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Greg Is Doing a Cafe Scientifique...
"Evolution, Cuisine and Romance"
This Tuesday at the Bryant-Lake Bowl
February 19, 7 p.m.
The Bell Museum Blurb says:
Were the opposable thumb, an upright stance and a large brain were the most important evolutionary events in human history? According to Anthropologist Greg Laden, these and other traits are only the byproducts of the truly important evolutionary transitions for our species: the rise of romance and the evolution of cuisine. Join Laden for a discussion about the co-evolution of diet, sexual strategies, and society during the last five million years.
Life Science
Comments
Wow, what a concept..potato + fire = hot robosex.
But seriously, I wish I could attend. I would throw in a piece of advice I give my male high school science students: learn to cook because the ladies love a man who knows his way around the kitchen. Then, I would go roll a few frames.
Sounds like a great evening.
Posted by: cope | February 18, 2008 9:35 AM
I added a bit to that great piece of advice - if there are no ladies to impress, at least you eat well (and generally cheaper and healthier.)
Posted by: Bob | February 18, 2008 1:22 PM
Hot robosex? Wow, I'd love to show you some inkblots!
That is a tasteful drawing of a human female body. It represents the dual mysteries of gender similarity in humans (males and females are not very different compared to many other species) and the apparent fact that most of the sex differences are in derived female traits rather than derived male traits. This is virtually unique among mammals.
Robosex is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT topic. We'll cover that next week....
Posted by: Greg Laden | February 18, 2008 3:11 PM
the only retort a thinking man has for the often spoke metaphor of "unnecessary men" is indeed " Robo Women render real women obsolete, use fewer resources, fuel less war, and generally cost less in the long run...", but Bukowski said it best " two pounds of warm hamburger, a thin necked vase, and some baby oil...."
Posted by: the real Bukowski | February 18, 2008 5:35 PM
See you there!
Posted by: Betsy | February 19, 2008 12:02 AM
Betsy: Just tell them who you are at the door, you'll get right past the rope line. (After all, you are IN the talk...)
Posted by: Greg Laden | February 19, 2008 7:06 AM
Sadly, Ill have to miss it. I assume from the figure you'll be telling us the best to impress women is to take them to McDonald's or Burger King for an order of super-sized fries. If not, hopefully one of the attendees will summarize it for me. Have fun!
Posted by: Lorax | February 19, 2008 3:53 PM
Oh, man, did you have to go and tell everybody!?!?
Posted by: Greg Laden | February 19, 2008 4:07 PM
How to draw "Sparkette" is tasteful? That's a pose reserved for "Hot Rod" cover photos or James Bond babes. The spud looks pretty hot too. Fries + fires = Serif
Posted by: BJN | February 19, 2008 5:48 PM
I'm thoroughly tempted to skip out on my meeting tonight to see this. However, there will be only three of us. I suspect my absence would be noted.
Posted by: Stephanie Z | February 19, 2008 6:36 PM
This implies that you think women are baked potatoes. Poor Amanda.
Posted by: Son of Priam | February 19, 2008 10:30 PM
This may be of interest...
'G.F. Miller, in his 1993 doctoral dissertation, made the startling claim that human creativity (and much of what we consider "human intelligence") evolved as a "protean courtship device"...Miller suggested that our ancestors happened to favor mates who were more psychologically entertaining than average, rather than just those who had brightly colored hair or unusual size, perhaps because tactical unpredictability and creativity were especially important in competition for survival among socially intelligent hominids.' (Freyd, 1994, p.123)
Reference
Freyd, J.J. (1994). Circling creativity. Psychological Science, 5, 33-37.
Posted by: Tony Jeremiah | February 19, 2008 11:53 PM
Tony, indeed, this is Geoff Miller's specialty -- the role of intelligence, creativity, humor, and romance in mate (and quite likely natural) selection.
Most of his publications are available at his website:
http://www.unm.edu/~psych/faculty/lg_gmiller.html
Posted by: Son of Priam | February 20, 2008 12:19 AM
Greg, shouldn't you credit or acknowledge Roberto Campus for the sketch of Wonder Woman? Especially since you removed the credit from the lower left corner of the image?
http://www.robertocampus.com/2007/06/28/photoshop-tutorial-wonder-woman-pin-up-digital-painting/
Posted by: Son of Priam | February 20, 2008 12:24 AM