Magic Statistics

Statistics Canada has tried all kinds of ways to publicise and promote Canada's national census, but this is a first.  Census Day, 16 May, is coming up fast and, to raise awareness and, hopefully, participation among a demographic group that is notorious for skipping the Census, Canada's national statistics agency is having the Census logo plastered on Alberta beer cans.

As an agency of the federal government, Statistics Canada isn't in the habit of promoting beer sales, but with the 2006 census bearing down, it's willing to associate with an Alberta brewery, all in the name of research.

Calgary's Mountain Crest Brewing Co. is launching a limited run of a special-label brew in Alberta to help StatsCan promote the May 16 Census Day to one of the most elusive demographics, the 18-to-30-year-old male set.

It's the first time Statistics Canada has advertised Census Day on a beer can, and the effort is exclusive to Alberta, Jerry Page, the agency's regional director, said Tuesday.

"We're promoting it along with some giveaways like water bottles and beer openers, so it's one more effort to get to a difficult-to-reach group of our population," he said.

The company's name is Mountain Crest Brewing Co., but their website address is DamnGoodBeer.ca.  Did the Chief Statistician of Canada approve this?

A 9300-year-old skeleton found on federal lands near Kennewick, Washington, in 1996 is being examined by research scientists and academics.  What they discover may oblige historians to rewrite the history of the entire continent.

Dr. Hugh Berryman, research professor [at Middle Tennessee State University], was one of only 11 experts from across the United States to scrutinize the bones of Kennewick Man, a 9,300-year-old skeleton found 10 years ago along the Columbia River at Kennewick, Wash.

“It’s one of the oldest skeletons, one of the earliest individuals that populated this continent,” Berryman says. “And we have a chance to look at those remains and learn from them what they tell us about the past and who these people were.”

The 380 bones are being preserved at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum under an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which controls the land on which Kennewick was discovered.

Scientific examination of the Kennewick Man was held up for years by legal battles with Native American tribes who claimed the man as an ancestor and, on that basis, demanded that the remains be turned out to them for re-burial.  Scientists appealed to the courts where it was finally decided that the tribes could not prove a direct connection, so in-depth study is only now going ahead.  Even a cursory examination, however, has convinced scientists that Kennewick Man is not related to North American Indians.

What the experts were able to ascertain from their brief encounter with Kennewick is that he did not look like a Native American. In fact, Berryman says Kennewick’s facial features are most similar to those of a Japanese group called the Ainu, who have a different physical makeup and cultural background from the ethnic Japanese.

Some Ainu’s facial features appear European. Their eyes may lack the Asian almond-shaped appearance, and their hair may be light and curly in color. However, this does not mean that Kennewick Man necessarily was European in origin. His features more closely resemble those of the natives of the Pacific Rim than those of Native Americans.

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, has an extensive online exhibit on Kennewick Man.

Tri-City Herald, the local newspaper serving the town near where the skeleton was discovered, also has a website dedicated to the skeleton.

Kennewick Man was on the cover of Time Magazine last month.

via Faith-Science News.