Evolution made simple?

The "University of Ediacara", which describes itself as "an online virtual university dedicated to the study of origins of life in the cosmos," has created a "virtual pub" called The Panda's Thumb whose patrons ponder the weighty issues--and the minutia--of evolutionary theory.

(For the less scholarly among us, the university's site offers this explanation of its moniker: "The name 'Ediacara' (pronounced Edi-ak-ra) comes from the Ediacara fauna, the first example of multicelled metazoans found in the fossil record.")

To wit, a sample of recent Panda postings includes such topics as a debate on intelligent design in bacterial flagellum and a discussion of the "development of medicine and evolution of the neck and shoulder."

We'll wait for the DVD.