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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
 Posted - 01/11/2006 : 11:01:12 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert
quote:
Originally posted by Dude
Photoshop strikes again.
I agree.
As for the origin of the mythological cyclops, I have heard it surmised that the Greeks may have found an elephant skull and mistook the opening for the trunk as being a single eye socket.
I dunno; I've always had a problem with this. the greeks were pretty fair anatomists and surely knew the holes in skulls of all sorts. And while I've read nothing on it, they and other cultures of the times were experienced seafarers and concievably familiar with pacyderms.
I think that they, like all of us, simply invented monsters.
Or saw genuine human cyclopes and simply overblew it. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2006 : 17:49:35 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
I dunno; I've always had a problem with this. the greeks were pretty fair anatomists and surely knew the holes in skulls of all sorts. And while I've read nothing on it, they and other cultures of the times were experienced seafarers and concievably familiar with pacyderms.
I think that they, like all of us, simply invented monsters.
Yeah, I posted that while I still thought this was a hoax. Now that I know this is a legitimate birth defect occuring throughout the animal kingdom (including in goats, which the Greeks almost certainly kept), then it doesn't seem much of a stretch to see how such a strange feature could be incorporated into their mythology and assigned to a humanoid.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 01/11/2006 18:07:46 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2006 : 19:35:28 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert
Now that I know this is a legitimate birth defect occuring throughout the animal kingdom (including in goats, which the Greeks almost certainly kept), then it doesn't seem much of a stretch to see how such a strange feature could be incorporated into their mythology and assigned to a humanoid.
Most likely, it happened to a Greek child, and was incorporated into their mythology. That's what I found on the human pathology site I visited, photos of two different foetuses with cyclopia (presumably spontaneously aborted). |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2006 : 19:40:16 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
Most likely, it happened to a Greek child, and was incorporated into their mythology. That's what I found on the human pathology site I visited, photos of two different foetuses with cyclopia (presumably spontaneously aborted).
Ok, I hadn't seen any human fetuses that exhibited this defect. That certainly seems a likely explanation as well.
Now, anyone know of a genetic abnormality that causes babies to be born with snakes growing out of their heads?
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 01/11/2006 19:40:41 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2006 : 19:44:33 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert
Now, anyone know of a genetic abnormality that causes babies to be born with snakes growing out of their heads?
Seems more plausible to me than a birth defect which allows the victim to turn people to stone by looking at them... |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2006 : 20:15:08 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert
Now, anyone know of a genetic abnormality that causes babies to be born with snakes growing out of their heads?
It's uncommon, but it happens. At times, lizards and newts are afflicted with this condition. See Nature 2001, vol 254 page 1154 for the condition called medusia. |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2006 : 20:20:42 [Permalink]
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| yeah, right. Anyhow, this is my 300th post. |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2006 : 21:18:19 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Hawks
yeah, right. Anyhow, this is my 300th post.
Congratulations. And no, I didn't actually believe it. I was just seeing what you were trying to link to. Sheesh. 
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 01/12/2006 : 05:17:46 [Permalink]
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| Hey, dreadlocks look like thick snakes if seen from afar... |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 01/12/2006 : 16:28:09 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal
I give you craniopagus parasiticus. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Holy...! |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 01/18/2006 : 14:06:56 [Permalink]
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If there is a God I hope he just isn't paying attention instead of doing shit like that on purpose. Damn, poor kid(s).
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If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/22/2006 : 23:58:37 [Permalink]
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furshur wrote: quote:
If there is a God I hope he just isn't paying attention instead of doing shit like that on purpose. Damn, poor kid(s).
Man, is that ever creepy. Glad they saved the one twin.
As I told my 89-year-old Dad the other day, "If there is a god, He's sure got a lot to answer for." |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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