razib

Dienekes points me to a new paper, Demographic history of Canary Islands male gene-pool: replacement of native lineages by European (PDF). Here are the results: Autochthonous (E-M81) and prominent (E-M78 and J-M267) Berber Y-chromosome lineages were detected in the indigenous remains, confirming a…

Half Sigma has pointed me to two stories that I think are of some interest, and illustrates a general trend. JOBLESS GRAD SUES COLLEGE FOR 70G TUITION: The Monroe College grad wants the $70,000 she spent on tuition because she hasn't found gainful employment since earning her bachelor's degree in…

The author of the paper, Physical attractiveness and reproductive success in humans: evidence from the late 20th century United States, speaks: Having your study publicized by the media is nice. Having your study misrepresented and misinterpreted in the process is not. The media coverage of my…

Where is the rainforest above located? For the answer see below.... It's in Iran, the Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests of Gilan province. Here's a precipitation map of Iran:

Apparently the average American gets ~17% of their calories a day from sugar. This varies by population segment: The intake of added sugars was higher among men than women and inversely related to age, educational status, and family income. Asian Americans had the lowest intake and Hispanics the…

Megan McArdle has a post, Thining Thin, a follow up to America's Moral Panic Over Obesity. She says: 1. Obesity is increasing in the population, so it can't be genetic. Well, average height is also increasing in the population. Does that mean that you could be as tall as me, if you weren't too…

An ancestry informative marker set for determining continental origin: validation and extension using human genome diversity panels: Results In this study, genotypes from Human Genome Diversity Panel populations were used to further evaluate a 93 SNP AIM panel, a subset of the 128 AIMS set, for…

Matt Yglesias pointed to this Forbes list of best cities for singles. Shouldn't one observe that the best city for men might not be the best city for women, and vice versa??? (sex ratio differences) Below the fold is the famous "singles map" from a few years back....

A quick follow up to the post below, I was curious as to the increased profile of Google in The New York Times (Google trends doesn't seem to be available to the public before 2004) around the turn of the century. In particular, I curious as to Google's prominence in the "Technology" section of the…

The collaboration between Yahoo! and Microsoft is spawning a lot of articles about the coming duopoly in search (since the Yahoo! Microsoft deal is for 10 years, we're talking 10 year horizon times). But this got me to thinking: when did people realize Google was something big? I realized Google…

News story, brought to you by the same people responsible for China Strong. Police Still Searching For Missing Productive, Obedient Woman

Update: The author of the paper clears up confusions. Follow up to the post yesterday, here's the paper, Physical attractiveness and reproductive success in humans: evidence from the late 20th century United States: Physical attractiveness has been associated with mating behavior, but its role in…

Short article in PLoS Biology, Charles Darwin's Reception in Germany and What Followed.

In the post below I wanted to have an attractive female headshot, so I naturally looked for something from Megan Fox. A few years ago I probably would have used someone like Jessica Alba. In fact, I did use Alba as an "illustration" a few times in this blog's history. But 3 years is a long time,…

Update: The author of the paper clears up confusions. Update: Here's the paper. End Update The British media is abuzz with another paper from Satoshi Kanazawa, the evolutionary psychologist who has great marketing savvy. I can't find the study online anyway, so here is the Times Online: In a study…

If you are a regular reader of ScienceBlogs you will have already stumbled upon several reviews of Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future. Janet Stemwedel of Ethnics & Science probably has the most thorough reviews, while P. Z. Myers' 'exchange' with the authors…

I'm not a huge fan of the original Tron (floppy-disks in the hiz house!), but Peter Suderman points to an excellent sneak peak.

Turkmenistan had a bizarre dictator as its ruler until 2006, Saparmurat Niyazov. Here's a sample of his healthcare initiatives: So, in a frankly insane healthcare reform effort, he restricted the public's access to care by replacing up to 15,000 doctors and nurses with unqualified military…

For Mozilla and Google, Group Hugs Get Tricky. To some extent it seems that the story is going to be relevant in a few years when Chrome will presumably be more of a full-featured browser. Right now it seems a non-issue since Chrome's penetration is rather low. But this part was pretty weird: "…

Tyler Cowen linked to a Time article on the phenomenon of Southern Americans being relatively overweight vis-a-vis Americans from other regions of the country. Several reasons are offered, from the lower per capita income of Southern states, to the fact that Southern food tends to be fried and less…

Love in 2-D: Nisan didn't mean to fall in love with Nemutan. Their first encounter -- at a comic-book convention that Nisan's gaming friends dragged him to in Tokyo -- was serendipitous. Nisan was wandering aimlessly around the crowded exhibition hall when he suddenly found himself staring into…

Shanghai urges 'two-child policy': Officials in Shanghai are urging parents to have a second child, the first time in decades the government has actively encouraged procreation. A public information campaign has been launched to highlight exemptions to the country's one-child policy. H/T Aziz

With the whole Henry Louis Gates affair there has been some talk about how racist Boston is. This is a joke. I am aware that the North has a checkered history, from busing in Boston in the 1970s to Bensonhurst in the 1980s. But calling Boston the Alabama of the North is an insult to our…

The Economist has a review up of a book about Richard Dawkins' influence, The Selfish Genius: How Richard Dawkins Rewrote Darwin's Legacy. But it would really be nice to know who wrote something like this: Her argument that the selfish-gene model is being superseded by other forms of evolutionary…

Earlier today I linked to a Jonah Leher post on food that hooks into the role that dopamine plays in our decision making. Dopamine looms in the neuroscience angle of Jonah's book How We Decide because the chemical's role in cognition is established. Dopamine related genes are often fingered in…

In China, a Rocky Ascent for Basketball. I love this quote: Chinese players like Wang Yong of the Dongguan Leopards support the increased participation of foreign players. "Chinese and foreign players are a harmonious blend," he said. "I've learned a lot from them this season and feel I am a better…

Rocket Science Irreplaceable data The Neuroscience of McGriddles Very off topic: Why I won't be at my high school reunion The Best Eclipse of the Century is Tomorrow!

Why 2024 Will Be Like Nineteen Eighty-Four: The power to delete your books, movies, and music remotely is a power no one should have. Here's one way around this: Don't buy a Kindle until Amazon updates its terms of service to prohibit remote deletions. Even better, the company ought to remove the…