Scattelogical ramblings and desultory humor - SB Edition

Some of my professors were considered crackpots in their early careers. For example, in the early man fossils in Africa, there was a small form called Africanus gracilis, and a larger form called Africanus robustus. (There is a way to italicize those but forgot how). This guy suggested that they were actually female and male of the same species. Now most people would agree with that interpretation.

And there were other parts of the theory now also that people accept -- such as in populations undergoing rapid evolution the females will exhibit more changes than the males, especially if those changes maximize reproductivity of the species.

Very interesting, Gloria.

Wow!
The things we learn from each other ... and not all about gardening, either.

We are just about the greatest bunch of folk to always be 'northeast of somewhere!'. I'm never giving my my membership to this Forum.

Insight is the ability to step outside of ourselves.

Gloria,

What makes populations exhibit rapid evolution? I get why females are more willing to accept change than men - it's reproductively coded into us, it's for the survival of the species.

BTW, italics, < i > then to stop them < / i > only without the spaces.

Fascinating stuff, just fascinating. x, C

CL evolution has to do with reproductive changes within a species not with what anybody or any individual accepts or doesn't accept.

The moon last night was more orange than this, but it did cause some weird things to be spoken of on this thread.
We covered :
Death/taking cats/dog w/us
Proper Southern ladies
Evolution/ reproductive
Archeology
Tattoo's/Thongs
Morticians w/red lipstick
Keep sakes/funny stories
Naughty Seed Thread
Exercising/Gardening
and that my nutty buddies is just in the last 24 hours!!!



This message was edited Jan 24, 2008 10:59 AM

Just warming up!

Well overnight it cooled down.

I had a note from a friend this morning who said this was the most interesting and educational thread she had ever lurked in. She particularly mentioned the profound knowledge that was readily evident.

I am still wiping coffee and spouting apologies to my keyboard and screen.

Pixie, I love your logical thinking.

I didn't really have much to jump in on myself, although I'm always up for talk about my sticky willy.

Was it the moon? Ive heard that in the old mental asylums inmates had to be restrained during a full moon.

No restraints, please. I get claustrophobic, which brings us right back to cabin fever and to coffins...

From my personal experience here in the far north corner of the U.S. .....it's not the moon, for me it's CB. I believe thats why my mother named with those initials. She knew something waaayyyy back then! LOL

This message was edited Jan 24, 2008 11:27 AM

I am south of you Celeste. What is CB? Can't Belive? Cover Behind?

Cornerback

Cabin bever?

Victor!

typical male.

Pixie is so right: This thread is a virtual smorgasboard (sp???) of all things from the sublime to the ridiculous...thankfully Gloria stepped in to provide the "sublime" part ! LOL

Yep, that she did.

What?! Celeste keeps saying she has cabin fever so I just thought she may have hit the wrong key. I am serious once in a while!

I agree, I feel like im getting a college education for free!! Thank you Gloria!!!!

schicken, Cabin Fever...ignore Victor, he has it too just won't admit it.

See, I was right!

I would have to put a moat around my house and fill it with alligators so the beavers won't get in............or out.

I agree that was some moon last night. It never got dark here. Kind of a Pozzo moment, only Qua Moon instead of Qua sky. I keep getting up thinking it was morning. I will need a nap later. But back to rapid changes.

There are great studies still going on in the Galapagos Islands about the rapid evolution that happened in the finch populations there recently. My son worked down there for several summers for the Charles Darwin Research Center in marine research and then again for a whole year beginning in the summer 1999. There was a major El Niño weather pattern which are cyclical, with the previous one being in 1982-83, that started in of the fall of 1997 and lasted until nearly 1999.

So when we went to visit him in the spring of 2000, it was vastly apparent that the whole population of both flora and fauna where under tremendous stress or change. Some animals thrived , birds, while others suffered tremendously, marine mammals. The same was true in the plant population, huge loss in the cactus stands while vast growth in vines. We had been there in the early 90's so we noticed the changes in some of the populations. The penguins had been nearly wiped out There was lots of talk going on at the CDRS about what changes would take place and how quickly. This is one article that discusses these recent rapid changes in the finch population. Nature is amazing.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1688507.htm

For all interested, I was referring to Kennewick Man last night. Here's a link. I believe there is still legal wrangling over this. The native American population considers him sacred and wants burial and no study at all, despite evidence that he is unrelated to them and is actually Caucasoid.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002825565&zsection_id=2002111777&slug=kennewick24m&date=20060224

pixie: re; college education. Mine wasn't free I had to pay for mine, and worked my way through graduate school for the money. And I learned a lot more that way. I wish more college kids would consider it.

I'd be happy if more kids just valued education more, free or not.

Victor, how do you find these things so quickly? I can't even type as fast as you come up with references? x, C

You know I was so disappointed when I taught in Kentucky that the kids just didn't have the background in how to study and learn that the same classes did have in California. Because of that I went into research instead of teaching.

When I decided later to invite the 4th grade Alabama history classes to the museum where I worked, I was over whelmed with their intelligence and eagerness to learn and what they knew already.

There is something that happens in high school to turn kids off. Kids are naturally smart and they want to learn.

Absolutely right, Gloria. The elementary school kids are way more advanced than I was at the same age. But my HS graduation, they're horrible, according to many national reports and benchmarks. I think the turnoff starts in middle school.

It does start in middle school, when peer pressure rejects nerds because nerds are not cool.

Until the hormonal raging begins, kids are the naturally creative, intelligent little guys that we know and love, then WHAP, overnight it is no longer "cool" to be smart.

Nationwide, elementary schoolers test much higher than our high school students do.

re: kennewick man. The information in the article doesn't describe the evidence that would be needed to make an assessment of what the skeletal material represents.

Most archeological information comes from context not from an interpretation of a single item or a single skeleton. A carbon 14 date has to be taken from some organic material and the context has to be verified usually by its stratigraphic association. Otherwise old roots can contaminate more recent dates. You would usually want a series of 10 or so dates to come up with an age designated interpretation.

That modern Indians want to rebury the guy is up to them. That happened all over the country in the 1960s and there is never any evidence that they are actually related to the people they want to rebury.
It did serve to remind archeologists though that skeletal materials are more than scientific information, they are the remains of human beings and they do deserve not to be displayed in museum cases and in other unsantimonious arrangements. That is just common sense.

There are plenty of other sites that go into those details, Gloria. Just wanted to give a brief overview. Can't be too sublime!

Oh. O.K.

Victor this is a good follow up article from Oct 07 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003928193_sundayanthro07.html
not so much for the science but for what the issues are for all.

And for any one interested in Finch or just a great well written book, The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner He won the Pulitzer Prize for this book. I sold tons of them to general readers. Similar is Bernd Heinrich who wrote two great books about ravens (Mind of Raven and Ravens in Winter) plus books on insects, bees, weeds, and running etc and other interesting titles with his latest being "The Winter World" which I should read now. Maybe I will go get it today. Patti

Weird timing - received an email today showing photos of people in thong bathing suits who should be legally banned from wearing them!

CB law? Patti

Thanks for the links, Patti and yes, Nature is amazing!

If we didn't all revere nature to some degree, what would we be doing on a gardening site?!! x. C