I’ll start with 7 July when the NYT published the feature Has It All Been
a Big Fat Lie?, Gary Taubes’ critical reassessment of the low-fat / high-
carb convention of popular sensible nutrition in the West.  This was a
timely review of where we are up to with increasing obesity and increasing
consumption of low-fat foods.  Taubes’ article took as his counters to low-
fat NOT the Paleo diet, but (a) scientific evidence and (b) the Atkins
diet.  There was a subtle Paleo thread through the article (as there is in
Atkins) but this is incidental, and used to bolster the ‘science’ it is
not the starting point.  The Taubes article ricocheted around the world,
being republished in other US papers and in the UK and Australia.  The
article is well worth reading – catch it still at
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/07FAT.html?
pagewanted=all&position=bottom

The Taubes article was the one that piqued the interest of the mass media,
but the big news in July was two announcements.  The first, in Nature, of
the discovery of a 7 my old skull from Chad assigned a new genus and
species Sahelanthropus tchadensis.  The second, the announcement in
national Geographic of a 1.75 my old skull from Georgia in the Caucuses.
The BBC was quick to cover the Chad find and quoted skeptics who
questioned the dating and whether the skull was actually human at all.
The Evfit interest is tangential: the discovery, if correctly described,
is further evidence of human evolution being a complex story with multiple
species co-existing, branching out and then all but one dying out.  The
Georgia discovery, too, muddies the water: this time by providing evidence
that the hominids who went Out Of Africa were not H. erectus, but H.
habilis.  The NG article put the wrong spin on the story, however, by
posing as the key question how such a small-brained being (600cc) could
have ‘migrated’ or ‘marched’ into Asia; if the migration was at a steady
pace the 3,600km could have been accomplished at 7 metres a year.  It
would have required more intelligence not to migrate.  Again, it was the
NYT which produced the best review article, dealing with both finds on 6
August.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/06/science/06SKUL.html
On 8 August the BBC published Bigger Babies are Brighter.  A team studied
10,845 men and women born in early March,1958, in England, Scotland, and
Wales. They examined the combined effect of birth weight and social class,
based on the father's occupation, looking at results from school tests,
comparing results at ages seven,11 and 16 in maths, reading, general
ability and perceptual and motor skills.  Test results and educational
achievements all improved significantly with increasing birth weight.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1483134.stm
This is only to be expected to those familiar with Weston Price’s
inspiring book
http://www.price-pottenger.org/Books/nutrition_and_phys_degeneration.htm

As I write, the news from Europe concerns the floods there.  Some have
been quick to blame it on human-caused global warming, but others have
pointed to a more complex human cause: the deforestation which has
increased runoff and erosion and so flooded rivers.  Perhaps the most
memorable photograph this month was the picture published by the BBC (from
UNEP) showing the Himalayas, which we normally expect to see through
crystal clear air, visible only through brown smog.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2188494.stm

The smog comes from poorly maintained cars and cooking stoves in Asia and
from forest clearing.  I think of the impact that has on tribal people,
orang-utans and other primates as well as soils, biodiversity and
planetary sustainability.  Loren Cordain, in The Paleo Diet, suggests we
drive to the edge of town for an aerobic workout because walking and
jogging there is more stimulating and peaceful than exercising on city
streets.  Sure is, but our driving produces pollution and a vehicle hazard
which must make it worse still for those joggers still braving the city.
We all have a responsibility to think this through.

Keith

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