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It’s been a while since I did one of these. Sometimes people want have a thread to say a few things about themselves, as that way they can know who else they’re talking to and with. You can use a pseudo, but please don’t use “anon” or “anonymous”, since it is hard to tell people apart. Though some of the more frequent commenters are well known to each other, it seems there has been a influx of new people since I left Discover….
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Been reading (lurking, mostly) since the discover days. PhD in molecular & cell biology from Stanford, now a post doc at Cornell.
Love the blog, even the snarky jibes at some of my crazy fellow liberals. Keep up the great science writing. Id particularly like to hear more about Oceania and Australia. What are modern genetics telling us about those astoundinly early seafarers?
Hi Razib, as a long-time lurker I thought I’d say hi. I’ve been reading your blog for a long time now, definitely not as long as some but…since 2010? I ventured here from the Christian blog camp, I want to say that I came by way of Rod Dreher or Ross Douthat’s blog at some point. Since then I had a kid, became an atheist, finished my Ph.D. in chemistry, and became an expat. Came for the historical / religious / cultural commentary, stayed for the evolution and biology. Thanks for spending so much time writing this – I don’t know how you do it. I have really appreciated it over the years.
Id particularly like to hear more about Oceania and Australia. What are modern genetics telling us about those astoundinly early seafarers?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3188841/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21940856
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/5/1803.abstract
there’s a lot of political issues here, so access is hard to get. it seems like there’s been a standstill, since the first two papers come out of pretty eminent groups with conflicting results (albeit, using different types of data and sample sets), but that was fall of 2011.
#2, i think ross has linked more than rod, though rod’s commenters often point here for whatever reason….
I’ve been reading Gene Expression since around my junior year of college in 2004 (good ol’ gnxp.com). I work for a medium-sized family-owned international chemicals company based in the southeastern US, and due to my own links to the ownership, I’m lucky enough to dabble in a little bit of everything from software engineering to laboratory analysis.
With bachelor’s degrees in Physics and in English (and a voracious interest in history), I’ve always felt drawn to both the sciences and the humanities. Your blog has always spoken to this duality in me, though my knowledge of genetics is relatively elementary. Elements of Evolutionary Genetics is slowly reaching the top of my reading queue though!
To be honest, I believe I originally came to your blog by way of a long-time genealogy interest, which lead me initially to the layman-friendly Spencer Wells, and then to the university library stacks to comb through Cavalli-Sforza, and then much much more.
The genealogy interest dovetails with an interest in local history, which I feel can come off as quite quaint, but I think it ultimately stems from a desire to see my hometown as something more than the low-quality-of-life place that it is (Fayetteville, NC). To bore you for a minute: the Upper Cape Fear River Valley represented one of the largest concentrations of immigrant Highland Scots communities within the USA. Scottish Gaelic was spoken out in the surrounding countryside up until 1900, in milieus that would qualify today as mundanely redneck. Look up that word in the OED sometime by the way, and note the locale of its first occurrence.
If I can ever keep myself from procrastinating via my RSS feeds, I’ll pen an amateur local history that brings many of these phenomena to life. I’m currently building a mapping API that can take as input the texts of local deeds and reconstruct maps of the community built by the original Scots settlers. It is amazing how well one begins to read 200-year-old chicken scratch after staring at it for a couple of hours. Perhaps in a decade, I’ll send you a link of my efforts. I figure the place is of small enough interest that no one will beat me to it!
the Upper Cape Fear River Valley represented one of the largest concentrations of immigrant Highland Scots communities within the USA. Scottish Gaelic was spoken out in the surrounding countryside up until 1900, in milieus that would qualify today as mundanely redneck.
i’ve read albion’s seed, so i knew this. in fact, the black slaves even spoke gaelic.
i've read albion's seed, so i knew this. in fact, the black slaves even spoke gaelic.Replies: @Josh
Right! You could tell how geographical mobility differed between races by just looking at the last names at my high school. So many African-Americans with Mc surnames but very few whites.
Hi Razib
I’ve been lurking since well back in the gnxp days. I first read your review of Peter Turchin’s work though I’m not sure how I found the link. I’m an Australian and work in economics and international political analysis. I enjoy the population genetics pieces though a lot of it is a bit techy for me to really understand well. The historical stuff is great and I’ve got enough background and would love it if the mix was weighted a bit more that way.
Love the blog. I’ve learned a hell of a lot over the years and your posts have sent me searching in all types of interesting directions.
Long term fan/beneficiary of Razib’s Science and History writing, and hugely entertained by the slap-downs. Civil/Geotechnical Engineer now working for one of the world’s largest consulting companies. Born at the furthest south-west tip of Western Australia, spent early childhood playing with Noongars, now normally resident in East Asia. [Cylindrachetidae are bizarre tunneling insects known popularly as Sandgropers – 5 species are endemic only to Western Australia; hence other Australians refer to Western Australians as Sandgropers, given that much of WA is just sand, sand and more sand – the particular joke in my case being that I do actually spend some of my time digging tunnels.] Conservative. Ex-Anglican (Episcopalian) atheist, non-believer in multiculturalism except within some narrow confines, lifelong feminist (born that way) in the true original meaning of gender equality, while obviously knowing that there are group differences between males and females. Active supporter/practitioner of interracial marriage as being a generally good idea and socially constructive thing to do, while worrying about the conundrum of how to genetically preserve Australian Aboriginal people and whether anyone should even try, given that it requires some form of Apartheid/extreme isolation and seems socially unjust. Keen tennis player (competitive) and cyclist (for transport).
Good day Mr. Khan,
Don’t really lurk, but I get sent Unz Review links from time to time, and it is usually spot on. Descriptively, I have nothing to contribute, since I’m young. Proscriptively, I have some things to say, but I don’t, in polite company such as this.
I’m a college dropout/on mental-health leave, with no job, and a lot of time on my hands. I’m trying to fix the job thing, but not having one allows me time to think, not that it did Marx much good. I live with my parents, and try to help out as much as possible.
I would like to know about sickle cell trait in Africans and the propensity for hypergamy and status seeking within African populations. And also the genetic preoccupation of black females with white males. Is it just a status thing, or do the babies have no chance of sickle-cell anemia and therefore potentially healthier in a Malaria free environment.
Hope you may lend some insights
Sincerely Veritisian Line
look up the population genetics of overdominance. sickle cell is a classical treatment. if you have access to a college library, please check out alan templeton's pop gen book (has title "microevolutionary"), there is a whole section on various forms of sickle cell....
Been reading gnxp on and off since the first few months it came online. I’m interested in all things related to the history of human development. This blog is a great resource for that.
I used to think you and the gang back at gnxp were off the mark when predicting the rise of gene therapy (or was it just Godless Capitalist?), but now, especially with the sudden advent of crspr tech, I see it as likely, and a “gene race” of sorts between China and the US as possible and perhaps even necessary to sustaining their economies, however horrific that may be.
BA in Humanities, JD, and published fiction writer.
Follower since GNXP.com back in 2005 interested in pretty much all of the subjects covered. Delurked briefly in 2012 got the chance to enjoy dinner with Razib, thanks again, then promptly got too busy with work and kids to contribute much.
Father of 2, owner of a small movement training business Evolve Move Play, former co-founder of west coasts first Parkour gym.
Still following, will probably stay in lurker mode for the foreseeable future.
I used to think you and the gang back at gnxp were off the mark when predicting the rise of gene therapy (or was it just Godless Capitalist?), but now, especially with the sudden advent of crspr tech, I see it as likely, and a "gene race" of sorts between China and the US as possible and perhaps even necessary to sustaining their economies, however horrific that may be.
BA in Humanities, JD, and published fiction writer.Replies: @Razib Khan
#10, i think it might be getting big soon, along with stem cells, in non-humans. stem cells have been on the down-low for over a decade, but it looks like within the next half decade they’ll come back in a big way. & yes, most of those posts were by him…
Don't really lurk, but I get sent Unz Review links from time to time, and it is usually spot on. Descriptively, I have nothing to contribute, since I'm young. Proscriptively, I have some things to say, but I don't, in polite company such as this.
I'm a college dropout/on mental-health leave, with no job, and a lot of time on my hands. I'm trying to fix the job thing, but not having one allows me time to think, not that it did Marx much good. I live with my parents, and try to help out as much as possible.
I would like to know about sickle cell trait in Africans and the propensity for hypergamy and status seeking within African populations. And also the genetic preoccupation of black females with white males. Is it just a status thing, or do the babies have no chance of sickle-cell anemia and therefore potentially healthier in a Malaria free environment.
Hope you may lend some insights
Sincerely Veritisian LineReplies: @Razib Khan
I would like to know about sickle cell trait in Africans and the propensity for hypergamy and status seeking within African populations. And also the genetic preoccupation of black females with white males. Is it just a status thing, or do the babies have no chance of sickle-cell anemia and therefore potentially healthier in a Malaria free environment.
look up the population genetics of overdominance. sickle cell is a classical treatment. if you have access to a college library, please check out alan templeton’s pop gen book (has title “microevolutionary”), there is a whole section on various forms of sickle cell….
I’ve been reading “Gene Expression” (GNXP), in its different incarnations, since at least 2006. Maybe longer. (Although I went and read most the archives too.) This is one of the blogs I read regularly, even if it has been years since I commented 🙂
By profession I’m a software engineer. Have been doing it for a long time now. (Although sometimes I’ve had to do more manager/director/etc roles.)
I’m very active in my local software engineering, machine learning and data science communities where I live.
From an education point of view, formally my background is in computer science and mathematics (with a bit of chemistry and physics).
I have a number of interests. Probably, in part, driven to my obsessive-compulsive tendencies 🙂
One of those interests is genetics. Which is what got me interested in GNXP in the first place, all those years ago.
(Although I find a lot of the non-genetic stuff quite interesting too. Kind of like how the “marginal revolution” blog is an economics blog, but posts a lot of other interesting stuff too. I actually think characterizing GNXP as (just) a “genetics blog” would be inaccurate.)
This and the other genetics-oriented (and related) blogs got me interested in getting my DNA tested on 23andMe and later FamilyTreeDNA. I found out some interesting personal family genealogy information.
Had questions about my direct male line, since there was some mystery to its origins. Getting a DNA test helped me solve that (to some degree). Wondered if I had any Amerindian (ie., “native American”) descent due to some of my ancestry being in what is now Canada for so so long ago. Found out I do. (The signal in our autosome was within error, but my cousin’s mtDNA haplogroup was the “smoking gun”.) But there are some genealogy questions I have that I’d still like to answer, but haven’t been able to yet.
And oh, found out I’m 2.7% Neanderthal 🙂 (using the technique 23andMe is using to infer this).
There’s some “long term stories” that comes up on this blog. For example, things related to domestication, like the tame silver fox has popped up from time to time. (That’s an interesting “story”.)
But there’s one “long term story” I find particularly interesting. It is the whole telling of the latent human history, though genetics and ancient DNA (aDNA). Very very interesting.
I’ve been reading Razib for a year or two now. From an American evangelical background, started a PhD in literature at an Ivy, dropped out, moved to Morocco, and now am currently working in IT in Paris (France…not Texas) and writing book reviews and other stuff on the side.
I find the comments on religion particularly interesting. There are so few people who write or speak well about religion. Most, whether fundamentalists or New Atheists, assume the Bible or Koran are to a religion as blueprints are to a house. But Razib quickly puts paid to that conception.
I was a great science student in high school, but since then it’s been all math, programming, and humanities. So blogs like this help me fill in the gaps in my knowledge about subjects like population genetics. I particularly enjoy the book reviews.
Reader 10+yrs(?) much learned and to learn nothing to add, undegreed dropout, retired at 50 long ago. Great learning site, the who what where when how and why of long abiding interest(s) in a rapidly developing subject area with myriad fronts. ‘School’ for the hungry and thirsty.
I have been reading this blog for 5-10 years. I have a PhD with background in cognitive science, signal processing, and machine learning. I do research on estimating peoples’ cognitive and physical state from various sensors (EEG, voice, accelerometry, video).
My favorite things about this blog are the bits about human evolution and deep history, and gene / culture interactions. I also love the book recommendations, and have read and enjoyed many of them.
Politically, I am a liberal, and one thing I find puzzling about this blog is Razib’s identification as a conservative. I would love to hear more politically related posts to put flesh on those bones. I am wondering where our views differ, as I haven’t yet read anything here that I have much disagreement with.
I do share the contempt for intellectual fads like postmodernism, deconstructionism, etc, about which I am unfortunately very familiar. And, I have been frustrated by blank slateism in all its forms ever since I was a Psychology undergrad in the mid 1980s.
I’ve been reading your writings since summer 2011. I think I found you from Dienekes. I’m really interested in prehistory, especially the peoples like the Uralics, Khoisan or the Dravidians that got pushed aside by the agricultural or pastoral groups. Archaeolinguistics is very interesting as well. I’ve been reading a lot of the books you recommended and just want to say thanks. They have been very illuminating.
Been reading gnxp since Science Blogs days.
At the bench for 10 years, generally molecular for various fed agencies. Joining UCDavis IGG program in the fall (spouse’s junior faculty at genome center). New parent of yearling. Any daycare suggestions?
Read a few of your Goodreads recommendations (Principles of Pop Gen, Africa: A biography of the continent, Cultural Evolution, Descartes’ Baby). So thanks!
Wondering about the choice in blog name–RNA-seq data just isn’t a big topic around here 🙂
are you coming to recruitment? i'll be around, say hi. i don't know about daycare, but i know people who do, so bring it up.
Wondering about the choice in blog name–RNA-seq data just isn’t a big topic around here :)
it was joel grus' http://joelgrus.com/ back when it was a group blog in 2002. RNA-seq wasn't that big in 2002 though. times have changed :-) the name is nice though, and for those not in the know it suffices.Replies: @gillt
At the bench for 10 years, generally molecular for various fed agencies. Joining UCDavis IGG program in the fall (spouse's junior faculty at genome center). New parent of yearling. Any daycare suggestions?
Read a few of your Goodreads recommendations (Principles of Pop Gen, Africa: A biography of the continent, Cultural Evolution, Descartes' Baby). So thanks!
Wondering about the choice in blog name--RNA-seq data just isn't a big topic around here :)Replies: @Razib Khan
. Joining UCDavis IGG program in the fall (spouse’s junior faculty at genome center). New parent of yearling. Any daycare suggestions?
are you coming to recruitment? i’ll be around, say hi. i don’t know about daycare, but i know people who do, so bring it up.
Wondering about the choice in blog name–RNA-seq data just isn’t a big topic around here 🙂
it was joel grus’ http://joelgrus.com/ back when it was a group blog in 2002. RNA-seq wasn’t that big in 2002 though. times have changed 🙂 the name is nice though, and for those not in the know it suffices.
My favorite things about this blog are the bits about human evolution and deep history, and gene / culture interactions. I also love the book recommendations, and have read and enjoyed many of them.
Politically, I am a liberal, and one thing I find puzzling about this blog is Razib's identification as a conservative. I would love to hear more politically related posts to put flesh on those bones. I am wondering where our views differ, as I haven't yet read anything here that I have much disagreement with.
I do share the contempt for intellectual fads like postmodernism, deconstructionism, etc, about which I am unfortunately very familiar. And, I have been frustrated by blank slateism in all its forms ever since I was a Psychology undergrad in the mid 1980s.Replies: @Razib Khan, @Razib Khan
Politically, I am a liberal, and one thing I find puzzling about this blog is Razib’s identification as a conservative. I would love to hear more politically related posts to put flesh on those bones. I am wondering where our views differ, as I haven’t yet read anything here that I have much disagreement with.
i’m not very fixated on political issues, so i’m not that that right-wing. usually i ‘average’ out as moderate rightish overall on quizzes. but on matters of cultural/tribal identity i’m a pretty strong dissenter from the modern liberal religion, which has been waxing over the past 10 years. e.g.,
1) i think sex differences are non-trivial. on paper many liberals will agree to this, but when it comes down to brass tacks they’re going to disagree with almost all non-trivial details that might have social/policy relevance, so it’s only in theory. or, as degrasse tyson would say (and it’s a mainstream liberal view, not a lefty one), there’s only interest in talking about bio based differences after all inequality has been abolished, which operationally is left up to subjective judgement. in reality that discussion will never occur.
2) i think there are probably group differences in behavior, whether due to culture or genes or a combination of both. that sends you straight to tartessos if you say it in public on the left, even consideration of the idea is forbidden. i caveat in public because privately many liberals and even lefties have all sorts of heterodox views. i have had readers who were zealous operatives in democratic presidential campaigns who accepted the facts of group differences, but requested extra anonymity in hindsight (i went along with that) after leaving comments here.
3) more generally, modern cultural liberals seem to be on-board with the quest to ‘liberate’ even the most tiny protected minorities in the quest to abolish all hurt feelings (actually, half the time this is bullshit, because they have no problem crushing non-humans, i mean non-liberals 🙂 in stalinesque fashion). a friend of mine once suggested that the criteria isn’t whether you mean to hurt, but how people on the receiving end of it perceive it. but of course she meant only certain groups, she had no problem with the hurt that religious conservatives experience due to the constant demands from secularists (and affront), to the point of not even being able to coherently answer this rejoinder, it was so exotic an idea.
now, i understand that a lot of this is due the cultural left, and not mainstream liberals. but mainstream liberals will stand aside when someone is attacked and destroyed, because they don’t want to get mobbed. the only way to protect yourself is admit that you’re a conservative, and so you have the liberty of the damned. i don’t give a shit if people accuse me of being ‘heteronormative’ (i am) or not an ‘ally’ (i don’t know what means half the time except that you are right, and i’m wrong) or having ‘problematic’ views. i’ll shove my problematic views down your throat if i think i’m right 🙂 sinning is fine by me if it comports with reality.
i know in some ways that conservatives as just as annoying. but i’m pretty open about being an atheist and such. in general if you look at my twitter followers the high profile ones in politics are center-right and further (most of my science twitter followers are obviously liberal). they’re interested in what i have to say, because even if they don’t agree (often they don’t) they are willing to entertain views forbidden to the saved elect of god :0)
though you are free to introduce me to your liberal coterie who have heterodox interests and will explore topics normally untouched because they are interested in things, as opposed to being a pure thing.
Fortunately, I get the sense that more and more liberals are getting fed up with the insanity that has emerged from the recesses of academia and spilled over into the mainstream. There seems to be growing appreciation of the fact that modern leftists are radically opposed to free speech and free thought. They resemble ISIS, just with much less testosterone and a different dogma.
i think there are probably group differences in behavior, whether due to culture or genes or a combination of both
Probably? Who, besides the completely clueless, thinks there are no group differences in behavior? (I assume we're talking just about demographic groups in the US. No one would deny that Americans and Amazonian tribesmen behave differently.) A cursory look at crime statistics in the US is sufficient to demonstrate that there are. The real question is to what extent are group differences rooted in genetics as opposed to the environment.
I assume you were trying to make a more substantial point there about your willingness to discuss group differences and not rule out any causal hypotheses a priori.Replies: @Razib Khan
My favorite things about this blog are the bits about human evolution and deep history, and gene / culture interactions. I also love the book recommendations, and have read and enjoyed many of them.
Politically, I am a liberal, and one thing I find puzzling about this blog is Razib's identification as a conservative. I would love to hear more politically related posts to put flesh on those bones. I am wondering where our views differ, as I haven't yet read anything here that I have much disagreement with.
I do share the contempt for intellectual fads like postmodernism, deconstructionism, etc, about which I am unfortunately very familiar. And, I have been frustrated by blank slateism in all its forms ever since I was a Psychology undergrad in the mid 1980s.Replies: @Razib Khan, @Razib Khan
this is your liberal left
https://twitter.com/ryanlcooper/status/483742411915808768
i write a post on speciation and genomics, jamelle bouie wonders if it’s about black people, and ryan cooper recants (years ago he sent me a complimentary facebook message and friend requested me, so it’s not like he doesn’t know my work 🙂
Been lurking around this blog since (probably) around 2009 — maybe 2010.
Internet / technology / corporate lawyer and sometimes entrepreneur and investor in California. I’ve always been very impressed by the breadth of your knowledge. I skim a lot of your more in-depth or specialized articles, but read most.
I am a bit of a political chameleon and don’t really associate with any political persuasion. Most of my friends would think I am whatever political persuasion that they want me to be. I’m rarely honest in political discussions and just use politics as a means of manipulating my conversation partner.
When it comes down to it, I’m mostly a pragmatic realist who feels that anyone who expects their philosophical preferences magically be in line with the most pragmatic/efficient/realistic/intelligent decisions is an oblivious idiot.
That said, my inclinations and philosophical preferences (which I readily ignore) tend to be socially liberal, comfortable with inequality on an international level, environmentalist, pro-biodiversity, somewhat comfortable with inequality on a national level, anti-immigration in European countries but not the US, pro-controlled and well-planned immigration in the US, anti-population growth, pro-stability, pro-technological progress as long as we’re aware of the negatives, and…you get the gist.
My only real belief is that humanity on the whole should endeavor to colonize the universe with biological life with major help from well-controlled self-replication robots. Most else is just my best bet on how to put us on the right course to reach that end-goal in the next few hundred million years without losing too much of our humanity or enjoyment of life in the process. For whatever reason we’re here — we might as well go for gold.
I am “liberal”, in the contemporary American sense of the word, on most issues (although I hold some highly non-liberal views on things like gun rights and education policy), but I agree completely with what you’ve said here. I despise the modern far left (i.e. the Cult of Social Justice), and mainstream liberalism’s connection to that movement/ideology is sufficient to keep me from identifying as liberal.
Fortunately, I get the sense that more and more liberals are getting fed up with the insanity that has emerged from the recesses of academia and spilled over into the mainstream. There seems to be growing appreciation of the fact that modern leftists are radically opposed to free speech and free thought. They resemble ISIS, just with much less testosterone and a different dogma.
i think there are probably group differences in behavior, whether due to culture or genes or a combination of both
Probably? Who, besides the completely clueless, thinks there are no group differences in behavior? (I assume we’re talking just about demographic groups in the US. No one would deny that Americans and Amazonian tribesmen behave differently.) A cursory look at crime statistics in the US is sufficient to demonstrate that there are. The real question is to what extent are group differences rooted in genetics as opposed to the environment.
I assume you were trying to make a more substantial point there about your willingness to discuss group differences and not rule out any causal hypotheses a priori.
Probably? Who, besides the completely clueless, thinks there are no group differences in behavior?
this is what i mean:
someone (not me, because i don’t talk much at liberals, or spend much time commenting on blogs or stuff like that): ‘perhaps there are cultural differences which might result in differential college attainment between latinos and nonhispanic whites’
the stupid scream: ‘that’s a highly problematic view, because once you consider the structural aspects of racism and economic injustice even talking about ‘cultural’ ‘differences’ seems to be victim-blaming.’
at this point ‘someone’ either starts digging their grave as the wolve will start tearing them apart, or, they agree that they forgot to consider the reality of these all-powerful variables.
Fortunately, I get the sense that more and more liberals are getting fed up with the insanity that has emerged from the recesses of academia and spilled over into the mainstream. There seems to be growing appreciation of the fact that modern leftists are radically opposed to free speech and free thought. They resemble ISIS, just with much less testosterone and a different dogma.
i think there are probably group differences in behavior, whether due to culture or genes or a combination of both
Probably? Who, besides the completely clueless, thinks there are no group differences in behavior? (I assume we're talking just about demographic groups in the US. No one would deny that Americans and Amazonian tribesmen behave differently.) A cursory look at crime statistics in the US is sufficient to demonstrate that there are. The real question is to what extent are group differences rooted in genetics as opposed to the environment.
I assume you were trying to make a more substantial point there about your willingness to discuss group differences and not rule out any causal hypotheses a priori.Replies: @Razib Khan
perhaps the best equivalent to this behavior on the right was after 2008 when some libertarians/conservative ‘free marketers’ kept defending capital with the exact same rhetoric as before. they literally had no other script. i particular remember when someone from heritage or AEI was on the tom ashbrook show, and the idea of a tax on bonuses was brought up, the libertarian/conservative schill aruged that this is america, and we don’t punish those who success in the free market. ashbrook basically lost all composure and exploded, pointing out the bailouts these peoples’ corps had received (this includes the gushing of money and discount window which even goldman benefited from even if they did not receive bailout proper). the shill literally was at a loss for words, they had no other response besides the standard scripts about ‘job creators’ and the ‘free market.’ they were like confucian mandarins arguing over points of precedence at court while armies of the europeans were conquering cities.
are you coming to recruitment? i'll be around, say hi. i don't know about daycare, but i know people who do, so bring it up.
Wondering about the choice in blog name–RNA-seq data just isn’t a big topic around here :)
it was joel grus' http://joelgrus.com/ back when it was a group blog in 2002. RNA-seq wasn't that big in 2002 though. times have changed :-) the name is nice though, and for those not in the know it suffices.Replies: @gillt
See you then
Fortunately, I get the sense that more and more liberals are getting fed up with the insanity that has emerged from the recesses of academia and spilled over into the mainstream. There
they’re called new conservatives 🙂 there are some culturally liberal projects, like gay marriage, which seem to be broadly likely to succeed and win the day, and will become the ‘conservative’ position (most people forget that as little as 10 years ago it wasn’t uncommon for cultural leftists to shrug over gay marriage because it was bourgeoise; i recall these people calling in to radio shows when the establishment gay spokespersons were making their pitch). but a lot of the navel gazing stalinesque behavior means that all this crap about ‘income equality’ is going to go no where. it’s a rhetorical joke. i’m much more concerned about getting my kids to the top of the heap in america now, the left isn’t going to do jack shit about plutocracy. this freddie db post captures something, http://fredrikdeboer.com/2015/01/29/i-dont-know-what-to-do-you-guys/
I watched his eyes glaze over as this woman with $300 shoes berated him. I saw that. Myself.
there’s no shame at being rich enough to live rich. but if you use the wrong pronoun you’re scourged. the latter is where the energy is.
But, for me politics is mostly about a few issues that have big policy implications: global warming, economic policy (stimulus vs austerity), health care, and warmongering. On these, the choice (liberal) is easy.
I got in a lot of on-line debates about race and IQ several years ago, so I know how resistant to evidence people can be. Also, the logical fallacies drive me crazy ("no such thing as race", etc). I've even seen this from an Anthropolgy professor as an undergrad. I think Razib did a great job on this in his "why Race matters as a biological construct" post.
I was an undergrad in the 1980s, and even then a lot of this stuff was old news: cognitive differences between the sexes (mental rotation ability), differences on average IQ scores between groups, and temperament differences between infants. It's amazing to me how resistant people are to the evidence. I guess I don't see it much, though, because it's not something I talk to people about.
My real name is Andrew Oh-Willeke. I am a married middle aged attorney with two precocious, popular and talented teenagers. I live in Denver, Colorado and grew up in the college town of Oxford, Ohio. My premarital name was Willeke (Prussian at the time of the patrilineal ancestor’s immigration to dodge the draft in 1847), and my wife’s was Oh (Korean – her parents left Korea for the U.S. in the 1960s).
As an undergraduate at Oberlin College, I was a mathematics major with a minor in history (I attended law school at the University of Michigan where I graduated with highest honors). I’ve been an atheist since I was a teenager, but continued to attend church on and off, and even taught Sunday school once, into my mid-twenties, out of habit, social obligation and to confirm that it was God rather than just a particular church denomination that was the issue. I have almost enough formal religious education to be a minister. Despite this, I’ve done the legal work to establish a Roman Catholic Holy Order. I think dogs are for soup, but I’ve also gotten a dog off doggie death row once.
I’ve been a regular blogger on a variety of issues since 2005, and have had stints since graduating from law school as a full time college professor (in a for profit college’s graduate program in estate planning), and as a professional journalist. I blog a great deal about the subjects addressed in this blog at two sister blogs, and also about physics (e.g. dark matter, QCD, quantum gravity, and neutrino physics), psychiatry, economics, politics, and cultural change, at a pace that have averaged about two posts a day for the last ten years. I also teach continuing education classes (some nationally broadcast) and write and present papers professionally.
I’ve spent a great deal of time up close and personal with the political world as a college journalist, congressional intern, employee of a state law reform commission, student government representative in college and law school, law partner of a state representative, employer of a state representative, campaign treasurer for several candidates over the years, attorney for political organizations, and in various offices within the Democratic party (e.g. county treasurer). But, work, family and other interests have kept me off the front lines lately.
This blog nicely meshes science and historical/cultural analysis of big issues in an informed manner with good discussions in the comments, so its worth my time.
they're called new conservatives :-) there are some culturally liberal projects, like gay marriage, which seem to be broadly likely to succeed and win the day, and will become the 'conservative' position (most people forget that as little as 10 years ago it wasn't uncommon for cultural leftists to shrug over gay marriage because it was bourgeoise; i recall these people calling in to radio shows when the establishment gay spokespersons were making their pitch). but a lot of the navel gazing stalinesque behavior means that all this crap about 'income equality' is going to go no where. it's a rhetorical joke. i'm much more concerned about getting my kids to the top of the heap in america now, the left isn't going to do jack shit about plutocracy. this freddie db post captures something, http://fredrikdeboer.com/2015/01/29/i-dont-know-what-to-do-you-guys/
I watched his eyes glaze over as this woman with $300 shoes berated him. I saw that. Myself.
there's no shame at being rich enough to live rich. but if you use the wrong pronoun you're scourged. the latter is where the energy is.Replies: @Jim W
I agree about the ridiculousness of the far left, particularly in academia. I think Jon Chait did a good job writing about pc going too far.
But, for me politics is mostly about a few issues that have big policy implications: global warming, economic policy (stimulus vs austerity), health care, and warmongering. On these, the choice (liberal) is easy.
I got in a lot of on-line debates about race and IQ several years ago, so I know how resistant to evidence people can be. Also, the logical fallacies drive me crazy (“no such thing as race”, etc). I’ve even seen this from an Anthropolgy professor as an undergrad. I think Razib did a great job on this in his “why Race matters as a biological construct” post.
I was an undergrad in the 1980s, and even then a lot of this stuff was old news: cognitive differences between the sexes (mental rotation ability), differences on average IQ scores between groups, and temperament differences between infants. It’s amazing to me how resistant people are to the evidence. I guess I don’t see it much, though, because it’s not something I talk to people about.
I’ve been reading your blog sporadically since the group gnxp blog days although I wasn’t very regular until 2009. I’m not a scientist or anything; just an accountant, but in my mid-20’s my personality changed a lot and I developed a large curiosity that had been mostly dormant before. I like the blog for several reasons, including the book recommendations and the fact that even the commenters are mostly more knowledgeable than me. I also appreciate your writings on religion – they are the most accurate and even-handed that I have read. Most importantly, I appreciate that you know a decent amount about a lot of different topics. Although I think civilization needs both, I’m more partial to generalists than specialists and consider myself to be a generalist as well.
I have plenty of time to pursue all my reading and other interests since I’m part of the unusually large older virgin readership contingent on this blog and don’t have any family responsibilities. I’m not saying it’s my preference but as consolation prizes go it’s not bad. I’m not bad looking or socially inept but anxiety with women seems to run in the family. My dad was almost 40 when he married (yeah I know, more mutations) after just one other serious girlfriend and I have a 48 year old male first cousin who by all accounts of those closest to him has been celibate since his early 20’s.
You are right about sex differences being a tough sell. At the Super Bowl party Sunday when they aired the “You Throw Like a Girl” commercial and the room was filling with “Atta girl!’s” and “Amen’s”, I turned to the person next to me and said, “Don’t they know that there’s a three standard deviation difference in throwing velocity between the sexes?” but I just got a blank stare. Girls being equal to boys at throwing feels right emotionally so it’s the default public sentiment but I guarantee you Belichick is not starting Gisele over Tom next season.
So I did, and Wikipedia suggests there may even be "racial influences which add to the variability of this parameter". I understand zero about American football, but for people who like to debate why most top quarterbacks are white, while most top running backs are black (or whatever it is - don't crucify me, I know nothing), maybe it's another variable to toss into the pot, just to add to the mayhem.
Graduate student on the east coast. I research cell programming and do all of my work in mouse systems. Recently I’ve been doing a lot more transcriptional work and hope to do mRNA-seq in the first half of this year. I’ve been reading GNXP since 2003 or 2004. This blog, among other things, inspired me to switch from being an analytical chemist to go into genetics and go to grad school.
My sister went to Davis for grad school in public health or something like that. She and her family live in Sacramento, so I may pay them a visit this year.
I discovered you from that now defunct bog SepiaMutiny. We had a few exchanges over the comments sections. We both debunked a lot of the logical and statistical claims the bloggers on that site made to justify their leftist views.
I read this blog often but don’t comment because the topics are usually out of my depth and I have nothing to contribute.
In my day job I’m a self-employed consultant in NYC. My expertise is in architecture, building codes, zoning laws.
I have plenty of time to pursue all my reading and other interests since I'm part of the unusually large older virgin readership contingent on this blog and don't have any family responsibilities. I'm not saying it's my preference but as consolation prizes go it's not bad. I'm not bad looking or socially inept but anxiety with women seems to run in the family. My dad was almost 40 when he married (yeah I know, more mutations) after just one other serious girlfriend and I have a 48 year old male first cousin who by all accounts of those closest to him has been celibate since his early 20's.
You are right about sex differences being a tough sell. At the Super Bowl party Sunday when they aired the "You Throw Like a Girl" commercial and the room was filling with "Atta girl!'s" and "Amen's", I turned to the person next to me and said, "Don't they know that there's a three standard deviation difference in throwing velocity between the sexes?" but I just got a blank stare. Girls being equal to boys at throwing feels right emotionally so it's the default public sentiment but I guarantee you Belichick is not starting Gisele over Tom next season.Replies: @Sandgroper
Setting aside the obvious differences in upper and lower body strength, my daughter’s suggestion is to look up “carrying angle”, i.e. a girl throws like a girl because she’s a girl.
So I did, and Wikipedia suggests there may even be “racial influences which add to the variability of this parameter”. I understand zero about American football, but for people who like to debate why most top quarterbacks are white, while most top running backs are black (or whatever it is – don’t crucify me, I know nothing), maybe it’s another variable to toss into the pot, just to add to the mayhem.
This lurking/delurking is not a hundred flowers technique I hope ?
Hi Razib, I’m a lurker still lurking since ~2012. 25 yrs, bachelor’s in astronomy and physics working at GSFC.
I think I’ve commented once, since I dont have much value to add, but regularly checking in. I enjoy the breadth in topics and even without a genetics background I find most of your posts accessible at least at the highest level.
I would be interested in more of your thoughts on western popular culture. Thanks for keeping up with this blog, I have learned a lot! For now, I quietly wait for a post that I can add insight to.
Could have been from Rod’s blog. Back in the day I used to provide in the comments a lot of links to Razib’s and Steve Sailer’s work.
I only read this blog for the Unlurk Threads and lurk them thoroughly.
youch
Longtime reader, I’ve been reading Razib since before gnxp; all the way back to the days of the Usenet when he wrote fiction (speaking of, why don’t you post links to your juvenalia on your blog, man? You were pretty damn good at world-building).
Myself, I’m a former academic. Got my Master’s degree in Japanese Religion, then stopped because I really had trouble with written Japanese and realized that the Classical Chinese and Japanese needed for a Ph.D was a cognitive bridge too far for me to cross, and that I really didn’t fit well in the social milleau of grad students; unlike Razib and many others I’ve never been able to camouflage my heterodox beliefs and the rough edges of my upbringing and personality to succeed in a university environment.
I taught a bit in Japan, then wasted five years working an office job in Cultural and Archeological Resource Management that I absolutely loathed. I just couldn’t sit still, play office politics and get along well with the sorts of people there. After getting laid off I was an academic ghostwriter for a stint, then did a mid-life 180 and am now an apprentice locksmith and access control technician, leading me to the first job I actually look forward to going to and doing every day. Who knew I should have taken shop classes in high school?
I used to be a daily reader of this blog, now I really only have time during the weekends, but I still look forward to the soupcon of genetics, history, and social analysis served up here even if oft times I feel like the class dunce due to my relative innumeracy compared to the standard set here.
I probably read more fiction than non-fiction, and what non-fiction I read is usually of the DIY category. I keep telling myself to read more general science, but life is short and money shorter. Outside of work and my cultural/scientific interests I have hobbies in building musical instruments, gardening, analogue photography, and writing prose poetry. Oh, and drinking good booze and smoking cigars I really can’t afford and making youtube reviews about them.
I’ve been reading GNXP since the age of 17 in 2003. I’ll be turning 29 this summer. My background is in microbiology and molecular genetics — I mainly focus on behavioural genetics in humans. I’m [eventually…] going back to school for my master’s in applied mathematics. I love statistics, so I may focus on that.
My Myers-Briggs results used to always be INTJ, but as of my late twenties, I seemed to have”grown” into an ISTJ.
My mother is from Guyana, and my father is from Sri Lanka. It makes me sound exotic, but I’m essentially a plain ol’ Browny McBrownerson. I was born and raised (and currently live) in Southern Ontario, Canada.
I was raised Christian, but lost my faith by the age of 18. I identify as an atheist (with a lowercase ‘a’ so as to differentiate myself from the young Atheist boys on Reddit).
Politically, I’m mainly a libertarian (socially left and fiscally right), but I deviate somewhat by being pro-life and believing in socialized health care.
I live by two philosophies:
1. I don’t care what you do or say, as long as you’re not violent towards sentient life.
2. Don’t be an asshole unless it’s absolutely necessary.