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Before you date…. ask to see his hands!

Look at his Hands before you date him

It seems like eons ago, but there was a time when people believed that you could tell everything about someone by just looking at them. Judgments were made based on what were believed to be influencing factors. Although some may call this prejudice , stereotyping or worse, there is some truth to the fact that biology does influence who we are in ways we may never have realized…. and sometimes with little regard to our environment. This wasn’t unknown to the ancient Greeks.

Hippocrates wrote:  “You will find, as a general rule, that the constitutions and the habits of a people follow the nature of the land where they live.”

The father of medicine, Hippocrates, was stating a simple truth from his time. Basically, what and who we are today is the result of long periods of exposure and interaction with our environment. For example, today, many of the people in Scandinavia and Europe – to a lesser degree- carry with them a resistance to the Black Death. Over time, a gene(s) for resistance to the plague gained a greater foothold in the population.

We may all be ‘equal’ in the eyes of our lord, but we all don’t have the same abilities, levels of intelligence, skills, aptitude or potential. Populations differ as do individual people. After all, we live in a diverse world.

Today, it is recognized that certain hereditary factors can have a profound influence on a person’s outlook, health and behavior. Correlations within families regarding suseptability towards types of diseases and some mental illnesses are becoming better understood.

Some researchers have pointed to  the presence of high ‘testosterone’ in men as a precursor for aggressive and violent behavior. They were in error, the truth is a bit more complex. High levels of testosterone in adult men have little correlation to violent behavior, per se. What has a some correlation is “prenatal testosterone.”

A high level of prenatal testosterone during pregnancy has some very interesting correlations.

For example, when a man’s index finger is significantly shorter than his ring finger there is a correlation with ‘physically aggressive behavior’. Does this mean every man with a shorter index finger displays ‘physically agressive behavior’… of course not. What it does mean is that ‘statistically’, it IS significant.

With three daughters, I may now ask their dates…. “Show me your hands!”

Roger Freberg

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The SUPERIORITY of MEN! Ahem, at least in Darts!

Classic Example Why Men are Soooo Wonderful!

Did my title grab your attention?

One of the fun things about genetic research is that we are beginning to reaffirm some of the thoughts commonly held not all that long ago… the fact that men and women are not clones of each other…. and viewing men and women as two distinct populations demonstrate many differences that can not be easily explained by the impact of the ‘environment’ or ‘societal’ expectations and training. Some of this stuff comes from our biology, like it or not.

Back to darts!

An interesting article in Human Nature Review makes some fun observations regarding , ” with no more data than that gleaned from a passing glance at your hands, a stranger might infer whether you are likely to have homosexual inclinations, are highly fertile, may eventually suffer from a heart attack or breast cancer, have musical aptitude or sporting prowess, and a suprisingly long list of other characteristics.”

Besides all of the above, here is the really really important stuff:

” Manning notes that the male digit ratio may be functional… thus increasing throwing accuracy.” He adds,” Today, this sex difference may be seen in male superiority in throwing darts.”

Nothing new here… we knew it all the time!

 Hmmm….Maybe that’s why I have to throw with the ‘crummy’ set of darts at home.

                       Typical Superior Dart Player... Male, of course!

Typical Superior Dart Player… Male of course.

Roger Freberg

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Who’s Cookin’ at Home? ………. If you don’t learn, you’ll never enjoy this great Seafood Gumbo!

ZEE Best Seafood Gumbo!!!

All too often today, busy and scattered families don’t sit down to 1 meal a day together, let alone 2 or 3. This is unfortunate, since usually the only conversation that takes place in the family is at the main meals.

What complicates mealtime is that fewer and fewer people know how to really cook. Being able to press the popcorn button on the microwave does not constitute enough knowledge to get you around a major meal. If more and more young men and women are abandoning cooking in favor of fast food or microwavable dinners, it spells disaster for future generations who have little understanding of nutrition or balance.

In our little group, we made it a fun activity to learn how to prepare everyday simple meals as well as those that might impress. Besides the feminine arts of weightlifting, martial arts, hunting and fishing… I wanted my daughters to learn how to cook. They do this very well!

So, back to food!

Here is my favorite recipe for seafood Gumbo! We developed it after a lot of helpful conversations from a variety of great folks. I hope you enjoy! By the way, one of the great things about extra gumbo is that you can freeze it into about 8 two serving portions!

So Here it is CLICK here for my recipe! Bon Appetit! Make it for someone you love!

 

Roger Freberg

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How to be happy…. make your first decision well!

Sweet Old Married Couple 

For those folks around my age can look back on the first half century of our lives with some amusement. Yes, we were supposed to be the ‘leisure generation’, our biggest challenge was how we were going to take care of ourselves in all of our ‘spare’ time? Well, a lot of those delusions have been laid to rest over the intervening decades. It is interesting to note that few of the ‘truisms’ from the 60’s and 70’s have any ‘relevance’ today.

A lot of what permeated popular culture via the media from those years has been resoundly repudiated either through research or from one’s own practical experience. The ‘alternative’ lifestyles from this timeframe have virtually dissolved …. and their ‘purpose’ seemed to have provided no useful service to society other than to delay procreation and the much feared ‘over population’ tsunami! Our population has grown, but from immigration alone.

In any event, the much abused ‘institution’ of marriage is making a comeback. The reasons are very simple:

“the data are clear: you’ll live longer, stay saner, get richer, and be happier.” — Maggie Gallagher

Maggie makes a lot of good points. I liked her point that the longer you are married the better the marriage and happier it can become. Obviously, the cynic will say that this is because each individual has more to lose as time goes by, basically, more to divide in half. However, She brings out the obvious, that any two committed people can resolve their issues over time… yes, there will be conflice, but with conflict comes resolution and with resolution comes greater love and respect for each other.
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Soccer: Give them 1 point for effort… but it’s not enough to keep me awake!

 Soccer only requires a ball

Americans have just never caught soccer fever or ‘World Cup” mania. This has lead some advocates to believe that this failure is due to some shortcoming in the American psyche rather than soccer’s lower sex appeal. Many cried over the failure of women’s professional soccer, but it’s demise wasn’t totally unexpected. Even today, there is a certain amount of drum beating to try to develop support for reintroducing U.S. professional women’s soccer, but unless they compete in the nude, it’s not likely to fare much better.

Soccer has a tough road to hoe in a country that invented or popularized many of the great sports in the world. My impression is that baseball addressed the shortcomings of cricket and American football and rugby evolved from socccer by reshaping the sport to better engage the spectators and participants.

Soccer marketeers are working hard to capture American’s imaginations. Articles about the world’s greatest athletes are soccer players or the fittest athletes are soccer players just don’t ring true to fans who watch Reggie Bush and Justin Gatlin. It doesn’t seem likely unless the criteria include running around for 90 minutes or so and not do anything interesting. The world’s best athletes are in sports that captivate the fans and pay their players like gods.

What do average Americans know about the last World Cup? They know some French guy head butted some Italian guy. It seems rather ironic that two countries that can’t win any wars would be competing for any kind of World Championship.

Soccer is not the ‘safe’ sport for kids that it is marketed. Statistics reveal that head injuries are one of the most common forms of injuries and they occur in about the same frequency in soccer as in American Football. In case you were dozing off… the quote was “In soccer, concussions make up 2-3% of all injuries. This is the same rate as for American football!” All that contact, and soccer still can’t keep me awake.

It is also not hard to understand why in many less economically developed parts of the world, locals have embraced a contest that requires only a ball. Ask any Division I AD about which sports cost the most and the least.
Continue reading “Soccer: Give them 1 point for effort… but it’s not enough to keep me awake!”