I’ll be on the radio Friday from 1:30 to 3 pm talking about ThingsAreGood.com!
Feel free to call in to the show (we’ll give the # out over the airwaves).
You can tune in over the internet (direct link) or turn your radio dial to CHRY 105.5 if your in Toronto.
The remains of a baby who existed 3.3 million years ago have been uncovered in Ethiopia and reassembled after 5 years of painstaking diggs to uncover it. The Baby girl named Selam (meaning peace) is equal parts human and ape with an ape like upper body and a human like lower half. This discovery is suggesting to scientists that the species ‘Australopithecus afarensis’ was both a land dweller and tree climber.
It’s amazing to think that humans were around in some form or another a whole 3 million years ago. The first human like remains date back as far as 6.5 million years ago.
Plans are in the works to eventually create a model of the child once her complete skeleton has been unveiled. Then we will even be able to see a likeness of what her features would have looked like!
I found this incredibly interesting and thought I’d attach the actual human evloutionary timeline for your perusal.
The ascent of man
6.5m years ago
Earliest human lineages split from chimpanzees and gorillas, but share many traits with the apes.
5.8m years ago
The oldest human ancestor, Orrorin tugenesis, emerges and is thought to walk on two legs.
4m years ago
Australopithecus arrives with a brain no larger than a chimp’s. Makes home on the savannah and develops teeth for chewing tough food.
2.5m years ago
Homo habilis, right, the first modern human genus emerges. It has a brain half the size of humans today and begins to use primitive stone tools.
2m years ago
Homo ergaster arrives with a smaller face and teeth, but slightly larger brain. Develops hand axes and may have begun to harness fire.
1.8m years ago
Homo erectus or Java man, the first true hunter-gatherer settles in Asia.
600,000 years ago
Homo heidelbergensis lives in Africa and Europe. Its brain is similar in size to a modern human’s.
230,000 years ago
Neanderthals arrive in Britain and Europe.
195,000 years ago
Homo sapiens appears, but it is a further 45,000 years before the first signs of speech emerge.
95,000 years ago
The diminutive “Hobbit” people, Homo floresiensis, is believed to emerge in Indonesia.
Â
Ever wondered what happened to the old computers bits and mobile phones you threw out? Each year tons of discarded technology quietly disintegrates in landfills or gets melted down, releasing toxins and chemicals into the environment. After a two year campaign by Greenpeace, several companies have agreed to remove the chemical content of their hardware. These companies include the likes of HP, LGE, Nokia, Samsung, Sony and Sony Ericsson and now Dell has joined this list of environmentally conscious hardware providers.
By removing toxic chemicals, these companies make their hardware easier to recycle and take responsibility for the impact their products have on the environment.
A recent survey showed that most consumers would be prepared to pay more for computers that were chemical free and had no negative impact on the environment. Hopefully, the bigger names missing from the list will pay attention and endeavour to meet the needs of consumers by providing environmentally responsible hardware.
Jane Anderson writes to tell us about a neat article at TechSoup:
Search Engines Help Nonprofits Raise Funds, Get Publicity
“I found this article in techsoup and have started using the search engine at work daily. It’s such a great idea and I’m suprised it wasn’t around sooner!”
From the article:
“Two search engines offering such services are GoodSearch , which funnels 50 percent of its ad-generated revenue to various nonprofits each time one of their supporters types in a new search term, and Google, whose Grants program allows nonprofits to spread their messages to a wider audience by providing them with free advertisements that show up alongside Google search results.”
Phire writes in to tell us that comas may not be so bad:
“60% of supposedly vegetative/braindead patients are waking up, recovering, getting better after being administered something as simple as a common sleeping pill.”
It’s rather ironic that when someone sleeps too long a sleeping pill can wake them up.