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

I did read the thread, but there was a much funnier reply in it if I pretended not to have. I heard that sometime in 18th century London, there was a drunken old woman who used to frequent the 'gin palaces' and bet any male stranger that she could pee further than they could. Apparently she always won!

Nothing disgusting about it. Urine is sterile, so it's probably cleaner than tap water.



That makes me wonder why we ever praise or blame people for doing certain things. Indeed, why do we punish some of them - to the extent of sometimes killing them? I'm still confused that we do this for reasons that don't mean anything!

toxx

Translation guide from UK to US.

In "tap water": 'tap' = 'faucet'. As in Farah Faucet-Majors.

toxx

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From reading the forum associated with one of those pages I posted, it seems that's not surprising--apparently because the female urinary tract is shorter, urine has a higher exit velocity. And therefor females usually can pee farther than males. Not that I've tested it myself, at least not yet.


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Because they have subjective reasons that are there for good evolutionary reasons. And because reality isn't necesarily the best basis for a society.


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Unneeded translation--everyone in my area always calls it 'tap water'. Although they normally call the thing you get it from the 'faucet'.

Well, I got to learn something there, anyway. I didn't think you used 'tap' for anything but dancing and associated sounds. I wouldn't have fallen into the trap of suggesting 'faucet dancing'.



But, in society, people have different survival interests. For the male it's impregnating the maximum number of females; for the female: maximising the gene quality of the offspring and the provisioning commitment of a good male provider. This would, of course, have applied thousands of years ago, and may well not apply to modern western society. But then there's 'group survival' ...

I'm not too convinced that Evolutionary Psychology is the whole story - and that the rest is 'irrationalism'. For one thing: it makes language little more than an epiphenomenon - an interesting idea!

toxx

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Not quite, toxx. Survival interests are the same, ie leaving the maximum number of offspring who can further reproduce. If males had 6,000 children and no grand-children, then what use is impregnating all the females. Childhood survival is equally important.

Correct in principle, Pedro. But a male who gets to do that is probably impregnating many females who already have a provider or who will soon find one. Females have everything invested in those few they are able to produce themselves. Empirically, it seems that it works as I have suggested.

Anyway, that male orientation exists, and the only possible explanation is that it evolved for something like the reasons suggested.

But, in the end, I was criticising this theory anyway. I'm discussing rather than arguing a particular position - at this stage.

toxx

yawn

"yawn"

<-I nearly blacked out in physics class once or twice out of exhaustion from undersleep.>

I nearly blacked out in college physics too, but it was due to the horribly thick Indian accent the teacher had-when he'd say "9.8 m/s" he'd pronounce it "nine pointy eight", and no matter how many times we told him THE E IS SILENT he could never get it. Most of what he said in class was lost in translation.

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I'd say yes, probably--I wouldn't say "good" and "bad" are exactly objective.>

I'd say it's an individual perception, good for one is bad for another; in my own case it would be great if my father-in-law were to drop dead. This would also be a good thing for everyone else he's come into contact with over the last 50 years-family, "friends" and business associates included. It would only be bad for him.

"But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat."
Peter, Paul and Mary sang it, I don't know who wrote it. The first line of the chorus was correct, Toxx. I can't see how this relates to "...pee standing up", and I don't think I want to know. This isn't even Thursday. I could deal with this stuff if it were Thursday.



How this relates to this thread is a mystery, unless this is a new twist: "Does God pee, and if so is it while standing up?" The distance an individual is capable of is related to the force with which they can squeeze the bladder and the diameter of the urethra. Anyone for a height/distance contest?

< As in Farah Faucet-Majors>
That should be Fawcett and there's no more '-Majors', apparently the bionic man developed a hardware problem and they divorced years ago.

< As in Farah Faucet-Majors>
That should be Fawcett and there's no more '-Majors', apparently the bionic man developed a hardware problem and they divorced years ago. >>

she will be a old lady now

Hey! Less of the 'old'. She's eight months younger than me.

alji

Hey! Less of the 'old'. She's eight months younger than me.>>> lol well they do say your only as old as you feel .

< well they do say your only as old as you feel .>
And "they" usually say this to old people, no?

Did anyone see the reconstruction of Stonehenge on Channel 5?

alji

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Maybe in other parts of the country that's true. Faucet dancing--hahaha.

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But consider. A female knows her baby is hers. A male doesn't necesarilly--unless he's sure he's the only one who had sex with her durring her fertile period--and if you look at chimp/bonobo society you have to wonder how he could know--he can't be sure he's not helping to raise someone else's baby. But if he has 6000 kids with 6000 mothers, a good percentage are likely to be his, and since the mothers have a definate interest in their kids' survival, they'll do their best to make sure that they will survive even if the father leaves.

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It is as I'm reading this..many happy returns on the day and twice on Thursdays.

Wow, on the chance that he impregnates them every single time that's a mother a day for 18.45 years, or two a day for 9.2 years, or three a day - wait, that'd never happen, not for 6 years non-stop.

Today is absolutely Thursday. Hoo-rah.

I don't claim the statistic is reasonable--I took it from an earlier post. I think the point still has some value without that particular number, though. Also, if early humans lived in small chimp/bonobo like groups, then even if a male didn't care particularly about rearing __their__ children, what benefited the group/them would also benefit their mates and children.

As for Thursday, what is so special about it, anyway? Thingites and Winnie the Pooh--is it some sort of British joke I don't get?

Dr J is American.

In Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker books/radio series/tv series/movie, Thursday was the day on which Arthur Dent's house and then the Earth were destroyed. It thus has a special significance for some h2ers.