February 28, 2007
Drink whole milk, get pregnant permlink
Category: Biology
A story just came out today about drinking high fat vs. low fat milk, and the positive effect on fertility that the former can have. Remember the report that drinking milk increases twinning? Issues like this should be kept in...
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Posted by Razib at 12:10 PM • 3 Comments
February 27, 2007
Recent Human Evolution in the house permlink
Category: Genetics
Early man 'couldn't stomach milk' Working with scientists from Mainz University in Germany, the UCL team looked for the gene that produces the lactase enzyme in Neolithic skeletons dating between 5480BC and 5000BC. These are believed to be from some...
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Posted by Razib at 10:23 AM • 12 Comments
February 26, 2007
Buddhism, a religion or not? permlink
Category: Religion
The comments for the post where I imply that Sam Harris is a religiously inclined individual addressed the topic of whether Buddhism is a religion or not. This is a common issue, and I tend to cause some irritation whenever...
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Posted by Razib at 10:44 AM • 39 Comments
February 25, 2007
Cultural selection.... permlink
Category: Culture
John Emerson has a long post about the relationship between irrationality and the emergence of new cultural forms. Worth reading. The other day I had a thought: many cultural traits are basically hitch-hiking along. Consider circumcision and the ban against...
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Posted by Razib at 1:21 PM • 12 Comments
February 24, 2007
Bonus Kat permlink
Category: Blog
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Posted by Razib at 3:06 PM • 3 Comments
February 23, 2007
Kat permlink
Category:
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Posted by Razib at 10:32 AM • 0 Comments
February 21, 2007
A request for bloggingheads.tv - Larison vs. Yglesias permlink
Category: Blog
Most of you know I'm not very into politics...but I do have two political weblogs in my RSS which pound it hard, Matt Yglesias on the "Left" and Daniel Larison on the "Right."1 I humbly request that Robert Wright have...
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Posted by Razib at 12:21 PM • 5 Comments
Sam Harris, God Intoxicated Man? permlink
Category: Religion
Sam Harris says: I do not deny that there is something at the core of the religious experience that is worth understanding. I do not even deny that there is something there worthy of our devotion. But devotion to it...
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Posted by Razib at 11:51 AM • 29 Comments
February 20, 2007
Things that make you go hm.... permlink
Category: Blog
Bora sayeth: Are you sure? How can a hierarchical, Chain-of-Being, authoritarian, sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, religious ideology be 'normal' when it does not understand the world correctly? Isn't it maladaptive to hold erroneous views of nature (and human nature) and...
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Posted by Razib at 11:04 AM • 15 Comments
February 19, 2007
South Park mega-site permlink
Category: Blog
For those of you who don't know, check out Allabout-SP.net/, which has an archive of all the South Park episodes. I don't own a TV mostly because most of the stuff is crap but still compulsively addictive...but the great thing...
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Posted by Razib at 11:36 AM • 10 Comments
February 17, 2007
Etruscan update - more evidence permlink
Category: Genetics
Success begets succes, Dienekes was looking closely at genetic data due to the publication two papers which suggest an Anatolian origin for Etruscans (there has been previous mtDNA going back at least 5 years as well). He finds that central...
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Posted by Razib at 3:13 PM • 4 Comments
Poll the experts! permlink
Category: Culture
Do you remember the age before polling in politics? I don't. Today we bemoan the emphasis on polls and idealize the past, before candidates knew in scientific and statistically significant detail the temperature of the democratic water. But no one...
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Posted by Razib at 12:32 PM • 3 Comments
February 16, 2007
Agnostics smarter than Atheists? permlink
Category: Religion
The always fascinating Ron Gunhame parses the GSS and religion & intelligence data. He finds: Mean vocabulary score - Whites 6.52 Doesn't believe 7.24 No way to find out 6.96 Some higher power 6.02 Believes sometimes 6.42 Believes but doubts...
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Posted by Razib at 12:11 PM • 9 Comments
Kat permlink
Category: Blog
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Posted by Razib at 12:08 PM • 2 Comments
February 15, 2007
Case closed, Etruscans are Lydian permlink
Category: Genetics
Yesterday I posted about the mtDNA results which suggest that Etruscans were Anatolian emigres to Italy. More data just came to light: In the region corresponding to ancient Etruria (Tuscany, Central Italy), several Bos taurus breeds have been reared since...
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Posted by Razib at 11:09 AM • 6 Comments
February 14, 2007
Etruscan historical genetics done right permlink
Category: Genetics
Most of you know that I believe there are serious problems with much of contemporary historical population genetics. Grand unfounded narratives, and scientists who lack requisite historical knowledge, litter the field. But, narrow, precise and crystal clear studies do emerge...
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Posted by Razib at 11:46 AM • 9 Comments