Evolution

L.A.'s California Science Center will start the new year defending itself in court for canceling a documentary film attacking Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. A lawsuit alleges that the state-owned center improperly bowed to pressure from the Smithsonian Institution, as well as e-mailed complaints from USC professors and others. It contends that the center violated both the 1st Amendment and a contract to rent the museum's Imax Theater when it canceled the screening of "Darwin's Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record."

Re "Obama takes a stand for gay marriage," May 10 Iwas 13 when I first considered the same-sex marriage "dilemma. " I was a Catholic school student, yet even then I could not find the moral (let alone legal) reason by which two consenting adults should not be allowed to marry. Each religion can define the issue's spiritual validity. However, morally and legally, marriage is a common right. Three years ago, I married a wonderful Mexican American man. As recently as 1967, laws that prohibited interracial marriages such as ours were still constitutionally legal in the United States.

The pace of human evolution has been increasing at a stunning rate since our ancestors began spreading through Europe, Asia and Africa 40,000 years ago, quickening to 100 times historical levels after agriculture became widespread, according to a study published today. By examining more than 3 million variants of DNA in 269 people, researchers identified about 1,800 genes that have been widely adopted in relatively recent times because they offer some evolutionary benefit. Until recently, anthropologists believed that evolutionary pressure on humans eased after the transition to a more stable agrarian lifestyle.

In announcing his decision to now support same-sex marriage, President Obama also shed new light on his initial hesitation on the issue. Speaking with ABC News' Robin Roberts , Obama said that he and his administration have long "stood on the side of broader equality for the LGBT community," pointing to the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and the decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, among others....

Like it or not, the creationists will ultimately make monkeys out of themselves if they continue to argue against evolution. ANDREA H. BURRELL, Huntington Beach

The evolution of fatherhood 6,000 years ago by some accounts — but they vary: Adam When he ate the apple, the man who was destined to be father of all mankind established a behavior exhibited in dads throughout the ages — "do whatever your mother tells me to. " 1,938 years after the creation of the world: Abraham He may be the father of the Jewish people, but it wasn't so great to be his sons. His first kid, Ishmael, was thrown out of the house as a teenager, and he came close to killing his second son, Isaac.

The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore A Novel Benjamin Hale Twelve: 580 pp., $25.99

Representative of the city's transformation is the Oakland Museum of California, near Lake Merritt, which reopened in May after a $62-million renovation. The architecture and landscaping remain true to its original 1969 Midcentury Modern design: The galleries and public spaces are brighter and more open, and there is more room to showcase the museum's strong collection and new acquisitions. The first inkling I had that this museum was going to be different was a sign near the entrance that read, "Don't Lick the Paintings.

In announcing his decision to now support same-sex marriage, President Obama also shed new light on his initial hesitation on the issue. Speaking Wednesday with ABC News' Robin Roberts, Obama said that he and his administration have long "stood on the side of broader equality for the LGBT community," pointing to the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and the decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court, among others....

'Skateboard: Evolution and Art in California' Where: California Heritage Museum, 2612 Main St., Santa Monica When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Ends May 30 Price: $8 Contact: (310) 392-8537 or www.californiaheritage

ANCHORAGE - With his Boy Scout good looks and schoolboy cap, Schaeffer Cox was known for striding happily through the treacherous backwater between rabble rousing and revolution. In university auditoriums and community meeting halls throughout the West over the last few years, the 28-year-old Cox has preached the gospel of free will, no taxes and unregulated firearms. He's also warned growing legions of supporters that the dictionary defines "terrorism" as government through intimidation - and that its logical antidote is "horrible rebellion.

The Cookbook Library Four Centuries of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes that Made the Modern Cookbook Anne Willan with Mark Cherniavsky and Kyri Claflin University of California Press: 333 pp., $50 What is a cookbook? More than simply a collection of recipes, a cookbook can be a window to the larger world beyond the confines of the kitchen, as La Varenne Cooking School founder and award-winning cookbook author Anne Willan and her co-authors illustrate in the excellent new book "The Cookbook Library.

Discussion of creationism in public school classrooms in Tennessee will now be permitted under a bill that passed the Republican-controlled state Legislature despite opposition from the state's Republican governor. The measure will allow classroom debates over evolution, permitting discussions of creationism alongside evolutionary teachings about the origins of life. Critics say the law, disparagingly called "The Monkey Bill," will plunge Tennessee back to the divisive days of the notorious Scopes "Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tenn., in 1925.

Tennessee enacted a law Tuesday that critics contend allows public school teachers to challenge climate change and evolution in their classrooms without fear of sanction. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam allowed the controversial measure to become law without his signature and, in a statement, expressed misgivings about it. Nevertheless, he ignored pleas from educators, parents and civil libertarians to veto the bill. The law does not require the teaching of alternatives to scientific theories of evolution, climate change and "the chemical origins of life.

Among its more dubious claims to fame, Tennessee was the site of the 1925 "Monkey Trial," in which John Scopes was convicted of violating a state law against teaching that "man has descended from a lower order of animals. " Eighty-seven years later, the Tennessee Legislature is itching for an encore. It has sent to Gov. Bill Haslam a bill governing the teaching of "scientific subjects that may cause debate and disputation," including evolution and global warming. The legislation says teachers cannot be prohibited from "helping students understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories.

WASHINGTON - Tennessee is poised to adopt a law that would allow public schoolteachers to challenge climate change and evolution in their classrooms without fear of sanction, according to educators and civil libertarians in the state. Passed by the state Legislature and awaiting Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's signature, the measure is likely to stoke growing concerns among science teachers around the country that teaching climate science is becoming the same kind of classroom and community flash point as evolution.

Something curious has been happening on the music landscape lately. In the span of a few weeks, a jazz artist with a critically lauded new album has hit the late-night TV circuit with performances on the David Letterman and Jay Leno shows, debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard pop chart, and performed a packed-to-the-rafters showcase at Austin, Texas' annual rock 'n' roll smorgasbord, SXSW. And the strangest part? The musician's name isn't Esperanza Spalding. The artist in question is Houston-born pianist Robert Glasper, and his new album on Blue Note Records has become one of the top stories of the year by taking jazz to all sorts of unexpected places.