| | Discussion: Addiction |
Subject: Addiction By: andrew o.
Written on: Monday May 07, 2012 Message: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/20
12/05/07/151936266/wired-to-run-runners-high-may-h
ave-been-evolutionary-advantage | Subject: RE: Addiction By: Sasha C.
Written on: Monday May 07, 2012 Message: I love this sort of How-the-Elephant-Got-His-Trunk
Just So Story. I love books about evolution and
love the parlor game of imagining why we have
certain characteristics. This one strikes me as
unusually far-fetched, but it's entertaining
nonetheless.
The most fun part is how
everyone's JSS sets up as a valorization of their
attitudes about modern life. I used to give
tennis lessons to James Watson (the DNA guy). He
would go on and on with a theory that women were
attracted to bald men evolutionarily for the high
testosterone baldness indicated. I finally had to
direct him to the pop song on the subject ( I
think it was the Roches.) He was bald,
unattractive and not terribly charming, but
convinced that his Nobel prize ought to be getting
him groupies. He was famous for saying on several
occasions that women and darker skinned people
were probably not as intelligent. I remember a
few years ago he made this remark again and the
hilarity this provoked at my school in Kenya. At
that school the stereotype was that the Africans
won the prizes in English, History and Languages,
the Indians got them in Maths and Sciences, and
the white kids won prizes for home economics and
sports. (This was of course a joke, but with a
smidgen of truth.)
Here we have another
running enthusiast arguing that his passion (and
the PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS!!!) are the source of
all that is human. Cute, nice to think about, and
only a hair more credible than the Parsee rubbing
cake crumbs into the Rhinoceros's skin. (Them that
takes cakes that the Parsee man bakes, makes
dreadful mistakes!) I do believe it's possible
that early humans adapted to run down game on the
savannah, but runner's high as a selective trait?
Come on!
Cheers, Sasha | Subject: RE: Addiction By: Sasha C.
Written on: Monday May 07, 2012 Message: 200,000 B.C. The girls have been collecting seeds
and roots all day. They're bored and fed up, but
look, here come the boys back from the antelope
hunt! Breurrg walks in slumped and exhausted,
grabs a handful of roots and sacks out in front of
the cave paintings. Uglub is about the same. But
here comes Mugug. Far from exhausted, he looks
revved up, rosy cheeked and positively humming
with energy and sex appeal. All the girls crowd
around him, but how can he choose? Finally he
says, "I'll tell you what, ladies. After a
long run I'm filled with a mysterious force- if
you'll be patient I think I can accomodate all of
you." The next year five little ones are
born who, strangely, all resemble Mugug. And not
only that- as they grow they love to run! By
180,000 B.C. east Africa is populated by a race of
fanatic runners, chasing down antelope and zebra
even if they're not hungry. | | Please log-in or join free to reply | |
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