New Results On The Domestication Of Barley In Iran & Cattle In Turkey. And stuff on milk a little earlier than we thought...obviously relevant to lactose tolerance.

Differential Greek and northern African migrations to Sicily are supported by genetic evidence from the Y chromosome:

The presence or absence of genetic heterogeneity in Sicily has long been debated. Through the analysis of the variation of Y-chromosome lineages, using the combination of haplogroups and short tandem repeats from several areas of Sicily, we show that traces of genetic flows occurred in the island, due to ancient Greek colonization and to northern African contributions, are still visible on the basis of the distribution of some lineages. The genetic contribution of Greek chromosomes to the Sicilian gene pool is estimated to be about 37% whereas the contribution of North African populations is estimated to be around 6%.

In particular, the presence of a modal haplotype coming from the southern Balkan Peninsula and of its one-step derivates associated to E3b1a2-V13, supports a common genetic heritage between Sicilians and Greeks. The estimate of Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor is about 2380 years before present, which broadly agrees with the archaeological traces of the Greek classic era....

At my other weblog, Cliodynamics, the rise & fall of empires and asabiya and Historical Dynamics and contingent conditions of religion. The first is a bit long. The second is rather long. My Voice will not be Silenced!

Richard Dawkins: Muslim parents 'import creationism' into schools:

"Most devout Muslims are creationists so when you go to schools, there are a large number of children of Islamic parents who trot out what they have been taught," Prof Dawkins said in a Sunday newspaper interview.

"Teachers are bending over backwards to respect home prejudices that children have been brought up with. The Government could do more, but it doesn't want to because it is fanatical about multiculturalism and the need to respect the different traditions from which these children come."

Fact: a greater proportion of Turks are Creationist than are Americans. Remember that Turkey is a secular and liberal Muslim country; one can project what the attitudes in other Muslim nations might be....

Fact, here are the proportions of American medical doctors by religion (or lack of) who find Intelligible Design plausible:

All - 18%
Jewish - 3%
Protestant - 35%
Catholic - 11%
Orthodox Christian - 37%
Hindu - 11%
Buddhist - 0%
Muslim - 43%
Atheist - 0%
Spiritual - 4%
Other - 29%