Serendipity - Economics to Globe to You.

Articles like this one from The Boston Globe are the reason I read blogs. I found it in an economics blog. Go figure.

What is interesting to me is that at each stage, there is value added. The author did the research and the very hard work of writing an interesting story. The paper published it and posted it online. Newmark's Door linked to it which gave it to a new audience. And now, I'll add my own. First, from the Globe,

Anna Roosevelt, a great-granddaughter of Theodore Roosevelt, who is an archeologist at the University of Illinois, has uncovered in a cave near Santarém, in the Brazilian Amazon, the remains of a settlement at least 10,000 years old - about twice as old as scientists had estimated the human presence in the Amazon.

Now my bit of trivia: Theodore Roosevelt made his own scientific inquiry into the Amazon which is chronicled in an amazing book called "The River of Doubt." Roosevelt led an expedition down an uncharted river and defied all odds in order to map the river and region of the Amazon. Roosevelt's "vigorous" lifestyle was attributed to saving his life when a would-be assassin shot him in the chest during a campaign speech. He famously ranched in the Badlands, hunted in Africa and charged up San Juan Hill. It is too little known about his exploits in South America and I highly recommend Candice Millard's book as a remedy.