Posts by seattleniceguy

Okay, I lied. I went ahead and wrote an article this week. I couldn't resist. Thanks for the encouragement! Here's the link:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/91134/1.ashx

SNG

21

Evidence for evolution, Installment 7: The Panda's Thumb

by seattleniceguy in

jw
friends

hello, fellow science lovers!

i'm back with another edition in my series.

this article is about a very curious appendage on our friend the giant panda.

Hello, fellow science lovers! I'm back with another edition in my series. This article is about a very curious appendage on our friend the giant panda. The panda's "thumb" provides easy-to-understand, visually compelling evidence for evolution. Let's take a look.

First, let's review a few basic facts about pandas. What is their pedegree? Who are they related to? The San Diego Zoo says:

For years scientists have wondered whether pandas are bears, raccoons, or in a group all their own. Through studying the genetic code (DNA) in pandas? cells, scientists have confirmed the panda's relationship with bears. Giant pandas are similar to other bears in their general looks, the way they walk and climb, and their skull characteristics.
( http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giant_panda.html )

So the panda is truly a bear. But unlike other bears, the panda is peculiar in that it does not eat meat, but subsists almost entirely on bamboo. The San Diego Zoo has this to say about the panda's diet:

They spend at least 12 hours each day eating bamboo. Because bamboo is so low in nutrients, pandas eat as much as 84 pounds (38 kilograms) of it each day. Pandas grasp bamboo stalks with their five fingers and a special wristbone, then use their teeth to peel off the tough outer layers to reveal the soft inner tissue.

Notice the "special wristbone" mentioned in the quote above. Here's an illustration of this special appendage on the panda:
(All pictures from http://www.athro.com/evo/pthumb.html)

alt

We can call this a thumb, because it is opposable to the main pad and allows the panda to hold and manipulate bamboo shoots. However, there is a very curious fact about this thumb. Take a look at the following picture, showing the underlying skeletal structure:

alt

As you can see, the panda has five normal appendages in addition to the thumb appendage. Notice that the normal appendages are comprised of multiple bones (as in our own fingers), while the thumb is a single bone.

It turns out that the bone structure in a panda's paw is very similar to that in other bears. The thumb appendage is exactly where other bears have a small bone called a radial sesamoid. Take a look at the following illustration:

alt

We can see clearly that where the grizzly has a radial sesamoid, the panda has a thumb. It is shifted in position and is pointing a different direction, but it is clearly the same bone. The purpose of the radial sesamoid in other bears is to strengthen a tendon in that area. In the case of the panda, however, this bone has been co-opted to help it eat bamboo shoots. Because there was selective pressure favoring large radial sesamoids (that is, pandas with large radial sesamoids were able to eat more easily and therefore survive better, thus passing on their large-sesamoid-genes), the panda gradually has evolved a thumb-like appendage from what was originally nothing more than a minor wristbone.

This is a very good example of evolution in action because it showcases several key aspects of evolution:

The design is not "good" by any definition of the word. It is a jury-rigged system that used what was available to the advantage of the panda.
By co-opting existing features and slowly adapting them to another purpose, evolutionary forces have introduced a new biological feature (a new appendage).

Evolution always takes existing material and co-opts to new uses. Sometimes this results in the introduction of a new biological feature. This is what happened with the panda. Given enough time and selective pressure, the thumb would continue to be honed to the task of eating bamboo until an observer might marvel at how well-designed it was. In reality, though, it was just a random bone that happened to be in the right place at the right time for a group of pandas long ago. It helped those pandas survive. The pandas with the bones shaped better for the particular task of eating bamboo were selected for survival among their peers, so they had baby pandas with similar bones, and so on and so forth.

And thus was born the panda's thumb. So that's it for this installment - I hope you've enjoyed it! Now get out there and tell all your friends about the panda's jury-rigged thumb! :-)

SNG

6

Send out a sherpa guide for Seatle Nice Guy

by mjarka911 in

jw
friends

seattleniceguy

LOL...Wow, nice to see that I'm missed. :-)

Euph is correct - I have been quite busy with things in my personal life right now and haven't had much time to research. After reading this thread, I'd really like to take a few hours and write the next article, but honestly I just can't. I'm working overtime trying to get a project done, and it's overdue already.

I will say this, though, regarding evolution. I was thinking about sex today...hee hee...and I realized that there could hardly be a phenomenon more subject to selective pressure. Think about it - if sex doesn't feel good, that individual is unlikely to pass on its genes. The creatures that like sex a lot will be more likely to produce offspring that also likes sex a lot. So we've had hundreds of millions of years of evolution honing our sexual desires and sensitivities. So the next time you see that beer commercial shamelessly selling sex, just remember, nothing could be more natural, in every sense.

I promise to try to have a really good article ready by next weekend. :-)

Thanks for your support!

SNG

16

Keep On The Watch - Week of May 23

by ezekiel3 in

page 5 .

(1 john 5:3) do you care enough to do that?

on page 15 of this publication, this issue is identified.

seattleniceguy

I hear after they finish that Keep on the Watch, they're going to start studying Chick tracts.

SNG

20

Playstation 3! pic+specs

by IronGland in

unrivaled performance with the introduction of cell processor and many advanced technologies, and backwards compatible with playstation(r) and playstation(r)2 .

los angeles, may 16 /prnewswire/ -- at a press conference held in los angeles, california, today, sony computer entertainment inc. (scei) revealed the outline of its playstation3 (ps3) computer entertainment system, incorporating the world's most advanced cell processor with super computer like power.

prototypes of ps3 will also be showcased at the electronic entertainment expo (e3), the world's largest interactive entertainment exhibition held in los angeles, from may 18th to 20th.

seattleniceguy

System Floating Point Performance 2 TFLOPS

Holy...

SNG

26

Make "your own" JW door to door presentation...

by JH in

jw
friends

hey!

my name is minister rat, and i just happened to be in your neighbourhood.

have a look at this cool babe on the front page of this june awake.

seattleniceguy

Wow, this is an interesting excercise. Interesting how much deception is in the typical presentation:

Hello, my name's SNG and this is my friend Debbie. We are talking with our neighbors briefly about giraffes and their remarkable necks. Did you know that giraffes are native to Africa? Yes? Great! Well, this issue of Awake! [ rumples it open ] has a fascinating article here on page 23. I thought you might enjoy this article, so I'd like to leave it with you. Here you are.
May I share a scripture with you briefly? I have it right here. Notice how Psalm 151:2 says, "In you all long-necked creatures will rejoice." Isn't it reassuring to consider that our Creator cares even for the giraffes? Okay, well, have a nice day! Perhaps we can chat again sometime.

Let's go over what actually happened here...

"my friend Debbie"
Well, only by a very strange definition of the word "friend." See, we never hang out. The only time I ever see her is at meetings and out in service, and to be quite honest, we speak only for a few minutes at a time then. In fact, even if we wanted to, we could never really be friends, since it is considered improper for a male and female to be anything other than remote acquaintances unless they are dating or married. Basically, we use the word "friend" for you, because you might thing it was strange if we used the cult-word "sister."

"about giraffes and their remarkable necks"
It's true that the first 15 seconds of my presentation will be about giraffes. However, you and I both know that this is not the reason I came to your door this morning. You'll notice that I give you only one boring fact about giraffes before parlaying into a presentation for our religious magazine.

"Great!"
Hmm. You already knew giraffes are native to Africa. Not good. We're looking for people who will be fascinated to learn these fascinating facts.

"fascinating article"
I thought the article was pretty decent because I like animals, and it was much more interesting than the cover article on young people. See, I'm expected to slog through every article in every issue of this magazine. So for me, comparatively, it was a fascinating article. However, if you do any amount of normal reading, you probably won't find it fascinating at all.

"I thought you might enjoy this article"
Again, I'm sorry to say, I really didn't think this. What I really thought was that this was the tamest article in the magazine, the one least connected with religion in any way, so it might be the easiest to present. My decision to come to your door today had nothing to do with you as a person, or even about this article. Even if I did not have this article or any other article remotely like it, I still would have come to your door, offering something else that I would say I thought you would enjoy.

"May I share a scripture with you briefly?"
You see, this is the real reason I came. I had to pretend I wanted to talk to you about giraffes because if I broke out the Bible right away you would have quickly shut the door. Don't worry, I want to be here as much as you want me here, so I'll make it quick and get out of here.

"Perhaps we can chat again sometime"
I will try to make this happen by calling at your door again until you explicitly tell me not to, or simply don't answer the door for a very long time. If you choose to ignore my calls, I might very well come to your door for months before I give up, especially considering the charming conversation we've just had.

All I can say when I look back at all of this is WOW! I'm glad to be out!

SNG

47

Was I Disrespectful to Dr Singelenberg?

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

as some may know, richard singelenberg is a dutch anthropologist who studies jehovah's witnesses.

he has produced academic articles and reviews on issues ranging from the 1975 disappointment and child custody cases to jehovah's witnesses in nazi germany and the history of the blood doctrine.

sometimes he sides with apostates and sometimes he sides with the witnesses on controversial issues (though i personally suspect the former impulse is greater than the latter).

seattleniceguy

SBF,

Just wanted to say I appreciated your thoughtful response.

SNG