>> ^chilaxe:

Recreational genealogy seems have a strong pull, but it seems almost as meaningless as astrology.
You only share 12.5% of your genes with each of your 8 great-grandparents, and genes can have very different effects depending on which other genes are present. If you want to know who you are, look at yourself, not your great-grandparents or anybody else.


That is true, but you should also consider possible effects from epigenetics.

Read the wiki entry, it's quite fascinating.

Excerpt from wiki:
In biology, and specifically genetics, epigenetics is the study of inherited changes in phenotype (appearance) or gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence, hence the name epi- (Greek: επί- over, above) -genetics. These changes may remain through cell divisions for the remainder of the cell's life and may also last for multiple generations. However, there is no change in the underlying DNA sequence of the organism;[1] instead, non-genetic factors cause the organism's genes to behave (or "express themselves") differently.

Recreational genealogy seems have a strong pull, but it seems almost as meaningless as astrology.

You only share 12.5% of your genes with each of your 8 great-grandparents, and genes can have very different effects depending on which other genes are present. If you want to know who you are, look at yourself, not your great-grandparents or anybody else.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

yeah, Stephen Fry did one in a previous season. You can also check out the American version on Hulu. It's an interesting contrast as they are lighter on the history details and bigger on the musical transitions and keeping things shiny. http://www.hulu.com/who-do-you-think-you-are

>> ^Yogi:

>> ^dag:
OK, I'll have to preface this with a bit of a disclaimer then - my SO is seriously into all the genealogy stuff- so it's really her show- but it is an interesting history lesson usually. I often finish the show feeling depressed and sad for cotton weaving factory workers in 19th century Dickensian squalor.
>> ^Yogi:
Alright I'll give it a shot...but this better not suck. Dag I'm looking at you!


I gotta admit I enjoyed it, it was really cool hearing about all the history of that region and how it collides with Mitchells' ancestors. All the relocating of the people that lived there, then the sheep farming and then the imports from other countries ruining their business. It was pretty cool hearing about all that stuff and it made the history that much more real. Good show...did Stephen Fry do one because I might've seen that one and just kept swooning a Stephen the whole time.

>> ^dag:

OK, I'll have to preface this with a bit of a disclaimer then - my SO is seriously into all the genealogy stuff- so it's really her show- but it is an interesting history lesson usually. I often finish the show feeling depressed and sad for cotton weaving factory workers in 19th century Dickensian squalor.
>> ^Yogi:
Alright I'll give it a shot...but this better not suck. Dag I'm looking at you!



I gotta admit I enjoyed it, it was really cool hearing about all the history of that region and how it collides with Mitchells' ancestors. All the relocating of the people that lived there, then the sheep farming and then the imports from other countries ruining their business. It was pretty cool hearing about all that stuff and it made the history that much more real. Good show...did Stephen Fry do one because I might've seen that one and just kept swooning a Stephen the whole time.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

OK, I'll have to preface this with a bit of a disclaimer then - my SO is seriously into all the genealogy stuff- so it's really her show- but it is an interesting history lesson usually. I often finish the show feeling depressed and sad for cotton weaving factory workers in 19th century Dickensian squalor.

>> ^Yogi:

Alright I'll give it a shot...but this better not suck. Dag I'm looking at you!

only a very small part of Christianity attempts to teach people to get along with each other. The rest of it is doctrine set up to encourage obedience to centralized power. This is all terribly ironic, since in the small portion of the bible actually dedicated to the teachings of jesus it presents the notion that because of jesus, anyone and everyone can have a direct connection to the magical abusive drunken old guy in the sky. Jesus spent much of his teachings tearing down the notion of centralized authority, and controlled access to spirituality.

Christianity became the political tool that we see today back in 325 when Roman Emperor Constantine paid a bunch of religious leaders to vote on which documents were representative of Christian faith - as long as they left room for the Emperor to be part of that power structure. It's much easier to control the people if they all worship the same god, instead of having multiple gods all with different agendas.

There's this small little bit of good stuff in the bible which is a decent chunk of what jesus says. The rest is filled with genealogies, tales of war, killings, an angry god, and Paul of tarsus, calling on the newly enlightened Christians to maintain the oppressive and intolerant orders of the old testament. All of that contrary to what jesus claimed was the entire purpose of his time on earth. Jesus talked about how his purpose was to do away with all of those old laws, and to create a new method of gaining favor with his dad (who is also somehow himself).

The bible itself is so clouded with mountains of useless if not dangerous and contrary garbage that people use to justify their own hatred. If the bible really was there to create a moral compass for people, it would be much, much shorter and clearer. It is quite possibly the most poorly written instruction manual ever created, and I've read some really terrible Engrish manuals before.

There are 1189 chapters in the bible. Does it really take 789,626 words to say "don't be a dick"? you'd think that the creator of the universe would make better use of text, and possibly reveal some genuinely useful information, like the nature of viruses and bacteria, techniques for better agriculture, methods of international diplomacy that don't involve "shoot first, ask questions later", or even something as basic as "slavery is bad".

orly taints

On August 2, 2009, Taitz released and attached to court documents what she alleged to be an authentic Kenyan birth certificate. The document purports to have been issued by the "Republic of Kenya"; such a state did not yet exist at the time of Obama's birth as indicated on the document (Kenya was a Dominion of the British Crown until 1963). Additionally, Mombasa, the city indicated on the certificate as Obama's birthplace, was not located in Kenya, but in Zanzibar. Subsequently, evidence was unearthed that the alleged Kenyan birth certificate is apparently a modified version of a 1959 Australian birth certificate found on an online genealogy website.

There are a few inaccuracies (as far as I recall from being raised Mormon, though I'm no longer religoius):

Their explanation for blacks is completely wrong, the Mormon explanation is taken from passages in the bible referring to people who did something or other and were cursed to have dark skin (Cain, other people, etc)

The people who chose to side with Jesus, whatever, they were just sent to Earth, not sent to Mormon families.

I never heard any stories of Jesus having kids or taking multiple wives.

I also don't recall hearing anyone saying that Joseph Smith was a direct descendant of Jesus Christ, but that could be something I'd heard but forgotten. Dunno there.

The Mormons claim that Joseph Smith did more for us than any other man SAVE Jesus Christ, not including.

Also, freaking lol at the genealogy picture of kids looking at tombstones.

This is also really *terrible and has an extent of *lies in it, but then again, it's religious propaganda by one religion against another, so go figure.

There is so much to comment on in this video and a lot of my comments on religion are pretty harsh, but I think the funniest part of the video for me was when one of the guys said the Bible has genealogies that he believes to be reliable. Unfortunately for him, the Bible lists two genealogies for Jesus which contradict each other in numerous ways. Maybe he should have read his book before he decided to defend it.

I dunno, maybe there's some kind of clue in the name of one of their gene-brothers. If only there was some big giveaway, a glaringly obvious pointer in the direction of why they like to climb and balance. If only there was a general hint, something to even start us off somewhere in the name of something physiologically and genealogically related like, oh i dunno, pick a name at random, let's say the MOUNTAIN GOAT.

Anyone got any ideas?

I was told it was a dupe, someone else did appear to have it in their personal queue for much longer than I. They would probably greatly appreciate the promote, though, DFT!

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
Why did you kill this? I was gonna promote it.

In reply to this comment by Raigen:
Lyrics:
"BIBLE IN A MINUTE"

EARTH MADE, ADAM EVE
CAIN KILLS ABEL, HAS TO LEAVE
BORING GENEALOGY
GREAT FLOOD, OLIVE LEAF

TOWER BABEL, ABRAHAM
SODOM AND GOMORRAH AND
ISAAC, JACOB, JOSEPH, MOSES
TEN COMMANDS, PROMISED LAND

JUDGES, DAVID, SOLOMON
SENT AWAY TO BABYLON
JOB, THEN A BUNCH OF PSALMS
PROVERBS AND THE SONG OF SONGS

MAJOR PROPHETS, LION DEN
MINOR PROPHETS, BETHLEHEM
GOLD AND MYRRH AND FRANKINCENSE
SATAN AND SAMARITAN

CHOOSE DISCIPLES, OTHER CHEEK
WALK ON WATER, THOUSANDS EAT
LAZARUS, FIG TREE
LAST SUPPER, GETHSEMANE

BLOOD MONEY, THIRD DENIAL
PONTIUS PILATE, PUBLIC TRIAL
FORTY LASHES, TO THE TREE
WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?

THIRD DAY, EMPTY TOMB
REAPPEARS, FIVE WOUNDS
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES NEXT
EPISTLES AND APOCALYPSE

Why did you kill this? I was gonna promote it.

In reply to this comment by Raigen:
Lyrics:
"BIBLE IN A MINUTE"

EARTH MADE, ADAM EVE
CAIN KILLS ABEL, HAS TO LEAVE
BORING GENEALOGY
GREAT FLOOD, OLIVE LEAF

TOWER BABEL, ABRAHAM
SODOM AND GOMORRAH AND
ISAAC, JACOB, JOSEPH, MOSES
TEN COMMANDS, PROMISED LAND

JUDGES, DAVID, SOLOMON
SENT AWAY TO BABYLON
JOB, THEN A BUNCH OF PSALMS
PROVERBS AND THE SONG OF SONGS

MAJOR PROPHETS, LION DEN
MINOR PROPHETS, BETHLEHEM
GOLD AND MYRRH AND FRANKINCENSE
SATAN AND SAMARITAN

CHOOSE DISCIPLES, OTHER CHEEK
WALK ON WATER, THOUSANDS EAT
LAZARUS, FIG TREE
LAST SUPPER, GETHSEMANE

BLOOD MONEY, THIRD DENIAL
PONTIUS PILATE, PUBLIC TRIAL
FORTY LASHES, TO THE TREE
WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?

THIRD DAY, EMPTY TOMB
REAPPEARS, FIVE WOUNDS
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES NEXT
EPISTLES AND APOCALYPSE

Lyrics:
"BIBLE IN A MINUTE"

EARTH MADE, ADAM EVE
CAIN KILLS ABEL, HAS TO LEAVE
BORING GENEALOGY
GREAT FLOOD, OLIVE LEAF

TOWER BABEL, ABRAHAM
SODOM AND GOMORRAH AND
ISAAC, JACOB, JOSEPH, MOSES
TEN COMMANDS, PROMISED LAND

JUDGES, DAVID, SOLOMON
SENT AWAY TO BABYLON
JOB, THEN A BUNCH OF PSALMS
PROVERBS AND THE SONG OF SONGS

MAJOR PROPHETS, LION DEN
MINOR PROPHETS, BETHLEHEM
GOLD AND MYRRH AND FRANKINCENSE
SATAN AND SAMARITAN

CHOOSE DISCIPLES, OTHER CHEEK
WALK ON WATER, THOUSANDS EAT
LAZARUS, FIG TREE
LAST SUPPER, GETHSEMANE

BLOOD MONEY, THIRD DENIAL
PONTIUS PILATE, PUBLIC TRIAL
FORTY LASHES, TO THE TREE
WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?

THIRD DAY, EMPTY TOMB
REAPPEARS, FIVE WOUNDS
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES NEXT
EPISTLES AND APOCALYPSE

from wikipedia - In 2004 genealogists discovered that George W. Bush and John Kerry shared a common ancestral couple in the 1500s, making them ninth cousins twice removed. Also in 2007 it was revealed that Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are eighth cousins.

500 years ago 1 common couple, bah, not the Knights Templar / Jesus and Mary Magdalene conspiracy shocker i was hoping for!
Likely >50% of everyone on this site is within 8th-11th cousins of each other, 2-3x removed.

It's not so mysterious, like everyone else the wealthy ruling elite tend to breed within their own peer group and pass on the greed & goodies & power to the kiddies, just as trailer park trash and junkies would likely find that their ancestors were scofflaws and ne'erdowells 500 years ago and passed on those traits to the present generation.

Of course pouring over ancient tomes and speculating on the genealogy of the AntiChrist is far more interesting. You know you wanna know!

>> ^quantumushroom:
The PC/multiculturalism/diversity gestapo must forever expand the catalog of hurtful words, creating thought control through victimhood.

Hi - I started reading Nietzsche, but couldn't get past "The Genealogy of Morals". So, I blame those who have been victimized as bringing it on themselves. Occasionally, my views actually line up with current conservative philosophy, so I consider myself a Conservative/Republican. But those douches don't know what they're doing - they keep pandering to any whiny group that comes along. In reality, anyone that hasn't suffered at least as much as me doesn't deserve anything, especially an opportunity to prove themselves. And anyone that has suffered more than me is probably faking it.