Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:43:30 -0700 From: "A. Maberry" Subject: Re: Pyrin vs. Marenostrin (new words duel!) On Sat, 23 Aug 1997, Barry A. Popik wrote: > What's wrong with this picture? Here's the idiot test of the century, > courtesy of the New York Times, 22 August 1997, pg. A 19, cols. 3-6: > > Gene of Mideast Ancestor May Link 4 Disparate Peoples > By NICHOLAS WADE > > Several thousand years ago, somewhere in the Middle East, there lived a > person who bequeathed a particular gene to many present-day descendants. But > those millions of now distant relatives could not convincingly be called one > happy family. They include Jews, Arabs, Turks and Armenians. what struck me is not so much the fact that a greek or latin name for the gene was proposed, but that the article implies that the Jews, Arabs, Turks and Armenians were descended from a common ancestor, which seems linguistically and historically impossible, IMHO. Allen maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]u.washington.edu