Potsdam, New York
October 2002
Watertown, New York
October 2009
My little hula girl Layla has always been a centerpiece for my desk. Whenever I’m faced with writer’s block or a mountain of work, she can wiggle away my problems. These pictures are my homage to the little plastic beauty.
The archaeological world was rocked this week when scientists announced the discovery of a 4.4 million year old fossil skeleton; the oldest prehuman remains ever discovered. Ardi, short for Ardipithecus ramidus represents an exciting piece of our evolutionary past by possessing both human and primate traits. “She’s not a chimp. She’s not a human. She shows us what we used to be,” said paleoanthropologist Tim White of the University of California-Berkeley. Before Ardi’s discovery, Lucy, a 3.8 million year old Australopithecus afarensis, was the oldest early human skeleton yet discovered. Experts believe this new discovery is very, very close to the ‘missing link’ common ancestor of humans and chimps, thought to have lived 5 to 7 million years ago.
The fossils were found in what is known as the Middle Awash, a site in Ethiopia’s Afar Rift, northeast of the capital city of Addis Ababa. The rift is a large triangular depression, where sediments have been accumulating for millions of years. Now parched desert, the landscape was once wet and heavily wooded, with fresh water springs and forests teeming with wildlife.
The first glimpse of Ardi came in 1992 when a former UC Berkeley grad student discovered a tooth among desert pebbles. In 1994, two pieces of a bone from the palm of a hand were discovered by another student. It snowballed from there, leading to the discovery of 110 other skeletal fragments, as well as 150,000 specimens of fossil plants and animals. But the bones were in terrible condition, trampled and scattered so bad that what remained of the skull measured a mere two inches in height. So entire blocks of fossil-rich rock were moved to the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. It took years to remove the clay from the fragile fossils. Ardi’s fossilized remains were very fragile, sometimes disintegrating when they were touched.
No doubt the coming months will be filled with much debate over the theories behind this new discovery. In the meantime, bask in the glow of that which is sexy archaeology!
All of the exciting research can be found in the October 2nd edition of the journal Science.
Not a subscriber? No worries. Head over to the AAAS website where all 11 papers pertaining to this new discovery are available online for free.
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Here’s what you need to know about Ardi:
From: Sexy Archaeology
Plans are being made for the installation of an information storage bank on the moon, experts said at a science meeting Strasbourg, France.
The so-called “Doomsday ark” would provide the tools for the reconstruction of the human race in case civilization is ever destroyed, The Sunday London Times reported.
The ark’s basic version, which would be buried close to the moon’s surface, would include hard discs containing DNA information and instructions for growing crops and metal making, the report said.
The underground vault reportedly would transmit data to strongly guarded receivers on Earth.
“Eventually, it will be necessary to have a kind of Noah’s ark there, a diversity of species from the biosphere,” scientist Bernard Foing said.
The first ark, which would have a 30-year lifespan, is expected to be installed on the moon by 2020 at the latest. The completed archive should be ready by 2035, scientists said.
From Physorg.com
I sighed under the amber glow of the street lights and watched her go. Her footsteps echoed off of the suburban canyon walls. The crickets sighed. I mourned.
She left me alone in the streets, holding our memories. Gone were walks in the park, hand in hand, drifting without destination. There would be no more sunset bonfires or midnight swims. Behind us were the days that stretched on and on, chased by nights too hot for blankets and too fun to forget. I’d long for the sapphire eyes I woke to every morning, her radiant smile and lips that tasted like… mmm, apple blossom. I’d miss running my fingers through her sand colored hair and how her skin smelled of cocoa butter with a hint of chlorine. What I wouldn’t give to feel her warm hands on me, her cool kisses on my forehead. All the memories with friends and family, all countless occasions just being together made me thank the stars to be alive. But from this minute forward I would be forced to live in a world that would only grow darker, colder and harsher. A world without her.
I said goodbye to Summer and watched her go.
She didn’t look back.
By far one of the best documentaries I’ve seen this year, which says a lot.
CONFESSIONS OF A SUPERHERO chronicles the lives of three mortal men and one woman who make their living working as superhero characters on Hollywood Boulevard. This deeply personal look into their daily routines reveals their hardships and triumphs as they pursue and achieve their own kind of fame. The Hulk sold his Super Nintendo for a bus ticket to LA; Wonder Woman was a mid-western homecoming queen; Batman struggles with his anger, while Superman’s psyche is consumed by the Man of Steel. Although the Walk of Fame is right beneath their feet, their own paths to stardom prove to be long, hard climbs.
You can watch this film on Hulu or check out the trailer below.
This is by far the funniest, yet saddest thing I have read all year. It is a comment that pertains to this article from The Independent. Read the article, then come back here and chew on this little tater tot of stupidity.
Sadly, you have bought into a group of theories that are centuries old and are largely questioned by most scientists, if not abandoned for the abundance of contrary evidence. These theories are propped up by an ignorant media and public education.
1) Evolution has never been proven to have occurred at a macro level. There should be thousands of examples, and there are a handful of questionables.
2) Mutation is a theory that literally won’t work due to the odds being so against it, you might as well be trying to throw a rock over the moon. Almost all mutation has negative or fatal consequences, and certainly successive mutation would contain mostly negative effects and the organism would not survive more than a generation, if at all. Do the math…it doesn’t work.
3) These fossils are always just pieces of a whole, and must be reassembled. That introduces the element of making assumptions and guessing based on preconceptions. Meaning, when they reassembled the skull, we’re assuming here that it fit together perfectly and without question could only measure 600cc. I’m betting you could bring in 12 different scientists and get 12 different measurements.
Evolution is such a hot, polarizing topic. There are a lot of questions and contrary evidence that should make us question even the foundation of the theory. However, due to the social climate, even considering this brings ridicule. It’s sad. Future generations will look back at these times and proclaim it a dark age, at least as far as paleontology is concerned.
Please read the article (A skull that rewrites the history of man…) and if you happen to come across anyone who thinks like the numskull above, encourage them not to reproduce. Or engage in scientific debate.
Henderson Harbor, NY
September 1, 2009
A backdrop for my series Windy Harbor, Henderson Harbor has always been one of my favorite places in Northern New York. The picturesque little village was the setting for many great memories growing up. I snapped this while driving along its empty streets. It was my incredible luck that the picture was level and the telephone pole perfectly centered.
The new Matthew Good album is now streaming on matthewgood.org, a full month before the official release. Head over there now and give it a listen.
Three years ago, Steve Irwin, iconic Australian television personality, wildlife expert, and conservationist was killed.
Students at SUNY Potsdam organized a memorial service to remember the life of the man that forced “Crickey!” into the public lexicon.
Fact: The story was subsequently featured as one of CNN’s top iReport stories of 2006.
Wildebeests, antelope, and other iconic African animals are declining just as quickly in Kenya’s parks and reserves as in the country’s unprotected lands.
That’s the finding of a recent study that questions a central tenet of Kenya’s wildlife conservation strategy.
Based on existing data, the team estimates that key animal populations have fallen by 40 percent over the past 30 years both inside and outside parkland.
The work seems to confirm what Kenyan environmentalists have suspected for years:
Aside from a few success stories, such as elephant and zebra conservation programs, efforts to sustain wildlife numbers in Kenya seem to be failing due to poor monitoring and enforcement. Read more.
Far across the Ocean is an empty room I once called home.
As most of you may know, my feet are currently planted on US soil. It’s true, I’m back in NY, enjoying the last bits of summer. I hit the ground running two weeks ago and have just now found time to post something. I’ll quickly summarize what’s going on.
Finally, thanks to everyone for the phone calls, emails, text messages and expressions of happiness at my return . You’ve made my return home feel extremely special and it means a lot to me.
More soon.
BRAINSSSSS…. somebody has them.
AMC is venturing into zombie-drama territory with multi-hyphenate Frank Darabont.
Cabler is close to finalizing one of the richest development deals ever with Darabont to write and direct a series adaptation of the Image Comics graphic novel series “The Walking Dead,” penned by Robert Kirkman. Gale Anne Hurd ofValhalla Motion Pictures and David Alpert of Circle of Confusion are also on board to exec produce.
Project is set among a group of zombie survivors of an apocalypse who are led by a police officer, Rick Grimes, in search of a safe place to live. Numerous editions of the “Walking Dead” graphic novels have been published since 2003.
Joel Stillerman, AMC’s senior veep of programming, production and original content, said the project appealed to the cabler because of “the quality of the storytelling” in Kirkman’s work. The series will stay faithful to the tone of the original novels, he said.
“This is not about zombies popping out of closets,” Stillerman said. “This is a story about survival, and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to survive under these circumstances. The world (in ‘Walking Dead’) is portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way.”
Stillerman noted that the cabler’s annual “Fear Fest” movie showcase around Halloween is one of AMC’s most popular programming events of the year.
“We’ve got an audience that loves this kind of material,” he said.
Darabont and Hurd pitched the project to AMC and several other outlets. There is no studio attached yet. The duo’s involvement made the project a must-have for the cabler, Stillerman said.
“These are two world-class filmmakers who are also brilliant storytellers with experience in the fantasy genre,” he said.
From Variety
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Let me be the first to say that Nathan Fillion will make the perfect Rick Grimes.
Whoever said that social networking juggernaut Facebook would never help find a cure for cancer, combat global warming or quell the spread of malaria in Africa was just wrong, wrong, wrong. I mean, they were right until Intel came along to turn these hypothetical assertions into realities, but now, they deserve to be ridiculed for their lack of foresight.
As Ars Technica reports, Intel has partnered with Facebook and GridRepublic to create the new Progress Thru Processors application that lets users contribute their computers’ unused processing power to various BOINC (grid computing)-based programs, including Rosetta@home, Climateprediction.net, and Africa@home. One of the application’s most notable features is that it lets users differentiate between multiple projects, rather than having to commit all of their resources to just one destination.
Ultimately, the purpose of Intel’s partnership deals is to use Facebook’s ubiquity to get the word out on BOINC and its capabilities as it relates to this new application. Plus, you can post your processing contributions to your profile, so you can rub your superior humanitarianism in all of your friends’ faces.
From G4
