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A few months ago, I submitted buccal cells in order to participate in the The Genographic Project. What is that, you ask?  You can read my initial post HERE and read about my concerns regarding the quality of this study HERE.   I was able to print out the results of my genetic lineage directly from the Genographic website.  There are no surprises to be had here as the result of my DNA testing identifies me as belonging to Haplogroup H.

“Eve”>L1/L0>L2>L3>N>R>Pre-HV>HV>H  -

not the best scanned image....

 Here are a few interesting facts I’ve discovered about the H haplogroup:

This wave of migration into Western Europe marked the appearance and the spread of what archaeologists call the Aurignacian culture. The culture is distinguished by significant innovations in methods of manufacturing tools.  

15,000 to 20,000 years ago, colder temperatures and a drier global climate (READ: GLOBAL COOLING) locked much of the earth’s freshwater in the polar icecaps, making living nearly impossible in the northern hemisphere. Early migrants retreated to the warmer climates of the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and the Balkans. Their population sizes were drastically reduced.

Beginning around 15,000 years ago when the ice sheets had begun their retreat (READ: GLOBAL WARMING) humans moved north again and recolonized Western Europe. By far the most frequent mitochondrial lineage carried by these groups was haplogroup H. 

Today haplogroup H compromises 40-60 percent of the gene pool of most European populations. In Rome and Athens, for example, the frequency of H is around 40 percent of the entire population, and it exhibits similar frequencies throughout Europe.

The age of haplogroup H lineages differ quite substantially between those seen in the West compared with those found in the East.

Man Friday:  The Beach Edition.  A salute to my attraction to both the ocean and men - I can't help but fall into both.

Each week,  Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.

Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

BSG season finale:  Crossroads Part 2:

BSG has finally crossed the final frontier and has become JAG in space.  During the episode, I found myself checking the channel to make sure I was watching the Sci-Fi network.  

It came as no frakking surprise that Baltar was found not guilty.  Lee Adama's speech in the courtroom was delivered with impeccable precision.  Yet at its core, his argument reflected a contempt for the idea of justice.  He mentioned several instances of forgiveness - one might ask if any of these 'instances' involved an attempted genocide that resulted in the death of 12 billion people?  Using his logic, why pursue justice when no-one can be held accountable for their actions? Lee railed against mob rule but offered an alternative that is no better than anarchy. Justice has no place in this form of logic - and the judges in this trial bought into it. One wonders if this is actually a reflection of Ron Moore's personal ideology .

So...onward to the other plot issues. Anders, being the consummate athelete, is seen playing the field with Tory and perhaps with Seelix.  Hopefully, this time around he will find a relationship with a woman that actually likes him. 

Or maybe not.... 

By listening to the music in their heads, Tory, Anders, Tyrol and Tigh discover they are cylons? WTF? So much for the gritty realism in the story arcs that defined BSG.

The most predictable moment of the show:  Starbuck's reappearance as a figment of Lee's imagination.  The take home message of the night - suicide isn't permanent - you can come back and reside in the mind of Lee Adama.  Can the BSG writers trivialize suicide any further?  Also, redundant plot points within the series is not a good thing. When  writers start recycling story lines within the same series, a ratings downturn is not far behind.

This season 3 closing episode has me saying 'who cares' about the storyline or the series return in 2008

Saturday morning arrived with an early wakeup call from CJ informing me he was on his way to the hotel. 45 minutes later – a record for me – I was dressed and heading towards the hotel lobby to meet CJ. Monica and Troll were en route to the hotel so it was only a matter of time before we headed out to the Mall. CJ and I met quite a few interesting individuals who were participating in this pro-American rally. One couple flew in from Germany in order to take part in this event! One of the veterans gathered in the lobby presented CJ with a unique gift of lip moisturizer that contained a special added ingredient of bacon oil. The moisturizer is a perfect gift to give to your jihadi friends here and abroad. The City Troll reported for duty a day out of surgery with his arm in a sling and his fingers stained a greenish-blue from the antiseptic used during the procedure. I remarked to Monica how the coloration really suited the Troll.

It was a brisk, C-O-L-D day at the Mall. Holy cow, it was frakking COLD and quite muddy at the GOE staging area and in ANSWERS bullpen. Thankfully, my boots, not the monuments were the only casualty of this weekend.

My first impression of the staging area was of the hundreds of American Flags on display and the number of people assembled there so early in the morning. I knew then and there this was no typical gathering. Today a new day dawned for those who understand the price of freedom.

In addition to liveblogging this event, and meeting up with bloggers that I greatly admire, I wanted to use this opportunity to work on my photojournalism skills. I envisioned myself as an East Coast Zombie capturing images ignored by the MSM. If you haven’t viewed his work, I suggest you do so after reading my report. Little did I know that on this day I would meet a character from the Zombie photo chronicles here in DC.




CJ and I walked over to the staging ground of A.N.S.W.E.R and company. One the first things that jumped out, besides the derth of supporters in the ANSWER bullpen, was the collection of media vans lined up alongside the protestor’s camp. Fox News and Channel 7 news vans were parked and their crews were busy setting up equipment.

After a few moments of picture taking, we headed back to the GOE staging area in order to listen to Kit from Euphoric Reality sing the National Anthem.

As the day unfolded, early media reports went something like this:

NY Times:

As they gathered before the march, the protesters met what several veterans of the antiwar movement described as an unusually large contingent of several hundred counterdemonstrators. Many were veterans in biker jackets who said they had come to protect the nearby Vietnam Memorial, citing rumors that had circulated among veterans groups that the demonstrators planned to deface it.

Cox News

While police in the nation’s capital no longer give official crowd estimates at public demonstrations, The Associated Press said a private count by police found perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 antiwar marchers and hundreds of counter-protesters.

LA Times

As CJ, Kit and myself wandered around the anti-war staging ground, it was quite apparent that there was far more elbow room here than over at the GOE staging ground. Twice I heard the MC ask the liberals to gather closer to the stage in an effort to make it appear there were more people present. This aggregation made it easier for the media to photograph this seemingly large group of protesters. Don't take my word for it or that of Cajun Tiger. CJ over at A Soldier's Perspective posted an audio recording of this request. All during this time, I was snapping photos with my cellphone and sending them to Midnightblue. I happened be in the middle of reporting on the liberal no-show to Mike's America just as the MC started to crank out what some might call music. I managed to video a portion of one of most requested songs in his lineup in anticipation of sharing it with all of you. Enjoy!

The Gathering Of Eagles.

It was a gathering like no other that I have attended. The Eagles soared and the AW/AA crowd took notice despite the media attempts to ignore the Eagles.

Motoring from Philly during a rain/sleet/hail storm that seemed relentless on a Friday afternoon. I wondered what was to become of this rally as I made my way south on I-95. Jack was real trooper in the near whiteout motoring conditions and I arrived safely at the hotel in Arlington.

I’d like to acknowledge those bloggers who stood with me during this Pro-American rally organized by The Gathering of Eagles in DC.

CJ

Grizzly Mama

The City Troll

Cajun Tiger

AOW

JG

Steve's Hodgepodge

Maries Two Cents

First look at a flag that will be displayed tomorrow by the Eagles.

Yours truly had the opportunity to meet the "Florida Gang" responsible for the 'Boot Murtha" campaign. A campaign organized by Vets For The Truth to redeply Murtha to Okinawa.

Gathering of Eagles is an act of love by thousands of veterans who choose to honor the sacrifice of the fallen by guarding the memorials from those who would desecrate them on March 17th in a “peaceful” anti-war rally in Washington D.C.

It is also an act of war, a call to action for every American who chooses to stand and say “No more!” to those who would spit on our veterans and ridicule their service to our nation.

We invite you to join us March 17th, as we stand together as one to ensure that the sacrifices of our fallen and the memorials that remember them are not tarnished by the ungrateful.

By now, you've seen the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica. If
you haven't, go frakkin' watch it and come back when you're ready to read some spoilers. Yes, there will be spoilers in the very next sentence! So Starbuck (Katee Sackoff) blew up in that swirly storm full of visions or whatever -- it was possibly the stupidest and most pointless death imaginable for a kickass pilot and awesome pivotal character. Delving into Starbuck's childhood abuse and turning it into a flimsy excuse for a sudden mental breakdown made no sense whatsoever. And what about the whole Leoben paint-sex scene, coupled with his puppy-eyed sympathy as she remembers her dead mom? As they say in Australia: yucko.

Why the hell do we want Leoben to help Starbuck "pass over into the s pace between life and death"? He's the creepy asswipe who tortured her repeatedly on New Caprica. But redeeming the creepy is apparently the whole point of this episode. Not only is Kara's abusive, finger-crushing mom recast as a nice lady in her deathbed scene, but Leoben is recontextualized as spirit guide. WTF? I'm feeling nothing but the squick.

The real question, however, is whether Kara is really dead.

We know for sure that Sackoff's name won't appear in the credits for the season's final three episodes, but that doesn't mean crap. Starbuck might be a cylon; she might have zoomed into a wormhole or something in that lower-atmosphere storm; or she might have gotten rescued by the phantom Raider she saw. So what are the pro geeks saying?

Rampant speculation on Starbuck's fate below the fold . . .

Marc Bernadin at Entertainment Weekly's blog says:

I just don't understand what her destiny is, other than to disregard orders and commit suicide by flying into a storm. I'm all for heroic sacrifice, provided I understand what the sacrifice is for. And here, I don't. I will say, though, that I'm not terribly worried about never seeing Kara Thrace again. This is science fiction, where no one ever truly dies. Especially in a world where they can download.

Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has seen the last three episodes of the season, and has this to say:

If fans are in a tizzy now, what will they think of the mindbending season finale? I can't even imagine . . . One thing to keep in mind is that in their January interview, Ron Moore and David Eick were very careful to never use the words "death" or "dies." They called what happened to Starbuck "a major event," and when I asked directly if she would die in "Maelstrom," Moore said, "I don't know that I want to say that directly. I think people will have to watch that episode and judge for themselves what happens." I'll just say I find that comment telling.

Boston Globe's Suzanne Ryan spoke with Katee Sackoff, and writes:

[Sackoff] won't confirm rampant Internet rumors that her character will be killed in tomorrow night's highly anticipated
episode "Maelstrom." But Sackhoff will say that she's currently
negotiating to star in an unrelated independent film, that she's not interested in doing new science-fiction projects.

Star Trek and comic book scribe Peter David blogs:

Have we seen the last of Kara? I wouldn't bet on it. First of all,
blondes named Kara have a habit of coming back. Trust me on
that . . . Powerful viewing that was also disconcerting and
annoying. Still, I have to think BSG is gonna take a hit in terms of
fan support for this one, a hit that could conceivably damage the
show especially when one considers that between the departure of Lucy Lawless's Cylon, the death of Kat and now of Starbuck, strong female characters are dropping like flies. Short term shock value could be hurt by long term anger. Save Starbuck. Save the show.

On the TV Guide BSG blog, Angel Cohn is in shock:

Out of all the ways I ever imagined Starbuck dying, this was the last possible thing I would have ever considered. She basically committed suicide. I always thought that someone as badass, argumentative and disobedient as Starbuck would go down swinging, or chasing down some toasters.

Starbuck is dead by her own hand. Way to go Ron! The glamorization of suicide and the trivilization of child abuse has brought this show to a new level of 'jumping the shark'.

Of course, Starbuck will return. When the ratings are in the gutter and the network executives are using terms like CANCELLATION when discussing BSG. Will the return of Starbuck save the show? I'm not certain. Ron Moore and David Eick have, in one episode, managed to break a fundamental element of this show. Not even the mighty Starbuck can fix that...