Cool Science

Confirmed: All Non-African Humans are Part Neanderthal

I don't know why exactly I think this is so cool. It might be because I've been fascinated by Neanderthals for well over three years, or because we've been talking around this subject in class for three weeks so to see it confirmed is really rewarding. Or because it explains why some of my family (not naming names <3 ) looks so darn paleolithic.

Anyways, stop using Neanderthal as an insult, because it's demeaning to the real Neanderthals, who as it turns out are some of your distant ancestors. Not the majority of your ancestors - we still did all our evolving in Africa - but you've got a drop of ancient eurasian hominin in you.

I've always felt that colonial rape culture is the best evidence for Human-Neanderthal interbreeding. It's clearly ingrained in the human mind that the one of, if not the first thing you do when you meet an unfamiliar group is you have sex with it. If they don't want to have sex with you, you make them have sex with you. And that's that. Who's not to say this wasn't as true 60 kya as it is now? Or that it wasn't working in the opposite direction? Or that humans and neanderthals weren't involved in some big raping-and-pillaging circle of life?

(Additionally, there are weird little anecdotes in Genesis about human women mating with giants. This is about 25 thousand years after the last recorded Neanderthals in the mideast, but could it be cultural memory? Weird folklore?)

Anyways,  I'm starting to put together some play ideas for class next semester. One of them is definitely a family drama about a father and daughter who are incidentally superheroes, but the other one so far all I have is that there's an emaciated man in a cage center stage and all the other characters say he's locked up for his own good because he's a werewolf but we just have to take their word for it. But there's probably a plot that can go with this setup.

Anyways, that's all for now. :)

Except, wait, here's a grainy picture of Roma and I wearing 3D glasses waiting for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 to start.

(An hour after this picture was taken, we were both wibbling, bawling puddles of fangirl.)