Can Your Genes Predict Whether You'll Be a Conservative or a Liberal? - Avi Tuschman - The Atlantic:
To make this idea more concrete, let’s consider a few specific hot-button issues: “capitalism,” “segregation,” and “immigration.” These three words come from the 28 items on the Wilson-Patterson Conservatism Scale, which political scientist John Alford has researched at Rice University. These terms are guaranteed to set off the hidden triggers of political polarization. In the first case, conflicting attitudes toward “capitalism” are essentially what have divided Tea Partiers from Occupiers. Why? Because unfettered free markets reflect and create inequalities, to which people have varying levels of tolerance, depending on their political leanings. Words like “segregation” and “immigration,” on the other hand, evoke opposing attitudes toward tribalism. People’s attitudes toward inequality and tribalism constitute two of the three clusters of measurable personality traits that give rise to political orientations across space and time (the third cluster concerns differing perceptions of human nature).
In 2005, Alford asked 9,000 identical and fraternal twins to agree, disagree, or express their uncertainty toward these three words and 25 others like them. Positive responses to half of the 28 items raise one’s conservatism score, and positive responses to the other half lower one’s score. Negative reactions do the opposite.
Alford’s twins considered these terms and wrote down their answers. Amazingly, for every single item, the identical twins’ political orientations correlated more strongly than they did for the fraternal twins. And in every case, the difference in strength was significant.
Alford’s experiment and others like it consistently show that 40 to 60 percent of the variance in our political attitudes comes from genetic differences between individuals. The remaining differences come from environmental factors.
The two were identical twins with identical careers as famous newspaper
advice columnists.
So, how did one die of bone marrow cancer 11 1/2 years before her twin died of Alzheimer's disease complications?
It's the age-old question: If twins are identical, with exactly the same genome and cells, why don't they die of the same disease at the same age?
This is no modern mystery. As it proves out for identical twins, their dissimilar fates represent the rule rather than the exception. Today's geneticists would consider it a bigger news story had Ann Landers and twin sister Abby died of the same disease at the same time.
Twenty first-century scientific studies reveal that for identical or "monozygotic"
twins, the similarities end when the zygote, or the fertilized egg, splits into
two zygotes. From that point on, body chemistry, environment, life's
experiences, behaviors and random chance take control.
On average, identical twins are born once in every 200 births. Few studies of identical twins occur in the United States because American twins don't stay together as frequently as those in Britain and continental Europe.
***
"Do you have an active sex life?"
~(Lawyer)~
"No. I just lay there."
~(Witness)~
Found the following picture amusing.
That I'm aware, Atlanta has two sets of identical gay twins.
Having "played around" with one from each set, now wishing I hadn't.
"I'm sorry. What was your name again?"
When a sex life as active mine used to be, not unusual at all needing to be reminded of name(s) when coming across each other cruising the club scene any night(s) since. Among those like me, this is no big deal; just comes with the territory of sex eventually becoming just another night of sex.
Definition of promiscuous:
people who sleep around more than they do; or people who have sex with unattractive people.
And we laugh at those who find this insulting/insensitive/degrading;
behaving
as if they would not have had sex with us had they known we were so promiscuous when now knowing, after the fact, they weren't anywhere close to being the angels they are wanting us to believe themselves to be.
DISCREET/ UB2
Again,
when a sex life as active mine used to be,
even this important bit of information has a way along with name(s),
getting lost/confused in the crowd.
So...
how does one ask this question of twins without inadvertently being accused of being
a
"kiss and tell"
when
uncertain whether or not it's okay for the other one knowing when not knowing yourself which one it is you're supposed to know...
or not.
And the whole evening will be awkard avoiding them when spotting one...
or the other?
Oddly,
information I never forget...
the ones who
are
Log Cabin Republicans.
As this is something usually not learned until we're chilling out in my hot tub after the fact,
it's not the sight of them
angrily jumping up, getting out of the tub, putting back on their clothes, in such a hurry leaving...
making them so unforgettable.
It's the fact I just had sex with
a
Republican.
How it made me feel...SO...dirty/ashamed of myself...
THE GUILT!
An enabler...
when knowing there would not be any... Republicans... if we'd just stop having sex with them.
ROF/LMAO
;^)
***
A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan. " Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
Alford’s experiment and others like it consistently show that 40 to 60 percent of the variance in our political attitudes comes from genetic differences between individuals. The remaining differences come from environmental factors.
***
So, how did one die of bone marrow cancer 11 1/2 years before her twin died of Alzheimer's disease complications?
It's the age-old question: If twins are identical, with exactly the same genome and cells, why don't they die of the same disease at the same age?
This is no modern mystery. As it proves out for identical twins, their dissimilar fates represent the rule rather than the exception. Today's geneticists would consider it a bigger news story had Ann Landers and twin sister Abby died of the same disease at the same time.
ep·i·ge·net·ic
An understanding of epigenetics is the new complication in genetics but necessary to understanding how it works.adjective
1. Biology . of or pertaining to epigenesis, or the successive differentiation of undifferentiated cells in an embryo.
2. Genetics. noting or pertaining to epigenetics, specifically, the process by which the expression of genetic information is modified on a molecular level without a change to the DNA sequence: the epigenetic inheritance of longevity.
On average, identical twins are born once in every 200 births. Few studies of identical twins occur in the United States because American twins don't stay together as frequently as those in Britain and continental Europe.
***
"Do you have an active sex life?"
~(Lawyer)~
"No. I just lay there."
~(Witness)~
Found the following picture amusing.
That I'm aware, Atlanta has two sets of identical gay twins.
Having "played around" with one from each set, now wishing I hadn't.
"I'm sorry. What was your name again?"
When a sex life as active mine used to be, not unusual at all needing to be reminded of name(s) when coming across each other cruising the club scene any night(s) since. Among those like me, this is no big deal; just comes with the territory of sex eventually becoming just another night of sex.
Definition of promiscuous:
people who sleep around more than they do; or people who have sex with unattractive people.
And we laugh at those who find this insulting/insensitive/degrading;
behaving
as if they would not have had sex with us had they known we were so promiscuous when now knowing, after the fact, they weren't anywhere close to being the angels they are wanting us to believe themselves to be.
DISCREET/ UB2
Again,
when a sex life as active mine used to be,
even this important bit of information has a way along with name(s),
getting lost/confused in the crowd.
So...
how does one ask this question of twins without inadvertently being accused of being
a
"kiss and tell"
when
uncertain whether or not it's okay for the other one knowing when not knowing yourself which one it is you're supposed to know...
or not.
And the whole evening will be awkard avoiding them when spotting one...
or the other?
Oddly,
information I never forget...
the ones who
are
Log Cabin Republicans.
As this is something usually not learned until we're chilling out in my hot tub after the fact,
it's not the sight of them
angrily jumping up, getting out of the tub, putting back on their clothes, in such a hurry leaving...
making them so unforgettable.
It's the fact I just had sex with
a
Republican.
How it made me feel...SO...dirty/ashamed of myself...
THE GUILT!
An enabler...
when knowing there would not be any... Republicans... if we'd just stop having sex with them.
ROF/LMAO
;^)
***
A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan. " Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
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