4G or not 4G – that is the question

Do you know what 4G is? Are you up to speed with 4G? This is the new Next Generation of mobile telephony, boldly going where date streaming and up/down-load speeds had feared to tread. You probably imagine there to be some technical specs. lying around to ensure that the 4G moniker is only used when technically correct, and consistently by all carriers, right? Predictably, the answer is yes…and no.

4G is fourth-generation wireless, that stage of broadband mobile communications that supersedes 3G. According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a 4G network requires mobile devices to be able to exchange data at a peak download of 100 Megabits per second for high mobility communications, if from trains and automobiles (and while you’re at it please, please keep the planes out of it!), while 1 Gigabit per second is required for pedestrian and other stationary users. These download speeds are a factor of 10 faster than predecessor 3G systems. Sounds good and fast.

A 4G system should provide a comprehensive and secure all-IP based mobile broadband solution to smart-phones, laptop computer, wireless modems and other mobile devices. Other facilities such as ultra-broadband Internet access, IP telephony, gaming services, and streamed multimedia may be available for users. Pre-4G technologies such as mobile WiMax and first-release 3G Long-term evolution (LTE) have been available since 2006 and 2009 respectively, and are often branded as 4G, even though the current versions of these technologies do not comply with the ITU recommended data download speeds. Apparently carriers justify the use of the 4G label because consumers can expect significantly faster data speeds. Well, the Model T was faster than a horse, but didn’t make it any good.

Ho hum you might say, and with good reason. Basically 4G is whatever the carriers want it to be.

ITU exists to foster the use of communications globally and is relied upon, for example, by developing countries requiring assurance that a new technology is standardized and likely to be widely deployed. Although the ITU has adopted recommendations for future global communication technologies they rely on other standards bodies such as IEEE, The WiMax Forum and 3GPP for development and implementation. And, these recommendations aren’t binding on member countries. In December 2010, at the ITU World Radio-communication Seminar 2010, the ITU stated that LTE, WiMax and similar "evolved 3G technologies" could be considered "4G". This even though they had already announced in October 2010 that only LTE-Advanced and WiMax 2 would truly qualify as 4G. Thereby shooting themselves in the foot and giving the networks free rein to con the consumer into thinking it really is 4G, when it could more accurately be labeled 3G going on 4G, not quite 4G, or even 4G and a few bits short of a byte. And if you believe that, I’ve a bridge to sell, and you really do think that Platform 9¾ at London’s Kings Cross Station will get you to Hogwarts.

Keeping on that theme, 4G has been acronymed as MAGIC — Mobile multimedia, Anytime anywhere, Global mobility support, Integrated wireless solution, and Customized personal service. That may be the case, but the carriers will need more than a wave of the wand to magic up 4G networks that aren’t up to scratch.

But the war of the words has started. As reported late last year by the Wall Street Journal, the carriers are already aggressively rolling out claims of faster, next-generation service on networks they're spending billions of dollars to upgrade, thus underscoring the billions of dollars at stake. But none come even close to the ITU standards. For example Verizon leads the race with 12M/bits per second, followed by T-Mobile with 8 and Sprint Nextel/Clearwire with a measly 6. Not exactly straining at the leash here folks.

The Sprint and T-Mobile PR spin machines are battling it out, with Sprint bragging of "bringing you the first wireless 4G network."And T-Mobile apparently owns "America's largest 4G network", the same one it advertised last March as the country's fastest 3G network. “If you look at the speed of the WiMax network out there, we're meeting, beating and exceeding them right now," said Reid Walker, a spokesman for T-Mobile USA. Well yes, but being the best of a bad bunch is no great shakes.

According to AT&T Inc., who are rolling out the same technology as T-Mobile, "Third-party research is clear, AT&T has the nation's fastest mobile broadband network, period," said an AT&T spokesman. Ah yes, no mention of 4G then? Sometimes less is more.

Related articles

• Telecom PR: Just What is "4G," Anyway? (customerthink.com)

Thunderbirds are Go…….. again!

In a move that would gladden the heart of any 1960’s school-boy, master puppeteer Gerry Anderson announced this week that a new Thunderbirds series will be made. But, like the original show, there may be strings attached as Britain’s UK’s ITV, the show rights owner, has not yet confirmed that a new series will begin production.
                                 

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Using 1/3rd scale puppets, cheesy hairdos, and ventriloquist-like moving lips, and a process Gerry pompously called Supermarionation (marionette puppetry), the show told the dramatic stories of the Tracy Family and International Rescue saving the world one disaster at a time, always battling against the clock. Missile road transporter crashed off the Golden Gate Bridge, no problem…call International Rescue. Supersonic jet Fireflash has landing gear problems, no problem…call International Rescue. Cue space music to a shot of John Tracy in lonely vigil in Thunderbird 5, the orbiting space station and the eyes and ears of International Rescue on all worldwide communications.

Alerted by a flashing light on his desk, former astronaut and millionaire Jeff Tracy, relaxing at the uncharted, remote, family island paradise, listens as John details the problem. Right Scott, you take Thunderbird 1 and get there as fast as you can. Virgil, take Thunderbird 2 and whatever emergency kit you need and take Brains (big-rimmed spectacled science geek, and general nerd, even down to the sssstutter) in case you need assistance. It was just wonderful; a dramatic 5-4-3-2-1 countdown at the start, memorable theme music, jet engine sounds, special effects, detailed models, and nail-biting tension; great stuff for young boys.

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Thunderbird 1 was a hypersonic, variable-geometry rocket plane used for fast response and a mobile control base. Thunderbird 2 was a heavy, supersonic, VTOL carrier lifting-body aircraft used for the transport of major rescue equipment and vehicles, including Thunderbird 4, an underwater rescue craft. Thunderbird 3 was a space rocket. There was of course the usual tie-ins; scale models (toys for boys), bubble-gum and picture cards, hats, outfits and the like.

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If ever there was a show to put a smile on the faces of male kids, this was it. Debuting in 1965 the 32 hour-long episodes were a huge success in the UK. Movie impresario Lew Grade wanted to sell it to the US TV networks but was unable to generate much interest, and so the series was cancelled. It was successfully syndicated in the US years later. Grade had varied success with promoting TV shows and movies, and after the expensive “Raise the Titanic” flopped, is said to have said “It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic”. Nice one!

No surprise there after all, how could a 1965 puppet show compete with 1966 inter-galactic space travel, warp drives, and talking doors; the ones that go “shhh” as you approach. Ah yes, we’re talking Star Trek, and it’s intrepid commander James T. Kirk boldly going…or is it going boldly? Did you know that the T stands for Tiberius, not a lot of people know that. Interestingly, this show was nearly cancelled, a fate only prevented by a mobilized fan-base. And the rest is history, or his story.

Of course we didn’t know any of this as kids. In fact my brother and I were lucky to see some of the episodes at all. You see our parents, in their infinite wisdom, elected to schedule swimming lessons for us at the local pool, inconveniently halfway through the show. Was this an example of subliminal messaging; boys don’t play with dolls? Never quite sure how we caught up on the second halves of the show, but we must have done. We got our own back of course. Knowing that progress in swimming across the width of the pool would have us yanked out to try and swim the length of the pool, from the deep end, we sometimes made surprisingly little progress; play-acting, feet touching the bottom, coughing and spluttering. Like you do.

The show was praised for the quality of the miniatures; futuristic vehicles, models and sets. Many of the models were purpose-made by John Meddings and his team from radio-controlled vehicle kits, and customized by adding surface details. The Thunderbird models and specialist vehicles were also “aged” with paint and dust to create the illusion that they really were well-used vehicles. These techniques became standard practice in the special effects biz which led Director Stanley Kubrick, impressed by their work on the TV series, to poach several of Gerry’s special effects team to work on his science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. They were also used to great effect in the building of the miniature spaceships and other vehicles for the first three Star Wars films. Meddings himself later worked on some of the James Bond movies receiving an Oscar nomination for Moonraker in 1980.

Other pioneering new techniques included the invention of the rolling road and sky which allowed static models to be filmed “in motion” whilst not requiring lengthy set pieces. To ensure accuracy Rolls-Royce lent a real RR grill for some shots of the big and pink, six-wheeled FAB1 registered personal transport of Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, the intriguing “London agent” and her chauffeur/butler. A cockney and former safe-cracking villain, Parker was known for his dropped ‘aitches.

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Other clever ideas included using real hands in close-up shots, writing a letter for example, or opening a desk drawer. Each puppet also had alternate heads, portraying a different expression such as anger, or strain and exertion. Which, for those tense and nerve-wracking ends of show moments, were “dressed” by some spray-on water for that sweaty realism.

Thunderbirds was syndicated in 2004 on TechTV a now defunct US cable TV network. The broadcast shows were split into 30-minute episodes, and were filled with on-screen "pop up trivia" and arrows pointing at spots on the screen. Trivia such as “Look, there’s a broken string”. Or the fact that each of the Tracy boys was named after the Mercury 7 astronauts. And that some of the faces were modeled after other film actors. Jeff Tracy after Lorne Greene, star of TV Western “Bonanza”. Virgil after Sean Connery, and John modeled on Charlton Heston. All very interesting. Also as joint creator of the show, with ex-wife Sylvia, they later developed Space 1999 with Martin Landau, set on our Moon that had been dislodged from the Solar System.

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So, will he do the new show? In the past Gerry has blown hot and cold on his creation, but has rightly been critical of attempts at copying the show including the awful live action film in 2004 that was panned by reviewers, as being wooden, badly scripted, and poorly directed. Internet comments addressing this latest announcement are generally not in favor of PIXAR type cartooning using Computer Generated Imaging (CGI). Too real they claim. Lacks kitsch I say. After all, nothing screams the sixties like red quilted plastic fabric, adorning the inside of seemingly every model vehicle on the show. But surely the whole point was that it wasn’t realistic. Minutes into each show you didn’t think about the premise, talking resin heads and puppets on strings. It wasn’t necessarily that you truly believed, just that you didn’t want not to believe it was real. A bit like watching Dr. Who and flimsy sets, it’s what you expected. We want to see the puppets “walk” with those jerky, staccato movements. So I would say, don’t hold your breath about a re-imagined Thunderbirds show. Sometimes it’s better to remember, than want to forget.

But wait, Gerry is pushing 80, will he remake it in time. And if not, who will come to his rescue?

Alerted by a flashing light on his desk, former astronaut and millionaire Jeff Tracy………….

Related articles

• Why Thunderbirds is still FAB (telegraph.co.uk)
• Thunderbirds is back, but will it have puppets? [Video] (io9.com)
• Thunderbirds stamps released by Royal Mail (mirror.co.uk)

US Car market sales in 2010

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The bean counters at MotorIntelligence.com have closed the books on 2010 car sales and the results are in. December 2010 sales were up almost 13% over the prior December. Not exactly zooming off the lots are they, given that the previous year was probably as low as can be, but certainly moving into second gear.

The devil is in the details though. For example, using the same December on December comparison, Ford’s F-Series trucks were the winner, followed by Chevy’s Silverado truck range. Then, one Toyota and two Honda models, all cars. Followed by, you’ve guessed it, another American manufacturer with the Chrysler Dodge truck category. See the pattern here, no? In plain English, no big words or joined up writing; America does not build cars that Americans want to buy, only trucks and SUV’s.

Next on the list are two Johnny foreigner types again, followed by a Chevy SUV, and finally, so rare I thought it was extinct, an American car the Ford Fusion in an unbelievable 10th spot. So America’s carmakers (ahem), only have one car in the top ten. Not even in the next five, somewhat incredible really.

For all the hype surrounding Government Motors, now back to being the General again, there’s a long way to go. And, of the top ten automakers, all of the seven foreign metal bashers (except for Toyota which had some recall issues last year), posted double digit increases. In the US, only Chrysler did likewise. GM, did 8.5% and Ford 6.8% Not exactly a driving performance.

Ancient Geeks and Astronomers - What not to teach your kids

I came across a list recently famous Geeks. And here they are, with their known and lesser well-known contributions to the Arts and Sciences.

Anthemius     - Byzantine architect, and writer of country theme songs

Apollonius     - Mathematician “The Great Geometer” and original designer of spacecraft, not that German chap who gets all the credit for his V-5 flying bo…., sorry I meant Saturn V rocket

Aristotle        - Inventor of little-known Greek rhyming slang, later claimed for themselves by London Cockneys. Rhymes with bottle

Dinostratus  - Another mathematician. Apparently died in formations, rock formations

Aristarchus  - Another damn mathematician. He worked on conic sections, and was a founding member of the Greek well-to-do

Bryson        - Mathematician and sophist who contributed to solving the problem of squaring the circle and calculating pi, but only to a few digits. Using only his left hand, no calculators you see. Also, well known author of wit and drollery

Callippus    - Astronomer who made accurate determinations of the lengths of the seasons and constructed a calendar used by all later astronomers. Inventor of fine measuring devices

Chrysippus - Cofounder of Stoicism, the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions. Modern meanings tend to be of the indifference to pain, grief or joy variety. Or as Brits like to say “Mustn’t grumble” or “I can’t complain”.

Conon        - Discovered the curve known as the Spiral of Archimedes. And part-time warrior

Democritus - One of the earliest proponents of indivisibility of everything, even as small as “atoms”. An avid opponent of Dictatus and Autocratus.

Dionysodorus -  Yet another mathematician, helped to solve a cubic equation using the intersection of a parabola and a hyperbola. Who knew, who cares ? Oh, and a smelly animal of the Jurassic era

Diophantus    - Best known for his Arithmetica, which had an enormous influence on the development of number theory. Also, ring-leader of Al-gebra, a shadowy terrorist organization, responsible for developing weapons of math instruction

Epicurus       - A key figure in the development of science and the scientific method because of his insistence that nothing should be believed, unless tested through direct observation and logical deduction. Also, an inquisitive eater

Eratosthenes - Famous for his work on prime numbers and for measuring the diameter of the earth. It’s very wide he said, and had a rat on the other knee

Euclid          - Best known for his treatise on geometry: The Elements, which has influenced mathematics forever. Also provided Bogart with his famous line in the film Casablanca “Here’s looking at Eu Clid”


Eudoxus      - An astronomer who contributed to Euclid's Elements. He also mapped the stars and compiled a map of the known world. Also known as a dyslexic writer who documented the departure of the Israelites from Egypt.

Geminus    - Stoic philosopher who wrote a number of astronomy texts including the influential Introduction to Astronomy. He attempted to prove Euclid's parallel postulate from the other axioms, whatever that means. Known for just getting on with it.

Hippias     - A contemporary of Socrates whose only contribution to mathematics seems to be the quadratrix (also known as a trisectrix), a curve he may have used for squaring the circle and trisecting angles. An expert on free-love

Hippocrates - He taught in Athens and worked on the classical problems of squaring the circle and duplicating the cube. Swore a lot and later became a specialist shipper of large animals

Menelaus     - Developed his own theorem, attributed about triangles in plane geometry. Fought in the Trojan War, and produced multi-tiered wedding cakes

Perseus       - Geometer (mathematical geometry) and manufacturer of bags for ladies to put their thingseus in

Plato          - Writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. "Spin" meister in Greek restaurants

Posidonius  - Philosopher, astronomer and mathematician, he followed the Stoic doctrine and attempted to estimate the size of the Sun and Moon. He said they were very big. Also, a sea god, and capsizer of ships.

Ptolemy     - Contributed a mathematical theory of the motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets, in Almagest. A theory not superseded until a century after CopperNickers presented his heliocentric theory in 1543. Suffered from food poisoning, later called Ptolemaine

Pythagoras  - Made important developments in mathematics, astronomy, and the theory of music. His eponymous theorem was known to the Babylonians 1000 years earlier but he may have been the first to prove it. You know, the one about the Squire and his Hippopotamuse

Serenus    - Worked, quietly of course, on cylinder and cone sections.

Simplicius - One of the last of the great pagan philosophers. Can’t have been that smart, with a name like that, idiot

Thales      - Developed five theorems of elemental geometry. Also responsible for low prices in Thpain

Zenodorus - Authored a treatise On isometric figures, now lost. Later came to fame as a smelly motorbike mechanic


Thanks to: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Dionysodorus.html for the more accurate historical aspects of the above.

Oh, and we mustn’t forget “Phil the Greek”, carrier of “foot in mouth” disease, and husband of Queen Elizabeth II.

Before I forget, one more thing (as Columbo would say). Have you noticed that there are very few female mathematicians and philosophers? Is that because they know they are right, all the time?


Related articles

• Pythagoras, a math genius? Not by Babylonian standards (cnn.com)

Absolute Balls

Large Bush Cricket balls found

And no, we’re not talking of antipodean sports in the outback.

One of the more interesting science finds in 2010 was the discovery of a bushcricket species with testicles that account for up to 14% of its body weight. A real ball-buster in the animal kingdom. Tricky landing I  would think, a bit rough on the old undercarriage.  In a study of their mating strategies, a team found these crickets only release small amounts of sperm at each mating, suggesting the big testes are for mating with many females, not producing competitive volumes of sperm for each encounter. Significant research across the animal kingdom has shown that male testicle size is correlated to the degree of promiscuity within a given species. The more partners a female has, the larger the male's testicles are likely to be. Ah yes, the old mine’s bigger than yours line, works every time.

Karim Vahed of the University of Derby and his team began their studies by measuring the testicle size of 21 species of bushcrickets (also known as katydids).Now there’s a job you don’t often hear about, I wonder if the bushcricket was asked to cough. While proportional testicle size ranged widely across the species, the team found that one species, Platycleis affinis, far surpassed the previous record for the proportionally largest testicles. Titanic testicles then?

And just to put this momentous discovery in proportion, they calculated that this would make the equivalent human testes weigh a ball-dragging amount of 11lbs each. Now that’s a heavy load.

And talking of large globular structures!


November 2010 saw the announcement of massive gamma-ray bubbles that extend above and below the plane of the Milky Way galaxy.

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“What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center,” said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who first recognized the feature. “We don’t fully understand their nature or origin.”

Finkbeiner and Harvard graduate students Meng Su and Tracy Slatyer discovered the bubbles by processing publicly available data from Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT). The LAT is the most sensitive and highest-resolution gamma-ray detector ever launched. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light. Scientists now are conducting more analyses to better understand how the never-before-seen structure was formed. The bubble emissions are much more energetic than the gamma-ray fog seen elsewhere in the Milky Way. The bubbles also appear to have well-defined edges. The structure’s shape and emissions suggest it was formed as a result of a large and relatively rapid energy release — the source of which remains a mystery.

One possibility includes a particle jet from the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. In many other galaxies, astronomers see fast particle jets powered by matter falling toward a central black hole. While there is no evidence the Milky Way’s black hole has such a jet today, it may have in the past. The bubbles also may have formed as a result of gas outflows from a burst of star formation, perhaps the one that produced many massive star clusters in the Milky Way’s center several million years ago.

Given that the Sirius the “dog-star” is a constellation in the Milky Way Galaxy, would that make them the Dog’s Bollocks? (a British phrase, like the “bees knees”)

Finally, composer Karlheinz Stockhausen has been claimed to have said on several occasions that he came from a planet in the Sirius system. Well, that would explain a lot.

Related articles

• Astronomers find giant, previously unseen structure in our galaxy (scienceblog.com)

Modern humans and Neanderthals - they're right behind you !

Recent research has pegged the dim-witted looking Neanderthal man as a possible vegetarian and meat-eater; the original meat and two veg? Gotta eat your greens cave-man. So, is it hunter- gatherer, vegetarian, and master-chef as suggested by the BBC? A bit of a stretch, I can’t see this oaf perusing his dining options. How about a few snails to start, followed by steak frites, all washed down by a very drinkable Bojolly? Perhaps not, but he was definitely the first locavore, that’s for sure.

Anyway, according to the BBC a new study of Neanderthal remains, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that the Neanderthal diet was more sophisticated than previously thought. Researchers in the US have found grains of cooked plant material in their teeth. The original image of Neanderthals as meat eaters was based on chemical analysis of their bones that suggested vegetables were not on the menu. This perceived reliance on meat has oft been used as the reason for their extinction as more carnivorous entrees such as mammoth died out during the last Ice Ages.

The researchers found fossilized grains of vegetable material in their teeth and some of it was cooked. Although pollen grains have been found before at Neanderthal sites, there is now clear evidence that plant food was actually eaten by them. This latest study suggests that, far from being brutish savages, Neanderthals were more like us than we previously thought. Professor Alison Brooks, from George Washington University, told BBC News: "We have found pollen grains in Neanderthal sites before but you never know whether they were eating the plant, sleeping on them or what.” “What” presumably being a euphemism for leaving by the back door, dropping the kids off at the pool, that sort of thing. And did you know that when archaeologists and anthropologists excavate dig sites, and talk about coprolites, they’re actually using the word for fossilized feces. Sounds so much better don’t you think?

Still it’s good to know that old big head here had grain in his mouth. A little chew to mash it up, let it ferment a bit, add a little sugar and he’s on the slippery slope to oblivion. Mind you, looking at the usual artists’ impressions of Neanderman and some of the youth of today on a Saturday night out, we may not be as far apart on the tree of human evolution as we’d like to think.

From the first skull unearthed in 1856 in the Neander Thal (“Valley” in German) scientists have tried to distance themselves from this brooding, beetle-browed, hulk-like specimen, possessing what some politely call a robust bone structure and a presumed lack of intelligence. Not that this picture was helped by an early and incorrect analysis of neck bones that led to the stereotypically fire-plug lookalike with a large head apparently growing out of the top of his chest. Later research slowly began to correct our false impressions, even discovering that their brains were a tad larger not by much, but it was possibly significant. What did they use the extra “little grey cells” for one wonders? Solving the meaning of life, doing the crossword puzzle, Sudoku? Probably not.

By the 1950’s according to National Geographic scientists began to emphasize similarities between Neanderthals and modern humans, rather than their differences, and some even argued that they actually belonged to the same species, as do different racial and ethnic groups. As William Straus, Jr. and A.J.E. Cave wrote in a 1957 scientific article, if a Neanderthal “could be reincarnated and placed in a New York subway, provided that he were bathed, shaved and dressed in modern clothing, it is doubtful whether he would attract any more attention than some of its other denizens.” Wishful thinking mate, obviously you haven’t ridden the subway recently!

So, quite a nice chap really, just the sort of person we might meet at a ball game. Or as the Brits call them, lager louts. You’ve seen these specimens before of course; in the pub.

In 2006, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany began working on a project to map the Neanderthal genome, using DNA fragments extracted from Neanderthal remains. Still a work in progress, but researchers have discovered that Neanderthals and modern humans had the same version of the FoxP2 gene, one associated with the use of language. Such a similarity would be difficult to explain if the two groups evolved separately, and raises the possibility that modern humans acquired the language gene by interbreeding with Neanderthals.

Also as explained by Nicholas Wade writing in the May 2010 New York Times, the Neanderthal Genome team has identified only about 100 genes, relating to cognitive function and bone structure, that have contributed to the evolution of modern humans since the split with Neanderthals. In other words, a little humanity goes a long way. If you have lemons, make lemonade, just ask Mary Shelley.

Although believed to more able to cope with a cold climate, the Neanderthals likely struggled when faced with rapidly changing climatic conditions eventually being marginalized, extinct and succeeded only by modern humans. But the good news, depending on your definition, is that between one and four percent of the DNA in non-Africans is inherited from Neanderthals (it is now thought that the development of Neanderthals occurred over 500,000 years ago, well before the “out of Africa” migration, which explains why the inherited DNA is so low, despite the fact that we are closer to Neanderthals then chimpanzees in overall DNA content). This is good to know when explaining that night on the town, inexplicable behavior, mooning at the stars, endless drinking competitions, and wheelies down the high street, that sort of thing. Your wife may not forgive you but at least you have some science to back you up.

So now it appears that we must embrace our inner Neanderthal. How odd, pretty soon they’ll have him quoting Shakespeare “Shall I compare thee to summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” Or not. Of course, in the olden days, when big head here was all the anthropological rage the gentlemen scientists of the day tried hard to disassociate themselves from his lineage, not wanting to believe there could be any direct link with us humans; must have been a throwback, inter-breeding gone mad, an evolutionary dead-end, that sort of thing. Even that there could be other forms of prehistoric man was pretty anathema in those stuffy, Victorian, god-fearing days.

After all, the origin of man was the realm of the righteous, religious rulers who were generally anti-Darwin and his “On the Origin of Species”. Published in 1859 the book’s basic premise was that nature selected the best adapted varieties to survive and to reproduce, a process that has come to be known as natural selection, or “survival of the fittest”. Church of England Bishop Sam Wilberforce was opposed to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, remembered at a famous 1860 debate during which he is said to have asked Thomas Henry Huxley whether it was through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey. And it is this, by the way, which is believed to be the derivation of the phrase “I’ll be a monkey’s uncle”. An outburst generally spoken by non-Darwinian believers, delivered with a degree of surprise, obviously.

Image via Wikipedia

Which reminds me, whilst trimming the tree this year on Christmas Eve and after her frustration with my frustration over the numerous attempts to ensure the perfect verticality of said tree, my wife turned to me and said “how did men ever leave their caves?” For the record, the correct answer is not “because the pubs are open”

For more information please read:

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/neanderthal-code-3228/04#tab-evolving-view-4; and http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/10/neanderthals/hall-text/10

Related articles

• Neanderthal diet study (theworld.org)

New Years Eve New York Ball Drop - Part 2

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My first New Years Eve in New York, we went to a local restaurant for the usual overpriced dinner, gratis party favors to help celebrate with people you’ve never met and who you’ll never see again, until finally the moment arrives. My first New York ball drop ceremony. Here we go…5…4...3...2...1…fireworks…and the ball drops…then what happens next…nothing...surely not, there must be something else…no there isn’t. My first ball drop and that’s it? Well excuuuuse me, you call that a drop? Apples drop off trees, just ask Isaac Newton, feathers were dropped off the tower of Pisa, and guess what, they accelerate! But the ball just slides down what is really a very short pole (approximately 60 feet), with no sense of occasion and just stops. It just stops, move along now, there’s nothing more to see.

Here’s an idea, why not add some excitement, a little zip, even a suggestion of danger. Perhaps the organizers could be persuaded to induce a mistake in the proceedings, and have the ball accelerate, hit the bottom, bounce, land in Times Square, and roll down Broadway so that we can all have an Indiana Jones moment.

In today’s overactive, hyped-up, fast-pace of living in New York, this ball drop is the most anti-climactic, over-hyped, under-whelming event of the year. Perhaps that’s why the keep it until the last day. And, we’ve waited all year for this? Um, can’t wait for next year, not.