Notebook Entry, April 28th, 2008

My other activities with the City of Lakewood are continuing to grow.  Right now I am sort of brain storming with one other individual in town whose wife sits on the same Diversity Education sub-committee with me.  His name is Peter Facas.  Here is an exchange of one email during Earth Week, 2008.  His message is in parenthesis with my response following.  I realize that this has little or nothing to do with evolutionary psychology -- unless you think of the “big picture” that our species is becoming very concerned with our planet and we are thinking long range about survival.

(Bill,)

(It's good to see someone is thinking about the opportunities inherent in the west corridor RTD expansion).

(What are the economic driving forces for Lakewood?)

(Construction will lower property values adjacent to the rail line and increase property values near the stations).
I don’t think that the old circumstances will stand.  The old idea that mass transit will lower property values adjacent to the rail line may be justified in the days of .99 cents a gallon gasoline.  It’s a different world out there.  With gas prices at four to five dollars a gallon, the perception may shift from “ugly and noisy” to “marvelous and wonderful” because the light rain is substantially lowering their transportation costs.  Besides, in the Eiber neighborhood all of the stations are within a one-half mail distance from each other.  That is the distance that has been determined by follow up studies in other Transit Oriented Development cities.

(In addition several taxable properties will come off the tax rolls for the station, parking and access routes. For Lakewood this would probably result in a modest but net gain in property taxes).
The mere rezoning of the TMU for high-density residences spending their tax dollar money in local retail outlets that would spring up would massively out weigh any loss of the current retail structures in place.  We are talking about 24 to 50 residences per acre.  I don’t know what the per acre population as it now stands but on my block it is about 1 to 2 residences per acre.   The more dense the population, the more the population will use mass transit.

(A larger gain may be accessible by rezoning the area north of the 13thAve corridor but this would need to be studied for total impact.)

All areas within a one half mile of the light rail line will be impacted.  There is a City/citizens/business group now in place that is attempted to write the zoning laws for this coming event.

(An argument could be made for Lakewood investment in "Green Tech" based on this increased revenue stream).

That is one of my goals.  To try and get the city to put in place a percentage requirement for buildings to be “green.”  I’m just at the beginning stage of study on these requirements.

(What are the economic driving forces for residential development?)

(Very little for new construction as there are few unimproved available lots in the Eiber neighborhood)

I agree -- there really is only one way to develop: Higher Density by building up and building smarter.  The increased economic costs for transportation will force people out of the suburbs and into locations that are closer to transit homes and employment.  One of the challenges is to create employment near the transit sites.  You can only build so many hospitals and office buildings.  Lakewood needs light manufacturing – perhaps ---“green collar” jobs?.

(Remodeling and upgrading of existing homes would get a boost for those properties whose value will increase because of RTD. Lakewood/Jeffco could leverage these by carefully chosen building code updates that enhance  Green goals)

I agree.

(Hydrogen Powered Village (HPV) opportunities).

(The technology and infrastructure for an economic deployment of HPV is not yet ready. So to make this happen in the near term a significant subsidy would be required. This could be in the form of a cooperative demonstration program between Lakewood, NREL, DOE, NIST and Industry).

Absolutely agree 100%.  And herein lays the great sales job.  In order for hydrogen power to become a reality in a “village.” It has to become “destructive.”  Here is a quote from John Turner, the lead scientist for hydrogen development at NREL.  It comes from a Denver Post article, March 9th 2008 by Michael Booth:
“[Hydrogen] is the tie between energy and transportation.  It both produces energy and transportation.  This toy has everything in it.  Let’s see the nuclear guys do that.”

[quote from M. ] “In its simplest form, hydrogen energy is created when a renewable source like solar or wind power produces an electrical current that separates hydrogen from water.  Hydrogen can then be stored in tanks – at a utility, or alongside a home, or inside a car – and used in fuel cells to run anything demanding power.

“The technology is ready to go – end of story,” Turner gloats.  But hydrogen requires an expensive overhaul in the energy system which is now based on other forms of energy.

“It’s a destructive technology.”  Harnessing it means new power plants, new pipelines and delivery systems, modified cars, renovated or newly built homes."

Since the northern part of the Eiberhood neighborhood from 13th Ave north is going to see major “destruction” and rebuilding, it is a perfect time for NREL to “experiment” with new housing configurations.   The keystone here is the “free market system” which will be in the process of trying to find money to redevelop these areas.  So, the “sales job” would be to convince real estate developers to jump on board and lobby the Federal Government, State, and City officials that this would be a great opportunity to subsidize the “reconfiguration” of housing within this transit corridor.  And the closer the redevelopment to the rail line, the more the financial assistance.

Peter: What does the acronym NIST stand for?


(Unfortunately there is nothing that distinguishes this neighborhood from any other established neighborhood in the metro area so that granting a subsidy/demo program would be contentious)

See prior email, April 25th.

(Green opportunities with RTD).

(Encourage biking to station by lowering speed limits in res neighborhoods, increasing bike lanes/paths and bike racks at stations).

Agreed.

(Encourage walking to stations by developing sidewalks and paths and pedestrian crosswalks).

Agreed.  The objective is to make everything “pedestrian friendly.”

(Some communities have seen Green gains by allowing golf cart access to stations.  This does entail motor vehicle code changes and traffic regulations/management for safety).

Agreed.  The only argument I might have is the “country club” image of golf carts.  Perhaps, a Lakewood made electric shuttle cart powered by batteries charged by solar energy?  Should be large enough to carry up to six passengers with luggage.

(regards.
Pete)

Those are my responses for the moment.  I really don’t know where I am going with these ideas yet.  There are merely “far out” visions of vague ideas that I have developed.  I know that if I wanted to go forward that I would still have to visit and seek out Mr. Turner at NREL and see exactly by what he means that “the technology is ready to go.”  If all of these is at all feasible, then I would seek farther support from others such as real estate developers, RTD officials, Colorado State Representatives who district falls within NREL, and of course, Ed Perlmutter, whose is a fantastic advocate for alternative energy and who district includes NREL.   .Should I form a formal “group,” like EarthDay365.com which would attempt to bring attention to Earth Day every day of the year….I don’t know where this journey is taking me.  If you have any suggestions, let me know.  I know that my next move is to visit NREL, would you like to meet for coffee  or join in visiting NREL and discuss anything?

Bill Spriggs

Notebook entry, April 21, 2008

Please refer to my Notebook entry, April 13, 2008

The Polygamist sect news is still in cycle and today there appeared in my hard copy The Denver Post on page 1, section A:

“Polygamist sect often casts out teenage boys,” by Jack Douglas Jr. of the McClatchy Newspapers.

The article basically supported my argument that these religious sects that allow multiple marriages of older men with very young females do so by expunging the young males.  In fact, in the article, we find that society has created a name for this group of expelled young males, called “Lost Boys.”

“Boys as young as 13 have been torn from their families and left on the unfamiliar streets of Salt Lake City and Las Vegas for committing such infractions as talking to a girl or rolling up their sleeves – a no-no for showing skin in public.”

The article also quotes a one Brenda Jensen who works as a volunteer for the Hope Organization, and was, herself a “polygamy kid.”

“The FLDS has traditionally kept the number of boys in its communities low, said Jensen.  That way, the male leaders can have their pick of young ‘plural wives’ without worry of younger competition…With the boys gone, the girls, fresh from graduating, are married off to ‘these old grizzly men,’ Jesnsen said.”

Notebook entry, April 18th, 2008

Well, here's some news you don't read everyday. Here's a quote from the UK's The Guardian with a byline by Graham Keeley; April 18th, 2008 Please visit the paper's website and subscribe to real news. This news item is too good not post and I think that I will post a permanent link on the What is Evolutionary Feminism? web site. I was just musing last month with my essay Morphing Into Matriarchy: Inching Towards Peace what it would be like if women were in the political majority -- when poof!! An example pops up. I think what is really interesting is the pregnant Defense Minister. See the picture of the cabinet and the Defense Minister reviewing the troops.

 

This week, Spain got its first female-majority cabinet - a huge leap forward for equality. Then Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi derided them as 'too pink'. So who is winning the argument when it comes to women in world politics, asks Emine Saner

Friday April 18, 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/

An Italian politican preoccupied with fashion, hair and fake tan, and prone to emotional outbursts? I refer, of course, to Silvio Berlusconi. This week it emerged, to no one's great surprise, that the newly re-elected Italian prime minister seems to have something of a problem with women in government. Referring to the fact that the Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has just appointed Spain's first female-majority cabinet, Berlusconi said on Wednesday that "Zapatero has formed a government that is too pink, something that we cannot do in Italy because there is a prevalence of men in politics and it isn't easy to find women who are qualified ... He will have problems leading them. Now he's asked for it."
 
Berlusconi isn't the only person who has been critical of Zapatero's decision to appoint nine women to his 17-strong cabinet (including 37-year-old defence minister, Carme Chacón, who just happens to be seven months pregnant). One conservative commentator in Spain described Zapatero's female-majority cabinet as his "battalion of inexperienced seamstresses", as if the deputy prime minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega (who has a doctorate in law, and a political career stretching back to the 1970s), and Magdalena Álvarez (a doctorate in economics, and a political career that dates from the 1980s) had just wandered in off the street.

And the attacks on Zapatero's decision have underlined the ongoing antipathy to women in politics. There seems to be an increasingly wide gulf internationally between those who are supportive of women in government - and make great strides towards representative government as a result - and those who think that the very idea of women bothering their pretty little heads with such matters as foreign policy is completely beyond the pale.

Zapatero, a self-proclaimed feminist, naturally represents the former attitude, being intent on equality. And he has shown that, given the right policies, it is possible to create a much more representative ruling class. When first elected four years ago, Zapatero appointed an equal number of men and women as ministers. Two years ago, he ruled that no more than 60% of candidates of any political party could be male, and that by 2010, the boards of any company pitching for public contracts should be made up of at least 40% women. "In Italy, as in Spain, there are enough women sufficiently qualified, intelligent and capable of being ministers or occupying other government posts," says Elena Valenciano, Spain's secretary for international relations. She adds pointedly that such an approach "would benefit politics and society in Italy".

Berlusconi, who has promised to include "at least four women" in his cabinet, embodies the less enlightened side of the equation. Campaigning in the recent elections, he referred to his female supporters as the "menopause section"; his women candidates are known as "the knight's ladies" (the knight being Berlusconi himself, of course, that noble 71-year-old ladies man). He has also referred to the appearance of the female candidates, in a bid to both publicise his party and undermine his women opponents. "The left has no taste, not even when it comes to women," rightwinger Berlusconi said recently. "As for our [women candidates] being more beautiful, I say that because in parliament they have no competition." Not to be outdone, Berlusconi's rival Walter Veltroni began amassing his own young good-looking female members for the cameras, prompting the media to brand them "Walter's angels".

Of course, referencing how female politicians look - suggesting that they are either too good looking or too ugly to be taken seriously - is a classic tactic of those who fall into Berlusconi's camp, whether in the government or the media. When Labour came to power in 1997, the policy of selecting candidates from all-women shortlists for half of their winnable seats resulted in the doubling of women in Westminster from 62 to 121 - a hugely significant result, which should have marked a new political age. And yet a single unfortunate photograph of Blair surrounded by women MPs, spawned the lazy, misogynistic tag "Blair's babes", which was used against them for years and undermined that great leap forward.

When Jacqui Smith, Britain's first female home secretary, gave her first statement to the Commons after the failed terrorist attacks last year, the focus of many of the news stories wasn't so much on what she said, but the amount of flesh she had on show (by most measures, not very much). The same fate befell Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, this week, when she wore a black evening dress with an admittedly plunging neckline to the opening of Oslo's new opera house. "Merkel's Weapons of Mass Distraction" was the Daily Mail's headline.

In Britain the divide between the forward-looking and dinosaur elements was on show again last month, when David Cameron - who has just seven women in his 30-strong shadow cabinet - promised to give a third of senior jobs in his first government to women. This angered many male Tory MPs, with Philip Davies, the Tory MP for Shipley, saying that it was "completely unacceptable ... if you believe in true equality, which I do, then it should be irrelevant what somebody's gender should be".

Which would be all very well if Britain wasn't failing so spectacularly to get women into government. The proportion of Labour MPs who are women increased to 27% in 2005 - considerably more than the Conservatives (8%) and the Liberal Democrats (16%) - but still not great. Overall, women make up just less than a fifth of British MPs. The right attitudes and policies - such as all-women shortlists - can change this. In Sweden, for instance, renowned for its progressive policies, women make up 47% of MPs, and in Norway, the Gender Equality Act requires that all public bodies, including the cabinet, should be at least 40% women. In Germany, more than 30% of its elected representatives in the Bundestag are women.

To see just how far some people's unease with women leaders extends, you only have to look at Hillary Clinton's campaign for the Democratic nomination in the US. Clinton's body, face and wardrobe have been pored over relentlessly, as if she was some kind of novelty specimen. The American media has been agonising over the question, "Are we ready for a woman president?" with Clinton being cast, variously, as a witch (her laugh has been described as a "cackle"), a bitch, and a ballbuster. Journalist Christopher Hitchens described her as "an ageing and resentful female". She has been too emotional or not emotional enough; too weak or too strong. She has been criticised for a perceived lack of warmth and the implication that she is not "motherly". There is that repeated accusation that she is only where she is because of her husband (accusations of nepotism against George W Bush were never quite so shrill). In a talk given last month, the American academic Barbara Pendleton said: "Many commentators appear to be unable to criticise her without dusting off their favourite sexist cliches, stereotypes and insults. Together they create an environment of hostility toward all women, not just Senator Clinton."

"Being hostile to women in politics is easy," says Sarah Childs, senior lecturer in politics at Bristol University and author of a new study, Women and British Party Politics. "You can no longer say, 'Hillary Clinton shouldn't be president because she's a woman,' but what you can do is slag her off for what she looks like. A lot of the evaluation comes from a gender perspective and at the extreme, it is misogynistic. There are still men who don't think women should be in politics, and particularly in certain positions. It taps into everyday understandings of gender: can women really cope with security and terrorism threats? It's old-fashioned sexism."

When it comes to the UK, she says that the quickest way to get more women into the House of Commons would be to use quotas. "If you want anything nearing 40 or 50%, you are going to have to use all-women shortlists and only the Labour party does that. I don't buy this argument that there are not enough women who want to be MPs - it's a house of 646. There are 300 women out there. It's about how you turn those who want to be MPs into MPs, and making sure political parties select women in their winnable seats. If you do that, you can get them in."
As Zapatero has shown, with the right attitude, you can truly cause a revolution in politics.

First among equals Who's who in the new Spanish cabinet

When the Spanish prime minister named nine women for his 17-strong cabinet this week, his choice prompted international headlines. Most attention has been focused on Carme Chacón, 37, from Esplugues de Llobregat, near Barcelona, who is the rising star inside the re-elected Socialist party, and the first female defence minister in Spain. She is also seven months pregnant. Images of her inspecting the troops with a baby bump turned up on the front pages of Spanish newspapers, along with widespread speculation about how much maternity leave she will take.
Chacón began her political career nine years ago when she was elected to Esplugues council, later becoming mayor. She became a parliamentary deputy in 2000 and was named housing minister in 2006. Originally a lawyer, she is married to another socialist politician.

As for the other new appointments, eyebrows were also raised at the naming of Beatriz Corredor, 38, as the new housing minister, since her only experience in government has been serving alongside the failed socialist mayoral candidate in Madrid for less than a year. She takes over an important department at a time when Spain's decade-long housing bubble has just burst and banks are warning of record mortgage defaults. Trained in property registration, she is married with two children.

Cristina Garmendia, 46, from San Sebastián, is another new face. The science and investigation minister is a Socialist party stalwart, but has a background in industry, having founded her own biotechnology company, Genetrix, in 2000. For Zapatero, she is a key ally in the Basque Country.

At 31, Bibiana Aído Almagro, the new minister for equality, is the youngest person ever to occupy a cabinet post. Born in Cadiz, Andalucia, until her recent promotion she was head of the Flamenco Promotion Agency in the Andalusian regional government. Now her priorities will be to reduce domestic violence, which occupies a far higher position on the news agenda in Spain than in the UK.

These are the new appointments, but Zapatero already had a sizeable number of women in his cabinet - when he won his first election in 2004, he named women to half of the 16 cabinet posts. So his "right-hand woman" was the veteran María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, 59, who returns as vice-president, and is known as the enforcer in his government. After a distinguished law career, she became an MP in 1996 and rose through the ranks.

Then there's the rural environment minister, Elena Espinosa, 48, who has responsibility for climate change and the pressing water shortage in Spain.
Public administration minister Elena Salgado, 55, from Ourense, northern Spain, has worked in three difference ministries and is regarded as a safe pair of hands. An industrial engineer by training, as health minister she introduced Spain's partial ban on smoking in 2006.

Mercedes Cabrera, 56, who returns to the cabinet as education social affairs and sports minister, comes from a family steeped in politics - her uncle Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo y Bustelo having briefly been prime minister in 1981-82, after Spain survived an attempted coup. Cabrera has long been a Socialist party stalwart and was named education minister in 2006. She is married with two children.

Finally, the transport and development minister Magdalena Álvarez, 56, returns to her post despite having become deeply unpopular last year over the failure of the government to deliver on its promise to have the high-speed AVE train link between Madrid and Barcelona run on time. Zapatero has weathered a storm of criticism for his cabinet of "ministras", not least from the likes of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. But the Spanish prime minister is clearly confident in his choices, insisting all the women in his cabinet were chosen on ability. In the next four years they plan to prove it.
Graham Keeley

Notebook entry, April 13, 2008

A Polygamous sect that has been in the news for the past several days has caught my eye because of the sheer number of young females involved.  The following quote is from the Associated Press with the byline by Jennifer Dobner, dated April 12, 2008.

“Child welfare officials seized more than 400 children, most of them girls, in the raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints compound know as the Yearn for Zion ranch, saying the youngsters were in danger of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

“The renegade Mormon group requires girls at puberty to enter into polygamous marriages with much older men and produce children…The sect also teaches children to fear the outside world, including the very authorities who removed them until a court hearing Thursdays that will help determine their future.”

If you’re an individual who views the world through an evolutionary perspective then you immediately see the obvious:  Where are all the young boys?  The back story never told for most of these sect raids is that the young males are expunged from the sects because, quite simply, they would grow up to be serious reproductive competition for the “much older men” in the sect.  The mechanism in place follows that if the competition is removed, then “the much older men” have increased possibilities to become greater reproductive winners.  Because the mental thought of having sex with younger women carries with it the mental “boost” of a “youthful” experience that some older men find too hard to resist, they are willing to beat the living daylights out of young girls to achieve their goal.  The “excuse” of religion used by the sect’s “elders” is just that.  It’s all about getting young, wet, pussy and being next to smooth, tight skin to make their old limp dicks feel young and powerful again as when they were younger.  The payoff of years of coalition building amongst the male “elders” so that they can also have a “harem” is likely rewarded because of genetic closeness to the Alpha elder and less from loyalty.

Notebook entry, April 6th, 2008

There was an excellent post online at The New York Times from Nicholas d. Kristof, titled: Our Racist, Sexist Selves.  I consider it to be excellent because I believe that it is the fist time that I can recall Mr. Kristof referring to evolutionary psychology.  In which case, he is now the third New York Times correspondent to reference this new science.

Basically his article touches on the University of Chicago and Harvard online psychological tests that anyone can take.  In the Chicago test “in which you encounter a series of 100 black or white men, holding either guns or cellphones.  You’re supposed to shoot the gunmen and holster your gun for the others.”

In the Harvard tests, “These ‘implicit attitude tests’ very cleverly show that a stunningly large proportion of people who honestly believe themselves to be egalitarian unconsciously associate good with white and bad with black.”

Then Mr. Kristof turns to gender differences and then to the 2008 elections with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. And to quote:

“At first glance, it may seem that Barach Obama would face a stronger impediment than Hillary Clinton.  Experiments have shown that the brain categorizes people by race in less than 100 milliseconds (one-tenth of a second), about 50 milliseconds before determining sex.  And evolutionary psychologists believe we’re hardwired to be suspicious of people outside our own group, to save our ancestors from blithely greeting enemy tribes of cave men.  In contrast, there’s no hard-wired hostility toward women, though men may have a hard-wired desire to control and impregnate them."

Mr. Kristof continues to quote John Tooby and as a result, welcome him to the evolutionary perspective.

Perhaps he will now move on with his education from the 40% biological basis of psychology to the social psychological studies in which we social creatures dwell 60% of the time, and he should start with

Notebook entry, March 7th, 2008

The April 14th, 2008 issue of Time magazine had an interesting essay by Nancy Gibbs on page 80.  Title: College Confidential.  “To close the campus gender gap, admissions officers often favor boys.  Is that a good idea?

The article starts by Ms. Gibbs telling us that when she entered college in in 1974, a Princeton administrator lamented on how the admission of women “has ruined the mystique and the camaraderies that used to exist.” Ms. Gibbs continued with the fact that when she entered college she was unnumbered by males with a 3 to 2 ratio.

But now there is a new discrimination taking place on our campuses; it seems that the numbers have been reveres and college admission officers discrimanting against desevering females to “even the gender gap.”  To quote Ms. Gibbs:

“But a gender gap has reopened: if girls were once excluded because they shomehow weren’t good enough, they now are rejected because they’re too good.  Or at least they are so good, compared with boys, that admissions committees at some private colleges have problems managing a balanced freshman class.  Roughly 58% of undergraduates nationally are female, and the girl-boy ratio will probably tip past 60-40 in a few years.  The divide is even worse for black males, who are outnumbered on campus by black females 2 to 1.”

Ms. Gibbs continues to inform us that the admissions director told the editors of U. S. New & World Report on why the admissions rate for males is 12 percentage points ahead of women is because:

“Even women who enroll…expect to see men on campus.”

It is hard to believe that the gender that forms collations and attacks its own species is given preferential treatment at colleges over women who don’t.

It’s time for you ladies to get your shit together and sue the fuck out of these colleges for reverse discrimination.
And you should do it because it is the best action for your future progeny and the future of the planet.

Notebook Entry, April 6th, 2008

There was a small article in the hard copy of the Rocky Mountain News on Satuday 4/5/2008 on page 23.  There was no byline nor news agency credit, so I am going to print the whole article and then make a comment.

“Sexual Images Trigger Men To Gamble Big.

WASHINGTON – A new brain-scan study may help explain what’s going on in the minds of financial titans when they take risky monetary gambles – sex.

When young men were shown erotic pictures, they were more likely to make a larger financial gamble than if they were shown a picture of something scary, such as a snake, or something neutral, such as a staple, university researchers reported.

The arousing pictures lit up the same part of the brain that lights up when financial risks are taken.

“You have a need in an evolutionary sense for both money and women.  They trigger the same brain area,” said Camelia Kuhnen, a Northwestern University finance professor who conducted the study with Stanford University psychologist.

The research appears in the current edition of the peer-reviewed journal Neuro-Report.”

Since women were on the scene for a much longer time before money was ever printed, than we can logically assume that when men think about women in sexual manner in 2008, then they immediately know that they have to run out and become the top dog and bring home the biggest pile of bacon to impress the ladies.  No pile of stuff – No nookie. Simple and to the point.

But, of course, my inquiring mind wants to know what other activities women are thinking about when the same area of the brain is lit up when they think of sexy men?  Vacuuming the living room?  Changing diapers?  Shopping for shoes?

Sorry, ladies, I couldn’t resist the joke. I'm sure that it is "what is best for my children?"

Notebook Entry, March 29, 2008

Today is my Granddaughter's fith birthday. Wow. The years are just wizzing by.

I also finished another essay. It basically is an answer response to one of the question that I asked in my "What is Evolutionary Feminism?" section. It's a long piece. It's a It’s a rambling piece, and a bit on the bitter side.  I think that my retirement and the limited income restrictions have made me more aware of the income gap between myself and the well off.  I know, it sounds stupid….but then, it’s always about the economy, stupid.  I have noticed that my wife and I are arguing more about our tax bill.  Well, anyways, the essay is Morphing Into Matriarchy; Inching Towards Peace . Enjoy

Notebook Entry March 23, 2008

An article in the Washington Post caught my eye: Its title, FirstBorn gets more parent time, study says, by Donna St. George, sub-title: the difference is 3,000 hours over years of childhood.

In a study by Joseph Price of Brigham Young University found what most parents know and other quietly fear:

“Their first born children get more of their time than others in the family – on average, 3000 extra ‘quality’ hours from ages 4 to 13, when sisters and brothers are in the picture.”

“…the big question, experts say, is whether this difference helps explain findings that show firstborn children get better test scores, more education and higher-paying jobs.
“

“Parents generally spend equal time with their children on any give day, but they spend less time with their children as the family ages.” 

It would seem that the study does not take into consideration the stress levels of the parents as they age, nor is there any information about hierarchical relationships of the parents in the local environment, or does “Brigham Young University” which tells of the possible location of the study – tell you enough?

Notebook entry, March 18th, 2008

I think that I am back online, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm working with my online editor from two separate locations -- one a desktop that I am typing on now, and my new laptop, so that I can make changes on the road if need be. My TECH guy and I are still having login problems, but we are getting closer to solving the problem. For example, I seem to be missing an entry around February 28th saying that I would be out of touch for about two weeks. Hmmmm....can' find it. In the mean time, as for my outside activities here on the ground in Lakewood, Colorado, I continue to work on local committees concerning the new light rail system that will be going through my neighborhood within the next couple of years -- Our duplex is one block south of the rail line.. I've become quite an advocate of Transit Oriented Development in terms how it effects neighborhoods, the poor, the elderly, and the cultural mix. If it all comes to pass the where the city has passed zoning codes, it should become a vibrant and exciting part of the Denver area.

Notebook entry, February 16th, 2008

The Sport's Illustrated Swimsuit issue was announced yesterday and my online provider had a video interview of the sexy cover model de jour female of the moment telling the audience what fun it was working on the project. The video also had her voiceover showing clips of her being photographed in some warm location on the planet in her various bikini suits (one shot with her topless, but covered with string necklaces of Mardi-Gras pearls to conceal her nipples). The final video scene was a close up of her squeezing her breasts together with both long arms extended downward, and, of course, with the coy pout on her face inviting her male audience for exciting events to come! The video promotion was designed to sell magazines, but it's also about reminding the male audience that summer and skimpy swimsuits are coming and that the mating hunt is about to begin - (and also to create anxiety in the female audience that they needed to go on a mating diet with summer approaching).

What she didn't tell the viewing male audience in her coy manner was that if they wanted to have sex with her, she would demand lots of attention and plenty of money - so be prepared guys! She was interview in front of a Budweiser and SI-club logo….indicated that the area most likely was a highly guarded, high-priced corporate executive locale that common folk did not have access to.

I do want to thank the publishers of Sports Illustrated to remind me of their prominence in popularizing the sexy female. There are many in the evolutionary community that believe that the 20 odd year of publishing the Sports Illustrated yearly issue gave rise to the highly successful Victoria's Secret catalog company which brought sexy underclothes within the buying convenience of the mating age female through home shopping. It has been the combined corporate efforts of these two institutions that have seen a widening gap between the cultural ideal of sexy vs. practical in our American culture.

In the recent past, I have called this phenomenon -- the "Victoria's Secret Mafia" that is causing this widening gap and has been criticized by some feminist organizations as the "objectification of the female." In response, the knuckle-crawlers, and in particular, the radio comedian, Rush Limbaugh, has called this criticism by feminists as the "Femi Nazis" to put a name to "ugly women" who can't land a man.

I may have to invent a new phrase for the combination of the Sports Illustrated-Victoria's Secret corporate mechanism to sell "sexy" to American women.

You have to understand that the Knuckle crawlers represent the rich corporate interests of males who generally have several wives known as "trophy wives." - As the corporate executive gets older, he "retires" his older wife with enough money for survival and then moves on to the next younger female. In the evolutionary community we merely see this as a reproductive substitute for polygamy.

And so, another chapter in the Battle of the Sexes is read. Where will it end?

Notebook entry, January 24th, 2008

The January 28th, 2008 issue of Time magazine has a great cover story this week as its Annual Mind & Body special issue. On the cover: "The Science of Romance: Why we need love to survive. The cover is two graphic novel characters about to kiss: the female says: 'gulp' I think we've got chemistry! The male says: I feel my evolutionary biology kicking in!

The library search article is titled: The Science of Romance, on page 53. It has 12 articles: Why We Need Romance; The Art (and Smarts) of Flirting; Couples: a Photo Album; Live Long and Marry; Gay Pairs; Romantic Derangement; Love Letters; Global Matchmaking; critter Courtship; Kids and Romance; Romance Is An Illusion; and ends with Endquotes.

It is very up to date because they may mention of Geoffrey Miller's piece a few months ago about lap dancers earning more in tips when they are ovulating. Here's a short quote from the opening article, Why We Love, on page 55.

"…One surprising study published last October in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior showed that strippers who are ovulating average $70 in tips per hour; those who are not ovulating or menstruating make $50." P. 57

And they even included an old study that needs to be reborn because it concerns my old friend, the MHC complex.

"…Among the constellation of genes that control the immune system are those known as the major histocompatibility complex (NHC), which influence tissue rejection. Conceive a child with a person whose MHC is too similar to your own, and the risk increases that the womb will expel the fetus. Find a partner with sufficiently different MHC, and you're likelier to carry a baby to term." P. 57.

"In later work conducted at the University of Bern in Switzerland, human females were asked to smell T shirts worn by anonymous males and then pick which ones appealed to them. Time and again, they chose the ones worn by men with safely different MHC. " p. 57

This is very important because it could poke a finger into the eye of religious fundamentalists on the planet to scream that "purity of blood" must be maintained in order to "preserve" the institutions of racial, enthinic, and religious discriminations. God wants diversity, stupids.

See my 2004 essay with the title and link below:

The Scent of Diversity:
Is the cure for discrimination in all forms as close as your nose? http://www.evoyage.com/BillsEssays/DiversityScent.htmm

My favorite quote from the article is that they call Helen Fisher, "an anthropologist at Rutgers University and something of the Queen Mum of romance research." P. 56.

Go out and buy the Time magazine and make it part of your permanent library.

Notebook entry, January 17th, 2008

I just read in today's paper edition of The Denver Post that Dr. Paul D. MacLean died on December 26, 2007. He was 94.

Dr. MacLean was a sort of hero to me because he first got me interested in the concept of a primal, reptilian brain structure that lead to my studies in evolutionary psychology. I first read about his theories in Carl Sagan's Putitzer-prize winning "The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Future of Human Intelligence."

Although science has since proved that the human brain is more complex then just three layers, one evolved onto of the other and that even the simplest of brain functions occur throughout the brain, his work stimulated other scientists to explore further brain functions such as consciousness and primal behaviors. He opened a philosophical door, of which, I entered -- and have never returned.

Notebook entry, January 16th, 2008
I went to a Lakewood City Civics 101 class last night….they were all cancelled in the remaining month because of snow fall and scheduling conflicts. It was about planning for a area of Lakewood zoned for development. It was quite interesting playing with tissue paper, crayons, and magic markers and "developing a area" within the city.

I also attended a City Council meeting on Monday and last night I attended the first monthly meeting of the new Advisory Council on an Inclusive Community. On Thursday the 17th I have to attend an Eiberhood neighborhood meeting of which I am a board member. Retirement is nice in that it really does give you more time to do other things without becoming exhausted. The challenge is keeping the waistline in check and no longer being "climatized" against extreme temperature fluctuations, and how to manage the new expanded hours - along with the small grandson running around and being very demanding.

Notebook entry, December 30th, 2007

Tomorrow is the last day of 2007. I have a few things to write about, but choose not to do so right now. I'll get back with you.

Notebook entry, December 18th, 2007

There was a great article in today's The Denver Post, paper edition titled: Huckabee is a body of work: Candidate's nonverbal cues earning voters' praise that elude others," by Richard S. Dunham of the Houston Chronicle.

I will just quote from the four most important paragraphs. The article does get into more detail about other Republican and Democratic candidates.

Of course, yours truly has been ahead of the curve for some time now about politicans, body language, and "comfortability" of candidates to voters by passing nonverbal language. See my essay: The Alpha Male Profile that I have dated, March 1999 (I better speed it up - the herd is only eight years behind me!!!).

Notebook entry, December 10th, 2007

I received this email a few days ago and knew almost instantly that this guy was a knuckle-crawler. Most likely a product of one of my Southern Strategy advertisements on Craig's List. I pretty sure that it came from Texas, but not 100% certain.. Below is my reply, with my deepest apoligies to any female readers. I was taking this guy for a ride.

Dear Will, (Approx...Dec. 7th, 2007)

I was doing a search for some information about the current scientific beliefs on the origins of homosexuality, and I came across an article, or snippet, you wrote back in 1999.

I'm writing a paper on the origins of homosexuality, so I wanted to get in touch with a few people and a few published works already dealing with the subject

_______________

I had a student write to me that he was writing a paper on homosexuality for his human sexuality class and he asked me several questions. This, in a snippet, is what I wrote back:
Dear Hubert:
Where does homosexuality fit into the evolutionary process? First off, Let's assume that by homosexuality you mean male-to-male sexual activity. I won't, in this short letter, write about female-to-female sexual activity. Well, it obviously does not pass genes into the next generation, so we can then assume that it must go deeper into why humans engage in this seemingly non-natural selection process.
__________________
That's just a snippet of the article so you remember what exactly it is I'm referencing.
Anyway, I had a few questions/wanted you to elaborate a little bit on what you were saying.

You said that the belief that you most supported was one in which during a right of passage type moment, the weaker males of a tribe, culture, whatever, were divided from the stronger males. The stronger males went out to hunt, and the weaker males stayed back to mate, thus breeding in more feminine-like tendencies.
________________
The third and most promising suggestion (by myself) is that the AMG's (all male groups) not only were hunters, but also protectors of the clan/tribe/village/group. The creation of the initiation ceremony to prove the "courage" and "strength" of the young male as acceptable into adulthood is prevalent throughout all cultures on our planet. It is a rite of passage signaling the departure from childhood into adulthood and also forms bonds of trust with the all male group. I also diffuses dependence on the family and in particular, attachment to, the "inferior" and "weak" women. Failure to be "strong" enough or "brave" enough by the individual could have resulted in his expulsion from the clan/tribe/village, and of course, certain death. Or, he could have been assigned to be with the women for protection duties, and therefore acquiring "feminine" and "gentle" traits. It has been strongly suggested by modern day feminists that females are a lot "lustier" than previously thought, (Time magazine cover story, March 8, 1999), so perhaps, while the "strong" men were off on the hunt, the "weaker" males could have been (rewarded-seduced-forced?) to mate with the females remaining in the village/clan, etc., hence the passing of "softer," more "feminine" characteristics into succeeding generations.
__________________

I have a few qualms with this belief, so I was wondering if you would help shed some light on the stance to make sure I fully understand it.

If the weaker males were the ones with whom the females were mating, wouldn't that create a shift for the entire human race? Wouldn't all children of the world just be the children of the weak men, so all children of the world are weaker themselves? I don't understand why it would be a selective process in which people all of the sudden some people were gay and some were not.

Also, even assuming that some strong men mated with females and some weak men mated with females, why is it that the weaker men spawn gay children and the strong men do not? What about being weak is it that creates homosexuality. I fail to see where the shift from being attracted to women to being attracted to men comes in.

Also, what in human nature would lead us to think that dominate men would ever let weak men mate with their wives. Doesn't that sort of go against everything we know?

Anyway, those are just a few of the things I was wondering based off of what I read.

Hopefully you can illuminate these things for me. Also, do you have any good books or articles you could suggest? Thanks

Jesse Barksdale

REPLY FROM WILLIAM A. SPRIGGS, APPROX, DEC 9TH, 2007

Dear Jesse

Ok, so you're argument goes something like this: You assume that all the females mated with the "weaker" males left behind.

Reply: I can't provide proof that ALL the females mated with the weaker males, but have you gone hunting lately to bring home breakfast, lunch, and dinner? So maybe the "shift" you are talking about has already occurred - After all, I am assuming that there are no roaming bands of males walking down your street looking to steal food from your house, tribe, or village, in the here and now of 2007. Maybe the Rush Limbaugh's and the Mitt Romney "five" who talk tough are the new modern equivalent of the "strong, though males?" Pushing a level in a Jet Cockpit to drop a napalm bomb can easily be done by John McCain or Rosie McDonnell.

I can't speak for all of the evolutionary community, but their thinking goes something like this: Big, strong, aggressive males generally tend to be sexual slobs as well. They tend to take their females for pleasure where and when they want. They consider their female partners as property and closely guard the female sexuality against "sneak" matings with other males. True knuckle-crawling fundamental males also expect their females to keep their mouth's shut and their legs open.

The theory continues that females have a brain and know how to use it, thus found that the less abusive, "weak" males a better choice especially if they could provide resources for her and her future children equal to the knuckle-crawlers. The theory continues that males tend to seek sex any way that they can, and this then can be used as a bargaining chip fby the female, more so if the man is "weak" and can't physically take it from the female. How would you choose to pass your genes if you were the woman?

Q: "Also, even assuming that some strong men mated with females and some weak men mated with females, why is it that the weaker men spawn gay children and the strong men do not?"
A: How do you know that weak males don't spawn strong males and strong males don't spawn weak, homosexual males?

Q: What about being weak is it that creates homosexuality?
A: I really can't answer that. I think in 2007 it mostly has to do with socially constructed beliefs by tough guys, verbally haranguing, or physically abusing males WHO THEY THINK ARE HOMOSEXUAL. They may not be, but being human, who wants to be subjugated by verbal and physical violence? The mere appearance of avoidance by "weak males" by tough males, may be enough to destroy reputations and social advancement in their local environments. They may not be homosexual, but are merely being "tagged" as homosexual because it is fun to kick someone's ass as a male bonded activity. Talking and acting tough may also hide any sexual secrets that the tough guys may be hiding. Ever hear of "The Down Low?"
Q: I fail to see where the shift from being attracted to women to being attracted to men comes in.
A: Can't answer it. Don't know. I tend to think that the sex drive is like static electricity and just has to be released every now and then. After the "lust" comes the Where - Attraction (after that is the "commitment" stage) -- Where does the sexual release go? I'm guessing that it's much easier for some guys to find a male willing to suck his dick or fuck him in his back pussy on Craig's List M4M personals then to go though the entire evolutionary mating dance. Rejection hurts, and maybe the "weak" male, already a "loser" in the self-assertiveness department, does not want to be rejected by another female. So the casual, M4M contact is quick, the sexual urge buildup is released, and life goes on.

Q: What in human nature would lead us to think that dominate men would ever let weak men mate with their wives. Doesn't that sort of go against everything we know?
A:Yep.
I guess you've never heard of the word, CUCKOLD? It comes from the 14th century to define a MALE whose wife has stumped him. In other words, "cheated" on him sexually. Ever heard of a Chastity Belt? "Just say No?" In evolutionary terms we call it "mate guarding." But, it's those pesky females again….making those free choices. Whatca gonna do? Well, we just have to love those cunts and we males will have to continue to devise ways to get the girls to open their legs for us. They keep raising the price of admission, and we try to BS our way in. That's why it's called the battle of the sexes.

OK Jesse,
It was nice venting there….I will consider updating the article - after all it was written almost ten years ago.

Hope all this helps,
Enjoy the Voyage.

William A. Spriggs
Evolution's Voyage

Notebook entry, December 1, 2007
A most interesting development has appeared on The New York Times online edition for today's date. It is an article under the Technology Section/"WHAT'S ONLINE sub-section: "As Always, an Unequal Pie, by Dan Mitchell. I will quote the first two paragraphs:

The distribution of wealth lies at the heart of political economics. Nations and empires have risen and fallen, and millions have died, as a result of humanity's struggle to decide how (or whether) to divide wealth.

But for all that, the level of wealth inequality has remained remarkably consistent over the last 2,000 years, according to a recent study by Branko Milanovic, a researcher with the World Bank, and two economics professors, Peter H. Lindert of the University of California, Davis, and Jeffrey G. Williamson of Harvard Universtiy.

Here is the link to the PDF file paper at Harvard - be aware that it is 88 pages in length, but most of it is mumbo-jumbo graphics. The meat of the paper is only 24 pages long.
I don't know how long the online link will be online, so you better get it while the "gettins" good. I have prited the pdf file out and I have placed it in my archives.

Pre-Industrial Inequality: An Early Conjectural Map
Branko Milanovic, World Bank
Peter H. Lindert, University of California - Davis
Jeffrey G. Williamson, Harvard University
August 23, 2007
http://economics.harvard.edu/faculty/williamson/files/Pre-industrial_inequality.pdf

Here is the opening paragraph to tempt you to continue:

"Did our pre-industrial ancestors have incomes and life expectancies as unequal as they are today? Or is inequality largely a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution? How does inequality in today's least developed, agricultural countries compare with that of ancient societies dating back to start of agriculture? Did some parts of the world always have greater income inequality than others? Was inequality augmented by colonization? These questions have not been answered yet, for want of sufficient data. Our effort to gather these data has not been easy, even though we were well warned of the pitfalls facing any attempt to explore ancient and pre-industrial income gaps between rich and poor."

The reason that I considered this "most interesting" is that I wrote an essay back in 2002 about the Resource Ratio Theory that focused on the evolutionary gap between the resource rich and the resource poor. I have placed the link below.

The Resource Differential Intolerance Ratio Theory:
The gap between the very rich and the poor; do we see the evolutionary connection?
By
William A. Spriggs
January 5, 2002
"The very rich are different from you and me."
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby

http://www.evoyage.com/BillsEssays/IntoleranceRatio.htm

After reading both, I want you to re-frame your ingestion of the two papers by remembering the quote from the economist John Kenneth Galbraith:

I want to thank Harvard for the paper and the link, and for adding strength to my argument that such a "ratio" exsists. It is all falling into place.

Notebook entry, November 29th, 2007

Diana, my wife, gave me this article from and decided that it was too important to dismiss. It was found under the SECOND OPINION column of the November 25th, 2007 paper edition of The Denver Post. Sorry, the page number was missing.

I'm going to keep this article as is in the Notebook section until I can do more research, but once again, I thought that it was too interesting not to pass alone.

Notebook entry, November 8, 2007

Well the local elections are over and I am happy to report that all the candidates that I supported won. The bitter mayoral race was won by the Mayor pro-tem, Bob Murphy, and my Ward 2 council candidate, Cindy Baroway won easily. Bob had a tough campaign even though he had the "machine" behind him and all newspaper editorials endorsed him. The voters were just in this foul mood of "throw the bums out" attitude and with a controversial city manager at the helm who had some negative press a year ago, the vote was very close. In fact Mr. Mruphy won with only 48% of the vote.

I return to my Civics 101 class on Tuesday, Nov. 13th and look forward to seeing both these elected officials sworn in on November 26th, 2007. I am also looking forward to January of next year when the advisory commissions to the City Council will once again meet.

Notebook entry, November 2, 2007

Because of the pause before the election returns here in Lakewood, Colorado, and the need for me to focus on that path and beyond, I decided to finish part 2 of the "re-thinking Posse Comitatus" essay that I started back in August. I made it shorter than I originally planned, but, what the heck -- the idea is so radical that it really is meant to be a "raise the idea up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes" sort of thought experiment. I may have gone overboard a bit on my distaste for the current CONservative control of the steering wheel of power - but, you don't bring a butter knife to do hand-to-hand-combat with evil.

Notebook entry, October 28, 2007

The City of Lakewood Colorado is creating a new ACIC -- Advisory Commission for an Inclusive Community. What happened was that several of their old commissions were not living up to their promise, so they cancelled four of them and decided to put them under one commission. The top three positions that I applied for are: 1) Diversity, 2) Neighborhoods, 3) Public Arts and Culture.

Notebook entry, October 20th, 2007

Things have slowed down a bit in my life when I have returned to writing part 2 of the essay mentioned in October 6th, 2007. In local politics here in Lakewood, everyone has decided to take the next several weeks off until the results of the elections are known. I did attend the local board meeting of my local neighborhood association and was voted in to join.

In going over The New Times article mention on Oct. 6th, I found it to be better than I had anticipated. I quote a few more paragraphs here:

You have to evolve? I love it, Col.Woods !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is hope for our species yet!!!

Notebook entry, October 6th, 2007

An extremely important article appeared in today's online edition of The New York Times. It's title: "Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones," by David Rohde. I quote the first two paragraphs:

So, in preparation to the second part of my essay, Retinking Possee Comitatus in an Era of Muslim Suicide Bombers and the coming hoards of bachelor males from India and China: Are more and more signs pointing to the lack of marriage opportunities for these surplus males as fodder for future wars and a threat to our national security? Part I,

All that I can say is, thank you US Army! for giving my proposal a "leg-up." The proposal, of course, is to have the US military "occupy" a poor zip code in the USA, stabilize the territory, both economically and socially, and then inculcate, educate, and then draft into service, from the poorest zip codes upward (until the need is filled).

The main premise is that, since the US military has a history of getting all the money that it ever requested, then that is the source of the greatest mechanism of "tricking down" money to the lower classes, while fulfilling military requirements.

I will store the article away until I resume writing the second part of the essay. I think the resumption of the second half of the essay will start in Mid-November of this year, with uploading occurring in early December, 2007.

Notebook entry, October 5th, 2007

It's been a busy week. Not only am I attending my City of Lakewood's Civic 101 classes, but I also sat in what is called a "study session" held by the City Council. My attendance was prompted by the presentation of a police division chief on the first report of the Graffiti task force. I won't get into detail but the only that the police request was $5,000.00 in "reward" money to school children to "snitch" on fellow classmates who they know to be "taggers" of graffiti. I have nothing against the police in establishing a line in which no graffiti writer should cross, but once again, it's the same story: punish, punish, punish, and then throw away the key. More on this later. Earlier that morning, I attended a Morning Chat with my two Ward 2 Councilmembers, Bob Murphy and Debbie Koop and Bob Murphy. Bob is term limited after eight years and is running for mayor of the city. Who says that you can't get access to politician? I was sitting right next to the man at a pancake house while he eating his oatmeal. I had both the councilmembers undivided attention for over an hour; we discussed the future of Lakewood, and the dynamics of the current campaign. The whole scernio seemed, just right….in fact everything about this new direction that I am traveling on, seems to be the right path.

On Wednesday, the 3rd, I attended a forum of all city council candidates and mayoral candidates. It was put on by several business organizations. The public was not allowed to applaud or comment and I left after the forum - once again, because of my awkward social skills.

Notebook entry, September 23, 2007

Well, it's been a long hot summer out here in Colorado. But there were a few enjoyable moments. Here's two pictures of me hanging with two of my buds. My grandson, Ewan, and Albert, who was silent on his opinions about the future of our species.

Notebook entry, September 16, 2007

Things are moving forward in regards to my retirement from the USPS. I've received my retirement package from the USPS. It's a huge book that weighs about 1lb and a half and measure 1 and ½ inch thick filled with nothing but forms and duplicates. I can't make a mistake so it will require my full attention. My separation date is scheduled for December 1, 2007. Currently, I am on sick leave due to the chronic arthritic condition in my back. I may have a problem with a new supervisor when s/he starts on October 1, because sick leave is assigned to each supervisor.

My new direction, which is local politics is that I am taking a class put on by the City of Lakewood called Civics 101. It is unique, in that no other city in Colorado has such a class. The first class was on September 11th, which was why city governments are formed and the evolution of City Councils - City Managers type of governments.

As such, because of both activities, I have to put the completion of the second half of Posse Comitatus (I call it PC2 for short) until at least I am completed with my retirement forms. There is no hurry, I will have more time to write in retirement - at least while the money holds out.

Notebook entry, September 5, 2007

In continuing to think about PC2 (Possee Comitatus 2), as I call the "re-thinking" of same, I was watching the news about Iraq and "The Surge." So if I understand this correctly then The Surge in Iraq is nothing more than Posse Comitatus a la Iraq. And to further find flaws in conservative thinking -- THAT IF YOU DO THROW ENOUGH MONEY AT SOMETHING -- IT WILL WORK. (more later....I have to run)

Notebook entry, August 30th, 2007

Vacation was nice, but it is getting more and more crowded at the Vail resort in the summer. There are even rush hour traffic jams getting into and out of the village. Also, the resort is being flooded with money for their new expansion project.....over 1.5 billion dollars....all just to put in new condos with air conditioning (which were never used in 1962 when the place was opened)...something about global warming....

I finished the essay about re-thinking Possee Comitatus and decided to break it into two parts. I've begun research on the second part, but realize that there is much to cover; I'm looking for charities that mainly do work with the poor, centered around urban areas and be can poured into one funnel: the US military.The purpose: Social engineering.

Notebook entry, August 11th, 2007

The family and I are off for our yearly "Busman's Holiday," by spending a week up in Vail at Diana's one-week time share that she has owned for over 20 years. See ya next week with the new essay.

Notebook entry, August 10th, 2007

There was an interesting major piece in The New Yorker about bonobos, entitled: "Swingers": Bonobos are celebrated as peace-loving, matriarchal, and sexually liberated. Are They?" The piece is written by Ian Parker and is found in the July 30th, 2007 issue of The New Yorker; the magazine, of course, which is the literary playground for the Upper East Side Uber Rich in Manhattan and its environs. It was a surprise to find the article, as the magazine is more known for its intellectual snobbery and elite consumerism.

It's a major piece - I estimate around of 10,000 words and started with a poor frame of attempting to attach the species to the modern, 2007 "Hippie" movement of the 1960s. The article starts off with the emphasis on the "make-love-not-war" behavior of the highly sexual, yet gentle creature. Here is a quote that I thought the frame to be inexcusable.

But, the article hits its stride after it introduces "Gottfried Hohmann, a research associate at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany" and follows him into the jungle with his associates. The article then goes into depth about the discovery, and unfortunately, takes a swipe at de Waal for publishing a book about captive bonobos without every stepping into the jungle.

Here are two very well-written paragraphs about that very topic:

It is really important to note those last few sentences. I have always maintained the argument that the lack of resources made the chimpanzee aggressive and the bounty of the local environment for the bonobos made them docile. Why would one have to fight for things found in abundance around them? They would be no evolutionary point. The other piece of the puzzle would be the selection of the aggressive male by the female as the best bet for progeny. And since, the evolutionary pressure would be reduced with the bonobos, the "selecting" of docile males in assisting in child care would be lowered.

The next to final paragraph in Ian Parker's article seems to suggest that the field scientist, Homnann is leaning toward that conclusion:

Now go back and review what I have written in the opening pargraphs to my Politics and Evolution section:

(Ultimately, in regards to politics and evolution), "It's about the resources, people." William A. Spriggs, 1995
________________________________________
"It's the economy, stupid" James Carville's advice to presidential candidate Bill Clinton, C. 2000.
________________________________________
"During the course of the 1990s I did my best to keep up with the various lines of grievance developing within the several sects of the conservative remonstrance, but although I probably read as many as 2,000 presumably holy texts,…I never learned how to make sense of the weird and too numerous inward contradictions. [Remember that] How does one reconcile the demand for small government with the desire for an imperial army, apply the phrases "personal initiative" and "self-reliance" to corporation presidents utterly dependent on the federal subsidies to the banking, communications, and weapons industries, square the talk of "civility" with the strong-arm methods of Kenneth Starr and Tom Delay, match the warmhearted currencies of "conservative compassion" with the cold cruelty of the "unfettered free market," know that human life must be saved from abortionists in Boston but not from cruise missiles in Baghdad? In the glut of paper I could find no unifying or fundamental principle except a certain belief that money was good for rich people and bad for poor people. It was the only point on which all the authorities agreed, and no matter where the words were coming from…the authors invariably found the same abiding lesson in the tale - money ennobles rich people, making them strong as well as wise; money corrupts the poor people, making them stupid as well as weak." Lewis H. Lapham, Harper's magazine, "THE TENTACLES OF RAGE," September, 2004 [pp. 40 & 41].
________________________________________
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." John Kenneth Galbraith, progressive economist, b.1908 to d. 2006
________________________________________
"In this book, we argue that both scarcity of resources and unequal access to those resources are the most important sources of conflict at any level of analysis." P. 3, Bare Branches: The Security Implication of Asia's Surplus Male Population, Valerie M. Hudson & Andrea M. den Boer, MIT Press, 2005.
________________________________________
"Given the popular use and abuse of evolutionary theory, it's hardly surprising that Darwinism and natural selection have become synonymous with unchecked competition. Darwin himself, however, was anything but a Social Darwinist. On the contrary, he believed there was room for kindness in both human nature and in the natural world. We urgently need this kindness, because the question facing a growing world population is not so much whether or not we can handle crowding, but if we will be fair and just in the distribution of resources. Will we go for all-out competition or will we do the humane thing?" (emphasis mine) p. 168, Our Inner Ape, by Frans De Waal, Riverhead books, 2005.

Notebook entry, August 1st, 2007

A fascinating piece was placed online at The New York Times, July 31, 2007 edition. The title was "Who's Minding the Mind? By Benedict Carey. The piece is about the psychological mechanism known as "priming." This is not framing, which is perhaps a bit higher on the conscious level, but is truly subconscious.

In several studies, research has found that…

I think that all of the studies tell us that the human brain makes decisions first on an evolutionary basis because in the ancestral past, one had to make life or death decisions in a fraction of a second. Today, I suppose we can see a spill over in this "non-thinking" decision making-process when we humans see a commodity, person, or ideology that "they would 'kill' or 'die' for." It also makes you stop and think about the political process and all of us slobs sitting in front of the tube worrying about the "disease de jour" medical treatment ad on the evening news and God help us if we continue to sit in front of the telly and become sponges for products or political ideas we don't need or are bad for our own self-interests..

The studies also confirm my broad brush stroke Math of 40% nature, 60% nurture, 40% DNA, 60% local environments -- concerning human behavior. It also confirms my "elevator" anonolgy that human consciousness and behavior have several "floors" of consciousness, and that we humans can zip up or down to these different floors in a nano-second.

Notebook entry July 15th, 2007

There was an interesting piece in the news from Reuters online titled: "India to register pregnancies to fight feticide," by Kamil Zaheer, dated July 13th, 5:33 am ET.

It seems that the Indian government plans to create a registry of all pregnancies to help curb widespread female infanticide and infant mortality. This government agency is called The Ministry of Women and Child Development.

"Many Indian parents prefer a boy as he is seen as a future breadwinner who will take care of them in their old age, while a girl is perceived to be a burden for which a large dowry will have to be paid at the time of marriage."

But, as the article continues, critics say that in a country where of 1.1 billion people where more than 50 percent of women deliver children at home without medical assistance, the idea is nothing more than a mess brewing in governmental red tape.

"We cannot give elementary health services in a satisfactory way to most of our citizens, and to talk about registering pregnancies is ridiculous," said Alok Mukopadhyay, head of the Voluntary Health Association of India."

"Public awareness, empowerment of women and extension of health services are key in fighting infant mortality and feticide, as well as implementing the existing laws that forbid sex determination."

I agree with the critics of the plan because it won't work. Female infanticide bubbles up from the basements of our collective cultures due to the lack of resources. Parents kill female babies because their societies do not empower women. They do not empower women because of our evolutionary cultural hangover establishing that males go off to wars to protect our respective borders, provide for child assistance and sometimes -- in the case of G. W. Bush - invade other countries for their bounty because of the evolutionary knowledge of males that know that the more resources that a male has, the more access to female pussy he will have. Sadly, it is knowledge known also to females who gives access to sex in exchange for resources while leaving their sisters behind.

To the ladies: solve the problem of empowering your sisters below your hierarchy class rank and you will have peace on the planet.
To the male CEOs: dead people don't buy your products; war is merely a disease to be eliminated. Be aggressive for peace by empowering women.

Notebook entry, July 11th, 2007
There was an interesting news item that came from Yahoo! News today which has a link with "LiveScience.com." The title: Women Are in Charge at Home. Well, there's a bit a news that has been known in the evolutionary feminist movement for some time now - and has been the untold truth for perhaps, several hundred thousands of years as an underground secret amongst women.

In a study by lead author David Vogel, a psychologist at Iowa State University 72 married couples and were video taped while they discussed each of the issues for 10 minutes each.

So the adage: "She, who must be obeyed!" is not just a sigh of anguish from "girlie men" who are "pussy whipped." The only complaint that I have about the study is that it involved only 72 couples.

I also remember my Italian-American childhood in Northern New Jersey in which my mother ran the house and my father ruled the outside of the house. I believe that in resourse-poor families it was the female who kept the family together while the male "roamed" in search of resources.

Notebook entry, July 4th, 2007.

Happy 4th of July greettings from America. The holiday used to have a special meaning to Americans, but I sense since the start of the invasion of a country that was no threat to us over five years ago, it has become almost a painful embarrassment. I will not elaborate.

As for myself, it is a day away from the very painful job of delivering mail. We are delivering more pieces of mail then ever, but it now almost 75% "junk" mail - advertisement mail from corporate giants, and now, even some smaller companies trying to become large. Since we are carrying more pieces of mail that means the total weight of the items we carry is increasing, and as a result, it gets transferred to my back which, as you now knows, suffers from terrible arthritis. I'm counting the days till retirement which appears to be somewhere around January 2008. Also, please note that I have entered a new Who is William A. Spriggs entry along with the two previous ones.

On the essay front, after finishing Menstrual Odors, Dirty Diapers, and the Male Dominated Religious Quest For Purity, I started going over my old essays and found that I was writing about similar origins of discriminations almost from the start of my studies. I then placed the four essays that I found and placed them at the tail end of the Menstrual Odor essay. I think that when I have time, I should put them all together and make an online book. Sure….when I have time.

In the meantime, you can see the ending of the Menstrual Odor essay and the four earlier essays that I placed on the end of that essay.

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In either case, I theorize, that today we "view" others in our social groups as either winners or losers in an unconscious, innate way. We begin to evaluate these people in terms of being able to win or lose the race against the predator. We tend to flow toward those we think of as "winners," and we tend to shun those whom we think are "losers." This, I speculate, was the origin of ranking which leads to the behavior mechanism we know as eugenics -- the judging of who is, or not, worthy to carry on the genetic line within a particular cultural context. There are no cultural People magazines devoted to "losers" or the "poor." I know that this sounds like I am simplifying life to its barest, but that is what evolutionary psychology does -- It is the language of our DNA. Thirty thousand years ago, there were no philosophers, no scientists, no psychologists, no crystal balls to consult to solve our "problems" -- just our emotions adapting to our harsh ancestral past. All is open for speculation.

After our species evolved into a conscious conceptual creature identifying external friend and foe, I believe that prejudice and bigotry were then the result of hoarding resources in times of shortage for (in order of importance) one's self, one's clan, one's tribe, and one's village. (I call this behavior The Resource Retention Theory -- those that have the gold, do everything within their power to keep the gold for their benefit).  In times of plenty, of course, the opposite occurred -- generosity, or altruism towards one's fellow creatures. What is often called "greed" by moralists springs from one's desire to live and to perpetuate one's own genes into the next generation. Our bodies can't live forever, but gene transference is the closest we come to succeeding. The "conceptual extension" from self to clan to tribe to village naturally continued, finally including one's nation, which is what we call nationalism. Simply, this "extension" merely represents that we are conceptually expanding our "turf." The larger turf area that we "possess," the greater the feeling of security in the area in which we physically live. The greater the area of security in which we live, the greater our feelings of comfort. Comfort and serenity allow our brains to think, to process new information at maximum efficiency. Sitting under a shade tree in summer with a cooling breeze can be very pleasant. We can more easily focus on problem-solving within the sphere of a calm situation, than we can while dodging bullets in a gang war.