Front end loading (Introduction)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Thursday, September 25, 2008, 20:35 (5901 days ago) @ David Turell

I've not heard of this concept of "front end loading" before. Does it mean that the Intelligent Designer has been identified as the Great front end loader? Does it mean anything other than the metaphor of God as architect or planner? God as project engineer? - This curious story about bedbugs was in the Times on Tuesday. 
"The females evolved immune organs because of the violent mating techniques adopted by the males, which are armed with needle-like penises that they wield like daggers. Instead of availing themselves of the female genitalia the male bedbugs simply stab them in the abdomen and inject semen into the abdominal cavity. The semen migrates through the female's body to fertilise the eggs." 
A good example of Intelligent Design, eh?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4805905.ece - Here's anothet article. Is this an example of "front end loading"? It seems unsurprising to me that structures developed for one function are adapted for other functions by evolution. It is just working with the material it has. 
"Yale researchers have shown that the origin and evolution of the placenta and uterus in mammals is associated with evolutionary changes in a single regulatory protein."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080918171155.htm