Europe Forum

Europe Forum http://www.eupedia.com/forum/ Europe Forum en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:01:28 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.eupedia.com/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg Europe Forum http://www.eupedia.com/forum/ <![CDATA[Van Rompuy becomes EU's first president]]> http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25499&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:33:16 GMT 19 November 2009 was a historical date for Europeans. For the first time in history, most of Europe (the EU) is unified under a single president. The top job was assigned to Belgian Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompuy.

Although the press has already criticised the choice due to Van Rompuy's shyness and lack of charisma, he qualifies well for the job thanks to his cross-cultural negotiating skills and multilingualism. Europe needs to be unified under a competent leader. It does not need a superstar president who doesn't know what he his doing. In other words Van Rompuy is a sort of anti-Bush Jr.

The BBC has a summary chart comparing the status and function of the EU president in contrast with the US president. We can see at once that the power of the US president is more dictatorial (commander-in-chief of the army, can sign executive orders without Congress approval) while the EU presidency looks resolutely democratic and modern. ]]> Maciamo http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25499 The truth behind israel,and its miracles http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25498&goto=newpost Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:36:08 GMT Hi, My name is Saar,I joined this forum just to spread the truth abouth israel,and the facts behind it,i live in israel and im only 16 years old you might insult me that I lack of knowledge just because Im 16,but im gonna ignore that. the subjects Ill write about_: -why jews didnt live in... Hi,
My name is Saar,I joined this forum just to spread the truth abouth israel,and the facts behind it,i live in israel and im only 16 years old
you might insult me that I lack of knowledge just because Im 16,but im gonna ignore that.

the subjects Ill write about:

-why jews didnt live in israel until 1948
-zionism
-Why had the holocaust occured,the only reasons that really existed for that question.. but the answer is still missing
-After Israel's establishment,What now?
-June 67,the six days war
-The yom kippur war(1973)
-Greater israel's myth
-Israel's donation to the world and its' wonders(including facts)

-Why jews didnt live in israel until 1948?

First of all,jews did live in Israel,they always lived there,but in the times of the roman empire the romans conquered Israel and destroyed the second jewish temple house(whose remaining piece is the western wall)
the romans expelled the jews out of israel,by forcing them to convert themselves and join the roman empire,die,or leave.
The jews around europe around 1600-1948 had seen that many european organization had created their own paths and got their own piece of land
so the jews wanted to fight for their piece of land as well and the zionism started

(zionism is a term used for a person who wants to develop the process of establishing israel,nowadays,a zionist might be mentioned as a person who will fight and sacrify himself for israel(patriot)and some people refer a zionist to a nazi and compare between the terms,thats wrong).

-why had the holocaust occured?

I cannot give you exact reason why,but there are many!
hate of jealousy,leading to peer pressure,leading to rumors and curses,leading to holocaust,actually.
The europeans disliked the jews because the jews were counted to be 'immigrants' in europe,and they owned the banks in europe and had a major effect in the european life,so this is the reason why people were jealous and forced others to antisemithism,which caused the organization of the h!tl3r to burn books and hide the truth from the civillians and taught them how dirty jews are and how ugly they are.

My main point of this writing is to stop the hate in europe and throughout the world,I see people writing "******* jews killing in gaza!theyve killed children!theyre the real nazis!"
so lets continue,gaza is still far from us,but gaza made their own land a piece of terror and hate.

-After Israel's establishment,what now?

Ok now its one of the miracles I mentioned in the title of the thread.

As Israel was established,the arab countries surrounding it,threatened to "push the pigs(mentioned to the jews) back to the sea"
Egypt,Syria,Iraq and lebanon attacked the tiny newly israel(saudi arabia sent troops as well)
the war was based on the establishment of israel,or actually,The arabs' aim was to DESTROY israel
they have not succeed.
the war ended in israel's victory,a war for almost a year ended with the tiny israel's big victory.
Before of the war,The british mandate controled the area,the british was a total area of jordan iraq and israel
the british mandate divided the land into 2 pieces:
1 given to the arabs,which contains iraq and jordan,and rest which is today israel was divided into two parts:
a palestenian state,and an official jewish state whose 80% of land was desert,and today its all wonderful and civillized.
the palestenian state was not created until this day just because of the war on israel.
the arab leaders convinced the palestenians to immigrate(mostly to jordan)to arab states until the jews will be "pushed back to the sea"
and their failure to do so,made the palestenian immigrants have no home,and forced them to become refugees in the arab lands.

war statistics by wikipedia:
israel:about 4000 troops dead,2400 civillians dead

egypt,iraq,lebanon,syria,saudi arabia,jordan and arab liberation army total loss:betweeen 8000 and 15,000 (troops).

-June 67,the six days war

So,the arabs failed to destroy israel in their first try,this time they united again and threatened to attack israel all together once again and ruin it forever.
the israelis were so afraid,it was a time when much civillians left to america and never came back,or just went on a vacation for a long period of time to be safe.
The israeli leaders had no idea what to do,so they decided to paralyze the arabs with a shocking attack!
Israel sent a surprising attack on egypt and syria!
after then the other arab countries lanuched attacks on israel
egypt syria jordan iraq saudi arabia took part and morroco algeria sudan and tunisia helped the arab countries with troops and weapons.
the war ended with a huge,shocking,miracle,winning of the tiny israel!!
Israel won and conquered the sinai,gaza strip,west bank and golan heights!
this is how israel looked after the war
(had to erase the picture because im not allowed to psot any links)

the red-pink area is the area israel conquered,you can also see places with major battles
Israel gave back sinai for a peace contract with Egypt

Egypt did not wont Gaza back

Israel made a peace contract with jordan has well but jordan didnt wont the west bank again.

Gaza was given to the palestenians

Golan Heights still remain in Israel,besides that,nothing
So if you hear an arab saying "jews occupied..blablablah" so you'll already know that israel gave back almost everything it took.

-The yom kippur war 1973

The arabs wanted to surprise Israel this time,and thought about the worst,and most ugly way to attack israel--when?on a holy day!

Yom kippur is a day when every jew doesnt drink,eat,use electronics or even WRITE for 25hours straight,this is a pretty hard thing to pass,and some people just do the drinking and eating.
So when the jews were weak,hungry,and thirsty,the arabs opened an attack on the jewish holy day!
Syria and egypt opened in an attack,crossing the borders between the countries,causing the israelis to be surprised,and you should remember! its 1973! almsot no phones! and a day when you cant even type on the phone!
so the israelis didnt even KNOW what was happening!
although the shocking attack,the israelis managed once again to defeat their enemies,the loss of both sides was pretty big

Jews:
2,656–2,800 dead
7,250–9,000 wounded
500 captured
400–500 tanks destroyed
600 tanks damaged/returned to service
200 planes destroyed
Soviet estimate: 280 planes destroyed

Arabs:
5,000 dead/8,528–15,000 dead
9,000 wounded/19,540–35,000wounded
1,200–2,250 tanks destroyed or captured
370–432 planes destroyed

Ok,at 2006 the main reason for the war was that hezbollah captured two israeli soldiers
and at 2009,hamas captured an israeli soldier which is still under their control
Im not gonna explain much because i dont have much time
but people are calling israelis 'children killers' just because the gazans show their DEAD KIDS in the tv!
what kind of person would show that to the community?we (israelis) never did so,so the community doesnt care about our own blood.

-Greater Israel's myth

Israel's biblical map is not the israel seen today of course,in the bible israel is mentioned to contain israel,lebanon,sinai,egyp's north east,half north saudi arabia,syria's south and a part of iraq,it wont let me uplaod a picture but you can search for it on wikipedia
zionism's term also means to fulfill the myth of greater israel.

-Israel's donation to the world and its' wonders(including facts)

Today,Israel exist only for 61 years and it has achieved many things in the past years:

It has it's own Skyscraper city,Tel Aviv,modern lifestyle and decmoracy within the country,even arabs have FULL RIGHTS of being in israel as a cillivan,though they are some things they are annoyed of mostly because of some of the community rejecting them and the security checking.
Israel has made the desert land look like a great sunny place,where you can never know it used to be a desert,I leave in a place which snowed 2 years ago.
Most of the modern high tech and such things are developed in israel,Microsoft intel google and more have their offices and officials sites in israel and in hebrew.
there are many other things it has donated,since im not allowed to post any links,ill suggest you to look in youtube for "cool facts about israel"
jews,besides israelis,have achieved a lot
Did you know the first nuclear bomb creator was jewish?(albert einstein)
Did you know jesus was jewish?
Did you know Israel's size equals to new jersey?
Did you know israel's population is even less than new york city's population?
DiskOnKey was developed here.
An Israeli company provides 25% of the world's call centers with hardware and software power for call monitoring.
An Israeli company developed a video camera that fits into a pill,the camera helps doctors diagnose digestive tract diseases,and saves lives.
Bill gates:"Israel represents the leading edge of innovation".
Israel is in the second place in patent application to europe.
An Israeli company,TEVA is the world's largest maker of antibiotics and one of the top generic drugs'.
An Israeli company developed the first high resolution camera in a cell phone.
The SMS service was developed here as well.
AOL,ICQ,Messenger,all of these three were developed in israel.
Most of the Windows NT and XP systems were developed by microsoft israel.
SECOND largest number of companies on wall street after the US.
There are even more facts,Im really busy and I don't have free time to improve my point,im sorry I had to sum up some of the points
Please spread this thread to other people,so we will be able to KILL the antisemithism slowly.
Thank you for reading. ]]> Saar331 http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25498 23andMe to increase test price by 100$ on 19 Nov. http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25497&goto=newpost Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:40:19 GMT The popular genetic testing company 23andMe has just announced that it will increase its test price from 399$ to 499$ in 5 days' time. Customers will be able to purchase only the ancestry test for 399$, only the health test for 429$, or the combined package for 499$. Upgrades from a partial test to the full test will be possible but will cost more than buying the whole package at once.

This is an unexpected move since DNA test prices have constantly been going down over the years. 23andMe actually cut its original price of 999$ last September. I, and many others, were expecting a new decrease soon, but instead the opposite is happening. No doubt that the quality of the service offered, especially compared to companies that only test Y-DNA and mtDNA, justify the price. I do not understand how people still ordered from other companies and paid more to get less information. In fact, those who didn't order from 23andMe are people who didn't want to know about their health risk (too afraid, I suppose :wary2:). 23andMe understood that well. It's a good move to offer separate tests for ancestry and health. I just wished that they would have discounted the partial test (which they started doing with the Health Research test) rather than increase the total. But again, it probably makes sense business-wise as nobody else is offering such a good test for so cheap, even after the increase. ]]> General Genetics Maciamo http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25497 French L21 Testing http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25493&goto=newpost Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:57:56 GMT The R-L21 Plus Project began recruiting men of French ancestry for testing this past July, thanks to generous donations from project members. Central to the effort, and one of its chief financial backers, was an archaeologist who currently wishes to remain anonymous. Another person who deserves a... The R-L21 Plus Project began recruiting men of French ancestry for testing this past July, thanks to generous donations from project members. Central to the effort, and one of its chief financial backers, was an archaeologist who currently wishes to remain anonymous. Another person who deserves a lot of credit is Doug Miller, the Group Administrator of the French Heritage DNA Project, who helped get the word out to his project members.

Anyway, here are the results.

N=24

L21+ (L21 Positive)= 14

L21- (L21 Negative)= 10

Percentages

L21+= 58%

L21-= 42%

I will go back through the list of test subjects, try to break things down by geographic region, and post that information here.

We still have a couple of French subjects awaiting L21 results in our project's "L21 Pending" category. I was going to wait for them but became impatient, so I am going ahead and starting this thread.

I cannot claim this as a truly scientific research project (I'm not a scientist, for one thing), but it did turn out to be pretty much random testing of R1b1b2 men of French descent. I started out by looking for men who were likely to be L21+, based on their matches in YSearch. I could only find one of them, so the rest were a roll of the dice. In the end we just looked for men of French descent who were predicted by FTDNA to be R1b1b2 and who were not obviously L21-. That last was tough, since nobody had a 67-marker haplotype and only one had any prior SNP testing, and so much of western R1b1b2 looks alike. I remember screening out just one guy because he belonged to the R1b North-South Cluster. Although we paid for most of the testing, some of the men paid for their own testing, which helped out a lot.

I think what we can glean from our efforts is that L21 is very well represented in France.

Currently the L21 test is no longer available as a stand-alone on FTDNA's Advanced Orders menu, but I have been advised an IT bug fix is underway that could bring it back to that menu sometime in the near future. The bug has nothing to do with the testing itself. It has to do with the effects of a negative result on a subject's haplogroup listing.

I would like to encourage all R1b men to order FTDNA's Deep Clade-R test or Deep Clade-Extended test, but especially men of French and other continental European descent. L21 is also doing very well among Germans, Netherlanders, and Scandinavians, especially Norwegians. ]]> Y-DNA forum rms2 http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25493 Family Traveling Summer 2010 http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25492&goto=newpost Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:13:38 GMT Hello!! I am so happy to find this forum! I am hoping to spend the summer abroad in Europe. I live in Minnesota, USA. I am thinking about doing house exchange or renting. Does anyone have tips for me? I will be traveling with 2 children. Our goal is to explore and get to know... Hello!!

I am so happy to find this forum! I am hoping to spend the summer abroad in Europe. I live in Minnesota, USA. I am thinking about doing house exchange or renting.

Does anyone have tips for me?

I will be traveling with 2 children. Our goal is to explore and get to know people. I think it would be fun to rent a place for several weeks. We are open to where we go.

I would be grateful for any insights or ideas anyone might have?

Thanks!!

Susie Q ]]> Family_Travel http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25492 mt-DNA Nordic haplogroups http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25491&goto=newpost Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:58:48 GMT Which mt-DNA haplogroups are considered Nordic? Which mt-DNA haplogroups are considered Nordic? ]]> mtDNA forum Cambria Red http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25491 <![CDATA[Newborns' crying melody reflect parents' language]]> http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25490&goto=newpost Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:20:05 GMT
BBc News : Babies 'cry in mother's tongue'

Quote:

Originally Posted by BBC

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.

This confirms that unborn babies can hear their environment well enough to perceive language, and that culture and mindset are already being moulded before birth.

The study doesn't investigate the case of babies born in bilingual environment, or the influence of foreign-language TV exposure (e.g. pregnant mothers watching original films or series in English every day). ]]> Other Serious Discussion Maciamo http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25490 Genetic clustering http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25489&goto=newpost Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:46:47 GMT What do you think about genetic clustering (alleles, microsatellites,etc) ??
What can they tell us ?
Do you think we can determine race or ethnicity by genetic clustering ?

Here is what a study says :
"We have shown a nearly perfect correspondence between genetic cluster and SIRE for major ethnic groups living in the United States, with a discrepancy rate of only 0.14%."

""It is not true, as Nature claimed, that 'two random individuals from any one group are almost as different as any two random individuals from the entire world'" and Risch et al. (2002) state "Two Caucasians are more similar to each other genetically than a Caucasian and an Asian." "

Genetic clusters study :

A majority green means European, a majority red is African, etc..

Other genetic clustering : There is homogeinity between Europeans, while Levants (American Ashekanazi, Druze, Palestinians,etc) are apart.

]]> General Genetics Wilhelm http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25489 EU and me http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25488&goto=newpost Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:40:15 GMT Having had many thoughts about Europe and the EU and what the future of Europe will look like, in the last few days I have put together a film in which I try and express what my thoughts on the EU are, in particular in regards to the integration of European people. I would like to share this film... Having had many thoughts about Europe and the EU and what the future of Europe will look like, in the last few days I have put together a film in which I try and express what my thoughts on the EU are, in particular in regards to the integration of European people. I would like to share this film with the people on this forum. The film can be accessed on youtube and is called "EU and ME"

Please let me know your thoughts, either by leaving a comment on the website or adding comments to this forum.

I much look forward to your response. ]]> Redi Hoke http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25488 University-Systems http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25486&goto=newpost Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:34:34 GMT I wanted to open this thread as Austrian students have been protestin for two weeks now in Vienna, Graz, Linz etc... They have occupied the bigges lectures rooms in their Unis (Auditorium Maximum - Audimax) and organise demonstrations. They have already spoken to the minister for sciences. German... I wanted to open this thread as Austrian students have been protestin for two weeks now in Vienna, Graz, Linz etc... They have occupied the bigges lectures rooms in their Unis (Auditorium Maximum - Audimax) and organise demonstrations. They have already spoken to the minister for sciences.
German students are flooding our Unis (as in Germany there ARE restrictions and fees have to be paid)

They're fighting against tuition fees and against entrance restriction for Unis (at the moment only medicine has entrance restrictions in Austria. Normally you can enrole at any Unis you want, at any study you want. You don't even have to have certain marks: e.g. you can study mathematics although you had a "D" in mathematics in your final exams at school...)

I am FOR fees as people under a certain income level get them refundet in Austria anyway and they're not high (400€/400$ per semester)

But I'm against entrance restrictions. The exams in the 1st part of our studies are so extremely difficult (failures rates up to 95!%), so 75% of all the students quit their studies within the first few months anyway.
The difficult exams keep the level and standard high (those who are not "good enough" won't make it anyway!)
An other argument against entrance restrictions: The Bachelor-Program is not worth anything in Austria. As long as you havent finished a master-Program noone employs you. So entrance fees for the Master-Programs would mean you've wasted three years. "Okay, you can start your education, after three years we will decide whether you can FINISH your education or not!" GREAT!!! :angry: :angry:

You can find articles online (just type in "students protests in Austria")

What do you think?

What's it like in your country? ]]> Education Padme http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25486 False study ?? What do you think http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25480&goto=newpost Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:25:48 GMT I've discussed with many people about Iberian genetics, and they always refer me to this rubbish study :
http://www.cell.com/AJHG/retrieve/pii/S0002929708005922
wich says that North African ancestry is 10.6% and Sephardi Jewish is 19.8%

My conclusions are as follows :

1. According to all historians, the Muslims (Moors, Berbers, etc) were always a minority, about 1% in the first 400 years, and 5% in the last 400
The Jewish peak population was of 3% (Netherlands was bout 4%, just in case..:innocent:)
And, as we all know, more than half of them were expelled.
So, according to this demographical statitics, the numbers don't add up : where the hell does this 20% jewish come from ??
Where the hell does this 10% North African comes from ?

2. According to most widely Haplogroup studies of both Y-DNA and mtDNA done in Iberia, the levels of Haplogroup E (North African & Near Eastern) and J2(wich comes from Greeks and Phoenicians ) are comparable to those of other European countries, and are about 6% for E1b1b and 4% of J2 (J1 is even lower) .
The J1 is the typically Semitic haplogroup, and it is very low (0.5%?), insignificant, and the same as in all Europe.
Again, this is typical in Europe, even lower than average

3. Additionally, the data seems to contradict well stablished History. Asturias is the area were "Reconquista" started. Asturias was one of the few places not conquered by Muslims.
Thus, Asturias should show the least Northern-African genetic heritage. On the other hand, Andalucia, where Moors and Jews remained the longest, should be the regions with highest Northern-African and Jewish heritage, and they show one of the lowest in all Iberia.

4. Most widely , accurate and serious studies done in Iberia say the following :

"In fact, a European wide study including Spaniards states: No significant correlation is apparent between North African admixture and geography. Genetic exchanges across the Mediterranean Sea, and especially in its western-most part where the geographic distance between continents is smallest (Spain), seem to have been limited or very limited, establishing the North African contribution at 2.5/3.4%.[24]"

"A wide ranging study (published 2007) using 6,501 unrelated Y-chromosome samples from 81 populations found that: "Considering both these E-M78 sub-haplogroups (E-V12, E-V22, E-V65) and the E-M81 haplogroup, the contribution of northern African lineages to the entire male gene pool of Iberia is 5.6%."[41]

"DNA analysis shows that the Spanish are most closely related to other populations of central and western Europe, such as the Portuguese, the Italians, the Irish, the British and to a slightly lesser extent to the French, the Germans, and the Swiss.[23][24][25][26]

A 2007 European-wide study including Spanish Basques and Valencian Spaniards, found Iberian populations to cluster the furthest from other continental groups, implying that Iberia holds the most ancient European ancestry. In this study, the most prominent genetic stratification in Europe was found to run from the north to the south-east, while another important axis of differentiation runs east-west across the continent. It also found, despite the differences, that all Europeans are closely related.[27]"
What is your opinion ? ]]> General Genetics Wilhelm http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25480 Where to go in Sochi, Russia? http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25479&goto=newpost Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:53:01 GMT As long as Sochi os going to be Olympic capital in 2009 I thought that it might be interesting to visit the city. And look what I have found on the web. It was interesting for me to find this rating on the web, because I am from Russia. I hope it might be interesting for someone else too. ... As long as Sochi os going to be Olympic capital in 2009 I thought that it might be interesting to visit the city. And look what I have found on the web.

It was interesting for me to find this rating on the web, because I am from Russia. I hope it might be interesting for someone else too.
“Svoi Ludi”, individual rest and tourism studio, carried out a minisurvey among tourists in order to difine the most memorable sights in Sochi and its suburbs. 580 tourists who visited Sochi resort in 2009 were questioned in the research framework.
“Dedndrarii” Park______ 61%
“Millenium Tower Complex_________ 52%
Sea terminal building__________ 52%
“Platforma” Club________ 49%
Frunze Summer Theatre________ 34%
Yew-box grove________ 34%
Stalin’s house________ 31%
Waterfalls in Sochi National Park________ 26%
Macesta Bridge________ 23%
Voroncov caves________ 18%
“Blue Sea” Restaurant________ 16%
Salmon Factory “Adler”________ 11%
Rodina” Grand Hotel%SPA________ 9%
Akhun Tower_______ 4%
“Mayak” Aquapark________ 4%
Singing Fountaines________ 2%
Other________ 2%
The results of the survey show that the majority of the tourists (61%) recalled Dendrarii Park as the most impressive, more than a half of the respondents (52%) remembered Residential Complex “Millenium Tower” and the Sea Terminal Building. “Platforma” club finishes the top 3 with 49%.
It is remarkable that modern places were named among Sochi traditional culture sights. Below there are examples of tourists’ quotations’ explaining such choice:
“This “Millenium Tower” building can be seen from any point in Sochi, it is an example of modern architecture embodying “new” Sochi – a world-class resort.
“Millenium Tower” in Sochi to a certain extent can be compared only to “Moscow-City” complex in Moscow.
“Platforma” club is remarkable by its atmosphere – such a hot place. You need to come to Sochi just to drop in at it.”
“The “Blue Sea” is a restaurant with first-class service, which is so rare in other Russian and Ukrainian resorts. The atmosphere and menu variety are marvellous.”
“Deluxe Hotel “Rodina” offers elite accommodation and a wide range of services which cannot be seen even in some of the European five-star hotels.“
“Mayak” Aquapark offers unforgettable pastime for the whole family. Water attractions are an inseparable part of a sea holiday. What is important is that there should be plenty of them and they must be safe.”
“Thus nowadays tourists are searching not only for historical and cultural sights but are also interested in modern infrastructure, which is vital for a really good holiday. ]]> AKvasova http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25479 High testosterone linked to stingy behaviour http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25477&goto=newpost Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:15:17 GMT Here is an interesting study reported by the New Scientist.

Quote:

Overall, the testosterone cream caused a 27 per cent reduction in the generosity of the offers, from averages of $2.15 to $1.57, Redwine and Zak found.

A more potent variant of testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), exerted an even stronger influence on behaviour. Men with the most DHT in their bloodstream offered their partners a paltry $0.55 of the $10, while men with the least amount of DHT tendered $3.65, on average.

DHT was also associated with a propensity to punish unfair offers. Men with the highest levels rejected offers below $4, while men with low levels of the androgen only punished if the offer was below $2.15, the researchers found.

...

Yet by rejecting unfair offers, testosterone-fuelled volunteers are actually enforcing a social order that calls for a 50-50 split. "People are selfish, but they're selfless as well, and it's not understood why the behaviour shifts," she says.

Although testosterone levels are partly genetically determined, physical exercise, winning a sport competition or a game, and making money have all been shown to increase testosterone levels.

Testosterone correlates with aggression levels, masculinity, logical thinking, muscle mass, hairiness, and apparently now also stinginess.

It would be amusing to see if nations or ethnic groups who are reputedly stingy (such as the Scots, Dutch, Belgians or Jews) do have higher testosterone than average.

Dutch-speakers at least are among the most egalitarian people in Europe (along with Scandinavians), so if they indeed had higher testosterone there would be some truth in the statement that stingy behaviour help "enforcing a social order that calls for a 50-50 split". ]]> Psychology Maciamo http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25477 mtDNA L http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25475&goto=newpost Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:33:01 GMT Does anyone have the distribution or percentages of mtDNA L (sub-saharian) found in Europe ? Does anyone have the distribution or percentages of mtDNA L (sub-saharian) found in Europe ? ]]> mtDNA forum Wilhelm http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25475 EU to boost cross-border e-shopping for Europeans http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25474&goto=newpost Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:08:42 GMT Euractiv : Consumers turned off by e-shopping, EU report shows (http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/consumers-turned-shopping-eu-report-shows/article-186678#) ---Quote (Originally by Euractiv)--- Online cross-border shopping is still too burdensome for both consumers and traders, an EU... Euractiv : Consumers turned off by e-shopping, EU report shows

Quote:

Originally Posted by Euractiv

Online cross-border shopping is still too burdensome for both consumers and traders, an EU report found yesterday (22 October).

The case for savings in cross-border shopping is an easy one to make: the wider the net, the more likely a consumer is to find a bargain. But current conditions for both the consumption and the sale of online goods across borders are turning Europeans off the idea, according to an EU report.

60% of online purchases failed in an EU-backed test of 11,000 separate orders on cameras, CDs, books and clothes.

Shoppers participating in the EU survey found that transactions failed because traders refused to sell to the consumer's country, largely due to technical problems or because a particular payment option was not available.
...

Expatica : Europe vows to liberate online shopping

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expatica

Belgium, Bulgaria, Latvia and Romania were the worst offenders in terms of denying access to cross-border online wares.

Two thirds of all products sought -- everything from books to washing machines -- were not even available online from retailers in the Belgian home of the EU.

Other online retail black spots were Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta and Portugal.

Only Austria and Spain had success rates above 50 percent.

The main problems for cross-border shopping were payment and delivery.

It is hard to see why big e-commerce websites would not provide a solution for international payment. Most of the online shops use credit card payment, which is as international as it gets. Smaller sites that are not equipped for such transactions could still offer payments by international bank transfers. After all, the new Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) regulations makes wire transfers within the EU as easy (and often faster) than domestic transfers.

Delivery is a bit trickier. National post offices are not always very reliable. But private delivery companies like DHL, UPS or Fedex are good alternatives when the postal system fails to satisfy.

Personally I have never encountered any problem to purchase products from other countries, except from small sellers from Amazon market place that often do not provide international shipping. ]]> European Economy Maciamo http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25474