Ancient Bird Remains Illuminate Lost World of Indonesia’s “Hobbits”

A study of bird remains from the same cave that yielded bones of a mini human species called Homo floresiensis and nicknamed the hobbit has cast new light on the lost world of this enigmatic human relative. The findings hint that the hobbits’ island home was quite ecologically diverse, and raise the possibility that the tiny humans had to defend their kills from giant carnivorous birds.

The new work, carried out by Henneke Meijer of the Smithsonian Institution and her colleagues at the Smithsonian and the National Research and Development Center for Archaeology in Jakarta, Indonesia, shows that a great many birds also called the island home back when the hobbits reigned, as recently as 17,000 years ago. Meijer presented the results on November 4 at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

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Foreign Tourists in West Java Prefer Non-Starred Hotels

:Foreign tourists in West Java spend more time in non-starred hotels. “Almost five days longer on average,” said Lukman Ismail, head of the West Java Central Statistics Agency (BPS), at his office in Bandung on Tuesday.

Conversely, local tourists prefer to stay in star-rated hotels. A BPS survey shows that Indonesian tourists spent an average 1.68 days longer in star-rated hotels compared to 1.26 days in non-starred hotels.

Bandung hotels

Gosyen Hotel : Affordable Legian Hotel in Strategic Location

Strategic location, affordable price, comfortable and spacious room with good
amenities, friendly and attentive hotel staff are what Gosyen Hotel all about.
Gosyen Hotel is right on the heart of Legian area at Jalan Dewi Sri where you
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various branded shops, art shops, and galleries, not more than 15-minute drive
from Ngurah Rai International Airport, few-minute drive to Seminyak where you
can find Bali,s best restaurants and clubs, 20-minute walk to the beach and
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Gosyen Hotel has a space for small group meeting, Gion Japanese resto and cafe,
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Indonesia AirAsia is number one in flight cancellations

Indonesia AirAsia was dubbed the worst airline in the country for flight cancellation in the first semester of 2011, with 471 flights canceled during the period, the government said Tuesday.
Tribunnews.com reported that Merpati Nusantara was second with 293 flight cancellations and Garuda ranked third with 293 flight cancellations.
Batavia Air was last with just 41 flights canceled between January and June, the website said.

Foreign visitors up 16 percent in September: Statistics Bureau

Indonesia saw an increased influx of foreign tourists in September of 650,100 people, an increase of 16 percent from the same month last year, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has reported.

The figure also represents an increase of 4.7 percent on August, the BPS added.

From January to September, the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia totaled 5.61 million, an 8.3 percent rise compared with the same period last year, which stood at 5.19 million.

BPS deputy head for statistics, distributions and services Djamal said that Bali remained the most popular destination for foreign visitors, with the number of foreign tourists visiting the island in September totaling 252,900, up by 8.75 percent from the September 2010 figure.

“Compared with August, however, the number of foreign visitors to Bali only rose slightly by 0.06 percent,” Djamal said, as quoted by kontan.co.id.

Mercure Kuta Hotel

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