Women Evolve More Spine to Carry Babies

…says the headline. Heh. I guess that means lauraw is equipped for octuplets.

The headline itself is pretty silly, though. They didn’t evolve “more spine,” they evolved stronger, more flexible spines:

Like cushy baby strollers, women’s bodies have evolved spines that are more flexible and supportive than men’s to keep from tipping over while walking during pregnancy. …

“Early human women lived very strenuous, active lives, and pregnant females were forced to cope with the discomfort of childbearing while foraging for food and escaping from predators,” Lieberman said. “This evolution of the lower back helped early woman to remain more mobile during pregnancy, which would have been essential to survival, and appears to have been favored by natural selection.”

I like that “keep from tipping over” part. It’s like women have evolved into Weebles.

Free Books!!

Many of you have whined to me in an unseemly fashion: “Geoff, how can I amass a technical library as vast as your own?”

To which I reply: “Give it up, Sunshine. Ain’t gonna happen.” But as a consolation prize, I do have duplicates of some books that I wouldn’t mind offloading to a good home. So, if anybody among the countless multitudes who read this blog cares to acquire a few books gratis, let me know. Here’s what I’ve got:

The Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Compressible Fluid Flow, Vol. I, Ascher Shapiro, 1953. A classic text on compressible flows by one of the huge names in fluids.

Handbook of Physical Properties of Liquids and Gases: Pure Substances and Mixtures, 2nd Ed., N. B. Vargaftik, 1975. Nice compendium of experimental data on a wide range of fluids.

Solid-State Laser Engineering, 2nd Ed., Walter Koechner, 1988. The bible for solid-state lasers.

Fundamental Aspects of Electrochemical Deposition and Dissolution Including Modeling, The Electrochemical Society, 1998.

Photoelectrochemistry, The Electrochemical Society, 1997.

Handbook of Viscosity, Vol. 4: Inorganic Compounds and Elements, Carl L. Yaws, 1997.

Handbook of Thermal Conductivity, Vol. 1: Organic Compounds C1 to C4, Carl L. Yaws, 1995.