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Scientists from the University of Oregon, North Carolina State University and the Australian National University have refuted the conclusion of Lee R. Berger and colleagues that Hobbit-like little people once lived there... They argue that Berger, an expert on much earlier humans dating to the Pleistocene, failed to review existing documentation, much of it published by Nelson or Fitzpatrick. Much of their rebuttal comes from remains unearthed by Fitzpatrick and Nelson at Chelechol ra Orrak, only miles from Berger's two sites. Among these whole remains are bone pieces that match -- some are even smaller that fragments found by Berger...

TORn has been following the developments of the infamous Tolkien lawsuit for a long time. For those of you who’d like to get caught up in one fell swoop, Frodo Franchise author Kristin Thompson has posted an in-depth blog entry on exactly what is going on:

Ringer Deej found this article on EW.Com: It’s now official: The Lord of the Rings screenwriting team of Peter Jackson (pictured), Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens will join The Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro to pen the screenplay for the two planned Hobbit movies. Sources tell EW.com that the scribes’ deals are all complete and they will commence writing shortly. (With shooting scheduled to begin in Fall 2009 in New Zealand, the quartet better get busy!) The Hobbit will center on Frodo’s uncle, Bilbo Baggins, and his initial discovery of the immensely-powerful ring. New Line and MGM plan to release...

“Hobbit” Director: America Kills Children And Rapes Continents Posted by Dirty Harry on Saturday, August 16th, 2008 Rhetorical: Why do ungrateful, hypocritical multi-millionaires like Guillermo del Toro stay in a country they find so repugnant: “American theatres in the South rejected the first movie, refused to play it, because the word ‘hell’ was in the title,” he says. “Other theatres in the South changed the title on the marquee from Hellboy to Hello Boy, and Heck Boy.” He thought when he was pitching Hellboy II: The Golden Army that people would be less sensitive, but not so. “We actually went...

Del Toro refuses to copy Jackson July 19th, 2008 by xoanon | Discuss From Maxim and World Entertainment News: Guillermo Del Toro has promised Lord Of The Rings fans his franchise prequel The Hobbit will be very different from his directing predecessor Peter Jackson. Jackson directed the three original films, but has given up his director’s chair for Del Toro. But Del Toro has refused to follow in Jackson’s footsteps, vowing to give movie fans something new. He tells Maxim magazine, “If I thought it was about following (Jackson), I wouldn’t be doing it this way. “It’s a matter of...

Christopher Lee offers his voice for Smaug… won’t go back to NZ. July 13th, 2008 by Compa_Mighty In a bittersweet note, forummer DiveTwin reports this note that appeared in Cinematical:

An archaeologist, who discovered the "Hobbit", an ancient human like species, on an Indonesian island in 2003, has determined that a relative of the species may have existed in northern Australia. The Hobbits, or Homo floresiensis, who were only about one metre tall and weighed just 30kg, existed on the remote Indonesian island of Flores until about 12,000 years ago. The specie was dubbed as "hobbits" because of its small size and big feet. Now, according to Professor Mike Morwood, who had made the finding in 2003, these ancient species could have had relatives living in northern Australia. "We are...

Hobbit wars April 24th, 2008Small islanders show no signs of growth disorderDeeper lookComputer-generated reconstructions (bottom) of the fossilized skulls of the small islanders suggest that, contrary to corresponding photos (top), these "hobbits" belonged to a unique species.K. Smith/Mallinckrodt Inst. Radiology, Wash. Univ. St. Louis; E. Indriati, D. FrayerCOLUMBUS, Ohio —Defenders of a small humanlike species that lived on an Indonesian island more than 12,000 years ago have launched their latest scientific counterattacks against critics of their position. Remains of Homo floresiensis, also referred to as hobbits, display no signs of growth disorders proposed by researchers who regard the fossils as...

PAN'S LABYRINTH director Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct THE HOBBIT and its sequel for New Line-MGM, per VARIETY. This is a major step forward for the LORD OF THE RINGS prequels, which had been held up in litigation for several years. The announcement came Thursday from executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich and Mary Parent, chief of MGM's Worldwide Motion Picture Group. Del Toro will move to New Zealand for four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and WETA production teams, directing the two films back to back. The...

Did the Flores Hobbit Have a Root Canal?Dental work claim challenges antiquity of hobbit skeleton By Kate Wong DENTAL WORK?: The lower left first molar of the hobbit is claimed to have a filling--an observation that other hobbit researchers say is refuted by this photograph. PETER BROWN University of New England And you thought Frodo had it hard. In what is shaping up to be a battle of Tolkienian proportions, the tiny remains from Flores, Indonesia--paleoanthropology's hobbit--have once again come under attack. Most paleoanthropologists believe that the hobbit belongs to a new species of human, Homo floresiensis. But now comes...

Flores 'hobbit' walked more like a clown than Frodo 12:30 16 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Ewen Callaway Henry McHenry, University of California, Davis American Association of Physical Anthropologists Tolkien's hobbits walked an awful long way, but the real "hobbit", Homo floresiensis, would not have got far. Its flat, clown-like feet probably limited its speed to what we would consider a stroll, and kept its travels short, says Bill Jungers, an anthropologist at the State University of New York in Stony Brook. "It's never going to win the 100-yard dash, and it's never going to win the marathon," he says....

Chief Epiradus Dhoi Lewa has a strange tale to tell. Sitting in his bamboo and wooden home at the foot of an active volcano on the remote Indonesian island of Flores, he recalls how people from his village were able to capture a tiny woman with long, pendulous breasts three weeks ago. "They said she was very little and very pretty," he says, holding his hand at waist height. "Some people saw her very close up." The villagers of Boawae believe the strange woman came down from a cave on the steaming mountain where short, hairy people they call Ebu...

Once again, evolutionists strike when the iron is hot in an attempt to affirm the same bogus evolutionary dogma they have crammed down our throats for 150 years. Once again, they've got it wrong. The recent discovery of a dwarf skeleton on the remote Indonesian island of Flores has scientists anxious to create another sub-class of humans. This one is called Homo floresiensis, which implies that they belong to a different species of people than those living today, we Homo sapiens.

Timor cave may reveal how humans reached Australia Jerimalai shelter in East Timor, where Dr Su O'Connor of ANU has discovered the oldest evidence of occupation by modern humans on the islands that were the stepping stones to Australia. Deborah Smith December 22, 2006 AN AUSTRALIAN archaeologist has discovered the oldest evidence of occupation by modern humans on the islands that were the stepping stones from South-East Asia to Australia. A cave site in East Timor where people lived more than 42,000 years ago, eating turtles, tuna and giant rats, was unearthed by Sue O'Connor, head of archaeology and natural...

Could Asia have been the cradle of humanity? By David Ropeik, Globe Correspondent | July 5, 2005 Science continues to struggle with one of the most basic questions of all: Where did humans come from. There isn't much question that modern humans came out of Africa, probably in several waves of migration over the past 100,000 years. But it now appears that the ancient ancestors who gave rise to those African humans might have come from Asia. Until recently the only fossils of anthropoids -- the creatures at the base of the branch of the evolutionary tree that gave rise...

Erectus AhoyPrehistoric seafaring floats into view Bruce Bower As the sun edged above the horizon on Jan. 31, 2000, a dozen men boarded a bamboo raft off the east coast of the Indonesian island of Bali. Each gripped a wooden paddle and, in unison, deftly stroked the nearly 40-foot-long craft into the open sea. Their destination: the Stone Age, by way of a roughly 18-mile crossing to the neighboring island of Lombok. Project director Robert G. Bednarik, one of the assembled paddlers, knew that a challenging trip lay ahead, even discounting any time travel. Local fishing crews had told him...

Hobbits mastered use of stone tools Leigh Dayton, Science writer October 09, 2007 HOBBITS may have had long arms and tiny brains but our new-found cousins were agile and smart enough to make stone tools used to fashion other tools, probably for hunting and butchering animals. What's more, they did so at least 40,000 years before modern humans arrived on their home island of Flores in Indonesia. The discovery comes from Queensland scientists who have studied wear patterns and residue on about 100 stone tools found with the remains of hobbits (Homo floresiensis) in Liang Bua cave by Australian and...

The remains of a tiny and hitherto unknown species of human that lived as recently as 13,000 years ago have been discovered on an Indonesian island. The discovery has been heralded as the most important palaeoanthropological find for 50 years, and has radically altered the accepted picture of human evolution. The female skeleton, known as LB1 - or by the nickname "Ebu" - has been assigned to a new species within the genus Homo - Homo floresiensis. Examination of the remains shows members of the species stood just 1 metre tall and had a brain no bigger than a grapefruit....

Science - AP By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, AP Science Writer In a breathtaking discovery, scientists working on a remote Indonesian island say they have uncovered the bones of a human dwarf species marooned for eons while modern man rapidly colonized the rest of the planet. AP Photo Missed Tech Tuesday? Is your PC possessed? Learn eight ways to repel the monsters: hackers intent on causing trouble One tiny specimen, an adult female measuring about 3 feet tall, is described as "the most extreme" figure to be included in the extended human family. Certainly, she is the shortest. This hobbit-sized creature...

A rare disease characterized by small brain and body size but near normal intelligence is caused by mutations in a gene coding for the protein pericentrin, researchers have found. The scientists speculate that the condition may explain the tiny, hobbitlike people that occupied a remote, Indonesian island about 18,000 years ago—adding fuel to the debate over whether the unusual creatures were a new species or just diseased modern humans. Pericentrin helps separate chromosomes during cell division, which is needed for growth. "The whole body loses its capacity to grow, because cell division is so difficult for people with this defect,"...

DID BILBO REALLY EXIST? Remains of at least nine "hobbits" have been discovered, making it almost certain the 3ft-tall creatures really are a new species of human. A year ago the world of science was stunned by the announcement that a hitherto unknown type of miniature human had been found on the Indonesian island of Flores. The original fossils consisted of a single partial skeleton, including the skull, of a female who lived 18,000 years ago. Stone tools, evidence of fire-making, and the bones of a dwarf elephant apparently hunted by the creature were also found. The hominid, nicknamed "The...

Monday, 15 January 2007 Hobbit like humans show Indonesia was "middle earth" Anna Henderson In a world first, a book detailing the discovery of a lost species of hobbit-like people who lived on a remote tropical Indonesian island less than 20,000 years ago was launched in Armidale in northern NSW on Saturday. According to research completed by University of New England Professor, Mike Moorwood, the artefacts his group unearthed during a 2003 archaeological dig on Flores Island suggest a kind of "middle earth" existed there, with metre-high humans hunting miniature elephants, giant rodents and Komodo dragons. Professor Moorwood wrote "The...

ARCHAEOLOGY: New human fossils found in Georgia, north of Africa, have some rethinking migration of early man. DMANISI, Georgia - The forested bluff that overlooks this sleepy Georgian hamlet seems an unlikely portal into the mysteries surrounding the dawn of man. Think human evolution, and one conjures up the wind-swept savannas and badlands of east Africa's Great Rift Valley. Georgians may claim their ancestors made Georgia the cradle of wine 8,000 years ago, but the cradle of mankind lies 3,300 miles away, at Tanzania's famed Olduvai Gorge. But it is here in the verdant uplands of southern Georgia that David...

Scientists: Hobbit Wasn't a Modern Human Sep 20 04:18 PM US/Eastern By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Scientists, wringing their hands over the identity of the famed "hobbit" fossil, have found a new clue in the wrist. Since the discovery of the bones in Indonesia in 2003, researchers have wrangled over whether the find was an ancient human ancestor or simply a modern human suffering from a genetic disorder. Now, a study of the bones in the creature's left wrist lends weight to the human ancestor theory, according to a report in Friday's issue of the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The famous skeleton from Indonesia nicknamed the "Hobbit" does not belong to a modern human pygmy with a brain disease, as some scientists argue. That is the main finding of a detailed examination of the creature's braincase, published in Science. The authors say their study of the Hobbit's brain supports the idea it is a new, dwarf species of human. However, others contend the report does little to quash their theory it was actually a small, diseased person. The remains of the small hominid from the Indonesian island of Flores were...

Hobbit hominids were 'dwarf cretins' By Richard Ingham in Paris March 05, 2008 11:46am Article from: Agence France-Presse AUSTRALIAN scientists are causing controversy in the usually placid world of anthropology, becoming embroiled in a feud about diminutive "hobbit" people whose fossilised remains were found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island four years ago. Combatting a bid to have the hobbits enshrined as a separate branch of the human family tree, they argue the tiny cave-dwellers were simply Homo sapiens who became stunted and retarded as a result of iodine deficiency in pregnancy. Dubbed after the wee folk in...

Indonesia's Lost World: Shaking Up the Family Tree October 28, 2004 by David Keys Homo floresiensis skull (© Peter Brown) New archaeological discoveries by Australian and Indonesian scientists on the Indonesian island of Flores are revealing that until at least 13,000 to 12,000 years ago, modern humans--our species, Homo sapiens--shared this planet with a totally different species of human being--a three-foot-high dwarf hominid with physical features usually seen as dating from 1.5 to 4 million years ago. The scientists, mainly from Australia's University of New England and University of Wollongong, have found the skeletal remains of up to seven individuals...

<p>Bad Thyroid?</p> <p>March 5, 2008 -- Anthropologists have fired another salvo in a feud about diminutive "hobbit" people whose fossilized remains were found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island four years ago.</p> <p>Combatting a bid to have the hobbits enshrined as a separate branch of the human family tree, they argue the tiny cave-dwellers were simply Homo sapiens who became stunted and retarded as a result of iodine deficiency in pregnancy.</p>

LOS ANGELES - The estate of "Lord of the Rings" creator J.R.R. Tolkien is suing the film studio that released the trilogy based on his books, claiming the company hasn't paid it a penny from the estimated $6 billion the films have grossed worldwide. The suit, filed Monday, claims New Line was required to pay 7.5 percent of gross receipts to Tolkien's estate and other plaintiffs, who contend they only received an upfront payment of $62,500 for the three movies before production began. The writer's estate, a British charity dubbed The Tolkien Trust, and original "Lord of the Rings" publisher...

'Hobbits' not a different species, say scientists By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 7:01pm GMT 03/01/2008 The long-running debate about the existence of so-called hobbits of Indonesia has taken a new turn with a study that suggests these ancient people were not an unusual species of human but modern humans with a growth disorder. Scientists believe the "hobbit" had the same growth condition as Paddy Ryan The work, if confirmed, suggests that there could be up to around 100 documented such "hobbits" in the world today, the people who have the mutation that leads to them being normally proportioned...

Via Bettnet we learn the following from the Tolkien Society: On the 3rd January 1892 JRR Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. To celebrate this event, on this day each year Tolkien fans around the world are invited to raise a glass and toast the birthday of this much loved author. The toast is "The Professor". To make the Birthday Toast, you stand, raise a glass of your choice of drink (not necessarily alcoholic), and say the words ‘The Professor’ before taking a sip (or swig, if that’s more appropriate for your drink). Sit and enjoy the rest of...

Fans have long dreamed ''Lord of the Rings'' director Peter Jackson would tackle J.R.R. Tolkien's ''The Hobbit,'' but a nasty legal battle with New Line Cinema has made it impossible. Now, at last, a cease-fire may be at hand

The Discovery of the Hobbit - Mike Morwood and Penny Van Oosterzee By NICOLA JENNINGS - Sunday Star Times Wednesday, 23 May 2007 Long after homo sapiens invented art, porn and sailing, another kind of human scampered about in Indonesian forests. We know this because a team led by one of the writers of this fascinating book, Australian archaeologist Mike Morwood, discovered the creature's skeleton in 2003, in a cave on the remote island of Flores. Since then, bones belonging to at least eight more individuals have been found, ranging in age from 95,000 to 12,000 years old. Our own...

Asked to design a fitting repository for a client’s valuable collection of J.R.R. Tolkien manuscripts and artifacts, architect Peter Archer went to the source—the fantasy novels that describe the abodes of the diminutive Hobbits.“I came back my client and said, ‘I’m not going to make this look like Hollywood,’” Archer recalled, choosing to focus instead on a finely-crafted structure embodying a sense of history and tradition.The site was critical too—and Archer found the perfect one a short walk away from his client’s main house, where an 18th-century dry-laid wall ran through the property. “I thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful...

Hobbit hominids lived the island life Wed Apr 18, 6:43 AM ET PARIS (AFP) - A tantalising piece of evidence has been added to the puzzle over so-called "hobbit" hominids found in a cave in a remote Indonesian island, whose discovery has ignited one of the fiercest rows in anthropology. Explorers of the human odyssey have been squabbling bitterly since the fossilised skeletons of tiny hominids, dubbed after the diminutive hobbits in J.R.R. Tolkien's tale, were found on the island of Flores in 2003. Measuring just a metre (3.25 feet) tall and with a skull the size of a grapefruit,...

Monday, 5 March 2007 Author Mike Morwood. THE DIG: The bones in Liang Bua cave, Flores, where the hobbits were found. Surviving the Hobbit Wars Simon Grose Dr Mike Gagan will be getting into more than one of the world's most exciting archaeological digs when he abseils down to an ancient graveyard on the Indonesian island of Flores in June. The Australian National University palaeoclimatologist will also be entering a drama that has a reputation for fierce personal and ideological rivalries, international intrigue, stolen goods of priceless value, broken and mended agreements, intense media interest, and a central theme which...

February 06, 2007 Hobbit Skeptics Split on What a Second Skull Would Mean Advocates of a human Hobbit reveal what--if anything--would make them soften their stance By JR Minkel Image: COURTESY OF KIRK E. SMITH/Electronic Radiology Laboratory, Mallinckrodt Institute of RadiologyDOUBLE TROUBLE? A second small Hobbit skull similar to the first [right] would convince some skeptics—but not all of them—that they are dealing with a new species, as opposed to a dwarf or a diseased human [left]. For three years researchers have feuded over the rightful classification of the Hobbit, a diminutive, 18,000-year-old specimen unearthed from the Indonesian island of...

Florida State University Date: January 29, 2007 Anthropologist Confirms 'Hobbit' Indeed A Separate Species Science Daily — After the skeletal remains of an 18,000-year-old, Hobbit-sized human were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, some scientists thought that the specimen must have been a pygmy or a microcephalic -- a human with an abnormally small skull. Not so, said Dean Falk, a world-renowned paleoneurologist and chair of Florida State University's anthropology department, who along with an international team of experts created detailed maps of imprints left on the ancient hominid's braincase and concluded that the so-called Hobbit was...

The chance discovery of an enormous chamber beneath the Indonesian cave where hobbit-like creatures were discovered promises to settle the debate about who — or what — the tiny creatures were. Scientists are confident the mystery will be solved if they can extract DNA from "hobbit" remains they expect to find among the rubble of 32,000- to 80,000-year-old bones and stone tools littering the cavern floor. "Well, well, well, well, well; this will settle the matter," said Colin Groves, a physical anthropologist at the Australian National University in Canberra. He said obtaining a "CSI"-style DNA profile of the three-foot-tall creatures...

There has been speculation about this since last November but according to a major newspaper, Sam "Spider-Man" Raimi is considering directing The Hobbit.LA Times has the following: In a move that would have ramifications for several major multi-nationals, and millions of fans, "Spider-Man" maestro Sam Raimi has been telling associates, as well as his corporate masters at Sony, that he is thinking of directing "The Hobbit," the prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork, "The Lord of the Rings." At least two top-level insiders – who declined to be named -- have heard the words out of the director's mouth. A year...

Hobbit cave digs set to restart Researchers had not been able to excavate at the cave Archaeologists who found the remains of human "Hobbits" have permission to restart excavations at the cave where the specimens were found. Indonesian officials have blocked access to the cave since 2005, following a dispute over the bones. But Professor Richard "Bert" Roberts, a member of the team that found the specimens, told BBC News the political hurdles had now been overcome. The researchers claim that the remains belong to a novel species of human. But some researchers reject this assertion, claiming instead that the...

Knife amnesties have no real impact on reducing knife crime, according to a Metropolitan Police report. An eight-week Met Police amnesty over the summer showed that, after a slight dip in knife-related crime, levels were back to normal within weeks, it said.

okay i have to things

You may remember seeing the name "Saul Zaentz" in the opening credits of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. His name is also listed on the credits for the Ralph Bakshi animated version from 1978. So who is Saul Zaentz, anyway? He's the producer who, in 1976, bought the rights to Tolkien's works and, logically, started up a company called Tolkien Enterprises. So what that basically means is that New Line "leased" the LOTR rights from Zaentz ... and it looks like those rights will be reverting back to the guy some time next year. And apparently Saul Zaentz...

Variety reports that MGM chairman and chief executive Harry Sloan talked about the studio's five core franchises at the European Media Leaders Summit in London. As for The Hobbit, Sloan confirmed that MGM was in advanced talks with Peter Jackson to make two movies based on JRR Tolkien's "prequel" to "The Lord of the Rings." The first would be a direct adaptation of The Hobbit, and the second would be drawn from "footnotes and source material connecting 'The Hobbit' with 'Lord of the Rings,'" he explained. An MGM spokesman emphasized that negotiations with Jackson are still in progress, and that...

When scientists found 18,000-year-old bones of a small, humanlike creature on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, they concluded that the bones represented a new species in the human family tree that they named Homo floresiensis. Their interpretation was widely accepted by the scientific community and heralded by the popular press around the world. Because of its very short stature, H. floresiensis was soon dubbed the "Hobbit." But now, a new research has comprehensively and convincingly rubbished the case that the small skull represent a new species of hominid, as was claimed in a study published which was published...

Taking sides in the battle of the 'hobbit' 05:00 09 October 2006 Jeff Hecht The battle among paleaoanthropologists over Homo Floresiensis, popularly known as "the hobbit", threatens to become an epic of Lord of the Rings proportions. The debate rages on over whether the fossil, found on the Indonesian island of Flores, is a separate species or simply a modern human with stunted development. Now Robert Martin at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, US, claims the controversial fossil, discovered in 2004 was really a Stone Age Homo sapiens (modern human) with a mild form of the condition...

In a Variety article talking about MGM's move back into the tentpole business, the trade mentions a few highly-anticipated projects that are in the works: Over the next few years, MGM is planning to release half a dozen films, some in the $150 million to $200 million-plus range. Studio is ready to unveil such high-profile projects as "Terminator 4"; one or two installments of "The Hobbit," which Sloan hopes will be directed by Peter Jackson; and a sequel to "The Thomas Crown Affair" with Pierce Brosnan. It has already announced a "Pink Panther" sequel and the next 007 pic "Bond...

Ancient islanders get a leg up Bruce Bower From San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Paleoanthropology Society and Society for American Archaeology meeting Fossils of a humanlike species dubbed Homo floresiensis that lived on the Pacific island of Flores between 18,000 and 12,000 years ago recently grabbed headlines because scientists deduced that this creature stood no more than 1 meter tall and possessed a surprisingly small brain. Nonetheless, H. floresiensis packed considerable weight on its diminutive frame and possessed far stronger legs than people do today, says William L. Jungers of the State University of New York at Stony Brook....

Bones of ContentionIs a small, 18,000-year-old skeleton the older cousin of modern-day Pygmies—or a new human species? BY SIMON ELEGANT | RAMPASASA JOHN STANMEYER FOR TIMESMALL WORLD: Rampasasa resident Anggalus Jalur, 55, stands just 130 cm tall "In those days we ate our meat raw, like animals." The speaker is Viktor Jurubu, an Indonesian farmer in his 60s, who, in his T shirt and sarong, looks little like the cavemen he's describing. Except for his height, which is about 140 cm. In the world of anthropology, Jurubu's small size is big news because he and his 246 fellow villagers of...