Biker Killed by Mountain Lion

Does women have a rational part in their
brains? ;o)

When I was completing my management minor, I hadda take a lot of
touchy-feely california-type classes. In one of them we learned that
the integrated, intuitive thinking that involves both hemis is the
fastest and most powerful kind of thinking. We men generally operate
on 1/2 a brain and make fun of the ladies. Physiologically speaking
(from a guy who knows nothing about this!) the cortex of the brain,
that part that facilitates communication between different parts/hemis
of the brain, seems much more highly developed in females. The female
'intuition' is quite a respectable process. Some guys do 'integrating
activities' (art, music for us left brainers) in order to train the
brain to use more of its capacity, more than just one hemi. Or so I
understand. My wife jumps me about something, "Of course I forgot the
milk, honey, I'm only operating on 1/2 a brain, and its 53 years old!"
But I'm still in trouble. :-(

I don't mind spiders in the house

I do. Nasty things. (note the period separating those two statements)

as we don't have any in the UK that could
do anything worse than startle me

You don't have poisonous spiders???? Sheesh! We could lend you a
few! I mean, we're not like the Aussies, but we have our few. Saw
some pictures of a fella who was bitten by a Brown Recluse (a spider,
not a neighbor) on his hand. This is on the web somewhere. Started
out as a red swelling on the back of his hand. Necrosis stripped
flesh and meat away until the bones and tendons were exposed in a
giant excavation in his hand and wrist.

if we had Black Widows in the house I'd be killing
them too...

I had a big mature shiny black marble of a Black Widow in my hair for
several hours once. Something kept tickling my ear, I was busy at
work at my desk, knocked it down on my desk.. giant ol thing.

I smash them, gush them, spray them, disintegrate them with a blast of
air from my pellet gun, drown them, drip propane on them and freeze
them instantly into frosty black statues (haven't been able to
re-animate them though), roasted them, microwaved them (won't repeat
this), fed them to a pet Wolf Spider, fed them to fish, fed them to
each other, ran over them, fire-crackered them, flung them into the
fire with the firewood they inhabited, and various other
small-boy-type experientation on them. They are not so tough. Now a
Paper Wasp.. they are lots tougher, and prettier too!

and getting Himself to do it :-))

In Our home, We am KING!!! When We tell Our wife to get rid of the
horrible spider for Us she does it! But I climb the ladders, she is
afraid of heights. And she doesn't want to ride recumbents
(recumbent content).

And a Phobia is an 'unreasoning fear', and thus not the proper term to
describe appropriate care in dealing with spiders of snakes! :-)

GeoB

(Mikael) wrote in message . com...

(Edward Dolan) wrote in message

What you are calling a phobia I am calling a primordial instinct that
probably evolved from primate experience with snakes, poisonous or
otherwise. The story of the chimpanzee above illustrates this and it
strikes me as being true and accurate. We humans of course with our
conscious minds can overcome just about any instinct or fear, but
those instincts are there for good and sufficient reason. Any primate
without those fears would soon be done away with and would not pass
those "fearless" genes on to any progeny. Our ears are sharply tuned
to the sound of a snake hissing. Thus spake evolution!

I was just trying to distinguish the two.
If you get fearresponses or chills etc. just by hearing
about a snake or seeing one on the tv I'd say its a phobia.

If you run away if something hisses at you or you come across
a snake suddenly I agree its instinct.
And probably a quite healthy one too.

Regards
Mikael, Copenhagen, Denmark

I think I have both a phobia and a healthy instinct when it comes to
snakes. I will absolutely not watch anything on TV having to do with
snakes for fear of having nightmares about them in my sleep. Oddly
enough, I have no such phobia or instinct when it comes to spiders or
any other animals I can think of just off hand. It seems to be
restricted strictly to snakes. Have you ever noted the really extreme
reactions that some women have to mice and rats for instance? I can
almost regard these creatures as pets. Is there a psychologist in the
house?

Ed Dolan - Minnesota

PS. All this posting about mountain lions, snakes and spiders has got
to be about as far off-topic as you can get here on ARBR, but let's
face it - those of us living in the northern climes can not really be
doing much cycling in January. The wind chill the other night here in
wonderful Minnesota was something like 40 degrees below zero. And so
it is a pleasant diversion to be off-topic while we look forward to
the coming of spring.

"Mikael Seierup" wrote in message ...
[...]

56N doesn't mean much in this context as we still got the Gulf Stream.
I read that we might not have it much longer and that could mean a considerable
drop in average temperatures of 4-5C. Guess I should take up skiing then.

I have often wondered what northern Europe would be like without the
Gulf Stream. I think it might be a lot like eastern or western Canada
- pretty much a frozen wasteland. You would still have the influence
of the ocean of course, but it would be as much your enemy as your
friend.

It is really remarkable how far north most of Europe is compared to
the US. The Gulf Stream saves Europe and makes it habitable. Once you
get far enough away from the influence of the Gulf Stream you are into
the continental climate of Eurasia (Russia, which is like the interior
of the North American continent).

I have often wished that I could have been born in the tropics, maybe
someplace like Panama. Man is a tropical animal and is only able to
live away from the tropics by his cultural adaptations. If we were to
live perfectly natural lives as nature intended without any cultural
adaptations, we would have to be living in the tropics. After all, we
are not polar bears who have evolved to live in these confounded
northern climes. Without cultural adaptations, we are in fact naked
apes (very little body hair) designed to live only in the tropics.

Ed Dolan - Minnesota

(GeoB) wrote in message . com...
[...]

I had a big mature shiny black marble of a Black Widow in my hair for
several hours once. Something kept tickling my ear, I was busy at
work at my desk, knocked it down on my desk.. giant ol thing.

I smash them, gush them, spray them, disintegrate them with a blast of
air from my pellet gun, drown them, drip propane on them and freeze
them instantly into frosty black statues (haven't been able to
re-animate them though), roasted them, microwaved them (won't repeat
this), fed them to a pet Wolf Spider, fed them to fish, fed them to
each other, ran over them, fire-crackered them, flung them into the
fire with the firewood they inhabited, and various other
small-boy-type experientation on them.

Spiders and many other species of animals are sufficiently different
from us mammals so that I do not much object to your killing them. I
know, it is a terrible prejudice, but whenever I am being bothered by
pestiferous insects I am questioning God what He might have been
thinking when He allowed such creatures into MY world. And then when I
see the poor suffering horses being plagued by flies I am thinking
that there couldn't possibly be any God at all. Why is it so much
easier to believe in the Devil than to believe in God when
contemplating Nature.

[...]

And a Phobia is an 'unreasoning fear', and thus not the proper term to
describe appropriate care in dealing with spiders of snakes! :-)

We humans have all kinds of instincts that we are not conscious of
most of the time living in society. A walk in a real wilderness will
bring these instincts to the fore. Sometimes it is quite revealing to
revel in our primordial instincts but the threats have to be perceived
as real and not fake. Only a real wilderness has the capacity to
accomplish this for us. Hence, the value of wilderness.

Every area of the world that has not yet been developed should be
preserved as wilderness, even if we have to limit our own population
in order to accomplish it. The Kingdom of God (the world after death)
already has enough souls to adequately populate it. As I am getting
ready to leave this world I worry more and more about this world and I
do not worry at all about the next world. The Devil and I will discuss
over a glass of vino how we would have created the universe
differently if given the opportunity.

Ed Dolan - Minnesota

(GeoB) wrote in message . com...

Does women have a rational part in their
brains? ;o)

When I was completing my management minor, I hadda take a lot of
touchy-feely california-type classes. In one of them we learned that
the integrated, intuitive thinking that involves both hemis is the
fastest and most powerful kind of thinking. We men generally operate
on 1/2 a brain and make fun of the ladies. Physiologically speaking
(from a guy who knows nothing about this!) the cortex of the brain,
that part that facilitates communication between different parts/hemis
of the brain, seems much more highly developed in females. The female
'intuition' is quite a respectable process. Some guys do 'integrating
activities' (art, music for us left brainers) in order to train the
brain to use more of its capacity, more than just one hemi. Or so I
understand. My wife jumps me about something, "Of course I forgot the
milk, honey, I'm only operating on 1/2 a brain, and its 53 years old!"
But I'm still in trouble. :-(

I have a very low opinion of the human male, mind and all, but I have
always been struck at how the male mind is so supremely good at
composing music and the female mind has been sadly lacking in this
particular realm of genius. This cannot be due to culture alone and
must be a particular and peculiar capacity of the male mind. When I
contemplate Beethoven and the other great 19th century composers I am
reduced to awe at how they were able to accomplish this. Women have
their virtues over and above men, but there are certain things that
can only be accomplished by the male mind. It may be that mathematics
and chess are other such areas of supreme male dominance

I believe that the human male and the human female are almost
separately evolved creatures. There is a phenomenon known as
dimorphism in biology which partly explains this. In some species you
can hardly tell the males and females apart. That is not true of us
humans. Male and female appear to be developing into separate species.
As long as we can still procreate we are one species, but some species
are more one than others.

Ed Dolan - Minnesota

Mikael Seierup wrote:

"Carol Hague" skrev...
(If you are going to the Worlds in Denmark please let me know well in
advance.)

When is this, next year? Is it going to be in Roskilde again?
We may well go if we can catch a suitable ferry.

Hmmm...good question really. I heard someone murmur they might be
interested in hosting it in Aalborg. Thats in Jutland 2/3rds up.
Nothing definite yet though.

I'll keep an eye out for further news then.

Rob says he thinks there's a direct ferry to Denmark from Hull.

Be afraid. Be very afraid :-)

--
Carol Hague
"You can't run away forever - but there's nothing wrong with getting a
good head start..."
- Jim Steinman, "Rock 'n' Roll Dreams Come Through"

GeoB wrote:

I don't mind spiders in the house

I do. Nasty things. (note the period separating those two statements)

as we don't have any in the UK that could
do anything worse than startle me

You don't have poisonous spiders????

All spiders are poisonous to some degree, and there are some that could
give you a nasty nip (my sister-in-law was once bitten by a spider and
got a large swelling on her arm) but none native to the UK that have
venom capable of killing a human, to the best of my knowledge.

There may be people allergic to spider venom who would be in danger of
death if bitten by a bog-standard UK house spider of course.

In one of the houses we've lived in, there was a large house spider in
residence in the bathroom, who would come out and wave her legs at us
whenever we had a shower (Probably saying "Oi, watch where you're
spraying that water, you great clumsy lump" in spider ). I was quite
fond of her.


Sheesh! We could lend you a
few! I mean, we're not like the Aussies, but we have our few.

That's awfully kind of you old chap, but I think we're quite happy as we
are, thanks. :-)

Saw
some pictures of a fella who was bitten by a Brown Recluse (a spider,
not a neighbor) on his hand. This is on the web somewhere. Started
out as a red swelling on the back of his hand. Necrosis stripped
flesh and meat away until the bones and tendons were exposed in a
giant excavation in his hand and wrist.

Ack!!


if we had Black Widows in the house I'd be killing
them too...

I had a big mature shiny black marble of a Black Widow in my hair for
several hours once. Something kept tickling my ear, I was busy at
work at my desk, knocked it down on my desk.. giant ol thing.

Ack again!!

I don't mind spiders in the house, but I definitely *don't* want them in
my hair, even if they can't hurt me.


In Our home, We am KING!!! When We tell Our wife to get rid of the
horrible spider for Us she does it!

Aw, how sweet :-)


But I climb the ladders, she is
afraid of heights.

Sensible.

And she doesn't want to ride recumbents
(recumbent content).

Less sensible :-)

--
Carol Hague
"One evil at at time. That's the best I can do." - Crichton, _Farscape_

"Carol Hague" skrev...
You don't have poisonous spiders????

All spiders are poisonous to some degree, and there are some that could
give you a nasty nip (my sister-in-law was once bitten by a spider and
got a large swelling on her arm) but none native to the UK that have
venom capable of killing a human, to the best of my knowledge.

We have tons of hunting spiders in our basement. Their venom
is supposedly among the most potent around. But the little critters
have so wussy fangs they can't bite through skin.
Also a hard stare and 2-3 of their legs fall off. I've given up on trying
to get em out alive. A quick death must be better than having your
legs fall off.

Mikael

On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 21:19:02 +0000, Edward Dolan wrote:

snip but there are certain things that
can only be accomplished by the male mind. It may be that mathematics
and chess are other such areas of supreme male dominance

Hey Ed -

Let's give credit where credit is due. Don't forget the other things the
male mind is supreme at:
- killing
- raping
- looting
- pillaging
- starting wars
- prolonging wars
- territorial aggression

And I won't pass on those other opinions to the other women at the aerospace
firm I work for. Don't want to confuse them.. (oh, silly me, where did I
put that engineering degree...)

:-)
Beth L.