Hobbits in Indonesia!

Well, okay, the skeletons recently excavated on the island of Flores in Indonesia are not actually Hobbits, but that's what a lot of my friends here have been calling them.  They resemble the extinct hominid called Homo erectus ("upright man," an ancestor of ours), except they're much smaller and may have been smarter, despite having brains smaller than that of a chimpanzee.  Homo floresiensis might also have lived until 13,000 years ago or longer, so they outlived their Homo Erectus bretheren by quite a span of years.  Hooray for prehistoric Hobbits!

Another source of excitement is my new toy - a digital voice recorder which I can hook up to my computer, that I plan to use for my thesis.  It has a lot more features than I think I'm ever going to use, since it's also designed for splicing audio bits together.  It records clearly at distances of 8 feet or so, which means it will be very good for taping interviews.  Maybe I'll bring it to the Mage game or something this Friday.