Carnivalia, and an open thread

Two more carnivals on this fine Sunday afternoon:

You know the drill.

More like this

The Synapse #3 is up on Neurophilosopher's blog. Carnival of the Godless #45 is up on Beware of the Dogma. The Tar Heel Tavern #74 ("BeatTheHeat edition) is up on Moomin' Light.
Just to squeeze in a couple of the Sunday carnivals here… The Synapse #12 Carnival of the Godless #54
Quick! A few more carnivals to flog today… The Synapse #1, a new neuroscience carnival. Carnival of the Godless #43
As I mentioned, the newcomers to Scienceblogs include several neuroscience sites. Admittedly, neuroscience is one of the areas I know least about in biology. A new carnival will leave me no excuses to continue my ignorance. Hi all you Neuroscience bloggers out there. I -- and many of the other…

PZ, there's a topic I'd appreciate if you'd address sometime if you find the time.

Until recently, it's been my understanding that mutation and natural selection were the only mechanisms that drove evolution. That had left me wondering if the human race had not reached its peak of unaided evolution, since just about everyone is succesful in procreating. However, you've mentioned genes apparently doing stuff to further evolution on their own without needing natural selection, if I've understood you correctly - something about cis and trans regulatory genes, I believe - that I've never before heard of and even less understand. If I've understood this correctly, and if I am not alone in my ignorance, perhaps a layman's tutorial might be appreciated. The stuff I've been able to find so far is way above my head with my limited knowledge of biology.

I'd be very happy if you could explain this.

Martin

By Martin Christensen (not verified) on 23 Jul 2006 #permalink

Ok, so I'm not as well read as I should be, but I just found out about the the US Treaty with Tripoli, 1796-1797
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/treaty_tripoli.html
in which Article 11 says "...As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..." and it was unanimously approved by our founding fathers (the ones that were left in 1796 anyway...). Thank you Hole in the Bucket!
http://www.texasshiva.com/2006/07/regarding-green-knights-post.html
I love the internet...