tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post7536093565507808620..comments2023-06-06T07:02:56.002-07:00Comments on The Spark of Reason: Of Mice and Men, Meat and WheatDavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18290594860469294453noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post-16001763719681639802011-11-16T12:59:18.241-08:002011-11-16T12:59:18.241-08:00I'm late too, but wanted to comment because I ...I'm late too, but wanted to comment because I saw this show, or one very like it. Not sure if it was exactly the same- presented by a self-confessed vegetarian Brit woman? (I'm British too).<br /><br />Her slant was that cooking, rather than meat was what "made us human" as it allowed us to cook vegetables which would otherwise be too tough to eat. Which makes me wonder what we ate before then if veg is so vital? Was it really boiled carrots that grew our brains so huge?<br /><br />To demonstrate her point she visited an African tribe and said that while meat was prized, there was little of it as most hunts were unsuccessful, so the diet was heavily supplemented with tubers.<br /><br />The fact is that before we (Europeans) came and trashed the continent, there WOULD have been meat, in abundance. The tribe's diet now is probably nothing like what it was in the 19th century and before. They have to rely on tubers because we wrecked the food chain. <br /><br />The show annoyed me! :)<br /><br />Which points to why looking at modern hunter-gatherer societies only gets us so far when evaluating how we "should" eat. Major flaw in Weston A Price's work, I think.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post-70735900065198378552011-06-14T18:36:06.231-07:002011-06-14T18:36:06.231-07:00Late (and probably irrelevant) comment here, just ...Late (and probably irrelevant) comment here, just on cursive writing:<br /><br />While I agree that much of formal education is useless or counter-productive, I think there is a value in cursive writing, at least if beautifully done. See for example, Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.<br /><br />(After only typing everything during a lifetime in IT, I forced myself to re-learn how to hand-write with a fountain pen, and take every opportunity to do so. It's very therapeutic).<br /><br />It needn't be taught at school though: should be one of those things that parents teach children, like how to walk, ride a bike, know right from wrong, etc.<br /><br /><br />Regards,<br />Mikemontmorencyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12879422255762834319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post-74919241897261546842010-10-28T13:46:44.025-07:002010-10-28T13:46:44.025-07:00You forgot one. Literacy. Not only did we adopt ...You forgot one. Literacy. Not only did we adopt a simpler method of obtaining food that does not require as much knowledge accumulation, but we have also learned to accumulate that knowledge outside our brains.<br /><br />It wasn't foragers that developed literacy, I might note. It was agriculturalists.<br /><br />The trouble is that the agriculturalist way of life also cuts out our life support systems from under us. We're literally going to commit species suicide, and that is the direction in which we have been headed all this time. It's a slow death, to be sure, but the death is coming. We've managed to fend it off yet a while longer with the discovery of petroleum, but that won't last forever.<br /><br />This is why it's important to fight for indigenous rights--and not the right of a group of brown people to keep speaking a certain language or going by a certain name, but to retain their pre-agricultural ways of life as well. Stop running them off their land. Stop trying to convert them to a Christian, English-speaking, industrial agriculturalist lifestyle. These peoples are our species repository--they are how we will survive as a species when all the farmers have died out.<br /><br />The real question isn't whether we survive to reproductive age but whether we survive to repro age AND keep our habitat intact so that it can continue to support our existence. Failing to accomplish the latter will result in extinction, even if it takes thousands of years.<br /><br />Look at what happened to Iraq. Look at the way the Maya abandoned their cities. You'll see what I mean.Dana Seilhanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11749354913843954242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post-20598416854855855202010-10-07T10:09:59.544-07:002010-10-07T10:09:59.544-07:00http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r9svkhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r9svkTCO348https://www.blogger.com/profile/15972478226700429070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post-57048802328924415262010-10-04T08:09:25.726-07:002010-10-04T08:09:25.726-07:00Hey Dave,
Finally got around to finishing and po...Hey Dave, <br /><br />Finally got around to finishing and posting the You SUCK as a Man article. <br /><br />Here's the link:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.briansekula.com/blog/2010/10/04/you-suck-as-a-man/" rel="nofollow">You SUCK as a Man</a>brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09087010559814701433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post-88885001187481659372010-09-08T17:18:54.239-07:002010-09-08T17:18:54.239-07:00Yes, idiocracy, totally! A silly movie, but someti...Yes, idiocracy, totally! A silly movie, but sometimes I think it's the most important film of the 20th century.<br /><br />I would add further that our society seems to devalue the individual more and more in favor of big government, big corporation, and "experts" and opinion shapers who herd the human race. Will man's evolution bifurcate into a new version of Eloi and Morlocks?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post-12043314610980036122010-09-07T16:45:11.966-07:002010-09-07T16:45:11.966-07:00Twice you say that early agriculturalists out-comp...Twice you say that early agriculturalists out-competed the hunter-gatherers they replaced. <br /><br />Perhaps this isn't so. Many species of large mammal - woolly mammoth, cave bear, etc. - were hunted to extinction by late paleolithic hunters. Perhaps a shift to agriculture was a simple necessity; it was that or die off. On this line of thought it wasn't the success of agriculture that did in hunter-gatherers. Rather hunter-gatherers had largely done themselves in; and those that remained embarked on a path necessary for survival.<br /><br />Speculative, I know, but perhaps true.Dr. Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00209597695197799059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post-73240715989802116372010-09-06T11:18:06.672-07:002010-09-06T11:18:06.672-07:00@sirhc,
I haven't seen Idiocracy, sounds wort...@sirhc,<br /><br />I haven't seen Idiocracy, sounds worth checking out.<br /><br />@Asclepius,<br /><br />Though I haven't seen Alone in the Wild, we do catch lots of other "survival" shows. The common thread is always the quest for meat. Interesting to note this occurs even when relatively energy-dense plant foods, like coconuts, are available. I really wish I knew someone in the entertainment biz to pitch my idea for "Meat-heads vs. Wheat-heads", a variant of Survivor where one tribe are paleo, and the other vegans.<br /><br />@brian,<br /><br />Drop a link in the comments when you finish your article. I might do a follow-on called "You Suck as a Family". The modern Western mode of raising children strikes me as being pretty much diametrically opposed to how we evolved. The price of a big brain is that children require a lot of attention to fill it up. Hard for Mom and Dad to do this alone, especially when they have to work to put food on the table. But extended family tends to be marginalized these days, and in place of the "tribe" teaching our kids, we have a combination of public school (basically useless - who the $#&$@ needs to waste time on cursive writing anymore?) and TV. Why do kids like TV? I think because it pushed information rapidly. That information is completely pointless, of course, but I believe the brain is wired to grab whatever it can when available, whether it's Sponge-Bob or watching ants. Also the reason I think most kids hate school: school tends to deliver information way WAY to slowly, and in a linear fashion not suited for how children's brains are wired (school tends to be structured to make the teacher's life easier, not to be effective for learning). I think we'd learn a lot from Sponge-Bob, in this respect.Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18290594860469294453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post-51904218397182142082010-09-06T10:49:54.324-07:002010-09-06T10:49:54.324-07:00I watched this show. And I recorded it for future ...I watched this show. And I recorded it for future reference but thanks to comcast, my damn box went out this weekend! I'm looking for the next airing and will let you know if I find it scheduled. <br /><br />I was thinking a lot of what you said. In fact, I'm in the process of finishing up an article called You Suck as a Man and part of it has to do with eating like a gorilla, growing man-boobs, abusing the elliptical and more... (I've had an inordinate number of wussy men sign up recently and I've only half-jokingly started using this language with them). Seems to help get their mindset back in order. <br /><br />My comments could be as long as your post so I'll stop now and just say, I agree with what you said :-) <br /><br />Brianbrianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09087010559814701433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post-79701942036858182652010-09-05T13:01:28.625-07:002010-09-05T13:01:28.625-07:00I have seen that program and was also intrigued by...I have seen that program and was also intrigued by the amount of effort (digging hard earth with very basic tools IIRC), to get the porcupine.<br /><br />Digging out an animal seems way more energy intense than trapping or spearing - but in the absence of larger prey, I guess they have to hunt what is available.<br /><br />You should check out <a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/alone-in-the-wild" rel="nofollow">Alone in the Wild</a> <br /><br />In this program you see a guy trying to survive by his wits in the Canadian wilderness. A lot of effort goes in to foraging berries and leaves - which seemingly offer minimal nutritional return. By far his most succesful source of food is by hunting....Asclepiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14604117979253596512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7721098568390636553.post-22649892004484954762010-09-05T11:35:02.769-07:002010-09-05T11:35:02.769-07:00Reading the last couple of paragraphs, I was remin...Reading the last couple of paragraphs, I was reminded of the opening sequence of the movie <i>Idiocracy</i>.sirhchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10477162677843141920noreply@blogger.com