Dinosaur Syndrome Revisited

The Dinosaur Syndrome Revisited:  Big Body, Little Brain, Become Extinct

Over the last decade there is growing evidence that shows the harmful effects of too much fat on your body. In a study of 1,438 Japanese men, researchers found significant decreases in brain size in the PFC and temporal lobes (learning and memory). Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug abuse, and colleagues found that in healthy adults a high BMI (body max index) was inversely correlated with activity in the PFC. Elevated BMI has also been associated with myelin abnormalities in the PFC of healthy normal and elderly adults.

The goal of our study was the test the hypothesis that an elevated BMI is associated with lower blood flow to the PFC in a healthy group of people on brain SPECT imaging. To that end, we compared our group of “healthy” subjects who had a high BMI with people in our “healthy” group of normal weight. The results of our study were very clear. The high BMI group had statistically significant lower activity in the PFC compared with the normal group.

Obesity is becoming a worldwide epidemic and is a risk factor for many chronic condition, including cardiovascular disease, depression, and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. It has recently found to be worse for your liver than alcoholism.

We were not able to determine if problems in the PFC led to increased impulsivity and subsequent obesity or if being overweight or obese directly caused brain changes. Both scenarios may be true. The fact that we used a healthy-brain group and specifically excluded ADHD or other behavioural disorders argues against the premorbid hypothesis, but other studies have shown an association between ADHD and obesity. Still other authors report that fat tissue directly increases inflammatory chemicals, which likely have a negative effect on brain structure and function.

One of the major problems with being overweight or obese is that there is evidence that it damages your PFC, which we know is the major decision-making part of the brain. So if you do not get your weight under-control, it will become harder and harder to use get your own good judgment over time to get and stay healthy. Now is the time to start enhancing your health and longetivity, not at some arbitrary point in the future, which most likely will never come.

The Day of the Flowers. Photo by Elena.

ADHD, PFC Problems, and Early Death

ADHD is associated with low activity in the PFC. Initially, ADHD was thought of as a childhood disorder that most kids outgrew by the time they turned twelve or thirteen. The hallmark symptoms of ADHD are short attention span, being easily distracted, disorganization, hyperactivity (trouble sitting still), and poor impulse control. People with ADHD, like Jose, often exhibit excitement-seeking or conflict-seeking behavior; they also tend to have trouble with time (they are often late and turn in assignments at the last minute). Over the last three decades it has become clear that many ADHD children continue to have debilitating symptoms for the rest of their lives. They tend to outgrow the physical hyperactivity but not the problems with disorganization, inattention, distractibility, and impulse control. Untreated ADHD has been associated with a higher incidence of:

• Drug and alcohol abuse (impulsivity and to calm feelings of hyperactivity)
• Relationship problems (impulsivity and conflict seeking)
• School failure (attentional problems and impulsivity)
• Job-related problems (problems with time, attention, and impulse control)
• Medical problems (associated with chronic stress, plus more head trauma with the excitement-seeking behavior)
• Obesity (lack of impulse control)
• Depression (chronic failure)
• Lack of conscientiousness (all of the above).

In the book Daniel G. Amen wrote with noted neurologist Rod Shankle, “Preventing Alzheimer's, the authors argued that ADHD is likely associated with Alzheimer's disease because of its connection with many of the illnesses that put people at risk for it, such as alcohol abuse, obesity, depression and head trauma. This is very important, because when ADHD goes untreated, a person will not be able to control his or her impulses, setting him up for significant health problems, poor decisions, and earlier death. If you or someone you love has symptoms of ADHD, it is important to be treated. Natural ways to treat ADHD include intense aerobic exercise, a very healthy diet, a multivitamin, fish oil, and supplements (such as green tea, rhodiola, L-Tyrosine) or medication (such as Ritalin or Adderall) to enhance PFC function.

Once you realize the absolutely critical role of the PFC to longevity, you then need to do everything possible to protect it and rehabilitate it if necessary.

(Use Your Brain by Daniel G. Amen, M.D. Excerpt).

Way to healthy live. Photo by Elena.

Hidden - a novel

Hidden a novel by Catherine McKenzie

(Excerpt)

Despite being only five hundred miles away from one another as the crow flies, there are no direct flights between my Springfield and Jeff's.

I consider driving to the funeral, but since I don't think I can stand that much time alone with my thoughts, I take a connecting flight through one of those hubs whose terminals splay out like spokes on a wheel. An hour there, an hour lay-over, an hour to the other Springfield, and I'll be there.

I'll. Be. There.

But what am I even doing here, on my way to Springfield, on my way to the funeral I told Zoey I wouldn't be attending?

The day after the day, after the shouting, the crying, what I hope was the worst day of my life, I managed, somehow, to pull a cloak of normalcy around me. I sat at my desk, answered my phone and emails, and processed paperwork.

For the next three unfortunates who were being terminated, I pretended I wasn't the object of stares, of whispers, of questions, of doubt. In my silence, I hoped, I'd reinforce the hasty explanations I gave on the ride home with Lori, and that would be that. If I was lucky, there'd be some other event, or someone else, to talk about tomorrow.

At midday, an email went out to the memeers of the HR department. It had been decided that someone from the company should attend the funeral. Be an envoy. Say a few nice things about how devoted Jeff was, how well liked. It wouldn't be a pleasant mission, so a volunteer would be appreciated.

The email felt like a bomb sitting in my inbox.

Where my co-workers expecting me to diffuse it?

As the minutes ticked away and no one their raised hand, my chest started to constrict and I worried I might start hyperventilating. I wanted to go, and I knew at the same time that it was the last thing I should be doing.

In the end, I couldn't help myself.

I'll go, I wrote and hit Send before sanity restored itself.

As my email pinged into my department's inboxes, I imagined I heard a collective sigh of relief. Oh, thank God, a dozen people were thinking – or so I imagined. I won't have to be surrounded by sad people, or search for the right words to say. Besides, my thoughts ran on, she should be the one to go, anyway.

Shouldn't she?

The complicated nature of love, griefs, truth, and the place they hold in our lives... Illustration by Elena.

Useful sentences and expressions

Sets of words

Some useful sentences and expressions I strongly recommend for creators of content. And I explain my reasons for doing so:

• Sentences like “let's take a moment”, ”I'm not sure it's for you” and other sentences expressing doubt cause the person to think that something is not urgent and not important, can be put on hold. Avoid using them.
• The word “but”: this word makes the person to focus on everything that goes after BUT (for example: your phone used to be perfect, but now you need to change and sell it before it's too late”)...
• Use the word “Open minded”:  ”how open-minded would you be about trying this alternative...” “Would you be open-minded about giving us a chance to help you to get rid of your old device” “How open-minded would you be about increasing your income”, ”how open-minded would you be about”, “How open-minded will be you about at least trying it”. If you use this expression - “open-minded” - the person subconsciously feels obligated to explore some possibilities.
• The set of words “what you know” helps to control the situation, to move the person from position of certainty to one of doubt (he doesn't want to sell online, but after seeing “what you know”, he may change his mind). This set of words moves the person to understand that his rejection is due to lack of evidence or to insufficient evidence: ”What you know about us, the business we do differently”. ”What you know about how everything has changed since...l”, “What you know about benefits”, ”What you now about new approach”, All these questions (what you know) help people realize that their opinion (rejection of our offer) is perhaps not correct.
• The set of words: “How would you feel if...”. Motivation: reasons to move or to do Examples – “How would you feel if the decision to order our services leads to an additional income?”, “How do you feel if you get money from a useless gadget?”, “How would you feel if the next year at this time you would live in a house of your dreams.”..
• “Just One More Thing...” - Makes people smile and feel like doing good thing. Besides, this expression can help us to avoid that a potential customer leaves without a transaction
• The set of words: “Just imagine” helps create the image by telling stories (once upon a time...) When you hear the words « just imagine » some subconscious moment clicks and switches your brain to listen: “Just imagine how things would be when you get an extra-income. “Just imagine how will you feel when you get money for a gadget you don't need anymore”, “Just imagine the look on your kids faces when you achieve this”, “Just imagine the impact this could have”, “Just imagine the smile on your kids faces when you tell them you can allow yourselves to get to”. Or simply “Just imagine the difference...”

Just imagine the world without living creatures... Photo by Elena.

• The set of words “I'm guessing you” (by using this set of words you eliminate their excuses they had in their mind).
• The set of words: “Where would be a good time to”. “When will it be good time to get started (to look at this proposal).
• The set of words which turns the open question into a closed one. An open question: “do you have any question”. Turn it to a closed question - “What question do you have for me?”. Instead of “Can you give me your phone number (appeal to privacy), use “What is the best number I can reach you?” (are you ready to sell... - change by “will you sell it today, in order to get the top price?”
• The set of words which gives potential customer options: you could do this, secondly, you could do exactly nothing, or, third, you could give this a try... What of these three options would be more easy and convenient for you? (these three options make them realize that they have to pick one of these three options). Start with the three options and finish with « what option will be easier for you? » (more convenient for you)
• The set of words: “there are two sorts of people, who listen and those who act”
• The set of words presenting evidence: “We bet you are ready to do something”, “We bet you're a busy person”.
• The set of words “if... that...” “if you don't eat your dinner you'll not get any desert”, “if you don't clean your room, you'll be grounded the weekend”... If a person hears these conditions, chances are this person will believe them: “If you decide to give it a try, we promise that you'll not be disappointed”, or “if you... we are confident that you...”
• Another set of words help to calm the reader: “Don't worry”, “feel confident”, “just relax, we'll help you navigate through the choices” or “Don't worry, we know you are not sure about, but our guidelines will help you easily find the way”...
• The set of words “most people”. We don't press by saying - “you should do that...“. We say “most people would do that in this situation” -  “Most people would grab to the opportunity, as there are no risk...”
• The set of words - “the good news” The good news is that dozens of people came through it and we are here to help you too... this brings more positivity, and you add the words like that's great, etc.àThe set of words: What happens next. (what happens next is...). We don't ask, we state what happens next. (now, just fill in the form...)
• The set of words “What makes you say that?” Questions like this help people overcome an objection (however, we must understand what the objection is). If we ask questions, these questions make people take the responsibility.
• Another set of words: “Before you make your mind up (before it what if we run once again...).
• The set of words “if I can, I will...”
• The word “enough”: would it be enough for you if we pay you more than a competition...
• The set of word which make us look as we are asking for a favor: “perhaps you can do us a small favor”, “you could do us a little favor, couldn't you?”
• The set of words “just out of curiosity”: “just out of curiosity, what is it specifically you want to think about...” “Just out of curiosity, what is that that's stopping you from selling”.
• The last set of words: “So how does it work? - It works great!” We give no details, no explanations, we just state that it works great.

The good news is they are not Goddesses. Picture by Elena.

Link Building Strategy

My text about link building strategies

Here comes the complete list of requirements for the link building:

Links must be inserted in texts, not in footnotes, not in the list of content, not anywhere else. In texts only,

1. The website where you insert a link must be created for visitors, not for SEO or other purposes, they must not be PBN or something of the sort (if you don't understand some of these terms, just google it, and everything will become clear).
2. It would be perfect if the site would be globally dedicated to the subjects related to our company (for a computer seller, the perfect website would be a site about hardware, cellphones, computers, ecology and recycling of used electronics, tips for improving family budget, global problems related to the use of electronic devices, investment in new technologies, and so on).
3. As a rule, the site must show positive dynamics in SEO parameters (today's SEO parameters are better than they were half a year ago, etc. ). 
4. People must actively visit the site. If there are a rather important number of comments on the texts, it would be great, etc. The ideal situation would be if the dynamics get better and better for the last year. But it may be too hard to achieve these goals, so if all the rest can be accepted, you can forget about this requirement.
5. Active presence of American audience is a must, if your company targets only American customers. On other side, if you are looking for visitors from an African country, the site where you buy a link should attract local people.
6. In numbers: Semrush - organic visits must be not less than 10000, and it would be better if the parameters reach 20000 (no matter desktop or mobile). The organic searches should show a permanent increase for at least six months, better if the increase has been observed for a year. There may be exceptions, but you can't accept sites where the visits dropped for more than 50% during the last year. Neither you cannot accept a website with a stable tendency for dropping organic search results. Alexa – the ideal site should appear in top 100К. You can accept websites with lower stats, but not lower than 500К. Audience must come mostly from the country (countries) you are interested in.
7. The site must not be blocked by the owner from being accessed from other countries (a few sites don't allow visitors in other countries to see their sites destined for visitors from specific countries, but Google doesn't like this method). 
8. Majestic TF and CF – the ideal figure would be higher than 20, but not lower than your owns stats on your own website. If your ranking is 12 (TF) и 27 (CF), the site where you buy a link must be not less than twice as higher (24 and 54).  However, it's preferable that TF and CF would be closer to each other comparing the difference (when a website is quoted too much, but its trust is too low, Google may see the situation as an issue).
9. Moz – DA on the site you buy a link must be higher than yours. You'd prefer DA to be higher than 35. 
10. Spam Score : 0-2 is the ideal situation.
11. https and adaptive format are not a must, but you'd prefer if the site has them.
12. An ideal case is a site which has twitter and/or facebook accounts, with 1000+ followers and activity (sharing, likes, comments). If the text with your link inserted is shared by the site in its social networks' account, it would be a great addition and merit a bonus if the site has 1000+ followers.
13. You can take dofollow links on permanent basis. If the site has a good traffic on the subject which interests you, the no follow link can also be used, but these will be rare exceptions.
14. We can't accept subdomains of the site offered by the seller (many offers talk about a website, like, say, ibm.com, but in fact the seller has access to personalblog/myvife/community/ibm.com or ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs. You can accept a subdomain, if its stats are within the requirements exposed above. But the seller must specify in his (her) proposal that it's a subdomain.
15. The text must be of good quality and the link inserted must be related to the text (you must not accept a link about selling used iPhone inserted in a text about sexuality of crocodiles).
16. You can't accept websites where everyone can sign up, start posting articles and then the administration of the site removes the text without any further explanations.
17. You must be very cautious about those websites which sell links to everyone in any occasion, as they finally will be punished by Google. One of the signs of such a site is that it is offered by dozens of sellers.
18. You should buy links on permanent basis. Yes, sites have the tendency to go away, or change its policy and thus remove some texts, etc. But when you buy a post with your link you expect the text be on the site for at least 2 years. If the texts is no more available before this delay expires, the seller must provide another text, published on another website with the same stats as exposed in this list. Specify these conditions.
19. You can purchase some presence in well-known platforms, such as reddit, quora, etc., but we have very strict special requirements for those platforms.

Rest assured that we never share your private info with any third-party organizations. It’s safe with us. Also, your link is insured in the event it is damaged during shipping. That’s right, we’ve got your back! Photo by Elena.

Templates

Templates of My Texts

Here come some samples of the texts I've written for my clients. Please contact me if you need a good writer.

Dear Madame, Sir

I am the owner of (this company), a company which specializes in buying and reselling used consumer electronics, cellular phones included. We have been on the market for 5 years now and we help people recycle their old devices and save money.

Our company currently buys dozens of cell phones every day. And I am writing to express my deep concern about the situation on the cellular phones markets, as our experience proves that cell phones carriers and manufactures are not doing enough to find ways to stop or at least reduce the criminal activity on the very lucrative illegal cell phones market.

Believe me, we at iGotOffer know what we are talking about. In our opinion, based on our experience, carriers and manufacturers are to blame for this situation, as we (and I suppose, our competition) try to do everything to prevent the theft of cell phones.

What happens? When we buy a used and old cell phone we always try to check if the item has been reported stolen or lost. Even more, we state on our Website that we will never buy a device reported stolen or lost, we will never return it to the seller and we will report to the law enforcement authorities every case of such items. Nevertheless, we receive these items regularly, and unfortunately, there is no secure way to check and tell with certainty that we deal with a stolen phone.

On the contrary, the existent legal conditions accommodate the resale of the stolen phones!

Indeed, each time we receive a cellular phone, we try to communicate with the manufacturer or with the carrier, but each time the decision to disclose the information on the phone depends on the good will of an employee, not on the law or or other regulations.

The process of obtaining information is long, slow and painful. All the carriers systematically refuse to give information about the phone's unique identifying number. The carriers have never added their databases of stolen cell phones to public access. The situation is the same with the manufacturers. For example, Apple Computers Inc. has assured us that they report all the unique identifiers to an « « « « Association » » » » which is supposed to share its database with customers. However, when we tried to obtain information, they denied that they ever had such database, and they insisted that they have never got any information from Apple Computers regarding stolen or lost iPhones.

Our experience shows that the carriers and manufacturers are not interested in collaborating with companies which have suspected cell phones in their possession ( for example, a thief sent them a device trying to sell it as a legitimate item). Every time we try to determine if an item has been reported stolen, we run into the wall of indifference.

We ask therefore that the Attorney General Office examines the situation in order to adapt legislation making illegal for the carriers and manufacturers to refuse public access to their database concerning identifiers of the items reported lost or stolen. The situation requires urgent action given the level of crime surrounding cell phones.

Sincerely yours,

the x Company owner.

We take great pride in our testimonials. Nothing makes our day like hearing a customer say, “Thank you for helping us...” Photo by Elena.

Hidden

Hidden a Novel by Catherine McKenzie

When Tish leaves my room, I realize I can't stay in this town any longer. Coming here in the first place was probably a massive mistake. Before, I had questions. Now, I have answers, but can I believe them? Can they possibly be true? If only there was a way to verify them, to not have to rely on the word of someone I don't know and, instinctively, don't trust.

I check online and if I don't care about arriving in the middle of the night, I can get home. I throw on my clothes, zip up my suitcase, and drive the car back to the rental place.

I have half an hour to wait at the airport, and those minutes of being alone in a crowd give me an idea. Maybe there is a way I can check some of the things she said. Maybe there's some certainty I can seek from a third party.

It's late, but it isn't too late for that.

I use my phone to find a number on the company website and call.

“John Scott,” he says, his voice rough and slightly slurred. “Hi, John, this is Claire Manning.”

A pause. Ice clicks in a glass. “Claire. My goodness. We didn't get a chance to speak... the other day. I'm so sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you.”

“I... did you need something?”

I can't think of any way to say this that won't make him think I'm crazy, but I have to go ahead anyway, and at least I have recent widowhood to fall back on if I ever need to explain myself.

“You were at that retreat, right? The one in Palm Springs?”

“Sure. It was excited. He... had fun. Look, this is going to sound nuts, but do you remember getting a prize pack there? A kind of gift bag?”

His ice clinks again, a deep swallow. “Um, oh, yes. That's right. Would you still happen to have it, by any chance?”

“What's all this about?”

I almost hang up, but I have to know ore than I care what he thinks of me.

“Could you check? It's important. And hard to explain.”

“Yes, all right. Let me ask Cindy.”

He clunks the phone down and I hunch over in my seat, a cramp of nervousness attacking my stomach. I take a few deep breaths and straighten myself up, looking out the black windows at the sihouette of the mountains that surround this Springfield.

A thud. A scrape. “Claire You still there?”

“Still there.”

“Cindy had it. She's such a pack rat.” He chuckles. A bag crinkles. “You want the inventory.”

“You still have the whole thing?”

“It was in her processing area. She has this kind of staging area where she keeps stuff before she turns in into crafts.”

“Give me a sec. Okay, one mini-album of photos fro the office, courtesy of Jeff. He used one of those programs, like a computer thing -”

“Yes, I remember.”

“Of course. Ha! Tom's going to die when I show him this one.”

“Was there anything else?”

“Oh, yes. Sorry. There's a macrame picture frame. That must be from that crone from the other Springfield, and a book of... poetry it looks like. Ah, yes, the golf girl's daughter.”

“Would you mind... is there an inscription in there?”

“Let me check.” The pages flip. “Here we go. “I'm proud mama.” Huh. What an odd thing to write.”

“Kind of, yeah.”

“That's it. Did you need anything else?”

“What? Oh, no. Only... did you notice if Jeff was... spending any time with anyone in particular over the weekend?”

He chuckles again. “You mean his dinner companion? I wouldn't worry about that. He rebuffed her pretty hard. Though I couldn't see why. Flirting never hurt anyone, am I right?”

Some secrets should stay hidden. Illustration by Elena.

Appeal of Christianity

The Appeal of Christianity

From humble beginnings in Palestine, Christianity spread to the eastern cities of the Roman Empire and then throughout the entire Roman word. Scholars have suggested many reasons for the widespread appeal of Christianity.

The simple, direct message of Christianity appealed to many people. The poor and oppressed found hope in the God who loved people regardless of their place in society. Equality, human dignity, and, above all, the promise of eternal life were comforting teachings. Many educated people who had rejected the Roman gods and the mystery religions turned to Christianity. To them, the Christian emphasis on a life of moderation and discipline echoed Greek and Roman philosophies.

The work of dedicated missionaries such as Paul was made easier by the unity of the Roman Empire and the ease of travel between cities. In the eastern Mediterranean, the use of a common language, Greek, and the concentration of people in cities contributed to the early success of Christianity. Furthermore, many early Christians were women who brought other members of their families ino the faith/ In some Christian communities, women conducted worship services and enjoyed equality with men.

During the troubles of the later Roman Empire, the old mystery religions lost vitality. As Christianity gained in strength, more people adopted the religion. Eventually, Christians developed an efficient, dynamic church organization. The Christian Church maintained unity among its members and ensured the survival of the new faith.

The blood of the martyrs”, wrote one Roman “is the seed of the Church. Photo of  the St.Thomas Church, Huron Street, Toronto by Elena.

Church Organization

  

The Christian Church developed gradually during the first few centuries A.D. At first, bishops ranked as the highest officials. Each bishop administrated the churches in a territory called a sea. Below the bishops were priests, who conducted worship services and taught Christian beliefs. As the Church expanded, archbishops were appointed to oversee the bishops. An Archbishop's territory was called a province. The type of organization in which officials are arranged according to rank is called a hierarchy.

As the Church hierarchy emerged, women lost their influence in Church government. They were not allowed to become priests or conduct the Mass, the Christian worship service. But women continued to play a prominent role in spreading Christian teachings across the Roman world.

In time, the bishop of Rome acquired a dominant position in the Church by claiming that Peter, the chief Apostle, had made Rome the center of the Christian Church. The bishop of Rome eventually took the title pope, or father of the Church. Bishops in the eastern Mediterranean cities such as Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Antioch opposed the pope's claim to be supreme ruler of the church.

Together, the clergy, which included archbishops, bishops, and priests, helped keep Christianity alive in the early years of persecution. The clergy also maintained order and discipline in the Church. For example, bishops and archbishops met in councils to decide which ideas or practices the Church would accept. In 325 A.D. Church officials met in Nicaea in Asia Minor, where they drew up the Nicene Creed, a statement of basic Christian beliefs. 

Persecution and Toleration

Unlike other religions within the Roman Empire, Christianity aroused official persecution because Christians refused to worship the emperor. Roman authorities had excused Jews from emperor worship out of respect for their ancient traditions. Bu Roman authorities saw Christians as dangerous troublemakers because they were winning converts throughout the empire.

Official policy alternated between brutal persecution and toleration. Emperors tended to use Christians as scapegoats, especially when political or economic conditions were bad. Both Peter and Paul perished in Rome under the persecution of the emperor Nero.

Persecution strengthened rather than weakened the new religion. During periods of intense persecution, some Christians renounced their faith. But many others became martyrs, people who suffer or die for their beliefs. Christians believed that  martyrs received God's special favor. “The blood of the martyrs”, wrote one Roman “is the seed of the Church.” Many people were impressed by a faith that inspired such devotion in its followers, and they converted in great numbers.

The emperor Constantine officially recognized Christianity. In 313 A.D., he introduced a policy of official toleration by the Edict of Milan. Christianity achieved its greatest triumph in 395 A.D., when it was proclaimed the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Each bishop administrated the churches in a territory called a sea. Picture by Elena.

Vox-Chapter 25

Vox by Christina Dalcher (excerpt, chapter Twenty Five)

My office is something between a cave and a monk's cell, but less luxurious given the pair of desks and chairs crammed inside. Also, it lacks a window, unless you count the glass pane in the door that gives the work space all the privacy of a fishbowl. A scarf and purse, both on the tattered side of wear, site on one one of the desks. I recognize both as Lin's.

Morgan shows me inside and leaves me to get settled. He says he'll come back in a few minutes to take me around the lab, get me set up with an ID tag, and show me where the copier room and the printer are are. I now know nothing I do here will be unseen by other eyes.

Oddly, I don't care. The idea of seeing Lin again, of talking to her working with her, has me as high as a schoolgirl at her first dance. 

“Or, my god,” a wisp of a voice says from the doorway.

Lin Kwan is a small woman. I often told Patrick she could fit in one of my pants legs – and I'm only five and a half feet and 120 soaking wet, thanks to the stress diet I've been on for the past several months. Everything about her is small: her voice, her almond eyes, the sleek bob that barely reaches below her ears. Lin's breasts and ass make me look like a Peter Paul Rubens model. But her brain – her brain is a leviathan of gray matter. It would have to be; MIT doesn't hand out dual PhDs for nothing.

Like me, Lin is a neurolinguist. Unlike me, she's a medical doctor, a surgeon, to be specific. She left her practice fixing brains fifteen years ago, when she was in her late forties, and moved to Boston.

Five years later, she left with a doctorate in each hand, one in cognitive science, one in linguistics. If anyone can make me feel like the class dunce, it's Lin.

An I love her for it. She sets the bar as high as Everest.

Lin steps in and glances down at my left writs. “You too, huh?” The she bear-hugs me,, which is interesting since she's shorter and narrower than I am. It's a little being bear-hugged by a Barbie doll.

“Me too,” I say, laughing and crying at the same time.

After what seems like an hour, she releases me from her clutch and steps back. “You're exactly the same. Maybe even younger-looking.”

“Well, it's amazing what a year off of working for you has done,” I say.

The humor doesn't work. She shakes her head and raises a hand, thumb and forefinger a fraction of an each apart. “I was this close to going to Malasiya to visit my family. This close.” Her fingers fly apart into a starfish as she blows our air. “Gone. Gone in a bloody day.”

“You sound like the queen,” I say. “Except for the bloody part.” 

No one writes a long novel alone (Stephen King). Illustration by Elena.

Golden Age of Athens

Golden Age of Athens

In 477 B.C., more than 160 delegates from Greek cities met on the island of Delos. They formed a defensive alliance to guard against possible future Persian attacks. The alliance was called the Delian League. Athens, the greatest commercial and naval power, dominated the alliance from the start. The larger cities-states supplied ships, and the smaller ones made annual payments. Athenians collected the tribute, commanded the league's fleet, and dictated policy. In 454 B.C., as evidence of its dominance, Athens moved the league treasury from Delos to Acropolis.

Through its control of the Delian League, Athens established an empire. Riches from trade and tribute poured into the city. In an atmosphere of prosperity, Athenians enjoyed their greatest political freedom ever, and Greek culture bloomed. The period following the Persian Wars has often been called the “Golden Age of Athens.”

The chief architect of Athenian policy during this period was Pericles. The son of a noble family, Pericles had received an excellent education and had won fame as a general, statesman, poet, and philosopher. Between 461 B.C. And 429 B.C., Pericles dominated Athenian political life.Because of his many achievements, he came to symbolize Athenian greatness.

Pericles undertook an ambitious building program to beautify Athens. In 480 B.C., the Persians had destroyed the city and its sacred shrines. For years, the ruined temples served as reminders of the Persian menace. But Pericles proposed to rebuild the temples as monuments to the greatness of Athens. Atop of Acropolis, Athenians built the dazzling, white marble Parthenon (Pahr thuh NAHN), a temple to Athena. Phideas (FIHD ee uhs), considered the greatest sculptor of his day, carved a huge statue of Athena that stood inside the temple. Outside, there was another statue of Athena so large that returning sailors could see it far out at sea.

In addition to building temples, Athenians strengthened the defensive walls that connected Athens to the busy port of Piraeus. These building programs employed thousands of workers and attracted stonemasons and artisans from all over Greece. At the same time, talented artists, philosophers, and poets converged on Athens, making it the center of Greek culture. Pericles called Athens the “school of Greece” for its artistic and intellectual achievements as well as for its political system.

The past. Photograph by Elena.

The Height of Athenian Democracy

Democracy, which had been developing in Athens over many years, reached its peak under the leadership of Pericles. He opened all political offices to any citizen. He also arranged payment for jurors so that poor citizens as well as the wealthy could serve/ Furthermore, citizens employed in the building projects no longer depended on noble families for a living and felt freer to voice opinions in the Assembly.

Athens had a direct democracy – that is, all citizens had the right to attend the Assembly and cast a vote. Only a minority of Athenians were citizens. Therefore, the entire citizen body could meet in open discussion, and citizens did not elect people to represent the, Pericles believed that Athenian democracy owed its success to shared values, loyalty to the city, and a willingness to do public service.

But Athenian democracy was far from complete. Citizens had time for public service largely because they owned slaves who worked their land and ran their businesses. Most residents of Athens were not citizens and had no say in government. Furthermore, the many Greeks who flocked to Athens from other cities were considered foreigners and were usually denied citizenship. Women, too, had no political rights. Although Athenian democracy was limited, it served as the model for other Greek city-states.

The Peloponnesian Wars

Otheer Greek city-states resented Athenian success and power/ Some of them formed an alliance called the Peloponnesian League. This alliance was headed by Sparta. In 431 B.C., a dispute between Athens and Corinth, a member of the Peloponnesian League, flared into a major conflict. War engulfed all of Greece as Athens and its allies battled the Peloponnesian League. At the outset, the Athenian navy triumphed on the seas. But a Spartan army marched north into Attica and surrounded Athens, forcing Pericles to move the people inside the city walls. The overcrowed conditions that resulted caused an outbreak of plague. Over a third of the Athenian population, including Pericles, died.

Fighting dragged on for 27 years. Until the Athenian navy was destroyed and both sides were exhausted. Finally, with help from from the Persian navy, Sparta blockaded Athens while Spartan armies again surrounded the city. Facing starvation, Athens surrendered in 404 B.C. Sparta's allies in the Peloponnesian League called for the destruction of Athens. However, Sparta spared the city out of respect for Athens role in the Persian Wars.

The Peloponnesian Wars cost Athens its navy, its empire, and for a time its democratic form of government. Although Athens remained the cultural center of Greece, it never regained the power it had enjoyed during its golden age.

After the Peloponnesian Wars, the Greek city-states continued to fight among themselves, and Persia continued to encourage disunity. For all 100 years, the Greek city-states were at war, first against Persia and then among themselves. The struggles took a devastating themselves. The struggles took a devastating toll in lives and sapped the resources of the cities. Yet as you will read, this period was marked by great achievement in the arts and philosophy.

Remembering the past and the present. Photograph by Elena.

Achaean Civilization

Achaean Civilization

About 2000 B.C., the Achaeans, an Indo-European people like the Hitites and Aryans, invaded the Greek peninsula from the north. The Achaeans settles in one region for a few generations. They they pushed further south. As they conquered new territory, the intermarried with the people already living in the Greek peninsula. Eventually, the Achaeans extended their contests over the Peloponnesus, the southern half of Greece.

The Achaeans expanded their empire through warfare and trade. By about 1400 B.C., they controlled the Aegean and probably occupied Knossos. They built strong fortress cities on the mainland. Each city was ruled by a warrior king. Riches from trade and war loot allowed Achaean rulers to fill their palaces and tombs with gold treasures. Outside of each walled city, traders, merchants, artisans, and farmers lived in small villages that paid tribute to the king.

The Achaeans built on the achievements of Minoan civilization. Artisans at Mycenae reproduced Minoan designs on their jewelry, pottery, and tools. The Achaeans also learned writing from the Minoans. Achaean writing, called Linear B, consists of signs adapted from Minoan Linear A.

Ancient Civilization. Photo by Elena.

The Trojan War

Around 1250 B.C., the Achaeans banded together under the leadership of the king of Mycenae to attack Troy, a rival commercial power. Troy controlled trade routes between the Aegean and Black seas. After a long and devastating war, the Achaeans emerged the victors.

Scholars first learned  about the Trojan War from the Iliad the Odyssey, two of the best-known epic poems in the world. The poems were probably composed by Homer, a blind Greek poet, about 750 B.C., long after the fall of Troy. Homer based his poems on stories that had been passed on by earlier generations. Some scholars question whether Homer actually existed. Others have suggested that the Iliad and Odyssey actually existed. Others have suggested that the Iliad and Odyssey were the work of several poets. The ancient Greeks, however, believed that Homer was a real person.

According to the Iliad, the tragic struggle occurred because Paris, a Trojan prince, kidnapped Helen, wife of the king of Sparta. The Spartan king and his brother, King agamemnon of Mycenae, enlisted the  help of other rulers and eventually involved all of Greece in the effort to rescue Helen. After ten years of war, the Achaeans destroyed Troy and drove the Troyans into exile. In the Odyssey, Homer described the wandering and adventures of the Achaean warrior Odysseus after the fall of Troy.

Until the late 1800s, historians considered the Iliad and Odyssey to be fiction. The poems, which mixed stories of gods and goddesses with legends of human heroes, seemed to have no historical value. However, Heinrich Schliemann, an amateur archaeologist, believed otherwise. He thought Troy had really existed, and he set out to prove it.

Schliemann began to excavate a site in northwestern Asia Minor that matched Homer's description of Troy. Digging revealed the ruins of an ancient city, but Schliemann soon discovered that at least nine cities had been built at different times on the time spot. Finally, the charred wood and destruction found on one level suggested that this was the city actually destroyed by the Achaeans. Later, Schliemann excavated the site of Mycenae, which was also described by Homer.

In ancient times, as today, people often rebuilt a city that had been destroyed by war or natural disaster. The new city would be built on the ruins of the old city. Picture by Elena.

Gleam in My Eyes

Gleam in My Eyes (from Vox, by Christina Dalcher)

It's been so long since I've used my laptop, I'm worried it might not power up, that a year of nonuse will have sent it into the same dormant silence I fell into. But it's obedient, like an old friend waiting for a phone call, or a pet sitting patiently at the door until its owner comes home. I trace a ginger over its smooth keys, wipe a smudge from the screen, and collect myself.

A year is a long time. Hell, when the FIOS in our house went down for two hours, it seemed like the end of the world.

Eight thousand seven hundred ans sixty hours is a lifetime longer than two, which is why I need a moment before I walk out of this house, start the Honda, and follow Morgan to the lab where I'll be spending three days a week from now until I finish fixing the president's brother.

Also, I need a moment to sift through my files, the ones I copied and kept at home so I didn't have to lug the same shit back and forth to my campus office. There are reports I don't want Morgan to see, not until I can speak to Lin.

The bottom folder is the one I want, the folder with the red X on its front flap. Patrick has already gone to work, and Morgan is out in his Mercedes making phone calls, likely gloating to Reverend Carl about what a fantastic team he's put together, which leaves me here in the paneled room with its humming window air-conditioning unit and – I don't know – about five million pounds of books. They don't weigh that much, but the teetering piles of texts and journals are like academic mesas littering the rec room.

We havent't used the sleeper sofa in a year and a half, not since the last houseguest came to visit. No one really visits anymore. There's no point. We tried it once, a dinner party for some old friends I'd met when Steven was still in diapers, but after an hour of the men talking and the women staring into their plates of salmon, everyone decided to go home.

I pry up the corduroy-covered cushion next to me and slip my red-X folder in among a few cracker crumbs, a stray piece of popcorn, and some spare change.

This “it”, encased in a dull manila folder rubbed shiny by my own hands, is the work that will, when I'm ready, reverse Wernicke's aphasia. I've thought about finding a more permanent hiding place for it, but given the year's worth of crap I find beneath the sofa cushions, I don't see the need.

No one, not even Patrick, knows we had passed the brink from “close” to “finished”, although I believe  Lin and Lorenzo suspected.

The day before Thomas and his Taser-carrying men came for me the first time, I had even been winding down a lecture on linguistic processing in the posterior left hemisphere – the area of the brain where temporal and parietal lobes meet. Wernicke's area, and the language loss that accompanies damage to this complex cluster of gray matter, was the reason most of my students signed on for this seminar, and on that day the room was packed with colleagues of colleagues, the dean, and a few out-of-town researches intrigued by our group's latest breakthrough. Lin and Lorenzo sat in the back row as I talked.

They must have seen the gleam in my eyes... Illustration by Elena.

Evolutionists and Creationists

Evolutionists vs. Creationists

In 1830 the Englishman Charles Lyell published the first volume of his epoch-making Principles of Geology, in which he showed that the force that had shaped Earth in the past were the same as those at work today. By then it was becoming clear that man had coexisted with many animals long vanished, and in w836, the Dane Christian Thomsen laid the foundations of modem archaeology by his scheme of successive Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, with the Stone Age reaching extremely far back in time.

Public as well as scientific interest in prehistory grew apace. More and more fossils were collected, in the Old and New Worlds alike, and reconstructions were made. When the Crystal Palace exposition opened in London in 1856, it included several life-sized statues of dinosaurs. Since they were not labeled, many visitors were puzzled by them. One man guessed that they were intended as an object lesson in temperance, to show what drunkard might expect to see.

In the same year, remains of Neanderthal man first came to light, in Germany. Initially, most biologists denied that this could be an extinct form of human, and various fanciful stories were devised to account for it. Yet evidence continued to accumulate, while the growth of geological knowledge made it less and less easy to believe that such creatures as the dinosaurs had perished in the Biblical flood – that they were, in the phrase of that day, antediluvian.

In 1859 Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species. This stunning demonstration of evolution as an understandable, natural set of processes – a hypothesis which had occurred independently, in less detail, to Alfred Russel Wallace – was followed four years later by another intellectual bombshell, Lyell's book The Antiquity of Man Proved by Geology. At the same time, field workers such as the Frenchmen Boucher de Perthes and Edouard Lartet were turning up ever more traces of archaic humanity. When Darwin issued The Descent of Man 1871, he did not “prove we are descended from apes”. What he did was describe how humans and simians could have stemmed from a common ancestor; the idea that this had happened was, by then, current.

Humans and simians stemmed from a common ancestor. Illustration by Elena.

Of course, it had met with much opposition, both popular and scholarly. Southerners during the American Civil War were fond of saying that maybe Yankees came from monkeys all right, but Mar'se Robert E. Lee couldn't be related to anything with a tail. Most clergymen combated every suggestion that the Book of Genesis was not a straightforward piece of reporting.

In fairness we must add that not all did : indeed, some made important contributions to knowledge in this field, especially in France. For that matter, Thomas Henry Huxley's debating opponent, Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, was by no means a bigoted ignoramus, but a cultivated and philanthropic gentleman.

Nonetheless, the data were accumulation remorselessly. In a paper read in 1865 the Austrian monk Gregor Mendel established the basis of genetics. His work went almost unnoticed for a generation, but came back to light after the Dutchman Hugo de Vries had identified the phenomenon of mutation, about 1895. Here was the decisive last factor that Darwin had not known of, the material on which his principles of natural selection and sexual selection operated. Meanwhile, in 1891, another Dutcham, Eugene Dubois, had found in Java the relics of a being that was unequivocally related to man yet far too primitive, too apelike, to be Homo Sapiens.

Meanwhile, too, knowledge was rapidly growing of the world as it had been long before anything like us existed. A clear-cut example in the evolutionary lineage of the horse, established through fossil find by the American O.C. Marsh.

Out of all this, an understanding developed of much more than fossils. Evolution could be seen in action: that is, the principle of evolution made sense out of observations in science and even everyday life. As obvious case is that of industrial melanism. The peppered moth of England darkened, for better disguise against predators, as trees grew coal-sooty during the Industrial Revolution. In our own lifetimes, with decreasing air pollution, the same species is growing lighter again.

Creationists object that this is not a valid example, but represents mere variability. Nobody, the say, has ever seen a whole new species come into existence. That is true enough, as far as it goes – with some possible exceptions among microscopic organisms. However, evolution takes thousands and millions of years to bring about most of the unmistakable changes that evolutionists describe. The evidence is necessarily indirect. But so, just as necessarily, is the evidence for the reality of events chronicled in the Bible.

(By Poul Anderson).

Nobody, the say, has ever seen a whole new species come into existence. Illustration by Elena.

Gold

Gold

From The final Science Fiction collection by Isaac Asimov

The plants and animals? Well, we control them. We supervise their breeding and we consume any excess. Maintaining the human population at a reasonable level is more difficult. We cannot allow human births to outstrip human deaths, and we keep the number of deaths as low as possible, of course. This makes our culture a nonyouthful one compared to Earth's. There are few youngsters and a large percentage of those mature and postmature. This produces psychological strains, but there is the general feeling among Settlers that those strains are worth it, since with a carefully controlled population, there are no poor, no homeless, and no helpless.

Again, the water, air, and food must be carefully recycled, and much of our technology is devoted to the distillation of used water, and to the treatment of solid bodily wastes and their conversion to clean fertilizer. We cannot afford to have anything go wrong with our recycling technology, for there is little room for slack. And, of course, even when all goes well, the feeling that we eat and drink recycled materials is a bit unpalatable. All is recycled on Earth, too, but Earth is so large and the natural cycling system so unnoticeable, that Earthpeople tend to be unaware of the matter.

Then, too, there is always the feat that a sizable meteor may strike and damage the outer shell of a Settlement. A bit of matter no larger than a piece of gravel might do damage, and one a foot across would surely destroy and Settlement. Fortunately, the chances for such a misadventure are small and we will eventually learn to detect and divert such objects before they reach us. Still, these dangers weigh upon us, and help mitigate the feeling of over-security that some of us complain about.

With an effort, however, with close attention and unremitting care, we can maintain our ecology, were it not for the matter of trade and travel.

Each Settlement produces something that other Settlements would like to have, in the matter of food, or art, of ingenious devices. What's more, we must trade with Earth as well, and many Settlers want to visit Earth and see some of the things we don't have in the Settlements. Earthpeople can't realize how exciting it is for us to see a vast blue horizon, or to look out upon a true ocean, or to see in ice-capped mountain.

Therefore, there is a constant coming and going among the Settlements and Earth. But each Settlement has its own ecological balance; and, of course, Earth has, even these days, an ecology that is enormously and impossibly rich by Settlement standards.

We have our insects that are acclimated and under control, but what if strange insects are casually and unintentionally introduced from another Settlement or from Earth?

A strange insect, a strange worm, even a strange rodent might totally upset our ecology, inflict damage on our native plants and animals. On numerous occasions, in fact, a Settlement has had to take extraordinary measures to eliminate an unwanted life-form. For months every effort had to be taken to track down every last insect of some species that, in its own Settlement, is harmless, or that, on earth, can keep its depredations local.

Earth Ecology. Photograph by Elena.

Change is Continual and Transactional

Change is Continual and Transactional

Third, a dialectical perspective holds that, if you look deeply, change is continual even though it may be so incremental it is hard to notice. A seed place in the ground is in constant change – swelling, germinating, growing into a flower and decaying to become the nutrients that nourish the next seed. Despite this continual change, our predominant experience is of continuity. We experience the continuity of our physical bodies, when in fact all the molecules in our bodies have changed. These incremental changes at times coalesce in sudden change. A concrete overpass freezes and thaws, infinitesimally changing with each truck and car until suddenly it fails and collapses. The assumption here is that the whole of nature is in motion: you can never step in the same river twice (Heraclitus). Our minds see mostly unchanging continuity, but from a dialectical perspective, continual change is more primary. The impression of static continuity is an artifact or misperception.

Identity, too, is seen as relational and in continuous change. The only reason he looks old is because she looks younger; the only reason I look rigid is because you are flexible. If a new, more rigid person joins our team then, suddenly, I look quite flexible by comparison. Taking a dialectical perspective means that words like “good” or “bad: or “dysfunctional” are snapshots of the person in context, not qualities inherent in the person. My favorite examples come from watching consultation teams or skills training groups over time. Someone is always “a problem”. Whoever happens to be the most (pick your adjective: negative/positive, task-focused/ process-focused) drives the rest of us crazy. Yet, if people are forced to stay in the situation, something always happens and they change, sometimes radically. Once in a skills training group a client was “a problem” offering constant negative comments and harsh but whip-smart criticism. By contrast, the lead skills trainer looked like a defensive Pollyanna. When a new co-trainer rotated into the skills group, he shared the same style of sarcastic humor as “the problem client”, but instead of being harsh, he had a delightful wry smile. He admired and was found of the lead skills trainer.

The group chemistry turned criticism into banter and created a lighter but still pointed feedback loop. Released from the siege mentality and genuinely seeing the humor in it all now, the group leader became more creative and likable herself. The “problem client” has less to criticize and could learn more easily. Things settled down (until the next “problem” person arose!)

Continual Change. Photo by Elena.

Evolution is a Basic Principle

Evolution is a Basic Principle

Creationists generally talk of the “theory of evolution”. Many who disagree with creationism reply that evolution is no such thing, but a fact. Thereby they fall into the same dogmatism as certain of their opponents, and become subject to the same refutation. After all, what is a fact? Nobody alive has ever met an Australopithecus or watched prokaryotic cells develop in the pre-Cambrian seas. It is a rather feeble retort that nobody has met Adam and Eve either, or watched the world coming into being by fiat.

In the last analysis, those of us who accept the idea of evolution do so because it is an inference, based on many different accumulated observations, which enables us to account for those data, fit them into a scheme that makes sense. The creationist can quite legitimately reply that this is what his beliefs do for him.

However, at this point in the history of science, it is a mistake to agree that evolution is a mere “theory”. That concedes more to the creationist than he deserves.

What is a theory, anyway? To answer that question, we must take a look at the scientific method itself.

Now, a number of distinguished scientists have denied that there is any such thing, and I rather agree with them. That, though, would take us too fat afield now. Let us just glance at the traditional paradigm, oversimplified though it is, the purpose will only be to make clear what we mean by certain words.

In this paradigm, scientists begin by making observations of nature, as exact as possible. Then somebody formulates a scheme which summarizes those observations, preferably in mathematical terms. That is because mathematics is the language par excellence of precision. Somebody else takes such a description and tries to explain it by a hypothesis. That is, this person proposes the existence of a mechanism or a relationship which would logically produce the observations themselves. A good hypothesis also yields predictions; it tells us what further observations we should try to make. If we make them, and the results fit the scheme well enough, then in due course the hypothesis gains the status of a theory. That is, we accept it as depicting, more or less correctly, some aspect of reality.

Evolution is no longer a mere theory. Illustration by Elena.

Later discoveries may prove irreconcilable with the theory. In that case, we have to discard it – or, at least, drastically modify it – and look for another.

The standard example comes from planetary astronomy. For untold millenia, observers had been gathering data about the motions of the heavenly bodies across the sky. This effort culminated, for the time being, in the magnificent work of Tycho Brahe in the 16th century. Meanwhile, of course, there had been many attempts to account for the data. The idea that everything revolves around Earth grew increasingly unlikely as information accumulated; the picture had to be made too complicated, with epicycles. As early as the 13th century, Alfonso X, king of Leon and Castile, remarked that if he had been present at the Creation, he could have given the Creator some good advice.

Eventually Nicholas Copernicus offered a much more satisfactory description, in which the sun was at the center. Galileo Galilei and others refined this system and added to it. Finally Johannes Kepler put it into elegant mathematical form, in his three laws of planetary motion.

Isaac Newton then accounted for those laws by his hypothesis of universal gravitation (even though he himself denied making hypothesis) together with his own three laws of the motion of all bodies, not just planets. Soon observation confirmed this so well that it became a basic theory in physics. By means of it, later generations discovered new planets and explained the behavior of distant stars.

There remained a few loose ends, such as a slow change in the orbit of Mercury. Early in the 20th century, Albert Einstein proposed a whole new theory, general relativity, which included Newtonian mechanics as a special case, and which accounted for those anomalous phenomena.

Thus far the usual description of science in action. As said, it is much oversimplified, and in many instances is scarcely true at all. Still, if nothing else, it does help us give clear meaning to our words.

The important point here, though, is that even taken as face value it is incomplete. It omits a further stage of thought which is of primary importance.

Before going on to that, let us very sketchily review the history of the evolutionary concept. That way we can compare it to the development of astronomy. If nothing else, we will be reminding ourselves that the idea of evolution was not invented by a few subversives in the 19th century, but has a long and honorable pas of its own.

By 1800 the concept was already in the air. There had been some speculation along those lines as far back as Classical times, if not before. During the Renaissance and after, men gradually realized that they were coming upon the petrified bones of beasts which no longer existed. Early in the 19th century, the great French naturalist Georges Cuvier advanced the hypothesis that more than one creation had occurred in the past: that life had appeared several times, to be wiped out by worldwide catastrophes, and that the account in the Bible refers only to the latest of these eras. Regardless of this deferral to religion, Cuvier was considered blasphemous by many. Once some of his students decided to throw a healthy scare into him. One of them costumed himself like the traditional Satan, entered the professor's home at night, woke him, and roared, “ I am the Devil, and for your impiety I have come to eat you!” Cuvier looked him up and down and replied scornfully, :Hmf! Horns and hoofs. You can't. You're graminivorous.”

His catastrophism was denied by a contemporary compatriot, Jean Baptiste Lamarck. A war here at age sixteen, Lamarck later boldly maintained that living species, had developed from less specialized ancestors. However, he thought that the causes lay in environment and the actions of individual organisms. This was so unconvincing that few accepted it until the 20th century, when for a time a version of it became official dogma in the Soviet Union.

(By Poul Anderson).

Evolution has become just such a basic principle. It is as much a fundamental of the universe, as we conceive the universe to be, as are the laws of thermodynamics or relativity. There is no scientific argument against it, only antiscientific one. Illustration by Elena.