From Facebook Wall to Surface Web, 18–31 May 2009.

Compiled below are my writings on my own and others’ Facebook walls 18–31 May 2009. My comments on other users’ posts are presented here out of context.

☞ Like Facebook but unlike Twitter, FriendFeed and Jaiku allow threads of comments on micro-blog posts. —19 May, 12:17 (MP¹, Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)

✝ Quirky religious music video. (Thanks to Bunny’s ’blog: http://www.ladybunny.net/blog/2009/04/god-will-fuck-you-up.html .) —20 May, 10:15 (YT via LBB², Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)

▴ Elyaqim thinks this Jewish birthday party got completely out of control, and is exhausted just having watched the video. —20 May, 17:56 (YT³, Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)

▴ I had not seen this cartoon in years. I love the way Bea Benaderet screams her head off. This must have been fun in the recording studio. —20 May, 22:36 (YT⁴, J.O. on Fb.)

✡ While I may not agree with every last point made, an interesting article about the marginalization of Mizraḥim in the absorption of Jewish immigrants to Israel. {Israeli Policies of Immigration and Immigrant Absorption: The Role of the Institutional System in the Social, Economic, and Cultural Integration of the Mizrahim, by Ksenia Polouektova.} —22 May, 11:31 (CEU⁵, Fb.|FF)

✴ Five words: “Marie’s creamy Italian garlic dressing.” —22 May, 13:34 (Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)
• I was buying jar after jar of the blue cheese, but Met Food was out of it today, and I noticed the Italian garlic has only one gram of carbohydrates per serving. And green salads have so few Calories compared to almost any side dish or main dish that having a high-calorie dressing almost seems reasonable. —15:34

▴ 今日 Anyone else want to go? —24 May, 08:00 (PT on Fb.⁶, Fb.)

[After a friend commented on my pictures of architectural sculpture in Jackson Heights.]
▴ If you mean the ones in front of the house on 72^nd Street, I’m not sure. They could be flower bulbs, cabbages or even acorns. The ones in front of the building on 35^th Avenue are gargoyles. —24 May, 21:14 (Fb.)

▴ On my recent trip to the New York Botanical Garden, I had such fun with the word “rotunda.” —25 May, 13:32 (YT⁷, S.W.S. on Fb.)

▴ We can commandeer a table in a JH restaurant. النعمت has great albeit bland food. ڈیرہ has spicier food, but it’s a little loud. —25 May, 23:44 (Fb.)

▴ Elyaqim Mosheh Adam could have sworn the sign hanging on the bank said “Free chicken” instead of “Free checking.” “Always thinking of something to eat!” —26 May, 13:36 (Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)

❖ If rendered in Katakana, the slogan of a theoretical airline, “The right way to fly,” would be identical to that of a theoretical cooking oil, “The light way to fry.” —26 May, 18:41 (Fb.|FF)

[After a friend commented on my picture of the Jackson Heights Food Group.]
▴ We all decided to go out for dessert, but by the time we made it to Lety’s, there were only three of us (Karen, Rachel and I). One by one or two by two, everybody else…deserted us. —29 May, 11:18 (Fb.)

§ After a friend of mine said he thought the Bukhari Jews were from someplace near Hungary, I wanted to promote the awareness that Buxoro (Bukhara بخارا) is in fact in Uzbekistan, Central Asia. —29 May, 12:31 (Wikipedia⁸, Fb.|FF)

[After a friend commented on my link.]
▴ There is certainly some rhetoric in that particular article, but not as much as your summary suggests. If you “have never read such hyperbole,” I suspect you’re immune to the outlandish hyperbole coming from the liberal/centrist homophile groups like LLDEF and HRC. Have you seen their gay marriage statements?! They conflate gay marriage with the very survival of our community and its interpersonal relationships. They state gay marriage is our ultimate issue to rationalize the obscene amounts of money being funneled into it when gays are still losing jobs, facing homelessness and drug addiction, and losing our lives. Hyperbole is not just the domain of the left and right. —29 May, 13:53 (LaGAI⁹, FF)
▴ If it is symbolic and not actual, bourgeois gays need to be told what they’re doing wrong. If they are defining their politics so individualistically as to marginalize huge segments of their own community, they should not make a movement out of it, least of all not one filled with so many lies that are needed to make it smell good. —14:19

◍ My likely destination tonight. Anyone want to come with? —30 May, 19:18 (DHD on Fb.¹⁰, Fb.)

▴ Elyaqim Mosheh Adam was nearly busted by the disco police. —31 May, 15:42 (Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)

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1. Steve Rubel, “Friendfeed Is the Next Great Blogging Platform, Here’s Why…,” Micro Persuasion, 23 January 2009.
2. John R. Butler, “The Hand of the Almighty,” Surprise!, self-published, 2003, reproduced as the soundtrack of “God Will Fuck You Up!,” Turpis Haereticum channel of You Tube, 3 September 2007. Thanks to Lady Bunny, “God Will Fuck You Up!,” Lady Bunny Blog, 21 April 2009.
3. Performance by Avrom Tolmasov, Rustam Samarkandi and Yasha Barayev of the song “Sarı köynək,” as “Avram Tolmas, Rustam, Yasha Baraev,” MIKEPRODJ77 channel of YouTube, 11 February 2008.
4. Little Red Riding Rabbit, Warner Bros. Pictures, 1944, reproduced as “Little Red Riding Rabbit Video by Crystal MySpace Video,” gdrobert channel of YouTube, 2 March 2009. Thanks to J.O.’s posting on Facebook.
5. Ksenia Polouektova, Israeli Policies of Immigration and Immigrant Absorption: The Role of the Institutional System in the Social, Economic, and Cultural Integration of the Mizrahim (MA thesis, Jewish Studies Program, Central European University, 2001).
6. Event page for “Passport to Taiwan 2009,” New York, 24 May 2009, created by the group Passport to Taiwan, Facebook. The earliest recorded activity on the page was 20 May 2009. I wound up not attending the event.
7. Radio Free Vestibule, “Bulbous Bouffant,” Sketches Songs and Shoes, Borpo, 1994, reproduced as soundtrack of “Bulbous Bouffant—The Vestibules” with cartoon animation by Spencer James Parks, 2006, spejampar channel of YouTube, 11 September 2007. Thanks to S.W.S.’s posting on Facebook.
8. Wikipedia, s.v. “Bukhara,” 23 May 2009 revision of the article.
9. Kate Raphael and Deeg Gold, “Gay Marriage: Civil Right or Civil Wrong?” (a.k.a. “Gay Marriage Opiate of Masses”), Lesbians and Gays Against Intervention (LaGAI) Web site, April 2004. Reproduced as “Marriage Is Still the Opiate of the Queers,” UltraViolet, April–May 2004.
10. Event page for “Double Headed Disco,” New York, 30–31 May 2009, created by Double Headed Disco, Facebook. The earliest recorded activity on the page was 13 May 2009.

A version of this article is reproduced at webcitation.org/5hcFqQPtD.

The Importance of Protein in Evolution.

I was thinking about how human actions affected our evolution. Persons born with beneficial mutations or adaptations were more likely to survive and pass on those genes to successive generations. If it is in fact of genetic origin, a preference for the taste of cooked food seems to have protected certain humans from deadly microbes and hence led to the possession of those genes by a larger segment of the population.

Consequently, could a liking of the taste of meat have impacted human evolution irrevocably, whether positively or negatively? A little research seems to have borne out that eating meat has indeed had a dramatic effect on our evolution, although whether the taste itself contributed to it still eluded me. The increased amounts of protein had a beneficial effect on our brains, and our bodies also increased their ability to digest fats and cholesterol. This may seem like an endorsement of eating meat in modern times, but it is rather a recognition of the importance of diets that are high in protein and presumably low in sugar. While an omnivorous diet would meet those criteria, modern‐day vegetarians can consume large amounts of légumes, nuts and seeds as protein sources.

• Bernard Campbell, Human Evolution: An Introduction to Man’s Adaptations, 4^th ed. (Piscataway: Aldine Transaction, 1998), 277. “Meat is a concentrated form of food comparable to seeds, which have been exploited by the rodents and are no doubt a contributory factor to their great success. Meat contains a high percentage of protein and, when digested, will release a whole range of amino acids necessary for the synthesis of body tissues. … Meat also contains vitamins (particularly in the liver) that are not readily available in a vegetable diet. There is little doubt that the final stage in human evolution was correlated with the exploitation of the large terrestrial mammals. … Our immensely successful evolutionary radiation must be associated, then,…with an important change in emphasis from a diet that was mainly vegetarian to one that was increasingly omnivorous.”

• Anna Gosline, “Taste for Meat Made Humans Early Weaners,” New Scientist, 29 January 2005. “[T]he nutritional benefit of eating meat at a younger age would have helped children’s brains to grow and develop more quickly. Human brains grow three times quicker than those of chimpanzees.” The article also states however that eating meat may have made human lives shorter: “[A] branch of hominids began to eat animal carcasses—a risky activity that would have brought them into contact with other predators and significantly raised mortality rates for the hunters. This would have created a selection pressure to wean infants earlier and earlier, since those no longer dependent on breast milk would have been more likely to survive their mother’s death….”

• Hillary Mayell, “‘Evolving to Eat Mush’: How Meat Changed Our Bodies,” National Geographic News, 18 February 2005, 2. “When humans switched to meat-eating, they triggered a genetic change that enabled better processing of fats…. [A]s a species we are relatively immune to the harmful effects of fat and cholesterol. Compared to the great apes, we can handle a diet that’s high in fat and cholesterol, and the great apes cannot.”

Photo credit: Matt Lewkowicz (Horsefeathered).

A version of this article is reproduced at webcitation.org/5kYw1atS3.

From Facebook Wall to Surface Web, 11–17 May 2009.

Compiled below are my writings on my own Facebook wall 11–17 May 2009, as well as anything else that might be construed as an example of micro-blogging.

▴ Elyaqim is a Brokeback “Mountain Jew.” —11 May, 03:38 (Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)▴ It’s a blend of “Brokeback Mountain” and “Mountain Jew,” and an attempt at gay Jewish humor. —07:21
▴ I recommend looking up “Mountain Jews” in Wikipedia for more information, but they are a particular group of Persian-speaking Jews of the Caucasus Mountains. I am partly of Mountain Jewish origin on my father’s mother’s side, but I am not averse to other Jews (from the Catskills, for example) adopting the name. —12:08
▴ You can always drink the beverage that rhymes with “Mountain Jew,” but personally I prefer Fresca. —17:32

✡ I am very willing and able to hug and be hugged today. —11 May, 12:59 (BJWU on Fb.¹, Fb.)

♫ A music video with an Indian theme performed in Russian by a Jewish singer (with a Persian name) featuring African-American–, Indian- and Near Eastern–influenced dance moves as well as a fantastic plot line. This video has it all. Did I mention shirtless men? —14 May, 09:36 (YT², Fb.|FF)

▴ Elyaqim dreamed he had a second apartment down the hallway, about which he’d apparently forgotten. Stepping into it and looking around, he determined it would be his “love den.” —15 May, 11:27 (Fb.|FF)

❂ If you’re interested, two ’blogs with pictures of attractive mens. —16 May, 13:38 (EMAWL³|FF, Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)

▴ Elyaqim is excited to have seen the Acne Lions truck again today. It’s like spotting a celebrity. —16 May, 14:59 (EMAWL⁴|FF, Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)

▴ Elyaqim is awake early on Sunday and can hear the birds twirping. —17 May, 05:30 (Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)▴ I heard the beads twirting when I wrote my status (and I still hear them now), and I’m sticking with that story.

▴ Elyaqim wonders why Google doesn’t pay him for coming up with such good suggestions for improving their services. —17 May, 14:41 (EMAWL⁵|FF, Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)

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1. Event page for “Hug-a-Sephardi Day,” 11 May 2009, created by the group Brown Jews of the World, Unite!, Facebook. The earliest recorded activity on the page was 29 January 2009.
2. “Индийское Диско,” music video, performed by Жасмин (Jasmin), [2005,] reproduced as “Жасмин/Zhasmin,” gucio21 channel of YouTube, 1 June 2007. The video credits И. Постоев and И[горь] Логинов with composing the music and Л. Постоева with writing the lyric. The recording includes phrases from Bappi Lahiri’s 1982 song “Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy aaja” from the film Disco Dancer, which in turn is essentially a Hindi version of the 1980 song “You’re OK,” a.k.a. “T’es OK, t’es bath, t’es in,” by Jean Kluger and Daniel Vangarde, originally recorded by Ottawan.
3. Elyaqim Mosheh Adam, “My Kind of Objectification,” Elyaqim Mosheh Adam’s Web Log • רשומון אליקים משה אדם‎, 16 May 2009.
4. Elyaqim Mosheh Adam, “The Acne Lions Truck,” Elyaqim Mosheh Adam’s Web Log • רשומון אליקים משה אדם‎, 17 January 2009.
5. Elyaqim Mosheh Adam, “My Google Service Wish List,” Elyaqim Mosheh Adam’s Web Log • רשומון אליקים משה אדם‎, 17 May 2009.

A version of this article is reproduced at webcitation.org/5hKu1o2Mx.