C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 102

Since some seem interested, here’s what I’m learning from my MtDNA test…

Up to a certain step all of you who have African, Middle Eastern, European, Melanesian, or Asian or Native American ancestry will be the same as me and Jane. We all are.

My European haplo group, H5b, comes originally from an African haplogroup called L3, in the African Rift Valley, some 70,000 years ago. Mitochondrial Eve was 180,000 years ago, and her descendants produced two groups, ultimately. One was L3, shared with people all over north Africa. But the part of that L3 lineage that would lead to H5b followed improving climate conditions northward, leading them slowly up the Great Rift of Africa into the Middle East by two routes, one into southern Arabia, one into northern. It’s worth noting that the world had just gone through (theoretically) a cataclysm, a volcanic winter, produced by the eruption of the Toba supervolcano, in Indonesia: 6-7 years of darkened skies, acid rain, and (in Africa) drought. This one group, apparently as conditions improved, began to move. Maybe it was population pressure, caused by a greater birthrate as conditions improved. Maybe it was scarcity of game, or whatever—one day a group that was strongly L3 just started traveling more.

Ten thousand years later, 60,000 years ago, L3 mutated again; and the daughters that had this mutation migrated, some back into northern Africa (Egypt) and some through Iran and Syria; then some went into Anatolia (Asia Minor), some went south of the Caspian Sea toward Asia, and some went between the Caspian and the Black Sea, into what became Azerbaijan.

A mere 5000 years further on, 55,000 years, there was another MtDNA mutation: those daughters began to wander all over the aforesaid regions, and back into Egypt, down into Yemen, off through Iraq, and toward Mongolia and toward Turkmenistan (above the Black Sea). Those lineages wandering off in these directions formed other haplogroups who drop off our chart entirely.

Another mutation, 41,000 years ago…again sent daughters wandering all over this area, getting nearly to the heart of Russia, but concentrating mostly in Arabia.

Another, 30,000 years ago, give or take 7000 years, and daughters of the H haplogroup spread clear to the Indus valley, but one part of it, my part, headed the opposite direction—going west. Unfortunately so: the world was about to enter another deep freeze, and Europe (the west) was NOT going to be a good place to settle.

There was a big dieoff among the daughters and sons of the H group, and the weather forced them south. The H (European) haplogroup probably lost a lot of lineages, narrowed to a few lines, and nearly froze to death: by 5000 BC the H3h2 group (Jane’s group) just hunkered down in southern France, northern Italy, and in Spain. Mine, the H5b group, hunkered down south of the Black Sea.

Scientists are ‘still studying’ how the H5b group moved after that, though it likely could have gone up the same route other H’s followed, up through Georgia (Russia) and across into Europe, or up and over the Black Sea to reach Scandinavia or up through ancient Illyria (Albania) to reach central Europe.

The report, in effect, left my unfortunate MtDNA stranded on the underside of the Black Sea, about the time the migrations were happening that led first settlements, then secondary invasions down into Greece, down into Italy, into Crete, and into central Europe, Scandinavia, and Britain. The pyramids would rise in north Africa, the city states of Sumer and Akkad, the settlements at Catal Huyuk (who knows, maybe some of mine were there) and the Cyclades (Greek islands) all began and had their day. My folk were generally either down in some of those areas or slogging through forest. Some of them could have become the Franks. I’ve got a lot of that in my ancestry. So does Jane. Some could have been Gauls. Some could have been Finnish hunters or Scandinavians: some Swedes are H5b. Some Dutch are, and I am that. I’m also betting on the Franks and Gauls.

But not necessarily exclusively.

A really iffy part of my ancestry has me descended from, among other things, people from Pannonia (Ancient Hungary) and Alaric the Visigoth (who dealt with the Romans), as well as a Byzantine Emperor and a Roman general. I don’t trust those bits. They equate with the Scandinavian genealogy that has me descended from a Frost Giant.

The fact that H5b concentrates in south Italy is interesting (where wave A survived the Roman [wave b} influx) and Bulgaria/Turkey/Macedonia and turns up again in Finland (the Frost Giants? she asks facetiously) —it’s a puzzlement. The scientists well know how most of the rest of the H haplogroups got where it was going. But how did H5b get abandoned in Turkey 5000 years ago and then end up, as my ancestors did, in Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and England for the last 3000 years?

There are some historical circumstances that could account for it, and one of them IS the Roman empire, ca. 750 bc-ca 500 ad in various incarnations. It moved people about—drafted legions in the Middle East to serve in Britain and France, drafted the Aeduan tribe of Central France to serve in Syria…and it set governments in power and left them there after its own demise.

And I do have on the tag-ends of my traceable ancestry a Scandianvian chief who was done in by a bona fide wizard in a long-running feud. Maybe I should take another look at those Finnish frost giants.

tell eye/hair color from old dna? Evidently…

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130113201136.htm

Getting more info out of little remnants.

Jane just got her genographic report: it’s interesting—it’s her MtDNA from way back, and I’m waiting on pins and needles to know mine. She’s got relatives all over, including Siberia…way back.

Looks like we’re off the hook for Apophis…but keep a weather eye out…

…because they happen more often than you might think.

Apophis news

The glasses are here: they must have lit a fire under the lab…

I can’t wait. My eyes are getting very weary of the 2-3 year old prescription in the ones I found in a drawer.

Just got the advance jacket proof on Protector, btw, and it’s good!

The rumor was out that Amazon wouldn’t let writers review a book…

…and yep, they took my review down. Really frustrating. Sort of like saying a doctor or surgeon won’t be allowed to comment on a medical matter…but hey, certain self-published writers have shamelessly gamed the system and self-promoted. We also suspect that it was a complaint that tagged my review, but maybe it was just a bot.

However that happened, Jane really, really needs some support on these books. Help right now is important, because sales and reviews help ‘position’ the book in terms of visibility to Amazon customers. So if you’ve intended to write a review for these books, now would give the maximum assistance to her.

The doc is re-doing both lenses on the glasses…

So…well…maybe another week and I can see again.

Quel pain!

We’re working steadily, however.

BTW, if you haven’t got your copy of the Netwalkers Omnibus, do, over at Closed Circle (that gives Jane all the money) —and if you’re still waiting for the third book —it’s a duology, not a trilogy! There are only 2 parts, and is complete in the Omnibus.

I think we’re going to get our exercise today…just getting TO the car…

Our first week of going to the gym begins with half a foot of snow last night, atop the 2 inches from the night before, almost the heaviest single fall we’ve had since we came here. It’s beautiful, but we live on a regularly plowed (every few hours) arterial, and it’s moving like molasses in, well, January. It’s going to require snowblowing a way to the garage, clearing enough driveway for one car, and most of all, getting through the berm the plow will have given us last night.

So…..we work this morning, then kit up like a polar expedition and dig our way out before the berm gets worse!

I think we’ll call that exercise for the day!

Jane and I joined the Y…

We haven’t been skating—we are out of shape; and we couldn’t skate a full lap of the rink if we don’t get our wind back and build up muscle. Sitting in a chair is bad. Sitting in the same chair in the same position for hours and hours every day is worse. Letting your muscle go so you hurt when you move is bad. Letting your bones lose calcium because you’re not stressing them enough to make them lay down more calcium and losing little blood vessels because they’re not being used— is bad.

And you hurt. The more you sit—the worse you hurt. The shorter of wind you get; and the more circulation is diminishing, because the little capillaries that used to feed the muscle are just going away.

The converse is also true. If we could walk around the block (it’s a snowy white out there) we’d work out the kinks, lay down calcium, build muscle, and get our circulation back. But it’s snowy white out there.

So…we joined our skating coach (ret.) at the local Y, which is a state of the art center, and laid down the fees, and we’re going to do it. We’re starting on baby stuff. The babiest— is the recumbent bike that lets you just mostly recline and push about the weight of a bag of frozen peas with each foot. Over and over and over. These machines actually have a telly mounted above the controls, if you have to have commercials dinning at you. But I prefer watching the calories tick down. You feed in your age and weight and just pedal, concentrating on making your knee go straight over your toe (knocking knees in or out is seriously bad juju). The other machine we’re going to use is a stepper, where you stand on two platforms and it works like climbing a hill. You get to pick the gradient. I pick the chicken slope.

Bodies are funny, in that they LOVE to hold onto food (fat) and really are quite willing to break down muscle before they break down fat. The better part is that as you rebuild muscle and capillaries, the fat cells have to give up what they’re storing. And eventually, some time before the heat death of the universe, the fat cells, like any cells, run out of lifespan and DIE.

Muscle tissue weighs 18% more than fat; so at a certain point you’re going to gain weight before you have enough muscle to start sipping the fat out of those fat cells…but the good news is that your body has a ‘memory’ for certain chemical states, and the fact that we were not too long ago in better shape should translate to ‘build muscle fast: she means it!’

Funny thing: Jane and I have dieted mostly through the holidays, with a couple of binges, and binge or diet, weight has gotten only a little worse, but has never diminished AT ALL, when I’ve dieted since October. Could get up 4 pounds, or down 4, but never down 5.

Went to the gym and worked out for 15 minutes. Next morning I weigh, and I’m down a pound—one pound lower than that 3-month-long unbreakable barrier. The better news is—I didn’t tire myself so badly that I then had to sleep all afternoon: I was able to get back to work.

The bad news is the parking situation at the Y; it’s a popular place. But we’ll learn the good times. Unlike others, WE can adjust when we get there.

And by golly, that one mild session has helped the constant aches. I’m looking forward to getting rid of them. I’m looking forward to not tiring out so easily or so early, and to having my jeans fit, thank you.

Wish us luck. We’re taking our vitamins and our minerals and we’re going to break a sweat every day we go to the gym. Reform is in the offing.

Need your help, guys!

If you’ve read Jane’s new books—they’re now up on Amazon, and reviews would help her a lot!

Partners: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AW1GJ20 Partners



MnM: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AW1BU6K Of Mentors and Mimetrons

How accurate tv isn’t—

…woke up this morning (after a lovely New Year’s, thank you)—hearing some professor on the military channel (Battles BC) proclaim that Julius Caesar went to Gaul as a completely inexperienced novice senate appointee who had never been in the field. Hello?

First of all, he was brought up in a military household (uncle Marius)

he spent a year living in a swamp, refusing to divorce his wife—who was daughter of a political rival then in the ascendancy: lost that battle when he caught malaria and got caught.

Went to the Asian district to avoid assassination. Winner of his nation’s equivalent of the Medal of Honor, the corona civica, for saving the life of another soldier in battle…”Roman citizens who saved the lives of fellow citizens by slaying an enemy on a spot not further held by the enemy that same day. The citizen saved must admit it; no one else could be a witness.” He was also first over the wall in the battle for an Asian city. When kidnapped by pirates as a young man, he went to an Asian-area-of-operations base to call in old favors and led the expedition back to get the pirates; he served in Spain, another of the world’s trouble spots, where assassins and political zealots lived under every bush, and returned to Rome to stand for office only when it looked as if he was going to be the Roman army’s oldest lieutenant: you couldn’t get above that until you got a senate appointment, and he had to go back and make a deal with the devil (Crassus) to get it. THAT is when he got the appointment to Gaul, which brought him the legion Uncle Marius had created (the 10th), and who were suffering under a Sullan commander, that they didn’t like.

Novice? I don’t think so. The Senate kept saddling him with novices as tribunes, but they learned. Fast. Before the big dustup with the Germans, the tribunes were famously hiding in their tents drawing up their wills. Perhaps the Military Channel’s pet historian got these fellows mixed up with Julius.

‘S cuse me, I just had to vent. That is the stupidest thing I have heard out of a Discovery channel this decade.