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"Hobbits" Found In Indonesia. Exploding through the newsnets is the discovery of the remains of seven members of a tiny, previously unknown human species that survived until at least 13,000 years ago, and perhaps co-existed with modern humans right up to the present day. Adult Homo Florensiensis, nicknamed "Hobbits" by the dig workers who helped uncover the remains at the Liang Bua cave on the island of Flores in Indonesia, were about the size of a three-year-old modern human child, but had a brain one-third the size. Stone tools and pygmy elephant bones found at the site indicate that these "Hobbits" hunted co-operatively together in groups, meaning that they must have had language. "The whole idea that you need a particular brain size to do anything intelligent is completely blown away by this find," commented Dr Henry Gee of Nature magazine to the BBC. [kuro5hin.org]
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Titan's Smooth Surface Baffles Scientists [Slashdot:]
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