ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 332

This Dinosaur Fossil Was So Bizarre, Scientists Thought It Was Fake

By Laura Geggel

An enigmatic dinosaur — which sported a swan-like neck, amphibious flippers and Velociraptor-esque claws — could walk like a duck and swim like a penguin during its heyday on Earth, scientists have found after examining its fossilized remains.

In fact, the remains, which were on the black market for years, painted such a wacky image of a dinosaur that paleontologists thought it was a sophisticated fake at first.

Its discovery reveals that the bird-like dinosaur was likely semiaquatic and felt right at home in the water, the researchers said. This is surprising because the newfound species is a theropod — a group of bipedal, mostly meat-eating dinosaurs that includes Tyrannosaurus rex — and it’s thought that most theropods didn’t spend much time in the water, the researchers said. (The major exception being Spinosaurus. Also, T. rex could likely swim, fossilized underwater footprints show.)

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Racism, fundamentalism, fear and propaganda: An insider explains why rural, white Christian America will never change

By Forsetti’s Justice, Alternet

As the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump is still being sorted out, a common theme keeps cropping up from all sides: “Democrats failed to understand white, working-class, fly-over America.”

Trump supporters are saying this. Progressive pundits are saying this. Talking heads across all forms of the media are saying this. Even some Democratic leaders are saying this. It doesn’t matter how many people say it, it is complete bullshit. It is an intellectual/linguistic sleight of hand meant to throw attention away from the real problem. The real problem isn’t east coast elites who don’t understand or care about rural America. The real problem is rural America doesn’t understand the causes of their own situations and fears and they have shown no interest in finding out. They don’t want to know why they feel the way they do or why they are struggling because they don’t want to admit it is in large part because of choices they’ve made and horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe.

I grew up in rural, Christian, white America. You’d be hard-pressed to find an area in the country that has a higher percentage of Christians or whites. I spent most of the first 24 years of my life deeply embedded in this culture. I religiously (pun intended) attended their Christian services. I worked off and on, on their rural farms. I dated their calico skirted daughters. I camped, hunted, and fished with their sons. I listened to their political rants at the local diner and truck stop. I winced at their racist/bigoted jokes and epithets that were said more out of ignorance than animosity. I have also watched the town I grew up in go from a robust economy with well-kept homes and infrastructure turn into a struggling economy with shuttered businesses, dilapidated homes, and a broken down infrastructure over the past 30 years. The problem isn’t that I don’t understand these people. The problem is they don’t understand themselves, the reasons for their anger/frustrations, and don’t seem to care to know why.

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Gay man denied marriage license by county clerk Kim Davis to run against her

By Avery Anapol

A Kentucky man who was denied a same-sex marriage license by county clerk Kim Davis announced Wednesday that he will run against her in 2018.

David Ermold, 43, said he will run  for the clerk’s seat to “restore professional leadership, fairness, and responsibility to the clerk’s office,” according to the Lexington Herald Leader.

“I am running to restore the confidence of the people in our clerk’s office and because I believe that the leaders of our community should act with integrity and fairness, and they should put the needs of their constituents first,” Ermold said, according to the newspaper. “I will build upon the successes of the past, and I will seek solutions for the challenges we may still face.”

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Roy Moore’s Bonkers Spokeswoman Has Long History of Far-Right Extremism

By Kelly Weill

Before she went on TV to rep Roy Moore and tell a pregnant CNN anchor that a Democrat wants to terminate her unborn child, Janet Folger Porter was a far-right commentator who lost her radio show over her support for a fringe, fundamentalist Christian movement.

Porter’s lengthy, bizarre CNN interview turned heads Tuesday morning as the spokeswoman backhandedly congratulated host Poppy Harlow on her pregnancy by telling her that Moore’s Democratic rival would support killing that unborn son.

The Moore flack found plenty of other audacious things to say during their chat. For example, when discussing the many sexual-misconduct allegations made against her candidate, Porter demanded the media instead focus on the “group of non-accusers that have not accused the judge of any sexual misconduct or anything illegal.”

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NASA fires Voyager 1’s engines for the first time in 37 years

By Leah Crane

It’s alive! By firing a set of thrusters that have been gathering dust for more than 3 decades, NASA has extended the lifetime of the Voyager 1 mission by a few years.

The interstellar probe is 13 billion miles away, moving at a speed of over 17 kilometres per second, but it still manages to send messages back to Earth. In order to do that, it needs to keep its antenna pointed towards us.

After 40 years in space, the thrusters that orient the spacecraft and keep its antenna aiming in the right direction have started to break down.

NASA engineers decided to try firing the craft’s backup thrusters, which have been dormant for 37 years. Then, they had to wait 19 hours and 35 minutes to get a signal from Voyager 1 at the edge of our solar system. The long shot worked, and NASA scientists plan to fully switch over to the backup thrusters in 2020.

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Question of the Week 12/6/2017

It’s so easy for us all to get stuck in our social media filter bubbles, only hearing from people and sources that agree with us. Do you try to expand your horizons to encompass other perspectives, online or offline? How do you do it?

The person with our favorite answer will receive a copy of Brief Candle in the Dark by Richard Dawkins.

Want to suggest a Question of the Week? E-mail submissions to us at qotw@richarddawkins.net. (Questions only, please. All answers to bimonthly questions are made only in the comments section of the Question of the Week.)

After 25 years on the culture war’s front lines, this prominent pastor-activist thinks liberals are winning.

By Michelle Boorstein

Between the American president endorsing Christian nationalist Roy Moore for the U.S. Senate and next week’s Supreme Court hearing of a baker refusing on religious grounds to serve a gay couple, this might seem like a discouraging month for Rev. Barry Lynn to retire.

For the last quarter-century, the lanky pastor-lawyer has been one of the most omni-present faces of secularism, leading the advocacy group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. In thousands of appearances on national TV and radio, Lynn was paired with his culture warrior-counterparts on the right, once-towering figures like the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson – making the case that the mixing of religion and government is toxic and unconstitutional.

But Lynn, who retires Monday, said in an interview reflecting on his career, and on church-state issues in general, that he believes data and his experience paint an America becoming less tolerant of government-backed expressions of religion. “I think the courts are out of step. I think the president is out of step.” He has also been critical of President Obama for not doing more to further church-state separation.

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If the World Was Ending, What Would Your Last Message Be?

By the New York Times

This is an article from Turning Points, a magazine that explores what critical moments from this year might mean for the year ahead.

If the world was coming to an end and we were to send one last message out into the cosmos that summed up the beauty of life on Earth, what would it be? Jane Goodall, Mohsin Hamid, Oscar Murillo, James Dyson, Richard Dawkins, Kyung-sook Shin and Daniel Humm tell us.

Tell us how you would sum up the beauty of life on Earth on the Times Opinion Facebook page. We may highlight your response in a follow-up to this piece.

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Diary of a Pakistani Atheist

By the BBC

In March 2017, a High Court Judge in Pakistan made the dramatic declaration that “blasphemers are terrorists.” The declaration is just one part of a growing national campaign to make disbelief socially, publicly and morally not just unacceptable, but one that allows Pakistani people the right to attack those who doubt the importance of Islam.

Websites offer a satirical take on Islam and challenge the notion that Pakistan is an Islamic Republic, but the government replied with adverts in national newspapers and text messages to all Pakistanis, urging them to report those who express their online disbelief in God

Mobeen Azhar listens to the intimate, anonymous diary entries of those who call themselves atheists, but daren’t say so publicly.

He also ventures inside the secret meetings and parties safe havens for atheists to come together to hear how it is to live the life of a non-believer, in a country where religion is playing a bigger role in all areas of life.

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Views of transgender issues divide along religious lines

By Gregory A. Smith

The American public is sharply divided along religious lines over whether it is possible for someone to be a gender different from their sex at birth, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.

Most Christians in the United States (63%) say that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by their sex at birth. Among religious “nones” – those who identify religiously as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – about six-in-ten (62%) say they think a person’s gender is not necessarily determined by the sex they are assigned at birth.

The new analysis is drawn from a recent survey that showed the American public was also deeply divided along partisan lines on the question.

Among Christians, white evangelical Protestants (84%) are most likely to say that gender is determined by sex at birth. Many black Protestants (59%) and white mainline Protestants (55%) also feel this way. Catholics are divided on the question, with 51% saying gender is a function of one’s birth sex, while 46% say it is possible for someone to be of a gender different from their sex at birth.

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