A Genetic Chronicle of the First Peoples in the Americas – SAPIENS

Central Beringia is mainly underwater today, but it was a substantial land connection between 50,000 and 11,000 years ago. The term “Bering Land Bridge” gives the impression that people raced across a narrow isthmus to reach what is today Alaska. But the oceanographic data clearly show that during the LGM, the land bridge was twice the size of Texas.

If the “Out of Beringia” model is correct, Beringia wasn’t a crossing point but a homeland. It was a place where people lived for many generations, sheltering from an inhospitable climate and slowly evolving the genetic variation unique to their Native American descendants.

Either just before or shortly after the start of their period of isolation, the Beringians split into several groups: the Ancestral Native Americans, who would move south, below the ice sheets, and become ancestors of the First Peoples; the Ancient Beringians, who would stay behind in Beringia; and a mystery group (Unsampled Population A) known to us only indirectly from the traces of ancestry it contributed to some Mesoamerican populations.

Source: A Genetic Chronicle of the First Peoples in the Americas – SAPIENS

Het einde van onze ijstijd

Alowieke

The end of our ice time

Economische efficiëntie ligt als een kille ijsmassa over het land. Kan het smelten? En wat gebeurt er dan?

Liever luisteren? Klik op de knop onderaan de tekst.

Rather listen? Click on the button at the and of the tekstfor the english translation.

.

Afbeelding: Alowieke van Beusekom

.

Zompig is de grond onder mijn klompen. Ik loop licht en voorzichtig, om geen diepe gaten in de bodem te maken. De paadjes worden steeds drassiger. Hoe dichterbij de lente, hoe natter de klei. Op sommige plekken is er alleen nog modder. Er steken een paar zielige grasprietjes bovenuit. Toch weet ik, daaronder zit het nog vol wortels. Straks wordt alles weer groen. Dan komen ook de paardebloemen weer, waar Jochums land vol mee staat. Groen met gele sterren, zo zal het zijn, zoals elke lente, zodra de zon hoger komt. Maar nu is er…

View original post 506 more words

Do You Remember Your First Education Essential Worker? 👩🏽‍🏫

From Behind the Pen

people sitting on blue carpet
Image Credit: CDC

“Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.” — Marian Wright Edelman

Teachers. Education. Learning.

Even though it is shocking, it comes as no surprise to me that there is a severe shortage of teachers and educators everywhere. I am from a family of education essential workers, you know, those educators who looked out for the health and welfare of their students back in the day. Education was not an option for me but an essential part of my life, and my mother made sure of that. For centuries, many of my ancestors were forbidden to learn to read without harsh repercussions. So, trust me, I don’t assume or take this privilege for granted.

Looking at what many public school teachers are faced with nowadays, low pay, poor benefits, and overworked with lesson plans out of…

View original post 448 more words

Finland is restoring rivers, habitats from scratch

Darcy Hitchcock

Finland, with about three quarters of their land covered in trees, has a long history of forestry but damaging practices have undermined everything from biodiversity to stream quality. So they’ve embarked on a rewilding program.

Chopping down trees is not how most people would expect a river restoration project to begin, but Janne Raassina – who is expertly using a chainsaw to take down four or five earmarked trunks around the Särkkäjoki River in remotest eastern Finland – explains that the rotting wood will be hugely useful to the ecosystem.

It’s expensive but there’s little alternative for the country. fortunately, the state owned forestry company is leading the effort.

“Finland doesn’t really have anything else other than nature, and if we are going to ruin that, it doesn’t end well.”

“People are starting to understand that rivers and clean waters are like the heart and lungs of the country,” says…

View original post 23 more words

Now About Those Voting Rights …

Filosofa's Word

Today I share with you the latest short piece from Robert Reich on how our voting rights are being trampled and the U.S. Supreme Court is helping trample them.


How to stop the Supreme Court from crushing voting rights while expanding the political rights of big money?

Should the Court be expanded, or is there another way?

I’m old enough to remember John F. Kennedy’s and Lyndon Johnson’s presidencies, and Earl Warren’s Supreme Court. They understood the ethical and constitutional necessity of strengthening democracy by constraining the rich and the bigoted, and protecting the votes of people of color and the poor. But starting with Ronald Reagan’s presidency and John Roberts’s Supreme Court, this responsibility has been turned upside down. Reagan loosened campaign finance laws and turned his back on voting rights, and the Roberts Court has made it harder for people of color and the poor to vote —…

View original post 305 more words

The New Humanitarian | Why some Afghan evacuees are still in US bases six months on

…to help the Afghans integrate into new communities, the US is relying on a network of refugee resettlement agencies in communities across the country.

That network, however, was decimated during Donald Trump’s presidency and has yet to fully recover. As a result, at the end of January – five months after the evacuation effort from Kabul finished – around 12,500 Afghans were still living on military bases in the US waiting to be matched with resettlement agencies to help them find housing and begin settling in. Following a push from the administration, that number has since fallen to around 4,000

Source: The New Humanitarian | Why some Afghan evacuees are still in US bases six months on