12 NOV 2015 by ideonexus
Humans as Self-Domesticating Animals
at the end of the Pleistocene, certain human
groups and their animal associates began progressively
to show parallel reductions in size and stature,
cranial gracilization, changes in post-cranial robusticity,
shortening of the face and jaws, tooth crowding and malocclusion,
and tooth-size reduction and simplification.
There has been no recent attempt to explain the parallelism,
although numerous explanations exist for the
changes as they affect one or other of the parties. Some
of the explana... 1 
notes
notesRestrictive environments, artificially constructed give us many of the traits shared with the animals we domesticate.
28 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
Shorter People Live Longer
The study was conducted to evaluate one aspect of the entropy theory of aging, which hypothesizes that aging is the result of increasing disorder within the body, and which predicts that increasing mass lowers life span. The first evaluation of the impact of human size on longevity or life span in 1978, which was based on data for decreased groups of athletes and famous people in the USA, suggested that shorter, lighter men live longer than their taller, heavier counterparts. In 1990, a study...
1 5 years on average. Suggesting the medical community's focus on encouraging parents to grow big children is misguided as it may be shortening their lifespans.
16 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
Benjamin Franklin on Future of Science
The rapid progress true science now makes occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born so soon. It is impossible to imagine the Height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the Power of Man over Matter...Agriculture may diminish its Labour and double its Produce; all Diseases may, by sure means, be prevented or cured, not even excepting that of Old Age, and our Lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the antediluvian Standard. O that moral Science were in as fair a way of Improv...Folksonomies: prescience optimism
Folksonomies: prescience optimism
An optimistic vision of the future of man and a lament that he won't be able to see it.
17 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Benjamin Franklin's Forsight
I always rejoice to hear of your being still employed in experimental researches into nature, and of the success you meet with. The rapid progress true science now makes, occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born so soon: it is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the power of man over matter; we may perhaps learn to deprive large masses of their gravity, and give them absolute levity for the sake of easy transport. Agriculture may diminish it...He sees the future of science and the possibilities, but laments that it will not change the morals of man.
13 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Seeing Farther From the Shoulders of Giants
We are like dwarfs [the moderns] sitting on the shoulders of giants [the ancients]. Our glance can thus take in more things and reach farther than theirs. It is not because our sight is sharper nor our height greater than theirs; it is that we are carried and elevated by the high stature of the giants. 1 notes
notesBernard of Chartres quoted, elaborating on Newton's famous quote.
