Bryan Sykes is talking about the descendents of Genghis Khan (Temujin) again. It seems ~8% of men in a broad swath of Central Asia are direct patrilineal descendents of the World Conqueror (or his father or grandfather, that is, his near relatives). Here is a test being sold by Sykes’ company to see if you […]

Abiola has a entry where he references this article that discusses the fact that the proportion of blacks at elite universities who are immigrants or the children of immigrants (that is, usually West Indian or African in origin) is far greater than their numbers would suggest. Here is a telling quotation: Aisha Haynie, the undergraduate […]

The The Indian American Society for Political Awareness states that “their mission is to increase political awareness in the Indian American community and encourage participation by the Indian American community in the American democracy.” Over the past year I’ve had a friendly correspondence with other young South Asian Americans (as I am technically a “Bangladeshi […]

Ed Rubenstein has a piece over at VDARE titled Bad News About Those South Asian Model Immigrants. There is plenty of bad news to report, or, more frankly, less good news. In the early 1980s most of the South Asians who were working class my family was aware of were illegals, or the odd poor […]

I’ve been following closely Venezualan politics for sometime now (the fact that they are the largest producer of oil in the western hemisphere taken over by a pro-Castro madman [redundant] has alway concerned me) so this article from Wapo really disturbs me. Quote from article; ” The Democratic Charter authorizes the OAS [Organization of American […]

I’m reading Geoffrey Miller’s The Mating Mind right now (see David B’s review, only 1/4 of the way through, I echo most of his objections already). Human females, unlike most mammals, have to engage in display because if the importance of long term pair-bonding, making males “choosy” (follow the last link). Posted by razib at […]

A few months ago, I read The Barbarian Conversion, which detailed the transition of post & extra-Roman peoples from paganism to Christianity. One chapter, “Rival Monotheisms,” dealt with the challenge posed by both Islam and Judaism. The author makes the case that conversion to Judaism from Christianity was a common event during the early medieval […]

They say there are now more Mormons than Presbyterians in the United States. Well, on a recent trip to the east coast, I was talking to a friend who just got a position at University of Utah, and I realized talking to him he didn’t know much about the religion. Going to a high school […]

From Survival of the Prettiest (a data rich, if thematically somewhat unorganized, book), page 127 and 128: [begin quote]…psychologist Jerome Kagan has found that children with pale pigment, in particular children with blue eyes, are far more likely to be shy and inhibited than dark-eyed children. They are the most likely to be fearful of […]

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have a strong aversion Islam. My rather sharp reaction to the article that I commented on below which highlights a possible interweaving of the British state with Islam is due to what I perceive as the discouragements toward apostasy implicit within the proposals suggested. But, during […]

This is kind of a test, since we don’t have a discussion forum option anymore. So here’s a open thread where you can leave questions and what not. I’ll leave a link to this thread on the sidebar above “Recent Entries.” Posted by razib at 10:10 PM

A few weeks ago, I asked where Spencer Wells might be. Matt Pope emails me again: Dear Razib, I had a post on your site not too long ago about contacting Spencer Wells, and I recently was called on the phone by a guy who viewed that post. He is working on a documentary for […]

Griffe is arguing that overall IQ score overpredicts East Asian GDP because their verbal IQ is lower. The standard caveats on Lynn’s data-sets apply. Also, a few other question marks: 1) Griffe looks at Ph.D.’s awarded to Asian Americans, and notes more in science and engineering, and fewer in other fields. He also notes the […]

Here’s a paper titled Genome Scans of DNA Variability in Humans Reveal Evidence for Selective Sweeps Outside of Africa (via Dienekes), something I’ve been hearing about for a year or so now from various people. The abstract notes: “A disproportionate number of these loci exhibited reduced levels of relative variability in non-African populations alone, suggesting […]

I know many conservatives complain that “separation of church & state” is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, and I also know historically that a moderate level of state establishment of denominations persisted in places like New England deep into the 19th century, but articles like this from England point us to how fortuitous some […]

Carl Zimmer and Randall Parker are both talking about love & chemistry (and evolution & monogamy) over at their blogs, check out their posts (follow the links). Also check out Imbler Volokh’s genius-on-the-street perspective on mating & dating issues here, here and here. So why do women focus on being sexy so much? Well, the […]

Here is an article from the The Economist on the “whole racist cops in Britain” issue. Full article below. The Macpherson millstoneJun 17th 2004From The Economist print edition Efforts to combat racism in the police are failing. Time for a rethink THE existence of institutional racism is so widely accepted these days that the concept […]

The Economist has a strinkingly biased (anti-affirmative action) article (full article below) out that reviews Thomas Sowell’s new book, Affirmative Action Around The World, and another publication from an obscure academic that is more pro-affirmative action. The money shot is this: Though such policies are supposed to help the poor, their beneficiaries tend to be […]

Statscan has a press release out that documents the rise in interracial relationships in Canada over the past 10 years. Seeing as how the “visible minority” segment of the Canadian population is small (13%), this shouldn’t be that surprising, but, considering that it is concentrated in the major urban areas where segregation has been an […]

Koin 6 News up here in Portland, OR just reported on a story of adult strangers targeting teens for sex. While this is nothing new in our country, the news people decided to make an unusual turn that if they had taken to completion would have been interesting and controversial. Towards the end of the […]