The Migration of Anatomically Modern Humans

Evidence from fossils, ancient artefacts and genetic analyses combine to tell a compelling story.


Two routes jump out as prime candidates for the human exodus out of Africa. A northern route would have taken our ancestors from their base in eastern sub-Saharan Africa across the Sahara desert, then through Sinai and into the Levant. An alternative southern route may have charted a path from Djibouti or Eritrea in the Horn of Africa across the Bab el•Mandeb strait and into Yemen and around the Arabian peninsula. The plausibility of these two routes as gateways out of Africa has been studied as part of the UK's Natural Environment Research Council's 
programme 'Environmental Factors in the Chronology of Human Evolution 8 Disperser (EFCHED). 

During the last ice age, from about 80,000 to 11,000 years ago, sea levels dropped as the ice sheets grew, exposing large swathes of land now submerged under water and connecting regions now separated by the sea. By reconstructing ancient shorelines, the EFOIED team found that the Bab el-Mandeb strait, now around 30 kilometres wide and one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, was then a narrow, shallow channel. 

Early humans may have taken this southern route out of Africa. The northern route appears easier, especially given the team's finding that the Suez basin was dry during the last ice age. But crossing the Sahara desert is no small matter. EKHED scientist Simon Armitage of the Royal Holloway University of London has found some clues as to how this might have been possible. During the past 150,000 years, North Africa has experienced abrupt switches between dry, arid conditions and a humid climate. During the longer wetter periods huge lakes existed in both Chad and Libya, which would have provided a "humid corridor" across the Sahara. 
Armitage has discovered that these lakes were present around 10,000 years ago, when there is abundant evidence for human occupation of the Sahara, as well as around 115,000 years ago, when our ancestors first made forays into Israel. It is unknown whether another humid corridor appeared between about 65,000 and 50,000 years ago, the most likely time frame for the human exodus. Moreover, accumulating evidence is pointing to the southern route as the most likely jumping-off point.

Sleeping Habits of the Rich and Famous Infographic


We're always told about getting a regular, solid eight hours' sleep when it comes to being productive and successful, but not everyone follows this seemingly sound advice. Some of the most famous, successful and driven people throughout history have had some very strange sleeping habits - from micro-kips to sleeping in phases. We've got the oddest rich and famous sleeping habits in this new infographic.

Via - Bigbrandbeds 

Long Way Down: Mariana Trench

Seven miles is a long way down... more than a mile deeper than Mt. Everest is up. To reach the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, James Cameron will descend past some pretty amazing milestones. Here's a glimpse.

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7 Billion: How Did We Get So Big So Fast?

It was just over two centuries ago that the global population was 1 billion — in 1804. But better medicine and improved agriculture resulted in higher life expectancy for children, dramatically increasing the world population, especially in the West.

As higher standards of living and better health care are reaching more parts of the world, the rates of fertility — and population growth — have started to slow down, though the population will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

U.N. forecasts suggest the world population could hit a peak of 10.1 billion by 2100 before beginning to decline. But exact numbers are hard to come by — just small variations in fertility rates could mean a population of 15 billion by the end of the century.

Produced by Adam Cole
Cinematography by Maggie Starbard

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The Reckoning: America and the World a Decade After 9/11

The New York Times’s special report on the decade’s costs and consequences, measured in thousands of lives, trillions of dollars and countless challenges to the human spirit.

Where Were You on Sept. 11, 2001? (here)



War Funding, Related Costs (here)
Al Qaeda spent roughly half a million dollars to destroy the World Trade Center and cripple the Pentagon. What has been the cost to the United States?

via www.nytimes.com

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