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Written by Edit-bot
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Friday, 03 April 2009 16:45 |
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Recently discovered rock blades are around 500,000 years old While rough stone implements have been dated to over 2.6 million years old, blades made from rock were thought to have been much more modern. Until recent years, rock blades had not been dated any farther back in the past than approximately 40,000 years. Based on this time-frame, it was widely believed that the skill to make long sharp edges in stone was a characteristic emerging with Homo sapiens - relatively modern humans. This theory has slowly been 'eroding' away. In 2008 stone blades were discovered in the Middle East which dated to nearly 300,000 years and were produced by Homo neanderthalensis. In early 2009 still older rock blades were unearthed in the Baringo Basin of Kenya belonging to an era 543,000 years in the past. Our direct ancestor, Homo sapiens, is believed to have emerged between 200,000 and 270,000 years ago - meaning that the sharp-edged tools were made by an earlier ancestor. The stone blades were discovered in Kenya's Baringo Basin by paleonathropologists Cara Roure Johnson and Sally McBrearty, both of the University of Connecticut, Storrs. "This is the oldest known occurrence of blades," Johnson reported at the 2009 annual meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society. |
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Written by Hayley Birch
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Tuesday, 31 March 2009 16:09 |
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 Geeks love electric guitars.... go figure!
A brigade of science-loving musicians calling themselves "sci-pop" artists have been playing at a virtual festival called Geek Pop. The geeks got together (albeit online) at the beginning of March to perform songs about science across four virtual stages. But, by virtue of it being an online event, the geekery continues all year, with tracks available to download free of charge.
Festival organiser, Jim Bell, says the highlights so far have been many and varied. "I was particularly smitten with Dalmatian Rex and the Eigentones' ode to the octopus, but I've also got to big up Intercontinental Music Lab - they're awesome," he says. "Anyone new to the festival should check out the Lost and Found tent, which is harbouring all sorts of virtual filth including an odd sock, a glass eye and someone called Bill's virginity."
Other highlights include medics Amateur Tranpslants on the Tetrahedron Stage, science writer Stuart Clark masquerading as a rock god ("Dr Stu and the Neutron Stars - they're heavier than metal!") and the Human League's old support band in a new guise (On Rails) making music out of sine waves.
The festival site is online at www.geekpop.co.uk |
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Written by Edit-bot
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Thursday, 19 March 2009 00:24 |
 'Liberate yourself from the Original Mumbo-Jumbo that liberated you from the Original Sin you never had.' So claims the top of the 'de-baptism' page on the UK's National Secular Society website - available the end of this article. The Christian rite of Baptism is performed on a child to liberate them from the 'original sin' of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Once baptised in some countries / jurisdictions, there doesn't seem to be a way to become de-baptised. But now, at least in the UK, you can now regain your non-baptised status! Sadly only available to residents of the UK. The Secular Society De-Baptism certificate costs only GBP £3 for a single copy and £10 for a five-pack; which the site claims will '... liberate you and your friends and family from the Original Mumbo-Jumbo that liberated you from the Original Sin you never had'. Read More to find the text of the certificate! |
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Written by Opinion-bot
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Wednesday, 18 March 2009 00:00 |
 Benedict XVI says condoms ' increase the problem of AIDS...' Upon landing in Africa on his first visit to the continent as Pope, before leaving the plane Benedict XVI told reporters that AIDS was a “tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”. The Vatican machinery immediately went into motion, claiming that the Pope had meant that use of a condom 'increases' the problem of AIDS rather than 'aggravates' it. Benedict XVI's statement maintains a hardline anti-condom position, despite more liberal perspectives within the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Carlo Martini notably has taken a more reformist stance, such as in 2006 when he publically stated that use of condoms may represent a 'lesser evil' and an 'obligation' when used by married couples where one of the partners has AIDS. Many health organisations as well as a variety of spokespersons from national governments have condemned the Pope's statement. Roselyne Bachelot, the French Health Minister, claimed that there was no evidence to indicate that the availability of condoms resulted in greater sexual promiscuity, branding the concept 'a monstrous scientific untruth'. |
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Written by Edit-bot
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Thursday, 10 July 2008 00:00 |
 More mundane than mystical |
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