Recently I've discovered a new and interesting form of photography. It is called Miksang Photography and it concerns itself with uncovering a pure perception. It is a straight-shooting technique that allows ourselves to look at things without bias and experience richer singular moments. I think it is quite interesting and I know that I have some photos that exemplify this unique perspective in photography so I thought I would share them. For more information, go to What is Miksang?
Here is some of my own Miksang photography pictures for your enjoyment...
I think all of these photos encourage contemplation and self-analysis. They promote a look into your inner self and help you reflect on nature and your part in the universe.
Thanks for viewing!
Also found some cute ones I photoshopped but they also have that natural and peaceful feel....
I would just like to rant for a little bit as I am angry!! I haven't been to the eye doctor for a year and they will not fill my prescription for contacts until I go back there and pay them $80. This is so messed up. I know that my prescription is the same as it has been working for me everyday. I don't need a fucking "doctor" to write that on a piece of paper. As far as the contacts go, the last time I was there they talked me into these horrible contacts. Acuve Advance Plus. I ordered a year's worth of contacts and they only lasted me 6 months. Let me tell you about these Acuve Advance Plus so that you don't waste your money. First, the first day they are fine, as long as you don't wear them too much. By the first day, when you go to take them out, you notice that they have attracted bits of your eyeliner, so they are spotted with dust and eyeliner. Then, the second day you try to get the smudges of eyeliner off the contacts, and it comes off but leaves a streak of oil residue on the lenses that won't come of, and that is if you don't scratch the heck out of them trying to get the eyeliner off. The second day you are walking around with blurry lenses. By the third day, there is so much dust and eyeliner stuck to these contacts that it is unbearable how blurry and uncomfortable they are. On the fourth day, you need to change them or else they annoy you to no end. That is about how long these contacts will last. You are supposed to be able to wear each contact for two weeks. The longest I've gone with these Acuve Advance Plus is 5 DAYS! They are horrible, do not ever buy them!! Instead, Acuve Oasys with Hydroclear and Acuve 2 have worked really well for me. These contacts can last up to three or four weeks, even though they are designed to last two weeks. They never attract dust particles and eyeliner smudges. I throw them out when they get a scratch in them which is rare. One box of these, 6 contacts have lasted me 5 months!! Okay, I have gotten my rant out and my critique on what I believe is a waste of money. Now to go to the eye doctor and give them a whole night's worth of earnings for them to tell me what I already know.
I am completely in love with electronic dance, beats, and dubstep!! Beats are so full of sound and feeling, every aspect of the spectrum hits you in waves. Having something beat in tune of your nature rhythms is delightfully pleasing, not only to the ear but to the soul. The escape gives you a bittersweet sense of urgency, attentiveness, and calm. I have put together some of my personal favorites for your enjoyment. Take in every aspect of the sound, linger in the moment, forget about the stresses of your existence, and enjoy songs of complete bliss and escape. Above and Beyond featuring Richard Bedford Thing Called Love (Radio Edit)
The beats on this in combination with Bedford's voice and those lyrics just stood out for me. I love it! It gets your heart going and your brain moving. His voice is calming and emotional. Then it switches over to upbeat head-banging electronic dance. The beat becomes your rage and hopelessness, his voice a guide pulling you through the song. Sound just pumping into your ears as your blood pumps into your heart. This song just takes aside thinking and feeling and puts you into a realm of combination with pure natural instinct. Motorcycle - As the Rush Comes
They take me into another universe, another realm of existence! The rhythmic beats of this song coincide with the lyrics and the emotional energy in her voice in perfect synergy. A great dance song as well as an escape to somewhere free and without structure, it develops into a rush coming over you and it is the tranquility of your mind at peace. *This website that talks about music in connection with spiritual growth. Some of the ideas seem a bit crazy, but I accept the fact that you can change your positive spiritual energy with the sound and vibrations of music. It develops upon the basic concept that you can create your own happiness by the simple actions that you subject yourself to. Does Music Affect Our Energy Field and Spiritual Growth? * Also check out this student researched site which explains how music triggers effects in the body explaining with detail the changes that happen when you listen to music. Music's Affects on the Human Body * After that check out this site explaining how the beat in music can help your health How the beats in music can help your health
Bob Sinclair - World, Hold On
This song by Sinclair is a powerful reggae infused mix of rad beats and lyrics that begs humanity to continue. The whistles give the song a pleasant catchiness. The lyrics gives people hope that humanity will keep holding on, and its mixes compliment its harmonious nature. * This site is an introduction to what we know about a flow state of being. I believe that the trance and beats in music can help you achieve this state. Introduction to Flow State (part 1 of 2) * In the second flow state of being it talks about maintaining positive feelings and focus on positive outcomes. Introduction to Flow State (part 2 of 2) “The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the engagement; you ought not to be thinking of whether it ends in victory or defeat. Let nature take its course and your tools will strike at the right moment.” (Tao of Jeet Kune Do, p12) See more at: http://www.refocuser.com/2009/03/introduction-to-the-flow-state-part-2-of-2/#sthash.cwyvwrNa.dpuf Marina and the Diamonds - Lies (Zeds Dead Remix)
The sounds of this beauty of a song amp up even the most conservative of souls to a head banging rhythmic beat that is out of this world. Perfect amount of sound and lyrics. It tests your intensity level and makes you want more. Its powerful sounds has you listening over again, a little short in my opinion but I can't get enough! Skylar Grey - Coming Home (A.N.O. Remix)
The beautiful sounds of the piano in this chillstep song puts my mind at peace. Tranquility surrounds me as I float through the abyss. Her voice is beautifully in sync with the soft flows of the piano music. Rimshox - Reality Check
This song has hypnotic sounds softened by the sweet violin melody, the echos giving the song a deep feel. The beats keep the pace with the song's rapture. The sounds give it a mystery as if lost in a spiritual place. There are no understandable lyrics but the sounds emphasize the prophetic movement of the music. *This site offers 40 Ways to Create Peace of Mind by Lori Deschene, a list of ways to live a happier and more peaceful existence focusing on mediation, creativity, communication, activity, acceptance, connections, contribution, and solitude. 40 Ways to Create Peace of Mind Jodi and Hosta - My Life
This song has a interesting old-fashioned sounding twist in her voice, which then turns into an upbeat movement of sounds. The chillstep melody in the background with violins keep it feeling surreal and tranquil. The whole song almost sounds a bit jazzy while also being part of the dance scene.
I have started a new quest, a new adventure. This adventure is the branding of myself. I feel like I have much to offer to the world, but if no one knows about it then it will never be valuable and can never help me or anyone else. What I need to find is a plan and some motivation to take initiative. I have been discovering ways to do this and gain the motivation that I need.
A video by Seth Godin on Failing Until You Succeed has helped me think about things differently, here it is below:
Some key ideas that Godin touches on are:
- Branding yourself is not a job, it’s an opportunity. You have continuous
opportunities to develop projects. The key is failing until you succeed, it’s a
game, the more you fail, the more you get to play again.
- We now live in a world where failure is not that bad, you
can repost or redesign and have something new.
You can try different actions to see what works. I wonder what happens if I do this?It’s
okay with me for you to fail and see what works. Exploring and trying new
things.
- Curiosity – How did the business get from beginning to success?
How did this person succeed? If you’re not curious you cannot learn. School
brainwashes us to not ask, to just accept.
- We are evolutionarily organized, through the amygdale, to
believe that when a boss says “you will be fired” you think “I will be fired,
not to be hired, become homeless, and die” The resistance is in your head.
- It’s easier today than ever before to start a business.
- No one gives you initiative, you have to take it. The
fear of taking initiative is so great, many people will not risk it. We are
brainwashed from an early age in school to follow directions, but not to take
initiative.
- The guest will come into a restaurant to see a server
because of the art, humanity, and connections that they give them. The waitress
can explore different ways of speaking and suggesting that will give
interaction to the guest and make them want that humanity. You’re out there
poking everyday new experiences which will help them in their future.
Once I get a brand going and want to be found in positive ways on search engines, this site could be helpful:
Another thing that I have learned is that people do not trust easily. Publishers will not publish your work unless they know who you are and what you stand for. They need to know that you will not embarrass them. They need to develop a trust in your character. The world is based on people that do not trust easily and you must prove yourself in order to gain their trust. There are strategies you can take to get people to find you interesting and to promote yourself.
This book is number one on my "books to read" list:
- Writing is thought on paper. I recommend for all people to tighten their thinking to do short writing exercises, with someone to edit, that could pull out all the superfluous information
- Ben Franklin demonstrated the concept of Amateur - someone who goes into a field without preconceived notions. People are taught they need to specialize like an insect, and therefore they stop exploring. People want to put other people in a box.
- I wanted to go out into the world and have more experiences and successes. "I didn't want to teach because I couldn't do, I wanted to teach because I had lessons to share."
- Scratch your own itch. Make the product or write the book that you can't find. Follow what bothers you.
- Writers block - write about what makes you angry
- The silent majority will like your stuff, the minority that doesn't will be the loudest.
- The beauty of the internet is that it gives everyone a voice. It gives geniuses a voice, but it also gives the idiots a voice.
- The negative comments are people just projecting what they feel about themselves, misery loves company.
- Philosophy is an operating system for life, for making decisions about what to do and not to do in life. Stoicism especially Seneca - anger is like acid in a vessel, it damages the vessel more than having acid poured on it. If you allow petty abusive behavior in comments, it leads to other behavior like that.
- It's not how long you live, it's how well you live. It's a combination of achievement and appreciation. If you don't appreciate what you have now, nothing you ever get will make you satisfied and happy. Schedule in gratitude and appreciation for what you have.
- It's important to have some level of gratitude so you can act from a calm, analytical place as opposed to a state of rushing.
1. Do a gratitude list - 3 things you are grateful for
2. Scheduling an 80/20 analysis - 80 percent of activities that people do to produce the results and positive emotional states in my life, 20 percent of activities that people do to produce negative feelings. How much time is the negative feelings taking up? Change what needs to be.
3. Fearsetting - Defining your fears specifically. Write what will happen if these fears came to be. Write how you will get back to where you are if they were to happen.
- Most actions have very low risk. Risk is the potential for an irreversible outcome.
- I look for people who are accustomed to failure, can prove their resilience. Whether its a sport, a start up, or other. Another thing I look for is personality, wanting to interact with that person. The third would be knowledge of basic understanding of work, defining problems and solving.
Another website I stumbled across in this adventure is a funding platform for creative projects called Kickstarter. It seems to be a great starting place for young entrepreneurs to develop creative projects and support others.
Recently my good
friend, Sara, has become a vegan. We are both very intelligent, analytical
people who love to debate issues that we are passionate about. This is one of
them that we ended up debating. As a vegan, she believes it is wrong to kill
other animals. As an anthropologist, I believe it is natural to kill other
animals.
Breaking down some
the arguments that we proceeded to make there were several vegan arguments that
were prominent. Arguments against killing and eating animals were:
Killing animals is wrong (The
Bible says "Thou shall not kill")
Animals have feelings, they
are like our brothers and sisters
Meat is unnatural for your
digestive system, we are not made to be carnivores
The Golden Rule: Do onto
others as you would have done onto yourself
Specism is just as bad as
racism
This video by Gary
Yourofsky provides the basis for the arguments in which I will examine.
Disclaimer: As I
debate each one of these topics, I am working from my perspective and my
knowledge of the topic. There are cultural and historical views to how I see
the topic and as I will try my best to interpret the both sides of the
argument, I may seem biased in my interpretation because of my own views.
First, killing
animals is wrong. While this relies heavily on your definition of
"wrong" I have to resort to a Christian viewpoint, one in which the
Bible states "Thou shall not kill". Now the Bible is taken very
literally is some contexts, and not literally in other contexts. While the
Bible doesn't clearly state that "Killing anything is wrong" it could
be assumed that the killing of people is what they were intentionally speaking
of. While God said "thou shall not kill", God also allows many
sacrifices in his name. He has Abraham go up to his alter to sacrifice his only
son. After seeing Abraham's true devotion, he instead tells him he should
sacrifice a lamb. If anything, the theme of "killing animals" is
promoted in the Bible, over "killing people".
Second, animals have
feelings. While this topic took some debating is it truly up to your historical
background, knowledge, and culture whether you actually believe that animals
have feelings. Furthermore, even if they do, that they should not be killed because
of that fact. My initial response was that animals do not have feelings, they
have instincts.
Gary started his
hour long lecture with, "animals are like our brothers and sisters, they
have feelings" Immediately this sparked a controversial fire in my
intellectual thought. As me and Sara debated this, her argument looked at
animals such as cats and dogs. When you leave them, they miss you. When you pet
them they get excited. They seem to share many of the same feelings that we
have. Even my cats show love when they lick each other's heads. While I agreed
that domesticated animals are designed to show something that resembles
feelings, I also pointed out that wild animals also kill their young. They have
a different culture and idea of family than us humans do. While animals will
raise their young, after they reach a certain age, they are seen as competition
for mates. They will disown them and if they see them again, will fight them to
the death. This is a major difference between us humans and animals.
Another reason for
this "animals have feelings" thought could have been because of our
Americanized culture in which as a child we all watched movies that put
human-like characteristics in animals. Movies such as the Lion King, Tom and
Jerry, Happy Feet, All Dogs Go to Heaven, 101 Dalmatians, and other movies that
show real life animals talking, interacting, and acting like humans give us a
sense of empathy and relatedness with animals.
Gary spends a good
amount of time talking about "humane slaughter". While I do agree
with him that there is no such thing as "humane slaughter" and that
most of the animals that are put into the food service industry are treated
horribly, there is also this question, what are you doing about it? Vegans
believe that by becoming vegan they are safe because they are not condoning the
killing of these animals in horrific ways. While that may be true, just because
you don't see something doesn't mean it is not happening. Not eating meat is
not going to stop the inhumane slaughter of innocent animals, it's just masking
the problem. If vegans were really against this issue they would be determined
to find a way and put a plan in motion to get these inhumane slaughterhouses
found out and stopped. Furthermore, they would realize that the meat industry
is not going to just cease to exist altogether and what they should be doing is
seeing what technology could possibly be able to give these animals a fast,
painless death and promoting the use of that technology as an alternative. Third, meat is
unnatural for your digestive system. Knowing a good bit about evolution, this
one just makes me laugh. We are literally all here because of our
hunter-gatherer ancestors. Our ancestors couldn't survive on just gathering
alone, they needed the protein that came from meat. While it is general
knowledge that we all had hunter-gatherer ancestors, what we do not think about
is how these ancestors came to be. Before we had bows and arrows and spears to
kill animals, what were we doing? Well, going back to the very beginnings as
apes, we found that eating bugs gave us protein and therefore energy. We ate
beetles and termites and other bugs whenever we could. In fact, as we were
tool-makers, we used long sticks as tools to poke termite nests. Our earliest
ancestors would put the long stick in the termite mound, leave it for a second,
and when they pulled it out, it was filled with nutritious food. Of course,
eating bugs didn't satisfy us for long. As our brains got bigger they needed
more energy and therefore more protein to survive. We still didn't have the
means to make weapons and tools to take down other animals. Before we had any
weapons or tools, we had become scavengers. We hid in the bushes as we watched
a lion take down a zebra. The lions would eat a lot of the meat, till they got
their fill, and then they would walk away. Next, the hyenas would come and finish
all the meat on the bones, licking them clean. After this animal was nothing
but a pile of bones, humans would come to it. There was no meat left on the
bones, but what was still there was the nutritious marrow that was still inside
the bones. The lions and the hyenas did not have sharp enough teeth to cut
through these bones to get to the marrow. But humans, being the tool-makers
that we are, had sharp edged stones that acted as blades to cut open bone, and
we would eat the marrow for nutrients. It is only after we became more advanced
did we move up the food chain, scaring away the hyenas, and started eating
meat. As innovation advanced we were able to take down small animals with our
own tools and weapons, and eventually larger animals. One theory is that the
evolution of our big brains is contributed to the time period in which we began
to create and control fire. Once meat was cooked, it was much easier to digest,
and aided in our large brain growth.
This video shows
tribal people stealing meat away from a lion:
In the YouTube
video, Gary states that humans are not carnivores. We do not run after animals
and tear them to pieces with our teeth. One statement of his is "If you
put a two-year old in a crib with a rabbit and an apple, it is not going to eat
the rabbit and play with the apple"…duh. But I do agree with Gary, we are
not carnivores in the same sense as tigers or cheetahs. We are scavengers. We
didn't originally acquire meat by hunting it, we acquired it by scavenging. You
would be surprised at what animals, such as scorpions and squirrels, that
tribal people eat. Some tribal people are known cannibals and enjoy the flesh
of humans. To make a refuting argument, if you were to put a two-year old, okay
let's make it a six-year old because they have teeth, in a small room with a
rabbit, and that six-year old has seen his family hunt down rabbits and kill
them and eat them raw, he would do the same.
In conclusion, my
argument remains that meat is one of the most natural food sources for our
system. It has been evolutionarily tested over and over for the millions of
years we have been evolving, proving to be beneficial. It has only been
recently that vegetarians and vegans have existed. They are changing a human
habit that has been going on for millions of years. Furthermore, without the
intelligence that we have from eating meat, vegans and vegetarians, and any
kind of human, would have never existed. When we were evolving in savanna and
jungle climates, things like broccoli, nuts, legumes, fruits, etc. weren't
available to us to eat. While we did have gatherers that collected berries and
vegetables that they found wild, there was not enough to provide enough energy
for everyone in their family. Meat had to be used to supplement the lack of
protein in a plant-based diet. We have made such far gains in our intelligences
that we have found out scientifically and very recently in the whole of human history,
that other foods and plants have the same proteins as meat. It is only because
of this knowledge that beans, nuts, and other plants have protein and the
accessibility of these items that vegans and vegetarians even exist. Without
this knowledge or accessibility, we would still be using meat as our primary
source of protein.
Fourth is "Do
onto others as you would like done onto yourself". While this argument
could be easily disregarded by claiming that "others" represent
"other humans" and not animals, I was confronted with a different way
of looking at it. I argued that "animals are not others" Sara
challenged me with "why not?" I proceeded, "Animals are not
intellectually similar to humans" She proceeded with a hypothetical
situation. "What if one day we finally came into contact with aliens, they
were intellectually way further advanced than we are…does that give them the
right to consider us animals and to eat us?" I thought about that for a
minute, well yes probably, but I agree that would suck.
Lastly, specism is
just as bad as racism. I would like to point out that on the YouTube video,
Gary talks about how wrong it is to enslave and kill other species of animals.
So vegans do not believe in killing other animals. But what about the bugs that
eat your precious plants, they are competition and competition must die if you
are to survive. What about the bacteria and viruses that attack your body, they
threaten your survival and therefore must die for you to survive. Are you not
going to believe in medicine? While I agree that animals that we use as food
are a lot more innocent than these, I don't understand how you can single out
some creatures as deserving to live and others as not deserving to live. As
well, think about your domesticated dogs and cats and horses. Are they not
enslaved? They are by no means free. For a second, lets think about a world in
which all animals were as free as humans to do whatever they wanted. There are
beautiful wild horses running free. The only thing that they care about is
getting food, in fact, they will most likely stampede through your personal
gardens and eat up all the fresh vegetables that you have worked hard to plant
and cultivate. They have now become your competition in acquiring food. If we
should let them live then we need to provide for them a food source that is not
our food source. If we do this then we are once again enslaving them by
controlling their food sources and determining when and where they should be
fed it.
I am not saying that
eating meat is right or wrong. I'm just saying that the fact is that in the
past we had to eat meat to survive. Because of supermarkets and gardens and
society that gives us access to other sources of protein, we do not have a
reason to eat meat anymore. People only eat meat now because it is there,
tastes good, and it provides a good amount of protein. Contrastingly, people
only become vegans and vegetarians because we as humans have the knowledge that other
foods have the same protein that's in meat, such as beans, legumes, and nuts.
In my theory, the world is never fully going to become vegetarian or vegan so
there will always be meat available. In fact, I find that it could be dangerous
to your health to be vegan or vegetarian and to live in a society that is so
reliant on meat as many restaurants and food places use chicken broth or meat
fats in their cooking. If you are not accustomed to eating meat, you are
actually in danger of getting sick from certain foods that are very prevalent
in America.
The only solution
that I can see to making everyone happy is to get to a point in technology
where meat can be genetically grown. I am not talking about cloning cows, but
about cloning cow or chicken meat, and have it grow without the brain, the
face, or the living spirit of an animal to provide it. If it was never living,
it could never be killed. Problem solved. What do you have to say about that vegans?
I feel like I have to make a change. I am stuck in the same boring routine, repetitive and tedious, every day I feel like I waste so much of my life. What are my long term goals, my short term goals? How do I begin to start a different routine? I know in the back of my mind that it takes time. It takes time to work on a different routine and become successful at it. My problem is that I always want things now. I always feel that if I just think up the most perfect idea, that I will have it done by tomorrow, and by the next day I'll be making money like crazy off it. That is not how life works unfortunately. It takes time to work on my creative, it takes time to build skills, it takes time to find a new routine or hobby, it takes time to be stable and successful in life. What I need is a challenge. I need to challenge myself.
Here are a few beneficial sites I found about challenging myself:
I will try to find some more inspirational works to post, as well as any changes I make to my life. If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place −Nora Roberts On a similar note, a life coach can allow you to see the possibilities inside yourself. Life coaches use a psychological theory called NLP or Neuro-linguistic Programming to reprogram how someone thinks about the world. I thought this was interesting, especially about how it can be applied. Whenever I find myself thinking in a biased way, I sometimes go through a conscious re-examining of my thought process. I think, why am I biased about this? What in my past history influenced this thought? Is that really how things are in reality? How do other people think about the same subject? How can I think about this differently? While my anthropologistic training has provided insight and consciousness to this process, I never thought about it as a strategy that can be used when re-examining my own life and my biases towards my own life. The information provided on this site puts a psychological name to the process and made me realize different ways of thinking.
I cried today. I cried because of so many stressful things. I cried because of the realization that becoming a teacher is not all that I hoped it would be. I cried because even in college graduate classes, the curriculum is not catered toward poor college waitresses that work 14 hour days on the weekends. I cried because I need a good grade in this one class to get my teaching certificate, that's it, just this one, and I've already missed two assignments because of scheduling and assignment conflicts. I cried because I want to be one of those teachers that inspire students, that teach them life-long learning, and provide them with creative meaningful lessons...but that is just not the way our school system is set up. I cried because I wanted to quit, and I haven't even got started. I found this video that explains my frustrations perfectly. It is from the viewpoint of an older, more experienced teacher, who has started, and tried, and found that a corrupt school system got in his way. He is quitting. It makes me wonder, if I'm going to be faced with the same problems, should I just quit before I start?
Everything he said in the beginning of his letter, about wanting to make a difference and produce life-long learners, is exactly what would be in the letter in my resume. Excited to start a teaching job, I would have written every word of how I want to change the world in my resume. I have volunteered at elementary schools and he describes them perfectly, "You can't play at recess because you were disruptive in class" and "It's getting too loud in this lunchroom". Field trips and guest speakers were non-existent. I've even had trouble in my graduate classes making lesson plans, because what I want to teach, what I think students will learn meaningful things from, are not in the state standards for that grade level. It's understandable that the first designers of curriculum thought, we need to place the range of middle and high school curriculum from the easiest concepts to the hardest, or from the beginning of history to current times. In social studies alone, the curriculum progresses through a time line. World History is learned in 3rd grade, 6th grade, and 9th grade. American History is learned in 5th grade, 8th grade, and 11th grade. As well, each of these subjects of history are taught in different classes. No kid will ever learn in school that World History connects to American History in any way. Furthermore, by the time we teach and reteach kids in all the different histories, there is no time for now. No time to talk about the present, current issues and trends, where we are headed in the future, where we will be if we continue on this path. When I was taught in school, the school's grades culminated with American History...like we were the answer to all the problems that were experienced in the whole of human history. As much as history also included the history of scientific thinkers, history of innovators, history of women, history of blacks and Spanish-speaking people, history of influential people, historians, how we find out about our human history, biographies of people who changed history...I did not learn any of that. I learned about political and economic systems, not about the political and economic systems of tribal people or of China or India or Europe, but about the American political and economic system and why it "works so well". Now, forgive me for not being optimistic but I am a college graduate, with a Bachelors in Anthropology, a minor in Studio Art, and a with a teaching certification and a Gifted Education endorsement almost completed. I have a 3.8 GPA. I have been in college for 8 years now. I am still a waitress at two restaurant jobs. My best friend Katie is 32 years old. She has a Finance degree, graduating with a 4.0 GPA. She got a restaurant waitress job when she was struggling through college, she couldn't find a finance job so she continued working there in order to pay off the loans and debt that college had accrued. She is still there 10 years later. Things haven't gotten better for us or anyone. Schools are so set on kids "making the grade" on high-stakes tests so they could look good, but what do students get out of it? Students get skills to get through college quickly, to ace tests, to read 40 pages of textbook each week, to write 8 page papers, to get everything handed in on time, to get high grades and GPA's....but not to learn valuable information, not to produce a great resume, not to get experience in your job field that could be put on a resume, not to learn how to do tax returns, take out mortgages, or get out of debt, not to collaborate with others, not to communicate your views. Everything that is needed to succeed in life is left out of school. The school system teaches students how to succeed in school...not in reality. School is not going to be reality forever. Eventually there will come a time when one must leave school and be independent and self-sufficient. School does not prepare for this time, and students are left floundering in the real world without the help of a mentor or teacher. They are forced to start at the lowest bottom, because employers will not look twice at their resume that states "No experience, but I have a 3.8 GPA and I can write papers about topics and can ace tests" The employer shuffles the application into their stack and mutters "Who cares?" In reading class you are taught to separate fact from opinion. Students are taught to separate and discard the opinion of the author and look at just the facts. Fact might tell you something completely different than someone's opinion. But fact is ALWAYS more accurate than opinion. No one attempts to see that opinions are based off fact. Opinions are based on the author's fact, how the author sees the fact or situation from their point of view. We only perpetuate and support systems that work for us. Does that sound like a fact? That may lead a student to conclude, "The fact is that our educational system is working just fine, because we keep perpetuating it and supporting it just the way it is" and a teacher who is knee-deep in the educational system says to the student "I don't think the system is working". Who would you believe?
I had a thought today while asked a discussion question on an online course called the History of Humankind. I thought of such an answer to this question that I was thrilled and amazed that that thought came out of my mind. Then I expanded on the answer providing a whole new, plausible way to think about evolution. The question stated: Stupid Question: How do we know everyone today is homo sapiens? I thought about it for a while, my first response being sensible based off scientific data and current theories I thought, "Because we are all here, different species can't reproduce and produce fertile offspring. Only animals of the same species can." Like mules. But then I stopped myself. I thought about new DNA evidence that proves some of us are part Neanderthal. http://news.discovery.com/human/genetics-neanderthal-110718.htm. That led me to an even more important question... What if we are interbreeding with the species that will eventually out-evolutionize us and we don't know it? This may sound stupid also, but after thinking further into it, I proceeded. "What is a species but an animal that has evolved in a different climate/environment, one bird has only slight differences from one species to another, including beak size and wing length. Human-made measurements. Us humans have some differences too from apes. Less hair, walk upright, bigger brains. And all of these things evolved over time through our earliest ancestors. Our ancestors we call a different species. But really, you wouldn't recognize one from the other. Think about it this way. When no knowledge was available to the world and we all lived in close tribes on Africa, people were able to speak and they spoke of stories and ideas through traveling and interbreeding with other kinds of "peoples". These other peoples could have been hairy or not, intelligent or not, have bigger or smaller brow ridges. Very slowly, the more intelligent were chosen over the less intelligent, smaller brow ridges got more mates than bigger brow ridges. Over time, they perpetuated these traits until their evidence today. In turn, as homo sapiens got smarter they began to influence their own environment. Taking control they left Africa in search for new environments. This is seen in our earliest ancestors from the mitochodrial Haplogroup L0 who lived about 150,000-170,000 years ago. As well, the Y-chromosome earliest paternal ancestor lived around 120,000-152,000 years ago. The San bushman have a large percentage of these genes.
As this haplogroup expanded northward, they became diverse and different haplogroups began to appear. Modern humans moved out of Africa about 125,000-60,000 years ago. When they met Homo Neanderthalensis who were situated around the Middle East were almost just as intelligent, ate both plants and meat, had funerary rituals, made art (jewlery), and are even found to have the same gene for speech. Our earliest ancestors interacted with them, exchanging ideas and products. Kind of like Columbus did when he met the Indians. They didn't have anything like guns back then so they probably lived in relative harmony with probably a few retaliations. Neanderthals were a different species and looked nothing like our ancestors that were evolving out of Africa. Most research now suggests that Neanderthals were light skinned and red haired, due to the colder climate they lived in, much like the bottom two pictures.
After living in harmony for some time, they were bound to interbreed. This was likely around 80,000-50,000 years ago. Don't get me wrong, Neanderthals looked very similar to modern humans. Because of this, humans did not recognize them as a different species. But they did have some differences. Their bones were much thicker and brow ridges more prominent, traits that adapted them to the cold ice age weather. In this previous ice age, modern humans didn't feel much change as they were in Africa. As the climate changed, Homo sapiens most likely moved out of Africa because it was getting hotter and water was drying up, plants were becoming more scarce. So for their survival, smart Homo sapiens began to move upward to the Middle East. The Middle East's temperature was just right! Smart neanderthals living in northern climates moved southward towards warmer climates. As the climate got warmer, bone density decreased, people evolved to be taller and less stocky. Since these adapted traits would work better evolutionarily, it was those individuals with these traits that were found to be more attractive and mated more. True Neanderthals would have a hard time in the environment and would die earlier in life. Homo sapiens evolved to be roughly a mix of...
AND
The predecessors of this hybrid spread all over the world, moving to Australia Europe, Northern Asia, and Southern Asia. In Europe, their skin color lightened. In places closer to equator, India and Spain and Italy, their skin color turned an light brown or olive. Africans are the only race without Neanderthal genetics, which means that no hybrids ventured back down into hot Africa. They only ventured north and east into uncharted land. Land that glaciers were melting from and was providing all sorts of new animals and vegetation. Other species lived with the Neanderthals, Homo sapiens, and their hybrid children...and that were the Denisovans. Evidence shows their mixing with early humans as well, http://io9.com/5715516/another-humanoid-species-co+existed-with-early-humans-and-neanderthals.
Eventually people moved into new lands, unknowingly following the climate change as the animals and plants increased in frequency more northward. Even if each generation one by one moved a couple feet northward, they would have covered the earth by 30,000 years ago. Earliest human ancestors in India are thought to date to 50,000-60,000 years ago. http://phys.org/news/2013-06-refutes-early-humans-india-prior.html
Earliest human ancestors to arrive in North America were about 13,500 years ago. They followed larger animals such as mammoths down into mid North America as the last ice age melted a land bridge through present-day Canada. They used spears with Clovis points to work together to take down large animals. http://www.crystalinks.com/clovis.html One type of modern human species, the Cro-magnon (50,000-10,000 years ago) displayed a mix of archaic and modern human traits. This video will show some Cro-magnon men and how similar they appeared to the everyday human you or I would see on the street:
So, getting back to my original question and answer. As you can see, different "species" (as we define them) are separated by only a few tens of thousands of years. We have only been similar to how we appear now for the last 52,000 years or so, maybe less. Of course, as natural selection and evolution play their parts, we will eventually evolve into what we are collectively choosing as mates. Whether we prefer boyfriends who are buff, smart, or with certain skills or looks, it is all playing a part in evolution as a whole. Many people today care much more about someone's intellect or attractiveness than their skin color or brow ridge size. These are traits that will sure be passed to our future species of human.
To conclude, I would like to take a look at our original question:
How do we know everyone today is homo sapiens?
The answer to this question is that we can't know because...
What if we are interbreeding with the species that will eventually out-evolutionize us and we don't know it? And the answer to that is...We are.
