Category: Facts ... or Not
Blue Eyes are Increasingly Rare In America
Posted by admin in Facts ... or Not Friday, 20 November 2009 23:00 1 Comment
By Douglas Belkin
Published: Wednesday, October 18, 2006
If the U.S. Census Bureau has it right, the 300 millionth American entered the United States kicking and screaming on Tuesday morning. The odds are that this milestone American is a boy, born to a white family in a California suburb. He will have a 1-in-4 shot of graduating from college, will probably marry, father two children, struggle with his weight, and live to see his 85th birthday.
What he will probably not have — that his grandfather likely did — is a pair of blue eyes.
Once a hallmark of the boy and girl next door, blue eyes have become increasingly rare among American children. Immigration patterns, intermarriage, and genetics all play a part in their steady decline. While the drop-off has been a century in the making, the plunge in the past few decades has taken place at a remarkable rate.
About half of Americans born at the turn of the 20th century had blue eyes, according to a 2002 Loyola University study in Chicago. By mid-century that number had dropped to a third. Today only about one 1 of every 6 Americans has blue eyes, said Mark Grant, the epidemiologist who conducted the study.
Grant was moved to research the subject when he noticed that blue eyes were much more prevalent among his elderly patients in the nursing home where he worked than in the general population. At first he thought blue eyes might be connected to life expectancy, so he began comparing data from early 20th- century health surveys. Turns out it has more to do with marriage patterns.
A century ago, 80 percent of people married within their ethnic group, Grant said. Blue eyes — a genetically recessive trait — were routinely passed down, especially among people of English, Irish, and Northern European ancestry.
By mid-century, a person’s level of education — and not ethnicity — became the primary factor in selecting a spouse. As intermarriage between ethnic groups became the norm, blue eyes began to disappear, replaced by brown.
The influx of nonwhites into the United States, especially from Latin America and Asia, hastened the disappearance. Between 1900 and 1950, only about 1 in 10 Americans was nonwhite. Today that ratio is 1 in 3.
With the exception of an increased risk of macular degeneration (blue eyes are at greater risk) , eye color is biologically indicative of almost nothing. Boys are 3 percent to 5 percent likelier to have blue eyes than girls, but beyond that it’s a non-issue — physiologically speaking. The cultural implications are another story.
Preferences for fair skin and blue eyes stretch back in Europe to at least the Middle Ages, according to Hema Sundaram , author of “Face Value,” a book about the history of beauty. For women in particular, especially those of European descent, fair skin and light eyes have long been seen as indicators of fertility and beauty.
America adopted those biases early on, and Hollywood reinforced them by anointing a long line of blue-eyed blondes such as Marilyn Monroe as the nation’s sex symbols.
In the 1930s, eugenicists used the disappearance of blue eyes as a rallying cry to support immigration restrictions. They went so far as to map the parts of the country with the highest and lowest percentage of blue-eyed people.
So consumed were Americans with this ideal that in the ’70s and ’80s the fashion models who exemplified the All-American look were typically Scandinavian, said Katie Ford, CEO of Ford Models in New York, which has been in business for 60 years. But in the past decade those standards have begun to change, and Madison Avenue has taken note. The look advertisers want today favors honey-colored skin, brown hair, and green or brown eyes. The most successful models are coming from Brazil.
“Advertisers want the idealized form of the general population,” Ford said. “Someone with perfect features but who the everyday person can relate to.”
But even as blue eyes give way to brown, lighter eyes will maintain a certain allure, said Carolyn Kaufman, who teaches evolutionary psychology at Otterbein College in Ohio. When people see something pleasurable, their eyes dilate, Kaufman said. Dilated pupils signal happiness and are, in turn, considered attractive. Since they are easier to see on lighter eyes, they have a natural appeal.
Genetics of Red Hair and Redheads
Posted by admin in Facts ... or Not Friday, 20 November 2009 22:58 No Comments
Genetics of Red Hair & Redheads
2007 Report that Red Hair Would Disappear by 2100 is False
© Barry Starr
Sep 18, 2007
Redheads will become rare in the future., Wikipedia Commons
Changes in the MC1R gene that lead to red hair will always be present at a low level in the collective DNA of humanity.
Every now and then a story pops up that redheads are an endangered species. For example, in February 2007 there was a flurry of reports that red hair would be extinct by 2100 based on a statement from the Oxford Hair Foundation. This is nonsense.
Redheads are probably here to stay. They will almost certainly become less common over time, but there will always be a few of them around.
To understand why this is, we need to delve a little into how red hair works at the genetic level. Remember, we have two copies of most of our genes—one from mom and one from dad. For people of European descent, red hair happens when both copies of someone’s MC1R gene doesn’t work properly (this is called a recessive trait).
How to become a redhead?
So to end up a redhead, you need to get a non-working copy of the MC1R gene from both mom and dad. However, most people in the world have two good copies of the MC1R gene and so cannot have red haired kids (although they can have red haired grandkids). The only reason we have as many redheads as we do is because until recently, there was very little mingling of ethnic groups. In other words, people with red hair genes tended to have kids with other people with red hair genes. This is no longer true and is a big reason why so few redheads will be around in the future.
To get a feel for how this intermingling will affect red hair in the human population, let’s imagine that the population of Scotland was uprooted and dispersed throughout China. Scotland has a population of around 5 million and of these, 13% are redheads and 40% have one copy of the MC1R gene that doesn’t work (these folks are said to be carriers for red hair). This means that of the 10 million copies of the MC1R gene that are in Scotland, around 3.3 million don’t work. In our mythical country of Scotland-China, these genes would still be present—just severely diluted. In other words, there would be 3.3 million broken copies of the MC1R gene and 2 billion or so working copies.
It’s Not Easy Being a Redhead
Posted by admin in Facts ... or Not Friday, 20 November 2009 22:55 2 Comments
Princeton students celebrate ‘the redhead experience’
By Elizabeth Landau
Special to CNN.com
PRINCETON, New Jersey — From Elizabeth I to Robert Redford, redheads have stood out throughout history because of their distinctive fiery manes. Now, students at Princeton University have joined forces to discuss and celebrate their unique experiences of having red hair.
The newly formed Princeton Redheads Society, which obtained official recognition and funding from the university, has begun to bring together red-haired students in meetings and parties centered around the theme of “the redhead experience.”
Founded by red-haired Princetonians Ann Glotzbach and Doug Rosenthal, the group meets in a red-painted room munching on red snacks such as Twizzlers and sipping cranberry juice.
Members plan redhead-oriented events, honor red-haired faculty members with sunscreen awards, and discuss the many implications of living with red hair.
“It brings together people who may never have met otherwise,” said Glotzbach, a senior in the sociology department. “The only thing they have in common is red hair, but that ties them together in such a strong way.”
Earlier this year the group played host to Moontan 2004, a nighttime barbecue with Afrobeat music, glow-in-the-dark beach balls and red drinks.
Though the moonlit event was a nod to redheads, whose skin burns under the sun, a diverse group of students responded to the invitation’s declaration “All hair colors welcome.”
Other events will include a Valentine’s Day bash and Eric the Red Day, in celebration of the red-haired Viking who is believed to have colonized Greenland.
The group, with a mailing list of about 80 red-haired students, has achieved such popularity among non-redheads that the officers created a “liaison” program. Liaisons do not have red hair, but help the redheads plan events.
“We’re not one to discriminate; we’ve always been singled out,” Glotzbach said.
Redheads face challenges from the sun as well as society, according to some Redheads Society members. Easily spotted in crowds and classrooms, redheads are sometimes the objects of “carrot top” jokes and other teasing.
“You get some attention and hopefully you learn to use it for the better,” co-founder Rosenthal said. “For one thing, I think it’s one of the reasons a lot of redheads develop a good [and often somewhat sarcastic] sense of humor.”
The group has also brought red-haired students in contact with a professor equally passionate about the redhead condition.
Princeton English professor Anne Daniel has spent the past four years pondering, researching and writing about the portrayal of redheads in literature, as well as treatment of redheads in different cultures.
Her forthcoming book, “Redheads,” shows that male redheads throughout literary history have been portrayed as powerful and untrustworthy and the red-haired female as devilish and seductive.
While political movements in Ireland and Scotland strive to gain political protection for redheads against discrimination, Daniel finds that in America today redheads mostly enjoy a positive aesthetic status, particularly females.
“In the case of redheads, a stereotype that began negatively has been turned into something very different, and empowering for red-haired women, ” she said.
11 “Don’t-Tell-the-Wife” Secrets All Men Keep
Posted by admin in Facts ... or Not, Random Sunday, 1 November 2009 20:05 No Comments
From the WebMD Feature from “Redbook” Magazine By Ty Wenger ….
Secret #1: Yes, we fall in lust 10 times a day — but it doesn’t mean we want to leave you
Secret #2: We actually do play golf to get away from you
Secret #3: We’re unnerved by the notion of commitment, even after we’ve made one to you
Secret #4: Earning money makes us feel important
Secret #5: Though we often protest, we actually enjoy fixing things around the house
Secret #6: We like it when you mother us, but we’re terrified that you’ll become your mother
Secret #7: Every year we love you more
Secret #8: We don’t really understand what you’re talking about
Secret #9: We are terrified when you drive
Secret #10: We’ll always wish we were 25 again
Secret #11: Give us an inch and we’ll give you a lifetime
Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning and Sexual Power of Red Hair
Posted by admin in Facts ... or Not, Random Friday, 30 October 2009 11:33 No Comments
I’ve heard of this book before, but I still haven’t read it. Read about it at amazon.com. After I purchase and read this book, I believe I’ll be posting some articles on it. Ciao!
