Somehow I am not surprised by their findings

A Field Guide to the Middle-Class U.S. Family

Anthropologist Elinor Ochs and her colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles have studied family life as far away as Samoa and the Peruvian Amazon region, but for the last decade they have focused on a society closer to home: the American middle class.

Why do American children depend on their parents to do things for them that they are capable of doing for themselves? How do U.S. working parents' views of "family time" affect their stress levels? These are just two of the questions that researchers at UCLA's Center on Everyday Lives of Families, or CELF, are trying to answer in their work.

By studying families at home—or, as the scientists say, "in vivo"—rather than in a lab, they hope to better grasp how families with two working parents balance child care, household duties and career, and how this balance affects their health and well-being.

Very sad

I loved social science so much as a kid that I went on to get a sociology degree and took classes in linguistics and anthropology as well. When you're in school and studying social science, you don't really think that one day you'll be in constant danger pursuing your career. It's not like everyone's an Indiana Jones. But it depends on what path you take, and some stray far from dry academia and really experience the world of other cultures.

And sometimes that can get you killed.

US anthropologist set on fire by Afghan dies

Paula Loyd, 36, was an anthropologist who was embedded with the US military to help soldiers better understand the customs of the populace. Two months ago she was talking to a man about fuel prices when he suddenly doused her with burning fuel and set her afire. She suffered second- and third-degree burns on 60% of her body.

A graduate of Wellesley in cultural anthropology, she travelled extensively abroad and served in the army reserve in Bosnia.

My thoughts are with her family and colleagues. She must have suffered greatly--burns are a terrible thing. And it was just so senseless.

Ancient poop turns back clock on first Americans

Humans in North America earlier than thought: DNA from fossilised foeces in Oregon provides evidence that humans inhabited the area 1,200 years sooner than theorised

Okay, technically they're coprolites (an excellent candidate for word-of-the-day). This pushes back the earliest accepted evidence of humans in the Americas to 14,300 years ago. (I'm aware of one claim for 48,000 years before present in Brazil, for example, so that's why I say 'accepted'. That claim is from radiocarbon dating of hearth remains. This is a mixture of DNA and radiocarbon dating for the Oregon site discussed in the article.)

Nifty, hmmm...?

Good night.