IMDb: Another Eurocentric Safe Haven Masquerading as a Resourceful platform

Introduction:

Perhaps the basic evolutionary trajectory of human lifestyle is variably understood in the following manner: a so-called "stone-age", and in some cases, "nomadic" or "hunter-gatherer" sustenance, gives way to "sedentary", "agriculture" and/or "animal husbandry", and then to "community-building" or "urbanization", thereby possibly paving way for "social stratification" and "nation-building", which in turn may well have served as a basic ingredient for the flourishing of "cottage industry" and "trade", to be succeeded by "industrialization" and "commerce" (larger-scale trade). In that vein, it is commonly understood that "industrialization" has been followed by the "information/technology age", as another stage in human development. As it concerns this "information age", particularly with the coming of age of the internet, many "social" platforms of various stripes and self-professed functions have popped over the years.

As the "information age" matures, so does the plethora of "social media" grow in number. This, like any other undertaking by humans, comes with the good and the bad.

Attention!

This site is currently undergoing an overhauling effort, in order to renovate several entries that now have broken links in them due to, for example, the sweeping action of imageshack, which decided to destroy an entire storage of images; an event which warrants a lesson to be learned, no doubt. 

As there are many entries, i.e. outside of the more recent [and unaffected] ones, there is no telling how long the overhauling process will take, but the intent is to have it done as swiftly and as smoothly as possible, while not losing track of publication of new material. Some entries, as viewers will learn, may go well beyond simple restoration, with a substantial amount of new material being integrated into them, as determined by the inflow of newly-acquired referential data or corroborating evidence, or rectification of an oversight in retrospective, and as made allowable by leisure time. 

As the overhauling takes effect, some entries will temporarily be inaccessible or out of view, in which case, viewers may come across such notices as "...site does not exist". The advice here, is to not be discouraged by such uninviting notices, but rather, check back at another time (several times, if necessary), as the site will not have been technically dissolved, but placed under restoration. To give the advice reinforcement, the present author will post notices on newly restored entries in the Developments page (located near the top of the blog, or for mobile device users, a window providing a choice list entry for pages to visit may be triggered by clicking on "Home" near the top of the blog screen), particularly those modified with either "high-value" new material and/or with a considerable amount of new material. On that note, viewer/reader patience is highly appreciated!

Interesting! ~ The Time-defying Property of Controversy around Racialism

 Back from a hiatus!

Introduction:

This is the first of what will from here on out be a series of commentary on "interesting" items identified both in and out of the internet world; hence, accommodation of the word "Interesting! ~" in the header.

Similar sub-categorizing of blog articles had in fact already been undertaken on this site, albeit without official acknowledgement of the kind...until now, of course; few perceptive observers might have noticed a trend, however. A good example of this is what has been termed, "Knowledge-base Tool Kit", which primarily deals with topics that are supposed to be either well known or ought to be well known, but are usually not. Said sub-category of entries thus serves as a tool kit that could potentially be used as a gauge for observers' knowledge base, mainly at a basic level, and hence offer potential expansion opportunity for such a base where necessary. One can expect other sub-categorizing to come up in future, if and when deemed necessary, thereby supplementing the examples offered above.

Unity, Harmony and Peace?

Introduction:

In the natural world, from the very onset of its existence, life has been sustained through a constant battle of what biological arrangement or form can stick it through the challenge(s) that a given environment—which is ever-changing in our universe—throws its way. It's from this earthly-pervasive phenomenon, that the now common saying of "survival of the fittest" was coined, once the human mind was eventually able to pick it up [think for example, Darwin].

In a given environment, some biological units died out, and some managed to live on. In the biological world, this was made possible by what are—technically speaking—errors in DNA coding during the attempt at self-replication, i.e. another but crucial mode, by which life has been able to sustain and preserve itself to this point.

So, as it turns out, we humans and practically every other known life form owe our very existence to "imperfection" in the natural world. Without these "mistakes", it is safe to say that we would not be here. Yes, there are schools of thought which will argue otherwise and say that we owe our existence to a purposeful conscience, which has pre-programmed life to ride along the way it has, but that's another discussion [for related matter, see: link]. It's perhaps then natural to see why many multicellular organisms are competitive with one another, whether within or across species; why we see animals marking their territory for the attentive minds of those from both within and out of their own species, competing for a mate and for food. Humans are apparently no exception to this basic arrangement of existence: It's perhaps why humans would rather kill their own kind for natural resources than share, and for the purpose of the present entry, why we have so many more competitive or antagonizing social events than consolidating or unifying social events.

Another Look at the Nag el-Hamdulab Iconography

Introduction:

This entry is essentially a spin-off of another entry, Relationship between Nagadan and "Lower Nubian" Burials, and henceforth inspired by a matter that was raised in a reader commentary.  It revolves around the veracity of allegations contained in the iconography of the Nag el Hamdulab epigraphy that is making rounds in the net.

Considering the Practicalities of Time Travel

Introduction:

Click on the image to expand

The act of traveling either back or prematurely forward in time has often been a popular concept in science fiction narratives, whether in the plots of motion pictures or books. The very idea of exploring  "what could have been" or "what could be" is something that has always fascinated humanity, regardless of the cultural backdrop. It is therefore no wonder time travel has become perhaps the most well-known hypothetical scenario of either revisiting time or "skipping" time on Earth to another time frame.

The concept has literally given story writers and movie producers plenty of material to work with; such science fiction motion pictures like Star Trek, Super Man, Back to the Future, The Twelve Monkeys, and the like come to mind. Why not? There is almost no limit to what can be imagined, as a theme around time travel, whether it has to do with visiting new worlds in our universe, someone accidentally waking up in very different time from his/her own, or someone yearning to change a situation to his/her advantage in their present time, with the aid of changing the course of history by altering some event or another, and the list can just go on.

In all seriousness though, just how practical is the concept of managing the course of history with the manipulation of time?

Haplogroup Assignment; Old Habits that Die Hard

Introduction:

It has become a common theme in DNA research papers dealing with population genetics, particularly those that are either published in the "west" or else rely heavily on references to previous publications by "western" research teams, to dichotomize human phylogeny neatly into two main types: African and non-African. As a result, a good amount of the readership of these papers have also become accustomed to treating human phylogeny accordingly. No doubt that the reactionary segment of that readership have applied such a phylogenetic arrangement synonymously with "races" of humanity.

It's one thing to assign human phylogeny into two main types, but it's another, in terms of how these assignments take form. One would be hard-pressed not to come across a single example, whereby lineage that is given an "L" designation in mictochondrial phylogeny, is automatically treated as "African", while the two main offshoots of the L3 clade are taken for granted as "non-African". Such arrangements tacitly or by design, insinuate non-overlapping phylogeny between the so-named two main groups. The discussion section will deal with this kind of arrangement of human phylogeny further, applying specific examples from published material.