I periodically get emails from readers with links. In the hub-ub of life, blogging, etc, I often forget them (though a non-trivial number of posts are triggered by a forwarded link). I don't want my correspondents to think that I don't appreciate their emails, as it makes it easier for me to blog, so here are some links that I got recently....

1) This is the guy that Heidi Klum was impregnated by. Makes you wonder how strong the tendency to assortively mate with people of similar attractiveness is.

2) My Life Among Serial Killers looks like an interesting book. A correspondent tells me that the author expressed the opinion on NPR that there is a genetic component to being a serial killer.

3) This Wired article about "super organics" is important. I am not that stressed out by GMOed food (apples are polyploid freaks after all), but I'm a realist, and it seems that the public really isn't too excited about it once they find out that their tomato has been fiddled with. There's some psychological "yuck factor" considerations that "smart breeding" gets around.

4) East High confronts racial gap in grades. Typical story, but lots of nice graphs. On a similar note, CNN has a show titled "The Gap" to commemorate Brown vs. Board of education on this week. I probably won't catch it, but it should be interesting (if not particularly original).

5) OK, this is from me, but yesterday, I heard this weird ass story on NPR...basically, it's a middle class black community where people complain that a Walmart isn't moving into town, they only have local businesses! Huh? I guess you know that your community has "made it" when your main street is gutted by the arrival of "big box" stores (I take no position on the main street vs. big box question-I'm just noting that it is atypical for middle to upper-middle-class communities to yearn for a nearby Walmart)

6) Teen killed. Why? One gang enters the territory of another gang looking for girls. Some things don't change....

7) Not related to any emails I got, but FuturePundit has a good post on China's sex-imbalance up, and he hints at issues having to deal with mail-order brides, etc. being driven by this asymmetry in the world's largest nation. Got me to thinking, I read an article about Punjabi men buying/kidnapping women from poorer states in India to make up for their lack of females once every three months. What do the men in places like Assam or Madhya Pradesh do when their buddies come looking for a bride after they've sold all their daughters and sisters to wealthy Punjabi farmers?

Update: 8) New homes block is for 'Asians only' (via Scottish Scot). From the article:

Sirajul Islam, lead councillor for social services at Tower Hamlets, said: "We certainly do not advocate segregation in Tower Hamlets.

"But the 'one size fits all' approach to public services is no longer acceptable in 21st century Britain.

To be honest from reading the details, it seems that this is a 'Bengali Muslims' only complex (the need for Bengali speaking staff and halal meals, etc.). Many liberals would argue that mixed-gender schooling prepares students for the real mixed-gender world. Some conservatives might reply that boys and girls learn better when segregated as there isn't any sexual tension. Some African American educators move one step further, wanting to promote schools that are black male only to maximize the educational impact. Conservatives respond that this only furthers segregation. In 1948 Harry Truman integrated the armed forces, even though some might have wondered whether this degraded unit cohesion. Progressives might have argued that it sent a signal to society. In any case, this might be an academic point to quibble about since these are people exiting life, but first retirement homes, later nurseries where circumcized Muslim boys don't have to interact with uncircumcized non-Muslim boys? Sex is a fact of life, its salience is undisputed. Religious differences are a fact of life, and there are steps that have been made toward recognition of confessional differences (chaplains of different faiths, etc.). But don't we all worship the same God??? Well...you know what I mean....

9) Louisiana still allows cock fights. It and New Mexico are the only states where it is legal. I guess the anti-French campaign didn't stamp out all hallmarks of Cajun culture....