Friday, February 15, 2008

Haplogroup A and the Nicarao People

My wife's genetic test from National Geographic finally came in and she belongs to the mitochondrial Haplogroup A.


This group originated in Asia and is shared by a 10% of the Han Chinese, 7.7% of Koreans and Japanese, and the Chukchi people of Siberia.


In North America it accounts for the majority of the Eskimo-Aleut populations. In the Southwest United States it's assosiated with the Apache and the Navajo. In Central America with the Maya and in South America with the Inca.

Since my wife is Nicaraguan (Central American), it's safe to say she's of Nicarao descent. There is linguistic evidence that the Nicarao people are related to the Mayans. Although the Mayan empire didn't really reach Nicaragua (there are no Maya ruins in the country) it seem a large group broke of and headed south. Pretty awesome!

Monday, February 11, 2008

Strike Back!


The writer’s strike may be coming to an end this week and a lot of people are breathing a sigh of relief. I didn’t really mind the strike too much, not because I don’t watch TV, but because I fully support the writers.

The reason for the strike for those who don’t know (or who didn’t even notice there was a strike going on at all) was because the writers wanted to see some profit or royalties from their work being used on some form of emerging technology (like people watching a show online instead of watching it on TV).

Some people have said that the writers are just being greedy, but it’s called “emerging technology” for a reason. In 10 years I guarantee that TV and the Internet will be the same animal and if people are mostly (or only) downloading shows and movies, the writers will never get paid. It’s not that they’re concerned with not seeing a single cent from the millions of dollars generated a week from geeks watching Heroes online, (okay I’m sure they’re concerned about that too) but their main concern is for the future of their career.
If the strike does end this week I hope they get a good deal, because I’m really looking forward to going back to downloading my favorite shows and now I’ll at least know that these talented writers are getting paid.