Whenever I learn something brand new – when I read a book, watch a documentary, or go on a guided tour – I eventually find myself bothered by a nagging question about the subject. It’s never the same question, but it’s usually one that undermines the entire presentation. And I always think of it too late. It could be the next day or the following week, or a decade may have passed. As I’m standing in the shower or trying to refill the stapler, a loose end of curiosity will appear inside my head, like a freshly sprouted seedling. Not a good seedling either, but a thorny weed with roots the length of a rake handle. I try to pull it out, but it keeps growing back.
Here’s an example.
There’s the idea that long ago, humans wandered out of Asia and ventured into what is now the United States and Canada. According to this theory, after arriving on the new continent, they spread out slowly. Many moved south along the coast, while others headed north.
Anthropologists speculate that this began to happen about twelve thousand years ago. Or maybe fifteen thousand. Or nineteen. This is one of the advantages of being an anthropologist: you can spend all of your time speculating about things, and nobody can call you on it, because they have no idea either. Everything they know in that field is based on a few sharpened pieces of stone someone finds in the dirt, completely by accident, while they’re pouring a foundation for a parking garage.
But here’s what I don’t understand. At some point, the people who had turned northward crossed into a region that was covered with ice. There were no animals or plants, and no trees to cut down. No food and no fuel. Nothing but frozen air and frozen water. Something must have caused them to say to themselves, “This looks like a good spot! Let’s stay here!” What was it, exactly? Why didn’t they backtrack a few miles, to someplace where they didn’t have to spend every minute focused on frostbite?
The textbooks tell us that these early explorers gradually learned how to build houses out of snow, and to heat them with fire. But while they were still in the learning phase, how did they avoid freezing to death? How did they start the fires, and keep them going? What were they burning? And how did they manage to come up with a way to heat the inside of a snow house without melting the entire neighborhood?
I did try posing these questions to a museum security guard once, but he just got irritated and told me not to stand too close to the plastic igloo.
Here’s another example.
Homemade soap contains lye, which is produced when water is rinsed through a pile of ashes. Lye is corrosive. It’s used to clean ovens and unclog drains. If you dipped your hand in it, your skin would fall off. Yet, people continued to experiment with lye, reasoning that there must be a way to wash off the dirt without stripping away the flesh, too. I imagine that this pursuit of cleanliness left behind a long trail of well-scrubbed skeletons. But why this obsession with lye in the first place? Did anyone even bother to try goat’s milk?
The history books also explain that the ancient Egyptians and Greeks calculated – to a pretty high degree of accuracy – the circumference of the earth. This impresses me a lot, because I have trouble calculating how much grass seed I need for a lawn the size of a Little League outfield. They accomplished this by comparing the angle of the sun’s shadow at noon in two different cities. All it takes is some basic trigonometry, a course that, thousands of years ago, was offered as a kindergarten elective. But when you’re measuring the length of a shadow, a small error would throw off the result by a big number. They had to be sure they were working in both locations at the same moment. How did they know when it was noon in two different cities? These people were keeping time with sundials. I made a sundial in my eighth-grade ceramics class, and you couldn’t have used it to figure out what month it was.
* * * * *
I hear people talk about terrorism, and this often leads to a discussion of the Quran. The impression I get is that not one of these people has ever read a page of that book. Their intent is to ridicule it, especially the passage that allegedly promises an eternal paradise to the killers of infidels. What they most want to address is the part that says a worthy terrorist will be rewarded in heaven with seventy-two virgins.
Does the Quran really say that? I doubt it. Anything written that many centuries ago would have to be translated from one language to another, and the results are almost always unreliable. Translators are like cake decorators — they make mistakes, then cover them up with a thick layer of linguistic frosting.
I haven’t read the Quran either, so I have no idea what I’m talking about. But I can’t help but wonder about the basic premise of this particular offer. It sounds like an obvious attempt to control behavior by luring followers to do things they wouldn’t otherwise consider. There are plenty of Muslims who are at least as smart as I am, and many who are much smarter. They understand that eternity is a long time, while the concept of virginity, by definition, is temporary. How do those two ideas fit together? Then there’s the mathematical problem of needing seventy-two women for every man. And what about the virgins themselves? Do they look at this arrangement and see it as paradise, too? It seems to me they’d have a somewhat different perspective on the matter.
* * * * *
In all of these cases, and in others, the only way to clear up the mystery would be to go back in time and witness the events directly. That’s difficult to do. I attended a lecture once on time travel, but had to leave early and missed the question-and-answer period. And then, of course, it was too late.
Chichina
July 24, 2014
And why can’t we find these damned planes that are disappearing when we have transponders and satellites, and GPS’s.? Our government probably knows what we ate for breakfast for crying out loud…… And yet they can’t find gi-normous planes. Is it terrorism, aliens, the Bermuda Triangle, or a sand storm? I’m putting my money on the Rapture. Those are the questions that are wearing me out.. Move on from the Bering Strait and ponder this one awhile…… lol
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bronxboy55
July 25, 2014
And what were those pings they detected months ago, and were sure were coming from the missing plane? Maybe dolphins have learned how to mimic the sound of black boxes, just to throw us off track.
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Chichina
July 24, 2014
And a great blog once again.
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bronxboy55
July 25, 2014
Thanks.
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subodai213
July 24, 2014
Is your question regarding the first people to enter North America rhetorical? Because there was a passage between the two ice sheets that covered northern Canada. The first people followed the animals who’d found it long before. It’s how bears, grey wolves, moose, mammoths, etc, entered N.America. It went both ways…horses and camels evolved here in N. America and migrated west, over the land bridge, to Eurasia.
There’s also a theory that the people came across from Siberia via boat. Not your big yachts, mind you, but boats made of seal hide. Remember, they were living in Siberia for thousands of years before crossing over. If they used boats, they didn’t even have to walk across the Bering Land Bridge…they could have followed the coast line clear to Tierra del Fuego.
The fact that remains of humans have been found in southern South America that are far older than anything we’ve found in North America, (at least 20,000 years old), leads me to believe that they went pretty far south before they settled on land.
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bronxboy55
July 25, 2014
No, I wasn’t asking how people got to the Americas. But when they went north into present-day Canada and began to encounter such extreme conditions, why did they stay there and endure what had to be a very difficult life? It was a huge continent. They were the first people to arrive and they picked the worst place to live. It would be like going to a beautiful beach at four o’clock in the morning and spreading your blanket out in the parking lot.
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subodai213
July 25, 2014
Well, Charles, I think it’s because they didn’t have SUV’s, Ramada Inns, or Trip Advisor. They didn’t even have draft animals or horses. They had no idea that places like Monterey, CA existed. They’d lived in Siberia for generations, and the Bering Land Bridge and Canada were no different, conditions wise (although I don’t believe Siberia was glaciated. ) I’m certain they didn’t even migrate with a purpose. They merely followed the animals, eating them along the way.
I’ve known scientists who refuse to admit that humans were responsible for the extinction of the mammoths and other Pleistocene mega-fauna. One said, come on, look a mammoth weighed 7 TONS. One mammoth would have kept a whole tribe in meat for years.”
I said, “Only with electricity and a chest freezer.”
Even by nomad standards, the were very peripatetic. It’s been estimated that it took less than a thousand years for them (not as individuals, but humans as a whole) to make it all the way to the southern tip of S. America. That’s what, 10,000 miles?
I agree with you, I’d not want to stick around ice age Canada. It’s why I’m a good girl..I don’t want to be re-incarnated as an Eskimo.
But if I didn’t know any better, I’d just make the best of it.
We are at an interesting place in human history…we can move to places we know we will like. For instance, having spent a year in Iraq, I know I NEVER EVER want to see that climate again. I’d rather mildew to death in the wet Pacific Northwest than ever live in the desert again. Yet I have friends who utterly hate all the rain, the gray skies, the two days of hot weather that we get, and they adore their chosen homes in Arizona.
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bronxboy55
July 26, 2014
That’s a great point about our ability to move to “places we know we will like.” Until recently, people settled somewhere out of necessity and adapted to the environment. Now, at least to some degree, we can choose the environment first. I’m glad you’re happy in the Pacific Northwest, but I hope you don’t actually mildew to death. I’d miss hearing from you.
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subodai213
July 26, 2014
Thank you, dear. I hope I don’t bore you to death.
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subodai213
July 26, 2014
And another reply: I read a lot. Quite some time ago, I read about the Black Death (bubonic plague) depopulating Europe. The author said: until then, most people were born and died within earshot of their village’s church bells”.
In contrast, these days, I don’t know many people who can claim the same thing. I think I’ve met two people who were born and raised in the same town, in the same house, and had never left. The most unbelievable, to me, was a woman I met while I was stationed in Maryland. She lived in Joppa, MD. Joppa is a suburb of Baltimore. Not only had she never been to Baltimore, she had never, not ever in her life, ever been to Washington DC, about a thirty minute drive south of Baltimore.
That just stonkered me. I still can’t imagine it.
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shoreacres
July 24, 2014
I had to smile at this: “Something must have caused them to say to themselves, “This looks like a good spot! Let’s stay here!” What was it, exactly? Why didn’t they backtrack a few miles?…” That’s the story of human exploration generally. People got up, went, and then stopped. There were plenty who did backtrack. It’s just that it was easier to backtrack a few millennia later, when they had maps and had domesticated horses.
As for lye — forget the soap. I was raised in a Swedish family that would serve up lutefisk, for heaven’s sake. Cod, processed with lye. I ate the stuff twice, once as a child and once to be polite as an adult. Even with butter and cream sauce poured over it — no thank you. Then, I moved south and learned about hominy. And now I know that olives are processed with lye, too, to make them less bitter. It’s always an adventure around this place of yours!
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bronxboy55
July 25, 2014
I’d heard of lutefisk, but didn’t know it was prepared with lye until I was doing research for this post. I thought about mentioning it, but that would have required a distracting explanation of what lutefisk is. I think you should write about your experience with it, if you haven’t already.
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shoreacres
July 25, 2014
When I lived in Salt Lake City, a private high school had this for a football cheer:
Lutefisk, lutefisk, lefse, lefse –
We’re the mighty Norskies, Ja, sure, you betcha!
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bronxboy55
July 26, 2014
Norskies? Uh oh. That name has to go. I’m highly offended, and I’m not even Scandinavian.
Does lefse rhyme with betcha?
And is it okay to say Scandinavian?
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shoreacres
July 26, 2014
You’ve got the pronunciation exactly right. LEF-suh. And yes, it is ok to say Scandinavian. Speaking of being offended, we never were when, as a Swedish family, we endured this from our Norskie neighbors. (After all, even we had Sven and Ole jokes. We laughed at ourselves a lot.)
Ten thousand Swedes ran into the weeds
at the Battle of Copenhagen,
Ten thousand Swedes ran into the weeds
chased by one Norwegian.
What’s amazing is that I grew up with a verse going back to 1658, and the Dano-Swedish War.
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lostnchina
July 24, 2014
I’d just watched a travel show, “Idiot Abroad”, with Karl Pilkington (sp?), a show produced by Ricky Gervais. The premise is one of the Brit who’s never traveled going all over the world to witness weird cultural rites in action, and poor Karl sometimes doesn’t even know where he’s going to end up till he gets there and receives texts from Ricky. This is not a show which makes you want to travel.
Anyway, there was one episode where Karl visits a Hare Krishna compound in India and washes some cows and makes cakes from their poo, then at the end he’s taken to their gift shop where all the gift items are made from cow…dung…or urine. There was a soap made out of dung and a protein drink made out of…you get the idea.
My comment started as something to do with your mentioning the lye soap washing off your flesh, but it has become a haphazard plug for the show, because the reactions of poor Karl remind me of your sometimes flabbergasted observations on life and how things work and work together. In your posts it seems that you, like Karl, are occasionally receiving text messages, or random thoughts, where you’re trying dealing with some bit of information you’re trying to put into perspective. Except, I hope you don’t get Giardia or food poisoning in the process, the way Karl did.
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bronxboy55
July 25, 2014
I think I once saw a few minutes of that show, Susan. I liked the premise, but found him annoying to watch, although I can’t quite remember why.
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Personal Concerns
July 24, 2014
I could relate well with the things you say in this post. For me the curious moment comes not as often but it does and does with a force. “How can a mosquito bite not spread HIV whereas an infected injection can?” and things like that. You say something very apt about the anthropological approach and the plastic igloo thing cracked me up!
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bronxboy55
July 25, 2014
Okay, you got me wondering, too. Here’s what I found: apparently, mosquitoes digest the virus, so it doesn’t survive long enough to be transmitted to the next bite victim. Most of the article is too technical for me, but here it is:
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/aids.htm
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subodai213
July 27, 2014
Hi, Charles,
I read the discussion on the link you added, about why mosquitoes can’t transmit viruses such as AIDS.
I can interpret, if you like, and add some. Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a “zoonosis”…a disease caused by a virus that originally only affected an animal. In this case, the animal was a chimpanzee that was infected with SIV, the simian version of HIV. Back in the early 1900’s, an African man ate a chimpanzee that had SIV. In this one instance, the virus mutated and became HIV, and the rest, as they say, is history. (I get this specific information from David Quammen’s excellent book, “Spillover”).
Viruses are picky things. It’s not even known if they’re actually ‘alive’. Viruses are pretty much a small bundle of RNA (a ‘retrovirus’) or DNA, wrapped in a protective candy coating (okay, not really. It’s merely a shell).
On the one hand, viruses mutate like crazy. On the other hand, they’re very specific about the host they need to reproduce. In HIV’s case, the virus (a retrovirus, meaning it’s an RNA virus) cannot survive in a mosquito. Mosquitos, being insects, just aren’t suitable for the virus that causes HIV. It’s the same process as why you and I, human beings, don’t succumb to diseases carried by viruses that affect only insects, or plants, or even lutefisk.
Virtually all the diseases that infect humans are passed on to us from other mammals. The common cold virus originated in horses. Tuberculosis, (a disease caused by a bacterium, not a virus), anthrax, and half a dozen other that I can’t remember off the top of my head came from cattle. Rabies, the most dangerous and deadly virus of all, infects only mammals, and usually, the carrier that successfully infects humans is a carnivore, and almost always, that carnivore is a dog or other canine. There’s only a few diseases known to be carried and suffered by humans only: polio, smallpox, leprosy, etc.
Ah…I hear someone out there saying syphillis was caused by having sex with a sheep.
Well, no. Sheep don’t carry syphillis. That disease has been found in mummies from South America, long before the white man showed up, and it’s theorized it originated in the early Lapidans…the people who came out of South China to populate the South Pacific islands. The fact that it shows up ‘first’ in New World South American indians is an interesting point that perhaps, the Americas were settled in at least two ways..one over the Bering Land Bridge, and another from those incredibly able mariners, the Polynesians.
So don’t worry about mosquitoes possibly carrying HIV. They don’t, and can’t. DO worry about the dozens of other diseases that they DO carry and that have killed millions of humans.
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bronxboy55
July 28, 2014
It’s interesting that we’ve progressed so far in the area of technology that we’ve created viruses that can destroy computer files. At the same time, we’re also busy devising ways to protect those files by building barriers against the invaders. I wonder if there’s a correlation, and if the days of the vaguely-alive biological viruses are numbered.
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subodai213
July 28, 2014
The above is a ‘data dump’…check out the antique desk made years ago, without any sort of computer design or battery powered anything! It shows a technology that is all but extinct, now.
And that is part of the point: technological memes evolve just like cultural or biological ones. (a ‘meme’ is basically a bit of inherited information, not a gene, but the information that a gene passes on.)
Some technological memes have ‘gone extinct’…do you know how to knap a rock into a sharp spear point? I don’t. That bit of technology has gone extinct, having been surpassed by metal points, then guns, etc.
Another demonstration of a meme: a cultural meme is: Santa Claus. He doesn’t exist, but plays a large part in our culture. “He” (sic) is a meme that is passed (‘inherited”) from one generation to the next.
I doubt very, very seriously that biological viruses will go extinct. Despite their alienness, viruses are bound to the same laws of natural selection and evolution as everything else on the planet. One of those laws is: the more of something there is: plants, animals, bacteria, etc, the more chance there is of a virus developing the ability to successfully live in it and reproduce.
We exist in such incredible numbers (it’s said the world population will reach 8 billion in 2018) because we eat just about anything: plant and animals.
However, pandas are in danger of extinction because they eat one thing: bamboo, and bamboo has this odd habit of dying off, en masse, worldwide, every so often. When the bamboo dies, the pandas starve.
There are very, very few viruses that specifically target pandas, because there are so very few of them. (sad to say, common diseases such as canine distemper, kills them, and dogs are everywhere.)
HOwever, with 7.5 billion humans, any virus that chances on a lucky mutation that allows it to ‘eat us’ will survive and reproduce like crazy. Look at Ebola. It mutated from a virus that lived in gorillas. Gorillas are almost extinct, so the Ebola virus didn’t go anywhere…until, what, a decade ago? someone ate some gorilla meat (a thing I cannot comprehend, eating an ape???) that was infected with the gorilla ebola virus.
We’re pretty darn close to gorillas, so the virus successfully mutated into the one that lives happily in US. Now it doesn’t need gorillas, that are almost extinct. It has 7.5 billion potential Human Happy Meals. And the way things are going right now in Central Africa, I promise you…Ebola will be entering the United States any day now.
I highly, highly recommend David Quammen’s book, “Spillover” for a more detailed explanation. It’s highly readable, written for the non-biologist and will explain this far more easily than I can.
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Doug Bittinger
July 24, 2014
Another great, thought-provoking essay, Charles. And if you can kick the rust-scales out of MY brain enough to get a creaky wheel or two to roll around for a while, that’s an accomplishment.
I have wondered about how people discover things / invent things. Your discussion of lye soap is a great example. I’m sure someone discovered that what collected under the camp fire after a rain tended to eat the skin off their fingers, but what bright bulb decided to mix it with rendered animal fat as a cleansing bar? Baffling!
I’ve wondered about the village food taster: “Here Glog, we found this growing in the forest. It looks like it might be edible, Try some and lets find out.” There must have been a high turn-over rate for that position in the community.
Thanks!
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bronxboy55
July 25, 2014
Most of the explanations I’ve read about the discovery of soap involve animal sacrifice, followed by rain. Another theory is that people began to notice how easy it was to clean their pots and pans when residue from cooked meat mixed with water and ash.
Have you ever watched a glass-blowing demonstration? It all starts with sand. How did anyone figure that one out?
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unsolicitedtidbits
July 24, 2014
Translators are like cake decorators… That is a fabulous line!
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bronxboy55
July 25, 2014
Thanks, Gwendolyn. I thought it was a pretty good line, too. Meaningless, but pretty good.
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Notes From a Hermitage
July 24, 2014
Brilliant! Thanks for the fun read:0)
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bronxboy55
July 25, 2014
I’m glad you liked it. Thanks for saying so.
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thecontentedcrafter
July 24, 2014
I so understand your dilemma – my head was so often filled with those why, how, huh? type questions. I spent my early years completely baffled by the intricacies and absurdities of the world, not to mention the mysteries. In the end I decided it IS a mystery – we can postulate, theorise and speculate until the proverbial cows come home. The fact is we don’t know why, how or when. We aren’t as clever as we think. But we make it possible for many people to make a comfortable living coming up with reasonable – or outlandish – explanations to satisfy our need to have everything explained away tidily. Personally I like the fact that I don’t know why those folk decided to stop in the frozen wilderness, I am just grateful it wasn’t my ancestors who did!
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bronxboy55
July 25, 2014
I watched a film once about erosion and rock formation in Colorado. It talked about what happened over billions of years. The process had dozens of steps, and the evidence for many of those steps was long gone. So the film was interesting, but it seemed to me that at least some of it had to be based on guesswork. I don’t recall the narrator ever using that word, though.
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thecontentedcrafter
July 25, 2014
I have noticed how scientific theories segue into ‘fact’ in a blink of an eye. I once read that very often ‘scientists’ come up with a theory and then go in search of the proof – discarding anything that doesn’t fit. That was disappointing to discover! I wonder what is wrong with saying ‘I don’t know’ ?
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nrg42014
July 24, 2014
I really like your blog. I love how you THINK, which is an activity that far too many people have given up on recently. Also, the illustrations are a huge bonus! Well done in every way.
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bronxboy55
July 25, 2014
I’ve been trying to pay attention lately to my own way of processing information. We can’t possibly investigate everything we read and hear, so we have to accept a lot of things without much thought. The orbit of Pluto would be an example. I wonder where the line is between what we readily believe and what requires more evidence.
Did that make any sense at all?
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otioz
July 24, 2014
It happens to me but I think it looks foolish to question what everyone believes. Good one!
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bronxboy55
July 26, 2014
The very fact that almost everyone believes something is what makes it a good target. If a groundless idea goes unchallenged for long enough, it eventually gets accepted as truth, whether or not it deserves that distinction.
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vgfoster
July 24, 2014
“And what about the virgins themselves? Do they look at this arrangement and see it as paradise, too? It seems to me they’d have a somewhat different perspective on the matter.”
Great line! Great post.
I always think of the perfect question or comeback about 24 hours too late!
Thanks for your insightful, thoughtful posts.
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bronxboy55
July 26, 2014
Thanks, Vanessa. I just purchased your memoir, More Than Everything, and can’t wait to read it.
http://vgfoster.com/buy-my-book-2/
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vgfoster
July 26, 2014
Thank you very much! I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoy my story and share with others 🙂
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ranu802
July 24, 2014
I enjoyed reading your post especially about Anthropologists, they may not be sure of somethings but they know a whole lot. About the Quran I have to disagree with people who talk about what’s in it without reading the book, yes it’s written in Arabic, the translators have spent years learning the language before they attempted to translate the meaning of the whole book.
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bronxboy55
July 26, 2014
I’d have to guess that most religious scripture, including the Christian Bible, has been translated repeatedly from its original language. That’s one of the reasons we have so many versions and variations of those stories and teachings. And that gives people the opportunity to interpret passages differently, and make negative or positive claims about them.
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dianasschwenk
July 24, 2014
haha very good questions!
Diana xo
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bronxboy55
July 26, 2014
Thanks, Diana. I appreciate the feedback.
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Elyse
July 24, 2014
I think the same way as you do, Charles. I’m really glad that we aren’t the only two people on earth. We’d be stuck in the Bering Strait trying to figure out if lye soap helps cure frostbite.
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bronxboy55
July 26, 2014
It doesn’t, Elyse. Trust me.
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SmallHouseBigGarden
July 25, 2014
No one will EVER convince me about the dinosaurs….yes, I know they’ve found fossils of various big bones and alleged pits of layered “things” everyone believes were dinosaurs, but come on!!!
IMO an entire mythology has been built up around how these things lived/fought/bred/ate, what colors they were and how they may (or may not) have disappeared? PuhLEEZ!!
i know you didn’t write one word about dinosaurs….hahahaha….but thought you might like knowing MY nagging question/disbelief!! 😆
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bronxboy55
July 27, 2014
I think dinosaurs existed, but I often wonder how scientists can imagine an entire creature from a bone fragment. Then they tell us what color the animal was, the texture of its skin, what it ate, and how it sounded. We’ve seen so many simulations and animations and artist’s renditions that we forget it’s all mostly guesswork.
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SmallHouseBigGarden
July 28, 2014
hahaha I just had to come back and post this thing I just read about the asteroid/dinosaur extinction.
http://io9.com/colossally-poor-timing-of-asteroid-caused-dinosaur-ex-1611942714
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bronxboy55
July 29, 2014
Thanks for that. Another thing I can’t comprehend is that the dinosaurs were around for 135 million years. I would think conditions on the Earth would have changed dramatically over such a span of time. How did they hang on for that long?
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Marie
July 25, 2014
The subject matter is always engaging, it’s the thread of connectivity between each acrobatic manipulation of thought that leaves me wishing for the next act.
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bronxboy55
July 27, 2014
My thoughts definitely bounce around, Marie. I’d never describe them as acrobatic, though. Thank you.
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genusrosa
July 25, 2014
I loved this–a lot going on as usual, and thanks for giving us a peek into your thought processes. :o) I have often wondered about the soap thing…as for the rest, I would only add that the ancients knew considerably more than we give them credit for. The Egyptians must have understood the value of Pi to construct the great pyramid; Archimedes attempted to calculate the dimensions of the universe using a few grains of sand and the palm of his hand, and the people coming out of Asia just made a slight miscalculation in the space/time continuum and the number of warm coats they would need for time travel. Clearly they were headed for Disneyland.
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bronxboy55
July 28, 2014
A visit to almost any museum never fails to leave me stunned by what people were creating and inventing thousands of years ago. Our modern discoveries wouldn’t be possible without the countless breakthroughs of the past.
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Jac
July 25, 2014
I think you should start your own museum and call it The Museum of Unanswered Questions. I need a job and would be more than happy to be a security guard or tour guide, whichever you think I would be more qualified for (or unqualified, really, since there won’t be any answers.) We wouldn’t have to pretend to know anything about anything, and I think the gift shop items could be really fun. We could even get people to refer to it with a cool acronym like MUQ.
If you’re interested in pursuing this venture, have your people call my people.
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bronxboy55
July 28, 2014
I like it. We could invite experts to come in and present their explanations about the different topics, and while they’re speaking, we could heckle them and throw stuff. I think we may be onto something, once again. But as always, the question is, where do we locate the museum? Or maybe, when people ask for directions, we just say we don’t know.
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perspectivesandprejudices
July 25, 2014
Very interesting post 🙂 Glad to know I’m not the only one having these bizarre questions in my mind! 🙂 I’ve always had the same question about herbs and vegetables – how did early man decide to suddenly stop, pluck something and eat it? 🙂
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bronxboy55
July 28, 2014
The tradition of giving food as gifts must have started out as a way to get someone else to eat something first, just to see what would happen.
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wheremyfeetare
July 25, 2014
I really enjoy reading your posts. They are funny and thoughtful and I usually think to myself “Yeah, I wonder about that too.” Your descriptions are great. Thanks for another good read.
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bronxboy55
July 28, 2014
I really appreciate the encouraging feedback, Geralyn. I’ve been enjoying your blog, too.
http://wheremyfeetare.wordpress.com
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The Moon is a Naked Banana
July 26, 2014
These are the deep questions of life. Similar to ‘How did people work out how babies are made?’ Not in the obvious sense of course, I mean, it’s a simple case of cause and effect. But how did they work out the finer details? They seem to have it all worked out by biblical times at least. No ultrasounds, no microscopes. How did they know – well, what the ingredients were?
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bronxboy55
July 28, 2014
I just recently started wondering about that very question. How did people ever make the connection between what was the act of conception and the birth event nine months later? When you really look at it, the simple case of cause-and-effect isn’t that simple.
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Raouf
July 26, 2014
As a Muslim-turned-atheist, I often wonder about the nature of paradise described in the Quran and how people can take it seriously. Of course, a lot of it can be excused as metaphorical, but sometimes the texts are so descriptive that you can’t help wonder.
The more disturbing aspect of this whole thing is that you are promised priapism as well, along with the virgins. Terrifying.
Delightful post.
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bronxboy55
July 28, 2014
I believe there’s a disclaimer in the fine print that says if symptoms last more than four thousand years, you should consult your doctor.
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cat
July 26, 2014
I liked the last illustration … everytime I read King So and So build the Dom of Cologne or Pharao So and So build the pyramids or that nurse manager So and So is running a highly efficient unit or … I think to myself “Ya” … they did all by themselves … 🙂
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bronxboy55
July 29, 2014
We seem to have a penchant for reducing information down to its simplest form. I think that’s why we tend to give credit to individuals, when often the achievement was a group effort or a long series of small advances. Most inventions and discoveries — Calculus, for example — involved more than one person, but a single name ends up in the history books.
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Bruce
July 27, 2014
I think they are all good questions Charles, even if some took a while. I know I used to accept a lot of things at face value but not so much now. An enjoyable read too. As for stopping in the land covered by ice I can’t contribute really, except perhaps their kids saying ‘are we there yet’?
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bronxboy55
July 29, 2014
You may be onto something there, Bruce. If the portable DVD player had been invented a few thousand years sooner, those people might still be on the move.
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Mal
July 27, 2014
Yes, Charles, sadly the teachings of the Quran are being misinterpreted to fit the heinous deeds and actions of the minority, confused, intolerant religious extremists! Islam is indeed a peaceful religion.
Newsy, enlightening post. Good job the nasty museum security guard didn’t toss you into the igloo! *giggle*
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bronxboy55
July 29, 2014
Most religious scripture contains millions of words. I guess if someone wants to justify almost any act, they can find a sentence or two that will support it.
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Ying Ying Shi
July 27, 2014
Many of your questions relate to human behaviour. How do people decide what to do and how to move on? Shall we settle or go some more miles? Shall we experiment with lye or not? It’s extremely interesting to understand people. They are so complex and multifaceted, but when understood also so exciting and engaging.
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bronxboy55
July 29, 2014
One of the mysteries I find especially puzzling is the use of plants for medicinal purposes. Some involve very complex concoctions and complicated preparation. How did anyone ever stumble upon anything that worked — and how did they know it worked? Were they doing medical trials and scientific experiments? And when they were wrong, and the patient died, how did they know whether to modify the treatment or abandon it entirely?
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Dariush Youkhaneh - A silent A shout.wordpress.com
July 28, 2014
Thanks for visiting! keep up the good job. nice post also , many questions that would be unanswerable in this world , you need to wait to get your answer mate:)
http://www.asilentashout.wordpress.com
Thanks dude.
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bronxboy55
July 29, 2014
I just hope when the answers do finally come, I’m still paying attention. Meanwhile, I like when people call me Dude. It makes me feel forty-five again.
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icedteawithlemon
July 28, 2014
I’m grateful for all those thorny weeds that take root inside your brain, forcing you to ponder some of the same questions that intrigue me but that I just don’t have the energy to research. It’s much easier (and certainly more entertaining) to let you do all the work. And once you figure out how those early explorers heated their igloos without melting them, could you devote some of your massive brain power toward determining if reincarnation is a possibility–and if so, are there steps we can take in this life to ensure a positive next-life assignment? I’d really like to know …
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bronxboy55
July 29, 2014
Karen, I don’t know if reincarnation is real, but if it is, I think you’ve earned a plum assignment. I just hope you like plums.
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silkpurseproductions
July 28, 2014
Questions, Questions there will always be questions. I’ve always wondered why anyone would even want to figure out how to survive in the “Great White North” of Canada. I can’t tell you how many times I have said to He-Who”, “Who the hell comes up with these ideas and why?” So many questions…
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bronxboy55
July 30, 2014
I have a feeling He-Who has some of the answers. Is he telling?
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silkpurseproductions
July 30, 2014
He says he can’t remember. He-Who has a condition called “Selective Memory Loss”, he only remembers the things he wants to. It is very much like his other condition, “Selective Hearing Loss”. What can I say? He is a selective kind of guy.
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retiredslacktivist
July 28, 2014
Haha! What a great post; glad to know I’m not the only person who thinks like that!
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bronxboy55
July 30, 2014
Thanks, RS. I like your blog name, and your blog, too.
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The Savvy Senorita
July 28, 2014
Great post once again, as usual thoroughly interesting and thought provoking!
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bronxboy55
July 30, 2014
Thank you for the kind words, Bex. I appreciate hearing from you.
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The Savvy Senorita
August 4, 2014
Mu pleasure.
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davidjrogersftw
July 29, 2014
Nice enjoyable and clever post. I think what kept our progenitors going across the tundra on the way to L.A. was that they had skipped out without paying their rent on their hovel in China and were on the lam.
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bronxboy55
August 1, 2014
I guess every nation was settled by people on the lam, or on the prowl.
Thanks for the comment, David.
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earthriderjudyberman
July 29, 2014
Your posts are always sure to make me think and, certainly, to laugh.
Charles … I can’t account for why any one would want to remain in a place that has 12 months of winter, but some relocations just make sense. I can understand why Germans, for example, found Pennsylvania and New York such an appealing place to settle in. Sure, there was winter – brutal and long in some areas. But there was also excellent soil to farm in. Not to mention, four seasons rather than one, long, hot climate.
As for lye, you’ve convinced me to swear off soap. Actually, I’ve used a shower lotion for years and I am now reluctant to look at the ingredients. 😉
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bronxboy55
August 1, 2014
Judy, maybe the willingness to settle in one place is based on a vague awareness of the unpleasantness that exists elsewhere. I often complain about the long, snowy winters here, but then I think about tornadoes, earthquakes, alligators, and wildfires, and I decide being cold isn’t so terrible.
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earthriderjudyberman
August 1, 2014
It’s always a coin toss, Charles. I miss Central New York despite the long, cold winters. But I know there are things about Florida I also would miss if I did move. 😉
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rangewriter
August 2, 2014
I’m sure those early icemen were just plain too pooped to travel another inch, which explains why they had to figure out how to make do with ice cube houses.
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accidentallyreflective
August 6, 2014
You’re just too cool.
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bronxboy55
August 7, 2014
I am so far from cool that I may just have to do a post about it.
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accidentallyreflective
August 7, 2014
Ha ha! Not true! So many people relate to you!
But yes do write another post! 🙂
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harridhillon
December 31, 2014
Here’s a question to which no one has the answer: Why is Buddha fat? If you look at all the statues he is quite a portly fellow with an oh-so-whimsical grin on his face. Yet every Buddhist I have ever seen is lean/slender in build because they are vegan/vegetarian. Its damn near impossible to be vegan and be overweight, so is old Sid hiding something??
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otioz
May 7, 2015
Reblogged this on otioz Blog.
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