h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

uh

(That should read "gained inches and weight in the past month" not 2 months......)

... and then I suddenly thought that whether or not this shift to prefering thin healthy-looking people over fatter leisurely looking people for mating purposes is an behaviour change in response to changes in our environment, it doesn't really explain why some people are simply attracted to members of the same sex.

Uh? Oh, Uncle H! Oh, well, never mind.....my last post'll just mystify anyone who comes straight to this page.....Blech!

Sol, several studies have shown (please don't ask me the details) that some other species have individuals that are attracted to the opposite sex too.......an evolutionary mystery? Who knows?

Well, there you go. But it is also a mystery to me why anyone could fancy... oooh... Kate Moss, for example.

In no particular order -
There is a theory that homosexual behaviour becomes more likely as a population of a species gets bigger - it's a way of keeping numbers down so they can all find food.
The thin thing - women are now supposed to look like girls ie no arses or hips no cellulite etc etc and when they are that thin no breasts either. Why? There is a theory (I read a lot and no a lot of conflicting theories )that says that most fashions for women are designed by men (gay men) and thus the designers design for young men (same body shape as that which women are now supposed to attain to, for description see above). Connected with this is the whole notion of equality - in this case in clothes - it was only fairly recently that women started wearing trews (accucents the shape rather than hiding it as long skirts do) and thus what their arses and thighs looked like became an issue.
Courtesy - Have you heard the theory that a medieval person wouldn't be able to breathe todays air? It would kill them because our lungs are evolving to adapt to the pollutants in the air but theirs wouldn't be able to cope with it all?
Weight issues (At the risk of incurring everyone's wrath)- eating properly (ie lots of fruit and veg and all adding up to 2000cal a day) and an hours strenuous exercise daily is the only way to keep fit and healthy. Show me a 'fat' person and I'll show you someone who doesn't do those two things. Metabolism only effects a very very smallnumber of people in an extreme way. Being overweight isn't to do with glands it's to do with too many cream cakes!

The point about the fat/thin thing was that it isn't an evolutionary change. It's still a condition that is under the power of the will. There may be some individuals that have a genetic predispostion to either thinness or fatness, but as a species, there has been no evolutionary change.

I still maintain that humans have stopped evolving. I'll put my thoughts in an article and report the link here.

[Amy]

Fate: I'm not sure that the theory about population control can be true. Admittedly I have no figures for homosexuality throughout the ages, but I don't think it is any less/more widespread than it was. Unless it is like wisdom teeth or something.

While I agree that overeating and a lack of exercise is an obvious cause of being overweight, there certainly are individuals with a genetic predisposition to fatness and thinness. It's not that some people can't be thin, it's just that it takes far far more effort for some.

Anyway, I don't get shirty about 'normal' people and then being 'normally' thin, just these rediculous size 4 types. There is no way in hell no matter how much exercise or how much fruit I ate that I would look like that.

Mind you, I'm in the mood for a rant having been forced to try on The Dress in front of 5 (count them) abnormally skinny 18 year olds.

Looking forward to your article, GL.

Here's the article: A769881

Does that mean that this thread has to be for non evolutionairy topics now?

fat thin thing - I get peeved with scrawny 18 yr olds or anyone else for that matter who refuse to understand that a woman is supposed to have fat deposits in certain places, it's what nature wants in order for offspring to be healthy, I also get peeved with people who eshew responsibility for the way they are.

Homosexuality / population control - I said it was a theory. theory is not fact, but it's an interesting explanation and one of the more convincing arguments I have heard. And even by the Middle ages there were too many humans...

Morning, all!

I have been forced to face the fact that I will never be skinny. On the other hand, I've got some curves that the occassional man has described as lovely, so who am I to complain? Seriously, though, I'd rather be healthy than a walking skeleton any day. A few extra pounds is infinitely better looking and healthier than many fewer. At least, in my opinion it is.

*sips *

no love for the skinny 18-year-olds in this salon.



i have little to say on the weight issue save for that i wholeheartedly believe that people are genetically predispositioned to be either overweight or underweight. i won't bring myself into the discussion as i'll probably become the subject of even more hate.

Fate -

I have not heard the theory of medival people not being able to breath the air, but it makes sense. Much like the American Indians who were wiped out by smallpox from the Spanish, the medival people did not deal with fossil fuel pollution.

Of course on heavy smog days, I wonder if we deal with pollution either

With regards to the fat/thin issue. I fully accept that the reason I am fat is that I continued to eat a 3000 calorie/day diet after I stopped exercising every day.

I too believe that the only way to drop weight is to eat healthy and exercise.

courtesy

Oh, you know that we love you, sea.

Otherwise, I would have fed you nothing but fattening food while you were out here.

I think the fat issue is also tied to the global economy and politics. Bear me out here--this is a theory I came up with last night--in the West, we aren't having to scramble for our daily bread anymore by and large. Manufacturing is being moved to developing countries and we are left with largely sedentary jobs. Combine that with our high-fat, high-calorie, meat-intensive diet and you've got a load of First World Fatties. The West is devolving into children, putting on baby fat, wearing our fuzzy sweatsuits everywhere, carrying our water bottles, and living off others in the Third World.

*pulls on his fuzzy sweatsuit and goes outside to the garden*

Interesting theory, Fraulein. That actually makes a great deal of sense. Unfortunately. Is this the point at which we start making comments on the collapse of Rome and settling into the decadent comfort of our air-conditioned homes?

*sips *

[MTG Keep up the great convo, I'm arranging my surgery]