(I'm putting this here because it's a follow-up of an earlier thread on this board, and because I suspect Mark is too discerning to spend time on the others. Not that we who spend time on the others aren't discerning, but that we are discerning in a different way. Some people solve puzzles - some people take hammers to them.)

Re toolmaking, brains and evolution.

Just saw a segment of a PBS program on evolution. A part of it suggested that brain development may have been driven by sexual selection more than tool-making.

The hypothesis is that females looking for long-term mates and the father of their children selected for smart as that became of survival value.

Might be a start toward explaining why the differences between chimps and bonobos and us are more profound than the genes would suggest it they should be. Sexual selection might drive more subtle development enhancements than a gene-jarring mutation would.

It may be toolmaking wasn't all that much of a factor. And it may explain why nerds do such a good job of getting laid.

Arf