Indonesian 'hobbit' update

[child of Thor]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4331252.stm

interesting news on this. just last month i saw a documentary where various sceptics of the whole story pretty much shot this discovery out the water, and gave very compelling evidence that this find was just a diseased individual suffering from an extremely rare genetic disorder.

So now what can the sceptics say - there appears to have been a whole tribe of the little guys, and the odds against them all having this condition are probably higher than me being able to fly just by willing it

So GO! hobbits with your furry toes etc

[Pekka]

WOW! I just read your OP several times with SEPTIC instead of sceptic.. as in septic tank. I was like what's going on here... as for hobbits, they're OK

[C0ckney]

i saw the program too, interesting stuff, they only mentioned the bit about finding more than one at the very end though.

[GePap]

I accept that good science demands that singular finds be questioned in order for people not to jump to conclusions. What I don't get is what seems to me like a need to debunk some notions outright. I have no problem believing that other branches of the family homo survived well into the age of homo sapien sapiens hegemony.

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Pekka
WOW! I just read your OP several times with SEPTIC instead of sceptic.. as in septic tank. I was like what's going on here... as for hobbits, they're OK

well supporters of the extreme right probably think i DO stink politicaly speaking

And i'm with Gepap - there was a certain level of academic sniping towards the guys who first found the origonal bones. As you say, keeping an open mind is always a usefull method of progress.

Some of the remarks and passion with which the detractors to the 'hobbit' attacked the discovery was too much imho. That program that both C0ckney and myself saw, ended with the theft of the skeleton by the local indonesian scienitific big cheese to his own private labs, and a revocation on the excavation rights to the origonal site the scientists had been given when they first made the discovery. Then it went a bit weird with this indoneasian guy going around measuring tribal villagers in the region - it reminded me of something unpleasent europeans used to do to africans......

I must admit that i thought the genetic disease answer was going to be the end of it. but i'm glad its not - its nice to think our mythology can have some good connections to a previous reality

next i hope they find some clay pipes and tobaco near these new family of hobbits

[Combat Ingrid]

I'd hit it

[child of Thor]

Hobbits

[reds4ever]

What an informative thread

[_BuRjaCi_]

Indeed.