Grandmother Fish: A Child’s First Book of Evolution, a picture book meant to simplify the complex biological processes of evolution by natural selection for preschool children, may also help American adults finally figure out that no, humans did not evolve from apes.

In what began as a self-published book fueled by a Kickstarter campaign, author Jonathon Tweet and illustrator Karen Lewis’ work received so much attention it was picked up by MacMillan for a second edition.

While making evolution understandable for 3, 4, and 5 year olds may sound like mission impossible, perhaps it shouldn’t. Evolution is a simple phenomenon: over time, species change. In a small timespan, changes are subtle yet noticeable; in a massive timespan of millions of years, changes are shockingly dramatic — descendants look and behave nothing like their ancestors. Changes occur when genes mutate during an imperfect reproduction process, and are passed on if the mutation helps an individual creature escape predators, find food or shelter, or attract a mate (natural selection).

Grandmother Fish focuses on how all life on Earth is related, creating a family tree (the study of DNA, by the way, proved once and for all that Charles Darwin and countless other scientists were right. By mapping the genetic code of Earth’s lifeforms, scientists determined — and continue to determine daily — that all life on earth shares DNA, just like within human families). It also emphasizes the long stretch of time needed for the dramatic changes of species.

At the back of Grandmother Fish are science notes to help parents explain evolutionary concepts further. Tweet wrote on his website, during the early stages of the book, why that was important to him and how he went about doing it:

The story of Grandmother Fish is simplified for preschoolers, so the science notes for parents in the back have to be rigorous. Fortunately, I’m getting help from the National Center for Science Education. These people are serious about teaching evolution…

…I spent extra time trying to get the paragraph below just right. This is the paragraph in the back that helps parents talk to their children about the “grab” motion that Grandmother Ape was good at. Talking about “feet” and “hands” gets tricky when you’re talking about primates, humans in particular. Our ancestors’ limbs have been specialized first for swimming, then crawling, and then climbing. Now our hind limbs are specialized for walking while our forelimbs are specialized for grabbing. It might sound minor, but I want to help children understand how special human feet are. Here’s the paragraph…

• Our early primate ancestors’ paws evolved into four “hands” that helped them climb and live in trees. In humans, our rear “hands” have evolved into stable feet specialized for walking and running on the ground. They are a new kind of foot, unlike the feet of any other animal.

The work has been praised by the likes of philosopher Daniel Dennett and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker.

Hopefully it will capture the imagination of children and spark an interest in evolutionary science, clarify certain concepts for adults who understand that evolution isn’t fantasy, or, for adults who don’t understand that fact, provide a straightforward introduction to a discovery with 150 years of scientific research supporting its validity.

While the scientific community is nearly unanimous in support for evolution as fact, some 42% of Americans do not believe in evolution.

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The Fight for $15 movement has arrived at McDonald’s doorstep.

On Thursday, May 26, 2016, some 10,000 fast food, home care, and child care workers marched to McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Young and old, men and women, and people of all colors protested McDonald’s low wages, demanding $15 an hour and the right to unionize without corporate retaliation.

The protest, funded by SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, comes right before McDonald’s annual shareholders meeting. Corporate employees were told to work from home Wednesday and Thursday.

On Wednesday night, over 100  protesters camped out near the headquarters. Protesters came from all over the nation, such as Atlanta and Kansas City.

McDonald’s said, in response to the protests, that it “takes seriously our role in helping strengthen communities” and gives work to “hundreds of thousands of people, providing many with their first job.” Fight for $15 proponents are angry that 88% of minimum wage earners are over 20, 52% have to rely on welfare because they make so little, and CEO to average worker pay is 644 to 1, one of the highest of any corporation in the country.

Generally, corporations and conservatives insist raising the minimum wage causes unemployment and higher prices, while workers and liberals point to economic research that contradicts this.

“We are just trying to survive,” one protester said. “We are all living in poverty regardless of what area we live in and McDonald’s just made $1 billion in profit the first three months of this year.”

The Fight for $15 has already raised the minimum wage in Seattle, California, and New York.

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On Thursday, May 26, 2016, during a meeting of Republican congressmen, Representative Rick Allen of Georgia began reading a bible verse on homosexuality to express his opposition to a bill’s amendment that would turn Barack Obama’s executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT Americans into law.

In response, several moderate Republican lawmakers got up and left the meeting.

“It was f*cking ridiculous,” one of the congressmen said.

“A good number of members were furious,” reported another.

“A lot of members were clearly uncomfortable and upset,” a G.O.P. aide said.

There are no bible verses on the topic that speak of it favorably; it is called an “abomination,” a sin against God, and a reason to put gays and lesbians to death. Allen read Romans 1:18-32:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

The incident drew attention to the old debate over what role, if any, religious views should play in molding national policy in a country where not everyone follows the same religion — or even a religion.

The amendment was put on the bill by Democrats. Despite the walk-out, Republicans opposing the amendment voted against the bill (some Democrats voted against it over another amendment related to immigration), and the bill failed to pass.

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In the first week of June 2016, JoAnne Bolser, a teacher at Burns Middle School in Mobile, Alabama, was put on paid administrative leave for giving an offensive math test to her 8th grade students. The questions on the test featured characters with traditionally black or Latino names, such as “Ramón,” “Raul,” “LaShaunda” and “Tyrone.”

Questions (original grammar and spelling preserved) included:

Dwayne pimps 3 ho’s. If the price is $85 per trick, how many tricks per day must each ho turn to support Dwayne’s $800 per day crack habit?

Tyrone knocked up 4 girls in the gang. There are 20 girls in his gang. What is the exact percentage of girls Tyrone knocked up?

Leroy has 2 ounces of cocaine. If he sells an 8 ball to Antonio for $320 and 2 grams to Juan for $85 per gram, what is the street value of the rest of his hold?

Pedro got 6 years for murder. He also got $10,000 for the hit. If his common-law wife spends $100 of his hit money per month, how much money will be left when he gets out?

Ramón has an AK-47 with a 30-round clip. He usually misses 6 out of every 10 shots and he uses 13 rounds per drive-by shooting. How many drive-by shootings can Ramón attempt before he has to steal enough ammunition and reload?

A parent of one of Bolser’s students said the students at first “took it as a joke, and she told them that it wasn’t a joke, and they had to complete it, and turn it in.”

It is likely Bolser did not create the quiz herself, but rather found it online, a version of the “L.A. Math Test” that has existed for nearly two decades and gotten other educators in serious trouble.

Bolser, described as a “strict,” “well-respected” teacher, handed out the test one day before her retirement.

Bolser is white, Burns Middle School about 44% white, 48% black, 3% Latino, with 66% of students from households poor enough to qualify them for the Free or Reduced Lunch program.

According to FBI data, whites commit most crimes in the United States, due to a much larger population (whites make up nearly 70% of Americans, blacks 13%, Hispanics 17%), even if, due to disproportionate numbers of minorities in poverty, minorities commit some crimes disproportionately high given their low population numbers.

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As reported in The Week, there is much buzz as to just how Bernie Sanders will arrive at his rally in Cloverdale, California, tonight (June 3, 2016). There is a possibility the presidential candidate will skydive to the rally, which happens to be taking place at an airport.

The president of NorCal Skydiving, Jimmy Halliday, told the press that he had already done a jump with a Sanders staffer, and that the staffers are discussing the option with Sanders.

“I’ve been told they will run the idea by Bernie. I can’t confirm that’s the plan. I know that’s a possibility,” Halliday said. But if it does happen, “I will personally take him.”

The manager of the Cloverdale airport, Michael Morrissey, also reported this might actually happen. He mentioned, quite slyly, something about a “grand entrance.”

Halliday’s skydiving firm has, according to The Press Democrat, taken skydivers in their 70s and 80s. Sanders is 74.

The rally begins at 7:30 p.m. California time. Sanders is expected to arrive at 8:00.

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