Gene Expression
Archives for June, 2009
Who are the Cape Coloureds of South Africa?
Posted by Razib Khan on June 30, 2009 A little under 10% of South Africa’s population are Cape Coloureds. They speak Afrikaans and generally worship in Reformed Christian churches, but exhibit discernible non-European ancestry, in particular African ancestry. In the United States anyone who manifests African ancestry is coded as “black.” Though hypodescent started out as a tool for maintaining white racial purity…
Low carb diet weblog
Posted by Razib Khan on June 30, 2009 A friend of mine has a new weblog, Low Carb Art and Science, which some of you might be interested in (or not). I do think it is ironic since this is an individual who presumably is in favor of a diet of red beans & rice. If you want a more eclectic range of…
FireFox 3.5 this week
Posted by Razib Khan on June 30, 2009 A new version of FireFox is coming out today. You can already test drive the latest pre-release already. I’ve been using Chrome since last year for 95% of my browsing needs because of the speed. I miss plugins, and there are also pages that render a bit idiosyncratically and AJAX apps which get confused. Because…
Neurotypicals are irrational beasts
Posted by Razib Khan on June 29, 2009 Arnold Kling highlights this section from a Scientific American article, The Science of Economic Bubbles and Busts: But behavioral economics experiments routinely show that despite similar outcomes, people (and other primates) hate a loss more than they desire a gain, an evolutionary hand-me-down that encourages organisms to preserve food supplies or to weigh a situation…
Dana Milbank vs. Nico Pitney
Posted by Razib Khan on June 29, 2009 I don’t post much on contemporary politics, mostly because I don’t have much value-add, but also because so much of it from the blogosphere is simply a critique of the mainstream press. In fact I think the mainstream press is essential and invaluable in many domains. The current crisis in print journalism is going to…
God & welfare
Posted by Razib Khan on June 28, 2009 Why should government welfare mean less religion?: This was a question that Anthony Gill and Erik Lundsgaarde tackled by in 2004. They analysed the data from a range of countries, and found that the greater proportion of GDP that was spent on government welfare, the more non-religious people there were and the lower church attendance…
Richard Wrangham takes your questions
Posted by Razib Khan on June 26, 2009 Richard Wrangham has done a podcast over at World Science (see my review of Catching Fire). You can ask questions in the forum, Wrangham will be participating all week.
Send GrrlScientist to Antarctica
Posted by Razib Khan on June 26, 2009 She’s trying to leave New York for Antarctica. What you have to do to make it happen is vote for her essay.
Michael Jackson: the king is dead
Posted by Razib Khan on June 25, 2009 I was out and about doing errands when a friend called me to tell me that Michael Jackson had died. My first reaction was to utter an expletive. I wasn’t sad, I didn’t think this was a false report. I didn’t know how to react. It’s as if a friend calls you and tells you…