Are Humans Just Infantile?

Is it true that we humans resemble baby chimps? Neoteny, or the preservation of juvenile characteristics in adults may be why humans are so different from chimpanzees despite the fact that we share close to 99% DNA. It is not the genes that we have, but how those genes are expressed which may differ.

 

Scientist Mehmet Somel from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has found that a small group of nerve cells are delayed in their development in humans compared to chimpanzees. This delay also occurs in other areas of human development resulting in mature adults retaining juvenile features. Human adults, you see, share some of the characteristics of young chimps, like flat faces and distribution of hair.

Philipp Khaitovich, also of the Max Planck Institute, has also noted these development delays in humans. He points out how human sexual maturation takes place about five years later than chimps and how teeth also erupt later. When gene expression was also compared between humans, chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys, in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain involved in memory. It was found that about 40% of these genes were expressed later in humans.

The evolution of dogs from wolves is also an example of neoteny, as dogs, like baby wolves, are more social. Also, wolves don't generally bark, but their baby offspring do. Both dogs and humans have also retained a playful friendliness, which is probably due to neoteny.

We Love Cuteness

We not only love neoteny in other animals, but also in the cute TV characters and toys around us. Consider animé "cuteness", Bambi, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. Just to name a few.

It seems that we just love things that resemble babies (neotinized) and this is why most people fail to get excited about crocodiles or spiders and yet love dolphins and domestic rabbits. Cute it seems, wins the day!

Physical anthropologist Barry Bogin considers Betty Boop to be an example of neoteny.

"The cartoon of Betty Boop illustrates some human features which are sometimes labeled as neotenous, such as a large head, short arms and legs relative to total height, and clumsy, child–like movements." — Barry Bogin.


Books To Read

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, by Perre Christin - a French comic series.

Did Stalin Try to Create an Ape Army?

Soviet scientist, Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov, was ordered by The Kremlin leader, Joseph Stalin to create a super army of humans crossed with apes. This is the story put out there by various fundamentalist Christian outfits with an agenda, An agenda to smear "Darwinism" and Marist ideology in one go.

 Flickr aresryo 

However, Russian physiologist Il’ya Ivanov did try to cross-breed humans with anthropoid apes. Ivanov was a distinguished scientist and a leading expert in the study of artificial insemination, long before the Russian revolution of 1917 and he was interested in hybridisation of species.

Ivanov was interested in testing the hypothesis whether a human-ape hybrid could be produced. And in 1924, his project was approved by the Soviet Academy of Sciences and he was offered funding from the Soviet Financial Commission. Attempts to to cross human beings and apes had previously failed in the planning stage, by Dutch zoologist named Hermann Marie Bernelot Moens in 1908, and Hermann Rohleder in 1918.

Travelling to a research station in Guinea, West Africa Ivanov found that more than half the chimpanzees there had died and the rest were too young for the proposed purpose. In desperation, Ivanov decided to impregnate three African women, without their consent. However, no pregnancy resulted.

This project ultimately failed and Ivanov was condemned by the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Ivanov was arrested and he later died in one of Stalin's labour camps in Kazakhstan. Not due to his failure to create an ape army, but because of the political and scientific clashes which existed at the time. Stalin actually supported those scientists who rejected genetic research as being bourgeois and imperialist.

Attempts had been made before, to cross an ape and a human according to Gordon Gallup, a psychologist, from the University of Albany. Supposedly, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Orange Park, Florida, had successfully produced a live birth after impregnating a chimpanzee with human sperm during the 1920s. The scientists, however, decided to destroy the creature after a few days passed. Or, so it is said.

According to scientific evidence, we humans split from our closest African ape relatives (genus Pan) around six to seven million years ago. While we clearly display features that link us with African apes, we also have features that seem to be more primitive, which makes you wonder if our ancestors looked more like modern chimpanzees and gorillas, or a very different looking kind of ape group. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is of the opinion that the simplest explanation is more likely to be true; which means, that the ancestor likely looked a lot like a chimpanzee or gorilla.


 Books To Read

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle - adventures in space and time.

Possessed Nuns and Exorcisms

The Loudun possessions began in 1634, in Loudun, France, not long after the plague had swept through the town killing 3,700 of the 14,000 population.

A group of Protestant nuns were allegedly possessed by demons, which resulted in them convulsing, swearing and blaspheming. They saw visions, spoke in tongues and had erotic dreams.

Father Jean-Joseph Surin attempted to exorcise the women and invited the demons to enter his body. However, he soon plunged into a mad state, performing injuries to himself and attempting suicide.

More exorcists were summoned and in the Catholic manner, the sacraments, incense, the crucifix and the Bible were employed to battle the "demons". During the exorcisms, many of the nuns made sexual overtures toward the priests, they convulsed and shrieked, screamed and barked like dogs.

The Mother Superior, Jeanne des Ange, claimed that Father Urbain Grandiehas, a handsome and arrogant priest, had caused the demonic possessions by bewitching them and sending demons when he tossed a bouquet of roses over the convent walls.

The pact allegedly signed between Urbain Grandier and the Devil. Written backwards in Latin.

Libertine and Licentious Behaviour

Father Urbain Grandier was hated, he had many enemies and there were many rumours about his libertine and licentious behaviour. He tried to laugh off these crazy claims, that he was a necromancer, who had instigated the demonic phenomena.

Father Grandier was put in prison at the Castle of Angea. His body was shaved and "devils marks" were found. A devil's pact was presented to the court, allegedly written between the Devil and Father Grandier. Supposedly, the pact was spotted with Grandier's blood.

Grandier wrote a letter to King Louis XIII protesting his innocence. However, because Louis was a Catholic, he did not intervene. And so, Father Grandier was convicted of the crime of magic, maleficia and of causing demoniacal possession of the nuns.














First Grandier was tortured, by using a method called brodequin, which would cause the bones of the legs to burst and leak bone marrow.

After his legs were crushed, he was dragged to his execution calling upon God to save him. He was then drenched in "holy water" and burned alive.

Most modern scholars today conclude that Grandier was the victim of politically motivated persecution, which was led by the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.

Books to Read

Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics and the Value Wars, by Sikivu Hutchinson.

Animals in War and Espionage

believe it or not, the Soviet Union actually used dogs to carry bombs. The idea was that the dogs would carry the bomb to a specific target and then, the dog would use its teeth to release the bomb. The dog would then return to base and the bomb would be detonated by a timer. However, the dogs had a lot of trouble mastering these tasks and would often return with the bomb unreleased.

Project Pigeon during World War II was an attempt to develop a pigeon-guided missile using the conditioned pecking behaviour of pigeons. The famous psychologist B.F Skinner trained the pigeons to keep pecking a target that would hold a missile onto a target.This project was dropped, however, due to the secret development of radar.

Bat Bombs

During World War I, the United States developed The Bat Bomb as an experimental weapon for Japanese targets. This weapon comprised bomb-shaped canisters containing hibernating bats and had a bomb attached. The canisters were usually dropped from a high altitude over the target area and a parachute would open in mid-flight. As the bats warmed up, they would wake up and fly off and the bombs would then start fires in the wood and paper Japanese buildings.

Bat-bomb canister later used to house the hibernating bats. Ideally, the canister would be dropped from high altitude over the target area, and as the bomb fell (slowed by a parachute), the bats would warm up and awaken. At 1,000 ft. altitude, the bomb would open and over a thousand bats, each carrying a tiny time-delayed napalm incendiary device, would fly in a 20-40 mile radius and roost in flammable wooden Japanese buildings. The napalm devices would ignite simultaneously, and thousands of small fires would flare up at once

The British Special Operations Executive in World War II used exploding dead rats against the Germans. The dead rats were filled with plastic explosives and left lying about in factories, in the hope that the rats would be disposed of in boilers, resulting in the factory blowing up.

The United States used military dolphins and sea lions for underwater sentry duty, mine clearance and object recovery during the Cold War.

In the 1960s, the CIA attempted to use cats in spy missions to spy on the Kremlin and Soviet Embassies. This project was called Acoustic Kitty. A microphone and batter, were implanted into a cat, and an antenna attached its tail.The cat could record and transmit the conversations around it.

Meow!

The Taliban in 2009, strapped an explosive device to a donkey, but it was stopped by a rife shot. However, in 2012, a policeman and three civilians were killed by a remotely detonated bomb strapped to a donkey, by Taliban insurgents.


Books To Read


Acoustic Kitty by Bob Rybarczyk - cats are turned into surveillance devices.

Could the Loch Ness Monster be True?

The earliest reports of there being some type of monster in Loch Ness, in the Scottish Highlands, date back to the 6th century. 

Adomnán, an abbot of Iona Abbey, Ireland, wrote a book called, Life of St. Columba, about a century after the events. Adomnán claimed that the Irish monk, Saint Columba, was with some companions near Loch Ness when he saw a man being buried by the River Ness, by some locals. These people explained that the man had been swimming in the river when he was attacked by a "water beast". The "beast", they said, mauled him and dragged him under the water. Using a boat, the people had tried to rescue the man, but were able only to drag up his corpse.

Upon hearing this tale, Columba stunned the locals by sending his follower Luigne Moccu Min to swim across the river. Supposedly, the beast pursued him, but Columba made the sign of the cross and commanded: "Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once." The beast immediately halted, as if it had been "pulled back with ropes", and fled in terror. Then both Columba's men and the Pagan locals praised God for the miracle.

Dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

The two main theories as to why dinosaurs became extinct are:

1. The gradualist hypothesis- Extinction was basically due to climate change and habitat loss.

2. The catastrophic hypothesis - There is some research pointing to an asteroid event at the end of the Cretaceous period. For example, the mineral iridium has been found in the clay strata of this period. This mineral is generally rare, but common in meteorites. The result of asteroids hitting the earth is that an impact winter may have occurred; the radiation from the sun would have been blocked, resulting in the global temperature decreasing drastically.

Another theory which relates to the catastrophic hypothesis is that the high level of volcanic activity at the end of the Cretaceous Period could have caused climate change.

Loch Ness, a deep, freshwater lake in the Scottish Highlands, however, was formed only 10,000 years ago, by the action of glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age. The age of the dinosaurs was well and truly over at this stage.

Many people have claimed to have seen the Loch Ness monster and some have even produced photos.

Above is "The "Surgeon's Photograph", taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist; it was published in the Daily Mail on 21 April 1934. Wilson refused to have his name associated with the photo, and so, it became known as the "Surgeon's Photograph".

Before this, in December 1933, the Daily Mail commissioned Marmaduke Wetherell, a big-game hunter to find the monster in the Loch Ness and off he went. On his return, Wetherall claimed that he had seen large footprints on the lake’s shores belonging to “a very powerful soft-footed animal about 20ft long”. However, researchers from London’s British Museum examined these footprints and determined that they had been made using a dried hippopotamus’s foot, and Wetherell was publicly shamed by the Daily Mail.

In 1994, Wetherell’s son-in-law, Christian Spurling, confessed that he had helped Wetherell create the famous Surgeon’s Photo, using some plastic and a toy submarine. Spurling, who was 90 years of age at the time, claimed Wetherell had given Wilson the photo to leak to the newspaper, in order to get revenge on the Daily Mail for shaming him

Spurling claimed that Wetherell committed the hoax to get revenge on the newspaper. Others dispute this and claim that the monster is real.

Those who claim to have seen the giant monster, complete with humps and a long neck, may like to ask themselves, how a single dinosaur could have survived by itself for so many years after dinosaurs went extinct? And how is it that no one has found the remains of food eaten or waste products from such a creature? What would this creature mate with? And, if there are other creatures about, why have the dead remains of such creatures never been found?
In 2003, a fossil belonging to an extinct plesiosaur measuring 35 feet (11 meters) was found by retired scrap metal dealer, Gerald McSorley, who said he found it in Loch Ness after he tripped and fell into the water. Experts say it was probably planted there. Or, the fossil may have been lost. A local tour operator, caused a stir a few years ago when he accidentally left a plesiosaur fossil on a rock, that he often carted about with him to show to tourists.

There is no doubt, however, that people from all over the world make their way to Loch Ness, to try and catch a glimpse of the monster and it must be said that the legend of Nessie is very good for the Scottish tourist industry. "Och aye the noo".


Books To Read


The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths, by Michael Shermer

Stalin: He Was Way Ahead of Photoshop

The name Stalin is likely to bring an uncomfortable chill to the spine of many. But before becoming a tyrant, Stalin was studying to become a priest and he was known for his romantic poetry.

Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) was a murderous tyrant and leader of the Soviet state from 1941–53. He was also a cunning manipulator, whose corrupt regime altered photo images and historical facts, to suit his purposes, to glorify himself and perpetuate the totalitarian state.

Attempting to purge history of unwanted facts and people who were no longer in favour, was not a new thing, as, in ancient Rome, the Senate would destroy the statues and any written reference to emperors who had fallen out of favour, by a decree of damnatio memoriae.

Stalin, however, had a team of artists who worked at the Main Administration for Safeguarding State Secrets in the Press, who would alter photos by airbrushing or painting or razoring out those who had suddenly fallen out of favour, and so, had become enemies to the party (i.e. him).

The photo above shows Nikolai Yezhov who fell out of favour with Stalin. Before his fall, Yezhov had a lot of power, including the role of grand inquisitor and extractor of confessions. Yezhov had organised mass arrests and tortures as part of the Great Purge of the 1930s, which resulted in the imprisonment or execution of about half the Soviet political and military establishment and hundreds of thousands of others who were also suspected of disloyalty. Then, suddenly, Yezhov fell from Stalin's favour. He was tortured and executed. But Yezhov was not quite eradicated from visual history.

This photo shows very clearly how photos were simply altered and people eradicated as they fell from favour. The book, 1984, by George Orwell, captures how The Party changes history to suit its purposes.


"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
1984, George Orwell

Books To Read


Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K. Dick (made into a film called Bladerunner).

We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin - people are identified by numbers.

16 million Individuals Alive Today are Related to one Man

"16 million individuals alive today are related to one man?"

This amazing claim has been made by the Russian Academy of Sciences, who assert that the Mongol ruler, Genghis Khan, has16 million male living descendants.

Known by various names, such as the Scourge of God and The Warlord, Genghis Khan, his armies, raped, pillaged and slaughtered their way to creating an empire twice the size of Rome, during the13th century.

Studies have examined blood samples which were collected over a ten year period, from more than 40 populations living in and around the former Mongol Empire and found that the Y-chromosome of nearly 8 percent of the men showed Y-chromosomes that are nearly identical. This means that about 0.5 percent of the male population in the world, or about 16 million men, can trace their ancestry back to one person.

Genghis Khan as portrayed in a 14th century Yuan era album

The Y-chromosome is passed on father to son, and basically, this DNA remains unchanged through the generations except for the occurrence of random mutations.

There are many incredible tales told about Genghis Khan and it can be hard to separate fact from fiction. However, the evidence shows that Khan and his armies used staggering levels of violence to annihilate enemies as they lay siege. They would generally kill or enslave all the men and rape the women.

Mongol "Great Khans" coin, minted at Balk, Afghanistan, AH 618, 1221 AD

Al-Juvayni, a Persian historian who wrote (admittedly) a generation after the destruction of the Persian city of Merv, said: "To each Mongol soldier was allotted the execution of 300 or 400 Persians. So many had been killed by nightfall that the mountains became hillocks, and the plain was soaked with the blood of the mighty."

Another Persian writer, Ata-Malik Juvaini, writing in 1260, estimated that one century after Genghis Khan lived, he had 20,000 descendants.

At the moment, it cannot be proved that Genghis Khan carried this particular gene mutation, until his tomb and his remains are found. However, perhaps it has been found.

American and Mongolian scholars, as of December 2012, believe that they have found Khan's burial site in a remote area of northwestern Mongolia, by using satellite and other technology. The problem is, that digging up the grave site may cause problems. Some Mongolians believe this will cause the world to end. There is also a delicate political situation with China to consider. And there are few clues to go on and the area around Burkhan Khaldun, where the tomb is believed to be, is strictly controlled and has great religious significance for the population.

Genghis Khan supposedly, wanted to be buried without markings or any sign, with his six cats, while they were still alive, so that their purrs could guide him to the afterlife. So, for the moment, we must await further news.



Books To Read

The Conqueror series is a series of novels by Conn Iggulden about Genghis Khan and his successors, set during the time of the Mongol conquest of the 12th centuries.

Where can we Find the Ancestors of Almost all Life Forms on Earth?

The ancestors of pretty much all life-forms on Earth, existing and extinct, can be found in the Burgess Shale.

The Burgess Shale is located in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, in British Columbia's, Yoho National Park. The shale contains exceptionally preserved fossils of strange and weird animals, which have not been found anywhere else.

Dickinsonia fossil is the oldest known animal fossil, of the extinct genus of the Ediacaran biota.

The fossil creatures in the shale are from the Cambrian explosion, which occurred after a period of nearly 2 billion years of only simple, unicellular life-forms.

The shale preserves a complete ecosystem, which existed for only a very short period after the first multicellular life exploded into existence upon the earth.

During the Cambrian Period, plants and animals did not yet exist on the land, only marine plants and invertebrate animals lived in the Cambrian seas.

All of the major types of animal phyla that exist today are represented in the Burgess Shale. However, there are other creatures which cannot be placed in our modern classification system.

Reconstitution of a Pikaia from the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle

Our oldest ancestors are the Dickinsonia and the 505 million-year-old creature called Pikaia, which is now extinct, which is the most primitive known vertebrate and therefore the ancestor of all vertebrates. This means that Pikaia is the ancestor of all descendant vertebrates, like horses, birds or bears, and humans.


Books To Read

Evolution, is a collection of short stories that work together to form an episodic science fiction novel by author Stephen Baxter.