The Lost Tribes

[Derek Smith]

Did anyone see The Lost Tribes of Humanity.

I recorded it and have just watched it. Fascinating. It had me riveted. I've read bits and pieces of the Denis tribe but this put it in context and then went further. I'll have to watch it again to get the full info, and I know I will be find stuff I missed.

It has the lovely Alice Roberts, which is another reason to watch, but she was of secondary interest.

The only criticism was the useless chalks she used.

Well worth searching out on iPlayer.

[Eric Mc]

How come Alice Roberts' chalks were so much more useless than the materials used by the cave painters of Lascaux? You would think that after 30,000 years Homo Sapiens would have come up with something better than what they gave Professor Alice to use.

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

How come Alice Roberts' chalks were so much more useless than the materials used by the cave painters of Lascaux? You would think that after 30,000 years Homo Sapiens would have come up with something better than what they gave Professor Alice to use.

The Lascaux painters didn't have to use eco-friendly lead-free solvent-free water-based chalk conforming to EU Directive blahbks.

There's quite a fashion for posh young girlies to present science programmes. Suits me!


NB species is lower case Eric.

[Eric Mc]

Simpo Two said:

The Lascaux painters didn't have to use eco-friendly lead-free solvent-free water-based chalk conforming to EU Directive blahbks.

I don't know. They were French.

[Derek Smith]

Simpo Two said:

There's quite a fashion for posh young girlies to present science programmes. Suits me!

NB species is lower case Eric.

Not to put a damper on your enthusiasm, but Prof Alice is 43.

I think it is great that young girls have the likes of her and the other women on the programme to show them that science is something that can be exciting and is not the sole preserve of the nerdish or those with odd hairstyles.

And on the point of initial capitals; I used to be a printer and many of the companies I worked for had styles of the house, or house styles, where they would have their preferences for matters such as when initial caps should be used. There was the Times English style and usage guide, or The Times English Style and Usage Guide, which many would opt for, although the Oxford Guide to Style was also popular and only differed in detail.

The point is that where the 'rules' are more or less advisory there were always those which would opt for an alternative just to be different despite our salesmen all saying that the text should be transparent so as not to detract from the message. One of the frequent changes were initial caps.

[Simpo Two]

Derek Smith said:

And on the point of initial capitals; I used to be a printer and many of the companies I worked for had styles of the house...

The point I was making is that the genus (Homo) is written with a capital whilst the species (sapiens) is all lower case. That's a scientific convention, nothing to do with the creativity of the writer or the house style of the printer. The genus can be abbreviated, eg 'H. sapiens', if the context is clear.

They should both be italicised, so if you're printing a book it should be Homo sapiens or H. sapiens.

And Ms Roberts is looking very good for 43, though I think Lucy Porter has the edge...

[Derek Smith]

I thought the second programme a bit laboured.

I think it is fairly common knowledge that the Chinese belief in not being homo erectus had been negated by DNA testing. I've read of it more than once. Even so, if anyone didn't, the long build up to the non-explosive denouement took too long.

I'm not sure the director had a clear idea of a target.

I felt it a bit of a letdown after the first one, although there were some interesting items on movement.