Cool People Are Extinct

In 1848 a strange skull was discovered on the military outpost of Gibraltar. It was undoubtedly human, but also had some of the heavy features of an ape... distinct brow ridges, and a forward projecting face. Just what was this ancient creature? And when had it lived? As more remains were discovered one thing became clear, this creature had once lived right across Europe. The remains were named Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man) an ancient and primitive form of human.

There is a complete informational link at the bottom if you wish to know much more about neanderthals. The news this week is that these Neanderthals, may not have been the guys from the Geico commercial, but they still may have a the ability to "talk", thus giving us a whole new look at how they lived their lives and survived so long.


The story says that Neanderthals probably had the gift of gab, according to a study examining a key language gene in the extinct species. Until now, humans were thought to have a unique version of FOXP2, the only gene shown to play a role in language. People who are missing a copy have difficulty with speaking and language comprehension.

The version of the gene in chimpanzees — our closest living relatives — is different from that of humans in two places. But two Neanderthals who died 43,000 years ago had the same kind of FOXP2 as people alive today, researchers reported Friday in Current Biology.

So this is why, the Neanderthals are my cool "extinct" people of the week!!


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Men As Chatty As Women

There has been many stories this week concerning the lore that women talk more than men, and the actual findings which make quick work of that erroneous notion.

One James Pennebaker, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who while looking at what people talk about after emotional experiences realized that he would also be able to check out the old wives tale, which states that women use two to three times more words than do men. To put in actual numbers, it would be 20,000 for women and about 7,000 for men if this old wives tale were to hold true.

In the study which will be published in Science, he outfitted students from the United States and Mexico with portable tape recorders, and they taped 30 second bits every 12.5 minutes, which allowed for the unbiased monitoring of normal daily conversations.
When the data from 210 women and 186 men were compiled, women were found to use 16,215 words a day, and men use 15,669 a day, which is statistically insignificant.

This is a fascinating study, but should be obvious to anyone who has ever been to a barber shop, that men can be just as chatty as women in beauty salons, and in just about every area where men and women interact with each other, whether at work or at play. this is just one more area of stereotypes that is rightfully knocked down and shown to be wrong. This can be said of nearly every stereotype, whether it be sexist, racist, or about people's religions.

The most current example is the stereotype that all muslims are terrorists, and I know it sometimes seems like that statement is true to me, but then I read and wrote about the conference for understanding and peace held in Bali in June, and the moderates who live in this country and are outraged and outspoken about he evil of the terrorists and their attacks, and I know that it is the minority,, not the majority that are terrorists.

Anyway thanks to Mr. Pennebaker for the study and the results of this fascinating subject.