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July was the 365th consecutive month of above average temperatures on planet Earth, and the hottest month since record keeping began in 1880. According to paleoclimatologists, it may have been the hottest month since the Bronze Age 4,000 years ago. The reason for the extraordinary and rapid heating that is taking place worldwide is that the oceans are no longer absorbing heat and are instead themselves warming to record levels. In addition, substantial increases in methane emissions across the arctic are contributing to record arctic heating and reducing atmospheric circulation, especially in the northern hemisphere.
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These are small poems about the intimate life that Anne and I shared together. Each one is about a specific, tiny moment in our love affair, but each one captures the essence of many, many others like it. We were a very happy couple.

Because this file is so short, there is no low-bandwidth version. The same file has also been placed in Whitley’s Room. It can be streamed from by going to the subscriber homepage, then clicking on Special Interview: Poems from a Life in the column on the right.

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These are poems from the life and love that Anne and I shared together. I very, very rarely read my poems and have never published them, but I want to read them now.

As the file is only 10 minutes long, there is no low-bandwidth version.
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Yet another fossil discovery may push the origins of humankind back further than what was previously accepted. Paleoanthropologists have unearthed what may be the oldest-known fossil of a human-like hand. The fossilized left-hand pinky bone, excavated at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, has been dated to be at least 1.84 million years old.

This fossil also has the distinction of appearing more like the bone of a modern human, as opposed to those of finger bones belonging to other contemporary hominids found in previous excavations, such as Homo habilis and Paranthropus boisei. Homo habilis was about three feet tall, so this finger bone, which is the size of a modern human’s, suggests that it must have belonged to an individual closer to five feet or more.
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