171–180 of 181 posts
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You can also get used to heat. But it takes a while, too, as I learned when I was living in Singapore.
I never get used to the hot+humid combination in Singapore.
>Seven million years of human evolution were dominated by two challenges: food scarcity and cold. Almost all of that time was spent in Africa. Even during glacial periods, was it ever icy? I don't know much about the paleoclimate, so I'm not sure.
Adaptations can happen quite quickly. There are quite a few that the human populations which migrated out of Africa developed shortly afterward in response to new environments. Pale skin and retention of the ability to digest milk past childhood, for example.
>Seven million years of human evolution were dominated by two challenges: food scarcity and cold. Almost all of that time was spent in Africa. Even during glacial periods, was it ever icy? I don't know much about the paleoclimate, so I'm not sure.
It snowed last year here in Africa, South Africa more specifically... It happens once in a blue moon, but other than that it can get really cold here. Just because you think savannah and dry-desert and Egypt when you think of Africa, doesn't mean it can't get cold there.
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The article never talks either about "getting cold" (and being sick). How does it work? Each time I spend a few hours in the cold (e.g. at work in Sydney in summer, they keep the A/C at 19C), I feel like I have a mini-fever for 24hrs. Is it a natural reaction of the body? Does it go away after adaptation?
I occasionally have the same issue: At work all day feeling cold (normally on a Monday as the heating is not on during the weekend) and then I feel like I'm getting a cold, I'm glad it's not just me. Would love to know why this happens though? I always figured it was somehow psychosomatic.
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I'd made myself homeless to move on from a place I didn't want to be. I didn't really see the point in staying in a new place I didn't want to be (sitting on a street). I chose to walk cities, talk to people, hitchhike around the UK, and generally see if I could find a life and place I did want. It also means I avoided getting into a rhythm of hostels, soup kitchens, and charity. I know I was homeless and sleeping ro…
What was your mindset like during that time period? It sounds almost adventurous, the way you wrote your post.
If I hadn't walked around a little in make-believe and "Scout on a quest" type mode, well... maybe I wouldn't be here.
During the darkest days on the street I thought I wouldn't live to be 20. It still haunts a little today: perhaps I should have been dead (many times over)?
By pretending it was an adventure then, and revising my personal history of it now to sound more adventurous (and less dull, traipsing on my own around cities), helps me to survive now.
What's funny is that the article never suggests that the simplest solution would be to go swimming (Phelps example) instead of resorting to things like the cold vest or sleeping without a blanket. And swimming has more advantages than just being cold : it provides your cardio in a non damaging way (contrary to running) and you gain a valuable skill that can save your life.
The article never talks either about "getting cold" (and being sick). How does it work? Each time I spend a few hours in the cold (e.g. at work in Sydney in summer, they keep the A/C at 19C), I feel like I have a mini-fever for 24hrs. Is it a natural reaction of the body? Does it go away after adaptation?
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Standing, mostly. I used to have a stand-up desk, now I just use my bar-height dining table.
That might explain why you tolerate cold better. Same thing happens to me.
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What was your mindset like during that time period? It sounds almost adventurous, the way you wrote your post.
I acted like it was an adventure because it was the only way to deal with what I was doing. I left home, to sleep on the street, without any money or possessions, until such a time (for as far as I could see into the future) that I could get my life to a better place. If I hadn't walked around a little in make-believe and "Scout on a quest" type mode, well... maybe I wouldn't be here. During the darkest days on the s…