The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0575 Monday, 3 September 2007
[1] From: Bob Lapides <
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Date: Friday, 31 Aug 2007 09:55:56 EDT
Subj: Re: SHK 18.0570 Redheads
[2] From: Larry Weiss <
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Date: Friday, 31 Aug 2007 12:56:46 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 18.0570 Redheads
[3] From: David Basch <
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Date: Friday, 31 Aug 2007 13:29:21 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 18.0570 Redheads
[4] From: Hardy M. Cook <
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Date: Sunday, 2 Sep 2007 13:08:28 +1000 (EST)
Subj: Redheads Set for Extinction
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bob Lapides <
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Date: Friday, 31 Aug 2007 09:55:56 EDT
Subject: 18.0570 Redheads
Comment: Re: SHK 18.0570 Redheads
Re Peter Bridgman's comment that "there was no conscious effort on the
part of artists to er, de-hebraicise ... the Holy Family." Assuming
artists were fairly sophisticated, the question comes down to their
degree of consciousness. We have to ask, I think, why European painters
found it hard to depict Jesus and his family as Jews.
Imagine, also, if the Holy Family's real names -- Yeshua, Miriam, Joseph
-- had been used in the New Testament.
Bob Lapides
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From: Larry Weiss <
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Date: Friday, 31 Aug 2007 12:56:46 -0400
Subject: 18.0570 Redheads
Comment: Re: SHK 18.0570 Redheads
I realize that this is totally tangential, but it is a good story
nonetheless: When a Victorian lady told William S. Gilbert that she
regarded his title "Ruddigore" as indecently sanguinary, he replied that
there is a world of difference between saying "I admire you ruddy
countenance" and "I like your bloody cheek."
[3]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Basch <
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Date: Friday, 31 Aug 2007 13:29:21 -0400
Subject: 18.0570 Redheads
Comment: Re: SHK 18.0570 Redheads
In pursuit of the implications of being red haired, I thank the
commentators on my note about the bible's use of the word "admony,"
which described David. Most on the list conclude this use was referring
only to "red faced."
But if you read the Hebrew line exactly: "he was ruddy, with beautiful
eyes, and a goodly countenance," the rudiness need not just apply to cheeks.
What is more, the exact word describes Esau, who we are told was covered
with hair. So there is a linkage to red hair in the use of this word.
Maybe this is also where the idea comes from that Absolom's hair was
tinged with red, being his father's son.
Hence the idea that David was red haired is not at all far fetched and
may in fact be what the biblical narrator had in mind. In my circles,
this has been the assumption.
David Basch
[4]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Hardy M. Cook <
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Date: Sunday, 2 Sep 2007 13:08:28 +1000 (EST)
Subject: Redheads Set for Extinction
Redheads set for extinction
August 22, 2007
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22289891-23272,00.html
PETER Beattie, Nicole Kidman and Michael Voss are. So were William
Shakespeare, Christopher Columbus and Queen Elizabeth the First.
But the future doesn't look bright for people with ginger hair.
According to genetic scientists redheads are becoming rarer and could be
extinct in 100 years.
The current National Geographic magazine reports that less than 2 per
cent of the world's population has natural red hair - created by a
mutation in northern Europe thousand of years ago.
Global intermingling, which broadens the availability of possible
partners, has reduced the chances of redheads meeting and so producing
little redheads of their own.
Although it takes only one red-haired parent to produce ginger babies,
two redheads obviously creates a much stronger possibility.
Some experts warn redheads could be gone as early 2060, but others say
the gene can be dormant in the reproductive system for generations
before returning.
National Geographic says the gene at first had the beneficial effect of
increasing the body's ability to make vitamin D from sunlight. However,
today's carriers are more prone to skin cancer and have a higher
sensitivity to heat and cold-related pain.
National Geographic says Redheads set for extinction
Posted Aug 23, 2007
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/220229/
Genetic scientists warn that redheads are a dying breed; soon they will
become extinct in the next 100 years. National Geographic magazine
reports that less than two per cent of the world's population has the
natural red hair.
There are many famous redheads in history, such as the bard William
Shakespeare, Christopher Columbus and the Queen Elizabeth, and the more
recent ones Peter Beattie, Nicole Kidman, Prince Harry and Michael Voss.
But the future doesn't look bright for the redheads according to the
National Geographic article.
Red hair was created by a genetic mutation in northern Europe some
thousands of years ago. The article reports that the gene had the
beneficial effect of increasing the body's ability to cope with
sunlight; it helped make vitamin D from Sunlight. But now because of
world wide interactions, the today's carriers are more prone to skin
cancer and are more sensitive to heat and cold related pain.
Because of smaller percentage of redheads present in the population, it
has reduced the chances considerably for the redheads to get redhead
partner, so their offspring may or may not be a redhead. The redhead can
produce a baby from a single redhead parent; the chances become high
when both the parents are redhead however.
Some experts warn redheads could be gone as early 2060, but others say
the gene can be dormant in the reproductive system for generations
before returning.
It is too early to predict redhead extinction, more research and
analysis needs to be done if that is the case. For more about red hair
check the Wikipedia article.
I think it is time to start "Save the Redheads" campaign. Nicole Kidman
could be an ideal choice to head the campaign. Do you have redheads in
your family side? Do you see similar patterns?
The Arizona Republic
Scientists question whether rare redheads are headed for extinction
Robin L. Flanigan
Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/0505redhair05.html
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/0511redhair0511.html
[ . . . ]
If predictions by the Oxford Hair Foundation come to pass, the number of
natural redheads everywhere will continue to dwindle until there are
none left by the year 2100.
The reason, according to scientists at the independent institute in
England, which studies all sorts of hair problems, is that just 4
percent of the world's population carries the red-hair gene. The gene is
recessive and therefore diluted when carriers produce children with
people who have the dominant brown-hair gene.
Red hair has made the endangered list. But with 4 percent of 6.4 billion
people carrying the gene, says one scientist, it is too large a figure
to be erased in the next 95 years.
"I think someone may want to check their calculator," says the
University of Rochester Medical Center's David Pearce, an associate
professor with a doctorate in biochemistry and genetics. The red-hair
gene "will dilute out and become rare, but there are a variety of other
factors that can change hair color that are not really understood well
right now."
The gene responsible for red hair - the melanocortin 1 receptor, or MC1R
- was discovered in the late 1990s. People have a good chance of being
born with red hair if they have a mutation of that gene.
Red hair is found in all ethnic backgrounds but is most commonly
associated with people of Celtic descent.
[ . . . ]
On the Brink of Extinction
People with red hair see a significant decline in population over the
next 100 years
By: A. J. Puckett
Posted: 2/19/07
http://media.www.piedmontnavigator.com/media/storage/paper524/news/2007/02/19/Features/On.The.Brink.Of.Extinction-2734637.shtml
"I can remember going to the grocery store with my mom when I was kid
and having people come up to us and say, 'Your son has beautiful hair,
you are so lucky,'" says Senior Seth Reese.
That statement may become truer as this century nears its end according
to the Oxford Hair Foundation. It is predicting that number of natural
redheads in the world will continue to dwindle leaving the world without
redheads by the year 2100. The scientists at the Oxford Hair Foundation
claim that only four percent of the world's population is naturally
redheaded. The decrease of people with naturally red hair in recent
years are attributed to the fact that the gene is recessive. This causes
the gene to dilute when a carrier produces children with someone who
carries the dominant brown-hair gene.
According to the Tucson Citizen, David Pearce from the University of
Rochester Medical Center says that the red hair gene "will dilute out
and become more rare, but there are a variety of other factors that can
change hair color that are not really understood well right now."
Pearce also says four percent of the 6.4 billion people in the world, is
too large a number to have the gene extinct in just 95 years.
Geneticist Simone Marticke of Stanford University supports Pearce's
ideas. Marticke says that the trait is decreasing because the gene is
recessive. This means that you have to have two copies of the gene for
the trait to show. Marticke also says that this means that of the four
percent that has the gene, the number of people who actually have red
hair is even less.
The red hair gene has survived this long because it developed in small
pockets according to Marticke. The gene became more diluted because
humans have become more mobile and people left the small pockets and new
people moved in.
Since people are more mobile, in the future there will be fewer people
with the single gene and they will be more spread out making it less
likely that they will find each other according to Marticke. Marticke
says, "However, for as long as the gene is still circulating, the chance
of a red-haired child being born is not zero. So you can expect one
turning up every now and then, just very rarely."
The gene that causes red hair is melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), which
is a gene that everyone has. The red-hair version of the MC1R gene has
slight mutations that cause red hair. It is possible that one of your
copies of the gene can have the mutation and the other not, which would
result in your being a carrier of red hair, without having red hair.
[. . . ]
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S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook,
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