| 'The Skull in the Rock,' by Lee R. Berger and Marc Aronson Jan 2nd 2013, 03:25 Adding to a heap of impressive recent books about old bones, "The Skull in the Rock" provides a dual picture of science being practiced in all its current high-tech glory and of life as it was precariously lived by our hominid ancestors about 2 million years ago. The link between the two is Lee R. Berger, who grew up in small-town Georgia and became a paleoanthropologist based in South Africa. The book, co-written with Marc Aronson, begins in August 2008, near Johannesburg, as Berger and his 9-year-old son, Matthew, explore a protected area that had yielded many important fossils. Matthew's remarkable discovery that morning led to the identification of a new species, Australopithecus sediba, whose traits combined the archaic with the modern, the ape and the human. In chapters well-illustrated with photographs of the project's groundwork and labwork, as well as fascinating reconstructions of some long-gone individuals, "The Skull in the Rock" explains where this skeleton, nicknamed Karabo, probably stands in the evolution from primates to humans. The authors note that some scientists disagree with Berger's conclusions, but they argue convincingly that the key thing about finding Karabo is that it clears the way for the next discovery. Read full article >>   |  | Editorial Board: Can the D.C. Council start the new year right? Jan 2nd 2013, 01:13 THE D.C. COUNCIL just completed one of the most disappointing sessions on record, memorable more for the misconduct of its members than for any of its (lackluster) accomplishments. So we hope the start of 2013 — with the addition of a promising at-large member and plans for an improved committee structure — will usher in a chapter of government in which the only ambitions that matter are those of a growing city. Read full article >>   | | Lessons from the longshoremen Jan 2nd 2013, 01:00 The cliff that America sidestepped with time to spare in 2012 was the one on the nation's docks. On Friday, harbor operators and shippers reached an agreement with the union representing nearly 15,000 longshoremen on the East and Gulf coasts. The key point holding up the signing of a new contract was whether dockworkers would continue to receive royalties on the containers they hoisted on and off ships. With that issue resolved, apparently to the workers' satisfaction, their union agreed to call off a year-end strike pending the resolution of less contentious points, and the nation was spared a work stoppage that would have slowed imports and exports to a relative trickle. Read full article >>   | | Russian children: Pawns in Putin's power play Jan 2nd 2013, 00:48 In a display of callousness unusual even by Vladimir Putin's standards, Russia eliminated the possibility of a better life for thousands of orphans last week when Putin signed into law a ban on adoptions by Americans. The law is named for Dima Yakovlev, a Russian child adopted by U.S. parents who died after being left in a truck in the heat in Herndon. That case, and 18 other cited instances of Russian adoptees who died in the care of American parents, are tragedies. But the vast majority of the nearly 60,000 adoptions by American couples over the past two decades have enabled Russian children, some with severe disabilities, to lead happy lives. Read full article >> | | Rooting out government corruption — wherever it exists Jan 1st 2013, 22:48 David Ignatius ["A new sheriff in Beijing," op-ed, Dec. 30] was right to highlight corruption in China's Communist Party as a vitally important challenge to the country's new leadership. The pressure for reform emanates from a dramatic rise in public awareness of abuse of power by China's senior officials at national and municipal levels. This awareness is due in large measure to journalism that has spread across the Internet, aided by social media channels, despite official censorship efforts. A similar phenomenon is being seen in many other countries where rising awareness of high-level corruption has sparked protests and invigorated public campaigns for reform. Read full article >>   | | A better carbon-tax policy Jan 1st 2013, 22:48 The Dec. 31 editorial "California's climate-change experiment" did a good job highlighting some of the pitfalls of California's cap-and-trade law. Another core problem with that law is that, while the cap on greenhouse gas emissions is fixed, the price for those emissions is not. Without a predictable price signal, the private market will not invest in the innovative solutions that would effectively slash the use of fossil fuels. Read full article >>   | | The 'dairy cliff' hoax Jan 1st 2013, 22:48 The so-called dairy cliff ["Milk may spill over 'dairy cliff,' " news article, Dec. 28] has really been a dairy hoax. Yes, if the House balks at the Senate's "fiscal cliff" bill (which includes an extension of the current farm bill), the dreaded price supports and market distortions of the 1949 (and 1938) permanent agriculture law would replace the price supports and market distortions of today. But that is never going to happen. Read full article >>   | |
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