RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

May want to glance again, because the WHO does not include life expectancy in their calculations of 'health'. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its broader sense in its 1948 constitution as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

Keith Moon sure didn't.

Blowing up hotel lavatories and television sets was probably a huge public service. Very unhealthy things, those. And destroying all those drum sets? Pretty intense cardio!

I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this, but I don't know what I'd do if I stop doing this.

That garbage is way below the level of analyses I perform.

Actual picture of Waygook.org user Ptolemy after typing this

I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this, but I don't know what I'd do if I stop doing this.

+1

Not to take sides here (aside from my own), but it does seem that humans certainly enjoyed much more diverse diets in times past.

http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2017/04/19/our-food-supply-always-in-season-always-at-risk

Rob Dunn, author of the new book, “Never Out of Season: How Having the Food We Want When We Want It Threatens Our Food Supply and Our Future."

Our hungry ancestors [once] would eat hundreds of different kinds of plants and animals in a single week.  Today, with huge scale global agriculture and super-dominant food crops, 80 percent of calories consumed by humans come from just twelve species.

Jared Diamond has some thoughts on this as well...

"The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race"

http://discovermagazine.com/1987/may/02-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race

I got a question: What happened to the ranting/venting megathreads 1.0 and 2.0?   

I got a question: What happened to the ranting/venting megathreads 1.0 and 2.0?   

2.0 was deleted when the OP asked that their account and posts be removed.

1.0 was before my time.

Not to take sides here (aside from my own), but it does seem that humans certainly enjoyed much more diverse diets in times past.
http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2017/04/19/our-food-supply-always-in-season-always-at-risk

Rob Dunn, author of the new book, “Never Out of Season: How Having the Food We Want When We Want It Threatens Our Food Supply and Our Future."

Our hungry ancestors [once] would eat hundreds of different kinds of plants and animals in a single week.  Today, with huge scale global agriculture and super-dominant food crops, 80 percent of calories consumed by humans come from just twelve species.

Jared Diamond has some thoughts on this as well...
"The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race"
http://discovermagazine.com/1987/may/02-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race

I have issues. Issues with those articles, I mean.

1. They claim modern foraging tribes spend 14 hours a week finding food. Cool. I spend about 2 hours a week earning the cash I need to buy a week's worth of groceries. In addition to the 12 hours saved, I am providing a highly specialized service that no scavenging society could effectively support.

2. Winter. Even if one believes that our Pleistocene ancestors had abundant variety in their diets (which I doubt: the average primate, while considered a generalist, derives the majority of it's calories from a highly specialized diet), that variety decreased dramatically (sometimes to zero) during winter/dry-season. The extremely high incidence of rickets and other osteopathies in fossil records is a good indicator of nutritional deficiency caused by a narrow diets.

3. While it's true that the majority of modern human's calories come from only a few dozen species, there are literally thousands of back up species to switch to in the case of one crop disappearing. You know how banana-flavoured candies taste kind of not-at-all-like-bananas? It's because the flavour was originally synthesized to mimic the taste of a banana cultivar that was wiped out in the 1950s by the Panama virus (not this Panama virus). It was almost immediately replaced by another cultivar. Same story for grapes etc. Of course, if the current global honeybee crisis isn't rectified, then finding replacement crops for the hundreds that will disappear might be a bit touch and go...

4. Listing specific populations (such as the Irish during the Potato famine (link is a terrible joke. Sorry. ), or Meso-Americans shortly after the arrival of the Conquistadors) that were nearly wiped out due to an over-reliance on a single crop is a bit of a fallacy: those populations were *forced* to rely on a mono-crop by outside, uh, forces. It's like saying that it was my own fault that I developed scurvy during my uni years due to eating nothing but Mr.Noodles ramen, mayonnaise packets, and pizza crusts scavenged from dorm rubbish bins when really it was the fault of... well... somebody else... 

5. Go to the supermarket. Boom, hundreds of distinctly different food sources (sometimes in a single product). I mean, most of those food sources are literally poison, but hey, that's a different discussion...

6.Look at the source. Jared. Would you trust that guy? I sure wouldn't!

This week at my mini school there are 2 new teachers doing stuff on the library computer. Who are you?? Go aaaaaaway~~~

Not to take sides here (aside from my own), but it does seem that humans certainly enjoyed much more diverse diets in times past.
http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2017/04/19/our-food-supply-always-in-season-always-at-risk

Rob Dunn, author of the new book, “Never Out of Season: How Having the Food We Want When We Want It Threatens Our Food Supply and Our Future."

Our hungry ancestors [once] would eat hundreds of different kinds of plants and animals in a single week.  Today, with huge scale global agriculture and super-dominant food crops, 80 percent of calories consumed by humans come from just twelve species.

Jared Diamond has some thoughts on this as well...
"The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race"
http://discovermagazine.com/1987/may/02-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race

I have issues. Issues with those articles, I mean.

1. They claim modern foraging tribes spend 14 hours a week finding food. Cool. I spend about 2 hours a week earning the cash I need to buy a week's worth of groceries. In addition to the 12 hours saved, I am providing a highly specialized service that no scavenging society could effectively support.

2. Winter. Even if one believes that our Pleistocene ancestors had abundant variety in their diets (which I doubt: the average primate, while considered a generalist, derives the majority of it's calories from a highly specialized diet), that variety decreased dramatically (sometimes to zero) during winter/dry-season. The extremely high incidence of rickets and other osteopathies in fossil records is a good indicator of nutritional deficiency caused by a narrow diets.

3. While it's true that the majority of modern human's calories come from only a few dozen species, there are literally thousands of back up species to switch to in the case of one crop disappearing. You know how banana-flavored candies taste kind of not-at-all-like-bananas? It's because the flavor was originally synthesized to mimic the taste of a banana cultivar that was wiped out in the 1950s by the Panama virus (not this Panama virus). It was almost immediately replaced by another cultivar. Same story for grapes etc. Of course, if the current global honeybee crisis isn't rectified, then finding replacement crops for the hundreds that will disappear might be a bit touch and go...

4. Listing specific populations (such as the Irish during the Potato famine (link is a terrible joke. Sorry. ), or Meso-Americans shortly after the arrival of the Conquistadors) that were nearly wiped out due to an over-reliance on a single crop is a bit of a fallacy: those populations were *forced* to rely on a mono-crop by outside, uh, forces. It's like saying that it was my own fault that I developed scurvy during my uni years due to eating nothing but Mr.Noodles ramen, mayonnaise packets, and pizza crusts scavenged from dorm rubbish bins when really it was the fault of... well... somebody else... 

5. Go to the supermarket. Boom, hundreds of distinctly different food sources (sometimes in a single product). I mean, most of those food sources are literally poison, but hey, that's a different discussion...

6.Look at the source. Jared. Would you trust that guy? I sure wouldn't!

Sure. If you believe in human progress (or human progress) -- as most of us do, or at least would like to -- and that we are on the brink of the Singularity then you probably wouldn't be satisfied with a foraging lifestyle. And you're right, life would have been much harder for humans residing in winter climes, but foragers also tend to be nomadic.

By bringing up the potato famine (re: your joke) I think the author was just making the point that such a catastrophe of human suffering could never have happened on such a large scale in the pre-agricultural era. He did cite a paleontological study of a hunter-gatherer society and agricultural society whose existences occurred adjacently.

Another example of paleopathology at work is the study of Indian skeletons from burial mounds in the Illinois and Ohio river valleys. At Dickson Mounds, located near the confluence of the Spoon and Illinois rivers, archaeologists have excavated some 800 skeletons that paint a picture of the health changes that occurred when a hunter-gatherer culture gave way to intensive maize farming around A. D. 1150. Studies by George Armelagos and his colleagues then at the University of Massachusetts show these early farmers paid a price for their new-found livelihood. Compared to the hunter-gatherers who preceded them, the farmers had a nearly 50 per cent increase in enamel defects indicative of malnutrition, a fourfold increase in iron-deficiency anemia (evidenced by a bone condition called porotic hyperostosis), a threefold rise in bone lesions reflecting infectious disease in general, and an increase in degenerative conditions of the spine, probably reflecting a lot of hard physical labor. "Life expectancy at birth in the pre-agricultural community was bout twenty-six years," says Armelagos, "but in the post-agricultural community it was nineteen years. So these episodes of nutritional stress and infectious disease were seriously affecting their ability to survive."

Also,

I mean, most of those food sources are literally poison, but hey, that's a different discussion...

Wasn't this actually the crux of the disagreement, though? And didn't Pecan just complain that there weren't enough varieties of tomatoes at his local grocery store? And I don't even like banana-flavored candy. But ultimately you're right; you can't trust Jared.

.Why don't you all start a thread instead arguing in here?

.Why don't you all start a thread instead arguing in here?

very meta

Buying nice things is a trap.

I bought a really nice desk. Then realized that since it's a really nice desk, I don't want to trash the surface of it, so I need to buy a desk mat. And also I need to by a monitor stand so my monitor is at a better height. UGH. Spending money is awful.

It also sucks trying to go back to buying the cheaper stuff. I always find myself in this cycle when it comes to earbuds:

*Buy cheap earbuds*
"Ugh, these sound like sh!t."
*Buy fancy earbuds*
"Wow, these sound great!"
*Lose or mangle fancy earbuds*
"Well sh!t. I don't want to spend more good money on something I'm just going to lose or ruin."
*Buy cheap earbuds*
"Ugh, these sound like sh!t."

Rinse. Repeat.


Every. Friggin'. Time.

Oh. My earbuds are too expensive to lose, haha. I use Yamaha EPH-100 buds, and one pair usually lasts me about a year and a half before they get worn out. But they're like 150,000 per pair, so I'm super paranoid about them. I'd rather not listen to music than listen to it on cheap stuff.

I generally rock some Sennheisers, which are also not cheap. However, I seem to have the habit of randomly losing the rubber ear pieces, and Sennheiser uses a proprietary size, so I can't just go buy replacements from HomePlus or something.

When I finally lose one of every set of ear pieces, I tell myself "Screw that noise, I'm just going to get something more affordable," and I always, always regret it. This time I picked up a set of JBLs, which were $40, so they aren't like GS 25 bargain bin nonsense or anything, but when you're used to the fancy stuff...  ugh. I'm going to have to get something else.

I want to buy fancy earbuds.  But I'm paranoid that I'd lose/mangle them.  The pair I've got are aight.  Hmm...

I got cocky.

I went in before 1st period, needing to print out some stuff double-sided. I did a one-copy test to make sure I had it on the right settings, because I'm a responsible adult and don't like to waste paper.

OR SO I THOUGHT.

Cut to period 3, where I need to print off some more copies for my next class. "I already changed the setting so I'll just hurry up and print out the copies so I can go back to solitude." 10 pages of paper, wasted, because I didn't do my one-copy test to make sure no one changed the settings. I feel like I am single-handedly causing more rainforests to be cut down.

NEVER GET COCKY. NEVERRRRR.

Sidenote: Is this even the right use of "cocky"?

And I know I sound kinda comical and borderline sarcastic, but I really am disappointed in myself. ):

my photocopying story:

at my school we have a speed copying machine. it copies super-fast - like 2 or 3 pages per second - but works a little differently to a regular machine.

you have to put what you want copied on the glass, then push a button to make the machine scan the page and keep it in memory. and unless you push the 'clear memory' button, if you push 'copy' it'll just spit out copies of whatever was previously scan.

cue me going to the machine, putting my sheet on the glass, forgetting to press the 'clear memory' and then 'scan' buttons, and just pushing 'copy'.

machine spat out 300 pages of some random document all in korean.

but since i don't like to waste paper i took the pages, turned them upside down and used those to copy my worksheet on.

the kids ended up getting an english worksheet on one side and some school document on the other 

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My copying story. I have somehow broken the copy machine an unimaginable number of times. I literally only press the button, and somehow it has always decided to break on me. A few month ago we got a new machine, and I have managed to only break it once. The copy machine of the past, I had about a 75% break rate, and a 50% rate to which it had to be repaired by an outside source. People have JUST finished printing on it, and I go to print one paper (it is a copier/printer ) and it gets shut down. I go to the main office to copy, and I am sure they cringe when they see me sit down at the shared computer to print something. When I sit, papers start flying out of the machine...I can't help but think they are trying to print before I break it again... 

Sure. If you believe in human progress (or human progress)

Clever. Took me a moment to get it. 
As for the singularity, well, that'll be the ultimate in dietary specialization: nothing but voltage for all of us! 

I think the author was just making the point that such a catastrophe of human suffering could never have happened on such a large scale in the pre-agricultural era.

    I won't disagree, but part of the reasons for that is that without agriculture, population densities would always remain extremely low. Not ploinking that brontosaurus with your spear or whatever means deprivation and possible starvation for the entire clan. An agrarian society could miss hundreds of figurative bronts without resulting in utter catastrophe

Also, "I mean, most of those food sources are literally poison, but hey, that's a different discussion..."
Wasn't this actually the crux of the disagreement, though?

I'm not really sure what the argument is about anymore, actually.   I was just ranting about those articles.

But ultimately you're right; you can't trust Jared.

Actually, I was thinking about the Biblical Jared. You know who I'm talking about: that guy constantly lying about his age?

I'm going to the bathroom to take a dump.   

@kyndo
I know we can't turn back time, but I can't help but think that if we had never invented agriculture maybe that incident with the car cutting me off would have transpired differently.

Sometimes, communicating is really annoying. I know that no one is trying to be annoying, frustrating, or frankly scary, but they are being annoying, frustrating, and super scary. I'm glad this happens so infrequently, but sometimes, it just builds up...

A while ago, I was waiting for a bus and another foreigner started talking to me and asked me for my number because it was so hard to find other English speakers where he lives. I told him I don't give out my phone number to strangers. Then he told me if we talked more we wouldn't be strangers and asked for my Kakao ID. I really wanted to ask, "Do you not realize that I am basically trapped here until the bus comes and you are making me super uncomfortable? Do you not see that?"

About once a month, someone asks me if I'm Russian. It wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't for the issue of associating Russians with prostitutes. Last week, a taxi driver asked me if I was Russian, and I have never said I was an American faster in my life.

This weekend, I was coming back from the grocery store, both hands occupied and saw this man waiting at the corner. I figured he was waiting for someone to pick him up, since we were close to the bus terminal and he hadn't crossed yet. After I cross the street, he starts walking. Eventually, he gets in front of me and starts asking me questions in English. I'm obviously preoccupied with other things, on my way home. It was the middle of the day, so I wasn't worried about anything happening, but like... it felt like he was following me home. (I mean, he was literally following me home, but I don't know if that's what he meant to do.)

I don't think these people mean to be creepy, but they are so creepy. Part of me wants to take it as they just want to speak English. They're just curious. They just want to know they're not the only foreigner. That kind of thing, but I also want to scream.

I think it bothers me more, because trying to get on the last bus home, being in the car with someone, and having your hands full of groceries are kind of restricting. Maybe if I didn't feel that kind of restriction I wouldn't have felt as uncomfortable...