[Slings and Arrows]

Michael Jackson just signed up as a test subject.

[Mr. Rational]

It's just shocking that the same gene that controls skin color also controls jumping ability.

(Sorry - I couldn't help myself).

[Reactionary]

"Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife."

White skin is one of "humanity's greatest sources of strife," huh?

What racist garbage.

[txhurl]

BTTT.

As a blonde, blue-eyed, light-skinned girl, I always wondered what the hell I was selected for for living on this planet.

[burzum]

From what I've heard, as humans started migrating north from Africa they came up upon impinging ice sheets in an ice age. The probability of breaking bones greatly increased in the rougher terrain so there was an advantage to anything that could make the bones stronger, such as lightening so that more vitamin D could be made. Additionally less radiant heat would be emitted at night due to the lower emissivity of white skin (which gave an advantage in the coldest of nights).

[Sofa King]

You might find this interesting.

[Herakles]

"Leaders of the study, at Penn State University"

Great, now Graham Spanier (Penn State President) can correct the malfunctioning mutant "white" gene and make us all minorities, making him and his wacko leftist buddies on campus sleep better at night knowing they, without leaving the confines of their books and red brick towers to do any real work, have made mankind safe and equal as it should be (in their eyes)!

[GeronL]

According to the Washington Post white skin is one of humanity's greatest sources of strife.

How about them apples??

A major media outlet has just announced that white skin is the problem.

[Delta 21]

Sounds like evolution to me. Does this mean that white people are more evolved than all the other races, or are we all just mutants?

[A6M3]

There is only one problem with these donkeys theory. White skin genes aren't dominant.

[dangus]

That simply is NOT how genetics worked. If skin tone were one gene, everyone would be pitch black or Swesdish white, and would be dominant or recessive. The fact that there are so many ranges of skin color means that it has to be a product of many genes.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Sow how do they explain Eminem?

[grey_whiskers]

Anti liberal, anti MSM Sarcasm Torpedoes ARMED. FIRE!!

I thought races were "merely a social construct" to be explained away.

And for that matter, they are implying that white skin confers survival advantage in some contexts.

Does this make the WaPo of the belief that whites are genetically superior?

Or was this merely meant to be published in Sen. Robert Byrd's (KKK -- WV) home town?

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

Damn. I'm a mutant.

[Echo Talon]

The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned.

For some reason I don't believe this sentence for a second...

[Straight Vermonter]

I don't think anyone else has yet mentioned another aspect of this discovery. Knowing where to look in the genome for these kinds of markers (skin color, eye color etc) could result in police being able to get a rough idea of who a perpetrator was from a DNA sample.

[glasseye]

<-----honkey

[Forte Runningrock]

What garbage. Perhaps the mutation was turning from white to black, ever think of that Mr. Scientist? I guess blue eyes, blonde hair, bone structure, brain size are all part of this mutation as well.

[longtermmemmory]

So next we are going to have white skin be the "mark of cain"

This is lock step with the UN efforts to define racist as being "white skinned".

What happens if people start to twist it the other way and say the skin mutation lead to civilization. (al that ancient SNL skit with Garrit Morrist and some black history expert.)

[TheCrusader]

"The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person's offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world's races."

Gosh these people make me laugh.