Did we evolve into Morons?

Huh. It turns out that the Ace of Spades Lifestyle™ (well, the Val-U-Rite vodka swilling part, not the hobo huntin' or Thai tranny prostitute patronizing parts) may be hardwired into us through evolution:

Tree shrews that thrive on fermented nectar suck up amounts that would inebriate a human but seem to have no such ill-effects themselves, researchers reported on Monday.

They said their findings may shed light on how animals evolved a taste for alcohol and may help in understanding why so many humans abuse it.

The tree shrew, found in Malaysia, is very similar to the last common ancestor of all living primates -- a group that includes people -- and it could be that the human taste for alcohol evolved millions of years ago, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"For humans alcohol consumption often has devastating consequences," Frank Wiens of Bayreuth University in Germany and colleagues wrote.

"We discovered that seven mammalian species in a West Malaysian rainforest consume alcoholic nectar daily from flower buds of the bertam palm (Eugeissona tristis), which they pollinate," they added.

The article goes on to say that the flower buds collect yeast, which ferments the nectar, giving it up to 3.8 percent alcohol content, some of the highest natural alcohol content ever recorded. And the little bastards don't even get drunk from it, even though a human drinking the equivalent of what the shrews guzzle would get smashed!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel somewhat better knowing that being a drunken Moron may be Mother Nature's default setting.