linklings 10,000 B.C. edition

I’ve been reading the “Children of the Earth” books (you probably heard of the first one, “Clan of the Cave Bear,” the train wreck movie starring Darryl Hannah, but there is a whole series of books and they are quite interesting). The books detail the story of a woman, Ayla, who lived about 40,000 years ago. Her parents die in an earthquake when she’s about 5 years old, and she’s found and adopted by the Clan. The Clan are Neanderthals, the separate branch of humanity that died out about 30,000 years ago, although they may have coexisted with us (homo sapiens) until about 15,000 years ago. Ayla eventually leaves the Clan, and (at least as far as I’ve made it in the books) has managed to assimilate with a nearby tribe of homo sapiens. Bubelah and I also recently watched “Quest for Fire” (not to be confused with “Quest for Four Pillars“) which is a movie about a very primitive tribe’s search for fire after their own is extinguished. I highly recommend that movie.

Reading this made me wonder about two things: one, isn’t it amazing how only about 5% or less of human history is documented and known? I visited the Gigantica (Ggantija in Maltese) temple in Gozo, near Malta, about 10 years ago. It is an ancient temple, older than Stonehenge – possibly one of the oldest standing structure raised by human hands. It’s stunning, simply because you feel the crush of history when you stand in locations like that. Yet when you see this six thousand plus year old structure you realize that human history stretches tens of thousands of years past that – it’s a relatively modern structure. Empires and languages and thousands of generations of people lived and died before the first written records or permanent structures were created. If nothing else, it’s amazing how far humans have come in the last 600 years compared to the previous 60,000.

Two, I feel bad that in the last 100 years humans have done more damage to the earth than we did in the previous 100,000 years. I washed my plastic fork after lunch yesterday rather than throw it away, but I’ve thrown away a plastic fork a day for years at cafeterias. It’s sad when you stop and think about it. Those forks will sit in a landfill for hundreds if not thousands of generations.

After that pick-me-up, on to the links and the carnivals!

Doing it Differently Blog Carnival, 15th Edition | Today is that Day

• A new carnival for me – “This carnival is dedicated to the concept of stepping outside of the box and living our lives in ways beyond the “norm”!” The submissions were a bit outside the norm, but that’s always a good thing.

Do you really “earn” your investment income? | Quest For Four Pillars

• Mike at Quest for Four Pillars has a good point – you don’t really “earn” your investment returns. You only earn to the extent you beat the return that a dull index fund could have returned – which is a mighty feat that 80% of the mutual fund managers in the world can’t manage.

How I Overcame My Fear of Lending Money on Prosper.com | The Dough Roller

• I was afraid of lending on Prosper, too, and went through a very – almost exactly the same – thought process as the Dough Roller. Now, of course, I’m even writing for Prosper’s blog. It’s not that big a deal, to be honest. You are trusting your money to Joe Schmoe. Fine. Who do you think is making investments, preparing financials and creating revenue at Big Corporation? A thousand Joe Schmoes. You’re giving your money to someone else, no matter how you look at it. Don’t like doing that? Create your own business and invest in that.
  

carnival of personal finance: photo quiz edition : plonkee money

• The Carnival of Personal Finance was at plonkee money this week and included a photo quiz, and I was very pleased to be tagged as a favorite pick. I only got a few of the photo quizzes right despite having spent at least a couple of months working in the Mother Country. I guess I had too many pints over bangers and mash to concentrate on the scenery – although I do remember my favorite hotels, St. Martin’s Lane and Eastwell Manor. If you ever get a chance to stay in either, do so – they are world-class hotels.
  

IttyBiz » A Quick Lesson In Online Image Management

• I have to admit, I’m with Naomi on this one. I think Zen Habits is a fantastic blog and I am a sincere admirer of Leo Babuta, the author. That having been said, I didn’t care for Daniel Scocco’s guest post on his site, either (although I do like Daily Blog Tips). Leo has an enviable problem – he writes so well and has established such a high level of expectations that anything not meeting that level causes a little bit of angst in his readers. Go read Naomi’s take and decide for yourself…
  

Do you think you’re a strategist? You’re probably wrong. » Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk

• I wouldn’t keep linking to Penelope if she would just quit writing such interesting stuff. So many people I work with love to say they are “big picture” thinkers. Steve Jobs is a “big picture” thinker. You and I, fellow corporate employee, are cogs in a machine. Sure, once in a while we rise slightly above the clouds and have a brief moment of clarity above our level, but that’s not strategic thinking.
  

The Wastrel Show: It’s Worse Than Expected.

• I can’t say I disagree with too much of this post, but it’s a bleak series of thoughts. I’ll have some similar thoughts in a day or two, but this type of article is going to be increasingly prevalent in the online world in the near future, I think.
  

Write From Karen » Carnival of Family Life – January 14th Edition

• I had a post included at the Carnival of Family Life this week. I also liked Getting More Sleep with a New Baby posted at Let’s Talk Babies.

The Street.com

• I got a nice mention at TheStreet.com! Thanks so much!

Personal Finance Blogosphere Best of 2007 | Moolanomy

• This almost felt like a carnival – Pinyo from Moolanomy had a good idea to round up some of the self-selected best posts of 2007. So if you want to see what bloggers picked as their own personal best, here’s your chance!
  

taking stock « Paradigm Shifted

• As a measure of the quality of one’s life, this would rank high: “How often I get to turn on my “out of office” assistant/vacation responder?”

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