Week in review - mid-October (2013) - some cool science, weird politics, and an every changing sense of history.

Week of October 14-20, 2013

At our house, we started the week with frank talk about the economy/government failing.

Where would we be? What would we do? How would we continue? Would we stay in Denver or move somewhere more temperate?

These questions are very real to us as we graduated college in the middle of the last horrible economic crisis, been pushed out of the economic market over and over again, and have ridden the economy roller coaster all of our adult life. The economy rolls, fails, falls over, and rises again. That's the history of this country.

I never thought elected officials would work so very hard to pull this system of governing down. (Interesting article on how the world views the US drama.)

As you know, the temper tantrum is over for now, and theoretically things are back to some form of normal. Somehow, in Colorado, all of the representatives and congress people managed to stay on the same page. I don't know how that happened or who made it come to pass, but it was nothing short of miraculous.

But the question remains - Where would you be if the US government failed? What would I do?

I honestly think we'd be foolish to not at least entertain the question.

As a cap to an odd week, we ended last night with the annual fundraiser for the Denver Public Library called the Booklover's Ball. It's touted as "Denver's best party," and I'd say it was pretty fun.

Of course, I'm always working. ;) I sat across from a guy who said he could get me into the new Denver Crime lab, where Ava from Denver Cereal and the Seth and Ava Mysteries works. (More to come!) The man sitting next to us and his wife live about a block from our old house in the Mayfair. And the couple on the end help make the dreams spoken of in bonds into realities. I was very impressed with everyone. The band was incredible. We danced and danced - like it was 1999 - until they tried to convince us to "Don't stop believing".

Odd week.

I continue to take French, which is pretty fun.

Here's the highlights of this last week:

This is possibly my favorite week in science. Here are three cool scientific facts released this week! I'm listing them in the order of my love for them! :)

• The Iceman has 19 living relatives!

5300 years ago, the Iceman ate what was probably a noon time meal, fought at least four men - killed two, and most likely died from the arrow wound in his shoulder. Most people believe he found on this icey wilderness where his body froze and was found in 1991. There's new evidence that his body may have been carted up to the mountain after death. It's unlikely we'll ever know. (Autopsy photos)Unless one of his 19 living relatives know the story! :D

link

• The mystery of the Yeti has been solved!

UK geneticist, Bryan Sykes, has found distinct markers from hair samples believed to be from the Yeti. He focused specifically on two hair samples found 800 miles apart in the Himalayas.  Low and behold, he was able to match the DNA.

link

The DNA is believed to belong to what was thought to be an extinct bear species - or quite possibly a new bear species that is a subspecies of the Brown Bear.

• Human beings have a simpler timeline than what was once thought.After spending 3 years researching a 1.8 million year old intact skull from the Republic of Georgia, scientists agree to rewrite the ideas behind the human lineage.

Link

If you've followed the uncovery of the lineage of human beings, this is a huge discovery. I grew up in a place where people used to argue over human lineage. When I was at UC Berkeley, my professors used to say that the advent of DNA would clean ego driven decisions out of the human lineage. It's nice to see that this is happening

We live in such a fabulous time of mystery and discovery!

And finally, worth viewing:

The street artist Banksy is in New York this month. Here's a link to his work so far. The following speaks to my wrap up of this weird week.

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