[SteveFish]

"Was that your ambition?"

Geezer, I have no intention whatsoever regarding what QuantumQue does with his life, but I do care very much about science and the accurate dissemination of science. If QuantumQue agrees with me that would be great, but I would still caution him regarding language that appears to personalize impersonal processes. This type of language has led to all kinds of misunderstandings regarding how nature works, especially evolutionary theory. There are people out there who actually think that evolution is goal directed and works to produce the highest form of life, which they believe of course, is us. Steve

[Geezer]

"Was that your ambition?"

Geezer, I have no intention whatsoever regarding what QuantumQue does with his life, but I do care very much about science and the accurate dissemination of science. If QuantumQue agrees with me that would be great, but I would still caution him regarding language that appears to personalize impersonal processes. This type of language has led to all kinds of misunderstandings regarding how nature works, especially evolutionary theory. There are people out there who actually think that evolution is goal directed and works to produce the highest form of life, which they believe of course, is us. Steve

Indeed they do. However, is that what QC actually meant? I don't think so. Do you?

[SteveFish]

I can't answer your question accurately and I have no information that would allow me to speculate. In general I prefer to stick to what people actually do or say and respond to that, it is more honest.

[QuantumClue]

No, mother nature is not an intellect, as a decision making machine. When I say this was mother natures way of telling us not to consume each other, I mean this in the sense, that nature has chosen? 1) a certain path where the biological nature does not entertain this way of life. The idiom mother nature is nothing more than a label many use today, and as Geezer said, I hope no one has misread this to mean that I somehow believe that nature is a decision making machine similar to human beings, or with some kind of intellectual personification.

1) Its very hard not to run into language which can be misread badly.

[yor_on]

I think cannibalism may be a result of where you live in some cases
What nourishments you can get so to speak.

Also its a 'spiritual thing' in some society's.
Mostly its a waste of human life though.

I can recommend "Diamond, Jared - Guns, Germs and Steel" for an interesting reading.

[QuantumClue]

Here's a disturbing video of someone suffering kuru

[QuantumClue]

CJD

[QuantumClue]

I posted some links... how come they haven't shown up? Do they need to be looked at first?

[yor_on]

Don 't think so, you should just need to copy & paste them?

[QuantumClue]

Disturbing.

[SteveFish]

Cannibalism for food is rare, except in some notorious emergency situations. There is some anthropology research that suggests that it might have been more widespread in the past. The New Guineans ate some of the brain in a funeral rite, and the brain is the primary source of prions. So, if there is any path that has been "chosen" by nature, it is that a tenderloin, or a liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti are just fine, but don't eat the brains. Cannibalism is not at all unusual in other animals, even primates.

[QuantumClue]

Interestingly however, the form of disease does take hold in the animal kindgom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy

[QuantumClue]

Also there was a case where people from kentucky developed the disease from eating squirrel brains.

[SteveFish]

Yes, brains are potentially dangerous, although the cross species infection rate is pretty low. We humans made it much worse for the cows, especially in the UK where being a renderer used to be a cottage business. Carcasses of what in the US are called downer cows or sheep (alive, but so sick that it can't stand up) and other dead animals, including road kill, were rendered for fat by cooking at high heat. The remaining crumbles of protein were also sold to manufacturers of, mostly, cow chow. The thing about prions is that just normal cooking doesn't affect them, they have to be heated to above 460F (240C) to break down, so the soluble prions stuck to and were concentrated in the protein crumbles.

In the US, downer cows were not rendered, but were made into pet food, but I found out a while back that until recently, veterinarians here got rid of euthanized animals by selling them to renderers. So, your fluffy and spot who you had to have "put down" may have been rendered and fed to some other critter.

The thing about prions is that they are a normal protein found in most mammals that very occasionally takes on an abnormal conformation that, in turn, causes more of the normal ones to change to the bad form. There are some genetic mutations that make this more likely to happen.

However, consider this-- a prion is a self assembling very tough and heat resistant protein. If this idea is developed it might lead to a new type of plastic like material not dependent on fossil fuels.

[QuantumClue]

I came across a very worrying article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/aug/03/bse.medicalresearch

[SteveFish]

The disease is very unfortunate for the few people who get it, but the Guardian article predicted only 13 cases a year over the next 20 years.

[CliffordK]

Ok...
So if you are a survivor of a plane crash in the Andes mountains...

Avoid eating the brains of all the British travelers  [xx(]

[QuantumClue]

How bizarre... when steve mentioned in the most extreme cases, the Crash of the Andes did come to mind. However, I do not believe they consumed the brains. They ate parts of the leg if memory serves.

[QuantumClue]

I did know someone who claimed to have eaten sheeps brains on more than one occasion, on a seperate note.

[CliffordK]

How bizarre... when steve mentioned in the most extreme cases, the Crash of the Andes did come to mind. However, I do not believe they consumed the brains. They ate parts of the leg if memory serves.

Did you watch the movie "Alive", or read the book?

It has been about 25 years since I read it, but I thought in the book they did discuss eating the brains...  I think they described it as a desert, and somewhat like cheese.

They also ate their toothpaste...  which was like candy.