Comments by "Thurso Berwick" (@thursoberwick1948) on "First Hominids Lived and Evolved in Europe, Not Africa, According to Scientists" video.

@Jolene8 That went right past you. Yes, it does clash with fashionable notions about Africa and how we all come from there. The narrative is Africa into Europe not vice versa because it suits modern geopolitics..
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Someone's already been there years ago. Not very mainstream. There is one guy that claims we get bad backs and sunburn because we're not well adapted to Earth conditions. 😉
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@Jolene8 Not wayward at all. There are certain taboo subjects and modern sensibilities that come into play in science all the time. The classic example is homosexuality — decades ago, it was considered to be aberrant by mainsteam society, so mainstream science treated it as such. Now it is considered normal by mainstream society, mainstream science classes homophobia as an illness/bad behaviour. Both of these are examples of how society moulds scientific outlooks not vice versa. Yes, science is an abstract concept. Much like mathematics or literary criticism is. They are not solid objects or entities, but systems designed to interpret data and expound on that data. Despite all the ideals, real life science does not function in the way people think. For example, peer review is barely happening, because there are far fewer reviewers around than researchers, so many projects are never peer reviewed properly.
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@MrSammer1972 At one point neither it nor the Black Sea were connected to the ocean. I don't know the timescale though.
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But it all clashes with modern ideas... outside science shall we say?
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@Jolene8 "Science" is indeed abstract. In one sense, there is no such thing as science, because it is not something one can reach out and touch. It is certainly an abstract system as it is an interpretative framework, based on the practice and research of however many people. "Geology" is an abstract noun and concept. A "rock" or a type of "feldspar" isn't because it is something tangible, not a framework for understanding rocks. Peer review is not working right now. There isn't enough going on, or it isn't thorough enough. Some of it is also by colleagues, "allies" and friends of the people involved. It is nowhere near as neat as some would claim.
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A bit like today.
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@harrietharlow9929 The Black Sea only appears to have become joined to the Med a few thousand years ago. Well within human history.
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@harrietharlow9929 I mentioned the Black Sea in the message you replied to, and that was long before you contributed to this thread.
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@harrietharlow9929 I don't care. I'm talking about what I mentioned further up the thread which was both the Black Sea and the Med. That said, there still isn't much separating peninsular Spain and Morocco but an extremely strong current running through the Straits of Gibraltar.
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@harrietharlow9929 You replied to a message in which I mentioned some of this. It might be worthwhile to check if there is an empty room near you to start an argument in. It would be more productive than berating a random person like me online. Nothing I said in my reply was remotely controversial.
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@Jolene8 p.s. Science is rarely settled. It is an ever changing and much debated thing. This particular issue will have paper after paper arguing one viewpoint and another.
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@Jolene8 I was talking about facts and I was talking about the bigger picture. The bigger picture is modern politics and labour markets, and the backlash against colonialism. As for science it is an abstract ideal and not a monolithic system.
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