[OT] [I mean totally OT] Re: What can you "new"

[Georg Wrede]

Jérôme M. Berger wrote:
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> Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> Sean Kelly wrote:
>>> Christopher Wright wrote:
>>>> Walter Bright wrote:
>>>>> Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>>>>> My list:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - wheel
>>>>>> - fire
>>>>>> - smelting metals
>>>>>> - writing
>>>>>> - arithmetic
>>>>> But humans had fire 20,000 years ago! I think fire goes back a lot
>>>>> longer than that. I also suspect that simple arithmetic is innate,
>>>>> although a numbering system is not (see Mayan and Roman number
>>>>> systems).
>>>>>
>>>>> Wouldn't the wheel be useless to a hunter-gatherer tribe?
>>>> If they are nomadic, wheels allow an individual to carry much more
>>>> equipment. This allows them to store up surplus food more easily and
>>>> safely. This in turn safeguards them from famine and allows for
>>>> excess food to diversify roles in the community to a greater degree.
>>>> Additionally, it means that the writing equipment that you supplied
>>>> gets used, and the texts don't get tossed as soon as they move.
>>> I don't buy it.  Most foods would spoil too quickly for this to
>>> matter, the wagons would be slow, wheels would need repair, etc.  If I
>>> were in a nomadic tribe I wouldn't do more than pile stuff on the back
>>> of a Mule.
>> When did you tame the mule??? :o)
>>
> 	AFAIK, it's more a question of "when did you *breed* the mule?" ;)
> Mules are the result of breeding a horse with a donkey (one way or
> the other although using a male donkey and a female horse has more
> chance of success) and they are exceedingly rare in nature.

You'd need an elevated donkey... or shorten the mare's legs.

> 	So what you actually need to do is first to tame the horse and the
> donkey, *then* you can breed them to get a mule.
> 
> 		Jerome
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