Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by DavalPrestor

Conflict and 'boom-bust' explain humans'

DavalPrestor — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:52:10 +0800

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19598980

QUOTE

What explains the extraordinarily fast rate of evolution in the human lineage over the past two million years?

A leading human origins researcher has come up with a new idea that involves aggression between groups and the boom-bust cycles that have punctuated our spread into new environments.

Prof Ian Tatersall said there were few examples to rival the accelerated evolution that led to our species.

He was speaking at this year's Calpe conference in Gibraltar.

"However you slice it, evolution within this [human family] has been very rapid indeed," Prof Tatersall, from the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York, told the conference.

"I think it's fair to say that our species Homo sapiens and its antecedents have come much farther, much faster than any other mammalian group that has been documented in this very tight time-frame."

This phenomenon of accelerated evolution is known as "tachytely".

Among our ancestors, brain size doubled between two million and one million years ago. Then it has almost doubled again between one million years and the present day.

Along with the increase in brain size came a reduction in the size of the teeth and face along with other changes in the skull.

The increase in brain size seems to have coincided with a modern physique characterised by a linear shape, long legs and relatively narrow hips. These features can already be seen in the skeleton of the "Turkana boy" from Kenya, who lived about two million years ago.

This contrasts sharply with the short legs and long arms of the Turkana boy's antecedent "Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis), who lived in Ethiopia about one million years earlier.

Radical shift
Such fast change is not seen among apes, and while Prof Tatersall acknowledges the importance of the move our ancestors made from a tree-dwelling, to a ground-dwelling existence - something which has not affected our primate cousins - he says it is not enough to explain what is observed.

"Clearly the definitive abandonment of dependence on trees... has to count as one of the most radical shifts in adaptive zone ever made by any vertebrate since the very first tetrapod heaved itself out of water and on to terra firma," he said.

"Under natural conditions, it is very hard to see how the initial invasion of a new ecozone by hominids could have so consistently driven rapid change over the long period of time that we're talking about."

Technology has allowed us to conquer extreme environments
Human culture was probably the special, consistently present ingredient that drove the continuing fast pace of change in our lineage after we left the forests, said Prof Tatersall, but not in the way that some other researchers have proposed.

Certain evolutionary psychologists have popularised a model in which culture and brain complexity spurred each other on to greater heights in humans.

But Prof Tatersall said the way our technology transformed in fits and starts, along with the way these changes were often separated from biological evolution, meant this idea was not as good a fit for what is seen in the archaeological and fossil records.

Aggression between small, distinct human groups in the past is one of the major remaining agents of such changes, he said.

"Inter-group conflict would certainly have placed a premium on such correlates of neural function as planning and throwing," Prof Tatersall explained.

Chimps also have culture, but have not experienced such accelerated evolution
"If we were somehow able to implicate conflict among groups as a selective agent for increasing intelligence within groups, this might explain the otherwise quite mystifying independent increases in brain size that we see in several different lineages within the genus Homo."

Such conflict could be seen as a form of predation. And, predation is regarded as a classic example of the "Red Queen" hypothesis whereby prey and predator become faster or more cunning in a self-reinforcing way.

Indeed, there are hints of such conflict from the sparse fossil record. A paper published this month in the Journal of Human Evolution suggested that ancient humans in northern Spain were engaged in predatory cannibalism against another band of people.

Extreme swings
Culture, in the form of clothing, fire use and the construction of shelters, has allowed humans to expand into environments that their relatively frail bodies could not otherwise have coped with.

But both culture and technology have their limits. And relatively good climatic conditions would have favoured population expansions.

Cultural innovations were not always enough to cope when conditions changed for the worse
This made the artificially enlarged ancient human populations vulnerable to fragmentation when environmental conditions worsened.

During the onset of an Ice Age or a drought, human populations would have contracted, driving the remaining small, isolated human groups to diversify - developing different biological traits from one another.

The wild environmental fluctuations in Pleistocene times - from about 2.5 million to 11,000 years ago - would have provided the ideal conditions for this to happen, the AMNH professor of palaeoanthropology explained.

When conditions improved again, populations that had developed different characteristics would have come into contact again. This might have increased the likelihood of competition between distinct groups, but also allowed genetic novelties to spread that would not have arisen without the initial fragmentation.

Prof Tatersall refers to the phenomenon as the "ratchet effect" and pointed to the large variation in human fossils from the early Pleistocene in Africa as an example, which may support his hypothesis.

At the conference, Richard Wrangham from Harvard University offered an alternative view, questioning the role of conflict as a driver. He pointed out that human hunter-gatherers had similar rates of inter-group aggression to chimpanzees.

The Calpe '12 conference runs from 13-16 September in Gibraltar.

TLDR- Human evolved because we keep each other butthurt.

9/11: THE SENSIBLE DOUBT

DavalPrestor — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 11:13:52 +0800

[YOUTUBE]Qq3wPOvhjp8[/YOUTUBE]

5 Health Benefits of Masturbate Everyday

DavalPrestor — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 22:32:33 +0800

SOS

QUOTE

A new survey from adult product peddler AdamandEve.com reveals that 27 percent of Americans admit to masturbating once or twice a week.

That number seems suspiciously low to us, especially since science has shown that being master of your domain can provide additional feel-great benefits. (Also because the people surveyed were browsing an adult toy website.) “Masturbation is part of a healthy sex life,” says Gloria Brame, Ph.D., a clinical sexologist. “It’s totally safe and harmless. It’s healthier than brushing your teeth every day.”

And just as brushing your teeth should be a regular occurrence, so too should be cleaning your pipes. Here are 5 reasons to take matters into your own hands right now. (You’re welcome.)

It prevents cancer. A 2003 Australian study found that men who ejaculated more than five times a week were a third less likely to develop prostate cancer. Disease-causing toxins build up in your urogenital tract and when you rub one out, you flush the bad guys out of your system, says Brame.

It makes you harder. As you age, you naturally lose muscle tone … even down there. Regular sex or masturbation works out your pelvic floor muscles to prevent erectile dysfunction and incontinence. “It keeps the angle of your dangle perky,” says Brame. Aim to (ahem) arrive 3 to 5 times a week for rock-solid results.

It helps you last longer. Taking yourself to palm prom may help you stretch your sack sessions. “[Masturbating] an hour before a date will give you more control,” says Brame. Train yourself by timing how long it takes you to orgasm, suggests Ava Cadell, Ph.D., founder of loveologyuniversity.com. If it usually takes two minutes solo, try for three next time. Or count how many strokes you need to get to your happy place. If you’re spurting after 50, shoot for 60. “Most men can double the number of strokes and the time within one month,” Cadell says. Practice makes perfect, right?

It ups your immunity. Ejaculation increases levels of the hormone cortisol, says Jennifer Landa, M.D., a specialist in hormone therapy. Cortisol, which usually gets a bad rap as a havoc-wrecking stress hormone, actually helps regulate and maintain your immunity in the small doses. “Masturbation can product the right environment for a strengthened immune system,” she says.

It boosts your mood. Masturbating releases a slew of feel-good neurochemicals like dopamine and oxytocin that lift your spirits, boost your satisfaction, and activate the reward circuits in your brain. “An orgasm is the biggest non-drug blast of dopamine available,” says Brame. “A brain scan of someone having an orgasm looks like a heroin addict’s.”

So guys, masturbate to your hearts content!

Is Apathy the solution?

DavalPrestor — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:01:27 +0800

Se7en

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

Great movie, kind of remind us how we are becoming increasingly like China.

Discuss

Narcolepsy

DavalPrestor — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 09:56:40 +0800

that has this disorder?

I feel like I had to babysit a colleague that suffer from this.

Let's say I wanna boycott crony business

DavalPrestor — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 18:10:06 +0800

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...denia-melampau/

I know it's not possible to boycott all, but is there a complete list of all cronies in Malaysia.

Recommendation on

DavalPrestor — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:20:06 +0800

Hi All,

I'm looking for tunneling services to play wow. Any good recommendation for people like me that play on US server?

Cross Raid LFR Token run

DavalPrestor — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:21:09 +0800

Anybody interested in cross raid token run so that we can exchange and trade lfr tokens?

Not enough storage is available to process...

DavalPrestor — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:46:45 +0800

Anybody experiencing similar issues since the new patch?

Any server with Significant Malaysian\Sg people

DavalPrestor — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:26:57 +0800

As above.

Looking for a new server to transfer\reroll when the expansion hits. Preferably PVP server with balance population on both side.

Currently rerolled a warrior alliance side in Frostmourne.

Any lore fans here

DavalPrestor — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:58:16 +0800

Any favorite moments in lore?

I like the latest Sylvanas leader story.

Gold Capped

DavalPrestor — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:26:03 +0800

Share us your success and strategies.

Potential Transfer

DavalPrestor — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:12:03 +0800

Hi,

I'm looking for a late night raiding guild for me and a few friends looking to transfer over.

Details as below.

Server we're in: Gundrak
Prefer raiding time: 12am-1am server time, Weds-Thurs, optional on weekends but most of the time we can make it if it's after 11pm st onwards.

Preferred location: Jubei'thos, Frostmourne, Barthillas. Prefer PVP servers.

Faction:Horde

Toons available.

Me: Tanks\Dps- War, Dk, Druid
Dps\Healer - Shaman

Friend 1- Tank\Dps- Dk
Rogue
Dps\Healer- Shaman

Friend 2- Hunter, Moonkin, Dps dk

Our progression is 7/7 normal.

I wonder if our progression is good enough to be acceptable to any semi-casual guild on above mentioned server that raid regularly.

The reason that we're looking to transfer is because our server is dying and there's almost nothing else to do once we finished our normal fl 7/7 kill on our main, and pugging is a pain at the server time that we're on.

Please advice should you have any other suggestions available.