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economist sunsuntribune saturday nov 6 2004 suntnbune a metroland community newspaper 34 cmc ave stouffville on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot opinion editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director of production interactive media john futhey advertising director retail fixer sales nicole fletcher advertising director classified real estate events management gordpaolucci letters to the editor dont let cats run wild re careless drivers killed cats letter oct 30 why was your cat on the road do you think its acceptable to let your pet runwild if a motorist slams on his brakes to avoid hitting your pet running or stand ing in the middle of the road he could be charged for careless driving i suggestyou keep your cat on a leash or on your own property and it wont get run over be responsible for your own actions your cat is dead because you let it run wild william cameron markham bat houses were an opportunity re disease fear shelves ballantrae bat boxes oct 28 open letter to ward 2 councillor phil bannon whitchurchstouffville i read the article with outrage i attended a council meeting in sup port of a naturalization project near the ballantrae school as did many of my neighbours despite the overwhelming number of people who attended in support of the project despite the majority of councillors who listened with an open mind to all residents concerns and ulti mately voted in favour of the majority of the proposals you apparently contacted the health department in a continuing attempt to subvert this project it is apparent your position on council is not being used to enhance ballantrae or handle residents concerns in an even- handed manner but merely to put forth your own private objectives and those of your immediate neighbours namely to enhance the area in question in accor dance with your own desires to dismiss or outlaw everything that could potentially cause a problem would be to deny ourselves many plea sures our flower gardens would be empty of many flowers we nowenjoy as they are poisonous no bat houses near the school are a denial to the ballantrae students of an opportunity to study bats in a natural setting you had an opportunity to educate not only yourself but your immediate neighbours whose stories might be funny if they were not so pitiful in their lack of knowledge one of your neighbours doesnt think she can barbecue outside without con stantly scaring away bats another is afraid of his children playing in the yard because of garter snakes instead of leading these people obvi ously new to a rural environment to an appreciation of the marvellous oppor tunity our area provides to study nature you inflame their fears by your own fears and limited perspective i wish you bats in your attic to match the bats in your belfry valerie tettmar ballantrae discovery of minihominids rocks scientific community for this column i was going to write about the american missile defense system but something far too fasci nating came along and i just could not pass it up recently scientists discovered a new humanlike species that lived at the same time as modem homo sapiens and died out less than 18000 years ago the discovery was made in a remote area of the island of flores in indonesia and was revealed in a recent edition of the journal nature it has scientists stunned the new species homo floresiensis came out of the blue few expected to find another human contemporary certainly not in this area the ancestors to homo sapiens homo erectus are thought to have migrated put of africa about two million years ago but it was thought unlikely they could have made it to remote indonesian islands because to do so would have required advanced skills to cross large bodies of water skills believed to be unique to homo sapiens david suzuki but several years ago 800000yearold stone tools were discovered on flores sug gesting that our lessdeveloped relatives had indeed successfully accomplished ocean trav el the new findings of homo floresiensis not only supports this theory but suggest an entirely new species evolved on the island from those early oceangoing homo erectus flores man or in this specific case a woman was about 30yearsold stood only onemetre three feet tall yet walked upright on two legs as we do she had a prominent brow ridge and no chin like more primitive hominids but she also had a small delicate face and modern teeth her brain was about onethird the size of ours but she appears to have used advanced tools in fact she may have hunted and dined on pygmy elephants another creature that due to its genetic isolation and limited natural resources had also shrunk to dwarf size astoundingly she may have carried out her daily activities long after modern humans had migrated into the region even after our ancestors had begun settling into villages growing crops and making pottery how long her descendents may have existed on the island is unknown as is their fate but her dis covery raises new questions about the evolu tion of human beings not long ago it was believed human evo lution proceeded inexorably along in a linear fashion the recent findings of the flores peo ple again show this is simply not the case in fact it seems for the majority of humanitys 160000year history we shared the earth with other intelligent bipedal beings a very short time ago less than 30000 years modern humans actually shared this planet with at least two other cultural con temporaries neanderthalsand homo floresiensis both of these species appear to have made relatively advanced tools and may have even had unique cultures that involved behaviours such as burial rites both species also died out possibly after coming into conflict with modern humans or possibly due to a changing climate or other problems to which they were unable to adapt but the findings beg the question how many other hominid species did modem humans share the planet with homo floresiensis has raised this question and more about the history of hominids and humans on the planet more important it raises the question of what it really means to be human take the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg editorial editor jim mason newsroomecoiuuncom advertising managing director new business distribution sales dawna andrews dandivwsymgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrngcom real estate manager mikerogerson mrogersonymgcom production production manager pam nichols pnicholsymgcom director of distributioncirculation barry black bblackymgcom director of distributioncirculation systems lynn pashko lpaslikoymgcom administration office manager vivian oneil voneilymgcom york region events managing director debra weller dwellerymgcom shows manager stacey allen sallenymgcom york region printing general manager bob dean bdeanymgcom editorial 9052942200 fax 2941538 advertising 2942200 classified 1-800- 7433353 f 8534626 distribution 9052948244 elebhplc canadian ontariopress circulations audit council board member suntnbune a york region newspaper group community newspaper the stouffville sun- tribune published every thursday and saturday is a member of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 65 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group induces the liberal serving richmond hill and thomhillvaughan oraen the erabanner serving newmarket and aurora georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkrcgkmcom and york regton printing l 1 j i j t til o i it i u- 1 v i 1 vjrt wiaj swwvi imj wm rtw lm mfps esffi t k ft x to jk i letters policy the markham economist sun welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the economist sun reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the economist sun 9 heritage rd markham on 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