Re: Polar Bear Challenge for AAH opponents
Pat Dooley (patdooley@aol.com)
30 Dec 1994 21:21:49 -0500
>patdooley@aol.com (Pat Dooley) writes:
>>I note that you actually had no comment to make on the performance
>>of Japanese and Korean diving women.
> Would you say that Japanese and Korean diving women are typical of our
>species? In zoology, species are described in their _typical_ habitat.
>99.999% percent of modern Homo sapiens could not tolerate the work that
>Japanese and Korean diving women do.
<< deleted !Kung stuff>>
<pb>
A rather portly friend of ours survived the US Air flight to Cleveland
that ran off
the runway and landed in rather frigid water. Despite prolonged exposure
to
water and ingestion of rather too much jet fuel, he survived. His Doctors
told
him his fat probably saved him. There are countless similar anecdotes of
human beings surviving prolonged exposure to extremely cold water. I once
spent a couple of hours treading water in Wellington harbour after a
yatching
mishap. The water temperature was about 55-60 degrees and I came
no where near suffering hypothermia.
But the implication of your response is that the Japanese and Korean
divers are
somehow genetically equipped for their work. I think the more likely
explanation
is that a large percentage of women could achieve similar performances if
they
were trained to do so. A large percentage of men could too, although their
lower fat levels mind prove a handicap.
Similarly, many human beings can run marathons if they train for it. They
might
take an hour or so longer than the best performers but they can still do
it.
You are also confusing wild behaviour with tame behaviour. That fat tabby
cat
that can barely walk doesn't have toearn a living in the same way as its
wild
brethren. But dump it in a wild environment and it will soon revert to
form. Similarly for us ex-AA's. We don't have to do the things our distant
ancestors had to do to survive, be it running or diving, but the
genetically
programmed capability is still there.
Pat D
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