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Discoveries of mammoth carcasses preserved in permafrost in Siberia are a fairly regular occurrance any more, especially with all the people looking for mammoth ivory these days. Back in February, Connie and I stopped in a gem and mineral shop in Santa Fe and saw a large Siberian mammoth tusk for sale for $27,000. However, the recent find of a juvenile mammoth nicknamed "Yuka" is unique, as it appears to be the first that shows signs of having been butchered by humans.

I was pleased to find today that I live in the second-healthiest county in the United States.

Good news for Colorado art lovers. The Anschutz Collection of Western Art which is housed in the historic Navarre Building in downtown Denver, will begin opening its exhibits on a regular basis in May. I look forward to seeing their large holdings of Maynard Dixon works.

Paleontologists in China have discovered a new species of large carnivorous dinosaur that was covered with fine downy feathers. This distant relative of T. rex is described as the largest known feathered animal, living or extinct. Just in time for Easter chicks.

The earliest known defined hearths or fire-pits used by hominids have been dated to about 400,000 years ago. Work in a cave in South Africa has revealed charcoal and bone deposits (though not discrete hearths) that date as old as a million years ago. The article refers to an excellent book by Richard Wrangham, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, that makes the case for how important cooking was in human evolution.