A new hominid species?

It might have been unearthed in China:

Last week, an international group of researchers reported the discovery of fossils belonging to a strange population of hominids that lived in southwestern China as recently as 11,500 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch. The fossils resemble modern humans in many ways but possess some unusual characteristics. The traits may be evidence that Homo sapiens were more diverse in the past—or a sign that scientists have uncovered a new species.

[… ] The most dramatic interpretation of the fossils is that they represent a newly discovered species that lived alongside modern humans in East Asia until very recently. Anthropologist Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London thinks that’s a feasible idea. In fact, the fossils could be the remains of the mysterious Denisovans, Stringer told New Scientist. Scientists discovered the Denisovans a few years ago while analyzing DNA recovered from a finger bone found in a Siberian cave that dated to 30,000 to 48,oo0 years ago. The DNA didn’t align with that of modern humans or Neanderthals, the only species known to inhabit the area at the time. Since then, scientists have been looking to match a face to the DNA. This idea will be confirmed only if the researchers manage to retrieve DNA from any of the Chinese fossils.

A less headline-worthy explanation is that these hominids were members of an early, unknown migration of H. sapiens out of Africa. (Genetic evidence indicates there were at least two migrations into Eurasia: one at 60,000 to 70,000 years ago and another at 30,000 to 40,000 years ago.) Once these people settled in East Asia, they somehow remained isolated from other human populations for thousands of years and eventually died out without leaving behind descendants. Under this scenario, the population’s unusual features suggest our species was more diverse thousands of years ago than it is today. This possibility is supported by other fossils found in Africa. Curnoe and his colleagues describe H. sapiens fossils found in East, South and North Africa, dating from 12,000 to 100,000 years ago, that possess a mix of modern and more primitive traits.

Click here for more.

Cameron hits rock bottom

James Cameron has once again stretched himself:

Director James Cameron has made it to Earth's deepest point.

The director of "Titanic" and other films used a specially designed submarine called "Deepsea Challenger" to dive nearly seven miles. He completed his deep dive a little before 8 a.m. Monday local time, according to Stephanie Montgomery of the National Geographic Society.

"All systems OK," were Cameron's first words, according to a statement. He arrived at a depth of 35,756 feet early Sunday evening on the U.S. East Coast.

He plans to spend about six hours exploring and filming the Mariana Trench, about 200 miles southwest of the Pacific island of Guam.

The scale of the trench is hard to grasp — it's 120 times larger than the Grand Canyon and more than a mile deeper than Mount Everest is tall.

The first and only time anyone dove to these depths was in 1960. Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh took nearly five hours to reach the bottom and stayed just 20 minutes. They didn't have much to report on what they saw there, however, because their submarine kicked up so much sand from the ocean floor they couldn't see much.

One of the risks of a dive so deep is extreme water pressure. At 6.8 miles below the surface, the pressure is the equivalent of three SUVs sitting on your toe.

From the AP.

The scale of things: macro to micro

Click here to experience one of the coolest and most mesmerizing websites I’ve ever seen.

A first step for Italy

From Towleroad, news that a Uruguayan man who married an Italian man in Spain, where gay marriage is legal, obtained legal residency papers in Italy:

On the basis of their union, the Uruguayan had applied for a residence permit in Italy, for which foreigners can qualify, either through marriage to an Italian, or through obtaining legal employment.

The residence permit granted to Rafael represents “the first document in Italian history which effectively recognizes the family status of homosexual couples,” said rights group Associazione Radicale Certi Diritti which supported the two men in their legal battle.

Great news in case we ever needed to go that route…

Rhinos May be Extinct in South Africa by 2015

A very sad headline from treehugger:

Now, a renowned rhino activists has issued an estimate that, at current rates, the rhinoceros will be extinct in South Africa by 2015. Karen Trendler, a veterinary nurse who has been working with rhinos for nearly 20 years, believes the sharp increase in poaching activity is unsustainable. "You hate to sound alarmist, you hate to even consider that it could happen," she explained, "but if the poaching continues at the current rate we could eventually see rhino go extinct. There are predictions that by 2015 we could have no rhino."

Trendler points to the growing market for rhino horn in Asia and dealers who have been working to stockpile reserves, hedging against extinction. In addition to this, she says, there is corruption in government and among some organizations designed to protected endangered species obstructing genuine efforts.

More here.

Jimmy Carter

Former President of the United States, in his new book:

“Homosexuality was well known in the ancient world, well before Christ was born and Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. In all of his teachings about multiple things -– he never said that gay people should be condemned. I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.”

Obama: a great President

This is a must watch video.  I sincerely hope he gets reelected, for the good of the country as well as of our family:

The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick is a very talented director whose output is extremely limited (5 movies in almost 40 years!!) and often so artistically overworked, he’s inexorably misunderstood.  Alas, I count myself in the column of those who did not “get” his latest effort.

Synopsis: The Tree of Life is woven with what I guess are multiple storylines that converge in some way into a common resolution.  At the center, we have a very ordinary family that deals with their daily ups and downs until a terrible event shakes it to the core.

While that short description wouldn’t seem too complex or out of the ordinary, The Tree of Life is constructed in such a way that the main story I mentioned above is often interspersed with some of the most magnificent and obscure images I’ve ever seen.  Malick, undisputedly, is a master at crafting the most striking images that ever graced the silver screen, but unfortunately those images in this movie have nothing to do with the advancement of the story per se.  Or rather, since many viewers must have found some meaning in those images, I didn’t find any relation whatsoever between the main story and that magnificent padding.

A movie, at its core, tells a story.  A screenplay lays it out, the actors put it in play, and a director orchestrates the whole thing.  If there’s something on the screen that seems to have no relation to the story the filmmaker is trying to tell, then they shouldn’t be there.  It’s pretty simple.  Now, again, I’m sure the people who “got” the meaning of those images would beg to disagree with me, but for me they were too esoteric and basically detracted from the final product.

The screenplay, by Malick, was another puzzle.  While long parts of the movie have no spoken words (and I don’t have a problem with that), other parts have words that are faded out and indiscernible, bringing me to wonder if Malick’s goal was to tip the balance heavily in favor of what you see versus what you hear.  Again, puzzling.

The Bottom Line: The man is undoubtedly enormously talented.  Every image on screen, whether computer generated or not, is perfectly constructed and would look amazing in an art gallery.  The conceptual story is gripping and makes for great drama.  And the actors all give excellent performances, especially Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain.  But for me, ultimately, this movie was less than the sum of its parts and felt like a drama mixed up with a documentary (or several), which brought the overall grade way lower than I wanted to assign.

Grade: 4

The evolution of the Moon

A beautiful new video from NASA on how the Moon became what we see today:

Carbs are killing you

A former chiropractor of mine linked to this picture in his latest newsletter.  Food for thought:

To see the larger image, click here.

Brokeback Mountain & Adele

A match made in heaven.  Get your tissues ready:

Seeing this montage, I’m reminded once again of how bitter Brokeback Mountain’s loss was in the Best Picture Oscar race to the mediocre Crash.

I wonder how many Academy voters would change their vote now if they could go back.

The Moon helped sink the Titanic

That’s the conclusions a group of scientists have come to after studying the lunar cycles around the time of the infamous liner’s sinking:

"But the lunar connection may explain how an unusually large number of icebergs got into the path of the Titanic," said Donald Olson, a Texas State University physicist whose team of forensic astronomers examined the moon's role.

Ever since the Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, killing 1,517 people, researchers have puzzled over Captain Edward Smith's seeming disregard of warnings that icebergs were in the area where the ship was sailing.

Smith was the most experienced captain in the White Star Line and had sailed the North Atlantic sea lanes on numerous occasions. He had been assigned to the maiden voyage of the Titanic because he was a knowledgeable and careful seaman.

Greenland icebergs of the type that the Titanic struck generally become stuck in the shallow waters off Labrador and Newfoundland, and cannot resume moving southward until they have melted enough to re-float or a high tide frees them, Olson said.

[…] Olson said a "once-in-many-lifetimes" event occurred on January 4, 1912, when the moon and sun lined up in such a way that their gravitational pulls enhanced each other. At the same time, the moon's closest approach to earth that January was the closest in 1,400 years, and the point of closest approach occurred within six minutes of the full moon. On top of that, the Earth's closest approach to the sun in a year had happened just the previous day.

"This configuration maximized the moon's tide-raising forces on the Earth's oceans," Olson said. "That's remarkable."

His research determined that to reach the shipping lanes by mid-April, the iceberg that the Titanic struck must have broken off from Greenland in January 1912. The high tide caused by the bizarre combination of astronomical events would have been enough to dislodge icebergs and give them enough buoyancy to reach the shipping lanes by April, he said.

[…] The team's Titanic research may have vindicated Captain Smith - albeit a century too late - by showing that he had a good excuse to react so casually to a report of ice in the ship's path. He had no reason at the time to believe that the bergs he was facing were as numerous or as large as they turned out to be, Olson said.

Source.

Guacamole and western spaghetti by PEZ

Via Towleroad, two really cool animation videos:

When empathy wins the day

Via Towleroad, an uplifting video of regular beachgoers who promptly come to the rescue of a group of dolphins who had suddenly beached themselves, saving them all from certain death:

This is when I feel proud of my fellow human beings.

Oscar Winners - Best Original Score (2010-present)

And finally, the current decade:

Credits: Winduct.

Oscar Winners - Best Original Score (1934-1939)

 

Credits: Winduct.

Oscar Winners - Best Original Score (1940-1949)

 

Credits: Winduct.

Oscar Winners - Best Original Score (1950-1959)

 

Credits: Winduct.

Oscar Winners - Best Original Score (1960-1969)

 

Credits: Winduct.

Oscar Winners - Best Original Score (1970-1979)

 

Credits: Winduct.

Oscar Winners - Best Original Score (1980-1989)

 

Credits: Winduct.

Oscar Winners - Best Original Score (1990-1999)

 

And given that the Academy split the Score category into Drama and Comedy/Musical from – award years – 1995 to 1998 (a wise decision IMHO that unfortunately was scrapped, likely to shorten the always maligned length of the telecast):

Credits: Winduct.

Oscar Winners - Best Original Score (2000-2009)

 

Credits: Winduct.

83 Best Pictures Winners: 1927/28 to 2010

I couldn’t pass up on this great montage I found on my friend Vittorio’s blog:

A talented dog

This video is beyond adorable:

KONY 2012

The following video is fairly long (30 minutes), but it’s very important that everyone watches it.  You should too.

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

“The Universe is in us”

A beautiful video with a great, inspirational message:

Early humans likely not mass murderers

New evidence would seem to show that our human ancestors were not responsible for the disappearance of the Neanderthals after all:

An international team of researchers has concluded that most of the Neanderthals in Europe died off about 50,000 years ago — some 10,000 years before the arrival of modern humans.

It has generally been assumed that modern humans caused the demise of the Neanderthals, either by killing them directly or by simply out-competing them, claiming the best hunting territories, or surviving more effectively under Ice Age conditions. This new study suggests that none of those scenarios is correct.

[…] On that basis, they concluded that most of the Neanderthals in Europe died out as early as 50,000 years ago. Just a small group survived and had managed to spread out through central and western Europe before modern humans showed up.

[…] It has also been established recently that that although all non-Africans carry a small amount of Neanderthal DNA, Asians have just as much of it as Europeans. This would seem to indicate that any interbreeding took place when modern humans first left Africa, and that the people who migrated from the Middle East tens of thousands of years later had little or no additional contact with Neanderthals once they reached Europe.

More at Raw Story.

Carnival do Brasil

Via Towleroad, a great tilt-shift, time-lapse view of Rio de Janeiro and it’s beautiful carnival celebration.

The City of Samba from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

I’m sure that being in Rio during the carnival season must be an unforgettable experience.

Maybe some day…

Sophia Bush

Star of the TV series One Tree Hill and of several movies, when asked to comment on George Clooney’s assertion that gay rights are “the final leg of the civil rights movement”:

“When we’re talking about the ’60s, when my best friend couldn’t drink out of the same water fountain as I can because his skin is a different color than me … now, you’re talking about a different best friend of mine who can’t get married even though I could get married seven times in my life and he can’t do that because he is a different sexual orientation than me?!  That’s absolutely a civil rights issue.  Anyone who says that it isn’t is misinformed.”

George Clooney

Oscar, SAG, and Golden Globe winner, star of countless movies and TV shows, now an established writer and director as well, on the rights of gays and lesbians in America:

"It’s always been this albatross that stood out to me as the final leg of the civil rights movement. It really came to a head during the 2004 elections, when it was used as a wedge issue, and it was a very effective tool to keep the Republicans in office and to avoid talking about other issues. Well before Prop. 8, I’ve made the point that every time we’ve stood against equality, we’ve been on the wrong side of history. It’s the same kind of argument they made when they didn’t want blacks to serve in the military, or when they didn’t want blacks to marry whites. One day the marriage equality fight will look as archaic as George Wallace standing on the University of Alabama steps keeping James Hood from attending college because he was black. People will be embarrassed to have been on the wrong side. So it’s encouraging to know that this too will seem like such a silly argument to our next generation."

And then there were 8

Even though, once again, it might just be temporary…

Last Thursday, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, passed by the legislature the week prior, into law.  However, the forces of evil were at work trying to undo the positive change even before the governor held the signing ceremony.

From Towleroad:

Governor Martin O'Malley will make Maryland the eighth state to legalize same-sex marriage when he signs a marriage equality bill today, the Baltimore Sun reports:

Gov. Martin O'Malley is set for a victory lap today when he signs into law his hard fought measure to legalize same-sex marriage. The signing is set for 5 p.m. in the State House.

There will be waiting, however:

But even with the governor's signature, same-sex couples won't get Maryland marriage certificates until the law goes into effect in January 2013 -- at the earliest.

Given the likelihood that the signature collection effort will be successful, let’s hope that the people of Maryland choose equality over bigotry.