The Earth's Population 1.2 Million Years Ago

The website at https://historyfacts.com asked and answered the question "What Was Earth’s Population Through History?"

They talk about the idea that "while it took most of human history for the population to reach 1 billion, it took only a little more than 200 additional years to hit 8 billion."

source

But what interested me most was that when looking back at prehistoric times, historians believe that only around 55,000 early humans walked the Earth some 1.2 million years ago. 

By the end of the last Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago, the population had risen to about 1 million members of Homo sapiens. 

Over the next 15,000 years, as human societies improved, the population increased more rapidly. By 5000 BCE, the world population was at least 5 million, and some estimates go as high as 20 million. But even that much higher number is still less than the present-day populations of cities such as São Paulo, Shanghai, and Tokyo.  

ADDITIONAL
academic.oup.com/book/404/chapter-abstract/135207981

census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/international-programs/historical-est-worldpop.html

Dinosaur Highways

Where is a "dinosaur highway," and what does that mean?

The term "Dinosaur Highway" typically refers to a stretch of land or road where a large number of dinosaur footprints have been preserved and discovered, often in the beds of ancient river systems or floodplains. It's not a formal highway in the modern sense, but rather a nickname given to regions where dinosaur tracks are abundant and accessible.

The term "Dinosaur Highway" most commonly refers to U.S. Route 160 in western Colorado and eastern Utah, particularly the stretch that runs through or near Dinosaur National Monument and other areas rich in dinosaur fossils and footprints.

Want to drive this highway? A route from Vernal, Utah to Fruita, Colorado, which hits major dinosaur sites, is one possibilty.

There are other possible routes: Connecticut River Valley (Massachusetts and Connecticut) – famous for Early Jurassic dinosaur tracks; Glen Rose, Texas – known for Paluxy River dinosaur tracks; Dinosaur Valley State Park – sometimes called part of the “Texas Dinosaur Highway.”

How about one in Britain? see ox.ac.uk/news/2025...dinosaur-highway

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/paleontologists-are-still-unraveling-the-mystery-of-the-first-dinosaur-180983672/ 

What Is ASMR?

ASMR - autonomous sensory meridian response - is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia and may overlap with frisson. So many terms...

Paresthesia is a medical term for an abnormal sensation, often described as tingling, numbness, or a feeling of pins and needles in the skin. It can be a temporary sensation, like when your foot "falls asleep," or it can be a symptom of a more serious underlying condition. 

Auditory-tactile synesthesia is a sensory phenomenon where sounds trigger tactile sensations. Individuals with this type of synesthesia may experience physical sensations like tingling, pressure, or warmth in response to certain sounds, music, or voices. 

And that overlap with frisson? That is known as aesthetic chills, which is a psychophysiological response to rewarding stimuli, often inducing a pleasurable or positively-valenced affective state, and can include transient paresthesia, piloerection (goosebumps), and mydriasis (pupil dilation). It's essentially a physical manifestation of emotional intensity, like a shiver or thrill. 

When I first read about ASMR, I didn't take it seriously at all. It seemed like some social-media trend or scam. Research on ASMR is ongoing, and studies have explored its effects on mood, pain relief, and other physiological responses.

Characterized by a tingling sensation in response to auditory or visual stimuli, ASMR is not just a social media sensation but a scientific phenomenon with real benefits for sleep and relaxation.

ASMR is a subjective experience of "low-grade euphoria" characterized by "a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling sensation on the skin". It is most commonly triggered by specific auditory stimuli, and less commonly by intentional attention control.

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response has become a popular and effective tool for relaxation and sleep enhancement. Various stimuli can trigger ASMR, including soft whispering, tapping, crinkling sounds, hand movements, and even certain visual patterns. 

It can be experienced in real-life situations, such as during a haircut, while watching a movie, or through simulated ASMR videos and podcasts. 

While ASMR is a real phenomenon, not everyone experiences it in the same way, and some people may not experience it at all. 

If you review a list of stimuli that can trigger ASMR, as reported by those who experience it, they may seem like things that are incredibly commonplace and could never stimulate anything pleasurable. A list of possible stimuli includes the following: 

• Listening to a softly spoken or whispering voice 
• Listening to a person blow or exhale into a microphone
• Listening to mouth sounds, such as quiet clicking of the tongue or tisking 
• Listening to tapping, typically with one's nails onto hard surfaces 
• Listening to buttons being pressed, mostly those of computer keyboards or video game controllers
• Listening to quiet, repetitive sounds resulting from someone engaging in a mundane task, such as turning the pages of a book 
• Watching somebody attentively execute a mundane task, such as preparing food 
• Receiving personal attention, such as having one's makeup applied, hair styled, or a medical exam performed. 
• Listening to the sound of rainfall
• Listening to "crinkly" items such as paper, clothes, and substances such as Styrofoam

The basics of ASMR at wikipedia.org/wiki/ASMR

Mushrooms Versus Mycelium

The essential part of a mushroom, the Mycel, is usually hidden from our eyes. What we perceive as a “mushroom” is only its transient fruit body.

The mushroom's main body is the mycelium, a network of thread-like structures called hyphae, which live underground or within the substrate (like wood or soil). The mycelium is the organism's true form and is typically hidden from view. 

When mycelium is grown on an agar plate in a petri dish, its network becomes visible as it spreads across the medium. The fruiting body that the mycelium produces is used to release spores for reproduction. This fruit body is temporary and only appears when conditions are right, while the mycelium can persist for years. That's why when you pull up a mushroom in your lawn, it seems to reappear at a later time because the mycelium is still intact underground.