MetaFilter posts tagged with humans

he of the weird al hair and santa claus beard

kliuless — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:14:25 -0800

R.Sapolsky on the uniqueness of humans in relation to the rest of the animal world (via)

transcendental numbers rumble in the technium

kliuless — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:00:48 -0800

Extropy
How did life arise? What is information? In his recent dispatches from The Technium, Kevin Kelly would say extropy (cf. negentropy & Prigogine). [previously 1|2]

'The Human Animal,' by Desmond Morris

grillcover — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:44:48 -0800

The Human Animal - a brilliant BBC mini-series documentary by zoologist Desmond Morris that takes an extended look at the curious creatures known as Homo sapiens. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 on Google videos. Beautiful and fascinating.

Who Are The People (and the Muppets) In Your Neighborhood?

jonp72 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:32:35 -0800

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, let's take a few moments to honor those Sesame Street humans overshadowed by their Muppet counterparts. Check out Bob (Bob McGrath) singing Danny Boy in Japanese on a 1966 broadcast of To Tell The Truth or singing a Japanese ballad. Watch Gordon (Roscoe Orman) as the big pimpin' title character in this original trailer for the film Willie Dynamite. See Maria (Sonia Manzano) as a lady trucker on B.J. & the Bear or getting menaced by Jeff Goldblum in the movie Death Wish. And Mr. Hooper (Will Lee) plays Pac-Man in an Atari commercial. Meanwhile, the Muppet stars of Sesame Street have gone some interesting evolutions as well in their career. Check out the Cookie Monster prototype in this Munchos commercial or this Computer Monster skit. The original prototype of Grover was a thieving Muppet named Gleep who appeared on a Christmas sketch on the Ed Sullivan show with Arthur Godfrey as Santa Claus, but Grover also appears as Fuzzyface in a 1st season appearance on Sesame Street with Kermit. Last but not least, this Monsterpiece Theater production of Me Claudius features Elmo with a much raspier voice than the childlike Muppet who monopolizes the show today.

sometimes it sounds like Kitty Genovese

four panels — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:58:01 -0800

Why should you risk your own life to save another human being? Maybe altruism in innate, like a bird's pretty song, or is it something that must be learned?

Mammals at the Natural History Museum

netbros — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:45:18 -0800

Mammals | Natural History Museum. From fascinating bats to enormous whales, mammals are the most diverse group of animals on our planet. Equipped with wings, fins, horns and spines – they have evolved to fill many niches and roles. Discover more about this complex group, which of course, includes us. Join the producer of David Attenborough's landmark BBC series The Life of Mammals to get a glimpse behind the scenes and learn how the programs were made.

My vasopressin made me do it

dov3 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:13:27 -0800

Monogamy gene in humans It was previously found in voles, as discussed here, now they found a correlation in humans.

When Humans Punch Aliens

farishta — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:26:38 -0800

When Humans Punch Aliens: The Video Remix. A tribute to our diplomatic encounters with alien life forms.

Not Hobbits, Just Shorties?

Asparagirl — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:13:34 -0800

A South African paleoanthropologist on vacation on the island of Palau in Micronesia has discovered thousands of bone fragments of very small people estimated at between 900 and 2900 years old. He and his colleagues have just published a paper on their findings, which would appear to damage the claim that the bones discovered on Flores Island, Indonesia in 2004 and attributed to homo floresiensis (or "Hobbits") were not a unique and extinct branch of the human family, but rather pygmy-like peoples. However it also knocks a hole in the claim that the Flores bones were merely all unusually small humans suffering from microcephaly due to iodine deficiency. Naturally, the scientists who originally discovered the Hobbits on Flores aren't too thrilled about either of these theories. (Previous discussions here and here)

Evolution For Dummies.

Effigy2000 — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 22:44:43 -0800

Understanding Human Prehistory. Mike Munford (who???) summarises the results of his "limited study of human prehistory for the benefit of others who may have found most of the available books on it as baffling as [he] did."

Collecting Mania

tellurian — Sat, 20 May 2006 22:48:34 -0800

Beer Caps. With 12,568 scans available to peruse, Uncle Corkie is the winner in my books. Franco Ferretti may have the largest collection of bottle caps but it's not online. Collecting, a postmodern pastime?

Earth's got a case of the Humans

crumbly — Fri, 19 May 2006 19:38:32 -0800

Humans! A lovely little bit of educational animation.

Monkeys

bobbyelliott — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 01:28:56 -0800

The meaning of life.

I have a feeling we're not in Christchurch anymore, Frodo...

louigi — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 21:17:42 -0800

Hobbits found near New Zealand! A new species of human, only 4 feet tall and dating to only 18,000 years ago, has been discovered in Indonesia. It's important enough that Nature has a special issue. Even better? The tiny people hunted tiny elephants. (Journal article here, for those of you with access.)

Rules? What rules? I can do whatever I want...

troutfishing — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 02:02:16 -0800

Early humans lost hair to beat parasites? (New Scientist) - Human nakedness, a species anomaly among mammals, draws comparisons to the blind, naked mole rat. Meanwhile, seven thousand humans (Italians) recently gathered naked, for unclear purposes.

Irontom — Thu, 30 May 2002 09:24:36 -0800

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement "Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth's biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense." More inside...

bittennails — Mon, 04 Feb 2002 06:03:34 -0800

'If you want to know what Utopia is like, just look around - this is it,' the article asks is human evolution over? Two interesting "facts?" "points?" 1) the blending of our genes which will soon produce a uniformly brown-skinned population. Apart from that, there will be little change in the species. 2) Just consider Aids, and then look at chimpanzees,' says Jones. 'You find they all carry a version of HIV but are unaffected by it. Something very similar could soon happen to humans. In a thousand years... Link via www.cursor.org.

SexyParapalegic — Fri, 06 Apr 2001 10:49:55 -0800

Monkeys head/brain transplanted to another monkeys body. Yeah, some poeple think it's unethical, but I think it's cool. At least in fantasy. Imagine the horror stories if they tried it on humans......

PaperCut — Tue, 06 Jun 2000 20:36:11 -0800

Human Evolution Will the next significant steps be biological, technical or both?