Annabelle made a cute card for the top of our delivery box, and that led to a series of apple-school drawings later this afternoon.
In a remote cave that required risking life and limb to reach, a treasure trove of ancient bones were hidden. Homo naledi is the name being given these newly-discovered ancestors.
These new clues to our past come compliments of some super slender modern day explorers, checking out caves 30 miles southwest of Johannesburg. The National Geographic story is long, but oh-so-worth your time reading: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150910-human-evolution-change/
And after you're done with that story, check out the videographer's account of going into the cave that held the secrets of ancient ancestors.
It launched so many ponderings and postulations today. One thing I told the kids is that I *really* doubt our evolution was the nice, orderly, stair-stepped stuff you see on bumper stickers.
Rather, I think it was a bit of a tangled mess from time to time, with starts and stops, progress, and then devastating dead ends and sideways winds. Discoveries like Homo naledi would seem to bolster this likelihood.
THINK IT UP: Hat tip to Grandpa R for pointing us in the direction of a special to air on ABC tomorrow (9/11/2015) night. "Think It Up" is about helping student-powered, teacher-led crowd-funding learning projects. It airs at 8 p.m. Pacific time.
I wish their press site was better. It's a bunch of links to feature stories, but there's not any obvious meat about the organization and its genesis. They do have an "About Us" page, which explains the initiative is borne out of an entertainment industry initiative, partnering with DonorsChoose.org.
Evolution is as you described, Try this! Whoops. Try this! Whoops. Try this! I don't care if you tried it before, try it again. Things are slightly different this time. Oh, that's good. Over and over and over. Billions and billions of times.
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