Tag Archives: Body & Mind

Baby Ape/Human Uncovered

selem3721.jpegThe 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.

 

30 ways to leave a non-lover

Canadian copyright guru Michael Geist has posted 30 Days of DRM: 30 Things You Can Do. It’s Canada-specific but you an adopt what he suggests to your locality.

Some of his suggestions:
Ask each political party where it stands on copyright.
Write to your local school board.
Buy online DRM-free alternatives
Write to Library and Archives Canada to ask that it support the preservation of Canadian heritage

To find out why DRM isn’t good check out what wikipedia has to say. Basically DRM can limit access to important documents and limit what you can do with things you buy.

California Sues Car Companies for Health Damage

thanks yahooThis is big news! Maybe this will have the same impact that suing tobacco companies had. The state charges that car companies have damaged people’s health because of the emissions of their products.

“California filed a global warming lawsuit on Wednesday against Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and three other automakers, charging that greenhouse gases from their vehicles have cost the state millions of dollars.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California was the first of its kind to seek to hold manufacturers liable for the damages caused by their vehicles’ emissions.

The lawsuit also names Chrysler Motors Corp., the U.S. arm of Germany’s DaimlerChrysler AG, and the North American units of Japan’s Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd..

The lawsuit charges that vehicle emissions have contributed significantly to global warming and harmed the resources, infrastructure and environmental health of the most populous state in the United States.”

Library on the Moon

moon David McKa, a (rocket?) scientist, is arguing that the Moon can be used as the best time capsule and a digital store hose for human history. Essentially it would be modern day Library of Alexandria – but this won’t burn down.

Astronauts would setup a digital store house and could update it with future voyages to the Moon.

Storing things on the moon means no worries about oxygen eroding materials. Other environmental concerns that damage books and other materials on Earth wouldn’t be a problem in outer space. The Moon is also the only place that humans have yet to pillage, and should stay that a way for awhile to come.

Madrid Fashion Week Projects Image of Health & Beauty

Its Fashion week in Madrid, but many of the models will be heading home rather than down the catwalk as organizers say they are too thin.

Although it provoked outrage in the modeling community, regional government organizes and sponsors of this international event say this year they want to portray an image of health and beauty rather than Heroine Chic. Organizers say they have a responsibility to project healthy body images and fear that waif-like models may negatively influence young girls. Said event organizer Concha Guerra: “Fashion is a mirror and many teenagers imitate what they see on the catwalk.”

Models are measured using the Body Mass Index, taking into account height and body type. Organizers of a similar event in Italy have vowed to continue the trend.

Carla also wrote in to tell us the fashion show was also mentioned on the CBC.