Daily · Dreamtime

Reuters
Friday, March 5, 2004; Page A03

A 6 million-year-old creature that lacked sharp canine teeth for fighting may be the first pre-human to have branched off from the ape line, researchers said Thursday.

The short, small-brained creature may provide a good hint of what the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans looked like, the researchers said.

Fossil remains of the early hominid were found in Ethiopia three years ago, and it seemed to be a subspecies of a known pre-human, Ardipithecus ramidus. But the scientists found more teeth from a group of the hominids and reclassified it as a distinct species, which they named Ardipithecus kadabba.( Read more... )

The Mobster Shift
'The Sopranos' Returns to HBO Tonight With Some New Business To Attend to. You Might Want In.

By Tom Shales
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 7, 2004; Page N01

The Sopranos are back. "The Sopranos" is back. Are they and is it as good as ever? Yes. Maybe better. Next question.

Ah, yes, in the back row there -- the lady in the tutti-frutti hat. What can we do for you? "Be careful not to give away
any of the twists and turns of the plot, and don't tell us which major character suddenly gets very killed in Episode 4."
That's not really a question, madam, but we'll comply. Besides, HBO sent only the first four episodes for review, at least
so far.

I watched them all in one evening. Then, about midnight, when the fourth one ended, I got very cranky that there weren't
any more in the house. I probably would have stayed up all night if the dear old souls at HBO had sent all 13 new installments. Perhaps it's just as well that they didn't. The episodes aren't all finished yet, anyway; David Chase, the creator and executive producer, is still editing later ones.( Read more... )

FROM THE COLLECTION : Washington's Prized Possessions

Sunday, March 7, 2004; Page N10

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), an ambassador, a linguist, a collector of antiques, an intimate of princes and an
international art star, is one of the big minds of Northern European painting.

His "Daniel in the Lions' Den" (circa 1613-1615) is in the National Gallery of Art. It would take 300 years, but his
trembling close-ups, his pneumatic superheroes, his scale and his restlessness, would eventually become staples
of the movies. Last night, by command of the misled Persian king, the Hebrew prophet was cast into a lion's den.
Now it's morning, and the stone has just been rolled away. In a miracle that presages a later Resurrection, our young
hero has survived. His hands are clasped in gratitude. His muscles bulge. The lions blink and yawn. They're Moroccan
lions. Rubens had studied a pair of them in the royal menagerie in Brussels. The maned beasts in the picture all look
like the same cat. -- Paul Richard

The National Gallery of Art, Fourth Street and Constitution Avenue NW, is open Monday through Saturday 1
0 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m.-6 p.m. The 11-foot-wide Rubens is in the West Building in Gallery 58.
Call 202-737-4215 or visit their Web site at www.nga.gov. Admission is free.

    [President Eisenhower, who knew what he was talking about, warned
us, as he left office, about the "military-industrial complex."
Unfortunately, it has now come to pass.]

March 5, 2004
Faltering Neo-Cons Still Dangerous

How They Might Influence the Election

By BILL CHRISTISON
Former CIA Analyst

(A Primer for a Talk in Santa Fe, New Mexico.)
You've all surely heard widely varying stories about how much power, or
how little power, the so-called neoconservatives -- or neocons -- have
inside the Bush administration. I've been asked to explain, briefly,
some of the mysteries about these neocons and what role, if any, they
might play in this year's election.( Read more... )

March 4, 2004                                  
Stop the Stonewalling, Mr. President
Fairy Tales, Bush & the 9-11 Commission

By Senator ROBERT BYRD
Most of us are familiar with the Aesop's fables, having read some of
them at one or more times during our lives. Aesop once told the story of
a jaybird that ventured into a yard where peacocks used to walk. There
the jay found a number of feathers fallen from the majestic birds when
they had last molted. He tied them all to his tail and strutted toward
the peacocks. His cheat was quickly discovered, and the peacocks
harassed the imposter until all his borrowed plumes had fallen away.
When the jay could do no more than return to his own kind, having
watched him from afar, they were equally affronted by the jay's actions.

The moral of the story, said Aesop, is that it takes more than just fine
feathers to make fine birds.
  
It is an age-old lesson that the Congress should hold in its mind as we
consider how best to investigate the distorted and misleading
intelligence that the administration used to build its case for war in
Iraq.
( Read more... )