Everything is not as ecologically sound as it looks.

How in tune were our ancestors with being good stewards of the planet? Things were better in the old days. People were more in tune with the natural world, the air was cleaner, the land less harassed by our demands upon it. The world was, in short, greener. We’ve all heard it before – but is it true? Of course it is – except when you start looking at the details. Don’t go putting our ancestors up on a pedestal of eco-friendly excellence before you know a little more history.

So we’ve looked at prehistoric forest clearances, Roman smog, Greek soil erosion and Byzantine plague.  Not a glowing picture – but it’s not universally bad. Consider the words of this man in the 5th Century BC:

Whoever wishes to investigate medicine properly, should proceed thus: in the first place to consider the seasons of the year, and what effects each of them produces for they are not at all alike, but differ much from themselves in regard to their changes. Then the winds, the hot and the cold, especially such as are common to all countries, and then such as are peculiar to each locality. We must also consider the qualities of the waters, for as they differ from one another in taste and weight, so also do they differ much in their qualities. In the same manner, when one comes into a city to which he is a stranger, he ought to consider its situation, how it lies as to the winds and the rising of the sun; for its influence is not the same whether it lies to the north or the south, to the rising or to the setting sun.

From these things he must proceed to investigate everything else. For if one knows all these things well, or at least the greater part of them, he cannot miss knowing, when he comes into a strange city, either the diseases peculiar to the place, or the particular nature of common diseases, so that he will not be in doubt as to the treatment of the diseases, or commit mistakes, as is likely to be the case provided one had not previously considered these matters. And in particular, as the season and the year advances, he can tell what epidemic diseases will attack the city, either in summer or in winter, and what each individual will be in danger of experiencing from the change of regimen. For knowing the changes of the seasons, the risings and settings of the stars, how each of them takes place, he will be able to know beforehand what sort of a year is going to ensue.

 – Airs, Waters and Places, Hippocrates

Hippocrates of Kos, known today as the “father of Western medicine” and from whom we get the famous Hippocratic Oath, was a man with an eye for the big picture. For him, everything was interconnected – and human beings were as deeply plugged into their environment as the crops and the animals the ancient Greeks relied upon to survive.

Is it a stretch to consider him the first ecologist? It’s true that Greek philosophers of the time had what we would now deem outlandish ideas – personal health being considered a matter of the balance of these 4 “humors” – but Hippocrates was well ahead of his time in considering the climate a vast, interconnected system of causes and effects, paving the way for the development of biological science.

Further reading:

On Airs, Waters And Places – provided by the Internet Classics Archive.

Image: a.drian

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Breasts are big in America. And I’m not just talking physically, though in my town of Hollywood, you’re more likely to see more silicone than they used to make the space shuttle – on one woman, no less. Breasts have achieved a place in our mental oeuvre than seem to take up more energy than one would think body parts deserve.

For women, our relationships with our boobs/breasts/milk sacks can be complicated. If we have largest chesticles, some of us wish for the freedom to run without corsetry. If we have smaller breasts, some of us buy push-up bras and consider plastic surgery. For many women, coming to terms with their chest sizes is a life-long process. And for the women who don’t give a damn or feel they have other things to worry about, rock on.

But from the women who cringe when they get ogled in a bar to the women who wish their bikinis had more bounce – we hear you, sisters. As a new study points out, your anxiety may come from nature, not necessarily neurosis. In other words, you’re not imagining anything. The Telegraph reports that a study from the University of Texas, Austin, confirms that men look at women’s bodies for the short-term, as in for dates and one night stands. And for long-term relationships? Men consider faces over bodies.

Yes, I’m sure we just all heard a collective gasp of “duh” across the world. Heterosexual men look at women’s bodies? Cows like grass? Dogs like bones? Anderson Cooper is a stone-cold fox? But the UT researchers went a bit farther with their investigations. And yes, you’re all gorgeous and screw what your preferred gender thinks, male or female, right? Physically, it’s a bit of a different story.

The UT study looked at the reactions of 375 men and women who were asked to decide if they would date a member of the opposite sex based purely on their bodies or faces. Men were asked if they would consider a pretty face or a voluptuous body. Looking at pictures of bodies with faces obscured or faces with bodies obscured, men were much more likely to go for body over face.

Then there were the men who were looking to settle down for the long term. These men picked faces over bodies. As the Texas study explained, “Both the body and face can provide clues as to a woman’s reproductive value and current fertility, but this study revealed men go for bodily cues more when looking for a short-term mate.” And might we point out, one study does not define an entire gender or sexual orientation.

And finally, what about the women in the study? Did women pick men according to their broad shoulders or richly-filled in hairlines? Not at all, according to the study. Women all gave priority to a man’s face in both short-term and long-term scenarios.

Image: scragz

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