I can't see an advantage from having a foot like ours, compared to monkey-feet-hands. Yet somehow, small mutations such as straighter feet took place, and selective breeding led to our feet the way they are.

Well I wrote an extensive paper on "the selective pressures leading to bipedalism in the genus Homo", and trust me, there area lot of reasons why our hands and feet are more differentiated than other primates.

For the bulk of its evolution, humanity has been a fairly nomadic, hunter-gatherer race. Mainly, you can't walk upright very well or have a smoothly operating human knee if you also have an opposable big toe. Morphology facilitating bipedal locomotion conferred a number of survival and sexual selection advantages to a primitive human. Mainly:

1. Bipedal locomotion is more energy efficient than any other locomotor pattern... humans have better endurance for long voyages by foot than any other species, including horses, large cats, etc..
2. Walking upright exposes less skin surface area to UV rays
3. Walking upright allows the focussed use of the hands to carry things, protect young, gather food, etc..
4. Walking upright allows a greater field of vision and viewing distance, which is better for hunting as well as defending the tribe.

And so on...

I know many of you are foaming at the mouth to get this started. To all of you impatient clowns, you're in luck because today we're kickin' this party off early. My computer at home took a shit 2 days ago and I'll have no way to post at 9:30 tonight so I'll be posting earlier (maybe around 2pm PST) and, like some strange nomadic internet leech, I'll wander around sniffing for a connection to keep in touch during the course of the roast.

Vikings even rave nomadically.

A legacy of semi-nomadism, the socio-political convenience of having a sequestered language at hand, awareness of oppression -- having suffered it as outsiders through the ages...

"SilentPoet:

the christian mythology states the following:

god knows everything
god created everything
god created humans
god placed a condition on humans (don't eat the fruit)
god knew that humans could not meet that condition

Thus, god created humans knowing that they would fail.

god punishes humans for doing exactly what he created them to do."
Wrong. That is like saying a father who raises his son and knows that he will eventually do something wrong, be it chop down a cherry tree or steal from the cookie jar, raised his son to do so. It doesn't work like that.

"god then hides, whispers secrets into the ears of various nomadic folks over several hundred years, sends his son who is himself to die, and continues whispering secrets to a select few.

god then states that he will forgive us for doing what we were designed to do, only if we believe in him based on the writings of men who hear voices in their heads."
We were not designed to sin, God simply knew we would and allowed us to. Saying that God meant for us to sin is like saying any inventor who knows that his invention cannot last forever explicitly meant for it to break.


"in the old testament, god repeatedly shows great joy at making people suffer who are not His Chosen People."
I disagree. God did many harsh things in the Old Testament, but it was to protect His people, be it from physical harm or falling into sin. It seems harsh, but His people had a really hard time following Him. Unfortunately, force was the only thing that got their attention sometimes.

SilentPoet:

the christian mythology states the following:

god knows everything
god created everything
god created humans
god placed a condition on humans (don't eat the fruit)
god knew that humans could not meet that condition

Thus, god created humans knowing that they would fail.

god punishes humans for doing exactly what he created them to do.

god then hides, whispers secrets into the ears of various nomadic folks over several hundred years, sends his son who is himself to die, and continues whispering secrets to a select few.

god then states that he will forgive us for doing what we were designed to do, only if we believe in him based on the writings of men who hear voices in their heads.


in the old testament, god repeatedly shows great joy at making people suffer who are not His Chosen People.

http://www.factsandlogic.org/

What are the facts?

The state of Israel was legally created out of the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. The area was desolate – desert and swamp – with some small towns and a few inhabitants, many of them nomads. The inhabitants, if they thought about it at all, considered themselves Syrians. The legitimacy of Israel arises from the Balfour Declaration issued by the British, who were given the mandate over the area by the League of Nations. Jews have lived in the country since Biblical times. The Arabs from the surrounding areas were lured to “Palestine” by the industry and prosperity that the Jews brought to the region. Envy, hatred, and religious fanaticism turned the Arabs against the Jews. In bloody outrages, horrible massacres, killings and rapes, the Arabs tried to dislodge the Jews, but were unable to do so.

In 1947, the British, having tired of the trouble and the bloodshed, resigned their mandate. That same year, the United Nations mandated partitioning of the territory. The Jews, though disappointed, accepted the partition. The Arabs rejected it out of hand and launched war against Israel. The armies of five Arab countries invaded the nascent state. Following the exhortations of the invaders, the Arab residents got out of the way hoping to return after victory was attained. They could then reclaim their property and that of the Jews, all of whom would have been killed or would have fled. That and that alone is the source of the Arab “refugee problem.”

Had the Arabs accepted the UN partition plan, there would now have been a state of “Palestine” for the last 58 years. They might have attained a similar level of prosperity, advancement, and development as Israel, which, small though it is, is today in almost every regard one of the world’s most advanced countries.

END WEBSITE

Op-ed: "Palestinians'" greatest fear would be the elimination of Israel, since they would then be forced to face their own failings.

Morbo wishes these stalwart nomads peace amongst the Dutch tulips.

And Metzger is of germanic decsent I believe... Could Tom (Jozeph) Metzger be rebelling against his Jewish German parents? Is that your family history, 'Jozeph'? Were you of German descent? Are your parents, in fact, Jewish? Did they flee the persecution of the Nazi's to the US - where they're bastard child (in more way than one) rebelled against them? Into the world of neo-Nazi's?!

Whatever your history or geneology - we're all black! Africa is the cradle of civilisation you sick fuck - we all descend from African nomads. Probably why it's the right-wing christian (racist) fundamentalists who push Intelligent Design - as they can't cope with the fact that modern civilisation began there millions of years ago (not the 'Garden of Eden' a few thousand years ago!)

Uhhhh... lemme jump in here to say this about that-bamdrews pulpit there refers to one of my favorite topics, Wobal Glorming- If you think that paying an inordinant amount of attention to any one aspect of the homosapien dance will profit the world...well, look at poor old Paul McCartney and the bozo HE married.

Look man, plain and simple,mother earth belches more toxic waste than any of us will ever!!!! Does this not compute???

Otherwise, there is no doubt that we fuck up biodiversity every time we turn around-But....here we are, at the beginning of a new day and we can all still breathe, Jesus has not come back, we did not destroy the planet with nukaler bombs-Enjoy the day, god, its gorgeous here....as in , WHAT THE F...K CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT WITHOUT DOING AWAY WITH ALL OUR TOYS AND EMBRACING THE POLITICS OF NOMADIC HEARDERS AND FARMERS???

Sorry folks, I do tend to carry myself away.

for all you dreamers, there is always the Unabomber's Manifesto......