Open letter to Fourth Estate

I'm having trouble working out what exactly is your beef here, Dale.

Article doesn't reveal approximate age of find
Sorry if wasn't clear
Maybe my advanced age

What article? Are we expected to read your mind?

Really seconding this sentiment with a bold emphasis.
I'm having trouble working out what exactly is your beef here, Dale.

Victorville Ca Daily Press.... “A squeeze down…amazing find” Sept 11...

See how this time I 'membered not to abbr!

I don't happen to have a copy of that journal to hand, Dale. Would you care to post a link to an online edition?

Too late; I beat you to it.

MAGALIESBURG, South Africa (AP) Jagged rocks hooked into Steven Tucker's overalls as he squeezed through a crack deep in a subterranean cave. Upon emerging at the other end, he saw he was in a chamber dripping with stalactites. Then his headlamp shone onto a bone. Then more bones, and half of a skull.

It was the night of Sept. 13, 2013, and Tucker and his caving partner had just discovered the remains of what scientists would later determine to be a new member of the human family tree. The announcement of the discovery was made by scientists on Thursday, with Tucker looking on.

Tucker was only trying to get out of fellow caver Rick Hunter's way, inching to the side, on a different intended route when he stepped into the crack in the network of caves known as Rising Star. He'd heard of the crack before, but despite having been down this cave more than 20 times before, he had never noticed it, nor known of any other caver who had ventured down it.

He shone his headlamp down the dark crevice, and couldn't see where it ended. He knew of at least one other caver who also stared down the crack, and decided it was too dangerous. He began to lower himself, feet-first, into the narrow vertical opening.

"It's exciting to find something new," Tucker, now 27, told The Associated Press on Thursday, trying to explain why he took the risk.

Tucker, just wiry enough to fit, followed the crack deeper into the earth for nearly 13 yards (12 meters).

"It's 18 centimeters (7.1 inches) wide, with these jagged rocks, sticking into you from all sides. And suddenly at the bottom, it opens up into a large chamber with really stunning stalactites hanging from the ceiling," Tucker said, hunching his shoulders and jutting his elbows out as he re-enacted the descent.

The 50,000-hectare (123,550-acre) area of hilly grasslands where the two were spelunking is recognized as the Cradle of Humankind, featuring a network of caves that has yielded nearly 40 percent of known hominid fossils, according to the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. But the bones in this particular chamber had apparently remained undiscovered until Tucker entered it.

Inside what is now known as the Dinaledi chamber, Tucker's headlamp illuminated pure white rock formations. Tucker and Hunter, who also braved the narrow chute, were excited to find new caving terrain. Then they saw the bones scattered on the chamber floor.

"You could see half of a skull sticking out of the floor," Tucker said. "Of course, at that time we had no idea what we had found. ... What interested us at first was the fact that these were quite large bones. How does something that has no lights, no protective equipment like we had get in here?"

An almost complete mandible told the cavers that they had found something almost human. Their camera battery had died so a week later they made their way through the cave again, and photographed their find. They sent the photos to geologist Pedro Boshoff, who alerted paleontologist Lee Berger, who went onto become the lead paleontologist on the discovery of Homo naledi. It was only when the cavers saw Berger's excitement that they realized just how big their discovery was.

At the press conference announcing the discovery of Homo naledi, a potential new member of the human family tree, Tucker was joined by other cavers who volunteered on the excavation for nearly two years. Berger called them "underground astronauts."

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Sept+11+Victorville+Ca+Daily+Press+science+%22A+squeeze+down...%22+

Edited to remark, yes, you beat me to it

Too late; I beat you to it.

Dale, your link gives me:



However this link works:

http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/ZZ/20150910/NEWS/309109934

It's an AP (Associated Press) story which has been taken by every local paper in the English speaking world. You can find it word-for-word everywhere from Spokane to Hong Kong. I agree it would have been helpful if they had mentioned the 2.8 million years figure, which appears on other stories, from AP and elsewhere.

Actually 2 to 3 million years

Sorry if posting not sufficiently explicit

I keep forgetting Google not so easily accessible in other parts of the world

You caught me in mid-edit!

It's kind of fun, all this confusion, isn't it but I have to give ya credit for yer persistence

My most abject apologies to other esl encountering similar difficulties

By the way, if not "Tes," can I call you "T"

they dont know the age yet, a geologist from the Witwatersrand said so this AM.
Sometimes things cant happen in the time alloted

DALE, when you post these cryptic threads and expect responses m you should make believe that you are speaking to someone who stands in the room.
Posting your thread on A2K addressed to a Vacaville Newspaper is kinda lame dont you think?

Maybe you think youre being clever because it goes over all our heads but yoy gotta realize that most people here (except Quahog) really want to discuss and respond, but as you see, NOBODY was even in the same playground as you.

Your title of "Open Letter to Fourth Estate" gives us not a clue of what is buggin y0u.

You really must enjoy getting people all pissed off at you eh?

I read 2 million years old. I deduced it from this section of the article:

I see Man. Well, they might have said, eg, "Its exact age is at present unknown, but it's thought to be 2-3 million years"

I suppose Victorville could seem remote to an esl

Very last thing crossing my mind

I agree Man, it's an awful habit

More like surprised Man, 'til I realize once more I'm addressing the esl. Again my most profound apologies to all