Six degrees

Relics unearthed in Spain show Neanderthals wore 'make-up' 50,000 years ago, suggesting they were capable of symbolic thought, according to recent reports. The species is believed to have hunted without weapons, instead attacking prey by mounting the unfortunate beast and overpowering it. To back up this theory, scientists note Neanderthal remains display trauma wounds similar to those suffered by rodeo professionals ...

The word 'rodeo' is derived from the Spanish verb rodear, meaning 'to surround' or 'go round'. The use of electric cattle prods, 'bucking belts' tied around the abdomen or genitals and spurs - employed to inflame the animal before a bout - routinely draws condemnation from animal-rights advocates. Banned in Britain and the Netherlands, the cowboy competition is popular in Canada and the western United States; it being the official state 'sport' of Texas and Wyoming ...

Despite being the 10th largest state in the country, Wyoming is the least populous, with a headcount of roughly 540,000. Under a quirky state law, it is illegal for a woman to stand or sit within five feet of a bar while having a drink. The state, whose motto is 'Equal rights', in 1869 became the first in the union to give women the right to vote ...

Voting rights for women were cemented in international law in 1948, when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The progression to female suffrage in today's 'enlightened' societies from biblical times, when women were viewed largely as property, is sited as an example of evolution by biological theorist and celebrity atheist Richard Dawkins ...

The British academic has published best-selling books such as The God Delusion and The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, in which he strives to reveal the absurdities of religious faith. Among his many quotes, the Oxford University scholar said, 'The universe is a strange and wondrous place. The truth is quite odd enough to need no help from pseudoscientific charlatans,' deriding the central tenets of creationism ...

Flying in the face of the evidence, creationists stubbornly believe the planet is only thousands, rather than billions, of years old; dinosaurs may still roam the Earth; and an omnipotent God, working on a fairly tight schedule, popped out of nowhere to bring about all the cultures, climates and calamities that make up the modern world. Among their thinnest arguments is the contention that the ravages of syphilis and rickets explain the differences between 'healthy' mankind and what everyone else thinks were Neanderthals.