Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

The statement of which is follwoed by one pge of spendi de-rail. Am I the only one who sees the irony in that?

My advice is probably not one that most here would support but I'm going to say it anyways because from my perspective you have not done anything wrong.

If your husband is not giving you the attention you need then by all means what's so wrong with finding it somewhere else? I say there is absolutely nothing wrong with what you did. If your husband would have been giving you the attention then chances are you wouldn't have any need to look elsewhere for it.

This is why I don't like the idea of marriage or monogamy because humans just are not cut out for it on emotional levels despite what they try to argue. There is absolutely nothing within our lives that we take solely and live with, nothing. Except when it comes to relationships we try to claim that they should be taken that way. Rarely does it ever work, and the only time it does is when both people are providing the needs the other requires. Once that fails, the marriage is doomed.

You have needs and if those needs are not met then by all means you should be allowed to find it without being criticized for it. But people want to live in fantasy land and assume that people never change and needs are always met. And that if you change or your needs change that it is some how your fault for allowing that to happen. Or that you should just suck it up and not change or deal with your needs in some other way. It doesn't work yet they will insist that it does.

Be honest. Tell your husband. Be honest with your self too. If the marriage fails it is not your fault alone, it is his as well for not upholding his half of the bargain. The truth is not always easy to face but we should face it otherwise we may end up in a situation that makes us miserable just because we didn't want to face it.

Gee, am I the only one who sees spendi's off-track comments as nonsensical and without any value except entertainment?

Isn't that the only thing you have to base your arguments on?

There are plenty of people who follow and understand that evolution is a fact that do not support my idea of relationships.

It is quite obvious to me, the evidence is overwhelming, that on this thread, and the other one, I am in the company of some exquisitely sensitive souls.

Their claims all seem perfectly reasonable and utterly consistent with your postings.

Anthropologist Mann builds body of evidence with evolution studies
(by Ushma Patel, Princeton University News, January 24, 2011)

While teaching his "Human Adaptation" class, Princeton University anthropology professor Alan Mann motioned with his arms and legs as he explained the evolution of human joints from earlier vertebrates' joints.

"In your shoulder, you can combine abduction, adduction, flexion and extension and produce a movement called circumduction. Whee!" Mann said, swinging his arm in a circle. "Do you know how many animals can do that on the planet? Chimps, gorillas, orangutans, gibbons, sloths and us."

Mann's sense of wonder about human origins and his bond with all animal species -- living and extinct -- have endeared him to students and colleagues for more than 40 years.

Mann, a physical anthropologist, has focused his research on fossil remains -- mainly teeth -- of australopithecines and Neandertals to understand human growth and development. Mann also teaches a signature summer course in Bordeaux, France, "Modern Human Origins," which culminates in two weeks of excavation at a site once frequented by Neandertals.

"We have had to counter an argument that Neandertals were sort of dumb bunnies that were inferior to modern humans, the Cro-Magnons, who supposedly replaced them," Mann said. The evidence discovered at the site, however, Mann said, "gives us a picture of Neandertals as extraordinarily competent people in an environment that was really tough."

Mann began teaching at Princeton as a visiting professor in 1986 and joined the faculty full time in 2001, when he transferred to emeritus status at the University of Pennsylvania. His research and teaching ties together the sciences and social sciences, and he is "intellectually generous and deeply committed to collegial fellowship," said anthropology professor and department chair Carol Greenhouse.

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At Penn, Mann began working with his collaborator of more than 30 years, Janet Monge. Monge was a doctoral student of Mann's in the 1970s and is now a visiting associate professor at Princeton and an adjunct associate professor of anthropology at Penn.

Mann and Monge began to create databases of images of Neandertal and modern human teeth, looking for patterns that appeared in both groups and would show the connection between the two -- despite many experts' view that modern humans were not descended from Neandertals.

"We had a rocky time, but we solidified a lot of our research methods because of the critiques," Monge said.

Their research, which showed that Neandertals' dental development showed strong similarities to humans, convinced them that Neandertals were part of the same species.

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Based on their close study of facial features, Mann and Monge have taken on the roles of forensic anthropologists, providing expert testimony in criminal defense trials. They have been able to apply their knowledge of biological variation and cranial structure to help establish an individual's identifying characteristics. In several instances, surveillance cameras showed criminals whose earlobe, forehead or brow shape did not match the defendants being tried, and the anthropologists' expertise freed the accused.

"We use physical anthropology as a way of showing a person is innocent," Mann said. Referring to a case in which he helped free a teenager accused of rape and DNA later confirmed the teenager's innocence, he said, "That, I have to say, was the best thing I've ever done."

In 1990, Mann was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Bordeaux, where he became a research associate of the anthropology laboratory and where Bruno Maureille, now head of the lab, was at the time a doctoral student. The two became friends, and in 2001 the French government authorized Maureille and Mann to restart excavations at Les Pradelles. The collapsed cave in southwest France served as a hunting camp for Neandertals to butcher reindeer and horse meat about 40,000 to 80,000 years ago.

Mann modified a summer study abroad course to Bordeaux he had led for years, adding two weeks of excavation. The course, "Modern Human Origins," also involves lectures and visits to important archaeological sites and painted caves, and it focuses on some markers of "human-ness" -- the ability to use tools, the development of language and the production of art.

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After devoting his career to studying evolution, Mann sees it as a flawed process.

"Evolution produces function, not perfection," Mann said. Each human function has a history and reason, he said, but it also may have some unexpected consequences.

For example, the increasing complexity and size of human brains led braincases to increase in size, which shortened the dental arcade and led most people to need to have their wisdom teeth extracted, Mann said. This is what he calls "a scar of human evolution."

Mann discusses many such examples in the class "Human Adaptation," which he co-teaches with Monge. Using the course as a foundation, Mann and Monge created a museum exhibit called "Surviving: The Body of Evidence" with support from a National Science Foundation grant and the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, where both have overseen the physical anthropology collection. The exhibit launched in 2009 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," and it has since been installed at museums in Cleveland, Houston and Memphis.

In the class, Mann leads the students through the study of movement, the chewing system, and the brain and behavior -- and insists that every Princeton graduate should learn the bones of their body.

Sophomore Jilly Chen said she was unfamiliar with anthropology before she took the class and didn't know what to expect. What she got was a quirky and energetic professor who incorporated words like "groovy" and "chappy" in class, while presenting large amounts of technical information.

"I've gained a lot of insight into how my body works and how it has come to function the way it does," she said. Mann's style of teaching makes the material more accessible, she said, "because he doesn't lecture, he just really wants to show you something fascinating."

Mann takes pride in his teaching, saying he can't lead a class without enthusiasm. He keeps his six framed teaching awards in his office, along with figures of primates and "cave men" given to him by students over the years.

Said Monge, "He's an excellent researcher and excellent teacher -- and he doesn't think of them as being in conflict with each other."

a string of banalities sexed up with a few titles and brilliantine words