This is why I am making this post to share something that I believe will benefit many.
Here is my take on 2 lists of tips on what to avoid on a first date:

1. Introduce unfamiliar grooming regimens into your routine. Never had a Brazilian wax? Today’s not the day to try it. Ditto to shelling out for that new, expensive, zit-zapping, wrinkle-eradicating, sun-damage-reversing miracle cleanser you read about in Allure. Sure, both of these things might work out well, but there’s also the possibility you’ll be left with festering scabs, ingrown hairs, or worse.

2. Wear those six-inch heels you bought on eBay, thinking they were Louboutins, but actually turned out to be regulation stripper footwear. Unless you’re actually a stripper (or “Sex and the City’s” Carrie Bradshaw), and know how to walk in sky-high heels, opt for a cute pair of more down-to-earth shoes that won’t trip you up or give you blisters.

3. Get liquored up first. I know you’re tense, but guzzling three martinis before you meet him is not a good idea. You probably haven’t eaten all day and the combination of stress, hunger and booze is not a good one. Because I’m not completely heartless, you can have up to one glass of wine. But no more. Promise me — no more!

4. Not eat if you’re on a dinner date. Women always think they look dainty picking at a small green salad with just a lemon wedge while their date plows through the surf & turf. Wrong. They just look sad, hungry and possibly eating disordered. Even if you’re spazzing on the inside, skip the bunny food and order a normal human-sized meal.

5. Talk too much/clam up completely. Have you ever been seated next to a couple who you could immediately tell were on their first date? Painful, right? Either the conversation is peppered with long, awkward silences, or one of them is nattering on like a crazy person. You can’t help it if he turns out to be one of those types, but you sure can keep yourself in check.

6. Play make-believe. When you drop lies designed to impress — like claiming to be a Foucault scholar or are actually Johnny Cash’s second cousin — it’s pretty much a given that you’re going to get busted. Either your date will turn out to be some kind of philosophically minded smarty-pants and want to debate you, or he’ll be Johnny Cash’s third cousin, wondering why you weren’t at the last family reunion.

Source

There is one common denominator here:

Be yourself.

It’s a lot easier to let the other person get to know you little by little than repair a lie.
And even harder to live up to your lies should the date turn into an ongoing relationship.
The 3rd part about the drinking is something where I have to add that it is ok to have a couple of glasses to relax.
But we all know that when you let the alcohol take over, there may not be enough left of you to know and like.

It is indeed painful for me to watch when a woman eats less than she really wants, and if you want to lose weight, change your lifestyle and you will.
Whenever you force yourself into a new figure, the old figure will always force its way back, but when you lose weight from within, you will stay thin.
Now I am not convinced the blood type diet as we have been presented with is the best way to go, mainly because they have somewhat of a monopoly going on and the generalization that the rh factor doesn’t matter appears to me to be more of a lazy approach than anything to avoid admitting ignorance.

I am also suggesting that before you pay for the blood type diet, you find out if you are a fast oxidizer.

Now remember, the Basque population lacking type B and AB almost completely doesn’t seem effected by cholesterol and their body types appear tot tolerate their high fat diet very well.

This all comes back to being who you are. If your body type is built to carry a little more weight, so be it. If your rip cage is small and you are really “born thin” yet have ballooned after years of “depressed eating” of junk food, then yes, snap out of it and take some pride in what your body absorbs.

And if you sport the figure of someone simply gone out of shape yet nibble on a little salad pretending that it is all you ever eat, you will appear more of a fake than anything else.

Now how do you know if your date went well?

First off, there is the question whether or not you have sex on the first date and that depends often on which country you live in.
In the U.S. for example, it is not really the norm for a woman looking for a serious relationship to do it unless she is desperately trying to “secure the guy” which usually leads to her insecurities being validated by him wanting to break free later on.

But Europe or South America for example are different where a girl who likes a guy doesn’t seem to mind going for it as soon as she is into him.

If you have a date in the evening and the girl calls you after 1 or 2 days if you don’t call first, it is a sign that she likes you.

As a guy it is a little more tricky, but it can be a good thing to call next day without asking for another date, just to see if she is doing ok and then go from there.

But more than anything, you need to listen to your own instinct and one of the most important parts of the date is to get to know your date.

And if you are not sure if you liked your date or what to think about him or her, do what is done in business. Sign nothing and sleep over it and re-evaluate the next day.

So let’s move on to another list:

Things to Avoid on a Date

By now you know all the things you should do on a date, be polite, be yourself, smile… but it’s the things that we shouldn’t do that are sometimes overlooked. Avoid these things and increase your chances of getting that second date.

Don’t talk about past relationships. If you feel that you must, make sure you let them know that you are happy that you have moved on and are not still longing for this person. Never bash your ex for any reason.

Don’t skip out on the tip. If you show respect for your server and the job they performed, your date will respect you. This doesn’t mean you have to leave them 50% of the bill but a standard 15% – 20% is perfect.

Don’t order more than two alcoholic drinks. It’s better not to drink at all on a first date but if you do make sure you keep the amount to two drinks. You don’t want to get drunk. It’s not impressive to your date. And most importantly you shouldn’t drink if you will be driving yourself and or your date home.

Don’t confess feelings of love on the first date. You will appear needy and have your date looking for the exit before the second course.

Don’t discuss personal problems such as family, money, or health issues. Remember this is a date not a therapy session.

Don’t act desperate. You never want to admit this is the first date you’ve had in years. Keep it fun and get to know each other. Never talk about your future relationship.

Don’t discuss anything negative. This includes world events. Keep things light. If you aren’t sure what to talk about see getting to know your date.

Don’t leave your date to go talk to friends. It’s just rude. Instead if you run into buddies, introduce them to your date and then politely have them move on.

Don’t offer advice if your date does talk about personal problems. Instead try to guide the conversation back to a more pleasant subject.

Don’t take medication in front of your date. Yes this includes aspirin. Excuse yourself to the restroom.

Ladies, don’t reapply make-up at the dinner table. It’s not cute; in fact, it’s rude. Again, excuse yourself to the restroom.

Don’t brag. You should be asking your date about their interests. If they ask about yours keep your responses modest.

To put it bluntly, don’t be gross. Guys, avoid picking, scratching, nose blowing or adjusting in front of you date.

Finally, don’t make up “facts” about yourself to appear impressive. Sooner or later the truth will come out and ruin any chances of a future with your date.

Source

The key is to keep your options and your mind open. Wonder why so many good things happen when you are not looking for them? Because you are being you. You don’t care to put on an act, you are relaxed. Sure the date setting can seem uncomfortable, but don’t think of it as a date. Have fun matter what.

And if the person you are dating is blood type compatible, chances are it will be a good experience whether or not it turns into a long term relationship.

OK, so now that we have removed the negatives, let’s see if there are some good suggestions. First: Don’t rely on other people’s suggestions. It won’t work for you, at least not to a T. The one thing that I can however think of is that the best thing you can do is not follow a formula, but rather search. When getting to know someone and having the other person open up to you (but not too much), you can search for common interests. Little by little. If they are there and it clicks, good. If not, don’t force it, because it can turn the other person into a liar. Well, you either are or you are not, but you will put a foot into a slightly cracked door and open it up to a room of fake.

From there you might as well pack your bags and leave. Don’t open up too much or the other person might just start agreeing. Rather let them express their passion and see if you match.

If they express no passion about anything, they are either being fake or dead inside.

And if you don’t have what it takes to resurrect this person, you might be better off with someone who you have chemistry with.

See also: Why Blood Type Dating makes the most sense

What is included in this courses varies between the online schools that hold them. One of the topics would be daily ethics for solo lawyers or small law firms. As some might have noticed, legal practices have been moving up in record speed. This fast lane could easily lead one into ethical traps! Good online career development courses would provide experienced attorney faculty who would share tips and strategies for the young and inexperienced attorneys to prevent their legal practice to do malpractice.

Another topics under the communications and media law education courses are the ethics and allures of the social media. Most promotional and marketing department of companies are now using social media such as Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn as their marketing and promotional tools. These social media can help a great deal in promoting products and services. However it can also be misused for professional misconduct.

Regarding the usage of social media by companies, attorney Glen Gilmore once introduced the topic of “social media governance. He said, “Governance is about how a company establishes and sustains social networking best practices by integrating social media into its corporate culture. It’s the evolution of ‘social media’ into ‘social business’.”

How to keep it a social business and the ethics involved in social media, one can learn through a career development education courses.

This serves exceptionally well in the arena of pride.

Often criticism of a person or a government turns into an accusation of hating the person based on something he or she has no control over. In this manner, it becomes easy for the agent to find a handful of people who will agree as they themselves at one point have suffered from bad treatment based on the allegation they can identify with from their own past and immediately their entire focus will switch based on their deep unresolved issues and they will become vocal enough for the neutral and intelligent participants to desire further participation.

Professional victims are dime a dozen, so when writing just about anything, the majority of time spent on an airtight article demands re-reading and anticipating just about any form of entrance for someone to set their foot in to open the door to an accusation you yourself are not prepared for replying on as you yourself have likely not intended anything other than getting your point across without worrying about political correctness.

As a general rule:

People want to hear that they are the best.

You may skip that part, but the moment you make someone else look better in their own eyes, they are likely to turn on you.

Doing research in anthropology has brought this to my attention more and more as even certain governments refuse to openly publish findings on the DNA sequencing of their alleged ancestors.

The main problem which I see is that the groups of trusted friends are never able to expand beyond a certain degree as everytime more than 5 gather in peace, a bad apple moves in and causes distrust amongst the conversing participants in intelligent conversations.

Then you, the one pointing out the wrongs in the world are put into the position where you need to defend yourself and you are forced to retreat unless you have the energy to speed up the last kilometre of a marathon uphill.

Now you may ask yourselves where humanity is headed when it is that easy to fool others and the answer is it depends on the heart of the people.

Those who call themselves awake are often so ego driven that their own theories are more important to them than continuing the learning experience which has woken them up to begin with.

Time and time again you will realize that there is not much you can say in order to get your point across so you often depend on those you have once reached out to to continue part of your mission.

Many times the same people also are going to decide to go against you if there are enough indications to fabricate an alterior motive surrounding you.

The best that anybody can do is take every piece of information on a case to case basis regardless of who advertises it.

There will always be the 15% who cannot be fooled, but they still can get confused and scared into silence.

Which is why what you read is not reflecting what people think.

The truth is always between the lines.

And those who live it are not likely to voice themselves in caps and an excess of exclaiming characters.

Another big problem is that most of the most vocal anti disinformation people will mislead you in other ways once you are convinced that their message is true. It is a circle of false date being passed on with enough credibility and deniability attached to keep the “new friend” from being exposed as deliberately misleading you.

Often the ones who have been in your circle for ages without you ever feeling true passion from them suddenly rise to go against you or your message once enough support seems present.

Then all of a sudden it becomes easy for them to attack as there was never a visible friendship between you and betrayal would be a tough thing to prove.

Most of the work to keep a group or circle on a certain level does not involve research, but rather protection. Emotional distance from the general participants as you may not know their true intentions.

Your own instinct usually is right, if not always, but not accepting someone who says all the right things can be viewed as offensive. It is therefor very important that from the minute you start a project, being true to your own intentions is at the forefront and not how many people you can gather who think as you, as that is very easy for a newcomer with trojan horsemanship to fake.

Sharing who you distrust should also be limited to you and your inner circle and by inner I refer to very view.

Overall, being able to find the right people is not easy, but it can be done. But it won’t happen through open advertising, but rather through situations where people reveal their true selves and you connect based on something that cannot be put in a press release type of statement.

Disinformation agents are also famous for bringing in backup and/or using fake personas and profiles to give regular participants of an online conversation the illusion, that they or rather their opinion is really outnumbered in an attempt to either intimidate them or make them question their own intellect.

One of the most common accusations would be claiming you are closed minded for debunking some claim which is obviously false and bringing in others who say they same while befriending whoever is confused.

In an instance the vibe changes and those willing to learn will go elsewhere.

Is there a chance that things will change? Not really. But you can continue being yourself in moderation and protect yourselves from the type you have learned to avoid.

Then and only then you can start getting close to your own best friend: Yourself.

~ Mike Dammann

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (born January 25, 1922) is an American-Italian population geneticist born in Genoa, who has been a professor at Stanford University since 1970 (now emeritus).

One of the more distinguished geneticists of the 20th century, he has summed up his work for laymen under five topics covered in Genes, Peoples, and Languages (2000). Physiologist and evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond praised the work for “demolishing scientists’ attempts to classify human populations into races in the same way that they classify birds and other species into races.” According to an article published in The Economist, the work of Cavalli-Sforza “challenges the assumption that there are significant genetic differences between human races, and indeed, the idea that ‘race’ has any useful biological meaning at all.” (The Human Genome Survey, 1 July 2000, pg. 11)

Cavalli-Sforza’s The History and Geography of Human Genes (1994 with Paolo Menozzi and Alberto Piazza) is a standard reference on human genetic variation. Cavalli-Sforza also wrote The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution (with his son Francesco).

Once the genetic structure of inheritance had been made plain, Cavalli-Sforza was one of the first scientists to ask whether the genes of modern populations might contain an inherited historical record of the human species. The study of demographics was already well-established, based on linguistic, cultural, and archaeological clues, but it had become overlaid with nationalist and racist ideologies. Cavalli-Sforza initiated a new field of research by combining the concrete findings of demography with a newly-available analysis of blood groups in an actual human population.

Cavalli-Sforza has studied the connections between migration patterns and blood groups.

His papers in the mid-1960s with Anthony Edwards pioneered statistical methods for reconstructing evolutionary trees (phylogenies). They introduced the first parsimony method, which searched for the tree that connected the populations with the least change in gene frequencies.[citation needed] They also were first to use maximum likelihood methods to estimate phylogenies. They had an early distance matrix method as well. In effect, their work in 1963-1964 introduced two of the three major numerical methods for reconstructing phylogenies, with distance matrix methods having also been introduced by Walter Fitch.[citation needed] Edwards and Cavalli-Sforza were always concerned with trees of populations within the human species, where genetic differences are affected both by treelike patterns of historical separation of populations and by spread of genes among populations by migration and admixture. Cavalli-Sforza has been concerned with the effects of both divergence and migration on human gene frequencies.

While Cavalli-Sforza is best known for his work in genetics, he also, in collaboration with Marcus Feldman, initiated the sub-discipline of cultural anthropology known alternatively as coevolution, gene-culture coevolution, cultural transmission theory or dual inheritance theory. The seminal publication Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach (1981) made use of models from population genetics to investigate the transmission of culturally transmitted units. This line of inquiry initiated research into the correlation of patterns of genetic and cultural dispersion.

Cavalli-Sforza received his M.D. from the University of Pavia in 1944. His post-war studies at Cambridge in the area of bacterial genetics were followed by years of teaching in northern Italy, in Milan, Parma, and Pavia, and a move in 1970 to Stanford, where he found the intellectual culture more open-ended and cooperative, and where he has remained.

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Luca_Cavalli-Sforza)

Each system has a standard of how the data is entered. What are the specification of the information, and what is mandatory to enter to complete the information? Each system also determines who the owner of the database is and who is allowed to make commands to bring changes into the database.

Big as well as small businesses and organization need to handle a load of information. Owners of the businesses and business operators would need access to a reliable data management software. The data management system is the best solution today to help in filing, securing, retrieving and also sharing information.

Data management system has become an indispensable part of organizations and businesses today. Advanced techniques used for data capture like electronic scanning, electronic imaging help strengthen the entire business process. To help you set up your database management solution, contact Neil Haboush.

Basque immigrants flocked to the American West from the late 1880s through the mid-1960s. The pioneers operated boarding houses, built handball courts and started businesses in places such as San Francisco, Mountain Home, Idaho, Jordan Valley, Oregon and Salt Lake City. Many of the buildings that housed those enterprises still stand today – a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit of the Basque people.

The yellow of the sails also recalls the colour formerly associated with the French fleur de lis. In addition to symbolizing action and progress, the sails bring to mind French explorers, as well as the Basque, Breton and French fishermen who crossed the Atlantic ocean as early as the sixteenth century to fish the waters off Newfoundland. A spruce twig on the topsail stands for the mainland portion of the province, while the pitcher plant of the lower sail represents the island portion. The diagonal lines separating the red, white and blue sections of the flag evoke the vitality of Newfoundland’s French-speaking population (Harrington 141-143).

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/modern_french.html

Newfoundland and Labrador’s francophone community and its culture derive from a unique mix of influences and immigrants from Quebec, Acadia, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Brittany and the Basque Country, much of it predating Newfoundland’s admission as a Canadian province in 1949.[3] Some aspects of the community’s unique culture, however, have been lost or threatened as the community became more closely integrated into the mainstream of French Canadian culture and society after 1949.[4]

The sails represent early Basque, Breton, and French fishermen that came to the area in 1504. At the same time, they are symbols of action and progress. The yellow is taken from the star of the Acadian flag. The spruce twig is the emblem of Labrador and is also found on the Labrador flag. Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial flower is the insect-eating pitcher plant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Newfoundlander

The history of the world according to the Basques
Are you baffled by Europe’s most intractable independence movement? Then you just don’t appreciate the uniqueness of Euskadi, says Mark Kurlansky

February 2005

According to a popular Bilbao joke, a Bilbaino walks into a store and asks for “a world map of Bilbao” The shop owner unflinchingly answers, “left bank or right?” This is The Basque History of the World because Basques at times think they are the world. They feel inexplicably secure about their place among nations. But more important, Basques, while they are protecting their unique and separate identity, always endeavour to be in the world.

No word less describes Basques than the term separatist, a term they refuse to use. If they are an island, it is an island where bridges are constantly being built to the mainland.

Considering how small a group the Basques are, they have made remarkable contributions to world history. In the Age of Exploration they were the explorers who connected Europe to North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. At the dawn of capitalism they were among the first capitalists, experimenting with tariff-free international trade and the use of competitive pricing to break monopolies. Early in the industrial revolution they became leading industrialists: shipbuilders, steelmakers, and manufacturers. Today, in the global age, even while clinging to their ancient tribal identity, they are ready for a borderless world.

We live in an age of vanishing cultures, perhaps even vanishing nations. To be a Frenchman, to be an American, is a limited notion. Educated people do not practise local customs or eat local food. Products are flown around the world. We are losing diversity but gaining harmony. Those who resist this will be left behind by history, we are told.

But the Basques are determined to lose nothing that is theirs, while still embracing the times, cyberspace included. They have never been a quaint people and have managed to be neither backward nor assimilated. Their food, that great window into cultures, shows this. With an acknowledged genius for cooking, they pioneered the use of products from other parts of the world. But they always adapted them, made them Basque.

ETXEA

A central concept in Basque identity is belonging, not only to the Basque people but to a house, known in the Basque language as etxea. Etxea or echea is one of the most common roots of Basque surnames. Etxaberria means “new house,” etxazarra means “old house,” etxaguren is “the far side of the house,” etxarren means “stone house.” There are dozens of these last names referring to ancestral rural houses. The name Javier comes from Xavier or Xabier, short for etxaberria.

A house stands for a clan. Though most societies at some stage had clans, the Basques have preserved this notion because the Basques preserve almost everything. Each house has a tomb for the members of the house and an etxekandere, a spiritual head, a woman who looks after blessings and prayers for all house members wherever they are, living or dead.

These houses, often facing east to greet the rising sun, with Basque symbols and the name of the house’s founder carved over the doorway, always have names, because the Basques believe that naming something proves its existence. Izena duen guzia omen da (that which has a name exists).

THE MYTH

The Basques seem to be a mythical people, almost an imagined people. Their ancient culture is filled with undated legends and customs. Their land itself, a world of red-roofed, whitewashed towns, tough green mountains, rocky crests, a cobalt sea that turns charcoal in stormy weather, a strange language, and big berets, exists on no maps except their own.

Basqueland begins at the Adour river with its mouth at Bayonne – the river that separates the Basques from the French swampland of Landes – and ends at the Ebro river, whose rich valley separates the dry red Spanish earth of Rioja from Basqueland. Basqueland looks too green to be Spain and too rugged to be France. The entire area is only 8,218 square miles, which is slightly smaller than New Hampshire.

Within this small space are seven Basque provinces. Four provinces are in Spain and have Basque and Spanish names: Nafaroa or Navarra, Gipuzkoa or Guipuzcoa, Bizkaia or Vizcaya, and Araba or Alava.

Three are in France and have Basque and French names: Lapurdi or Labourd, Benafaroa or Basse Navarre, and Zuberoa or Soule.

An old form of Basque nationalist graffiti is “4 + 3 = l.”

As with most things pertaining to Basques, the provinces are defined by language. There are seven dialects of the Basque language, though there are sub-dialects within some of the provinces. In the Basque language, which is called Euskera, there is now word for Basque. The only word to identify a member of their group is euskaldan – Euskera speaker. Their land is called Euskal Herria – the land of the Euskera speakers. It is language that defines a Basque.

The central mystery is: Who are the Basques? The early Basques left no written records, and the first accounts of them, two centuries after the Romans arrived in 218BC, give the impression that they were already an ancient – or at least not a new – people. Artefacts predating this time that have been found in the area – a few tools, drawings in caves, and the rudiments of ruins – are not proven to have been made by Basques, though it is supposed that at least some of them were.

Ample evidence exists that the Basques are a physically distinct group. There is a Basque type with a long straight nose, thick eyebrows, strong chin, and long earlobes. Even today, sitting in a bar in a mountainous river valley town like Tolosa, watching men play mus, a popular card game, one can see a similarity in the faces despite considerable intermarriage. Personalities carve very different visages, but over and over again, from behind a hand of cards, the same eyebrows, chin, and nose can be seen.

The identical dark navy wool berets a so many men wear seem to showcase the long Basque ears sticking out of the sides. In past eras, when Spaniards and French were typically fairly small people, Basque men were characteristically larger, thick-chested, broad-shouldered and burly. Because these were also characteristics of Cro-Magnons, Basques are often thought to he direct descendants of this man who lived 40,000 years ago.

THE PROBLEM

When the Basques first began appearing on the stage of recorded history, even before there was a name for them, they were observed playing out the same roles that they have been playing ever since: defending their land and culture, making complex choices about the degree of independence that was needed to preserve their way of life, while looking to the rest of the world for commercial opportunities to ensure their prosperity.

Long before the Romans gave the Basques a name, a great many people attempted to invade the mountains of what is now Basqueland, and they all met with fierce resistance. The invaders were Indo-Europeans intending to move into the Iberian peninsula. It seems to have been acceptable to the indigenous people that these invaders pass through on their path to the conquest of Iberia. But if they tried to settle in these, northern mountains, they would encounter a ferocious enemy.

GURE

The most important word in Euskera is gure. It means “our” – our people, our home, our village. Cookbooks talk of our soups, our sauces. “Reptiles are not typically included in our meals,” wrote the great Guipuzcoan chef, Jose Maria Busca Isusi. That four-letter word, gure, is at the centre of Basqueness – the feeling of belonging inalienably to a group. It is what the Basques mean by a nation, why they have remained a nation without a country, even stripped of their laws.

THE NATION

Whatever the feelings in the rest of Spain, a united Europe is an idea that resonates with Basques. although they are not always happy with the way this new giant Europe is run.

To the left, it seems too friendly to corporations and not open to individuals and small business. The dichotomy between large and free, which [Victor] Hugo promised would not exist, sometimes seems a reality. But the idea of not having a border through their middle, of Europeans being borderless and tariffless partners, seems to many Basques to be what they call “a natural idea”.

“If Europe works, our natural region will be reinforced,” said the writer Daniel Landart. Ramon Labayen said: “The European Union represses artificial barriers.” Asked what he meant by an artificial barrier, he said, “Cultures are not barriers. Borders are barriers.”

The borders around Basqueland endure because they are cultural, not political.

[Basque leader] Arzalluz said, “The concept of a state is changing. They have given up their borders, are giving up their money. We are not fighting for a Basque state but to be a new European state.” A 1998 poll in Spanish Basqueland showed that 88 percent wanted to circumvent Madrid and have direct relations with the European Union.

In the idealised new Europe, economies are merged, citizenship is merged. But those who support the idea deny that countries will be eliminated. There will simply be a new idea of a nation – a nation that maintains its own culture and identity while being economically linked and politically loyal to a larger state. Some 1,800 years ago, the Basques told the Roman Empire that this was what they wanted. Four centuries ago, they told it to Ferdinand of Aragon. They have told it to Francois Mitterrand and Felipe Gonzalez and King Juan Carlos.

They watch Europe unfolding and wonder what has happened to their old adversaries. Most of the political leaders endorse the new Europe whether their citizens do or not. The Basques watch the French and Spanish give up their borders and their currency and wonder why it is so easy for them.

Why didn’t Mitterrand worry about the “fabric of the nation being torn”? Why does Madrid not worry about losing its sovereignty? And if they do not worry about these things, why do they feel threatened by the Basques? The Basques are not isolationists. They never wanted to leave Europe. They only wanted to be Basque. Perhaps it is the French and the Spanish, relative newcomers, who will disappear in another 1,000 years.

But the Basques will still be there, playing strange sports, speaking a language of ks and xs that no one else understands, naming their houses and facing them toward the eastern sunrise in a land of legends, on steep green mountains by a cobalt sea — still surviving, enduring by the grace of what Juan San Martin called euskaldun bizi nahia, the will to live like a Basque.

Extract from ‘The Basque History of the World’, by Mark Kurlansky, published by Random House

CONTRIBUTIONS TO GLOBAL CULTURE

SEBASTIAN ELCANO

(1476-1526), mariner, first to circumnavigate globe, showing the world was round. Sailed with Magellan of Portugal, but completed three-year voyage after he was killed.

PELOTA VASCA

(or basque ball), also known as jai alai, is the world’s fiercest, noisiest, most claustrophobic ball game. It is played against a high enclosed wall (or fronton), and has been exported to North and South America.

MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO

(1864-1936) – scholar and poet, famously defied fascist general Millan Astray, saying: “Vencera pero no convencera” (You’ll win but you won’t convince); sacked as rector of Salamanca University and died months later, a broken man.

EUROPE’S FIRST DEMOCRACY

Basques claim to have pioneered Europe’s first democratic assembly a thousand years ago when farmers and herdsmen demanded that kings of Spain recognise their rights beneath an old oak at Gernika (Guernica). The tree was felled last year after it died in August.

ST IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA

Founded Jesuits in 1534, canonised 1622. From ancient noble family. Lost leg when shot while defending Pamplona castle from French. Converted to Christianity after reading religious books; wrote a book on “spiritual exercises”. Imprisoned by the Inquisition for “promoting dangerous doctrines”.

DANTZARI

Men clad in white who execute high-kicking dances of honour and welcome at big Basque events. And bertzolari, poets who improvise emotional sung poems to crowds about whatever is going on, and whose challenge is matched by others in the audience who sing back.

BASQUE BERET

The flat black floppy hat beloved of free thinkers worldwide. Known as a txapela, essential protection against the siri-miri, the insistent leaden drizzle that hangs in the valleys and seeps into your clothes and your bones.

CUISINE

The French cross the Pyrenees to sample pastries and the traditional dish of sheep cheese with black cherry jam, left. Basque cooks are famed worldwide, their restaurants laden with Michelin stars. Specialities include salt cod or bacalao (whose invention is hotly contested by the Portuguese).

BIZARRE RURAL COMPETITIONS

Stone-lifting, log-chopping and other bizarre rural competitions. Champions capable of lifting cubes of granite the size of a fridge, or reducing huge tree trunks to flying splinters in seconds, are hailed as local heroes.

DELORES IBARRURI, LA PASSIONARA (1895-1989)

The communist leader in the Spanish civil war who was renowned for his fiery speeches, swearing “we would rather die on our feet that live on our knees” and the slogan “No pasaran” – They shall not pass

Research by Elizabeth Nash

http://www.basqueed.org/Basque-History.htm

One of the problems in Western society is that division keeps a healthy society from growing.
While feminist movements manage to enrage people, solutions never follow.
The Basques however seem to have traditionally speaking been able to keep their society peaceful and intact and one of the things that stands out is the role of the women in their domestic economy.
You see:
In the Basque culture the men traditionally cook and the women tend to be in charge of business.
It really makes sense, because if the husband doesn’t like the food, he gets bitter and when he messes up the finances, she gets upset.

A widespread belief that Basque society was originally matriarchal seems to conflict with the clearly patrilinear character of known family inheritance structures. There have been attempts to reconcile these points by assuming that the latter represents an innovation. In any case, the social position of women in both traditional and modern Basque society is somewhat better than in neighbouring cultures, and women have a substantial influence in decisions about the domestic economy. In the past, some women participated in collective magical ceremonies, and were key participants in a rich folklore, today largely forgotten.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_people

Bullen provides an overview of gender theory, then focuses on Basque women as agents of cultural transmission in the context of the nationalist movement, and in the diaspora. The myths surrounding Basque matriarchy and the extent of women’s rule fixed in a mythical past are questioned. While the powerful mother figure has a vital role in handing down Basque language and culture, contemporary women are also breaking old stereotypes and carving out new niches for themselves, at times coming into conflict with the force of tradition. Distributed for the Center for Basque Studies.

http://books.google.hu/books/about/Basque_Gender_Studies.html?id=ZveoTNPYIR4C&redir_esc=y

So who do you trust?

The CIA or the Basques?

Mike Dammann

Now, I am not as interested in the past 2,000 years as I am in the past 10,000 years, even though a few groups are new, highly rh negative, but their presence is a little more obvious than let’s say the origin of the Sami or Cherokees would be.

Unfortunately we have very little accurate data to go by and even though I am convinced that the 0 blood frequency amongst the Cherokees is likely highly negative, I have yet to see official reports.

But what we can do is look at the haplogroups and compare them to populations with high percentages of rh negatives and then get a little bit closer to what we want to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

Now, let me start with the Guanches, because they would be the easiest to look at.

The Guanches are the natives of the Canary Island and the most frequent haplogroup amongst them is R1B which indicates strong Basque influence from the sailors who came to the Canary Islands and the second highest indicates Berber heritage.

It is believed that they migrated to the archipelago sometime between 1000 BCE and 100 BCE or perhaps earlier.

Due to the high migrations, the Guanches are now considered extinct, but of course, traces in the DNA are witnessing their original ancestry.

But let’s look back a lot further and see how the Berbers, Basques and Sami connect:

Clues come from the very same region the Basques and Gascons appear to be the original inhabitants of:

The area became culturally divided between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic subareas in the Neolithic period losing its homogeneity as the Eastern part incorporated strongly the Cardium Pottery culture, while the West remained less developed (subneolithic). Basques and Gascons are arguably the direct descendants of the peoples of the Atlantic area, who remained more closed (relatively) to the new tendencies from the Mediterranean and Central Europe.

The Franco-Cantabrian region.

Alessandro Achilli and colleagues noted that the Sami and the Berbers share U5b1b, which they estimated at 9,000 years old, and argued that this provides evidence for a radiation of the haplogroup from the Franco-Cantabrian refuge area of southwestern Europe.

Now the Sami language has been influenced so heavily by uralic languages, that it is hard to trace any origin through it, but again: The past is in the DNA itself.

In conclusion, this study is a paradigmatic example of the power of genetic inference in human-origin and evolutionary studies. It shows that mtDNA data—in this case, at the highest possible level of molecular resolution—can be used not only to evaluate models proposed by other disciplines and based on the direct survey of ancient material but also to identify previously unknown links between populations and geographic areas. Thus, the study of human genetics directly fosters the development of new research avenues in paleontology, archaeology, linguistics, and history.

But let’s go back to the Sami, who are also the population highest featuring the HLA-B27 group.

Other groups high on the list for HLA-B27 include Gypsies, Parsi (the original population of Iran and with it various parts of India to which they have fled to escape Arab persecution) and the people of Southern Ireland.

Pharao Ramses was said to have B negative blood which also is exceptionally high amongst the Gypsies and Parsi and his DNA tested for HLA-B27. Aside from that, the Berbers consider themselves the original Egyptians kicked out by the Arab invaders which could be part of the hesitation within the Egyptian government to release all DNA and blood tests performed on the mummies.

Continue here: The History and the Mystery of the Basque People

See also: Frequently asked questions about the Basque

Mike Dammann

Stay tuned for The Rh Negative Connection Part II