The drive from Santa Cruz to San Bruno was traffic-free and pleasant, with me telling Steph about last year's Pod hradem Cave trip and getting all nostalgic for my Czech family [As was almost always the case in the run-up to my leaving the family nest last September, I hadn't talked much about it at the time.]
. At SFO I had an order of maguro and ebi, nigiri-style, and the best bloody Mary I've ever had, made with some crushed fresh basil. Amazing! Two full servings of vegetables to go with the raw fish. And all virtually fat free! Living a virtuous life and maintaining a healthful diet is my constant goal! Life was never so tasty! I joked with the barkeep and watched Serena Williams win her fifth Wimbledon title at 30+ years old.
The flight left on time. The rather large man sitting next to me lucked out and no one sat beside him, so he occupied the one and a third seats at the window. Clear skies over much of the US, and smooth sailing for the most part. Word had it that it was going to be 96 Fahrenheit in Chicago, where I was to change planes and lay over. Unless the Great Lakes dried up in this summer's drought that meant that the whole place was going to be swimming in 100% humidity.
For some reason I got heaps of leg room on the Chicago to Heathrow run and 1.5 seats to spread out in. But I didn't have wi-fi, because it was $12.95 for the duration of the flight, and for some reason my frugality valve shut off when I saw that. That meant, of course, that I couldn't live blog, as promised. Instead, I'm working on a three-day time delay. So, sue me!
Now, to the news!
Australopithecus sediba apparently ate like a giraffe, according to an article in
Here's a passage from the article.
Talk about a high-fiber diet: the newest member of the human family, Australopithecus sediba ate enough bark, leaves, and fruit that its appetite was more like that of a chimpanzee's than a human's. That is the conclusion of a new study, in which an international team of researchers used state-of-the-art methods to analyze the diet of two australopithecines that fell into a death pit in Malapa, South Africa, almost 2 million years ago.
What? Who knew that chimps and giraffes had the same dietary needs! Given that I was blabbing on about intelligent design just the other day, you'll forgive me if I pause to ask the rhetorical question, 'Who got the intelligent design? the long necked one or the big-brained one!
Come to think of it, there's something very wrong with the above-quoted passage. Nobody's claiming they were buried? This is South Africa, after all! No claims for the earliest something or other, as was the case at Kathu Pan 1, Sibudu Shelter, or Wonderwerk Cave? Seriously, I'm incredulous!
It's all the more wonderful that no such claims are emanating from Malapa, given the preposterous claims from Atapuerca for ritual disposal of the dead in the Sima de los huesos! [you'll have to check with Professor Arsuaga or Paul Pettitt on that one!]
Allright. I have internet acces now. And I'm ready to broadcast. So, here goes nothing!
Catch you next time!
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