Posted on Nov 21, 2025 | Comments Off on Neanderthals Resorted To Cannibalism – Just Like European Settlers At Jamestown
A recent analysis of Neanderthal bones from the Troisième caverne of Goyet in Belgium, which has a whopping 101 skeletal remains, notes cannibalism was happening 45,000 years ago - women and children impacted most. The consumed Neanderthals were not from the local tribe and the presence of bones from numerous other animals means they were likely to have been brought into the community just for...
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Posted on Oct 12, 2025 | Comments Off on Halloween Science: Your Ancestors May Have Eaten Mummies Because Of A Typo
The next time someone tries to tell you ancient folk medicine was equivalent to modern science, remind them that people once consumed other humans as part of legal trade. Apothecaries sold powdered mummies, or at least what they claimed were powdered mummies, because of belief in medical cannibalism and that it cured everything from headaches to the plague.Take that, antibiotics, your job could...
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Posted on Oct 11, 2025 | Comments Off on The Evolution Of Halloween
Samhain,
All Hallows Evening. Hallowe'en, Halloween. The name has changed but the
world’s fascination with a day of spooks and scares has never wavered. Except it
has also always been about harvests and farming and food.
It may
seem odd to lump together food and ghosts but that is Halloween in a cultural
nutshell; a confusing mash-up of cultures and beliefs. That is actually a good
thing. It...
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Posted on May 22, 2025 | Comments Off on Does Ecology Have A Cultural Cancer?
A new paper argues that academic ecology is culturally corroded. 'Stay in your lane', 'do you want to die on that hill?' and other territorial and undermining behavior were reported by 44% of predominantly ecologists who responded to a survey. They say it was most common as graduate students, a third of the time by their own supervisor. Of those, 18 percent reported they had experienced it...
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Posted on May 21, 2025 | Comments Off on Who Paid For Prostitutes First, The Human Or The Monkey? The Chen Paper Turns 20
It is often joked that 'prostitution was the first profession' and, that it is not a profession aside, the sentiment may be true. Someone with a lot of food and the ability to prevent it being taken may have worked out a deal with someone who had no food but willingness to satisfy a different basic need. It would still mean food gathering was the first profession but that's not as funny.Lots of...
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Posted on May 20, 2025 | Comments Off on Does Global Warming Cause War?
A new paper suggests that the world's largest polluters remain safe from the environmental damage they help create and the countries least to blame face the greatest threats because of, oddly, violent conflict.This is counter-intuitive but it is the same argument we used to read about "virtual water". Those arguments are fine in a spreadsheet, it gets advocates worked up, but fails in the real...
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