July 98 Notebook entries

July 1998 Notebook Entries

Notebook entry, July 25, 1998

Time magazine article, July 27, 1998 p 54, on massage being good medicine for new babies reinforces the debate in the evolutionary community that grooming amongst primates is strongly related to the similar effect that massage has in humans. The article tells of studies done by the Touch Research Institute which clearly show that massaging newborns helps to make the babies more alert, gain weight faster, and sleep better from being calmer. In primates, grooming is done from the moment of birth throughout adulthood. It is as much a part of daily ritual as eating, sleeping, and mating. It has been found that primates become much calmer when groomed by their partners, and relatives. It has been suggested that grooming in primates helped promote language and could have given rise to the evolution of gossip. It is we humans who have much to learn from our ancestors.

I have decided to place several infant massage books for sale in the retail section of our web site. Go to Evolution's Bounty from our front page entrance.

Notebook entry, July 19, 1998

Oooops. Almost forgot to mention that yours truly had one of his letters to the editor published. It is in the July 13th 98 issue of The Industry Standard: The Newsmagazine of the Internet Economy. My letter was in response to Todd Woody's article about proprietary ownership of class materials and who owns the material of courses being offered on the Internet by Universities -- the colleges or the professors? I wrote that the arguments about the issues were already dead. I wrote that with the costs of higher education escalating, the average income [for households] connected to the Internet dropping, and the driving competitive need for higher technologically based education of our people, Woody's article should have been about: Will the politicians help wire our schools and libraries? Will they pass a voucher system that allows citizens to learn over the Internet at the college of their choice?

Notebook entry, July 18, 1998

Oh, man!! Has it really been a month since my last entry? Wow! where did the time go. I have to admit that my schedule has been heavy on the day job, with little energy left for other activities. I have been concentrating an important project that project possible behaviors between nations from an evolutionary perspective. I am sorry, but I can not share this with you at this time. Perhaps late fall 1999 I will place my work on the internet if there has been a favorable reaction.

But, at this time I did want to share some good news with you that ties in with my essays. It seems that Apple Computer has just announced that they have posted the third straight quarterly profit and with the introduction of the new iMac and the news that more software companies have decided to once again produce software for the reborn company has Apple enthusiasts jumping for joy. The company is still struggling, but does appear to have been reborn. The true test, as always, lies with investors. Apple stock rose to it highest level in several years, closing at 36½. I have decided to add this note to my Apple essay and archive the essay next month. I hope that some people were reading the work. I think the message got through.

You can read the update to the Apple essay at: http://www.evoyage.com/Apple.html