HAMILTON, Ohio — A city prosecutor was charged with indecency after a security camera caught him walking around naked in a government building after business hours.
Hmm, OK. I can’t say that I’ve ever done that after hours at any of my jobs…
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Researchers Say Intelligence and Diseases May Be Linked in Ashkenazic Genes – New York Times
Researchers Say Intelligence and Diseases May Be Linked in Ashkenazic Genes – New York Times
A team of scientists at the University of Utah has proposed that the unusual pattern of genetic diseases seen among Jews of central or northern European origin, or Ashkenazim, is the result of natural selection for enhanced intellectual ability.
…the Utah researchers argue, evolution has had to counter a sudden threat by favoring any mutation that protected against it, whatever the side effects. Ashkenazic diseases like Tay-Sachs, they say, are a side effect of genes that promote intelligence.
…Ashkenazi Jews occupied a different social niche from their European hosts, and that is where any selective effect must have operated, the Utah researchers say. From A.D. 800, when the Ashkenazi presence in Europe is first recorded, to about 1700, Ashkenazi Jews held a restricted range of occupations, which required considerable intellectual acumen. In France, most were moneylenders by A.D. 1100. Expelled from France in 1394, and from parts of Germany in the 15th century, they moved eastward and were employed by Polish rulers first as moneylenders and then as agents who paid a large tax to a noble and then tried to collect the amount, at a profit, from the peasantry. After 1700, the occupational restrictions on Jews were eased.
As to how the disease mutations might affect intelligence, the Utah researchers cite evidence that the sphingolipid disorders promote the growth and interconnection of brain cells. Mutations in the DNA repair genes, involved in second cluster of Ashkenazic diseases, may also unleash growth of neurons.
In describing what they see as the result of the Ashkenazic mutations, the researchers cite the fact that Ashkenazi Jews make up 3 percent of the American population but won 27 percent of its Nobel prizes, and account for more than half of world chess champions. They say that the reason for this unusual record may be that differences in Ashkenazic and northern European I.Q. are not large at the average, where most people fall, but become more noticeable at the extremes; for people with an I.Q. over 140, the proportion is 4 per 1,000 among northern Europeans but 23 per 1,000 with Ashkenazim.
When I was pregnant with my second (my son), I had a really mean OBGYN who worked in the same office as my main OBGYN. The mean one sat me down in his office and told me that my son would probably have Tay-Sachs because of my Jewish (Ashkenazic) blood. My family history made it so that my son was incredibly likely to suffer from Tay-Sachs, and this doctor told me that I was a horrible mother who was risking my child’s life when I refused to take the genetic test during my pregnancy. I told him that it didn’t matter because I would have my child no matter what happened.
Now why wasn’t that doctor telling me that my son was way more likely to become a Nobel Prize winner or a genius? 😛 That would’ve been a much more pleasant conversation.
And hey, doesn’t this tie in nicely with my post about IQ and breastfeeding? No wonder I’m a breastfeeder! Its all about the Ashkenazic blood, baby! LOL.
Children Inherit Higher IQ from Mom’s Brains, Not Her Milk – CME Teaching Brief® – MedPage Today
Children Inherit Higher IQ from Mom’s Brains, Not Her Milk – CME Teaching Brief® – MedPage Today
The mother’s IQ was a better predictor of whether she would breastfeed than race, education, age, poverty status, smoking, the home environment, or the child’s birth weight or birth order. One standard deviation increase in maternal IQ (15 points) more than doubled the odds that a woman would breastfeed her child.
Hmm, well OK. You can’t argue with science, I suppose 🙂
I guess this means that a Mensa meeting won’t be too different from a La Leche League meeting. 😉
New highlights
Ahhh! Don’t you love fresh hair color? OK, maybe not you, PenguinSushi 😛 (For some reason, I automatically added a “t” to the end of your name when I typed that – PenguinSushit!) Anyways, for the rest of us who appreciate haircolor. Behold!!! I did my regular colors (chocolate brown, deep red, and blonde), but reduced the blonde and did the whole underside (which is normally virgin hair) in the chocolate brown. Its very fall-y 🙂
Grain mill
FU H2
Note: This above link is not a site to view with children! Especially those who can read!
It is a site that encourages you to take pictures of yourself flipping off a Hummer H2 due to the many negative things the H2 contributes to our environment and the safety of other cars. I think it is hilarious, but I have that kind of sense of humor (right, Rebecca?)
I also think it is hilarious that they refer to it as an “urban assult vehicle” 
The H2 is a death machine. You’d better hope that you don’t collide with an H2 in your economy car. You can kiss your *** goodbye thanks to the H2’s massive weight and raised bumpers. Too bad you couldn’t afford an urban assault vehicle of your own. Or could you…?
And now for the page, in case you didn’t click the link in my post title. Some of the submissions are really funny.
http://www.fuh2.com/
