Comments on: For the last time, redheads are not going extinct

By: MadRat

MadRat — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:47:00 +0000

I’m sorry Mz. Koerth-Baker, but this time you’re wrong. Red hair really is going extinct. Every time I go to the barber I look down at my lap and see clippings of grey instead of the red I used to see.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 00:25:00 +0000

This interchange from some unremembered book has stuck in my head for years.

Human: But you don’t have a soul!
Genie: I am a soul, you idiot!

By: Reg Robson

Reg Robson — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 22:42:00 +0000

Many readers would say neither does anyone else.

By: Ito Kagehisa

Ito Kagehisa — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:05:00 +0000

Some of them do! There’s a little nest of polydactly just northwest of me, and I know a girl with eleven toes, all of which are rather cute.

By: Ito Kagehisa

Ito Kagehisa — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:02:00 +0000

I worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences for a while, and used to have boisterous arguments with the rest of the staff. I was one of two people (out of 400) who had a college degree that was not in a natural history field, but they told me that I’d have to pay for my own cards if I wanted them to say “Unnatural Scientist” under my name.

I frequently got called a Lamarckist, and accused of cribbing Wilson and Dawkins (I had never read any of the three, until I got told I was quoting them) and was once called a communist in front of the entire staff assembled. But it was all in good fun, except possibly the communism incident; it was (and no doubt still is) a lively intellectual community. I learned most of what I know about taxonomy there.

So anyway, the answer is that the late Dr. John Hendrickson convinced me it was so. I am not qualified to try to convey his explanation, but I am qualified to say he was a brilliant statistician and entomologist (with doctorates in both fields) who agreed with R. A. Fisher’s statistical analysis. You will note the argument against Fisher’s claims seems to consist of “Mendel was my hero therefore he would not lie” which is not a very nuanced argument.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 20:31:00 +0000

Some of the 17th century houses in Massachusetts only went from the original families to public trusts on the last half century. They were still living in them with jury-rigged water and electricity.

By: Forkboy

Forkboy — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:46:00 +0000

Prince Harry ? Must be the power or maybe the uniform.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:38:00 +0000

Ha ha neighbors kid was named Arthur so he got called Artie Farkle

By: chgoliz

chgoliz — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:10:00 +0000

Hah! I just posted that myself in response to another comment above.

*fist bump*

By: chgoliz

chgoliz — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:08:00 +0000

Yes, but. There’s a lot more variation in dark hair than is often realized. For example, my children have copper highlights which can only be seen in direct sunlight; under most lighting conditions their hair is very similar to — but slightly darker than — Selma Hayek’s.

By: chgoliz

chgoliz — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:01:00 +0000

I do genealogy + DNA research in my spare time. Trust me, that statement is truer than you think. Pretty much everyone in the US who has early colonial ancestors are related to each other multiple times. The ones who never even moved away from the colonial areas? Hah! Amazing they don’t all have extra appendages.

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:17:00 +0000

We’ve got several pockets of the same sort here in the Detroit metro. It’s unnatural how undiverse those areas are.

By: SamSam

SamSam — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:01:00 +0000

Possibly “most” people, if most people have ginger/blond/ash/brown hair.

Once you include people with dark hair, you’ll see that dark hair gets pretty uniform.

By: SamSam

SamSam — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I would have thought the most ethnically pure English-speaking place would be Tampa, just a couple weeks ago.

By: SamSam

SamSam — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 12:57:00 +0000

Although single-gene dominant/recessive is pretty rare, Mendel’s experiments were valid.

However, it is true that his results were statistically “too” perfect — far too close to 75% dominant trait/25% recessive trait to be statistically likely. However, this is an example of confirmation bias/wanting to prove something you know is true which, while unfortunate, remains prevalent in all branches of science today.

By: Eric Rucker

Eric Rucker — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 11:08:00 +0000

That’s so bad it wraps around to hilarious.

By: Simeon

Simeon — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 10:26:00 +0000

I used to have ginger badger streaks in my beard – they are now shock white badger streaks.

By: Pedantic Douchebag

Pedantic Douchebag — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:57:00 +0000

I didn’t know this was something I should be worried about…and now this is SOMETHING I’M WORRIED ABOUT. Dammit.

By: peregrinus

peregrinus — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:27:00 +0000

You do know that “Ang Mo” means red-headed devil? Refers to the “matsale” (mad sailors). Malaysia particularly had lots of intermingling!

By: peregrinus

peregrinus — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:00:00 +0000

What about blondes? Are they going extinct? Redheads are nice, but with such vibrant and contrasting colouring I’m convinced their genes are super-strong, but I’m a little concerned for the future of the Scandi look.

Next time I’m on a surf trip, I’m going to cut my hair short and go red, see what happens!

By: digi_owl

digi_owl — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 08:40:00 +0000

add me to that list of volunteers.

By: professor

professor — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 08:04:00 +0000

I’d say the redhead gene is probably a lot more prevalent than imagined. Both my wife (who’s Chinese), and quite a lot of my Chinese friends have natural red highlights that are very noticeable in the sunlight.

By: Ladyfingers

Ladyfingers — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Oh, after three long-term relationships with red-haired ladies, I’ve discovered that there are no good “tactics” at all.

By: desiredusername

desiredusername — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 06:36:00 +0000

If asking if those are my great grand daughters is a reasonable question, I must be older than I thought!

By: papiermeister

papiermeister — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:35:00 +0000

Also, loved how Robbins’ novel (Sill Life With Woodpecker) equated red hair as a product of sugar and lust! woohoo!

By: papiermeister

papiermeister — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:31:00 +0000

Still Life With Woodpecker, anyone? Tom Robbins novel dealing with *the trouble with redheads*?
or Ann Rice’s *Queen of the Damned*?
C’mon, Reds have some great past and future! BTW – gingers all thru my family, just sayin’

edit to say – i’m freakin’ bald. OY!

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:25:00 +0000

Three points out of a possible four. The correct answer is:

Yes. Yes. Hell Yes. Yes.

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 03:56:00 +0000

Friend, your sign assumes that anyone is asking. For your sake, if you want to date redheads, this is not a good tactic.

By: Jemmy

Jemmy — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 03:24:00 +0000

I’m clearly late to the game here, but Maggie, I think you’ve got some of your numbers and/or facts wrong. If the prevalence of the redhead phenotype (i.e. people with red hair) is 1%, and it is a truly recessive single-gene trait, then by the Hardy-Weinberg equation, the prevalence of the heterozygous genotype (those who carry the redhead gene but don’t have red hair themselves) should be 18%, not 4%. Unless I’m misremembering my basic genetics.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 03:05:00 +0000

Somebody surveyed some gay men a couple of decades ago on hair color preference. The results were that men with dark hair preferred blonds and blonds preferred redheads. I doubt that it was a scientific survey, but it seems reasonable based on attraction to rarity.