Frodo Lived!
Scientists uncover possible new species of human
Ok, not really. But this story from CNN and a like spot on my local public radio station certainly is fodder for all those geeky middle earth fans in the world ( fights urge to raise hand). Fascinating stuff for all of that too.
Basically the story deals with a race of proto humans or near humans who got stranded on a small tropical island and, because of environmental pressures, evolved in a race of very wee folk. It sort of reminds me of stories I've heard about fish and fish bowls -- that fish will only grow as large as there surroundings allow. Apparently this phenom is common to mammals, they eventually evolve to be smaller and smaller due to limited food supplies and living space
It is possible that they made there way to the island by means of a wooden shoe . . .Scratch that. That's silly. Bamboo rafts is the genuinely theorized conveyance. Wooden shoes are just nonsense.
Anyway, supposedly this gang of adorable proto hobbits hunted equally diminutive proto elephants which the radio spot described as being about the size of a 'large bottle of water' How cute is that?
They made tools and cooking fires, and hunted the leetle tiny elephants in leetle tiny organized groups. Given that and the relatively late date of their demise ( the remains have been dated to 18, oo0 years ago, a volcano laid waste to the island 12,000 years ago) it is possible that they used language too (human language as we know it is theorized to be something like 50,000 years old). I bet their voices would be squeaky and child like - a whole tribe of Shirley Temples maybe.
I have a very similar problem. I've got a race of tiny people living in my ear. They tell me stuff all of the time. Kill this person, kill that person, gorge yourself on chocolate, sour patch kids and beer and the like. They tend to give extraordinarily bad, though none the less persuasive, advice. I wonder if the scientists working on the little hobbit folk would like to know about them too? I wonder if they'd let me hang out with them and talk shop? I'm thinking not.
On a related note the great, mighty and wise Kurt Vonnegut wrote about the Chinese evolving into tiny match-stick sized people in his novel 'Slapstick' According to the novel the Chinese set about to shrink themselves because of pressure caused by over population. Eventually they got too small to interact meaningfully with the rest of the world and sort of separated themselves from it. Meanwhile the rest of the Earth went to hell in a handbasket, but the little Chinese, buoyed by superior technology and infinitesimal food requirements, flourished. The novel's main focus isn't incredible shrinking Chinamen ( and women) though, so if you decide to read it based solely on that premise, you will be disappointed.
Yesterday
Yesterday was a full moon. I wonder if that was why I was feeling so strange.
Scientists uncover possible new species of human
Ok, not really. But this story from CNN and a like spot on my local public radio station certainly is fodder for all those geeky middle earth fans in the world ( fights urge to raise hand). Fascinating stuff for all of that too.
Basically the story deals with a race of proto humans or near humans who got stranded on a small tropical island and, because of environmental pressures, evolved in a race of very wee folk. It sort of reminds me of stories I've heard about fish and fish bowls -- that fish will only grow as large as there surroundings allow. Apparently this phenom is common to mammals, they eventually evolve to be smaller and smaller due to limited food supplies and living space
It is possible that they made there way to the island by means of a wooden shoe . . .Scratch that. That's silly. Bamboo rafts is the genuinely theorized conveyance. Wooden shoes are just nonsense.
Anyway, supposedly this gang of adorable proto hobbits hunted equally diminutive proto elephants which the radio spot described as being about the size of a 'large bottle of water' How cute is that?
They made tools and cooking fires, and hunted the leetle tiny elephants in leetle tiny organized groups. Given that and the relatively late date of their demise ( the remains have been dated to 18, oo0 years ago, a volcano laid waste to the island 12,000 years ago) it is possible that they used language too (human language as we know it is theorized to be something like 50,000 years old). I bet their voices would be squeaky and child like - a whole tribe of Shirley Temples maybe.
I have a very similar problem. I've got a race of tiny people living in my ear. They tell me stuff all of the time. Kill this person, kill that person, gorge yourself on chocolate, sour patch kids and beer and the like. They tend to give extraordinarily bad, though none the less persuasive, advice. I wonder if the scientists working on the little hobbit folk would like to know about them too? I wonder if they'd let me hang out with them and talk shop? I'm thinking not.
On a related note the great, mighty and wise Kurt Vonnegut wrote about the Chinese evolving into tiny match-stick sized people in his novel 'Slapstick' According to the novel the Chinese set about to shrink themselves because of pressure caused by over population. Eventually they got too small to interact meaningfully with the rest of the world and sort of separated themselves from it. Meanwhile the rest of the Earth went to hell in a handbasket, but the little Chinese, buoyed by superior technology and infinitesimal food requirements, flourished. The novel's main focus isn't incredible shrinking Chinamen ( and women) though, so if you decide to read it based solely on that premise, you will be disappointed.
Yesterday
Yesterday was a full moon. I wonder if that was why I was feeling so strange.
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