Another cell phone annoyance
In response to “Why cell phone talkers are annoying” (SN: 10/9/10, p. 13), I
contend that these researchers are only
addressing half of the problem with
their “halfalogue” hypothesis. Years ago,
I was struck by how irritating it was to
walk near people talking on cell phones
and wondered if I was simply biased
against this new technology. I concluded
that, no, they really are far more annoying than people talking face-to-face
because cell phone users speak so much
more loudly. A halfalogue delivered at
twice the volume of a face-to-face conversation is doubly annoying to other
people and downright dangerous to a
driver. Drivers on cell phones are distracted not only by the content of their
conversations, but also by the difficulty
of hearing their caller over traffic noise,
and by their need to speak more loudly
and clearly than usual.
Teresa Audesirk, Steamboat Springs,
Colo.
Defining Neandertals
Please clarify the terminology now
employed to distinguish between modern humans and Neandertals. Not long
ago one spoke of Homo sapiens sapiens
and Homo sapiens neandertalis, clearly
indicating that Neandertals were
viewed as human beings. Yet Bruce
Bower (“Neandertals taken out by
volcanoes,” SN: 10/23/10, p. 12) refers
to Neandertals as “these humanlike
hominids,” continuing the recent trend
to distinguish not between modern
humans and Neandertals but between
humans and Neandertals. Are Neandertals no longer viewed as human
beings by the scientific community?
Bill Sugrue, Falls Church, Va.
Many paleoanthropologists regard
Neandertals as a separate species,
Homo neandertalensis, that nonethe-
less shared many anatomical and
cognitive features with Homo sapiens.
Others take a “Neandertals are us”
stance, classifying these Stone Age homi-
nids as a subspecies of H. sapiens or
simply as illustrations of the anatomical
variation that existed within ancient
H. sapiens. The popularity of these
views has waxed and waned for more
than a century. — Bruce Bower
Correction
In the “Predicted April snow depth,
2045–2050” maps on Page 27 of
“The final climate frontiers” (SN:
12/4/10, p. 24), the elevation scale
bar is mislabeled. The elevation
shown is actually in feet, not meters.
The elevations in feet don’t seem as
high as real-world elevations because
the map has only a 12-kilometer
resolution, meaning mountain peaks
tend to be smoothed out.
Send communications to: Editor, Science News,
1719 N Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036 or
editors@sciencenews.org. Letters subject to editing.
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