A couple years ago I read about an interesting DNA study which established that Jewish males who had been told they were part of the hereditary priesthood, or Cohanim, had similar Y chromosome elements. The “Cohens” have passed the knowledge that they were descendents of the original sons of Aaron from father to son for thousands of years. The scientific proof, while probably unnecessary to prove any religious birthrights, is still intriguing. I found one opposing viewpoint of the study which stated that any group of men with the same last name would have similarities in their Y chromosomes, but that scientist was misinformed or ignorant of the fact that the study did not use last names, but the oral knowledge that has survived an amazing length of history.

Shortly after hearing about that research project, I heard a story, probably on the radio, about a tribe in Africa that had a number of rituals which were surprisingly similar to that of Jewish traditions. I filed that away in my head, but didn’t follow up on it until something made me think of it recently. Well, I found a lot of web content about these people, the Lemba. Through their oral tradition, they have maintained that they were descended from earlier Jews. There was a Nova special on their search for their true heritage. According to the soc.culture.jewish FAQ, the Lemba traditions may have come from Islam, not Judaism. But then there was an interesting twist, taking me back to my first finding. The Lemba have the same proportion of the Cohen gene marker as western Jews, and their senior clan, which would be the priesthood, has a very high frequency of that marker. This is compelling enough proof for some, and the other (as many articles will note, white) African Jews have now welcomed the Lemba into their fold. This article relates their struggle for acceptance, their beliefs, and history.

I also found a large list of Jewish genetic studies. I love how genetics can unravel mysteries; it’s just like solving intricate puzzles. It seems even neater than coding, but it isn’t as instantly gratifying. Which is probably why although I made it through my genetics labs OK, I was much happier in front of the terminal screen than the electrophoresis tray.

I saw Best in Show and was amused. But I wonder about the two people next to us who walked out in the middle. Maybe they show dogs. Seriously. There is extra footage on the official movie site.

A number of my friends who have had problems with their DSL service have switched over to cable modems. I’m still happy with mine, especially the zippy speed. Most SF Bay Area cities have @Home now, but to my surprise, San Jose, the self-proclaimed capitol of Silicon Valley does not. AT&T; and the City of San Jose are embroiled in a dispute over AT&T;’s permits for the cable franchise in the city. In August, AT&T; threatened legal action against San Jose. I haven’t found any recent news online, but @Home’s customer service still says that San Jose is not allowing AT&T; in as their reason for not being able to provide service. According to the news articles, San Jose wants more public services from AT&T; (public access channels, networking for fire, police, etc) and is holding back the permits in these negotiations. There are probably good reasons for the stalemate on both sides, but San Jose residents who want their cable modems may wish to voice their displeasure by writing the city and/or AT&T; Broadband.

I just noticed one big difference between reading books and web content. I found a link to the Story of Maxis Software on Metafilter. I started reading it, but realized it was lengthy and I would rather read it later. So I saved it as a bookmark. But I saved the first page as a bookmark, not where I was, because that’s how I use bookmarks in my browser. What I need is a true bookmarking system where I can save the entry page as a permanent bookmark and also easily tag where I stopped reading. Should I just make another bookmark? They’re “free” after all. Could there be a better way to do this? Browser “bookmarks” just aren’t really like bookmarks, unless you think of The Web as one huge book (which was the idea, I guess). Web sites are more like books and the web is a huge, interwoven library.

Via the nicely uncluttered Peas & Carrots, here’s a Library Cats Map. It’s from the creator of a film called “Puss in Books: Adventures of the Library Cat“. I often run across cats in bookstores, but haven’t seen one in a library yet.

I’m home sick with mild flu symptoms, and as I catch up on reading and listening to the news I can’t help wondering if my nauseau is caused by the overwhelmingly distorted coverage of election issues and candidates. It’s all the usual stuff: quotes repeated without the benefit of the tone or situation they were made in, old dirt being dredged up, issues being refocused into items that people will emotionally react to. Everyone has the right to say what they want to say. But I do hope that everyone votes with a clear head and with attention paid to the cold, hard facts. That may result in many different opinions, but at least it’s a true opinion and one to be proud of.

Even more from the soda front: Readers have sent in pointers to the Dr Pepper museum, wherein I learned that the “.” in Dr. was “discontinued in the early 1950s”, and the oldest Dr Pepper Bottling Company, where they have stuck to cane sugar instead of switching to corn syrup. You can order a case from their online store.

Outside office buildings these days I see not only the usual banished smokers, but also a growing number of cell phone yakkers. I guess they banish themselves outside, either for better reception or privacy. I suppose you also tend to talk louder on a cell phone, so it’s a courtesy to others. Plus, it’s kind of neat that you can wander around while you’re on the phone.

Via xblog, images run through the Colorfield Insight Photoshop filter which show how certain colors look with three types of colorblindness. I sent this link to my boyfriend who is colorblind and he responded that an ex-co-worker of his worked on the filter and used him as a test subject (the world does keep shrinking, doesn’t it?). He can’t see my favorite color (pink) which is a bummer, but it’s better than the ex-boyfriend who was allergic to many of my favorite foods (shrimp, clam chowder).

Here are a few more words on soft drinks. I found out about nine years ago that root beer doesn’t have any caffeine and stopped avoiding it, especially since I really like it with pizza (caffeine just makes me jittery). But I am disappointed when the root beer being offered is Barq’s, because that is the one brand that does have caffeine (after all “Barq’s has bite”). However, as I was poking through Coca-Cola’s site looking for Mr Pibb info, I discovered that Barq’s has about half the caffeine of Coke, and eight ounces has less caffeine (15 milligrams) than 1 ounce of semi-sweet dark chocolate (20 mg), which I definitely do not avoid. So I may relent and drink Barq’s. According to the Coffee and Caffeine FAQ, caffeine is added to Barq’s “as a flavouring agent for the sharp bitterness”.