Text 16925, 137 rader
Skriven 2008-11-27 08:11:08 av Lee Lofaso (3:800/432.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson
Ärende: Shiitakes 232 81126
===========================
Hello Glen,

>GJ>survive unaided.  That design life was of the order of 40-odd years.

>LL>The original humans, Adam and Eve, lived in the Garden of Eden, and
>LL>could have lived forever, along with all their children, had they not
>LL>eaten the fruit of a certain tree...

GJ>I thought that the children only came *after* they had eaten the fruit.
GJ>If no fruit, no fun, no kids.

What if Adam and Eve had never eaten the forbidden fruit?  That
was the premise of a short story written by Pierre Boulle, taking
absurdity to a new level.  His idea was if Adam and Eve had not
eaten of the forbidden fruit, they and their children could do
anything and everything they wanted, including rape, murder, etc.,
as well as expanding the population of the human race into the
far corners of the universe...

>GJ>were kept in reasonable condition by eating fibrous foods.  Now,
>GJ>unnaturally soft foods containing sugar destroy teeth and gums, but
>GJ>prosthetic teeth are available to enable the older humans to eat.

>LL>Changes in diet also led to changes in genetic makeup.  For example,
>LL>few (if any) humans today could survive solely on raw foods.

GJ>It would be an interesting study to find out how well a person would
GJ>develop if s/he was fed a purely raw food diet from babyhood.  I know
GJ>that there are many people in the highlands of PNG who are completely
GJ>vegetarian for long periods, existing almost entirely on sweet potato.
GJ>They are supposed to have the ability to synthesise protein from
GJ>carbohydrate, but I doubt that.

We often think of indigenous peoples as being primitive.  But how much
do we really know about their diets?  Their medicines?  We might think
of a witch doctor as being primitive, but to indigenous peoples modern
doctors would be seen as primitive.  The use of plants and herbs to make
modern medicine is well-known.  But witch doctors use those plants and
herbs in their raw form, as part of a religious ceremony, and their
patients get well.

Each local culture has a traditional diet.  And those peoples have
surived on that traditional diet for thousands of years, apparently
with few ill effects.  But when they leave for the big city and
eat modern prepared foods, sickness and disease sets in.  Or when
modern prepared foods are introduced by outsiders into that culture.

Why is it that Pacific Islanders had good teeth and no cavities
throughout their lives up until modern times?  Or Native Americans?
Or African tribes?  Could it be sugar and candy introduced to those
peoples caused them to lose their teeth at an early age?  Why are
natives of American Samoa fat to the point of being diabetic and
hardly able to walk?

Modern prepared foods are not all they are cracked up to be.

>LL>While modern technology, medicines, and access to quality health
>LL>care have all been factors for making life easier, as well as making
>LL>it possible for humans to survive well into their 80s and 90s (and
>LL>sometimes beyond), mankind has also lost much of what he once had.

GJ>The challenge is to choose a life style which combines the best of the
GJ>old and the new.

Is it?  I am not so sure.  Too many additives in foods.  Improper
diets.  Lack of exercize.  Lots of other factors.

>GJ>unrestrained exposure to the sun's UV rays during my youth has resulted
>GJ>in the recent development of skin cancers.  Consequently I have been
>GJ>getting bits of my face cut out, and the holes covered up by plastic
>GJ>surgery.  The first cutting was last Monday, and the stitches from that
>GJ>one, and the second cutting will be done tomorrow.

GJ>I now have a zigzag cut extending from top of forehead to lower jaw.
GJ>Hopefully it will heal without being too obvious.

John McCain looks good, despite his surgery and present age.

>LL>Unfortunately, not all people take well to plastic surgery.
>LL>Especially those of Mediterranean makeup (Italians, Spaniards,
>LL>Greeks, Arabs, etc.).

GJ>What problems to they have with plastic surgery?  Of course, having the
GJ>ability to produce protective melanin more readily than me, they would
GJ>have less need for plastic surgery.

The skin won't heal from plastic surgery.  Instead of looking like
Zorro, they would look more like Frankenstein's monster.  Or one of
those zombies from Night of the Living Dead.

>GJ>I can look forward to more of the same in the future.  Life does tend
>GJ>to get a bit tedious, but it is still better than the alternative...

>LL>For some folks the alternative is better than the present.

GJ>There can become a time when that is so.

Hopefully not anytime soon.

>GJ>I need some more teeth, as well...

>LL>Teeth can be replaced.  With real teeth.  But at tremendous cost.

GJ>Not worth it to me.  I can travel halfway round the world for what a
GJ>tooth of that type would cost.  Travel would be my preference.

You could always win the lottery.  What I find comical is guys
who spend a small fortune trying to save the hair on top their head.
Or an even greater fortune getting a real human hair wig sewn onto
their scalp.  Not even Jesus was that vain (you do realize Jesus
was bald).

>LL>I had always wondered how jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson could manage
>LL>to hit all them high notes, and hit them all night long.  Until I
>LL>found out his trick.  According to him, early in his career somebody
>LL>threw a beer bottle at him and it hit him in the chops, which really
>LL>messed up his upper teeth.  A short trip to the dentist, and fourteen
>LL>hours of dental surgery later, enabled him to have a titanium set of
>LL>choppers. Ever since then he has been known as "The Lip".

GJ>That would have cost plenty!

He could afford it.  :)

GJ>I knew a jazz clarinetist, Bruce Gray, whose top teeth wore away at
GJ>the back, and had to be built up with gold.  That also wore, and had
GJ>to be regularly replaced.

He should have done like Buddy Rich and taken up drums.

--Lee


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