Way more sex happened between Neanderthals and the ancestors of modern humans across Europe and Asia than scientists originally thought, a new study finds.
Scientists initially thought that interbreeding among the two groups was more isolated to a particular place and time — specifically, when they encountered each other in western Eurasia shortly after modern humans left Africa. This idea stemmed from the fact that the genomes of modern humans from outside Africa are only about 2 percent Neanderthal, on average.
Subsequent research, however, has found that Neanderthal ancestry is 12 to 20 percent higher in modern East Asians compared to modern Europeans.
"There's been a lot of debate as to why East Asians seem to have a bit more Neanderthal ancestry than Europeans," said senior study author Joshua Schraiber, a population geneticist at Temple University in Philadelphia. "There've been two competing ideas. One is that East Asians happen to interbreed more with Neanderthals. The other is that, of the multiple ancestral populations of Europeans, one had very little Neanderthal ancestry, diluting the [overall] Neanderthal contribution."
To shed light on this question of interbreeding, scientists developed computer simulations that modeled how DNA would get shared during a range of numbers of encounters between modern humans and Neanderthals. Then, they looked into which models best fit modern human genetic databases.
The researchers suggested the patterns of Neanderthal DNA inheritance seen in modern humans are best explained by not one, but multiple, independent episodes of interbreeding between Neanderthal and modern humans, first and foremost in the Middle East, but also later in both Europe and East Asia. The dilutive effect likely also played some role in why there is less Neanderthal ancestry in modern Europeans than in modern East Asians, Schraiber told Live Science. In other words, both multiple interbreeding episodes and dilutive effects might have occurred, contrary to what was previously thought.
This scenario of multiple episodes of interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals fits in with the emerging view that various human lineages had complex and frequent interactions. For example, recent work found the mysterious human lineage known as the Denisovans apparently contributed to the modern human gene pool at least twice, leaving behind two distinct genetic component — one mostly in Papuan and Australian aboriginal populations, the other primarily in East Asian populations.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
I think you're shagedelic baby!
Speaking of optimal cultural and biological epistemic distance yesterday, here is another instance. From Neanderthals and Humans Were Hooking Up Way More Than Anyone Thought by Charles Q. Choi.
The fifth planet - the Phaeton hypothesis
The Phaeton hypothesis from Wikipedia. An interesting history of a strong hypothesis, consistent with much data but now displaced by the accretion hypothesis.
According to the discredited Titius–Bode law, a planet was believed to exist between Mars and Jupiter. After observing the discoveries made by the German astronomer and professor Johann Daniel Titius (1729–1796), Johann Elert Bode himself urged a search for the fifth planet. When Ceres, the largest of the asteroids in the asteroid belt (now considered a dwarf planet), was serendipitously discovered in 1801 by the Italian Giuseppe Piazzi and found to match the predicted position of the fifth planet, many believed it was the missing planet. However, in 1802 astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovered and named another object in the same general orbit as Ceres, the asteroid Pallas.Displaced but not yet fully buried.
Olbers proposed that these new discoveries were the fragments of a disrupted planet that had formerly orbited the Sun. He also predicted that more of these pieces would be found. The discovery of the asteroid Juno by Karl Ludwig Harding and Vesta, by Olbers, buttressed the Olbers hypothesis.
In 1823, German linguist and retired teacher Johann Gottlieb Radlof called Olbers' destroyed planet "Phaëthon," linking it to the Greek myths and legends about Phaethon and others. His ideas were similar to those later advocated by Immanuel Velikovsky. Despite Radlof's precedence, Russian authors of the 20th century claimed that, "The hypothetical planet of Olbers' was left nameless for a century and a half. Only in 1949 did the well-known Soviet astronomer Sergej Vladirimovich Orlov give it the name Phaeton... This name has become established."
Theories regarding the formation of the asteroid belt from the destruction of a hypothetical fifth planet are today collectively referred to as the "disruption theory". This theory states that there was once a major planetary member of our solar system circulating in the present gap between Mars and Jupiter, which was variously destroyed when:
It veered too close to Jupiter and was torn apart by its powerful gravityToday, the Phaeton hypothesis has been superseded by the accretion model. Most astronomers today believe that the asteroids in the main belt are remnants of the protoplanetary disk, and in this region the incorporation of protoplanetary remnants into the planets was prevented by large gravitational perturbations induced by Jupiter during the formative period of the solar system.
It was struck by another large celestial body
It was destroyed by a hypothetical brown dwarf, the companion star to the Sun, known as Nemesis
It was shattered by some internal catastrophe
What Socrates understands which university administrators do not
Heh.
Philosophy's problem with measurable learning outcomes pic.twitter.com/MXCYv8Ry56
— Samantha Brennan (@SamJaneB) December 2, 2018
The Idiot by Stan Rogers
Double click to enlarge.
The Idiot
by Stan Rogers
I often take these night shift walks
When the foreman’s not around
I turn my back on the cooling stacks
And make for open ground
Far out beyond the tank-farm fence
Where the gas flare makes no sound
I forget the stink and I always think
Back to that Eastern town
I remember back six years ago
This western life I chose
And every day the news would say
Some factory’s going to close
Well, I could have stayed to take the dole
But I’m not one of those
I take nothing free, and that makes me
An idiot, I suppose
So I bid farewell to the Eastern town
I never more will see
But work I must so I eat this dust
And breathe refinery
Oh I miss the green and the woods and streams
And I don’t like cowboy clothes
But I like being free and that makes me
An idiot, I suppose
So come all you fine young fellows
Who’ve been beaten to the ground
This western life’s no paradise
But it’s better than lying down
Oh the streets aren’t clean, and there’s nothing green
And the hills are dirty brown
But the government dole will rot your soul
Back there in your home town
So bid farewell to the Eastern town
You never more will see
There’s self-respect and a steady cheque
In this refinery
You will miss the green and the woods and streams
And the dust will fill your nose
But you’ll be free, and just like me
An idiot, I suppose
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Drawing by Ronnie C., Grade One by Ruth Lechlitner
Drawing by Ronnie C., Grade One
by Ruth Lechlitner
For the sky, blue. But the six-year-
old searching his crayon-box, finds
no blue to match that sky
framed by the window - a see-through
shine
over tree-tops, housetops. The wax colors
only hold dead light, not this water-
flash
thinning to silver
at morning's far edge.
Gray won't do, either:
gray is for rain that you make with
dark slanting lines down-paper
Try orange!
-Draw a large corner circle for sun,
egg-yolk solid,
with yellow strokes, leaping outward
like fire bloom - a brightness shouting
flower-shape wind-shape joy-shape!
The boy sighs, with leg-twisting bliss
creating . . .
It is done. The stubby crayons
(all ten of them) are stuffed back
bumpily into their box.
Such was the last will and testament of "Tom Paine, Infidel."
From Greenwich Village by Anna Alice Chapin published in 1925. There is this picture of the boarding house in which Thomas Paine passed in 1809.
The essay on Paine in Greenwich Village ends:
The essay on Paine in Greenwich Village ends:
On the 8th of June, 1809, Thomas Paine died.Paine's legendary quarrels with religion, or more accurately, religious institutions, are described in Jill Lepore's The Sharpened Quill.
The New York Advertiser said: "With heart-felt sorrow and poignant regret, we are compelled to announce to the world that Thomas Paine is no more. This distinguished philanthropist, whose life was devoted to the cause of humanity, departed this life yesterday morning; and, if any man's memory deserves a place in the breast of a freeman, it is that of the deceased, for,
"'Take him for all in all,The funeral party consisted of Hicks, Mme. de Bonneville and two negroes, who loyally walked twenty-two miles to New Rochelle to see the last of the man who had always defended and pleaded for the rights of their pitifully misunderstood and ill-treated race.
We ne'er shall look upon his like again.'"
To the end he was active for public service. His actual last act was to pen a letter to the Federal faction, conveying a warning as to the then unsettled situation in American and French commerce. Just before he had made his will.
It is in itself a composition worth copying and preserving. Paine could not even execute a legal document without putting into it something of the beauty of spirit and distinction of phrase for which he was remarkable. He had not much to leave, since he had given all to his country and his country had forgotten him in making up the balance; but what he had went to Mme. de Bonneville, for her children, that she,—let me quote his own words, "... might bring them well up, give them good and useful learning and instruct them in their duty to God and the practice of morality."
It continues thus:
"I herewith take my final leave of them and the world. I have lived an honest and useful life to mankind; my time has been spent in doing good and I die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Creator God."Such was the last will and testament of "Tom Paine, Infidel."
At which point, you may be assuming that I’m taking sentences from other articles, randomly, but I promise you I’m not.
Kind of an unkind title but a revealing and humorous fisking. Hear The Lamentations Of Unstable Leftist Women by David Thompson.
What follows is a litany of statements which stress test Poe's Law. Thompson is clearly having a lot of fun.
In the piously left-leaning New York magazine, Molly Langmuir invites us to sympathise with the inner turmoil of activist ladies who are blaming their unhappy marriages, their divorces and estrangements, and pretty much everything, on the continued existence of Donald Trump. There’s quite a bit to mental jungle to hack through, so bring a packed lunch:How do you solve a problem like Kirsten . . .
29 percent of respondents to a May 2017 survey said their romantic relationship had been negatively affected by Trump’s presidency. And even people ostensibly on the same side of the issues as their partner have run into challenges, with the climate exacerbating or revealing new fault lines.Ms Langmuir introduces us to several pseudonymous couples and singletons – people for whom the merest deviation in thought has proved too much to bear. First up, we meet Kirsten:
What follows is a litany of statements which stress test Poe's Law. Thompson is clearly having a lot of fun.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that, if your preferred candidate doesn’t win an election and you immediately spiral into serious depression, and watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, then the wheels on the wagon may already be rattling loose, and a little perspective may be in order. Say, a wider and more politically varied social circle, in which demurral is routine and diverging opinions don’t necessarily result in chronic rage. However, Kirsten sought solace in like-minded souls - other disaffected ladies of the left:
I was really energised. The people I was meeting were so bright and interesting.Not everyone gets out much.
I took a class called Witnessing Whiteness and realised that racism is at the core of the problem of this country and that the only thing I can do is be an ally and show up and shut up.And so, an alcoholic stalker of ex-boyfriends, and who bases intimate relationships on revenge, has fathomed society’s problems. And it’s all Whitey’s fault.
Geoffrey never went to one rally or meeting. He just didn’t care.Perhaps Geoffrey wasn’t quite so enamoured of these “bright and interesting” people who think “whiteness” is the root of all social evil. Sadly, we aren’t privy to his perspective.
Then a girlfriend of mine got cancer, and I realised if I got cancer, I would’ve lived my whole life pretending to be something I’m not.At which point, you may be assuming that I’m taking sentences from other articles, randomly, but I promise you I’m not. This is Kirsten’s reported train of thought, as shared by Ms Langmuir.
All of a sudden, I thought, I can’t be married anymore. There’s no time for complicity. There’s just none.Yes, that’s the very next sentence. Whiteness is bad, conservatives are bad, and marriage is complicity. Do keep up.
Heterosis, also known as hybrid vigor
From 'Optimal Mating Distance' Really Does Lead to Super Fit Offspring by Jim Erickson-Michigan.
We know that some of the richest cultural moments come when two competent cultures interact with one another, the knowledge, ideas and assumptions of one serving as a catalyst to the other leading to new knowledge, art forms, ideas and creativity. Think of Hellenism in the Middle East, Calvinist Scotland interacting with Mercantilist England, and the multiple cultural strands in pre-revolutionary America yielding such a unique synthesis - a nation forged in ideas rather than blood and land.
But, there is always a but . . . There has to be some optimal epistemic overlap, the parallel to the optimal mating distance. If the epistemic Venn diagram of two cultures is nearly identical, the hybrid vigor effect is weak. If the epistemic Venn diagram of to cultures has no overlap, then you are much more likely to have catastrophic conflict rather than constructive vigor.
But what is the optimal cultural epistemic overlap? Who knows. We are just beginning to reach understanding of this real phenomenon in biology. And we are likely still a long way from it being settled.
Measuring cultures, values and epistemology is still nascent and therefore we are likely decades or longer from material progress.
Interestingly, where cultural epistemic overlap, in one form or another, has probably been explored the most is in sciece fiction where the challenges of mutual comprehension is almost a trope.
As an example of a very light version of this exploration of cultural epistemic gap, think of The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. A small population of alien hybrid children are spawned on Earth. They physically resemble humans but have a shared telepathic capability.
Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land is probably the better known in this genre of intercultural epistemic mixing.
The genetic distance between the two parents of an individual, known as mating distance, influences the individual’s fitness via two competing mechanisms.In epistemology there is a similar function to heterosis, though I do not know if it has a name.
On one hand, increasing the genetic distance is beneficial because of the phenomenon of heterosis, also known as hybrid vigor. Plant and animal breeders routinely exploit the genetic benefits of this phenomenon by breeding together two distinct parental lines.
Such crosses can impart increased fitness by producing hybrid offspring that are larger and healthier—and in the case of corn plants, more productive—than their inbred parents.
But too large a genetic distance between individuals can be harmful owing to genetic incompatibility.
Biologists have long suspected that the optimal mating distance represents an intermediate point that marks a tradeoff between the advantages of heterosis and the harmful effects of genetic incompatibility. The new study confirms those suspicions.
The results suggest that in both plant breeding and conservation, using mating distances close to the OMD, the optimal mating distance, will likely optimize a suite of fitness-related traits.
We know that some of the richest cultural moments come when two competent cultures interact with one another, the knowledge, ideas and assumptions of one serving as a catalyst to the other leading to new knowledge, art forms, ideas and creativity. Think of Hellenism in the Middle East, Calvinist Scotland interacting with Mercantilist England, and the multiple cultural strands in pre-revolutionary America yielding such a unique synthesis - a nation forged in ideas rather than blood and land.
But, there is always a but . . . There has to be some optimal epistemic overlap, the parallel to the optimal mating distance. If the epistemic Venn diagram of two cultures is nearly identical, the hybrid vigor effect is weak. If the epistemic Venn diagram of to cultures has no overlap, then you are much more likely to have catastrophic conflict rather than constructive vigor.
But what is the optimal cultural epistemic overlap? Who knows. We are just beginning to reach understanding of this real phenomenon in biology. And we are likely still a long way from it being settled.
Measuring cultures, values and epistemology is still nascent and therefore we are likely decades or longer from material progress.
Interestingly, where cultural epistemic overlap, in one form or another, has probably been explored the most is in sciece fiction where the challenges of mutual comprehension is almost a trope.
As an example of a very light version of this exploration of cultural epistemic gap, think of The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. A small population of alien hybrid children are spawned on Earth. They physically resemble humans but have a shared telepathic capability.
As they grow up, it becomes increasingly apparent that they are, at least in some respects, not human. They possess telepathic abilities, and can control others' actions. The Children (they are referred to with a capital C) have two distinct group minds: one for the boys and another for the girls. Their physical development is accelerated compared with that of humans; upon reaching the age of nine, they appear to be sixteen-year-olds.Lewis explores, though only as a subsidiary theme, the question about the consequences of such cultural epistemic distance. When there is some form of a functioning group mind, who has the burden of guilt for a crime? Is it just the child struck by the car? The children in immediate proximity? The entirety of the group mind?
The Children protect themselves as much as possible using a form of mind control. One young man who accidentally hits a Child in the hip while driving a car is made to drive into a wall and kill himself. A bull which chased the Children is forced into a pond to drown.
Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land is probably the better known in this genre of intercultural epistemic mixing.
No Milk Today by Herman's Hermits
No Milk Today by Herman's Hermits
Double click to enlarge.
Double click to enlarge.
No Milk Today
by Herman's Hermits
No milk today my love is gone away
The bottle stands forlorn a symbol of the dawn
No milk today it seems a common sight
But people passing by don't know the reason why
How could they know just what this message means
The end of all my hopes the end of all my dreams
How could they know a palace there had been
Behind the door where my love reigned as queen
No milk today it wasn't always so
The company was gay we turn'd night into day
But all that's left is a place dark and lonely
A terraced house in a mean street back of town
Becomes a shrine when I think of you only
Just two up to down
No milk today it wasn't always so
The company was gay we turn'd night into day
As music played the faster did we dance
We felt it both at once the start of our romance
How could they know just what this message means
The end of all my hopes the end of all my dreams
How could they know a palace there had been
Behind the door where my love reigned as queen
No milk today my love is gone away
The bottle stands forlorn a symbol of the dawn
But all that's left is a place dark and lonely
A terraced house in a mean street back of town
Becomes a shrine when I think of you only
Just two up to down
No milk today my love is gone away
The bottle stands forlorn a symbol of the dawn
No milk today it seems a common sight
But people passing by don't know the reason why
How could they know just what this message means
The end of all my hopes the end of all my dreams
How could they know a palace there had been
Behind the door where my love reigned as queen
No milk today it wasn't always so
The company was gay we turn'd night into day
But all that's left is a place dark and lonely
A terraced house in a mean street back of town
All that's left is a place dark and lonely
A terraced house in a mean street back of town
But all that's left is a place dark and lonely
A terraced house in a mean street back of town
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