Lord how hate it when people do those DNA comparisons. I’m all for being nice to monkeys and gorillas, but please. We share a lot of the same DNA with dogs and, if memory serves, a big chunk of our DNA matches up nicely with some fruits and vegetables. What, exactly, should that tell us? We share 100% of our DNA with fetuses — as Ramesh would likely note — and yet that never seems to argue much in their favor among the crowd that wants animals to have rights.

More to the point, sharing DNA isn’t all that revealing. Two books can share a lot of the same words. That doesn’t mean that In Cold Blood is, say, 94% identical to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Update: Several readers don’t like my “two books” analogy. For example:

“More to the point, sharing DNA isn’t all that revealing. Two books
can share a lot of the same words. That doesn’t mean that In Cold
Blood is, say, 94% identical to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
Sorry Jonah, that is easily one of the worst, most igonorant things
I’ve ever read from you.

Me: In truth, I knew when I wrote it it wasn’t a perfect analogy, but you get my point. Moreover, in my defense, I’ve written plenty of more ignorant stuff than that. Does no one remember how the whole Volcano lancing thing was born?