I saw the NBC version of the comedy Coupling tonight. By a weird coincidence BBC America had the same episode on earlier in the original British version! And yes, about 75% of the script was same, word for word. It was really weird watching Americans behave like they were…British. Perhaps watching the British version totally ruined it, but I kept thinking that the American actors were trying to channel the British characters (down to the ticks and mannerisms). I guess the nearest analogy is the complaint that the kids on Dawson’s Creek were bizarro world versions of real teenagers-I just felt like the banter was somehow un-American. I’m sure this is partly (all?) due to the fact that I’ve seen the British series in multiple episodes, so any photocopy will be a pale imitation.

I don’t think the show works, it’s not really funny and tries too hard. It’ll get cancelled next season if not this season. On a few more important points-they converted some cultural references-so some of the things that mystified me in the original series made sense all of a sudden! Also, it seems that the American actors have a wider range of appearances than the British ones do. The American “Susan” (lead female character) is Jewish, while Jane (sexy shallow sluttish friend) is Eurasian, but additionally, the American “Jeff” is more plain & slobby than the British original, while Sally-USA is far more leggy and sensual than Sally-England (Sally-USA is actually played by an English actress). All in all, the American actors are probably somewhat better looking, and Sally & Susan are noticeably more svelt (and Rena Sofer doesn’t have alien eyes!).

Pictures of all the actresses below….

Steve Sailer links to an article that encapsulates Ahmad Chalabai’s response to his piece in The American Conservative on cousin marriage-“”The Jews have had cousin marriages galore, and it hasn’t hurt them.” When I asked a friend of mine who is half-Israel Arab (his father’s family are Arabs from Nazareth who have Israeli citizenship) about cousin marriage-his response was, “Cousins are the only people of the opposite sex that you get to meet, so it makes sense….” His own sister, who moved to Israel to live with her retired mother (who is of Scottish ancestry), ended up marrying a first cousin. As for Jews marrying relatives, perhaps there is something cultural that explains it, but obviously the small number of potential mates of appropriate background had something to do with the inbreeding. The prevention of fraternization between men and women of the opposite sex who aren’t related has the same practical effect-shrinking the possible options for marriage down to a small tightly knit circle.

I guess realist American conservatives are in the position of asking Arabs to be just a bit more slutty, though they wouldn’t want them to be as slutty as this. The Golden Mean was forgotten long ago….

Read ParaPundit’s article which spawned much of the blogospheric debate on this topic.

“The International Balzan Foundation has awarded the prestigious Balzan Prize in genetics and evolution to Wen-Hsiung Li, the George Wells Beadle Distinguished Service Professor in Ecology & Evolution.” Speaking of mathematical population geneticists. I have a copy of his book Molecular Evolution, which has a pretty gentle learning curve (almost like a general survey), especially if you have any genetics background.

Posted by razib at 03:50 PM

The bane of Orientalism has died. If it were not for Said, I wonder if Bernard Lewis would be so famous.

Ikram Saeed recommended Muslim Under Progress some time ago-but I haven’t read it much until recently. Check it out, it is sane and green, a rare thing in my opinion (sorry Zack, I view you as a Muslim anomaly, outside of history 😉 A recent post titled Some notes on secularism, secularisation and Islam: I begins a series that I will be keeping a close eye on, as a liberal (old school yo) I am interested in this topic, because we can not wish away 1 billion Muslims and they can not expect the universal Dar-al-Islam anytime soon (unless broadly interpreted as a pluralistic confederation of civilizations).

After reading this article (attached below) on Australian aid & interference in Papua New Guinea, I can’t help but think, “thank god for the New Guineans that Australia is right next door,” so they can’t forget about their former colony. Similarly, though Mexico is no colony and never was (officially), the presence of the United States to the north serves as both a labor outlet and a source of possible bail-outs (at least for the monied classes) to forestall social chaos. The unfortunate problem for many of these nations is that they have enough nationalistic pride to be angry at the interference by outside poweres, but not enough to counteract clannish behavior, family nepotism and corruption. Pity poor Rwanda, Belgium was a continent and a world away, out of sight, out of mind….

Why people with large heads suffer less cognitive decline in old age.

Full article attached below for non-subscribers. Mauritius seems to be a model for co-existence of many ethnic groups, and with a market dominant minority (whites) to boot. See this page for an explanation of the Byzantine Mauritian ethnic structure.

ParaPundit points me to this interesting but uninsightfull article on the relationship between religion & wealth. Ah, the life of a sociologist….

Hey all, taking a break from the hub-bub of regular blogging. Something that I noticed recently when looking @ our traffic-we have gone up to 1,000 hits from about 600 in 2 weeks. Most of these new hits seem to be through search engines. Interestingly, the average length of visit has gone from about 3:30 to 2:46.