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Ozzy Osbourne's Genome Reveals Some Neanderthal Lineage

ByOhTek writes "CNN reports that in July, rocker Ozzy Osbourne became one of few to submit his blood to have his full genome sequenced and analyzed. The results are in, and it turns out his genome reveals some Neanderthal lineage. What does Ozzie have to say about it? 'I was curious, given the swimming pools of booze I've guzzled over the years - not to mention all of the cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol... there's really no plausible medical reason why I should still be alive. Maybe my DNA could say why,' he wrote."

151 comments

  1. Bah by grub · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Ozzy's DNA: GACCTAACGATGCTAGC...

    Lemmy's DNA: GODGODGODGOD...

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Bah by vandelais · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ozzy's DNA is more like:

      actgactacgactg

      i-i-i

      acggactatacccagg

      i-i-i

      caccttgaggca

      --
      Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
    2. Re:Bah by DaSwing · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I hate to see a slashdot comment rated funny that i don't understand, please explain =) Sorry for the drunken comment

      --
      11. Thou shall obey Da mighty Swing
    3. Re:Bah by Shark · · Score: 1

      Listen to Crazy Train, you'll get it.

      --
      Mind the frickin' laser...
    4. Re:Bah by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      The only part he'd get is the i-i-i... the rest the question still stands.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    5. Re:Bah by rts008 · · Score: 1

      'Shark (78448); (#34070322)' got it right, in one.

      I saw Black Sabbath at the Capital Centre[1] in
      1973.
      The band came out on stage...Tony Iommi plugged in, Geezer Butler plugged in, Bill Ward ran out and dropped behind the drums*drumroll!*...Ozzy staggers out between two speaker stacks
      *falling twice* with a fifth/quart liquor bottle clutched in his right hand, wrestled the mic/stand into submission, and asked:
      "Is everybody high?"*takes large drink from bottle*
      "I said, is everybody high!?"
      Chaos ensued there after.
      IOW, a good time was had by all!

      [1] Back then, it was advertised as residing in Largo, Maryland.
              Apparently, a lot has changed!
              My junior and senior years of high school, I averaged a concert there
              every three weeks.

              It was also one of two places for a rock concert(when I was in high school) when
              a band 'played Wash., D.C.', the Nations Capital(TM); the other was
              R.F.K. Stadium.
             

      --
      Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
    6. Re:Bah by TheoMurpse · · Score: 1

      Thank you. This is one of the funniest /. comments I've seen in quite some time.

  2. Rich by bonch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ozzy, this isn't hard to figure out. You're alive because you're rich. You can afford a comfortable lifestyle as well as medical treatment when you need it.

    Now, please stop fighting with Iommi and make another Black Sabbath album already.

    1. Re:Rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rich or not, he's put a lot of harmful shit in his body. "You're alive because you're lucky" would be a better response.

    2. Re:Rich by denzacar · · Score: 1

      "You're alive because you're lucky" would be a better response.

      He already pointed out that he is rich.

      --
      Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    3. Re:Rich by bonch · · Score: 1

      Other people who put shit in their bodies for decades end up on the street. Not only is Ozzy rich, his wife is also his manager, so he has a babysitter and a record label who will always make sure he's taken care of.

    4. Re:Rich by Altus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Do we really need to list all of the super rich musicians who have died from putting really dangerous stuff in their blood streams?

      Being rich does not save you from an overdose. It might improve your odds of not ODing but it still happens to plenty of wealthy people. The ones that it doesn't happen to are lucky... or perhaps they actually have some pre-disposition to surviving heavy drug use.

      --

      "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    5. Re:Rich by bonch · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's completely logical and obvious that a druggie who is rich is more likely to survive than a druggie who is not. Ozzy's big vice, especially in the 80s, was alcohol, but unlike most alcoholics, he could afford to be one and afford the treatment to become sober.

      People are apparently attaching themselves to the cute idea that Ozzy is genetically special because he survived his drug abuse. I don't know if you've seen him, but he has clearly suffered long-term effects that would hamper the lives of non-celebrities.

      Sharon Osbourne, his wife and manager, is a very, very shrewd business person. She's the kind of person who actually re-recorded drum and bass tracks on Ozzy's early solo albums in order to avoid paying those musicians. This, like everything else about Ozzy, is a publicity stunt to get people talking about Ozzy and buy his recent album and his autobiography. He's not some mutant superhuman.

    6. Re:Rich by JWW · · Score: 1

      He's not some mutant superhuman.

      Of course not, hes a Neanderthal!!

    7. Re:Rich by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      Not to be a pain, but doesn't this situation also describe Elvis and Michael Jackson?

      Ozzy, for all his wealth, came out of it with being able to get decently clean*, decently healthy, decently sane, etc... That's actually a fair bit of luck and probably good genes.

      *I'm not about to suggest that he doesn't still use recreational drugs, whether they be legal, illegal, or prescribed.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    8. Re:Rich by morari · · Score: 1

      Ronnie James Dio is dead. I wouldn't count on ever seeing a real Black Sabbath album again. :(

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    9. Re:Rich by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      Now, please stop fighting with Iommi and make another Black Sabbath album already.

      I can't figure out why Iommi and Butler would even want to bother with this burnt out shell of a rock star? That last album they did with the late great Ronnie James Dio outshone anything Ozzy's done since the early 1980s. I know Ozzy (or more properly than nasty piece of work Sharon Osbourne) somehow have managed to mount some sort of litigation over the use of Black Sabbath (despite the fact that they tossed Ozzy's drunken stoned-out ass out the door three decades ago), but come on, they don't need Ozzy. Find a new vocalist, Butler can keep writing the lyrics, and they can call themselves Dog Shit and they'll sound better than Ozzy.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    10. Re:Rich by Threni · · Score: 1

      harmful? Cough syrup? Morphine? Cocaine? Probably the most harmful stuff he's consumed is alcohol and tobacco, and he's no more or less lucky than any other consumers of those particular drugs.

    11. Re:Rich by bsDaemon · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's possibly one of the most blatant troll attempts in history, right up there with the people who think that Roger Moore is the real James Bond.

    12. Re:Rich by rhyder128k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "I was curious, given the swimming pools of booze I've guzzled over the years - not to mention all of the cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol... there's really no plausible medical reason why I should still be alive."

      Is it because I'm in my 30s or because I'm a nerd or both that makes me think, "loser" when I read that?

      --
      Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
    13. Re:Rich by gagol · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      The only real good James Bond movie is casino royale... not the crap recently produced but the one from the 60's...

      --
      Tomorrow is another day...
    14. Re:Rich by snuf23 · · Score: 1

      Yeah except that with street drugs (in particular heroin and morphine analogues) you can get dramatically different doses. Shoot up an especially pure substance and you can immediately OD. No one buys a bottle of wine and dies because it's extra potent.

      The same can be true of purity of stimulants. Cocaine and amphetamine overdoses can cause cardiac arrest.

      Besides if you are partying like Ozzy you probably don't just use one substance at a time. Using cocaine and alcohol at the same time can be very dangerous. You can get very high blood alcohol levels without feeling anywhere near as drunk.

      I'm not trying to downplay alcohol or tobacco but it's hardly fair to say that other drugs aren't as dangerous.

      --
      Sometimes my arms bend back.
    15. Re:Rich by xanadu113 · · Score: 1

      When you mix cocaine and alcohol, it forms a third drug in your bloodstream, cocaethylene, which builds up in the liver.

      --
      -Myke
    16. Re:Rich by koona · · Score: 3, Informative

      "No one buys a bottle of wine and dies because it's extra potent." Na, yer rong. Up here in Canada we got a pseudo sherry thing called (x' ) 74. Dilution 1::2 required. All us beside the tracks winos know that 2 solid weeks of this shit will kill you. yours, as a survivor douglas the x'r copyright considerations prohibit me publishing the identity of (x')

    17. Re:Rich by koona · · Score: 1

      Incensed at a score of a mere 1 for a heartfelt, beside the tracks bit of intelligence. Incensed.

    18. Re:Rich by kramulous · · Score: 1

      I dunno.

      I'm in my 30s and a nerd and I think it's fucking awesome. I love it that there are people out there that lead lives that are just so different in every possible way. It's all about the diversity.

      I'm sure there are those that look at our lives and think, 'losers'.

      --
      .
    19. Re:Rich by kramulous · · Score: 1

      Cocaine and amphetamine overdoses can cause cardiac arrest.

      It's also called a partial Jeffery. Now excuse me while I go stroke some fury walls.

      --
      .
    20. Re:Rich by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      MJ was allegedly killed by interaction of meds. This is a growing problem and it may indeed be the biggest killer in the USA today but it's difficult to track because hospitals don't want to admit mistakes. So no, MJ was (again, allegedly) killed because he received too much medical "care". This has been happening to celebs a lot lately, because they can afford to go get all this fancy shit prescribed to them. And it happens at least in part because FDA approval for derivatives of existing drugs is especially easy; you don't have to prove that it's efficacious, or that it's less harmful than the prior.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    21. Re:Rich by Khyber · · Score: 1

      Dio, dead? Looks like reincarnation, right there!

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    22. Re:Rich by Cheney · · Score: 1

      I tried to mod you funny but hit overrated.. stupid list. CANCEL OUT MOD, NAO!

    23. Re:Rich by Securityemo · · Score: 1

      As long as they don't have kids and are of a sound mind and can support themselves, I don't care what people do to themselves. People in general don't really seem to like it when other people deviate in ways they think are central to being a self-aware human being, as if neurocognitive mechanisms was something written into the fabric of the universe. They same thing applies to me of course, but I try to restrict myself to basic morality - because not accepting people as they are in most cases contribute to suffering, and thus isn't moral.

      --
      Emotions! In your brain!
    24. Re:Rich by HungryHobo · · Score: 1

      it's not just what you take but how you take it.

      it's almost trivial to OD on caffine if you're swallowing tablets of it.
      but it's almost impossible to OD when drinking coffee because after 10 cups or so your hands get too shaky to hold the cup and it starts to taste like death.

      similarly it is perfectly possible to drink enough neat alcohol to kill you before it knocks you out but it's almost impossible to do the same with 5% beer.
      not counting choking on your own vomit of course.

      change the way something's consumed and you can make it far far far safer.
      illegality tends to push the market towards highly pure, easy to transport and hide versions of drugs,

    25. Re:Rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everybody knows the only real James Bond movie is Goldmember!!! :D

    26. Re:Rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cocaethylene (ethylbenzoylecgonine) is the ethyl ester of benzoylecgonine. It is structurally similar to cocaine, which is the methyl ester of benzoylecgonine. Cocaethylene is formed in vivo when cocaine and ethyl alcohol have been ingested simultaneously.[1]

      Normally cocaine's metabolism produces two major and biologically inactive metabolites, benzoylecogonine and ecgonine methyl ester. Carboxylesterase is an important part of cocaine's metabolism because it acts as the catalyst for the hydrolysis of cocaine which produces the inactive metabolites. If ethanol is present during the metabolism of cocaine, a portion of the cocaine undergoes transesterification with ethanol instead of undergoing hydrolysis with water which results in cocaethylene.[2]

      Cocaethylene is a recreational drug with stimulant, euphoriant, anorectic, sympathomimetic and local anesthetic properties. Three monoamine neurotransmitters known as serotonin (5-HT), norepinephrine (NE), and dopamine (DA) play an important role in cocaethylene's action. Cocaethylene increases the level of serotonergic, noradrenergic, and dopaminergic neurotransmission by inhibiting the action of the serotonin transporter (SERT), norepinephrine transporter (NET), and dopamine transporter (DAT) which makes cocaethylene a serotonin-norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor (SNDRI).[Note 1]

      Cocaethylene appears to, in most users, produce more euphoria and possess a longer duration of action than cocaine. Some studies suggest that it may be more cardiotoxic than cocaine. Cocaethylene is more potent than cocaine at binding to the dopamine transporter, however it is less potent at binding to the serotonin transporter and norepinephrine transporter.[3][4]

      Note 1: Serotonin-norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitors are also known as triple reuptake inhibitor which is abbreviated TRI

      References:
      1. S. Casey Laizure, Timothy Mandrell, Naomi M. Gades, and Robert B. Parker (2003). "Cocaethylene Metabolism and Interaction with Cocaine and Ethanol: Role of Carboxylesterases". Drug Metabolism and Disposition 31 (1): 16–20.
      2. Cocaethylene metabolism : interaction with cocaine and ethanol Cocaethylene metabolism and interaction with cocaine and ethanol: role of carboxylesterases by Laizure SC, Mandrell T, Gades NM, Parker RB (January 31st, 2003).
      3. Jatlow, Peter; McCance, Elinore F.; Bradberry, Charles W.; Elsworth, John D.; Taylor, Jane R.; Roth, Robert H. (1996). "Alcohol plus Cocaine: The Whole Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts". Therapeutic Drug Monitoring 18 (4): 460–4.
      4. M. Perez et al. (1994). "Cocaine and cocaethylene: microdialysis comparison of brain drug levels and effects on dopamine and serotonin". Psychopharmacology (Berl.) 116: 428–32. PMID 8455033.

      From Wikipedia, for those curious.

    27. Re:Rich by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      Is the alcohol content marked?

      I have a bottle of Absinthe, and you'd be stupid to drink it undiluted. It -does- say 150-proof after all...

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    28. Re:Rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Speaking as someone who's spent the last 35 years at least trying every altered state I could, keeping the ones I like; the only time I've been on the street, there was a mix up about accommodations. Temporary at best.

                There are a majority out there that stroll into the fun house and never come out. They just can't seem to feed their senses enough overload.
      Then there are those who seem to have a connection with their bodies and know their limits while pushing the envelope. Barring accidents or the stupidity of others, full lives are achievable with no relevant intellect lost. Wm. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, Keith Richards,Aleister Crowley are nearly household words associated with those I am talking about. You can easily imagine a demographic of those like the above, who didn't achieve fame. Perhaps there is a Darwinism to it all. Perhaps Cromagnon genetics, still strong in the pool are behind it all.

                Makes ya think, donut?

    29. Re:Rich by koona · · Score: 1

      If I remember right it's around 30%. The type of alcohol, and the impurities are of more importance. The fact that the trackside clientele I spoke of are aiming at a sustained state of semi-consciousness, ending in daily oblivion, day after day, needs to be considered also. I don't do that anymore.

    30. Re:Rich by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      From what I've heard MJ was under the personal care of what was essentially his full time doctor.

      He shouldn't have needed to got to multiple doctors, hell he shouldn't have been taking what he was taking to sleep. They were essentially putting him under anesthesia every night.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    31. Re:Rich by RockModeNick · · Score: 1

      By the makers, yes, but at the same time cutting the drugs is part of the process once they enter the local market. The problem usually isn't high purity itself, but inconsistent cuts - perhaps the actual drug is smaller and denser than the cut, so bags made from the top of the stash are much weaker than bags made from the bottom, even though they are the same drugs from the same source. Criminalizing drugs has never been about harm reduction though, and often actively seeks to increase harm.

  3. Wasn't there a study... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 1

    In 2010 that suggested that somewhere around 1-4% of everyone's DNA is Neanderthal ish?

    1. Re:Wasn't there a study... by elsurexiste · · Score: 2, Funny

      In 2010 that suggested that somewhere around 1-4% of everyone's DNA is Neanderthal ish?

      My cousin must have a decent 20% or 30% percent. It's the only explanation I've got for some of the things he does.

      --
      I rarely respond to comments. Also, don't ask for clarifications: a brain and Google are faster, believe me!
    2. Re:Wasn't there a study... by commodore64_love · · Score: 1

      I don't see how Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalis could interbreed & produce viable children. Wouldn't it be like breeding a horse and donkey (which produces a sterile mule)??

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    3. Re:Wasn't there a study... by Jeng · · Score: 1

      There has been a few cases of a mule reproducing.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule#Fertility

      --
      Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
    4. Re:Wasn't there a study... by nschubach · · Score: 1

      That's alright, I thought it said "Netherland lineage."

      I was trying to figure out what the Netherlander peoples had that made them long living and resilient.

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
    5. Re:Wasn't there a study... by Labcoat+Samurai · · Score: 5, Informative

      The way I've always understood the classification is that we're Homo Sapiens Sapiens, and they were Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, meaning they were a different subspecies, not genetically different enough to prohibit interbreeding.

    6. Re:Wasn't there a study... by belthize · · Score: 1

      Interspecific (two different species) are very often but not always sterile. If it is indeed the case that homo sapiens contain Neanderhal DNA than either they're not really different species or they're one of the 'not often' case of interspecies cross breeding.

      I'm not entirely sure why Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals wouldn't be considered subspecies of the same species rather than distinct species anyway so it's not surprising offspring aren't sterile.

      And sure enough according to Wikipedia (which is by definition now never wrong), Neanderthals are considered a subspecies of modern human (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis).

    7. Re:Wasn't there a study... by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 1

      My cousin must have a decent 20% or 30% percent. It's the only explanation I've got for some of the things he does.

      Everyone seems to have that "cousin." I wonder if it's the same one?

      --
      If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
    8. Re:Wasn't there a study... by citylivin · · Score: 1

      Look around you! So many eurasian peoples have pronounced brow ridges, deep or wide eyes, large noses, etc... There are people out there who "look" completely Neanderthal! How can you explain that if we didnt at one point cross breed?

      Even the idea of good and evil can be theoretically traced to an ingrained concept of "us" and
      "them". All the evidence seems to point to us and them living at the same time, most likely interbreeding.

      --
      As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
    9. Re:Wasn't there a study... by Sperbels · · Score: 1, Funny

      Logic fail. The classification has nothing to do with whether or not they could have interbred. How would they know? Neanderthals were classified in 1800's.

    10. Re:Wasn't there a study... by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 1

      The ability to interbreed and produce viable offspring has nothing to do with their classifications. Go read up on it at Think Origin.

    11. Re:Wasn't there a study... by Labcoat+Samurai · · Score: 2, Informative

      The species level is intended to be roughly the level of genetic similarity where animals breed true. So if we classify them as a subspecies, our *best guess* is that we'd breed true with them.

      Furthermore, this has evidently been an ongoing debate in the scientific community (I was operating from memory of college anthropology earlier, but I went and did a little poking around just now), and the school that classifies them as Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis is absolutely saying that interbreeding is possible.

      And the presence of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans seems to suggest they are right.

    12. Re:Wasn't there a study... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a Goatse. I hate whoever invented those link shortening things.

    13. Re:Wasn't there a study... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I don't see how Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalis could interbreed & produce viable children.

      You're right, you need a man and a woman to produce children.

    14. Re:Wasn't there a study... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How can you explain that if we didnt at one point cross breed?

      Convergent evolution. Not that I doubt the latest conclusions indicating that there was some cross breeding, but you asked how one would explain it otherwise. You'd be amazed at some of the examples of distant species winding up looking very similar (see, for instance, the elephant shrew, which is more closely related to the elephant than other shrews).

      Presumably there was some selection pressure that lead to those features you mention in neanderthals - it would not be at all surprising if some humans in some regions found themselves under similar selection pressures.

    15. Re:Wasn't there a study... by pieterh · · Score: 1

      I am not a geneticist and if I was, I am not your geneticist and this is not genetic advice. Having said that...

      That 1-4% would be everyone of European and Asian descent, i.e. that small fraction of humanity that left Africa around 50K (iirc) years ago and took over the rest of the world from the previous model of human. Africans don't have Neanderthal genes, except introduced over the last hundreds of years by foreigners, making them more modern (take that, white supremacists) and further have a significantly more diverse gene pool which has consequences for things like gene regulation, which has a lot more bugs in the Eurasian lines. We pale skins get sick from things that our African kin don't. Presumably whatever Neanderthal genes we kept weren't random but were useful for things like cold climates.

    16. Re:Wasn't there a study... by ld+a,b · · Score: 1

      If Neanderthals and Humans could interbreed I'd say we both were subspecies of our common ancestor. I can't see how can they be a subspecies of us when we didn't exist yet. So either rename homo rhodesiensis to homo sapiens, or hss and hn to homo rhodesiensis sapiens and homo rhodesiensis neanderthalensis respectively.

      --
      10 little-endian boys went out to dine, a big-endian carp ate one, and then there were -246.
    17. Re:Wasn't there a study... by Miamicanes · · Score: 1

      > Look around you! So many eurasian peoples have pronounced brow ridges, deep or wide eyes, large noses, etc...
      > There are people out there who "look" completely Neanderthal! How can you explain that if we didnt at one point cross breed?

      One problem with your theory -- the Neanderthals didn't actually look "Neanderthal" (the way most people think). If anything, Neanderthal genes are probably the reason why humans of north-central European descent are more likely to be blonde and/or have blue eyes. Think about it... pretty much everyone on earth with blonde hair and/or blue eyes can trace his/her ancestry to north-central Europe. Neanderthals lived in north-central Europe. For the past century, nobody has ever really had a good explanation how a group of humans from Africa somehow became blonde-haired and blue-eyed almost overnight (in evolutionary terms). If you get past the automatic prejudice against neanderthals that most humans have, the likely answer becomes instantly obvious: both blonde hair (and probably red hair) and blue eyes were probably the outcome of interbreeding between humans and neanderthals.

      Remember, when most of us (20s/30s) were in elementary school, it was still taken as almost an article of faith that dinosaurs were cold-blooded reptiles with leathery skin... even the ones that flew. Now, even a bright 5 year old knows that birds are modern dinosaurs, and the dinosaurs themselves were probably big birds. Think: 30 foot tall ostrich with razor-sharp teeth and insatiable appetite for meat.

    18. Re:Wasn't there a study... by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 1

      Cheese, windmills and wooden shoes. Oh, and when we get really hungry we eat tulips.

      --

      People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
    19. Re:Wasn't there a study... by Xest · · Score: 1

      The problem with classification is that we're basically trying to simplify a very complex system of a massive amount of variation even amongst individuals of a species into a finite set of groups. There isn't always this rather binary split between species in reality.

      The problem is largely in cases like this, that species don't just diverge- through interbreeding they can converge back together again, then split, and converge and so on with varying ratios of each species involved each time which with each convergence or divergence may increase or decrease the percentage of genetic material of one or the other species.

      The problem is also that historically -prior to DNA analysis - we've based our understanding on visual traits, but let me show you some pictures (in this case of cacti) to illustrate how utterly misleading this can be.

      Take these two plants:

      Cipocereus laniflorus:

      http://www.arkive.org/cactus/cipocereus-laniflorus/image-G5064.html

      and Pilosocereus fulvilanatus:

      http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2916062630075508785tgLHvf

      They both come from Minas Gerais in Brazil, and appear very similar, and as such it made sense to group them together in the same genus. No one could really argue with this, the logic is sound. Yet, when DNA analysis came along, it turns out the genus Cipocereus is more closely related to Cereus, than it is Pilosocereus, so the plant Cipocereus laniflorus above is more closely related to a plant like this, Cereus repandus, which has it's origins 2500 miles away in Venezuela:

      http://www.rarefruit.org/magicgallery05/ph05.htm

      Those who had classified Cipocereus laniflorus as a Pilosocereus were then wildly wrong in their classification.

      The problem that faces classification based on visual traits is that of evolutionary convergence- the species that live close in Brazil, despite having a much less close genetic heritage, both had to cater to the same conditions- the same temperatures, the same threats, the same pollinators, and in this case, evolution often just repeats the same solution. If the main pollinators in the area are hummingbirds attracted by bright purple day blooming flowers, then both plants are going to evolve that trait again, even if they're genetically different.

      So you can probably see why classification based on visual traits and so forth can at times be horrendously misleading, but as you'll probably realise from my earlier point about convergence and divergence through interbreeding even the DNA records can be confusing. This is why, to this day, as far as I know, the inclusion of Homo neanderthalensis as a subspecies is unresolved. The reality is we never really had these two perfectly distinct species Homo sapien, and Homo neanderthalensis, probably through pretty much their entire period of evolution there were at least periods where them and their ancestors were interbreeding. So from there you can see that the real point is that they evolved in parallel, sometimes sharing genetic material through interbreeding and the real question is, are they genetically close enough to homo sapiens to be classed as a subspecies in that they evolved in parallel with humans and then diverged, or are they genetically distinct enough to be separated from homo sapiens altogether? It might even depend on the point at which you take your sample- a DNA sample taken from a member of the species at a period of interbreeding will likely lead you to the conclusion that H. neanderthalensis probably is just a subspecies of H. sapiens, but one taken from an individual in a population that's had no contact with H. sapiens for a few thousand years or more might lead you to a different conclusion.

      I firmly believe classification based on visual traits is wrong, and a bad way to do things

  4. Wait.... by Labcoat+Samurai · · Score: 5, Funny

    So in Ozzy-logic, you're better at surviving because you have Neanderthal DNA? The Neanderthals would likely disagree.... if they could ;)

    1. Re:Wait.... by GooberToo · · Score: 1

      Actually, it only says something about survivability when they were alive. This is an entirely different world so we really know nothing about their survivability in today's world; rock star or not.

    2. Re:Wait.... by Labcoat+Samurai · · Score: 1

      Sure, and honestly, we don't even know they had much less survivability in their time. Might have been luck. Just seemed like an amusing irony to me on the surface.

    3. Re:Wait.... by Flea+of+Pain · · Score: 4, Funny

      Clearly we do. The Neanderthals were clearly all Dark Prince rock gods. Oh to live in times such as those...

      --
      Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
    4. Re:Wait.... by JWSmythe · · Score: 1

      Well, they did survive, obviously. It was only crappy selective breeding over the following centuries that made the neanderthal genes less dominant. Damned the invention of agriculture and the idea of cities and civilization.

          At least we know live DNA still exists, so it could be possible through selective breeding, to resurrect the species. We've theorized it could be done for woolly mammoths, why not with viable DNA. It's quite likely that there are some folks with a larger percentage of the DNA.

          Now that brings up another question. Would those with trace or significant percentages of neanderthal DNA be considered any more or less human? We only just came out of that recently (in the span of human civilization), where most of us recognize that a human is still human, regardless of nation of origin, skin and hair coloration, or gender.

          For the historical value, I'd love to know. For the future possibilities, I wouldn't ever want such testing done. Since we don't know who's on which side, you don't know who the leading species would be.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    5. Re:Wait.... by Labcoat+Samurai · · Score: 1

      Well, they did survive, obviously.

      Good point, and by that reasoning, since Ozzie *is* part Neanderthal, my theory that the Neanderthals would disagree with him already has some small percentage of a strike against it.

    6. Re:Wait.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actually we're pretty sure it was because they had significantly higher calorie needs than modern human, almost double in fact. they were nearly as smart and physically stronger, but ice ages and high calories don't mix well.

    7. Re:Wait.... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      The Neanderthals were clearly all Dark Prince rock gods. Oh to live in times such as those...

      I thought I saw lighters on the walls at Lascaux.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    8. Re:Wait.... by Labcoat+Samurai · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't want to pretend I could answer this without a cursory look around, but it doesn't appear as cut and dry as you say. First, double the calorie intake seems absurd on its face, and the figure listed on wikipedia is a more reasonable sounding 100-350 calories. Second, it doesn't sound like it's as simple as it being an ice age. Evidently they're physically well suited to the cold, but might have run into other problems with fluctuating climate. And finally, we get to the theory I had always heard, which was that they either came into conflict with modern humans and were driven to extinction or were absorbed into human social groups. Presence of Neanderthal DNA in modern Europeans and Asians seems to lend credence to the absorption theory.

      As for my comment about luck, my understanding is that humans came awfully close to extinction at a point in our history too. Might be that if things had gone ever so slightly differently for the Neanderthals, they could have pulled through. Or if things had gone differently for us, we might not be here.

      There's my limited understanding at any rate

    9. Re:Wait.... by Reziac · · Score: 3, Funny

      The conclusion is clear. The Neanderthals went extinct due to an insufficiency of booze, cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol...

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    10. Re:Wait.... by JWSmythe · · Score: 2, Interesting

      or were absorbed into human social groups. Presence of Neanderthal DNA in modern Europeans and Asians seems to lend credence to the absorption theory.

          Exactly. Which way that absorption went will remain a mystery, unless we develop time travel.

          If the stronger neanderthal men (men said as a general term, not a gender) captured significant numbers of cro-magnon men as slaves, farmers, or even just capturing the more attractive women to use for their own purposes, they could have thinned out their blood lines inadvertently.

          Neanderthal were considered stronger, stouter, and smarter (based on brain cavity size). In the animal kingdom, where both groups would have applied at the time (except for tool use by the neanderthal), the stronger tend to conquer the weak for things they want. If there was a tendency towards capturing the seemingly more attractive cro-magnon women as mates, the change would have happened fairly rapidly, over several generations. That's not to say that this is the way it played out, but it seems more reasonable than neanderthal man dying out due to food restrictions, where the cro-magnon man survived. The stronger, smart people would have simply taken anything they needed from the nearby weaker species, and wouldn't have even grunted "thank you." The women may have chosen to mate with the neanderthal male because he could provide better protection in the prehistoric harsh world.

          This may still be in play. We idolize thin attractive women, who are more likely to mate with the stronger male, with disregard to intelligence. We see this mating ritual starting in grade school, where the jocks get the cheerleaders, and will beat up anyone weaker to attain their goal. For many women, this show of strength is very attractive.

          Think, big strong man protecting his fragile beautiful mate.

          We like to think we've evolved, but in reality we haven't evolved much, other than adding new variables (fast cars, expensive houses, lavishing a prospective mate with gifts). The only real difference is that the gene pool has diminished, so the strong smart neanderthal man is now part of an almost identical gene pool to the weaker cro-magnon man.

          Don't try to explain this to that girl who you'd like to date. She's interested in the jock, for subconscious genetic reasons. No amount of logic will correct it.

       

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    11. Re:Wait.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And this is why they didn't survive the onslaught of Homo Sapiens Sapiens Brrittney Fansus, coming from the east and the south; hailing from the steppes of Asia, from the deserts of Africa and from the gulf of Aiden. Hey Ho!

    12. Re:Wait.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And look where it lead us - Justin Bieber.

    13. Re:Wait.... by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't it be logical to say they are still surviving in the evolutionary sense if we're finding their genetic legacy in living people?

  5. Oh the irony. by TheRedDuke · · Score: 1

    He's basically saying that he's been able to live as long as he has because his ancestors were members of a species that failed the natural selection test. Hilarious.

    1. Re:Oh the irony. by contra_mundi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If the genes are still here, alive and competing, did they really fail?

    2. Re:Oh the irony. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, what's hilarious is someone on website dubbed "news for nerds" demonstrating that he knows nothing about natural selection.

      Hint: the world has changed in the last 30,000 or so years. The events that caused the "failure" of neanderthals might not exist today, you know.

    3. Re:Oh the irony. by Labcoat+Samurai · · Score: 4, Funny

      True, I have a feeling that if you threw Ozzie out into the wilderness to support himself via a hunting/gathering lifestyle, he would fail miserably, emphasizing his neanderthal heritage, but maybe if you took ancient neanderthals and threw them into the heavy metal lifestyle, they would have succeeded.

    4. Re:Oh the irony. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're absolutely right. 'people of Walmart' and the celebrity-obsessed tabloid culture, to cite just two examples, indicate that lowbrow genes may be doing a lot better than we think

    5. Re:Oh the irony. by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      "Sharon! Where did I put those beeping matches? I'm going beeping beeps off! Sharon? SHARON!!!"

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    6. Re:Oh the irony. by lavacano201014 · · Score: 1

      If high school biology has taught me as well as I think it has*, then it isn't the species that passes or fails. It's the gene.

      *Keep in mind I went to public school

      --
      A wise man once said, "Where is my other quotation mark?
    7. Re:Oh the irony. by ignavus · · Score: 1

      but maybe if you took ancient neanderthals and threw them into the heavy metal lifestyle, they would have succeeded.

      Yeah. They had the first rock band.

      Mind you, they were hunting, not making music.

      --
      I am anarch of all I survey.
    8. Re:Oh the irony. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That sounds like an awesome use of research money! Clone some neanderthals to make the most metal band possible!

    9. Re:Oh the irony. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know. A few bats, a few doves. He would make out alright.

  6. Uh, "Dog bites man" story? by david.emery · · Score: 1

    Must have been a slow news day (until the Yemeni package scare). But maybe Ozzie's onto something; perhaps Neanderthals do have greater drug survivability...

    1. Re:Uh, "Dog bites man" story? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      "Must have been a slow news day"

      What tipped you off that this Slashdot idle story wasn't overly important news?

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    2. Re:Uh, "Dog bites man" story? by david.emery · · Score: 1

      The source... (/. got it from CNN.com)

    3. Re:Uh, "Dog bites man" story? by xenn · · Score: 1

      whooshter sauce

  7. More important... by NecroPuppy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is the gene variant they've found in him that has never been found in any other vertebrate.

    Ok, maybe not more important, be definately more interesting.

    --
    I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
  8. The fact that it's Ozzy is irrelevant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The fact that it's Ozzy is irrelevant. The fact that a homo sapiens mated and produced viable offspring with a Neanderthal is relevant. For those who don't get it: Obviously, I'm referring to Ozzy's very distant ancestors.

  9. Coming Soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ozzy
    Osbourne - coming to a town near you!

  10. Not that hard... by Darkness404 · · Score: 0

    Its not that hard to see why Ozzy is alive. One he can get constant medical care if need be. And two, he is rich enough to make sure that his drugs are pure. A lot of drug deaths happen not because of the drugs themselves, but because of additives in the drugs.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:Not that hard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many also happen because everyone around them is stoned too. If you do to much of something you need someone else to be able to react.

      On druggie I knew 'cant tell you how many times I saved someones life'. He LOST count...

      In Ozzy's case he has a wife who does not touch the stuff...

    2. Re:Not that hard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You really believe that Ozzy spent the time to get 'pure' drugs? You really believe that Ozzy has spent time, what should amount to decades, in hospitals for all those issues during which point our medical knowledge may not have been up to snuff?

      Stop attributing everything to money

  11. Labcoat-Samarai-Logic ???? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 0, Troll

    "So in Ozzy-logic, you're better at surviving because you have Neanderthal DNA? The Neanderthals would likely disagree.... if they could ;)"

    Ozzy offered the reason why he submitted his DNA for testing. Clearly at that time he was not aware of the results. It is quite ironic that you question his logic when you clearly failed to apply a modicum of it yourself.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    1. Re:Labcoat-Samarai-Logic ???? by Labcoat+Samurai · · Score: 0

      Ouch, tough crowd. Well I hate to argue over something I was meaning as a witty jibe at best..... but yes, I was aware of that, but the article implies he said it after the fact, so it's a fair extrapolation in absence of further contradiction that he sees this as an answer. It wasn't "I thought I might have something special in my DNA, but then it turned out it was Neanderthal, so I was wrong".

      Sure, it's speculation, but it kinda ruins the quip to put a ton of disclaimers on it. Oh well, perils of going for funny.

  12. Neanderthal Diet . . . by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

    'I was curious, given the swimming pools of booze I've guzzled over the years - not to mention all of the cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol... there's really no plausible medical reason why I should still be alive. Maybe my DNA could say why,' he wrote."

    So, like, were the Neanderthals permanently wasted, or what? Given that Ozzie Osbourne diet, I'm surprised that we found any fossiiled remains of the Neanderthalers.

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    1. Re:Neanderthal Diet . . . by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Given that Ozzie Osbourne diet, I'm surprised that we found any fossiiled remains of the Neanderthalers.

      Yeah, we should look for pickled ones.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  13. Money buys good quality drugs. by guantamanera · · Score: 1
    Maybe the higher quality drug don't kill. This guy has monies he was able to buy the good stuff pure and unfornicated coke. I can only imagine someone shooting crappy stuff with bits of trash in it. Another good example is Keith Richards.

    Ozzy, this isn't hard to figure out. You're alive because you're rich. You can afford a comfortable lifestyle as well as medical treatment when you need it.

    Now, please stop fighting with Iommi and make another Black Sabbath album already.

    1. Re:Money buys good quality drugs. by Altus · · Score: 1

      So you cite Keith Richards and Ozzy Osborne and just ignore any of the wealthy musicians who have access to high quality drugs who have still managed to kill themselves?

      --

      "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    2. Re:Money buys good quality drugs. by guantamanera · · Score: 1
      I just said Maybe is just a hypothesis I didn't say it was a fact plus those are the only 2 musicians I could think of that have lived a lifetime of drug abuse.

      So you cite Keith Richards and Ozzy Osborne and just ignore any of the wealthy musicians who have access to high quality drugs who have still managed to kill themselves?

    3. Re:Money buys good quality drugs. by SleazyRidr · · Score: 1

      those are the only 2 musicians I could think of that have lived a lifetime of drug abuse.

      Musicians that abuse drugs aren't exactly rare.

    4. Re:Money buys good quality drugs. by JWW · · Score: 1

      Of course with your selected dataset we can come to the conclusion that rampant drug use definitely has a very large impact on one's ability to speak clearly.....

    5. Re:Money buys good quality drugs. by masmullin · · Score: 1

      Only users lose drugs!

    6. Re:Money buys good quality drugs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your hypothesis doesn't even last 5 min...... Stop trying.... :/

    7. Re:Money buys good quality drugs. by yodleboy · · Score: 1

      Musicians that abuse them for decades and are still alive are rather more rare.

    8. Re:Money buys good quality drugs. by sa1lnr · · Score: 1

      Better quality would make it easier to overdose, I would imagine.

    9. Re:Money buys good quality drugs. by gagol · · Score: 1

      I used to co-own a small rehearsal studio. We had a bunch of groups at our place but I can count on one hand the number of musicians that did not smoke pot in the back alley. One time we even found seringes in the studio... we made intervention with them, that band got banned for three months and came back clean.

      --
      Tomorrow is another day...
  14. So easy a caveman could do it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *actor portrayal. Not actually insured by Geico (we ain't that stupid)

  15. There's no way he said that. by rdmiller3 · · Score: 1

    Ozzy never did say that. The man can hardly speak! Sure, he's alive but his brain has been seriously fried.

    The "Neanderthal" stuff is just another cheap attempt to get publicity. Most Caucasians have those genes.

    1. Re:There's no way he said that. by belthize · · Score: 1

      Actually what he said was 'Oook ook oook eek ook ook', they're just posting the translation.

  16. who? by Bill+Dog · · Score: 1

    What does Ozzie have to say about it?

    I dunno, but I thought we were talking about Ozzy?

    --
    Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
    1. Re:who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  17. Neanderthal Hybrid? by medv4380 · · Score: 1

    If this is true isn't this more important the Idle Slashdot or am I missing something. If he really does have Neanderthal DNA then that suggests that at one point there was a Hybrid and that hurts and helps different theories about Human Evolution like the Out of Africa theory is hurt but the Multiregional model is helped.

    1. Re:Neanderthal Hybrid? by panda · · Score: 1

      It is cited in one of the articles, but it has been known for some time that many Asians and Eurporeans have some Neanderthal DNA. The director of KNOME has even more Neanderthal DNA than does Ozzy.

      That isn't exactly news.

      --
      Just be sure to wear the gold uniform when you beam down -- you know what happens when you wear the red one.
    2. Re:Neanderthal Hybrid? by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 1

      out of Africa is not hurt by this at all and multi-regional is not helped by this at all.

      Where did the Homo Sapien Sapien come from to interbreed with Homo Sapien Neanderthal ? Out of AFRICA.

    3. Re:Neanderthal Hybrid? by XnavxeMiyyep · · Score: 1

      KNOME

      Woah, so the two big desktop environments in Linux put aside their differences and merged together?

      --
      I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
  18. New variant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ozzious Stonus Neanderthalensis.

  19. Does this mean by SnarfQuest · · Score: 1

    Does this mean that "that" is how neanderthals sounded when they talked?

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
  20. Slow News day?! by Sloppy · · Score: 1

    Five years ago this really would have been a surprise. Maybe even more recently than that. Shit, I'll just admit it: to me, it's a surprise, today, right now. Last I heard, the DNA evidence was that nobody alive has Neanderthal lineage -- that they were an offshoot of homo sapiens ancestors rather than being homo sapiens ancestors. Just goes to show that if you're even just a few years out-of-date on anthropology, you can miss some big things. Real news is happening, right now.

    --
    As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
  21. I agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Given that Ozzie Osbourne diet, I'm surprised that we found any fossiiled remains of the Neanderthalers

    Pickled maybe, but Fossilized?

  22. i knew it! by FudRucker · · Score: 1

    i always sensed Ozzy was a little primitive, in a sort of caveman kind of way.

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  23. Calls for some lyric revision by Bemopolis · · Score: 4, Funny

    I.
    Am.
    (Pre-) Iron (Age) Man
    (D)NAna-nana-nana, na na na.

    --
    "I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
  24. He's not some mutant superhuman. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He's going off the rails on a crazy train!

  25. SHAAAARRON!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    An' he goes "*Put* *JESUS* {*in* *FRONT* *o'* *ya!*"} an' they all start *jumpin'* on me--it's 'cause {he's their--} [AUDIENCE laughing] an' *I* was thinkin', "My *god*, what's goin' on? {He's come to just--}" *All* these, *all* these people that were strategically, on {their, plan of}--*attacking* me, on {either side, turns into a Rambo}--starts *flyin'* through, over the *walls* {that I'm tryin' to ? An' I think} I'm goin', "*Larry!* *Don't*--*Don't* *KILL!* We don't *kill* today!"

  26. Hard partying? by StikyPad · · Score: 1

    I don't doubt either the quantity or quality of drugs and alcohol ingested by Mr. Osbourne, however I don't see anything particularly remarkable in having "survived." Most drug and alcohol related deaths are typically either overdoses, or injuries incurred as an effect of intoxication rather than the toxicity of the substances themselves. Of all the drugs mentioned, only alcohol has been shown to reliably cause cumulative organ and tissue damage, although even then, I'm sure there are alcoholics the world over either meeting or exceeding Mr. Osbourne's levels of consumption (especially considering he's been clean for what, nearly a decade?).

    Of course, merely being alive isn't the gold standard for measuring health, and from that perspective, I don't think it indicates anything particularly super-human about either him or his genetics. Further, we have no idea what his liver actually looks like, for example, or how much longer he'll live compared to the average life expectancy for wealthy white males.

    I think the best thing about having his DNA sequenced is that adds to the repository, which is what will help DNA research progress. Right now it seems to be looking at people with certain characteristics, and then trying to match them to a given gene. With a large volume of sequenced individuals, we could instead look for certain anomalies or irregularities in the data, and then see what characteristics those people have in common. I think it would provide a greater level of objectivity, by reducing false positives (which are either self-reported or observed) for a given trait. Instead of saying "these people are overweight, let's see what gene they have in common," you could say, "these people all have this gene in common, oh look, they're all overweight except for the set who train like Olympians who we never would have thought to test."

    I think targeting celebrities is a good start, but only because they're egotistical enough to believe that their DNA somehow makes them special, and hence willing to pay for the research.

  27. they studied keith richard's dna too by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Funny

    apparently it's backwards with him:

    the neanderthal genome reveals some lineage inherited from keith richards

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  28. This explains eating the bat's head... by Trip6 · · Score: 1

    ...it was food after all.

    --
    I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
    1. Re:This explains eating the bat's head... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Neanderthals were theorized to have come to extinction because of their dietary needs, which was almost 100% meat. Their Sapien borthers could survive with a 5% meat diet. I rate your comment as 50% truthiness.

  29. I thought we all came from neanderthals? by RabbitWho · · Score: 1

    They're homos too, right, so don't we come from them?

    1. Re:I thought we all came from neanderthals? by Labcoat+Samurai · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't think that's the politically correct term, but no, not unless they adopt.

    2. Re:I thought we all came from neanderthals? by Labcoat+Samurai · · Score: 1

      But to answer your question, no. We split off from a common ancestor. Homo just identifies the genus and doesn't imply any order of ancestry.

    3. Re:I thought we all came from neanderthals? by bmxeroh · · Score: 1

      Thank you for this, I almost died laughing.

      --
      Central Ohio Home Theater Installation - The Theater People
    4. Re:I thought we all came from neanderthals? by t2t10 · · Score: 1

      They're homos too, right,

      Yeah, that's why they died out. :-)

  30. Onion? by Atomizer · · Score: 1

    I thought this just had to be an Onion article...

  31. Why is this idle? by Psychotria · · Score: 1

    I find it quite interesting. Come to think of it I think that occasionally putting interesting articles in idle is a trap so that people have to read idle just in case there are glimpses of sanity or interesting stuff, otherwise it'd just be ignored completely by most.

  32. Obligatory: The Ozzman Cometh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obligatory: The Ozzman Cometh

  33. Why he's alive... by dtjohnson · · Score: 2, Interesting

    'I was curious, given the swimming pools of booze I've guzzled over the years - not to mention all of the cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol... there's really no plausible medical reason why I should still be alive.

    Give me a f**king break! You're alive because you're a well-nourished 62 y/o man who has not (yet) contracted a fatal disease and has avoided fatal traumatic injury in spite of frequent intoxication. Most men in the UK and the US are still alive at 62 yrs.

  34. Ozzy inspires youth by gratuitous_arp · · Score: 1

    CNN reports that in July, rocker Ozzy Osbourne became one of few to submit his blood to have his full genome sequenced and analyzed.

    That really is great. It's so nice to see a popular icon getting involved in some way with science. Just getting his name along side genetic research goes a long way to popularize science -- after all, we know how much children and teens look up to him.

    The results are in, and it turns out his genome reveals some Neanderthal lineage.

    Oh Ozzy, we still love you! Ha, ha!

    What does Ozzie have to say about it? 'I was curious, given the swimming pools of booze I've guzzled over the years

    Um, Mr. Osbourne, look--the kids--

    not to mention all of the cocaine, morphine

    --oh, God--

    sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol

    //turns pale, covers child's ears//

    there's really no plausible medical reason why I should still be alive. Maybe my DNA could say why.

    B-be sure to let us know... //clears throat//

    1. Re:Ozzy inspires youth by Psychotria · · Score: 1

      Popular icon? I'd never heard of him before today

    2. Re:Ozzy inspires youth by gratuitous_arp · · Score: 1

      Had a TV show a few years back and his own WoW commercial, that's all it takes to be famous in the US. For the rest of the world, 40 years of music.

      Maybe more of a pop icon in the 80s and 90s, but his name is still out there...

  35. Might be more common than one thinks... by fruviad · · Score: 1

    I've wondered if I have any neanderthal lineage. Not because of my behavior but because I have a heavy west Irish genetic background. It would have been a corner into which the neanderthals would have retreated as they were beaten out of the rest of Europe. Google and you'll see that red hair -- a hallmark of Irish lineage -- has been postulated to be a genetic legacy of the neanderthals.

  36. A New Ethnic Group Equals .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MONEY!

    And big time money at that kiddes.

    OZZY will be the founder of a long lost and still alive ethinic group and governmnets from DC to Paris to Berlin to Beijing to Tokyo to Perth and back to DC will and must address.

    Wonderful!

    Cheers All,

  37. News by tomiy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Christian Audigier was deeply welcome by foreign stars and celebrities .

  38. It's Europeans who are part Neanderthal by billstewart · · Score: 1

    The studies showed that Europeans, whose ancestors lived alongside Neanderthals for tens of thousands of years, have a few percentage of Neanderthalish DNA that Africans don't have, and later some of them took off for Asia where they may have also mixed with other human species. Africans have the most genetic variation among Homo sapiens genes, because only some of them moved up to Europe, and only some of the people in Europe headed to Asia, but the people who stayed in Africa didn't get the Neanderthal bits.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  39. Species boundaries are fuzzy, not sharp. by billstewart · · Score: 1

    If populations stay isolated long enough, they can diverge enough to no longer successfully interbreed, but populations don't always work that way, especially when there aren't major geographical forces separating them, and species boundaries aren't always that sharp. Maybe we were as separate as horses and donkeys, maybe we were only as separate as wolves and dogs, or even only as poodles and Labradors.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  40. Oblig... by magus_melchior · · Score: 1

    Given that the Neanderthals are (un-?) dead, he might now have a case for being the real Lich King...

    --
    "We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
  41. Birmingham, UK by illtud · · Score: 1

    Man, he was born in Birmingham. Don't tell me that it comes as any surprise to anybody in the UK that he has neanderthal genes.

  42. Neanderthal Parts? Not a Surprise by Jerome+from+Layton · · Score: 1

    Wonder what it costs to find those parts of the genome? Sounds expensive. There are some ways to find out if this is you (or me) that don't involve drinking "a swimming pool of booze". A couple of the schools my son attended had a dress code that allowed hem lines to extend up to the finger tips. If either one of us tried to use this standard, we'd be arrested for indecent exposure! Short limbs and long torsoe are cold weather adaptations that Neanderthals were good at. The wife is more Cromagnon in this regard. We are the same height but she can grab things on that top shelf I can barely touch. I'm still soaking up the rays (and keeping up with the Vitamin D) while others are bundled up in layers. While others are looking for seconds on desert, I'm looking for another piece of meat. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the pronouncements of Neanderthal extinction may have been premature.

  43. Research this by KriticKill · · Score: 1

    The real question is how they understood enough of his speech to take that quote down.