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It's one of those rare days when I can't decide which story to report to you, in spite of plenty to choose from.  I'm settling for a random assortment, so settle down yourself and get the buzz from today and yesterday:

W. Scott McGraw from Ohio State University has been gathering leftover bones from beneath the nests of African crowned eagles, and has found that more than half belonged to primates, leading his evolutionary mind to believe that raptors (the birds, not the dinosaurs, in this case) regularly preyed on ancient humans.  He says that the "Tuang Child," the name given to the owner of a small skull specimen found in a South African cave, was killed by an "ancient crowned hawk eagle."  That particular bit is old news: The Tuang-eagle connection seems to have been first proposed back in January by paleontologist Lee Berger.

Where I live in northwest Indiana, the Lake Michigan beaches are occasionally condemned because of high levels of Escherichia coli , a bacterium ever present in our digestive system, which, according to Wikipedia, is considered in the world of sewage treatment to be an accurate indicator of human fecal amounts (Pleasant Thought). Scientists researching how E. coli bacteria attach themselves to mucous membranes discovered tiny hair-like protrusions on the species that stick to surfaces and strengthen under stress.  Now the same researchers have found that these protrusions, called "fimbriae," are built of proteins arranged "in a tightly coiled helix shape, like a seven-nanometer-wide Slinky toy."  This spring-like system acts like a shock absorber for the bacterium, allowing it to withstand the turbulent flow of your digestive juices.

"Too Many Men Could Destabilize Society" is the title of an article released yesterday by University College London, which states the obvious in pointing out how sex-selective abortions in Asia have led to an enormous deficit of females--up to 80 million in India and China.  The article worries of an increase in male "antisocial behaviour and violence," because of their lack of an "outlet for sexual energy."  However, it claims that women should benefit from their increased value, experiencing a rise in social status.
Are they suggesting that the selective abortion of 80 million females has been beneficial to women in general?  The title of the article certainly implies that the authors thought a surplus of men--not a lack of women--was the real problem in Asian society.  Are they suggesting that the Chinese should abort their males as well?

The New York Times has an article about the 70-year history of the search for the human papillomavirus vaccine, and you'll learn, among other things, how the legend of the jackrabbit probably got started.  An interesting story, and I'm glad to hear of the vaccine, though I must point out that the best defense against STD's is still abstinence and fidelity.  Cheaper, too.

From JohnnyB's Crevo Bits blog:

I've heard SO MANY TIMES from evolutionists who complain that there is no difference between micro- and macro- evolution, and that the distinction is an invention of creationists who have their head in the sand. Now, the micro- macro- distinction is often used in evolutionary peer-reviewed literature (some even adding an in-between level -- meso), but the evolutionists who complain about Creationists not publishing in the peer-reviewed journals seem to not have read it. Now that PZ Myers is officially on record about the micro- macro- distinction, can all of the evolutionists who complained about this being a false distinction created by deceitful Creationists to apologize?

Just to clarify -- I don't think that PZ ever made this accusation. But I have been in a great number of evolutionary debates, and in nearly every one where the topic was discussed, they said that micro/macro was a false distinction created by Creationists.

(just to note, depending on how it's defined, Creationists don't necessarily disagree with macroevolution per se, either)

Over at Post-Darwinist, Denyse O'Leary points out that even though some Darwinists object to the term "Darwinist," that is the term they themselves use, of themselves.  Fully documented.

In what appears to be the best science story so far this month, researchers have filmed ants doing the incredible.  Trap-jaw ants (Odontomachus bauri ) can snap their large mandibles shut at 145 miles per hour--2,000 times faster than the blink of an eye. They set a new world record for active speed in the animal kingdom, beating even the lightning-quick tongues of frogs and chameleons.

News@nature has published the highly entertaining videos of these ants propelling themselves in the air by snapping their jaws against the ground, a trick they use to escape predators.  It's really the best thing I've seen since The March of the Penguins.

The people over at BBC News, bless their hearts, are a bit mistaken about the speed of the trap-jaw ants.  They indicate that the jaws shut at "more than 100 km/h (66mph)," which is less than half of the true speed of the ants.  News@nature reports speeds of 65 meters per second, which equals 233 km/h per hour (145 mph), in agreement with National Geographic News and the PNAS study of the ants.

Of course trap-jaw ants use their jaws mainly to battle and catch prey, and therein lies a problem for neo-Darwinian thinking.  Without any prey that can react even close to 145 miles per hour, why would trap-jaw ants need such a fast system? Brian Fisher, entomologist and co-author of the ant study which appears online (subscription only, abstract here, more videos here) today in PNAS, spoke with National Geographic News about this issue:

"It's not like they're trying to catch a cricket that's so fast they need this high speed, so there's a conundrum there," Fisher said.
"Now we've found there's a dual function. It may be that a very important aspect of their life history is escaping from an enemy."

However, it seems highly dubious to me that ants, of all creatures, need to worry about a few casualties, given the average sizes of nests and the rates of reproduction. Ants are the most prolific animal form on earth; why would this particular species need to develop a break-neck escape mechanism?

Also big news: The "Hobbit" skull found in Flores, Indonesia a couple years back and said to be a hominid new species (Homo floresiensis)  turns out to belong a microcephalic Homo sapien after all, according to a new assessment.  The New York Times shows in photo graphics how the two sides of the skull are significantly different, suggesting a malformed head, and other peculiarities of the bones indicate little difference from modern pygmies who inhabit the same island.  National Geographic also has reporting.  Some people are hopping mad over this.

I wrote about the "Hobbit" bones back in April of 2005 when National Geographic featured a model of the "new species" on the cover of its magazine.  Heady assertions from the magazine article, now presumed to be false:

 Had we simply found a modern human stunted by disease or malnutrition? No. The bones looked primitive, and other remains from Liang Bua, which means "cool cave" in the local Manggarai language, showed that this skeleton wasn't unique. It was typical of a whole population of tiny beings who once lived on this remote island. We had discovered a new kind of human.

News again:  Supposed proof of dark matter is announced.

Hmm . . . Is the Vatican making a statement here?  At 73 years old, George V. Coyne (bio here) has been removed as the Director of the Vatican Observatory.  Read on.

Vatican Dumps Darwinist-Boosting Astronomer

By Hilary White

ROME, August 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Jesuit priest-astronomer who vocally opposed the Catholic understanding of God-directed creation, has been removed from his post as head of the Vatican observatory.

Fr. George Coyne has been head of the Vatican observatory for 25 years is an expert in astrophysics with an interest in the interstellar medium, stars with extended atmospheres and Seyfert galaxies. He also appointed himself as an expert in evolutionary biology and theology last summer in an article for the UK’s liberal Catholic magazine, The Tablet.

Fr. Coyne was writing against Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, a principal author of the Catholic catechism, who said that an “unplanned process of random variation and natural selection,” both important parts of evolutionary thinking, are incompatible with Catholic belief in God’s ordering and guiding of creation.

Coyne, retiring after 25 years of service for the Vatican observatory, said, “The classical question as to whether the human being came about by chance, and so has no need of God, or by necessity, and so through the action of a designer God, is no longer valid.”

Schonborn had written in the New York Times that “neo-Darwinian evolution is not compatible with Catholic doctrine.”

Fr. Coyne is being replaced at the Vatican Observatory by Father Funes, 43, a native of Cordoba, Argentina.

Vatican Astronomer Contradicts Cardinal’s Support of Catholic Teaching on Evolution
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/aug/05080901.html

Visit the website of the Vatican Observatory
http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo/R1024/VO.html

Copyright: LifeSiteNews.com, a production of Interim Publishing. Used by permission.

 Read more about this at Beliefnet and Evolution News & Views.

This has nothing to do with science, but I've put together a list of books I'm reading right now using a new tool from Amazon.  It's pretty basic right now, but not bad considering I've only put a couple hours into it.  Matches the site, too.  Check it out at GlobeLens Selections.

The origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been called into question again as two archaeologists (Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg) propose that the Qumran settlement was actually the site of a pottery factory. They present their case in the latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. Up until the 1990's, the "Essene hypothesis" was the almost universally accepted interpretation of the ancient scrolls. It proposed that a community of the religious Essene sect, based in a hypothetical monastery in Qumran, had copied the scrolls before hiding them in caves for safekeeping.

If the Dead Sea Scrolls have any link with Qumran, claim archaeologists Magen and Peleg , it may only be so if the jars containing the scroll fragments were made there.

Someone should probably update Wikipedia on this. 

The latest view of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) via the Hubble Telescope.  Go here for the news release.

Image courtesy NASA, ESA and D. A. Gouliermis (MPIA).

Zombietime has put together an excellent page documenting the instances of photo fraud (of the war in Lebanon) that have surfaced over the last four days, including digital photo manipulation, staging, and false captioning. Yesterday even the New York Times was accused of publishing apparently staged photos. (HT: WorldMagBlog)

Considering the rate these fraudulent shots are popping up, any blogger with a good eye might have the chance to break a new scandal.  Just keep your eyes peeled for Lebanese look-alikes.