the corner office

IOL has an article about the new theory that the Taung Child was killed by an eagle of sorts (crikey, Wikipedia is already updated with a reference to the eagle attack), and that our ancestors were more at risk from attacks above than from below (less plausible and just some IOL sensationalism, I think). Nonetheless, an interesting read:

Firstly, it means that perhaps Berger has finally proven that it was the life-or-death need to defend themselves from aerial attack that kickstarted the dramatic evolutionary changes in our ape-man ancestors' brain-size and social skills - finally pushing them over the threshold towards humanity.

Secondly, it means our ancestral memory of the terrors of the open veld match those of the dark cave. As Berger put it: "When the shadow of an airplane passes over you and you feel oops! and look up, that's the little Taung child in you talking."

That might explain my mate K's distrust of pigeons.