finally finished this good book

So I'm behind the times. This book came out in 1997. I was 11 then. I'm mostly intersted in this stuff because I think that the best diet for people to eat is a paleolithic diet (wild meat,fish,vegetables,nuts,berries,fruit). Not that I like elk meat or venison or want to give up peanut butter, cookies, dairy and grains or anything - but I think that this is the diet our bodies are genetically programmed to eat. So I am interested in any information about the beginnings of agriculture or the diet people ate before they were "civilized." And I have always wondered why africans are so far behind the times when apparently that is where homo erectus and homo sapiens developed.


ANYWAYS - Main point of the book: environment determines how societies grow and develop. In the beginning of time - the people who lived in environments where food could be farmed and domesticated fared better than those who lived in places where food remained wild and untamed. The first farmer Joes (fertile cresentites and their european grandkids) were the ones to develop guns, germs and steel - which allowed them to conquer people in far away lands that were still hunting/gathering without guns/germs/steel (book of mormonites in south america).


From my dietitian perspective: People who ate more protein had more brain power/energy/time to build societies and such. food is important - what we eat determines who we are - also, food is linked to the environment - thus how we treat the environment is important.

Its interesting that once people started eating a grain based diet they started developing diseases. The author points out that influenza and such developed when people domesticated animals (swine flu/bird flu)- but I wonder if their change in diet was part of the problem. (and of course their seasonal changes in melatonin from living at higher latitudes)

The book isn't trying to make a point of which is better - hunting/gathering vs. "civilization" and I don't think there is an answer to that.


But it seems to me that we should have just stuck with hunting and gathering - hanging out all day in the garden of eden - picking flowers - eating berries - that's the life! Dying from attack of a cheetah - or from old age when you were 30 - no such thing as getting arthritis living the paleolithic way. If you're too lazy to find your food - - you die by your own accord -- no such thing as welfare. But then you'de end up living with your extended family you whole life. Nobody wants that.


From what I've seen/read/heard it seems that people are just about as happy as they make themselves to be - no matter where/how they live. In the end it doesn't really matter. It's just interesting to think about. That was a long post - anybody have similar/opposing thoughts?

ruggedized

Sorry if you've tried to call me in the past week. I broke my phone AGAIN and have been phoneless. I ordered a new phone yesterday. This time I decided to get rugged. We'll see how this phone deals with my abuse! I'm pretty sure the selling point for me was the built in compass. It's important to always know which way is north! If only richard's phone had push to talk...........



The G'zOne Boulder is built to military specifications to survive extreme shock, water and dust environments. Push to Talk gives you quick access to contacts to get the job done efficiently. Take and share photos with the 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, because a picture is worth a thousand words.

here's the specs (i deleted all the ones i dont care about):

Design

• Rugged Design
• Meets Military specifications10F standards for Water, Shock & Dust Resistance, Immersion, Vibration, Salt Fog, Humidity, Solar Radiation, Altitude, Low and High Temperature Storage

General

• Flashlight
• Tools: Alarm Clock, Calculator, Calendar, Stop Watch, Countdown Timer, World Clock, Electronic Compass
• TTY Compatible
• Total Equipment Coverage is Available

(what's TTY compatible mean??? Talk To Yourself???)

house update

Hi Richard and Nicole,

It’s a good thing we had the sewer inspection. There are all kinds of problems and the line needs to be replaced.

It sounds like they’ll fix the ceiling, but not do the other repairs. They said they will only take care of lender required repairs, which the sewer should be. I’ll work on getting estimates to the bank and keep you posted about what they say.

I’ve attached the receipt for the inspection. It’s kind of hard to make out exactly what it says. We’ll mail you the hard copy as well as the DVD. Can you please send payment to the inspector? Their address is on the receipt. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Ryan Kofman, Broker

Axness & Kofman Real Estate

photoperiod + swine flu.

I get a nasty cold/flu EVERY year about this time. Which is weird, because I hardly ever get sick in the winter. Since I've been banished from work today (one benefit of working in health care is that they take sick days seriously) I decided to do a little research on the subject.

So I googled this phrase " seasonal immune comprimise" and came up with a bunch of journal articles.

Apparently I am close to my mammilian predecessor the hampster because several studies have shown that hampsters and rats have decreased immune function in the summer(http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/38/1/226.pdf).

In brief:
Winters are super stressful for animals. They've got to try to stay warm while surviving on the little bits of food that are left over from the fall. Because they have a minimum amount of food, animals have to maximize their use of energy. Apparantly the sun controls which body functions still get used in the winter and which ones get shut off.
Once the days start getting shorter (less sun), the body starts producing more of the hormone melatonin, which in turn increases the bodies immune function and decreases the production of sex hormones! So that is why most animals don't mate in the winter..........and this must also be why I never get sick in the winter!

When spring rolls around, the animals change gears. There is plenty of food around and they don't have to spend as much energy staying warm - the longer days decrease the amount of melatonin made in the body which in turn decreases immune function and increases sex hormones. Sooooo when the days get longer, animals stop working on immunity and start working on creating posterity..........


I'm pretty sure this research is limited to hampster and rat subjects. But I think that my immune function is affected by the photoperiod (change in day length). Maybe most people aren't affected by this because they usually aren't awake when the sun rises. Or maybe most people aren't affected becuase their bodies carry more than enough energy stores to run all body functions at the same time........who knows................. At any rate, I'm going to take a nap now - take that melatonin.

the inspection did not reveal any secrets

mostly because the house wasn't hiding anything..........

if the bank won't fix it our house search will continue onward.......we find out after the sewer inspection later this week.

they accepted the offer........

now to the inspection. Which is going to be interesting seeing as how there is a large ceiling bulge in the middle of the front room......

I have a problem with buyer remorse. But we've done our research on this one. I mean this house is pretty nice..........


.......especially when compared with the competition

(this is the other house we were thinking about for the same price.....which would you choose?)

Maybe our future house

We made an offer on this house today. Pray that if we are supposed to move there that we will get it and that if we aren't that it won't work out!

nicoles birthday

the captions say "mostly boring with a surprise at the end" and i chose the song because i feel like a little kid while walking to work looking at the flowers and ducks and stuff. (like kids do when walking to school)

Richard surprised me with a candlelight dinner in the front room when I got home from work. If you can't tell from the pictures - it was all sectioned off with sheets - pretty cool! Man of my dreams!

FYI

http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2009/04/can_we_talk_about_your_ahem_sa.html