1 million year old hominid tooth found in Spain

A tooth from 1 to 1.2 million years old that comes from what seems to be a human ancestor has been found in Spain. The immediate suggestion is that the tooth is from an ancestor of Homo antecessor.

more candidates need to support open source voting systems

It's still a long way away from me picking a candidate for the 2008 presidential election, even though i won't vote for Clinton unless it's her versus a Republican. I find her repugnant otherwise.

I'm trying to keep track on each Democractic candidates platform.

Edwards is for open source voting systems. This is a far more important than anyone realizes. When history shows how not just the 2000 election was stolen, but 2004 as well, the privatization of our voting systems will be recognized as one of the major stumblings in the fall of our democracy.

Hrat Dink murder trial begins Monday, July 2nd

This story on the trial of the murder of Hrant Dink is depressing. Much evidence, including video from security cameras near the crime scene, has disappeared. The alleged gang ties seems to be true as well.

squashing Clovis First

It's well and good to read that squash was being cultivated 10,000 years ago in the Americas, in Peru, no less, but if this is solid research, doesn't this completely destroy Clovis first once and for all?

Hunter-gatherers race across the Bering Strait, pour down through North America and Central America, and then decide to start farming?

Unlikely.

The first wave of people to arrive in the New World came before 11,500 years ago. Thank you, squash, for another nail in the coffin of that theory.

more on Norwegian "Incan" skeleton

Aardvarchaeology weighed in on that "Incan" skeleton in Norway, and he seems to completely dismiss it.

I think he's right, but I'd still enjoy seeing someone check for genetic material or test the enamel of the teeth to see where the person grew up. If i had to wager a bet, i would have put money on him being a homegrown mutant of that particular trait, but since the bones are available, why not test them? Ruling strictly by Occam's Razor comes off as dogmatism sometimes, even if it's usually right.

ongoing controversy of the Bruno Schulz frescoes

The controversy about the frescoes painted by Bruno Schulz being spirited away to Israel from a private apartment has me a little confused. The removal itself is old news, but there are a couple of columns that i have noticed debating the issue, one pro, one con.

2007 International Man Booker

It completely slipped past me that Chinua Achebe won the second International Man Booker. Good. I confess i have not read any of his work, but it's good to see it go to an author not from Britian orAmerica, even if Achebe does write in English. Recognizing an author who writes in a language other than English would have been preferable, but check the 2005 shortlist against the 2007 shortlist, and it will make perfect sense why I groused about that 2007 shortlist

public school memories

I don't know where this originally came from, but I went to public school in Tangipahoa Parish in Louisiana.

In 5th grade, i was sent to the office, and given detention, because i argued with the teacher that Washington state and Washington DC are two different places. She never admitted being wrong, nor would anyone support my insistence that they just happened to have the same name. When i explained what happened to the principal, he said that i must never argue with the teacher, and didn't want to hear about geography. Children were in school to learn obedience.

In 9th grade, i was given lines to write in punishment (because of something that i might have actually done wrong, like refusing to do my homework for no good reason,) that were, "I will obey those in authority because God put there there."

That's just off the top of my head.

One of the weirdest things though, was in my extremely conservative school, was in 4th grade, when Reagan was shot. I didn't like Reagan because my parents didn't, but i was upset when he was shot. My classmates cheered. The whole school was overjoyed. I'm still baffled and a little scared by that. Of course, the Ku Klux Klan was big in the area at the time.

Neandertal genome

Do they have enough material to do this?

still not convinced of "Incan skeleton" being from "Viking era"

Lookee here... another story on the Incan skeleton in Sweden. There's not once shred of new news though. I'd love to see those other two skeletons (the other adult male and the baby) dated. I know that they got around, but that's a little too far.

What's the odds of a mutant?

don't mistake having an opinion for machismo

This Roberto Bolano review was making me wince for the first half. I've only read one of the two books, but the criticisms were getting to me. Oddly, some of the same criticism that were leveled against the new Borges biography are used on Bolano:

Exercised by the "who's-the-daddy?" bickering that is a lamentable aspect of Latin American literature, he was not short of acerbic opinions on his peers.

Is that really "lamentable"? Go ahead. Talk shit about Bolano. He might well deserve it, and even if he does not, it gives me a another angle to approach his work... but talking shit about him talking shit? Silly.

Look what that "politeness" has wrought in American politics, false bipartisan turds like Lieberman.

Being too thin-skinned about one's new idols is a terrible fault of mine. By the end of the review, i was relieved to read:

The most important test that Bolano triumphantly sails through as a writer is that he makes you feel changed for having read him; he adjusts your angle of view on the world. His vision can be disturbing and dark but it is not cold: humour and compassion are never far away.

High praise, and exactly how i came away from Last Evenings on Earth. My copy of My Night in Chile came in yesterday, although it's low in the TBR stack, as i'll explain later.

you see, they're in this box....

Yesterday we discovered at work that a couple of sites that were previously blocked are now coming through clearly. The big revelation this morning is that YouTube works now. It's not as if i really can watch YouTube all day when i have work to do, but i'm a bit giddy. YouTube doesn't work so well at home obviously.

Thanks to video, i think that i finally get Battles though. It's sad that i need visual supplementary to sell me on the band, but i'm getting something conceptually that i wasn't convinced of no matter how hard i listened, no matter how many reviews i read.



It doesn't look as mechanical as i felt it to be. It looks genuinely as fun as it's supposed to be (bouncy rhythm and singing machine-elves,) while remaining hermetically sealed.

Thank you, video medium. I apologize that i'm so intellectually stunted. Please know that while i'm of the age that i should be well acquainted with music videos, because i lived so far out that cable was not available, i never learned to take them for granted.

i like the implication of these Miocene apes

Remember that recent story that implied that chimps were "more evolved" than humans?

It had me wondering if the ape ancestor to both humans and chimps was actually more humanlike in some respect, possibly bipedal. Again, i'm an ignorant bastard who loves to speculate, sometimes too wildly.

Today i read a John Hawks post that made me all giddy. In new research, the dates aren't matching up with the known genetic divergence of humans and chimps versus the age of these Miocene apes. It seems to suggest that the bipedal Miocene apes are not direct ancestors. the bit that made me happiest to read was this fragment of Hawks' post:

Is it possible that bipedal apes long preceded the divergence of humans and chimpanzees? Was the common ancestor of the two lineages a biped? Or was significant vertical posture a common feature of many Miocene apes -- making Sahelanthropus a possible homologue of Oreopithecus?

Yeah! Well, at least on the first two questions.

Silvina Ocampo

In rooting around for a copy of the Borges edited The Book of Fantasy just now, which doesn't seem to be in print, i was surprised to find that it seemms that no virtually no work of Silvina Ocampo is in print in English translation.

Princeton has a collection of her papers, but what good is that to anyone other than scholars?

I just ordered a copy of Leopoldina's Dream instead of the book i originally sought.

It's fantastic that Roberto Bolaño is in fashion, but it's shameful that other key authors fall by the wayside when they fall out of fashion.

(This is yet another reason for me to stop procrastinating learning Spanish.)

1602 and Captain America

In a moment of insanity, my friend Brandon called me out of nowhere, just to explain his theory of how Marvel is going to bring back Captain America. Brandon almost never calls me, so it left me a little confused as to what catastrophe just happened.

Nope. He just wanted someone to explain his brilliant theory to.

Captain America is dead, but was resurrected, in the alternate timeline of 1602. It almost fits, with timetravel, and his being presumed dead in a future in which superheroes are outlawed. However, a quick check of Wikipedia shows that this Captain America came from somewhere where the Purple Man was president of the U.S.

Damn. Too bad. That had a bizarre WTF appeal. Then again, retcons happen.

The Cosmic Cube resurrection holds.

self-absorbed, unsentimental

I never knew that Borges considered Rabelais "abominable." His loss. I still don't know Rabelais too well, but he impresses me. It's no surprise that Borges had no patience for lengthy books though. In fact, he comes off as an opinionated, arrogant asshole. And he has a sense of cruel humor. This is far better than Williamson's mama's boy. Good. I like this. The Borges biography by Adolfo Bioy Casares look to be fantastic.

It also seems a relief that Borges' actual work is never deconstructed. He reveals nothing.

So is it in English translation yet, or this more tantalizing bits to torment lazy people like myself?

(While i own the Williamson biography of Borges, i have not read it. I'm basing my opinion from reviews. Shallow perhaps, but i have other things to read.)

Incan bones found in Norway

These Incan bones are allegedly 1,000 years old.

This was over on Mirabilis. It's quite odd, although it might be a minor curiosity.

How old is the church? What are the age of the other corpses that it was interred with?

It's more probable that these bones were acquired through graverobbing Spaniards, and passed along as Incan gold saturated Europe.


Now if it turns out that that this Incan lived and died in Sweden... damn. This story has potential.

Liz Cheney is Fred Thompson's foreign policy advisory

So it turns out that Liz Cheney works for Fred Thompson. Sally Quinn is a liar, because even if this game is played, and Cheney does resign, he'll still be holding the reigns. Thompson does indeed seem to be Cheney's horse in the race.

Lupine Howl

Stylus reminds me of a band that completely forgot existed. I'd probably hate the record, but I still want to hear it. Mooney always gets namechecked for being the guitarist for Spiritualized, but as much as i loved Ladies & Gentlemen... it's really his work with Julian Cope that i remember him for, Autogeddon and 20 Mothers. Cope's backing band was the farm team for Spiritualized for awhile:

What's it like having all your musicians working in Spiritualized? (Ra)
Good for the budget. Jason auditioned Donald Ross Skinner and James Eller, too, before he settled on Martin, Doggen, Kev and Thighpaulsandra. I understood the Thighpaulsandra thing as he'd already got Mike Mooneye in the band. And Martin Schellard has always been so good with the string sections on my albums and Jason also knew that keeping Thighpaulsandra around his own friends is the best way to get the best out of him. But I was surprised he picked a mascara'd metaloid like Doggen over Donald Ross Skinner. My accountant is also Jason's accountant and she told me he's even read all the books, including The Modern Antiquarian which she was asked to obtain for him, so he's possibly retro and obviously a little lazy. Have you seen the Spiritualized website? Jason hates the Web 'cause it didn't exist in 1966. Jason got on the phone once and apologised for stealing my musicians. I was double-sweet and told him I'm like the Jesuits, once you're with Cope it's forever no matter who's paying the wages.

So while the piece was cool, contemplating a band who broke away from key album for certain people, it's kinda odd that it doesn't mention Cope once.

Waxman gets a few things off his chest

That's one hell of a letter that Waxman drafted regarded the White House security breaches.

Bring on the subpoenas, as we know that the White House will not make an honest attempt to respond to Waxman's charges.

"some sense of chthonic forces"

Harold Bloom analyzes Obama's poetry. Curious. A candidate who openly wrote poetry.

While i don't listen much to Ben Harper anymore, as he was passed onto me from an old friend of mine who I've lost contact with, he's certainly a lot easier for on my ears than Celine Dion.

making it up as he goes along

Lightning knocked out the receiver for the satellite box for the television last week, so i've not seen the Daily Show (or Colbert Report) since then. Once again, they dug up an old story that is painfully relevant to current news. Why is it that comedy writers are being better journalists than "journalists" like that senile, petulant, supercilious hack David Broder?

Cheney claimed executive privilege back in 2001 for his precious Energy Task Force papers.

Fred Thompson as VP?

It's not going to happen. The plot to oust Cheney is going to be discussed in the future like those people who love alternate histories like to speculate about what would have happened if the plot to assassinate Hitler had worked, but it's not going to happen. Cheney is the real power. He's not going to step aside quietly, unless Fred Thompson is completely Cheney's servant.

I agree with Atrios. It would be a good move to improve Thompson's chances in the 2008 election, but it is fantasy speculation by delusional people on the cocktail circuit of Washington DC who still think that it's politics as usual, and have yet to understand that something very strange and wrong happened in the fall of 2000.

The Iraq War was to spread democracy too, and we're about to turn the corner. Idiots.

that fourth branch of government certainly is powerful

So when it comes to the crunch, Gonzales comes down in favor of the Cheney camp over the Bush camp in regard to torture. The allegiances of this administration are bizarre.

As for Colin Powell's comparison of Condoleezza Rice to Nurse Ratched of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, i'm baffled. Doesn't he recall that the character came off as a myopic bully, an ineffectual authority figure? It might be accurate, but it's not flattering.

It's no wonder that they cannot assess foreign policy and ethics when they misread literature and film so easily.

still waiting for my copy of Reading Comics to arrive

There's a review of it over on Star-Tribune. No matter how big my TBR stack is, it's probably going to bubble to the top.

"Fantasies generate realities"

So Vargas Llosa says anyway.... Looking at what happened in Iraq, i'd say the paranoid fantasy of a world torn apart by terrorism was a stronger fantasy than the neo-con fantasy of "spreading democracy."

This article in Prospect, "The Democracy of Don Quixote" amused me as the writer does not once ascribe the American adventurism in Iraq as quixotic, but instead addresses the nature of ideology and the unreliable narrator. I'll admit that i'm a little suspicious of his motives, but it was interesting.

Agreed. Publishing gave up on literature a long time ago. Too many new authors seem too interested in filling a niche in a market than in the act of creation.

This book by Jennifer Higgie, Bedlam, sounds promising.

LolSchroedinger

Whew. i'm relieved. That Wikipedia entry is indeed nonsense. Lolcats works better as absurdism and not cuteness. How else does one explain this?

Yeah. That's more like it.

I certainly am not ready for that jelly

Sweet Jesus. Nick Cave performed a karaoke of "Bootylicious" at a benefit for a bid of £70,000. (via Idolator.)

Tender Prey & Henry's Dream have come back into rotation on my iPod after falling out of favor for many years. I still wince at how silly and heavyhanded some of the imagery has become for me, but the absurdity of "Deanna" won me over. Sort of. Lemme get back to that...

never much cared for cats anyway

I don't hate them. Just ambivalent.

Lolcats mystifies me more with each passing week. I thought it was phenomenon mocking banality, with a little dose of Dada, but after reading the Wikipedia entry, it seems that it is about "cuteness." Why do I see subversion everywhere?

Alun's contribution fits more in my vision, and is the first one i recall genuinely being amused by.

from Box Elder to Zuma

Last night, whilst tagging mp3s yet again, i noticed that the riff for Pavement's
Box Elder" was probably copped from Neil Young's "Don't Cry No Tears" from Zuma. That little guitar bit has always charmed me. Neil Young is usually an artist i avoided in the past, originally because he was a favorite of an ex-girlfriend, a strident classic rocker. As i moved on musically, he became attached in my memory to a certain pack of pot-smoking fry cooks who drove BMWs with Deadhead stickers on them. Damien further tarnished him by cursing his weedy voice, constantly comparing him to Kermit the Frog.

I'm constantly embarrassed by my artificial partitions of what i like and don't like based on arbitrary judgments, peer pressure, and tangential associations. If i heard this Zuma track first, would i have liked Pavement when i did? I initially liked to mock Pavement when a friend introduced them to me, just out of goodnatured spite. It wasn't that hard to come around to them after a few months of constant exposure.

My path back to Neil Young isn't through Pavement. Damien relented on his mockery, and conceded that Young's a good songwriter. The Deadheads that i loathed didn't go on to become yuppies. The ex-girlfriend later independently moved onto music that claimed as my own.
Now i'm going back through everything i rejected for possibly superficial reasons, to check if my kneejerk reaction was right.

Post-Barrett Pink Floyd still makes me wince. Pearl Jam is still boring. I don't know what to do with Neil Young. I followed my way back to him by way of Buffalo Springfield, a band that i never completely embraced, despite my '60s fetish. I'm still wrestling with connecting Young to Pavemenet, as it might make the transition easier.

the archives survive

While i figure out what to do with Orbis Quintus, i'm going to indulge in even more frivolous posts than usual. On the off chance that someone out there misses the archives, for the first time, i actually had the opportunity to back them up before the crash/suspension. There was a whole community devoted to the Baton Rouge music scene centered around the Bayou and the Shit Dogs that took on a life of its own in the comments of a single post way back when.

It's a relief to know what little i've learned about archaeology over the past few years is still available if it's really needed. Those notes are more precious to me than one might imagine.

return to exile

It looks like i'm back over here for awhile. I don't quite know what happened to the site, but i'd wager it's more of a problem with the host than the blog itself.

It seems the problem with the real site might be spambots, but i haven't noticed an excess of spam comments in comparison to most weeks.