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The Obama Surge

The latest poll from my state of New Hampshire: If the Democratic primary were held today, Obama would be in a statistical dead heat with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, according to a new Monitor poll. Last month, a Monitor poll showed Clinton trouncing her opponents, with Obama lagging 23 points behind. Although Clinton commands considerable support among likely Democratic primary voters, she struggles in general election match-ups, according to the poll. If the contest were held today, both Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani would prevail over Clinton.…

The Irrelevent Public Intellectual

What ever happened to the public intellectual? Yesterday, Tom Wolfe expended a few thousand breathless words on the New York Times editorial page bemoaning the construction of another condo on the Upper East Side. Wolfe will no longer have an unobstructed view of Central Park. The whole world weeps. Today in the Times, Jonathan Safran-Foer comments on the fact that the New York City Board of Health might force dog owners to leash their dog from 9 P.M. to 9 A.M. in city parks. (Dogs can currently run off their leash at night.) Now, I'm sure this is an important issue if you own a dog in Park…

Flashy graphic illustration of the creationism problem

There have been some recent surveys of attitudes towards evolution and the state of science education in the US, and I've mainly used tables in presentations — so it's nice to see some eye-catching graphical representations of the data. Use these! One thing surprised me — usually, this datum is presented in a positive light, but it's always bugged me. 28% of science teachers accept that evolution occurred, and god had nothing to do with it; 47% of science teachers accept evolution, but believe that god guided it. That 47% is typically presented as no problem, these are the teachers on our…

Learning Student Names

I just finished my first class of "Physics for Elementary Education Majors". The maximum size for the class is 32 students and it is very interactive. I make it a point to learn student names as quickly as possible. This is something I am terrible at. Should you memorize names? If it is a reasonable size class, I completely recommend it. Even in one short class, I noticed a difference in the atmosphere by knowing all their names. Here are my criteria for memorize or not: Class size less than 40 Meets more than once a week Not just a plain lecture class Well, those aren't really the…

Microexpressions

Paul Ekman, the eminent scientist behind micro facial expressions, dissects the unconscious tics of deceit used by A-Rod: Ms. Couric asked Mr. Rodriguez if he had ever been tempted to use illegal drugs. He answered with a simple "No" accompanied by what might be a microfear expression, according to Dr. Ekman - a horizontal stretching of the lips that is often an effort to conceal fearfulness. "The fear of being disbelieved is the same as fear of being caught," Dr. Ekman said. "He is afraid that we're not going to believe it." Mr. Rodriguez's lips stretch in a similar way when he talks of his…

An epitaph for Mayor Dellums

I suspect that when history remembers my Mayor, I expect they'll just quote Chip Johnson's summary of his state of the city address: To say the least, if Dellums had a theme, it was lost in the chaos that converged around him. I gotta say, focusing on crime was not the best move for Ron Dellums. Despite beefing up the police force, crime is basically constant in Oakland, and Dellums has shown no evidence of a clear plan to slow it. Bringing Guardian Angels in from LA is silly. It's a temporary measure, and it treats crime as something Oaklanders can't solve for ourselves. If the police…

Liveblogging the next day of interminable hearings

*chopper blades whirr, their flicker blending into the flickering of fluorescent lights in a vast chamber* Austin… crap, I'm still in Austin. Every time I think I'm going to wake up back in the prairie. When I was in the hotel after the first day, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing... When I was here I wanted to be there. When I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the hearings. I've been here a day now. Waiting for a vote, getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room I get weaker. And every minute creationists squat in the brush he gets stronger. Each time…

Which are the top 5 anti-science think tanks?

Climate Progress's Joe Romm is upset with John Tierney. John Tierney pans Obama Science Advisor John Holdren for being on the opposite side from a range of high-profile climate change deniers, delayers, and equivalents. Romm responds (in part): Tierney is easily the worst science writer at any major media outlet in the country. Pretty much every energy or climate piece he writes is riddled with errors and far-right ideology, including this one. Amazingly, Tierney quotes CEI attacking Holdren. Now CEI is itself probably one of the top five anti-scientific think tanks in the country. It has…

They aren't doing the right tests!

Some yogi in India claims that he hasn't eaten, drunk, or used a bathroom in 70 years. Yeah, right. Now the Indian military is studying him because, obviously, soldiers who don't need to be provisioned would be rather useful…which assumes that this nonsense is even worth studying. Two cameras have been set up in his room, while a mobile camera films him when he goes outside, guaranteeing round-the-clock observation. His body will be scanned and his brain and heart activity measured with electrodes. "The observation from this study may throw light on human survival without food and water…

Sen. Liddy Dole (R-NC) attacks Sunday school teacher: "There is no God"

Politico reports (via Benen): Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s latest advertisement suggests her Democratic opponent, Kay Hagan, is a godless heathen. “A leader of the Godless Americans PAC recently held a secret fundraiser for Kay Hagan,” the 30-second spot says, showing footage of the group’s members talking about their atheist beliefs on cable news. “Godless Americans and Kay Hagan. She hid from cameras. Took godless money,” the ad concludes. “What did Kay Hagan promise in return?” At the very end of the ad, a voice sounding like Hagan's says: "There is no God." Kay Hagan teaches Sunday school…

Oslo in June

The word is out: on my way to the Gods & Politics conference in Copenhagen, I'm taking a little detour to visit Oslo, as this forum article mentions. It's true! It's true! Tidenes happening før Skepsikonferansen 2010! En ravende, sinna, og nysgjerrig teddybjørn av en ateist og skeptiker kommer til vårt fagre land i noen dager før Ateistkonferansen i København 18-20. juni. Han skal være her 16. juni, og skal holde en talk på Litteraturhuset 15.30 -17; om noe om Science Communication. Skal dele link til info når den kommer opp. Dessuten overleveres han til mine klamme hender når han er…

Tuberculosis resistance

Two loci control tuberculin skin test reactivity in an area hyperendemic for tuberculosis: Approximately 20% of persons living in areas hyperendemic for tuberculosis (TB) display persistent lack of tuberculin skin test (TST) reactivity and appear to be naturally resistant to infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Among those with a positive response, the intensity of TST reactivity varies greatly. The genetic basis of TST reactivity is not known. We report on a genome-wide linkage search for loci that have an impact on TST reactivity, which is defined either as zero versus nonzero (TST-BINa…

Libby is Free, but who remains in jail?

President Bush commuted the 30 month jail sentence given to "Scooter" Libby shortly after Libby's last appeal was denied. Libby was convicted of lying to federal prosecutors investigating the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity. It is believed he lied to obfuscate Vice-President Cheney's involvement in the leak; Libby was Cheney's chief-of-staff at the time. Previously he was the author of a novel involving bestiality, rape, necrophilia and sex behind bars. Bush's clemency statement explains that he feels the sentence doled out by the judge was excessive. Judge Reggie Walton, a Bush…

Jerry Falwell dead at 73

The sanctimonious blowhard lived a life of noisy desperation, hunting constantly for a way to divide America and the world. In response to everything from Katrina to the Dover creationism decision to 9/11, he knew that the way to get on television was to declare judgment in God's name. Job's friends – friends who (wrongly) insisted that every ill consequence which befell Job and his family was simply punishment for some offense – had nothing on Falwell. Falwell is survived by a political movement of tremendous size and influence. There are undoubtedly many reasons that John McCain lost his…

Good questions

Via ThinkProgress, some thoughts on the flag at half-staff by Sergeant Jim Wilt, a piece titled "Why don’t we honor our fallen servicemembers?": Following the deaths of 32 Virginia Tech students, the President of the United States ordered that all American flags be flown at half-staff for one week. … But I find it ironic that the flags were flown at half-staff for the young men and women who were killed at VT yet it is never lowered for the death of a U.S. servicemember. Is the life of Sgt. Alexander Van Aalten, a member of our very own task force, killed April 20 in Helmand province not…

Water, water, ... where?

State water board alters priorities: A state water board on Wednesday unexpectedly pushed reducing groundwater consumption in western Kansas toward the top of a priority list of the Kansas Water Office's new five-year strategic plan. This is partly a response to the added strain on the declining aquifer that additional ethanol plants would use, and the additional irrigation needed to grow more corn – needed to supply those ethanol plants. The Ogallala aquifer which supplies groundwater for agriculture, homes and industry in western Kansas, is running low. I don't need to repeat the points I…

Kansas AG greenlights Lawrence domestic partnership registry

As the Journal World explains: Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison said in the legal opinion that the proposed registry does not conflict with the Kansas Constitution, which bans same-sex marriage. The opinion, though, does say that the registry would need to be open only to Lawrence residents, or else the city could be found to be overstepping its constitutional authority. That isn't quite right. The opinion (PDF link) is clear that there is no conflict with the marriage amendment. The only scenario the AG's office can imagine in which a court might strike down the registry is if a…

What is wrong with you, Queensland?

Look at this: they've explicitly added creationism to the public school curriculum in Queensland, Australia. That's just nuts. They're even doing it in an entirely bogus way — they're teaching it as a controversy in history classes. In Queensland schools, creationism will be offered for discussion in the subject of ancient history, under the topic of "controversies". … Queensland History Teachers' Association head Kay Bishop said the curriculum asked students to develop their historical skills in an "investigation of a controversial issue" such as "human origins (eg, Darwin's theory of…

Friday Sprog Blogging: teeth, tongues, and feedbacks.

Dr. Free-Ride: Hey, did you learn any more science today? Younger offspring: Yes! More dinosaur stuff. Dr. Free-Ride: What kinds of dinosaur stuff? Younger offspring: Stuff about dinosaurs with sharp, pointy teeth. Dr. Free-Ride: Is there another song? Younger offspring: Yeah, but I'm not ready to teach it to you yet. Dr. Free-Ride: So, which dinosaurs had the sharp, pointy teeth? Younger offspring: All of them! Dr. Free-Ride: Really? Younger offspring: Not exactly. But Tyranosaurus rex and pteradactyls did. Elder offspring: We studied teeth from different animals in science. The sharp and…

Healthy Food Tastes Bad

According to a new study in the Journal of Marketing, foods that we think are healthy taste worse. In one experiment, subjects were offered a mango lassi, an Indian yogurt drink that has the consistency of a milkshake. Subjects that were told the lassi was "unhealthy" liked the drink significantly more than those who were told the drink was "healthy". This shouldn't be surprising. As I noted here, many experiments have now demonstrated the omnipresence of our subjectivity. If we expect a food to taste worse, then it will taste worse, even when compared to an identical product. Our…

The Griffith Observatory

I was lucky enough to grow up just a short walk from the Griffith Observatory, the planetarium/museum that overlooks the sprawling Los Angeles Basin. (It is perhaps best known as a movie location in "Rebel Without A Cause".) For the last few years, the Observatory has undergone an extensive and expensive renovation. I have yet to see the re-do, but I can't wait. Edward Rothstein described the inside: This reconstruction is most remarkable not for what has changed, but for what has stayed the same. And that is a radical approach in the world of science exhibitions. The rotunda's ceiling holds…

Friday Sprog Blogging: dinner table taxonomy

(At the dinner table last night) Dr. Free-Ride: (to younger offspring) What are you learning about in nature study these days? Younger offspring: (slurping noodles) Turtles. Dr. Free-Ride: What are you learning about turtles? Younger offspring: (chewing) Turtles. Dr. Free-Ride: What?! Younger offspring: (taking another bite) Reptiles and amphibians. Dr. Free-Ride: Child, it's Thursday night. I'm working against a deadline here! Dr. Free-Ride's better half: (to both offspring) Remind me now, which of you is the reptile and which is the amphibian? Elder offspring: No! We're both mammals,…

Neuron Culture

Just a quick note to welcome back David Dobbs to the blogosphere. He's a fine, fine journalist and I'm thrilled that he's realized that long-form reportage can co-exist with blogging. I look forward to reading his future posts over at Neuron Culture. Also, a quick endorsement that's long overdue: if you're looking for a way to celebrate the upcoming Darwin anniversary, I highly suggest Dobb's Reef Madness, which is a fascinating account of an important 19th century scientific paradox: where do coral reefs come from? The book is also a tale of empiricism and the scientific method, and you…

Fractions of a Second

I really don't understand how Olympic athletes deal with the grief of losing by 1/100th of a second. That's an incomprehensible amount of time and yet it's the defining difference in the biggest event of their lives. I can only assume that, if I lost by a fraction of a second, I would have recurring nightmares for many years afterwards, dreaming of all the ways I could have reached the wall just a little bit faster. In the post-race interviews, however, I'm always struck by the equanimity of the athletes. Dara Torres, who lost by 1/100th of a second in the 50 meter freestyle, just shrugged…

fMRI Biases the Brain

Dave Munger has a great post on how fMRI images bias the brain. The researchers asked 156 students at Colorado State University to evaluate three different summaries of brain research. As you can probably guess (especially if you're familiar with this research) the students gave significantly higher ratings for "scientific reasoning" to articles accompanied by pretty pictures of brains. Anatomy is persuasive. In a final experiment, McCabe and Castel modified a real write-up of a real brain-imaging study, which argued that brain imaging can be used as a lie detector. Students read one of two…

Mindfulness

At first glance, "mindfulness" meditation practices seem completely counterintuitive. If people are suffering from pain, shouldn't they learn ways to not focus on their pain? Isn't it better to block out the negative sensations? (Repression isn't always such a bad thing...) And yet, there's some tantalizing evidence (much of it anecdotal) that aspects of mindfulness mediation can help people deal with chronic pain and various mental illnesses, such as depression. The virtue of being acutely aware of every sensation, even negative sensations, is that people become better able to modulate them…

Animal Minds

There's a nice overview of recent work on animal cognition in the latest National Geographic. Certain skills are considered key signs of higher mental abilities: good memory, a grasp of grammar and symbols, self-awareness, understanding others' motives, imitating others, and being creative. Bit by bit, in ingenious experiments, researchers have documented these talents in other species, gradually chipping away at what we thought made human beings distinctive while offering a glimpse of where our own abilities came from. Scrub jays know that other jays are thieves and that stashed food can…

Brain Augmentation

Over at the MIT Tech Review website, neuroscientist Ed Boyden argues for brain augmentation: It's arguably time for a discipline to emerge around the idea of human augmentation. At the MIT Media Lab, we are beginning to search for principles that govern the use of technology to augment human abilities--that make the idea of normal obsolete... One argument in favor of going for optimality, and forgetting about normal, is that it's becoming harder and harder to know what is normal. For example, it's been demonstrated that two-thirds of all people have at least one copy of a DNA sequence that…

Supporting the Santiaguito Volcano Observatory

An explosion at the Santiaguito dome at Santa Maria in Guatemala. Now, we've been talking recently about funding volcano monitoring - specifically with the threat that KVERT in Russia will close down after today (June 30). Well, Jessica Ball over at Magma Cum Laude has another worthy volcano observatory that needs your help. The Santiaguito Volcano Observatory, run by the INSIVUMEH in Guatemala, is the main station to watch over the activity at Santa Maria and the (very) active Santiaguito domes near the Pacific coast of the country. However, this observatory is run an a shoestring budget if…

Monday Musings: Iceland update, St. Helens anniversary, earthquakes at Hood and Mikeno erupts(?)

Some news for a sleepy Monday: Mt. Hood in Oregon. The ash from Eyjafjallajökull is, once again, causing significant airspace closure over northern Europe - close of 1,000 flights today. However, much of the closures are fairly short-lived, but that isn't keeping people happy. The eruption hasn't actually changed much, just that the winds are bringing ash towards Europe. The ash for the next few days will likely effect the England, Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, France and possibly other parts of northern Europe (along with airspace over Greenland and the north Atlantic). The ash plume is…

That'll teach us!

We really hurt the true believers of Islam with Draw Mohammed Day. They are angry and frustrated, and they want to strike back against secularists equally well, in ways that will also infuriate us. To their credit, though, some realize that threatening to decapitate heretics isn't exactly smart and civilized…they need something that will illustrate to us how hurtful violating their religious precepts was. What to do, what to do… One Muslim genius has come up with the answer: EVERYBODY RESEARCH HOLOCAUST DAY. On 30 June, he is encouraging everyone to engage in "critical study" of "the…

Wednesday Whatzits: Yellowstone earthquakes, Hawaiian lava and the hazards at Gran Canaria

Quick news updates for a Wednesday... The island (and volcano) of Gran Canaria in the Atlantic Ocean. It last erupted in ~20 B.C. The earthquakes keep coming at Yellowstone - up to a M3.5 in the last 24 hours. Time has already put up an article wondering about whether people need worry about the swarm (there might be other things to worry about before this swarm). YVO's statement on the earthquake swarm seems pretty standard (as it should be): "At this time the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory does not consider the swarm to be unusual and the earthquakes are likely related to tectonic fault…

Getting insured on an active volcano

The Royal Gardens subdivision in Hawai'i being inundated with lava flows during a 1983 eruption of Kilauea. Image courtesy of the USGS. The game of insurance is everywhere in the news these days so it isn't too surprising to run across this brief article about the perils of getting insured if you live on an active volcano. Many people who live on the big island of Hawai'i face this challenge because a large swaths of the island fall into what is called a "Lava Zone 1", which more or less means that you live someplace that lava is likely to visit in the foreseeable future. Considering that…

Wednesday Whatzits

Two papers submitted, one to go. Keeps you quite busy, let me tell you. Lava flow from a 2006 eruption on Mayon in the Philippines. A few bits of news today: A few more details about the ongoing watch of Mayon in the Philippines . There have been apparently no changes in the shape of the floor of the crater as you might expect if magma was rising underneath. However, there has been an overall inflation of Mayon since the unrest began a few weeks ago. PHIVOLCS will be checking the sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide output of the volcano soon as well. Lots of articles this week about the "…

Eruption at Yellowstone Lake

Yellowstone Lake eruption, April 1, 2009 Well, after all the seismicity and uplift at Yellowstone caldera over the last few years, something finally happened. Early this morning, without much warning, an eruption occurred in Yellowstone Lake (see above) and sent steam and ash up 50,000 feet above the park. Luckily, no one was injured or killed in the event as we're well ahead tourist season, but it is unknown how this might affect access to the park for this summer. Now, whether this eruption is really just the caldera "letting off steam" so to speak, possibly in the form of a phreatic…

What are the odds?

Joel Mathis asks: Anybody know the actual mathematical odds of experiencing a hurricane and an earthquake in the same week? Not really, but I can take a pass at it. For simplicity, I'll assume we're talking about an earthquake of magnitude 5 or more (since quakes below that magnitude are often not that noticeable). According to the USGS, there are an average of 1469 earthquakes of magnitude 5+ per year, globally. We'll call it 1500 to make the math easy. According to the University of Colorado's NCAR, there have been an average of 8 hurricanes per year in the last decade or so, a number…

An amazing start to The Amazing Meeting

I'm here in Las Vegas, and already my work is done. Genie Scott, Occidental College's Don Prothero, and I did a workshop at 9am today about Defending Evolution in Classrooms. Planning for this was complicated, because we wanted it to be a true workshop, i.e., to have interactive aspects, and time for people to work through exercises in small groups. But we didn't know what sort of crowd to expect for the first workshop of the first day. Chatting about our plan, we joked about how embarrassing it'd be if only 3 people showed up, but we planned for about 30, and made 60 copies of the…

Physiology explains it all

That Indian yogi who claims to never eat has a page on EsoWatch, the wiki of irrational belief systems, and it has some interesting content. Some of the actual medical data from observations of crazy yogi have been published — nothing as blatant as catching him in the act of eating, but the signs are all there. Sonograms showed urine in the bladder and feces in the colon that later disappeared, somehow. And the blood work taken by the credulous MD, Sudhir Shah, show changes symptomatic of starvation. Some (if not all ?) blood parameter of the november 2003 examination are shown on the…

Montana legislature thinks global warming is a good thing

HB 549, introduced by Rep. Joe Reed, has been referred to the state legislature's Natural Resources comittee: A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED: "AN ACT STATING MONTANA'S POSITION ON GLOBAL WARMING; AND PROVIDING AN IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVE DATE." BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA: NEW SECTION. Section 1. Public policy concerning global warming. (1) The legislature finds that to ensure economic development in Montana and the appropriate management of Montana's natural resources it is necessary to adopt a public policy regarding global warming. (2) The legislature finds: (a)…

Militantly not militant

To be clear, my last post was not a defense of a phrase that I use. I searched my archives, and don't see any instances where I referred to atheists as "militant." Indeed, that post is the only one where I used the word "militant" without quoting someone else! I don't think it's the best term to use, I don't think others should use it, and I don't use it. I just don't like people redefining words because they don't like their implications. I also wanted to point out a comment from Jeff Shallitt, who looked at the "militant atheist" meme back in 2007, including this gem of an observation:…

Hughes asks the Question of the Year?

Virginia Hughes, once the benevolent overlord here at Scienceblogs, asks the Question of the Year: What is Life, Anyway? She notes that many of the major scientific discoveries or advances of the year hinged on that question, and this month's Astrobiology has a series of essays on the state of our understanding. She explains: Is life simply the ability to reproduce? Well, no. If that were true, as one scientist famously noted, then âTwo rabbitsâa male and femaleâare alive but either one alone is dead.â In 1994, a NASA committee deemed that life is âa self-sustaining chemical system capable…

Heartwarming

Disco. Inst head honcho Bruce Chapman is confused. "What is more powerful," he wonders, "altruism or the survival instinct?" The question, he explains, is raised because of Watergate felon Chuck Colson's ramblings about the trapped Chilean miners. Colson, in turn is confused and amazed by Chilean health minister Jaime Manalich's report that miners "were fighting with [authorities] yesterday because everyone wanted to be at the end of the line, not the beginning." Colson continues: A news man from the scene choked up while reporting it. You know who else should be surprised: Darwinians.…

A clarification we should never have needed

So Pepsiblog has finally died. Seed will be having a conference call with us bloggers about how to mend the damage. Leave questions or comments to pass along in the comments. This was the only move they could make at this point, but it may have come to slowly to fix the reputation of ScienceBlogs. It can't have been an easy choice, as the Pepsi money could pay for a couple months' salary for the people who take care of us. For a sense of the damage done, one need only look to one of the newest Scibling, an institutional blog from Brookhaven National Laboratory. They, along with the…

WaPo: Down with pandas, up with octopus!

I can't say I disagree with these pro-octopus sentiments, though having a cheap and charismatic supergenius escape artist does not preclude having a panda too: Washington needs a new animal celebrity, one more in line with our character, intellect, values and personality. We need to love and celebrate an animal that is more than a bamboo-eating ball of fur. We must end our cuteness dependence on China, for crying out loud. Helloooo, giant Pacific octopus. No, really, it makes perfect sense. ⦠When it feeds, it often slowly descends onto a coral, ballooning around it, then devouring any of…

Civil Rights advocate sues to deny civil rights

The AP reports In North Carolina, Lawsuit Is Threatened Over Councilmanâs Lack of Belief in God: Detractors of [recently elected city councilman Cecil] Bothwell⦠are threatening to take the city to court for swearing him in last week, even though the stateâs antiquated requirement that officeholders believe in God is unenforceable because it violates the United States Constitution. âThe question of whether or not God exists is not particularly interesting to me,â said Mr. Bothwell, 59, âand itâs certainly not relevant to public office.â Raised a Presbyterian, Mr. Bothwell began questioning…

Steve Fuller desecrates Norman Levitt's memory

Norman Levitt was a great man, a leonine defender of science against the trendy pablum advanced under the guise of post-modern critique. This defense was most famously advanced in Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science, co-authored with the indomitable Paul Gross. He also assisted in an amicus brief in Kitzmiller v. Dover and reviewed a book about Dover by sociologist Steve Fuller, who testified in defense of ID (arguing, for instance, that ID deserved "affirmative action"). Levitt passed away over the weekend, and his widow has asked that, in lieu of flowers,…

I want Sebelius back

Kansas Jackass reports that newly installed Governor Parkinson will allow a coal plant in Holcomb: At a just concluded press conference, Governor Mark Parkinson announced he has reached an agreement with Sunflower Electric Power Corporation that will allow for the construction of a brand new massive coal-fired power plant in Holcomb, Kansas. Parkinson will allow air quality permit that had been blocked by Kansas Department of Heath and Human Services Secretary Rob Bremby to be issued and pave the way for the construction of one one 895 megawatt plant provided the Kansas Legislature passes a…

Socioeconomic status, ideology & party

Andrew Gelman has a post up, Who are the liberal Democrats and the conservative Republicans?, which shows that conservative Republicans tend toward higher incomes, while conservative Democrats tend toward lower incomes. I decided to see if something similar was discernible in the General Social Survey. I used the PARTYID, POLVIEWS and SEI variables to explore the question, and limited the sample to whites and the years 1998-2008 (so as to have contemporary relevance and control for ethnic confounds). I clustered all Republicans & lean Republicans into one category, and did the same for…

Women are more fundamentalist because they are more religious

A comment below asks: Well, good for you for getting me to click through by using an interesting post title. But how do you know women who "know god exists" aren't assuming a female god? In a vacuum of all knowledge about this sort of topic this is a reasonable question. But there's plenty of social science data showing that American women tend to be more religiously conservative & "orthodox" as a whole than men (in contrast to female ministers or rabbis, who are more likely to be progressive than their male counterparts from what I gather). But I decided to see how textually "…

Pigments: zebrafish and humans

About 3 years ago a paper was published on pigmentation which heralded the breaking of the dam when it comes to skin color genetics, SLC24A5, a Putative Cation Exchanger, Affects Pigmentation in Zebrafish and Humans. The zebrafish, a model organism familiar to evo-devoists the world over, played an important role in the paper. The new issue of Zebrafish is totally devoted to pigmentation. The press release was kind of weird, Zebrafish Journal Publishes Skin Pigmentation Studies That Shed Light on the Evolution of Race: "With the election of the first African-American president of the United…