Fear can paralyze people. Same goes with prey animals: if they sense danger, they'll freeze. The idea is that going still will prevent predators from noticing you and also prevent you from making any noises that would muffle the sound of an encroaching predator.
People in real life also go still when scared or even just surprised. Evolution being a flawed process and humans being very non-optimized (witness our lousy eyesight, pointless appendix, dull sense of smell, non-movable ears, low muscle mass, various mental and physical disorders, etc.), it's entirely possible that the "freeze" response would last longer than it's supposed to, i.e., even when the predator is advancing on you and the "flee" or "fight" response is supposed to take precedence. A deer wouldn't make that mistake, but a human's instincts aren't remotely as keen.
Human bodies and human instincts are pretty much garbage across the board. Evolution has been selecting for bigger brains and more dexterous fingers at the expense of everything else.
The Walking Dead shows personify this but it's a disturbing trend overall. If you're a good person in the movies or TV lately your days are numbered...
Q. A movie has a moral compass character, a guy who's 3 days away from retirement, and a guy who just asked his girlfriend to marry him. Who dies first?
A. The black guy.
(rimshot)
If the black guy is also the moral compass, does he get killed twice?
What if the black guy is the moral compass, a day away from retirement, recently got engaged, and is wearing a red shirt? What if he also just boasted that there was no way he was going to get shot?
Okay, that would be so funny to do as a parody... have all of those cliches happen, and make it look like it's a guaranteed death, but he somehow survives and everyone's surprised!
What if the black guy is the moral compass, a day away from retirement, recently got engaged, and is wearing a red shirt? What if he also just boasted that there was no way he was going to get shot?
Okay, that would be so funny to do as a parody... have all of those cliches happen, and make it look like it's a guaranteed death, but he somehow survives and everyone's surprised!
Fear can paralyze people. Same goes with prey animals: if they sense danger, they'll freeze. The idea is that going still will prevent predators from noticing you and also prevent you from making any noises that would muffle the sound of an encroaching predator.
Except it's not really fear, but instinct/conscience dictating to try and remain unnoticed.
witness our lousy eyesight
Eh? It may be not like eagle's, but neither is most animals'. Not to mention our vision is binocular and very good at colors.
low muscle mass
If you spend days in front of computer, then maybe. Not if you're a village blacksmith, though. Zulu warriors could outrun English horsemen, and they've been much the same humans.
While our bursts of speed or strength may not be as good, we have far more endurance than most animals. One of our earliest hunting methods was just to follow something at a jog until it collapsed. We also heal much much faster than anything that doesn't straight up regenerate.
I'm too lazy to google historical records for evidence, but it's been mentioned enough times to assume some veracity to the claims. Especially if it was on a rugged terrain, or in a prolonged maneuver.
The horses would have the disadvantage of being weighed down by adult men weighing over 150 pounds, while the Zulu warriors would probably be weighed down by very little beyond a 1- or 2-pound spear. A race between an unencumbered Zulu warrior and English horse should be very heavily in the horse's favor unless they're running a marathon, at which point human endurance could win out.
Well, no. Our biology is incredibly hardy and barring special cases of regeneration (starfish, earthworms, etc.) we heal faster than an overwhelming amount of creatures.
Well... this one is not such an obvious trope. You would have to read a certain kind of manga to CONSTANTLY come upon this. In fact, so often that I'm annoyed as hell by it.
When a gay man checks another man out what does he notice? The other guy's long eyelashes. No, it's not a term for something else. Literally, the eyelashes.
When I was studying in Beijing, our Chinese teachers (all women our age) were apparently secretly gushing to each other about all the sexy white guys in the program. We only heard about it because a couple of our fellow students were already pretty much fluent. White people were seen as exotic. And apparently, one of the things that the Chinese noticed was that foreigners all had really long eyelashes, presumably because of the lack of the Asian eyelid fold.
Maybe some folks in Japan associate long eyelashes with exotic foreigners.
Well, no. Our biology is incredibly hardy and barring special cases of regeneration (starfish, earthworms, etc.) we heal faster than an overwhelming amount of creatures.
Ok... curiousity drive engaged.
Is this physiological? Or more linked to behaviour (washing/binding wounds... resisting the urge to scratch/lick/pick)?
White people were seen as exotic. And apparently, one of the things that the Chinese noticed was that foreigners all had really long eyelashes, presumably because of the lack of the Asian eyelid fold.
Clearly those Chinese ladies don't even stop to think for a moment how privileged they are to have been born with phoenix eyes.
So the dude is gay. There is a bare chested, well trained, sexy hunk on his couch, who is hurt and whom he is treating medically.
And just before he is going to stick his finger into the other guy's mouth (as part of the medical treatment, sure enough) he thinks "His eyelashes are unexpectedly long".
WTF? Really?
That is on your mind when you are about to stick your finger into someone else's mouth? THAT? Of all things?
And mind you, this is but ONE example. I've come across this so many times that it's driving me crazy. This obsession with eyelashes. Gay dudes who check out each other's eyelashes... It's so stupid, man...
Well, the eyes ARE the windows to the soul. I guess that would make the eyelashes the curtains. Who doesn't like a nice set of curtains?
Most mammals can sprint faster than humans — having four legs gives them the advantage. But when it comes to long distances, humans can outrun almost any animal. Because we cool by sweating rather than panting, we can stay cool at speeds and distances that would overheat other animals. On a hot day, the two scientists wrote, a human could even outrun a horse in a 26.2-mile marathon.
Makes you wonder why those English horsemen didn't just ditch their low-endurance horses and upgrade to human mounts. You wouldn't even need stirrups; your servant or wife or whatever could just hold onto your feet with their hands!
Most mammals can sprint faster than humans — having four legs gives them the advantage. But when it comes to long distances, humans can outrun almost any animal. Because we cool by sweating rather than panting, we can stay cool at speeds and distances that would overheat other animals. On a hot day, the two scientists wrote, a human could even outrun a horse in a 26.2-mile marathon.
Most animals don't need to run that far apparently. It took a Greek haplot who thought his information was vitally important to test our distance running skills out. God rest his soul...
Most mammals can sprint faster than humans — having four legs gives them the advantage. But when it comes to long distances, humans can outrun almost any animal. Because we cool by sweating rather than panting, we can stay cool at speeds and distances that would overheat other animals. On a hot day, the two scientists wrote, a human could even outrun a horse in a 26.2-mile marathon.
Most animals don't need to run that far apparently. It took a Greek haplot who thought his information was vitally important to test our distance running skills out. God rest his soul...
Wolves do. They will run down prey over a period of several days.
Of course, wolves and early humans developed a symbiotic relationship.
Most mammals can sprint faster than humans — having four legs gives them the advantage. But when it comes to long distances, humans can outrun almost any animal. Because we cool by sweating rather than panting, we can stay cool at speeds and distances that would overheat other animals. On a hot day, the two scientists wrote, a human could even outrun a horse in a 26.2-mile marathon.
Most animals don't need to run that far apparently. It took a Greek haplot who thought his information was vitally important to test our distance running skills out. God rest his soul...
Wolves do. They will run down prey over a period of several days.
Of course, wolves and early humans developed a symbiotic relationship.
The human-wolf alliance doesn't get enough love. It was easily as significant as the taming of fire or the development of agriculture.
Regarding Let the right one in, I just read the author's collection of short Stories where he gives an epilogue to that book... Let Old Dreams Die... it gives an entire new meaning to what happened in the book as well as the title...
Comments
People in real life also go still when scared or even just surprised. Evolution being a flawed process and humans being very non-optimized (witness our lousy eyesight, pointless appendix, dull sense of smell, non-movable ears, low muscle mass, various mental and physical disorders, etc.), it's entirely possible that the "freeze" response would last longer than it's supposed to, i.e., even when the predator is advancing on you and the "flee" or "fight" response is supposed to take precedence. A deer wouldn't make that mistake, but a human's instincts aren't remotely as keen.
Human bodies and human instincts are pretty much garbage across the board. Evolution has been selecting for bigger brains and more dexterous fingers at the expense of everything else.
Okay, that would be so funny to do as a parody... have all of those cliches happen, and make it look like it's a guaranteed death, but he somehow survives and everyone's surprised!
Eh? It may be not like eagle's, but neither is most animals'. Not to mention our vision is binocular and very good at colors.
If you spend days in front of computer, then maybe. Not if you're a village blacksmith, though.
Zulu warriors could outrun English horsemen, and they've been much the same humans.
Maybe some folks in Japan associate long eyelashes with exotic foreigners.
Is this physiological? Or more linked to behaviour (washing/binding wounds... resisting the urge to scratch/lick/pick)?
The Human Body is Built for Distance
From the article:
Of course, wolves and early humans developed a symbiotic relationship.