Book Review in New Scientist
The Humans Who Went Extinct:
Why Neanderthals died out and we survived
by Clive Finlayson
Published by: Oxford University Press
Price: £16.99/$29.95
ONCE upon a time, a race of cavemen ruled Europe and Asia, then mysteriously vanished, leaving little but bones and stone tools behind.
The history of the Neanderthals isn't a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, but much of what has been written about the ancient human species may as well be, says evolutionary ecologist Clive Finlayson in his informative monograph.
Take their disappearance, which a team led by Finlayson has pinpointed to the rock of Gibraltar, between 28,000 and 24,000 years ago. Since the discovery of the first Neanderthal bones in Belgium in 1829, anthropologists have proposed any number of explanations for their extinction.
Some said Neanderthals were too dim-witted to survive climatic upheaval or the arrival of our ancestors from Africa. Others contended that their diet - big mammals that were also becoming rare - did them in, while Homo sapiens's more catholic diet gave them the edge to survive. Some even argued that Neanderthals didn't go extinct at all, but interbred with H. sapiens.
None of these just-so stories quite add up, Finlayson says. There is no clear indication that Neanderthals were any less intelligent than H. sapiens, and genetic evidence has shown that they share with humans key changes in Foxp2, a gene involved in speech and language. The distinction between Neanderthal and human technology isn't as clear-cut as palaeoanthropologists sometimes suggest, and Neanderthals hunted smaller game and seafood where it was available. Meanwhile, a first-draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome offers no sign that they contributed to our gene pool.
So why did Neanderthals go extinct? Finlayson argues that it was a deadly combination of bad luck and climate change. They were a species caught in the wrong place at the wrong time in a rapidly changing world. "By the time the classic Neanderthals had emerged," Finlayson laments, "they were already a people doomed to extinction."
A series of ice ages ate away the forest habitats where Neanderthals and their predecessors, Homo heidelbergensis, made a living sneaking up on big game. As their numbers declined, those who remained took refuge in warmer parts of Europe, nearer the Mediterranean. But a final drop in temperatures that began around 50,000 years ago made even this meagre living unsustainable.
Finlayson does not rule out the possibility that Neanderthals and H. sapiens met. Neanderthals, our ancestors and other archaic human species probably overlapped. But such contact was unlikely to play a pivotal part in the Neanderthal's disappearance and our dominance, which Finlayson chalks up largely to luck. That may not be a fairy tale, but at least, for us, there's a happy ending.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
What you are actually seeing is the opening act of the Tamaki Heritage Village Drama "The Chronicles of Uitara: Lost in Our Own Land" in Christchurch.
And a video out take of the movie "UTU" which is about the same period of New Zealand history in the 1800's during the Musket Rebellion of the Maori against land clearing actions by the Crown authorities of traditional Maori land holdings (a similiar events occurred in USA history during the 1800's as the Indian Wars and lead to "Trail of Tears" for the Cherokee native people as a forced removal to Oklahoma).
Seems reasonable to me...same plan for them and USa....
After receiving national fame for his "You lie!" outburst during President Obama's health care speech before a joint session of Congress in September, Rep. Joe Wilson is speaking out again, NBC's Rullo reports.
It's still about healthcare, but this time he's speaking in turn.
Wilson is introducing an amendment for the Democratic health care bill, requiring all members of Congress to enroll in the public option. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/11/04/2119244.aspx
It's still about healthcare, but this time he's speaking in turn.
Wilson is introducing an amendment for the Democratic health care bill, requiring all members of Congress to enroll in the public option. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/11/04/2119244.aspx
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Taken by a friend in Florida... are Florida Black Bears spoiled? Ask your dog for a comment on the subject...
I was reading this week a Three Part Saga on Mars, in which the aging process has been stopped, sort of anyway, at 150 personal relationships become .
Of Love and Alzheimer's
When Caregivers Find New Companions, Is it Adultery?
By ALICIA MUNDY
Sid loves his wife of more than 40 years, and has no intention of divorcing her.
But Sid, who is in his 70s, lives with her only three days a week in their Manhattan home. The rest of the time, he stays with another woman in her 60s with whom he has developed an intimate relationship. His grown children like her and approve of the arrangement.
The situation isn't as strange as it sounds.
Sid's wife has later-stage Alzheimer's disease. That places him among an increasingly visible group of people ranging in age from their 50s to their 90s who are finding romance outside of their marriages while continuing to care for spouses with Alzheimer's. (Sid asked that his last name not be used.)
Caregivers often face a stark choice: Either start an extramarital relationship and risk estrangement from friends and family—not to mention their own guilt—or live without a real companion for many years. The trend is prompting religious leaders, counselors and others to rethink how they define adultery.
Support groups of people caring for spouses with the disease are seeing an increase in people who want to recover the intimacy they had in their marriage. "This didn't get discussed much earlier, I think, because people felt embarrassed or guilty for wanting companionship," says Jed Levine, director of programs at the Alzheimer's Association's New York chapter. "We're seeing the issue come up more frequently now."
Alzheimer's causes "a profound loss—that of the marital partner," says Mr. Levine. While spouses may still feel their old bond in the disease's earlier stages, once it progresses, "that connection is lost, too," he says. "It's not sex as much as special friendship," such as being held at night, that well spouses miss the most, he says.
Alzheimer's robs patients of their memory and often changes their personalities radically. Some 5.3 million Americans have been diagnosed with the disease. While most are elderly, as many as 10% may be under 65, according to the national Alzheimer's Association in Chicago. Doctors say they are seeing a troubling increase in this "early onset" Alzheimer's. That compounds the dilemma for spouses, as average life expectancy in the U.S. now exceeds 77 years.
Support-group leaders say they have seen a number of caregiver spouses start relationships with one another. One woman in her 80s began a companionship with a man she met in such a group, and married him after her husband died, Mr. Levine says.
Caregiver spouses often agonize over breaking their marital vows, and whether seeking a new companion represents a betrayal of their convictions.
Religious leaders have come down on both sides of the issue.
"We have made the marriage vows 'for better or worse.' That holds in sickness or in health," says Richard Gentzler Jr., director of the Center on Aging and Older-Adult Ministries for the national United Methodist Church. "I recognize the pain of the wife or husband, but sexual [relations] would be adultery."
Richard Address, a Reform Jewish rabbi in New York who runs a Web site called Jewish Sacred Aging, says the longevity revolution has complicated matters. His site asks the question: "Is it still adultery if the spouse has Alzheimer's?"
Rabbi Address, who has counseled several well spouses, believes Jewish tradition can help find answers. His rabbinical students are researching whether Biblical precepts allowing additional partners can be adapted to take Alzheimer's into account.
Secular support-group leaders, for their part, strenuously try to keep members from judging each other, says Beth Kallmyer of the Alzheimer's Association.
"It's easy for the well spouse to become the second victim of Alzheimer's," says Richard Anderson, a board member of the Well Spouse Association, a national support network. "Many of the people who have joined our association are burned out. Their lives have become more than a little unbalanced. They become ill themselves."
A 2006 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that spouses of people with dementia and psychiatric diseases were more likely to die themselves within a year of the afflicted spouse's death, compared with similar cases involving colon cancer, fractures or heart problems.
Mr. Anderson, who works at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, says Alzheimer's can rob marriages of their essence: communication.
Adult children are often the biggest obstacles to a new relationship. They may accuse the caregiving parent of breaking apart a longstanding marriage, says Emma Shulman, a 96-year-old gerontologist and Alzhemier's researcher in New York.
Defining Adultery in the Age of Alzheimer's
Marriage vows are sacred but the physical and emotional loneliness of Alzheimer's disease is making some reassess what it means to be married. WSJ's Alicia Mundy reports.
.
The children's reaction "usually has to do with their own unresolved issues with their parents," she says. That can include "a sense of guilt that they haven't done more" to help their parents. Or, in other cases, children may feel they have carried all the burden of care, and resent that the well parent is seeking another companion, she says.
Sid, a former architect, says he waited several years after his wife's condition seriously deteriorated before he even thought about finding someone else. He remembers the day his wife, a history professor, suddenly exhibited what he later learned was a symptom of Alzheimer's. "We were in Europe in a field of lavender," he says. The fragrance was almost overpowering, but his wife smelled nothing. She was in her late 50s.
That was a dozen years ago.
"We have had more than 40 years of a wonderful marriage. She is my wife," he says. "When she was first diagnosed, I was unrealistic. I was always able to solve anything. But this time I couldn't." He put his wife though mental-exercise programs and into clinical drug trials, but she slipped away quickly.
After several years of caring for her, Sid says he became depressed and physically ill.
"Then I decided my life could not end like this," he says. His new relationship, which is possible because he has arranged for full-time in-home care for his wife, helps him feel less isolated.
Sid says the initial reaction from people in his support group a few years ago was horror—"It's adultery, you will go to hell," they told him. But recently, many of them have revealed they are looking for companionship, too.
His oldest son says that, at first, he was somewhat upset about the new friend. But he says he and his siblings soon accepted the relationship.
"Dad was sick, his mental health was going downhill. He has gotten better, physically changed," the son says. "As long as my mother isn't in any harm, and is being cared for, I understand. I'm a realist."
Write to Alicia Mundy at alicia.mundy@wsj.com
When Caregivers Find New Companions, Is it Adultery?
By ALICIA MUNDY
Sid loves his wife of more than 40 years, and has no intention of divorcing her.
But Sid, who is in his 70s, lives with her only three days a week in their Manhattan home. The rest of the time, he stays with another woman in her 60s with whom he has developed an intimate relationship. His grown children like her and approve of the arrangement.
The situation isn't as strange as it sounds.
Sid's wife has later-stage Alzheimer's disease. That places him among an increasingly visible group of people ranging in age from their 50s to their 90s who are finding romance outside of their marriages while continuing to care for spouses with Alzheimer's. (Sid asked that his last name not be used.)
Caregivers often face a stark choice: Either start an extramarital relationship and risk estrangement from friends and family—not to mention their own guilt—or live without a real companion for many years. The trend is prompting religious leaders, counselors and others to rethink how they define adultery.
Support groups of people caring for spouses with the disease are seeing an increase in people who want to recover the intimacy they had in their marriage. "This didn't get discussed much earlier, I think, because people felt embarrassed or guilty for wanting companionship," says Jed Levine, director of programs at the Alzheimer's Association's New York chapter. "We're seeing the issue come up more frequently now."
Alzheimer's causes "a profound loss—that of the marital partner," says Mr. Levine. While spouses may still feel their old bond in the disease's earlier stages, once it progresses, "that connection is lost, too," he says. "It's not sex as much as special friendship," such as being held at night, that well spouses miss the most, he says.
Alzheimer's robs patients of their memory and often changes their personalities radically. Some 5.3 million Americans have been diagnosed with the disease. While most are elderly, as many as 10% may be under 65, according to the national Alzheimer's Association in Chicago. Doctors say they are seeing a troubling increase in this "early onset" Alzheimer's. That compounds the dilemma for spouses, as average life expectancy in the U.S. now exceeds 77 years.
Support-group leaders say they have seen a number of caregiver spouses start relationships with one another. One woman in her 80s began a companionship with a man she met in such a group, and married him after her husband died, Mr. Levine says.
Caregiver spouses often agonize over breaking their marital vows, and whether seeking a new companion represents a betrayal of their convictions.
Religious leaders have come down on both sides of the issue.
"We have made the marriage vows 'for better or worse.' That holds in sickness or in health," says Richard Gentzler Jr., director of the Center on Aging and Older-Adult Ministries for the national United Methodist Church. "I recognize the pain of the wife or husband, but sexual [relations] would be adultery."
Richard Address, a Reform Jewish rabbi in New York who runs a Web site called Jewish Sacred Aging, says the longevity revolution has complicated matters. His site asks the question: "Is it still adultery if the spouse has Alzheimer's?"
Rabbi Address, who has counseled several well spouses, believes Jewish tradition can help find answers. His rabbinical students are researching whether Biblical precepts allowing additional partners can be adapted to take Alzheimer's into account.
Secular support-group leaders, for their part, strenuously try to keep members from judging each other, says Beth Kallmyer of the Alzheimer's Association.
"It's easy for the well spouse to become the second victim of Alzheimer's," says Richard Anderson, a board member of the Well Spouse Association, a national support network. "Many of the people who have joined our association are burned out. Their lives have become more than a little unbalanced. They become ill themselves."
A 2006 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that spouses of people with dementia and psychiatric diseases were more likely to die themselves within a year of the afflicted spouse's death, compared with similar cases involving colon cancer, fractures or heart problems.
Mr. Anderson, who works at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, says Alzheimer's can rob marriages of their essence: communication.
Adult children are often the biggest obstacles to a new relationship. They may accuse the caregiving parent of breaking apart a longstanding marriage, says Emma Shulman, a 96-year-old gerontologist and Alzhemier's researcher in New York.
Defining Adultery in the Age of Alzheimer's
Marriage vows are sacred but the physical and emotional loneliness of Alzheimer's disease is making some reassess what it means to be married. WSJ's Alicia Mundy reports.
.
The children's reaction "usually has to do with their own unresolved issues with their parents," she says. That can include "a sense of guilt that they haven't done more" to help their parents. Or, in other cases, children may feel they have carried all the burden of care, and resent that the well parent is seeking another companion, she says.
Sid, a former architect, says he waited several years after his wife's condition seriously deteriorated before he even thought about finding someone else. He remembers the day his wife, a history professor, suddenly exhibited what he later learned was a symptom of Alzheimer's. "We were in Europe in a field of lavender," he says. The fragrance was almost overpowering, but his wife smelled nothing. She was in her late 50s.
That was a dozen years ago.
"We have had more than 40 years of a wonderful marriage. She is my wife," he says. "When she was first diagnosed, I was unrealistic. I was always able to solve anything. But this time I couldn't." He put his wife though mental-exercise programs and into clinical drug trials, but she slipped away quickly.
After several years of caring for her, Sid says he became depressed and physically ill.
"Then I decided my life could not end like this," he says. His new relationship, which is possible because he has arranged for full-time in-home care for his wife, helps him feel less isolated.
Sid says the initial reaction from people in his support group a few years ago was horror—"It's adultery, you will go to hell," they told him. But recently, many of them have revealed they are looking for companionship, too.
His oldest son says that, at first, he was somewhat upset about the new friend. But he says he and his siblings soon accepted the relationship.
"Dad was sick, his mental health was going downhill. He has gotten better, physically changed," the son says. "As long as my mother isn't in any harm, and is being cared for, I understand. I'm a realist."
Write to Alicia Mundy at alicia.mundy@wsj.com
Got time for Coffee and a Hairy Dog Tale? Notice the lack of PC in the tale... not as good a the Panda and the shotgun....
In a message dated 10/20/2009 12:27:02 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
An Indian walks into a cafe with a shotgun In one hand pulling a male buffalo with the other.
He says to the waiter:
"Want coffee."
The waiter says, "Sure, Chief. Coming right up."
He gets the Indian a tall mug of coffee.
"Want coffee."
The waiter says, "Sure, Chief. Coming right up."
He gets the Indian a tall mug of coffee.
The Indian drinks the coffee down in one gulp, turns and blasts the buffalo with the shotgun, causing parts of the animal to splatter everywhere And then just walks out.
The next morning the Indian returns. He has his shotgun in one hand, pulling Another male buffalo with the other. He walks up to the counter and says to The waiter
"Want coffee."
The waiter says "Whoa, Tonto! We're still cleaning up your mess from yesterday. What was all that about, anyway?"
The Indian smiles and proudly says ..
"Training for position in United States Congress:
Come in, drink coffee, shoot the bull, Leave mess for others to clean up,
Disappear for rest of day."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Refuse to be average or surrender to complacency. Keep your feet on the ground and let your joyful heart soar to heights only God can help you reach.........
The next morning the Indian returns. He has his shotgun in one hand, pulling Another male buffalo with the other. He walks up to the counter and says to The waiter
"Want coffee."
The waiter says "Whoa, Tonto! We're still cleaning up your mess from yesterday. What was all that about, anyway?"
The Indian smiles and proudly says ..
"Training for position in United States Congress:
Come in, drink coffee, shoot the bull, Leave mess for others to clean up,
Disappear for rest of day."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Refuse to be average or surrender to complacency. Keep your feet on the ground and let your joyful heart soar to heights only God can help you reach.........
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