Enough!
Current mood: inspired
Category: News and Politics

Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves - protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.

Our government should work for us, not against us.  It should help us, not hurt us.  It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.

6:12 PM - 21 Comments - 20 Kudos - Add Comment

DNA and babies
Current mood: curious
Category: Life

As most of you know I am about to have a baby any day now.  It's caused me to think a lot about life and what makes us who we are.

As I sat smoking a cigarette in the back yard last night a question popped into my mind and it went something like this:

When we pass on half of our genetic makeup to our children does it also pass on our current state of health, or is it rather just our pure DNA without current harmful influences? 

Now I am aware that certain diseases and abnormalities can be transmitted through DNA to the child.  This makes sense in instances of cancer, physical handicaps, congenital defects, etc.  But does that also include, say, a person who has recently contracted an illness like TB or a person who has developed a skin cancer because of prolonged sun exposure? (For the record I have neither of these things)   Will that condition manifest itself in the child as he ages because it was present inside the body of one of his parents at the time of conception?   Or does it merely put the child at risk for developing such things like someone having an increased risk of heart attack because of a family history of heart diease?  Maybe the current health of the parent has no effect on the DNA of the baby.  I just don't know. 

I am certainly no scientist or doctor but I'm really curious about it.  Does anyone have any insights or can point me in the direction of someone who does? 

Still no baby name yet but we've narrowed it down to a short list.  Keep tossing names out if you think of any.

9:49 PM - 16 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

What did Jesus sound like?
Current mood: curious
Category: Religion and Philosophy

I mean no disrespect with the title of this post; I am honestly curious. 

This came out of a conversation I had with my youngest daughter Ani.  She asked how it is that Jesus looks so different in different pictures.  I explained that Jesus lived during a time before pictures and even before realistic paintings.  So people have to kind of guess what he looked like.  That's the reason you see him look like a European person in some paintings and more like an African or Mediteranian in others.  (This caused a detour in the conversation where I had to whip out a map to show her the different areas and how people have different skin colors in different regions)

Well Ani grasped most of this but then she tossed out a question I was unable to easily answer: What did Jesus sound like?

I chose to tackle it from the easiest direction I could think of first.  I explained that he was a Jew and therefore spoke the language of Hebrew.  I pulled up an example of a modern day Israeli speaker so she had an idea.  Then she asks if Jesus had a high voice like the speaker in the audio clip or a deep voice like me. 

I said "I don't know pookie and no one can say for certain."  

She accepted my feeble answers at face value and ended the conversation.  But it did get me to thinking, what exactly did he sound like?  I am aware that the Hebrew spoken today is pretty different than the version spoken in the New Testament era.  Is there any kind of historical record of the dialect or speech patterns of 1st century Jews?   Any hints in the Bible?  I am honestly curious.

On another related note - Did preachers and prophets of the era use their voices as a means to be heard or rather rely on word of mouth?

10:43 PM - 17 Comments - 22 Kudos - Add Comment

Goodbye George
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

George Carlin has passed away...

My first reaction was one I think George would have appreciated....

Shit, Fuck, Goddamn...

YOU, SIR, WILL BE VERY SORELY MISSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Currently reading : Three Times Carlin: An Orgy of George By George Carlin Release date: 2006-10-31

2:07 PM - 23 Comments - 24 Kudos - Add Comment

The Great "Help Wade find a baby name" Game!
Current mood: silly
Category: Life

EPISODE I...

Hello out there in Myspace land!!
[Cue applause]

It's time for your favorite game show, the one that gets ya all juiced up for fun and frivality...
[Cue "oohs"]

It's time for The Great "Help Wade find a baby name" Game!
[Cue thunderous screams and roars of delight!]

That's right sports fans, this is your opportunity to find the perfect name for Wade's very soon to be arriving baby boy.  You see, Wado and his beautiful lady love Laura [cue loving applause] are in a pickle.  They just cannot seem to find the right name for their little man.  His current "place card" name is Yoda.  Given that's the name of the baddest little green mofo this side of Toshi Station, it will not be the name of the baby.  I know, I know...some of you are thinking "I like the name Yoda."  Well, it will not be his name or otherwise we would not have the game.

OK, here's how it works.  You, the adoring populace, get to suggest what the name for the wee one will be.  We here at The Great "Help Wade find a baby name" Game will form a committee to determine the five finalists.  The process will be completely arbitrary and influenced solely by the committee's tastes.  If the committee, that would be Wade and his lady love Laura [cue loving applause] of course, choose your selection you will win these amazing prizes:

[Cue rip-off 'Price Is Right' music]

A HEARTY THANK YOU
A PICTURE OF ______

12:47 AM - 68 Comments - 34 Kudos - Add Comment

Words of Wisdom from my eldest - Mayrose
Current mood: amused
Category: Life

OK, so I've posted a few "words of wisdom" in the past but they've usually come from my youngest daughter Ani.  She's 6 and as such has pearls of wisdom at her disposal.  This time however, it came from my soon to be teenager Mayrose, 12. 

I was doing what I usually do around 5:30pm CST - watching NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (I call him Bri Bri and no we are not related.).  Bri Bri began with an item on the dramatic weather all over the country in recent days - everything from extreme heat in the Northeast (On a side note, it's only 91 degrees people.  It was 98 degrees here) to large flooding in the midwest. 

I watched a home somewhere in the midwest be completely consumed by the rushing torrent of water from a bloated river.  The home was literally taken, intact, from the eroded riverbank and carried downstream. 

I called May out from her room as I am want to do when I see something interesting on th news that I want to share with my kids.  I believe it's very important to let my kids see the world around them and to ask questions about it.

Here's a brief  note on May - She's incredibly bight and mature for her age and also has a gift for dry wit.

I hit rewind on my DVR (Bless that device and whomever invented it) and played the moment back for her, commenting on the power of nature to completely wipeout a home whole.  Her remark was priceless and one I couldn't help but smile at:

May: Mother Nature doesn't like the gas prices either.

Wade: Nice May!

7:07 AM - 13 Comments - 16 Kudos - Add Comment

A very simple comment on Hillary’s speech
Category: News and Politics

That was the finest speech you've ever given Senator Clinton and I sincerely applaud you for it.  As a father of daughters I felt it was inspirational, as a Democrat is was a strong endorsement of unity and shared values, and as an American it was honest and courageous example of the best in our political system. 

I thank you for that!

3:31 PM - 25 Comments - 22 Kudos - Add Comment

UPDATED: Uncontacted Amazon tribe photographed
Category: Life

..


Now this is one of the cooler stories I've read in quite a while.  An isolated Amazon Indian tribe with absolutely no contact with the "civilized" world was photographed by a small airplane deep in the Amazon rainforest. 

"Well great Wade, but so what?"

The so what in this context is the mere fact that there are "uncontacted" groups of humans on this planet at all.  For all the talk about the "global village" and the "interconnected planet", here are a small group of people living off the land - and with it! 

They don't know about cell phones and microwaves and something tells me they are doing just fine, thanks.  We talk so much about how far humans have advanced and perhaps we haven't really advanced much at all.  How many of you reading this could handle a life and environment like what's described in the story below?  I suspect very, very few of you and that includes me.  These people play "Survivor" everyday and it's not a game to them.  In the picture above you see they are shooting arrows at the plane.  I say good for them!!!  They may not have cell phones and microwaves but I bet they also don't have high rates of heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure - all classic effects of living in our "civilized" world. 

Best of luck to this tribe and I wish them nothing but the best - and to be left in peace.

Uncontacted Amazon tribe photographed

Amazon Indians from one of the world's last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with striking images released on Thursday showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows.

The photographs of the tribe near the border between Brazil and Peru are rare evidence that such groups exist. A Brazilian official involved in the expedition said many of them are in increasing danger from illegal logging.

"What is happening in this region is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilized' ones, treat the world," Jose Carlos Meirelles was quoted as saying in a statement by the Survival International group.

One of the pictures, which can be seen on Survival International's Web site (www.survival-international.org), shows two Indian men covered in bright red pigment poised to fire arrows at the aircraft while another Indian looks on.

Another photo shows about 15 Indians near thatched huts, some of them also preparing to fire arrows at the aircraft.

"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct," said Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International, which supports tribal people around the world.

Of more than 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, more than half live in either Brazil or Peru, Survival International says. It says all are in grave danger of being forced off their land, killed and ravaged by new diseases.

Anthropologists have known about the group for some 20 years but released the images now to call attention to fast-encroaching development near the Indians' home in the dense jungles near Peru.

"We put the photos out because if things continue the way they are going, these people are going to disappear," said Jose Carlos Meirelles, who coordinates government efforts to protect four "uncontacted" tribes for Brazil's National Indian Foundation.

Shot in late April and early May, the foundation's photos show about a dozen Indians, mostly naked and painted red, wielding bows and arrows outside six grass-thatched huts.

Meirelles told The Associated Press in a phone interview that anthropologists know next to nothing about the group, but suspect it is related to the Tano and Aruak tribes.

Brazil's National Indian Foundation believes there may be as many as 68 "uncontacted" groups around Brazil, although only 24 have been officially confirmed.

Turning backs on civilization
Anthropologists say almost all of these tribes know about western civilization and have sporadic contact with prospectors, rubber tappers and loggers, but choose to turn their backs on civilization, usually because they have been attacked.

"It's a choice they made to remain isolated or maintain only occasional contacts, but these tribes usually obtain some modern goods through trading with other Indians," said Bernardo Beronde, an anthropologist who works in the region.

Brazilian officials once tried to contact such groups. Now they try to protectively isolate them.

The four tribes monitored by Meirelles include perhaps 500 people who roam over an area of about 1.6 million acres.

He said that over the 20 years he has been working in the area, the number of "malocas," or grass-roofed huts, has doubled, suggesting that the policy of isolation is working and that populations are growing.

Remaining isolated, however, gets more complicated by the day.

Closing in and converging on  
Loggers are closing in on the Indians' homeland — Brazil's environmental protection agency said Friday it had shut down 28 illegal sawmills in Acre state, where these tribes are located. And logging on the Peruvian border has sent many Indians fleeing into Brazil, Meirelles said.

"On the Brazilian side we don't have logging yet, but I'd like to emphasize the 'yet,'" he said.

A new road being paved from Peru into Acre will likely bring in hordes of poor settlers. Other Amazon roads have led to 30 miles of rain forest being cut down on each side, scientists say.

While "uncontacted" Indians often respond violently to contact — Meirelles caught an arrow in the face from some of the same Indians in 2004 — the greater threat is to the Indians.

"First contact is often completely catastrophic for "uncontacted" tribes. It's not unusual for 50 percent of the tribe to die in months after first contact," said Miriam Ross, a campaigner with the Indian rights group Survival International. "They don't generally have immunity to diseases common to outside society. Colds and flu that aren't usually fatal to us can completely wipe them out."

Survival International estimates about 100 tribes worldwide have chosen to avoid contact, but said the only truly uncontacted tribe is the Sentinelese, who live on North Sentinel island off the coast of India and shoot arrows at anyone who comes near.

Last year, the Metyktire tribe, with about 87 members, was discovered in a densely jungled portion of the 12.1-million-acre Menkregnoti Indian reservation in the Brazilian Amazon, when two of its members showed up at another tribe's village.

5:53 PM - 26 Comments - 24 Kudos - Add Comment

Perhaps all religions are speaking the same language
Current mood: curious
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Suppose we've all misinterpreted God.  Perhaps all religions are speaking the same language; that the God(s) of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Wicca, etc are all the same.  Is it that hard to imagine? 

I was reading an article about an Einstein letter being auctioned this week that addresses some of the great scientist's conflicting views of religion and the role of God.  The entire letter is not printed in the article but the highlights relative to religion are very interesting. 

I've read a famous quote of his before that reads "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."  I think this encapsulates the twin motivations of both disciplines: To explain, and therefore justify, our existence. 

We humans are a curious bunch.  We appear to be the only animal that is capable of cognitive thought.  Naturally we seek to explain to ourselves why we are here and for what purpose.  It starts as a fundamental thing: I am here because I am alive.  That next logical step is where things get a bit tricky.  The "how" and "why" of my existence. 

And that's where the foundations of religion and science diverge.  As Einstein pointed out, they are not mutually exclusive.  Yet the answers to "how", and most especially "why" are profoundly different for most humans.  We are all different, therefore our understanding - our mental processes - will color our perception of the ourselves and world around us.

This brings me back to the original statement of this post: Maybe we are all trying to explain the same thing.  The same cosmic mulch or guiding light that explains why and how.  In the letter Einstein is quoted as saying "I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws."  So it is safe to say his "god" (or point of view) was different from traditional Judao-Christian belief.  Is he wrong or right? 

That's it!  No one has the market cornered on that answer because we all have differing ideas.  Perhaps the most astounding thing about us humans is the fact that we even form the ideas and questions in the first place.  

2:59 PM - 28 Comments - 26 Kudos - Add Comment

Dr. King statue accused of being "socialist"
Category: News and Politics

Does the look of this bother you?  I ask because I read an article today (full article below) that discussed concerns raised by the The US Commission on Fine Arts over the style and look of the proposed Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. statue that will be placed at his memorial in the Tidal Basin of D.C. next year. 

The concerns have to do with the stylistic choices of the chief artistic consultants and the lead sculpture, a renowned Chinese artist Lei Yixin.  The commission is upset that the depiction has a quality that too closely resembles that of classic Communist statues in Russia and China.  There is also concern with the choice of having Dr. King posed in such a way that the Commission feels is too harsh and less "organic" than they originally proposed.

For some context here is the entire article.  I will give you my thoughts at the end:

Panel: Rework 'confrontational' MLK statue

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts thinks "the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries," commission secretary Thomas Luebke said in a letter in April.

By law, no project like the memorial can go forward without approval from the commission, the federal agency that advises the government on public design and aesthetics in the capital.

A model of the statue has been built in China. The project's chief architect, Ed Jackson Jr., huddled with advisers this week in Ann Arbor, Mich., to discuss ways to address the commission's objections before sculpting of the granite statue begins.

"We said: 'Okay, this is what the commission said. How best can we achieve that and retain what we have accomplished thus far?' "

It is the second time in recent months that the memorial to the slain civil rights leader has come under fire. Last year, critics complained after a Chinese sculptor known for his monumental works of figures such as Mao Zedong was selected to create King and other elements of the memorial in China.

The $100 million memorial, which is being built largely with private donations by the Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, is planned for a crescent-shaped four-acre site among Washington's famed cherry trees on the northwest shore of the basin. Construction is expected to start this year and end next year.

The centerpiece is to be a 2 1/2 -story sculpture of the civil rights leader carved in a giant chunk of granite. Called the Stone of Hope, it would depict King, standing with his arms folded, looming from the stone. At 28 feet tall, it would be eight feet taller than the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.

Vision generates criticism
The King memorial has been authorized by Congress, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2006. Its general design was approved by the seven-member federal commission that year, based on drawings of the Stone of Hope that showed a more subtle image of King, from the waist up, as if he were emerging organically out of the rock, the commission said.

But since the drawings have been developed into detailed models, the vision has generated criticism. The latest round came with the commission's April 25 letter to the foundation, which followed an April 17 hearing on the project.

Commission members said the sculpture "now features a stiffly frontal image, static in pose, confrontational in character," Luebke wrote. They "recommended strongly that the sculpture be reworked, both in form and modeling" and cited "precedents of a figure emerging from stone in the works of sculptors such as Michelangelo and Rodin."

The commission objected to what it perceived as the loss of the subtle way King seemed to be coming out of the stone in the drawings, Luebke said.

"I think that the metaphor of Dr. King being merged with the natural forces of this stone is absolutely essential to avoid colossal monumentalization," commission member N. Michael McKinnell said at the April 17 meeting.

Jackson, the executive architect, said his design team had aimed for a powerful yet reflective representation of King.

"The image of Dr. King had to be inspirational," Jackson said yesterday. "It had to be an image that projected this man as an intellectual. It had to be an image that projected Dr. King as someone in thought."

As for the idea of King materializing from the stone, Jackson said he met this week in Michigan with the project's artistic consultants, James Chaffers and Jon Lockard of the University of Michigan, to consider modifications "to even more enhance that concept of the individual emerging out of the stone."

The team wants to hold on "to the power and inspirational image" of the current version, he said.

The sense of confrontation in the sculpture is not a coincidence. "We see him . . . as a warrior," Chaffers said yesterday. "We see him as a warrior for peace . . . not as some pacifist, placid, kind of vanilla, but really a man of great conviction and strength."

"It's hard for me to put my arms around" the criticism that the sculpture smacks of Social Realism, Jackson said.

"When you look at something of this scale . . . things are bolder because of the scale of the project itself," he said. "Artists, either in Russia or China or other places where they actually do have a history of this, those artists have a common understanding of the material and what you can and cannot do," he said.

Sculptor's foreign background under fire
Last year, the foundation selected Chinese master sculptor Lei Yixin to work on the memorial. He was banished to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution but is now considered a national treasure with a lifelong stipend from the government.

Critics said that an African American artist, or any American, would have been preferable. And at least one black sculptor, Ed Dwight of Denver, has said Lei's models do not resemble King.

"Everybody has this problem with how Dr. King is represented," Dwight said this week. "You can't satisfy anybody, because everybody remembers him in a different way."

The memorial foundation has said that Lei is internationally renowned and was selected for his experience with large public sculptures.

On May 1, members of the National Capital Planning Commission, who must also approve the project, voiced other complaints about the design.

"My image of Dr. King is of him leaning forward in anticipation, holding his chin or raising his arm," rather than standing with his arms folded, Commissioner Michael McGill said.

Commissioner Jose L. Galvez III said he thought the sculpture lacked a sense of King's power. "How do you get that power better portrayed?"

Jackson said the depiction of King with his arms crossed comes from a photograph.

"Deliberately we chose an image of Dr. King when he is standing in front of his desk with his arms folded," Jackson told the planning commission.

"We were hoping to give an image of Dr. King that was thoughtful, that . . . projected an image of someone who is really wanting America to give serious thought to the information and ideas that he wanted to pass on to us in his lifetime."

As for the sense of power, "I assure you the power is there," Jackson said. "It will take your breath away."

1:21 PM - 22 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

Words of wisdom from my 6 year old Ani - Episode 3
Category: Life

Words of wisdom from my 6 year old Ani - Episode 3, last night...

[Ani enters the house with her butterfly cage.  In it are two small lizards she's found from the back yard.]

Ani: Wado, come here and look!

Wado: What is it pookie?

Ani: The green lizard is beating the brown lizard up.  Make them stop. 

Wado: Well sweetie, I told you it was possible that one might attack the other.  Some animals are like that.  We should seperate them.

Ani: But I want them to be friends. 

Wado: I know Ani but that may not work.

Ani: How come they don't like each other?   Because they are different colors?

Wado: Perhaps. 

Ani: Why do they hate each other just because they are different colors?  Aren't they made of the same stuff inside?

[I bent over and gave Ani a kiss on the forehead]

Wado: Yes they are pookie.  Yes they are.

Sometimes I wish I could bottle her child's intuition and give it back to her when the world has colored her eyes and thoughts.  Priceless!!!

12:49 PM - 20 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

It’s hard to be committed to change abroad when there is so much that needs to be done at home
Current mood: contemplative
Category: News and Politics

It's hard to be committed to change abroad when there is so much evidence of the same problems here in America.

Class, poverty, health care, violence and violent people, poor infrastructure and an inadequate educational system. All are sources of decay both here and abroad.
I work for an educational nonprofit that focuses on community involvement in the classroom and I see a lot of the same things I've identified above. There are some wonderful programs we offer to at-risk children to keep them in the system and not dropping out onto the streets. It is hard work and often one feels no sense of validation on a macro level. Yet, when I see and hear stories of kids that swear it was a mentor or program of Communities In Schools (my agency) that literally saved their lives, I am reminded that change does come from the ground up. It's a small amount of solace in an otherwise depressing environment.

There are the sayings such as "the personal is political" and "be the change you want to see in the world."  To me both of these statements are attempting to say the same thing - you must make an effort to change the environment and social structure around you to affect real change in the larger world.  Of course that is easier said than done.  Yet we Americans take far too much for granted and are far too inwardly focused to appreciate the decay of the society around us. 

We are not motivated nor mandated by our government to do anything to help the collective.  I am not talking about communes and other socialist structures so much as a goal to aspire Americans both young and old to serve their fellow citizens in a meaningful way.

An example: Our decaying infrastructure.  Most of our highways, rail lines and bridges were built over 50 years ago during the time of the New Deal and WWII.  We were motivated by extreme poeverty caused by the Great Depression and rising fears of global weakness to countries like Germany and Japan.  We Americans built the roads, bridges and sewers that make up the modern American infrastructure of today.  And today it is falling apart nation wide.  Now I sincerely hope it does not take a national crisis to motivate the country to fix our problems in this area.  It probably will unfortunately.   

Kennedy inspired us to go to the moon in less than ten years - we did.  Granted it was the hard work and dedication of NASA and its employees that got us there, but it would not have happened without a President bold enough to declare it and (most importantly) a society willing to get behind it.

What we need in my humble opinion is a national service requirement for all citizens.  Perhaps 2 years of service in a number of ways - joining the military, working for AmeriCorps or other social service agency, or participating in charity work.  I am not saying it should require the citizen to lose 2 years of income in the private sector.  Perhaps it could be structured in such a way that the citizen can maintain a paying job and participate in national service. 

I understand the difficulty in inacting such a proposal and the fights it would cause, but I think if every American spent some time with a student, gave some time in a hospital, helped educate a prisoner, cleaned up a dirty river or lake, or any other type of social service work we could make a real difference on the macro level.

Any thoughts or suggestions? 

2:50 PM - 18 Comments - 13 Kudos - Add Comment

Well I guess we humans got damn lucky!
Current mood: jedi
Category: Life

The article below discusses new scientific evidence that concludes that human beings were nearly wiped out approximately 70,000 years ago due to a severe drought.  It is suggested that we could have been reduced to numbers as low as 2,000.

Now think about that for a second. 

Only 2,000 of us on the planet. 

I find that very humbling.  Amazing what genetics can uncover.  This should serve as a reminder to every single freakin' one of us - yes, including you there trying to hide in the back - that we are all temporary guests on Hotel Earth.  I don't know about you folks but I sure as hell think that if it happened once when there were smaller numbers of us, it almost certainly will happen again.

We have grown from 2,000 to 6.6 billion in a little over 70,000 years. 

My guess is the next near extinction will be self-induced unless we take steps to reduce our footprint on this planet and be respectful of it. 

It's alive people, and it can bite back. 

Phew! Humans may have faced extinction

The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.

The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.

"This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species' history," Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence, said in a statement. "Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA."

Wells is director of the Genographic Project, launched in 2005 to study anthropology using genetics. The report was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Previous studies using mitochondrial DNA — which is passed down through mothers — have traced modern humans to a single "mitochondrial Eve," who lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

The migrations of humans out of Africa to populate the rest of the world appear to have begun about 60,000 years ago, but little has been known about humans between Eve and that dispersal.

'On the very edge of extinction'
The new study looks at the mitochondrial DNA of the Khoi and San people in South Africa which appear to have diverged from other people between 90,000 and 150,000 years ago.

The researchers led by Doron Behar of Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel and Saharon Rosset of IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and Tel Aviv University concluded that humans separated into small populations prior to the Stone Age, when they came back together and began to increase in numbers and spread to other areas.

Eastern Africa experienced a series of severe droughts between 135,000 and 90,000 years ago and the researchers said this climatological shift may have contributed to the population changes, dividing into small, isolated groups which developed independently.

Paleontologist Meave Leakey, a Genographic adviser, commented: "Who would have thought that as recently as 70,000 years ago, extremes of climate had reduced our population to such small numbers that we were on the very edge of extinction."

Today more than 6.6 billion people inhabit the globe, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The research was funded by the National Geographic Society, IBM, the Waitt Family Foundation, the Seaver Family Foundation, Family Tree DNA and Arizona Research Labs.

12:15 PM - 7 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment

REPOST: My tribute for Earth Day - Another way to look at our home
Current mood: contemplative
Category: News and Politics

April 22, 2008:

In honor of Earth Day I am reposting one of my favorite blogs.  It was originally posted last year.  Not just on this day, but every day, please remember that we are all stuck on this little rock together so it's in our collective self-interest to get along with each other and the place we call home.  - Wade

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So I've been thinking about "home".  Not in the in the familiar, personal way we feel about where we live, but in the much LARGER picture.

Take a look at this:

This is the one of the first photographs ever taken of the Earth completely in full.  It was taken by astronauts during the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon.  Why do I bring this up?  Well, I think many people out there have forgotten that we all live on the same planet. 

Do you see national borders? 

How about here:

This is a view of the African and Indian continents.  The big junk of water running between is the Persian Gulf.  The sliver connecting them?  Why, that's the middle east.  See any borders?  When taken from the distance of space it appears as one large piece of rock.  Yet we fight over that rock. 

Our world, our Earth, our home!

We are all live under the same roof.  We all have the same address in the universe.  We are all roomies of a sort.  This little ball is all we have to call our home and yet we argue over it, fight wars over it, steal from it, and disrespect it - over and over again. 

When you see the stunning beauty of it from space it makes even the most cynical among us soften.  How can you not be amazed by it?  I think we all forget that we are just the smallest of creatures living on a tiny object in a GIANT universe.  So I am going to leave you all with some sheer beauty and some wonderful quotes from a few of the lucky, lucky people that've had the pleasure to see it - our home - from the ultimate view.  Look at the images and read the words.  Take a moment to appreciate this home of ours.  It is the only one we have. (Many thanks to Kelli and Laurie for the help)

6:34 AM - 9 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

I Want To Believe...July 25th

For all you X-Files fans out there (and I know you're there!) like me, here is some news that made me giddy like a school boy for the new film and go "Perfect" when I read it! 

Do you believe...I do!!!  ;)

Enjoy!

Truth is out there about 'X-Files' movie title

LOS ANGELES - The truth is finally out there about the new "X-Files" movie title.

The second big-screen spinoff of the paranormal TV adventure will be called "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," Chris Carter, the series' creator and the movie's director and co-writer, told The Associated Press.

Distributor 20th Century Fox signed off on the title Wednesday.

The title is a familiar phrase for fans of the series that starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents chasing after aliens and supernatural happenings. "I Want to Believe" was the slogan on a poster Duchovny's UFO-obsessed agent Fox Mulder had hanging in the cluttered basement office where he and Anderson's Dana Scully worked.

"It's a natural title," Carter said in a telephone interview Tuesday during a break from editing the film. "It's a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. 'I Want to Believe.' It really does suggest Mulder's struggle with his faith."

"I Want to Believe" comes 10 years after the first film and six years after the finale of the series, whose opening credits for much of its nine-year run featured the catch-phrase "the truth is out there."

Due in theaters July 25, the movie will not deal with aliens or the intricate mythology about interaction between humans and extraterrestrials that the show built up over the years, Carter said.

Instead, it casts Mulder and Scully into a stand-alone, earth-bound story aimed at both serious "X-Files" fans and newcomers, he said.

"It has struck me over the last several years talking to college-age kids that a lot of them really don't know the show or haven't seen it," Carter said. "If you're 20 years old now, the show started when you were 4. It was probably too scary for you or your parents wouldn't let you watch it. So there's a whole new audience that might have liked the show. This was made to, I would call it, satisfy everyone."

Hardcore fans need not worry that the movie will be going back to square one, though, Carter said. The movie will be true to the spirit of the show and everything Mulder and Scully went through, he said.

"The reason we're even making the movie is for the rabid fans, so we don't want to insult them by having to take them back through the concept again," Carter said.

Carter said he settled on "I Want to Believe" from the time he and co-writer Frank Spotnitz started on the screenplay. It took so long to go public with it because studio executives wanted to make sure it was a marketable title, he said.

The filmmakers have kept the story tightly under wraps to prevent plot spoilers from leaking on the Internet, a phenomenon that barely existed when the first movie came out in 1998.

"We went to almost comical lengths to keep the story a secret," Carter said. "That included allowing only the key crew members to read the script, and they had to read it in a room that had video cameras trained on them. It was a new experience."

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