The Clash of Culture and Genetics

DNA research, and the inexpensive access to DNA tests, can be a sobering discovery to many. When everything you thought about yourself, your family, and your culture is appropriated and not factual, people can react with denial or with a new sense of discovery.

When I had my own DNA tested, and then my mother's, I was shocked to find that we are of 100% Northern European descent, with a very rare mitochondrial haplogroup. My mother told me we are Jewish on the maternal side; we are not, although she still stands by that. My maternal grandmother told me that we have Native American on the fairly recent maternal side, but as a genealogist I've been unable to find it (admixtures in the past few hundred years won't show up on the deep DNA tests, I'm told). So, what is TRUE when  DNA, familial stories passed down through the generations, intermarriage between different groups, and the culture we practice and pass down to our kids is thrown in the same pot and stirred?

A mystery! That's what!

Razib discusses this on his blog Gene Expression.

"There is also a general insight. How can a people “forget” their past origins? How can they create entirely fictive genealogies? As economists would say: incentives matter. Many human populations emerge through a process of genetic amalgamation, but cultural identity is not governed by the laws of segregation. Cultural identity and memory can rupture and shift far more rapidly because the laws of cultural inheritance are more plastic and protean. There was a clear folk migration of massive numbers of Germans into what became England, but their history and folkways were adopted wholesale by the native peoples whom they conquered. This sort of process likely has occurred many times across human history."

And from the comments, poster AG adds:

"I was indoctrinated by my family as pure blood Northern Han who are proud of people as origin of Han culture. I believe the family tale without any doubt until modern ancestry genetic analysis comes. DNA analysis indicates my 90% mongol ancestry.
When I studied the hometown village history, it all made sense now. The very village was established right after fall of Mongol Yuan dynasty. Many Mongol soldiers served under Ming (Han) emperor were settled in the region and converted into farmers as Han people. Mongol names and intermarriage were forbidden under Ming laws.
Mongols are not very ethnic centritric in the first place. We are happily embracing inter-ethnic marriage and new ethnic identity."

A Medical Mystery

A Zika case in Utah has epidemiologists scrambling for answers:

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A person who cared for a Zika-infected relative in Utah also got the virus, but exactly how it was transmitted is a medical mystery, health officials announced Monday.

The tropical mosquito that mainly spreads Zika isn't found in the high-altitude area with cold winters where the two lived, Salt Lake County Health Department officials said. They didn't have sexual contact, which is how the virus is typically spread between adults when there's no mosquito bite or mother-to-child transmission.

"The new case in Utah is a surprise, showing that we still have more to learn about Zika," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention medical epidemiologist Dr. Erin Staples said.

The caregiver has fully recovered, but authorities did not give further details. The person cared for an elderly man who contracted the disease overseas where mosquitoes are known to spread Zika and who became the first Zika-infected person to die in the continental U.S.

The caregiver did not travel to an affected area, but it's possible that a mosquito came back with the relative, perhaps in a suitcase, CDC Director Tom Frieden said.

The man who died in late June had an unusually high level of the virus in his blood, more than 100,000 times higher than other samples of infected people. Health workers are testing others who had contact with him, and officials are trapping mosquitoes in Utah to test them.

The new case was discovered after a doctor noticed the caregiver's Zika-like symptoms, which include rash, fever and pink eye, officials said. The relative had cared for the elderly man both at home and in the hospital.

It was unclear exactly how the older man died because of his age and another health condition he suffered, according to the CDC. The agency did not immediately revise its advice to health care workers or caregivers after the new case emerged.

"Based on what we know so far about this case, there is no evidence that there is any risk of Zika virus transmission among the general public in Utah," said Dr. Angela Dunn, deputy state epidemiologist at the Utah Department of Health.

This will be a fascinating case study. In the meantime, should caregivers and medical personnel gown & glove when treating patients infected with Zika? It might be a prudent precaution. since the virus is found in blood, urine, and saliva.

Additionally, I'm wondering if a Utah skeeter could have transmitted the virus from the old man to his relative. Could the virus live long enough in the host non-tropical mosquito for that to happen? Stay tuned!

Worried? Who, me? Pfft!

Making a $300 Fan Takes Cojones

After watching the commercials, Matt and I were thinking about purchasing a Dyson fan. Mainly because it is advertised as being silent. Here's how it works:



I wanted to get some idea of how much it cost. So I did my duty and googled. The google god led me here!

I'm still picking myself up off the floor after ROFLMAO at this comment. Possibly the funniest comment evah on the world wide internets. Oh, and did I mention that the fan costs $300?

anexanhume: For $300, you could hire a hooker to fan you with a large plant leaf, and she'd still function during a blackout.

Thank you "anexanhume" you are hilarious.

"Gaia hypothesis" originator makes total sense.

Yes, this is April Fools day... but no, this is not a joke.

Check out James Lovelock on the BBC where he shares some opinions I for one agree with: that predicting climate is hard and likely beyond our current skills, that the climate "scientists" have lost the plot, and that "renewable energy" is a scam.

Personally, I'm willing to cut the man some slack. He has a theory, he has a view on climate and nature, and as someone who has about .00001% of his experience, I cannot for sure say he's wrong. If there is something that the recent climate science scandal has driven home in my mind, it's how little we really know with any certainty. There is a chance we've heated the planet, and that the climate will change. Or not.

Where he and I share some common ground is observations on technology, "big science", politics, and economics... and I find I'm pretty much in agreement on those areas.

Full Steam To The Future!

I can't embed this video, but take a look.   I've never heard of Patrick Dixon until now!

The whole thing is rather jaw-dropping, but that "male brain" story freaked me out.  Really freaked me out.

Maybe I'm just old and crotchety.  Or crochet-y.  Or something.

Sigh.

Surgery - What It Teaches

On Tuesday, I reported to a local hospital for day surgery to correct a botched vasectomy that has left me in constant pain for the last four years. I checked in at 5.30AM and was soon in a bed being told to drink a nasty potion--the first of a series of medicines that would induce the so-called "twilight" anesthesia, where you are awake but not alert and you forget everything.

I have vague memories of the operating room, but other than that, I remember nothing. Nothing until I awoke in post-op.

Unable to move, unable to talk and in screaming pain.

I'm recovering now. I'm much better and am actually walking around now. The surgeon says it went well and I have about a ninety percent chance of coming out of this pain-free.

But, wow, what a lesson. For a moment, to be unable to move, to give your body a command and have it not answer, to be unable to talk, to be reduced to a coarse croak.

I feel like I've just been given a second life, a second chance, and my health back.

Scary as hell, but, it appears, a necessary lesson.

Investigation Chief: Swine Flu Pandemic Was A Hoax

European Council investigates 'swine flu pandemic hoax'

The current swine flu pandemic is "one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century," according to Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health for the European Council....

He has also said that the severity of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic was intentionally exaggerated by pharmaceutical companies so they could receive large profits.
British taxpayers took the biggest hit, but they weren't the only ones to be sold that deadly pandemic notion.
The WHO of course denies this. Perhaps they should buy up the government vaccine stockpiles and body bags if they are so worried about it?

Scientists figure out how to communicate with patients in Persistent Vegetative State

Daily Mail, UK

Heh! I KNEW I Was More Advanced

Scientists are beginning to think that grumpiness is a sign of advancement in species.