Third World means nothing now
I recently had an exchange on twitter about the term “Third World” (starting from a tweet pointing to the idea of “Third World America”). Here’s Wikipedia on the origins of the term:
The term ‘Third World’ arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned or not moving at all with either capitalism and […]
Daily Data Dump – Monday
Dogs’ Family Status Depends on Family’s Locale. “People who think of their pets as their children often re-evaluate this thought when they have human children of their own.”
The Politics of Ideas : Hauser Gone Wild. “Must read” post on “Hausergate.”
Low Loan Repayment Is Seen at For-Profit Schools. They attract weak students. No wonder they don’t […]
Gene-culture interaction in Koreans and Americans
Genes and culture: OXTR gene influences social behaviour differently in Americans and Koreans. Korean Americans are more like white Americans than Koreans in the pattern of the effect of the allele on behavior.
Where writing is silent
In my post on Empires of the Word I observed that quite often the written record is silent on many matters which only language or genes tell us must have occurred. The Indo-Aryan character of the dominant language on the island of Sri Lanka seems to be a geographical anomaly in the least, but perhaps […]
Empires of the Word & anti-Babel
To the left you see a map of the distribution of languages and language families in Europe. Language is arguably the most salient cultural feature of our species, as well as one of the most obviously biologically embedded. The trait of language is a human universal, to the point where even those without hearing can […]
China is #2
China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy:
After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday.
The milestone, though anticipated for some time, is the most striking evidence yet that China’s ascendance is for real and that […]
Open Thread – August 16th, 2010
The usual. If it’s off topic, etc., leave it here.
The socioeconomic status of white ethnics
In the post below on the prolific nature of the Kennedy clan some commenters were curious as to the general socioeconomic slant of Irish Catholics. The GSS has a variable ETHNIC which asks which nation an individual’s ancestors came from. Combine that with RELIG, and you can figure out how Irish Catholics stack up nationally. […]
The Future is Kennedy
One thing which has struck me about the Kennedy clan is that it seems inordinately fecund. The GSS tells me that in the 2000s white non-Hispanic liberals who are over the age of 45 have on average fewer than 2 children each. The ideal family size for the same segment is given as a little […]
Marc Hauser: the end is nigh?
David Dobbs has a link roundup and commentary on what’s been going down with l’affaire Hauser. It doesn’t look good for Hauser et al., though it seems that the downfall was precipitated ultimately from within if press reports are to be believed. Part of the issue here seems to be that there’s a level of […]
Japanese as Solarians
One of the podcasts I subscribe to is Thinking Allowed from Radio 4. The most recent one was on the role which robots are envisaged to play in the future of Japan:
Also, the rise of the ‘fembot’. The Japanese government is investing billions in the development of robotic technology. They think the robot will do […]
Google Public Data Explorer
One of the main issues that we as human beings have is that we don’t have a gestalt understanding of social data, and its change over time. Among biologists one of the major recurring problems is the gloominess which is a consequence of the Malthusian mindset (which is understandable because of their professional bias) which […]
Daily Data Dump – Friday
Have a good weekend.
Immune Responses During Pregnancy Linked to Schizophrenia Among Offspring. This is a known association, but the interesting point is that there may be conditionalities to the response based on genetics. That would explain the heritability.
‘Fused’ People Eager to Die and Kill for Their Group, Research Shows. I believe that an individualist-rational focus […]
Hybridization is like sex
One of the major issues which has loomed at the heart of biology since The Origin of Species is why species exist, as well as how species come about. Why isn’t there a perfect replicator which performs all the conversion of energy and matter into biomass on this planet? If there is a God the tree […]
Daily Data Dump – Thursday
Are you ready for a world without antibiotics?. Draws from a Lancet paper. One of the major differences between technological advances based on physics and those of biology is that biological advances may slowly be eroded by evolutionary response. But I’m curious as to what microbiologists think about assertions that antibiotics will no longer be […]
Daily Data Dump – Wednesday
Elite Isolation. This is a specific instance of a general problem. The rulers as a rule are not sampled randomly from the population. Operationally democracy often seems to turn into competitions between rival elites who are making the “best offer” to segments of the electorate.
Children and Stress. The article connects childhood stress with later life […]
Daily Data Dump – Tuesday
Genetic Components and Cultural Differences: The social sensitivity hypothesis. The frequency of genes and “memes” change in very different ways. As I have long observed while memes can be passed from only one parent, genes are constricted in sexual reproduction to being inherited in part from both parents. How the two may relate (e.g., lactase […]
PCA, Razib around the world (a little)
I have put up a few posts warning readers to be careful of confusing PCA plots with real genetic variation. PCA plots are just ways to capture variation in large data sets and extract out the independent dimensions. Its great at detecting population substructure because the largest components of variation often track between population differences, […]
Marc Hauser on leave from Harvard
Author on leave after Harvard inquiry – Investigation of scientist’s work finds evidence of misconduct, prompts retraction by journal:
Harvard University psychologist Marc Hauser — a well-known scientist and author of the book “Moral Minds’’ — is taking a year-long leave after a lengthy internal investigation found evidence of scientific misconduct in his laboratory.
The findings have […]