DID COOKING MAKE US HUMAN? I posted here about speculation that cooking was a great labor-saving invention for early man because it reduced dramatically the time spent chewing and here on how eating cooked meals freed up energy for human brains. This article in the Economist reports on a paper that argues that “cooking and humanity are coeval”—that they must have developed at the same time. In fact, “cooking and other forms of preparing food are humanity’s ‘killer app’: the evolutionary change that underpins all of the other—and subsequent—changes that have made people such unusual animals.” Without cooking to make starches and proteins more digestible and to soften food so that the body uses fewer calories in processing it, you would not have the big, brain-filled skull and narrow pelvises which characterize man. Homo erectus confined to raw food would have starved.
Archive for February, 2009
DID COOKING MAKE US HUMAN?
Monday, February 23rd, 2009BENJAMIN BUTTON—THE MOVIE.
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009BENJAMIN BUTTON—THE MOVIE. I posted last summer about Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, saying that I had just read the story and that until then “I could never imagine how anybody—even a genius like Fitzgerald–could make a successful story with that plot—too grim, too many inconsistencies, too implausible.” I also said that: “It seems to me that it’s impossible to make a successful movie of the story.” The movie is obviously a success, with best picture being one of its 13 Oscar nominations for tonight.
“THE MOST SANCTIMONIOUS SONG.”
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009“THE MOST SANCTIMONIOUS SONG.” I was pleased to see Christopher Hitchens quoting Tom Lehrer that “Little Boxes” was “the most sanctimonious ong ever written.” The song was a staple of folk music in the sixties. It was taken as a protest against conformity. I was always troubled by the song once I realized that it was the voice of the rich ridiculing people who bought houses that were mass-produced and that those people were probably thrilled to live in houses that were the nicest that they had ever lived in.
“WHAT DO THE SIMPLE FOLK DO?”—REVOLUTIONARY ROAD.
Saturday, February 21st, 2009“WHAT DO THE SIMPLE FOLK DO?” —REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. Many believe that REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, rather than THE READER, should have earned Kate Winslet the Oscar nomination (REVOLUTIONARY ROAD did win her the Golden Globe). One can see the appeal for Hollywood celebrities of making a movie out of REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, the novel by Richard Yates. REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, like MADAME BOVARY, portrays a gulf between those who are privileged and those who aren’t. This essay by Christopher Hitchens about REVOLUTIONARY ROAD tells how the novel portrays the humiliations of those who don’t have the talent or the courage to achieve fame. The husband and wife in the book aspire to rise above suburbia. They suffer. Hitchens says: “I don’t remember ever feeling so sorry for a set of fictional characters…. [Yates conveys]…the feeling of disappointment and anticlimax, heavily infused with the sort of embarrassment that amounts to humiliation. ….Yates [has]… unceasing opportunities to create scenes of excruciating misery.”
STEROIDS AND THE PLAYERS UNION.
Friday, February 20th, 2009STEROIDS AND THE PLAYERS UNION. I said a year ago about the baseball players union in this post that: “The union has harmed the majority of their players by fighting to prevent drug testing, not only because the players were faced with a choice between taking a dangerous drug or giving a competitor a major advantage, but also because they left every innocent player without a means to establish his innocence.” Unions in other occupations have traditionally fought against health risks for their members. This interview (scroll down) with Marvin Miller, the former leader of the union, who is still influential, shows the vehemence with which the union fought against any restrictions on steroid use. Miller was not interested in whether a majority of the union opposed the use of steroids: “leadership can’t just take a poll on what membership wants. You also have to judge whether this is in the best interests of the people you represent.” And he believed there were no health issues because: “there’s not one single documented death from the use of steroids. So that’s a hypocritical lie.” He does not discuss health risks less than death. Apparently one of the results of steroid use is the shrinking of the testicles. Think about that. Shrinking of the testicles.
U.S.TREASURY BONDS: “WE HATE YOU GUYS” BUT THE “ONLY OPTION.”
Thursday, February 19th, 2009U.S. TREASURY BONDS: “WE HATE YOU GUYS” BUT THE “ONLY OPTION.” About 18 months ago I posted here about an article in Harvard Magazine which interviewed several economists on the subject of the American dollar. Most thought that the American trade deficit posed major risks of a sudden decline in the value of the dollar. On the other hand, Richard Cooper thought that the trade deficit could continue to grow because America would continue to be a good place for a foreign investor to put his money. With all the bad things that have happened since then, American government securities continue to be a place that foreign investors choose to put their money. A week ago, a “senior Chinese banking regulator” was quoted in this story in the Financial Times as saying that U.S. Treasury bonds are the “only option” for Chinese investments even though they expect the dollar to depreciate. The official said, “Except for US Treasuries, what can you hold? Gold? You don’t hold Japanese government bonds or UK bonds. For everyone, including China, it is the only option.” Although what has happened is surprising, I think that even 28 months ago, pessimists would have acknowledged that the ultimate safety of Treasury bonds was a reason to hold them. The official was quoted as using the words in the caption: “…we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys, but there is nothing much we can do.” (I love his colloquial use of English, both charming and eloquent..)
MEASURING DEFENSE IN THE NBA.
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009MEASURING DEFENSE IN THE NBA. Half of the game of basketball is played on defense, but little attention is paid to defensive accomplishments. Offense is measured by scoring, and all fans have a ranking in their heads of the scoring abilities of individual players. Not so for defense. On the day of the NBA all star game, which is entirely devoted to offense, the New York times published this article by Michael Lewis, who wrote MONEYBALL, about the discoveries that statistical analysts have made about baseball, and LIAR’S POKER, about modern finance. (I linked here to an article by Lewis about the current financial crisis). The article is about efforts by some NBA teams to measure defense. Shane Battier (portrayed defending against Kobe Bryant) is the focus of the article, as an example of a skilled defender whose efforts go unappreciated. Plus/minus statistics, although they have obvious flaws, are said to be a good starting point for measuring defense. (Plus/minus simply keeps track of your team’s net score during the period you are in the game). It is argued that it is very useful to have a hand in a shooter’s face in order to block his vision of the basket as he releases the ball. The statistician quoted in the article says that “the foul is the worst result of a defensive play” and that a team should “try dramatically not to foul.”
MICROLANGUAGES AND VENETIAN DIALECTS.
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009MICROLANGUAGES AND VENETIAN DIALECTS. I have previously posted on how a linguist can trace a person’s language to a very small area–blocks in the Bronx or the area in which the bells of a French church can be heard. Roderick Conway Morris says that “Even today, recognizable variations of standard Venetian can be found on the island of Burano in the north-east of the lagoon and Pellestrina and Chiogga to the south-west of the city.”
VENETIAN AND ITALIAN.
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009VENETIAN AND ITALIAN. “Venetian predates Italian by hundreds of years,” says Roderick Conway Morris in his review in the December 12, 2008 TLS of A LINGUISTIC HISTORY OF VENICE by Ronnie Ferguson. Venetian grew naturally out of late Latin in the area near Venice. Italian (or “Tuscan” as Venetians often call it) was “an artificially created language…forged by scholars and humanists of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries in an attempt to found a national language….” Italian succeeded in part because it took the role that Latin had played as a written language. Venetian is still spoken by a majority of the people in Venice and the immediately surrounding area. “Ciao” is a contraction of the courteous Venetian phrase “vostro schiavo” (your humble servant).
“THE REFUSAL TO BE PLEASED” (COMMENT).
Monday, February 16th, 2009“THE REFUSAL TO BE PLEASED” (COMMENT). Nick and Mary Jane have both commented on my post on Samuel Johnson’s repeated use of the phrase “Avoid the refusal to be pleased.” Apparently Johnson used the phrase with several meanings. One was that he should avoid the result, as Bate puts it, of “his own impatience and quickness to irritability or despair.” A related thought would be that his feelings of guilt and unworthiness would interfere with feelings of happiness. Nick fastened on another set of meanings. Johnson was aware of the critic’s temptation to set up high standards to promote his own reputation. Related to this is Mary Jane’s observation that there are people who exercise power and demand more of others by withholding approval.
