Star Tribune
Ancient footprints found in Kenya suggest human relatives ‘might have walked by one another’
In an undated image provided by Kevin G. Hatala, a footprint hypothesized to have been created by a Homo erectus individual. (KEVIN G. HATALA/The New York Times)
In 2021, Hatala was part of a team that reported footprints found in Tanzania were made by two distinct hominid species 3.6 million years ago. Now, he’s found a similar occurrence in Kenya.
The researchers uncovered three single footprints that seemed to come from the same type of hominid, and one long, continuous trail of prints that came from another.
It wasn’t immediately clear that the footprints were from distinct species. Because the fossil record is sparse, “you can’t do the Cinderella thing of fitting the foot skeleton into the footprint,” Hatala said.
Instead, the scientists relied on results from earlier experiments that used X-ray technology to understand how foot motion affects imprints left in the mud. Compared with the continuous trail of prints, the three isolated footprints all had higher arches, indicating that they arose from a gait more similar to that of humans today.
The scientists also found that the feet responsible for the trail of prints had a big toe with a position that changed from step to step. The toe was not as mobile as those on apes, but more varied than what is seen in modern humans.
“That, to me, is fascinating,” said William Harcourt-Smith, a paleoanthropologist at Lehman College and the American Museum of National History in New York, who wrote a perspective article that accompanied the study in Science. “Here we’ve got diversity in the way these creatures are moving around on the landscape, in each other’s backyards.”
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Josh Allen’s latest kneel-down had nothing to do with football.
The Buffalo Bills quarterback and his girlfriend, actress Hailee Steinfeld, posted a photo to their Instagram followers on Friday — 20.3 million for Steinfeld and a mere 1.3 million for Allen — of Allen on one knee proposing marriage. The picture was taken on a grassy ridge overlooking water, with the couple surrounded by candles and framed by a large arch covered in flowers.
The NFL reposted the picture on X to congratulate the pair on their engagement, with a message ending with a ring and heart emoji.
The setting was likely somewhere on the California coastline, where Allen lives in the offseason. And the proposal likely occurred sometime last week, when the Bills had a bye.
Allen didn’t reveal the engagement during his weekly news conference on Wednesday as the AFC East-leading Bills (9-2) prepare to host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night. But he did smile widely when asked how he enjoyed his bye week.
”Fantastic. It was great. Got some sun. Hung out with family. It was fantastic,” he said.
Allen and Steinfeld were first linked in the spring of 2023, when they were photographed dining together in New York City. Months later, Allen acknowledged the two were dating, but asked The Associated Press not to mention Steinfeld by name in a bid to maintain a semblance of privacy.
Steinfeld has since begun attending Bills home games, and the couple hosted a Halloween party this fall.
She has since described — in an article in Vanity Fair, and in interviews with The New York Times — several instances in which Kennedy, then in his mid-40s, made physical passes at her: During a meeting with a Pace colleague in the family kitchen, he moved his hand up and down her leg, she has said. Once, he came into her room, shirtless, and asked her to rub lotion on his back. And once, he stepped into the kitchen pantry behind her and moved his hands up and down the sides of her torso, she said.
Kennedy declined to comment on the claims. When her allegations first surfaced this summer, he sent an apologetic text message to Cooney, saying he had no memory of the episodes.
Cooney said she was repulsed by the behavior, and left the household by the end of one year, though she continued her work at Pace and stayed in touch with the family. She says she was troubled by the entitlement and carelessness of his behavior.
“I remember thinking, in the beginning of my tenure there — Wow, it’s as if he’s up on the bow of a large, fast boat, and the rest of us are on board,” she said. “He gets to be in the front, look ahead, think big, holler commands, jump off, do what he wants, without concern for details or implications, while everybody else is there to deal with the wake.”
As part of his 12-step recovery programs, Kennedy kept a journal. In it, he chronicled sexual encounters with more than three dozen women in a one-year period in around 2001, assigning them rankings, 1 to 10, that corresponded with different sexual acts, the New York Post reported. The journal reportedly includes entries suggesting his behavior filled him with self-loathing.
“After daddy died I struggled to be a grown-up,” Kennedy wrote, adding, “I felt he was watching me from heaven. Every time I was afflicted with sexual thoughts, I felt a failure. I hated myself. I began to lie — to make up a character who was the hero and leader that I wished I was.”
“The trickiest thing is to manage the nerves, especially last season, performing for the Western Conference Finals. Every single seat was packed, and the energy was through the roof,” Riley said.
Among the challenges the 1st Avenue Breakers face when performing at the Minnesota Timberwolves games at Target Center are the flashing lights when spinning on their heads. (Minnesota Timberwolves)
The dancers also performed amid flashing lights, which made things more challenging. “You have to know where you’re at as you’re spinning on your head. It’s a lot to manage,” he said.
To help prepare the dancers, Riley said his group typically rehearses on the court before the show, flashing lights included.
“Part of my job is not just to choreograph, but to coach the new members in particular, to be ready for those timing cues,” he said. “Because if you miss a cue and you fall out of a move and we’re transitioning, it can have a bad snowball effect.”
Riley also owns House of Dance, an official dance studio partner of the Timberwolves and Lynx. The 1st Avenue Breakers rehearse in the space, and it’s the site for auditions, as well. “It’s been a good relationship because we’re so connected to the hip-hop dance community in general,” he said. “Our studio serves as a pipeline of talent for the Timberwolves.”
In a way, basketball is a kind of dance, with set moves and improvisational movement performed by the players. A soundtrack of recorded music and sound effects underlays the rhythm of the basketball hitting the floor, the shoes squeaking against the wood, and the ref’s whistle. Formal dance groups, mostly grounded in different forms of hip-hop vocabulary, supplement that basketball game with their own ebullient moves.
