Genetically blonde and red-heads are distinct apparently. If a person's hair goes a light brown colour, it's not “strawberry blonde” (i.e. red). There's no crossover. Red-heads and blondes have different genes for the hair.
True red-heads are the the rarest hair colour.

Ginger : Take one brunette and one blonde. Breed the pair. You have a 50/50 (it's actually 2 in 4) chance of a redhead offspring . The reason for the high prevalance of red hair in the Celtic countries is the result of blonde Norse, then later Saxon people mating with the originally brunette-to-raven-haired original British inhabitants that go right back to the people of the “Bell beaker” culture, believed to have migrated up the Atlantic coast in antiquity.
we used to look after a little girl who had that rich red hair colour, with brown eyes. Very striking.
I've always found genetic and ‘tribal’ differences fascinating. You can still see specific types in regional Britain, or mainland Europe, which tends to be lost in the ‘homogeny’ of cosmopolitanism, and especially in ‘the colonies’ where our little ‘coffee morning’ resides B-)
The Silurian tribe of S.E.Wales (i.e. my lot, with some mongrolisation in my case) were noted by Pliny the Elder as being robust, with tight black curly hair. My 140kg son is a modern “on steroids” version…the originals are only around 1.70cm (5'7"?), and that's still pretty average over there, while he is more 1.90cm+

BearinOz wrote:
Ginger : Take one brunette and one blonde. Breed the pair. You have a 50/50 (it's actually 2 in 4) chance of a redhead offspring . The reason for the high prevalance of red hair in the Celtic countries is the result of blonde Norse, then later Saxon people mating with the originally brunette-to-raven-haired original British inhabitants that go right back to the people of the “Bell beaker” culture, believed to have migrated up the Atlantic coast in antiquity.

The bit about ginger hair isn't accurate, though the latter parts might be :)
Red hair is recessive and it means that both the mother and father must have red hair gene mutation of the MC1R.
A blonde person can't make a redhead unless that blonde has the recessive redhead trait and the partner does too.
If you only have one of those MC1R mutations you may have some red traits, but you won't be a redhead.

Celts were redheads before the Vikings and before they ever came to Ireland. The Vikings had some redheads too. The original peoples of Britain DID have black curly hair but they were there before the Celts came, mixed and colonised.

You folks are so English. Not looking past your own little islands. :D

Indo-irannians from Central Asia some went east and some went west. Groups in Ukraine may have been over 10% redheads 3500 years ago. The genetic marker spread west, the peoples took up Indo-European languages and eventually interbred with Celts.

The Scythians were described as red haired. So there are groups of people all over Asia to include India with red hair. And they used saffron and henna to increase the color and we know the Egyptians used henna.

I know I've read that ginger root was also used at some point for hair color. But it seems ginger hair is pretty much British English. Remember I said it could all come from Ginger on Gilligan's island being a redhead. 😄😂

You know the marker for red hair is shared with Neanderthals. Some say it came from them tens of thousands of years ago.

@ozoneocean: that reddish cast to your hair could have just been the result of using a henna shampoo or conditioner.

I'm stuck with my pre Indo-European curly dark hair. and every once in a while I have this irresistible urge to build monoliths.

Celts were redheads before the Vikings and before they ever came to Ireland. The Vikings had some redheads too. The original peoples of Britain DID have black curly hair but they were there before the Celts came, mixed and colonised.

Hmmm…. there's much contention among palaeontologists and the like about the “migration of the Celts”.
I was brought up on the idea that Celtic peoples originated in, and migrated from, an area around what is now modern Ukraine, moving gradually westward….but later research couldn't find any physical or other evidence for this migration. The assumption was then that the culturehad been absorbed westward, but not that there had been a mass migration. SO I was left in a kind of mental limbo…
Then, a year or two ago, there was an interesting U.K. show about people who insisted they were “100% British !” (whatever the fuck that is) getting DNA tests. Predominantly bigots and racists, as you'd expect, it was hilarious seeing them squirm at the results….but the interesting thing, which also occurred in a separate program, was that the DNA testers, working “blind” on samples, said that if they didn't know better, they would say many of the samples came from the Ukraine ! Who knows !?

bravo1102 wrote:
You folks are so English. Not looking past your own little islands. :D

Wash your mouth out !!! I object most strongly to being called English, although to my shame I do possess some ‘Saes’ ancestry. I am 1/16th Spanish too, which is fine, but the Welsh part is the bulk of me (of which there is considerable !) B-)

…and “I'm stuck with my pre Indo-European curly dark hair. and every once in a while I have this irresistible urge to build monoliths.” Haha, Yeah, my curly dark hair has sadly faded and diminished, in recent years. When we were younger, my wife and I discussed a ‘menhir’ style arbor in the garden, but it never came to fruition.

… “The genetic marker spread west, the peoples took up Indo-European languages and eventually interbred with Celts” - did you ever see a doco about what appear to be Celtic people who went the other way ? - across the Steppes to western China - a fairly natural thing for a horse people - where they have excavated remains and artefacts, including ‘tartan’ patterned material and similar looping tattoo designs and a local population that still throws up significant copper tops .

My apologies, I didn't know you were Cymreig. I'm actually Norman English or at least that is the lineage. The whole rest of the family has blondish hair and hazel eyes of one of the peoples of Ukraine; the Rusin so called as they are the descendants of the Kievan Rus speaking a dialect of Russian. (Also known as Slavonic as in the Slavonic Orthodox church)

I've followed the peoples of Central Asia with red hair. They go back a long way and are still there. They were often exported as slaves along the Silk Road and some were among the Janissaries. But they were more commonly Circassian and Albanian but those are language groups with red haired populations.

I did a comic featuring the Mongol empire including a red haired princess. 😊

@BearinOz, the cultural colonisation of the Celts was greater than the physical one, yeah, but the people still moved. :)

I always find the modern idea that Celts are a British Isles thing really weird, since that was just the final gasp of the colonisation, where the last ones ended up… There are Celtic ruins and legacy of their culture all over the place in Europe, France, Spain, Serbia and further afield.
The worst though is when people imagine that they were the original inhabitants and not colonisers and invaders the same as the Jutes, Angles, Saxons, Vikings, Romans, Normans…

—————–

I don't why it is but I find this comedy comic so funny :D https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Way_of_the_Waifu/

ozoneocean wrote:
@BearinOz, the cultural colonisation of the Celts was greater than the physical one, yeah, but the people still moved. :)

I always find the modern idea that Celts are a British Isles thing really weird, since that was just the final gasp of the colonisation, where the last ones ended up… There are Celtic ruins and legacy of their culture all over the place in Europe, France, Spain, Serbia and further afield.
The worst though is when people imagine that they were the original inhabitants and not colonisers and invaders the same as the Jutes, Angles, Saxons, Vikings, Romans, Normans…

—————–

I don't why it is but I find this comedy comic so funny :D https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Way_of_the_Waifu/

1: Yes, apparently they did.
2: So do I. I remember this German-origin Ozzie laughing uproariously (he had an amazingly ‘gay’ laugh B-) )when I mentioned Celtic culture in Germanic lands - he had this silly “only Teutonic” idea, worthy of the 3rd Reich - but of course the Helveti were slaughtered by the Romans, while attempting to migrate to the Basque area, and some of the finest Celtic art/artefacts are from Austria .
I'm not a big fan of humanity as a species, as they seem to be incredibly stupid, against all odds. So “we were here first” racism is just silly to me. And phrases like “Make America White Again !” would be laughable if they weren't so bloody seriously dangerous !
“where the last ones ended up” is no longer Wales, Ireland, Scotland, but Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc. B-) I suspect there are more bagpipes in Vancouver than Edinburgh !
Bore Da !

These last bunch of posts have been interesting. Some of it I knew to a degree but it's been sort of enlightening. Especially as I am English… Well to varying degrees. And I'm partially ginger. I have dark blonde/Auburn ish hair and a technicolour beard. My lineage consists of a who knows what in the distant past but in the last five or six generations there's Italian, Spanish and more recently Ukrainian. It's from my great grandfather who was Ukrainian that I get a lot of my features. He was a political prisoner and escaped the gulags and hiked across Siberia eventually settling in England and changed his surname. See totally British, we don't want no foreigners 'ere wer English born n bred like. 😂😂😂😂 I hate that attitude, which makes the current political events in the UK particular stomach churning.

I am English… Well to varying degrees. My lineage consists of a who knows what in the distant past but in the last five or six generations there's Italian, Spanish and more recently Ukrainian.
See totally British, we don't want no foreigners 'ere wer English born n bred like. 😂😂😂😂 I hate that attitude, which makes the current political events in the UK particular stomach churning.

I agree, and…
Yeah, you're “typically” English B-)
I had mates with Huegenot, Polish, Italian and assorted British Isles ancestry. My estranged wife is 1/2 Scottish.
I've always had the belief that being a mongrel nation is a recipe for success . Especially if they're the “throw-outs” and “ne'er-do-wells” that populated the likes of North America and Australasia B-)

In my particular case, my Welsh-speaking, black sheep of the family maternal grandfather married the daughter of a ‘Saes’ railway worker (the shame!)….while his Welsh-speaking grandfather married a Spanish girl (so presumably they had mail-order brides, even back in Victorian times !), who apparently reverted to wearing the mantilla head-thing and all-black with Spanish lace, when she was widowed . On my Dad's side, we have a sneaking suspicion there is Jewish, a similar number of generations back, with East-enders (good clue) with what we think is an ‘anglicised’ name of Kingston . Otherwise it's Welsh all the way down !

I still cannot support England in rugby, regardless of opponents B-)

I'm sometimes tempted to get a DNA test in the ‘hope’ of finding I have some sub-Saharan African in me, which would be hilarious, along with the rest of the genetic soup.

Careful going back to determine original inhabitants can get very “unpolitcally correct ”

Well you see before the Clovis point natives there were groups who may have been white Europeans.

Or there may have been black Africans in South America.

Oh, don't undermine my heritage!

Go back far enough and all our ancestors were living in Africa.

And native English? Angle, Saxon, Jute?
My family's been in America for over four centuries and I can't claim to be a native American. Don't give me native English unless you have the genealogy to prove it.(not DNA. That can end up all mixed up)

Genejoke See totally British, we don't want no foreigners 'ere wer English born n bred like. 😂😂😂😂 I hate that attitude, which makes the current political events in the UK particular stomach churning.

It gets right on my wick it does - the polar opposite of what it means to be British. Mutual respect and tolerance is one of the main values on the British citizenship test and none of these people would would have a hope in hell of passing it.

You can't get in a car and drive without passing your test, so why are they allowed to open their mouths and drivel about Britishness without passing the citizenship test? I bet most of them couldn't fashion a decent beaker from wet clay if their lives depended on it.

bravo1102 wrote:
Careful going back to determine original inhabitants can get very “unpolitcally correct ”

Well you see before the Clovis point natives there were groups who may have been white Europeans.

Or there may have been black Africans in South America.

Oh, don't undermine my heritage!

Go back far enough and all our ancestors were living in Africa.

And native English? Angle, Saxon, Jute?
My family's been in America for over four centuries and I can't claim to be a native American. Don't give me native English unless you have the genealogy to prove it.(not DNA. That can end up all mixed up)

American heritage? don't make me laugh, you were all undesirables from great britain who bit the hand that feeds. Bloody traitors the lot of ye'!
As for those bloody australian criminals, the less said the better. We english folk are still the best, even though our empire has long since gone. it's called great britain that all we need. like.

Joking aside I'm sure I had a point to make…. except maybe the original inhabitants are probably extinct. nope that wasn't it. ahhh we're all tourists really, moving about coming and going, dying and being recycled. No, that wasn't it either. Maybe I didn't have a point, just like life in general.

Ironscarf wrote:

Genejoke See totally British, we don't want no foreigners 'ere wer English born n bred like. 😂😂😂😂 I hate that attitude, which makes the current political events in the UK particular stomach churning.

It gets right on my wick it does - the polar opposite of what it means to be British. Mutual respect and tolerance is one of the main values on the British citizenship test and none of these people would would have a hope in hell of passing it.

You can't get in a car and drive without passing your test, so why are they allowed to open their mouths and drivel about Britishness without passing the citizenship test? I bet most of them couldn't fashion a decent beaker from wet clay if their lives depended on it.

haha yes. just so. I think it's worrying how many people seem to be taken in by nigel farage and the brexit party.regardless of your views on brexit, those arse clowns are not the answer.

My ancestor was the younger son with few prospects sent to Virginia to earn his way in the world.

But we were not traitors, we supported the crown and lost everything for it being exiled to Nova Scotia. There was a general forgiveness after the Constitution so the family returned. One went to found Willoughby Ohio.

On my mother's side though, one of grandfather's aunts was sent to Siberia for supporting the Austrians over the Russians in World War I.

Ain't genealogy fun?

It's fascinating, but then history is and finding our ancestors had interesting lives is cool. Imagine a hundred years from now it'll be. “One of my ancestors got a Facebook ban for saying Donald trump wears a corset. I shit you not.”

bravo1102 wrote:
My ancestor was the younger son with few prospects sent to Virginia … we supported the crown and lost everything for it being exiled to Nova Scotia. There was a general forgiveness after the Constitution so the family returned. One went to found Willoughby Ohio.

On my mother's side though, one of grandfather's aunts was sent to Siberia for supporting the Austrians over the Russians in World War I.

Ain't genealogy fun?

yes it is. Brilliant family history there . A candidate for “Who Do You Think You Are” - except you already know B-)

Genejoke wrote:
It's fascinating, but then history is and finding our ancestors had interesting lives is cool. Imagine a hundred years from now it'll be. “One of my ancestors got a Facebook ban for saying Donald trump wears a corset. I shit you not.”

A high point for the ages! XD
We're probably better off making stuff up. They won't know the difference anyway. Most family histories are 50% myth and legend.
What, you think Superman's mum and dad really came from Krypton? Pshaw! His mum was a waitress in San Diego and his dad as a drunk sailor on shore leave… gone forever the next day. Poor lady couldn't raise him as a single mother in that day and age so she gave him up to her Aunt and Uncle out of state.

ozoneocean wrote:

Genejoke wrote:
It's fascinating, but then history is and finding our ancestors had interesting lives is cool. Imagine a hundred years from now it'll be. “One of my ancestors got a Facebook ban for saying Donald trump wears a corset. I shit you not.”

A high point for the ages! XD
We're probably better off making stuff up. They won't know the difference anyway. Most family histories are 50% myth and legend.

Or as my wife has discovered a whole pile of “truths” hidden in the family history.
Divorces, very short pregnancies if dated after the marriage. Jobs and residences that indicate all kinds of cohabitation and under the table employment.

You look at the records, letters and reports and when found they prove that rather than family legend only being 50% true, the legend only tells 50% of the whole story.

People aren't supposed to have done stuff like that back then!

Speaking of legends, I've noticed a huge change in the way we represent the past or create fantasy warriors:
There's a trend toward an imagined version of “realism” based on modern ideas of what that entails.
So boob armour or helmets with decoration are out the window, now we have drab colours, plain armour, pain unadorned weapons… Soldiers and warriors from all eras from Napoleonic to neolithic are depicted as plain, gritty and boring… even modern superheroes have to be “practical” now.

All this is based on modern myth because of our experience in things like WW2 which has zero application to the past.
In the past the fancier you were, the better the warrior. That was that. If you couldn't afford the fancy armour and weapons then you'd decorate them as best you could with fabric, feathers and fur. And if you couldn't afford that it'd be painted.

That directly applies to modern superheroes: if you have superpowers then WTF do you care about “practicality” in your outfit? You have SUPERPOWERS! What you want to do is compete with the other super-powered people and intimidate them as best you can.
Even for non-powered people like Batman, creating an intimidating impression is important in a world where those people exist.

Definitely something to be said for neat and professional as opposed to totally slovenly.
There was dress and there was campaign, but sometimes the full dress was put on for battle, because premodern battles were often like fancy dress balls. Uniform was often about being seen so a commander knew who was out there.

So a soldier would grunge his way through the March and dress up for battle.

Even hussars wore simple coats and caps for Marching and skirmishing and the braids and plumage came out for battle. Napoleon once saw a unit dressed in a plain campaign uniform and yelled at them saying. “I paid for the dress uniform and you will wear it!”

Grenadiers of the Guard wore simple bicorn hats for marching but before battle would at least put on the high bearskin for battle. One time they were rushed and the bicornes were simply thrown off a bridge never to be worn again. They were also just as well known for their marching uniform as their dress uniform. Their blue overcoat was famous and so well known that when naval troops joined the army as infantry their blue overcoats intimidated the enemy who thought he faced an entire army of guard infantry.

Napoleonic Wars offer lots of examples because of how well documented and researched they are. The American Civil War is also well researched and offers it's own examples of units who wore and preserved special impractical uniforms to maintain morale and/or to confer an elite status. Zouave? American Hussars? (Also called the “butterflies”.)

bravo1102 wrote:
Definitely something to be said for neat and professional as opposed to totally slovenly.
There was dress and there was campaign, but sometimes the full dress was put on for battle, because premodern battles were often like fancy dress balls. Uniform was often about being seen so a commander knew who was out there.

So a soldier would grunge his way through the March and dress up for battle.

Even hussars wore simple coats and caps for Marching and skirmishing and the braids and plumage came out for battle. Napoleon once saw a unit dressed in a plain campaign uniform and yelled at them saying. “I paid for the dress uniform and you will wear it!”

Grenadiers of the Guard wore simple bicorn hats for marching but before battle would at least put on the high bearskin for battle. One time they were rushed and the bicornes were simply thrown off a bridge never to be worn again. They were also just as well known for their marching uniform as their dress uniform. Their blue overcoat was famous and so well known that when naval troops joined the army as infantry their blue overcoats intimidated the enemy who thought he faced an entire army of guard infantry.

Napoleonic Wars offer lots of examples because of how well documented and researched they are. The American Civil War is also well researched and offers it's own examples of units who wore and preserved special impractical uniforms to maintain morale and/or to confer an elite status. Zouave? American Hussars? (Also called the “butterflies”.)

Exactly so, that and more. The landsknechts being a fantastic example and very much the rule.

———————–

One thing that gets my blood boiling is the absolute close-mindedness of the alternative health believers. Their minds are shut tighter than a steel drum, solely embracing ignorance and bullshit like homoeopathy, Chiropractic, acupuncture, trigger point therapy… you name it, these people jump at the chance to embrace made-up medicine, it doesn't even need an attractive or plausible narrative.
-Talk about the real causes of medical issues or how pills really work and they don't want to listen. Anecdotes and word of mouth are king with these morons.

I think the bullshit industry is growing because of the bad healthcare situation in the USA where real medicine is too expensive and regulatory loopholes allow the garbage and the con-artists to get through. The trouble is though that it spreads from there to the rest of the world.

Sometimes I wish real life were like the old cowboy films where they'd tar and feather the snake-oil salesmen and shysters who try and practise medicine without a licence are driven off. In reality though they're embraced. It sickens me.

How is it possible that Joe Biden has any actual supporters? I can't listen to that dude talk for more than 15 seconds before I get confused and tired. And with the creepy videos out there … horrendous.

I think media - and their masters - are trying to control the whole thing again.

Oy, I'm not even American and this next election is already killin' me.

But my hopes are with our American Ducks as always!

It's all name recognition this far out. Sleepy Joe is well remembered from the Obama administration and he is so likable and folksy.

I want to change my voter registration so I can vote in the Democratic primary. Twenty plus candidates and each is more interesting than the last.

Then there's AOC and Ilian Omar. It's all very entertaining and the government is working exactly like it's supposed to. Gotta love that US Constitution.

Yeah I guess the name recognition thing explains it - Biden benefits from that. And Bernie has that name recognition this time, too. The debates will see some people rise and some fall, once more people can hear from everybody.

I've heard a bit about the different primary voting registration laws, and the strangeness of it in some territories. Interesting! Like, in New York someone would have to register about six months/a year ahead of time to vote in a Democratic primary? Wacky!

I feel your pain. We have the joyous prospect of a Tory leadership contest for the summer. Class clown Boris Johnson could become our very own Trump and he's already facing a court case for distributing massive pork pies ( that's whopping great lies, for the benefit of none Brits).

I actually thought it was a literal pork pie distribution scandal for a minute there!

Banes wrote:
I actually thought it was a literal pork pie distribution scandal for a minute there!

SAME! XD

ozoneocean wrote:

Banes wrote:
I actually thought it was a literal pork pie distribution scandal for a minute there!

SAME! XD

I live in the Soprano state. We just call it pork. Pork pies, damn lies, pay for play. Yeah, all that. 🙄

Call Me Tom wrote:
Okay so it's drummed our heads as artists that we need to listen to negative criticism and not listen to any ego stroking. But no one ever says when it's okay to listen to anything positive about any art you make. I've trained myself over the years to pick up on every negative people say about the stuff I draw. I don't know where I'm going with this guess I'm just bitching about being sh#t at drawing. Sorry.

As Willy Wonka once said, “Wait, hold that -' reverse it.”

The exact opposite is what most artists are told. What an artist perceives and internalizes can be very different.

I was always praised to the sky, but somehow my best was never quite good enough. So I internalized that “never good enough”

I got to the point where I drew nothing for over fifteen years. I'd doodle but that was it.

Then I started doodling at work. Tried to.hide it but people saw it and were full of praise and I was full of self deprecation. Not good enough.

There's always something that someone has to latch unto so whatever I do is “not good enough.”

I find a medium that I love and if my readers are to be believed; I really excel at. But it's photos and dolls. Meh.

So I come back with what Tantz_aerine calls “self flagellation”

That's what you're doing. You are projecting your opinion of your work onto others as it being awful and beating yourself up mercilessly when none of it is true or borne out by evidence and majority opinion.

I share my story at length so you can see others have been there but fought their way back.

Not quite good enough? So what?

Do it anyway. I'm doing my best and want to get better. Tear it apart. It's the only way I'll get better. Criticize me so that I can learn. It's not practice that makes you better but critique (there were studies. It's verifiably true)

I'm going to keep cheering you on because your self image is not borne out by evidence.