Month: June 2011
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Genetics existed before -omics
In the post below, Moderate marginal value to genomics, I left some things implicit. It turns out that this was an ill-considered decision. In reality my comments were simply more cryptic and opaque than implicit. This is pretty obvious because even th…
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Through the lens of a glass house
Nature has a very interesting piece up right now, Don’t judge species on their origins, which addresses the periodic bouts of hysteria which are triggered by ‘invasive species.’ I’ve addressed before the issue of biological term…
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The limits of the mean and the moderate
Red States vs. Blue States: Going Beyond the Mean: In recent years, many scholars have explored the degree of polarization between red and blue states (red states are those carried by Republicans at the presidential level; blue states are those carried…
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Moderate marginal value to genomics
In the comments below when it comes to genomic privacy I expressed a rather carefree attitude toward the future possibilities of dark prediction. Over at FARK.com the comments were rather uniformly alarmed, and influenced by Gattaca. For example: ̶…
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A mismeasured Mismeasurement of Man
I would say The Mismeasurement of Man is one of the most commonly cited books on this weblog over the years (in the comments). It comes close to being “proof-text” in many arguments online, because of the authority and eminence of the autho…
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Dances with Dragons, t-minus ~ 1 month
So A Dance with Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire #5, is coming out in about a month. Honestly I’ve been wondering if it really would drop (at ~1000 pages, it’s literally going to be a heavy drop). Seems as if it’s for real, Publisher&#…
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Against social constructionism
My first post over at HAP. The theses of some scholars who argue for social construction of caste has obviously gone too far, but I do want to add that I suspect there’s a lot correct about specific details. For example, it seems possible that the class “Kayastha” broadly refers to groups which uplifted from…
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Caste is not ancestrally arbitrary
First, thanks to Zack for the opportunity to blog here. More importantly, thanks to Zack for the Harappa Ancestry Project! I’ve learned a lot from him in terms of the optimal way to go about “genome blogging,” and have been …Read more »
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Decoding Latif
Honestly I have no idea what Zach and Omar are arguing about half the time. Kind of reminds me about how anti-Zionist Arabs and Zionists can get worked up over their little sand-patch as if it is the most-important-of-all-things. But I don’t get what this is supposed to mean: “I think a strong Diaspora maketh…
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Lives of Confucius: Civilization’s Greatest Sage Through the Ages
Link to review: Lives of Confucius: Civilization’s Greatest Sage Through the Ages.
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The Problem of Democracy
Link to review: The Problem of Democracy.
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The Problem of Democracy
Link to review: The Problem of Democracy.
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The way the world looks now in human evolutionary genetics
Randy McDonald points me to this very nice Q & A formatted piece in BMC Biology from March, Who is H. sapiens really, and how do we know?. The lucidity and clarity is impressive. If scientists keep putting stuff out there like that open access the…
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Why rice is so nice
The Pith: What makes rice nice in one varietal may not make it nice in another. Genetically that is…. Rice is edible and has high yields thanks to evolution. Specifically, the artificial selection processes which lead to domestication. The ̶…
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Guest blogging at the Harappa Ancestry Project
That’s what I’ll be doing while Zack Ajmal is on vacation. I’ll probably mostly use it as a venue to throw around some ideas.
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Why genetic privacy could be doomed
I was having a discussion with some friends who have all expressed interest in being genotyped or have been about putting their information into the public domain. They were a pretty savvy lot (half of the six had been genotyped), but one expressed the…
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More curiosity about atheists?
Josh Rosenau has a post up discussing the impact of “New Atheism” on public perceptions of atheists. He mentions offhand that “New Atheism” as a movement really only crystallized in the mid-2000s, which made me wonder: what does…
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3QuarksDaily size writing prize
Sean already mentioned it, and now that I’m feeling a bit better I want to as well: The annual 3QuarksDaily science writing contest nominees are out. You can vote here. Too many of my friends are up for nomination, so I’m going to avoid ma…
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Kala verboten!
Pubs bar African nationals in Bangalore: At most of these bars and pubs, blacks are generally frowned upon. In most cases, a group of black males, unaccompanied by women gets responses varying from a polite – “sorry, prior reservation needed” to the outright rude – “please leave”. At one of the sports bars, which had…
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HAP K = 11 bar plots
Two bar plots. The first has a bunch of populations and individuals, with a minimum threshold of S Asian + Onge = 25% from HAP K = 11. I tried to cluster by region/language. The second shows the ratio of SW Asian & European, again with the threshold of S Asian + Onge, and, a…