Winter is nearly upon us

[DriXnaK]

Where is the research to back up seeing in the dark? While I'm all for having night vision, I've never heard of this one.

[dannubis]

Your iris absorbes light. The draker your eyes the more light is absorbed. Dark eyed people generally can see better during the day (or have less need for sunglasses). Light eyed people have better night vision.

I wouldn' be surprised if light eyed people have more light sensitive receptors in the retina than the dark eyed but I can't comment on that.

[DriXnaK]

Citation for this?

[Al B. Sure!]

So the pale-skins have to stay inside all the time because their skin burns and they can't see as well in the day, but they have benefits for cloudy areas and seeing at night.

Nice. Pale-skins are better at living in caves and subway tunnels

[Asher]

Why the **** isn't this obvious?

People who are pale skinned originated in colder regions of the world with less sunlight. As a result, they're more adapted to colder, darker climates.

People who are dark skinned originated in warmer regions of the world with more sunlight. As a result, they're more adapted to warmer, brighter climates.

[Riesstiu IV]

Your iris absorbes light. The draker your eyes the more light is absorbed. Dark eyed people generally can see better during the day (or have less need for sunglasses). Light eyed people have better night vision.

I wouldn' be surprised if light eyed people have more light sensitive receptors in the retina than the dark eyed but I can't comment on that.

Not that I don't believe you but I'd like to see a source for that too. I've never heard of eye color having an affect on day/night vision. I can think of two animals known for night vision (the barn owl and mouse lemur), and both of the species have dark brown eyes.

[DriXnaK]

I think what we should really be asking here is, "Why have Caucasians been the most successful race of humans on the planet?" This would be a far more interesting discussion. Meanwhile, we can start a subtopic of, "Why are Arabs one of the least successful races on the planet and were it not for their oil, would they still be riding camels in Saudi Arabia?"

[Cort Haus]

Hhmm, Drix, you might want to add some Arabic history books to your reading list. Paying particular attention to maths, astronomy, physics, medicine and engineering.

[Riesstiu IV]

It just speaks to his ignorance when he conflates the history of Islam/the entire Middle East with bedouin nomads. The fact that there are Arab Christians doesn't even seem to matter.

At one point, the Arab regions like Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon that DriXnaK's detest so much, were actually considered part of the "Western" world when they were provinces of the Roman and Byzantine Empires. Philip the Arab, Leo III, and John of Damascus are but a few important figures of Arab descent during this period.

[Al B. Sure!]

Not to mention the entire medieval contributions of the Arab world... while Europeans were living in huts, slaughtering each other, and wearing horns on their helmets, the Arab world was the center of civilization, science, and culture.

[Asher]

Interesting role reversal.

[Cort Haus]

Not to mention the entire medieval contributions of the Arab world... while Europeans were living in huts, slaughtering each other, and wearing horns on their helmets, the Arab world was the center of civilization, science, and culture.

Erm, it just was mentioned.

[Al B. Sure!]

Here, Drixnak. Here's a few to start off with to begin your research:

Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun (full name, Arabic: أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون الحضرمي , Abū Zayd ‘Abdu r-Raḥman bin Muḥammad bin Khaldūn Al-Hadrami , Berber name: Ben Xeldun / Ibn Xeldun; May 27, 1332 AD/732 AH – March 19, 1406 AD/808 AH) was a North African polymath[1][2] — an astronomer, economist, historian, Islamic jurist, Islamic lawyer, Islamic scholar, Islamic theologian, hafiz, mathematician, military strategist, nutritionist, philosopher, social scientist and statesman—born in North Africa in present-day Tunisia.[3] He is considered a forerunner of several social scientific disciplines: demography,[4] cultural history,[5][6] historiography,[7][8][9] the philosophy of history,[10] and sociology.[4][8][9][10][11][12] He is also considered one of the forerunners of modern economics,[8][13][14] alongside the earlier Indian scholar Chanakya.[15][16][17][18] Ibn Khaldun is considered by many to be the father of a number of these disciplines, and of social sciences in general,[19][20] for anticipating many elements of these disciplines centuries before they were founded in the West. He is best known for his Muqaddimah (known as Prolegomenon in English), the first volume of his book on universal history, Kitab al-Ibar.[21]

Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad bin Aḥmad bin Rushd (Arabic: أبو الوليد محمد بن احمد بن رشد), better known just as Ibn Rushd (Arabic: ابن رشد), and in European literature as Averroes (pronounced /əˈvɛroʊ.iːz/) (1126 – December 10, 1198), was an Andalusian Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy, geography, mathematics, physics and celestial mechanics.

Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā, known as Abū Alī Sīnā[6][7] (Persian: ابوعلی سینا، پورسینا) or, more commonly, Ibn Sīnā[8] or Pour Sina, but most commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna (Greek: Aβιτζιανός, Avitzianós),[9] (c. 980 - 1037) was a polymath of Persian[10] origin and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time.[11] He was also an astronomer, chemist, geologist, Hafiz, Islamic psychologist, Islamic scholar, Islamic theologian, logician, paleontologist, mathematician, Maktab teacher, physicist, poet, and scientist.[12]

Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī[4] (Persian/Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن موسى الخوارزمي) (c. 780, Khwārizm[2][5][6] – c. 850) was a Persian[1][2][3] mathematician, astronomer and geographer, a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.
His Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. He is considered the founder of algebra,[7] a credit he shares with Diophantus. In the twelfth century, Latin translations of his work on the Indian numerals, introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world.[6] He revised Ptolemy's Geography and wrote on astronomy and astrology.
His contributions had a great impact on language. "Algebra" is derived from al-jabr, one of the two operations he used to solve quadratic equations. Algorism and algorithm stem from Algoritmi, the Latin form of his name.[8] His name is the origin of (Spanish) guarismo[9] and of (Portuguese) algarismo, both meaning digit.

Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf al-Shami al-Asadi (Arabic: تقي الدين محمد بن معروف الشامي السعدي, Turkish: Takiyuddin) (1526–1585) was a major Ottoman Turkish[1] or Arab[2] Muslim polymath: a scientist, astronomer and astrologer, engineer and inventor, clockmaker, physicist and mathematician, botanist and zoologist, pharmacist and physician, Islamic judge and mosque timekeeper, Islamic philosopher and theologian, and madrasah teacher. He was the author of more than 90 books on a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, astrology, clocks, engineering, mathematics, mechanics, optics and natural philosophy,[3][4] though only 24 of those works have survived.[4] He was widely regarded by his contemporaries in the Ottoman Empire as "the greatest scientist on earth".[5][6]
One of his books, Al-Turuq al-samiyya fi al-alat al-ruhaniyya (Arabic: الطرق السامية في الآلات الروحانية)(The Sublime Methods of Spiritual Machines) (1551), described the workings of a rudimentary steam turbine, predating the more famous discovery of steam power by Giovanni Branca in 1629.[7] Taqi al-Din is also known for the invention of a six-cylinder 'Monobloc' pump in 1559, the invention of a variety of accurate clocks (including a weight-powered astronomical clock with an alarm)[8][9] from 1556 to 1580, his construction of the Istanbul observatory of Taqi al-Din in 1577, and his astronomical activity there until 1580.

Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi (936–1013), (Arabic: أبو القاسم بن خلف بن العباس الزهراوي) also known in the West as Abulcasis, was an Andalusian Arab physician, surgeon, chemist, cosmetologist, and scientist. He is considered the greatest medieval surgeon to have appeared from the Muslim empire, and one of the fathers of modern surgery.[1] His comprehensive medical texts shaped both Islamic and European surgical procedures up until the Renaissance. His greatest contribution to history is the Kitab al-Tasrif, a thirty-volume encyclopedia of medical practices.
Abū al-Qāsim specialized in curing disease by cauterization. He invented several devices used during surgery, for purposes such as inspection of the interior of the urethra, applying and removing foreign bodies from the throat, inspection of the ear, etc.

You'd think someone who plays Civilization so much would know all this. Hell, to take it even a step further... where in the world were the civilizations of Egypt, Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria, Phoenicia, etc. all located? Middle Eastern people freaking invented civilization. Least successful race on the planet? BLAH?!

[Asher]

inspection of the interior of the urethra

Damn, I was so close.

[Provost Harrison]

Just one small point...

...Arabs are caucasian...so they were never excluded