January 2, 2023

"Short people don’t just save resources, but as resources become scarcer because of the earth’s growing population and global warming..."

"... they may also be best suited for long-term survival (and not just because more of us will be able to jam into spaceships when we are forced off this planet we wrecked). Yuval Noah Harari, in his book 'Sapiens,' wrote about a population of early humans who inhabited an island called Flores. Because of a rise in sea level, the island was cut off from other land masses. 'Big people, who need a lot of food, died first,' Mr. Harari wrote. After generations, the people on the island evolved to reach only three and a half feet tall. They could do everything bigger humans could — make tools, hunt — but they could also stay alive when times got tough. When you mate with shorter people, you’re potentially saving the planet by shrinking the needs of subsequent generations. Lowering the height minimum for prospective partners on your dating profile is a step toward a greener planet...." 

From "There Has Never Been a Better Time to Be Short" by Mara Altman (NYT).

115 comments:

gilbar said...

so, where Are these "Homo floresiensis" hobbits now? OH, That's Right.. They Are Extinct.
They were SO SUCCESSFUL.. That they All Died Out..

RideSpaceMountain said...

Homo Floriensis, aka "ebu gogo", or 'little glutton' or 'grandmother who eats everything' among many of the native peoples of Flores in Indonesia kind of blows that theory about calorie inputs out of the water, doesn't it?

https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebu_gogo

God dammit...these NYT hags aren't even trying anymore.

gilbar said...

A 2007 study postulated that the skeletons were those of humans who suffered from Laron syndrome, which was first reported in 1966, and is most common in inbreeding populations, which may have been the scenario on the small island.

There seem to be, Lots of theories about Why these hobbits were hobbit sized..
Almost ALL revolve around inbreeding... Not Many about lack of food.

byw. The next island over (thereabouts) is where the Komodo dragons lived. Aside from it being neat that hobbits and dragons lived near each other; it Makes You Wonder, how:
a) there was SO LITTLE FOOD in hobbitland, that they Had to become little
b) there was SO MUCH FOOD in dragonland, that they became HUGE

Here's a simple answer for the 'hobbits' They were cut off from the rest of us; and stagnated..
Then, when WE showed up... We Killed them off, just like the inbred hicks they were

Dave Begley said...

I thought short people had no reason to live per Randy Newman.

John Borell said...

“Lowering the height minimum for prospective partners on your dating profile is a step toward a greener planet.“

Hardcore environmentalists are crazy.

RideSpaceMountain said...

Articles like this are how you know climate fanatics and fanaticism is a cult. Here again you literally have someone (I'm assuming it's a woman...) spouting dysgenic nonsense that neither she nor her readership deep-down believes while simultaneously probably having strong opinions about body-shaming fat women all while clapping like a harbor seal for her cult's spokechild in the form of a nordic golem with fetal alcohol syndrome.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. The dysgenic deserve the dysgenic. Love wins.

Masscon said...

This is an announcement from Genetic Control:
"It is my sad duty to inform you of a four-foot restriction on
Humanoid height."

Peter Gabriel and Genesis foresaw this in the early 70's

hawkeyedjb said...

Belief in "climate change" is just anti-humanism dressed up in a new suit.

tim maguire said...

So long as women prefer tall men, no amount of environmental pressure the Malthusians can dream up will make people shorter. (I’m reminded of a Vonnegut novel in which the Chinese embarked on a program to make people smaller that succeeded to the point where there were untold billions of them, but they lived entirely separate lives from other people—the size difference had become so great that interaction largely stopped.)

Beasts of England said...

Fuck short people.

MadTownGuy said...

Just when you thought speculative reporting couldn't reach a new low... where's Randy Newman when you need him?

Dave Begley said...

Does the NYT realize how ridiculous this is?

IamDevo said...

Randy Newman was not available for comment.

rehajm said...

Big people beat the shit out of short people and take their stuff.

Kevin said...

They could do everything bigger humans could — make tools, hunt — but they could also stay alive when times got tough.

Ewoks.

Bob Boyd said...

Put your height limit in your bio and on your letter head right next to your pronouns and your Ukrainian flag. Don't worry, you don't have to actually date any short people any more than you have to date a trans or fight the Russians.

And I don't believe the story about the short people being survivors. Short people got no reason to live.

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

There has never been a better time to be stupid, unaware, and/or self-destructive.
However you wish to do things that would result in your failure to survive, there is now a government program to prevent you from perishing. Get a useless education instead of learning useful skills. Take drugs- it's no longer a behavior, it's a disease/disorder. Cut your genitals off. Get pregnant by a bad boy.
When push comes to shove (and it will), the big people can eat the little people.
Under such circumstances, injunctions and restraining orders are not completely effective.

Bob Boyd said...

Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.

William Shakespeare

WK said...

When the sea level starts rising, I think the taller people have a definite advantage. And the more bouyant.

Owen said...

This article is a joke, right?

Right?

BUMBLE BEE said...

There is a song in there I think!

Jefferson's Revenge said...

This is yet another example of why the world is laughing at us and our “culture”.

Meade said...

Bob Boyd said...
William Shakespeare

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A13usaonutL._CLa%7C2140%2C2000%7C81SW5NcNDzL.png%7C0%2C0%2C2140%2C2000%2B0.0%2C0.0%2C2140.0%2C2000.0_AC_UX522_.png

Bob Boyd said...

Big people beat the shit out of short people and take their stuff.

Remember the Lilliputians.

Butkus51 said...

Mad Magazine

n.n said...

A "burden"? A color bloc? Planned Personhood? There are diverse precedents. A motive? Some, Select [Black] Lives Matter.

Bob Boyd said...

@ Meade

That's funny! I want one.

Owen said...

RideSpaceMountain @ 6:48: “… all while clapping like a harbor seal for her cult's spokechild in the form of a nordic golem with fetal alcohol syndrome.”

Brilliant.

Eleanor said...

As a short person who would die if all of the food was moved to the top shelf in the grocery store, I question the premise of the writer's hypothesis.

Sebastian said...

"'Big people, who need a lot of food, died first,'"

I don't understand. Wouldn't it have been easier for the big people to just kill a bunch of the small people?

"you’re potentially saving the planet by shrinking the needs of subsequent generations"

A small step to: "you’re potentially saving the planet by shrinking subsequent generations" and then to "you’re potentially saving the planet by shrinking the needs of this generation"

"Lowering the height minimum for prospective partners on your dating profile is a step toward a greener planet...."

How long before genocide becomes a prog thing again?

Randomizer said...

"Others go to extremes in pursuit of a few extra inches — more and more people are spending as much as $150,000 to get excruciating limb-lengthening surgeries, and parents give their healthy children growth hormone treatments with unknown side effects."

So healthy children getting painful surgery and dicey hormone treatments, is extreme in some cases and mandatory in others?

The preference for tall people isn't a fad. It's hard-coded evolutionary biology. Women notice a guy's height and men notice a woman's breasts. Not all the time and it isn't a deal breaker, but everyone looks.

In modern life, a tall person can reach higher shelves and short people have a better time on long flights. That's about it.

Does the NYT publish guest essays at random?

B. said...

Sad little person. She should change her name to Lessa Altman.

Lurker21 said...

There's nothing like starting off the new year being told that the earth is wearing out and that we will all be poorer and more desperate in the future -- that we've taken all that this old earth can give and we ain't put nothing back in. I would suggest that short people not proclaim their superiority and coming ascendancy too loudly if they want the big people to leave them alone. It also seems likely that the future will change things so much that if man is still alive, if woman can survive, they may find that shortness or tallness will be the least of their worries.

Harari is under attack from left and right for being a pop historian, if a historian at all, and for being a lackey of the Great Reset. I didn't hate Sapiens. I found a lot to disagree with, but also learned things.

Milo Minderbinder said...

And just when I thought the Theater of the Absurd had closed for the holidays….

Heartless Aztec said...

Ask single women: with all things being equal other than height would they choose a 5'2" or 6'2" man?*

*Rhetorical question.

Cappy said...

Bahaha. Bahahahahaha

Rocco said...

Tall people who believe in this have Height Guilt.

dbp said...

On one hand, I'm short, so this kind of article would help people like me.

On the other hand, I'm married, so who cares?

On the other, other hand, the article is total BS, so I find it offensive.

On the other, other, other hand, women are hardwired to desire tall men and this story isn't going to change their minds, so the story isn't just mindless pablum, it's also pointless, mindless pablum.

Aggie said...

Ms. Althouse, I would tactfully suggest that when you provide coverage of stories like this, you lower the collective IQ of your entire audience, especially those that feel compelled to provide comment. I'm trusting that this is an unforeseen, inadvertent consequence.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

How convenient that as a government caused famine envelopes the world slowly we get more articles about how being smaller is an evolutionary advantage and how we proles should be happy eating bugs. They’re nutritious!

Except the arc for 1200 years of human history is increasingly better nutrition coupled with taller offspring in general. I’m really tired of these “enjoy your decline” themes in “news.”

dbp said...

"They could do everything bigger humans could — make tools, hunt — but they could also stay alive when times got tough."

The could do everything, except survive combat with larger Humans.

Rocco said...

So Mara Altman has discovered Island Dwarfism - one half of Foster's Rule. She should research the other half next - Island Gigantism.

Achilles said...

This is a stupid article written by a stupid person for stupid people to think of as informative and useful.

jaydub said...

"Big people beat the shit out of short people and take their stuff..."

I know some relatively short people who could kill you with their bare hands. No matter who you are.

wildswan said...

So, us short people are gonna survive into an era when Our Betters have us eating bugs. OK, but why call that an evolutionary advantage? Anyhow, I foresee short people surviving into an era when Our Betters are eating bugs and probably each other, on their own special island called Nemesis. Now that's a natural selection I could get behind.

Bruce Hayden said...

"Short people don’t just save resources, but as resources become scarcer because of the earth’s growing population and global warming..."

I have a hard time believing that they are this stupid and un self aware.

By 2050, the world population is expected to be lower than it is today, and much lower by 2100. The problem is that much of the world has below replacement level birth rates. The two most populous countries, India, and esp China, are expected to lead the population crash. There is apparently a serious chance that the population of China may drop below half of its projected maximum, by sometime in the 2nd half in the century. The problem is economic combined with urbanization. In a rural, agricultural, culture, extra children are an economic advantage, because they are cheap labor. In an urban setting, they become a expense, a luxury. That means that the only places in the world with populations still increasing are in the Muslim world, and in sub Saharan Africa. You can’t have modern conveniences, along with a high birth rate, for very long just doesn’t work. So you can have Muzzies following their Quran in having as many future Jihadists as they can, or they can leave the 13th Century. Afghanistan may follow the former, but other Muslim countries are modernizing, and, by necessity, reducing family sizes. But where is the food going to come from to feed those countries trying to resist modernization?

The author seems to have missed the memo that the falsifiable theory of Global Warming has effectively been falsified, and has been replaced by the unfalsifiable Climate Change, which essentially means that we have constantly changing weather. Esp humorous here, is the there are, no doubt, articles in the same issue of the paper about the efforts to dig out of the Blizzard of 2022. This is evidence of complete lack of self awareness of both the author and the publisher of the article.

Third Coast said...

Based on the article, Dudley Moore and Susan Anton were one of the first couples helping to save the planet, whether they knew it or not.

Original Mike said...

"Blogger Aggie said...Ms. Althouse, I would tactfully suggest that when you provide coverage of stories like this, you lower the collective IQ of your entire audience,…"

Reading Althouse has certainly lowered my opinion of the human race. There are times I think not being here would improve my mood. (Not snark, and not a criticism).

Ann Althouse said...

"Big people, who need a lot of food, died first"

Big people don't just need a lot of food. In the worst of times, when cannibalism is on the menu, they provide the most food.

Bruce Hayden said...

@Jaydub and his teory that some small people can kill you with their bare hands.

Sure. And some big ones could too. I am reminded of the scene in an Indiana Jones movie where the one guy is swinging his sword around, threatening Indie, and he responds by pulling out his gun, and shooting him. But overall, if you hold weapons technology and skill level constant, on average, the bigger guy is going to win. Sure, there are outliers, but the average that is important. Even with guns, the great equalizer, because you can carry more ammunition, and heavier weaponry. There is a good reason why the machine gunner on a SEAL Team is often the biggest guy. It’s similar with edged weapons - holding skill level constant, the bigger guy is going to win more often.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"...when cannibalism is on the menu, they provide the most food."

Very very true. No one can bring victims back for the tribe like big people can. No one.

RNB said...

You can also cut calorie intake by amputating everyone's legs and putting them in little push carts.

rcocean said...

It was the big men who the first to die off in the Japanese POW camps. It was the thin wiry small guys that did better.

n.n said...

Trans/homosexuals who are an evolutionary cul-de-sac at best, groomers at worst. Retarded (e.g. the Downs syndrome "burden") people... persons who are suboptimally productive. Women who can be replaced through simulation, emulation h/t Levine. Redheads who are vulnerable to ultraviolet radiation. Blacks who are unfit for northern latitudes. Albinos/whites who are unfit for southern latitudes. Urbane intellectuals who are unfit for a green environment. The grannies, the gramps, the couch potatoes, too. Feminists, masculinists, and incels. Probably others. Planned Personhood... Forward!

Václav Patrik Šulik said...

I was a 60's liberal - it was a bright, optimistic time. We really thought everything was getting better. It's hard to describe this to people today. The current "progressives" are anything but believers in progress. They love the idea of decline, scarcity, shrinkage, paucity, narrowness, hunger, drought, pain, and death.

Or, to quote Thomas Hobbes, "No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." That's the aspiration of all 21st Century Progressives.

n.n said...

Oh, and fat people, people of girth, round-Americans. Fat is a high quality dietary treat that optimizes caloric and nutritional consumption. Don't forget to exercise. #NoJudgment

Biff said...

If you accept the assumptions of The Expanse, we'll need the tall people to mine the asteroid belt!

stlcdr said...

Ann Althouse said...
"Big people, who need a lot of food, died first"

Big people don't just need a lot of food. In the worst of times, when cannibalism is on the menu, they provide the most food.

1/2/23, 9:55 AM

Conversely, the big guy is, well, bigger than the small guy. Who will win?

typingtalker said...

... and the Trend of the Year was fact checking, which I previously called ‘one of the great American pastimes of the Internet age.

We Regret the Error

n.n said...

Not short people, who may be high maintenance, but healthy people. #EfficientLivesMatter (ELM)

pacwest said...

It's never said aloud, and in many instances I doubt if the people pushing for equity realize it, but it all leads in the same direction. Genetic manipulation of the species. And then, to achieve true equality, cloning. We're all equal if we're all identical.

stlcdr said...

This is a very 'bizarre fantasy' to be run in the NYT. But, it is the NYT...

Michael K said...


Blogger stlcdr said...

This is a very 'bizarre fantasy' to be run in the NYT. But, it is the NYT...


Exactly. The NY Times is all in on the NWO plan to starve a few billion people.

MadisonMan said...

Imagine if this article wrote the same thing, but the short people were white and the tall people were black.

Yancey Ward said...

Harari is a lunatic.

Jefferson's Revenge said...

It is interesting that in both reading the article and some of the comments here, one thing shocks me. There is an entire segment of intelligent people who have no understanding of the inevitable power behind physical force in a crumbling society. All of this blather about lack of resources and short people needing fewer so that is good for short people presupposes that society will just portion out rations "fairly" or that larger and more powerful people will just gracefully die shows how removed some people are from the reality of life except in the west for the last century or so.

Assuming a lack of resources, might makes right. Just like there is no crying in baseball, there is no fairness in starvation.

Please internalize one thing- if there is ever a societal collapse, it won't be the accountants and lawyers who come up on top.

There is a Larry Niven book I read about 20 years ago. A meteor had hit the Earth and people were escaping CA to get away from the tidal wave and other destruction. A nice professional guy took his family to their mountain house to be safe. Why not? He owned the house- society told him so. When he got there, imagine his surprise when a group of armed locals had taken over the house and property and told him to just move along nicely. It was theirs now.

If society crumbles so does technology. At that point physical force emerges again.

PM said...

This is what you get when NYT writers no longer hunt through Twitter for content.

walter said...

Robert Reich doing cartwheels.

robother said...

I'm reminded of Sailer's Law of Woke Women journalists: every column seeks to demonstrate that, come the revolution/apocalypse, girls like them will be considered hot.

minnesota farm guy said...

Given the articles in the NYT that Ann has recently drawn attention to I have developed even greater sympathy for what she puts herself through for our entertainment.

effinayright said...

Any day now, Eskimos will be waging war to eliminate (a) Watusis and (b) the entire NBA.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

short people fit better on the barbie.

Beasts of England said...

’…cult's spokechild in the form of a nordic golem with fetal alcohol syndrome.’

Stealing that line!!

BudBrown said...

And where are these short people gonna buy their pants? Try finding pants with
a 29" leg length. They'll be tripping all over themselves in the 30". They'll
hit their heads and the bugs will get them.

Mason G said...

"this planet we wrecked"

Wrecked? Really? Tell me you live in a big city without telling me you live in a big city. And "we"? You got a mouse in your pocket?

Richard said...

"Big people, who need a lot of food, died first,' Mr. Harari wrote. After generations, the people on the island evolved to reach only three and a half feet tall."

This hypothesis is so stupid that it could only appear in the New York Times (or academia). If there were competition for food between big people and little people, who do you think would get the food? It would be the little people who died out first for lack of food. More to the point, evolution cannot work this quickly unless you were selectively breeding a particular trait such as shortness, so that only little people would be allowed to procreate. But this is not the case here. Even if big people had shorter lives than little people, that would not affect their ability to procreate before they died. Also, the percent of the population that were midgets would be too small to have a perceptible affect on the hight of the population in such a short period of time from an evolutionary perspective.

ColoComment said...

I went a-looking on my bookshelves for my copy of 1969's The Mason Williams Reading Matter*, as I had thought he had a poem about short people (I was wrong**), but ran into this video on YT.

https://youtu.be/7KDSQjUalT4

* https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/388637.The_Mason_Williams_Reading_Matter

** Did not know that MW had done a vinyl record of his "poems."
See here for Lunch Toters.

https://youtu.be/ZJhyrUCOus4

n.n said...

"Big people, who need a lot of food, died first"

Short because they lack reach. Fat because they are dietary treats. Old because they are past their productive years and vulnerable to pathogenic progress (i.e. high maintenance). The Nazis had one standard (e.g. Jews with big noses - excess oxygen inhalation, excess carbon dioxide exhalation - think climate change). The Dezis have another. There are African cultures that indulge albinism (i.e. prime white), typically a la carte.

Rabel said...

This "tiny" island appears to be the size of the combined Hawaiian Island chain or Connecticut, take your pick.

There are a lot, a whole lot, of islands of that size or smaller.

Where are all the Hobbits?

walter said...

Yancey Ward said...
Harari is a lunatic.
--
Trying to Normalize him by using one of his least outrageous assertions.

More from Mara:
"When you mate with shorter people, you’re potentially saving the planet by shrinking the needs of subsequent generations. Lowering the height minimum for prospective partners on your dating profile is a step toward a greener planet."
Maybe put a green symbol and EPA rating next to shorter person's profile.
Taller guys can purchase carbon credits to get one.

Nobody said...

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Ralph Waldo Emerson

It frequently appears Althouse is a hobgoblin of her own making by posting such clap trap...I thought she was educated but these junk science links she posts are ignorant and worthless, other than to deflect attention from the real issues of the day. A hobgoblin of little minds indeed.

RideSpaceMountain said...

@dbp

Shorty's in the morning
Shorty's in the evening
Shorty's at supper time
When Shorty's on the menu
You can club shorty anytime


...also you'll be hungry again in 2 hours.

Heartless Aztec said...

Althouse isn't lowering the collective IQ of her commentariat. She is however using stupid articles - usually from the NYT or WaPo - to tee off on and she drags us along for that tee shot. And of course we read the shot to see if she sliced, hooks or is straight down the fairway. But it's at the put-put equivalency rating of a trash course. And for those of us who purposely ignore her favorite courses - NYT/WaPo - we read her blog and criticize her course management when it's the courses themselves. All Althouse postings should come with a NYT/WaPo warning label.

Rusty said...

Milo Minderbinder said...
"And just when I thought the Theater of the Absurd had closed for the holidays…."
Milo. It has been my experience, after my extensive study of the human race, that stupid never takes a holiday.

effinayright said...

"When you mate with shorter people, you’re potentially saving the planet by shrinking the needs of subsequent generations. Lowering the height minimum for prospective partners on your dating profile is a step toward a greener planet."
*************

Apparently this person is unfamiliar with the phenomenon called "regression toward the mean".

effinayright said...

BudBrown said...
And where are these short people gonna buy their pants? Try finding pants with
a 29" leg length. They'll be tripping all over themselves in the 30". They'll
hit their heads and the bugs will get them.
**************

Orvis. Lands'End. LLBean... Dockers...

All offer 29in. inseams.

Josephbleau said...

This is the best post I have ever read here, absolutely perfect! The funniest newspaper article I have seen. The writer is brilliant.

The Vault Dweller said...

There are a lot of young men who I think incorrectly attribute lack of romantic success to being shorter. That being said. there are a lot of young women who, I think incorrectly, won't date a guy if he is under 6'. Both are better off than the person who choses a partner on the criterion of long-term evolutionary success, Elon Musk excepted. He is quite fecund.

TaeJohnDo said...

From a quick search: ... Mara Altman wrote Thanks for Coming, an autobiography from Harper Perennial that tells the tale of the 26-year-old’s quest to achieve an orgasm by means of hippie sex communes, Craigslist randoms and multiple masturbatory efforts. Altman is currently working on her second book, which we can only hope will be as satisfying as her first titillating tome.

Jupiter said...

Yeah, the only question is, "How do you get that much stupid into those tiny little skulls?".

At the NYT, I mean.

Barry Dauphin said...

To save resources, everyone can identify as short.

Rabel said...

"There Has Never Been a Better Time to Be Short"

On the other hand, that could be pretty good investment advice going into 2023.

Jupiter said...

"... it won't be the accountants and lawyers who come up on top."

Don't be so sure about that. Accountants, maybe. But how would you like to find yourself in a death-struggle for the last rat in the cave with a really good lawyer?

loudogblog said...

But wouldn't being tall be an advantage with the rising sea levels?

Matt said...

Is there any "environmentalist" anywhere, whose prescriptions for change apply to themselves? The pretext for every single article like this is "Here is what OTHER PEOPLE (NOT ME!!1!!1!!) need to do to save the planet".

Any climate changer who doesn't kill themselves to eliminate their carbon footprint is a poser and nothing more.

And Harari is the very definition of a useless eater, elite varietal.

gadfly said...

So all 3,400 short people with Portuguese names native to Flores Island in the Azores are unconcerned about supposed rising water levels, just as they are uncaring guardians of domesticated cattle, dogs, and cats starving to death on the Isle of Flowers.

But they are joyfully ripping off the tourists by overcharging for unsatisfactory food, lodging, and car rentals. "Some people have no reason to live."

Bruce Hayden said...

“Big people don't just need a lot of food. In the worst of times, when cannibalism is on the menu, they provide the most food.

Keep in mind though that one of the problems with human cannibalism is what I call “Mad Human Disease”. Caused by the same thing that gives us Mad Cow Disease - picking up prions through cannibalism. There may be some species that do this a lot, and maybe immune to it (brown bears?), but we don’t seem to be one of them.

My view is that if we really do see the SHTF, the survivors are going to be the best armed, big or small. And know how to use their firearms. That probably excludes most inner city middle class whites, and esp liberal ones. Likely, one of the demographics hardest hit will be NYT readers. And writers, etc.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

walter,

Robert Reich doing cartwheels.

And George Will! Though probably not, alas, in the same space.

(I've met both -- George at the Emeryville Borders, Rob at the Berkeley Tower Classics, where I sold him a CD. You can tell how long ago this was by the fact that both companies are long defunct.)

I say, for starters we can disband the NBA. Also the WNBA -- Mara says not a word about tall women, but they're out there, too. Who are these sports commissars, artificially prizing height? NFL next -- there are people in there artificially bulked up to 300 lbs. of solid muscle, who I imagine take an awful lot of feeding. And after that . . . why are we even talking about height, when the more obvious criterion is weight? I mean, it's all very well to denounce "fat-shaming," so long as it's only about women, but, hey, the future of the planet is at stake! Nothing is more important than the future of the planet! Right?

gpm said...

>> There is a Larry Niven book

That would be Lucifer's Hammer.

--gpm

n.n said...

Lest we forget vegans. Humans are not ruminants. Methane is a Greenhouse gas that is believed to cause climate cooling... climate warming... climate change. Also grass-fed vegans would be prime Choice for cannibalistic redistribution.

n.n said...

Class-disordered secular religious cult.

effinayright said...

Jefferson's Revenge said:

If society crumbles so does technology. At that point physical force emerges again.

***********

Yes. So next time you hear an ad selling specially-prepared "survival food" to help you get through the Apocalypse, remember that the more you DON'T appear starving to your starving neighbors, the more they will assume you have a food stash hidden in your house.


Yancey Ward said...

"But how would you like to find yourself in a death-struggle for the last rat in the cave with a really good lawyer?"

Then you would be outnumbered by the rats.

Michael K said...

Yes. So next time you hear an ad selling specially-prepared "survival food" to help you get through the Apocalypse, remember that the more you DON'T appear starving to your starving neighbors, the more they will assume you have a food stash hidden in your house.

That's what AR 15s and 5.56 NATO ammo is for. Don't leave home without it.

effinayright said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Is this story hinting/saying little people don't need boosters?

The NYT is riddled with dis-mis-malinformation.

Rabel said...

"Caused by the same thing that gives us Mad Cow Disease - picking up prions through cannibalism."

Cannibal cows?

Can't say that I blame them.

walter said...

Michelle,
Maybe "Rob" was wearing lifts. He's listed as 4'11" whereas Will at 5'8".
I remember the err..optics..of a SOTU where Reiiiiiiiiccch was paired with Shallallallalla for the walk in.

iowan2 said...

Dave Begely

"Hardcore environmentalists are crazy. "

Stupid. Stupid belongs in that description.

Either they are stupid, or they think I am stupid.

effinayright said...



Creating a large class of small people will provide new career opportunities for short-order cooks.

Carol said...

I'm 5-8 and guys my height or a little shorter were the most fun. Lots of energy without the tall-guy smugness.

Alas, I ended up with a tall guy.

n.n said...

"Caused by the same thing that gives us Mad Cow Disease - picking up prions through cannibalism."

Cannibal cows?


Perhaps, humans who identify as ruminants.

Dietary cannibalism, separable from clinical cannibalism. Also, viral-vector vaxxxines with mobile, pathogenic protein production.

effinayright said...

Michael K said...
Yes. So next time you hear an ad selling specially-prepared "survival food" to help you get through the Apocalypse, remember that the more you DON'T appear starving to your starving neighbors, the more they will assume you have a food stash hidden in your house.

That's what AR 15s and 5.56 NATO ammo is for. Don't leave home without it.
**********

We'll, if you DO leave home *with* it, the starving marauders will simply come to ransack your undefended house to find your survival food.

And if you leave home *without* it, the starving marauders will find your weapon AND steal it along with your food.

Let that sink in.

Josephbleau said...

Pro tip: if you are in a group without food and you are going to pick one to canibalize, don’t drag it out while your future victim starves, if you wait too long there will be little fats or protein left. Don’t let your victim use his food value to support himself, use it for you.

Captain Ned said...

Genesis - Foxtrot - 1972

"Get'Em Out By Friday"