In 2010, Svante Pääbo and his colleagues presented a draft version of the genome from a small fragment of a human finger bone discovered in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. The DNA sequences showed that this individual came from a previously unknown group of extinct humans that have become known as Denisovans. Together with their sister group the Neandertals, Denisovans are the closest extinct relatives of currently living humans.
Stunning.

Or, at least according to 23andMe. When they show racial breakdowns they only show three categories: African, European, and Asian.
Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area and being nearly fluent in Spanish, I had a simple question:
Huh? What about Hispanic people?
Perhaps modern genetics doesn’t see Hispanic as a distinct race at all, but rather as a mix of races. Is that the case?
I guess that would add up. We know now that American Indians are basically Asians, and we also understand that modern Mexicans and South Americans are some mix of American Indian and European / African. So it’s actually not too difficult to grasp that other Hispanic people would also be some mix of those primary components.
I simply found it interesting that if a Hispanic person gets a modern DNA test (at least with 23andMe) there won’t be any information in the results about how “Hispanic” they are, since Black, White, and Asian seem to be the primary “races” recognized by genetics.
[ Note: I get the feeling this is the type of information that's interesting/controversial to people who've never heard it before and Grade A boring to anyone who works in the field. ]
::
Interesting. I just now learned that cousin technically means “shares common ancestor” rather than “child of parent’s brother”. I’m not sure how I went this long without knowing that. Credit to 23andMe for forcing me to learn this.
I just bought four books during the course of watching this talk. Phenomenal.
“There are two ways you can make an error as a man,” says Perilloux. “Either you think, ‘Oh, wow, that woman’s really interested in me’—and it turns out she’s not. There’s some cost to that,” such as embarrassment or a blow to your reputation. The other error: “She’s interested, and he totally misses out. He misses out on a mating opportunity. That’s a huge cost in terms of reproductive success.” The researchers theorize that the kind of guy who went for it, even at the risk of being rebuffed, scored more often—and passed on his overperceiving tendency to his genetic heirs. The casual sex seekers “face slightly different adaptive problems,” says Perilloux. “They are limited mainly by the number of consenting sex partners—so overestimation is even more important.” Only the actually attractive men probably had no need for misperception.
Interesting.
A curious vocal pattern has crept into the speech of young adult women who speak American English: low, creaky vibrations, also called vocal fry. Pop singers, such as Britney Spears, slip vocal fry into their music as a way to reach low notes and add style. Now, a new study of young women in New York state shows that the same guttural vibration—once considered a speech disorder—has become a language fad.
Vocal fry, or glottalization, is a low, staccato vibration during speech, produced by a slow fluttering of the vocal chords (listen here). Since the 1960s, vocal fry has been recognized as the lowest of the three vocal registers, which also include falsetto and modal—the usual speaking register. Speakers creak differently according to their gender, although whether it is more common in males or females varies among languages. In American English, anecdotal reports suggest that the behavior is much more common in women. (In British English, the pattern is the opposite.) Historically, continual use of vocal fry was classified as part of a voice disorder that was believed to lead to vocal chord damage. However, in recent years, researchers have noted occasional use of the creak in speakers with normal voice quality.
In the new study, scientists at Long Island University (LIU) in Brookville, New York, investigated the prevalence of vocal fry in college-age women. The team recorded sentences read by 34 female speakers. Two speech-language pathologists trained to identify voice disorders evaluated the speech samples. They marked the presence or absence of vocal fry by listening to each speaker’s pitch and two qualities called jitter and shimmer—variation in pitch and volume, respectively.
This is fascinating.
I’ve noticed that many college educated, classy-sounding, hottie or hottie-aspiring, and young professional women do this. When combined with other intonations it sounds very sophisticated — as if the speaker spends a lot of time and money on herself. That’s the impression it gives me, anyway.
Another way to say this is that this speech pattern is the new ‘hoity toity’ way of speaking for women wishing to sound young, hip, and attractive. Again, that’s my feel for it.
I left after spending a weekend with a girl who does this consistently in her speech, called a department store about some shoes and the woman on the phone did the exact same thing. It was fascinating.
Listen for it.
tcpdump Tutoriallsof Introductiongit Primerfind Command lsof Commandtar Referencelsof TutorialDaniel Miessler | 1999-2012 | Share Alike
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