inheritance

This might just be funny to genetics nerds, but it made me laugh.


For some great hypotheses about the modes of inheritance that could explain this pattern, see the blog comments on the Volokh Conspiracy.

something to read

I've been on a Jane Austen kick this month, and today I came across some of her work that I'd never read before. It's a parody of a history book that she wrote for her sister at the age of fifteen, and it made me laugh. Here's a sample:

Henry the 4th

Henry the 4th ascended the throne of England much to his own satisfaction in the year 1399, after having prevailed on his cousin & predecessor Richard the 2nd to resign it to him, & to retire for the rest of his Life to Pomfret Castle, where he happened to be murdered. It is to be supposed that Henry was married, since he had certainly four sons, but it is not in my power to inform the Reader who was his Wife. Be this as it may, he did not live for ever, but falling ill, his son the Prince of Wales came and took away the crown; whereupon the King made a long speech, for which I must refer the Reader to Shakespear's Plays, & the Prince made a still longer. Things being thus settled between them the King died, & was succeeded by his son Henry who had previously beat Sir William Gascoigne.

You can access the whole thing from this link.

wheelchairs

Have you ever looked at a person in a wheelchair and thought, "Why is life so unfair sometimes?"

I just did. I thought, "Why can't I be in a wheelchair? I'm too tired to keep walking home. Why does that person get a motorized wheelchair and I don't? Life's not fair!"

Hopefully this will not cause karmic retribution like joking about people with turf toe did.