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I blame it on the Neanderthals — 35 Comments

  1. So I can blame my sensitivity to mosquito bites on my Neanderthal ancestors? And also my lack of a sense of direction? I was thinking we were related, Neo, until we got to the chocolate thing. I thought I didn’t like chocolate until I discovered dark chocolate.

  2. According to 23andme, I have over 3% Neanderthal DNA. Ancestry disagrees with 23and me in that Ancestry has me at 98% Irish and 23 has me at less and more Scot.

  3. If Homo Sapiens bred with Neanderthals, wouldn’t we have to be the same species? What does that do for the science?

    I have wanted to take a DNA test for a long time, and maybe I will. The problem, though, if you’re trying to explain why you are the way you are, is that your very different siblings will probably have the same or very similar results. So if I’m thinking that my unique characteristics can be accounted for by some ancestor who made his or her way across eight countries and three continents to produce me, I have to realize that that progenitor also engendered my brothers and sisters who have very different personalities, unless mom or dad got up to something untoward at some point. Probably mom, if you think about it, which I don’t want to do.

  4. “If Homo Sapiens bred with Neanderthals, wouldn’t we have to be the same species?”

    According to science which is retarded. Their definition of species is wrong. What they call species is more like genus and what they call genus is something else. Is a St. Bernard the same species as a Chiwawa? By science’s retardery, yes. By common sense, no way.

  5. My oldest daughter recently took the test; she got it as a present from her husband. My father’s side of the family has been in in southern Ohio/northern Kentucky since about 1830. Huguenot surname, so she expected a lot more French than showed up; about 8%. My wife’s side is very much Irish/Italian and that grouping came out way on top; about 80%. Overall, she was 99.9% European….guess she needs to be canceled.

  6. M Smith: If Homo Sapiens bred with Neanderthals, wouldn’t we have to be the same species? What does that do for the science?

    Species can sometimes interbreed in a process called hybridization.

    The isolation of populations into new species is typically a gradual, evolutionary process. Consequently, there may be no strict dividing line between species, or even a single way for humans to divide populations into species.

  7. Wolves and domestic dogs are considered different species, yet they can breed.
    Animal culture is also taken into account when deciding what a species is.
    I suspect that Neanderthals should be considered a different race / breed, not a different species.
    What we call “ race “ in humans is what we call “ breed “ in animals or “ variety” in plants.
    But that is not PC.
    And then there is this movement by well meaning people to deny there are different “ races”. They say “ we are all one human race.” A semantics game which appeals to old, obscure uses of the phrases “ race of man” or “the human race”. It is the opposite of the “ social justice” side which emphasizes race all the time.
    Both ridiculous positions in their own way.

  8. Loren Eisley, anthropologist and writer–most known for “The Immense Journey”–wrote of his bone-hunting days, mostly in the west or southwest.
    At one point, he was talking to a farm family who had a daughter whom they treated, he judged, as “special”. His trained eye picked up cues–radius/ulna– and such, including facial characteristics which caused him to think she had a lot of H. Nean in her ancestry and it had come to the surface, so to speak.

  9. Jean => Neo

    Makes sense. All those Jean, Jane, Joan, Joanne, Jeanne names are out of vogue now.

    Jane has a bit of staying power because of Jane Austen, but be prepared to be thought “plain.” Johanna is possible, especially if you annoyingly pronounce the “h,” which I don’t remember anybody doing in the past. Jen is problematic: too many Jennifers in mom’s/grandma’s day.

  10. I was looking at recent US birth rate stats and came upon the most common baby names. Oddly, both Oliver and Olivia are in their respective top 3 names.

  11. Congratulations, your DNA is now in the hands of who knows who, with who knows what they’re going to do with it.

  12. Apropos of Univ of Saigon 68’s comment:

    Neo,
    Did you get an option to select a higher privacy level for your DNA, was privacy mentioned in the legalese, or did you not bother with any of it?

  13. Johanna is possible, especially if you annoyingly pronounce the “h,” which I don’t remember anybody doing in the past.

    M Smith:

    Well, there’s Dylan’s masterpiece, “Visions of Johanna” from “Blonde on Blonde.” I think it’s his ultimate poetic song.

    Wiki says, “Sir Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, listed it as the greatest song lyric ever written.”
    ____________________________

    Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re tryin’ to be so quiet?
    We sit here stranded, though we’re all doin’ our best to deny it
    And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin’ you to defy it
    Lights flicker from the opposite loft
    In this room the heat pipes just cough
    The country music station plays soft
    But there’s nothing, really nothing to turn off
    Just Louise and her lover so entwined
    And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind

    –“Bob Dylan – Visions of Johanna (Official Audio)”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwuCF5lYqEE

    ____________________________

    I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the lyrics and who Johanna might have been. Joan Baz thought it might be about her, but I don’t believe Dylan ever took Baez seriously enough to put her on that high a pedestal.

    I considered his new wife, Sara, but he already had an eleven minute song, “Sad-eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” for her on the album and the lyrics aren’t at all similar. Edie Sedgewick and Nico, two prominent women from Dylan’s NYC-Chelsea Hotel period, don’t fit either.

    Nor Andy Warhol — I’m convinced “Queen Jane Approximately” was Dylan calling out Warhol for a showdown of some sort.

    I concluded, as have others, that Johanna is not human, but most likely his muse or the grail quest of his art.

  14. physicsguy, your Huguenot male ancestors may have had some Scots-Irish wives. That’s likely in the location.

  15. huxley,
    I wonder if Johanna is an oblique reference to Hosanna in the song. The recording of the song predates his conversion to Christianity by a good ten years, though both the Jewish and Christian interpretations could work. The Jewish one,

    In Judaism it refers to a cry expressing an appeal for divine help. -Wiki

    is maybe the better of the two.

  16. Art Deco,
    The article says that 25 to 30 FBI agents were sent to arrest that one guy.
    Were they expecting a small army to oppose them? Or were they just trying to intimidate people on the right? I vote the latter.
    25 to 30 agents. Meanwhile, how many women and children are currently missing in the United States, possibly due to forced sex trafficking? The Republicans should make an announcement that if they are elected, the FBI will be told to prioritize searching for victims of forced sex trafficking.

  17. Kate, it’s quite a wave, all these female prime ministers popping up these days! (Ministeresses? Ministrae? Actually, the construction ‘ministress’ has a certain ring to it.)

    Well, I don’t want to count eggs before their time. Maybe we will still need a couple of hours or days before we know for sure. Do they do mail-in voting in Italy…?

  18. The article says that 25 to 30 FBI agents were sent to arrest that one guy.

    They must have checked out reports of a noose on the way there.

  19. I’ve heard that OMB is at least 99% Neanderthal.

    The mega MAGA are 200%.

    Zinn had no comment but Burns is working on a new documentary about this problem.

  20. @ jon baker > “The article says that 25 to 30 FBI agents were sent to arrest that one guy. Were they expecting a small army to oppose them? Or were they just trying to intimidate people on the right? I vote the latter.”

    Of course the aim is intimidation — and this is not their first rodeo, as most of us know.
    However, to me, it reeks more of a laughable admission of incompetence.
    If they were really scary, they would know they didn’t need that kind of Keystone Kops Kaper to intimidate people.

  21. AesopFan:

    They didn’t have a Patriot Front rally scheduled so the resources were available. Who says the feds can’t plan and use personnel effeciently?

  22. Re: Bossa nova

    Rufus T. Firefly:

    Thank you!

    That would have been a predictable response from me and I don’t want to be predictable.

    Still I was holding breath for the moment. Now I can relax.

  23. I wonder if Johanna is an oblique reference to Hosanna in the song.

    TommyJay:

    That’s good, damn good. As good as anything I’ve read from the Dylanologist world.

    A lot of people believe sixties Dylan was just throwing crazy shit at the wall to see what would stick.

    Well, sometimes.

    But I’ve listened close for a lot of years and more often than not, Dylan is telling you, if you care to do some work.

    He’s also plenty happy to shine on questions of “what he really meant”. His job is to write the songs, not explain ’em.

  24. Put me down as someone who believes Robert Zimmerman was just throwing crazy shit at the wall to see what would stick.

    Well, I don’t believe it was random. I do believe it was relevant to his life. But when a poet or musician requires that I devote weeks of my life reading biographies of their lives in order to understand their work*… I’m too busy trying to figure out my own biography.

    *See James Joyce

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