stuartrc

Comment Threads

• Catherine Taylor commented on A plaintive request
  And, moreso, the claim that H. Erectus could not evolve for 1,000,000 years is just plain weird. Even on an island. I mean, I like to fuck around with reality / perception for fun n games, but it's all anchored in Reality. Oh, and no. Read the source paper: the genes are fresh & new, not old ones. FFS....
• davidcshipley commented on A plaintive request
  Something incredible. A company in wales (Hydro Industries) has built solar powered units the size of a big crate which can produce perfectly clean water. The tech can desalinate, purify, remove toxins, bacteria, heavy metals etc. They're already deploying across the developing world and their tech could and should end the horror of human beings dying of poisonous water....
• Dirk Bruere commented on A plaintive request
  The big question is cost of consumables. Dirty water tends to clog machinery...
• RDSouth commented on A plaintive request
  "Homo erectus is the most, or one of the most, long-lived species of Homo, having existed well over one million years and perhaps over two million years" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_erectus#Descendants_and_subspecies As for the Andaman islands "indications from genetic, cultural and isolation studies suggests that the islands may have been inhabited as early as the Middle Paleolithic" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andaman_Islands#Early_inhabitants Homo Erectus was present on nearby Java as late as 40000 years ago, well after the Middle Paleolithic. "Nevertheless, we could establish minimum age estimates of around 40 ka, with an upper age limit of around 60 to 70 ka." http://www.peterbrown-palaeoanthropology.net/Ngandong.html...
• Catherine Taylor commented on A plaintive request
  Yes, yes. However, evidence suggests that a relict population of H. erectus was still hanging around in Asia until about 50,000 years ago. There is as yet no evidence of gene exchange between H. erectus and H. sapiens, and the closeness of our relationship to them is open to debate - it is more likely that the African H. ergaster was a closer relative (and possibly ancestor) to us than the Asian H. erectus. http://www.askabiologist.org.uk/answers/viewtopic.php?id=6585 My question was more along the lines of: "Do you really think serious scientists are not aware of this already and have already discounted this...