SMITHSONIAN ON THE LATEST - NEANDERTHALS and DENISONVANS

SMITHSONIAN : HUMAN ORIGINS: NEANDERTHAL DNA  a full and excellent article that provides information also on blood type evolution, the perception of bitter taste, dental enamel, immune response, 

Excerpt:   

Clotting, Depression, and Allergies

While many of the genes that we retain for generations are either beneficial or neutral, there are some that have become deleterious in our new, modern lives. There are several genes that our Neanderthal relatives have contributed to our genome that were once beneficial in the past but can now cause health-related problems (Simonti et al 2016). One of these genes allows our blood to coagulate (or clot) quickly, a useful adaptation in creatures who were often injured while hunting. However, in modern people who live longer lives, this same trait of quick-clotting blood can cause harmful blood clots to form in the body later in life. Researchers found another gene that can cause depression and other neurological disorders and is triggered by disturbances in circadian rhythms. Since it is unlikely that Neanderthals experienced such disturbances to their natural sleep cycles, they may never have expressed this gene, but in modern humans who can control our climate and for whom our lifestyle often disrupts our circadian rhythms, this gene is expressed more frequently.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD QUILT CODES

SMITHSONIAN FOLK LIFE MAGAZINE : UNDERGROUND RAILROAD QUILT CODES 

Did slaves and Underground Railroad participants set out quilts that were maps to freedom, signals that it was a good time to leave, or that a particular house was a safe house on the way to Ohio Territory?

Patterns:

Bow Tie - Dress in disguise to appear of higher status.

Bear Paw - Follow an animal trail through the mountains to find water and food.

Log Cabin - Seek shelter now, the people here are safe to speak with.

Drunkards Path - Zig Zag as you go along incase you are being stalked by houndes.

Double Wedding Ring - It's now safe to remove chains and shackles. 

 *** This article suggests that the book about the codes, a popular book that I read years ago, is controversial... 

Well, I believe it.  I loved this book!

JEFFERSON DAVIS - AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT : DVD FILM REVIEW

JEFFERSON DAVIS - AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT The Life Story of the First and Only President of the Confederacy a Kultur DVD 


ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW:

This 3 DVD set was so enlightening! I promise I will watch the film in its entirety one more time! I realized just how ignorant I was of the Confederacy. In this portrait of the man, I learned that until the Civil War Davis first and foremost considered himself an AMERICAN. He was an Army officer, a congressman, the Secretary of War, and a two term Mississippi senator, and one of the greats who found the Smithsonian Institute, and "largely responsible" for the current design on the U.S. Capitol. As things turned out Davis was on the wrong side of the Civil War and lead years of life afterwards in which he struggled to support his family or again live to his potential. Jefferson Davis also had a profoundly tragic personal life, like his old colleague Abraham Lincoln. His life spanned that of the 19th century.

_____

Personally, I dislike that various confederacy statues and historical displays are being taken down.  Just because the South lost?  Or because there is an assumption that the South, and all who were on that side, were all about racism - rather than economics. I realize this is not a politically correct opinion, but I think that if this continues, all the California Missions will be taken down too.  Off the go to "graveyards," but some day they will be refound and unveiled; this has happened in other countries.

Leave them up and learn history!  A tour guide can always make such things part of a discussion.  For instance one tour of a California Mission I took was guided by a fake Franciscan Friar in his brown garb with the rope belt and sandals whose personal opinion was against the Catholic Church. Believe it or not.  Yet I've met a couple Native American ancestry people who think that they are better off because they became Catholics - this is Arizona.

GENEALOGY DOCUMENTS sometimes prove that things taught in classrooms are not true.  For instance, I was taught Mexicans and Native Americans were always friends.
Some Americans believe all Native Americans were peaceful and unified when it fact some of them warred with each other.  Some Native Americans owned slaves, some married them, and I've seen that on census records. The Civil War issues split up some families.

So I like to say that history is "niche specific."

C 2018  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

BLOOD TYPES MORE NUMEROUS THAN THOUGHT

SMITHSONIAN - BLOOD TYPE MORE COMPLICATED THAN YOU THINK   by Daniel A. Gross

EXCERPT:

You’re probably aware of eight basic blood types: A, AB, B and O, each of which can be “positive” or “negative.” They're the most important, because a patient who receives ABO +/– incompatible blood very often experiences a dangerous immune reaction. For the sake of simplicity, these are the types that organizations like the Red Cross usually talk about. But this system turns out to be a big oversimplification. Each of these eight types of blood can be subdivided into many distinct varieties. There are millions in all, each classified according to the little markers called antigens that coat the surface of red blood cells.

There are in fact hundreds of antigens that fall into 33 recognized antigen systems, many of which can cause dangerous reactions during transfusion. One person's blood can contain a long list of antigens, which means that a fully specified blood type has to be written out antigen by antigen—for example, O, r”r”, K:–1, Jk(b-). Try fitting that into that little space on your Red Cross card.