How the Past Informs the Future

1. What significance would you attribute to chimps "making tool"?
It seems to tell us something that we already know which is that at some point humans (evolving from chimpanzees) made weapons to kill their prey and tools to assist in labor. What the new chimp observations tell us perhaps, is that this was
happening sooner than we thought. A lot of our gender roles, i believe, have been re-inforced by habit and tradition and sometimes encouraged by the roles we observe in animals. If people did their research they'd find that there is a gammet of gender-bending animal behaviors among the animal kingdom, so it's surprising that we've created such stringent roles for humans. In either case, be it the chimps of West Africa's use of tools or the focussed and strong throws of the females, this is one group in one location. It certainly offers insight, but should not be used for general conclusions.

2. Giant toads or colossal squid-- whatever's next?
Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to Nature (don't quote me on that!). Mother Nature's creations have taken on so many shapes and forms---- it's absolutely stunning and sometimes on the verge of unbelievable. The smallest ants gathering leaves amaze me, their form and their instinctual organization. Imagining a squid 10X my size is crazy, like something out of 'Alien'-- but it's REAL! How f**kin cool! How will Nature continue to evolve? What conditions caused such size in the first place? It's ever changing, that's the thing: stories like these are never going to end!