What inspired your name?

[maradnu]

Yorkies

I am Jewish by choice. I don't know if I have any distant Jewish ancestors, but seem not to have any recent ones. I am Yaakov Ben Avraham Avinu and my Jewish name makes it clear I am Jewish by choice, not ancestry.

[LLapp]

maradnu, so you are not even partly Jewish? Sorry if I'm being too personal, but you mentioned that you know Hebrew, so I was curious.

The DNA test tells what parts of the world your genes come from, but I doubt any DNA test can tell your religion. There have been substantial Jewish communities in a few of the countries that maradnu mentioned -- Germany, Scotland and France are three that I'm sure about. My family is Jewish and my ancestors came from the Ukraine and Scotland. I have good friends, a retired couple in the Philly suburbs, who both were born and raised in Scotland and both are from Jewish families; she is from Glasgow and he grew up in the Shetland Islands.

[imported_alina]

maradnu, so you are not even partly Jewish? Sorry if I'm being too personal, but you mentioned that you know Hebrew, so I was curious.

[realradiosglow]

Name origin

One of my hobbies is Amateur Radio, within which there is a subset of hobbyists who especially enjoy restoring and using vintage, vacuum tube based equipment. The many small ventilation holes in the cabinets of such equipment combined with the glow of the vacuum tubes cause them to glow in the dark in a pleasing way, in my opinion, bringing me memories of my younger days when I had access to (now) vintage equipment with which to explore the magic of shortwave radio. Those who get a kick out of the old equipment have a saying, "Real Radios Glow in the Dark".

I also enjoy vegetable gardening, clam digging and other gentle outdoor pursuits, so I could have made up a name from those, but on the day I chose a user name I was in a radio mood.

Also, those who know Robert Crumb's off-the-wall comic book creativity will recognize my Avatar, the clueless and impressionable Flaky Foont, Mr. Natural's acolyte.

[TimmyTee]

They call me "Tooltime" at work, so you can probably figure out where my screen name for this site comes from.

[writeon]

Uh, no thanks...

Maybe I'm paranoid, but if someone has your DNA, they can use it against you. What would the same people who steal your identity do with the very core of your physical body? What would the government do with it? I'd rather hand down medical history by word of mouth, or deal with it as issues arise. If you're predisposed with cancer, there's not much you can do to prevent it. I think by promoting your health and well-being at every level (physical, mental, emotional, psychological and even spiritual) to begin with, most illness can be prevented, even the serious ones.

[imported_Lurker]

On the other hand, if the findings lead you to pursue medical genetic testing, it's going to be on the record anyway. I miraculously came up negative for all of the cancer predispositions for my racial makeup, but am keeping the results in a research database for future use. A little spit to advance medical science.

[wvwoman]

i think you have a point, writeon!

I think I'm too chicken to do a DNA type test, wvwoman. It's bad enough there's so much information on the internet about us, and I'm not willing to share something far more personal like DNA. Cluck! Cluck!

i had never thought of this, but dr. oz is featuring this topic on his show today. things like what happens to your sample after it's tested (no--they don't discard it!), who owns it, who can get the results (yes, it can be accessed by insurance companies and law enforcement), how can it be used, etc.

they suggested: be sure lab is in the united states. request that your sample be destroyed, though this doesn't mean it will be. be sure to check the "opt out" box on the paperwork--though it only covers a portion of the problems.

ugh.

[Spellbinder44]

Spellbinder44

Way back in 2008, I was playing on a Scrabble-like site with the domain name.ro ( Romania ).
I " bound spellings " while playing Scrabble.
Hence, I decided on SpellBinder.
It has nothing to do with magic or casting spells, (un)fortunately.

[wvwoman]

I think I'm too chicken to do a DNA type test, wvwoman. It's bad enough there's so much information on the internet about us, and I'm not willing to share something far more personal like DNA. Cluck! Cluck!

i'm not sure if i'd do the dna thing--i was just thinking of the genealogy aspect.

[writeon]

Wow, Maradnu, that's quite the mix!

[writeon]

I think I'm too chicken to do a DNA type test, wvwoman. It's bad enough there's so much information on the internet about us, and I'm not willing to share something far more personal like DNA. Cluck! Cluck!

[maradnu]

Ancestry

For me, it's Scots-Irish, Irish, Scottish, Swiss, German, English, Welsh, and French, as best I've been able to trace it

[wvwoman]

(according to an ad on tv last night, ancestry.com is having a $30-off sale.)

[writeon]

SusanODyna, I just found out my family came from Ireland--well, it was traced back to the mid-1600's. I need to learn about my ancient Irish roots, and I'm going to start with Dearmid O'Dyna!
WriteOn