I didn’t take the above photograph. Wish I did. It’s my sister’s. She has a great eye and a big heart. And it shows in her photos.
I recently helped my “big sis” create a photography blog. Over the past few days Mimi has begun posting images from India — where she is at this very moment working on a project with her son, Jesse. They are documenting the return of their father-in-law/grandfather to the village of his birth in India.
While I’m obviously biased, I think it is a beautiful undertaking — in more than one regard. Feel free to check it out.
[recycled material - first appeared here]
The book series and website, “Darwin Awards,” came out a number of years ago. Their moto:
Honoring those who improve the species…by accidentally removing themselves from it!
At the site and in the books you will read of individuals like this one:
(Winter 1995, Michigan) During the ski season at Sugarloaf Resort, a new lift operator was assigned to work the bottom of Lift 2. He was greatly impressed by the bull wheel that turned slowly above his head. The giant spokes on the wheel were impossible to resist. He grabbed onto a spoke and did a few pull-ups while the wheel turned.
After entertaining himself in this manner for a while, he decided to try this trick on the outer rim of the wheel. His timing was off. He did not drop down in time. Caught between the wheel and the lift cable, he was sliced in twain during this fateful final trip around the bull wheel. [emphasis added]
Personally, when I read anecdotes like the above, I’m not so much inclined to think What an idiot; did he have no common sense! Instead, I recall the times in my more impulsive youth that I came close to becoming a statistic myself. One example: Skiing much waaaaaay too fast down a slope and coming over a rise to find a boy sprawled out on the snow directly in front of me. The last-second evasive action I took sent me tumbling into a snow fence. Fortunately, I busted only a fence rail and the lens to my goggles — not my body. What was I thinking . . . skiing so fast I severely limited my control!
I wasn’t thinking.
Nonetheless, there may actually be a link between IQ and accident-proneness. Robust frontal lobes — mature ones — may indeed help a person avoid winning a Darwin Award.
As the news release, High IQ Linked To Reduced Risk Of Death discloses,
a lower IQ was strongly associated with a higher risk of death from causes such as accidents, coronary heart disease and suicide.
Of course, a variable such as IQ score is difficult to tease apart from others including education, employment, and lifestyle factors like access to good healthcare. And the researchers did attempt to do that:
The researchers studied data from one million Swedish men conscripted to the army at the age of 18. After they had taken into account whether a person had grown up in a safer, more affluent environment, they found that only education had an influence on the relationship between IQ and death.
The researchers say the link between IQ and mortality could be partially attributed to the healthier behaviours displayed by those who score higher on IQ tests.
But I did read something in the study that made me doubt: a half-truth (as far as I know).
Previous studies have suggested that preschool education programmes and better nourishment can raise IQ scores.
Yes, significant differences in nutrition can have a long-term influence on brain development and IQ. But the research I’ve seen on preschool education programs and IQ suggest that the increase is short-term. The raised IQ tends to fall back down a few years after the enrichment program ends. Long term gains are likely sustained by . . . a changed lifestyle that includes greater cognitive stimulation.
It seems there are few easy answers. Besides avoiding the temptation to do pull-ups on a spinning chair lift wheel.
Are forbidden things more enticing simply due to the excitation (sympathetic nervous system?) we experience when contemplating them?
Confidentially here, after taking the above photograph (before?) I did trespass. Not for the sake of trespassing alone, but to hike a short, dirt road through completely vacant land. Public lands in Florida are rare indeed. Particularly those above water line. I rationalized my action by thinking, “The gate and sign are obviously there to keep out pickup trucks and late-night partiers.”
Was my hike slightly more thrilling due to the gate and sign? Probably.
I’m a naturalist. In two sense of the word. Actually, in one-and-a-few-half senses of the word.
Yes: I’m an advocate understanding the universe and our world in terms of stuff we can interact with and measure. Patterns of energy, patterns of matter. The supernatural — what the heck is that? How do you know? What use is it?
Kindof: While not an expert about the biological and zoological world, I am somewhat of a learned and learning amateur.
Definitely: A lover of nature.
On rare occasion: A lover of experiencing nature “au naturel.” Actually, that’s a naturist.
If I lived in a concrete jungle (middle of a big city) and I had the choice of a once-per-month getaway to a wild area here on Earth, or a visit to a space station, I would take the former. Sure, the space station visit would blow my mind. It would be cool, cool, cool. At least the first few times. But beyond that — not nearly as satisfying as excursions into the multi-dimensional richness of wild areas. Here on Earth.
Nonetheless, I am pleased that the fine people of NASA do what they do, bringing us fabulous information from the exotic outer-world.
[photo thanks to NASA]
I now believe in parallel universes. At least if you’ll allow me to define one as “my old computer” and the other as “my new computer.” Presently the only way I can send information directly from one to the other is via my much-less-than-the-speed-of-light USB flashdrive-equipped arm. Soon I may be able to connect the darn separate digital realities at light speed thanks to wireless technology. Just not yet. The two machines speak different OS languages, so I think I need some sort of wormhole/translator to expedite the process. Or something.
[photo thanks to NASA]
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