Official Comment Count: 1,027,725
Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.
July 30, 2008
Breeding the future permlink
Category: Culture
Some results from the GSS on what people perceive the ideal number of children is based on social variables. Additionally, the realized number of children the respondent has. I limited the sample to whites who were 40 or older (there...
Posted by Razib at 7:37 PM • 5 Comments
No one knows nothing about The Foundation permlink
Category: Culture
Chris Orr at The Plank reports that Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is going to be given the film treatment. Orr is skeptical, and so am I. As far as space opera goes the Foundation universe was a cerebral and sedate...
Posted by Razib at 4:17 PM • 19 Comments
July 29, 2008
Denomination is rather heritable; socioeconomic status less so.... permlink
Category: Culture
I was curious about a few social variables which often associate across generations, and also within families. So I looked in the General Social Survey for denomination, highest degree and socioeconomic index, which I knew were surveyed for the individual...
Posted by Razib at 8:07 PM • 3 Comments
No Polynesian origin for pre-Columbian chickens??? permlink
Category: Genetics
Indo-European and Asian origins for Chilean and Pacific chickens revealed by mtDNA: European chickens were introduced into the American continents by the Spanish after their arrival in the 15th century. However, there is ongoing debate as to the presence of...
Posted by Razib at 5:51 PM • 2 Comments
July 28, 2008
Theological beliefs by denomination permlink
Category: Religion
One of the problems with intellectual conversations is that they are generally restricted to intellectuals. By their nature intellectuals tend to value reflection and some semblance of comprehension and consistency. This is a "curved" scale; I'm not contending here that...
Posted by Razib at 6:08 PM • 22 Comments
July 27, 2008
Humanities "vs." science permlink
Category: Culture
Chad has a post up The Innumeracy of Intellectuals, where he goes on a rant against humanities academics and their blithe complacency in relation to their ignorance of science & mathematics. Two points.... 1) One of the major issues with...
Posted by Razib at 4:52 PM • 31 Comments
July 25, 2008
Are liberals against nuclear power more than conservatives? Yes permlink
Category: Politics
Because of the increased prices in gasoline and the perception of scarcity in terms of power, there has been a lot of talk about nuclear. There have been many comments of late from the Right that the Left is opposed...
Posted by Razib at 6:11 PM • 25 Comments
Style is timeless permlink
Category: Culture
I've been reading Critique of Pure Reason and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding in the evenings. It should be no surprise that the former is a more tedious read than the latter, David Hume being the better stylist than Immanuel...
Posted by Razib at 5:05 PM • 8 Comments
July 24, 2008
History in the genes permlink
Category: Genetics
I've posted a fair amount about the new field of historical population genetics. Some of the most popular mass-market books in genetics deal with this field, for example Spencer Wells' Journey of Man. On the other hand, there's a lot...
Posted by Razib at 3:28 PM • 2 Comments
The evolution of language and biology permlink
Category: Evolution
Sandman has a post up, Can There Be A Synthesis Between Cultural And Biological Evolution?, taking off on the PLoS Biology article, Across the Curious Parallel of Language and Species Evolution. Read both. I would add one important point though:...
Posted by Razib at 12:18 AM • 12 Comments
July 23, 2008
Drugs & science & insight permlink
Category: Culture
I posted before on Why scientists should do drugs (if they choose), via Tyler Cowen, a Jonah Lehrer article in The New Yorker: Many stimulants, like caffeine, Adderall, and Ritalin, are taken to increase focus -- one recent poll found...
Posted by Razib at 2:06 PM • 7 Comments
Populism & public religion permlink
Category: Religion
Half Sigma points me to The Legend of a Heretic, which chronicles the close relationship between Robert G. Ingersoll, a prominent American agnostic of the 19th century, and the Republican Party elite of that time. It seems ironic that though...
Posted by Razib at 12:37 AM • 4 Comments
July 21, 2008
The Dark Knight permlink
Category: Culture
I didn't watch The Dark Knight this weekend. Anyone else out there?...
Posted by Razib at 5:51 AM • 9 Comments
John Hawks gets tenure! permlink
Category: Culture
How to blog, get tenure and prosper: Starting the blog. 'nuf said....
Posted by Razib at 4:10 AM • 0 Comments
July 20, 2008
Why does race matter for women? permlink
Category: Culture
One social science finding which I've wondered about over the past few years is the result that women care much more about the race of a potential mate than men do. The fact that individuals tend to want to mate...
Posted by Razib at 3:50 PM • 48 Comments
HIV may not be associated to Duffy!?!?! permlink
Category: Genetics
Over the past few days I've blogged a bit about the story about an HIV susceptibility allele; Evolution, a reason for the African HIV epidemic?, Overplaying "AIDS genes" and HIV susceptibility, a "black" thing, not a Duffy thing?. But there's...
Posted by Razib at 2:38 AM • 0 Comments
YES! Send me a free issue of Seed.
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
(Non-U.S. subscribers, click here.)
