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- Ninh, on 10/15/2009, -1/+1451) I already outlived the life expectancy of pretty much any man of the quoted periods. I win.
2) Aborginals use a spear throwing aid called a woomera to increase distance/impact strength which is not used for the athletic javelin
3) Roman soldiers were usually loaded out at 30 kg each which, assuming people were smaller at that time, may fit 1/2 body mass indeed. The average marching distance however was 20-25 km/day (iter iustum) on military roads, not >60 km (42.2 km = marathon). Current day participants at the Totenkopf-March in Belgium frequently march 100 km in under 18 hours with a load of 10 kg. - nasdbroker73, on 10/15/2009, -1/+96Survival of the fittest does not necessarily mean physical strength. It means having traits and characteristics that increases the chance of survival in your environment and during your lifetime.
- Leviathan433, on 10/15/2009, -1/+59"The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male."
Umm..I disagree. we are perfectly adapted to our environment. Huge bulk is unnecessary. - SpruceCaboose, on 10/15/2009, -0/+53Spot on. It should also be mentioned that we have used our engineering prowess and intelligence to invent machines that take much of the need away for that long haul/sheer power musculature/physique.
I mean, yes, they had to be fast to survive. We have cars which render running speed largely irrelevant for travel, and guns which eliminate much need for chasing prey. They had to jump their height to become a man in their culture, so they trained for jumping since birth. We don't, but when gymnasts train for their lives, they often can leap major heights, as can many other athletes who train hard. Then he uses the fact that women could have, with training, become 90% the size of Arnold. Well no crap. If anyone started training and dedicated years to it, they could look like Arnold as well. *****, with steroids now, bodybuilders make Arnold look tiny.
The fact is that these ancient people needed these skills to survive. We do not anymore, so we do not train from birth to do them, and as you pointed out, our life spans are increasing in part because we do not need to treat our bodies like tools as much to survive in modern life.
I don't see why this is shocking. - paynomind, on 10/15/2009, -2/+55Agreed. I am far more wimpy than a guy who hunted for his dinner, killed it, cooked it, and ate it, all outside.
Me, I prefer A/C, carpeting, television, and living past 32. - namja23, on 10/14/2009, -12/+58We can't help it.
All the women like vampires, and like it said in another Digg article, that means they want to have sex with gay men... - tomcat4u, on 10/15/2009, -0/+42I bet you $10 that the author looks like a pencil-neck, scrawny academic type. This book is his version of getting back at his old high school bullies.
- brickwall99, on 10/15/2009, -1/+43Sure they were stronger and faster, but we are smarter and live longer.
Which would you prefer? - joculator, on 10/15/2009, -0/+41Oh yeah....I'd like to see neanderthal man beat me at Halo 3...frag his ass in seconds, the punk.
- WhiskeyLemur, on 10/15/2009, -0/+39Exactly... pound for pound, humans have *always* been one of the wimpiest species on the planet, but also the smartest - and if anyone thinks that we're also the worst-adapted species has clearly been living on some other planet.
- urbanetruth, on 10/15/2009, -14/+52"A generation of men raised by women," as Tyler Durden says in Fight Club.
- saigumi, on 10/15/2009, -0/+37Had to digg you down for the "Americans" part.
The article says "Modern Man" and this does apply around the world especially since the article was written in the UK. - WhiskeyLemur, on 10/15/2009, -2/+34Someone used this exact quote yesterday in another context, to which my answer is this: pretty much all men belong to "a generation of men raised by women" - if anything, the current generation of kids got to see *more* of their fathers than the previous ones. Just look at tribal structures around the world; look at who traditionally raises children. Even in societies where boys are eventually taken into an all-male subculture around puberty, their early formative years are still almost entirely influenced by women.
Literary and film quotes aren't always applicable to real life. - BeforeSputnik, on 10/15/2009, -1/+32You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
- WhiskeyLemur, on 10/15/2009, -2/+33"I don't see why this is shocking."
Because civilization is evil, antibiotics and inoculation are bad for you, genetically-modified foods are destroying humanity, and we should all collectively give the middle finger to modern medicine and go back to gnawing on willow bark instead of just popping an aspirin. - WhiskeyLemur, on 10/15/2009, -0/+31Oh, give me a break.... It has nothing to do with evil emasculating women and everything to do with the fact that you and your immediate ancestors haven't had to hunt for your food all of your lives - with nothing more than a sharpened stick and a slingshot. Get some perspective.
- WhiskeyLemur, on 10/15/2009, -1/+29Also indoor plumbing. I cannot stress this point enough - these people had no showers, no toilets, and no heaters.
- ifruit, on 10/15/2009, -5/+31Tyler Durden: We're a generation of men raised by women. I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.
- WhiskeyLemur, on 10/15/2009, -2/+24Yep, and while we're at it, let's go back to a lifestyle with an average life expectancy of under 30 years. I know it's cool to rag on civilization and all, but come on folks - it has nothing to do with cojones and everything to do with the fact that we no longer have to chase mastodons on foot just to feed our families.
I might also add that, at the time, we had no antibiotics, no toilet paper, and no beer. Weighty considerations indeed. - Invader001, on 10/15/2009, -0/+18I'd consider this to be a good thing, but since we have some extremely dangerous weapons I would also have to say that this might be invalid.
- Hetman, on 10/15/2009, -1/+19If the ability to destroy the entire planet with the touch of a button is not masculine I do not know what is.
- Guitfiddler09, on 10/15/2009, -0/+18Faster than Usain Bolt? lol. Has anyone see Usain Bolt actually try to run as fast as he can the whole race with out celebrating 20m before the finish?
- mjhamilton, on 10/15/2009, -2/+20Modern anthropologists can say that to my face!
- mrgr8avill, on 10/15/2009, -1/+18Peter McAllister is a sizzle-chested nipple-twisting namby bitch!
There. Now we're even. - erkokite, on 10/15/2009, -0/+16CRAB PEOPLE
- kartman2001, on 10/15/2009, -0/+16Turtle soup.
- zuiquan, on 10/15/2009, -0/+15I'll take that bet kraker, how would you like to pay me? I take paypal and cash.
- PirateD00D, on 10/15/2009, -1/+16Because we can't run 45kph we're inadequate? What does that mean for turtles?
- valmira, on 10/15/2009, -1/+16Survival is the only standard for declaring victory.
- WhiskeyLemur, on 10/15/2009, -0/+14Camon - a valid question, but the answer would depend on what you mean by "similar" and what you mean by "ideal." Allow me to explain.
The modern world is extremely complex and interconnected; traditional agricultural and societal paradigms, in which a single family works to provide enough food for itself and that's about it, cannot support today's population density. That means that if we go back to this paradigm, we will see mass starvation, collapse of the social order as we know it, additional population drops due to diseases breeding in so many corpses, and a total disappearance of the Internet. Gods only know which is worse.
In order to simply **feed** such a number of people and thus prevent total societal implosion, you need several things:
- efficient production of foodstuffs, which means in effect *mass* production, which means big agricultural conglomerates which can buy (I'm totally making up these numbers to prove a point, so bear with me) 4 tractors to plow 10 fields instead of having to buy a tractor per family-owned field
- distribution of said foodstuffs from the (few) places where they're produced to the (many) places where they're consumed
- fuel to power those sources of distribution
- scientific research into means of distribution, fuel for those means of distribution, medicine to protect us from disease caused by such close proximity to so many other people, and so on
- some sort of mechanism to make sure that all the people who are distributing, fueling, and researching are *also* fed, not just the people who actually grow the food
- etc, etc, etc
This is going to sound banal at best and recursive at worst, but it's true: in order to sustain civilization at the levels to which you are accustomed, you need the structures of civilization which arose to sustain that lifestyle. Like it or not, the only way we're going back to the "one guy, one gal, two guns, a few kids, one farm" mode of existence is through a mass die-off and collapse of civilization as we know it. Which inevitable leads me to my final question: if civilization is gone, who the hell is gonna make your gun and the ammo for it?
[edit] Damn, Caergrim beat me to it.... and in fewer words than I have paragraphs, too... Damn.... - andyb747, on 10/15/2009, -3/+17"***** off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may"
-tyler - Cdizzl3, on 10/15/2009, -2/+16Too many laws to be tough.
- inactive, on 10/15/2009, -2/+16We are the Apex Predators,we have nothing to eat us or kill us. No competition have made humans grow weak and complacent.
- Triplastic, on 10/15/2009, -0/+13Thanks for the input, Shredder.
- Caergrim, on 10/15/2009, -0/+13It is called specialization of labor. It is why we have reached our current technological level. If people had to spend hours each day just providing their own food, then we would not have any of those things.
- smemily, on 10/15/2009, -0/+13We didn't have to emasculate you bugwayji. Look at your comment history. You are a whiny bitch all by yourself.
BTW, moping about how everyone is so emo these days is pretty emo itself. - energyx, on 10/15/2009, -1/+14if you slug some punk who talks ***** to you, you get sued/jailed
if a woman accuses you of rape, you do down
if you compliment a woman at your workplace, you get fired
if you spank your kids in public, you lose them
if you even raise your voice, it's 'disorderly conduct' - FormerBabby, on 10/15/2009, -1/+14Anthropologists are pretty wimpy men.
- tomjm5000, on 10/15/2009, -0/+12Pretty sure the average American is missing more than just "huge bulk"... how many people do you know who can't even do a pull-up?
- hlidotbe, on 10/15/2009, -0/+12All right, you primitive screw-heads, listen up! See this? This... is my boomstick!
- Iceman21, on 10/15/2009, -0/+12No, the roman army would kill you and steal your stuff to see how it works, they were far from idiots.
- mparker21311, on 10/15/2009, -2/+14Or they have a rape fetish.
- happyimbecile, on 10/15/2009, -0/+11To paraphrase an SA comment: Any human going up against a gorilla is going to get that huge, frying-pan hand across the face, knock them out, and get torn to pieces in a matter of seconds. You can't go around choking gorillas.
- M1911A1, on 10/15/2009, -1/+11Actually, the Romans had all those things.
- WhiskeyLemur, on 10/15/2009, -1/+11@mjhamilton
1) What, precisely, do you mean by the "ever increasing feminization of our culture"? It's easy to toss around jargon, but I'm really curious as to how you would apply this terminology to actual, real-life situations.
2) There is no biological reason in the modern society for men to be the "bread-winners," so why should women be automatically relegated to household roles, even if it's against their inclination? - BaphClass, on 10/15/2009, -2/+11And yet, why do I have the feeling that these 'superior' men would bow down to us as gods, but for the flick of a lighter?
"Hail tall skinny-man. He make fire in him hands."
Christ, you could dominate an army in the heydey of the Roman Empire with some fireworks and a hunting rifle... - Leviathan433, on 10/15/2009, -0/+9Well actually, a fair amount. My family runs a mechanic business - my fiance grew up on a farm - my roommate is in the national guard - most of my buddies are in the trades. The people around me are fairly healthy and physically active.
I will admit that this is probably atypical, but you did ask. - smemily, on 10/15/2009, -1/+10Humans aren't built for brute strength, period. Show me an adult who exercises and is in good physical condition, and he'll still have his ass kicked by an angry chimp, dog or cougar that's half his weight.
- roddack, on 10/15/2009, -0/+8Worth it for being able to ***** comfortably, enjoy clean water, Heating, AC, lighting, instant communication, and medicine along with a whole host of other things.
- omgstfu, on 10/15/2009, -0/+8Modern man is wimpy? OK, let's see how modern man, packing a 9mm, matches up against the caveman.
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