Comments on: When independent thought flourishes

By: imnobody

imnobody — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 15:15:11 +0000

#4 nailed it.

A beautiful expression of this problem is found in Tom Wolfe’s essay “The Great Relearning” from his book “Hooking up”. For me it’s the best essay by Wolfe but, unfortunately, it is not online.

By: Sandgroper

Sandgroper — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 06:11:24 +0000

Have been from time to time. It’s highly overrated, in my opinion. But if you ever have to be on TV, white shirts are bad, the lighting causes them to flare on the cameras, and pink shirts look bad. Pale blue shirts come over the best.

By: Justin Giancola

Justin Giancola — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:14:18 +0000

Are you saying you are on TV??

By: Sandgroper

Sandgroper — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:02:43 +0000

I went off pink business shirts; much prefer pale blue to any other colour. It’s the best colour for TV – white flares. I don’t mind a pink polo for casual or something like that, but my daughter said if I ever wear a pink shirt she will disown me. So that’s it, that’s a penalty that is just too harsh for me to bear.

By: Justin Giancola

Justin Giancola — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:52:32 +0000

pink shirts look good on me. I ain’t neva scared.

wearing one now in fact!

By: Sandgroper

Sandgroper — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:18:58 +0000

#25 – Oh Violet, I hope so!

By: Violet

Violet — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:29:39 +0000

#19 Sandgroper, I am doing my part by dressing up my boy in pink . Although I think I will lose this control once he begins regular school.

By: Justin Giancola

Justin Giancola — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 08:49:34 +0000

by the time I’m done with physical anthropology people will be saying Carleton Whoon??? ;p

By: Sandgroper

Sandgroper — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 07:37:46 +0000

Sorry Jason, I’ve just done you a huge injustice.

Justin, I think I see what you’re driving at, but I think you would be on a loser trying to infer something from physical measurements in this case.

By: Justin Giancola

Justin Giancola — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:02:43 +0000

This is the first time I’ve been called Jason online! People always swap Jason for Justin in conversation – especially old folks!

I am aware of steatopygia, how much I buy into it as a real syndrome vs. part of a cline of fat storage dispersal…like thinking latin american/ african amer. stereotypes, kim kardashian etc.

I would contend we often see people professing Papuan, Aust. people and such, accrue their unique facial traits and possibly robustness because of their admixture, so if aligned with that I don’t see why it could not influence fat dist. profiles.

By: Justin Giancola

Justin Giancola — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:00:05 +0000

This is the first time I’ve been called Jason online! People always swap Jason for Justin in conversation – especially old folks!

I am aware of steatopygia, how much I buy into it as a real syndrome vs. part of a cline of fat storage dispersal…like thinking latin american/ african amer. stereotypes, kim kardashian etc.

By: pconroy

pconroy — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:27:38 +0000

@Sandgroper 19
+1

By: Sandgroper

Sandgroper — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:05:00 +0000

#18 Jason – I think you are referring to steatopygia, particularly observable in the Khoisan, some Pygmies, and Onge people.

No, Australian Aborigines, Torres Strait Islanders, Papuans and other Melanesian island populations don’t have it. In fact, AA women have noticeably slim buttocks (not that I’ve looked) and seem to accumulate fat around the waist rather than further south, i.e. when they get fat they turn apple shaped, not pear shaped. Which is not good news for them health-wise.

I think Denisovan admixture is too small to affect physical appearance in that way, i.e. people who think they look Neanderthal because they have 3.0% admixture are kidding themselves.

#14 Violet – People like my daughter and Paul Conroy’s daughters are rapidly destroying the pink/blue rule by insurrection. By the time Zeeb’s daughter joins the mutineers, success will be assured.

By: Justin Giancola

Justin Giancola — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:13:35 +0000

All joking aside, I was curious because I have noticed with some of the Onge and negrito people I’ve seen, a tendency toward storing fat in the buttock region to quite an isolated and perky effect. This is an often remarked subject here in the US regarding more tropical/subtropical ethnicities – in particular Africans – having better/weirder, depending on taste, butts. I was curious if the effects of more admixture with the Denisova would change the fat storage profile for these similarly “tropical” in form people.

By: Tim Tyler

Tim Tyler — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:54:44 +0000

Yes, I know you have been aware of Boyd and Richerson for quite a while. These seem like exciting times for the area, and I’m a little surprised that you haven’t yet been drawn in more.

By: omar

omar — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:46:52 +0000

#4: I agree with you that one should pause to consider what role practice X or Y may be playing in society before marching forward to change it, but your analogy seems to favor the role of conscious far-sighted seers. That does not seem to be how human society works (for the most part).
Were the rules were put up by intelligent men (or women) individually grasping their significance and purpose and proposing rules whose effect they fully or mostly understood in advance? I dont think so. It seems more likely that most rules evolved over time. Rules that have stuck around may be there for a good reason (though trivial ones may even survive for no reason beyond teaching that there are rules and daddy knows best) but they are likely to be the product of similar blind social engineering in the past. Prophet A and his followers B, C and D came up with them for all sorts of reasons (inspired guess, sincere attempt to solve problem, misunderstood dream, random error, whatever) and the ones that fit well with the rest of the simultaneously evolving society (and its slower evolving biological substrate) stuck around….

By: pconroy

pconroy — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:44:36 +0000

Growing up in Ireland, my mother would encourage us to not drink during meals, in order than we didn’t loose out appetite.
I never drank any liquids with added ice growing up, and here in the US, always ask for drinks without ice.

A friend who is Chinese-Phillipino says that her mother always insisted that they never drink cold beverages. She warned her on coming to the US, not to drink cold beer or soda, as, “It’s not good for a Chinese stomach”

By: Violet

Violet — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:10:17 +0000

One rule that absolutely baffles me is “Pink for girls and blue for boys”.

#5 @ Sandgroper, we had absolutely no drinking of any liquid rule at the table. Supposedly my grand mother died of choking when she drank some water during her lunch. Enough to stop us from questioning any further as kids. I think it might be to stop us from swallowing lunch with water/liquid instead of chewing it enough.

I know the one about cold water too. I thought it has something to do with preventing dehydration since one feels their thirst quenched sooner with a cold drink than with a warm drink. I also heard something vaguely about maintaining core body temperature.

By: Sandgroper

Sandgroper — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:36:13 +0000

#10 – No.

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:54:05 +0000

#11, i’ve been talking about them for years.