Don’t read this post’s link unless you have a strong stomach and…

…a scientifically curious mind.

Here’s a hint on what’s at the other end of this link. A number of years ago I was grossed out by a chimpanzee at a zoo. This chimp casually stuck his/her finger into another Chimp’s nose and sucked the retrieved prize off his/her finger afterwards. Could there be a biological advantage for having done this? That’s what the link discusses.

In a related hint. When I was a kid I used to watch a sort of early reality program called Bold Journeys. It was comprised of expensive home movies taken by mostly American world travelers as they ventured into regions then far removed from the “civilized” world. In one movie a circle of Amazonian women were sitting around a large earthenware pot as they chewed leaves. Every so often they took turns spitting into the pot. The narrator explained that much like setting sour dough bread out in the air to catch wild yeast to enable it to rise these women were creating a juice which would use their saliva to ferment the jar’s contents thereby creating an alcoholic beverage which the entire village could enjoy.

Fifty years later I’m still recovering from that information.

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