The First Thanksgiving? LIES I tell you... LIES!

http://www.trinicenter.com/historicalviews/thanksgiving.htm

American Dialects

Here is an interesting set of maps showing dialect differences in the US:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jakatz2/project-dialect.html

And a fun little movie about American Dialects based on that same survey:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1091263959001?bckey=AQ~~%2CAAAABvb_NGE~%2CDMkZt2E6wO0aqwg3BkGVZipVhkS_MPQH&bctid=2864134119001


Can't vouch for the accuracy of this but if you are wondering about YOUR dialect, try this quiz::

http://www.gotoquiz.com/results/what_american_accent_do_you_have

Finally, a more comprehensive treatment of American dialects:

http://robertspage.com/dialects.html

A complex map of American dialects:

http://aschmann.net/AmEng/

Two studies shed light on emergence of modern Homo sapiens and its subsequent diaspora (with update)

New Genetic studies of Neandertals and Denisovans as reported in Nature reveals a "mystery species" (population?  subspecies?) they seemed to have bred with.  The problem is, we haven't found any of their remains, but their genes seem to be embedded in the first two populations.



http://www.nature.com/news/mystery-humans-spiced-up-ancients-rampant-sex-lives-1.14196

Here's another treatment of the story:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38361/title/Ancient-Genomes-Reveal-Secrets/

And in other Asian genomic news, another Nature paper relates Native Americans to Europeans through a 4 year old Siberian boy, but curiously not to East Asians... yet.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12736.html

Here's a BBC article summarizing the find:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25020958




  UPDATE:  Atapuerca, Spain- Genetic testing reveals atapuerca 5 (Homo heidelburgensis) was related to Denisovans, NOT, as previously thought, Neandertals.





Brief, pretty good:
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/culture/2013/12/05/Spain-Oldest-hominid-DNA-uncovered-Atapuerca_9730700.html

A bit more in-depth, gives better context:
http://www.businessinsider.com/400000-year-old-human-dna-in-pit-of-bones-2013-12

Brief, not particularly good:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/pit-bones-yields-oldest-human-dna/story?id=21093890

Haven't been able to open this on to read it, but New Scientist is usually better than most for science journalism:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029462.600-oldest-human-genome-dug-up-in-spains-pit-of-bones.html

From BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25193442

My 8 Year Old Son Discusses Human Evolution

I got some new recording equipment today and I decided to test it out by doing a quick "podcast" interviewing my son about what he knows about human evolution.  It's just under five minutes, but my boy did me proud.  Bear in mind he's only in second grade.

http://faculty.elgin.edu/mhealy/Will%20Healy-%20Human%20Evolution.mp3

Got Lice?

Humans and their parasites evolve together, so naturally we have a window into understanding some aspects of our own evolution by looking at the nasty little beasts that evolved to suck us dry, and by that I don't mean children:

Lice Harbor Key Insights Into Human Evolution, Scientists Say

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/lice-human-evolution_n_4259581.html?ref=topbar

Proto Indo European reconstruction...

How do you reconstruct a dead language that laft behind no written records?

Read on...



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/28/proto-indo-european-language-ancestors_n_4005545.html

Internal Migration In The US- What Cities and Regions are Growing, and Why

From Yahoo Finance News:

For much of the nation’s history, Americans moved around mostly to find decent work. But these days, people may be more inclined to move in search of low taxes, cheap housing and like-minded citizens they’re comfortable being around. Such shifts in internal migration patterns could transform the U.S. economy and the political establishment in sweeping and unforeseen ways.
 

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/cities-americans-moving-escaping-154840318.html?l=1

The worst ideas in recent history?

Agriculture has been called "The biggest mistake in human history."  Arguments can be made that many things from the incandescent light to capitalism, the industrial revolution, nuclear power,  and genetic engineering have been wrong turns for the human species, although once the genie gets out of the bottle we're stuck with the consequences.

With that in mind, the Washington Post had a special series trying to answer the question "What are the worst ideas of our times?"

So this is food for thought.  Bon appétit.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/opinions/outlook/worst-ideas/index.html

Fast Food Pirates

This is pretty predictable, but fascinating nevertheless.  In Iran, entrepreneurs are pirating fast food brands. Since we have no diplomatic relations with Iran, there's not a lot that we can do about it.  The interesting question is why the Iranian government puts up with it- the US is the Great Satan, but hey, everybody loves fried chicken, tacos, pizza and hamburgers, right?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/politicallyaff/the-greatest-form-of-flattery-imitation-american-ebwy

Big Mash, anyone?