ethnicity - nationality - race

Yes, they look better faceless.
What do you have against French people?

From what I�m led to believe blood tests don�t lie but there is the human side and they can lie like crazy or lawyers would be poor. Been looking up some evidence here and found much of the original research was done by the British scientists and got taken over by Americans. They set up the research as private companies. In academic circles one can challenge the work of others; they must make their evidence for testing around the world so it can be demonstrated. 

Not so with a company, particularly ones under American law. They will sue you ass off for even suggesting that their �product� is faulty. They have exclusive rights to the information obtained and charge as much as they like for it and prevent others �from infringing on their intellectual property rights�. The directors of the company can use the information to prove whatever they like without having to answer to anybody and therefore castrating the freedom of academic research.

Would the American government permit such a situation? Hello! America is under George Bush and has been since this whole thing started. How scientifically objective has his administration has been? Dare it be said they have also actively encouraged creationism, yet another scientific scam under the guise of religion.

I want to see science reinstated right now! My last post was gloomy but I'm passionate about opposing GM, genetic modification of plants. Okay so the plants get no diseases but the manipulated plants cannot reproduce and have to be bought from the genetic company each year.

Bush has allowed them to operate, yet opposes stem cell therapy. To allow manipulation of genes for plants but try to stop genetic therapy for repairing human health goes beyond belief.

All this could be stopped by law, but no surprises who allows them to operate. Sure I believe gene splitting guys can be trusted with my genetic details, as much as I believe in fairy tales. I would feel much differently if the current crop of dishonest politics was weeded out of science and history.


Edited by elenos - 05-Jul-2007 at 04:43

Have a look at this recent article on the New York Times

Calvo has a point there (in the article). I would translate what they said as more or less saying how there seems to be series of genetic switches inside us that can turn on or off in a lifetime and be passed on help our descendants adapt to a changing environment.

If members of the same family intermarry there is a high probability of hemophilia, nature�s way of saying don�t do that and all in the one generation. During times of war there have been a number of famous studies done that show how the onset of menstruation changes and the females become sexually active and have children at a younger age, but that is regarded as restricted information in some countries. More positive �gene switches� can take place. You adapt to a food and what made your family throw up for thousands of years is no longer passed on, or eases off.

Edited by elenos - 05-Jul-2007 at 08:48

Originally posted by tulia BTW.....It's AFAIK.....NOT AFIAK.  It stands for AS FAR AS I KNOW.

Thank goodness for that. I though it may have been  something rude!

Thank you for the offer but never mind!

Race, ethnicity and nation not necesarily go side by side.

Take it for instance the term Hispanic. It means people born in Hispanic America, the spanish speaking people of a region that was the former Spanish Empire. In term of race, in that region come people from all over the world: Indigenous, Iberians, West Africans, Europeans of all the corners, Middle Easterners, Gypsies, Jews and Asians to name a few. Besides, the fact that most people has admixtures of at least two groups. In nationalities, there are 20 nations to chose from!

So, if I need to define myself, in cultural terms I am Hispanic, but more precisely Chilean of the center of the country, with a long Iberian and countryside tradition, although living in the city. In racial terms, we are a mixture of mainly European with some Amerindian ancestry. In national terms we are Chileans.... that's the more important to us, indeed.

 

Originally posted by QueenCleopatra   And how people define race is conditioned by their own culture and upbringing. So the early explorers for example were brought in culture that suggested 'White' people were more civilised than coloured people.   And THAT belief goes back thousands of years into ancient times when the colour of your skin was the first thing you were judged on.  [/QUOTE   I do not totally agree with this. Yes, the colour of one's skin gives the first impression, but if you go through the historical text and administration accounts of ALL the multi-racial civilizations that had existed prior to the 19th century, NONE of them had used "colour" as a tool of division of its diverse population.   In the Roman, Persian, and Chinese empire

What was that matey - this motley crew are getting mutinous? Tie them to the mast and flog the lot of them!