Cats First Domesticated People in the Near East
Our last piece of the week comes to us from the journal Science.
Research now indicates that the common cat (well, humans think they're common -- we all know what cats think) first became domesticated in the Near (or Middle) East. Meanwhile, all the cats that nowadays tear up the curtains ... or walk across computer keyboards ... or lie on top of the TV, one paw hanging in front of the screen, have common ancestors that lived in the Near East about 130,000 years ago.
And, as we all already knew, it's really the cats who domesticated people. Well, in a way. The Washington Post's report notes that the study indicates we didn't go looking for cats, they "sort of domesticated themselves," as a researcher put it. They likely came to us because we had a food source -- rodents that ate the grain stored in humans' first agricultural settlements more than 9,000 years ago, NPR's Nell Boyce reports. Fortunately, cats continue to let us hang out with them.
My cat, Alibey, is actually from Turkey -- my wife found her on a Turkish island during a research trip and brought her back to America. I have no plans to tell Alibey all this news about the Near East as the home of all cats. She thinks she's special enough as it is.
If you see anything interesting this weekend, don't forget to drop us a line at newsblog@npr.org.
4:49 PM ET
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06-29-2007
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Paris, Who Ya Gonna Call? ... Crisis Busters!
You know, if bottled water is a perfect symbol of U.S. culture at this moment in our history, then so is this: the crisis management consultant. When I was growing up, my "crisis management consultant" was my grandfather, and most of the time, his role consisted of telling me this: "Use the common sense God gave you, boy." It worked pretty well, actually.
But this is the age of Paris and Lindsay and Rush and ... well, the list goes on. Big-time celebrities who get in trouble and worry about how it will affect their bottom line. They end up hiring people like Michael Sitrick.
On Thursday, Day to Day's Madeleine Brand interviewed Sitrick, who's known as the "attack dog image fixer to the rich and powerful." (I wonder if he has that on his business card.)
When trying to rescue the image of a celebrity in trouble, Sitrick is known for using "truth squads" to counteract what media outlets or others are saying about his clients. He also talks about something called the "wheel of pain" -- an expression that describes efforts to bring out "facts" the other side might not want to be public in an effort to rehabilitate a client's image. Most of the people in his firm are ex-journalists.
There's something a bit unsettling about listening to Sitrick talk about what he does -- and what that reveals about the nature of celebrity and the media these days.
12:56 PM ET
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06-29-2007
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Rethinking Bottled Water
It's not often that I read or hear something that almost immediately compels me to change something I've done for a long time. But that's what happened when I heard a report about the bottled water industry in America on All Things Considered on Thursday.
Robert Siegel interviewed Charles Fishman, a reporter for the magazine Fast Company, who says that Pepsi's Aquafina and Coke's Dasani are basically purified tap water. That's something I didn't know. No magical springs bubbling out of a picturesque hillside in some rural American forest, visited by locals for years. Just plain old tap water.
The companies say they put the tap water through an "energy-intensive reverse-osmosis filtration process," but, to me, that seems like basically the same stuff we get by running our tap water through a Brita filter.
Fishman wrote in his article for Fast Company:
A chilled plastic bottle of water in the convenience-store cooler is the perfect symbol of this moment in American commerce and culture. It acknowledges our demand for instant gratification, our vanity, our token concern for health. Its packaging and transport depend entirely on cheap fossil fuel. Yes, it's just a bottle of water--modest compared with the indulgence of driving a Hummer. But when a whole industry grows up around supplying us with something we don't need--when a whole industry is built on the packaging and the presentation--it's worth asking how that happened, and what the impact is.
Not to mention what all those empty plastic bottles that are tossed aside are doing to the environment.
I seriously may never buy a bottle of water again. It just doesn't make sense. It's back to the tap for me, with a reusable plastic bottle. How about you folks? What's your thinking now about bottled water?
11:11 AM ET
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06-29-2007
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Notes from the Debate: Lots of Love for Obama, Clinton
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama signs autographs for supporters after the debate at Howard University on Thursday.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
(Note from Tom: All Things Considered editor Susan Feeney has sent us some thoughts from Thursday's Democratic presidential debate.)
You knew right off it was going to be a different kind of presidential debate at Howard University in Washington, D.C., on Thursday night when it kicked off with a warm-up act. The fantastic a capella quartet Soul Tempo sang the National Anthem. Then they slid into songs such as "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and "The Lord's Prayer," which they sang in the movie The Preacher's Wife.
The Democratic candidate event was moderated by PBS' Tavis Smiley with questions from three more journalists of color, including NPR's Michel Martin. They shined a bright light on issues often left in the campaign shadows: Darfur, HIV/AIDS among blacks, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, poverty and the right of Katrina evacuees to return to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
One flaw was a total absence of follow-up questions, which could have extracted more in-depth answers.
Credit the U.S. Supreme Court with ensuring a most poignant event. It was at Howard, Sen. Barack Obama noted, that Thurgood Marshall and his legal team hatched plans that led to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. "If it hadn't been for them, I would not be standing here today," he said.
It was a Democratic crowd and one that whooped for all the candidates. But its heart clearly belonged to Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Afterward, all the candidates posed and waved at the foot of the stage. Many were sought out for autographs and handshakes. But it was Obama and Clinton who were mobbed. After 20 minutes, it was just the two of them, glad-handing marathoners, still smiling and greeting frantic well-wishers.
Michelle Obama had joined her husband and also was signing as fast as she could. Clinton did not bring former President Bill Clinton, who surely would have tipped the balance. But he's a double-edged sword for her, and one she unsheathes selectively.
In the end, only the Obamas went the distance and outlasted Clinton on the front line. Finally, event staff cleared the Obamas from the stage.
- Susan Feeney
10:14 AM ET
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06-29-2007
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Al-Qaida Regrouping Along Pakistani Border
All too often, al-Qaida reminds me of that old Timex watch commercial: It takes a licking, but keeps on ticking.
The leaders of the terrorist organization have been forced to retreat into the mountainous regions of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. But despite the harsh conditions in the area, senior U.S. military, intelligence and law enforcement officials say al-Qaida is "recruiting, regrouping and rebuilding," McClatchy reports. The "new sanctuary" along the border was made possible by last September's cease-fire agreement between the Pakistani government and pro-Taliban tribes in the province of Waziristan.
The threat from Islamic radicals there is more dangerous than from Iraq, according to intelligence officials.
The remote Pakistani region "is the real heart of the war on terror, and we're losing," said a U.S. intelligence official who, like most of his colleagues, requested anonymity because intelligence reports on the matter are highly classified and because their pessimism conflicts with the administration's public statements. "We took our eye off the ball when we went into Iraq."
TPMmuckraker has posted video showing retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, a former division commander in Iraq who has become a critic of the war, warning the House Committee on Foreign Affairs this week about the dangers of focusing too much on al-Qaida in Iraq to the exclusion of other parts of the world. "I also believe we cannot attribute all the violence in Iraq to al-Qaida. There's a tendency now to lump it all together, and call it al-Qaida. We have to be very careful with that. ... Al-Qaida is a worldwide organization. It recognizes no national boundaries. And it's in areas where we ought to be focused," he said.
9:08 AM ET
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06-29-2007
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