In all that we hear about fathers, one of their most fundamental, axiomatic even, contributions to our lives is seldom mentioned on Father’s Day: Fathers are they who gave us half or more of our genetic composition. “Or more?” the reader may ask. I shall elaborate with special consideration of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the children of Israel.
A measure of the genetic similarity of two relatives is the coefficient of relatedness, which ranges from zero, for two completely unrelated individuals, to one, the relatedness of a person to herself. It can be thought of as either the fraction of genetic heritage that is shared by two people, or as the probability that a particular gene that one person possesses is also shared by her relative. The relatedness of a parent and child is 1/2, as is the relatedness of full-siblings. For half-siblings relatedness is 1/4. For aunts and uncles and their nephews and nieces, it’s also 1/4, and for first cousins, relatedness is 1/8. There’s a famous population genetics joke about this. “Would you give your life for your brother?” “No, but I would give my life for four nephews or for eight cousins.” Read more…
General
Why do a self-governing people hire police to enforce the laws? There are some good reasons, and some that aren’t so laudable. The work of police takes time, so it’s good to hire someone to attend to it and let them develop competence at it. Also, some law enforcement tasks are dangerous and require both training to reduce the risks and physical courage that not all possess. But what about the neighbor downstairs with the loud party at two in the morning while I’m trying to sleep? Do I call the police and complain, or do I put on a robe and knock on his door? I’m not afraid he’s going to hurt me or vandalize my property; he’s a decent fellow. He won’t like me interrupting his fun, though; he may resent me for it. If I call the police and let them handle it, he won’t even be sure who to blame. It’s easier to direct this conflict towards anonymous authority rather than register with him that I personally want him to stop doing what he’s doing. It’s also cowardly. Read more…
General
Once again, the president of the LDS Church was the big story on page A3 of the Washington Post.
It’s a nice piece occupying about a third of the page and has some
better-than-usual discussion of the challenges of conversion and
retention. Dieter F. Uchtdorf is identified in the caption of a 5×8
photo of the First Presidency, but in the body of the article, neither
he nor Henry Eyring is mentioned.
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In today’s Washington Post, “Romney, New Primary Date Put Utah on the Political Map” by Joel Achenbach.
Opening sentence: “The BYU College Democrats assembled Monday in Diane Bailey’s apartment to watch the State of the Union address.”
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Below are the numbers of apostles called during the presidency of each president of the Church, along with the first and last person in each of those groups.
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Those who frequent the Millennial Star website know that our Geoff Biddulph is a man with strong political feelings. Today is the Republican primary in Florida, where Geoff lives, and Geoff has been involved with the Romney campaign there. I wish Geoff well on this big day.
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I loved to ride my bike when I was a kid. It gave such a feeling of freedom. When I was in junior high, I occassionally preferred to bike the 2-1/2 miles to school, and there were trips farther afield without much of any destination.
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Danithew at Mormon Mentality wrote a little on Yale’s seal featuring the motto “Light and Truth” emblazoned in Hebrew and Latin. Continuing on the theme, here follow some observations of The Johns Hopkins University. Hopkins’ seal, adopted on May 4, 1885 (to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of the temple endowment and 81st year till my coming in the flesh) features the motto “Veritas vos Liberat,” a familiar promise by Jesus found in John 8:32. Perhaps it’s to be laid at Harvard’s feet that other schools like Yale and Johns Hopkins were also fond of Veritas, but Hopkins’ motto is also a glimpse at the liberal room for religious thought that existed at a deliberately non-ecclesiastical institution.
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My most recent drivetime audio book was The Great Escape by the late Paul Brickhill, an Australian journalist, fighter pilot, and prisoner in Stalag Luft III. Hermann Goering, head of the Luftwaffe and Hitler’s second in command, figured in the background of the events Brickhill chronicled, and I was curious to learn a bit more about him. Though a gallant and courageous fighter pilot in the first World War, he joined the Nazi party in 1922, was condemned at Nuremberg to hang for his war crimes, and took his own life using cyanide hours before he was to be executed.
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