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great apes, rubbish science
Dec. 4th, 2012 09:03 pmBad science is even more galling when it comes from an area of personal interest and a generally respectable field.
Thus: According to the wacky neuroscientists writing today for the beeb, happiness is horseshoe or U shaped. Basically meaning, we are happy at the beginning and the end but go off a bit in the middle. This claim is backed up by case studies of primates who, it seems, share the same happiness trajectory. We know this (apparently) through the careful application of skilled guesswork and extreme anthropomorphism. Erm, i mean scientific questionnaires and observation.
GOOD NEWS then for wytchcroft, habitually referred to as Double U, or UU by diverse and sundry internet pets and friends.
The notion of a mid-life monkey crisis, however, makes me suspect they did not so much study great apes (not sure i've seen that many monkeys jiggling their car-keys and determinedly ogling their daughter's chums, wearing bad clothes and driving flashy motors etc, etc) so much as watch great ape movies; King Kong with his eye for young blondes seems the obvious choice.
But whilst Kong may have influenced the Rolling Stones it would be pushing it to suggest that all humans can somehow be found mirrored in his life story - which, lest we forget, is fiction!
So then, what of the real? It is true that Ham the space chimp (what does a space chimp eat? monkey nauts! ha-ha! ha - ah, yes, um, an oldie and a mouldy, sorry) had achieved all he was going to whilst still in his youth. Indeed, he went on to suffer the same post-stardom depression and weirdness as many other astronauts and was last heard of living as a beach-bum psychic hippie healer in California curing people of their shell-food issues as part of the Psi and Allergy movement. His case, however, is surely unusual. It is certainly not indicative of the life of other famous primates, by all accounts Cheeta, for one, was large-ing it back in the day and well after.
As for me - i keep an open mind (after all, perhaps Frank was right) but i am going to carry my Us at all times (fortunately i actually own a couple of old iron, any old iron, horseshoes already!) and when being assured of either my personal or a more general happiness 'arc' by well-meaning members of the medical profession - i will genially bludgeon the idiots to death with them.
Talking of which; i picked up a truly evil pair of knitted snowmen at the weekend for 10 pence each. They are now on my mantle with a sign i made for them saying; 'beware da snow boyz, we slice like ice!'
i think they're hilarious.
they make me happy.
see also; happiness stan, the happiness patrol, etc etc.
Thus: According to the wacky neuroscientists writing today for the beeb, happiness is horseshoe or U shaped. Basically meaning, we are happy at the beginning and the end but go off a bit in the middle. This claim is backed up by case studies of primates who, it seems, share the same happiness trajectory. We know this (apparently) through the careful application of skilled guesswork and extreme anthropomorphism. Erm, i mean scientific questionnaires and observation.
GOOD NEWS then for wytchcroft, habitually referred to as Double U, or UU by diverse and sundry internet pets and friends.
The notion of a mid-life monkey crisis, however, makes me suspect they did not so much study great apes (not sure i've seen that many monkeys jiggling their car-keys and determinedly ogling their daughter's chums, wearing bad clothes and driving flashy motors etc, etc) so much as watch great ape movies; King Kong with his eye for young blondes seems the obvious choice.
But whilst Kong may have influenced the Rolling Stones it would be pushing it to suggest that all humans can somehow be found mirrored in his life story - which, lest we forget, is fiction!
So then, what of the real? It is true that Ham the space chimp (what does a space chimp eat? monkey nauts! ha-ha! ha - ah, yes, um, an oldie and a mouldy, sorry) had achieved all he was going to whilst still in his youth. Indeed, he went on to suffer the same post-stardom depression and weirdness as many other astronauts and was last heard of living as a beach-bum psychic hippie healer in California curing people of their shell-food issues as part of the Psi and Allergy movement. His case, however, is surely unusual. It is certainly not indicative of the life of other famous primates, by all accounts Cheeta, for one, was large-ing it back in the day and well after.
As for me - i keep an open mind (after all, perhaps Frank was right) but i am going to carry my Us at all times (fortunately i actually own a couple of old iron, any old iron, horseshoes already!) and when being assured of either my personal or a more general happiness 'arc' by well-meaning members of the medical profession - i will genially bludgeon the idiots to death with them.
Talking of which; i picked up a truly evil pair of knitted snowmen at the weekend for 10 pence each. They are now on my mantle with a sign i made for them saying; 'beware da snow boyz, we slice like ice!'
i think they're hilarious.
they make me happy.
see also; happiness stan, the happiness patrol, etc etc.
