Overtures

Yahoo prepares for a merger

Uma canção que eu amo

                               

with the zAgile Vitória team members (Lucas, Julio, Eric, Felipe, myself) and Salim (on guitar)

Mira ComoProgresa Chile!!

No.  No hay progresa todavia!

(Puede ser posible en 20 años) 

Sanjiva, Santiago, March 14, 2007

Que Pasa?

 

In the Dec 1st issue of quepasa, one of Chile's leading publications for business and politics.

Santiago, Chile.  Dec 1, 2006

Donde esta Sanjiva??

 

A dose of Sanjivani !!

"Wait'll they get a load of me!"  (so says The Joker in Batman).

But seriously, this is funny or 'pun'ny or seriously ironic, however you choose to see it.

While I pursued hairloss remedies (hmmm!, I know it is also ironic) , ther e is one that hit too close to  home:

•             

  Take one portion of coconut oil and mix with two portion of SANJIVANI and mix it properly, shake well and fill in another bottle.          

•             

  Use daily in morning or evening like plain oil and massage properly for 4-5 minutes.          

•             

  Partly infected (weak) hair follicles become healthy and strong resulting in             strong, healthy, long, silky and dense hairs.        

Ref:  http://www.boostimmunity.com/sanjivani.htm

Hmmm!

I know I have had a dose or two of 'myself' AND I know that's what's causing the hair to fall off.  So this prescription is obviously not working (at least how I interpreted it).

Maybe, SANJIVANI is not the answer, or may be I am not quite true to my namesake ayurvedic herb (I need to find an ayrvedic herb with which I can more readily identify).
 
BTW:  The site referenced above spins itself or this recipe as the Ayrvedic wonder that confounds modern science.  Heck, everything confounds modern science, but let's not make that an issue.  Those scientists have been seriously busy unifying all the theories they have come up with over the past four centuries. 

-Sanjiva, Orinda, 2/27/06

Un hiver à Orinda

J'attends le printemps :))

And then my heart with pleasure fills...

And dances with the daffodils

("I wandered lonely as a cloud", William Wordsworth, 1804)
Daffodils courtesy of 7 Sager Ct., Orinda :))

                                                                                                        

My Genetic Journey

After a much anticipated wait of nearly five months, the results are finally in on my "genetic journey" -- or the journey my ancestors took.   This particular study, sponsored by The National Geographic, analyzes specific markers in the DNA and maps them to existing database of various lineages and migrations that have occurred in the past 60,000 years, originating in Africa.

I wanted to share the analysis of my DNA and other related data that I found quite interesting and curious:

• My lineage can be traced back to the "Eurasian Adam" who lived in Africa around 60,000 to 80,000 years ago.  His descendents migrated out of Africa on to the middle east and beyond towards Europe and Central Asia, taking both the east and west routes.  (Note: This was the only lineage known to survive beyond Africa.)
• There are two lines that trace more explicitly to India.  One directly from Africa to the southern part of the Indian peninsula and onwards to Burma and beyond.  The other through the Arabian peninsula and Iran.  Curiously, my lineage maps to a different one that migrated to central Asia and Siberia.  These people were also the eventual settlers of the New World (crossing the ancient land bridge of Beringia that connected Asia with North America).

With respect to the timelines, the migration of the descendents of Eurasian Adam related to the lineage to which my DNA mapped most conclusively progressed as follows:

• To North Africa and the Middle East 45,000 years ago
• To Central Asia and India around 40,000 years ago (This is the root of most of the Northern Hemisphere, i.e. most North Americans, East Asians, Europeans and Indians). 
• To Siberia and the North Americas some 15,000 to 20,000 years ago

I was both excited and disappointed by the results.  I expected much more precision than a lineage that dates back to 15,000 years ago (although not necessarily a zip code).  I am also quite surprised that my DNA maps more to the lineage that migrated to Siberia (marker M242) than to others (such as marker M9) that are much more explicitly connected to India (although they have common origins).  I would venture to guess that the reasons for this are potentially 1) a mistake in the analysis of the results, 2) lack of sufficient or conclusive data in my DNA markers, perhaps resulting from dilution, or 3) some migrations that occurred from Siberian peninsula towards India in the past 20,000 years that are not well known in this context.

In any case, I think this study is quite useful and valuable for the sake of Science as well as our learning.  The timing is also appropriate and critical since the gene pools are getting ever so diluted with the mixing of races that soon we will not be able to follow such clear paths to our ancestory.

I also believe that the clarity and precision of data and analysis will improve significantly as more people participate in this study and more data is collected.  To this end, the price of the kit ($100) is a significant barrier.  Still, I encourage all those who appreciate the value of this learning to participate in the study, if you can and share in the excitement of knowing a lot more about our roots.

-Sanjiva, Oct 28, 2005

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic

PS -- I have ordered additional kits to do the same analysis for my parents in the hope of discovering a consistency in the results. 

Finally, during the course of the DNA analysis, I was told that the initial results were inconclusive and further analysis was needed.  This further supports my theory that in our case, the DNA is likely too diluted relative to the data that is currently available for this research.