$ jlc (10,317)

The last two or three paragraphs of the linked article do deal with this question, blarman, and include another link pointing here for further details: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mace-lab/publicati...

The 'short story' is that we have evidence that skin color change is very recent - 5 or 6K years old. What is not dealt with in these sources is that there seems to have been 2 separate evolutionary paths towards lighter skin: The eumelanin reduction pathway (leaving the pheomelanin stronger and producing a yellowish skin - Eastern Asia) and the pheomelanin reduction pathway (leaving traces of brownish eumelanin behind - European).

Jan

That is certainly possible - the 'technology of civilization'. We forget how SLOWLY things changed for thousands and thousands of years. It may have taken a few hundred thou to accrete enough habits to become civilized. (It is also possible that the signs of civilization were just very labile early on, and did not survive. These answers are not mutually incompatible, note.)

Jan

An interesting chapter or so in Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of our Nature" deals with the statistics of slaughter. Paleolithic tribes who have been observed in modern times show about a 50% death rate due to violence (warfare, homicide, ambush) of their males between 15-55. This statistic has decreased as time and civilization permitted: from records from the 14thC onward, Pinker draws a chart of the decline of deaths by violence.

No bucolic noble savages, Alas!

Jan

You are right, wiggys (on both counts)...my neighbors might as well be robots.

Jan

It does not sound too bad to me. Item: I am having a lot of fun in this 'virtual Gulch' as opposed to personally talking to my neighbors.

Jan

I read a telling first person account of someone who had been in a wheelchair for some years. He had gotten access to some prosthetics that allowed him to walk again - albeit in a limited fashion. He said that until he was crippled he had not realized what it was like to go through life 'staring at people's crotch'...because that is where a wheelchair puts your eyes.

Anything that can get people like this back on their feet again is good in my book.

May I add my "headshake to yours, khalling? Talk about looking the gift horse of technology in the mouth!

Jan

Then you might also be interested in this webpage - and the book that its author wrote:

http://www.ancestraljourneys.org/

Jan (the book is a bit technical)

Oh no. It is just that the paranoids are after you...

Jan

It looks as if the Chinese plan on having a Thorium reactor running in 2015 and India in 2016. I am waiting to see what will happen in reality.

Jan

Woo! For possibly the first time in my life, I am 'cool'. And it is an allosaurus who says so. Wow. I gotta buy some wrap around sunglasses now so that I look the part.

Jan, wearing a leather duster

Slide rules are great for multiplication and division, but not so good for addition and subtraction. However, I have also learned how to use the abacus, which is good at adding and subtracting (but bad for multiply or divide). So I am OK for going non-electric in a pinch. (But while I can use the tools, I am terrible at math and practical math...so I think I would just teach the skills to other folk.)

Jan, bragging a bit (but then, how often does one get a chance to brag to an allosaurus about being able to use an abacus?)

Or...that what they decide to do sans instructions will be "AOK with him."

The idea that POTUS could specifically consider arming the gangs instead of arming non-gangmembers (eg 'patriotic citizens') is a chilling thought. Were citizens armed, they would protect their country and try to prevent chaos and destruction. If gangs are armed, they will (1) try to exterminate each other, and then the winning gang would (2) shoot the whites they have been taught to hate.

Jan

My father had a small circular slide rule that he used in the cockpit - he kept it on his keychain. He said that it was much better than sliding something around laterally where there was little space and a lot of instruments.

Jan

You say, "we".

Are you set on producing your first prototype in the US? There are several counties in Eastern Europe who have 'single point' atomic energy regulatory committees and where you might get a more favorable reception (to energy independence from Russia, as a random example).

Jan

Interesting. So it seems to me that a low power portable unit that was just able to reach an amplifier station would be the best entry into this set of skills. If the gov went fox-hunting, they would find the amplifier station. You could move your hand-held unit around from place to place before you broadcast.

Other than that, brief bursts of transmission seem to be better than long conversations insofar as being a better fox is concerned.

Jan, thinking

Yeah, dino. But slide rules are neat too. Do you still remember how to use one?

Jan, geeking in the morning

ARGHGHGH!

You are an evil man, nickursis.

Jan

When I think of a militia, it is not the crypts and bloods to which I am referring. I like the idea of a civilian force that is trained in weapons and takes them home with them (as in Switzerland).

But let's not make the gangs the center of this process.

Jan

This sounds a lot like William Shatner's plan to pipe water down from NCal and even Canada along the 5 freeway.

This is one of the few times that Jerry is even starting to make sense. We need to have reservoirs built to capture rainwater... and it is quite nice to see the environmentalists be on the opposite side from Jerry on this point. Drip irrigation is a no-brainer as is using recycled water here.

Hey! Don't throw me away, nickursis.

Jan, plaintive in Cal.

How easy is it to locate where a ham signal originates?

Jan

Washington is a different 'People's Republic" but still a "People's Republic"...

Jan

Yeah. I am used to disagreeing with people, but most of the folks here approach disagreements in a more interesting and productive fashion. I have learned a lot.

Jan

Thank you iroseland. I do not have the money to invest in this (but if I did, I would). They hint at 5 years in one of the FAQ's but I do wonder what their real run-up time will be. A series of prototypes first (probably about 3), then an offering for an initial production site....

Neat.

Jan

That is a great thing to say! I do not know what that person did, but I congratulate you and your daughter on emerging victorious.

Grind the nithing under your metaphorical heel.

Jan

Perhaps for you, but it might be a strategic bridge and I think it would be a good idea, in a better world. I agree that the current conditions make militarizing the police a divisive rather than a supportive step.

We do have another point of commonality: the idea of having a citizenry that is trained as well as armed. (It is easy to look up the stats: I believe Switz is #2 in per capital arms; USA is #1.) I am also in favor of trained citizen militia. (Plano Texas has the highest gun ratio in the US; they also have a murder rate that is lower than Europe's.)

Jan