The area assigned to each population is proportional to the genetic variation within that population.

From strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/306-the-genetic-map-of-europe/

Genetically speaking, Finns and Italians are the most atypical Europeans. There is a large degree of overlap between other European ethnicities, but not up to the point where they would be indistinguishable from each other. Which means that forensic scientists now can use DNA to predict the region of origin of otherwise unknown persons (provided they are of European heritage).

These are among the conclusions to be drawn from a genetic map of Europe, produced by the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam (the Netherlands), published in Current Biology’s August 7 issue. In its Science section, the New York Times devotes an article to the study, and reproduces the genetic map.

The discovery that autosomal (i.e. non-gender-related) aspects of DNA may be used to predict regional European provenance of unknown individuals was made by Prof. Dr. Manfred Kayser’s team of forensic molecular biologists. In a press release, the Erasmus UMC stated that this might potentially be helpful in resolving so-called ‘cold cases’.

When compared to the actual map, the populations kinda sorta maintain their relative position to each other. Two observations spring to mind immediately: the fact that most populations overlap so intimately with their neighbours. And that Finland doesn’t. Some other observations:

• The extent of genetic variation is greater north to south than east to west. This may be a result of the way Europe was colonized by modern humans, i.e. from the south, in three successive waves of migration (45,000 years ago, where before there had only been Neanderthals; 17,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age; and 10,000 years ago, with the advent of farming techniques from the Middle East).
• The isolation of Finnish genetics can be explained by the fact that they were at one time a very small population, preserving its genetic idiosyncrasies as it expanded.
• The relative isolation of Italian genetics is probably due to the Alps, providing a geographic barrier to the free and unhindered flow of population to and from Italy… Although Hannibal, the Celtic and Germanic influence in Italy’s north and of course the expansion of the Roman Empire would seem to contradict this.
• Yugoslav genetic variation is quite large (hence the big pink blob), and overlaps with the Greek, Romanian, Hungarian, Czech and even the Italian ones. [In fact, the others are largely subsets of the Yugoslav genome.]
  
• There is surprisingly little overlap between the northern and southern German populations, each of which has more in common with their other neighbours (Danish/Dutch/Swedish in the northern case, Austrian/Swiss/French in the other one).
• The Polish population is quite eccentric as well, only significantly overlapping with the Czech one (and only minimally with the northern German one).
• The Swiss population is entirely subsumed by the French one, similarly, the Irish population almost doesn’t show any characteristics that would distinguish it from the British one.
• British and Irish insularity probably explains why so much of their genetic area is not shared with their closest European cousins, i.c. the Norwegian/Danish/Dutch cluster.

65,000
Number of deaths in worst-case scenario for Britain published in July

19,000 Revised worst-case scenario outlined in September

1,000 Revised worst-case scenario last month [October]

154 Number of deaths in Britain so far

4-8,000 Average annual death toll in Britain from seasonal winter flu

German researchers say babies begin to pick up the nuances of their parents' accents while still in the womb.

The researchers studied the cries of 60 healthy babies born to families speaking French and German.

The French newborns cried with a rising "accent" while the German babies' cries had a falling inflection.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, they say the babies are probably trying to form a bond with their mothers by imitating them.

The findings suggest that unborn babies are influenced by the sound of the first language that penetrates the womb.

Cry melodies

It was already known that foetuses could memorise sounds from the outside world in the last three months of pregnancy and were particularly sensitive to the contour of the melody in both music and human voices.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8346058.stm
 

Perhaps Obama felt that celebrating the role of the United States in bringing down the wall would be a bit triumphalist and not quite in keeping with his wish to present America as a declining world power anxious to apologise for sundry historic misdeeds.

Der Spiegel also took note of the snub. 

SecState Hillary Clinton introduced him for 5 minutes.  His video speech ran just under 2 minutes.  The only US network to carry the speeches live was... Fox.  Go figure. 

And, somehow, in speaking of the end of the cold war, the president forgot to mention Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher or Mikhail Gorbachev or John Paul II.  It was mostly bromides and platitudes delivered in the flat, bloodless affect for which he is rapidly gaining fame. Distanced.  He did not forget to slip the inexhaustible subject of Me into the two minutes:

"Few would have foreseen ... that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it."

My goodness.  Destiny, no less.  Clinton's introduction OTOH was by any measure more interesting.  She followed her boss' lead in not naming any names, though she did allude to "a Polish Pope" (accent on the Polish), and showed a bit more historical consciousness and even a little fire when she spoke of the Berlin Airlift, the Solidarity Strike, the students of Prague, and the people of East Germany tearing down the wall.  She didn't mention Reagan's challenge to "tear down this wall!"  She alluded to but did not name Vaclav Havel or Lech Walesa.  Apparently, history just happens by mass actions (somewhat true); there are no individual actors (not true).  She even used the words "prayer" and "God" in her speech.  She has also lost the shrillness her voice often had during the primaries.  There's still a little broken glass in there, but she's much better at contralto than soprano. 

I’m trying to watch the celebration in NY – the Yankees going down the Canyon of Heroes amid a couple million fans and a lot of shredded paper – and this is the most unsatisfying experience. Why? Because television broadcasters -and apparently whoever is directing them- have gone completely hyperactive. I want to see the parade. That’s all I want to see. I don’t want to see silly female reporters screaming into their microphones about “the love and positive energy” or boorish male reporters scaring little kids by shoving mics in their faces and demanding a performance.

Even worse, though, are the banners. There are so many banners on the television screen, that I feel like I am peering through a fence, hoping to get a glimpse of the Yankees. There are bright banners near the bottom announcing THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE WATCHING and THIS IS WHERE YOU ARE WATCHING IT and LIVE! in HD! And then near the top on another side LIVE COPTER!! Then a picture-in-picture, with another brain dead reporter who has run out of things to say and decided to simply shove his mic into the faces of two women who emit ear-piercing, tribal screams.

I flip through the channels, one after another, and it’s frustrating. Every channel has an overabundance of banners, bellowing reporters talking and talking about what they see…but we’re not allowed to see it! I am watching the parade, but I cannot SEE it! I can’t hear the crowd; I only hear the mediafolk.

www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2009/11/06/hyperactive-television-useless/