From Vance Hawkins:

Re: “Racial purity” DNA test slammed as perversion, but (June 18, 2012): I had my DNA tested and it was done to discover racial characteristics of my DNA. However -- I was hoping that it would INCLUDE other races. I look White, but Dad was of a darker complexion. So was my paternal grandma. Photos of my great uncles and aunts (grandma’s brothers and sisters) look Indian. I have written a book “Finding Our Indian Blood” what will be coming out soon. I am proud of it, not ashamed of it. An old tin-type of my great-great (1818-1886) grandma looks pure-blood American Indian. My mother is German, Scots-Irish, and English, all Northern European (I think -- her mother’s maiden name was ‘Jonas’ surname that might be Greek or Jewish -- but we don’t know). Most of Mama’s ancestors are fair skinned, many are blonde haired and blue eyed. But Dad was darker. I had/light brown hair (turning gray). I was raised in Oklahoma where we can trace an ancestor to in the 1830s, as a soldier at Fort Gibson, at a time when Oklahoma was known as ‘Indian Territory’, then returned to Arkansas. We came to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in the 1870s to stay this time. We lived in the Cherokee and Choctaw Nations near the Arkansas River, and were in the Chickasaw Nation at the time Oklahoma became a state in 1907. We were not raised as Indian nor are we enrolled in any tribe. But we have family stories of Indian ancestry. So I took the autosomal DNA test to see what it said.

One test said 90% Caucasian, 7% sub-Sahara African, and only 3 % American Indian. I took the same test from other companies and they said 100 % Caucasian. I don’t think their tests were very accurate. I think the one that said 3% American Indian -- that is 3/100 which is nearly 3/96, which is equal to 1/32nd -- is accurate, or closer to it. I wanted to find a mixture, not purity. That one company simply tested the ‘right’ segments of DNA, the ones where a mixture showed up, and the other didn’t test the segments where it appeared. Also I don’t think enough is known about Eastern tribes that have nearly become extinct, or are extinct -- especially the Eastern Siouan -- Catawba, Saura/Cheraw, Saponi, et cetera. These groups simply died out -- disease, warfare, and of the dilution of blood by mixing with other races -- except for small groups of mixed race people here and there. Sad, but true.

I get upset when people say ‘wannabe’, or something like that. That’s cruel. So I wanted to prove a mixed heritage -- not a pure heritage. The African DNA was a complete surprise -- but those Eastern Siouan groups did mix with slaves -- that’s documented. We have evidence for Cherokee as well -- and everyone claims they are Cherokee, so I do understand why a Cherokee would be tired of hearing this, and use the term ‘wannabe’. Some people ‘want to be’ Cherokee who have no family history of ever living where the Cherokee lived. Well, at least we have ancestors who did live in the Cherokee Nation. We never applied for land allotments -- we are not on the Dawes rolls, accepted OR rejected. Family story says they got mad at someone or something -- don’t know what -- they started to apply but after getting upset for some unknown reason, never applied.

I hope as time goes by, those other companies who haven’t determined a very good test for finding American Indian x-chromosomal DNA will get better at it. Right now they aren’t very good at it.

Although I wasn’t expecting African DNA -- I can accept it. There has always been a stigma attached to African heritage and we all know it. I do remember my Uncle telling me as a child when I was curious about our ancestry, he said (paraphrasing); “be careful, you might not like what you find”. At the time I had no idea what he meant. Not a clue -- but it is one reason I have pursued this research spanning decades, now. I look pretty much Caucasian by complexion. I have been told “you look like a White Indian” though. It wasn’t meant in a good way, but I didn’t mind hearing it. Now am happy to have found a closer version to the truth.

So many of us searching for our ancestry are not ashamed of it, but rather just want to know it. I have an uncle buried in the American Cemetery in Normandy, France, where he was in the 1st American Army, and where he was killed by the Nazis near St Lo, Normandy, France, on July 18th, 1944. Why on earth would I have any love for those bastards, or have any sympathy for them at all?? They killed Uncle Eual Lee! If yall make it impossible for such testing, before they have even perfected the testing for American Indian DNA (which isn’t much good in my opinion, it’s in its infancy), many people who are proud of having American Indian DNA will never be able to prove it. Please don’t make such tests illegal. For every right-wing, mentally-disturbed Nazi sympathizer (and you have to me mentally disturbed to sympathize with them and you can quote me on that) there are probably dozens of others who have legitimate reasons for taking the test.

Vance Hawkins

ps -- I am just as proud of my Saxon-English heritage -- the Hawkins’, Wayland’s and Atteberry’s, and my Scots-Irish -- my McLean’s and Richey’s and German -- Plaschers and Koenigs (Anglicized to Plaster and King) -- as the mixed race part. But the European heritage is easily researched -- the ‘other’ requires digging and digging just to find evidence, and evidence that falls short of proof, on most occasions. DNA evidence however, is proof positive! DNA testing is good for more than disease research -- it is good for Genealogy research as well.

From Norman Wells:

Re: Study: Earth to be livable 2-3 billion years more, but not for all (Sept. 17, 2013): Recent information suggests that is increasingly likely that life on Mars is extinct and may well have been so for a very long time. It seems possible though that if life did exist there in the past it may have reached the levels of intelligence that we have, here on Earth, several millions of years earlier than us ‘For in the time span concerned a race of intelligent humanoids could have lived on Mars and become extinct or moved to a new home, along with all other living things, possibly from the exhaustion of its resources. It may be that they eventually migrated to Earth and that we are their descendants. But the suggestion that we could eventually move back to Mars seems pointless if as I suggest its resources were plundered in earlier times. This makes it more likely that eventually we may have to leave the Solar system and look for a new home elsewhere in Space. Consequently if this proves to be the case, the need exists to search diligently in the future for ways of overcoming the limitations imposed by the Speed of Light to enable Space exploration to be undertaken in

times more compatible with our normal life span ;or that life span needs to be greatly increased. . It is inconceivable that we should attempt to travel across the Galaxy. much less the Universe, with the present limitations in place. If indeed intelligent life did exist on Mars millions of years in the past why should it have taken so long to evolve on Earth. Or if we are descended from Martian migrants ought we not to be much farther along the path of human development than we actually are now ? Perhaps there were earlier forms of humanoid intelligences which evolved on earth and became extinct before our time, Maybe there were even intelligent Dinosaurs !

From Pete Perry:

Re: Life’s ingredients could form through cometary impact, study finds (Sept. 17, 2013): I propounded this theory when I was a teenager in the Fifties. Please look at the page on the following link, and scroll down to the bottom, where it is explained on our website... http://www.widgeripoo.net/science__technology

From Edward T Medalis:

Re: “Inflation” theory of infant cosmos may need revision (July 26, 2013): First, since uni means one, let’s define the universe as all energy that exists, has ever existed, and will ever exist.

The 13. 73 billion, or so, of our puny Earth years since what is named the big bang is not very much compared to the eternity of all energy in the universe.

This leads some folks, me included, to think that the universe experiences an eternal repetitive cycle of expansion and contraction.

Current measurements indicate that the universe is expanding between distant galaxies. It has been proposed that this is due to a theoretical invention called “dark energy” that is currently thought to contain about 74 percent of all energy in the universe.

This energy is called “dark energy” because it has not been directly detected and therefore could have been called “invisible energy”.

It seems obvious to me that anything that really exists is a form of energy. It also is obvious that space exists and therefore it must be an invisable form of energy.

We know that energy can and does change form under various conditions. I think that the conditions within black holes change matter into space. If so, the super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies are spewing out space but that space passes through it’s mother galaxy as if it were a sieve because of the galaxies gravity.

Then, this idea would place this new space between galaxies causing them to be more distant from each other and provide a reason for the expansion of the universe. If this is true. it means that the universe is sort of evaporating to become space. At some point a black hole will loose enough mass to cease to be a black hole.

The question here is either: Does it totally evaporate into space or does it, at some point explode into matter and or radiation. Either way, eventually the energy of the universe becomes much more than 74 percent space. Space, according to quantum mechanics, causes particles with mass to pop in to and out of existence.

I theorize that at some point of probability the random existence of these particles throughout all of space coincide in existence in great enough numbers and due to their mutual gravity cause the beginning of a big crunch. Then, I think, the big crunch at some point becomes dense enough and hot enough to form a Quark–gluon plasma (QGP). The QGP is so dense that many very small black holes are randomly created and randomly begin to merge causing a random pattern to what is currently seen as background radiation from the, so called, big bang. This action begins to cool the QGP and the growing numbers and mass of black holes spew out enough space to begin another expansion of the universe.

Just a sequence of thoughts!

From Destiny Burt:

Re: Could cancer cells’ sugar addiction be their undoing? (July 31, 2013): To the article about cancer and sugar. I have a thought that maybe that is why people with diabetes is prone to cancer and diseases from lack of sugar. Brilliant discovery.

From Gary Lawrence Murphy:

Re: Did monogamy arise to prevent infanticide? (July 29, 2013): There is perhaps a compelling argument for this from the macroevolution.net perspective: if the new hybrids were both almost infertile and quite ‘different’ from the mainstream bonobo community, considering how xenophobic the great apes tend to be, there may have been considerable danger of attack on the ‘blasphemous’ (and unusually vulnerable) young humanoids, and a strong evolutionary pressure to defend the humanoid female during her unusually long incubation and early child-care periods (ie only those who cared to defend their families could hope to reproduce into our present time)

From Bantwal Prabhu:

Re: Evolution punishes selfish jerks in the long run, study finds (Aug. 1, 2013): I like the article on evolution punishes the selfish which I find is more philosophical. Perhaps it matches with the concepts of mind, body and spirit of the holistic human being and the adaptation of the evolution connected with it. 

—Dr B S Prabhu

From C. Heneghan:

Re: Study explores how Inca kids were drugged for sacrifice (July 29, 2013): This report seems to assume that the levels of drugs found in Inca children’s hair can be taken to be abnormal, and indicates drug use to prepare for sacrifice. Unfortunately no comment is included regarding controls, nor is there comment regarding whether Inca children might all have had similar concentrations of the alcohol and coca metabolites. The only valid conclusion based on the data in your report is that there was probably an increase in alcohol intake in one of the children shortly before death. It is entirely possible that all the other findings would be replicated in non-ritually killed individuals, and represent normal drug intake for Inca children at that time.

From T. C. Gibian:

Re: “Inflation” theory of infant cosmos may need revision (July 26, 2013): Several times in the history of science better instrumentation and more highly refined data have called established theories into question.

Guth’s theory of inflation may be challenged by the new view of the cosmic background radiation, but not exclusively. The assumption that the universe is “uniform at the largest scales in all directions” was also made by Albert Einstein in his development of the general theory of relativity. The problem presented by this large dark spot in the CBR may be resolved simply, otherwise some of the fundamental building blocks of modern cosmology and physics may need to be reconsidered at a very deep level.

From Artist (africa nwildli feartist@ yah oo.c om)

Re: Smart parrots solve five-step puzzle to unlock treat (July 3, 2013): I used to raise Goffin’s Cockatoos and know their curiosity. I used to have to lock their flights with keyed locks because they would figure the combinations of the combination locks simply by listening to the clicks and watching the turning back and forth of the dial on the lock. They would still try and open the keyed locks with toothpick sized pieces of wood they would tear off their perches to use as a tool and jam into the hole of the lock to unlock the lock.

From Alan Musry:

Re: Was blackmail essential for marriage to evolve? (Dec. 2, 2011): How pathetic is that article about blackmail being essential for marriage to evolve. When you publish such articles without comment it demeans your journal.

The researchers ‘said they set out to ex­plore the “co­nun­drum” of why males and fe­males sac­ri­fice their di­rect self-in­ter­est to get in­volved in mar­riage. ’ The article is a classic example of researchers projecting their own values and prejudices into the past. The article manifests either profound ignorance or a self serving myopia.

As if women in India are not exploited in marriage and as if women in most of India have any choice for survival but to marry.

I lived in India for more than a dozen years and would think any researcher into such a field would be aware that there are many tribal communities in India that never knew monogamy. Indeed, even today throughout the world we find innumerable tribal communities that have no concept of the nuclear family or monogamy. Evelyn Reed’s outstanding analysis of numerous anthropological studies reveals our matriarchal ancestry, remnants of which are brazenly visible in Hinduism’s female gods (goddesses) despite India being one of the most sexist countries in the world. (Witness current news reports of the status of women - rape, infanticide, wife burning, abandonment of older women, etc. , etc. ).

Please do publish or pass on my comments to the authors.

From Catherine Scott:

Re: Being too generous may make you unpopular (June 27, 2013): It’s a very common phenomenon that people don’t like those who they perceive as raising the bar for them. Have seen it in the workplace many times. You do ‘too’ well, you become unpopular because others then feel they have to come up to your standard. Enforced mediocrity anyone?