Welcome to the Monday edition of your open thread. The weekend was way to short and the election feels like it was months ago, even though it was less than a week ago. Anyone else have that feeling?
This is an interesting science story – using mathematical modeling methods, scientists have moved back the period of human evolution from 5 million years ago to 8 million years ago.
But that estimate rests on a thin fossil record. By looking at all of today’s primate species, all of the known fossil primates and using DNA evidence, computer models suggest a longer evolutionary timetable. The new analysis described in the Systematic Biology paper takes into account gaps in the fossil record and fills in those gaps statistically.
Such modeling techniques, which are widely used in science and commerce, take into account more overall information than earlier processes used to estimate evolutionary history using just a few individual fossil dates, Martin said. It can give scientists a broader perspective for interpreting data.
One example is a skull fossil discovered in Chad (central Africa) earlier in this decade. The fossil, named Sahelanthropus tchadensis and nicknamed Toumaï (which means “hope of life” in the local Goran language), raised great interest because it has many human characteristics. But consensus on how to classify the discovery has been elusive particularly because the fossil is about 7 million years old, well beyond the accepted time frame for human evolution.
Under the new estimate, Toumaï would fall within the period after the human lineage split from chimpanzees, Martin said.
Science deniers use gaps in the fossil record to argue that evolution is not true but our knowledge keeps getting better and better. I rarely see them say anything when a new transitionary fossil is found – do you?
Honest, to God, stuff like this just makes me want to scream. Why do Democrats panic so badly whenever they lose an election? Why run to the nearest reporter to spout idiocies about Obama not feeling middle class pain or not being an extrovert like Bill Clinton? Bill Clinton! For chrissake, I like and defend the guy, but he was an extrovert who felt people’s pain and he lost 54 seats in the 1994 midterm. No one cared if he felt their pain. Likewise, no one cares if Obama feels their pain. They want jobs, not pursed lips and moist eyes.
This stuff is so inane, so ego-driven, so self-destructive that it drives me crazy. Why are Democrats such idiots?
Seriously, how do we get Democrats to stop apologizing for trying to do things and get them to start selling ideas? It drives me nuts too? Yes, Democrats took a big loss on Tuesday, no doubt about it, but the GOP already showed us 2 years is a long time in politics and things will change. Instead of crying in the corner, I wish Democrats were planning the fight.