BS: The evolution of white people

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 03:33 AM

Thank you Q.

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: Mr Happy
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 06:27 AM

When I revived this thread, my intention was to focus on the evolution of people's future adaptation [not neccessarily only white] in consequence of climate change.

Unfortunately, the original thread title does suggest some racist [racial?] issues also.

I'm therefore wondering if I ought to either start a new thread or ask mods to modify the title of this one.

What think you?

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: Mr Happy
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 07:29 AM

For example, what's the reason for the evolutionary adaptation/ development of freckles?

These are common in white caucasians, I guess they probably also occur in people with skin of various hues, but perhaps less noticeable.

Anyone know?

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 08:51 AM

Freckles are most commonly associated with red hair.
I expect that their is something in red hair genes that give rise to them as a genetic accident.
They would persist if they do not confer a disadvantage.
The skin in between has less than normal melain making it more vulnerable to sunburn and cancer, but not a problem in northern Europe.

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 09:09 AM

And, of course, if we are descended from apes then evolution has decided we do not need body hair. Those of us with 'Male Pattern Baldness' must be at the higher reaches of the evolutionary tree!

Cheers
Nigel (tongue firmly in cheek!)

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: GUEST,Q as guest
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 03:08 PM

The personnel of American professional football teams echos the bone density (and muscle differences) of black (and brown) and white players. The game takes a physical toll on players (mental too, if current studies of brain trauma are borne out).

There are many little differences, particular in medical treatments, that are the result of evolutionary genetic variations. We had a thread or two before on this subject.

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 07:16 PM

Redheads are aliens, goddess and gods, first people, carrot tops (Which I often thought was green), going extinct, but a genetic accident!!! I protest. Maybe a genetic mutant-the "ginger gene". Ah.


A mutation in the gene that gives redheads their unique hair color and signature fair skin leads researchers to believe that redheads are more sensitive to pain. The gene, called the melanocortin-1 receptor, produces melanin in those with blonde, brown and black hair, but it produces pheomelanin in redheads after it has been mutated, according to The New York Times. The study explains that the mutated MC1R leads to an increased sensitivity to pain because the MC1R gene is part of a family of receptors that include pain receptors in the brain. Though the MC1R mutation can also occur in brunettes, it's much less common.


Melanin, the skin pigment that darkens with sun exposure to provide either a tan or freckles. People with red hair have a chemically different type of melanin than people with dark hair. Redheads' melanin is more vulnerable to a type of DNA-damaging stress from the sun's ultraviolet rays.

The scientists found this out by taking melanin-producing melanosomes from red and black human hair and testing them with a high-tech laser. They found that melanosomes from black hair were only affected by high-energy ultraviolet-B (UV-B) light, but melanosomes from red hair were affected by ultraviolet A (UV-A) and UV-B radiation suggesting that exposure to everyday UV-A and UV-B levels might disturb red hair pigments and lead to higher rates of skin cancer. UV-B rays are associated with sunburn and UV-A rays can actually penetrate and damage skin even without a burn. Specifically, pigments from the carrot-top crowd were more likely to create free radicals that harm DNA and possibly cause cancer, the new research showed. The finding was presented in August at the 230th national meeting of the American Chemical Society.

So, with that and the fact that I am a mutant, alien goddess with red-hair and my spiecies are losing ground on this planet, I leave you with this....

Ode To Redheads
By Tom Robbins

How are we to explain the power these daughters of ancient Henna have over us bemused sons of Eros?

Red hair is a woman's game.

The harsh truth is, most red-haired men look like blonds who've spoiled from lack of refrigeration. They look like brown-haired men who've been composted. Yet that same pigmentation that on a man can resemble leaf mold or junk yard rust, a woman wears like a tiara of rubies.

Not only are female redheads frequently lovely but theirs is a loveliness that suggests both lust and danger, pleasure and violence, and is, therefore, to the male of the species virtually irresistible. Red O red were the tresses of the original femme fatale.
Of course, much of the "fatale" associated with redheads is illusory, a stereotypical projection on the part of sexually neurotic men. Plenty of redheads are as demure as rosebuds and as sweet as strawberry pie. However, the mere fact that they are perceived to be stormy, if not malicious, grants them a certain license and a certain power. It's as if bitchiness is their birthright. By virtue of their coloration, they possess an innate permit to be terrible and lascivious, which, even if never exercised, sets them apart from the remainder of womankind, who have traditionally been expected to be mild and pure.

Now that women are demolishing those old misogynistic expectations, will redheads lose their special magic, will Pippi Longstocking come to be regarded as just one of the girls? Hardly. To believe that blondes and brunettes are simply redheads in repressive drag is to believe that UFOs are kiddie balloons. All redheads, you see, are mutants.

Whether they spring from genes disarranged by earthly forces or are "planted" here by overlords from outer space is a matter for scholarly debate. It's enough for us to recognize that redheads are abnormal beings, bioelectrically connected to realms of strange power, rage, risk and ecstasy.

What is your mission among us, you daughters of ancient Henna, you agents of the harvest moon? Are those star maps that your freckles replicate? How do you explain the fact that you live longer than the average human? Where did you get such sensitive skin? And why are your curls the same shade as heartbreak?

Alas, inquiry is futile: Either they don't know or they won't say -- and who has the nerve to pressure a redhead? We may never learn their origin or meaning, but it probably doesn't matter. We will go on leaping out of our frying pans into their fire, grateful for the opportunity to be titillated by their vengeful fury, real or imagined, and to occasionally test our erotic mettle in the legendary inferno of their passion.

Redheaded women! Those blood oranges! Those cherry bombs! Those celestial shrews and queens of copper! May they never cease to stain our white-bread lives with super-natural catsup.


Peace.
Rustic

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 07:25 PM

I know plenty of "white people who are good athletes and plenty of Black people who are not.

From Wiki

Defining race
Further information: Race (classification of human beings)
[edit] Non-concordance

The most widely used human racial categories are based on various combinations of visible traits such as skin color, eye shape and hair texture. However, many of these traits are non-concordant in that they are not necessarily expressed together. For example skin color and hair texture vary independently.[2] This caused problems to early anthropologists who were attempting to classify race based on visible traits. Some examples of non-concordance include:

    * There are many people in Africa and all over the world affected by albinism who have very light skin.
    * Skin color varies all over the world in different populations. People from the Indian subcontinent are classified as Caucasian although most have dark skin.
    * Epicanthal fold are typically associated with East Asian populations but are found in populations all over the world, including many Native Americans, the Khoisan, the Saami, and even amongst some isolated groups such as the Andamanese.
    * Lighter hair colors are typically associated with Europeans, especially Northern Europeans, but blond hair is found amongst a limited, small number of the dark skinned populations of the south pacific, particularly the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

[edit] Genetic distance

The 0.1% genetic difference that differentiates any two random humans is still the subject of much debate. The discovery that only 8% of this difference separates the major races led some scientists to proclaim that race is biologically meaningless. They argue that since genetic distance increases in a continuous manner any threshold or definitions would be arbitrary. Any two neighboring villages or towns will show some genetic differentiation from each other and thus could be defined as a race. Thus any attempt to classify races would be imposing an artificial discontinuity on what is otherwise a naturally occurring continuous phenomenon.

However, other scientists disagree by claiming that the assertion that race is biologically meaningless is politically motivated and that genetic differences are significant. Neil Risch states that numerous studies over past decades have documented biological differences among the races with regard to susceptibility and natural history of a chronic disease. Effectively Neil Risch is attempting to redefine "race" for human populations to represent that small proportion of variation that is known to vary between continental populations. It is well established, that the level of differentiation between the continental human groups, as measured by the statistic FST is about 0.06-0.1 (6-10%), with about 5-10% of variation at the population level (that is between different populations occupying the same continent) and about 75-85% of variation within populations.(Risch et al., 2002; Templeton, 1998; Ossorio and Duster, 2005; Lewontin, 2005). Tempeton (1998) states that in biology a level of 0.25-0.3 (20-30%) of differentiation normally accepted in biological literature for a population to be considered a race or subspecies.

    "A standard criterion for a subspecies or race in the nonhuman literature under the traditional definition of a subspecies as a geographically circumbscribed, sharply differentiated population is to have FST values of at least 0.25 to 0.3 (Smith et al. 1997). Hence as judged by the criterion in the nonhuman literature, the human FST value is too small to have taxonomic significance under the traditional subspecies definition."(Templeton, 1998)

Indeed Neil Risch himself avoids defining race, when asked to respond to the comment "Genome variation research does not support the existence of human races." he replied

    What is your definition of races? If you define it a certain way, maybe that's a valid statement. There is obviously still disagreement....Scientists always disagree! A lot of the problem is terminology. I'm not even sure what race means, people use it in many different ways. He continues, "but that doesn't preclude you from using it or the fact that it has utility". (Gitschier, 2005)

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Jan 10 - 10:31 AM

How did us Gnomes eveolve then?

:D (eG)

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: Mr Happy
Date: 13 Jan 10 - 10:40 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: MMario
Date: 13 Jan 10 - 10:52 AM

The latest theories are that gnomes are a remnant population of one of the "cousin" branches of the hominid lines; which due to their superior abilities have managed to co-exist with HOmo sapiens while avoiding detection.

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 07:03 AM

http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100444b.htm

Vitamin An poisoning of Mawson's expedition in the Antarctic - both A & D are fat soluble, are they not? Water soluble ones get excreted rapidly....

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 02:26 PM

The article mentions the toxicity of dogs' liver, which is excessively rich in vitamin A. "...may have hastened Mertz's death ..."
An educated guess?

The ill-fated Franklin Expedition to the Arctic suffered from lead poisoning from the solder used in the canned (tinned) food they ate. Autopsies on the frozen corpses of crewmen, preserved in their permanently frozen graves, suggested their deaths were due to this rather than starvation or cold.

I could cite the scientific articles and books that posit this conclusion, but I thought this school paper does a good job of summarizing the data.
Franklin

Subject: RE: BS: The evolution of white people
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 08:13 PM

""And, of course, if we are descended from apes then evolution has decided we do not need body hair.""

My old science teacher would have become apoplectic, if I had made that comment.

I can just hear him now.

"Sloppy thinking BOY!

Humans did not descend from apes. They are our cousins, on a different branch, descended from a common ancestor. Write that out five hundred times, and submit it to me by Friday lunchtime".

I never quite had the nerve to ask him if the common ancestor wasn't perhaps an ape.

Don T.