

Modern man a wimp - doktorn
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/modern-man-a-wimp-says-anthropologist-1802501.html

======
balding_n_tired
The Roman business is silly. The legions routinely set up stockaded camps
every night, a job that required several hours. If you look at Cyrus's
marching rates in The Anabasis, generally his troops (contemporary with the
early republican legions) made a bit under 20 miles per day, making camps that
weren't fortified. The legions may have managed the occasional 40-mile forced
march, but so have infantries much more recently.The USMC at one point made a
fetish of the 50-mile hike.

I suspect the Athenian business is silly. Our information about the building
and operation of the triremes is quite sketchy, or was within the last ten to
fifteen years.

As I recall the Tutsis had a step up before the bar, from which they jumped.
What the mechanical advantage of that might be, I don't know.

I'm tired of this nonsense, probably because I'm a modern wimp--
australopithecus surely had a higher tolerance for pseudo-scientific nonsense.

------
ulf
"Turning to the high jump, McAllister said photographs taken by a German
anthropologist showed young men jumping heights of up to 2.52 meters in the
early years of last century."

Does this mean that people were jumping 2.52 in the early 1900s?! If so, did
they use the Fosbury Flop and it faded out after that? Because if not, they
probably jumped that height with the Scissors-Jump, which seems highly
unlikely...

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Was there a ruler in the picture? How could he possibly have calibrated?

------
JoeAltmaier
Domestication of animals consists of selecting examples with protracted
juvenile form; more docile and manageable for longer. Humans have self-
domesticated. Today we have later onset of puberty, lower hormone levels, bred
out much aggression.

------
pmichaud
This might be the case, but even if it's true, the principle of evolution
dictates that we're wimpier because it doesn't matter anymore. Why be strong
when we have tools to be strong for us?

------
the_real_r2d2
That's why we are "sapiens", our physical strength is not as good as ancients
homos but we are smarter. Smarter proved to be better than faster or stronger.
We may be wimp, but we survived.

------
unalone
_Modern journalist 'a shill', says Internet commenter who finds older
reporters had better things to do than misinterpret fascinating archaeology as
insults to the modern age_

~~~
JoeAltmaier
"Sour Grapes!" trumpets blog hacker who has nothing better to do.

------
CodeMage
In other news: Ancient men did not have modern technology.

------
etherael
I think if you look further back along the evolutionary chain you'll find that
apes monkeys etc are far better climbers than us. This just seems like a
pointless rant about how adaptation has taken us in a different direction. :/

