The time lapse video of my Snowcraft School class building a snow wall out on the ice shelf has been posted to Youtube. I'm the one in black with a red hat that ends up hauling sleds with snow blocks on it. I am not sure if either the link above or embedded video below work because our bandwidth here is extremely limited. If it is not working, search Youtube for "Happy Campers from McMurdo build snow wall." I send my thanks to my son Joe for getting this online.
Burning questions:
"Is McMurdo a science town with a drinking problem or a drinking town with a science problem?"
"From an evolutionary perspective, why have women lost the ability to grow a beard? It sure would be useful down here" I think this one goes next to "Why do men have nipples?" Your opinion is welcome. Perhaps an intelligent dialogue is possible through the comments. Or not.
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4 comments:
Hey Scott, Have enjoyed all your pictures and comments. Thanks so much for sharing your fantastic experience. Go for it. Love, Mom and Bill
"I've got nipples Fauker, can you milk me?"
Meet the Parents
watch the movie :)
Nice wall. It looks like you all are having fun down there. We'll be following your adventures with interest and hope to see you when you get back.
Kip and Kate
As for nipples and men, my personal philosophy is that they are like many of our vestigial organs...hallmarks of an earlier phase in embryonic development which have remained because they served a purpose at some phase in more recent human development. For instance, with the nipple, you could easily ask why women don't still have 6, or 4, since all mammals have 6 while in the womb. I'm sure women with twins would prefer to be able to switch them out, or even just women who are sore or having a hard time lactating in one or more breasts. Some women and men still have more than two nipples, which are usually nonfunctional, and often odd in number. As for why men still have two nipples which do not express milk, a) in some rare medical conditions, they can begin to lactate, and b) maybe the social impact of nipple stimulation during grooming increased bonding between groups during our less evolved era, apart from any relevance to reproductive efforts.
There is increasing reason to believe that our 'vestigial' organs are not so 'vestigial' after all; recently discussion of a current function of the appendix has gained favor in the medical field. It is proposed that the appendix hides away good bacteria (which your gut needs for normal digestion) during viral or bacterial gastritis, which can cause the major population of the gut's bacteria to be swept away with your diarrhea. Repopulation of the gut from the appendix may speed or ensure proper recovery.
Furthermore, as for the ability to grow beards...in poly-cystic ovary disease, women have benign cystic ovaries whose cysts and excess fat tissue 'produce' too much testosterone which causes them to grow excessive body hair. This is known as hirsuitism, and I saw screening woman at the airport last month who had a 5 o'clock shadow at 5 am. A full, dark, black shadow, too.
Fundamentally, I think the answer to your questions has to do with fetal exposure to hormones during embryonic development.
Sadly, the actual discussion of potential answers to your questions is not quite as amusing as the questions themselves. I like the blog!
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