Life is back to normal on the ponds now that the survey is finished. The cormorants are back in charge of their logs, and the ducks and geese are sailing sedately around in circles, practicing for a Christmas pageant perhaps, as is appropriate for the spacious, genteel living on the Ponds. Not at all like the high-density log-life on the pond at the back of Fern Ridge Dam with eight cormorants to a log – no room to stretch a wing there.
The news media appears to be buzzing with the DNA results from the Denisovanian finger bone and wisdom tooth. Apparently the hominin trek north from Africa half a million years ago resulted in the usual macho male discussion about directions. The westward bound turned into Neanderthalers whilst those that went towards the sunrise became Denisovans. Both groups were successful and spread over large areas of the landmass. The Denisovans covered an area from Siberia to New Guinea. There is a 4.6% match of the modern New Guinea people with that from the wisdom tooth. This means that there was some canoodling going on with the modern humans who left Africa much later. Similar mixing occurred with the Neanderthals and modern humans in the west. These exciting results lead us to the idea that these mixes are to be found most strongly in the genes of the World’s politicos who are still arguing over whether East or West is best. Folk memories fade very slowly apparently.
