things that i don't understand how they made it past the evolutionary culling

[kalmn]

1) having to pee when you're terrified. (m. socks hypothesizes it makes you lighter so you can run faster.)
2) burping more when under stress.
3) nausea when nervous.

why were these not weeded out at the single cell stage, i ask you.

Comments

[snippy]

I thought voiding your waste made your carcass inedible, so you could pretend death and not get eaten. Nausea is the adrenaline.

[pants_of_doom]

I have to pee whether I'm terrified or not. C'est la vie.

[kalmn]

hm. a good point.

i got the nerve block in my upper thigh for my knee replacement, and i said to the guy okay, now i have to go pee. he says, your leg is about to go totally numb. didn't you do that before i came in here? i said yes. four times. (i did not, for the record, fall over while walking there and back.)

[marydell]

Evolution probably thinks our social niceties around peeing, burping, and vomiting are silly, and that doing all three whilst running from a tiger is perfectly convenient.

*I* am a fan of these social niceties, but evolution has it in for me and my genes so I am not surprised that it is uncouth as well as unkind.

[pants_of_doom]

I have a whole strategy for going to the movies, and flying on airplanes, and other situations where I'd really like to not have to pee for a whole two hours.

[kalmn]

does it involve massive dehydration on purpose? i have been experimenting with that myself.

[pants_of_doom]

Yeah. What I do is stop drinking water an hour before the last time I can pee - so an hour before the movie, and an hour before the plane boards. Then I pee at the last minute. Then I figure out when I can start drinking water again, which is an hour before I can pee next. So in a movie I don't drink for the first hour, and on a plane I can start drinking an hour before landing. This only works on flights that are like 2-3 hours long, and if I really need to drink water I just accept that I'll have to pee on the plane which I don't like because I'm kind of claustrophobic.