Gene Expression
Archives for January, 2010
The business cycle, then and now
Posted by Razib Khan on January 30, 2010 Two interesting graphs from Calculated Risk. The first shows that the changes in GDP seem during the last recessive are on a par with those of the early 1980s and before (though we don’t know if we’re in a U or V shaped recession yet, though the odds are probably more U than V right…
Asia, land of the godless & godly
Posted by Razib Khan on January 30, 2010 A comment below prompted me to slap together a post quickly displaying some data which illustrates just how religious South Asians are compared to East Asians. Anyone with an interest in world history will not be surprised by this assertion. When reading surveys of East Asian history I would occasionally reach a chapter titled “Religion,”…
Financial stress correlated within families
Posted by Razib Khan on January 29, 2010 Jobless Turn to Family for Help, Often With Complications: More than half of the respondents to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll of 708 unemployed adults nationwide said they had borrowed money from friends or relatives. In most cases, their financial pictures were bleak. Nearly 80 percent of those who reported borrowing money said…
Reflections on The Jihadist Next Door
Posted by Razib Khan on January 28, 2010 The New York Times Magazine has a long profile of an American from Alabama, Omar Hammami, who is now fighting for the Islamists in Somalia, The Jihadist Next Door. The optics of his family background seem tailor-made for a compelling narrative (or a TV-movie). A father who is a Syrian immigrant, a standard-issue American Muslim…
Review of the Hobbit paper
Posted by Razib Khan on January 28, 2010 Excellent one at A Primate of Modern Aspect: Okay, so we’ve got lots of increases in brain size, and a few decreases. In the cases where we have decreases, we usually have body size decreases as well. More often than not, we have body size decreases which result in a disproportionately large brain size, but…
Question about Google Chrome Extensions
Posted by Razib Khan on January 28, 2010 I’ve got a few installed now. Has anyone had any issues with performance yet? I recall back when I used Firefox that was the main downside of having extensions. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see TechCrunch. Or just update your browser and Google will start telling you all about it, in Settings…
The thorium revival
Posted by Razib Khan on January 28, 2010 Mike the Mad Biologist points me to an interesting article in Wired, Uranium Is So Last Century — Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke. Of course Wired is a booster of many things which never take off, but in general I think it’s probably safe to bet on nuclear power becoming more prominent in the…
The World Space Agency a comin’?
Posted by Razib Khan on January 27, 2010 NASA to Review Human Spaceflight: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is preparing for a major evaluation of its human spaceflight program, even as many who will conduct the survey have yet to be informed of the agency’s revised mission. … The administration might also enlist the help and financing of other nations to handle…