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December 31, 2007
Gay heads of state (as in, obligate homosexuals) permlink
Category: Culture
So, I just found out that Sayyed Qaboos bin Sa'id Al 'Bu Sa'id, the Sultan and autocrat of Oman, is a homosexual. Not that there's anything wrong with that! But that got me thinking, are there any other homosexual heads...
Posted by Razib at 7:14 PM • 11 Comments
Formalization & process permlink
Category: Evolution
Rich Lawler has an insightful comment: It's interesting to note that a few of the most insightful observations about the evolutionary process were first promulgated verbally, then later proven mathematically (unlike H-W equilibrium). These include runaway sexual selection (first adumbrated...
Posted by Razib at 6:22 PM • 7 Comments
Sex ratio & migration via X & Y permlink
Category: Genetics
Looking for Nm* values for humans I stumbled across an interesting paper, Estimating sex-specific processes in human populations: Are XY-homologous markers an effective tool?: ...To test this idea, we analyzed XY-homologous microsatellite diversity in 33 human populations from Africa, Asia...
Posted by Razib at 9:56 AM • 1 Comments
December 30, 2007
p's & q's vs. verbs permlink
Category: Science
Evolgen and Popgen Ramblings have put up posts where they criticize a parameter of the acceleration paper. John Hawks responds in the comments. But I thought this line was priceless: Nah, you're not a dirty anti-adaptationist! All these labels are...
Posted by Razib at 7:28 PM • 7 Comments
It's about inevitability.... permlink
Category: Evolution
Laelaps has an excellent post up, Evolution's Arrow, which you should read. Set some time aside, it is long. I don't know enough about paleontology to comment with great insight on the many of the topics which Laelaps alludes to,...
Posted by Razib at 4:08 PM • 3 Comments
December 27, 2007
Obesity is heritable, not genetic permlink
Category: Genetics
Genome Wide Association (GWA) Study for Early Onset Extreme Obesity Supports the Role of Fat Mass and Obesity Associated Gene (FTO) Variants. Even if this is true, these correlations between particular alleles and obesity hold for the modern German lifestyle....
Posted by Razib at 1:27 PM • 7 Comments
Vitamin D: why evolution may matter permlink
Category: Evolution
Mark of Denialism left a comment below re: Vitamin D deficiency: I wouldn't call that evidence thin biff. The role of vitamin D in tuberculosis was actually pretty well nailed by studies of immigrants in the UK which demonstrate that...
Posted by Razib at 9:47 AM • 6 Comments
The Elders of Ron Paul permlink
Category: Politics
Ed and Mark are asking what's up with Ron Paul and the Neo-Nazis? I think...it's complicated. Colugo sketches out the general lay of the land pretty well, Ron Paul is a "paleo," specifically a paleolibertarian. He derives his ideology from...
Posted by Razib at 5:11 AM • 6 Comments
December 25, 2007
The Ascetic Style in American Atheism permlink
Category: Religion
On this Sunday's Weekend Edition on NPR there was a piece titled Removing Religion from the Holidays a Tall Order. Much of the story focuses upon Greg Epstein, a Humanist Chaplain at Harvard, and his attempt to forge a new...
Posted by Razib at 12:52 PM • 19 Comments
December 24, 2007
Fun Christmas music permlink
Category: Blog
Posted by Razib at 9:56 AM • 2 Comments
Indigenous European paganism permlink
Category: Culture
Found out something interesting today. In the Russian republic of Mari El there exists an indigenous pagan tradition which is not a reconstruction. That is, the pagans of Mari El trace their practice in an unbroken line back to their...
Posted by Razib at 4:57 AM • 14 Comments
December 23, 2007
She be mighty fly permlink
Category: Blog
M. Yglesias seems to be dissing Rihanna's "Umbrella." Well, I'll raise him "Pon de Replay".......
Posted by Razib at 3:42 PM • 1 Comments
Jamie Lynn Spears: it runs in the family? permlink
Category: Genetics
Hometown Reacts: Residents Respond To Pregnancy News in relation to Jamie Lynn Spears & Casey Aldridge's impending parenthood: But we did manage to talk to a few locals, who, quite honestly, weren't too shocked to learn that Britney's little sister...
Posted by Razib at 12:58 PM • 5 Comments
Tocharians within the last 6,000 years? permlink
Category: History
From Different Matrilineal Contributions to Genetic Structure of Ethnic Groups in the Silk Road Region in China: Although our samples were from the same geographic location, a decreasing tendency of the western Eurasian-specific haplogroup frequency was observed, with the highest...
Posted by Razib at 6:11 AM • 2 Comments
Most Canadian Non-whites have Vitamin D deficiency permlink
Category: Science
Are you getting enough vitamin D?: The research, which is awaiting publication in a medical journal, found that 100 per cent of those of African origin were short of vitamin D, as were 93 per cent of South Asians (those...
Posted by Razib at 1:21 AM • 8 Comments
