Monday, October 12, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Interesting to see that human pre-history has now been moved back to 4.4 million years. Sorry Lucy, we hardly knew ye.
Now Great, great, ..., Grand Ma is Ardi recently from Ethiopia. (Probably started the tradition that any thing a male grunted was wrong) has been located.
And the discovery suggests that humans and chimpanzees evolved separately from a common ancestor that was much older. It also seems to suggest that there were any number of stub branches in the hominid bush rather than a long slender tree branch.
Which raises the question: Why are we alone as the only remaining member of the human branch? What happened to our cousin humans? As a hypothesis I would like to see a harder look at the results of the Toba super volcano eruption 75,000 years ago. We know that humans went through a "choke point" then. We may have dropped to as low as 1,000 survivors. I wonder if the other human branches were wiped out at that time.
Now Great, great, ..., Grand Ma is Ardi recently from Ethiopia. (Probably started the tradition that any thing a male grunted was wrong) has been located.
And the discovery suggests that humans and chimpanzees evolved separately from a common ancestor that was much older. It also seems to suggest that there were any number of stub branches in the hominid bush rather than a long slender tree branch.
Which raises the question: Why are we alone as the only remaining member of the human branch? What happened to our cousin humans? As a hypothesis I would like to see a harder look at the results of the Toba super volcano eruption 75,000 years ago. We know that humans went through a "choke point" then. We may have dropped to as low as 1,000 survivors. I wonder if the other human branches were wiped out at that time.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Visitors?
It's amusing for me to re-read my erudite and cogent post but I wonder if anyone else is coming here, if only for comic relief.
At the very least there might be a comment on grammatical errors.
At the very least there might be a comment on grammatical errors.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Interstellar civilizations
I wonder about finding other sentient beings that have advanced society and technology. The Earth is peculiar in that it has such a large moon relative to its size. Our moon stabilizes our rotation; if it were not there the axis of rotation would have precessed rather widely over the millennium and the climate would have been very chaotic, making the development of a stable and intelligent being difficult if not impossible.
I would at least hypothesize that, absent finding a planet with a large moon, the most likely place to locate other civilizations is probably on planets, around M class stars, that are tidally locked to the central star. This provides the necessary stability and, with the lower energy output of the M class star, would make the planet reasonably temperate, at least in a zone around the terminator.
The life style on such a planet would be very strange to us, no cyclic day or night. We would have to travel back and forth across the terminator to get a nights sleep.
I wonder if this may explain why we have never seen conclusive evidence of an alien visitation. Consider it from the viewpoint of any civilization that has evolved on such a planet. They would understand the necessity of having a plant that is stable over long periods of time. They may have even located other planets with civilizations and all of them have evolved around similar M stars. They might very well come to the (wrong) logical conclusion that advance life forms can only evolve around such stars and, as a result, have made no effort to look at the system around our G star.
They may also have concluded that a planet must be tidally locked to provide the necessary stability and, unless they noticed our planet with its large moon and realized the consequence resulting from that, could easily make the false assumption that life cannot exist here since the only tidally locked planet in our system is Mercury and it is much too hot.
I would at least hypothesize that, absent finding a planet with a large moon, the most likely place to locate other civilizations is probably on planets, around M class stars, that are tidally locked to the central star. This provides the necessary stability and, with the lower energy output of the M class star, would make the planet reasonably temperate, at least in a zone around the terminator.
The life style on such a planet would be very strange to us, no cyclic day or night. We would have to travel back and forth across the terminator to get a nights sleep.
I wonder if this may explain why we have never seen conclusive evidence of an alien visitation. Consider it from the viewpoint of any civilization that has evolved on such a planet. They would understand the necessity of having a plant that is stable over long periods of time. They may have even located other planets with civilizations and all of them have evolved around similar M stars. They might very well come to the (wrong) logical conclusion that advance life forms can only evolve around such stars and, as a result, have made no effort to look at the system around our G star.
They may also have concluded that a planet must be tidally locked to provide the necessary stability and, unless they noticed our planet with its large moon and realized the consequence resulting from that, could easily make the false assumption that life cannot exist here since the only tidally locked planet in our system is Mercury and it is much too hot.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Black Swan?
At some point will there be an event, quite unexpected (Black Swan), that will lead to the breakup of the US? Certainly. Of course when and what this event might be is quite unpredictable and will probably not be recognized until well after the fact.
I say "certainly" because no matter how unlikely an event is it will occur if you wait long enough.
Considering the building racist reaction in many parts of the country to Obama's election, I wonder if that might have been the trigger. We won't know for some time.
If it is the trigger, will the majority on either side of such a division care? I wonder. Since the belief systems in place in different parts of the country have been made so readily apparent through the Internet and are so incompatible, secular versus sectarian for example, I suspect that each side will feel relief to be ride of the other.
I say "certainly" because no matter how unlikely an event is it will occur if you wait long enough.
Considering the building racist reaction in many parts of the country to Obama's election, I wonder if that might have been the trigger. We won't know for some time.
If it is the trigger, will the majority on either side of such a division care? I wonder. Since the belief systems in place in different parts of the country have been made so readily apparent through the Internet and are so incompatible, secular versus sectarian for example, I suspect that each side will feel relief to be ride of the other.
Great White Hope (Take two)
Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) Tried to back track on her use of the expression "Great White Hope" suggesting that she did not realize the background of the phrase.
Oooops. She may have been fibbing just a tiny bit.
In late July, the House of Representatives passed, by unanimous consent, a measure urging the president to pardon heavyweight champion boxer Jack Johnson, whose career brought him success in the ring and racist vitriol outside of it. Included in the resolution, which passed on July 29, was the following phrase:
"Whereas the victory by Jack Johnson over Tommy Burns prompted a search for a White boxer who could beat Jack Johnson, a recruitment effort that was dubbed the search for the 'great white hope.'"
Oooops. She may have been fibbing just a tiny bit.
In late July, the House of Representatives passed, by unanimous consent, a measure urging the president to pardon heavyweight champion boxer Jack Johnson, whose career brought him success in the ring and racist vitriol outside of it. Included in the resolution, which passed on July 29, was the following phrase:
"Whereas the victory by Jack Johnson over Tommy Burns prompted a search for a White boxer who could beat Jack Johnson, a recruitment effort that was dubbed the search for the 'great white hope.'"
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Great White Hope?
Ah, are we seeing the truth of the Republican's interest in race? Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R Kansas) looking for a possible viable candidate, or as she called the person "The Great White Hope." For those who may not know, this is a reference to the desire of the public in 1909 for a white boxer to beat Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion at the time (and a NEGRO), to show the superiority of the white race.
Idiot.
Idiot.
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