[ExI] Malthusian Environment and head lice [Was Re: Not Dollar a gallon gas was Rationality and Irrationality]

[Mirco Romanato]

Kevin Freels ha scritto:
>> The point of dollar a gallon gas posting was to simulate hard number 
>> discussion about real engineering, not endless political 
>> bickering.  Maybe it's just not the right time of year for serious discussion.
>>   
> Good point.
>> Did anyone read the web site about selection in the English 
>> Malthusian environment?
>>
>>   
> Working on it. Was planning to do it last night but I came to find out 
> that my tween daughters had been invaded by a very successful and 
> specialized parasite - head lice. We spent several hours nit-picking the 
> lousy nit-wits and I haven't found the time since. These little beasties 
> are rather interesting. 3 different species affect three specific parts 
> of the body and no others. Head lice don't populate body or pubic areas, 
> Pubic lice don't get into hair. Intuition suggests that lice should have 
> become generalists as the human body hair gradually reduced over time. 
> Instead we ended up with three specific species. This may suggest that 
> our loss of body hair was rather rapid. Of course, getting all of that 
> out of a brief run in with lice on my children's hair is probably a 
> stretch. Maybe I should just shut the brain down and watch TV a bit 
> more. lol

There is an interesting article around about the co-evolution of the 
three populations of lice and the humans (and now we know when we become 
naked apes and when we invented the clothes).

Mirco
-- 
[Intangible capital is] the preponderant form of wealth.
When we look at the shares of intangible capital across income classes, 
you see it goes from about 60 percent in low-income countries to 80 
percent in high-income countries.
That accords very much with the notion that what really makes countries 
wealthy is not the bits and pieces, it's the brainpower, and the 
institutions that harness that brainpower.
It's the skills more than the rocks and minerals.
—Kirk Hamilton

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