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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Chad wrote: | | If different diets encourage the growth of different intestinal fauna... |
Switch cause with effect.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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As usual Das Buch is way ahead of you :
Mainly it is a matter of storage and transportation. Just the simple step of separating ear from stalk is something that any self-respecting reindeer herder would discover in five minutes since the former is so much more nutritious (for reindeer) in terms of calorie-per-pound. But storing calories grown in the summer so they can be used in winter would lead in at least two directions: both sea-biscuit and alcohol last for months (if not years) so it is likely that both cereal-baking and fermentation were discovered this way. *
After all, there is now a southern specialised caste whose full-time job is to investigate and experiment with these kinds of things. Presumably though it was not long before it was discovered that baking and fermentation rendered grass consumable by humans.**
* It cannot be an accident that yeast, an otherwise obscure fungus, is used in both processes. Some proper experimental archaeology, carried out by chemists, would be most welcome.
** Again this is presumably not entirely sendipitous. The enzymes that permit ruminants to break down raw grass inside their stomachs are different to humans' gut enzymes for evolutionary reasons, but these enzymes must be excluded artificially to prevent the grass breaking down naturally in the atmosphere ie to store them long term. But then a different set of enzymes have to be present because the runimants must eventually be able to break them down when fed the preserved version. Since these enzymes are not the product of evolution, it follows that what works for runinants is likely to work for the closely related human being. | |
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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I lost the thread.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Yes, sorry, it is this week's Big Idea so still in first draft form. I will post a clearer account (of how human beings came overwhelmingly to rely for food on a plant species that is undigestible by human beings) later.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Oh I hate it hate it hate it when the science starts catching up to me! I fear so much of my work will be lost this way.
Then again, work is of little value if it can be overtaken so quickly.
How "Probiotic" Microbes Control Your Mind.
This touches on the topic I was about to cover next in this thread.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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If gay men don't get fat, might it have something to do with the fact that they tend to have a lot more sex with a lot more people than do the rest of us?
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| Ishmael wrote: | | If gay men don't get fat, might it have something to do with the fact that they tend to have a lot more sex with a lot more people than do the rest of us? |
Rich people who live in Manhattan don't get fat either. More sex?
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Rocky wrote: | | Rich people who live in Manhattan don't get fat either. More sex? |
If Sex and the City is to be believed!
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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2+2=5
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Grant
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I've never noticed that black people have any problem with speaking!
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Now, now, girls and boys, remember AE principles enjoin that we are not permitted to be anti-racist. (It's an orthodox -ism). We can however be racist, for technical reasons.
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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Black people, in their natural environment, do not suffer from vit D deficiency... It only occurs when their exposure to sunlight is reduced, due to a change in geographic location, or cultural behaviour.
I don't think northern, urban, black Americans are measurably less articulate than their southern, rural counterparts... or their D-rich kinsmen in sub-Saharan Africa.
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