A human has about 23,000 genes.
An ear of corn has more
Go figure.
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A human has about 23,000 genes.
An ear of corn has more
Go figure.
Corn is smarter.
It's not about what you have, it's what you do with it.
--> Old Zen Saying.
I can eat corn, therefore I am superior.
Be careful of "he who walks behind the rows" :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by BlindSniper
With corn, you are only borrowing it.Quote:
Originally Posted by BlindSniper
A possible reason humans have larger brains
than other apes .. a defective jaw muscle gene.
A researcher whose younger brother had muscular
dystrophy took early data from the Genome Project
and isolated a possible gene that was involved.
He subsequently got to studying a related gene
in apes, and noticed that there was a defect in
the human gene. He studied himself, and found
the same thing. He studied the same gene of
3 co-workers and they all had the same defect.
It involved the muscle used for chewing, ie, the
muscle used to close the jaw. In apes and chimps,
the absense of such a defect enables huge jaw
muscles to develop. Such muscles reach significant
size by age 3, and thus inhibit the ability of the skull
plates to continue to grow, whereas in humans, such
muscles max out at age 30, enabling the skull to keep
growing in size .. hence, volume .. hence allowing
more brain cells to develop.
Go figure.
Ummm, correlation doesn't imply causality. If the gene were disabled in apes, would they suddenly have large brains? I seriously doubt it. Furthermore, the premise is bizarre:
The defective gene, if it really is that, can hardly be considered defective, since the apes that don't have the supposed defect are more likely to go extinct than the apes that do have it. Evolution doesn't play favorites. It doesn't play at all. A successful gene is one that reproduces, so by what measure can this one, if it really is so significant in our development, be considered defective?
Shaggy
You are entirely correct ..
"defective" was not a good choice of words;
"mutation" would have been better.
And I wholeheartedly support your premise that
evolution does not play favorites. Mutations
are merely changes. They are neither good nor
bad .. just changes, arising during the cell division
process, or caused by cosmic rays or other chance
events, with no "a priori" purpose.
Nonetheless, I found the hypothesis interesting ..
the muscle size vs. skull plate growth capability one,
that is.
must be one heck of a dresser to hold all that...Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoo
-tg
aka The GapQuote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
EDIT:
BTW, good one.. you got me to check the spelling
of my OP
Another possible reason humans have larger
brains than apes and chimps .. a gene mutation
governing the cell division of brain cells.
Having a larger skull volume doesn't necessarily
lead to a larger brain (though it is at least a
pre-requisite). The brain cells still need to "know"
to keep dividing.
A doctor specializing in microcephaly, a brain disorder
in humans wherein brain size is about 1/2 of normal
set out to develop a genetic sequencing capability to
identify the responsible gene so as to alert parents
of potential for such a condition ocurring in their children.
He succeeded in finding said gene.
As a offshoot, he then decided to study normal, healthy
chimps, and found a similar mutation to those kids that
had microcephaly.
A larger brain doesn't necessarily correlate to intelligence, either.
Huh?
Could you elaborate
By pure mass, there are plenty of brains larger than a human brain. I would expect that whales and elephants both have brains that are heavier, on average, than the average human brain.
http://www.highnorth.no/library/myths/br-si-bo.htm
The idea that larger brains result in smarter beings is not so well supported. It can even get you into some trouble. This has been used by some groups to suggest that men are smarter than women because the average male brain is larger than the average female brain. Try winning that point.
Shaggy
Re: humans vs whales, that one is rather lame.
Who ever suggested "pure mass"?
Relative mass seemed so self-evident that I did not
bother to expressly mention it. One would thus
expect a whale, weighing somewhat more than a
human, would need a somewhat larger brain.
Re: men vs women, what groups suggest that men
are smarter than women?
Take a wild guess. Frankly, I don't know the names of any such groups, but it isn't too hard to figure out.
Relative mass doesn't quite cut it, either. It's certainly better, of course, but considering the range in human size, as well as the range in the size of other primates, size isn't sufficient. Of course, there are theories that tie the relative size of different parts of the brain to various forms of intelligence between species and between humans. There is more evidence to support this, and it makes a certain amount of sense. It may well be genetic, too, but not exclusively genetic, probably.
Brain mass to body ratio doesn't mean all that much anyway. Small birds have a brain that weighs over 3x as much as humans relative to body weight. Mice and humans have about the same ratio. So who's clever now? Cheep cheep.
I honestly don't have a clue.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
Seeing as you brought it up in the first place,
I was hoping you'd be able to figure it out.
If men are smarter than women how come a woman is always right?
(And if you don't believe a woman is always right, just ask one)
I don't associate with such, myself, but considering where I live, I suspect I could find plenty of adherents by interviewing people on the street. I would expect that you would find groups that believe such amongst the Aryan Nations group (which we had), and certain survivalist sects (which we have), but I think it is more prevalent amongst certain flavors of religious fundamentalists (which we have...all over the place).Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoo
My reference is from several years back, perhaps a decade, and I forget the name of the group, at that time. The group probably isn't valid any longer, and I'd be a more than a little reluctant to search on the subject. Still, there are several groups (I know and like some members of some of these groups, so I don't really want to name the group) who have the subordination of women as part of their doctrine. Some of them come up with evidence to support their beliefs, while others don't bother.
:D You can't beat a sneaky Stephen King reference!Quote:
Originally Posted by KiwiDexter
Crows are smart critters.
In addition to using tools (as do chimps) to get
at insects inside of hollows, unlike chimps, they can
"think" ahead to solve a problem.
Level 1.
In an experiment, a small piece of meat was placed
in a small container, and a small stick was placed on
the table. The crow could see the meat, but couldn't
get to it directly using only its beak. However, it figured
out that by picking up the stick with its beak, it could
reach the meat, and roll it out the front end of the
container. OK .. level 1.
Level 2.
Then the experimenters put the stick in a second container,
and a shorter stick on the table. The shorter stick would
not reach the meat, so the first approach would not work.
However, the short stick could be used to coax the longer
stick out of its container. The crow figured this out too.
OK .. level 2.
Level 3.
Then the experimenters removed the shorter stick from
the table and instead, suspended it off of a branch at the
end of a piece of string, and started the cameras rolling.
The crow came to the table, and saw the meat, but couldn't
reach it. Then it went over to the container with the longer
stick, it couldn't reach that either .. the short stick was not
on the table. Then it started looking around, and saw the shorter
stick dangling from the piece of string. After a moment or two,
it flew up to the branch, started pulling up the string, removed the
short stick from the string, and proceeded as in Level 2.
Wow .. Level 3.
Pretty cool, no?
Pffft... I'd like to see that crow write a SQL Query to extract financial data with rolling YTD totals based on month and GL Account, taking into consideration adjustments that happen along the way but because of the lack of some data, the amount of the adjustment has to be guessed at based on other semi-arbitrary, semi-related, denormalized table that holds other non-related data. How's that for a short stick in the container?
-tg
I don't know about that, but it wouldn't surprise me if some of the people who post questions on the VB.Net forum get stuck at Level 1:p.
BB
Caaawfft .. could it be that someone's client is
giving him the short end of the stick?
I have a couple of threads in my mind that do fit exactly!Quote:
Originally Posted by boops boops
Put a salt lick in a small hole in a tree - just the right size for a monkey's hand to "enter" and the monkey does just that - grabs the salt - and then can't get the fist-with-salt out of the hole - not too smart!
An ear of corn has around 700 kernels - more than you would think...
That's how you trap coons as well... take a log, hollow it out, drive nails into it at an angle so that the points are exposed in the center... drop a shiny object in the bottom... coon reaches in to get the shiny object, can't get its fist out... and will refuse to let the object loose. Again... not so smart now is it?
-tg
A .6 with a line over the 6 means 2/3 .. repeating 6's .. the line is called a vinculum.
A common fraction such as 2/5 is also called a vulgar fraction.
Who knew?
does your mother know you type with those fingers? spewing your vinculum in such a vulgar fraction like that....
As much as I'd like to say this is a family site... we all know it isn't...
-tg
I bring my boys with me to every post!
That is them to the left attempting to pull Arthur's sword from the stone at Disney world - a few years back...
Now they are purple belts and could probably do it!
And here I was thinking that vinculum was
some obscene human body part.
I'm sorry, I forgot who I was talking too... that should have read:
Spooing your vinculum in such a vulgar fraction like that....
-tg
Glad you cleared that up
Yeah, clearly that theory is rubbish.Quote:
The idea that larger brains result in smarter beings is not so well supported. It can even get you into some trouble. This has been used by some groups to suggest that men are smarter than women because the average male brain is larger than the average female brain. Try winning that point
Anyone knows that Men are smarter because the lady-brain is full of images of shoes and handbags.
</Shuffling quickly out of the thread before any ladies come across this post>
Forgive my ignorance but what a coon ? Is it short for racoon ?Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
raccoon, badger, any varmint of that variety...
-tg
It's worth mentioning that "coon" has a very different (and racist) meaning in the UK. Using that word on this side of the pond is not cool.
Similarly, it's worth mentioning that "varmint" can have a
different (derogatory) meaning in the US. Using that word
on this side of the pond indicates guilt by association, as in ..
Did you get a load of that varmint on Donald Trump's head?