Sometimes a picture is worth much more than 1,000 words.  Take this one: The Economist ran a great story recently about global economic inequality: More or Less Equal?  These graphs accompany the story. The graph plots a circle for each country in the world.  The X axis is the current [1980] GDP per person, and […]

I’m almost done reading the book In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion by Scott Atran. This is a much better book than A Theory of Religion (read: religion via rational choice) or Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society (read: religion via functionalism & “group selection”). I would caution that […]

In my post below in response to Ikram’s query about the economic state of Canadian immigrants of color, I made an assertion relating to the importance of social networks. I think this needs to be elaborated further: in the public discourse there is much talk about the general large scale manifestations of social networks, that […]

In the comments section of my previous post on the (re)appearance of dominance heirarchies in civilized societies, I posed the following thought experiment: If two hunting-and-gathering societies impinge upon one another’s territories and begin to fight over resources, what is the worst that one group can do to the other? Compare that situation to one […]

I have been impressed that both AAAS and APA (yes, the same group that tried to have Arthur Jensen kicked out in the ’70s) have developed Working Groups to discuss behavior genetics. One of the results from the AAAS is a layperson-directed paper entitled Genetic Differences and Human Identities, of which I have very mixed […]

test Posted by razib at 11:38 AM Comments

Recently I received a email from Ikram that indicated that “visible minorities” in Canada tend to economically under-perform as a function of their educational level. This is an interesting point in light of the fact that many American intellectuals who argue for reformed immigration policies, George Borjas being an example, have pointed to the Canadian […]

Added a great new blog to the blogroll-Genetic Chaos, it’s tag-line is, “Using genetic research to study human migration patterns.” Great reference for aggregating all these studies…. Posted by razib at 01:55 PM

Email from a friend: so i went out to a bar with this guy i know from calcutta, sav. i saw that one girl who said she admired your gods and wanted to convert to reform judaism. when i introduced her to sav, she said: “we already met at the valentines day party. nice to […]

Just a heads up-my dial up connection here in florida at the hotel is crap, so I might not respond to emails until I find a good wi-fi spot. Posted by razib at 04:37 PM

Dominance hierarchies — based on the relationship of domination and submission — are characteristic of all non-human hominid societies (an extreme example being the tiny-testicled, alpha-male gorilla lording it over his band of mates) and are found in many other species of animal — as in the proverbial pecking order among chickens, dogs, horses, etc. […]

I’ll be in Fort Lauderdale from the 17th to the 21st. I’ll check out the beach scene to see if the tales of “pretty girls in bikinis” are more than just legend (this is my first foray to the sunshine state). If anyone knows of free wi-fi spots, please email me (razibk-at-gnxp-dot-com). FYI, after the […]

Brian Greene is being interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air in preperation for his new book, and the host tried to insert the thought that String Theory and Religion/Spirituality might be related-he rejected that conflation rather forcefully. Greene did concede that some of the ideas that have emerged out of physics resemble those of certain religious […]

I don’t know who this guy is, but he mounts an interesting challenge to the libertarian point of view, with some pertinant historical observations. If American living standards continue to erode, it’s the sort of thinking that’s bound to gain traction in the period ahead. Only, thanks to the IT revolution, there are better tools […]

Norman Levitt destroys Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science-from the Babylonians to the Maya in Skeptic magazine by focusing on the misrepresentations of the history of mathematics, in particular, the shaft given to the classical Greeks and the modern West. Levitt concludes: …The myth, in a nutshell, says that your genetic ancestors do […]

Did you know that Heather Locklear’s father was Dean of the UCLA school of engineering? Posted by razib at 01:48 AM

I like alliteration, so I just changed “linguists” to “babbleologists.” In any case, Nick Wade has done a nice write-up titled A Biological Dig for the Roots of Language. Seeing as how Nick is normally on the genetics beat he tends to give the biologists a better hearing, and makes the linguists seem a bit […]

UN Leader Under Fire Over Gay Benefits : …some of the world’s most homophobic regimes are demanding Annan rescind the order. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a bloc of 56 nations, is expected to demand, possibly by the end of this week, that the U.N. General Assembly address the benefits. I see homosexuality […]

Interesting cookie cutter piece in The New York Times about male & female reactions to sex, love and all that jazz. There is the standard pap about men being “visual,” but some interesting neurological findings are added that indicate the amygdala plays a crucial role in this rapid-fire reaction. Then it proceeds to the standard […]

Does anyone know much about the evolutionary factors that have resulted in the prevalence of wisdom teeth? It seems that they would impose a cost on individuals who suffer their eruption. Trying to look it up on google tends to result in finding Creationist websites…. Posted by razib at 12:53 PM