Despite having gassed numerous Drosophila in high school to better my understanding of genetics, most of what I ever knew about the science has faded away. Today I read:

The males inherit their X chromosomes solely from their mothers and transmit them solely to their daughters. Females receive one X from their father and one from their mother.

…and it blew my mind. I’m sure that I knew this at one point, but it seemed new (and fascinating) information this afternoon.

This is all quite relevant to me this week because I received the results of my DNA test from The Genographic Project, a National Geographic program that’s a “landmark five-year study that will assemble the world’s largest collection of DNA samples to map how humankind populated the planet.”

My Y-Chromosome, a chromosome I received from my father, who received it from his father, and so on, identifies me, because of a marker called M170, as a member of “Haplogroup I.” The National Geographic says:

Haplogroup I, is widespread throughout southeastern and central Europe and most common in the Balkans. Members of this haplogroup carry a 20,000-year-old marker dubbed M170.

This Y chromosome marker first appeared in the Middle East. Its subsequent spread into southeastern Europe may have accompanied the expansion of the prosperous Gravettian culture. These Upper Paleolithic people used effective communal hunting techniques and developed art notable for voluptuous female carvings often dubbed “Venus” figures.

The later spread of this lineage could be also tied to the mid-first millennium B.C. Celtic culture. The tantalizing possibility could explain the wider dispersal of this unique genetic marker.

Here’s the map of the “M170 journey:”

I’ve got a lot more to learn now about what all this means.

I’ve been a contented user of the excellent (if unfortunately named) del.icio.us “social bookmarking” service; indeed saving bookmarks to del.icio.us has all but replaced keeping bookmarks in my browser.

But their technical problems recently, which included a long period of downtime, made me realize that relying on a third-party service to store my bookmarks left me too vulnerable to the whims of someone else: what good are bookmarks if you can’t visit them!

Additionally, del.icio.us was recently acquired by Yahoo! and that only added to my queasiness. Yahoo! may be in the geek karma sweet spot these days, but I’m not too keen on relying on them to shepherd my links.

The answer is bookmarks.ruk.ca (or bm.ruk.ca if you’re short on fingers and don’t mind the scatology), a implementation of the excellent PHP-based “del.icio.us clone” called Scuttle. Scuttle supports the del.icio.us API, so switching was as easy as a quick install, an export from del.icio.us, an import into Scuttle, and changing my pointers in the various clients I use the drink in del.icio.us data.

While I intend this primarily as a personal tool, you’re welcome to register your own account (free, easy, etc.) and use it to maintain your own bookmarks.

By the way, if you were subscribing to the old del.icio.us RSS feed, here’s the new RSS feed.

Back in August I wrote about the new “.travel” (aka “dot travel”) domain, and included some information sent to me by the Tourism Industry Association of PEI as well as some important information about the controversial domain from writer and travel agent Edward Hasbrouck.

Edward’s efforts have continued, and his most recent update on the situation is chilling, and not only for what it says about ICANN and .travel, but also for what it portends for other top-level domains in the future:

The issues for travellers, and the public interest, remain as significant (if subtle, because almost no one is actually using “.aero” or “.travel” yet) as ever. While keeping top-level domains artificially scarce to enhance their value to the handful of companies given the franchise to control them, ICANN is allocating a huge proportion of this limited Internet “namespace” for the exclusive use of the industry that sells travel-related services — and is equating that “industry” with the entire concept of “travel”. What should be a public commons is being captured by corporate interests, travel is being reduced to the purchase of services, and travellers and the rest of the public are being reduced to “consumers”. “.Aero” and “travel” are the first industry-specific TLD’s, making travel the test case of the corporate enclosure of this virtual commons.

Coincidentally, the December TIAPEI e-NEWS FLASH! contains the following item:

.travel Place Name Deadline December 31

Tourism officials would be well advised to ensure their place names are registered on the new top level domain name, .travel, before the window closes on Dec. 31, 2005. Any Place Names not applied for by the December 31, 2005 deadline will be returned to the general pool of domain names, allowing any travel entities to potentially secure unclaimed Place Names.

Over six million Place Names, including the names of cities, towns, heritage sites, and parks that are reserved exclusively for authorized bodies, will expire at the end of this calendar year. Addresses such as www.princeedwardisland.travel, www.charlottetown.travel and some of the most valuable online domain names on the Internet will then become available.

In light of Edward’s stated concerns, this “place name” issue seems doubly concerning: it means that “travel entities” will be in sole control of place name dot travel domains; if that’s not “corporate enclosure of this virtual commons,” I don’t know what is.

My friend G. recalled that on a visit to Indonesia he had a pocket-sized game with him that entertained and delighted his riverboat mates on a long voyage along the water. He couldn’t remember what game it was — I thought it sounded like Battleship. [[Karen]] came to my rescue last night, recalling the old game called Mastermind.

I can’t recall the specific rules of the game, but I know it involved a board that looked a lot like a cribbage board and lots of pegs. I seem to remember that the original version of the game had black and white pegs, and was followed several years later by an exciting new version with coloured pegs.

Hard to imagine, in this day of Killer Attack Droid IV, that we used to get excited about multi-coloured peg games.

A faithful reader from Vermont writes:

You are too smart a guy to keep using “I” instead of “me.” Twice today pushed me over the grammatical edge.

I presume the error in question is phrases like “He’s driving Oliver and I…” Here’s a good explanation of the error, in part:

The first person singular pronoun is “I” when it’s a subject and “me” when it’s an object…

In other words, my error was this: in the sentence above, it is “He” (Dad) who is the subject, and Oliver and I [sic] who are the objects — it is Dad’s manipulation of us that is being discussed.

So while I might say “Oliver and I are driving Dad to the airport,” I should say “He’s driving Oliver and me to the airport.”

That all said, if you’re coming here expecting a grammatical paradise, you’re in the wrong place: I’m strongly on the “as long as you understand me, it’s all okay” side of the grammar wars, and those of the “it’s the end of civilized society when we start using ‘I’ where we should use ‘me’ ” don’t hold much stock in my world.

That all said, thanks to my helpful correspondent for pointing out the error of me ways.

This is as early as I’ve been up in a long time: it’s 6:20 a.m. and I’ve preemptively fallen out of bed in anticipation of [[Dad]] waking me up in 10 minutes. He’s driving [[Oliver]] and I to the airport this morning for our return flight to [[Charlottetown]].

This has been a very short visit — too short really — but I’m glad we came, as it was nice to see [[Mom]] and [[Dad]] and [[Mike]] and Karen and [[Joe]] before Christmas. [[Catherine]], from all reports, has completely renovated the house in our absence, which is pretty well par for the course when she’s left without the need to shepherd [[Oliver]] and I through our daily lives.

All systems willing, we’ll be back on PEI by 1:00 p.m.

Afterthought: isn’t there a song that has the words “back to Ontario” in it? Or maybe I’m just thinking of that kid’s rhyme that we used to sing on the school bus that started “They say you’re in the army…”.

This morning was Day One of the switch to a rotary shaver.

The biggest difference between the rotary Remington and the “bar” Braun is the audio feedback: with the Braun I’m used to the shaver making a different sound when it’s cutting and when it’s not, which is a good way of knowing what’s shaved and what’s not. The Remington seems to sound pretty much the same whether it’s cutting or not, so I’ll have to develop new methods for figuring this out.

While floating the three rotary heads over the wide expanses of the cheek seems to work well, I’m unsure about what technique to use for the mustache area where there’s only room for one head (the manual warns “hold the shaver so all heads touch your face together”). I’ll also need to experiment with whether to shave the under-chin area with the shaver right side up or upside down — it’s not clear which position will provide the closest shave.

Post-first-shave my skin felt like it had been lightly braised with a propane torch; I know from previous “changing shaving methods” experiences (i.e. shaving with a disposable Bic after years of electric) that this is to be expected. I’m going to drop in to The Body Shop for some healing after-shave salve this afternoon to mitigate the searing pain. This transition challenge must make for an interesting aspect to the shaving products business — it’s a great barrier to winning over new customers to your method.

The shave itself seems about as close as the Braun, somewhat closer under the chin. I actually managed to cut myself shaving, which I didn’t think was possible with an electric; it happened in the deep expanses of the underchin, though, in areas where I never take the Braun, so this is perhaps to be expected.

More from the shaving frontier as the experiment continues.

From brother [[Johnny]] comes news that Willie Nelson is coming to Charlottetown on May 7th, 2006. Opening act is Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

My lack of plugged-in-ness probably means everyone else has known about this for months. This is the biggest thing since Bryan Adams played the Civic Centre back in 1998. Next thing you know we’ll be getting Elton John (just like Saskatoon did back in 2002).

As you are madly rushing about [[Charlottetown]] this week shopping for last-minute Christmas gifts, allow me to recommend Hon. Marion Reid’s new book These Roots Run Deep.

I bought a copy two weeks ago, and one night last week, with nothing on television and a touch of a cold coming on, I sat down to start the book. I didn’t put it down until I finished, four hours later.

Marion spins a good tale, and the book, a review of her life from birth to present, is a compelling read, full of adventure (I think I counted four episodes where, by all rights, Marion should be dead now) and the joys and sorrows of growing up first a member of her parents’ large family and then leading her own.

These Roots Run Deep should be required reading for all new Islanders, as it effectively conveys one sense of what growing up in rural Prince Edward Island during the 20th century was like; for those of us who are sometimes bemused by how PEI works, understanding that history is a useful tool for understanding.

These Roots Run Deep is published by Tangle Lane, and is available at bookstores across the Island. I’m sure if you gave Marion a call she would be happy to sell you a copy too.

Tod recommends a service called trackitback that’s sort of like “War Amps Key Tags for technology stuff.” I just placed my order: I’m going to stick them on my iBook, my phone, my digital camera, the router I carry around when I travel and more. Maybe I’ll even stick one on [[Oliver]].

Marketing cost for trackitback? $0. They just did what they said they were going to do for Tod, and the blogosphere did the rest.