Your Eucharist friday open thread

by liberal japonicus

Sort of. Santorum's Catholicism (and his lack of catholicism) came up when we were talking about Romney and Mormon support of immigration, so I'm pleased to share this pic that I took yesterday in Fukuoka's Hakata center.

This is wine that is supposed to be suited for particular bloodtypes. It's common in Japan to believe that blood types (sans Rh factors, which were discovered after these sorts of theories were promulgated) explain personality traits. So an open thread for blood types, but not for the bloody minded among you.

Comments

[wj]

I wonder how blood donors break down by blood type. That is, how the supply compares to the demand.

If we see that utterly volunteer donors (i.e. those that don't have to be called and chivvied to come in) are more likely for certain types, then we would at least have some evidence of one aspect of personality (altruism) variation by type. If we don't even have that much information, I doubt we will see anything more supportive of the theory.

[hairshirthedonist]

If we see that utterly volunteer donors (i.e. those that don't have to be called and chivvied to come in) are more likely for certain types, then we would at least have some evidence of one aspect of personality (altruism) variation by type.

Maybe. Those who are of the universal-donor type and know it might be more likely to volunteer based on the knowledge that they are universal donors and that their blood is more useful than that of others.

I don't remember all the ins and outs of it from 9th grade biology class, but there's one type, I think, that can only be used for those of that same type, others that can be used by some number of other types, and one that is the universal-donor type. (I could google all of this, but why ruin the moment?)

In any case, some number of people may be motivated by the knowledge of the relative usefulness of their blood type.

[hairshirthedonist]

oops, forgot to italicize that first paragraph...

[Phil]

Here's a quick look at blood types by % of population, and what types of blood they can receive: http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0877658.html

O- can be received by all blood types; O+ can be received by all the positive blood types. Whereas AB+ can only receive from AB+ donors; and AB- can only receive from AB+/AB- donors.

I don't know about donations broken down by type - my wife used to work for the Red Cross, and I've been a donor for 11 years now, but I've never seen info presented that way. I know they're always short on O-.

As it happens, I have the second most common type (A+), and my wife has the second rarest (B-), so we cannot donate to each other.

[bluefoot]

I had a boyfriend who was O negative and in the military. He was strongly encouraged to (I don't recall if he was ever commanded to)give blood as frequently as possible. He said much of the time, the blood went into the small bags that were used for infants. This was during peacetime, so I wonder if that's changed. Once he was discharged, he gave blood less frequently, but still did it regularly.

[John M. Burt]

Frist!

I mean, of course, frist! with a reference to Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books.

Come on, people, what's with you? There's Japanese advertising text and everything!

[Hartmut]

There are strong geographical differences in blood types, e.g. A is currently dominant in North America iirc. There are some interesting studies showing that there were great shifts in combination with great killer epidemics like the Black Death. It seems that certain blood types were slightly more resistant, so a disease killing of large portions of a population repeatedly has led to regional dominance of formerly rare types. There are studies still carried out, whether HIV too affects certain blood (sub)types significantly less than others.

[Laura Koerbeer]

AB+

I like the Sookie Stackhoue books. I like them the same way I like Cheezits. Sometimes junk just hits the spot.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

But what is the breakdown of bloodtypes in Japan? (my guess is that it's pretty homogenous, perhaps in two main groups, but that's just a guess)

As for the wine, I'll take "red".

[russell]

It's common in Japan to believe that blood types (sans Rh factors, which were discovered after these sorts of theories were promulgated) explain personality traits.

No disrespect intended toward the Japanese, but as far as I can tell, nobody has any idea whatsoever why different people have different personalities.

[liberal japonicus]

That's true Russell, and it was one of those beautiful theories slain by an ugly fact. The fact of ABO groupings came out at the turn of the century and it was discovered right as Japanese were looking to the West and for explanations why they were different, and in Japan, type A is the most common, while O is more common in the West. And, lo and behold, type A are reserved, patient, responsible but can also be fastidious and tense
While type O (the most common in the West) are sociable, generous, not very carefule and stubborn. In fact, Japanese will often say a person is 'O zappa' when they don't attend to details well, which is from the blood type. Here are a couple of articles here and here

[bob_is_boring]

lj:

not very carefule

Hilarious. Made my morning.

[Ed Haines]

bluefoot, The military has had a vigorous frozen blood program for years and I suspect that his donations were directed toward that program. O negative is used when there is a devastating hemorrhage and no time for typing pre transfusion. This occurs in war. With more women in danger, it is even more important to have access to O neg.

Are the Japanese planning for more varieties soon? My grandson tells me that someone has discovered two more blood types.

[sapient]

What an extremely interesting concept: personality through blood type; personality through horoscope; personality through birth order. Whatever - it's fun to think about. Is it provable? No - certainly not provable to anyone's satisfaction. Somebody should do a horoscope/bloodtype correlation study. Not sure who would supply the money for that!

Here's incidence of blood type by geographical distribution. (Scroll down.)

[cleek]

two new blood types recently discovered, yes. "Junior" and "Langereis".

"Beyond the ABO blood type and the Rhesus (Rh) blood type, the International Blood Transfusion Society recognizes twenty-eight additional blood types with names like Duffy, Kidd, Diego and Lutheran. But Langereis and Junior have not been on this list. Although the antigens for the Junior and Langereis (or Lan) blood types were identified decades ago in pregnant women having difficulties carrying babies with incompatible blood types, the genetic basis of these antigens has been unknown until now."

so now we're up to 30?

[hairshirthedonist]

...the International Blood Transfusion Society recognizes twenty-eight additional blood types with names like Duffy, Kidd, Diego and Lutheran.

They must have been hanging out with the physicists who named different types of quarks.

[russell]

names like Duffy, Kidd, Diego and Lutheran.

Plus Langereis and Junior.

It sounds like the cast of characters from a WWII buddy movie.

Where's Sarge?