America in 2050 may still be majority white
I have expressed some skepticism at the idea that in the year 2050 the United States of America will perceive itself as a majority-minority nation; that is, non-Hispanic whites will be be a minority. This projection is repeated and asserted so often that it’s a plausible background assumption when you’re making a model of the […]
Time & mind & tipping
I just got back from a European trip, and I have to say I did not miss tipping. I especially appreciated not having to do the song & dance typical of larger groups in sit-down restaurants in the USA where you figure out how much you’re going to tip on a communal basis, when everyone […]
Science is sufficient for any inference
Because I’m a generally somewhat more anthropocentric in regards to my interest in the “squishy science” I am often amused by the wide range of inferences that people make when presented with a set of scientific results. Naturally, when I talk about the genetics of Jews it gets a lot more heated. You did not […]
Party like a Persian
MTV Not Involved With ‘Jersey Shore’ Imitations: For the show he calls the “Persian Version,” his casting company wrote: “If you are at least 21 years old, appear younger than 30, and are outrageous, outspoken and a proud Persian-American, then Doron Ofir Casting and 495 Productions, the team who brought you ‘Jersey Shore,’ are looking […]
It’s complicated
Human genome at ten: Life is complicated (H/T Dr. Daniel MacArthur). This is one reason that economists are in more demand than historians in public life. Economics is reducible in a way that history is usually not, or at least historians tend not to be interested in doing. Also, the average economist is much smarter […]
Matt Stone & Trey Parker on NPR
They review the past 14 years.
Helicobacter pylori strains among Iranians
Ethnic and Geographic Differentiation of Helicobacter pylori within Iran:
The bacterium Helicobacter pylori colonizes the human stomach, with individual infections persisting for decades. The spread of the bacterium has been shown to reflect both ancient and recent human migrations. We have sequenced housekeeping genes from H. pylori isolated from 147 Iranians with well-characterized geographical and ethnic […]
How the outsider looks
Heartthrob’s Barbed Blog Challenges China’s Leaders:
Since he began blogging in 2006, Mr. Han has been delivering increasingly caustic attacks on China’s leadership and the policies he contends are creating misery for those unlucky enough to lack a powerful government post. With more than 300 million hits to his blog, he may be the most popular […]
Culture & genomics
Interesting post, Culture and the human genome: a synthesis of genetics and the human sciences, at Replicated Typo. Looks like an interesting blog, not updated that often, but the posts have value-add. Definitely adding to my RSS reader. My main complaint about the weblog are the annoying little Snap div pops. Is there anyone […]
The cultural animal as an evolving animal
Nicholas Wade has an article in The New York Times, Human Culture, an Evolutionary Force. One point to highlight:
By this criterion, many of the genes under selection seem to be responding to conventional pressures. Some are involved in the immune system, and presumably became more common because of the protection they provided against disease. Genes […]
Christopher Beckwith against modernism
A few months ago I reviewed Empire’s of the Silk. I focused on the historical scholarship, but Lorenzo Warby puts the spotlight on the more normatively charge jeremiad against “modernism” interlaced throughout the book.
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Social cycles
An addendum to my comments on the posts on natalism. As I suggest below I think as a whole it is appropriate to model humans before 1800 as a conventional animal subject to Malthusian constraints. When a new crop (e.g., Champa rice, the potato) was introduced there would be a population increase, but that increase […]
You need to know history to talk about history
The New York Times Magazine has a long piece, How Christian Were the Founders?, which outlines the efforts of school board members of fundamentalist inclinations to shift the narrative about the founding of the American republic. In short, these activists would like children to understand that the United States was founded as a Christian nation […]
Language goes extinct, human race to follow….
Last speaker of ancient language of Bo dies in India:Professor Anvita Abbi said that the death of Boa Sr was highly significant because one of the world’s oldest languages – Bo – had come to an end….”It is generally believed that all Andamanese langu…
…about those cheese-eating surrender monkeys
France denies citizenship over veil:
French officials have denied citizenship to a man because he allegedly forces his wife to wear a full Islamic veil, the immigration minister said Wednesday.
“This individual imposes the full veil upon his wife, does not allow her the freedom to go and come as she pleases, and bans her from going […]
Strange use of the word “conservative”
Iranians celebrate ancient Persian fire fest:
Thousands of Iranians gathered at dusk against a snowy mountain backdrop to light giant bonfires in an ancient mid-winter festival dating back to Iran’s pre-Islamic past that is drawing new interest from Muslims.
Saturday’s celebration was the first in which the dwindling remnants of Iran’s once plentiful Zoroastrian religious minority […]
Peer groups & bourgeois virtues
Self-Control and Peer Groups:However, according to a new study by Michelle vanDellen, a psychologist at the University of Georgia, self-control contains a large social component; the ability to resist temptation is contagious. The paper consists of fiv…
Haiti & charity
A reader asked about donating to alleviate the suffering in Haiti. In particular, making sure that the donations don’t go toward religious or Leftist ends. My own personal assumption is in line with the recommendations of the The GiveWell Blog:
A few notes:
Unfortunately, “disaster relief” is not an area we’ve researched. When we’ve (very briefly) looked […]
The Confucian conservatives
I highly recommend John Keay’s China: A History to any readers who wish to familiarize themselves with this civilization. Keay’s narrative is aimed at the general reader. Specialists will no doubt find themselves irritating by the simplifications, or even errors (I’m not a China specialist but even I picked out a factual error here and […]
Don’t be an infidel?
Interesting possibility that Google is engaging in self-censorship in regards to Islam. If true the motive is likely more profit that fear (via Abhi).
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