The caveman myth

We're all familiar with the caveman myth. You know, the idea that the earliest humans all lived in caves, carried clubs, wore animal skins hung on one shoulder, and grunted back and forth to each other with intelligence only a bit higher than apes.

The ancients were smarter than a lot of folks give them credit for being. Not every ancient man lived in a cave and scratched his flea-infested armpit with hairy, dung-covered fingers - it just so happens that other homes the ancients lived in didn't last as long as the caves. So if the oldest human habitations we discover are caves, then all I can say is...duh! Do you expect an 5,000-yr-old straw house or animal-skin tent to still be standing in Mesopotamia? (Or a wood boat on Mt. Ararat?)

Popular posts from this blog

Online Relationship Calculator for Autosomal DNA

Image
Have you taken a DNA test? Have you looked at the results and wondered what they mean?  What is a centimorgan? Why do you and relatives share them? Is a DNA match your great aunt or your evil twin brother? The calculator chart at the end of this article will help you narrow down the possibilities. Is a DNA match your 2nd cousin, or your 4th cousin twice removed? What does twice removed even mean? The calculator chart will help you visualize the relationship. Simply type in the shared centimorgans (cM) of a DNA match, and the calculator will show you how you're likely related. Here's a picture of the chart with no relationships highlighted. To use this solely as a reference chart, you can download it as a pdf at this link . But to use this chart as a dynamically-highlighted calculator, keep reading... The calculator is based on the Shared cM Project data, version 3.0 dated Aug 2017. This data is a compilation of data from volunteers who input their shared centimorgans ind
Read more

Crime Pays for Ex-Army Manager

Injustice in America takes many forms. Often it takes the form of when justice is not administered by the legal system. "Don't be corrupt when administering justice. Never give special favors to poor people, and never show preference to important people. Judge your neighbor fairly." - The Bible Sometimes crime pays handsome dividends due to ridiculously light court sentencing. This is the story of how Anthony (Tony) Shaw, an Army acquisition manager at the US Army Tank Automotive Life Cycle Management Command (TACOM LCMC) in Michigan, used kickbacks from an Army contractor to bail himself out of personal debt. Tony ends up being the winner, despite being ordered to pay restitution and serve almost 4 years in prison. In an episode that reminds us of the government bailout of AIG, Shaw personally benefited from taxpayer funds that bailed him out of over-leveraged real estate investments in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. Thanks to Tony's light court sentence,
Read more

Rebedding a whole house dechlorinator

Image
Our new rental house came with a 8x40 Kinetico dechlorinator in the garage, next to a Kinetico dual tank water softener system. The dechlorinator is basically an 8" diameter container that is 40" tall, about 3/4 full of granulated activated charcoal (GAC). As the water flows up from the bottom of the container through the GAC, chlorine is removed from the water. However, the GAC only lasts for a finite time before it needs to be replaced. The specs for a similar dechlorinator say something about 60,000 gallons of water can be treated, but it depends on the amount of chlorine in the water. Since the system is 12 years old, I am going to change out the charcoal bed. The dechlorinator is the black bottle on the left. The two black bottles on the right are a 2-bottle water softener system that works in conjunction with the brine tank on the left. The left bottle shows the 2 water pipes going to the dechlorinator. Release them by pushing up the metal pin in the metal brac
Read more