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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2007-08 > 1187301094


From: "William Hurst" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Spencer Wells - Stephen Colbert (Tuesday)
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:51:34 -0400
In-Reply-To: <00eb01c7e034$2c271af0$6401a8c0@HP>


Hi Diana and all,

If you are just listening, instead of looking, you miss the fact that those
four "clades" are meaningless. One of them, K4a, is totally phony. One,
K1a9, is in fact an Ashkenazi subclade. The other two are not. They are not
the four major subgroups of K as was presented on that program. Some of us
take this stuff seriously. Some apparently do not. Anyone who does not take
this seriously should not be representing genetic genealogy to a national
audience.

Bill Hurst

>Actually, if you listen carefully to the clip (and if my memory hasn't
>entirely
>failed me), Wells said that three of the four clades *included* a founding
>Jewish mother, so there was a possibility that someone who was one of those
>clades *could* be Jewish. Colbert ran with it, making a joke out of his
>horror
>at there being a 75% chance that he was Jewish (instead of "mayo on
>white").
>
>Diana
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: On Behalf Of
> > Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 2:20 PM
> > To:
> > Subject: Re: [DNA] Spencer Wells - Stephen Colbert (Tuesday)
> >
> >
><snip>
> >
> > I'm glad of the publicity for DNA. And of course they weren't taking
>notes,
> > but what they will remember is "3 out of 4 K's are Jewish." I used to
>use
> > humor to help students remember concepts. For instance, I used to use
>the
> > following to illustrate the concept of binomial probabilities....
> >
> > "Everybody, no matter how ugly, can get a date. It's a matter of
>probabilities.
> > If you ask, they either say "yes" or "no." Now, if you are rich,
>good-looking
> > and charming, the probability of a "yes" might be 80% and you only have
>to
> > ask 1 or 2 to get a date. On the other hand, if you are fat, ugly,
>poor and
> > boring, your chances might be less than 1%, and you'll have to ask a
>couple
> > of hundred. It works the same way for getting married... I'm still
>single
> > because I haven't met 16 million men yet!"
> >
> > Of course, I was exaggerating that a bit, I only had to meet about one
> > million to find my darling husband of (almost) 18 years...
> >
> > ::Grin::
> >
> >
>
>
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