Genetic Throwbacks?

[Sibling Chatty]

There's a kid at MD Anderson that has neurofibromatosis and the werewolf thing going on at the same time. He was being kept at home in his remote village somewhere in eastern Europe, with a mostly blind grandmother taking care of him.

A doc from Doctors Without Borders found out about him when they were doing inoculations in the region. They brought him to Houston 5 years ago. He's learned English (no accent) and is 12 years old, doing math and science on a beginning college level, and is high school level in all other school courses, plus had learned to play 7 musical instruments.

He doesn't want publicity. Can't blame him. But there's a wealthy individual that's paying a fortune for electrolysis for this kid...and he hopes to someday be able to attend college full time. (Rice University, across the street from the Medical Center, will take him at any time. Rice is very difficult to get into.) Having done gift and toy deliveries to MDA for a number of years (and being a neurofibro patient myself) i've met this kid. He's just a sweet, normal kid who loves Halloween, because he can pretend to be "acceptable" normal for a little while.

[Sibling Kephra (Tansy)]

I have a tail.  No joke.  My spinal cord is 2 vertebrae 'too long'. 
It isn't noticeable unless I bend over, and even then it's 'tucked under' a bit.  School was fun with those hard metal chairs attatched to the desks.  Many a bruised tailbone...  lol
An ex liked to joke alot about 'getting a piece of tail'... 

[Sibling Chatty]

Mine's one short. Too bad a transfer would be messy, expensive and no help to either of us.

[Sibling Kephra (Tansy)]

lol... hey...  wonder if I could 'sting' people....

[The Meromorph]

I have a tail.  No joke.  My spinal cord is 2 vertebrae 'too long'. 
It isn't noticeable unless I bend over, and even then it's 'tucked under' a bit.  School was fun with those hard metal chairs attatched to the desks.  Many a bruised tailbone...  lol
An ex liked to joke alot about 'getting a piece of tail'... 

Between four to seven weeks of foetal development, all humans have a tail. It is later reabsorbed. Not only that, but we share with mice (in whose genome they've been found) the same tail-making genes. It appears that there is a separate mechanism controlling the tail's apoptosis*, so that the occasional human born with a tail isn't like that because of the reactivation of old genes, but rather because the genes to remove it have malfunctioned.

Thought you might be interested.


*Apoptosis is a process in the development of an embryo which involves programmed cell death. Cells are formed... only to be destroyed.

[Sibling Kephra (Tansy)]

Nifty!

I malfunction...  I *knew* I had an excuse there somewhere! 

[Swatopluk]

You should have protested within the 9-month guarantee time
I hope there are no protusions on your head too or we could get a nasty suspicion

[Sibling Kephra (Tansy)]

No... nothing other than the piercings. 
I figure the Powers That Be thought I was innately 'evil' enough.  Nothing really needs to be announced there...
Believe me; the offspring are proof enough.