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New Evidence in Historical Cannibalism Debate
An anonymous reader writes "ScienceNOW is reporting that a team of scientists led by Geneticist Jaume Bertranpetit has called into question findings from an earlier study of human prion diseases. The first study, led by John Collinge of University College London, stated that the existence of a gene that codes for prions was a result of a "balancing act" that had kept it in the gene pool for so long. The balancing act was supposedly due to widespread cannibalistic practices in human history. The new report suggests that their results were skewed because of low frequency variations known as 'ascertainment bias.'"
...but the mainstream news media will continue to utilize the cannabalism story due to their 'entertainment' bias
"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup."
An innocent kid and budding geek, I tried feeding novel combinations of nouns and verbs to the primitive parser.
I tried "EAT LAMP"... got back "You can't eat the lamp." "EAT BREAD"... "That was delicious."... Etc.
I tried "EAT ME". I couldn't comprehend why my dad, who had just bought the game for me and was supervising over my shoulder, started laughing so hard.
Several years later I finally understood why he laughed even harder when the computer responded:
"Auto-cannibalism is not the answer."
You can mod this offtopic, but those 1983 game designers had a real sense of humor and subtly implemented it in 64KB.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
Few taboos are stronger than cannibalism. It's no surprise then that a study published 2 years ago created quite a stir by claiming that modern humans harbor a genetic signature suggesting our ancestors engaged heavily in the practice.
I don't see why. Just because something is taboo now doesn't mean it always was. I wouldn't be bothered too much if I found out for certain that my ancestors were cannibals. It's not like that reflects poorly on me or my society. Every culture used to do some weird/nasty/mean things at some point.
It doesnt really matter that much to me if my ancestors did a little canibalism, or even a lot for that matter. After all Im pretty sure that somewhere down the line some or perhaps even a lot of my ancestors engaged in equally terrible things to survive or perhaps even took part in them without "survival" really being an issue.
These thoughts dont exactly delight me.
However they dont really frighten me either.
To me all this article really says is that genetics is more complicated that we are currently able to understand and goes a lot deeper than just decoding a genome. One scientists sees some data and comes to a conclusion, another scientist looks at the same data a couple years later and reaches the opposite conclusion.
(You knew it was coming)
... is people!"
Fry: "My God! What if the secret ingredient
Leela: "No. There's already a soda like that. Soylent Cola."
Fry: "Oh. How is it?"
Leela: "It varies from person to person."
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Somewhere in the dusty recesses of the library stacks I came across writings that suggested many early northern european peoples practised cannibalism as was evidenced by the skulls of victims being halved to get at the brains. The National Geographic article suggests modern cannibals fed the brains to women and children as less desirable, but, for examples, grizziles feeding on migrating salmon will feed exclusivley on the brains once their initial hunger is sated.
My culinary perversion only extended to a one time feeding on beef tartare. I kinda liked it.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
I once knew a girl who liked to be eaten.
Once, twice, thrice she'd entreat me,
Eat me, she'd say, eat me, EAT ME!
And so I would; on the lass I'd dine.
Now, you'd think that a strapping young girl would taste,
Like beef, or lamb, or pork at least.
But I tell you, this hot young lass of mine,
always tasted like fish, each and every time.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
two cannibals are eating a clown. one turns to the other and says "does this taste funny to you?"
Now there is hufu, the healthy human flesh alternative for the ethically inclined cannibal: http://www.eathufu.com/faq.asp