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Re: Hands and brains
To Kelly:
>> But why do elephants have such big brains (3 to 4 times larger than
>humans)?
>
>They need the nuerons to run their big bodies, which are dozens of times
>humans.
Are you sure or are you guessing? The story that David wrote, I had heard
before. It was the reason why I thought (before I read otherwise) that an
elephant (and a dolphin) had a small brain too.
Looking at this after discussing it, a possible explanation may be that the
brain-cells are much bigger. This may also be the case for dolphins. So when
saying the absolute size, I should have said the number of neurons. I don't
have any confirming data however. I'm going to search for some more data
about this.
>> >automate systems will work well and productivly. Which is why all large
>> >manufacturing industries use them.
>>
>> But that means that much less people can do the job
>
>Yes.
So if you go on a few centuries, only a few people have to work. This is
where I was going to.
>> It's keeping the heat in: Greenhouse gasses are more opaque planetary
>> radiation than for solar radiation. Solar radiation is what directly comes
>> from the Sun and planetary radiation is
>
>I know the theory, I also know their is no data to support it.
Of course I don't have the hands on an experiment that proved it but I find
it very hard to believe that no one has tried to figure out to what kind of
radiation the so called greenhouse gasses are most opaque. This very simple
experiment would show the proof or rebuttal.
>It is also argued if the earth is getting warmer or cooler. NASA went back
>over 25-30 years of satelihgt scans. They could have detected a change as
>small as 1/5th the smallest variation predicted by any of the green house
>theories. They didn't find it. Longer term arcio-climatology studies have
>shown a cooling since the mid 1800, a warming from the 1700, and a long term
>cooling over the last 800 years.
Did these images show there was no temperature increase or did they show
that there was no increase due to the so called greenhouse effect. If you
mean the latter, how can they distinguish between normal and greenhouse
deviations?
>> To that I agree, but as long the greenhouse effect is not too large the
>> temperatures will not become so high that no live can exist. At the
>> light-side of the moon you will freeze to death (assuming you weren't
>> choking first) this is because there are no gasses to keep the heat in. The
>> only heat there is radiative heat.
>
>How do you freeze to death at 200 degrees F? Trust me, freezing wasn't a
>problem on the moon in full sunlight.
Yes, that is radiative heat, not convective. So everything that is in the
shadow is much colder. I assume that if you where standing with your back to
the Sun than your belly would freeze.
>> I think that if chemicals are not recycled any amount is used up in a
>> relative short period. (If water and carbondioxide where not recycled by
>> plants, animal (non photosynthesis) live would very soon die away).
>
>But the chemicals are being recycled by the planetary geo-processes, and they
>have sustained their local populations for a very long time.
Yes, but the chances for evolution are not very big in a small (local) area
where the climate is relatively stable. Higher evolutionized animals would
not occur due to serious inbreading.
>> I've seen a TV-series (again :) ) that tried to explain that the human
>brain
>> expanded as soon as it began standing up. The reason for that was the
>> temperature difference between 0.8 metre (on 4 legs) and 1.5 metres (on 2
>> legs) above the ground. -------
>> One question remains however, why didn't they get a bigger brain while in
>> the forest before the mountain ridge appeared?
>
>Or why didn'tproto apes in cooler climates develop it.
Ah, I think I know, they had a live that was too easy, so there was no
advantage of being smart. The apes on the rather dry and hot savannas had to
do more for their food than just sitting on a branch.
>Besides, humans are
>warm blooded. They keep thie brain tissue withing a fraction of a degree of
>temp.
But it is much harder to cool in higher temperatures.
>Humans have an odd brain hand trick we retained since we were tree dwelers.
> It makes certain types of eye hand coordination easier (real important when
>your jumping for a branch) but humans brains developed long after our bodies
>and hands were developed.
So you do agree (to a certain degree) that there is a more than normal
connection between hand and brain?
>Why did humans develop such powefull minds? Thats a hotly debateed question.
Yes, I noticed ;)
Tim