By now even the alpha males realize the nerds have been crowding
their act with the female of the species. In terms of both sex and
success. For every LeBron James or Donald Trump there are dozens of
nerdy successes like Gates, Zuckerberg, Jobs, and Spielberg. When did
the tide turn?
Actually about 4 million years ago, fellas.
According
to a team of biomathematicians from the University of Tennessee: "The
most important sexual revolution happened when the alphas overplayed
their testosterone with the females." While the toughs conquered and
kept their women by power, the weaker males conquered them by cunning.
Sound familiar?
Similar
to the monkey populations, some hominids learned to shower a particular
female with food and attentions. In time these females rewarded their
providers with both their bodies and their fidelity. Head researcher
Sergey Gavrilets writes in this month's Los Angeles Times: "Without the
romantic strategy devised by the more sensitive pre-historlc males, we
wouldn't have the modern family."
To be sure, today's females
still find hunks attractive. But their habit of marrying the
less-hunky-more- sensitive suitors has little to do with being recently
"emancipated." In evolutionary terms, the female of the species was
emancipated long long ago. Some of them just never told us.
But
then what about all those glitz paparazzi stories about
Drop-Dead-Gorgeous-Female-Celebrity gliding down the wedding aisle [in
white, no less!] with Breathlessly-Beautiful-Stud-Male-Celebrity? Lets
put is this way. In evolutionary terms, don't hold your breath waiting
for any silver anniversary stories.
Maybe it's true what they
say: "Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty because it lasts." Who
says that? Those hominids who have learned to understand the difference.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
SURVIVING A WORLD OF GIGABYTES AND GIGGLEBITES
Willingly or not, you and I navigate through a world of
gigabytes. But lets not forget those once-upon- a-time gigglebites.
Here's the difference. Gigabytes are how we describe our 24/7 mass of
information. Gigglebites are how we translate all this information for
ourselves. The first is part of the new digital age; the second is part
of our old human nature. You know...trying to figure out complicated
stuff by the use of uncomplicated captions.
For instance, giggly captions we stick on public figures in order to label-them-so-we-don't-have-to-take-the-time-to-understand-them. Romney: Job Cutting Capitalist! Obama: Islamic Socialist! LeBron James: Follow the Money Traitor! John Edwards: Wife Cheater! Mel Gibson: Jew Hater! Paris Hilton: Young Fool! The Pope: Old Fool!
It's easy to see how handy Gigglebites can be. No need to bother with the person's past contributions, current visions, or their place in the overall society. We already know them for what they are. Period, end of discussion!
Are there any upbeat Gigglebites...? Well, yes there are. Steven Spielberg: Genius! Donald Trump: Rich! Johnny Carson: Icon! Caroline Kennedy: Camelot!
The computer age is stuffing our brain circuitry with so much stuff every hour of every day that the circuitry has to scale back enough not to crash. Captioning people has been one of humanity's handiest and more honored strategies. And that's not likely to ever change.
But if any truth-seekers out there want to try, Carl Jung's advice sounds like a good place to begin: "Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of others..." Nothing giga nor giggly about that injunction!
For instance, giggly captions we stick on public figures in order to label-them-so-we-don't-have-to-take-the-time-to-understand-them. Romney: Job Cutting Capitalist! Obama: Islamic Socialist! LeBron James: Follow the Money Traitor! John Edwards: Wife Cheater! Mel Gibson: Jew Hater! Paris Hilton: Young Fool! The Pope: Old Fool!
It's easy to see how handy Gigglebites can be. No need to bother with the person's past contributions, current visions, or their place in the overall society. We already know them for what they are. Period, end of discussion!
Are there any upbeat Gigglebites...? Well, yes there are. Steven Spielberg: Genius! Donald Trump: Rich! Johnny Carson: Icon! Caroline Kennedy: Camelot!
The computer age is stuffing our brain circuitry with so much stuff every hour of every day that the circuitry has to scale back enough not to crash. Captioning people has been one of humanity's handiest and more honored strategies. And that's not likely to ever change.
But if any truth-seekers out there want to try, Carl Jung's advice sounds like a good place to begin: "Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of others..." Nothing giga nor giggly about that injunction!
Sunday, June 10, 2012
CITY SUMMERS LURE BOTH GANGS AND GHOSTS TO OUR STREETS
There is a century-old ghost walking Larabee Avenue between
Division Street on the north and Chicago Avenue to the south. Not many
of us around anymore to spot him, oh but he's there. Every summer night.
You see, more than gangs hit our summer streets.
This particular ghost was both saint and sinner during the 20th C. Sinner... for this neighborhood was known to the police as "crime central" because of the way the Sicilian Black Hand ruled the immigrants housed here. Saint...because here loomed the grand old St Philip Catholic Church which relived the neighbors' faith with frequent street festivals and saints' parades ["The Godfather" faithfully recaptures many of those very scenes].
By the 1960s, the ill-fated Sicilians were gone and the ill-fated Cabrini Green was built in their place. Now the area, like so many, is being re gentrified. Still, the saintly sinner ghost can still be heard and felt if you know just how to find him on a warm summer night there.
Why speak of gangs and ghosts...? Because each in their own way helps explain one of the great conundrums to 21st C urban life. Its discontented summertime rage.
The majority of Americans now live in cities. And cities are known for their anonymity. People living next door to people they don't know nor wish to. Yes, peace & privacy is one of the desirables. But no, isolation is not. And so while most of us most of the time busy ourselves with our television options, computers, smartphones,. and iPads INSIDE, the ancient tribal instinct to rub the flesh with others can still lure us OUTSIDE.
For those who are young and angry -- street gangs! For those older and isolated -- street festivals! Chicago alone has over 500 every year from block-parties to food-fests to music-bashes to religious commemorations. Loud and lusty, boisterous and buggy, we love them. And the city loves what they can do to reconnect angry and isolated lives.
As for the gangs -- they remain a crisis to be resolved. As for the ghost -- he remains a chance to re-discover what we still have in common.
This particular ghost was both saint and sinner during the 20th C. Sinner... for this neighborhood was known to the police as "crime central" because of the way the Sicilian Black Hand ruled the immigrants housed here. Saint...because here loomed the grand old St Philip Catholic Church which relived the neighbors' faith with frequent street festivals and saints' parades ["The Godfather" faithfully recaptures many of those very scenes].
By the 1960s, the ill-fated Sicilians were gone and the ill-fated Cabrini Green was built in their place. Now the area, like so many, is being re gentrified. Still, the saintly sinner ghost can still be heard and felt if you know just how to find him on a warm summer night there.
Why speak of gangs and ghosts...? Because each in their own way helps explain one of the great conundrums to 21st C urban life. Its discontented summertime rage.
The majority of Americans now live in cities. And cities are known for their anonymity. People living next door to people they don't know nor wish to. Yes, peace & privacy is one of the desirables. But no, isolation is not. And so while most of us most of the time busy ourselves with our television options, computers, smartphones,. and iPads INSIDE, the ancient tribal instinct to rub the flesh with others can still lure us OUTSIDE.
For those who are young and angry -- street gangs! For those older and isolated -- street festivals! Chicago alone has over 500 every year from block-parties to food-fests to music-bashes to religious commemorations. Loud and lusty, boisterous and buggy, we love them. And the city loves what they can do to reconnect angry and isolated lives.
As for the gangs -- they remain a crisis to be resolved. As for the ghost -- he remains a chance to re-discover what we still have in common.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
JUST MAYBE YOUR FUTURE IS NOT IN YOUR STARS, BUT IN YOUR STATS
Statistics mean you never have to say you're certain.
And yet how we moderns love them. Like great burning bushes, the reports from our statisticians are usually considered holy writ. If our doubts have grown about our old Faiths, we can find new ones in the numbers written by the fingers of our mathematical prophets. Here are five recent sets of stats:
* As the media has covered women's issues like birth control and abortion, TheDailyBeast.com reports 81% of the commentators were men while only 12% were women
* An AP analysis of the Top 40 over the last 50 years shows songs in minor {gloomier} keys have doubled since 1960
* Gallup reports 46% of Americans believe in creationism rather than evolution
* An Austrian crematorium exploded while burning the corpse of a 440 pound woman when the operators failed to calculate for the obesity factor
* A Zogby Poll states 66% of American parents say the risk of concussion would not deter them from allowing their children to play football
If statistics like these reflect reality, it may be fair to say reality these days has really become, well, a little unreal!
Saving the best set of stats for last, political analysts have crunched some remarkable numbers about our two presidential contenders. If Romney wins, he wins; if Obama loses, he wins. How is this? If Romney wins and enacts his tax proposal, he'll pay only half of what he would under Obama's plan. If Obama loses, he gets a $90,000 windfall saving under the Romney tax plan.
What are we saying here...? Romney wins by winning, but to win Obama has to lose...? While you crunch the answer to that, you may wish to do what I plan to do: Call the guy who does my taxes to explain to me just how I can win by losing. Please...!
And yet how we moderns love them. Like great burning bushes, the reports from our statisticians are usually considered holy writ. If our doubts have grown about our old Faiths, we can find new ones in the numbers written by the fingers of our mathematical prophets. Here are five recent sets of stats:
* As the media has covered women's issues like birth control and abortion, TheDailyBeast.com reports 81% of the commentators were men while only 12% were women
* An AP analysis of the Top 40 over the last 50 years shows songs in minor {gloomier} keys have doubled since 1960
* Gallup reports 46% of Americans believe in creationism rather than evolution
* An Austrian crematorium exploded while burning the corpse of a 440 pound woman when the operators failed to calculate for the obesity factor
* A Zogby Poll states 66% of American parents say the risk of concussion would not deter them from allowing their children to play football
If statistics like these reflect reality, it may be fair to say reality these days has really become, well, a little unreal!
Saving the best set of stats for last, political analysts have crunched some remarkable numbers about our two presidential contenders. If Romney wins, he wins; if Obama loses, he wins. How is this? If Romney wins and enacts his tax proposal, he'll pay only half of what he would under Obama's plan. If Obama loses, he gets a $90,000 windfall saving under the Romney tax plan.
What are we saying here...? Romney wins by winning, but to win Obama has to lose...? While you crunch the answer to that, you may wish to do what I plan to do: Call the guy who does my taxes to explain to me just how I can win by losing. Please...!
Friday, June 8, 2012
DO YOU SOMETIME WISH YOU WERE INVISIBLE?
Everyone has on occasion wished they could be invisible. Just
for a little while. Say when your friends are talking about you, or when
your boss is evaluating you, or most especially when the one you love
is sharing their feelings about you to a confidant.
But then there's the ancient warning: "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." If the truth-makes-us-free, it can often hurt like hell. Perhaps living in a world of little white lies -- theirs and ours -- is a much easier world to travel.
Still, this notion of invisibility remains intriguing. And when you give it some thought, you're aware of just how many forces in our daily lives are virtually that -- invisible. Light waves...radio and television waves...lasers...radiation...bacterium...and the latest entry into the field: cybernetics.
Cybernetics has already gotten a bad name. As in cyber-wars. Both America and Israel have reportedly infected the Iranian atomic programs with long-distance viruses to slow or destroy their targets. Like the US drones often invisible to those on the ground, cyber-warfare is the latest form of science-fiction come true.
Think of it this way. The natives in the farthest reaches of the fabled Tibetan highlands or on the most isolated Pacific islands move through their daily lives in the same primitive ways of their ancestors. Hunting, fishing, celebrating. And yet they are unknowingly moving through a 360-degree field of these same invisible forces that power our computer-banks, smartphones, iPads, and cyber wars. You are struck by the thought: Think of all they're missing...!
A followup thought might be: Think of all we're missing...!
But then there's the ancient warning: "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." If the truth-makes-us-free, it can often hurt like hell. Perhaps living in a world of little white lies -- theirs and ours -- is a much easier world to travel.
Still, this notion of invisibility remains intriguing. And when you give it some thought, you're aware of just how many forces in our daily lives are virtually that -- invisible. Light waves...radio and television waves...lasers...radiation...bacterium...and the latest entry into the field: cybernetics.
Cybernetics has already gotten a bad name. As in cyber-wars. Both America and Israel have reportedly infected the Iranian atomic programs with long-distance viruses to slow or destroy their targets. Like the US drones often invisible to those on the ground, cyber-warfare is the latest form of science-fiction come true.
Think of it this way. The natives in the farthest reaches of the fabled Tibetan highlands or on the most isolated Pacific islands move through their daily lives in the same primitive ways of their ancestors. Hunting, fishing, celebrating. And yet they are unknowingly moving through a 360-degree field of these same invisible forces that power our computer-banks, smartphones, iPads, and cyber wars. You are struck by the thought: Think of all they're missing...!
A followup thought might be: Think of all we're missing...!
Thursday, June 7, 2012
EVERY DAY IS HALLOWEEN NIGHT
Of all our holidays, Halloween is the least romantic or
sentimental. Indeed, it is the night when we allow our worst demons out
to roam the streets in full costume. Ghosts, vampires, witches, goblins,
and Sarah Palin. But why is this...?
Psychiatrists tell us it's a necessary purging of the libido, that dark and menacing current which runs like a secret torrent through the chambers of our hidden hearts. Well, I'm okay with that. Putting faces and figures onto our worst fears does seem to allow us to laugh them away. But what of the days and nights after Halloween?
During those 364 sunrises and sunsets that same libido harbors fears we can't put into handy costumes to laugh at. What then?
Fear not, for there are always fears at hand throughout the year. Fears we can anthropomorphize as needed. Every age has their favorites. The Persians had Shedu, the Jews Mazzik, the Hindus Butahs, the ancient Greeks & Romans their gods of the underworld. Later the emperor of evil: The Devil.
However, these are only the furies-of-fear that come to us from our respective cultures. The greater of these are the ones we create ourselves. But so as not to frighten ourselves too much, we create them in the form of fiction. In the East one of the favorites has been Godzilla and his many derivatives. In the West there have been classics like Dracula...Frankenstein...King Kong...the Wolf Man...Mr Hyde.
Leaving fiction for reality, in our own times the West has had a great run of actual monsters to fear. To hate. And in time to destroy. There were such as Attila...Napoleon...Hitler...Stalin. For others there was Jefferson Davis....FDR...Clinton...Bush...the Pope...and now Obama. It is always fiercely fulfilling to find a monster in whom our worst fears can thrive, rage, and eventually conquer.
Often we get our fears and terrors exactly right. There are few who will step forward to defend a Hitler or a Stalin. Indeed their own people have experienced the consummate purgation by hating their own monsters more than anyone else. But then there are those who are simply monsters-for-a-day. The political and religious monsters of the moment who -- once defeated and/or dead -- can hypocritically conjure up lyrical epitaphs from even their greatest haters.
Just one more feature of that remarkable existential phenomenon known as the Human Condition. It is just so enormously human of us humans to fear something and someone all the days of our life. As little children fear the sounds that go bump in the night, all the way to the gnashed-teeth protestors spilling their hate into the streets, the pulpits, and later this summer in our two political conventions.
Psychiatrists tell us it's a necessary purging of the libido, that dark and menacing current which runs like a secret torrent through the chambers of our hidden hearts. Well, I'm okay with that. Putting faces and figures onto our worst fears does seem to allow us to laugh them away. But what of the days and nights after Halloween?
During those 364 sunrises and sunsets that same libido harbors fears we can't put into handy costumes to laugh at. What then?
Fear not, for there are always fears at hand throughout the year. Fears we can anthropomorphize as needed. Every age has their favorites. The Persians had Shedu, the Jews Mazzik, the Hindus Butahs, the ancient Greeks & Romans their gods of the underworld. Later the emperor of evil: The Devil.
However, these are only the furies-of-fear that come to us from our respective cultures. The greater of these are the ones we create ourselves. But so as not to frighten ourselves too much, we create them in the form of fiction. In the East one of the favorites has been Godzilla and his many derivatives. In the West there have been classics like Dracula...Frankenstein...King Kong...the Wolf Man...Mr Hyde.
Leaving fiction for reality, in our own times the West has had a great run of actual monsters to fear. To hate. And in time to destroy. There were such as Attila...Napoleon...Hitler...Stalin. For others there was Jefferson Davis....FDR...Clinton...Bush...the Pope...and now Obama. It is always fiercely fulfilling to find a monster in whom our worst fears can thrive, rage, and eventually conquer.
Often we get our fears and terrors exactly right. There are few who will step forward to defend a Hitler or a Stalin. Indeed their own people have experienced the consummate purgation by hating their own monsters more than anyone else. But then there are those who are simply monsters-for-a-day. The political and religious monsters of the moment who -- once defeated and/or dead -- can hypocritically conjure up lyrical epitaphs from even their greatest haters.
Just one more feature of that remarkable existential phenomenon known as the Human Condition. It is just so enormously human of us humans to fear something and someone all the days of our life. As little children fear the sounds that go bump in the night, all the way to the gnashed-teeth protestors spilling their hate into the streets, the pulpits, and later this summer in our two political conventions.
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