The Imminent Past
The Past is still with us; it's not even past. Relevant lessons from history.
Collection by Rick Powell
Aeon+Psyche
The Rift Valley tells the entire human story from the start
13+ min · · Splitting the African continent, it is the only place where our human story can be read continuously from the very start · Shared by 135, including 🧠 Larry G. Maguire, Rick Powell
Singularity Hub
Breakthrough Shows Humans Were Already Standing on Their Own Two Feet 7 Million Years Ago
5 min · · It turns out bipedalism is not an invariable feature of humanity and has its own history within our history. · Shared by 50, including Rick Powell, John Hagel
BBC News (World)
How many people can Earth handle?
20+ min · · This year, the human population on Earth is expected to reach eight billion. To mark the occasion, BBC Future takes a look at one of the most controversial issues of our time. · Shared by 612, including Nicolas Babin, Rick Powell, Theodora (Theo) Lau - 劉䂀曼 🌻, Howard Getson
The New York Times
Your Doppelgänger Is Out There and You Probably Share DNA With Them
4 min · · That person who looks just like you is not your twin, but if scientists compared your genomes, they might find a lot in common. · Shared by 576, including Kara Swisher, Christopher Lauer™, The Indian Express, Rick Powell, Howard Getson, Eric Topol, Dr. Simon A. Rego, @emilymbender@dair-community.social on Mastodon
The Guardian
‘I’m certainly open to criticism’: David Wengrow and the trouble with rewriting human history
8 min · · Wengrow and his late co-author David Graeber caused a sensation with their revisionist view of humankind’s development. But then came the attacks… · Shared by 151, including Steven Pinker, isaac Samuel, Rick Powell
CNN
Ancient drum found in children's grave billed 'most important' piece of prehistoric art in 100 years
2 min · · A 5,000-year-old chalk drum will go on public display for the first time next week, more than six years after it was first uncovered by archaeologists in England. · Shared by 8, including Rick Powell
mattbruenig.com
Marx Was an Obsessive Wonk
2 min · · Someone sent me this piece today from Charlotte Bancroft at The Bellows. The piece is titled “The Consumerist Mediocrities of Millennial Socialism” and then subtitled “Karl Marx opposed the wonkish,… · Shared by 9, including Rick Powell, Liam Bright
VANITY FAIR
Nikole Hannah-Jones Keeps Her Eyes on the Prize
5 min · · Beloved by the hopeful, besieged by the right, America’s groundbreaking public intellectual talks about creating the 1619 Project, the harms of social media, and how the anti-CRT crusade avoids our… · Shared by 22, including Jason Stanley, Rick Powell
nature
DNA reveals surprise ancestry of mysterious Chinese mummies
3 min · · The genomes of 13 remarkably preserved 4,000-year-old mummies from the Tarim Basin suggest they weren’t migrants who brought technology from the west, as previously supposed. · Shared by 9, including Rick Powell, Roger Highfield
Science Magazine
Nearly 500 Mesoamerican monuments revealed by laser mapping—many for the first time
3 min · · Survey indicates some ceremonial complexes appeared earlier than thought · Shared by 13, including AAAS, News from Science, Rick Powell
The Atlantic
Public Health Was Radical Once
7 min · · The field’s future lies in reclaiming parts of its past that it willingly abandoned. · Shared by 221, including Carrie Brown, Cedric Dark, MD, MPH, FACEP, Gregg Gonsalves, Rick Powell, Ed Yong has left The Atlantic, Neil Lewis, Jr., PhD, Daniel Kraft, MD, David CisMan, Christopher Mims 🤌, Céline Gounder, MD, ScM, FIDSA 🇺🇦, Mar Hicks
The Atlantic
Human History Gets a Rewrite
10 min · · A brilliant new account upends bedrock assumptions about 30,000 years of change. · Shared by 401, including Felix M, ExApologist, John Hagel, Dr. Marigo Raftopoulos, Michael Seemann, Harold Jarche, Gabriele, Rick Powell, Oliver Reichenstein, Mathew Ingram, isaac Samuel, Bjorn Larsen, Anita Leirfall, Edward Reynolds, Molly Ball, Scott Monty, Nico Müller 🇺🇦, Tactical Tech, David Nagel, justin caouette
The Atlantic
Inheritance
3 min · · A project about American history, Black life, and the resilience of memory · Shared by 31, including Ed Yong has left The Atlantic, Megan Ranney MD MPH 🌻, Clint Smith, Rick Powell, Robin Kwong, ExApologist, Jamil Smith جميل كريم
jonathanrosenbaum.net
Make No Mistake: The Day the Towers Fell
12+ min · · This was written exactly one week after September 11, 2001, at the invitation of the Chicago Reader‘s editor, but the first time it was published was on this web site on March 11, 2010. — J.R. I was… · Shared by 5, including Rick Powell
Scientific American
Denial of Evolution Is a Form of White Supremacy
4 min · · As museums reopen let’s introduce ourselves, and our children, to the original Black ancestors of all human beings · Shared by 66, including Richard Dawkins, Chris Isak, William Gibson, Rick Powell
nature
NASA investigates renaming James Webb telescope after anti-LGBT+ claims
5 min · · Some astronomers argue the flagship observatory — successor to the Hubble Space Telescope — will memorialize discrimination. Others are waiting for more evidence. · Shared by 24, including Rick Powell, Roger Highfield