razib
Posts by this author
May 10, 2009
A few months ago I relayed preliminary data which suggested that Estonians are not like Finns. Now a new paper, Genetic Structure of Europeans: A View from the North-East:
Using principal component (PC) analysis, we studied the genetic constitution of 3,112 individuals from Europe as portrayed by…
May 8, 2009
I've been away from the computer a fair amount the past few days. In any case, my RSS is saturated with posts about this new Star Trek movie, which I haven't seen. Either it must be good, or I read the blogs of other nerds. Or, perhaps both.
May 7, 2009
Thabet points me to a new survey of Muslims and the European public. The focus is especially on the UK, France and Germany. In short Muslims in these three nations are more "conservative" than the general population when it comes to social values, but, it is interesting to note that there seems to…
May 6, 2009
There are two posts on ScienceBlogs which highlight two perspectives on the Dinosaur mass extinction, What Wiped Out The Dinosaurs? and K-T extinction debates: cranky "skeptics" or reasonable science?. I'd assumed that the Asteroids-from-the-sky was the clear consensus, but please see this old…
May 6, 2009
Dr. Deb has posted a map which illustrates:
The county-by-county map above shows the percentages of residents who reported "Frequent Mental Distress" (FMD)--defined as 14 or more days of emotional discomfort, including "stress, depression and problems with emotion," during the previous month. Of…
May 6, 2009
With the whole controversy around Michael Savage being blocked from entering England because of his inflammatory comments I thought I would look at attitudes toward speech. One thing I've noticed is that Americans tend to be less instrumental when it comes to matters of speech; that is, speech is…
May 6, 2009
The universal grammar of birdsong is genetically encoded
The Physics of Rapunzel
Cognitive Control Is Improved By Taking A Step Back - Literally
Maccarone and cheese Einstein!
Why Swine Flu Is Resistant to Adamantane Drugs
May 5, 2009
In the comments below on the post on human population structure there was some request for a bigger global perspective. Below the fold I've placed a table with FST values which compare each population to the other. This an older population genetic statistic derived from the work of Sewall Wright,…
May 4, 2009
In Nature, De novo establishment of wild-type song culture in the zebra finch:
Culture is typically viewed as consisting of traits inherited epigenetically, through social learning. However, cultural diversity has species-typical constraints, presumably of genetic origin... Zebra finch isolates,…
May 4, 2009
Via Andrew Sullivan, One nation, seven sins: Geographers measure propensity for evil in states, counties. Here's the methodology:
Greed was calculated by comparing average incomes with the total number of inhabitants living beneath the poverty line. On this map, done in yellow, Clark County is bile…
May 4, 2009
Late last year I reviewed a book by an American sociologist on Danish secularism. The book was titled Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment, and apparently its publication resulted in some controversy in Denmark, in large part due to perceived…
May 3, 2009
I still remember when L. L. Cavalli-Sforza's The History and Geography of Human Genes was a candle in the dark, illuminating human history with slivers of genetic data laboriously gathered and analyzed over decades. We've come a long way. Dienekes points me to a new paper, Fine-scaled human genetic…
May 2, 2009
Calculated Risk has a great chart showing GDP fluctuations which puts into perspective just how big a downtown the Great Depression represented, and how it compares to the current one. For the population ~30 and under the current downswing is already 3 times more extreme from the peak than any…
May 2, 2009
David Brooks has a column out where he mulls over the role of time invested in amplifying talent:
If you wanted to picture how a typical genius might develop, you'd take a girl who possessed a slightly above average verbal ability. It wouldn't have to be a big talent, just enough so that she might…
May 2, 2009
Low Vitamin D Causes Problems For Acutely Ill Patients:
Dr Paul Lee, Professor John Eisman and Associate Professor Jackie Center, researchers at Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research, examined a cohort of 42 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients. Forty-five percent turned out to be Vitamin D…
April 30, 2009
Unlike many bloggers I'm not too invested in politics, nor do I have a deep knowledge of the topic (though I do have a strong interest in quantitative political science). But I read political pieces in the same way I read sports columns: entertaining analyses which serve as brain candy.…
April 30, 2009
I've been fine tuning Ubuntu all day with goodies and getting drivers to work right, so I missed this paper on African genetics:
Africa is the source of all modern humans, but characterization of genetic variation and of relationships among populations across the continent has been enigmatic. We…
April 30, 2009
John Schwenkler points me to Rod Dreher's shock that religious people seem to support torture more than the non-religious:
And get this: the more often you go to church, the more pro-torture you're likely to be!
What on earth are these Christians hearing at church?! Very sad indeed.
John notes:…
April 30, 2009
I blogged about this a few months ago, but Dan MacArthur reports that the firm which was going to roll it out first claims that it doesn't really work as advertised.
April 30, 2009
So claims Ali Eteraz:
Most people in the world, including some Pakistanis, live under the illusion that the country is secular and just happens to have been overrun by extremists. This is false. Pakistan became an Islamic state in 1973 when the new constitution made Islam the state religion. Under…
April 30, 2009
UN says Egypt pig cull real mistake:
The United Nations has called Egypt's move to cull 400,000 pigs as a precaution against swine flu "a real mistake".
The Egyptian government ordered the slaughter of the pigs on Wednesday, saying it could help quell any panic in the country that is largely Muslim…
April 30, 2009
I'm in the mood for a "feel good" story with the past week's fixation in swine flu. Half A Glass Of Wine A Day May Boost Life Expectancy By Five Years:
The Dutch authors base their findings on a total of 1,373 randomly selected men whose cardiovascular health and life expectancy at age 50 were…
April 29, 2009
In the wake of Predictably Irrational, check out Tyler Cowen's endorsement of Geoffrey Miller's new book, Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior. Miller is a good writer, so I'm assuming it will be a page-turner, but he does tend to be "provocative" in all the best & worst ways when it…
April 29, 2009
New Geochronologic And Stratigraphic Evidence Confirms The Paleocene Age Of the Dinosaur-Bearing Ojo Alamo Sandstone And Animas Formation In The San Juan Basin, New Mexico and Colorado:
...An assemblage of 34 skeletal elements from a single hadrosaur, found in the Ojo Alamo Sandstone in the…
April 29, 2009
Do you love or hate Cilantro?
K-T extinction debates: cranky "skeptics" or reasonable science?
Modularity and scalability
The elegant logic of dopamine
A Beacon from the Invisible Universe
April 29, 2009
Haplotypic Background of a Private Allele at High Frequency in the Americas:
Recently, the observation of a high-frequency private allele, the 9-repeat allele at microsatellite D9S1120, in all sampled Native American and Western Beringian populations has been interpreted as evidence that all modern…
April 28, 2009
Installed Jaunty Jackalope with Wubi. Definitely feels like a smoother UI on my Lenovo.