Celebrating the Things that All Humankind Share
It’s the birthday of anthropologist Louis Leakey. From the Writer’s Almanac:
In 1948, Leakey and his wife found one of the earliest fossil ape skulls ever discovered; it was between 25 and 40 million years old. It is now believed to be the skull of the ancestor of all large primates, including humans. Then, in 1959, they turned up another hominid skull, which was 1.75 million years old. It was the oldest skull of a close human relative ever found at that point, and it helped persuade other anthropologists that Africa was indeed the place where human beings had evolved.
It’s a shame that our daily lives contain only occasional reminders of our common humanity and its many profound implications, e.g., our rights as people and our duties to treat one another justly and kindly. And now the consequences of getting this wrong are irreparable, as suggested by yesterday’s 70th anniversary of the nuclear explosion over Hiroshima. Note: according to Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Nuclear Notebook 2014, the total number of nuclear weapons is estimated at 10,144.
It’s a good thing there are no hateful bullies running for U.S. president in 2016. Oooops, strike that.
