We're evolving, do you hear?  EVOLVING!  Bwahhahhhahhhhha......

"Ten thousand years ago, no one on planet Earth had blue eyes," Hawks notes, because that gene—OCA2—had not yet developed. "We are different from people who lived only 400 generations ago in ways that are very obvious; that you can see with your eyes."

Comparing the amount of genetic differentiation between humans and our closest relatives, chimpanzees, suggests that the pace of change has accelerated to 10 to 100 times the average long-term rate, the researchers write in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

Not all populations show the same evolutionary speed. For example, Africans show a slightly lower mutation rate. "Africans haven't had to adapt to a fundamentally new climate," because modern humanity evolved where they live, Cochran says. "Europeans and East Asians, living in environments very different from those of their African ancestors and early adopters of agriculture, were more maladapted, less fitted to their environments."

And this speedy pace of evolution will not slow until every possible beneficial mutation starts to happen—the maximum rate of adaptation. This has already begun to occur in such areas as skin color in which different sets of genes are responsible for the paler shades of Europeans and East Asians, according to the researchers.

Kinda sorta via FuturePundit

Story #1:

Intelligence agencies turn on a dime, deciding that after all, Iran isn't developing nuclear weapons.  In the words of Director of Intelligence Emily Litella:  "Never Mind."

Story #2:
CIA makes tapes of, then disposes of, then tells the world about interrogation tapes of Al Qaida terrorists.

To review, these are the guys that our entire political leadership depend on for clear and honest analysis of what's going on in the world.  These are also the guys who, throughout the Clinton presidency and well into the G.W. Bush presidency, stated in no uncertain terms that Saddam Hussein's Iraq had WMD's and were ready to use them.  That is, until our political leadership actually did something about it.  That's when Miss Litella mentioned above got her promotion to Director of Intelligence.

Can someone explain to me why some the vitriol aimed at Bush (and, some of that aimed at the Democrats) is not focused like a laser beam on our deeply dysfunctional national intelligence services?

UPDATE:  Meet Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr., Director of Operations for the CIA, apparent villain of this particular piece:

Top C.I.A. officials had decided in 2003 to preserve the tapes in response to warnings from White House lawyers and lawmakers that destroying the tapes would be unwise, in part because it could carry legal risks, the government officials said.

But the government officials said that Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the chief of the agency’s clandestine service, the Directorate of Operations, had reversed that decision in November 2005, at a time when Congress and the courts were inquiring deeply into the C.I.A.’s interrogation and detention program. Mr. Rodriguez could not be reached Friday for comment.

As the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in 2003, Porter J. Goss, then a Republican congressman from Florida, was among Congressional leaders who warned the C.I.A. against destroying the tapes, the former intelligence officials said. Mr. Goss became C.I.A. director in 2004 and was serving in the post when the tapes were destroyed, but was not informed in advance about Mr. Rodriguez’s decision, the former officials said.

It was not until at least a year after the destruction of the tapes that any members of Congress were informed about the action, the officials said. On Friday, Representative Peter Hoekstra, the Michigan Republican who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee from 2004 to 2006, said he had never been told that the tapes were destroyed.

Hmm, wasn't the Director of Operations the bad guy in some of Tom Clancy's novels?  Life imitates art.

I used to watch Fox News all of the time.  Now?  Not much at all, really. I get all the news I need from my RSS feeds.  TV is mainly for sports, science fiction, and science/nature shows nowadays.

From Instapunk, via Instapundit:

In the whole hour-and-a-half I watched while I was drinking coffee and trying to avoid ESPN because of the awful Eagles game yesterday, there was absolutely no mention of the biggest story of the day and perhaps the month: The electoral defeat of Hugo Chavez's bid to transform Venezuela's democracy into a dictatorship. He lost. And he conceded. That was HUGE NEWS, available as early as midnight last night.

F&F didn't mention Chavez. At all.

Fox News was a good idea. So was the Thunderbird.
. . .
Count us out. As smart as Ailes is, he has to know that even conservatives can bail out to the Internet.

A Good Point:

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was exactly the policy CNN adopted in not telling viewers that Kerr is a member of Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual- Transgender Americans for Hillary.

Sen. Clinton’s campaign Web site features a press release announcing Kerr and other members of the committee in June. And a basic Web search turns up Kerr’s past support as a member of a veterans’ steering committee for the John Kerry for President campaign - and his prior appearance on CNN in December ‘03.

CNN’s moderator, Anderson Cooper, singled out Kerr (who’d been flown in for the event) in the vast audience, giving him a chance for his own filibustering moment. Marvel at it: Not one CNN journalist uncovered the connection or thought it pertinent to disclose that Kerr’s heart belonged to Hillary.

When righty commentator Bill Bennett pointed out the facts to Cooper after the debate, a red-faced Cooper feebly blubbered: “That was something certainly unknown to us, and had we known that, would have been disclosed by us. It turns out we have just looked at it.”

Anybody who believes anything CNN has to say about American domestic politics is, simply, a fool.  Actually, you can say that about almost all of American journalism today.

Iconic daredevil Evel Knievel dies at age 69

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills. He also suffered two strokes in recent years.

For a guy like me who spent his formative years in the 1970's, Knievel was a symbol of the wacked-out striving for . . . . whatever that lifted humanity above mere animals.

Rest in peace, Evel.

I don't think you could pay me enough money to watch what will likely be the most grotesque parody of serious political discussion since . . . well, since the CNN/YouTube Democratic Presidential Debate.

And no, I didn't debase myself by watching the Democratic one, either.

Upon further consideration, you probably could pay me enough money . . . but we're talking at least ten figures here.  And that still wouldn't make me LIKE it.

UPDATE:  Was I right, or was I right?

According to the industry magazine Advertising Age, I seem to have been right.

Again, I don't know that it's necessarily wrong to have opponents show up during these forums. But the problem for CNN is that it didn't do the same for the Democratic YouTube debate and it's just coming off a Las Vegas debate where it seemingly pushed a student to ask Hillary Clinton that ridiculous diamonds or pearls question (and included James Carville in the post-debate analysis). Like George W. Bush finding out which 30% of the country still supports them, then doing something to frustrate even those voters, CNN seems intent on finding its few remaining Republican voters and driving them into the arms of Fox News. (You just have to take a quick glance at Drudge to see how this is being played on the right.)

(Emphasis mine.  Hat tip Instapundit.)

Yikes!

Coalition warship thwarts pirate attack in Arabian Sea:

ARABIAN SEA (NNS) -- British Navy warship HMS Campbeltown saved a civilian cruise liner from potential pirate attack while on coalition patrol in the Arabian Sea.

The Seabourn Spirit's call for help was taken at the Bahrain headquarters of Royal Navy and coalition operations in the Gulf, as the liner transited for Muscat, Oman. The crew had grown increasingly concerned about small skiffs believed to be pirates closing on their position.

Pirates are known to operate in the area - the Seabourn Spirit was attacked by armed criminals in nearby waters exactly two years ago. A number of vessels have been successfully hijacked in waters around the Somali coastline this year.

Over 120 nautical miles away Campbeltown's maritime attack Lynx helicopter was dispatched to the scene, armed with its machine gun to reassure the cruise liner, and if necessary intercept the pirates. By the time the helicopter had reached the liner the skiffs had disappeared.

The helicopter's presence greatly reassured the passengers on board and the Royal Navy has been officially thanked for its assistance by the commanding officer, himself ex-Royal Navy.

Most importantly, Campbeltown's actions have reassured vessels transiting through the Combined Task Force 150 Joint Operating Area that the coalition warships are effective at supporting requests for help in any direction.

Campbeltown Commanding Officer, Cmdr. Gordon Abernethy, Royal Navy, said, "It is extremely rewarding to be of assistance and know that our presence reassures law-abiding mariners going about their normal business."

Campbeltown is currently one month into a seven-and-a-half month deployment east of the Suez Canal. Up to and including Christmas, the ship is operating in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Of greasy grimy gopher guts

Mutilated monkey meat

(you know the rest of it, don't you?)

OK, Democrats, we pro-victory types give in.  You win.  We'll start pulling troops out.

Yahoo News:

Overall U.S. troop levels in Iraq will fall by about 5,000 when a combat brigade completes its pullout from the country's volatile Diyala province next month, U.S. military officials said on Saturday.

The 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division is the first brigade not be replaced by fresh troops from the United States since the U.S. commander in Iraq General David Petraeus announced plans to cut forces by some 20,000 by July 2008 as violence ebbs.
. . .
The 3rd Brigade was not part of President George W. Bush's "surge" of 30,000 troops in the first half of 2007. But its departure marks the first big reversal of a troop build-up ordered to pull Iraq back from the brink of all-out civil war.

"The redeployment without replacement reflects overall improved security within Iraq," military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told a news conference.

Cruise ship hits iceberg off Antarctica:

A small Canadian cruise ship carrying passengers who shelled out thousands of dollars to retrace the route of a 20th century explorer struck an iceberg and sank hours later in icy waters off Antarctica. All 154 aboard, Americans among them, escaped safely.