I've been saying Americans have been Devolving for YEARS. This is just proof!

Considering that a higher ratio of brain mass to nerve mass is usually indicative of intelligence.

Which is what attempts to provide a rough guess as to the potential for intelligence in any animal. All other things being equal, however, as brains (and cranial cavities) get larger, the potential for intelligence increases as well.

...there are animals with larger skulls who have a larger intelligence than humans? I mean, they only kill to eat, we kill over dirt and whose god has a bigger penis. They don't kill because they like it. Although, sharks make you wonder...

Are you sure?

... Posting this information will encourage Willard to go after the Dolphin vote.

That should get a DUzy!

But there are a lot of problems with that particular formula, so the Encephalization Quotient was created. We're still top dogs in terms of intelligence, it's just that what we've done with that intelligence has been pretty damned stupid. If dolphins ever evolve opposable thumbs, however, we're pretty much all fucked.

PB

I think the average height 150 yrs ago was at least 6 inches shorter than now. I think its due to better nutrition or protein etc. Or maybe beef growth hormones?

Most people up until the mid-20th century didn't have access to a full spectrum of nutrition, particularly in the winter and particularly if you were poor.

But I don't think it generally causes the kinds of skull changes the article talks about.

A Cesarean section allows big headed babies to survive and pass on their genes. In the past these babies would not have survived.

Also permits women with small pelves (like me) to survive and reproduce.

Apparently some midwives think that ALL babies can be delivered vaginally if they are just able to "turn them". I got news for those people. It is not true.

Our heads will be so large that we just tip over and die. Or will other factors win out first? Will we become easy prey for other animals? Will our procreation abilities shrink to the point of no return and we'll just fade away?

But there's no mystery involved regarding the cause.

I am a petite female and it takes 24 inches circumference.
Some of it is hair. I have a lot of hair, but most of it is skull.

Beats me.

Oh and I'm smart enough to be in Mensa and then some, allegedly. If you believe IQ tests.
I scored 3 SDs above average on a Stanford-Binet when I was five years old, which is 145. That's one out of a thousand people. Mensa is only 2 SDs which is 130, which is top 2%.

Whatever. It doesn't mean I'm smart, it means I have a good memory and a head full of trivia.

At the Texas Renaissance Festival I saw a silk velvet hat that just fascinated me in its construction. The lady had berets too, but these had a round crown and then wedge sections gathered together under it. It was the House of Dra.

Although the size of your cranium has nothing to do with that. It is also true that smart "don't count fer shit" here in amurika, in fact it is usually a burden.

But hey, it's still better than the alternative, right?

Peace. Now.

Being smart is a burden in America. Yup, you got it.
It's like Idiocracy. Luke Wilson used proper grammar and got called "gay" for it.


Around here in Texas, people have problems with verbs and past perfect tenses, as in "I seen" and "I done" and "I done gone".

They think all past tenses have -ed on the end and don't know about verbs that change internally.

The other night on the ABC Nightly News they used the words "The Propsal" about a story where a guy got his friends to lip sync and dance to a song.

Don't get me started on apostrophe abuse.

I had a professional hatter tell me "no this size will definitely fit you . . . " about three times in a row before he gave up.

Good thing I'm not a huge fan of hats. . .

I'm 54 and i can't find a "Size 9 Oblong" hat to save my life.

Heads grow larger as we age. Noses also get longer and wider.

lobes in other places to serve as the location for inflated egos.

Sometimes my big-headed American family simply can't get our heads through some of the clothing.