Open Thread, 11/19/2018
I figure I should post the “Open Thread” sooner than later since people are using last week’s “Open Thread” to post stuff. So I’m getting a copy of Fire & Blood: 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones tomorrow according to Amazon. But I have a legitimate reason to get this book: we’ll be talking […]
Open Thread, 11/12/2018
Fatal Discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind is an interesting book. Very much on the side of Erasmus. Like the author, I do think Erasmus turned out to be a beautiful loser. But ideas and biographies can have second acts. How the GOP Gave Up on Porn. Basically, the war was […]
Open Thread, 11/4/2018
So in a few days everyone can stop pretending to be cut-rate Nate Silvers. My prediction: Dems will take the House. But Republicans will make a gain of +1 in the Senate. Pakistan’s Hybrid Government and the Aasia Bibi Fiasco.. Basically, reasonable people in Pakistan are terrified about being openly reasonable, lest the crazy minority […]
Open Thread, 10/28/2018
An old friend from college has a new book out, Augmented Mind: AI, Superhumans, and the Next Economic Revolution. This looks to be in Jim Miller territory. Sex in humans may not be binary, but it’s surely bimodal. Jerry Coyne is a well known evolutionary biologist who is also a vocal atheist. He’s now emeritus […]
Open Thread, 10/21/2018
You may have noticed I haven’t been posting much. Busy with other things, like ASHG, work, family, etc. I don’t normally post “won’t be posting often” notices, as no one really cares much about blogs…but when I go into lower production mode people sometimes worry. No reason to worry. Tim Blanning’s Frederick the Great: King […]
Open Thread – Brown Pundits
Please keep the other posts on topic. Use this for talking about whatever you want to talk about.
Open Thread, 10/15/2018
I pinned the above chart to my Twitter profile because I’m “trying to make it happen.” It was David Mittelman’s idea, and the data was courtesy of ISOGG, but putting it together as a graph has really brought home to people how the consumer genomic landscape has changed over the last half a decade. The […]
Open Thread – Brown Pundits
Please keep the other posts on topic. Use this for talking about whatever you want to talk about.
Open Thread, 10/8/2018
Paul Romer won the Nobel. Not a big surprise. David Warsh’s Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations: A Story of Economic Discovery is pretty good. I recommend it. I would read it in concert with Hive Mind: How Your Nation’s IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own and A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic […]
Are there an other readers from 2002?
As some of you know, this blog started in early June of 2002. I just noticed that two people left comments who date from the summer of 2002…which means I have people here who have been reading what I’ve been writing for 70% of my adult life. I know people drop in and out, but […]
Open Thread – Brown Pundits
Please keep the other posts on topic. Use this for talking about whatever you want to talk about.
Open Thread, 9/30/2018
A new shirt, Vaccines Cause Adults. I think that’s pretty funny. Since I don’t have that sort of human, it wasn’t my idea. Obviously, Photo 51 t-shirts are still on the DNAGeeks website. Patrick Wyman does not recommend The Silk Roads: A New History of the World. The killer observation for me is that whenever Patrick knew […]
Open Thread
Please keep the other posts on topic. Use this for talking about whatever you want to talk about.
Open Thread, 9/23/2018
Curious how many readers recognize the reference on the shirt to the left? You probably know if you’ve read The Double Helix. On the DNAGeeks website now. Salon is stiffing freelancers of $150. I think this is more a commentary on the market for freelancers than Salon‘s always tenuous finances. The market-clearing price for a […]
Open Thread
Please keep the other posts on topic. Use this for talking about whatever you want to talk about.
Open Thread, 9/17/2018
There are lots of things from Imperial China 900–1800 that I learned, though more often it simply deepened my knowledge. At this point, I am curious about something that is more like economic history (yes, I’ve read The Great Divergence). Recommendations? Here is a fact I learned from Imperial China 900–1800 that might be of interest: in the […]
Open Thread
Please keep the other posts on topic. Use this for talking about whatever you want to talk about.
Open Thread, 9/09/2018
DNAGeeks is now promoting some “helix” themed polos. If you click through, you’ll see a 25% discount code. Listened to Carl Zha and Nathan Myers‘ podcasts. About China and the Silk Road. The podcast Two for Tea with Iona Italia and Helen Pluckrose has an interview with my friend Sarah Haider. Zha pointed me to […]
Open Thread
Please keep the other posts on topic. Use this for talking about whatever you want to talk about.
Open Thread, 09/02/2018
John Hawks’ write-up, The man who tried to catalog humanity: Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza chased Darwin’s dream of a tree of humankind, is worth reading in full. With some hindsight, it’s pretty clear that L. L. Cavalli-Sforza was way ahead of his time in terms of ambition and vision. But he was also someone who paid […]