"the cooking ape"

 
I actually laughed and clapped at the end, despite being alone in my house. So delightful.

Harvard Thinks Big 2010 - Richard Wrangham - 'Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human' from HTB2 on Vimeo.

This dude rocks.

If you don't know, my most serious academic and intellectual dalliance was in evolution and human behavior (before I went all conservation-biology-NPS-save-the-planet-y), so I am familiar with Richard Wrangham and love, love, LOVE thinking about this sort of stuff.

*happysigh*

In fact, my first night out of California was spent attending a meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) when I was 20 years old.


Thanks SO much to Carl Zimmer for cluing me in to his super-interesting article in Discover Magazine. It's a full-on 5-star article on the bb-scale, A Body Fit for a Freaky-Big Brain.

FYI, to get 5 stars from bb, you gotta

• write something I see as of now or later, vs. 15 minutes ago, since I just made up this 5 star thing up,
• write something I find fascinating
• write in such a way that it's EASY for me to rip through, given my ADD-nature, this is no small task
• not write in such a way that I think your statements are questionable, based on little or low-quality data, or dependent upon questionable (and, worse, also unstated) assumptions
• preferably supply references so I can dig further (also handy if I'm not yet convinced)
  

Seriously. This has made my day.


Brain happy.


And well and efficiently fed.

xoxoxo

bb

Richard Dawkins and Eddie Izzard

So, it's official, I get to post about Eddie Izzard (saw him in Oakland Saturday p.m. and IT WAS AMAZING and so soundly GOOD I cannot get over it) because he mentioned Richard Dawkins in his narrative. I almost passed out with happiness.

He was talking about the meaning of life. "There is none. We're just....here." That's totally what I believe. He said that it can initially be scary, but how I remember Dawkins saying it in a "Question Man" article I read in college and remember TO THIS DAY, "ultimately, it's freeing." As E.I. put it, eventually, you say...Okay. And move forward.

Welcome to my world.

(artist is apparently Desmond Morris, and I got this image from popularsymbolism.files.wordpress.com)

The Selfish Gene, by R.D., was filed on my dad's bookshelf in the living room, so the front cover faced out. Grew up with that freaky image (which makes me think of Dali's Persistence of Memory) as a part of my world. I always found it intriguing, and sometimes would just stare at it. Little did I know that book informed my father's, and now my, world view.

I'm SO excited to have a garden next summer--been poring over seed catalogues. Just picturing the lovely green things growing and blooming, bees buzzing, and spiders climbing is enjoyable. Especially while watching snow melt and drip onto my porch.

Thinking sunflowers are a must. Are there any "must haves" for you when you garden?

Oh, and btw, sick chicken seems to be reviving through her recent stay indoors, eating baby organic lettuce by the handful, so that's a HUGE relief.

=) xo biobabbler