Did Early Humans Ride the Waves to Australia? - By Matt Ridley
Everybody is African in origin. Barring a smattering of genes from Neanderthals and other archaic Asian forms, all our ancestors lived in the continent of Africa until 150,000 years ago. Some time after that, say the genes, one group of Africans somehow became so good at exploiting their environment that they (we!) expanded across all of Africa and began to spill out of the continent into Asia and Europe, invading new ecological niches and driving their competitors extinct.
There is plenty of dispute about what gave these people such an advantage—language, some other form of mental ingenuity, or the collective knowledge that comes from exchange and specialization—but there is also disagreement about when the exodus began. For a long time, scientists had assumed a gradual expansion of African people through Sinai into both Europe and Asia. Then, bizarrely, it became clear from both genetics and archaeology that Europe was peopled later (after 40,000 years ago) than Australia (before 50,000 years ago).
- 'living Fossil' Coelacanth Genome Sequenced
The genetic secrets of a "living fossil" have been revealed by scientists. Researchers sequenced the genome of the coelacanth: a deep-sea fish that closely resembles its ancestors, which lived at least 300 million years ago. The study found that some...
- New Preface To Charles Kindleberger, The World In Depression 1929-1939
Found via Calculated Risk. The parallels between Europe in the 1930s and Europe today are stark, striking, and increasingly frightening. We see unemployment, youth unemployment especially, soaring to unprecedented heights. Financial instability and distress...
- Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond? (1982 Article)
Great find from Miguel at Simoleon Sense. The diamond invention—the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem—is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade. Until the late...
- Automatic Data Processing (adp) Dividend Stock Analysis
Third analysis of the week is now up. I previously looked at Dr. Pepper Snapple Group and International Business Machines, and now we'll move on to a financial services firm, Automatic Data Processing. It feels good to get back to analyzing stocks...
- Exxonmobil Stock Analysis
As mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to try and have 1 stock analysis report for some popular dividend growth stocks come out prior to their latest earnings release this week. I was originally going to post about International Paper (IP) since...