This article titled Land of
the Free, Home of the Fat has an interesting statement:
Some of Mr. Critser's observations are more dubious, like his citation of a survey associating obesity
with higher levels of religiosity, or his worry that "assortative mating" ("fat attracting fat") will lead to fat
parents producing more fat children. Such bizarre notions, combined with a perfunctory assessment
of the ways in which America can combat obesity, distract attention from the very real and alarming
problems, discussed in this otherwise absorbing volume, of living large.
Update: I'm not fat. I was just smirking at what she thought were strange ideas, since I put a lot
of stock in assortive mating.
So are you a fatso?
Posted by: John Ray at January 8, 2003 04:16 AMAfter reading the post, I would assume that razib meant to imply "someone like me" with "bizarre
notions" about such things as assortive mating and an interest in religiosity.
Michiko Kakutani has a solid reputation as a literary critic in the Review of Books, but she seems to have
little understanding of the sciences, social or hard. Don't worry Razib. Accepting that intense interest in
scientific matters is a statistical rarity, you are not bizarre. At the very least, you are no more bizarre than
I am.
Fat people got no reason to what? Live? I thought that was short people. Also the assortative mating stuff
is very interesting.
Does anyone have figures in regards to obesity and g? Chris Brand's site has a new article on his bolg that
mentions that their is a negative corelation, but doesn't have the figure. That doesn't surprise me, but what
surprise me, is if the corelation was higher that .30.