Re: Asleep at the idiot box

"Skitt" <skitt99@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Laura F Spira wrote:

But tell me this: why do men lick their fingers to pick up crumbs
off the table or plates and eat them?

Because the crumbs don't stick to dry fingers.

This is the same reason we lick our fingers to better turn pages when
they stick together.

It's also, incidentally, the reason why you sweat when you're nervous.
The eccrine glands were originally concentrated on the palms of the
hands and pads of the feet. In panic situations, as when fleeing a
predator, they would secrete a very thin sheen of moisture, giving our
distant ancestors a better chance of holding onto that branch on the
tree they were hurtling toward.

In time, the glands started appearing all over the body in various
concentrations and were exapted into an enormously poorly designed[1]
temperature regulation device. Why? Well, that's another story, and
I've only heard one convincing explanation, and it's considered highly
unorthodox, so perhaps we'd best not go there.

[1] They secrete far more fluid than is necessary for the job, leading
to dehydration. They are unnecessarily wasteful of salt. There
is a relatively huge time delay between rise in body temperature
and beginning of sweat production, making it possible to get heat
stroke before you start sweating.

--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |There is no such thing as bad data,
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |only data from bad homes.
Palo Alto, CA 94304

kirshenbaum@xxxxxxxxxx
(650)857-7572

http://www.kirshenbaum.net/


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