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http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/02/1033538673583.html
Hair-raising story about blonds cut short
October 03 2002
By Lawrence Altman
New York
Apparently it fell into the category "too good to check".
Last Friday, several British newspapers reported the World Health Organisation had found in a study that blonds would become extinct within 200 years, because blondness was caused by a recessive gene that was dying out.
The reports were repeated on Friday by anchors for the ABC News program Good Morning America, and on Saturday by CNN.
There was only one problem, the health organisation said on Tuesday it had never reported blonds would become extinct and it had never done a study on the subject. "WHO has no knowledge of how these news reports originated," the organisation, a United Nations agency based in Geneva, announced, "but would like to stress that we have no opinion of the future existence of blonds."
All the news reports, in Britain and the United States, cited a study from the World Health Organisation - "a blonde-shell study," as The Daily Star of London put it.
But none reported any scientific details from the study or the names of the scientists who conducted it.
On Good Morning America, Charles Gibson began a conversation with his co-anchor, Diane Sawyer, by saying: "There's a study from the World Health Organisation, this is for real, that blonds are an endangered species. Women and men with blond hair, eyebrows and blue eyes, natural blonds, they say will vanish from the face of the earth within 200 years, because it is not as strong a gene as brunettes."
Sawyer said she was "somewhat of a natural blonde".
ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said the anchors got the information from an ABC producer in London who said he had read it in a British newspaper. In London, The Sun and The Express both reported that unnamed scientists said blonds would survive longest in Scandinavia, where they are most concentrated, and expected the last true blond to hail from Finland.
The British accounts had the views of bleached blonds who said hairdressers would never allow blondness to become extinct and doctors who said that rare genes would pop up to keep natural blonds from becoming an endangered species.
London journalists said the source of the reports was probably one of several European news agencies used by the British press but it remained unclear which one.
University of California at San Francisco geneticist Ray White said the disappearance of a gene for blond hair "sounds patently incorrect".
- New York Times
Posted : 02/03/2006 5:41 am
Why would it disappear? My parents are brown-haired and I have fair hair. Recessive genes are not exterminated in dark-haired and -eyed people - they are merely dormant and potential.
'At the end of his life he organized a financial offering for the poor in Jerusalem [Jew city] from the gentile churches he had founded.' - St. Paul [Jew], Oxford Companion to Class. Civ.
Posted : 02/03/2006 7:23 am
I find this story more interesting for what it reveals about the nature of modern 'professional journalism': it largely consists of gossip that is only loosely based on reality, gossip that gets echoed widely depending on its usefulness as bait to be used to catch the attention of the product (= the audience) which is then sold to buyers (= advertisers). So 'stories' that are quirky or salacious get wide coverage (unless they are 'bad for jews') regardless of provenance because such stories help keep audiences anchored long enough for the advertisers to implant messages in their brains.
How is the faithful city become an harlot! It was full of judgment: righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water. Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards.
"The
Posted : 02/03/2006 9:35 am
Why would it disappear? My parents are brown-haired and I have fair hair. Recessive genes are not exterminated in dark-haired and -eyed people - they are merely dormant and potential.
Genes can get swamped, though, and disappear from a population given sufficient mixing with a significantly larger population. Even if the genes are recessive and present in the population, they won't be visible except in rare cases, and may disappear entirely in time in the right circumstances.
That's not likely to happen to blondes so quickly though; these claims about blondes disappearing usually involve some kind of unrealistic assumption, for instance that all barriers to movement and intermarriage will disappear and people will marry at random without regard to race or language or ethnicity, etc. Under that highly unlikely set of circumstances, blonde genes could be swamped and effectively "disappear" but that's not going to happen.
Posted : 02/03/2006 10:58 am
True, genes can be swamped - by populations without recessive genes, like almost 100% of non-whites.
'At the end of his life he organized a financial offering for the poor in Jerusalem [Jew city] from the gentile churches he had founded.' - St. Paul [Jew], Oxford Companion to Class. Civ.
Posted : 02/03/2006 5:40 pm
I find this story more interesting for what it reveals about the nature of modern 'professional journalism': it largely consists of gossip that is only loosely based on reality, gossip that gets echoed widely depending on its usefulness as bait to be used to catch the attention of the product (= the audience) which is then sold to buyers (= advertisers). So 'stories' that are quirky or salacious get wide coverage (unless they are 'bad for jews') regardless of provenance because such stories help keep audiences anchored long enough for the advertisers to implant messages in their brains.
I started reading the daily newspaper when I was nine or ten and before I was out of my teens I realized that papers put out bullshit "science" news all the time. They recycled the same stories every few years (watch for this blond story to return someday) usually with the line -"Experts now say that...(astonishing factoid)". I also noticed that everybody would chatter about this story for a few days, and completely accept it as "news".
"Factoid" is the correct term, invented by Norman Mailer, for bullshit info put out by the media just to make people stupid. CNN or some other media outlet took this term and reversed it in the public mind by releasing "Factoids" which were little known facts.
"Go, Nazis, Go!"
Posted : 02/03/2006 7:10 pm
I started reading the daily newspaper when I was nine or ten and before I was out of my teens I realized that papers put out bullshit "science" news all the time. They recycled the same stories every few years (watch for this blond story to return someday) usually with the line -"Experts now say that....
You know, now that I think about it, this isn't the first time I've seen this story. I believe it circulated about a year ago, again as 'news,' and somebody posted it here on VNNF! I can't seem to find it, probably because almost the entire back database of 'This Just In' got wiped out about a month ago!
How is the faithful city become an harlot! It was full of judgment: righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water. Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards.
"The
Posted : 02/03/2006 8:24 pm
You know, now that I think about it, this isn't the first time I've seen this story. I believe it circulated about a year ago, again as 'news,' and somebody posted it hear on VNNF! I can't seem to find it, probably because almost the entire back database of 'This Just In' got wiped out about a month ago!
Here is the anonymously authored news story from 2002 from the "authoritative" BBC. As its source, it cites unnnamed "experts in Germany". No names. No academic affiliations. Nothing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2284783.stm
Friday, 27 September, 2002, 11:51 GMT 12:51 UK
Blondes 'to die out in 200 years'
Scientists believe the last blondes will be in Finland
The last natural blondes will die out within 200 years, scientists believe.
A study by experts in Germany suggests people with blonde hair are an endangered species and will become extinct by 2202.
Researchers predict the last truly natural blonde will be born in Finland - the country with the highest proportion of blondes.
The frequency of blondes may drop but they won't disappear
Prof Jonathan Rees, University of Edinburgh
But they say too few people now carry the gene for blondes to last beyond the next two centuries.
The problem is that blonde hair is caused by a recessive gene.
In order for a child to have blonde hair, it must have the gene on both sides of the family in the grandparents' generation.
Dyed rivals
The researchers also believe that so-called bottle blondes may be to blame for the demise of their natural rivals.
They suggest that dyed-blondes are more attractive to men who choose them as partners over true blondes.
Bottle-blondes like Ann Widdecombe may be to blame
But Jonathan Rees, professor of dermatology at the University of Edinburgh said it was unlikely blondes would die out completely.
"Genes don't die out unless there is a disadvantage of having that gene or by chance. They don't disappear," he told BBC News Online.
"The only reason blondes would disappear is if having the gene was a disadvantage and I do not think that is the case.
"The frequency of blondes may drop but they won't disappear."
Posted : 03/03/2006 8:58 am
Some 'factoids' never die, they just get rewritten and circulate once more.
How is the faithful city become an harlot! It was full of judgment: righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water. Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards.
"The
Posted : 03/03/2006 10:05 am