"NATURE" GETS IT WRONG AGAIN

I am no anthropologist but, because I knew of the history of pygmies in areas in and around Northern Australia, even I suspected from the start that the newly-discovered "Hobbits" of Indonesia were not at all a new species. The article below would seem to vindicate my conclusion. So where were the referees who passed the original incautious article for publication in "Nature"? Maybe "Nature" used the same referees it uses to evaluate articles on global warming!

Fossilized remains which Australian researchers hailed as a previously unknown species of miniature human probably belonged to a disabled caveman, a new study has concluded.

The discovery by Australian and Indonesian archaeologists of a skull and bones on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2004 was thought to be a major development in tracing human evolution. Nicknamed the Hobbit, the 1m skeleton was by far the smallest ever found, with a brain the size of a grapefruit.

However, a new study contends the remains probably belonged to an early human suffering from microcephaly, a condition that causes an abnormally small head and other deformities, London's Sunday Times reports. The paper quotes a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of America's most respected scientific institutions, as suggesting the initial evaluation of the remains was flawed. "The skeletal remains do not represent a new species, but some of the ancestors of modern human pygmies who live on the island today," the report said. "The individual exhibits a combination of characteristics that are not primitive but instead regional and not unique but found in other modern human populations."

The original team was co-directed by Michael Morwood, from Australia's University of New England at Armidale in NSW, and Professor Radien Soejono of the Indonesian Research Centre for Archeology.

Pennsylvania State University professor of developmental genetics and evolutionary morphology Robert Eckhardt, who was part of the new team, criticised the original study for comparing the skeleton with those of homo sapiens primarily from Europe. He said a more accurate understanding of the "Hobbit" emerged when compared against humans from the same region. Several researchers had already expressed doubts over the original findings, which were published in leading British science journal, Nature, in October 2004. In March last year Adelaide University professor of anatomical sciences Maciej Henneberg said he believed the hominid was suffering from some variation of microcephaly.

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Glaciers 'shrinking for 100 years'

Greenland's glaciers have been shrinking for the past century, according to a Danish study published today, suggesting that the ice melt is not a recent phenomenon caused by global warming. Danish researchers from Aarhus University studied glaciers on Disko island, in western Greenland in the Atlantic, from the end of the 19th century until the present day. "This study, which covers 247 of 350 glaciers on Disko, is the most comprehensive ever conducted on the movements of Greenland's glaciers," glaciologist Jacob Clement Yde, who carried out the study with Niels Tvis Knudsen, said.

Using maps from the 19th century and current satellite observations, the scientists were able to conclude that "70 per cent of the glaciers have been shrinking regularly since the end of the 1880s at a rate of around eight metres per year," Mr Yde said. "We studied 95 per cent of the area covered by glaciers in Disko and everything indicates that our results are also valid for the glaciers along the coasts of the rest of Greenland," he said. The biggest reduction was observed between 1964 and 1985.

"A three-to-four degree increase of the temperature on Greenland from 1920 to 1930, and the increase recorded since 1995 has sped up the ice melt," he said. The effect of the rising temperatures in the 1920s and 1930s was "visible dozens of years later, and that of the 1990s will be (visible) in 10 or 20 years," Mr Yde said, adding that he expected Greenland's glaciers to melt even faster in the future.

The shrinking of the glaciers since the 19th century is "the result of the atmosphere's natural warming, following volcanic eruptions for example and greenhouse gases, created by human activities, which have aggravated the situation further," he said.

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GASOLINE GURU SPEAKS

Trilby Lundberg, the nation's guru of gasoline prices, has no idea how many miles her new Mercedes-Benz gets per gallon. When she has to fill the tank, she's more concerned with convenience than price. Yet for decades, the nation has turned to the assertive, 57-year-old cat lover and her twice-monthly Lundberg Survey of gas stations to keep track of the fluctuating price of gasoline....

Watching the oil industry has led Lundberg to some interesting conclusions. She condemns the "overzealous meddling" of the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies, and said government-mandated reformulation of unleaded gas and engine modifications aimed at curtailing emissions are more to blame for gas price increases than the worldwide Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

She also criticized the "woefully ignorant" media and public perception about gas prices. "It is wild-headed and often destructive," she said of the reporting. "The explanation can be boring, it can be a little bit dry, it takes a long time, and the majority of folks simply do not have that time and do not have the interest."

Lundberg has strong opinions on other issues. For instance, she calls global warming a "boogeyman for political opportunism." Those who promote the theory are trying to create a power base and "believe global warming is a reason to hike taxes and hike prices," she said.

Lundberg balks at suggestions that she is a tool of the oil industry. "What hurts me is those who call me an oil apologist or self-styled consumer advocate. I'm not," she said. "I do have passionate feelings about that."

Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical & Refining Association, said Lundberg is highly respected in the industry. "She's a character," he said. "She's first there with a national gasoline price and I think everybody from the media to (Wall) Street to the oil industry looks forward to hearing from her."

Source

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists

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