Frontiersman, November 2010

Notice:
This issue of the Frontiersman contains contact information that is out-of-date. For current contact information, click here.

Frontiersman, November 2010

Survival Bottlenecks and Ockham's Razor
Sam Aurelius Milam III
I've seen several documentaries that report various theories about our ancestors. One program reported that, 140,000 years ago, there was a survival bottleneck that was caused by environmental changes in what we now call Africa. Reportedly, at that time the entire human population of the world dropped to 600 breeding pairs of people. Scientists claim that they were all in Africa. Another program reported that, about 70,000 years ago, after the Toba eruption near what we now call Sumatra, there was another survival bottleneck for humans. Reportedly, the entire human population of the world at that time included no more than 5,000 breeding-aged women. Again, scientists claim that the survivors were in Africa.
Such claims of survival bottlenecks among our ancestors are based on studies of human DNA. Such survival bottlenecks have reportedly caused humans to have a very small amount of genetic diversity, as compared to other species. The scientists claim that we're all 99.9% genetically identical. By contrast, they claim that other primates have as much as ten times more genetic diversity than we do. That's very peculiar. I'm not aware of any explanation by the scientists of why environmental changes that reportedly threatened our ancestors with extinction, at least twice, weren't a problem for other primates that were living in the same geographical regions.
So, every 70,000 years or so, humans reportedly go through a survival bottleneck. Why are there survivors only in Africa? If the bottlenecks are caused by environmental conditions in that part of the world then, after all of the many human migrations out of Africa, why don't humans survive elsewhere? Why aren't other African primate species similarly affected? Scientists appear to have accepted without question that ancient Africa was the cradle of human survival. There's a big world outside of Africa. People ought to have survived elsewhere besides Africa.
Maybe there weren't any bottlenecks at all. Near extinction of humans isn't the only possible explanation for the small number of our ancestors. In fact, the balance of the human population at the time need not have died at all. Maybe 140,000 years ago, 600 pairs of people were selected from the human population and subjected to genetic modifications. Maybe their descendants were incapable of interbreeding with people in the main population. Maybe 70,000 years later, something similar happened to 5,000 women who were selected from the descendants of the first group. Maybe those people are our ancestors and their descendants, being unable to successfully breed with the main population, gradually replaced it. The genetic result would be the same as if a bottleneck had occurred and everybody else had died. Here's another consideration. The recurring origination of other human species or subspecies only in the region that we now call Africa suggests that other groups besides our ancestors, only in that region, might also have been modified but that those other modified groups didn't persist. Only ours did.
What could cause such genetic changes and cause them only in Africa? Maybe the aliens have a facility somewhere in Africa, periodically reactivate it, and conduct genetic modifications of humans. It's as good an explanation of the observed results as climatic changes and volcanic eruptions. That is, in either case we'd have the same number of ancestors at that time, and they'd all be in Africa. In that regard, I recommend my ninth Ravings essay, Born to Rave. Here's another important point to consider. It's happened to our ancestors at least twice, and maybe more times than that. It seems to happen about every 70,000 years. It's been about 70,000 years since it most recently happened. There have been a lot of alien sightings lately. It might be time for it to happen again. As December 21, 2012 approaches, watch Africa to see if we're scheduled for replacement.

Please use the enclosed envelope to send a contribution. I prefer cash. For checks or money orders, please inquire.
For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net.

November 2010

Frontiersman, ^c/o 4984 Peach Mountain Drive, Gainesville, Georgia 30507

Page 1

Neoanderthals
Sam Aurelius Milam III

I don't have much confidence in the ability of scientists to arrive at correct conclusions. One of their most deplorable failures is their attitude toward a lack of evidence. That is, a scientist will absolutely refuse to consider the existence of something unless there's actual evidence of its existence. It's an idiotic attitude. A lack of any evidence is merely inconclusive. It doesn't prove or disprove anything. Consider that, because of the apparent lack of any fossils for the past 65 million years, scientists believed that Coelacanths were extinct. In fact, Coelacanths remain alive to this day. Sadly, too many scientific conclusions are based on false assumptions, preconceived notions, educational blinders,¹ and excessive concerns for reputations and careers.

Back in September, I took a little break and watched my recording of Clash of the Cavemen. I paid special attention to the speculations about the behavior of the Neanderthals and their adaptations to the slowly encroaching Cro Magnons. The scientists speculated that the Neanderthals were gradually driven into marginal habitat, their numbers were reduced, and they eventually became extinct. The scientists claimed that the process took about 5,000 years. If they're right (and such a thing must occasionally happen, if only by chance), then the interaction between the Neanderthals and the Cro Magnons lasted longer than the entire known, recorded history of the human race.

A lot of things can happen in 5,000 years. If you've been paying attention to Life After People, then you'll understand that, after only a few hundred years, much of the evidence of even an advanced technology will disappear. After a few thousand years, little will remain beyond chunks of stone, fragments of bones, and bits of ceramics. The Cro Magnons were every bit as intelligent and inventive then as we are now. Presumably, the Neanderthals were similarly intelligent. Their brains were actually larger than those of the Cro Magnons. In 5,000 years, we've gone from stone arrowheads to spacecraft. Why wouldn't they do the same kind of thing in the same span of time? Why would any scientist conclude that the lack of any remaining evidence, after 30,000-years, proves the lack of any such activity by the Neanderthals and the Cro Magnons? The Neanderthals and the Cro Magnons had plenty of time to develop technologies similar to ours. There has been plenty of time, since then, for all evidence of such technologies to vanish. To conclude that nothing more than a lack of evidence proves the lack of any such past technologies is about what I've come to expect from scientists. Sometimes, I wonder if the scientists can think at all. They actually wonder if the Neanderthals could talk. It's been only 30,000 years. In terms of human society, that's a long time. In terms of human evolution, it's the blink of an eye. The Cro Magnons reportedly had the same kind of tongues, teeth, palates, throats, and larynxes as we do. The Neanderthals were similarly equipped, with only minor variations. Their FOXP2 gene was reportedly identical to ours today. Why would such organs, structures, and genes arise except through a previous and long evolutionary process of being used? Of course the Neanderthals could talk. They could probably sing.

The two groups of people lived together on the European continent for 5,000 years. Did they interbreed? You can be sure that at least they tried. Whether or not they produced viable and fertile children can be debated. My opinion is that they did and that the Neanderthals didn't become extinct. Instead, they merged into the Cro Magnon population.

Here's another possibility. The scientists claim that the Neanderthals were reduced in number and driven into marginal habitat. If so, then they would have been driven ahead of the Cro Magnons, wherever the Cro Magnons went, all around the world. They would have learned to stay out of sight. In that case, their extinction becomes a matter of speculation. The lack of a fossil since 25,000 or so years ago doesn't prove the extinction of the Neanderthals. Maybe they're not extinct but merely furtive. Maybe we still get glimpses of them in various places around the world. It's as good an explanation as any for Bigfoot, Yeti, Yeren, and Mono Grande.² It's more credible than the scientists' thoughtless denials of the existence of either Bigfoot or the Neanderthals. Maybe we're not alone.

A colleague of mine commented that scientists undergo irreversible brain damage in college.

I was going to include vice cops and network censors in the list but it occurred to me that to do so might be unnecessarily insulting to the Neanderthals.

Please use the enclosed envelope to send a contribution. I prefer cash. For checks or money orders, please inquire.
For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net.

Page 2

Frontiersman, ^c/o 4984 Peach Mountain Drive, Gainesville, Georgia 30507

November 2010

Prune the Tree, Not the Fruit
Sam Aurelius Milam III

Take a careful look around. As my brother used to say, "Do a slow 360 with your eyes open." Try it.

Do you see a nation where justice prevails, where courtesy, humility, integrity, and tolerance rule the land? Do you see a country where people can travel freely without the supervision and regulation of a group of strutting, armed highway thugs, where they can work without the supervision and permission of a despotic central taxing authority? Do you see a country where people respect and trust one another, and deal honestly with one another? Do you see a place where children can play in the streets at night, where they come home from the schools with good educations? Do you see a country where important events are reported completely and accurately by an intelligently directed and objective news service? When you look around, do you perceive good or do you perceive evil?

For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

—Luke 6:43-45
Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version

As my brother suggested, do a slow 360 with your eyes open.

Many people will regard the country as a good place. They will believe what the government tells them. They will accept the news as it is reported to them. They will be happy to apply for every possible form of permit, license, or certificate before they can do any of the things that are necessary for survival. They will happily submit to regulation and control. The result isn't good. The result is evil.

The result follows from the cause but the result isn't the problem. The cause is the problem. We cannot solve the problem by "voting the bastards out of office" or by declaring that "there ought to be a law". Those are nothing more than childish manipulations of an evil result that follows from an evil cause. We cannot solve the problem at the result. We must solve the problem at the cause.

We are the cause. We have made the country what it is. We cannot solve the problems in the country by making changes in the country. We must solve the problems in the country by making changes within ourselves. Here's an even more important truth. I cannot make the changes in you and you cannot make the changes in me. I must address my own deficiencies and you must address yours. When each of us corrects his own deficiencies, when we each remove the evils within ourselves, then the evils in the nation will cease to exist.

Stray Thoughts
Sam Aurelius Milam III

Inarguable Truth — A so-called security check, whether it's at a school, at an airport, or anywhere else, represents a presumption of guilt. It's a requirement that a person must attempt to prove his own innocence. It's a requirement that a person must provide information that might be used against him. Those are three good reasons to refuse to cooperate with the gestapo thugs at the so-called security checkpoints.

Misplaced Charity — Just because a person needs something doesn't necessarily mean that he also deserves it.

Brainwashing Machine — People ought to be ashamed of themselves for sending their children to the schools. Brainwashing in the schools is a form of child abuse.

A White Man's Notes
Sam Aurelius Milam III

Gender Inequality — Why aren't nagging and crying regarded as forms of domestic abuse of men or, at least, as extortion?

Old Timers' Lore
Overheard by Sam Aurelius Milam III
On the Road Again — If the road kill ain't flat yet, then you can still cook it. If it's flat, then make jerky.

Kids Are Quick
Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by Sir Donald the Elusive.
Teacher: Winnie, name one important thing that we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.
Winnie: Me!

Please use the enclosed envelope to send a contribution. I prefer cash. For checks or money orders, please inquire.
For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net.

November 2010

Frontiersman, ^c/o 4984 Peach Mountain Drive, Gainesville, Georgia 30507

Page 3

Frontiersman
^c/o 4984 Peach Mountain Drive
Gainesville, Georgia 30507

You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you afraid.

—Thursday, October 1, 1992
Milam's Notes

Acknowledgments

My thanks to the following: SantaClara Bob; Lady Jan the Voluptuous; my mother; Dewey and Betty; and Eric, of Ione, California.

— editor

Court Quotes
From Humor in the Court and More Humor in the Court, by Mary Louise Gilman, editor of the National Shorthand Reporter. Forwarded by Don G.

Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition that I sent to your attorney?

No, this is how I dress when I go to work.

Observations
Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by David, of Idaho Falls, Idaho

•

A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.

•

All generalizations are false.

Funny Questions and Answers
Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by David, of Idaho Falls, Idaho

What's the difference between the Pope and your boss?

The Pope only expects you to kiss his ring.

How is a government worker like a shotgun with a broken firing pin?

It won't work and you can't fire it.

Funny Statements
Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by David, of Idaho Falls, Idaho

•

My mind works like lightning. One brilliant flash and it's gone.

•

Never trust a stockbroker who's married to a travel agent.

•

The only time the world beats a path to your door is when you're in the bathroom.

Frontiersman

Subscriptions and Back Issues — Printed copies of this newsletter, either subscriptions or back issues, are available by application only.

Cancellations — If you don't want to keep receiving this newsletter, then return it unopened. When I receive it, I'll terminate your subscription.

Reprint Policy — Permission is hereby granted to reproduce this newsletter in its entirety or to reproduce material from it, provided that the reproduction is accurate and that proper credit is given. I do not have the authority to give permission to reprint material that I have reprinted from other sources. For that permission, you must go to the original source. I would appreciate receiving a courtesy copy of any document or publication in which you reprint my material.

Submissions — I solicit letters, articles, and cartoons for the newsletter, but I don't pay for them. Short items are more likely to be printed. I suggest that letters and articles be shorter than 500 words but that's flexible depending on space available and the content of the piece.

Payment — This newsletter isn't for sale. If you want to make a voluntary contribution, then I prefer cash or U.S. postage stamps. For checks or money orders, please inquire. For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net. The continued existence of the newsletter will depend, in part, on such contributions. I don't accept anything that requires me to provide ID to receive it. In case anybody's curious, I also accept gold, silver, platinum, etc.

— Sam Aurelius Milam III, editor

Please use the enclosed envelope to send a contribution. I prefer cash. For checks or money orders, please inquire.
For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net.

Page 4

Frontiersman, ^c/o 4984 Peach Mountain Drive, Gainesville, Georgia 30507

November 2010

Back to the Frontiersman Directory

Back to the Beginning of This Issue