The NY Times reports the discovery of 11,400 year old remains of figs from a prehistoric site near the town of Jericho, in the West Bank. This is apparently the earliest known evidence of domesticated fruit.
Category: Uncategorized
Costly Signaling
I really like John Hawks Anthropology Weblog and urge all of you interested in those sorts of things to visit it often. Earlier this week, he commented on a journal article that tested a current anthropological theory on show-off behavior among hunter-gatherer peoples. Traditional models of hunter-gatherer behavior used by cultural anthropologists and archaeologists have …
Boy Pirate
The pirate ship Whydah sank in a storm off the Massachusetts coast in 1717. When it was discovered by underwater archaeologists in 1984, it was the first authenticated wreck of a pirate ship ever found. The wreck has been the focus on an on-going research project since its discovery, with over 100,000 artifacts recovered that …
Dust in the Desert
I listened to this piece on NPR this morning while driving in to work. It says we have a dust problem in arid areas of the western states because the biologically produced crusts on the soils there are being disturbed. Off-road vehicles and cattle-ranchers are blamed, “…dust storms are the result of tires and hooves.” …
Matchmaker Lawsuit
Only in California could you pay a matchmaker $125,000 to introduce you to men to date and later sue and win $2.1 million when you don’t meet one you like. I hope Overlawyered sees this.
A Contract Written in Blood
That used to be a figure of speech, but the LA Times tells us of a real one that is the center of a lawsuit in Orange County. It’s an IOU for $170,000 written in blood on a cocktail napkin. The dead-tree edition has a picture of it – sorry they didn’t post it on …
Reading Leigh Fermor
I’m glad Steve posted on Patrick Leigh Fermor who he and Robert D. Kaplan introduced me to recently. Kaplan tells of a memorable luncheon he had with Sir PLF at the conclusion of his excellent book Mediterranean Winter. After reading “A Time of Gifts” and “Between the Woods and the Water” he is rapidly becoming …
Quote du jour
“I can’t die yet: I have too many people left to kill!” Yojimbo
“Particular Spaces”
Pluvialis has just posted a nothing less than brilliant piece that starts at the Oxford animal labs, roams through various “AR ” issue such as the invisibilty of slaughter and the “squeam” factor, and ends with a ringing phone. Her notion of the different spaces that our culture is beginning to make for animals and …
Another Hero..
.. of mine, anyway, is my friend Bill Wise. He is a writer, sportsman, hunter, and shooter, and a former surfer. He has flown in gliders, dived, and saied with Hobie Alter. He has shot more than a few whitetails,and he has drunk beer and eaten green chile at the famous Owl Bar in San …