Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

March 27, 2025: Deleted your DNA data! The Classic TV Detective Tourney advances to round 2! And a reminder, Columbophiles!

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Apparently 23andMe, the biotech company that offered personalized genotyping reports, is going bankrupt and people are urging customers to request the deletion of their data given the likelihood the information may fall into the hands of government agencies that will use it to create bioweapons fashioned to target YOU.  Or something.  A friend reached out about this today and I responded: “I got tests done for both Akemi and I to check for potential genetic predispositions to certain conditions and diseases.  According to the results, my carrier status detected no variants of concern, however  I am apparently predisposed to consuming more caffeine than the average person but less likely to be a deep sleeper.  Also, my muscle composition is similar to that of elite power athletes.  But, of course, none of this is surprising.  On the other hand, the Traits Report specify that I am both “less likely than average to be afraid of heights” and “less likely to hate chewing sounds” which really causes me to question the validity of the entire process.

One of the other reasons I wanted to get the test was to check out my ancestry.  According to those results, I’m 89.5% Southern European, and 10.5% Western Asian & North African, possibly Iranian or Mesopotamian.  I thought this interesting and mentioned it to my mother who dismissed it with a “I don’t believe in those things.””
Anyway, just to be on the safe side, I’ve gone ahead and requested they delete my data.  OR build me a free clone.  Their call.
Screenshot 2025-03-26 at 5.15.35 PM
Here are the first round results in our Classic TV Detective Tournament.  All the top seeds advance, but there were a few surprise upsets among the lower ranks – Starsky and Hutch laying the beatdown on Matlock, the Blue Moon Detective Agency vanquishing Barnaby Jones and Spenser for Hire besting Dan Tanna in Battle Urich.  Check out the matchups for the second round of play and head on over to X to cast your votes!
Speaking of detectives, our Columbo rewatch continues tomorrow with…
Screenshot 2025-03-26 at 12.08.41 PM
“The Most Crucial Game”
The manager of a football team murders its callow owner, making it look as if the young man had had an accident in his swimming pool. Lt. Columbo is on the case.
Updated viewing schedule:
Friday, March 28th: The Most Crucial Game
Monday, March 31st: Dagger of the Mind
Friday, April 4th: Requiem for a Falling Star
Monday, April 7th: A Stitch in Crime
Friday, April 11th: The Most Dangerous Match
Monday, April 14th: Double Shock
Finally, sis is scheduled to fly back to Montreal late Saturday night while Akemi, Sharky and I are scheduled to fly back to Toronto late Sunday morning – apparently smack dab in the middle of a snowstorm that starts tonight and ends on Monday.  The last time this happened, I was delayed for some 10 hours.

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6 responses

  1. Gildermcc Avatar
    Gildermcc

    From the tournament choices, one might assume you are as old as I am.

    Reply
  2. gforce Avatar
    gforce

    So, if you got a clone made (for free) with your DNA, could you then upload your consciousness to the clone, Asgard-style? I’m sure AI will somehow figure out the degenerative replication thing soon, so you’re probably good for a few thou years.

    Reply
    1. Joseph Mallozzi Avatar
      Joseph Mallozzi

      An excellent sci-fi premise.

      Reply
  3. dasndanger Avatar
    dasndanger

    I just had this conversation with someone I thought was sane. No way, no how was she going to do her DNA. I didn’t ask why, but she did mention how law enforcement uses it to catch criminals. I said if my DNA helps catch a killer and give a family closure, so be it. Of course, if I was planning on doing some dirty deeds, then that’s a different story, “I s’pooose.” (From a movie – can you name it? Hint: It’s British.)

    Your DNA, Joe, really reflects the extent of the Roman Empire. The Northern African and Western Asia (Israel, perhaps?) suggests either immigrants or enslaved people from Roman territories brought into Italy. I had a dash of Italian show up, then a dash of Jewish, then both went away and now I’m showing the Balkans. My DNA hasn’t changed, just the way it’s compared.

    The reason for it is this: I believe to be a DNA data base contributor for Ancestry, a person must prove that their ancestors have lived in a given region for 500 years. Some cultures can do that easily. Europeans through church records, Koreans through meticulous family documentation, and the peoples from the various regions of Africa due to close tribal ties (including culture, languages, and even physical appearances) that go back for centuries. But some people, such as Native Americans, can have difficulty establishing their ancestry since records are sparse, tribes have been annihilated, and superstitions prevent some from donating to the data base. (However, native peoples from Spanish America who converted to Catholicism early on often have good family records through the church.)

    When DNA testing for the masses first started, the baseline data was sparse. In some places, only one or two people matched the criteria, while in other areas hundreds of people were able to donate to the data base. Over the years, more people qualified to be added to the base samples, thus refining our DNA results. For instance, when I got my first DNA results, I was mostly just ‘British Isles’ and Northwestern Europe, with a little bit of African. But now my DNA more accurately reflects my Danish paternal grandfather and my PA Dutch and Prussian maternal grandfather. My maternal grandmother – being from Charleston, SC – had the African and Scottish ancestry, while I now think that my paternal grandmother – who we always thought was just ‘English’ – must have been a mix of German, Scottish, and Scandinavian, although the family names on her side are distinctly English. Hmmm. I need to do some further investigation into her side of the family…

    So, without any further ado-do, my DNA is as follows:

    34% Germanic Europe (22% Mom, 12% Dad)
    33% Denmark (Dad)
    17% Scotland (16% Mom, 1% Dad)
    4% Sweden (Dad)
    The rest is all mom’s side:
    3% England & Northwestern Europe
    2% Ivory Coast & Ghana
    2% Central & Eastern Europe
    2% The Balkans
    1% MaliEthnic groups
    1% Western Bantu Peoples
    1% Wales

    So, it seems I’m mostly Viking, Highlander, and Hessian…lol.

    Here’s a photograph of my great-great uncle, Arthur L. Macbeth, a professional African-American photographer, and his children. His son, Hugh, was educated through Harvard and went on to be a civil rights attorney, defending Japanese interns during WW2. His sister, my great grandmother, passed for white and married a white man, while Arthur remained in the black community. They all moved their families north in the early 1900s, Arthur to Baltimore, and my great-grandparents to Philadelphia.

    https://www.charlestonmuseum.org/research/collection/macbeth-family/E4B3DBBC-2E8F-4DCF-BD90-683409979795

    das

    Reply
    1. Joseph Mallozzi Avatar
      Joseph Mallozzi

      Oh, absolutely had you pegged as a Viking.

      Reply
      1. dasndanger Avatar
        dasndanger

        What gave it away? Certainly it’s not a penchant for surströmming, because I wouldn’t touch that stuff with a 100-foot pole! (Have YOU ever tried it?)

        das

        Reply

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