Lady X
Posted: December 25, 2010 Filed under: just because | Tags: Anthropology, Denisovans, Homo Sapiens, Neanderthals, X-Woman 18 CommentsWell, actually it’s X-Woman but Lady X made a better title. The science of genetics is exciting and has turned up so much important information recently that it’s made the Theory of Evolution ironclad. This discovery of a new species of old humans is just about the most interesting read I’ve seen in a long time. I took a lot of anthropology courses at university and was terrifically fascinated by Neanderthals. This appears to be a species with some ties to them. Yes, I still read The National Geographic and have read it since my grandparents bought me a subscription in the early 60s. I was a ardent fan of Louis and Mary Leaky.
A previously unknown kind of human—the Denisovans—likely roamed Asia for thousands of years, probably interbreeding occasionally with humans like you and me, according to a new genetic study.
In fact, living Pacific islanders in Papua New Guinea may be distant descendants of these prehistoric pairings, according to new analysis of DNA from a girl’s 40,000-year-old pinkie bone, found in Siberian Russia‘s Denisova cave.
This “new twist” in human evolution adds substantial new evidence that different types of humans—so-called modern humans and Neanderthals, modern humans and Denisovans, and perhaps even Denisovans and Neanderthals—mated and bore offspring, experts say.
The article also links to an even more interesting topic area: “Interspecies Sex: Evolution’s Hidden Secret?”.
There appears to be some evidence that Denisovans, Neanderthals, and Homo Sapiens did some species mixing. This is also a new item because it was previously thought that Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens kept to themselves. Well, I guess that was true for awhile if you were a scientist and not a reader of The Clan of the Cavebear series.
The centerpiece of the DNA study is a Denisovan fossil finger bone discovered in 2008. The fossil is thought to be from a young girl—dubbed X-woman—who was between 5 and 7 years old when she died.
For a previous Nature study, released in March 2010, the team had collected and sequenced mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA, from X-woman’s finger. But mtDNA—inherited only from mothers—contains far less information about a person’s genetic makeup than DNA found in the nucleus of a cell, or nuclear DNA (see a quick genetics overview).
In the new study the team reports successfully extracting and sequencing nuclear DNA from the bone.
Then, using DNA-comparison techniques, the scientists were able to determine that Denisovans were distinct from both modern humans and Neanderthals, yet closely related to the latter.
The team estimates Denisovans split from the parent group of Neanderthals about 350,000 years ago.
One of the interesting things will be seeing if scientists can piece together the Denisovan move from places around eastern Europe to New Guinea.
“We don’t think the Denisovans went to Papua New Guinea,” located at the northwestern edge of the Pacific region called Melanesia, explained study co-author Bence Viola, an anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
“We think the Denisovan population inhabited most of eastern Eurasia in the same way that Neanderthals inhabited most of western Eurasia,” Viola said. “Our idea is that the ancestors of Melanesians met the Denisovans in Southeast Asia and interbred, and the ancestors of Melanesians then moved on to Papua New Guinea.”
The study of Melanesia is another thing that has expanded recently. The DNA findings of X-Woman was reported by WaPo in March of this year.
A team of European researchers has identified a new lineage of proto-human that left Africa about a million years ago, traveling as far as Siberia and then dying out — a discovery that raises new questions about early human history.
The existence of the new lineage was discovered by analyzing DNA extracted from a single bone fragment, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. What the beings looked like, how they lived and what happened to them are a mystery. All that’s known is that they existed as recently as 40,000 years ago, which is the approximate age of the bone.
“Whoever carried this DNA out of Africa is some new creature that hasn’t been on our radar screen so far,” said Johannes Krause, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, who helped lead the research team.
It seems that are now closer to calling little Lady X a member of a new species. This means we seem to have a new set of cousins to add to our family tree! This is really exciting!!
Resistance is hopefully not futile …
Posted: December 24, 2010 Filed under: Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights | Tags: TSA enhanced patdown procedures 25 CommentsAn Austin woman may be the first test of does-no-mean-no when it comes to the TSA. A 56 year old rape survivor
with a pacemaker refused to have her breasts touched after a computer glitch shut down a security checkpoint for a few hours at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. The TSA arrested the woman for refusing ‘enhanced security’ measures.
Isn’t the word enhanced such the latest in Orwellian newspeak (e.g enhanced security measures, enhanced interrogative techniques)? I’m beginning to think we should consider anything with the word ‘enhanced’ near it to probably be a signal that our constitutional rights are about to be violated. Here’s some of the details from local Austin TV station KVUE. There’s a video interview of the woman there.
Claire Hirschkind, 56, who says she is a rape victim and who has a pacemaker-type device implanted in her chest, says her constitutional rights were violated. She says she never broke any laws. But the Transportation Security Administration disagrees.
Hirschkind was hoping to spend Christmas with friends in California, but she never made it past the security checkpoint.
“I can’t go through because I have the equivalent of a pacemaker in me,” she said.
Hirschkind said because of the device in her body, she was led to a female TSA employee and three Austin police officers. She says she was told she was going to be patted down.
“I turned to the police officer and said, ‘I have given no due cause to give up my constitutional rights. You can wand me,'” and they said, ‘No, you have to do this,'” she said.
Hirschkind agreed to the pat down, but on one condition.
“I told them, ‘No, I’m not going to have my breasts felt,’ and she said, ‘Yes, you are,'” said Hirschkind.
When Hirschkind refused, she says that “the police actually pushed me to the floor, (and) handcuffed me. I was crying by then. They drug me 25 yards across the floor in front of the whole security.”
An ABIA spokesman says it is TSA policy that anyone activating a security alarm has two options. One is to opt out and not fly, and the other option is to subject themselves to an enhanced pat down. Hirschkind refused both and was arrested.
I’m supposed to be in Denver for a AEA meeting. I really need to be there, but I just will not subject myself to these intrusive policies and I think any one that does is just asking to lose more of their civil liberties. I’m opting out of commercial air travel. I’ll drive from here on out until this abomination of a policy goes. Who says you check your civil liberties at the door when you opt to use a commercial service? Again, what’s next? City Buses? Class rooms? Voting boothes?
I’m with Claire. No means no. Unless they can show a judge’s order, I’m calling it unreasonable search and seizure.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, 4th Amendment
Nostalgic for Nixon?
Posted: December 23, 2010 Filed under: Civil Liberties, FBI raids | Tags: Chicago, FBI Raids, Minneapolis, Peace Activists 30 CommentsI thought we’d made some progress since J Edgar Hoover headed the FBI, but maybe not. This is a really disturbing story I heard as I listened to today’s show from Democracy Now. You may recall that the FBI raided homes of peace activists in Minnesota and Chicago back in September. Here’s one of those villainous peace activists from back then.
Most of these folks are aligned with Palestinian solidarity groups. In the fall, subpoenas to appear before a grand jury
were served on 13 of the activists. The subpoenas were later withdrawn when the activists asserted their fifth amendment rights. Many of us thought the situation had ended there. We were wrong. Three of those people who were the subject of raids were reissued subpoenas earlier this month. (Happy Holidays!! Peace On Earth!!!) Democracy Now picks up the story with an additional subpoena that was issued to a “Chicago-based activist and journalist involved in Palestinian solidarity work—at least the 23rd person subpoenaed since September”.
I found some information on a peace rally in front of the Dirksen Federal Building this month in Chicago from the Episcopal Peace Fellowship. (Yeah, that HAS to be a terrorist group!) It’s dated December 9, 2010. This piece not only mentions the Palestinian solidarity connections but also Colombian connections.
A group of about 100 activists braved frigid temperatures to protest the latest round of FBI subpoenas in front of the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago Monday night.
The FBI issues summons to appear before a federal grand jury to three college students Friday. They are scheduled to appear on Jan. 25, said their attorney Jim Fennerty of the National Lawyers Guild. The women are being targeted because they traveled to the Palestinian occupied territory of the West Bank, he added.
The new subpoenas bring to 17 the number of activists throughout the Midwest that have been targeted by the FBI for their Palestinian and Colombian solidarity work.
Amy Goodman’s piece at Democracy Now has more details. (Shameless Plug: Please PLEASE keep Democracy Now on your charitable giving list). Notice there’s also a recent Supreme Court decision that has put peace activities in the FBI’s cross hairs.
All those subpoenaed have been involved with antiwar activism that’s critical of U.S. foreign policy. Details on the grand jury case remain scarce, but the subpoenas cited federal law prohibiting, quote, “providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.” In June, the Supreme Court rejected a free speech challenge to the material support law from humanitarian aid groups that said some of its provisions put them at risk of being prosecuted for talking to terrorist groups about nonviolent activities.
I have to admit that I have a particular interest in this because I have an FBI file from the 1970s. They actually read my mail coming to my dorm room. It was because I was a member of the University of Nebraska’s University Women’s Action Group and was actively working to change the state’s “rape” law at the time and to get sexual assault and battery crimes moved out of property crimes divisions in police departments and into major crime units. Some one broke into the car of the NOW State Coordinator, took her mailing list, and suddenly, all of us noticed that our mail never made it to us without ever having a broken envelope seal. It was bizarre. It didn’t last long because I think at some point either Ford or Carter must’ve put an end to it. Nixon was even out of office by that time. Believe me, I was hardly a radical or a threat at the time. I thought the ‘thought police’ thing had kind’ve gone by the wayside after the Nixon/Ford years but, boy does that seem to be a wrong assessment.
So, Amy Goodman interviewed several of the people involved in the recent FBI and grand jury activity. Here’s an account of the recent ordeal by Peace Activist Tracy Holm.
Right now, our individual lawyers are being called into meetings with the District Attorney, Fox, in Chicago. They’re essentially trying to scare us into talking, to naming names and giving them a case against the movement and against the people that we have worked with historically to fight for justice for the people of Palestine and the people of Colombia.
I’m really curious about the Colombia thing. Do you know of any suicide bombers, etc. from Colombia? So, the interview continues by bringing in “Coleen Rowley, a former FBI agent who was named by Time Magazine Woman of the Year for her exposure of the problems in intelligence by the FBI pre-9/11″. She is interviewed by Juan Gonzalez.
Well, you know, after 9/11, we almost—there was a green light put on, and there was a very big blurring between protest, civil disobedience and terrorism. And you saw this in many ways. The door was open to basically targeting, without any level of factual justification, advocacy groups. And again, this began pretty quickly after 9/11.
It’s gotten to the point now, nine years later—and I wanted to mention the Washington Post is doing a pretty good job of exposing this, this top-secret America, this monitoring. Their most recent article in the Washington Post says there’s a hundred—the FBI has 164,000 suspicious activity reports. Again, these are things that just have no level of factual justification, that people call in, and the FBI is now keeping records on people. So, I think that, you know, this case will just be the start of targeting various groups like this.
Are we now back in the place that we were in the 1970s where just being an activist for Social Justice gets you onto some one’s radar? Because, if we are, I’m thinking my email and mail are going to be read again. Does this trouble you the way it troubles me?
The Year in Congress
Posted: December 23, 2010 Filed under: commercial banking, DADT, GLBT Rights, Global Financial Crisis, Health care reform, investment banking, Team Obama, The Bonus Class, The Great Recession, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: Financial Reform, Health care reform, Obama-McConnell Tax Breaks extension, repeal of DADT, START, The Do-a-lot 111th congress 18 CommentsI found this article at the CSM that highlights that we actually had a Do-a-Lot congress this year and it has a nifty self
test on political knowledge in 2010 you may want to take. They highlighted six big laws that were passed this year. All of them were definitely steps in the correct direction even though they had flaws that will have to be worked out. I’m not sure I’d consider all of them great successes but when you look back on the list, you’re sure to find something naughty and nice.
Here’s there intro to the list.
The post-election lame-duck session – typically a mopping-up operation to get out of town – also made history, passing key pieces of legislation, often with greater input from Republicans than had earlier been the case. People can argue the merits of what Congress did, but it’s hard to quibble with the scope of the undertaking. Here are six of this Congress’s major accomplishments, in the order in which they were approved.
Here are their list of “six big achievements”.
1. American Recovery & Reinvestment Act
The $819 billion economic stimulus package, signed into law February 2009 less than a month after Barack Obama became president, is the largest stand-alone spending bill in US history. It included tax cuts, as well as new spending for public works, education, clean energy, technology, and health care.
2. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Congress battled for a year to pass health-care reform, which was finally a done deal March 23, 2010. The law mandates that all Americans obtain health insurance coverage, and it sets up entities called health exchanges to provide people with affordable options.
3. Financial regulatory reform
Known officially as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the new law is the most significant regulatory overhaul of the financial system since the Depression ended in the 1930s. Signed into law in July 2010, it aims to end bailouts forced on taxpayers by financial institutions deemed “too big to fail” and to protect consumers. Included in the legislation is a powerful, independent consumer-protection bureau, an early-warning system for financial groups deemed too big to fail, new oversight of credit agencies, and lower fees on debit-card charges. It also directs much of the $600 trillion over-the-counter derivatives trade through clearinghouses and exchanges.
4. Big tax-cut extension, plus new stimulus
Congress averted the largest tax increase in American history by voting in December to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for two years, including for the highest-income households.
5. Repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’
Fulfilling campaign pledges of the last two Democratic presidents, Obama on Dec. 22 signed a law that repeals a 17-year ban on gay men and women serving openly in the US armed services.
6. New nuclear arms pact with Russia
The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia reduces the US and Russian arsenals of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 apiece within seven years. The Senate ratified the treaty Dec. 22 by a vote of 71 to 26.
Okay, I’ll put it to you!
Naughty or Nice list?
See, even JuJu the Christmas Cat wants in on the project!!! (I guess my youngest daughter still hasn’t gotten through the doll phase yet.)









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