razib | June 30, 2006Janet has the details, but we're winding down. Three things:
1) Thanks to everyone who gave, I didn't raise much myself, but something is way better than nothing and good is accomplished in small steps
2) Mad props to "DS" (you know who you are), as you donated twice, and at least once substantially
3) I'd really like to get some last minute pledges and make it to around $500
But thanks again to everyone who participated! Hopefully I'll be doing things like this in the future.
razib | June 29, 2006It is well known that academics tend to be on the political Left. Some people are angry about this, but I don't particularly care. Members of Opus Dei tend to be on the Right, does that surprise? Nevertheless, I am curious about differences with disciplines in academia. So I found this study which classified political orientation by discipline. Excel below the fold....
(Larger image)
Notice a trend? Check the Ns in the original study, the fact that only 32 Nursing academics returned the survey means I trust that number less, but the overall trend is clear. I have read high IQ…
razib | June 29, 2006Closeup 1 has revamped their website and is ramping up for their 2006 edition, though for a poetically inclined folk this introduction does translate somewhat manically into English:
Dreams & Talents
Confidence & Aspiration
Voice & The Microphone
A Nation & Its Youth
You, us and the youth of
Bangladesh - together we
created history with
Close Up 1 in 2005.
Of course, just like the first season of Survivor, the first season of Closeup 1 is special. The initial participants will go down in history....
razib | June 29, 2006It seems that others have a compulsion to control the means of my opinion production. 5 questions from Hsien Hsien Lei aimed at me. Lei runs a great weblog, Genetics and Health.
razib | June 28, 2006In Unequal by nature: A geneticist's perspective on human differences, James F. Crow states:
Two populations may have a large overlap and differ only slightly in their means. Still, the most outstanding individuals will tend to come from the population with the higher mean.
This is a trivial observation. It is biologically relevant because heritable quantitative traits are to a great extent the raw material for evolution, and, they generally follow an approximate normal distribution. The reasoning is simple, many loci of small independent additive effects are a good approximation of the…
razib | June 27, 2006In the long winded post below I referred to genetic conflicts in pregnancy. If you are curious about this, I highly recommend Mother Nature by Sarah Hrdy. Though the topic is placed in the context of female evolution (of our species) in general, it gets a thorough treatment. If you are interested in the technical literature, I recommend this review, Genetic Conflicts in Pregnancy by David Haig. Since it is a review, it is less analytical and formal than much of Haig's work, so it reads easily. You can get the pdf on Haig's website.
razib | June 27, 2006The paper that was supposed to be out nearly a week ago is finally on the PNAS site. This isn't the first time this has cropped up. Additionally, I can't believe that someone is writing all the press releases which give early dates for release on the website, rather, I'm assuming that the IT guys at PNAS are lazy. Anyway, I don't want to be a bitch, but this is a pattern so I figure I should note it publically (hey, when you waste 15-20 minutes combing the website for a paper multiple times, resentment builds up).
razib | June 27, 2006Janet points me to this post which points to this research which reinforces the theory that placental environment might have a strong effect on the phenotype of the fetus. Since I've expressed an interest in genomic imprinting let me respond to Jill at Feministing's query, "why do we have to know?", she doesn't have to, but some of us certainly follow this research closely. The reason isn't because we are obsessed with the biology of homosexuality, as that is the phenotype in question, but rather it elucidates questions and dynamics in evolutionary biology that we find interesting.
As to…
razib | June 27, 2006A random hot chick approached me and started talking to me on the street, real aggressive like. I was pretty taken aback until I realized she was a Jehovah's Witness, though I didn't comprehend that until I looked at the literature she gave me. I don't really know what she said, and I left the literature in the coffee shop where I got my morning fix, but this is certainly the first time that I've been approached by a smokin' JW. But I don't know if it's good for the spread of the faith since I doubt this individual induces moral rectitude in most males who she approaches with a bright smile…
razib | June 26, 2006Manish points me to this bizarre article about a successful young American who happens to be gay, and, is seeking a "marriage of convenience" with a suitably inclined lesbian. Oh, and guess what, he is a practicing Muslim to boot! A few months ago rik asked me if I thought science and religion were fundamentally compatible. My somewhat lame answer was that they must be, as there are individuals who are great scientists who seem sincerely religious. Now, is a homosexual orientation which is active and unabashed compatible with Islam? Most of the scholars and clerics interviewed in the…
razib | June 26, 2006My 10 questions for James F. Crow are up. It isn't often that a nobody gets to interview the greatest living thinker in a field (theoretical population genetics), so you should check it out.
razib | June 26, 2006OK, people, check out the leader board. I suck, but that's cool, we've raised thousands & thousands of dollars. But, I would like to stand a little taller and say that I did my part, so lift me up on your shoulders!
razib | June 25, 2006I might not believe in God, but I believe in Satan. Below the fold is a picture where you can make your own judgement (those who remember the Omen movies know what I'm talking about)....
razib | June 25, 2006Chris has an excellent post up about the "why" and "what" in regards to science blogs. I have already sketched out why I blog in the generalities, it is really a function of my egoism. The one thing I would add, or elaborate, in regards to Chris' post is that I do think science blogs play a very important role in adding a layer of intellectual granularity to the understanding of educated and science savvy folk of specific fields. If you encounter science purely through popularizations, no matter how well written they are you might get a distorted sense. As an illustration, as Chris has…
razib | June 25, 2006In reference to my previous post about multi-level selection, I have an admission to make, I am generally more open to group selection, strictly speaking interdemic selection, for human beings than I am for other creatures. The reasoning is culture, as my intuition is that ingroup vs. outgroup psychological dynamics can generate the relatively high ratio of intergroup vs. intragroup variance that is needed for this form of selection to keep up with within group selection (e.g., individual selection). To some extent, I have been influenced by the book, Not by Genes Alone, a popularization of…
razib | June 24, 2006Ruminations on the relationship between religion and evolution at the Conservatives Against Intelligent Design website.
razib | June 23, 2006What makes a good teacher? That's what SEED is asking this week. Here's my top 10....
10) Patience
9) Lack of ego (putting the focus on the student)
8) Enthusiasm
7) Social sensitivity (know the audience you are aiming at, whether it be the children of religious fundamentalists, 8 year olds or over-30 GED candidates)
6) Experience teaching
5) Broadness of personal experience
4) Top notch verbal skills
3) Training in the field which they are teaching (this is a serious issue in many high schools)
2) Creative, flexible lesson plans
...and the number #1 variable in making a "good" teacher
Smart…
razib | June 23, 2006This is a question I'm throwing out to the philosophers out there, what is the current thinking in regards to Popper in philosophy of science? My own impression is that Popper is considered passe. I find this interesting, because in my personal experience when workings scientists mouth philospophical platitudes, it is almost purely in a Popperian language. A friend of mine who is a systematist was at a conference, and she recounted to me how a cladist badgered her after her presentation because she had violated "the Popperian method." Another time I read a paper which explored the…
razib | June 22, 2006I swung by the public library today to pay a $1.25 fine. Offhand I asked the librarian what the biggest fine she'd ever encountered was, and she leaned forward and whispered, "$1,000." What she told me was that someone simply came in and paid $1,000 rather than returning their checked out books. I suppose some people have never heard of used book stores! But, the librarian continued that enormous fines were not that out of the ordinary, and that one collection agency specializes in library accounts. Finally, she explained one point of interest to me: a disproportionate of the very high…