I may have misunderstood the findings, but the rate that these bacteria evolve sounds an awful lot like data to support the theory of punctuated equilibrium. I would sure like to hear fellow /.'s opinions about this, rather than the same old creationist metadiscussion that we have every single time there's an article about evolution up.

Have you considered that dieting just isn't the way to go? What you need is probably a shift in lifestyle and eating habits. It's a fact, like your link indicates, that crash diets just don't work in the long term. Almost any dietist will tell you that slow and steady is the one thing that actually works. It sucks, but if you want it bad enough, it's doable. Better, anyway, than convincing yourself that your problem is unsolvable and striking out at anyone who dares to tell you otherwise.

Tell me a single fact that we know *for sure*. There is only ever probability, and the probability that we'll get wiped out from above within say, the next thousand years, is so small that it makes sense to bank on it.

A much bigger issue is whether we as a species will commit suicide.

Because it's good at it.

I would also mention that Dr. Leo Spacemen is a fine physician

No, that's not the point. The point is the same as the saying, "You can measure a person by how he treats people he doesn't have to be nice to". I say that it makes a pretty good measure to how advanced a civilization is and how far it has come from its primitive origins.

I would mod you up if I had points. Instead, I'll leave you this quote from Eve Curie:

We discovered that peace at any price is no peace at all. We discovered that life at any price has no value whatever; that life is nothing without the privileges, the prides, the rights, the joys which make it worth living, and also worth giving. And we also discovered that there is something more hideous, more atrocious than war or than death; and that is to live in fear.