Incredible creatures that defy evolution

mindspread
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Incredible creatures that defy evolution

Part one of the DVD aprox 40 min

Just to give you a idea, the guy mentions the Big Bang within the first 90 seconds.

here are some highlights:


mindspread
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Shit I can't edit. The first

Shit I can't edit.

The first highlight is about the tiny bees that pollinate vanilla orchids and the second is about bio-luminescence.


MrRage
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The best they could get is a

The best they could get is a former dentist?!


BGH
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Next up on nonsensetube, an

Next up on nonsensetube, an accountant teaches particle physics....


Mordagar
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"Hi, I used to believe in

"Hi, I used to believe in evolution. Even though I once subscribed to it, I still group theories like the big bang and abiogenesis into the same big lump with evolution. This is a fallacy, you say? Nonsense, I am a former dentist! You don't know who you are dealing with."

"The idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I am unable to take seriously." [Albert Einstein, letter to Hoffman and Dukas, 1946]


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It just fucking amazes me

It just fucking amazes me the depths these clowns will go to. They obviously don't care if they convince people through pure lies, as long as they convince them. It is purely political.

Vanilla bee: The orchid used to be pollinated by any insect the way lots of flowers are, but evolved in parallel with the bees for their mutual benefit.

Step 1: Long, long ago the orchids are blooming all the time and lots of different insects are visiting them.

Step 2: The orchids with very sugary pollen get visited more and pollinated more frequently, thus becoming more common. Soon, you have a whole species of orchid that makes this very tasty vanilla pollen.

Step 3: Bees that favour this orchid get access to an especially nutritious pollen and are more successful. Before long, you have a whole species of bees that only wants that pollen. 

Step 4: Orchids with structures that make it difficult for other insects to get the pollen achieve a higher rate of pollenization because only the specialist bees can get at the pollen. This is good, because the specialist bees are mostly visiting other orchids of the same species, and pollen is not being wasted on the wrong kinds of flowers, as it is with other kinds of insects. At first, the structure is only a slight impediment that only discourages a small percentage of the insects visiting the flowers. The specialist bees are less likely to be discouraged, since they need this pollen, and only this pollen.

Step 5: Each successive generation of orchid with a more difficult structure experiences a higher rate of pollenization. Each successive generation of bee that is better at getting into the structure is more successful.

Step 6: The orchid achieves such high rates of pollenization every time it blooms that it can now afford to bloom less and less, saving its food energy for growth, defence against parasites etc etc. 

Bioluminescence: Maybe Yellow can explain how the chemistry of this would work...

Step 1: Long, long ago there was a bug that was able to attract a mate better than his brothers because he was more brightly colored and attracted attention.

Step 2: Among his very successful,  brightly colored children, there was one who was even more successful because he was even more brightly colored.

Step 3: After several generations of this feedback loop, one of the bugs hit on a chemical combination that was actually weakly luminescent. There might have been another evolutionary factor at work here; perhaps the bugs started exploiting a new food source or had chemical defences against enemies. Whereever it came from, the bugs that glowed were wildly successful with the ladies.

Step 4: Now the bugs that glow the brightest are the most successful, favoring any bug that comes up with a chemical combination that generates a brighter glow. Similar factors select for those that can do more with the light than just shine, favoring bugs with wavering or intermittent glows and finally creating the ability to turn the glow on and off at will.

Step 5: One bug feels inspired to light up when his neighbour does. Thus, he attracts a female that is actually attracted to his neighbour's brighter light and manages to mate where normally he would have missed out. Over successive generations this trick becomes more popular until finally all the bugs in a tree are lighting up at once.

It was a total lie for the ex-dentist to say that the bugs light up simultaneously. His own video showed that they light up in a wave, starting at the bottom of the tree and moving to the top. This is because each bug is lighting up at the instant it sees its neighbour do so. No mysterious method of communication required, just very fast bug reflexes which have also been honed by evolution specifically for this purpose. 

Lazy is a word we use when someone isn't doing what we want them to do.
- Dr. Joy Brown


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BGH wrote: Next up on

BGH wrote:
Next up on nonsensetube, an accountant teaches particle physics....

Hey, if all you need to know from science is in the mind of a washed up actor... 

AImboden wrote:
I'm not going to PM my agreement just because one tucan has pms.


BGH
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Ophios wrote: BGH

Ophios wrote:

BGH wrote:
Next up on nonsensetube, an accountant teaches particle physics....

Hey, if all you need to know from science is in the mind of a washed up actor...

Good point!

Tomorrow at seven.... Kirk Cameron teaches us how to fall in with wrong crowd after being a child actor, based on real life experiences.