How Whites first appeared and spread

(WATIVY) The ancient human gene mutation that changed everything about race

• Cheddar Man? (Euro-African dark skin, blue eyes)

(Paint It Simple) How did ancient humans lose their dark skin?

Science: Early Irish people had blue eyes and dark skin.

Becoming [Mexican] Frida Kahlo (BBC)

New book gathers every single documented Frida Kahlo, including lost works

Goddess and God of Christianity, Catholic icons, a Mary and the Jesus. Which Mary?

Revolutionary Che Guevara, artist Frida Kahlo, and Goddess la Virgin de Guadalupe

• Who's Frida Kahlo?
• The Eyebrow Lady? Isn't she Che Guevara's divine consort?
• We prefer to think of her as the Unibrow Goddess, thank you. What is a "divine consort"?
• Y'know, like, Goddesses are always paired with Gods. There's Krishna and Radha, Shiva and Parvati, the Buddha and Kwan Yin, the Jesus and Mary [Magdelene] Chain, Muhammad and Khadija, and now Che and Frida.
• Oh, yeah, something like that -- iconic -- but the Buddha did not have a wife. Prince Siddhartha (who later became the Buddha) did, and here name was Bimba (though the world remembers her as Yasodhara, which is a description, and by many other names).

BBC: Becoming Frida Kahlo

A divine couple, Frida and Che (modern art)

There are many myths that surround the passionate, radical Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, 1907–1954), the most famous female artist of the 20th century.

This compelling art documentary attempts to set the record straight. It reveals how politics, love, and art shaped Frida as an individual and as an artist. And it shows how she ultimately strived to be free from the control and influence of men.

• WATCH NOW: Becoming Frida Kahlo (BBC Select)
• Watch Becoming Frida Kahlo and more acclaimed documentaries on BBC Select today. Restrictions apply.* Get it on Apple TV Prime Video, The Roku Channel

Becoming Frida Kahlo on BBC Select

Her Story: Frida Kahlo · Mexican feminist icon, artist (She Made History.com)

Episode 1: "Tragedy Strikes"

Frida Kahlo, husband Diego Rivera

When an accident changes Frida’s life, she channels pain and heartache into painting. Frida Kahlo was a rebel from the outset, challenging norms from an early age. As a young woman, she met Mexican Diego Rivera, a superstar artist who would go on to change her. But a tragic accident thwarted Frida’s plans. Left facing a life of pain and injury, she channeled this tragedy and used it as the catalyst for her artistic career.

Episode 2: "Travel and Turmoil"

Kahlo’s potent portrait on US-Mexico border

Now married and living in 1930s America, Frida witnesses the ugly side of capitalism. Frida Kahlo traveled to America alongside her lover Diego Rivera, who’d been commissioned to produce an important mural. But Frida was determined to succeed in her own right. She was shocked by the vast gap between rich and poor in America. Then after losing a child to miscarriage and her mother to illness, she produced some of her most visceral and devastating works.

Episode 3: "The Final Years"

Dangerous politics and turbulent [bisexual] love distort and devastate Frida Kahlo’s world. After a short affair with Leon Trotsky, Frida finally achieved her own solo exhibition in Europe. But all does not go according to plan. She learns that husband Diego Rivera wants a divorce. Pouring her pain into her work, she creates her masterpiece: The Two Fridas. Her last years are spent in agony, while creating some of her most enduring images. Source

• BBC Select 2025; Crystal Quintero, Pfc. Sandoval, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Molester Matt Gaetz's sex scandal: Trump

Matt Gaetz’s bombshell sex scandal allegations, Trump’s Shady Squad, and Don Jr.’s unwanted attention

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) Nov. 20, 2024: Pres. Genocide Joe "Weekend at Bernie's" Biden turns 82 today, which leads the show to play a round of “Which is Older?” to celebrate, according to a new study Washington D.C. has the second highest cannabis (marijuana, pot, weed) consumption in the United States, the House Ethics Committee has reached an impasse on whether to release details into the illegal sextracurricular activities of Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, VP Elect JD Vance has been working inside the Senate to drum up support for cabinet nominees, Trump’s entire cabinet is shaping up to look like a TV show, Donald is out selling limited-edition guitars, Don Jr has been getting some unwanted attention for his appearance at Elon Musk’s new rocket launch, and Blake Shelton stops by to sing a song we wrote for him that he has never seen in a new edition of Wing It & Sing It. #Kimmel

Genocide Joe Biden DROPS OUT of race

Joe's out, and I'm in, B*tch! Blacks and all y'all better start getting with this Jamaican-Indian.

• Here are 8 choices better than Kamala Harris to replace Biden as 2024 Democratic nominee (The Washington Post)

Joe Biden drops out of 2024 race, with his exist coming amid growing pressure from top Democrats

I'm Top Cop: I'm a prosecutor and a conservative

Congressional Democrats weigh in on Joe Biden's status prior to closed-door meeting

WASHINGTON − President Joe Biden said he is ending his bid for reelection amid intense pressure from Democratic leaders sounding the alarm that his path to beat Ex-Pres. Donald Trump in November has vanished.

Yeah, get out of here, Old Man. Make way!

The president's historic withdrawal throws the 2024 race − already roiled by a shocking attempt on Trump's life − into uncertain territory, with VP Kamala Harris seen as the Democrat best placed to take Biden's place atop the party's ticket.

LIVE: Right wing Megyn Kelly mocks Biden and rips Kamala a new one

Kackling Kamala Kan't win

Biden did not immediately endorse a successor. Biden made the announcement Sunday from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he's self-isolated since testing positive for COVID-19 Thursday night.

It marks an extraordinary turn for Biden, who for three weeks remained defiant in the face of growing calls from Democratic lawmakers that he withdraw after a disastrous June 27 debate with Trump raised scrutiny over the president's mental fitness.

Biden's exit came after he received bleak warnings from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries that his candidacy could lead to massive losses for Democrats in the Senate and House.

Does anyone dare to challenge Pres. Harris?

Kamala's not even Black but says she is (rense.com).

More than 30 congressional Democrats called for Biden to bow out, and former Pres. Barack Obama reportedly relayed similar fears to Democratic allies about Biden's prospects of beating Trump.

Democratic donors from Hollywood to Wall Street also came out against Biden continuing his reelection bid. The decision upends the 2024 election less than 110 days before Election Day, with Democratic National Committee members now tasked with choosing an alternative nominee to take on Trump, whose polling lead has swelled while Democrats have fought internally.

VP Harris is now the frontrunner to replace Biden as the Democratic nominee, but the party's bench of Democratic governors could also be in the mix including Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Jewish Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and [robotic liar and transparent phony] Gavin Newsom of California.

• Kamala Harris is Asian and Black [enough]. That shouldn't be confusing in 2020 — but it is to some (nbcnews.com)
• Fact check: Kamala Harris did not switch from identifying as Indian-American to Black | Reuters
• Kamala Harris: I'm Black, The VP (whitehouse.gov)
• VIDEO: Rachel Maddow exposes the real reason JD Vance was chosen to be Trump's running mate

Kamala Harris banged Willie Brown (Branco)

Biden becomes the first incumbent president not to seek reelection since Lyndon B. Johnson who, in 1968 amid national unrest and turmoil within the Democratic Party over the Vietnam War, stunned the nation with his decision not to seek a second full term.

Genocide Joe, 81, has battled Americans’ concerns over his age since he took office, but it turned into panic for Democrats after last month's first debate with Trump, the Republican nominee.

So many body-doubles, all of them stupid

Biden's voice sounded faint, he struggled to complete sentences and finish thoughts, and he failed to rebut many of Trump's claims on the debate stage.

Biden's campaign was in a free fall over the past few weeks with his future in doubt. Instead of focusing solely on Trump, Democrats spent as much time and energy debating whether Biden could even defeat his predecessor.

Joe Biden always suffered from foot in mouth disease, now with senility

Fundraising for the Biden campaign took a dramatic hit. And Biden not only fell behind in key battleground states that will decide the election, but his growing unpopularity seemed to put recent Democratic strongholds like Virginia in play for Trump.

Biden's departure will soon mean the end of a five-decade career in Washington that began in 1972 with an upset victory for U.S. Senate in Delaware.

He served as a senator for 36 years, then as B.S. Obama's vice president from 2009 to 2017. Biden returned to public life to run against Trump in the 2020 presidential election, beating Trump 51%-47% in the popular vote.

This is a breaking story. Check back for updates. This MSN article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joe Biden drops out of 2024 race, exit comes amid growing pressure from top Dems

• Joey Garrison and Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY; The Jimmy Dore Show; The Megyn Kelly Show; ABC News; Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Scientists reveal bisexual genetics

AFP (MSN, 1/3/24); Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Can we say heteroflexible or abrosexual? Lesbian sounds gross, and bi makes gays hate us.

.

Rainbow flag at LGBTIQ+ (lesbian, gay, bi-
sexual, trans, intersex, queer) (Pau Barrena)

For the first time, scientists have identified genetic variations associated with human bisexual behavior and found these markers are linked to risk-taking and having more offspring when they are carried by heterosexual men.

University of Michigan Prof. Jianzhi "George" Zhang, senior author of the new research, told AFP it helped answer the long-standing evolutionary puzzle of why [Wallace and Darwin's] natural selection has not eliminated the genetics underpinning [homosexual] attraction within the same sex.

• 

  What?! We were born this way like Gaga said?

  Rewriting history: The historical misconceptions we all thought were true
• Does Bill "I'm with Hillary" Clinton molest kids? He "likes them young"
• Child sex trafficker Epstein paid to disprove hedonist-materialist wheelchair-bound Stephen Hawking was in 'underage orgy,' court files claim: Epstein accuser claimed the revered physicist participated in an ‘underage orgy’
• Jeffrey Epstein told his accuser Bill Clinton ‘likes them young,’ court documents claim (telegraph.co.uk)
• Kendall Jenner fans can't believe their eyes as she posts intimate New Year's Eve photos (the-express.com) Is she bi with Bieber?

Girls want Hailey and me and, of course, guys.

CIA has made gender and sex a mess.

The study, published Wednesday in Science Advances, was based on data from more than 450,000 people of European descent who signed up for the UK Biobank, a long-term genomics project that has proven a major boon for health research.

It builds on growing research including a seminal 2019 paper in Science that found genetic variants influenced to some extent whether a person engaged in same-sex behavior, though environmental factors [like being molested or traumatized in childhood] were more important.

"We realized that in the past, people lumped together all homosexual behavior...but actually there's a spectrum," Prof. Zhang said, explaining part of the motivation for the new work. More

• Disrupting New Year's Eve for Palestine
• Attenborough and giant sea monster: UK discovery

Blue-eyes have a single, common ancestor

Prof. Eiberg, ScienceDaily, 2008; Amber Larson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

ALL blue-eyed people have a common ancestor?

Research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor.

A team at the University of Copenhagen has tracked down a genetic mutation that took place 6,000-10,000 years ago [founder] and is the cause of the eye color of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today.

What is the genetic mutation?

The historical Buddha had blue eyes.

"Originally, we all had brown eyes," said Professor Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

"But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a 'switch,' which literally 'turned off' the ability to produce brown eyes."

• In fact, ALL human eyes are brown and only appear to be other colors by the way they scatter light, including "blue" eyes

The OCA2 gene codes for the so-called P protein, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives color to our hair, eyes, and skin.

Eye colors map of Europe (Frost/Wiki)

The "switch," which is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 does not, however, turn off the gene entirely, but rather limits its action to reducing the production of melanin in the iris -- effectively "diluting" brown eyes to blue.

The switch's effect on OCA2 is therefore very specific. If the OCA2 gene had been completely destroyed or turned off, human beings would be without melanin in their hair, eyes, or skin color [and all racial divisions would have to depend on something else] -- a condition known as albinism.

Limited genetic variation

Viking Age Buddha: Helgo Treasure

Variation in the color of the eyes from brown to green can all be explained by the amount of melanin in the iris, but blue-eyed individuals only have a small degree of variation in the amount of melanin in their eyes.

"From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor," says Professor Eiberg. "They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA."

Brown-eyed individuals, by contrast, have considerable individual variation in the area of their DNA that controls melanin production.

Professor Eiberg and his team examined mitochondrial DNA and compared the eye color of blue-eyed individuals in countries as diverse as Jordan, Denmark, and Turkey. His findings are the latest in a decade of genetic research, which began in 1996, when Professor Eiberg first implicated the OCA2 gene as being responsible for eye color.

Nature shuffles our genes

Does that sort of make us incestuous relatives?

The mutation of brown eyes to blue represents neither a positive nor a negative mutation.

It is one of several mutations such as hair color, baldness, freckles, and beauty spots, which neither increases nor reduces a human's chance of survival. [Since by "survival" is meant the fitness to send one's genes into the future, these things do impact it.]

What about one of each? Heterochromia Iridis

As Professor Eiberg says, "it simply shows that nature is constantly shuffling the human genome, creating a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes and trying out different changes as it does so." More

• Blue eye color in humans may be caused by a perfectly associated founder mutation in a regulatory element located within the HERC2 gene inhibiting OCA2 expression | Human Genetics (springer.com)
• Mummified feces reveals pre-Columbian cultures of the Caribbean consumed a diversity of plants [no cannibalism]

Beauty and the Defilements (video)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Fitness/Fecundity (Khan Academy); Tasya Teles

Hollywood starlet Veronica Lake, 1941. Who knew there were beauties back then?

Tasya Teles (@tasyateles) • Instagram photos and videos of my hot friends and life

.

Biological Reviews (Wiley Library)

What is "beauty" and why is it alluring? The most convincing explanation so far comes from biology that it is those features that convey, at a primal and subconscious level, fertility and health, fecundity and robust future offspring.

Why is beauty beautiful? That is to say, Why does it draw us, pull us, attract us, move us to action, arouse us, permeate us? The defilements (generally manifestations of desire, aversion/fear, and ignorance) are listed as taints (asavas, cankers, corruptions, intoxicating biases) and defilements (kilesas, mind-defiling unwholesome qualities).

• Attractiveness and animal sexual behavior
• Another interesting way that fecundity is selected for has to do with mate selection. Now, when looking for a female mate, many males associate an attractive woman with words like "curvy." And a curvy female would be one that has a healthy and robust body that was fit for bearing children. And this ability to easily bear children is a direct indicator of [our idea of beauty, of what's attractive, because of] high fecundity. More

Due to past skillful karma, I'm beautiful today.

As taints they are also translated as "influxes" or "outflows," as if the world permeates a thatched roof like rain or flows out from us inopportunely.

We are either provoked from within (as mind manifests) or without (as stimuli enter our perception). There is the canker of:

• sense-desire (kāmāsava)
• craving (eternal) existence (bhavāsava)
• holding (wrong) views (ditthāsava)
• ignorance (avijjāsava)

Devas are far more beautiful than humans

Greed (lobha, lust) expresses itself as sensual desire or worldly craving and, by extension, craving for more and more stimulation life after life, so craving for eternal existence follows. We want more in this world and worlds to come, inferior and superior.

We simultaneously have a fear and have an aversion (dosa, hate) to loss and death. It's two sides of the same coin. And it is all supported by ignorance (moha, delusion), by not understanding, not knowing, not being seeing things as they really are. Ignorance is big and holding wrong views about reality is an expression of it.

The defilements

The Buddha went further to list the kilesas or kleshas (Sanskrit) as ten manifestations:

• (1) greed (lobha),
• (2) hatred (dosa),
• (3) delusion (moha),
• (4) conceit (māna),
• (5) speculative views (ditthi),
• (6) skeptical doubt (vicikicchā),
• (7) mental torpor (thīna),
• (8) restlessness (uddhacca),
• (9) shamelessness (ahirika),
• (10) lack of moral dread (anottappa).

I stink sometimes. What of it? I'm only human!

We view things as "beautiful" on a subconscious level, as instinctive, really looking for markers of healthy and fertility. On a conscious level, we can become aware of what's real. Then it will not seem beautiful. Even actress/artist Tasya Teles will seem immediately offensive and foul (asubha) if we simply pay attention for 24 hours.

• Buddhist reflections on the repulsiveness of the body

In that time everything -- in spite of her health and youth and radiance -- will leak and ooze from her: mucus, pore grease, feces, the stench of bacteria on teeth, tongue, and patches of the body, sloughed off skin cells, hairs, sweat, urine, eye crud, gas, and so on. How beautiful will it seem then? Less so but still compelling. If we give it more time, the real nature of the body will reveal itself, as she crumbles, wrinkles, fades, goes bald, discolors, bloats up, shrivels, and so on.

What drew us will disappoint. The danger in attachment will eventually reveal itself. But until then, we carry on oblivious to the harm, to the bad karma, to the danger.

Beauty Queen Writes a Book

Palin blasts sexy "sexist" Newsweek cover
(WQ) The magazine's cover exploiting the best thing about Palin, which is certainly not her book-writing skills or public political persona, angered the former beauty queen (pictured left) who is trying to be taken seriously as a significant voice in the Republican party. You would think she has no chance at a presidential run, but the selection process by Oprah and other movers and shakers is up in the air. After all, the role of the US presidency is not to wield power but rather to draw attention away from it. And she's supremely good at that. Brazil miniskirt woman soaks up fame - "Out of context" - TV offers - Allies, enemies in book

Newsweek Coverage of Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism: Learning To Let Go
…protest the war, she became interested in Buddhism. But by the time she graduated from college: Go to Nepal and study Buddhism or join the Black Panthers and fight? Everything in her life changed. Buddhism taught her compassion and self-acceptance… (Anne Underwood).
Armies of the Enlightened
Throughout Asia, Buddhism is growing fast, playing an increasingly political — and, in some spots, militant — role. (Christian Caryl).
An Ancient Glory Rises
One of the great schools of antiquity — Buddhism's Nalanda University — is being rebuilt in India. (Sudip Mazumdar).
Defenders of the Faith
…science. It's not just Collins; consider the words of the Dalai Lama: "If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change." Americans have serious problems with science, and religion is definitely part of…
One Idea After Another
…and ends with a neurologist explaining why some brains turn sounds into mental paintings. In between, big thinkers touch on Buddhism, the animal brain, and the cellular response to emotional experiences. Taken together, the speakers articulate a multi-layered… (Jesse Ellison).
The Quiet Revolutionary
…and unruffled, draws inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi (no relation) and, like his sister, Priyanka, takes an interest in Buddhism and has attended teachings by the Dalai Lama. He meticulously seeks out different points of view before coming to a decision… (Sudip Mazumdar).
A Matter of Faith
Thai Buddhism is under fire and its leaders are offering the faithful little more than empty prayers. (Joe Cochrane).
Tibet’s Rising Son
…the more intriguing rituals of Tibetan Buddhism, a search committee of monks interprets augury, dreams and...an interview. The rituals of Tibetan Buddhism approximate those of a medieval court…Karmapa is also from a rival school of Buddhism, the Kagyu, a small order known colloquially… (Patrick Symmes).
Huston Smith’s Wonderful Life
…tradition. There are eight: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism…his world, at least) Christianity, Buddhism, and a little bit of Confucianism were enmeshed….He studied Zen Buddhism. When asked whether all great religions… (Lisa Miller).
Therapist in Chief
…witty, this statement is simply untrue. Buddhism is nontheistic....otherwise is to miss the point of Buddhism by an embarrassing mile. Jeff Fuller…is a spiritual leader of one sect of Buddhism, but politically is a deposed feudal…

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