Like the guy who invented durian.

Interesting theory, but I am not Jim West.

Interesting hypothesis, but it seems very unlikely. Safely fermenting any calorie-dense plant matter in the tropics without airtight containers or other equipment would be more a matter of luck than anything. It would not be a reliable means of increasing caloric intake for an entire population. A much simpler explanation for human brain expansion? Sweet fruit. No tools, no fire, no difficult digestion. Neuroscientist Tony Wright has researched this possibility extensively.

After playing with it, it seems that it’s only possible to embed images, not .md files or other text.

All good. I don’t think that there is a single correct answer to this.

Now I wonder at what point an old culture can be considered superseded by a new one. If colonisation wipes out the traditions of a culture to the point that no one remembers them, and the people only know the crops introduced during times of colonisation, and the indigenous peoples become united and speak a new language (e.g. English), can that be considered the start of a new culture with new traditions that involve non-native plants?

A thought-provoking topic indeed.

Sure, by the dictionary definition, that is tradition. I don’t deny that the non-native plants can be passed from one generation to the next just like anything else. The lack of distinction between native and non-native plants in the context of “tradition” just seems a bit misleading.

“I would not want to promote research on animals – fortunately, only my back is twisted, not my mind.”

– Linn Pulis, polio victim

“The cruel experimenter cannot, in the same breath, defend the scientific validity of vivisection on the grounds of the physical similarities between man and the other animals, and then defend the morality of vivisection on the grounds that men and animals are physically different. The only logical alternatives for him are to admit he is either pre-Darwinian or immoral.”

– Richard Ryder, former vivisectionist

“I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race. The pain which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further.”

– Mark Twain, father of American literature

It just seems arbitrary. What about 5 years old? Most cultures on the planet could then claim that smartphones are traditional tools of their culture, even though they were designed somewhere else, manufactured somewhere else, installed with software developed somewhere else… In the context of plants, this seems almost to disregard the historical importance of native species. If a non-native plant was introduced to a culture only 50 or 100 years ago, but the culture has been around for 1000+ years, then the ancestors of those same people, who would by all accounts be considered part of the same culture, would not even recognise it. Which generation gets to decide what constitutes a cultural tradition vs a modern practice?

Some do! Or at least, they give you a choice of OS at different price points. NovaCustom, Eurocom, and AVA Direct come to mind. Of course, there are also plenty of vendors that ONLY offer GNU/Linux pre-installed…

Cow pasture accounts for about 80% of Amazon deforestation since 1970, but feedcrops like soya are still a significant contributor. Animal agriculture excluding cow pasture accounts for an additional 12% of deforestation, and part of that is soya monocultures. Perhaps the bigger problem with soya cultivation in the Amazon is the opportunity cost that is not apparent from the deforestation numbers: it is often grown on former pasture lands that could have otherwise reforested themselves.

That said, you’re right that not buying soybeans from Brazil would have little impact, as the vast majority of the soybeans produced in Brazil are fed to “livestock” animals.

To be clear, the vast majority of the soybeans produced in the Amazon (and elsewhere) go towards “livestock” feed, so buying edamame or tofu isn’t really contributing much (if at all) to Amazon destruction, Atlantic Forest destruction, Cerrado destruction, or any other soy-related destruction in Brazil.

archived (Wayback Machine)

record annual jump cited (Wayback Machine)

Please note that this article contains questionable arithmetic:

That brings the annual mean global concentration close to 430 ppm, about 40 percent more than the pre-industrial level, and enough to heat the planet by about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius).

The actual figure from NOAA is 428.15 ppm (last updated 2025-04-14). If we use the more precise pre-industrial estimate of 278 ppm, then we get an increase of 54%, which is indeed “about 40%” if we round to the nearest multiple of 40%.

Climate models tend to underestimate the cooling effect of aerosol pollution, and the climate sensitivity is actually about 50% greater than previously thought, so a more realistic estimate of the warming caused by a doubling of carbon dioxide concentration over the pre-industrial level is 4.5°C. If we assume that the relationship is linear, this means that the current level of 428.15 ppm is “enough to heat the planet” by 4.5°C * 54% = 2.43°C, which is… more than 1.5°C.

the 2023-2024 spike of the global average surface temperature, which has also not been fully explained

Yes it has.

Is it that being against vaccines turns people into nutso ding-dongs, or does a certain type of nutso ding-dong just happen to be against vaccines?

For some reason this seems to be a contentious topic, so I’ll just pose another question:

What would Pythagoras do?

Ah, of course. If you depend on the government and human-made infrastructure, New Zealand and Finland and the like are definitely more reliable than any countries at the equator. (Except Singapore? Interesting.) Governments don’t grow durian though.

Severe weather events in New Zealand

I know that New Zealand has the ocean to buffer it against temperature extremes, but based on this image:

it seems that the island of New Guinea, which is also east of the Wallace Line, has experienced similarly mild warming in recent decades. Maprik (3.63°S, 143.05°E) at ~200m, for example:

seems to have a much more durian-friendly climate than even areas at sea level on the north island of New Zealand (e.g. Ahipara).

And that’s not even Borneo. What is the advantage of New Zealand? Am I missing something?

GitHub

Windows

privacy

Pick two and call me back.

Best way to protect yourself is to find some land at a comfortable elevation near the equator and start planting fruit trees.

Not even fair to compare to 2024. This year is on track to be the warmest non-El Niño year on record.