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AP

"Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters" interview

October 22, 2007 4:20pm

This is totally bogus. The evolutionary biology is all wrong.

SK: In fact, we’re not playing catch up; we’re stuck. For any evolutionary change to take place, the environment has to remain more or less constant for many generations,

This is simply not true. There is no part of this that is true. Some types of adaptation don't work well in rapidly changing environments, but evolution doesn't "freeze" and overall carries on just fine.

so that evolution can select the traits that are adaptive and eliminate those that are not.

This isn't how evolution works. This is sort of how Intelligent Design is taught, but it is not biology. There is no "evolution" that decides that a trait would be worthwhile or not. Things either stick around or they don't. Period. The end.

When the environment undergoes rapid change within the space of a generation or two, as it has been for the last couple of millennia, if not more,

Some aspects of the environment have been changing and others haven't. Is the author waiting for an environment that doesn't change in any way, shape or form for millennia? Good luck. That doesn't happen. And guess what? It doesn't matter.

then evolution can’t happen because nature can’t determine which traits to select and which to eliminate.

Ok, now Mother Nature is the intelligent designer trying to figure out what would be good to keep. Still no.

So they remain at a standstill. Our brain (and the rest of our body) are essentially frozen in time — stuck in the Stone Age.

We're evolving just fine. Our bodies are changing, our responses to diseases are changing, our nutritional needs are changing. If a hack evolutionary psychologist can't find changes in our brains, too, it's because he or she is a hack, not because they're not changing.

Man steals 123 parking meters

October 4, 2007 2:07pm

Wait a minute!

Detectives do routine safety sweeps of this guy's apartment?

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