Those who remember their Monty Python are doomed to repeat it. There was a
Bruce sketch, set in an Australian university, and a Llamas sketch, set in a
restaurant. Now there’s a large scale study of the mitochondrial DNA of early
Americans, led by an Australian university scientist, Bastien Llamas.
Here are the other authors:
Bastien Llamas1
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-1>,*
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#corresp-1>,†
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#fn-1>, Lars
Fehren-Schmitz2 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-2>,†
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#fn-1>, Guido Valverde1
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-1>, Julien Soubrier1
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-1>, Swapan Mallick3
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-3>,4
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-4>,5
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-5>, Nadin Rohland3
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-3>,4
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-4>,5
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-5>, Susanne
Nordenfelt3 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-3>,4
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-4>,5
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-5>, Cristina
Valdiosera6 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-6>,
Stephen M. Richards1
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-1>, Adam Rohrlach7
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-7>, Maria Inés Barreto
Romero8 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-8>, Isabel
Flores Espinoza8 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-8>,
Elsa Tomasto Cagigao9
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-9>, Lucía Watson
Jiménez9 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-9>,10
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-10>, Krzysztof
Makowski9 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-9>, Ilán
Santiago Leboreiro Reyna11
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-11>, Josefina Mansilla
Lory11 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-11>, Julio
Alejandro Ballivián Torrez12
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-12>, Mario A. Rivera13
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-13>, Richard L.
Burger14 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-14>, Maria
Constanza Ceruti15
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-15>,16
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-16>, Johan Reinhard17
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-17>, R. Spencer
Wells17 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-17>,‡
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#fn-2>, Gustavo Politis18
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-18>, Calogero M.
Santoro19 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-19>, Vivien
G. Standen19 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-19>,
Colin Smith6 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-6>, David
Reich3 <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-3>,4
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-4>,5
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-5>, Simon Y. W. Ho20
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-20>, Alan Cooper1
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-1>,*
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#corresp-1>,§
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#fn-3> and Wolfgang Haak1
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#aff-1>,*
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#corresp-1>,§
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#fn-3>,¶
<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501385#fn-4>
Quite the international team, but you’ll have noted there’s nary an Alikkees or
an Ahtunowhiho amongst them.
According to the web “Alikkees” is Nez Perce for “haircut,” and it’s used as a
name. I am reminded again of Monty Python, this time of the haircutter who
couldn’t bring himself to cut hair. We had a cleaner come this week who has a
similar affliction. Very pleasant person, brings her own essential oils and so
on, very Oregon. Did surprisingly little what you might call cleaning.
The theme of the week, dogwise, was the preciousness of poo. When you’ve only
got so much and you have a large territory to mark, it’s important to find
exactly the right place along the boundaries that will signal to all and sundry
that a mighty beast lives within. Pee, of course, serves the same purpose, but
it doesn’t linger as well. I kept giving the command, “Go potty.” And he’d
respond, “What’s the hurry; there are choices to be made here.”
Brief interruption—had to go outside. The chickens were strung out in a line,
ten feet apart, each of them making as much noise as possible.
“There’s a threat.”
“Danger, Will Robinson, Danger.”
“I can’t think what to shout, but I’m shouting.”
“Keep shouting.”
That kind of thing, when the exact words don’t matter, the noise does. I ran
out, asked what the nature of the danger was. They gathered round and
eventually calmed down. Apparently it was something transient and not within
our bounds. a hawk perhaps or a ground animal, eventually frightened away by
the mighty poo. And the shouting.
Monday was awful. Hamish got a worming pill that didn’t agree with his system.
We went out, we came in, we went out again. Into the wee hours, which
hereafter in all documents may be called the poo hours. The rest of the week
was much better. Introduced to the choke chain, Hamish now walks pretty much
as he should, impressing neighbors who continue to be dragged along by their
dogs. One day he helped herd the chickens into their roost. Responding to my
hand signal to stay back, he went into a classic shepherd crouch and only moved
when told to. Not bad for fourteen weeks. And… Well why not let him have a
say?
The journal of Hamish McTavish, sheep dog of England, volume…hey...what’s that
smell? Another gorgeous day here. They certainly are good at weather in this
household, much better than where I was born. I spent some time watching a
hummingbird, which is pretty interesting. And a fly. Ditto. I can see pretty
much anything that moves. Still things are a different matter. The lord, I
think that’s what I may call him, dropped some food from his plate. It just
sat there on the ground, partly because I wasn’t sure whether dropped food is
any of my business. When I finally decided to investigate there was nothing to
distinguish it from concrete, very little smell at all. But a chicken spied it
from across the patio and found the prize before I did. I shall give them a
good herding one day, let me tell you; food theft is serious business. As are
chewing and poo. Food, chewing and poo, what more could a dog want? Sleep.
Food, chewing, poo and sleep are all that a dog could want. And pee. And
smells. Among the things a dog likes are...
Have you see the quality of the sticks hereabouts? Top quality property
stick-wise this. Stuff to bite everywhere. I particularly like the oak-leafed
hydrangea, but there are bushes for miles, and if you tire of the living
branches, there’s detritus on the ground too! You can run pretty much wherever
you want, except near the chickens. And going outside the bounds is improving.
I like that now. Particularly up by the place where small lords play. Can’t
stand the car, but who knows? Maybe that will be O.K. eventually. Pretty damn
scary though. Smells of…I don’t know what.
Did I mention they let you dig? Within the bounds. And basically only when
they’re not looking or standing near. Mostly you can get away with it.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
