Oh god, it's so hot and humid. D: It's half past midnight, and the internet says it's 21°. That is not a midnight temperature for Durham. There was a huge rainstorm to-day and it's already as humid as it was before. The only air-conditioned place I have been all day is the Archaeology department building. I think I'll move there for the next few days.

Anyway. It's been a long day. We're back in college for the last few days, and some drunk arseholes opened my door at 3am this morning, because they were drunk, and idiots, and I didn't lock my door. When you are half asleep at 3am, realising that some drunk arseholes have just been in your room is pretty fucking creepy, and you may have to get up sleepily to make sure none of them are hiding in your closet and then lie awake for a while.
I dislike people.

I think a small insect just flew up my nose.

Anyway. I read this really interesting article this morning: Bateman's principles and human sex roles . I was actually looking for the one that this is based on, but I came across the other one first, and I obviously cannot resist an article with "sex" in the title. Don't be ridiculous.

I was going to tell you about it, actually, because it is, truly, very interesting, but a day of meltiiiiiing has left me way too sleepy to bother. In summary, if I remember correctly: mating strategy is based on how often you are likely to meet mates, how much effort it takes to find them, how much effort it takes to court/mate/raise offspring, and... how much the quality of mates varies from individual to individual. I think I've got that right. Basically: males are not always promiscuous and females are not always choosy, because that is a stupid idea and you should feel stupid.

Also: humans' mating strategies are not like fruit flies'. Shocker of the century. They also vary based on culture. ALSO SHOCKER OF THE CENTURY. Ok, I admit I have a bit of a bias towards culture in things like this. *social scientist* I mean, I don't think culture completely overrides biology, that would also be a stupid idea. Obviously culture builds on biology and the environment, but I find it headdeskingly ridiculous when people completely deny the existance of culture, or the fact that it affects the environment and biology in return. Co-evolution.

There was an anthropologist at the Dawson Building conference who had a diagram in his presentation that looked like this:



And while I'm obviously not as learne'd as a professor of anthropology, I think it should really be drawn like this:


Maybe Behaviour & Action should have an arrow going to Mind or Culture, as well? Also yeah, I did these in Word. I haven't got my tablet OR a mouse hooked up at the moment.

Especially after reading the article in New Scientist about the nocebo effect a while ago, and the chapter in Bad Science on placebos. These things have effects in your body, producing physical chemicals and causing reactions just because of their cultural meaning. And I think the journal article said something, as well, about culturally-affected mating strategies changing genes in communities. Or something like that. Tell me that does not indicate the influence goes both ways.


Wait until I get my cybernetic implants, is all I'm saying.


Alright, so I guess I wasn't too sleepy to bother after all. I was hoping to mention all that in a more well-thought-out and structured entry, but with the way life is at the moment it would probably not really have happened for ages.



In slightly related news, I went to one of Durham's a million and two mobile phone shops to-day because I saw the HTC Magic in their window and wanted to play with the Android operating system, and now... I own it. XD

I kept my old number (I'm going to keep this number FOREVER, srsly. This is the fourth phone I've had it on now, I think), so I have to wait a few days until the SIM card is activated and I can use the internet features and download a ton of cool apps, but it's already pretty awesome.

Also I'm on Vodafone so no roaming fees for me on the hiking trip. \o/


And now I'm going to bed.

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Tags:awesome technology stuff; Durham; geeking out; humans suck; I am right and you are wrong; life; science is my favourite rock band; weather