The Human-Neanderthal bond. Fascinating work. Jerusalem Demas interview.
On today’s episode of Good on Paper, I talk with Johannes Krause, who works at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology as an archaeogeneticist and paleogeneticist. His research focuses on trying to uncover the mysteries of early human life-forms: Homo sapiens, yes, but also Neanderthals and other hominins.
The first hominins evolved in Africa and began to leave the continent about 2 million years ago. But, unlike today, Earth was home to many different forms of human life. Krause and other scientists are curious about Homo sapiens, or modern-day humans. Figuring out what made us so special requires figuring out exactly when we distinguished ourselves from our other upright, walking cousins.
Basically all of humanity is descended from people who left Africa and mixed with Neanderthals—but when? A study of a handful of very old bones revealed that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens were living and procreating with each other much more recently than anyone realized: just 47,000 years ago.
“We’re really driven by finding out new stuff,” Krause says, “trying to understand, in our case, where humans came from—What’s their kind of evolutionary course? How did they adapt? What makes humans humans? How are we different to other mammals? How are we different to other types of humans?
Back down in Florida. May not be able to ski again this season. 30 days. Acceptable.
I thought I might be able to sneak up north towards the end of March, but I think I will be heading west to Seattle-for the birth of grandchild number three
Also...My Wordle streak is up to 37, and I play it the "hard way", which in some ways has made me much better at the game. The tension...each day, tension. Will this be the day the streak ends?
1st day of 2nd term classes on China campuses. Wife remarked on the very noticeable differences in kids between now and just a few years ago. Few want to talk or engage in any outward statement that might get them judged on literally anything. Everyone is comfortable online where anonymity reigns. In class, in any social setting, it's crickets chirping. Everyone just wants to get out and get a job, but when asked what that means, nobody knows. I interpret that as a manifestation of whatever it is that social media is doing to young people's minds, and the "whatever it is"...is bad.
Yeah. Something happened. I'm in the Jonathan Haidt camp on what that is. He's using the analogy of...what if a casino opened in town, and parents all allowed that the casino was an appropriate day care center, and all the children spent 8 hours a day in the casino. Or, exchange casino for a brothel, or any other grossly awful business setting where 100% of all attention was paid to extracting attention and the money that goes with it and God only knows what grotesque influences are worming their way into the kids brains. The owners of the casino/brothel have by now shown us they do not care in any way what happens to the kids, just so long as the kids just keep shoving quarters in the slot machine.
I'm getting radicalized on this topic. Section 230 should simply be removed, and let people go after these scumbags. All the arguments and tangential considerations related to Section 230...I don't care. It should be gutted.
Sec 230 should have never existed in the first place. Just one more example of how government can be bought and paid for by Big Business interests through Big Lobby Money to act against the common interests of common Americans.
That's exactly how we got a law that exempts firearm manufacturers nearly 100% from lawsuits from either the government or private citizens, making any such action, no matter how well justified, prohibitively expensive at best and destined to fail regardless of the merits in most instances. Beyond ridiculous.
Thank you, Silicon Valley Tech Bros and Wayne LaPierre and his NRA Bros. You and your lobbyists have all enhanced the lives of everyday Americans immeasurably.
Full disclosure: I'm a lifetime gun owner and have no truck with the legal, ethical and safe ownership and use of firearms.
I’m with Haidt too. I’ve noticed high schools-age kids who walk down hallways, streets, or elsewhere without ever looking up from their phones. I’ve spied on a few and they were watching videos and assume they’re short TikTok videos. I’ve seen it at my gym and quite a few other places too. It’s scary to think about what it’s doing to them.
Good morning. 37 degrees now with highs in the 50s. Some rain last night. We are definitely transitioning into spring, aka “rainy season”.
The mothership is reporting on the German election, a day after it was reported here. CSLF scoops the mothership!
The FP headlines “Trump’s foreign policy revolution”. Ugh. Every departed President going back to Truman is turning over in his grave over Trump’s embrace of Russia.
At the UN yesterday we, the United States, sided with Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Hungary, and Israel (shame on you, Netanyahu!) in voting down a resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the third anniversary of the event.
That is, we did *not* take the option of abstaining, like the mainland PRC did!
Another shameful and humiliating act! Trump cares more about rehabilitating the mass-murdering war criminal Putin than he does about the U.S. Constitution…
I don't believe I ever saw that program. In our house, we may have been watching something my parents preferred on another channel. But I just checked the dates of the show, and I was away at college for most of its run, so that may be the real reason.
Our family did watch "Bonanza" and "Maverick" every Sunday.
I did receive an e-mail on Monday morning from a polite young lady representing "The Dispatch Team" and "Member Services." I was hoping to reply to her yesterday but had too much else on my plate. But it's only Tuesday. Anyway, she acknowledged it was a mistake and apologized. (I have listened to the podcast now.)
Before answering, I need to dive in to Disgus to review some of my own pithy statements about the malfunctions. I want to give her a very concise version of my position on the problems, highlighting the real issue they all seem to be overlooking, and asking that she pass along my concerns to management.
Starring Leif Erickson as Big John Cannon! Similar to Bonanza, every kid had their favorite Cannon brother. If I recall, girls liked Billie Blue. Personally, I found Big John to be overbearing.
"Extremely provocative arm gestures."
But I'm sure they didn't mean it that way. ;)
The arm wave can be a greeting, "Hi, I'm a dragon!" or hostility between males, or males attempting to impress females.
I was afraid it was something he picked up from Elon…
That was what I was thinking of.
The Human-Neanderthal bond. Fascinating work. Jerusalem Demas interview.
On today’s episode of Good on Paper, I talk with Johannes Krause, who works at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology as an archaeogeneticist and paleogeneticist. His research focuses on trying to uncover the mysteries of early human life-forms: Homo sapiens, yes, but also Neanderthals and other hominins.
The first hominins evolved in Africa and began to leave the continent about 2 million years ago. But, unlike today, Earth was home to many different forms of human life. Krause and other scientists are curious about Homo sapiens, or modern-day humans. Figuring out what made us so special requires figuring out exactly when we distinguished ourselves from our other upright, walking cousins.
Basically all of humanity is descended from people who left Africa and mixed with Neanderthals—but when? A study of a handful of very old bones revealed that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens were living and procreating with each other much more recently than anyone realized: just 47,000 years ago.
“We’re really driven by finding out new stuff,” Krause says, “trying to understand, in our case, where humans came from—What’s their kind of evolutionary course? How did they adapt? What makes humans humans? How are we different to other mammals? How are we different to other types of humans?
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/02/the-human-neanderthal-mystery/681737/
This was a topic in "The Ancients" podcast recently. There must be new research that's recently been published.
Back down in Florida. May not be able to ski again this season. 30 days. Acceptable.
I thought I might be able to sneak up north towards the end of March, but I think I will be heading west to Seattle-for the birth of grandchild number three
I’ve heard rumors that grandchildren are portable nowadays. Maybe consider looking into it?
Nice home videos Cynthia!
Me in lizard land!
Also...My Wordle streak is up to 37, and I play it the "hard way", which in some ways has made me much better at the game. The tension...each day, tension. Will this be the day the streak ends?
My wife and I reached about 110.
My smart younger brother (Wheaton, DTS, DSeminary) reached about 550 at least
Damn…. 37 sounded so good.
1st day of 2nd term classes on China campuses. Wife remarked on the very noticeable differences in kids between now and just a few years ago. Few want to talk or engage in any outward statement that might get them judged on literally anything. Everyone is comfortable online where anonymity reigns. In class, in any social setting, it's crickets chirping. Everyone just wants to get out and get a job, but when asked what that means, nobody knows. I interpret that as a manifestation of whatever it is that social media is doing to young people's minds, and the "whatever it is"...is bad.
Very interesting.
Yeah. Something happened. I'm in the Jonathan Haidt camp on what that is. He's using the analogy of...what if a casino opened in town, and parents all allowed that the casino was an appropriate day care center, and all the children spent 8 hours a day in the casino. Or, exchange casino for a brothel, or any other grossly awful business setting where 100% of all attention was paid to extracting attention and the money that goes with it and God only knows what grotesque influences are worming their way into the kids brains. The owners of the casino/brothel have by now shown us they do not care in any way what happens to the kids, just so long as the kids just keep shoving quarters in the slot machine.
I'm getting radicalized on this topic. Section 230 should simply be removed, and let people go after these scumbags. All the arguments and tangential considerations related to Section 230...I don't care. It should be gutted.
Sec 230 should have never existed in the first place. Just one more example of how government can be bought and paid for by Big Business interests through Big Lobby Money to act against the common interests of common Americans.
That's exactly how we got a law that exempts firearm manufacturers nearly 100% from lawsuits from either the government or private citizens, making any such action, no matter how well justified, prohibitively expensive at best and destined to fail regardless of the merits in most instances. Beyond ridiculous.
Thank you, Silicon Valley Tech Bros and Wayne LaPierre and his NRA Bros. You and your lobbyists have all enhanced the lives of everyday Americans immeasurably.
Full disclosure: I'm a lifetime gun owner and have no truck with the legal, ethical and safe ownership and use of firearms.
Agree completely on all points, including your stance on 2A.
I’m with Haidt too. I’ve noticed high schools-age kids who walk down hallways, streets, or elsewhere without ever looking up from their phones. I’ve spied on a few and they were watching videos and assume they’re short TikTok videos. I’ve seen it at my gym and quite a few other places too. It’s scary to think about what it’s doing to them.
Yeah. It's zombies on parade. On campus, it's unreal. It would be comical if I didn't see it as the tragedy it is.
Good morning. 37 degrees now with highs in the 50s. Some rain last night. We are definitely transitioning into spring, aka “rainy season”.
The mothership is reporting on the German election, a day after it was reported here. CSLF scoops the mothership!
The FP headlines “Trump’s foreign policy revolution”. Ugh. Every departed President going back to Truman is turning over in his grave over Trump’s embrace of Russia.
RE: FP
At the UN yesterday we, the United States, sided with Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Hungary, and Israel (shame on you, Netanyahu!) in voting down a resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the third anniversary of the event.
That is, we did *not* take the option of abstaining, like the mainland PRC did!
Another shameful and humiliating act! Trump cares more about rehabilitating the mass-murdering war criminal Putin than he does about the U.S. Constitution…
We still got down below freezing, but only a mild 29º. Was sunny and around 50 yesterday. Supposed to be mild today.
CSLF had more effective reporting, too.
I saw our first lizard of the season yesterday on our Arizona patio. Now we know to begin watching out for the snakes.
> Now we know to begin watching out for the snakes. <
I thought election season was over for now. 🤔🤔🤔
So droll.
Right. I'm reminded of the classic Simpson's episode "Whacking Day".
Good morning. DougAZ provided a website of Arizona reptiles recently.
The beautiful Sonoran desert! 🌵
Gorgeous place. Best sunsets after Pacific Ocean.
Yes!!
I also wanted to recommend for hiking, the Arizona Trail !
And, for outreach, The Southern Arizona Hiking Club
It is very pretty, in a desert way.
I really like the desert but someone forgot the water.
You can't have everything.
Little lizards are cute. I like non-threatening reptiles.
Good morning, everyone. I'm back from picking up Fang at the airport. He was visiting his sister in Oregon, where it rains a lot.
G’morning. How long was he away? What part of the state is you daughter?
Four days. Daughter B is at Oregon State in Corvallis.
Ooo, nice! I see it’s a 39-hour drive from here if I take the fastest route. Otherwise, it’s more like 41 hours. It looks photogenic.
Fang went on an airplane.
Given all the connections you have to make from Backwoods Country, it’d probably take almost as long to fly from here.
Yeah.
“The High Chaparral” was a western drama back in the 60’s. Trip down memory lane…
I don't believe I ever saw that program. In our house, we may have been watching something my parents preferred on another channel. But I just checked the dates of the show, and I was away at college for most of its run, so that may be the real reason.
Our family did watch "Bonanza" and "Maverick" every Sunday.
Did you ever hear back from The Dispatch about their having The Remnant behind the super-elite paywall?
I did receive an e-mail on Monday morning from a polite young lady representing "The Dispatch Team" and "Member Services." I was hoping to reply to her yesterday but had too much else on my plate. But it's only Tuesday. Anyway, she acknowledged it was a mistake and apologized. (I have listened to the podcast now.)
Before answering, I need to dive in to Disgus to review some of my own pithy statements about the malfunctions. I want to give her a very concise version of my position on the problems, highlighting the real issue they all seem to be overlooking, and asking that she pass along my concerns to management.
Good to know you got a courteous reply.
I remember that!
I watched it in reruns on the UHF channel on Saturdays. My father would clean his guns and polish his shoes, and I would iron his uniforms.
Starring Leif Erickson as Big John Cannon! Similar to Bonanza, every kid had their favorite Cannon brother. If I recall, girls liked Billie Blue. Personally, I found Big John to be overbearing.
I liked Manolo Montoya.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darrow
I liked Manolo too. A lot of young men identified with Manolo.