Was told there would be no lines to read between:

WRONG
Jesus taught humans how to speak 6000 years ago.

Haha.

As someone who frequently loses their voice, I will tell you that non-verbal communication is easy and very very intuitive. Especially when you have someone who pays close attention and knows you. Of course we started out with only a few "primitive" vocalizations : Crying, a series of screams and howls, panting, laughing, snorting, and roaring among them. Heck, we probably even sang wordless tunes on the plains of Africa and Asia. Of course we used out wonderful, flexible hands to indicate possession and selection, we probably used them to amp up our social hunting skills.

The vocal chords are a very late and delicate addition that speaks to the utility of speech. If you can use your voice more flexibly to encourage a mate, you'll get a lot more sex. groups who can use language to order their defenses and collectivization have a massive advantage over those who don't. and it'd be the kind of thing that ... well ... Think about the humans you know who sing best. Don't they have groupies? I know one girl who reported that at 15, she basically humped every singer she could find. She said it was like any man who could hold a note could have her.

So yes, I buy this. Can we cure cancer now? Especially coronary, lung kidney and pancreatic - they run in my family.

jso2897: PepperFreak: WRONG
Jesus taught humans how to speak 6000 years ago.

Then how come I'm not able to speak 6000 years ago?

Look, how many times do we have to tell you...once you fix the flux capacitor, you'll be able to speak at any time you want to!

The gesture theory is pretty interesting, but the involvement of mirror neurons that several proponents of the theory like to push leaves a sour taste in my mouth. The research on mirror neurons is so... flimsy? It's not the right word but I can't think of the word I want. Anyway, it makes me very skeptical of the gesture theory of language development. There certainly are some nice bits of evidence for it, and the theory sounds good, but it's a nagging detail that grates at me. Hopefully, if this theory holds water it would lead to greater understanding of both language evolution in primates and primate mirror neurons (for which nearly everything abstract about human social cognition has been attributed to them).

/wonders how orangutans convey "evolutionism is the tinfoil hat that bonobos use to keep god out of their brainwaves" using gestures

I see I'm not too late for the poo flinging.

Give me farking banana. (new window)

IO9, we come from the future. A future where static page content cannot be delivered without Javascript enabled.

It's a header and a blank page. So I just close it. Does this actually contain any content, or is it a site like Zombo Com? Where anything is possible?