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Humans Nearly Went Extinct 70,000 Years Ago
Josh Fink brings us a CNN story discussing evidence found by researchers which indicates that humans came close to extinction roughly 70,000 years ago. A similar study by Stanford scientists suggests that droughts reduced the population to as few as 2,000 humans, who were scattered in small, isolated groups. Quoting:
"'This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species' history,' said Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence. 'Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA.'"
Timely article. We're about to become nearly extinct again.
that depends on if we allow Pauly Shore to go in
I guess only 2,000 survivors made down to the planet's surface from the Battlestar Galactica. They should have listened to Starbuck earlier.
Is this the new "Godwins law"?
What will make us nearly extinct the next time will be a lack of breeding due to an overuse of the Internet in the general population.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Or the other explanation:
God went to a lot of effort to manufacture the false DNA trail for us to discover. He did it all merely "to test our faith".
OMG, that God fella sure worked hard! How come he has become so complacent since then. I mean, what universes, creatures, or false evidence has he made lately. It's not like God is spending all of his time raising the kid - he's dead, for Christ's sake!
Reading Slashdot is ruining my spelling and grammar.
actually the whole almost dieing out thing just reeks of a total lack of intelligent design
Isn't 2000 people about the capacity of Golgafrinchan Ark Ship B?
Just saying...
Remain calm! All is well!
you mean 6000 years ago, and if by a drought you mean a flood, and if by 2000 human beings, you mean one bad-ass yachtsman named Noah and his hot wife Jessica Alba, then I would be inclined to agree. Otherwise I'm afraid this is just another godless article passed off as 'science' by Lucifer-worshipping scientists and their ilk over at CNN.
Conversation with government clerk filling out official forms...
Clerk: Full name please?
Me: Allen Dale Douglas
Clerk: Date of Birth?
Me: June 12th, 1981
Clerk: Place of birth?
Me: In a hospital.
Clerk: Which city and state, Einstein?
Me: Oh, Dallas TX, Presbyterian Hospital
Clerk: Sex?
Me: Sometimes.
Clerk: (rolls eyes ) Sex?
Me: Male.
Clerk: Race?
Me: Human.
Clerk: No, I mean what ethnicity are you?
Me: Texan.
Clerk: (rolls eyes again, tosses pencil up into the air and walks away)
Just don't let him back out.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
2000 person orgy to save the species.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I wish I was 2/7th of anything. Sexual reproduction be damned!
I would agree with you were it not for my Scottish stubbornness.
Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
Mother nature must have said:
"Darn it, that was close, I'll get them next time!"
What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women.
Might have been just a bit of tweaking. You go for bipedalism and bigger brain with high hopes of something great emerging, and all you get is bipedal apes with big brains shrieking at each other and throwing feces. So you wipe out all but the brightest of them hoping to push the brainy thing, and lo, complex behaviours emerge shortly after, like art, and religion, and stuff, which seems like progress until you realize that now you have bipedal, big brained apes with art and religion and state level civilizations shrieking and throwing feces at one another.
I wonder what the next tweak will be.
Loose lips lose spit.
It's just so much easier to tell people I'm 2/7ths Swedish than to explain I'm really 299593/1048576ths.
Imagine it is some kind of change on the sun. How do we handle that?
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
History constitutes less than 2000 years.
Hey, look everyone! We've got a postcard from IGNORANT WORLD.
Mods, feel free to remove it... crap all that time for nothing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Assigned_Numbers_Authority