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All-Corn Diet Turns Hamsters Into Cannibals
An anonymous reader quotes Engadget:
A new paper outlines the efforts of scientists at the University of Strasbourg to determine why the European hamster has been dying off at an alarming rate... Previously, the rodent's diet consisted of grains, roots and insects. But the regions in which its numbers were dropping have been taken over by the industrial farming of corn... Researchers in France have discovered that a monotonous diet of corn causes hamsters to exhibit some unusual behavior -- cannibalism.
âoeImproperly cooked maize-based diets have been associated with higher rates of homicide, suicide and cannibalism in humans," the researchers point out, and they believe it's the absence of vitamin B3 which is affecting the hamsters' nervous system and triggering dementia-like behavior. Hamsters are already an endangered species in Western Europe, so this is being heavily-researched. And they obviously won't improve their chances of survival with cannibalism.
âoeImproperly cooked maize-based diets have been associated with higher rates of homicide, suicide and cannibalism in humans," the researchers point out, and they believe it's the absence of vitamin B3 which is affecting the hamsters' nervous system and triggering dementia-like behavior. Hamsters are already an endangered species in Western Europe, so this is being heavily-researched. And they obviously won't improve their chances of survival with cannibalism.
I misread Cannibals as Cannabis and thought - that's quite a magic trick.
And they obviously won't improve their chances of survival with cannibalism.
It's tempting to accept this statement at face value, but an instance of cannibalism involves the death of an individual, not the death of a species. Cannibalism is just another variant of natural selection, and it's fairly easy to construct a scenario where it in fact leads to better overall survival rates (e.g. only the sick are eaten, or the challenge of evading being eaten leads to the accelerated development of intelligence/swiftness/whatever). Whether it turns out that way in this case remains to be seen.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
... thousands of /.ers around the World stop to stare blankly at their bowl of Corn Flakes (or whatever breakfast cereal) ...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
The dim-witted hamsters don't realize that they need to nixtamize their maize to get adequate nutrition.
Well, not so much the cannibalism part, but the dementia part.
Corn cell walls separated mostly by Hemicellulose, and breaking down this tough molecule is necessary to access the nutritional compounds found within, including niacin. Humans can't do it very easily. Mesoamericans figured out the way a long, long time ago how to break apart hemicellulose by mixing a little ash into the water used to boil the maize kernels, breaking apart the hemicellulose and freeing up the niacin, a process called nixtamalization.
When Europeans landed in the 15th and 16th centuries, they took corn back to Europe, but not the nixtamalization process. As a sort of crude justice for all the pain and suffering Europeans inflicted on the natives, the European cultures that adopted corn as their cereal crop suffered greatly from pellagra, a disease brought about from the absence of niacin. A disease which includes among its symptoms dementia.
What's happening with these hamsters sounds eerily similar.
An all-corn diet has virtually no protein... The body will eventually rebel against such a diet, and force a change in nutrient availability. I was born and raised in Iowa, so I love the taste of corn, but even I know that a man cannot live on corn alone... nor a rat.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
Is this a property of corn or a monotonous diet?
From TFS, researchers think it's possibly a lack of vitamin B3 (aka Niacin) from a corn-only diet. So yes, it could be due to a monotonous diet, but not the monotony of the diet.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Budweiser has a high corn content (along with white rice). In fact, most mass market American beers are corn based. That is what gives them that watery sickly sweet taste. Homicide, insanity, cannibalism--alcohol fueled? Perhaps . . . but more likely the corn in the beer.
It means acute dis-balance and/or deficiency of some nutrients which organism is trying to compensate. It also could explain in part aggression in general - getting better nutrition no matter what, implemented as some hormonal pathway.
... on a cob?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
But only if it's processed correctly. The lack of critical nutrients like niacin results in nutritious deficiencies, like pellagra, a nasty and potentially lethal disease.
Mesoamerican peoples discovered all they needed to do is to pre-cook corn by boiling it in water and some lime, in order to have a product that didn't made people sick.
That's the reason why people that adopted corn later (e.g. people in Africa), but that didn't adopt this simple method still suffer pellagra nowadays.
Of course sometimes we do sometimes engage in cannibalism, both for symbolic cultural purposes and survival.
From an evolutionary standpoint, you might frame the question like this: what is the optimal rate of cannibalism in a species? Well there are plenty species where it is common, but they're species that have reproductive strategies that involve large numbers of offspring -- more than can typically be carried by their environment. That gives them the advantage of being able to exploit unusually favorable conditions, and when things are less than favorable cannibalism keeps those limited nutrients in the family, so to speak.
Humans most often have small litter sizes (one is overwhelmingly prevalent), and are extraordinarily expensive in evolutionary terms to raise to reproductive age. It makes sense that the optimal rate of cannibalism for a species like ours is close to zero. But not quite zero.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Animals that gets disturbed too much might eat their young. Basiclly, they figure it is impossible to raise young under current conditions. So they eat them, regaining the proteins which may be scarce. This improves the chance of reproducing later, perhaps after fleeing to a better place.
Why I'm in favor of legal 75th trimester abortions. At the demand of _either_ parent after the first 3 (when only the mother can pull the plug).
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Per Twain:
"When a child turns 12, he should be kept in a barrel and fed through the bung hole, until he reaches 16at which time you plug the bung hole"
I guess I had better keep a sharp eye on the grandkids the next time I make cornmeal pancakes for them.
So it's fine to beat unpopular kids?
Hamsters of the Corn.
Let me guess - supporting Trump is like raping little boys - feels great as long as nobody you know finds out, right?
Cross reference with
Pellagra and the origin of a myth: evidence from European literature and folklore.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1296679/
Cross reference with the historical research on a village in Transylvania in the 1800s where the vilagers ate a diet of just corn without lime or other products providing vitamin B. The entire village suffered pelegra. Their skin would blister within minutes of sun exposure. This had led some historians to speculate that tales of the event may have had some influence on Bram Stoker's Dracula. For published a published, referreed article see, e.g.,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1296679/
... I initially read the headline as:
All-Corn Diet Turns Hamsters Into Cannabis"
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
You notice the wrong goddam things.
If you focus on the comment(s) you won't care if it's AC or not.
I'm not AC and I say that orange motherfucker is an admitted pussy grabber and he's self-identified as a sexual predator.
And, I have stuff that matters to back that up.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
“Improperly cooked maize-based diets have been associated with higher rates of homicide, suicide and cannibalism in humans,” the researchers note.
This remindeds me of the book Man Corn by Christy G. Turner II
From Goodreads:
"Christy and Jacqueline Turner’s study of prehistoric violence, homicide, and cannibalism explodes the myth that the Anasazi and other Southwest Indians were simple, peaceful farmers. Using detailed osteological analyses and other lines of evidence the Turners show that warfare, violence, and their concomitant horrors were as common in the ancient Southwest as anywhere else in the world... The authors review several hypotheses for Southwest cannibalism: starvation, social pathology, and institutionalized violence and cannibalism. In the latter case, they present evidence for a potential Mexican connection and demonstrate that most of the known cannibalized series are located temporally and spatially near Chaco great houses."
It looks like Christy and Turner can add another reason for cannabalism among the Anasazi: a corn-based diet
You clearly did not parse my statement thoroughly. Infliction of pain is not acceptable, as the recipient clearly suffers as a result.
You're making my point. Since you (and hopefully others) would suffer emotionally should you kill me, then the conditions are not met.
Mine is a relativist philosophy of the value of life. The value only obtains in relationship to others. Absent any such relationship(s) the timing of the end of that life is of no consequence.
Consequently, I recommend that you move out of your mom's basement and make some friends.
Ok, so euthanasia of the unpopular is fine.
Dude, I'm really trying hard not to break Godwin's Law here...
Hamsters are no group animals. If you have them in a group, they either fuck or bite each other or fuck and then the female bites the male until it leaves. Dead animals are eaten, as hamsters do eat meat, if they get some and they care to get rid of dead corpses to avoid attracting enemies.
This hasn't anything to do with a corn diet, which is common for golden hamsters as pets.
Everyone knows, babies are are just tastier! Beef and pork are best when young!
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How you got to this concept from my statement is a reflection of your simplistic analysis
Explanation here.
Has no one else tried to click on the second link in the summary? It directs to "https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/01/29/068214/gizmodo.com/all-corn-diet-turns-hamsters-into-cannibals-who-eat-the-1791736449" - shouldn't Slashdot editors know how to set up a URL (in addition to preview/edit)? : \
If the hamsters ate each other, clearly the study failed to make sure they ate an all-corn diet. Fail.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
When the first book on the paleo diet came out, circa 20 years ago ?, I read it at Border's on the installment plan. 3-5 visits with a large cafe mocha and I could get through similar books.
I quickly determined they left something paleo man would have been eating: bugs.
Even now, 20 years late, most American writers and promoters of paleo realize that if they mention cavemen or homonids without caves would have gladly much on ants, grasshoppers, grubs if they were hungry enough, they would loose a fair percent of the readers they are trying to convert.
Well, unless you believe paleo people were Kosher.
BTW, the lack of perfection of re-creating a paleo diet--mastadons are hard to come by these days, does not invalidate one of the concepts coming out the theory of the paleo diet: that highly processed or concentrated nutrients may 'overwhelm' our biology, and that things grown in a vat (genetically engineered into living organisms) may not 'match' our nutritional needs very well.
Short term severe or moderate poisonous effects will probably tend to be figured out rather soon, but long term or minor effects, good, back, or other, may be harder to establish.
Could this explain some aspects of Aztec and Mayan culture?
So for example male spiders in the orb-web families spin a line of very stretch silk which they keep attached to a leg during initial contact and mating with a female - as soon as mating concludes they let go with the other legs and their bungie cord gives them a very rapid escape. Cannibalism only happens if the cord fails to function for some reason, or the female manages to be faster than the cord (seriously low odds). So while cannibalism almost never happens - the behaviour shows that there is a very real risk of it, hence the males have evolved an intricate defence mechanism to avoid that fate..
Wow, screwing their females, and then bungee jumping right afterwards - these spiders are rad, dude!
at which time you plug the bung hole
I know there's a priest joke to be made here somewhere...
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
This just in! Liberals can't handle losing. News at 11
Our country is now in serious and unprecedented trouble like never before.
This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!
More votes equals a loss revolution!
Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us.
We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!
The phoney electoral college made a laughing stock out of our nation. The loser one!
He lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!
- Donald Trump, 2012, when he thought Obama had lost the popular vote but won the electoral college
How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?
You mean, life expectancy of what's left of 'those natives'?
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
People have been associating the obesity epidemic and various other problems to the rise of corn syrup sweetener; this suggests the influences could be more serious.
..and hipsters into vegans. Thus the equilibrium is maintained.
http://www.krackatinni.net.au/...
(javscript required, and it's still ugly)
"These male Aboriginals are all cannibals. The height of a blackfella's ambition is to kill and eat some member of another tribe; although quite content to eat his own off-spring or barter them for weapons of exceptional value. When the children are considered fat enough the killing is not delayed."
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
I don't think anyone is telling you that you cannot use a condom, unless you are a catholic. However, why should the state pay for your condoms? If you can't even afford condoms, maybe sex is the least of your worries.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
(Said when DJT was a member of the DNC).
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
I can see you have a hard time ascertaining what is and is not reality. Trump was never a member of the Democratic National Committee. He registered as a Republican in 2009 and started his "birtherism" bullshit in 2011 when he considered running for President (as a Republican) in 2012.
How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?
It looks like you have trouble ascertaining what is and is not sarcasm. I was not meaning that as a literal statement of which party Trump was in, but that he was a member of the DNC repeatedly, and the only reason many seem to be against things he does is because he was elected from the RNC, not because they have put the least amount of thought into anything he does or says. This is specifically evidenced by the conversation above, which conveniently gives Obama a pass for doing the exact same thing, while demonizing Trump for doing it.
http://www.politifact.com/flor...
Yes, I am aware that Trump was not a Democrat at the time, but he actually could have been an independent at the time, depending on when the statement was made.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?