Susan Swartz: Californians enjoy Southern wedding. 2E
S U N D A Y , J U L Y 2, 2006
Today
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WWW.TUSCALOOSANEWS.COM
-TALK NEW RITZ-CARLTON Ritz- Carlton has revealed its
proposal to build a $400 million
resort and residential complex on
120 acres bordering Paradise
Valley and Scottsdale, Ariz. The hotel will feature tennis
courts, restaurants and spa and
could open by fall 2009, accord-
ing to the East Valley Tribune/
Scottsdale Tribune newspaper. The company will use sister
property Camelback Inn’s golf
course to round out the signature
amenities, said Joy Berry, senior
vice president of real estate for
Ritz- Carlton. The proposed site plan shows
&
the hotel ringed by 27 1-acre cus-
tom home lots, 55 luxury single-
family homes, 119 townhomes,
30,000 square feet devoted to
FAITH FREEDOM
resort shops — about the shop-
ping space inside a small super-
market — and an unspecified
number of time-share units.
VISITING DURANGO, COLO. ■ Attractions: Mesa Verde
National Park is a short drive
away from Durango. Fee is $10
per car, with additional fees for
By Sarah Bruyn Jones
Affiliations of delegates
Staff Writer
tours. The Animas River offers
superb fishing, rafting and kayak-
Declaration of Independence
NORTHPORT | Inside a single-story brick home, a few friends gathered Tuesday to watch a DVD and learn more about their faith. The previous Saturday, about a dozen people had filled the same house for a worship gathering called the 19-day feast. Meeting together every 19 days is a staple of the Bahai faith. There are three aspects to this practice: spiritual reflection, business practicalities and a social feast. It is the regular gathering that promotes and sustains the unity of any local Bahaí community. The small community worship went off without a hitch. Still, local Bahais are well aware of other places in the world where people are persecuted for being Bahai. Iran and Egypt are two places that have made headlines recently. “The fact that we can gather in our house without any fear of anyone wanting to hurt us … that’s a blessing,” said Shirin Posner, who hosted the two events.
ing while the hills and mountains
surrounding the city boast
numerous mountain bike trails.
Road bikers can challenge them-
selves with the 50-mile ride from
Durango to Silverton. ■ Not to miss: A trip to
Durango isn’t complete without a
trip to the mountain town of
Silverton, 50 miles away. It’s a
beautiful drive, challenging bike
ride or relaxing trip on the
Durango and Silverton Narrow
Gauge Railroad. ■ Where to eat: Durango Joe’s is the locals’ morning hangout spot, Nature’s Oasis offers yummy organic fare and Cocina Linda’s is a must for Mexican food lovers.
Quaker 3.6% Presbyterian 21.4% 23.2%
Avenue, is the town’s original brew pub, and Steamworks Brewing Co. is a great place to watch the world go by.
Catholic 1.8% 57.1% Episcopalian /Anglican
Congregationalist
Total signers:56 Total delegates:56
Constitution of the United States Catholic 3.6% Quaker 5.5%
Methodist 3.6%
Lutheran 3.6%
14.5 29.1%
Congregationalist
56.4%
Presbyterian
Total signers:39 Total delegates:55
Dutch Reformed 3.6% Episcopalian /anglican
Source: www.adherents.com STAFF GRAPHIC | ANTHONY BRATINA
Freedom of religion
The Carver Brewing Co., on Main
Universalist Unitarian 3.6%
The blessing is also a Constitutional right, granted in the First Amendment. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”
With the 230th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, The Tuscaloosa News asked a few random people, all of minority faiths, what freedom of religion means to them. For starters, we turned to Rabbi SEE FAITH | 4E
Go to the forum link on www. tuscaloosanews.com and click on Religious Freedom to share your thoughts.
Test your knowledge: How much do you know about the First Amendment and Americans’ freedom of religious rights? Take a quiz on Page 4E.
■ Weather: At 6,500 feet, sum-
mers are typically in the 80s, but
be prepared with a light jacket,
especially if you plan to explore
the higher elevations. ■ Info: Call 800-525-8855 or
visit www.durango.org. STAFF ILLUSTRATION | ANTHONY BRATINA
Roots of the human family tree are remarkably shallow By Matt Crenson
The Associated Press
Whoever it was probably lived a few thousand years ago, somewhere in East Asia — Taiwan, Malaysia and Siberia all are likely locations. He — or she — did nothing more remarkable than be born, live, have children and die. Yet this was the ancestor of every person now living on Earth — the last person in history whose family tree branches out to touch all 6.5 billion people on the planet today.
That means ever ybody on Earth descends from somebody who was around as recently as the reign of Tutankhamen, maybe even during the Golden Age of ancient Greece. There’s even a chance that our last shared ancestor lived at the time of Christ. “It’s a mathematical certainty that that person existed,” said Steve Olson, whose 2002 book “Mapping Human History” traces the history of the species since its origins in Africa more than 100,000 years ago. It is human nature to wonder about
our ancestors — who they were, where they lived, what they were like. People trace their genealogy, collect antiques and visit historical sites hoping to capture just a glimpse of those who came before, to locate themselves in the sweep of history and position themselves in the web of human existence. But few people realize just how intricately that web connects them not just to people living on the planet today, but to everyone who ever lived. With the help of a statistician, a computer scientist and a supercomputer,
Olson has calculated just how interconnected the human family tree is. You would have to go back in time only 2,000 to 5,000 years — and probably on the low side of that range — to find somebody who could count every person alive today as a descendant. Furthermore, Olson and his colleagues have found that if you go back a little further — about 5,000 to 7,000 years ago — everybody living today has exactly the same set of ancestors. In other words, every person who was alive at that time is either an ancestor to all 6
billion people living today, or their line died out and they have no remaining descendants. That revelation is “especially startling,” statistician Jotun Hein of England’s Oxford University wrote in a commentary on the research published by the journal Nature. “Had you entered any village on Earth in around 3,000 B.C., the first person you would have met would probably be your ancestor,” Hein marveled. It also means that all of us have SEE ROOTS | 4E