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afarcomp3.jpg Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called Transitions:The Evolution of Life His previous blog can be found here.
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    Shame, Shame, Shame on the Cincinnati Zoo

    Category: BiologyCreationismInsanityYoung Earth
    Posted on: December 1, 2008 8:27 AM, by afarensis, FCD

    Shame on the Cincinnati Zoo. You can find out why here. The short version is that they have teamed up with the the Creation Museum to create a combo ticket for the holidays.

    Update 1: The misguided effort to pair a visit to the zoo with a visit to the Creation Museum has been canceled. Kudos to the Cincinnati Zoo for realizing what a big mistake this was. Kudos to those who wrote the Zoo to protest the pairing. It just goes to show, eternal vigilance is the price we pay for science education.

    Comments

    All fixed now :)

    Boy, are their faces red!

    Posted by: DaveH | December 1, 2008 6:39 PM

    I seem to recall, although quite vaguely now, that some zoo in Oklahoma or Texas tried something similar a few years back. One wonders why the Cincinnati Zoo didn't check the Creation Museum out more carefully.
    Anne G

    Posted by: Anne Gilbert | December 1, 2008 9:27 PM

    Shame Shame on you for hurting tourism in our area. This was a great marketing plan as both the zoo and the creation museum receive lots of visitors annually and especially at Christmastime as they both have holiday exhibits. I see no problem with the zoo teaming up with other area attractions to create a package for tourists. It's a shame you had to ruin it. Thanks for your closed mindedness and Bah Humbug to you! I hope you get coal in your stocking.

    Posted by: Ashlee Manuel | December 2, 2008 2:18 PM

    How sadly closed minded and intolorant of you! If they had teamed up with a Santa display would that have bothered you?

    Posted by: Danielle | December 2, 2008 5:20 PM

    Thank you for putting in a word for science, even if two Nackles-es gave you a thumbs down. Nackles, in case you didn't know, is the anti-Santa Claus. He goes around putting that coal in stockings. Santa never did that. Mrs. Santa wouldn't let him because she was too soft-hearted. But Nackles followed Santa and took some presents back out of some stockings and stuck icky things in there out of spite. If forget where I read about him -- of course I never got that coal, no, not ME!

    Posted by: DianaGainer | December 2, 2008 5:57 PM

    Danielle - I would have no problem whatsoever if the Cincinnati Zoo paired with a Christmas display. That, however is not the issue here. The issue is that the Zoo, whose primary mission is education, was pairing with a organization whose purpose is to undermine education. Any organization that claims that humans coexisted with dinosaurs and that T-rex's teeth were designed to eat coconuts - in flat contradiction to reality - is an inappropriate partner for an educational organization.

    Ashlee - I doubt it will hurt tourism in the area. Having said that, it would have hurt education far worse to have allowed that to continue. This is not about tourist attractions teaming up. This is about an organization whose sole purpose is to undermine science teaming up with a science organization. I, on the other hand, hope you have a wonderful Christmas and get everything you ask for.

    Posted by: afarensis, FCD | December 2, 2008 7:42 PM

    I have to say, your response to Danielle and Ashley was nicely and respectively put. Have a happy Christmas and a merry New Year...

    Also... I don't think Mrs. Claus told Mr. Claus to not give out coal because she was too soft-hearted, but because she reads SEED and knows the deletarious nature of coal on our planet!

    Posted by: CheyneTown | December 11, 2008 1:15 PM

    The original post said,

    Kudos to the Cincinnati Zoo for realizing what a big mistake this was.

    The zoo did not "realize" what a big mistake this supposedly was. The zoo never said that it did anything wrong -- the zoo defended this combo ticket deal by saying that it saw the deal as being no different from other combo ticket deals with other local attractions like the Cincinnati Reds.

    Teaching evolution theory is not one of the primary functions of zoos. The primary functions of zoos are to display, study and preserve wildlife.

    As a result of this squabble over the combo ticket deal with the Creation Museum, the zoo will probably try to avoid controversy in the future by not mentioning evolution in any of the zoo exhibits.

    Posted by: Larry Fafarman | December 15, 2008 6:19 PM

    Be gone, troll.

    Posted by: afarensis, FCD | December 15, 2008 11:28 PM

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