Theories of human ancestry get an overhaul

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12093345
Professor Clive Finlayson explains why recent research pulls the rug from under the feet of long-established theories of human evolution

To think that around 30 - 50 thousand years ago, there were four different sub-species, or possibly even separate species, of humans (he didn't include Homo floresiensis in this article).

Historians Find Some Va. Texts Filled With Errors

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/12/29/395175vhistorytextbookreview_ap.html?tkn=USUFX3h6Rh%2FvUCORFZvsiMQDNZEkV7+UoJ2i&cmp=clp-edweek

"In the version of history being taught in some Virginia classrooms, New Orleans began the 1800s as a bustling U.S. harbor (instead of as a Spanish colonial one). The Confederacy included 12 states (instead of 11). And the United States entered World War I in 1916 (instead of in 1917)."

Colourful ancient art 'is alive'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12039203

"A particular type of ancient rock art in Western Australia maintains its vivid colours because it is alive, researchers find."

"The Glory of the Rails" & "Bring Back the Rails" by Tony Judt in the NY Review of Books

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/dec/23/glory-rails/

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jan/13/bring-back-rails/

Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12071424

"Researchers in the US have found grains of cooked plant material in their teeth. The study is the first to confirm that the Neanderthal diet was not confined to meat and was more sophisticated than previously thought. The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

Interesting article. Why do we believe public schools are failing. Because we're told they are by the same people who will benefit if they do. Public schools have to fail for private industry to crack into that market.

http://ksdcitizens.org/2010/12/22/waiting-for-superfraud/

A very odd Christmas tradition

I enjoy finding out about other cultures' traditions, especially when they differ from our view of that tradition. Here's a Christmas nativity tradition from Catalonia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12059969

African elephant 'is two species'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12054343

Genetic research claims to have resolved a long-standing issue by showing that African bush and forest elephants are distinct species.

Ancient family was cannibalised

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12049854

Archaeologists in Spain have unearthed the remains of a possible family of 12 Neanderthals who were cannibalised some 49,000 years ago.

Concrete concerns about saving and expanding slavery, and not the nebulous theology of states’ rights, ignited the U.S. Civil War. Why does that message keep getting lost?

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/of-course-the-civil-war-was-about-slavery-26265/

http://www.ted.com/talks/ethan_zuckerman.html

Sure, the web connects the globe, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves. Blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman wants to help share the stories of the whole wide world. He talks about clever strategies to open up your Twitter world and read the news in languages you don't even know.

Students look to 2012 after immigration bill fails

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1110ap_us_immigration_students.html

"The Senate vote Saturday to toss the proposal that would have granted young illegal immigrants a route to legal status dealt a harsh blow to student activists who will face an even steeper uphill battle in the next Congress."

Lummi Nation School on upswing

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_lummi_nation_school.html

"The tribal school had had five superintendents and three principals in less than five years, staff turnover was high, students were getting away with poor behavior and attendance, and very few could meet state testing standards. But now, through tougher policies, increased tutoring, staff collaboration and a stable administration, morale and academics at the 350-student, K-12 school are on an upswing."

Debate Over Little Bighorn Battle Monument

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/us/19custer.html?_r=2&src=twrhp

A political tug of war has raged between the National Park Service, Custer buffs and Indian tribes over how best to fix a litany of problems with the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

An Indigenous Perspective on Gender Orientations (VIDEO)

http://aeroeducation.org/2010/12/19/genderorientations/

This workshop was held at the 7th annual AERO conference.

Pythagoras, a math genius? Not by Babylonian standards

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/12/17/old.babylonian.math/index.html?hpt=C2

Over 1,000 years before Pythagoras was calculating the length of a hypotenuse, sophisticated scribes in Mesopotamia were working with the same theory to calculate the area of their farmland.

Why American students lag behind

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/12/17/honda.education/index.html?hpt=T2
One of the greatest lessons to be learned from the Program for International Student Assessment report released this month is that equity matters.

Interesting - "...America is one of only four countries that gives the advantage of access to more teachers to higher-income schools."

This is great. Please read, have a good laugh, then be depressed.

What if WikiLeaks got hold of a cable from China’s embassy in Washington? Here’s some of the “good news” that may have been sent home to Beijing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/opinion/01friedman.html?scp=5&sq=friedman+china+wikileaks&st=Search

A new method of identifying human gnaw marks on bones suggest early humans got nutrition from each other's flesh.

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/cannibalism-early-humans-bones-101213.html

* Human gnawing and chewing marks have been identified on human and other hominid bones.
* The findings support the idea that some prehistoric humans practiced nutritional cannibalism.
* The newly identified signature for human bone chewing is also helping to determine what animals early hominids ate.

New federal regulations will mean that archaeologists lose the opportunity to find the true affiliation of ancient remains.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/opinion/13kelly.html?_r=1&ref=contributors

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-5283.pdf

I wish my math teachers had this philosophy when I was younger

Math is not linear

http://prezi.com/aww2hjfyil0u/math-is-not-linear/

House boosts school meal funding

The US House of Representatives approves a bill that will provide more free school meals to children and let the government set nutrition guidelines.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11906397

Interesting that this is front page news on the BBC and education news sites, but not front page on mainstream US media. Also interesting that the opposition's arguments seem to place money before the health of children.

Forest collapse boosted reptiles

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11870322

"The collapse of tropical rainforests 300 million years ago helped pave the way for the rise of dinosaurs, a study suggests."

First coca chewed 8,000 years ago

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11878241

"The earliest known medicinal use of the coca plant - from which cocaine is made - has been pushed back by thousands of years."