Word: cm
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...those days we ate our meat raw, like animals." The speaker is Viktor Jurubu, an Indonesian farmer in his 60s, who, in his T shirt and sarong, looks little like the cavemen he's describing. Except for his height, which is about 140 cm. In the world of anthropology, Jurubu's small size is big news because he and his 246 fellow villagers of Rampasasa on the remote island of Flores say they are descended from a tribe of tiny, hairy folk whom they call "the short people." "We didn't have knives but used rocks," he explains. "We didn...
...intermarriage with outsiders, says Rampasasa's headman Alfredus Ontas, have left few truly tiny individuals. But to prove their antecedents, he and other locals eagerly display photos of recently deceased relatives whom they say were of purer "short people" stock. "The brothers in this photograph were only 110 cm," Ontas says proudly, his broad smile revealing jagged teeth stained ox-blood red by betel nut. Another elder is introduced, who, as well as measuring only 135 cm tall, has a pelt of hair covering his arms and legs. "It was because we were so hairy that our ancestors...
...critics of the H. floresiensis theory and has been accused by Brown of damaging the bones while they were in his possession (a charge he denies), led an expedition to Rampasasa in April to determine if its residents could indeed be classified as Pygmies (the height threshold is 150 cm or shorter). Jacob measured more than 70 villagers and says 80% of them qualified. The theory that Thorne, Jacob and other like-minded anthropologists are propagating is that the Liang Bua female was an ancestor of a Rampasasa villager and a Pygmy, but that she suffered from microcephaly, a condition...
...Leave The TV On? Japanese robot technology is often more spectacle than utility, but the anthropomorphic Nuvo is bridging that gap. By day, the 38-cm robot keeps an eye on the house with a digital camera that transmits images to its owner's mobile phone. It's kind of a webcam on legs?but, oh, what legs! Nuvo dances and plays music at a mere voice command. Price: $5,500-$8,335 each...
...Berlin, one new structure looks set to remain difficult for the disabled. The Holocaust memorial - a 19,000-sq-m installation of 2,700 concrete blocks - officially opens on May 10, but wheelchair users will find their visits tricky. Many of the blocks are spaced just 95 cm apart along paths with gradients of up to 25%; many wheelchair users can't navigate the corners, and they and other disabled people find the slopes too steep. "I want to be able to remember - without barriers - my Jewish ancestors who were murdered in a concentration camp," says wheelchair user Sigrid Arnade...