Loxodonta cyclotis

By Matt Young
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Photography Contest.

Joel Eissenberg, Honorable Mention.

Close-up of elephant eye.
Loxodonta cyclotis – African elephant. Dr. Eissenberg writes, "Image taken at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence RI. Elephants have wrinkled skin composed of a dense network of fractures that helps them survive in hot climates. The deep creases form a web of microvalleys that trap moisture, allowing their skin to retain up to ten times more water than a smooth surface. This trapped moisture cools them through evaporation."

Ken Ham's attack on the press

By Dan Phelps
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The fake ark on opening day, by Dan Phelps.
The "Ark" on opening day. Photograph by Dan Phelps.

Recently, Marina Johnson of the Louisville Courier-Journal and Jolene Almendarez of the Cincinnati Enquirer duplicated some of my work and documented declining Ark ticket sales (they confirmed what I have been documenting for many months. They also confirmed that the sales tax rebate incentive from Kentucky Tourism ended in mid-August, 2026).

Tellingly, Ken Ham refused to be interviewed for this story. Rather, on August 25, Mr. Ham responded with an AIG-produced video. The video is filled with “jokes” and brief cuts of Donald Trump.

Apparently, Mr. Ham doesn’t like speaking to reporters who might ask him difficult questions. Mr. Ham spent more time in this video discussing declining newspaper sales than the fact that his Ark is selling fewer tickets every year. He basically admitted that ticket sales are declining but deflected the issue by pointing out that the newspaper that originally published the story (the Cincinnati Enquirer) has declining sales. Mr. Ham is such a master of obfuscation that his followers are likely to not understand the deceitful and irrelevant switch in topics.

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Megarhyssa greenei and M. atrata

By Matt Young
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Photography Contest.

Malcolm Schongalla, Honorable Mention.

Ichneumonid wasps. Mr. Schongalla notes, "These photographs were taken June 2026 in the Northeastern US. The two wasps were laying eggs on horntail larvae in the same log, at the same time. These are 'parasitoid wasps,' also known as Darwin wasps, of the family Ichneumonidae. The lighter color wasp [above] is Megarhyssa greenei and the darker one [below] is Megarhyssa atrata. The female member of this insect family lays her eggs on or near another insect host after paralyzing it. The larva feeds on the host insect's body as it grows. Unfortunately, no larvae are visible in these pictures. The larvae are inside the log, and the wasps' long ovipositor is adapted to reaching deep into the bore holes to reach them. The wasps have, amazingly, developed ways to detect the presence of larvae deep within the wood, from the outside."

More, including the second photograph, below the fold.

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Is evolution defied because life is an "idea"?

By Joe Felsenstein
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[Brown Bear]
Kamchatka Brown Bear (Ursus arctos), By Robert F. Tobler Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0

 

Eric Hedin had a post at Science & Culture Today (The Discovery Institute’s former Evolution News) that seems to fully commit to Platonic idealism and to teleology. Which is surprising since he is a Ph.D. in particle physics, from my own University. It will be found here.

Its final two paragraphs will give you the general drift, but you should read Hedin’s post, which is short:

To imagine that each of the millions of species of living creatures on Earth “evolved” by a weeding-out process, undirected by any idea of the wholeness they would ultimately manifest, runs counter to our experience with functional design and the known limitations of the laws of nature. If prolific reproductivity is the “goal” of natural selection, why should life have ever evolved to anything beyond bacteria? Cancer cells, as a mutation from original design, would seem to be evolution’s crowning achievement.

The wholeness of living organisms testifies to their metaphysical origin as an “idea,” originating in the mind of their Maker. The evidence suggests that creatures exceed the boundaries of what is possible by undirected natural forces. Even information, as we understand it, appears to fall short as the groundwork for life. Apparently, life comes from life, and nothing else will suffice. Life is a brilliant idea!

Is there some way we can counter this argument? The title of his article is “In Defiance of Evolution, Life is an Idea”. Is evolutionary biology finally totally defied?

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Nyctibius griseus

By Matt Young
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Photography Contest.

John Harshman, Third Place.

Common potoo, a bird with protective coloration hiding on a branch.
Nyctibius griseus – common potoo. Dr. Harshman notes that the potoo, from Ecuador, is "in his common daytime position of pretending to be the end of a broken branch." Just for the record, it is a bird.