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racooneyes
Deinonychus
Joined: Sep 24, 2009
Age: 30
Posts: 357
Location: blackeye, outer rim
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 Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 10:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Janissy wrote: | | The Discovery Channel and The National Geographic Channel have some in-depth science programming. |
Have you watched any of these recently Janissy? I'm pretty sure they're both owned by Mr Murdoch these days. All you will see is Alaskan fishermen and medical freaks on Discovery and Nazi gold the Turin shroud and aliens on National Geographic. A shame as they used to be ok.
I don't believe we're getting dumber but I do believe certain entities are trying to narrow our interests so that they can further their own.
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read all the pamphlets and watch the tapes!
get all confused and then mix up the dates. |
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Maggiedoll
Loon
Joined: Jun 05, 2009
Age: 25
Posts: 1682
Location: Maryland
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| Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Callista wrote: | | mice they've labeled db/db mice--that's to show they're homogeneous for a certain recessive gene. |
homozygous
Sorry, I couldn't help it.. 
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Grace09
Raven
Joined: Aug 31, 2009
Posts: 119
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:19 am Post subject: |
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| Callista, you make a good point. I took a class in college "History of Native American Women" and my professor was Native American and talked once about the diets our bodies are meant to have based on our ethnic origins. She was thin and lean and she said she ate a diet based on how the Native Am. once ate. She said lots of Native Am. eat an "American" diet and their bodies just can't handle it, nor can they handle alcohol as they were not exposed to it for thousands of years like the Europeans. She spoke of the feast or famine diets of some ethnic groups, especially the Africans. It's very interesting and yes, the never-ending food supply we have probably has a lot to do with obesity in the US as well as our dependence on cars. I think diabetes is higher among ethnic groups meant for a more feast or famine diet but I am not sure. I am not an expert on diabetes, I work as a nurse and just have had a lot of diabetic patients. |
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Callista
Phoenix
Joined: Feb 04, 2006
Age: 26
Posts: 3857
Location: Central USA
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 2:08 am Post subject: |
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Type I diabetes, the juvenile sort, is more common in people with more northern ancestry. One odd but not entirely implausible theory is to--get this--blame the Ice Age! Mildly high blood sugar would protect you from freezing as quickly in the extreme cold of an ice age; and, if you were diabetic under those conditions, you wouldn't die of it until you had had several children because your diet would have been naturally low in sugar (many of the plants with fruit that has high sugar content would not have survived an ice age). Might sound like the opposite of what evolution is supposed to do; but think about the "choice": Kill the person when they're fifty and have already had kids; or let them die of cold when they're sixteen and pregnant with their first? Under such conditions, deadly compromises can be made, and when most people die by thirty the answer's pretty obvious. Sickle-cell anemia is another example that almost everybody knows about.
I'm betting, actually, that a lot of the widespread stuff we get nowadays isn't really a result of a modern "unhealthy" lifestyle but simply a side effect of the fact that we are no longer in an extreme environment and no longer benefit from those deadly evolutionary trade-offs. It's no surprise to anybody that the majority of the stuff that's killing people today--diabetes, cancer, and heart disease--tends to really kick in only past middle age. In a population that doesn't usually live to middle age, it doesn't matter if you're genetically predisposed to get something that'll kill you after fifty. But it matters very much in a population that tends to live closer to eighty years.
| Maggiedoll wrote: | | Callista wrote: | | mice they've labeled db/db mice--that's to show they're homogeneous for a certain recessive gene. |
homozygous
Sorry, I couldn't help it.. |
Sigh. Yes. I blame mid-terms. This is nearly as embarrassing as the time I called "nitrous oxide" a neurotransmitter.
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AlienVisitor
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Sep 17, 2009
Posts: 35
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 5:58 am Post subject: |
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Curious kid here...
What does your discussion about diabetes/obesity have to do with the topic?
Why is it that people tend to measure human evolution through television programming?
How does it relate to autism?
Thanks.  |
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Roman
Phoenix
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Joined: Mar 18, 2005
Age: 29
Posts: 1098
Location: Bangalore, India
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:28 am Post subject: |
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| AlienVisitor wrote: | Curious kid here...
What does your discussion about diabetes/obesity have to do with the topic?
Why is it that people tend to measure human evolution through television programming?
How does it relate to autism?
Thanks. |
Okay, the first of the thread we talked aobut education going up or down. Then Grace mentioned how bad education leads to bad lifestyle choices which leads to diabetes. Then Callista objected by saying that obesity or diabetes are not due to lifestyle choice but due to genetics. Then, in order to back that up, she had to bring up evolutionary explanations regarding genetics behind obesity/diabetes. So that is how we switched from the debate about education to the one about evolution of obesity/diabetes. |
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AlienVisitor
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Sep 17, 2009
Posts: 35
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:41 am Post subject: |
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| Roman wrote: | | Okay, the first of the thread we talked aobut education going up or down. Then Grace mentioned how bad education leads to bad lifestyle choices which leads to diabetes. Then Callista objected by saying that obesity or diabetes are not due to lifestyle choice but due to genetics. Then, in order to back that up, she had to bring up evolutionary explanations regarding genetics behind obesity/diabetes. So that is how we switched from the debate about education to the one about evolution of obesity/diabetes. |
I'll add my 2 cents, It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice little thought was put into the discussion, hence people switch to Iraq/Viet-Nam, television programming, weight loss etc.
Last edited by AlienVisitor on Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:52 am; edited 1 time in total |
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AlienVisitor
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Sep 17, 2009
Posts: 35
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AlienVisitor
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Sep 17, 2009
Posts: 35
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 7:00 am Post subject: |
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| Please disregard my negative comments. WP is an enjoyable community to discuss autism/Asperger's but I can't relate to most members on other topics. Will do my best to stay out of such discussions. Sorry guys. |
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angelicgoddess
Blue Jay
Joined: Sep 13, 2009
Age: 29
Posts: 87
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 8:26 am Post subject: |
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I don't think the average IQ rate is going down, since IQ measures pretty 'modern' competences that can be easily trained by computer games and such. Rotation scores within IQ tests are bound to go up since every western child plays a lot more racing games now than we did back in 1990. As for competences that would matter in a life threatening situation... I don't know... I'm not too positive about our survival knowledge to be honest.
Other than that the people rate is rising exponentially so it's totally logical the smartness range is growing wider. Logically there must be many smarter and dumber people than 20 years ago, simply because there are a lot more people now. |
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Grace09
Raven
Joined: Aug 31, 2009
Posts: 119
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 11:26 am Post subject: |
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Callista, I just wanted to say, you mentioned genetics and disease and sickle cell anemia. Sickle Cell Anemia is prevalent in African countries and there is a reason. One copy of the sickle cell gene will make a person immune to malaria. Unfortunately if they get 2 copies, they will have full blown sickle cell anemia. I guess the key is, if you have sickle cell, to only have kids with another person who doesn't carry the gene but it is interesting how some of these things are merely genetic mutations which serve an evolutionary function which is what I think you are saying.
But yeah, I've forgotten the original topic. I go with the poster who said we have gotten more intelligent but also more lazy. I would agree with that.
Don't know why it makes me think of this but last night I went to a restaurant and as we were waiting for a table, I saw a group of teens walking down the street, most were on cell phones. Then we get seated, and it's a nice restaurant, with pristine white tablecloths, and I see people on their cell phones and showing pictures of people on their cells to other people. I do think it's sad that people can't just talk to the people they are with. I wasn't allowed to even answer the phone if we were having dinner growing up. But I know I sound 80 when I talk like this, I'm not certain at what point I became my grandmother! |
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skafather84
Platypus God
Joined: Mar 21, 2006
Age: 25
Posts: 6524
Location: New Orleans, LA
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 11:38 am Post subject: Re: Has the average level of intelligence went down? |
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| Orwell wrote: | | Measured intelligence has been steadily increasing (Flynn effect). |
But how is intelligence being measured and are the methods truly effective?
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I was having a mildly paranoid day, mostly due to the fact that the mad priest lady from over the river had taken to nailing weasels to my front door again. - Spider Jerusalem, Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis |
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ruveyn
Phoenix
Joined: Sep 22, 2008
Age: 73
Posts: 4795
Location: New Jersey
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 12:41 pm Post subject: |
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homozygous
[/quote]
Gesundheit! |
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claire333
Huh?
Joined: Jun 20, 2008
Posts: 3189
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:40 pm Post subject: |
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I recently read an article on the correlation between spanking and iq in children, and it stated children who are spanked have lower iq and concluded a rise in childhood iq can be partially attributed to our society's growing lack of tolerance toward corporal punishment for children. I found it interesting.
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On with the show...This is it. |
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pbcoll
Phoenix
Joined: Feb 15, 2007
Posts: 2100
Location: England
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 2:10 pm Post subject: Re: Has the average level of intelligence went down? |
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| polymathpoolplayer wrote: | | Read the book "The Bell Curve". It shows that those with the lowest IQs tend to marry earlier and have more kids and have each new generation sooner than the most highly educated who do not have children for the main part. |
This is obvious - stupidity is being selected for. Idiocracy's premise is difficult to argue against. Given the abundance of lifeforms with no nervous systems compared to that of those with them, or of cockroaches to humans, intelligence doesn't seem to be an evolutionary advantage.
Rising IQ scores reflect that the scores on standardised tests tend to rise with time, and that people take more standardised tests than ever before, therefore get more practice.
| Orwell wrote: | | Roman wrote: | | However, it was also noticed that verbal component of IQ goes down, and that is because school and reading gets out of favor. |
I doubt it. Literacy rates are higher now than at any point in human history. |
Not sure about that, in classical Athens even the slaves were literate, and it's perfectly possible to be in school but be functionally illiterate. But yes, in the West literacy rates are probably higher than at any time since the descent into barbarism after the fall of Rome.
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