[Mr. Bird]

So is the fact that 59,619 years ago, Earth's Neanderthals were staring skyward and wondering just how close that red planet was going to come.

If the Neanderthals noticed it at all (and that's a big "if"), there is no reason to think they would have understood the ramifications of its proximity at all, or even cared. "Yesterday, no bright light there. Today, bright light there. Where's my food?"

Ask an African bushman what he thinks about it. Now shave his intelligence by about 90 percent. That's what the Neanderthal was thinking.

[StriperSniper]

"Yesterday, no bright light there. Today, bright light there. Where's my food?"
Ask an African bushman what he thinks about it. Now shave his intelligence by about 90 percent. That's what the Neanderthal was thinking.

Oh! You mean about the level of the typical government schooled liberal. ;-)

[djf]

Actually, I think it's been determined that on average, neandertals had a bigger brain than we do.