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Comment Re:This too was foreseen (Score 1) 902

As a population biologist I believe I can speak to this. Humanity is more genetically diverse, in terms of persistent polymorphism than any other mammal by an order of magnitude. Furthermore, the population is growing and globally mixing, so positive selection dominates drift which means that mutations will tend to stick around until election can act on them. Each day about 350,000 children are born with a mutation rate of 10^-9 per nucleotide and 3^9 nucleotides per genome, Each day 175,000 new mutations appear in our gene pool. I think we'll be ok.
The Media

Sound Bites of the 1908 Presidential Candidates 410

roncosmos writes "Science News has up a feature on the first use of sound recording in a presidential campaign. In 1908, for the first time, presidential candidates recorded their voices on wax cylinders. Their voices could be brought into the home for 35 cents, equivalent to about $8 now. In that pre-radio era, this was the only way, short of hearing a speech at a whistle stop, that you could hear the candidates. The story includes audio recordings from the 1908 candidates, William Jennings Bryan and William Howard Taft. Bryan's speech, on bank failures, seems sadly prescient now. Taft's, on the progress of the Negro, sounds condescending to modern ears but was progressive at the time. There are great images from the campaign; lots of fun."

Comment Re:Immunity is fiction. (Score 1) 236

Interesting fact: There is more 'Fossil' retrovirus DNA in our genome than Protein Coding DNA http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/03/071203fa_fact_specter. Retrovirus infection is nothing new to metazoans, and the typical cycle of integration is infection, spread, mutual tolerance, and eventually conversion to transposable elements. There is strong evolutionary pressure on HIV to follow this pattern, if for no other reason than a healthy carrier spreads the virus faster than a sick one.

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