I told the story and someone asked the teachers name; I said "Mrs _____". The answer was "she probably doesn't"! It turned out that she was an education major, married to the military/science writer (and a very good one) at the local paper, so the principal put her into the science department. We moved to Florida in the middle of that year and his science/math teachers were much better, except that a couple of years into college he told me "Gee, Dad, if they'd told me that triginometry meant the measurement of three angles, I'd have got an A!

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"I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we actually have does not meet my standards." Philip K. Dick
No matter how strong, or brave, or pure of heart you may be; sometimes the dragon wins!

My 8th grade science taught us that "halogen" meant an element that was a diatomic gas at room temperature. That meant that hydrogen, helium, oxygen and nitrogen were halogens, but bromine (liquid) and iodine (solid) were not.

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

Very sad story. True?

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If everyone had even a basic grasp of scientific principles, this planet would be a better place (Phil Plait)

Die Lücke, die wir hinterlassen, ersetzt uns vollkommen (Carl Heinz Schroth)

1 + e^i*pi = 0

Very!

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

Also, most of the naturally occurring radioactive potassium-40 has decayed(3-2 halflives since life began), reducing the largest source of radioactivity occurring naturally in the body.

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And the "driving on the freeway on a scooter" analogy still holds true because the pilots are sitting in 7 to 30 ton aircraft o' doom and you are running around them in your very own Meatbody, Mark I. Beep, beep.
Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Hey Sticks, from the look of your latest Avatar I'd say you, Paulie and Clemenza ought to go down to the docks and see Louie the Bookie. He owes me 15000 Euros for the Indy race. Doesn't return my calls. Collect and I'll give you 500, plus ten per cent. That ought to take care of your literary needs for a while.

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

Where did you get that idea? You don't think our evolution has ended, do you? Why end with us?

Seems that we were all lemurs just 55 million years ago. We were monkeys 45 million years ago. And we were apes just 35 million years ago. At that rate, we won’t last another few million years before we morph again. I can’t wait! Oh boy, what will we look like next?!

“Prosimians are those primates that evolved before the anthropoids. The first prosimian appears in the fossil record about 55 million years ago, the first monkey about 45 million years ago, and the first ape about 35 million years ago.”

http://www.pbs.org/edens/madagascar/creature2.htm

Except that its a sad statement on the failure to impart knowledge to the knuckledraggers.

Hey! I'm a knuckledragger!

Oh! I see how it is, "but you wouldn't let one date your sister" uh? You're one of those.

Why I remember my dear sweet mother with her short little legs, being made fun of by other mothers who didn't need bracelets with training wheels to keep their manicures fresh.

Doodler, are you one of those mothers?

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

It is hard for me to understand their world, what with my arm measurements from shoulder to wrist barely matching my leg measurement from thigh to knee, but I do try...I really do.

I'm sure the day will come when someone finally informs me that I've lived my entire life walking upside down by way of explaining how I talk out of my buttocks so eloquently, and I dread it.