More hair than wit, and more faults than hairs

Right, I have lots of little things on my mind today. The main one may prove to be the death of John Peel. But before that I thought I would include this link, which the queenofsky attracted my attention to. Is Dubya considering compulsary conscription if re-elected?http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/defendamerica-draftboards.htm

Farewell then John Peel. Great voice; funny taste in music (early Kylie!?!) Is it me, or are people dying younger. All the recent deaths I can remember are: Peel (65); Derrida (74); Superman (52); Johnny Ramone (55); Brando (80). That's an average of 65.2. Which is a bit of a worry. Mind you, they may not represent the most healthy demographic: one fat bastard, a nutter, a shattered superhero, a Frenchman and a Kylie fan.

They have found a new species of midgets in Indonesia. [No sensible web links exist right now, but I will put one in if I find it.] Today's Nature reports that bones have been found of three foot hominid type creatures, who are being provisionally named Homo Floriniensis. They lived on the island of Flores up to 12000 years age, the end of the last ice age. To put this in perspective, proper modern humans reached Australia over 40000 years ago. This little island, Flores, also had mini elephants, which is quite cool. However, this categorisation of the species will not last long. I know from my scull fondling days in the UCL Anthropology department the rough typology of hominid sculls. There is nothing about these little folk that suggests they should be "Homo" anything, despite the fact that they may have descended from Homo Erectus. They are to "human" as hedgehog is to rhino. So don't believe the silly hype about "hobbits" being found. Chris Stringer at the BM was quoted as saying "This makes us question what makes us human." No it doesn't Chris. It reinforces the difference between our species and other types of ape. Anyone who still thinks that tool use and hunting in groups makes these critters in some way "human" needs to read Jane Goodall's research into chimpanzees. Even language is not a great indicator. If it is established that they cooked, though, which looks possible, this discovery will become even more interesting.

I saw TB in the press vowing to crack the crime wave blighting Blighty. Tone, even if their was a crime wave (and I'm not sure, to be honest), do you really think we trust you to defeat it. Your last crime cracking bright idea involved frogmarching offenders to cashpoints, didn't it? Get back in your box, your funny little fellow.

posted by Jim @ 9:43 AM