Scientists revealed what could be the "missing link" in human evolution today.
Her name is Ida, and she is 47-million years old. While her skeleton looks closer to that of a lemur than a person's, but she is unlike any other primate-family fossil ever discovered. She had a long tail and was covered with fur, but she had a talus bone in her feet (like a person's) and she had nails, not claws. Unlike lemurs, she doesn't have a "grooming claw" on her feet, nor does she have a fused tooth on her lower jaw. At only 3 feet long, she has short arms and legs. She also had forward facing eyes like a person, giving her 3D vision and depth perception.
Unlike other ancient human fossils, Ida was recovered from a mile-wide crater in Germany. Her bones were first dug up in 1983. The people who excavated her divided her bones into two sets, fabricated the rest of the skeleton and sold the pieces separately. One part ended up in Wyoming, where Jens L. Frazen recognized the fraud. Rejoined with her original bones, Ida has been in the University of Oslo Natural History for the last two years. 95% complete, she is the most complete ancient human relative ever found.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Citizen B's Woman of the Week: Indra Nooyi
Amidst the economic disaster, there are a few companies looking to their new leadership to weather the storm. On Fortune 500's list of top companies a surprising number of female CEOs are pulling in top dollars for their businesses in this market. Today, I've picked PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi as my woman of the week.
Indra Nooyi came to the United States from India in 1978 to get an M.B.A. at Yale University, much to the disappointment of her parents. This former cricket player and karaoke enthusiast earned a job at PepsiCo as a chief strategist. Her plan was to get PepsiCo off their soda-habit and onto healthy foods. She engineered PepsiCo's purchase of Tropicana and Quaker Oats (who owns Gatorade, by the way.) The company dropped KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut and profits showed she had made the right choice.
When she was picked to replace CEO Steve Reinemund in 2006, she went to the other top candidate and asked him to stay on as her right hand, increasing his salary. As PepsiCo's "caring CEO" she has also pledged that the company will become more sustainable, using wind and solar power in their plants and producing more fruit juice and healthy snacks, and launch a public service campaign to fight obesity. It shows that a multi-billion dollar enterprise once so reviled for its practices and presence can turn itself around and still make a profit at the end of the day. "We bring together what is good for business with what is good for the world."
And running a major company hasn't made her lose her spirit either. She still calls her mother in India twice a day. She raises two daughters, and still sings karaoke for her employees at company events.
Indra Nooyi came to the United States from India in 1978 to get an M.B.A. at Yale University, much to the disappointment of her parents. This former cricket player and karaoke enthusiast earned a job at PepsiCo as a chief strategist. Her plan was to get PepsiCo off their soda-habit and onto healthy foods. She engineered PepsiCo's purchase of Tropicana and Quaker Oats (who owns Gatorade, by the way.) The company dropped KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut and profits showed she had made the right choice.
When she was picked to replace CEO Steve Reinemund in 2006, she went to the other top candidate and asked him to stay on as her right hand, increasing his salary. As PepsiCo's "caring CEO" she has also pledged that the company will become more sustainable, using wind and solar power in their plants and producing more fruit juice and healthy snacks, and launch a public service campaign to fight obesity. It shows that a multi-billion dollar enterprise once so reviled for its practices and presence can turn itself around and still make a profit at the end of the day. "We bring together what is good for business with what is good for the world."
And running a major company hasn't made her lose her spirit either. She still calls her mother in India twice a day. She raises two daughters, and still sings karaoke for her employees at company events.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Citizen B's Happy News: Church Congregation Pays for Homeless Couple's Wedding
This is a story that I found really touching.
Nhiahni Chestnut and Dante White exchanged vows in the Grace Episcopal Church in Washington, DC's upscale Georgetown neighborhood. They ate chocolate cake, danced to "Take the A-Train" and took off for their honeymoon at the Key Bridge Marriot Hotel in Virginia.
After the honeymoon, the couple heads back to the DC streets where they live. Both Nhiahni and Dante are homeless.
The couple met at the Grace Episcopal Church's Bible study and meals program. White has been living on the street since he was thrown out of his mother's house when he was 14. With little education, he's had a hard time finding a job and an even harder time finding love.
Nhiahni herself had struggled with keeping her life afloat after her drug and alcohol abuse problems left her on the street. She says that when she met Dante everything just clicked, and the two starting hanging out.
After nine years of dating, the couple wanted to marry. The parishioners were enthusiastic about the idea and each took up the cost for parts of the ceremony- the rings, the dress, the tux, the cake, and the flowers. One churchgoer even paid for the honeymoon.
The members of Grace Episcopal Church are looking out for this couple. They want to find affordable housing for the newlyweds. They are currently getting together money for a security deposit on an apartment and a few other things to help the couple set up a home.
I hear a lot of people say that the homeless are homeless by choice; they don't want to work. They are lazy. Especially right now I don't believe that this is true. In the case of this couple, Dante was left to fend for himself at 14, which I'd assume kills opportunities for education or work experience. Most of the newly homeless are families, a trend that is growing across the country. Schools are taking on the role of social workers, giving kids basic necessities and meals twice a day.
There are incredible stories of people who persevere through homelessness to achieve great success, such as Jeannette Walls an MSNBC journalist whose parents were transients while she was growing up, or Chris Gardner who was homeless raising his son, and on whose life the movie The Pursuit of Happyness is based.
It makes me happy that the congregation of Grace Church not only pulled off a wedding for this couple, but is looking for a home for them. That is a real show of Christian charity to me, although I wish they could find employment, training, or education for the pair.
Nhiahni Chestnut and Dante White exchanged vows in the Grace Episcopal Church in Washington, DC's upscale Georgetown neighborhood. They ate chocolate cake, danced to "Take the A-Train" and took off for their honeymoon at the Key Bridge Marriot Hotel in Virginia.
After the honeymoon, the couple heads back to the DC streets where they live. Both Nhiahni and Dante are homeless.
The couple met at the Grace Episcopal Church's Bible study and meals program. White has been living on the street since he was thrown out of his mother's house when he was 14. With little education, he's had a hard time finding a job and an even harder time finding love.
Nhiahni herself had struggled with keeping her life afloat after her drug and alcohol abuse problems left her on the street. She says that when she met Dante everything just clicked, and the two starting hanging out.
After nine years of dating, the couple wanted to marry. The parishioners were enthusiastic about the idea and each took up the cost for parts of the ceremony- the rings, the dress, the tux, the cake, and the flowers. One churchgoer even paid for the honeymoon.
The members of Grace Episcopal Church are looking out for this couple. They want to find affordable housing for the newlyweds. They are currently getting together money for a security deposit on an apartment and a few other things to help the couple set up a home.
I hear a lot of people say that the homeless are homeless by choice; they don't want to work. They are lazy. Especially right now I don't believe that this is true. In the case of this couple, Dante was left to fend for himself at 14, which I'd assume kills opportunities for education or work experience. Most of the newly homeless are families, a trend that is growing across the country. Schools are taking on the role of social workers, giving kids basic necessities and meals twice a day.
There are incredible stories of people who persevere through homelessness to achieve great success, such as Jeannette Walls an MSNBC journalist whose parents were transients while she was growing up, or Chris Gardner who was homeless raising his son, and on whose life the movie The Pursuit of Happyness is based.
It makes me happy that the congregation of Grace Church not only pulled off a wedding for this couple, but is looking for a home for them. That is a real show of Christian charity to me, although I wish they could find employment, training, or education for the pair.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Some Funny News For Everyone At The Bottom Of The Ladder
I am a firm believer that at some point in everyone's life, he or she should work in either retail or food service. Typically I advocate this career during those teenage years where everyone has that "hot stuff" attitude and needs a job where they are the lowest of the low for some perspective. For those who have worked in these fields (and Jaxx knows what I mean) I think you can identify with a few of the following posts.
I have worked in retail before, and not high end retail. Let me tell you, everyone who has ever worked in a retail store has wanted to do this to a customer.
A customer tried to return a product at a Radio Shack in Eau Claire, WI. The 52-year-old employee wouldn't let him return the item. When the customer asked to speak to the manager, the employee began punching the customer.
I'm trying to picture how this all went down. Was the customer trying to return something he/she really couldn't return? "Sir/Ma'am, that's a clearance item. No returns. No, I don't care if you spilled beer on it and now it won't work. You can't return the item."
Or perhaps had this employee just had enough? Those of you who have worked in retail (or food service for that matter) know what it's like. People get a real power trip from yelling at you. You are the bottom of the ladder. Everyone, no matter what their pathetic job is, feels superior to you. You are there to serve them, and so they take advantage.
I'm guessing a guy who is 52 and working at Radio Shack (and is not the manager I might add) is one of three things.
Possibility A) He has a bad temper.
Possibility B) He has worked this job or kind of job his whole life. He finally has had it. That was the last customer to be rude to him.
Possibility C) He used to have an office job and in the recession lost it. He has been put back into the kind of job he worked in college or high school, and is deeply in debt. He has been working for the last 30 years of his life, and this is the only job he could get. Now he's got someone whining at him. That's the last straw, buddy.
Of course, it is more likely Possibility A or B, but I don't rule out C.
In fact, C is probably what led a man in Pittsfield to take his anger out on some Wal-Mart TVs.
26-year-old Nicholas Adornetto walked into a Wal-Mart one Thursday afternoon, took a bat from the sporting goods section, and smashed 16 flat-screen televisions.
When the police arrived, Adornetto calmly explained that he was angry with the government and was unemployed. He was just trying to relieve a little stress. He is charged with 16 counts vandalized property and one count of disorderly conduct.
Not to justify what he did (or the thousands of dollars of damage) but how good must it have felt at the time to just break all these things? How often have you wanted to just hit something when you're mad? That's exactly what these men did, although not without great consequence.
In times like these, don't you want to do the same thing sometimes?
I have worked in retail before, and not high end retail. Let me tell you, everyone who has ever worked in a retail store has wanted to do this to a customer.
A customer tried to return a product at a Radio Shack in Eau Claire, WI. The 52-year-old employee wouldn't let him return the item. When the customer asked to speak to the manager, the employee began punching the customer.
I'm trying to picture how this all went down. Was the customer trying to return something he/she really couldn't return? "Sir/Ma'am, that's a clearance item. No returns. No, I don't care if you spilled beer on it and now it won't work. You can't return the item."
Or perhaps had this employee just had enough? Those of you who have worked in retail (or food service for that matter) know what it's like. People get a real power trip from yelling at you. You are the bottom of the ladder. Everyone, no matter what their pathetic job is, feels superior to you. You are there to serve them, and so they take advantage.
I'm guessing a guy who is 52 and working at Radio Shack (and is not the manager I might add) is one of three things.
Possibility A) He has a bad temper.
Possibility B) He has worked this job or kind of job his whole life. He finally has had it. That was the last customer to be rude to him.
Possibility C) He used to have an office job and in the recession lost it. He has been put back into the kind of job he worked in college or high school, and is deeply in debt. He has been working for the last 30 years of his life, and this is the only job he could get. Now he's got someone whining at him. That's the last straw, buddy.
Of course, it is more likely Possibility A or B, but I don't rule out C.
In fact, C is probably what led a man in Pittsfield to take his anger out on some Wal-Mart TVs.
26-year-old Nicholas Adornetto walked into a Wal-Mart one Thursday afternoon, took a bat from the sporting goods section, and smashed 16 flat-screen televisions.
When the police arrived, Adornetto calmly explained that he was angry with the government and was unemployed. He was just trying to relieve a little stress. He is charged with 16 counts vandalized property and one count of disorderly conduct.
Not to justify what he did (or the thousands of dollars of damage) but how good must it have felt at the time to just break all these things? How often have you wanted to just hit something when you're mad? That's exactly what these men did, although not without great consequence.
In times like these, don't you want to do the same thing sometimes?
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