Origin

One of the many fascinating things about evolution is that it generates disputes that can help us all better understand what science is and how it differs from religion or other areas of human endeavor. Just such an enlightening dispute cropped up recently between two readers who were kind enough to let me share some of their correspondence. It all started when Elisa Winterstein wrote a letter to The Inquirer, stating that scientists rely on faith just as religious people do by accepting the idea of abiogenesis - the notion that life arose from non-living matter.

Pianist Chick Corea walked in first and played a spell. Then his five Origin bandmates strolled in one by one, sometimes tapping on a tambourine or a percussion doodad before raising their instruments. For the next two hours, Corea's sextet would form and reform on stage, stripping down to a duo of piano and drums, then building up to a trio or the full roar of the band's three horns. The permutations kept unfolding Wednesday night at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society concert.

Letitia Smallwood, now 54, is serving a life sentence for a 1972 fire in a Cumberland County, Pa., apartment building from which a woman jumped to her death. The victim, Paula Wagner, had been living there with Smallwood's boyfriend. In her murder trial, the prosecution contended that Smallwood, then a student at Dickinson College, was jealous of Wagner, had threatened her, and had been spotted near the fire scene. A fire investigator found two points of origin - an indication that the blaze had been set. However, Gerald Hurst, a retired chemist in Texas who recently reviewed the case, said he believed that the investigator's conclusion about points of origin was incorrect and that the fire might have been accidental.

The latest plan for Independence Mall and its generally positive reception bring forth the question: What actually is at stake here? Quite a lot. As architect Laurie Olin put it, Independence Hall's physical setting represents the origin myth of our country. Debate has raged in architectural circles for years between two contradictory physical representations of our national birth. The first deploys all the monumental tricks of composition to create a grandiose linear and axial composition, with the tower of Independence Hall at its head.

A dramatic early-morning fire that lit up the sky over the Blue Route at Plush Mill Road, destroying a surgeon's $400,000 Tudor-style house Jan. 19, has been declared arson. Township Police Chief Francis J. Corbett said yesterday that local and state police investigators found two points of origin of the fire: on the first floor and in the basement, both in the west end of the house. "We don't know yet who set the fire or what accelerant was used, but we're certain it was arson," Corbett said.

Firefighters direct water into a window of an abandoned tannery yesterday, as a six-alarm blaze destroyed the building at American and George streets in Northern Liberties. Fire Commissioner Roger Ulshafer said the blaze's origin was suspicious.

In Darrell Sifford's column of Nov. 13 "Attacking the roots of mental illness," George W. Albee asserts that he is battling the notion "that all mental illness is biological in origin. " Few, if any, psychiatrists have this notion. Only recently, because of overwhelming evidence, has the medical establishment even begun to acknowledge that schizophrenia and some forms of depression are biological in origin. Mr. Albee said, "Schizophrenia is 11 times more common among people at the poverty level, and this surely indicates that something far more than biology is at work.

Sixty-nine first graders at St. Laurence School participated in a pre- Halloween event yesterday by dressing up as their patron saints. This is the fifth year the school has held an All Saints' Day celebration. The event recognizes the origin of Halloween as a Christian celebration of the life of the saints held the evening before All Saints' Day. Besides dressing as the saint who shares his or her name, each student learned the story of the saint's life.

Two children were killed yesterday morning in a fire in their home. Half-brothers Kenneth Jones, 2, and Joseph Alcorn, 10 months, were sleeping in the basement of their family's home at 300 D St. when the fire started about 1:10 a.m. "The fire started in the southwest corner of the basement, where the children were found," said Dave Schoch, an investigator with the Millville Fire Department. Schoch said investigators would not be able to determine the cause of the fire because of the extent of the damage.

In an era of fashionista rappers with gangsta attitude, such as Nicki Minaj and Azealia Banks, it's awesome — even necessary — that Eve make her return. At 33, Philly's self-proclaimed "pit bull in a skirt" can show up any of her imitators. She proved as much during an intimate (200 people) gig Wednesday at Fishtown's funky Kung Fu Necktie. From her earliest days as one of the Ruff Ryders to her own pop-hop hits ("Who's That Girl?") and a klatch of smash collaborations with Gwen Stefani, Eve was always the queen of swagger.

In 1979, 6-year-old Etan Patz disappeared on his way to school in New York. Last month, a fruitless search for Patz's remains in a SoHo basement prompted a national wave of nostalgia for the innocent days of yore. For most of our history, we told ourselves, kids were safe. Then we lost Etan. But we lost our innocence long before, with the 1874 kidnapping of 4-year-old Charley Ross right here in Philadelphia. That was when Americans discovered they could never keep their children completely safe.

Despite being just 25 years old, midfielder Shea Salinas has carved a well-traveled path in Major League Soccer, and now he is back to where he started. A member of the Union's inaugural team in 2010, Salinas was enjoying a breakout season this year with the San Jose Earthquakes until he was wrestled down by the New York Red Bulls' Rafael Marquez in a 2-2 tie on April 14. Besides the hard tackle, Marquez kicked Salinas when he was down. (Here is the link to the play: http://bit.ly/JDybax )

SAN DIEGO - A wildly popular Internet video turned African warlord Joseph Kony into a household name and boosted the international hunt for the brutal rebel leader. Can a sequel do more? That's the burning question for the small California advocacy group Invisible Children and its follow-up, Kony 2012 Part II . The Associated Press was given a copy of the sequel before its Thursday release. Part II repeats some of the same slick, inspiring shots as the original of a young global community mobilizing into action.

AS WORD has spread that New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams paid his players bonuses if they took out the opposition - which is to say, injuring them with intent - it came as no surprise to Eagles fans of a certain age. The so-called "Bounty Bowl" between the Eagles and Cowboys in 1989 has become a staple of team lore. To revisit what happened that Thanksgiving Day: In the aftermath of a hard hit by Eagles linebacker Jessie Small on Cowboys placekicker Luis Zendejas - who left the game with a concussion - Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson alleged that Eagles coach Buddy Ryan had placed a $200 bounty on Zendejas.

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, "Philosophy ought really to be written only as a form of poetry. " I am never happier than when I can read choreography as poetry, as I - and, I think, the audience - did over the weekend with choreographer John Jasperse's Fort Blossom Revisited 2000/2012 . This fuller version of the original 2000 work premiered Friday at the Hepburn Teaching Theater, Bryn Mawr College's black-box theater. The college was the leading funder of the reconstructed and expanded 60-minute work.

LOS ANGELES - Woody Allen's romantic fantasy Midnight in Paris and Alexander Payne's family drama The Descendants have won top screenplay honors from the Writers Guild of America. With his biggest hit in decades, writer-director Allen earned the guild's prize Sunday for original screenplay on Midnight in Paris . The film stars Owen Wilson as a modern Hollywood writer who gets a chance to hang with his literary idols in the 1920s Paris of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Convicted hit man Len Jenoff, who three years ago swore in an affidavit that he had lied when he testified that Rabbi Fred Neulander hired him to murder the rabbi's wife, now insists his original story was accurate. "I testified at two trials that Fred Neulander did hire me in fact to kill his wife and make it look like a robbery and that is, in fact, the truth," Jenoff said in a videotaped prison interview Monday. He also reaffirmed his initial testimony in earlier letters to an Inquirer reporter.

A fire burned this morning through the original classroom building on the grounds of the all-girl Villa Joseph Marie High School in Bucks County. No injuries were reported in the fire in the three-story building known as Maria Hall. Arriving firefighters found smoke and flames on the ground floor, but despite their efforts the fire spread to the top two stories. The fire was declared under control about 11:45 a.m., more than two hours after it was reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

By Ted Zangari Despite what critics contend, wastewater and sewage management legislation signed by Gov. Christie last week is not a threat to the environment. It leaves environmental protections in place while providing a remedy for overreaching regulations that have compounded the economic damage of the Great Recession. The new law addresses a cumbersome process for wastewater treatment planning that was put in place in 2008. It required counties to attempt to precisely predict development and therefore sewer services decades in advance.