Up until last month, the oldest known hominid-manufactured stone tools dated to approximately 2.6 million years ago and came from a site at Gona, Ethiopia. In April, Science Magazine reported on a conference paper announcing that tools dating to 3.3 million years ago had been discovered at a site near Lomekwi, Kenya. This is a VERY …
Author: Reid Farmer
Springtime in Colorado
We woke up to this this morning. Forecasts saw we could get another six inches in the next 24 hours.
California Dry
Anyone who has been paying attention to the news here in the US knows about the current extreme drought in California and all the problems that it’s causing. My daughter who lives in Long Beach said in a message some weeks ago, “Remember back in 2010 when it rained and rained here and we had …
Future Telephones As Envisioned in 1930
But we never got the flying cars we were promised! H/T Ace of Spades
Skeleton of Ottoman War Camel Discovered in Austria
Archaeologists in Austria have excavated the intact skeleton of a camel in a suburb of Vienna. It appears this camel was used by the Ottoman Army in the failed siege of Vienna in 1683. Detailed analysis of the remains showed that it had worn a harness and had been ridden. Additionally, it proved to be …
Neanderthal Hearing
Remember about three weeks ago when I posted about Neanderthal jewelry and said the more we find out about them, the more like us they seem? Maybe I was a little hasty. For the first time, researchers in France have been able to isolate and identify the bones from the inner ear of a Neanderthal. It …
The Cutting Edge of Social Trends
An article in the New York Times tells us that coloring books for adults is now “a thing” as we say these days. One popular adult coloring book has sold 1.4 million copies since 2013. The article tells us that many of these crayon enthusiasts buy multiple copies of the same coloring book so they …
Some Archaeology News from Alberta
A number of years ago I did a post about a Pleistocene horse-kill site that had been found in Alberta. This was the first Paleoindian horse-kill site ever found. A few years later a Paleoindian camel-kill site, also the first ever found, was located near by. The first assessment by Brian Kooyman, who excavated the …
Where Did Everyone Go?
It’s not unusual for us to see raptors buzzing the deck with a resultant mad scramble of birds on the feeders heading to cover. We don’t usually get to see the hawk or falcon, just the scattering prey. I don’t know much about the raptors’ success rate, but there is currently a pile of …
More Helen Rockstar
New York Review of Books Press is now using the H is for Hawk connection in ads for its edition of The Goshawk. UPDATE Helen sent us the schedule for her April American book tour. As she told us, it’s rather coastal. If she’s going to be near you, go see her. 4/7 Tuesday …