DIDO from the DODO Crowd: BAD Actors Confibulating with Evillusion Fogma

Darwin-only “science” leads to absurdities that only outsiders can perceive.

Have your Darwin Dictionary handy for this article, and your Darwinese-to-English dictionary, too. You’re going to see examples of confabulation and science fudge-making by the truckload from the People of Fluff purveying mythoids in Jargonwocky. The perhapsimaybecouldness index will skyrocket as DODOs bounce around on sneakers fitted with copious amounts of Darwin Flubber. The odor of the stuff produces a high called the Yoda Complex.

The secret to seeing through the fogma is to step outside it. Realize that, having ruled out intelligent design by fiat, the DOPE pushers are dumbfloundering about, unable to think outside the the Stuff Happens Law, concluding that “Whatever is, it evolved.” Confabulation morphs seamlessly into confibulation. And since everyone inside the fogma has their D-Merit Badge on, Tontologistic language sounds customary, even expected. Why? Because Darwin skeptics can be treated as non-existent (out of sight, out of mind). Darwin Sharia police at the perimeter insure that Darwin skeptics are Expelled quickly, lest they cause a disturbance in the Farce that turns the People of Fluff into People of Froth. That wouldn’t be pretty.

Safely within their evillusion cloud, where everyone is a moyboy skilled in puddingoscopy, nobody inside raises an eyebrow at the Poof Spoof , the DAM Law , bio-astrology and other “scenarios” that honor King Charlie, no matter how sophoxymoronic they sound to the uninitiated. This self-perpetuating DIDO society sounds really BAD to those locked outside, who see a shifting fogma of vaporware morphing into futureware, and GIDO evolving into DIGO and back again. But is it science?

Deep evolutionary origin of limb and fin regeneration (PNAS). One needs to look deep into the fogma to untangle this mythoid. “Collectively, our findings support a deep evolutionary origin of limb and fin regeneration,” the authors say, right before admitting that “Whether this ability evolved independently in sarcopterygians and actinopterygians or has a common origin remains unknown.” But it doesn’t matter, because the evillusion plot is the thing. “Collectively, our findings support a deep evolutionary origin of paired appendage regeneration in Osteichthyes and provide an evolutionary framework for studies on the genetic basis of appendage regeneration.” The framework provides job security for storytellers and futureware artists.

Chuck-in-the-Box pops up in unexpected places.

Why you shouldn’t kill your friendly neighborhood spiders (Phys.org). Not squishing spiders is good advice, since they are mostly harmless and help keep down the insect population. But what’s Darwin got to do with it? Call in the local Yoda DODO for some DIDO confabulation: “The squeamishness some people feel for the scurrying critters is due at least in part to the human evolution of our perception of spiders,” Jaime Pinzon of the University of Alberta explains. “Our ancestors evolved in the presence of spiders and most likely some of them were poisonous, so there would have been a natural aversion to spiders,” he adds.

Gorillas found to live in ‘complex’ societies, suggesting deep roots of human social evolution (Phys.org). Here’s an example of how contrary data can always be forced into the evillusionary web of belief. Knock Knock. Who’s there? Gorilla. Gorilla who? Gorilla my dreams, do you love me because of my sophisticated social brain, or because of my aggressive territorial group? Neither. I believe in inclusive fitness. I love me, thee, and the chimpanzee.

Before now, the species on this short list were evolutionarily distant from humans. Our closest relatives, chimpanzees, live in small territorial groups with fluctuating alliances that are highly aggressive—often violent—with neighbours.

As such, one theory for human society is that it required the evolution of a particularly large and sophisticated “social brain” unique to the hominin lineage.

However, Morrison and colleagues say the addition of gorillas to this list suggests the simplest explanation may be that our social complexity evolved much earlier, and is instead merely absent from the chimpanzee lineage.

Body plan evolution not as simple as once believed (Phys.org). Not to worry. Any DODO worth his D-Merit badge can always rescue DIDO from the evidence.

Hox genes are vital to developing differences in repeated body parts such as vertebrae, limbs, or digits in most animal species, including human beings. Ever since their discovery, scientists have thought that modifications to Hox genes could be the primary way that the animal body plan has been altered during evolution.

The paper, “Changes throughout a genetic network masks the contribution of Hox gene evolution,” discusses experiments that pinpoint evolutionary changes in a Hox gene, but found that several other genes had evolved alongside it to generate a difference in pigmentation along the fruit fly body plan.

The evolutionists win applause from their fellow DODOs for rescuing King Charlie from the threat of falsification.

“Hox genes are clearly very important regulators of animal development, setting up animal body plans and showing signs of change in all sorts of creatures whose body plans differ. This work shows just how complex the process of evolving those differences can be. It takes all sorts of genes working together to generate these phenotypes,” said Mark Rebeiz, an associate professor of evolutionary development who was a lead author on the paper.

Fortunately, the Darwin skeptic outside cannot be heard saying that Hox genes are just genetic switches. It can no more create a phenotype than a light switch can create a light bulb.

Pathogens may have facilitated the evolution of warm-blooded animals (Science Daily). They “may” have, sure. Where is your evidence? None is needed with a Darwinian scenario. “My hypothesis is that by keeping their bodies warm at nearly all times, mammals and birds effectively prime their immune systems to withstand virulent pathogens, and that this may be part of the reason the extremely costly strategy of endothermy evolved in the first place,” says Chief DODO Michael Logan of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. If something is useful, it evolved. Stuff Happens, after all.

Feathers came first, then birds (Phys.org). When Darwinism is your only option, you can move things around. Confabulating with mythoids is easy when all you have to do is imagine stuff happening. The SHL (Stuff Happens Law) is time-independent. Evolution can happen forward, backward and sideways. Just turn up the perhapsimaybecouldness index, adjust the evolutionary rate dials, and dream of miracles.

“What surprised people was that this was a dinosaur that was as far from birds in the evolutionary tree as could be imagined. Perhaps feathers were present in the very first dinosaurs.”

Danielle Dhouailly from the University of Grenoble, also a co-author, works on the development of feathers in baby birds, especially their genomic control. She said: “Modern birds like chickens often have scales on their legs or necks, and we showed these were reversals: what had once been feathers had reversed to be scales.

“In fact, we have shown that the same genome regulatory network drives the development of reptile scales, bird feathers, and mammal hairs. Feathers could have evolved very early.“

Bonobo diet of aquatic greens may hold clues to human evolution (Science Daily). All it takes is an “evolutionary scenario” to get the just-so story juices flowing. Not surprisingly, Dr. Gottfried Hohmann, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, comes up with an evolutionary anthropology plot line. Imbibing the fogma fumes to get a DODO high, he dreams and employs the power of suggestion for his scenario.

Dr. Hohmann said: “Evolutionary scenarios suggest that major developments of human evolution are associated with living in coastal areas, which offer a diet that triggered brain development in hominins. The results of our study suggest that consumption of aquatic herbs from swamps in forest habitat could have contributed to satisfying the iodine requirements of hominin populations used to diets prevalent in coastal environments.”

A few problems remain with his “suggestion,” but those can be solved in futureware.

Are you enjoying these evillusionary DODO mythoids? There are a lot more where these come from. Let us know if you want more. It’s like reading the funny pages. What makes it funnier is that they are so serious about it.