The Weak in Review


  • Fuel for thought

    •         If gasoline comes from big animals that have been extinct for thousands of years and are buried thousands of miles from here, and milk comes from big animals that are alive on the earth's surface at a farm near you, how come a gallon of milk costs $3.25 a gallon and a gallon gas costs $1.42?
     
  • The human animal

    •         Wearing my dorky bike helmet finally paid off for me last Thursday when a small tree branch fell from high in the campus canopy and landed on my head as I was riding home from work.  Thanks to my now-dented helmet, I just shrugged and kept riding, but, like Newton's apple, that big rotted stick triggered within me a burst of profound scientific thought as I began to ponder the evolutionary role of the bicycle helmet.   On one hand, my helmet had allowed me to live to see another day, or at least another day without a lump or bloody spot on my head, but, on the other hand, each time a female has seen me riding around with this boxy, cheesily-decalled chunk of foam strapped to my head, my chances of procreation  have presumably decreased.
            As an individual, a guy might benefit from wearing a dorky helmet, but if the helmet is dorky enough to cause him to be perceived as a less desirable mate, his evolutionary fitness could actually decrease:   the helmet would aid the individual, but undermine his genes.  This issue of protection vs perception (or dork vs. dead, if you will) is applicable not only to bicycle helmets, but to any number of safety devices of all shapes and sizes, from Volvos  to Kris Lang's mouthpiece.
            Next time you see some young guy weaving through traffic on a Kawasaki Nija in shorts and nothing else, before you label him a dumb sack'a you-know-what, consider that he may be a clever sack'a genes.
     
     
     
     

    Archive:
    Weak in Review 04/09/00
    Weak in Review 03/20/00
    Weak in Review 02/07/00
    Weak in Review 01/06/00
    Weak in Review 12/20/99
    Weak in Review 12/1/99
    Weak in Review 11/4/99
    Weak in Review 10/18/99
    Weak in Review 10/05/99
    Weak in Review 9/07/99
    Weak in Review 8/03/99
    Weak in Review 7/26/99
    Weak in Review 7/12/99
    Weak in Review 7/05/99
    Weak in Review 6/20/99
    Weak in Review 6/02/99
    Weak in Review 5/19/99

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