Culture
razib | August 3, 2009The author of the paper, Physical attractiveness and reproductive success in humans: evidence from the late 20th century United States, speaks:
Having your study publicized by the media is nice. Having your study misrepresented and misinterpreted in the process is not. The media coverage of my paper on physical attractiveness and having children had a bad start and even worse follow-up. The origin of the problem: Times Online news article sexing up the finding a bit too much (I wasn't interviewed for this article at all and heard about it only after it had been published). Then things got…
razib | July 30, 2009Matt Yglesias pointed to this Forbes list of best cities for singles. Shouldn't one observe that the best city for men might not be the best city for women, and vice versa??? (sex ratio differences) Below the fold is the famous "singles map" from a few years back....
grrlscientist | July 29, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities, image of the day
Gate.
Gate through the fortress wall in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
razib | July 27, 2009
In the post below I wanted to have an attractive female headshot, so I naturally looked for something from Megan Fox. A few years ago I probably would have used someone like Jessica Alba. In fact, I did use Alba as an "illustration" a few times in this blog's history. But 3 years is a long time, and Fox is the new thang in the air. But I wanted to make a bit more precise my subjective impression, so I thought Google Trends might be helpful. I think it can be argued that Jessica Alba's "peak" was the mid-2000s, and the trend data goes back to 2004. And so below, the results....
It's rather…
razib | July 27, 2009
If you are a regular reader of ScienceBlogs you will have already stumbled upon several reviews of Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future. Janet Stemwedel of Ethnics & Science probably has the most thorough reviews, while P. Z. Myers' 'exchange' with the authors, Sheril Kirshenbaum & Chris Mooney, had the most 'spirit.' Chard Orzel of Uncertain Principles put up a short & sweet positive impression which covers the major points in Unscientific America very well, as well as the overall thrust of the book.
Of course as Chad noted If you read Sheril…
razib | July 26, 2009I'm not a huge fan of the original Tron (floppy-disks in the hiz house!), but Peter Suderman points to an excellent sneak peak.
razib | July 26, 2009Turkmenistan had a bizarre dictator as its ruler until 2006, Saparmurat Niyazov. Here's a sample of his healthcare initiatives:
So, in a frankly insane healthcare reform effort, he restricted the public's access to care by replacing up to 15,000 doctors and nurses with unqualified military conscripts. The next year, he ordered hospitals and clinics outside of the capital, Ashgabat, to close -- even though the vast proportion of Turkmenistan's population lives in rural areas. The BBC quoted him as saying, "Why do we need such hospitals? If people are ill, they can come to Ashgabat." He also…
razib | July 25, 2009For Mozilla and Google, Group Hugs Get Tricky. To some extent it seems that the story is going to be relevant in a few years when Chrome will presumably be more of a full-featured browser. Right now it seems a non-issue since Chrome's penetration is rather low. But this part was pretty weird:
"Mozilla performed a really good service, but you have to wonder what their relevance is going to be going forward," says Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, an independent firm that tracks the company. "They keep Microsoft honest. But if Google is pushing innovation in its own browser,…
razib | July 25, 2009Love in 2-D:
Nisan didn't mean to fall in love with Nemutan. Their first encounter -- at a comic-book convention that Nisan's gaming friends dragged him to in Tokyo -- was serendipitous. Nisan was wandering aimlessly around the crowded exhibition hall when he suddenly found himself staring into Nemutan's bright blue eyes. In the beginning, they were just friends. Then, when Nisan got his driver's license a few months later, he invited Nemutan for a ride around town in his beat-up Toyota. They went to a beach, not far from the home he shares with his parents in a suburb of Tokyo. It was the…
razib | July 24, 2009Shanghai urges 'two-child policy':
Officials in Shanghai are urging parents to have a second child, the first time in decades the government has actively encouraged procreation.
A public information campaign has been launched to highlight exemptions to the country's one-child policy.
H/T Aziz
razib | July 24, 2009With the whole Henry Louis Gates affair there has been some talk about how racist Boston is. This is a joke. I am aware that the North has a checkered history, from busing in Boston in the 1970s to Bensonhurst in the 1980s. But calling Boston the Alabama of the North is an insult to our intelligence. Part of the issue here I think is that it is easy to show how racist the North is, and how far the South as come, by using as a counterpoint a cartoon model of race relations as a function of geography which never existed. It is a fact that in much of the North blacks were excluded from…
razib | July 23, 2009The Economist has a review up of a book about Richard Dawkins' influence, The Selfish Genius: How Richard Dawkins Rewrote Darwin's Legacy. But it would really be nice to know who wrote something like this:
Her argument that the selfish-gene model is being superseded by other forms of evolutionary explanation relies on an overinterpretation of those alternatives.
In disputed areas of science perspective matters, and who someone is is a critical part of the information in judging their argument. I'm assuming this book review was written by someone who knows some evolutionary biology, in fact,…
razib | July 22, 2009In China, a Rocky Ascent for Basketball. I love this quote:
Chinese players like Wang Yong of the Dongguan Leopards support the increased participation of foreign players. "Chinese and foreign players are a harmonious blend," he said. "I've learned a lot from them this season and feel I am a better player."
razib | July 22, 2009Why 2024 Will Be Like Nineteen Eighty-Four:
The power to delete your books, movies, and music remotely is a power no one should have. Here's one way around this: Don't buy a Kindle until Amazon updates its terms of service to prohibit remote deletions. Even better, the company ought to remove the technical capability to do so, making such a mass evisceration impossible in the event that a government compels it. (Sony and Interead--makers of rival e-book readers--didn't immediately respond to my inquiries about whether their devices allow the same functions. As far as I can tell, their terms…
razib | July 20, 2009Derek Thompson at The Atlantic passes on this awesome chart:
OK, OK, obesity is more complex than that. But check out The Big Max:
Using New York's calorie-disclosure regulation to get the most for your money.
razib | July 20, 2009Felix Salmon has been at the center of a discussion on the merits and value-add of financial innovation. He notes:
Then there's the more purely financial innovation. There are good things here too -- fractional reserve banking, factoring, common-stock limited-liability companies, tradable fungible bonds, stock-market index funds, that sort of thing. But on this front I think the low-hanging fruit was plucked decades if not centuries ago, and that we've long since entered a world of diminishing returns when it comes to the positive developments. Meanwhile, the negative developments, from…
razib | July 19, 2009Moon astronauts urge Mars mission:
At a rare public reunion of the Apollo 11 crew, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins said Mars instead of the Moon should be the focus of exploration.
Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, said the race to get to the Moon had been the ultimate peaceful contest.
He said it was an "exceptional national investment" for the US and ex-USSR.
The trio spoke at an event at Washington's National Air and Space Museum to mark the 40th anniversary of their mission.
Mr Armstrong told the audience: "It was the ultimate peaceful competition: USA vs USSR.
Apparently 4 out…
razib | July 19, 2009Tyler Cowen gives a positive review of Your Religion is False:
In addition to its humor, I prefer the content of this book to the better-known "new atheist" tracts. Grus yields many of the strongest arguments. For instance the biographical and sociological correlates with belief (most people choose the religion they grew up with, or encountered through a friend, etc.) suggest that, in this area, intuitions which feel "certain" simply cannot be trusted.
Also see associated weblog.