Sulamita Garcia

March 4, 2010

Almost one year

Filed under: Uncategorized — sulamita @ 9:14 am

So last week I received this letter from my landlord – actually the agency representing my landlord – saying that my contract was due and if I wanted to renew it. Wow, one entire year already? Almost…

Almost one year later and one visit back to Brazil has made me more sure about my decision, and I can say that’s the happier period of my life. Hector moved in with me, finally, almost four years now. I’m addicted to tea, one in the middle of the day and one decaf before going to bed. I changed my coffee and Coke to decaf and this fixed my insomnia problems. Work is going great, interesting times, and I’m spending most of my time trying to learn C++ and messing around with Qt. My only resolution for this year is to go to the gym 5x a week – which Murphy seems to disagree* – and grow my hair back to its natural colour, just to remember how it is like. I even cut a large piece of it, so damaged it was from all the tints I’ve being applying in the last 15 years. Spring is showing its first colours, and life is really good.

One year later, the experiences I had were also different.

Health Care

I finally understood and hacked down the healthy system. You see, NHS, UK’s health system, is suppose to be one of the best in the world. But I was used to the private system in Sao Paulo, which is really really good. In here I need to go see my GP first for anything, who only spends maximum 10min with me before deciding if s/he’s going to give me some medicine or send me to a specialist. First time I tried, because my fibromyalgia was kicking in, I got a prescription for an anti-inflammatory so strong it almost gave me my gastritis back. So I wasn’t trilled to go back, but I had to. Six months ago, I was trying to skate, and I felt down on my shoulder. I thought it would heal itself, but after that long, I was just tired of waiting. I went to my GP, who said that probably I only needed physiotherapy to get it back on shape. Since I got private insurance, I was able to do it quickly, otherwise it would be several months to get it.

Unfortunately, physiotherapy was not enough, and after three sessions it became clear I would need stronger resources. But I had to go back to the GP to inform and get a request for a specialist. This was the most frustrating part. First, to find the doctor. Since I was going through the private insurance, the GP didn’t gave me any names, just said to check on the yellow pages or Google. My private insurance company wouldn’t give me any referrals either because they think it’s ‘conflict of interest’, since they pay the specialist. So I found some hospitals online and called in to book an appointment. Going around and around trying to finally get the number for the orthopaedic clinic, extension and whatever to finally try to book a consultation, the first questions is if I have a referral from my GP. Yes, I do! Then the disappointment – your GP needs to send the request, not you. At this point, I started crying, so much frustration, I couldn’t understand the process, I couldn’t understand the accent most people I was trying to contact and they couldn’t understand mine, I was in pain and feeling in a loop without a way out. Then I calmed down and started thinking, I called back to the hospital and when they asked me if I got a referral, I said ‘I have private insurance’. Bingo! Or almost, I would have to wait 3 months to get an appointment. I finally got help when my physiotherapist gave me an indication, and I was able to book an appointment with an Injuries/Sports/Upper Limb(shoulder) Specialist. So far, I still don’t understand the specialities: in Brazil it would be an orthophedist and that’s it. Here they have an osteopath, which I’m not sure where fits, injuries specialists and the orthopaedic surgeon. And let’s not even talk about the health insurance saying the doctor was a physician and not a consultant(?), and could not request exams, which later they seemed to think otherwise. But even so, I managed to get a request and then a shoulder MRI, then a cortisone injection directly to the bursa. You know you’re getting old when your doctor explains to you what is bursitis. The injection was horrible, painful and I think got me high, I wasn’t able to make full sentences. The pain was aggravated immediately after the injection, so it was a miserable day where no position would make it better. But some hours later in the evening, I started to feel my shoulder better than before the injection. In the next days, it was getting better and better, and only one week later I’m fully recover. Now doing physiotherapy to strength the muscles around and get a better posture. The trick now is to convince my trainer that this doesn’t mean she can have me lifting weight yet…

I’m still not sure about the big difference on the systems. To see my GP, I need to make an appointment, and it’s not unusual to have to wait two days for that. In Brazil I would make no appointment and wait for 3hs – literally, I had to do that while I was there during the holidays. Both systems would make me wait for months for physiotherapy, and God know how long for an MRI. Maybe in the case of Brazil it would be years? But health it is really expensive. I received a letter from my insurance company stating the MRI costed 799 pounds, almost 2200 reais. No wonder the system is so difficult anywhere…

Oh, and I say Murphy disagree with my resolution to go to the gym more often because about 10 days after the holidays, when my body was starting to get back on track fitness-wise, I fell down on the street and hurt my knees badly. So, no gym for almost 3 weeks. After getting my knees better, I still need to go slow on the shoulder. But I’m persistent, I will continue to pursue my resolution. And after being that miserable, you really valuate your joints, so just the fact that I can walk and rotate my arms make me very happy. Let’s dance! \o\ /o/  _o_ |o|

Clothes

I’m still learning what to dress, and more important, what to buy. Once summer was over and autumn started to kick in, I discovered that I was being very optimistic with my purchases. The heaviest coat I had, a wool full length coat bought in Portland and used only there and about 3x in Brazil, very soon was not enough. Sizes are also tricky. You can’t buy a coat in your size, you need to buy one size extra so you can put a jumper or sweater underneath. And unfortunately for me, my weakest part are my feet, which mean I can’t use my shoes without freezing my toes. Then you start adding layers and layers of leggings, socks, sweaters, wool shirts and coat. Plus gloves, scarf and a hat. But then you enter the bus or train, and half of that goes off immediately. So I started realizing all that effort was mostly to walk one block to the bus station, and one block to work. And even with all this effort, my nose would freeze. Snow was really cool – specially because I only got like four days of it – but makes my tooth hurt if my face isn’t protected. So I had to learn to adjust the layers according to the plan. If I’m going to stay outdoors for some time, it’s better to be very warm. If it’s just a couple of blocks, not so much. Now the trick is to be able to predict exactly how much are you going to be outdoors, I miserably failed to predict that last time I went to Camden Town… but now I found the wonderful world of insulated fleeces, so I’m good. And usually, the amount of coats and layers tell off who is new in town.

Shoes are also being tricky, because it’s much more random than should be. Supposedly, my size would convert to a size 6. Many shoes here are sold in the European metric, in which case would be 39 for me. But the problem is, almost half of the time, I find that I may be a size 5 or 38. Which is horrible when your favourite shoe store is online…

I finally accepted the fact that there is no fabric to make trousers proper for winter. I tried the leggings 80 with skirt, and it doesn’t make much difference from a pair of jeans. What clearly distinguish the natives from outsiders is the fact that they don’t need layers. They go bravely with bare legs or just one sweater over the t-shirt.  Show off. I never got the guts to ask if they had any cognac to heat up before going out…

Cooking

You never realise how much vocabulary do you actually need for simple things like shopping. What is basil, exactly? What is celery? How can I cook black beans? And where are the black beans, by the way? Do I like sirloin, rump steak or angus, or should I just stop eating meat? With those prices, it’s a tempting idea. The best thing is that cod, tuna and salmon are cheaper than meat, which I was reducing the intake anyway. And I gotta tell you, sometimes a fresh tuna steak is better than meat.

I’m even trying some new recipes. I bought my own casserole and did lamb stew, which cooks slowly on the oven for 1:30hs. It was good, but I can do better. It usually takes me three trials to master a recipe. I was so captivated by the movie Julie & Julia that I bought the book, and learned how to make perfect poached eggs. Every week we make something more elaborated, like potato fungi, and it’s a great tradition so far.

Oh, and for the smart asses there: yes, I know which meat cuts are what, and my favourite is the same: fillet.

News from here outside

It’s unbelievable the amount of completely irrelevant and utterly embarrassing news Brazilian newspapers choose to publish about Britain. Their favourites are the weirdest possible ’scientific research’, but I would say 90% of the news you read about UK in Brazilian papers are not in the local newspapers. And the worst is that sounds like that was the big news around here. Festivals no one heard about, obscure stores or restaurants, bizarre stories told by some tabloid. Sometimes I think they do that just to make this image that here everything is about this silly issues.

Which would make sense, because if they publish the real thing, the readers either won’t be interested or they would start comparing with Brazil. For example, one of the biggest discussions of last months was around the parliamentary expenses. But that was only in discussion because everybody has access to what they declare as expenses. Sure, there was many arguments and politicians trying to pretend there was nothing wrong with it, but in the end of the day, contributors have the right to know where their money is being used. Back to Brazil… no need for comments, right?

Back in the first months I started reading this blog from this guy living in London, but he was so annoying I couldn’t bear it, always complaining in a very rude way and many times pretending his opinion was shared with everyone living here. And it’s not like I don’t like grumpiness, on the contrary. My favourite TV shows now are Grumpy Old Men and Grouchy Young Men. But there is a difference between being grumpy in a sarcastic intelligent way and being just rude and clueless. So, I’m avoiding reading news about UK in Brazilian press, it just doesn’t worth it.

News of Brazil from here

That is something that I’m still not over. The Public Relationships team working for this government it’s the best team evah. I mean, only a week after Rio de Janeiro was announced as the host for the Olympics 2016, drug dealers shot down a military helicopter – and here no one knew it. When I saw the news in Brazilian online newspapers, I though “this is going to be a bomb”. But nothing. Several days later, I couldn’t understand, so I started looking for related news at BBC news website and others, and only found a small note about it, thrown at some corner with no importance. The visit of Iranian president was another point to understand that. While on the Portuguese news websites Lula was supporting  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, defending his election – he literally said the protesters were just a political opposition minority, and it was a matter similar to rivalry in football - and another insanities, outside he was being portrait as someone trying to talk some senses into Ahmadinejad. I mean, really??? What will take to the world to understand that between Chavez and Lula there isn’t that much of difference? That there is a reason why Lula’s best friends are Chavez, Fidel, and now, Ahmadinejad?

There are also the comic pieces. The last one was “Brazil ends corruption“, and people claiming “what an example to follow!”. Oh geez… but then I decided to stop reading Brazilian newspappers. Why would I?

XoXo, Grouchy Young Woman

January 10, 2010

Do outro lado do mar…

Filed under: viagens — sulamita @ 11:45 am

Despedidas

Vou durmir e despois despertar do outro lado, do outro lado do mar
Vou fechar os meus ollos e estar do outro lado, do outro lado do mar

Vou escoitar despedidas que quedan prendidas nos brazos do vento
Vou lembrar mil historias de amor sumerxidas no fondo do mar

Vou durmir e despois despertar do outro lado, do outro lado do mar…

Três anos atrás, em uma viagem memorável, visitei a Galícia. Um dos pontos altos do evento foi um show de grupo de música galega Da Outra Margem. As músicas eram lindas, divertidas, o show foi fantástico. Porém uma música me marcou muito, esta acima. Conversei com o cantor e autor da música, Luis Lechuga, que algum tempo depois me enviou o mp3. Esta música fala muito para quem como eu tinha um oceano de distância com a pessoa amada. E é engraçado que muitas vezes pensei em blogar esta música em uma das viagens sobre este oceano, mas algo acontecia e eu sempre esquecia. E curiosamente, esta vai ser a última viagem sobre este oceano que fazemos separados… :)

December 16, 2009

O que eu quero…

Filed under: Uncategorized — sulamita @ 9:08 pm

Eu quero malhar todo dia e fazer como o cara dos 365 dias de exercício. Não só pra ficar malhada e perder peso, mas pelo exercício mesmo, por suar, sentir os musculos trabalhando, reclamando, ficando mais fortes e sentir a endorfina kicking in. Eu quero voltar pro kung fu e pra dança do ventre. Quero treinar nos meus patins até saber brincar num vert. Quero ir de bicicleta pro trabalho.

Mas eu também quero passar metade do dia dormindo, ler mails e ver TV o resto do tempo.

Eu quero ler a pilha dos livros que compro e leio pela metade. E depois comprar outra pilha…

Eu quero ir esquiar. Mas também quero ir pra praia… Quero visitar a Itália, Grécia, e fazer um tour pela França – ah Paris… mas também quero ir pra Indonésia e finalmente tirar minhas férias no Tahiti.

Mas Tahiti vai ser pra lua de mel. Eu quero casar. Mas também quero comer o Brad Pitt… e o Vigo Mortensen…

Quero ir morar na Australia. Mas acabei de chegar em Londres… e quando chegar lá, vou querer ir morar… sei lá, chegando lá certamente eu vou descobrir.

Quero fazer aula de teatro. Quero voltar pra aula de canto. Quero aprender a tocar bateria. E guitarra. E violão.

Quero fazer plastica no nariz. E botar silicone. E bem capaz que eu vou entrar na faca por causa disto, ha ha.

Quero aprender francês. E italiano. E daí acho que tá bom.

Ainda bem que devo ter mais uns 30 anos pela frente… é, quem sabe começo amanhã :)

November 26, 2009

My Genetic History

Filed under: english, nerdices — sulamita @ 3:55 pm

I’m still trying to understand how my mother got to carry genes “found today at frequencies seldom greater than 20 percent in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia” to a tiny little city in Brazil. But the Middle-East part would explain much better my feisty nature than the Brazilian culture…

YOUR GENETIC HISTORY

Your Branch on the Human Family TreeYour DNA results identify you as belonging to a specific branch of the human family tree called haplogroup T. Haplogroup T contains the following subgroups: T, T2, T3, T4, T5.

The map above shows the direction that your maternal ancestors took as they set out from their original homeland in East Africa. While humans did travel many different paths during a journey that took tens of thousands of years, the lines above represent the dominant trends in this migration.

Over time, the descendants of your ancestors ultimately made it into northeastern Europe, where most members of your haplogroup are found today. But before we can take you back in time and tell their stories, we must first understand how modern science makes this analysis possible.

How DNA Can Help

The string of 569 letters shown above is your mitochondrial sequence, with the letters A, C, T, and G representing the four nucleotides – the chemical building blocks of life – that make up your DNA. The numbers at the top of the page refer to the positions in your sequence where informative mutations have occurred in your ancestors, and tell us a great deal about the history of your genetic lineage.

Here’s how it works. Every once in a while a mutation – a random, natural (and usually harmless) change – occurs in the sequence of your mitochondrial DNA. Think of it as a spelling mistake: one of the “letters” in your sequence may change from a C to a T, or from an A to a G.

After one of these mutations occurs in a particular woman, she then passes it on to her daughters, and her daughters’ daughters, and so on. (Mothers also pass on their mitochondrial DNA to their sons, but the sons in turn do not pass it on.)

Geneticists use these markers from people all over the world to construct one giant mitochondrial family tree. As you can imagine, the tree is very complex, but scientists can now determine both the age and geographic spread of each branch to reconstruct the prehistoric movements of our ancestors.

By looking at the mutations that you carry, we can trace your lineage, ancestor by ancestor, to reveal the path they traveled as they moved out of Africa. Our story begins with your earliest ancestor. Who was she, where did she live, and what is her story?

Your Ancestral Journey: What We Know Now

We will now take you back through the stories of your distant ancestors and show how the movements of their descendants gave rise to your mitochondrial lineage.

Each segment on the map above represents the migratory path of successive groups that eventually coalesced to form your branch of the tree. We start with your oldest ancestor, “Eve,” and walk forward to more recent times, showing at each step the line of your ancestors who lived up to that point.

Mitochondrial Eve: The Mother of Us All

Ancestral Line: “Mitochondrial Eve”

Our story begins in Africa sometime between 150,000 and 170,000 years ago, with a woman whom anthropologists have nicknamed “Mitochondrial Eve.”

She was awarded this mythic epithet in 1987 when population geneticists discovered that all people alive on the planet today can trace their maternal lineage back to her.

But Mitochondrial Eve was not the first female human. Homo sapiens evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago, and the first hominids – characterized by their unique bipedal stature – appeared nearly two million years before that. Though Homo sapiens have been around for about 200,000 years, about 150,000 to 170,000 years ago, a woman was born from whom we are all descended. This happened 30,000 years after Homo sapiens evolved in Africa.

Eventually, for any number of reasons, all of the other lineages of people went extinct, and “Mitochondrial Eve” as we call her, was the only female who had descendants that are now living in the present day. We can all be traced back to that one woman, who lived about 170,000 years ago.

Which begs the question, “So why Eve?”

Simply put, Eve was a survivor. A maternal line can become extinct for a number of reasons. A woman may not have children, or she may bear only sons (who do not pass her mtDNA to the next generation). She may fall victim to a catastrophic event such as a volcanic eruption, flood, or famine, all of which have plagued humans since the dawn of our species.

None of these extinction events happened to Eve’s line. It may have been simple luck, or it may have been something much more. It was around this same time that modern humans’ intellectual capacity underwent what author Jared Diamond coined the Great Leap Forward. Many anthropologists believe that the emergence of language gave us a huge advantage over other early human species. Improved tools and weapons, the ability to plan ahead and cooperate with one another, and an increased capacity to exploit resources in ways we hadn’t been able to earlier, all allowed modern humans to rapidly migrate to new territories, exploit new resources, and outcompete and replace other hominids, such as the Neandertals.

It is difficult to pinpoint the chain of events that led to Eve’s unique success, but we can say with certainty that all of us trace our maternal lineage back to this one woman.

The L Haplogroups: The Deepest Branches

Ancestral line: “Eve” > L1/L0

Mitochondrial Eve represents the root of the human family tree. Her descendents, moving around within Africa, eventually split into two distinct groups, characterized by a different set of mutations their members carry.

These groups are referred to as L0 and L1, and these individuals have the most divergent genetic sequences of anybody alive today, meaning they represent the deepest branches of the mitochondrial tree. Importantly, current genetic data indicates that indigenous people belonging to these groups are found exclusively in Africa. This means that, because all humans have a common female ancestor, “Eve,” and because the genetic data shows that Africans are the oldest groups on the planet, we know our species originated there.

Haplogroups L1 and L0 likely originated in East Africa and then spread throughout the rest of the continent. Today, these lineages are found at highest frequencies in Africa’s indigenous populations, the hunter-gatherer groups who have maintained their ancestors’ culture, language, and customs for thousands of years.

At some point, after these two groups had coexisted in Africa for a few thousand years, something important happened. The mitochondrial sequence of a woman in one of these groups, L1, mutated. A letter in her DNA changed, and because many of her descendants have survived to the present, this change has become a window into the past. The descendants of this woman, characterized by this signpost mutation, went on to form their own group, called L2. Because the ancestor of L2 was herself a member of L1, we can say something about the emergence of these important groups: Eve begat L1, and L1 begat L2. Now we’re starting to move down your ancestral line.

Haplogroup L2: West Africa

Ancestral line: “Eve” > L1/L0 > L2

L2 individuals are found in sub-Saharan Africa, and like their L1 predecessors, they also live in Central Africa and as far south as South Africa. But whereas L1/L0 individuals remained predominantly in eastern and southern Africa, your ancestors broke off into a different direction, which you can follow on the map above.

L2 individuals are most predominant in West Africa, where they constitute the majority of female lineages. And because L2 individuals are found at high frequencies and widely distributed along western Africa, they represent one of the predominant lineages in African-Americans. Unfortunately, it is difficult to pinpoint where a specific L2 lineage might have arisen. For an African-American who is L2 – the likely result of West Africans being brought to America during the slave trade – it is difficult to say with certainty exactly where in Africa that lineage arose.

Fortunately, collaborative sampling with indigenous groups is currently underway to help learn more about these types of questions and to possibly bridge the gap that was created during those transatlantic voyages hundreds of years ago.

Haplogroup L3: Out of Africa

Ancestral line: “Eve” > L1/L0 > L2 > L3

Your next signpost ancestor is the woman whose birth around 80,000 years ago began haplogroup L3. It is a similar story: an individual in L2 underwent a mutation to her mitochondrial DNA, which was passed onto her children. The children were successful, and their descendants ultimately broke away from the L2 clan, eventually separating into a new group called L3. You can see above that this has revealed another step in your ancestral line.

While L3 individuals are found all over Africa, including the southern reaches of sub-Sahara, L3 is important for its movements north. You can follow this movement of the map above, seeing first the expansions of L1/L0, then L2, and followed by the northward migration of L3.

Your L3 ancestors were significant because they are the first modern humans to have left Africa, representing the deepest branches of the tree found outside of that continent.

Why would humans have first ventured out of the familiar African hunting grounds and into unexplored lands? It is likely that a fluctuation in climate may have provided the impetus for your ancestors’ exodus out of Africa.

The African Ice Age was characterized by drought rather than by cold. Around 50,000 years ago the ice sheets of northern Europe began to melt, introducing a period of warmer temperatures and moister climate in Africa. Parts of the inhospitable Sahara briefly became habitable. As the drought-ridden desert changed to savanna, the animals your ancestors hunted expanded their range and began moving through the newly emerging green corridor of grasslands. Your nomadic ancestors followed the good weather and plentiful game northward across this Saharan Gateway, although the exact route they followed remains to be determined.

Today, L3 individuals are found at high frequencies in populations across North Africa. From there, members of this group went in a few different directions. Some lineages within L3 testify to a distinct expansion event in the mid-Holocene that headed south, and are predominant in many Bantu groups found all over Africa. One group of individuals headed west and is primarily restricted to Atlantic western Africa, including the islands of Cabo Verde.

Other L3 individuals, your ancestors, kept moving northward, eventually leaving the African continent completely. These people currently make up around ten percent of the Middle Eastern population, and gave rise to two important haplogroups that went on to populate the rest of the world.

Haplogroup N: The Incubation Period

Ancestral line: “Eve” > L1/L0 > L2 > L3 > N

Your next signpost ancestor is the woman whose descendants formed haplogroup N. Haplogroup N comprises one of two groups that were created by the descendants of L3.

The first of these groups, M, was the result of the first great wave of migration of modern humans to leave Africa. These people likely left the continent across the Horn of Africa near Ethiopia, and their descendants followed a coastal route eastward, eventually making it all the way to Australia and Polynesia.

The second great wave, also of L3 individuals, moved north rather than east and left the African continent across the Sinai Peninsula, in present-day Egypt. Also faced with the harsh desert conditions of the Sahara, these people likely followed the Nile basin, which would have proved a reliable water and food supply in spite of the surrounding desert and its frequent sandstorms.

Descendants of these migrants eventually formed haplogroup N. Early members of this group lived in the eastern Mediterranean region and western Asia, where they likely coexisted for a time with other hominids such as Neandertals. Excavations in Israel’s Kebara Cave (Mount Carmel) have unearthed Neandertal skeletons as recent as 60,000 years old, indicating that there was both geographic and temporal overlap of these two hominids.

The ancient members of haplogroup N spawned many sublineages, which spread across much of the rest of the globe and are found throughout Asia, Europe, India, and the Americas.

Haplogroup R: Spreading Out

Ancestral line: “Eve” > L1/L0 > L2 > L3 > N > R

After several thousand years in the Near East, individuals belonging to a new group called haplogroup R began to move out and explore the surrounding areas. Some moved south, migrating back into northern Africa. Others went west across Anatolia (present-day Turkey) and north across the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia and southern Russia. Still others headed east into the Middle East, and on to Central Asia. All of these individuals had one thing in common: they shared a female ancestor from the N clan, a recent descendant of the migration out of Africa.

The story of haplogroup R is complicated, however, because these individuals can be found almost everywhere, and because their origin is quite ancient. In fact, the ancestor of haplogroup R lived relatively soon after humans moved out of Africa during the second wave, and her descendants undertook many of the same migrations as her own group, N.

Because the two groups lived side by side for thousands of years, it is likely that the migrations radiating out from the Near East comprised individuals from both of these groups. They simply moved together, bringing their N and R lineages to the same places around the same times. The tapestry of genetic lines became quickly entangled, and geneticists are currently working to unravel the different stories of haplogroups N and R, since they are found in many of the same far-reaching places.

Haplogroup T: Your Branch on the Tree

Ancestral line: “Eve” > L1/L0 > L2 > L3 > N > R > T

We finally arrive at your own clan, a group of individuals who descend from a woman in the R branch of the tree. The divergent genetic lineage that constitutes haplogroup T indicates that she lived sometime around 40,000 years ago.

Haplogroup T has a very wide distribution, and is present as far east as the Indus Valley bordering India and Pakistan and as far south as the Arabian Peninsula. It is also common in eastern and northern Europe. Although your haplogroup was present during the early and middle Upper Paleolithic, T is largely considered one of the main genetic signatures of the Neolithic expansions.

While groups of hunter-gatherers and subsistence fishermen had been occupying much of Eurasia for tens of thousands of years, around ten thousand years ago a group of modern humans living in the Fertile Crescent – present-day eastern Turkey and northern Syria – began domesticating the plants, nuts, and seeds they had been collecting. What resulted were the world’s first agriculturalists, and this new cultural era is typically referred to as the Neolithic.

Groups of individuals able to support larger populations with this reliable food source began migrating out of the Middle East, bringing their new technology with them. By then, humans had already settled much of the surrounding areas, but this new agricultural technology proved too successful to ignore, and the surrounding groups quickly copied these new immigrants. Interestingly, DNA data indicate that while these new agriculturalists were incredibly successful at planting their technology in the surrounding groups, they were far less successful at planting their own genetic seed. Agriculture was quickly and widely adopted, but the lineages carried by these Neolithic expansions are found today at frequencies seldom greater than 20 percent in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

Anthropology vs. Genealogy

DNA markers require a long time to become informative. While mutations occur in every generation, it requires at least hundreds – normally thousands – of years for these markers to become windows back into the past, signposts on the human tree.

Still, our own genetic sequences often reveal that we fall within a particular sub-branch, a smaller, more recent branch on the tree.

While it may be difficult to say anything about the history of these sub-groups, they do reveal other people who are more closely related to us. It is a useful way to help bridge the anthropology of population genetics with the genealogy to which we are all accustomed.

One of the ways you can bridge this gap is to compare your own genetic lineage to those of people living all over the world. Mitosearch.org is a database that allows you to compare both your genetic sequence as well as your surname to those of thousands of people who have already joined the database. This type of search is a valuable way of inferring population events that have occurred in more recent times (i.e., the past few hundred years).

Looking Forward (Into the Past): Where Do We Go From Here?

Although the arrow of your haplogroup currently ends across Western Eurasia, this isn’t the end of the journey for haplogroup T. This is where the genetic clues get murky and your DNA trail goes cold. Your initial results shown here are based upon the best information available today—but this is just the beginning.

A fundamental goal of the Genographic Project is to extend these arrows further toward the present day. To do this, Genographic has brought together ten renowned scientists and their teams from all over the world to study questions vital to our understanding of human history. By working together with indigenous peoples around the globe, we are learning more about these ancient migrations.

Help Us Find More Clues!

But there is another way that we will learn more about the past. By contributing your own results to the project, you will be allowed to participate anonymously in this ongoing research effort. This is important because it may contribute a great deal to our understanding of more recent human migrations. Click the yellow button below in the “Help Us Tell the Story” section of your results profile to learn more about this. It’s quick, easy, and anonymous, but will help us further refine our analyses.

Don’t Be a Stranger

Finally, keep checking these pages to follow along with the project and our latest findings; your results profile will be automatically updated to reflect any new information that may come to light based on the research.

By the Genographic Project

November 2, 2009

London – some time later…

Filed under: english — sulamita @ 11:27 am

Some weeks ago, I went to San Francisco for Intel Developers Forum, to present a Moblin training session. It was my first business travel since my relocation to London, and many colleges I haven’t seen in a while wanted to know how the whole moving thing was working out for me. As I was telling them and repeating it several times, I started missing home, and this time home meant London. It’s said that you are really adapted to a place after six months, and this is my sixth month, so I guess I made the transition already.

While I was away, the stuff I missed most were my flat, my bed, my pillow, my things. After so much trouble to get everything the way I wanted (cancerian, argh…) – from finding someone to assembly my wardrobe bought piece by piece at IKEA (which have stores almost as far as a galaxy far far away…), to paint and assembly the legs and lift the 32kg glass top for my computer table all by myself, to the wall stickers – so it’s natural I want to enjoy it. But there are many things I like in here as well.

The most practical effect is feeling safe. As any other big city, London has its crimes and problems, but it’s completely different from Sao Paulo, where I used to drive with one eye always in the mirror, always scare to drive home late, avoided using my cell phone on the street and didn’t watched the news anymore to avoid panic syndrome. This fact alone already makes it worthy. Now I need to stop reading news from Brazil so often, because every time I do it depresses me, and I feel sad for friends and family, although makes me happier for leaving. Here, even some neighborhoods considered ‘dangerous’ like Brixton aren’t that bad; three guys in the office live there and said it isn’t so bad.

But I think my favorite thing is that any day, anywhere, you will hear at least half dozen different languages: French, Japanese, German, many others I don’t recognize and of course, Portuguese. It’s unbelievable the amount of Brazilian in this city, there isn’t a single day where I don’t hear one, from socialites-wannabes posing for pictures next to the Big Ben to friends talking on the bus – always the louder ones. My new PT is Brazilian (and I’m her personal nerd :D ), as well another PT and the receptionist at the gym – our little mafia. At the office with about 20 people, I guess only half are British. It’s normal to see women in saris or veils in the street, and even in burkhas; they go side by side with the micro skirts on the tube. Meanwhile, in Brazil, a student was harassed and threatened to be raped because she went to university (university!!!) on a mini dress…

It took me about two weeks to start understand and assimilate the accent, although I still need to concentrate when someone Scottish is speaking. But now I can understand the comedy shows on the telly :) for the accent and the events of that week. Make fun out of the prime minister is always on the agenda. The sense of humor here is very different, acid, sarcastic (I love it), pushing – and sometimes crossing – the boundaries of offensive, but that boundary goes different for each person. I bought the dvds of the original The Office, with Ricky Gervais; I had watched the American one before, with Steve Carrel. The difference between the two shows reflects perfectly the British sense of humor. While watching the American version, I very often felt sorry for Carrel’s character. When I was watching the original, it was the first time I physically hated a fictional character. Every time Gervais character used to enter the scene, I wanted to punch him. Coincidentally, on the same weekend I caught one of his stand-ups on the TV. While most of the time I was laughing so hard I was crying, sometimes I couldn’t believe he was actually saying that. Another precious moment was listening – also on TV – Phill Jupitus talking about an insane guy who entered the lions’ cage on London zoo, and about his arachnophobia. Update: I thought Gervais was bad(in a good way), but I found out he is just middleweight. Watching Jim Jefferies, I discovered the heavyweights…

Food is the main thing people from other places complain about, and for me it seems to be the thing people from here remember most when out. It’s not impossible to have a decent diet – you either have to be really rich, or to know how to cook. Otherwise, you’re stuck with a sandwich based diet. I prepare most of my meals, and eat out about 3 to 4 times a week. Most of the time eating out means to buy a soup or sandwich on EAT – or POD, since Matthew taught me EAT is corporate-evil and POD is familiar-nice – and have it in the office’s kitchen with everybody else. This is also an exercise for me, trying to follow and understand the jokes; it feels kind of trying to understand the internal jokes on Friends without seeing the previous seasons (haaaaah, Unagui…). Sometimes I just listen, sometimes I just daydream away , and other times I ask what that means – not always, because there must be nothing else more boring than explaining jokes all the time :) Some bring food from home, and it’s really easy to find vegetarian options – I’m not a vegetarian but I like to have vegetables as well. The thing I miss most is a good sushi, I can only find fast-food options or hear about 100 pounds per person restaurants – and for this money, I rather do a course.

This month I also went out dancing a couple of times – finally!!! It’s funny for me to be in a place where most people don’t have a clue about dancing to the rhythm to the music :) most local women tend to overdo the ‘trying to be sexy’ dancing, I guess – which never works. Germanic people seem to be stuck on the robot dancing style, while the Brazilians think dancing needs overdoing facial expressions and playing with the hair. But what I really don’t understand is why men going out trying to score don’t realize the ones that learn how to dance or at least go to the dance floor have their changes multiplied…

I got here during the summer, and we had plenty of lovely, sunny days with blue sky. There were days when the temperature reached 30oC! People tell me how lucky I was to be here during summer and to have time to adjust, those who arrive during winter get depressed very quickly. Winter season is only beginning, and we already have an average of 10oC. Yesterday was one of those days for what London is known for, gray, cold, rainy, although the rain is that thin thing that goes everywhere than a proper rain for what you need an umbrella. We had a day like this sometime ago, and a woman in the office told me the suicide rate must had peaked that day. This doesn’t bother me yet, but for many people it’s unbearable. I think the weather only aggravate one’s mood, and those not happy here want to go back or move away. However, I have no plans for going anywhere so soon, only if it’s for visiting…

November 1, 2009

Londres – alguns meses depois…

Filed under: Uncategorized — sulamita @ 9:29 am

Há algumas semanas, viajei para San Francisco, USA, para participar do Intel Developers Forum, apresentando o Moblin. Era a primeira viagem desde a minha transferência, e muitos colegas que não via há algum tempo queriam saber como eu estava me adaptando. Em poucos dias, eu já estava com saudades de casa, e pela primeira vez casa realmente significava Londres. Dizem que você precisa passar seis meses em algum lugar para oficialmente se ambientar, e eu estou caminhando para meu sexto mês, então acho que estou quase lá.

Minha maior saudade quando estava fora claro era meu apartamento, minha cama, meu travesseiro, minhas coisas. Depois de tanto trabalho para deixar tudo do jeito que eu queria (cancerianos, argh…) – desde procurar quem montasse o guarda-roupa comprado peça por peça na IKEA, pintar e montar os pés da mesa do computador e levantar sozinha o tampo de vidro de 32kg, até os adesivos de flores na parede – natural que eu queira aproveitar. Mas, me acostumei com muitas outras coisas aqui também.

Acho que o fato mais prático é a sensação de segurança. Claro, como qualquer outra cidade, Londres tem seus crimes e assaltos, mas é infinitamente diferente de São Paulo, onde eu dirigia sempre olhando no retrovisor, morria de medo quando voltava para casa muito tarde ou de madrugada, evitava usar celular na rua e não assistia mais noticiário para não ficar paranóica. Só isto já vale a viagem. Tenho que parar agora de ver notícias do Brasil tão frequentemente, porque toda vez que leio fico deprimida pelos amigos e família, mas também feliz por ter saído. Aqui, mesmo os bairros considerados perigosos como Brixton não são assim tão perigosos, três dos desenvolvedores no trabalho moram lá e dizem que não é assim tão ruim.

Porém uma das coisas que eu mais gosto é o fato de que qualquer dia, em qualquer lugar, você vai ouvir pelo menos meia dúzia de idiomas diferentes: francês, japonês, alemão, outros que não reconheço e claro, portugues. Não passa um dia em que eu não ouça brasileiros nesta cidade. Desde tias peruas se achando o máximo tirando foto no Big Ben a amigos conversando no onibus. Minha nova personal na academia é brasileira, assim como outro treinador e uma recepcionista. Ainda assim, aqui no escritório, com pouco mais de 20 pessoas, diria que menos da metade são ingleses. Mulheres de sari e até de burka são comuns, lado a lado com micro-saias no metro. O povo da universidade lá de Sao Bernardo deveria passear um pouco por aí…

Levei duas semanas para entender o que as pessoas falavam. Ainda tenho que me concentrar quando algum escocês fala. Mas atualmente já consigo seguir as piadas dos programas de televisão, tanto pelo sotaque quanto pelos acontecimentos da semana. Tirar sarro do primeiro ministro está sempre na agenda destes programas. O humor aqui é bem diferente, ácido, sarcástico, beirando – e as vezes ultrapassando – os limites da indignação. Este fim de semana também comprei e assisti o The Office original, com Ricky Gervais, antes só havia visto o americano, com Steve Carrel. A diferença entre os dois programas reflete bem o tipo de humor britânico. E enquanto o personagem do seriado americano as vezes dá até pena, eu nunca havia odiado tanto um personagem quanto o gerente na versão inglesa. Juro, quando ele entrava em cena eu queria esganá-lo. Por coincidência a noite estava passando na TV um stand-up dele, onde eu não acreditava no que estava ouvindo. Não é a putaria ou apelação que a gente vê no programa do Gugu ou Zorra Total, mas dá pra ficar chocado. Ou não :) Outros que eu gostei e estão disponíveis no Youtube foram Phill Jupitus falando sobre um louco que entrou na área dos leões no zoo de Londres e sobre aracnophobia.

A comida aqui é o que o povo que vem de fora mais reclama – e o que os ingleses mais gostam quando viajam para fora do país deles. Porém não é impossível ter uma boa alimentação – você precisa ou ganhar muito, mais muito bem, ou saber cozinhar. Eu almoço fora de 3 a 4 vezes por semana, o resto eu faço em casa. Almoço de dia normal é sanduíche, comprado na esquina em alguma loja de fast food e comido na cozinha do escritório com toda a galera – o que também é outro exercício para mim, é como acompanhar as piadas internas do seriado Friends sem ter visto as temporadas anteriores. Alguns trazem comida de casa – muita sopa enlatada – ah, e aqui também é muito mais fácil encontrar comida vegetariana variada. Porém o que eu mais sinto falta é de um bom sushi… só encontrei sushi fast-food e restaurantes na faixa de 100 libras por pessoa – com este preço eu vou fazer um curso de sushi né…

Este mês finalmente comecei a ir pra balada. É engraçado estar em um ambiente onde a grande maioria das pessoas não sabe dançar. As inglesas querem ser sensuais, mas o resultado digamos, não é o esperado. As polacas dançando como robozinhos, me lembra as amigas de colégio que vinham de Pomerode ou alguma cidade assim, que nunca tinham ido a uma festa e se empolgavam. As brasileiras dançam fazendo biquinho. Enfim, pra mim é divertido ficar observando, mas o que eu ainda não entendo é porque os homens que saem pra caçar ainda não entenderam que os poucos que aprendem a dançar tem suas chances multiplicadas por 10.

Quando cheguei estava começando o verão, e tivemos muitos dias de sol e céu azul. Alguns poucos dias a temperatura chegou a 30 graus! Me disseram que foi bom eu ter chegado naquela época para me ambientar, quem chega no inverno fica deprimido de cara. O inverno mal está começando, e a temperatura média já está na casa dos 10 graus. Hoje mesmo é um dia pelos quais Londres é conhecida, cinza, frio, chuvoso – porém a chuva aqui é mais parecida a garoa de São Paulo que uma chuva propriamente. Tivemos um dia igual a este algumas semanas atrás, e uma mulher do escritório comentou comigo que nestes dias a taxa de suicídio deve ter subido imediatamente. Ainda não me afeta, mas pra muita gente é insuportável. Eu acho que este tipo de tempo apenas amplifica os sentimentos daqueles que querem voltar ao lugar de origem ou algum lugar mais simples. Eu por enquanto não planejo ir a nenhum lugar tão cedo, só se for para passear…

October 30, 2009

Lo dia Internacional de hablarse portuñol

Filed under: Uncategorized — sulamita @ 1:08 pm

En homenage a el día internacional de hablarse portuñol, una singela colaboracion do Héctor:

“Hoje e o dia internacional do portunhol.

Isse e um dia muito grande para tudos os falantes das nossas lenguas entremescladas.

O dia cuando voce pode falar como um gringo, disser estupideces, e ficar no meio da rua pelado, fazendo um protesto espanhol. Nesse mismo dia voce vai confundir espanhola e cubana, largo e ancho, e um culprido etcétera.

Nessa larga jornada, voce vai ter que fazer frente a petiçoes de escreber coisas em uma lengua que nao e a sua, intentando aparentar que voce conhece, mais na realidade nao sabe uma merda. Mais como sona do mesmo jeito, todos nos achamos que falamos a mesma coisa.

Para o espanhol medianamente culto suponiendo que isso existe, falar portunhol consiste em reemplazar o vocabulario por aquele falado por Don Quijote, e ficar bem atento a as palavras que ja cairon em desuso deste lado do oceano. Ademais, voce vai ter que utilissar um tono cantarin cuando fale, en ves do tono seco proprio dos nossos grossos espanhois.”

August 4, 2009

Wasted Years

Filed under: english, momentos musicais — sulamita @ 4:54 pm

dsc03169

From the coast of gold, across the seven seas,
I’m travelling on, far and wide,
But now it seems, I’m just a stranger to myself,
And all the things I sometimes do, it isn’t me but someone else.

I close my eyes, and think of home,
Another city goes by, in the night,
Ain’t it funny how it is, you never miss it til it’s gone away,
And my heart is lying there and will be til my dying day.

So understand
Don’t waste your time always searching for those wasted years,
Face up…make your stand,
And realise you’re living in the golden years.

Too much time on my hands, I got you on my mind,
Can’t ease this pain, so easily,
When you can’t find the words to say, it’s hard to make it through another day,
And it makes me wanna cry, and throw my hands up to the sky.

So understand
Don’t waste your time always searching for those wasted years,
Face up…make your stand,
And realise you’re living in the golden years…

July 30, 2009

Skydiving video

Filed under: skydive — sulamita @ 9:10 pm

Finally!

July 29, 2009

So What?

Filed under: english, momentos musicais — sulamita @ 5:22 pm

Pink is the Queen…

Na na na na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na na na na na

I guess I just lost my husband
I don’t know where he went
So I’m gonna drink my money
I’m not gonna pay his rent (nope!)
I got a brand new attitude
And I’m gonna wear it tonight
I wanna get in trouble
I wanna start a fight

Na na na na na na na
I wanna start a fight
Na na na na na na na
I wanna start a fight

So so what?
I’m still a rock star
I got my rock moves
And I don’t need you
And guess what
I’m having more fun
And now that we’re done
I’m gonna show you tonight
I’m alright, I’m just fine
And you’re a tool
So so what?
I am a rockstar
I got my rock moves
And I don’t want you tonight

Uh, check my flow, uh

The waiter just checked my table
And gave to Jessica Simp- Shit!
I guess I’ll go sit with drum boy
At least he’ll know how to hit
What if this song’s on the radio
Then somebody’s gonna die
I’m gonna get in trouble
My ex will start a fight

Na na na na na na na
He’s gonna start a fight
Na na na na na na na
We’re all gonna get in a fight!

So so what?
I’m still a rock star
I got my rock moves
And I don’t need you
And guess what
I’m having more fun
And now that we’re done
I’m gonna show you tonight
I’m alright, I’m just fine
And you’re a tool
So so what?
I am a rock star
I got my rock moves
And I don’t want you tonight

You weren’t there
You never were
You weren’t all
But thats not fair
I gave you life
I gave my all
You weren’t there
You let me fall

So so what?
I’m still a rock star
I got my rock moves
And I don’t need you
And guess what
I’m having more fun
And now that we’re done (we’re done)
I’m gonna show you tonight
I’m alright(I’m alright),I’m just fine (I’m just fine)
And you’re a tool
So so what?
I am a rock star
I got my rock moves
And I don’t want you tonight

No no, no no
I don’t want you tonight
You weren’t fair
I’m gonna show you tonight
I’m alright, I’m just fine
And you’re a tool
So so what?
I am a rock star
I got my rock moves
And I don’t want you tonight

Ba da da da da da (pfft!)

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