Touch grass, dude

 

It seems this dude is no longer a "moderate". Here, he goes all fringe, claiming that the Olmecs and other high cultures in pre-Columbian America had a selective breeding program featuring archaic species of humans (Neandertals, Denisovans, etc). The result was deformed Homo sapiens, who were venerated as gods or turned into rulers. 

Oookay. 

But sure, this *can* be empirically tested. Just show us the Neandertal and Denisovan DNA in Olmec skeletons. It has to be at least 50%. Or even 100%.

Won´t happen, of course. Next question! 

It´s over

 

Notorious controversialist and secret ZZ Top member Dan Dedunking can´t dedunk the climate crisis anymore, as his home town is engulfed by the Flames of the Anthropogenic Apocalypse. But OK, at least his sense of humor is intact. Had to check whether the fire was real, and the answer is...yepp. It´s all over the news as we speak!

Fast-moving wildfire forces evacuations in Spokane County, Washington

Giant problems

 

Recently, I got sick and tired of this dude, but...I can´t help linking to this video. "Dan Dedunking" argues that the Smithsonian Institute did find giant skeletons, but subsequently covered them up for...racist reasons! In other words, Dan takes the Woke argument against Atlantis / alternative history ("they are objectively White supremacist") and uses it against the Woke establishment. There! Egg in face. 

For a similar perspective, see my old blog post below (unfortunately, the link to the "Incredible History" channel is dead).

I don´t know. I long suspected that the stories of Giants and Dwarfs might have *some* truth to them, so maybe somebody should try and locate those damn bones... 

A giant conspiracy?

Dedunking the drama

 

Eagerly awaiting the next round in the recent ("recent") drama between "Professor" Dave and Dan "Dedunking". I know, I know. I´m a sinner. As in guilty pleasure. Might have karmic consequences later! 

Ancient aliens, modern hoaxes

 

This is obviously a hoax or some kind of avantgarde art project. Of course it´s not ancient aliens. Why? Because the "carvings" look exactly how ancient aliens are supposed to look like *according to the expectations of current (mostly American) pop culture*. What are the chances?

Even Dan Dedunking doesn´t seem to believe in these "artifacts". Yes, we´re talking about the guy who thinks Easter Island is Atlantis! I mean, dude. 

Velcro Fly

 

LOL. Nothing will come out of this, methinks, but I suppose it could be entertaining distraction if it ever will...

Feralization

 

If you know, you know. Muh-hah-hah-hah! 

How long does it take for a domesticated species of plant to turn wild again? Does this have any bearing on the question of when agriculture began?

Excellent and deep question — let’s tackle it in two parts:

---

🌱 1. How long does it take for a domesticated plant species to “turn wild” again?

This process is called feralization — when a domesticated species reverts to a wild or semi-wild state after escaping cultivation or human management.

⏳ How fast can it happen?

• In some cases, feralization can begin within a few generations (e.g., 5–50 years), especially in annual plants that reproduce quickly.

• Traits that are lost or reduced during domestication — like seed shattering, seed dormancy, or thorn production — can re-evolve under natural selection if beneficial in the wild.

• Full reversion to a wild-type genome is rare, but feral plants often show:

  • Increased seed dispersal

  • Decreased yield

  • Resumption of natural defenses (e.g., toxins or spines)

📌 Example: Weedy rice (Oryza sativa f. spontanea), which evolved from domesticated rice and re-developed wild traits in only a few centuries (possibly faster in some regions).

---

📜 2. Does this affect how we date the beginning of agriculture?

Yes — feralization complicates the archaeological record of agriculture in important ways:

🧭 Here's how:

• Early farming was likely intermittent, small-scale, and low-intensity.

• If agriculture was abandoned for even a few decades or centuries, domesticated crops could go feral and vanish from the landscape and archaeological visibility.

• This means that early domestication events could have occurred thousands of years before the earliest definitive archaeological evidence.

🔄 Agriculture as a long process:

• Modern archaeology sees domestication as a gradual, multi-generational process, not a single moment.

• Some species show pre-domestication cultivation — early humans planted them before the genetic signs of full domestication appear.

• If early farming societies collapsed or moved, their plants may have reverted — making it seem like agriculture started “later” than it actually did.

🧬 Genetic evidence shows that domestication traits (like non-shattering ears in wheat or barley) accumulated slowly, and can be lost under feral conditions.

---

🧾 Summary

✅ Domesticated plants can revert toward wild forms surprisingly quickly (within decades to centuries), depending on the species and environment.

🧠 This means that early, failed, or abandoned attempts at agriculture may have left no clear trace in the archaeological record.

📆 As a result, the true origins of agriculture may be older and more complex than previously thought, with cycles of cultivation, abandonment, and re-domestication.

---

Would you like examples of specific plants (like wheat, barley, or maize) and how quickly they can feralize or re-domesticate?

Yes, all three. Also rice!

Great — let’s explore how wheat, barley, maize, and rice behave when feralized (i.e., revert from domestication) or re-domesticated, and what that tells us about the timing and complexity of agriculture’s origins.

---

🌾 1. Wheat (Triticum spp.)

🧬 Domesticated Traits:

• Non-shattering spikelets (seeds stay on the stalk, making harvesting easier)

• Larger grains

• Softer seed coats

🔄 Feralization/Reversion:

• Under wild conditions, non-shattering becomes a disadvantage (seeds don’t disperse).

• Studies show that feral wheat lines can evolve partial shattering again within ~20–50 generations (500–1,000 years).

• However, wheat is less weedy and does not easily naturalize without human help.

🧠 Implication:

Wheat domestication was slow, taking 1,000–2,000+ years, and could reverse partially if early agriculture was abandoned.

---

🌾 2. Barley (Hordeum vulgare)

🧬 Domesticated Traits:

• Like wheat: non-shattering spikes, larger grains

• Shorter dormancy, more uniform germination

🔄 Feralization:

• Weedy barley populations (H. vulgare f. spontaneum) are common near fields.

• Barley can hybridize with wild relatives, rapidly reintroducing wild traits like:

  • Seed dormancy

  • Rough awns (barbs)

  • Shattering

📌 Some barley reverts to near-wild form within <500 years when left uncultivated.

🧠 Implication:

Barley is more plastic than wheat, showing frequent gene flow with wild forms. This makes archaeological dating of “fully domesticated” barley complicated.

---

🌽 3. Maize (Zea mays)

🧬 Domesticated Traits:

• Derived from teosinte (wild grass from Mexico)

• Maize has:

  • Larger cobs

  • Multiple rows of kernels

  • Non-shattering seeds (fully dependent on humans to spread)

🔄 Feralization:

• Maize is highly domesticated and does not easily revert.

• However, teosinte-maize hybrids can arise spontaneously if maize is grown near wild relatives.

• Some “wild maize” types in Mexico are likely re-wilded hybrids, but they don’t fully return to teosinte.

🧠 Implication:

Maize is an outlier — it’s so altered that it can’t survive as-is in the wild. But gene flow with teosinte can blur the archaeological record.

---

🌾 4. Rice (Oryza sativa)

🧬 Domesticated Traits:

• Shorter seed dormancy

• Non-shattering grains

• Compact panicles (grain heads)

• Reduced awns

🔄 Feralization:

• Rice rapidly feralizes — a major modern problem known as weedy rice or red rice.

• This happens through:

  • Escape from fields

  • Hybridization with wild rice (O. rufipogon)

• Traits like seed shattering, dormancy, and red pericarps reappear in <10 generations.

📌 Weedy rice is genetically part-domesticated but behaves wild — showing how quickly selection pressure can undo human cultivation traits.

🧠 Implication:

Rice demonstrates how fast domesticated traits can be lost in just decades. This has serious implications for interpreting early rice domestication in East and Southeast Asia.

---

🧾 Overall Takeaways

Plant	Speed of Feralization	Key Points
Wheat	Slow–moderate (centuries)	Stable once fully domesticated; partial reversions
Barley	Fast–moderate (decades–centuries)	Hybridizes easily; common weedy forms
Maize	Rare, via hybridization only	Cannot survive without human aid, but gene flow with teosinte confuses the picture
Rice	Fast (within decades)	Weedy forms arise quickly; feral rice is a major modern issue

---

🌱 Final Thought

These examples show that:

• Domestication is reversible, especially in early stages.

• Many early agricultural episodes could disappear from the archaeological record within centuries, due to feralization.

• Therefore, true beginnings of agriculture may predate the first archaeobotanical evidence by millennia.

Would you like a diagram or timeline showing how these crops evolved across time and geography? 

The trouble with Dibble

 

Some months ago, writer and explorer Graham Hancock debated an archeologist with the peculiar moniker "Flint Dibble" at Joe Rogan Show. Dibble declared victory and the debate have been given almost mythological proportions by Skeptics (compare Huxley-Wilberforce). 

Above is Graham Hancock´s response to Dibble´s points about ship wrecks, Stone Age ship farers, the supposed lack of evidence for metallurgy in Greenland ice cores, the legends of the conquista, and "White supremacy".

I admit I´m more skeptical to Hancock´s speculations than I was around, say, 2018. But he does defend his case ably here. So maybe the Skeptics (TM) spoke to soon, after all...  

Reliable sources

 

Some Atlantis-Wikipedia drama. From the broadly pro-Hancock YouTube channel "DeDunking". 

Let Pinochet SWAT them

 

Some *really* crazy shit in this one! 

A magnificent failure?

 

The latest Atlantis drama. Mainline archeologist Flint Dibble (that *can´t* be his real name!) recently declared total victory over pro-Atlantis writer and documentary film maker Graham Hancock after a debate between the two on Joe Rogan Show. 

The YouTube clip above is from the channel "DeDunking", which is more on the Hancock side. It´s almost an hour long, but could be worth watching if alternative history is your thing.