"providing they parentage test the offspring"

Abominable English.

Heckuva post. More on chimeras:

The Chimera Hypothesis: Homosexuality and Plural Pregnancy

Eventually, it was a search into the phenomenon of twinning, which is the main cause of chimerism (excluding fetal cell chimerism in mothers), that led me to the work of Dr. Charles Boklage, a geneticist who is at the forefront of research into chimerism and twinning. Boklage is of the opinion that chimerism is at the root of a many poorly-understood conditions and traits, including homosexuality. His research, although considered controversial, was essential to a better understanding of the complex subject of embryology.
...
However, I see another explanation. Homosexuality is not the result of solely genetic or environmental factors, but rather a combination of the two. This combination results from the complex conditions in the womb during early development, when cells are exchanged in a medium in which the individual is not yet fully defined.

As the science of genetics has advanced in recent years, the existence of human chimeras has surprised a number of researchers. There are varying degrees of chimeric expression, and the effects span a fairly wide spectrum. In most cases, they are the result of twinning or blood exchange between mother and fetus. The most extreme form of chimerism, called tetragametic chimerism, is the merging of two genetically distinct embryos to form one organism.

Weren't we just talking about this on the other thread? Black death resistance, malarial resistance, even white skin for increased vitamin D production, these are all due mostly to lots of people with the wrong genetic structure DYING, rather than the more benign business of being out-produced by those with a better genetic structure.

Mother Nature isn't a nice person. That's why I like technology, gives me a chance to return fire on the old b1tch.

On the subject of questionable law enforcement techniques and practices, the FBI is not at all alone in using scary court tactics.

Recent cases by the ATF (formerly Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, responsible for both Ruby Ridge AND Waco Texas) in the USA involving semi-automatic firearms reveal that the lab weenies at the ATF have been very... creative... in their testing methods. Basically they seize some poor bastard's gun, then they fiddle with it until it will fire more than one round with one trigger pull.

This can include using the wrong ammunition in the gun, exchanging parts from other guns, applying lubricant until the thing is practically swimming in it, and actually machining parts to make them malfunction. Once they manage to make the mechanism fail and fire off more than one bullet, they simply put it back the way it was and charge the victim with owning an unlicensed machine gun.

Just to make it clear, these are all semi-automatic rifles we are talking about here. Designed and manufactured to fire one round at a time, not converted select -fire automatic rifles. As in, they have to seriously alter the gun, break it basically, to make it fire in full-auto. They've been known to do this kind of thing with knives too, making a normal lock-back into a flick knife by fiddling with the springs and the pivot joint.

Here's a little radio program about it. www.jpfo.org/media-sound/len-savage-2008-07-16.mp3

Its also all over the Internet, just google "ATF abuses" and you'll get a million hits.

Here we have the opposite problem. The RCMP don't test evidence, they just let the bad guys walk. Budget constraints, eh?

Tell you what, Richard. I'll just shut down the
blog. Over 9000 posts in fewer than 5 years, and yet, my grammar remains imperfect. There's no point in doing this anymore.

Practice makes imperfect! ~:D

Another interesting post. It simply reinforces the fact that there's no substitute for sound, emotionally detached, agenda-free science and hard-nosed, pavement-pounding, evidence-based police work.

I didn't mention it in this post, but there is also the huge metallurgy issue in which assumptions that no two batches of ammunition would have the same "fingerprint" were proven false. No telling how many people were in jail over worthless "scientific" testimony.

Probably an English teacher and we all know how significant they are in the overall scheme of things.

My favorite idiocy is the "tagged" ammunition idea. They propose to put minuscule bits of plastic in the powder, each one printed with a barcode. Idea being when the round is fired some of these little tags will survive and spew out all over the area. Super Sleuth agents will then swab up these tags and identify them under a microscope, thereby telling them Whodunnit.

Manufacturers (and wholesalers, and jobbers, and retailers, and end users) will naturally maintain 100% accurate records of who bought what lot of ammunition. Tags will never get mixed up between lots. Numbers encoded on microscopic bits of burnt plastic will never be read wrong. Tags from different ammunition will never float on the breezes and end up at a crime scene in sufficient numbers to screw up the counting and maybe get an innocent guy arrested. Most important, the introduction of hydrocarbon based plastics into gunpowder will not affect the characteristics or performance of it in any way.

No, none of these things will ever, ever happen. Maybe. Hey come on, if it just saves one life...

My second favorite are the geniuses who think they can label every single bullet and case with a unique identifying number, then keep track of it all the way until it ends up sticking out of a murder victim. Vitruvius should love that one, he's a computer software designer.

Meanwhile, our government rocket scientists can't even make a list of gun owners for under a billion dollars. Or make a -complete- list for any amount of money, for that matter.

too many genetic phenomenon break the "rules"

This is not a criticism, it is a question. Should the word used above been phenomena rather than phenomenon? Or am I mistaken in this case?

I believe it is a plural being referred to. I find that those two words are misused about nine of ten times that I read or hear them.

Anyone grammar teachers out there?

More to the point. Has anyone convicted on DNA evidence continued to plead not guilty? Or do they accept that they have been caught?

Since we're on the broader subject of forensics now, even fingerprinting is of questionable scientific value:

"Despite the absence of objective standards, scientific validation, and adequate statistical studies, a natural question to ask is how well fingerprint examiners actually perform. Proficiency tests do not validate a procedure per se, but they can provide some insight into error rates. In 1995, the Collaborative Testing Service (CTS) administered a proficiency test that, for the first time, was “designed, assembled, and reviewed” by the International Association for Identification (IAI).The results were disappointing. Four suspect cards with prints of all ten fingers were provided together with seven latents. Of 156 people taking the test, only 68 (44%) correctly classified all seven latents. Overall, the tests contained a total of 48 incorrect identifications. David Grieve, the editor of the Journal of Forensic Identification, describes the reaction of the forensic community to the results of the CTS test as ranging from “shock to disbelief,” and added:

Errors of this magnitude within a discipline singularly admired and respected for its touted absolute certainty as an identification process have produced chilling and mind- numbing realities. Thirty-four participants, an incredible 22% of those involved, substituted presumed but false certainty for truth. By any measure, this represents a profile of practice that is unacceptable and thus demands positive action by the entire community.

What is striking about these comments is that they do not come from a critic of the fingerprint community, but from the editor of one of its premier publications."

It's no secret in Canada that the RCMP fingerprint division employees, who are civilians, are often the sons and daughters of RCMP, this nepotism racket has been well documented. This raises a huge conflict of interest: imagine if a cop gets his own son/daughter, or his best buddy's son or daughter, to "confirm" the prints of a case he is working on. Is the kid going to give the cop what he wants, which is a positive ID? In virtually all cases, I'd say yes.

"Dick Testicle", the little children used to yell at his back as they laughed.

Those days are OVER Richard, OVER!
Come here, who needs a hug?
There there, let it out , that's it; Let it ALL out!

Does this mean O.J. may be innocent after all?

Guess being a Conservative in PEI would lead to something like appointing oneself language policeman of the blogs. Right Richard? You must be pretty lonely out there.

Do you also do punctuation and paragraphing?

Please don't take offense, this is all in jest!

I think us beat upped on Richard enough.

Please return to topic.

Joe Molner,

I was thinking something along the same lines. But given the rest of the evidence, I still think that he did it.

Damn. I wanted to be the first to crack an OJ joke. Joe Molnar ruined it by not even being funny about it.

Gee Phantom, you happen to get a visit in the middle of the night by the ATF? Last time I heard they were on the good guy's side.

As for the DNA, in order to be 100% accurate don't all the markers have to match? Also, since a lot of breeds of our four pawed friends has been regulated in that for the most part sires and bitches are chosen, would it be more likely to go back to the Adam and Eve of most breeds? Just how diverse are certain breeds? I know a lot of breeds went through a "popular and trendy" stage where questionable bloodlines were being bred in puppy mills. That ended up producing a lot of family pets that were plumb loco. Dalmations, St Bernards and Cocker Spaniels all come to mind.

Amazing, how when reading quickly and seeing SDA printed here so often, I "saw" SDA when reading DNA. It happened a few time with this post.

But, perhaps it is not a perception thing. After all, DNA is the intelligence in all things living and SDA is, compared to MSM, the intelligence to all news information, heh !!

Hey folks, I am really with Bill O'Reilly in believing O.J. guilty as sin regarding Nicole, despite the "Quadrillionzillion" DNA scenario post!

Obama is a fraudulent candidate with a trumped-up Resume. Just what exactly is a 'community organizer' anyway? The NYT is protecting Obama from McCain exposing him for what he really is. That's okay, just wait until after the conventions - McCain will whip Obama and the American people, who aren't stupid, will vote for the Republicans, because at the end of the day, post 9-11 they want to be safe.

If there were only 5,000 reproducing females alive around 70,000 years ago, were they all members of a common racial/ethnic stock? Is 70,000 years (say, 2,800 generations) a long enough timeframe to produce such radically different strains as Norwegians, Nigerians and Koreans? Or did different ethno-racial groupings exist among the 5,000 reproducing females before the population bottleneck of 70,000 years ago?

Lies ... damned lies ... statistics.

What's worse?

IMO - the willful misrepresentation of facts and/or drawing unsubstantiated conclusions by leaping from a simple fact to the assumption that it 's mere existence "proves" something nefarious.

In my experience Machiavellian conspiracy theories are ALWAYS BS. The answer to why things are as they are always comes down to the fact that human beings are essentially to lazy to do most things right.

*cough* kill the death penalty ;) *cough*

[quote]The answer to why things are as they are always comes down to the fact that human beings are essentially to lazy to do most things right.[/quote]

OMMAG,
That is the Truth... I would challenge anyone to write a 1950's "Job Description" for someone to manually record “Temperature” for some unknown future use. Maybe a Robot!

Its been my experience that Engineers will reject BS tasks as unworthy of their time, and some would even fake the records...

If the Chimerism doesn't fit, you must acquit.

Texas Canuck, you live in Texas and you've forgotten the Branch Davidians already? That beauty cluster f- was ATF all the way.

The ATF isn't on the "good guy's" side. They are on their own side. They do not seek justice, they seek advancement in the federal bureaucracy food chain and damn anybody who gets in their way. They -make stuff up- so as to get in the newspapers. That's evil, in my book.

I would go so far as to say the only US government entity more fundamentally broken and more dangerous to the US public is the Immigration department. ATF is meaner, but Immigration has them beat on pure, uncaring bureaucratic sloth. The only way to get work out of an Immigration employee is to render their lard ass for oil and burn it in a diesel engine.

To accompany this thread, I wonder if Vitruvius can find "Sweet Gene Vincent" by Ian Dury and the Blockheads? Yes, I know it's not that kind of "sweet gene", but still...