Jump to content

Musings on Random Musings


Kara Zor-El

Recommended Posts

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Scientific throw-away lines that go far to explain Teh Bunneh and the threat he represents.

 

(Spoilered text includes detailed technical discussion of mammalian male reproductive mechanisms, so technical it should be safe for work, but people get squeamish....)

 

 

Sperm competition. Two key factors dominate anthropoid reproductive behavior and are therefore diagnostic of socio-sexual structure: (i) sperm competition and (ii) male-to-male competition for mates. Various anatomical correlates distinguish monogamous or single male primates from other species whose males engage in sperm competition. Among the most obvious is the much higher ratio of testes volume to body mass. Human ratios are generally similar to those of monogamous gibbons and solitary orangutans, but the ratios are three times higher in Pan (41, 42) and other sperm-competing species such as Brachyteles (43). Moreover, human testes are most similar to those of gibbons with respect to their higher proportion of intertubular (non-seminiferous) tissue (42). Mammalian sperm competition is generally accompanied by elevated ejaculate quality (44), which is also notably poor in humans. In Homo sapiens, the absolute rate of sperm production is only about 20% that of much smaller rhesus macaques (45). Another measure, spermatogenesis efficiency (daily sperm production per gram of testes), "varies from about 2.65 x 10^7 in rabbits to <0.06 x 10^6 in humans" (46). The estimated corresponding value in chimpanzees is greater than that of humans by two orders of magnitude (42).

 

-- C. Owen Lovejoy, in "Reexamining Human Origins in Light of Ardipithecus ramidus", Science 2 October 2009, Vol. 326. no. 5949, pp. 74

 

(The Arabic numbers in parentheses are footnotes in the original text; emphasized text has been set in bold by the poster)

 

 

 

(Pan is the genus of the chimpanzee; Brachyteles is the genus of woolly spider monkeys.)

 

The guy's no human chauvinist, either, as evidenced by the sentence ending "... which is notably poor in humans." :D

 

Give up your women peacefully. There's no sense in resisting. Science once again proves me right!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Arrgh. I can see the future' date=' and it contains "FORMAT C:" very soon.[/quote']

 

If this is to clean up a virus, I'd overwrite the drive. At work, I've seen at least one virus remain even after we re-formatted and re-imaged the drive. Something like Darik's Boot & Nuke (http://www.dban.org/) will work just fine, and it's freeware.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

I'll look at that, especially if the symptoms persist. I've got an antiquated box (Win98) with a larger drive split into 5 partitions, and I am hoping that only the C: partition is compromised.

 

Of course, if this is one of those things that gets itself into the firmware, then I might as well set the box on fire.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

I find it vaguely amusing that people think 6th edition is both "dumbed down" and "more complex."

 

I think we should get both groups together and make them fight! :snicker:

 

or, in the spirit of beer commercials everywhere, have each group represented by a beautiful oil wrestler...seriously, you should have thought of this on your own. I am disappointed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...