A few people have pointed out that a number of the points in the previous entry are really grasping at straws. Yes, I have to agree — it's one of those “many experts agree” type stories, where you could also write, “many experts disagree”. So I wanted to expand on a few things.
Homo erectus (stop giggling please) is first seen about 1.6 million years ago (all of these numbers I'm listing could be responded to with “depends on who's numbers you believe” — we really don't have even close to exact figures), with Homo antecessor appearing about 800,000 years later, and then about 100,000 years after that, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis arrives. There is still debate as to how much lineage we (Homo sapiens sapiens, who don't appear in the fossil record until about 300,000 years ago, or perhaps as recently as only 130,000 years ago) share with Neanderthals, and many scientists believe the difference between Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens sapiens is more of a racial difference than a separate species or evolutionary branch.
There is certainly little doubt that humans (as in us) and Neanderthal man lived together for upwards of 40,000 years, and considering their comparable abilities and cultures, probably communicated, traded, and had relations. We have a very small fossil record of what appears to be hybrid humans from about 25,00 years ago, but to be honest, there isn't much conclusive proof as to what happened to the Neanderthals. Personally I think it was a combination of extinction, assimilation, and interbreeding. Others believe anything from simple obsolesce to warfare to Neanderthal man leaving the planet to live with aliens.
It was originally believed that Homo sapiens sapiens was “different” from earlier hominids because of our vocal tract, allowing sophisticated speech. Problem is, Neanderthals also had complex hyoid bones and would have been equally capable of speech. Some scientists have suggested that the true distinction was the invention of ego — the concept of “I”, which is believed not to have existed prior to Homo sapiens sapiens, at least not to the same extent, and is what caused them to conquer the planet.
People underestimate “cavemen” though. We know that man conquered fire well over a million years ago, and it appears that we used mass fires as a part of our hunting techniques during that time period. Neanderthal man buried their dead, and made drums and cups and bowls out of human skulls. I think it's safe to say that the general consensus that it is actually Neanderthal man that is responsible for the cultural awareness of life and death and it is them that originated spirituality and religion (if that's a good thing).
Anyway, I'm kind of rambling. I should provide at least a link to a red hair story in its original context. Of course, if you want to get real goofy, read this (it's from a game, not science, but it's kind of fun).
Anyway, I'm burning a final copy of the BBQ DVD — I had to remaster it because I had some problem with intermixing 1.2 and 1.0 pixel aspect ratio footage so I had to scale it horizontally by 83.3% to make it look right. On the VCD stuff, there are a few artifacts from things like re-rendering 24 FPS footage onto 29.97 FPS media, but I think it's a good DVD — the entire thing is about an hour and forty-five minutes long.
We're just waiting on some screened blank media, and then I have at least four DVDs ready to go:
- The BME BBQ DVD, containing widescreen versions of the last two BBQs, as well as webrenders of every BBQ since July 1, 2001.
- JMEAT, containing the original JMEAT video (urethral play, meatotomy procedure, subincision), as well as a bonus of the original FRNX video (urethral play and sex through stretched piercings).
- EREBLI III, containing, well, you know!
- ModCon, containing procedural videos from multiple years of ModCon (I think about two hours of footage in all).
Those will probably start to become available publicly in two weeks, but that's sort of a guess. They're ready to go, it's just the duplication that's an issue now.
In the news, even though Bush had to admit that there was no such report, that he told the UN anyway that if Iraq didn't disarm, they'd be forced to attack, based on a that [known as false] report claiming there was a nuclear buildup starting. The FBI who originally claimed that they didn't know about 9/11, and then had to admit that they messed up, is now in even deeper hot water: not only did they know about the attacks, but they actually had an informant living with two of the hijackers.
Fact: The US government and big businesses in the US have profitted greatly from the attacks.
Fact: The US government KNEW about the attacks.
Fact: The US government actively stopped agents from stopping or investigating the attacks.
Scary stuff… This isn't a war on terror. This is a class war. This is a war started by the upper classes (using religious fanatics as tools and scapegoats) to smash down the middle classes who are getting too wealthy and are beginning to threaten their power structure.
Of course, if you're to believe some people (and I have to admit I'm looking forward to his new book), this is actually a race war — a race war not between black and white or anything so childish, but a race war between us humans and a reptilian alien race (ever seen “They Live”?).
Can you tell yet that I'm killing time while I wait for this DVD burn to complete?
Post a Comment