Six Ways Humans Will Evolve

Humanity hasn’t physically evolved much since we took our current state, but over the years, we’ve found certain body parts and functions to serve less purpose than they previously had. So, we’ll assume evolution/natural selection will take care of some of these pesky things to bring us one step closer to perfection. And that’s when the aliens will return and deem us worthy to join them in intergalactic dominance.

1

Higher Metabolism

We are fat these days for a couple of reasons, one of which is that early humans didn’t eat as often as we do today. Fat cells are the body’s emergency storage tank, which come in handy when there isn’t much to hunt along the Bering land bridge. Today, we’re sure to have meals more frequently than early humans (I’m hoping that no one in a drought-infested desert is reading this), meaning we don’t need excessive fat for survival reasons, especially since it’s now more likely to be unhealthy.

Of course, today we also eat fattier, processed foods and use our muscles less than we did thousands of years ago, but it’s clear that excessive fat no longer serves the same purpose that it once did. We should evolve based on how we currently live and will continue to live, so here’s thinking we’ll all develop higher metabolisms to more quickly burn of calories.

2

No More Wisdom Teeth

This isn’t because I don’t think mine are super cool since they grew in straight and give me that enhanced chew while eating, it’s because so many people get them removed for dental reasons, and about 35% of people don’t get them at all. Wisdom teeth: Gone.

3

No More Appendix

We’re not entirely sure what the appendix was originally meant for, but we do know that we don’t need it, and we often have to remove it when suffering from appendicitis. Over time, it’ll shrivel up until it’s gone completely. Also, we already have something very similar looking elsewhere.

4

No More Goosebumps

Goosebumps act as the mechanism for controlling the thick hair we no longer have, whether it’s because we’re cold or suddenly frightened. For instance, when a cat gets goosebumps, its hair stands straight up. When we get it, the cat laughs at us cause we’re clearly being pretenders.

Now, the other option here is to regain the thick hair to make the goosebumps useful again. But that’s not what we prefer, so let’s just get rid of them all together.

5

Sperm Will Withstand Warmer Temperatures

Testicles are temperature controlled. When they get too cold, the scrotum shrivels up, and vice versa. This was fine for early man, as their balls were more exposed to the elements. But today, under layers of clothing in temperature-controlled rooms, not to mention global warming, they remain loose, shifting as we walk, squooshing as we sit, forcing us to frequently adjust or scratch. The constant abuse will tell the body that its design is no longer practical. Eventually, the sperm will get used to the warmer temperatures and eventually enjoy 98.7 degrees of the body. At that point, the testicles and scrotum will permanently shrivel up into the body. No more scratching.

6

Sex No Longer Leads to Pregnancy

It’s been obvious over the past millennia or so that humankind no longer has sex for procreation purposes. At least, most of the time. In fact, many feminists believe they owe nothing to the survival of the human species and find the act of sperm fertilizing an egg to be a ‘violation’ of a their body because it’s not a conscious decision, even in circumstances when protection is not used. That is why they claim abortion is ‘self defense’ against an intruder. These are real arguments, folks (and facts, according to them).

So how will the human evolution movement handle this? Obviously, sperm can’t get written consent from the woman to fertilize an egg, and it’s still too soon to phase out the uterus in an attempt to please the feminists who want even more equality with men. So, women will grow some sort of permanent barricade that will flawlessly shoo away sperm. But not a problem for the survival of the species, folks, because we still have In-vitro fertilization. Or something else. I don’t know. Anything but a violation of the body and a self defense claim.

Good Questions and Boring Ones

I rarely ask questions in press conferences, but when I do it’s because I’m fairly certain I’ll get a good response.

The other night, after the Pittsburgh-Washington game, I was in a packed press room when Bruce Boudreau stood at the podium.

The traditional media usually ask the most questions, typically to get quotes to fill in the angle of their story. That makes the questions relatively lame and not newsworthy. Questions such as: “How important was it to kill that power play after taking that penalty?”

Seriously? What do you expect the coach to say? That it wasn’t important to kill the power play? The only reason that question is asked is so the writer can enhance a passage on how the power play did. However, the coaches and players are used to taking softball questions from traditional media, so they answer it. It’s not bad or wrong, but who cares?

Several minutes in, I spoke up and mentioned something that deserved to be mentioned: Matt Cooke’s hit on Alex Ovechkin, which was knee-on-knee and could have ended Ovechkin’s season. The Penguins said they ‘clipped skates’ so I asked the coach if it was knee-on-knee.

Boudreau exploded.

“It was Matt Cooke. Need we say more? Its not like its his first rodeo. Hes done it to everybody and then he goes to the ref and says: What did I do? He knows damn well what he did. Theres no doubt in my mind that hes good at it and he knows how to do it. He knows how to pick this stuff. We as a league, we still buy into this that, Oh it was an accidental thing.”

I asked because no one else had, and it was indeed an angle I woud’ve led with on Capitals Outsider. When traditional media and other bloggers ignore a part of the game that I feel deserves a headline, I’ll be sure to cover it. After several minutes of ‘gotta get a quote for the article’ questions, I took the opportunity to mention something that should’ve been the first question asked.

The Post wrote a blog post about it. The quote appeared on several other sites, including Yahoo, ESPN and dozens of others. It was used on television, including Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, I’m told. Journalists don’t need to be attributed for asking the question that leads to the news, so there was no mention of me, and that’s fine and I understand that.

Here’s my beef: Why did it take a blogger to ask the obvious question after high profile journalists fished for routine quotes about the game as window dressing for their article?

Kermit Gosnell Case Brings Out the Worst in Abortion Debaters

Abortion is one of the few topics that people on either side of the debate are applauded by enablers for shouting mantras, announcing flawed arguments, and name-calling while holding their fingers in their ears toward opposing views. And as expected, extremist pundits have come out to discuss Kermit Gosnell, a Pennsylvania abortion doctor who is accused of delivering live babies and murdering them with scissors, as well as other charges.

On Google, I’ve subscribed to news alerts for Dr. Gosnell and tried to read every last article that came across. What I found were opinions that were so flawed that anyone who can set aside their views on abortion for one minute and dissect them would realize that these folks have no business in these discussions. Free speech is one thing, but dumb speech is another, and dumb speech on abortion is too often accepted as if it adds anything to the discussion.

Let’s look at the extremists on both sides of the debate.

The most extreme antiabortion folks are blaming the Roe vs. Wade decision for Gosnell’s horrors. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Gosnell’s actions would be multiplied if it weren’t for Roe vs. Wade. That’s not to justify the decision, but ‘back alley’ and illegal abortions are just as much a cause for concern for the antiabortion movement as ‘clean’ and legal ones.

The most extreme pro-abortion rights advocates are blaming the antiabortion folks for Gosnell, which is just as silly. They claim that it’s restrictions on abortion that enabled Dr. Gosnell to operate. After all, if abortion were cheap and/or publicly funded, and easy to get, women would do it earlier in the pregnancy without resorting to going to Dr. Gosnell.

This argument is absurd to the largest degree possible and folks who even uttered these words clearly didn’t read past the second paragraph of any news article announcing the facts of the case. Dr. Gosnell made millions doing what he did, charging women an arm and a leg (no pun intended) for the procedure. Women often went to him because other abortion doctors turned them down since they were too far along in their pregnancy. If anything, the women ended up spending far more money to get rid of their late-term pregnancy. Seems to me that: The woman (and man) often bypassed using contraceptives (cheapest alternative), bypassed an early-term abortion (relatively cheap), then paid thousands of dollars to Dr. Gosnell for what they knew was an illegal procedure, only to suffer the consequences. Obviously, circumstances differ for each woman but it’s hard to see someone as a victim if they willingly entered Dr. Gosnell’s office. And somehow, this is the antiabortion movement’s fault?

The antiabortion folks need to work on changing the hearts and minds of people who feel there’s nothing wrong with abortion. Legalized abortion or not, no sensible person wants unsafe abortions to happen. Overturning Roe vs. Wade won’t help that cause, but only lead to more people like Dr. Gosnell.

The abortion rights advocates, particularly those on the extreme left, need to recognize that regulations on abortion, like in any industry, are put in place for a reason. It was politically-driven regulation failures that allowed Dr. Gosnell to operate for decades. Many argue that Bernie Madoff operated the same way as his connections with the SEC led to decades of illegal activity. While regulation in any industry often slows down progress, we’ve clearly seen the consequences of its failures in the banking industry and now the abortion industry.

But we’ve also seen the most unhelpful of them all: Those who refuse to see the obvious and only blame their opponents, while capturing the minds of drones who don’t think for themselves. Fortunately, in the case of Dr. Gosnell, the Grand Jury actually explored how this happened and who is to blame, and justice will be served. Then, those with extreme and foolish views will be back to spouting their absurd arguments.

Sideshow Collectibles Morgul Lord Premium Format

I rarely pre-order items from Sideshow Collectibles, but I made an exception in the case of the Morgul Lord Premium Format Figure, which was shipped to me today. Typically I get items off eBay for less than the original price, but had no problem dropping the money on this, particularly since I made so much of it off of the action figure of this very same character while selling on Amazon.

I absolutely love this guy. Sure, it would’ve been nice it he was raising his sword in the air, like with the much smaller polystone statue which came out several years ago, but it’s really the mace and helmet that makes this character so cool. The mace is fairly large and you can position it the way you want since it’s attached to a chain. The robes are thick and stained with dirt. The leg armor is great, too, but it’s hidden by the robes.

I’ve got no. 137 of 1000. Love it! I choose not to get the exclusive version because I didn’t like the way the fire looked on the sword.

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Bondra!

I’m not an autograph hound. When I was younger, I went through a short period when I was collecting some hockey autographs, and I once went to a card show when Dino Ciccarelli was signing stuff, but I was definitely not one of those people in a crowd reaching over others with a piece of crap for someone to sign. If anything, I’d prefer a photo with someone, as I did with Gheorghe MureÅŸan and Manute Bol (may he rest in peace). Didn’t even bother to get them to sign something for me.

It’s not uncommon to see former Capitals all-star Peter Bondra around town. I’ve seen him several times in the press box, we’ve interviewed him for Capitals Outsider a couple of times, and he’s frequently at the Gardens Ice House. He’s been retired for a while now but he’s actually been in the news a bit in the last month because he played in the Caps-Pens alumni game and yesterday, the Bruins’ Zdeno Chara celebrated a hat-trick with Bondra’s signature celebration.

So I knew Bondra was going to be in Laurel tonight, so I grabbed one of my cards and made sure I was there when he got off the ice while coaching his son’s team. I suppose I could’ve asked for a photo but I’ll get another chance. For some reason, I wanted his autograph. And I can honestly say that he’s one of the few players on the Caps – former or current – who I would even bother asking.