Psychohistory

Well, that's what it looks like: analysis of large aggregations of human behavior yeild enough data to predict the future of the DOW with 87.6% accuracy.   Its even more analogous when you figure in that if the tweeters learn about the predictions, the outcome will change.

Twitter Predicts the Stock Market | Singularity Hub

Bollen, Mao, and Zeng fed the 9.8 million tweets into OpinionFinder and GPOMS and compared the trends they found to the Dow. The emotional lens that seemed to have a strong correlation to the stock market was ‘Calm’. When the calmness of tweets changed, two to six days later the Dow would fluctuate in about the same way.

Passive Voice has been Studied

A large chunk of English speakers use a grammar that does not include passive sentences.  

Many English speakers cannot understand basic grammar

"If a significant proportion of the population does not understand passive sentences, then notices and other forms of written information may have to be rewritten and literacy strategies changed.

"What's more, the existence of substantial individual differences in native language attainment is highly problematic for one of the most widely accepted arguments for an innate universal grammar: the assumed 'fact' that all native speakers of a language converge on essentially the same grammar. Our research shows that they don't."

Meet the in-laws ...

These are not new results, but more details are emerging.   Neanderthal genes occur randomly at the 1%-4% level in non-African humans, yet there is no sign of modern human genes in the Neanderthal samples.

Neanderthals and humans interbred, fossils indicate - USATODAY.com

Stocky, thick-browed and heavy-boned, the Neanderthals last shared a common ancestor with the African precursors to modern humans about 500,000 years ago. The Neanderthals populated the Near East and Europe until they vanished from the fossil record about 30,000 years ago. The gene maps produced by the DNA analysis of the bones found Neanderthal genes scattered randomly among non-Africans, Paabo says, indicating they don't account for any racial differences between modern-day Africans and anyone else. Also, the study finds no sign of human genes intruding into the Neanderthal lineage.

Neanderthals still with us.

Comparison of the entire genome of nearly 2000 people world wide reveals evidence that is best explained by two episodes of interbreeding with Neanderthals at 60K and 45K years ago.



Neanderthals may have interbred with humans twice

The research was carried out by a group of genetic anthropologists from the University of New Mexico, and leader of the team, Jeffrey Long, said the findings mean Neanderthals did not completely disappear, but “there is a little bit of Neanderthal left over in almost all humans.”

The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariners

Unexpected find: Hominids with seafaring technology advanced enough to sail to Crete.  Wonder if they had pirates, too?

Primitive Humans Conquered Sea, Surprising Finds Suggests

Crete has been surrounded by vast stretches of sea for some five million years. The discovery of the hand ax suggests that people besides technologically modern humans—possibly Homo heidelbergensis—island-hopped across the Mediterranean tens of thousands of millennia earlier than expected.

14,000 year old map discovered

World's oldest map: Spanish cave has landscape from 14,000 years ago - Telegraph

A stone tablet found in a cave in Abauntz in the Navarra region of northern Spain is believed to contain the earliest known representation of a landscape.

Engravings on the stone, which measures less than seven inches by five inches, and is less than an inch thick, appear to depict mountains, meandering rivers and areas of good foraging and hunting.

Map of Ancient Roman City Unearthed

Ancient Roman City Rises Again -- Curry 2009 (730): 1 -- ScienceNOW

Altinum was eventually abandoned entirely. Most of the ancient city's stones were stolen in the Middle Ages to be reused elsewhere. Land-reclamation efforts in the 19th century turned the area from marsh into farm fields. "Altinum is unique because it was not built upon in later times," Mozzi says. Previous archaeological excavations have focused mainly on the city's necropolis, located outside the walls; this is the first-ever glimpse of the city's layout.

Neanderthal speared by a human

It looks possible that 50,000 years ago, at least one human threw a spear at a Neanderthal, hit him and perhaps lead to his death weeks later.

Human Stabbed a Neanderthal, Evidence Suggests | LiveScience

Newly analyzed remains suggest that a modern human killed a Neanderthal man in what is now Iraq between 50,000 and 75,000 years ago. The finding is scant but tantalizing evidence for a theory that modern humans helped to kill off the Neanderthals.

Neanderthals, where on Earth did you go?

It seems they found a Neanderthal skull, with butcher marks, in a human bone midden.  

How Neanderthals met a grisly fate: devoured by humans | Science | The Observer

But not every team member agrees. "One set of cut marks does not make a complete case for cannibalism," said Francesco d'Errico, of the Institute of Prehistory in Bordeaux. It was also possible that the jawbone had been found by humans and its teeth used to make a necklace, he said.

...

"This does not prove we systematically eradicated the Neanderthals or that we regularly ate their flesh. But it does add to the evidence that competition from modern humans probably contributed to Neanderthal extinction."

Hobbits may have evolved from H. habilis

This article has a good description of recent results based on foot structure.  It also has a family tree diagram with Hobbits included. 





Palaeoanthropology: Homo floresiensis: from head to toe : Article : Nature

These features suggest that H. floresiensis evolved from a species that was anatomically more primitive than classic H. erectus from Asia. One possibility (Fig. 2) is that H. floresiensis evolved from H. habilis, whose skeleton is poorly known but is australopith-like in many respects. Another is that H. floresiensis descended from an earlier type of H. erectus, whose body may have been much less modern than we currently credit, and which perhaps deserves a separate species designation (H. ergaster).

This was a clever try, but it still triggers the curse.

The Mummy X-posed: The face of an Ancient Egyptian priestess revealed after 3,000 years | Mail Online

She has lain undisturbed for nearly 3,000 years, sealed in a decorated coffin ready for her voyage to the underworld.

Now the face of Meresamun, a priestess who sang in the temples of Ancient Egypt hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, has been revealed to the world for the first time.

Using a hospital scanner, scientists were able to peer inside her closed casket, and see through the layers of linen that protected her mummified features.

Neanderthals more likely to have O blood type?

Several interesting consequences if borne out, including this one that observes O type blood suggests long isolations for certain types of disease.

Neanderthals might have made good blood donors - life - 09 January 2009 - New Scientist

"It is interesting that Neanderthals have a high O frequency, because the other group with a high O frequency today is native Americans," Hawks says. "They're not closely related, but they may have experienced similar environments to the extent that they might have been isolated from diseases that came from Africa and South Asia."

Anatomically modern humans, in the kitchen, with a lead pipe.

This interesting modeling technique reveals clues that point to extinction most foul.

Competition, Not Climate Change, Led To Neanderthal Extinction, Study Shows

The researchers conclude that the Neanderthal populations that occupied what is now southern Spain were the last to survive because they were able to avoid direct competition with modern humans since the two populations exploited distinct territories during the cold climatic conditions of H4. They also point out that during this population event contact between Neanderthals and modern humans may have permitted cultural and genetic exchanges.

Copernicus Found

Scientists say Copernicus' remains, grave found

Researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton and hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books. The findings could put an end to centuries of speculation about the exact resting spot of Copernicus, a priest and astronomer whose theories identified the Sun, not the Earth, as the center of the universe.

Hobbit on NOVA

The show provides an excellent summary of the findings.
See it in Quicktime, here:

NOVA | Alien From Earth | Watch the Program | PBS

From Cave Paintings to the Internets

This timeline site  chronicles developments in information storage.  There are a lot of important and interesting tidbits to be found, along with greatest hits like the Dead Sea Scrolls.


From Cave Paintings to the Internet: 70,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE Timeline

Evolution's other big driver

Sometimes its no survival of the fittest ... its just survival that matters.


'Space invader' DNA infiltrated mammalian genomes - life - 20 October 2008 - New Scientist

The team thinks that the hAT transposon invasion occurred about 30 million years ago and spread across at least two continents. "It's like a pandemic, and one that can infect species that weren't genetically or geographically close. It's puzzling, scary almost," Feschotte says.

It may not be a coincidence that the time of the invasion coincides with a period in evolutionary history that saw mass mammal extinctions. This is usually attributed to climate change, Feschotte says, but it is not crazy to suppose that this type of invasion could contribute to species extinction.

The hAT transposon does not occur in humans, but some 45% of our genome is of transposon origin.

Neanderthal Mitochondrial DNA Sequenced

Mitochondrial DNA places the human/neanderthal split at 660K years ago, with no or very rare interbreeding likely.




Leg bone yields DNA secrets of man's Neanderthal 'Eve' | Science | The Guardian

Researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, read the complete sequence of DNA held in tiny biological powerhouses called mitochondria, which provide energy for cells. The mitochondria are only passed down the female line, so can be used to trace the species back to an ancestral "Eve", the mother of all Neanderthals. The team analysed the DNA of 13 genes from the Neanderthal mitochondria and found they were distinctly different to modern humans, suggesting Neanderthals never, or rarely, interbred with early humans. The genetic material shows that a Neanderthal "Eve" lived around 660,000 years ago, when the species last shared a common ancestor with humans.

Hobbit Feet

Flores 'hobbit' walked more like a clown than Frodo - being-human - 16 April 2008 - New Scientist

And because of their long feet, H. floresiensis probably had to bend its knee further back than modern humans do, resulting in a sort of high-stepped gait. "You would watch these hobbits walk and say they're walking a little funny," Jungers says

Neanderthals Voice

Neanderthals sounded like Eric Cartman. Interesting.

Neanderthals speak out after 30,000 years - being-human - 15 April 2008 - New Scientist

Talk about a long silence – no one has heard their voices for 30,000 years. Now the long-extinct Neanderthals are speaking up – or at least a computer synthesiser is doing so on their behalf.