British scientist 'solves' mystery of Himalayan yetis

Forums: Science, Yeti, Dna, Himlayas, Yetis
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24564487

Quote:

Research by a British scientist has concluded that the legendary Himalayan yeti may in fact be a sub-species of brown bear.

DNA tests on hair samples carried out by Oxford University genetics professor Bryan Sykes found that they matched those from an ancient polar bear.

He subjected the hairs to the most advanced tests available.

He says the most likely explanation for the myth is that the animal is a hybrid of polar bears and brown bears.

Prof Sykes told the BBC that there may be a real biological animal behind the yeti myth.

"I think this bear, which nobody has seen alive,... may still be there and may have quite a lot of polar bear in it," he said.

"It may be some sort of hybrid and if its behaviour is different from normal bears, which is what eyewitnesses report, then I think that may well be the source of the mystery and the source of the legend."

Prof Sykes conducted the DNA tests on hairs from two unidentified animals, one from Ladakh - in northern India on the west of the Himalayas - and the other from Bhutan, 1,285km (800 miles) further east.

The results were then compared with the genomes of other animals that are stored on a database of all published DNA sequences.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 6 • Views: 3,480 • Replies: 25

[+3] - Lustig Andrei - 10/19/2013[quote="farmerman"] puns r stupid and are about the lowest form of humor/ Below even the much hated , knock-knock joke. [/quote] Couldn't disagree with you more. In my experience...

@Lustig Andrei,

bummer, that sorta makes this a duller world. (Pssst-dont whisper a word to gunga--he will **** himself)

0 Replies

I can't bear it. It's the polar opposite of what i had always thought. It puts me in a brown study.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

It gives us paws, doesn't it? But you can bear up under the strain, set.

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@Lustig Andrei,

aw ****, are we gonna start with the puns now?

2 Replies

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

aw ****, are we gonna start with the puns now?

You are under no obligation whatever to do so, farmer.

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@farmerman,

We have not yeti begun to pun . . .

2 Replies

@Setanta,

I don't think farmerman's up for this. Himalayan down.

0 Replies

@Setanta,

Puns are funny....I can bear them. If ur not up to appreciating them yeti, ursus grin and bear it.

1 Reply

@dlowan,

puns r stupid and are about the lowest form of humor/ Below even the much hated , knock-knock joke.

3 Replies

@farmerman,

Now some douche bag will, no doubt, come up with a knock knock pun about yetis

0 Replies

@farmerman,

Nonsense,

Say knock knock...

0 Replies

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

puns r stupid and are about the lowest form of humor/ Below even the much hated , knock-knock joke.

Couldn't disagree with you more. In my experience the only people who keep insisting that puns are "the lowest form of humor" are those who are totally incapable of thinking up any puns and much of the time don't even understand the puns that somebody else has come up with. In other words their revulsion stems from a deep-seated inferiority complex which is disguised as an elitist air of superiority to such a "low" form of humor.

Sorry, farmer, but there it is.

2 Replies

@Lustig Andrei,

whenever puns are delivered, people don't laugh they usually go eeeew, cause the pun, as a delivery of "humor" is lame.

There it is
really good humorist don't have to rely upon them because they master other tools of their art.

The only comedians I knew that could deliver a pun and make it "sort of funny" was the SMOTHERS BROTHERS, and even they surrounded their puns with irony or litotes or any of a slew of devices that show mastery.

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Who appointed you head of the humor gestapo?

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Lustig Andrei wrote:

farmerman wrote:

puns r stupid and are about the lowest form of humor/ Below even the much hated , knock-knock joke.

Couldn't disagree with you more. In my experience the only people who keep insisting that puns are "the lowest form of humor" are those who are totally incapable of thinking up any puns and much of the time don't even understand the puns that somebody else has come up with. In other words their revulsion stems from a deep-seated inferiority complex which is disguised as an elitist air of superiority to such a "low" form of humor.

Sorry, farmer, but there it is.

Since you would like my opinion on this matter, I do not care for puns, since in my opinion, it just bores me, wastes my time, and makes me think that the genius of Woody Allen, Jackie Gleason, Gracie Allen, Steve Allen, and a whole bunch of other comics, is only cheapened by a pun. Satuday Night Live would not have existed, if it relied on the pun. The pun is just no fun (shades of Seinfeld humor, possibly?).

I would not waste my time on thinking up a pun. I put the pun in the same class of humor as the riddle. Only the riddle has a panache of thinking for an answer.

Sorry, Lustig, but there it is.

0 Replies

@Setanta,

Quote:

Who appointed you head of the humor gestapo?

NOOOBOODDDYYY ever expects the Humor Gestapo.
Our chief weapon is surprise, and ruthlessness

OUR TWO CHIEF WEAPONS are Surprise, Ruthlessness, and a deep devotion to the rules of comedy

AMONG OUR CHIEF WEAPONS are three. surprise, ruthlessness, and a deep devotion to the rules of comedy

Thank you for asking

1 Reply

I think we're in trouble now, Set.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

A rather punderful, if sadly confused, excursus.

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Naw . . . water, duck's back . . . i'm not ducking any of the self-satisfied twaddle of that quack . . .

0 Replies

British scientist 'solves' mystery of Himalayan yetis

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