Probably staged, but if not... I hope that his genes are not carried on to the next generation.

Note Ali (Muhammad Ali), Leia (Carrie Fisher), Major Tom (David Bowie), Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), Prince, and Brady's Mom (? - Florence Henderson?), all recent celebrity deaths.

Lyrics from https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/perfectcircle/solongandthanksforallthefish.html :

Time is money and money is time
We wasted every second dime
On diets, lawyers, shrinks and apps
And flags, and plastic surgery
Now Willy Wonka, Major Tom
Ali and Leia have moved on
Signal the final curtain call
In all this atomic pageantry

Bravissimo, hip-hip hooray
For this fireworks display
Mind and body blown away
What a radiant crescendo

Ticker tape parade
Our hair and skin like
Like Marilyn Monroe
In an empty wind

Time is money and money is time
We wasted every second dime
On politicians, fancy water
And guns, and plastic surgery
Like old Prince and Brady's mom
All the dolphins have moved on
Signaling the final curtain call
In all this atomic pageantry

Bravissimo, hip-hip hooray
What a glorious display
Melt our joyous hearts away
Under the mushroom cloud confetti

Hip-hip hooray
For this fireworks display
Mind and body blown away
What a radiant crescendo

Hip-hip hooray
Hip-hip hooray

Ticker tape parade
Our hair and skin like
Like Marilyn Monroe
In an empty wind

Time is money and money is time
We wasted every second dime
On diets, lawyers, shrinks and apps
And flags, and plastic surgery
Now Willy Wonka, Major Tom
Ali and Leia have moved on
Signal the final curtain call
In all this atomic pageantry

Legal, yes. Culturally accepted, not so much, slavery always had cultural opposition by the non ruling class. Natural, WTF?! Show me an example of pure non human slavery (not harems, not parasites) and I'll discuss it.

Granted, I don't know exactly how they measured, but his gene expression is what they measured, not his pure DNA. This goes to my point, that environment determines how your DNA is expressed, so twin studies are flawed from the onset by thinking they begin identical, they don't. They don't even start with identical DNA, just close.

"Genes and the environment", but not pure gene study....at least not like people think. People think twins are carbon copies, so one can be a control to study effects of what they're studying. That's not quite right. Certainly they are useful in genetic studies, but not that way. From before birth, they diverge in how nearly identical DNA is expressed. They might be good for finding what genes/traits need closer scrutiny, but only with large samples.

Grounds for individuals to (privately) discriminate, perhaps, but not (public) businesses....at least not in America. Our national identity is a melting pot of cultures, intolerance for the different is antithetical to that idea.


Gender, nope, you can totally choose that now.
Race, many people change their racial identity...Rachael Dolizal comes to mind....as does the term "passing".
Ethnicity, people pass as ethnic groups they weren't born into, sometimes unknowingly, daily.....again, Dolizal springs to mind.

So, I'll argue that all you mentioned for all intents and purposes are today often the result of free will and not beyond the control of every individual, but a full grasp of brain chemistry and design and well understood methods to change them are well beyond our current knowledge, so their behaviors and actions are, in part, out of their control and not the result of free will but of brain construction.....now what?

@newtboy

"Discriminating against people for their legal, culturally accepted, natural behavior makes the person doing the discriminating an asshole. "

Slavery also exists in nature, so it's natural, and once upon a time it was legal and culturally accepted. Discriminating against slave owners though, even back than, is contrary to your claim, quite noble.

"The space study with twins showed that in under a year their genes permanently diverged a full 7%"

You gotta be careful there exactly what is being measured, they did not find that fully 7% of his DNA changed and now was that different. Depending what you measure people also claim that human and chimp DNA only differs by less than 2%...


"Twins aren't genetically identical, even at birth. ...That makes twin studies a piss poor method of gene study."

If you read your own linked article it states:
Twins share the same genes but their environments become more different as they age. This unique aspect of twins makes them an excellent model for understanding how genes and the environment contribute to certain traits, especially complex behaviors and diseases.

If you bother to read the list of peer reviewed articles I linked, they are comparing mono-zygotic twins to di-zygotic twins. The very basic and largely accepted theory being that if a trait has a genetic component, 1000 twins split from the same zygote should share the trait more often than di-zygotic twins.

My argument though really doesn't care much though. I simply argue that beliefs, choices and behaviours are the result of free will and grounds to judge(discriminate) for and against those you deem good or bad, hurtful or harmful. Similarly, gender, race and ethnicity being things that are in zero way the result of free will and beyond the control of an individual and NOT grounds to judge(discriminate) for or against.

Twins aren't genetically identical, even at birth. They begin separating from each other genetically when the zygote splits. Environmental factors determine how genes are expressed, and those factors are not identical. That makes twin studies a piss poor method of gene study. All it can tell you is how much the environment might effect their expression over time, and they aren't very good at even that.
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/twins/

Now that genetic testing is cheap, we're finding out most identical twins aren't identical at all. Proper gene testing doesn't assume twins are identical clones for life, it actually disproved that hypothesis. The space study with twins showed that in under a year their genes permanently diverged a full 7% (with a larger temporary change initially that lowered as they returned to similar environments).
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-twins-study-confirms-preliminary-findings


I feel that people often misuse mistaken assumptions to validate their prejudices. If the science isn't clear and validated, using it against others is improper in the extreme.

Discriminating against people for their legal, culturally accepted, natural behavior makes the person doing the discriminating an asshole. Homosexuality is quite present in nature, is now culturally accepted in western cultures, and is legal. Tolerance is a learned behavior I wish was taught better, especially by churches.

The difference between Gene Roddenberry and Seth is the america they portray in the show. Gene portrays a noble and moral america that could be. Seth portrays america as it is.

@SDGundamX you're confusing psychopathy with insanity. Lots of psychopaths are perfectly sane. Being a psychopath vastly increases the likelihood of committing murder. And it's heritable. And it's a continuum. But it's rare enough to be a relatively minor cause of murder rates. In place of "genes for psychopathy" I should have said "genes for anything that predisposes one to commit murder".

First degree murder is less than 10% of all murder. Most murders are spur of the moment. Having a higher IQ correlates with doing better on the marshmellow test and having greater impulse control to avoid spur of the moment destructive behavior. IQ is a vastly better predictor of criminality than parental SES ( http://akarlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/bell-curve-crime-iq.jpg ) Japanese have 7 points higher average IQ than the US. IQ is >50% heritable.

@jwray I think genetic factors play a role in how aggressive someone is, I just think that in a society as genetically diverse as the US it will be impossible that that is the difference compared to other countries. My guess is that genes only explain a small part of gun violence, and no more than in other countries.

I think the vast majority of the high gun violence can be explained by culture. The US is a dog eat dog world. The mindset of the country seems to be Ann Randish / Neo Liberal / Right compared to similar countries in the rest of the world. The US seems to prefer personal freedom over common good.

In a country with that state of mind, you tend to get that everyone fights for themselves and there is less willingness to compromise. Everyone becomes defensive. Throw in poverty (another part of the same mindset) and guns and you get an explosive mix.

It is a classic prisoner dilemma. Everyone would be better off if they cooperate, yet because of lack of trust everyone defects.

Japan is one of the many places that shows what you can achieve with more social safety. It costs higher taxes and less personal freedom, you get back less death.

@SDGundamX those cultural factors are all true, and none of it contradicts my point. Both culture and inborn personality traits play a role. A place where murderers have been routinely caught and removed from the gene pool for centuries is going to be a place with a lot less genes for psychopathy. Not so much in a frontier society without effective law enforcement for much of its history, like the US. The US isn't the worst in this respect, but it hasn't been civilized for nearly as long as Western Europe or Japan, and this is a source of both genetic and cultural differences.

I think the attempt itself counts as a test!

This article from the Atlantic talks a little about why the Kenyans make such great runners - https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/why-kenyans-make-such-great-runners-a-story-of-genes-and-cultures/256015/

There was certainly scope for the Wired vid to be much longer and more in-depth. They had an equally short and unsatisfying article about a journalist who trained for a 90 minute half marathon using the same training techniques the Kenyans use here - https://www.wired.com/2017/05/two-hour-marathon-nike-half-marathon/?mbid=synd_digg

OK, sorry to spam here, but I found another relevant link:
https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/12/14/gmo-patent-controversy-terminator-genes-seed-piracy-forcing-farmers-buy-seeds/

That confirms that "terminator seeds" are a technology that does exist -- in practice as well as theory -- but isn't commercially sold or otherwise available.

More importantly, it mentions that there is a legal sort of "license agreement" that farmers sign when they buy the GM seed stating that they won't replant harvested stuff in the future, and that they can inspect your storage areas etc. if they suspect you are doing so. That would explain why my family worked hard to clean out storage areas that had grain resulting from GM seed. I erroneously thought that was because that grain was sterile.

Those agreements are for a single crop / harvest, so it is definitely possible to use a GM seed one year and then go back to non-GM seed in other years, as my family does. I guess that we just have to keep good records to show that we're not holding any back for future planting / sale.

Sorry for the several LONG posts, and thanks to @Hastur for asking the question that got me to figure out the misconception I had!

Your video, gene wilder-the master of the comedic pause, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 47 Badge!

gene wilder>johnny depp as wonka.

hands down,there is no argument.
good day sir.

i said GOOD DAY!

I wouldn't care if my DNA was 80% German or any other country, because I was born and raised in the USA, I'm an American and that will ALWAYS come first. Your allegiance lies with what you BELIEVE in, not with what's in your DNA. If you lie down and let your genes tell you how to act, then you'll lie down for just about anything.

Oh, I know another good one -- old Gene Hackman sometimes looks like old Alex Trebek when they both don't have mustaches! Maybe not 2016 Hackman, but somewhere between when he stopped doing movies and now and then after Trebek shaved his awesome mustache.