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Date:      Wed, 7 Oct 1998 17:44:14 -0700
From:      Gregory Sutter <gsutter@pobox.com>
To:        Marius Bendiksen <Marius.Bendiksen@scancall.no>
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Two Y chromosomes [ Was: Java-based Crypto Decoder Ring ...]
Message-ID:  <19981007174414.C18686@orcrist.mediacity.com>
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19981007111506.00937880@mail.scancall.no>; from Marius Bendiksen on Wed, Oct 07, 1998 at 11:15:06AM %2B0200
References:  <ML-3.3.907703202.1183.patl@asimov> <19981006045145.26603@futuresouth.com> <ML-3.3.907703202.1183.patl@asimov> <19981006145323.M10980@orcrist.mediacity.com> <3.0.5.32.19981007111506.00937880@mail.scancall.no>

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On Wed, Oct 07, 1998 at 11:15:06AM +0200, Marius Bendiksen wrote:
> >Actually, such folk tend to have some physical and mental signs, which
> >get worse as the number of additional chromosomes increases.  There are
> >people with XYYYY chromosomes, but they're usually quite retarded and
> >have multiple physical problems.  
> 
> Considering how a man only has one (1) Y chromosome to contribute, I
> don't -want- to know where the remaining three came from :/

Well, there are also issues with people having multiples of the X
chromosome, too.  So a person could have XXY or even XXXY.  Or more
X's, but people with a large number of additional chromosomes don't
usually survive long.  (Most aren't born alive.)  Someone else
reminded me that these (overmany X and overmany Y chromosomes) are
known as Turner's and Klinefelter's syndromes, but I've forgotten
which is which.

> >If you want to know more, flip through an introductory genetics book;
> >the resulting knowledge may intrigue you, will almost certainly 
> >disgust you, but hopefully will also instill you with a sense of awe
> >at the amazing systems that make us "us".  Evolution is cool. :)
> 
> Humanity is a genetic cesspool, not the pinnacle of darwinian evolution :)

We do carry some undesirable genes and gene sets, but as a whole,
we're pretty amazing systems.  There _is_ no pinnacle of Darwinian
evolution, though.  Perfection is awfully difficult to achieve, don't
you agree?

Greg
-- 
Gregory S. Sutter                    Cole's Law:  Thinly sliced cabbage.
mailto:gsutter@pobox.com
http://www.pobox.com/~gsutter/
PGP DSS public key 0x40AE3052

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