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	<title>Comments on: Trouble in Middle Earth?</title>
	<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2005/04/12/trouble-in-middle-earth/</link>
	<description>A blog about life, past and future. Written by DISCOVER contributing editor and columnist Carl Zimmer.</description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:39:25 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>By: Hungry Hyaena</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2005/04/12/trouble-in-middle-earth/#comment-7103</link>
		<dc:creator>Hungry Hyaena</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Apr 2005 03:49:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2005/04/12/trouble-in-middle-earth/#comment-7103</guid>
		<description>While I accepted the "hobbit" as advertised - insular specialization of &lt;i&gt;Homo erectus&lt;/i&gt; - I did think it premature of the more mainstream press, such as &lt;i&gt;National Geographic&lt;/i&gt; and the corporate news companies, to run stories on the discovery which dismiss all skepticism as wrong-headed.

In the April 2005 issue of &lt;i&gt;National Geographic&lt;/i&gt;, the co-authors of "The People Time Forgot," write:

"For a few skeptics, this is all too much to swallow.  They argue that the one complete skull must have come from a modern human with a rare condition called microcephaly, in which the brain is shrunken and the body dwarfed.  The other small bones, they say, might be the remains of children.  But last year's discoveries include part of a second adult skull - a lower jaw - that is just as small as the first.  It simply strains credibility to invoke a rare disease a second time."

While two individuals suffering from microcephaly does seem like a stretch, Occam's razor would have us all holding our tongues at the moment.  The verdict is still out, yet everybody, myself included, is eagerly adding to the cacophony.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>While I accepted the &#8220;hobbit&#8221; as advertised - insular specialization of <i>Homo erectus</i> - I did think it premature of the more mainstream press, such as <i>National Geographic</i> and the corporate news companies, to run stories on the discovery which dismiss all skepticism as wrong-headed.</p>
<p>In the April 2005 issue of <i>National Geographic</i>, the co-authors of &#8220;The People Time Forgot,&#8221; write:</p>
<p>&#8220;For a few skeptics, this is all too much to swallow.  They argue that the one complete skull must have come from a modern human with a rare condition called microcephaly, in which the brain is shrunken and the body dwarfed.  The other small bones, they say, might be the remains of children.  But last year&#8217;s discoveries include part of a second adult skull - a lower jaw - that is just as small as the first.  It simply strains credibility to invoke a rare disease a second time.&#8221;</p>
<p>While two individuals suffering from microcephaly does seem like a stretch, Occam&#8217;s razor would have us all holding our tongues at the moment.  The verdict is still out, yet everybody, myself included, is eagerly adding to the cacophony.</p>
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		<title>By: David Boxenhorn</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2005/04/12/trouble-in-middle-earth/#comment-7102</link>
		<dc:creator>David Boxenhorn</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Apr 2005 20:32:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2005/04/12/trouble-in-middle-earth/#comment-7102</guid>
		<description>Yet, this individual survived deep into adulthood.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Yet, this individual survived deep into adulthood.</p>
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