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Open Thread, 05/21/2017

Sorry database was down yesterday. Something weird happened that my scripts couldn’t pick up and I was traveling. Will update the scripts as needed.

Update: some weird issues with the database the past few days. Hope that this doesn’t require more debugging.

9 thoughts on “Open Thread, 05/21/2017

  1. A friend of mine is trying to convince his brother, who is a freshman biology major, to focus on statistics for his course work. He thinks a popsci book in the vicinity of genetics might get him excited about it rather than an academic textbook. I mentioned Deep Ancestry or maybe The 10,000 Explosion, but I’m having trouble thinking of anything that has a good amount of statistics (because lay audiences don’t buy books like that).

    Anyone have any recommendations?

  2. I work in a lab in the building next to Peter Turchin’s office and have seen him walk around campus a few times. Do you have any questions I should ask him? I feel like I shouldn’t waste this opportunity, as I will be leaving here in July.

    I’ve been meaning to read “Age of Discord” for some time now, but haven’t gotten around to it. Maybe I’ll read that to add some questions of my own.

  3. She don’t need no stinkin’ eyelid surgery.

    http://www.scmp.com/sport/hong-kong/article/2094304/i-hope-people-dont-focus-only-my-looks-it-helps-says-high-jumper-and

    There’s something there about mutational load, or lack thereof. I doubt she will ever be a world class athlete, her personal best is too far below qualifying for full international competition, but she won’t need to be.

    If Disney are casting for the live action Mulan remake, they could do worse – she’s strong-slim and respectably muscled, for a female high jumper, and would be a better choice than the ageing Zhang Ziyi or the wooden and unathletic Jing Tian, who failed to impress in The Great Wall and who I note has been awarded 3 Golden Broom awards in China (the Chinese equivalent of a Razzie). But according to my daughter, if Hua Mulan was ever a real person (and it’s a very big if) then she was probably not Han anyway – more likely Xianbei – one of the northern nomadic tribes. Not Fu Hao, who was definitely real, and a real life military leader during the Shang Dynasty, if inscriptions and grave goods are anything to go by; but she just doesn’t fit any of the classical narrative.

  4. Is there an automatic “close” date for comments? Based on number of comments? I noticed that the Saudi debate closed in 2 days, while older posts are still open?

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