#human variation

[rendakuenthusiast]

Albinos of different races via https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/scientific-racism-a-point-by-point

[witchysolfan]

Dracul Au Human Variation

(August)

A future scene I drew of Stefan (Starscream) , no longer a missing person and returning to his teaching job after getting the necessary protection magics from Kayden (Knockout) to safely walk about in his own. Peter (Predaking) is less than thrilled by this as he has come to view Stefan as a good friend and feels some more draconian protective/possessive instincts towards him.

Which leads to Stefan doing one act that brings certain things Peter has been unconsciously pushing to the back of his mind all the way to the front.

Like it’s one thing for vampires to bite their blood supplier, quite another for the blood supplier to bite back. It…does things to them.

In a more cracky way of putting it

Peter’s head empty, vampire instincts go AWOOGA

[clatterbane]

Just had to get amused again, thinking about some variation in basic human proportions.

I'm around 5'7" (after losing a little height with vertebral fractures, at least). My partner is around 6'1". But, the difference there is all legs. We at least used to look exactly the same height sitting next to each other.

Yeah, my legs (and arms) are kinda short. Definitely come by it honestly, since OTOH there's my uncle! Probably 6'3", and we wear the same inseam. Not even kidding.

Just another way humans are weird.

[kaijutegu]

Random question I'm trying to figure out: are white people albino? If reptiles missing melanin are albino, does that mean...?

Nope! 

To answer this question completely, we gotta talk about melanin. Melanin isn’t just one pigment- it’s actually a whole complex of pigments! There’s three main types. Eumelanin, which can be brown or black; pheomelanin, which is largely responsible for red hair; and finally, neuromelanin (which may be responsible for the wobble in spider ball pythons- it’s melanin that forms in the brain). What albinism does is knocks out melanin completely. But most white people still do produce melanin! Melanin production doesn’t really have a simple on or off switch. If it’s “off,” you get albinism; if it’s “on,” you get a whole wide range of phenotypes. Skin color’s based on variations in concentrations of melanin. Hair color’s controlled by melanin, too. 

Let’s look at this picture of tiny Lindsay Lohan, when she was in the Parent Trap.

Yes, her skin’s pretty pale- but she’s got freckles (eumelanin) and red hair (eumelanin+pheomelanin). Compare her to Kenosha Robinson, who is black, but also albino.

No melanin; all the color here is structural, based on the way light reflects on things like tissue and hair. (And some of it’s makeup, like her lip color- this picture’s from a Vanity Fair photoshoot). 

Even the whitest white person still produces some melanin. It’s not knocked out completely! It’s just variation.

[witchysolfan]

Thought of something that is also a very-Shockwave thing to do and probs a little funny to picture, imagine this: Hassan/Shockwave milking Peter/Predaking’s venom like how handlers milk venomous snakes and spiders. Guy wants to study vampirism and he finds the venom fascinating to invest in and centrifuge it into a powder for whatever use he wants later. So some of Hassan/SW’s visits are just him pulling out a funnel with a plastic top and going “Ok, now bite this son” bc it takes several milkings to get several ounces of venom into a glass tube. Idk it’s funny to me and I used to work in a chemistry lab soo

AGAHSHDHDHDJF

Peter cringing every time Hassan uses the term “milking venom” because oh god Dad stop! Just say venom letting or something, ANYTHING ELSE, but milking!

Hassan: It’s the correct term-

Peter: Please no…..

Hassan:…..may I drain you then?

Peter: That sounds just as worse!

Hassan: Peter, stop this nonsense. I do not understand your opposition to the terms used here.

Also Stefan had his own semi embarrassing talk of the venom’s effects he felt when bitten but he otherwise went into scientist mode and managed to not let it get to him too much.

Pure professionalism.

[witchysolfan]

Dracul AU human variation

The relationship between Stefan and Peter starts with how coffee is made and given between them.

Stefan hates how Peter makes coffee. It’s not to his taste and unbalanced.

Likewise Peter cannot understand how Stefan could be so pretentious about his his coffee is made. It just coffee. Nothing special about it.

The coffee is bad and not balanced at first.

Then after February (the month where the blow up happens and they start to talk it out and come to a more agreeable relationship as acquaintances who so happen to live together due to circumstances) the coffee is experimented with. Still not as good but not as bad as before.

As the months go by, the coffee goes through various changes. Trying out different methods and ways to make a good cup the other had not thought of before. It is getting better. Though there are times there is too much of one thing that makes the coffee taste off and sometimes it tastes bad again.

But still they try.

By October, the coffee is close to perfect but not quite.

There is still something missing.

Something needed to chase away the cold that comes after them.

When December comes around, the coffee is perfect.

It is exactly what the other likes it as.

Stefan is surprised one day taking a sip and realizing it’s in the exact way he likes it.

Peter made it for him.

It certainly keeps him cozy as the cold winter winds batter against the windows.

He makes Peter a cup in the way he enjoys it. Not too much fanfare. Just a simple cup because Peter was not too crazy about going overboard with it.

If he slices his hand to add an addition to the drink, well, he’s only enhancing it just a bit for the vampire.

Peter’s and Stefan’s relationship is just like a cup of coffee.

[witchysolfan]

Is Starscream afraid of anything else besides ghosts? Maybe he has arachnophobia or something else.

He has a phobia of dying. Agshdjfj

Ok but in all seriousness, no real phobias. Just a healthy amount of fear for anything supernatural and dangerous.

I mean, I’d be freaked out too if I just saw some shadow person peering over me with those big eyes. (Was making a Ju-On and Kairo reference there)

[thewitchesbrewletter]

The Concept of Race

The varied elements of human variation and the complexity of their interpretation are perhaps nowhere highlighted more dramatically than by the differences between popular perceptions and scientific studies of race. Although humans present a diverse bunch, dividing human populations into discrete racial categories or classifications is extremely problematic. Many attempts at racial classifications have been made, but these have failed because they proved too rigid to account for either the tremendous variation found within individual races or the shared similarities between these supposedly different groups. For this reason, modern anthropologists generally avoid using racial classifications, but rather focus on the specific characteristics represented.

The term race was likely derived from the Latin root ratio, with a meaning similar to "species" or "kind" (of thing). Physical characteristics, such as skin pigmentation, nose shape, and hair texture, have prompted people throughout history to classify humans into different "races." Although the diversity of human populations is undeniable, delin eating specific races has little practical or scientific value in studying human variation (MacEachern 2012; Lieberman and Scupin 2012; Templeton 2013). As we shall see, physical characteristics do not divide humans into readily discernible groups or races; clearly bounded, racially distinct populations are not found in the real world.

Further, the word race is a loaded term in part be cause people use the word differently in different contexts (MacEachern 2012). Classification of physical characteristics serves only to label particular categories of phenomena arbitrarily selected by the researcher or the individual. Humans in both the past and present have used various ra cial classifications to categorize people and have developed stereotypes about the behavior and mental abilities of different "racial categories." Racial categories have subsequently been used as justification for the discrimination or the marginalization of certain groups. Racial classifications can also be used as self-defined categories in census data or in other contexts to refer to styles of music, dance, or literature.

– Raymond Scupin and Christopher R. DeCorse, Book – Anthropology: A Global Perspective (Eighth Edition)