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

[Kevin Freels]

>
> 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