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Evolution's Path May Lead To Shorter, Heavier Women
Hugh Pickens writes "Yale University researchers believe that if evolutionary pressures of sexual selection and reproductive fitness continue for another 10 generations, the trends detected in their study may mean that the average woman in 2409 AD will be 2 cm shorter, 1 kg heavier, will bear her first child five months earlier, and enter menopause 10 months later. 'There is this idea that because medicine has been so good at reducing mortality rates, that means that natural selection is no longer operating in humans,' says Stephen Stearns of Yale University. 'That's just plain false.' Stearns and his team studied the medical histories of 14,000 residents of the Massachusetts town of Framingham, using medical data from a study going back to 1948 spanning three generations, and found that shorter, heavier women had more children than lighter, taller ones. Women with lower blood pressure and cholesterol were also more likely to have large families as were women who gave birth early or had a late menopause. More importantly, these traits are then passed on to their daughters, who also, on average, had more children. The study has not determined why these factors are linked to reproductive success, but it is likely that they indicate genetic, rather than environmental, effects. 'The evolution that's going on in the Framingham women is like average rates of evolution measured in other plants and animals,' says Stearns. 'These results place humans in the medium-to-slow end of the range of rates observed for other living things.'"
It's obvious that lighter and taller women have more sex than the heavier and shorter ones, so it's birth control that we should blame for the study's results!
I completely and totally disagree with that cartoon. If you're a grumpy bastard then yes you'll scare off women, but there's nothing wrong with observing trends like "less intelligent people have tons of babies". It demonstrates higher reasoning, which demonstrates superior survival skills, and gets you hot women like Mrs. Obama who appreciate smart men.
BTW I think the Chinese have the right idea.
One child per couple may be anti-freedom, but living on an overpopulated planet is not fun either. We are quite literally soiling our own nest, and living in our own filth (air is polluted; water has toxic chemicals; and fossil energy is running out). I think by 2050 we'll experience a radical population decline - probably through starvation. Better to limit growth at birth, rather than through death.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
There is no genetic advantage to homosexuality. Therefore, there are no gay hippopotamuses.
Not counting this guy
They are ALL jews. Whatever you call it. It can't be an accident. Any more than all the Cosa Nostra is Sicillian. But that isn't "anti-latininsm" if you point it out.
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Never been known to fail..."