Secular Café Archive

Richard III's mDNA is supposedly very rare. The earliest matriarchal ancestor I can find is Derbail Ó Caellaide in 10th century Ireland if geni.com can be trusted. Of course the royals are unusual in that their supposed ancestry is unusually traceable and in the number of marriages made with geograp...

Thanks.

[quote=""Pierrot""] How mitochondrial DNA from descendants showed that it was indeed Richard III with over 99% certainty.[/quote] Though Y chromosome results give some credence to the saying "it's a wise child that knows his own father". King Richard's yDNA was compared...

^ ^ ^
Yes.

I've found these discoveries fascinating! I find myself wondering about the changes in genetc profiles around the time of the arrival of the Black Death in the Fourteenth century. Were some genetic groups disproportionately affected and, if so, would the DNA of the victims reveal unexpected insights...

How will the chickens react I wonder?

Will they think it's time for bed?

Or will they think that the sky is falling and they must go and tell the king?

Ah, that's a shame sub!

My grandson is only nIne months old, too young to appreciate it.

My chickens, like many vertebrates, produce eggs and evacuate waste from the same opening.

Schooling in Britain nowadays seems to be highly curriculum driven, yet some if the more vivid memories and lessons learned from my own schooling skirted the sidelines of the syllabus. One Junior Secondary day my classmates and I entered the biology lab to find a large dead piglet on the ground with...

The clouds lie low across the Firth of Forth, a little higher the sky here is mostly blue and if it continues thus I shall be well placed to witness the impact of moon crossing much of the sun from Scotand's perspective. My equipment is low-tech, a colander and a sheet of pale cardboard. I might mos...

I like that.

Hi there youngian.

Welcome to Secular Café.

I didn't imagine that they were too young for me, it's more that nowadays I don't tend to curl up with a book for hours on end so a long series looks like a big commitment.

Though I guess there's no harm in picking up a single volume and taking it from there.

The Discworld collection, much read by my elder son, remains in his former bedroom and I'm still intending to give them a whirl. I'm sure I'd have been a keen admirer had I been in my teens when they appeared on the scene. My son and I went to a talk by Pratchett at the Edinburgh Book Festival once ...

[quote=""DMB""]I can't watch it. I don't mind the other two as much as I mind Clarkson. He makes me want to punch his fat face.[/quote] I wouldn't watch it in my own home. But I did look on astonished at what Clarkson got away with. And on the environmental front a guy to fight r...

I think the artist's creations are stunning.

A shame about this one, but I guess the fragility is part if the appeal.

[quote=""Pierrot""]Clarkson is a complete tit who acts like a 7 year old, but that is the charm of the show, which I must admit is compulsive viewing.[/quote] I got sucked into watching Top Gear while living with my brother who followed it avidly. I was somewhat unnerved to find ...

Wow, this thread has generated a lot of posts! I tend to get irritated, though not infuriated, when I read of such rules being imposed by schools. When my own children attended Fife state schools starting in the 1980s there were no local restrictions on hairstyles other than the requirement that lon...

I have a bath nearly every morning but I do so because I find it an enjoyable way to start the day rather than through a sense of hygiene imperative. My parents brought us up largely in accordance with standard practice of their 1920s/30s childhoods which meant a bath every Saturday evening and ther...

Welcome NatalieP

Hi Phat.

Welcome to Secular Café.

My Dad rose to the occasion with fortitude, mustering in his ninth decade a patience he hadn't previously demonstrated, as my Mum's dementia took hold. He would say, "She used to look after me and now it's my turn to look after her". But while she had her moments many sufferers exhibit mor...

[quote=""DMB""]That sort of thing dates from when vaccines weren't available. We used to do it specifically for rubella, because it was far better for girls in particular to get it before they got to reproductive age.[/quote] Rubella is also known as German Measles and, as DMB su...

I'm pretty sure I've asked folk if I can cadge a lift from time to time.

A rubber, sometimes a rubber Johnny, can also mean a condom in British English.

Does it mean this in American English?