Article

2004-10-27 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by tipper 2004-10-27 7:01:05 PM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Not to offend the relatives, but I read this article first and took note of these key lines:

"The specimens' ages range from 95,000 to 12,000 years old..."

"Inbreeding certainly would've been a danger."

"Now, scientists are more puzzled by the specimen's jumble of features that appear to be borrowed from different human ancestors."

I think these guys are jumping to awfully wild conclusions based on one incomplete skeleton and some other fragments, all with a wide range of dates.

Posted by Tom 2004-10-27 8:44:33 PM|| 2004-10-27 8:44:33 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 Having heard some media reports on this. Beware the clueless journalist syndrome. Its well established that island populations frequently become dwarf or giant variants. That is they are not a separate species and it seems to happen quickly - a few tens of generations. The fact they are small in no way implies a separate species. Think the opposite of Somoans or Fijians.

Posted by phil_b 2004-10-27 8:56:28 PM|| 2004-10-27 8:56:28 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 However, the accounts sound eerily close to the Hawaiian "Menehune":
http://tinyurl.com/3wfxo/
Menehune lack a lot of the mythological attributes assigned to fanciful critters like leprachauns. The stories surrounding them are downright ordinary. They are described like a non-competing neighbor tribe that just died out.

Posted by Anonymoose 2004-10-27 9:23:28 PM|| 2004-10-27 9:23:28 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 There are also legends of furry bipeds (besides orangutans) of various different kinds all through Malaysia and Indonesia; the best-known of these in the west is the "Orang Pendek;" I was under the impression, however, that they were supposed to be more apelike, and more solitary, than the creatures described above.

Posted by Phil Fraering 2004-10-27 10:04:33 PM|| [http://newsfromthefridge.typepad.com] 2004-10-27 10:04:33 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Mucky, where did you say you were from?

Posted by whitecollar redneck 2004-10-27 10:17:14 PM|| 2004-10-27 10:17:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Damn! I was hoping for the missing link. Now we have Piltdown Person again.....

Posted by Alaska Paul 2004-10-27 10:27:59 PM|| 2004-10-27 10:27:59 PM|| Front Page Top

17:03 Liberalhawk
17:03 Liberalhawk
12:06 Mrs. Davis
11:57 lex
08:55 Howard UK
08:42 Aris Katsaris
02:21 gromky
02:07 Rafael
01:58 gromky
01:57 ed
01:51 gromky
01:47 ed
01:39 Asedwich
01:06 BH
00:42 Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)
00:32 Tibor
00:28 Urako
00:20 spiffo
00:13 Aris Katsaris
00:05 ed
23:56 Steve
23:51 JAB
23:48 ed
23:45 ed