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Month / January 2015
human self-domesti- cation events
the idea that humans have self-domesticated themselves (ourselves!) is definitely in vogue: here's a recent irl+online symposium held on the topic.
domestication in mammals results in a specific suite of traits known as the "domestication syndrome":
"[I]ncreased docility and tameness, coat color changes, reductions in tooth size, changes in craniofacial morphology, alterations in ear and tail form (e.g., floppy ears), more frequent and nonseasonal estrus cycles, alterations in adrenocorticotropic hormone levels, changed concentrations of several neurotransmitters, prolongations in juvenile behavior, and reductions in both total brain size and of particular brain regions."
humans — in some cases some human populations — appear to exhibit many, if not all, of these traits: increased docility, skin color changes, reduction in tooth size, craniofacial feminization, more frequent/nonseasonal estrus cycle, neotenous gene expression in the developing human brain, prolongation in juvenile behavior, and reduction in total brain size.
much of the current thinking seems to be centered on the idea that humans self-domesticated "in the more distant past," but the fact that humans have been able to dwell together at all in ridiculously large numbers beginning around the time of the agricultural revolution suggests that human self-domestication did not stop "in the more distant past" and is probably even ongoing. this is 10,000 Year Explosion territory, and cochran and harpending have been here already [pgs. 110-113 — my emphases]:
"If your ancestors were farmers for a long time, you're descended from people who decided it was better to live on their knees than to die on their feet.
"Farming led to elites, and there was no avoiding their power. Foragers could walk away from trouble, but farms were too valuable (too important to the farmers' fitness) to abandon. So farmers had to submit to authority: The old-style, independent-minded personalities that had worked well among egalitarian hunter-gatherers ('A Man's a Man for a' That') were obsolete. Even when some group had a chance to refound society on a more egalitarian basis, as in the case of the medieval Iceland republic, elites tended to reappear.
"Aggressive, combative people may also have experienced lowered fitness once ruling elites began to appear. With strong states, the personal payoff for aggression may have become smaller, while law and order made combativeness for self-defense less necessary. Sheer crowding must also have disfavored some personality traits that had worked in the past. Intuitively, it seems that a high level of aggressiveness would be less favored when encounters with strangers were frequent. Fight too often and you're sure to lose. Moreover, although the winner of a deadly struggle between two peasants might conceivably gain something, his owners, the elites who taxed both of those peasants, would not, any more than a farmer benefits when one bull kills another.
"Farmers don't benefit from competition between their domesticated animals or plants. In fact, reduced competition between individual members of domesticated species is the secret of some big gains in farm productivity, such as the dwarf strains of wheat and rice that made up the 'Green Revolution.' Since the elites were in a very real sense raising peasants, just as peasants raised cows, there must have been a tendency for them to cull individuals who were more aggressive than average, which over time would have changed the frequencies of those alleles that induced such aggressiveness. This would have been particularly likely in strong, long-lived states, because situations in which rebels often won might well have favored aggressive personalities. This meant some people were taming others, but with reasonable amounts of gene flow between classes, populations as a whole should have become tamer.
"We know of a gene that may play a part in this story: the 7R (for 7-repeat) allele of the DRD4 (dopamine receptor D4) gene. It is associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a behavioral syndrome best characterized by actions that annoy elementary school teachers: restless-impulsive behavior, inattention, distractibility, and the like.
"The polymorphism is found at varying but significant levels in many parts of the world, but is almost totally absent from East Asia. Interestingly, alleles derived from the 7R allele are fairly common in China, even though the 7R alleles themselves are extremely rare there. It is possible that individuals bearing these alleles were selected against because of cultural patterns in China. The Japanese say that the nail that sticks out is hammered down, but in China it may have been pulled out and thrown away.
"Selection for submission to authority sounds unnervingly like domestication. In fact, there are parallels between the process of domestication in animals and the changes that have occurred in humans during the Holocene period. In both humans and domesticated animals, we see a reduction in brain size, broader skulls, changes in hair color or coat color, and smaller teeth. As Dmitri Belyaev's experiment with foxes shows, some of the changes that are characteristic of domesticated animals may be side effects of selection for tameness. As for humans, we know of a number of recent changes in genes involving serotonin metabolism in Europeans that may well influence personality, but we don't know what effect those changes have had — since we don't yet know whether they increase or decrease serotonin levels. Floppy ears are not seen in any human population (as far as we know), but then, changes in the external ear might interfere with recognition of speech sounds. Since speech is of great importance to fitness in humans, it may be that the negative effects of floppy ears have kept them from arising.
"Some of these favored changes could be viewed as examples of neoteny — retention of childlike characteristics. Children routinely submit to their parents — at least in comparison to teenagers — and it's possible that natural selection modified mechanisms active in children in ways that resulted in tamer human adults, just as the behaviors of adult dogs often seem relatively juvenile in comparison with adult wolf behavior.
"If the strong governments made possible by agriculture essentially 'tamed' people, one might expect members of groups with shallow or nonexistent agricultural experience to be less submissive, on average, than members of longtime agricultural cultures. One possible indicator of tameness is the ease with which people can be enslaved, and our reading of history suggests that some peoples with little or no evolutionary exposure to agriculture 'would not endure the yoke,' as was said of Indians captured by the Puritans in the Pequot War of 1636. In the same vein, the typical Bushman, a classic hunter-gatherer, has been described as 'the anarchist of South Africa.'"
what i'd like to draw attention to is the idea that there have been multiple (probably multiple multiples of) human self-domestication events which occurred at different places and at different times — all sorta within the broader human self-domestication project which began back in some stone age or, perhaps, even before. one of these, i propose, was the manorialism/outbreeding/execution-of-violent-criminals combo of medieval europe which left "core" europeans with a very specific set of behavioral traits. another might very well be whatever domestication package went along with rice farming in southern china as peter frost has discussed. others undoubtedly include the sorts of civilizations described by cochran & harpending in the passage quoted above — those "strong, long-lived states" — like those found in ancient egypt, ancient china, and ancient india.
just like how we (prolly together with dogs themselves) domesticated dogs thousands of years ago, but then continued and honed the process by selecting for specific traits in specific breeds, i think we should consider that, not only did humans start self-domesticating themselves a very long time ago so that there are common domestication traits in (nearly?) all humans populations, but also that there have been more localized self-domestication events which selected for somewhat different behavioral traits depending on what sort of selection pressures were present in these various events.
(note: comments do not require an email. domesticated foxes!)
linkfeast – 01/27/15
Human evolution tied to a small fraction of the genome – "Only about 7.5 percent of the human genetic instruction book shaped the evolution of human traits, a new study suggests. And it's often not genes, but the how-to instructions for using those genes that are most important, researchers report January 19 in Nature Genetics…. Previously, researchers have mostly looked for evolutionary clues in protein-producing genes because proteins do much of the important work in cells and organisms. Altering a protein may change the way an organism looks or acts. But mutations that alter proteins often are devastating to an organism and therefore aren't passed on to offspring. Gulko and colleagues found that only 9 percent of the DNA that got evolution's attention resides in protein-coding parts of the genome that are shared with other species. About 52 percent of the places showing signs of natural selection were in intergenic regions, the stretches of DNA between genes. Another 35 percent were in introns — spacer DNA found within genes but not involved in encoding proteins. Both intergenic regions and introns often contain DNA responsible for controlling gene activity. These findings suggest that human evolution works mostly through changes in how genes are used, rather than by altering genes and the proteins they encode."
The Wrists of Birds Reveal Evolution Undoing Itself – "Contrary to earlier claims, a new study shows that evolution may be reversible." – previously from greg cochran: Back to the trees.
Kennewick Man was Native American – "'Genetic analysis is still under way in Denmark, but documents obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act say preliminary results point to a Native-American heritage.'" – from dienekes. see also from razib: Native Americans Are Evolutionarily Elegant – "One insight of modern ancient DNA is that there has been a great deal of population turnover over the past ~10,000 years, as well as admixture between disparate lineages. When Kennewick Man died ~9,000 years ago Europeans as we understand them did not exist genetically."
The Genetic Ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States – "Over the past 500 years, North America has been the site of ongoing mixing of Native Americans, European settlers, and Africans (brought largely by the trans-Atlantic slave trade), shaping the early history of what became the United States. We studied the genetic ancestry of 5,269 self-described African Americans, 8,663 Latinos, and 148,789 European Americans who are 23andMe customers and show that the legacy of these historical interactions is visible in the genetic ancestry of present-day Americans. We document pervasive mixed ancestry and asymmetrical male and female ancestry contributions in all groups studied. We show that regional ancestry differences reflect historical events, such as early Spanish colonization, waves of immigration from many regions of Europe, and forced relocation of Native Americans within the US. This study sheds light on the fine-scale differences in ancestry within and across the United States and informs our understanding of the relationship between racial and ethnic identities and genetic ancestry." – see also: The Fluidity of Race from greg cochran.
Genghis Khan's genetic legacy has competition – "The Mongolian leader left a strong footprint in the Y chromosomes of modern descendants — but he was not the only one."
Largest-ever autism genome study finds most siblings have different autism-risk genes – "In the new study, Dr. Scherer's team sequenced 340 whole genomes from 85 families, each with two children affected by autism. The majority of siblings (69 percent) had little to no overlap in the gene variations known to contribute to autism. They found that the sibling pairs shared the same autism-associated gene changes less than one third of the time (31 percent). The findings challenge long-held presumptions. Because autism often runs in families, experts had assumed that siblings with the disorder were inheriting the same autism-predisposing genes from their parents. It now appears this may not be true." – h/t shrikant mantri!
Genetic mutation for metabolic disease identified within an Inuit population – "The disease in question, glycogen storage disease type IIIa, is caused by mutations in the AGL gene, leading to less-active glycogen-debranching enzymes. The disorder disrupts the body's capacity to release sugar from glycogen, resulting in the formation of damaging glycogen deposits…. Glycogen storage disease IIIa affects around one in 100,000 people in North America. However, the researchers estimate that the disorder may affect around 1 in 2,500 people in Nunavik – the homeland of the Inuit in Quebec." – maybe they should stick to eating seal blubber. srsly!
Admixture in the Americas: Admixture among US Blacks and Hispanics and academic achievement – "[W]e see the expected directions and order, for Blacks (who are mostly African), American admixture is positive and European is more positive…. We do not see the expected results per genetic model. Among Hispanics who are 73% European, African admixture has a positive relationship to academic achievement. American admixture is negatively correlated and European positively, but weaker than African. The only thing that's in line with the genetic model is that European is positive. On the other hand, results are not in line with a null model either…." – from emil kirkegaard.
School – "In summary, it very much looks like more years of education are associated with an increase in intelligence test scores, but not anything like as strongly to underlying general intelligence or to underlying basic processing speeds." – from dr. james thompson.
Genetic Pleiotropy Explains Associations between Musical Auditory Discrimination and Intelligence – "[A] large sample of Swedish twins (N = 10,500) was used to investigate the genetic architecture of the associations between intelligence and performance on three musical auditory discrimination tasks (rhythm, melody and pitch). Phenotypic correlations between the tasks ranged between 0.23 and 0.42 (Pearson r values). Genetic modelling showed that the covariation between the variables could be explained by shared genetic influences. Neither shared, nor non-shared environment had a significant effect on the associations. Good fit was obtained with a two-factor model where one underlying shared genetic factor explained all the covariation between the musical discrimination tasks and IQ, and a second genetic factor explained variance exclusively shared among the discrimination tasks. The results suggest that positive correlations among musical aptitudes result from both genes with broad effects on cognition, and genes with potentially more specific influences on auditory functions." – h/t rosalind arden!
The Role of Parenting in the Prediction of Criminal Involvement: Findings From a Nationally Representative Sample of Youth and a Sample of Adopted Youth [pdf] – "The role of parenting in the development of criminal behavior has been the source of a vast amount of research, with the majority of studies detecting statistically significant associations between dimensions of parenting and measures of criminal involvement. An emerging group of scholars, however, has drawn attention to the methodological limitations — mainly genetic confounding — of the parental socialization literature. The current study addressed this limitation by analyzing a sample of adoptees to assess the association between 8 parenting measures and 4 criminal justice outcome measures. The results revealed very little evidence of parental socialization effects on criminal behavior before controlling for genetic confounding and no evidence of parental socialization effects on criminal involvement after controlling for genetic confounding." – h/t jayman!
Hospitals Aim to Better Match Blood Donors and Recipients – "People fall into one of four main blood groups — A, B, AB and O — and they have a so-called Rh factor that is either positive or negative. But scientists over the last few decades have discovered around 33 blood groups and continue to identify more. Each group also contains multiple variations that go to make up a patient's exact blood type."
Ageing research: Blood to blood – "By splicing animals together, scientists have shown that young blood rejuvenates old tissues. Now, they are testing whether it works for humans." – parabiosis. it's baaaack!
Comparative analysis of the human saliva microbiome from different climate zones: Alaska, Germany, and Africa [pdf] – "Here we analyze the saliva microbiome from native Alaskans (76 individuals from 4 populations), Germans (10 individuals from 1 population), and Africans (66 individuals from 3 populations) based on next-generation sequencing of partial 16S rRNA gene sequences. After quality filtering, a total of 67,916 analyzed sequences resulted in 5,592 OTUs (defined at ≥97% identity) and 123 genera. The three human groups differed significantly by the degree of diversity between and within individuals (e.g. beta diversity: Africans > Alaskans > Germans; alpha diversity: Germans > Alaskans > Africans). UniFrac, network, ANOSIM, and correlation analyses all indicated more similarities in the saliva microbiome of native Alaskans and Germans than between either group and Africans. The native Alaskans and Germans also had the highest number of shared bacterial interactions."
Tuberculosis genomes track human history – "A study of nearly 5,000 samples of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from around the world shows how a lineage of the bacterium that emerged thousands of years ago in Asia has since become a global killer that is widely resistant to antibiotic drugs. Although M. tuberculosis probably first emerged some 40,000 years ago in Africa, the disease did not take hold until humans took to farming…. [T]he common ancestor of all the M. bacterium strains circulating today began spreading around 10,000 years ago in the ancient Fertile Crescent, a region stretching from Mesopotamia to the Nile Delta that was a cradle of agriculture…. But of all the M. bacterium strains circulating today, few strike more fear in public-health officials than the 'Beijing lineage'. First identified in greater Beijing in the mid-1990s, this lineage now circulates throughout the world and many strains are resistant to drugs that vanquish other types of TB…. Consistent with its name, the Beijing lineage did indeed emerge near north-eastern China…. And it did so around 6,600 years ago, the researchers found, which coincides with archaeological evidence for the beginnings of rice farming in China's upper Yangtze River valley." – h/t billare!
Your Friends Know How Long You Will Live: A 75-Year Study of Peer-Rated Personality Traits – "To test whether friends' reports of personality predict mortality risk, we used data from a 75-year longitudinal study (the Kelly/Connolly Longitudinal Study on Personality and Aging). In that study, 600 participants were observed beginning in 1935 through 1938, when they were in their mid-20s, and continuing through 2013. Male participants seen by their friends as more conscientious and open lived longer, whereas friend-rated emotional stability and agreeableness were protective for women. Friends' ratings were better predictors of longevity than were self-reports of personality, in part because friends' ratings could be aggregated to provide a more reliable assessment."
Voluntary Activities and Daily Happiness in the US [pdf] – "This paper analyzes differences in daily happiness between those individuals in the United States who perform voluntary activities during the day, and those who do not…. [T]hose who devote any time to voluntary activities during the day report higher levels of daily happiness than those who do not…. [W]hen the issue of reverse causality is taken into account, we find no differences in daily happiness between volunteers and non-volunteers, which indicates that happier individuals are also more likely to volunteer." – h/t ben southwood!
Aberrant Gene Expression in Humans – "The uniqueness of individuals is due to differences in the combination of genetic, epigenetic and environmental determinants. Understanding the genetic basis of phenotypic variation is a key objective in genetics…. One of our major findings is that private SNPs may contribute to aberrant expression in outlier individuals. These private SNPs are more frequently located in the enhancer and promoter regions of genes that are aberrantly expressed, suggesting a possible regulatory function of these SNPs."
Recurrent loss of sex is associated with accumulation of deleterious mutations in Oenothera – "Sexual reproduction is nearly universal among eukaryotes. Theory predicts that the rarity of asexual eukaryotic species is in part caused by accumulation of deleterious mutations and heightened extinction risk associated with suppressed recombination and segregation in asexual species. We tested this prediction with a large dataset of 62 transcriptomes from 29 species in the plant genus Oenothera, spanning 10 independent transitions between sexual and a functionally asexual genetic system called permanent translocation heterozygosity…. These results confirm that an important advantage of sex is that it facilitates selection against deleterious alleles, which might help to explain the dearth of extant asexual species." – h/t melissa wilson sayres!
Perceptions Of Required Ability Act As A Proxy For Actual Required Ability In Explaining The Gender Gap – @slate star codex. make sure to read jayman's comment there! this one, too.
Lewontin wins the Crafoord Prize – "The Crafoord Prize for 2015 was awarded to Richard Lewontin and Tomoko Ohta, for their discovery that there was very much more genetic variation that had been expected. Lewontin discovered this using protein gel electrophoresis to study a number of loci in Drosophila. It's an important result. The problem is, virtually everything he's said and done since that time has been a pile of steaming ideological crap." – from greg cochran.
Single Markers Tell You Only a Bit About Individual Ancestry – "A new paper in The American Journal of Human Genetics, Estimates of Continental Ancestry Vary Widely among Individuals with the Same mtDNA Haplogroup, tells you something which should be obvious: one marker tells you only so much about individual ancestry. In other words, the history of one gene can only tell you so much about the whole genome. Because mtDNA and Y chromosome* does not recombine you can treat it as one long genetic marker…. But Richard Lewontin's insight that a great deal of human genetic variation is not partitioned across populations, but within them, applies to mtDNA and the Y chromosomes as well. Where Lewontin's insight misleads is that using just a few more markers one can obtain relatively robust phylogenetic trees which reflect well the population structure and history of a given species." – also from razib.
The Economist takes a half step forwards – "They do not examine the usual finding that educated parents are more influential than rich parents in supposedly 'boosting' intelligence. They leave out the genetic element entirely, and say it is 'incomes' which are inherited. If so adoption into a rich household should have massive effects on intellect, but that is not found. If adoption cannot wipe the slate clean, what chance a kindergarten?" – from dr. james thompson.
Gender divide in religious belief, survey suggests – "A big gender divide exists between men and women in their 40s in belief in God and life after death, a poll suggests. Of the British men surveyed, 54% said they were atheists or agnostics compared with only 34% of women. The study also showed that Muslims in the survey had the fewest doubts about the existence of God and the afterlife. The research involving more than 9,000 British people born in 1970 was analysed at the University of Essex." – h/t ed west! who tweeted: "71% of evangelical Christians have no doubts about God's existence. 33% of Catholics, 16% of Anglicans & Methodists."
This Woman Can't Feel Fear – "Damage from a rare genetic condition appears to have knocked out the 'fear center' in her brain."
Thumb bones in pre-humans make them more like us, study says – "Some of our tree-swinging pre-human ancestors may have been a bit more like us than previously thought, thanks to a tiny section of their thumbs. One key attribute that separates humans from other animals is our opposable thumb, and the way parts of the thumb are structured to allow for a strong yet precise grip that fostered advanced use of tools. It's what allows us to throw items more precisely, pick guitars and turn a key. And now, thanks to high-tech tools of our own, scientists have determined that a couple million years ago one of our pre-human ancestors had the same human-defining precision grip, even though researchers think of them as little more than upright walking apes, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. That supports earlier but controversial evidence that the small-brained Australopithecus africanus fashioned early tools." – h/t regular ron!
'Designer babies' debate should start, scientists say – h/t avi tuschman!
Darwin May Have Experienced Extreme Anxiety
Why Footbinding Persisted in China for a Millennium – "Despite the pain, millions of Chinese women stood firm in their devotion to the tradition."
Thomas Cromwell was the Islamic State of his day – "No one can be sure of the exact figure, but it is estimated that the destruction started and legalised by Cromwell amounted to 97% of the English art then in existence. Statues were hacked down. Frescoes were smashed to bits. Mosaics were pulverized. Illuminated manuscripts were shredded. Wooden carvings were burned. Precious metalwork was melted down. Shrines were reduced to rubble."
bonus: When it comes to speedy evolution, you can't outpace this lizard's penis
bonus bonus: FDA Considering Releasing Genetically-Modified Mosquitos In Florida – h/t sam bowman!
bonus bonus bonus: Fish Live Under Antarctica's Ice Shelf, Where It Seems They Shouldn't Survive – "Biologists expected the seafloor under a glacier to be nearly barren, until life swam into view."
bonus bonus bonus bonus: This fish lived in peace for 70 million years. Then it met the Army Corps of Engineers.
bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus: All in the (bigger) family – "A decade of genetic data and other evidence has persuaded most researchers that insects and crustaceans, long considered widely separated branches of the arthropod family, actually belong together. The new arthropod tree puts hexapods — six-limbed creatures that include insects, springtails, and silverfish — as closer kin to crabs, lobster, shrimp, and crayfish than those 'standard' crustaceans are to others such as seed shrimp."
(note: comments do not require an email. comparing apples and oranges.)
it's all fun and games until…
genetics and nat'l differences in life history strategies
via ben southwood, here's an interesting looking paper from the journal Personality and Individual Differences: "Genetic polymorphisms predict national differences in life history strategy and time orientation" [pdf]. (the paper's even from the future! April 2015. (~_^) )
the "highlights":
• Polymorphisms in three genes have been linked to aspects of life-history strategy.
• National frequencies of these polymorphisms form a strong single genetic factor.
• The genetic factor is strongly associated with national differences in life-history strategy.
• This association remains after controlling for national socioeconomic differences.
the three genes in question are some of the usual suspects: the androgen receptor gene (AR), DRD4, and the 5-HTTLPR in the SLC6A4 gene. the authors, minkov and bond, worked up a national genetic index based on the variations of these three genes as they relate to life history strategies (LHS) and time orientation (TO). they describe LHS and TO thusly:
"Life history strategy (LHS) theory explains differences in the allocation of an individual's total bioenergetic and material resources between somatic effort (devoted to the survival of the individual) and reproductive effort (devoted to the production of offspring), as well as parenting effort (devoted to the survival of offspring) and mating effort (devoted to obtaining and retaining sexual partners) (Figueredo et al., 2005). Fast LHS (a focus on reproductive and mating effort) is positively associated with risktaking in animals (Ackerman, Eadie, & Moore, 2006) and humans (Figueredo et al., 2005). In addition to the individual-level studies, a number of nation-level measures associated with LHS have been proposed, relying mostly on national statistics about reproduction, violent crime, and cognitive ability or educational attainment (Meisenberg & Woodley, 2013; Minkov, 2013; Rushton & Templer, 2009; Templer, 2008).
"Some different studies (Hofstede, 2001; Minkov & Hofstede, 2012a) discuss a nation-level short-term versus long-term orientation dimension (STO versus LTO or simply TO for 'time orientation'), derived from measures of values originally proposed by the Chinese Culture Connection (1987). According to these studies, TO reflects national differences in the endorsement of a wide range of values, some of which are especially prominent and seem to form the backbone of this dimension: future-related values (such as thrift and strong effort in modern education) versus a lack of emphasis on such values. The former set of values is known as long-term orientation, whereas the latter is called short-term orientation (Hofstede, 2001)."
what they found was that:
"Nations that score lower on the LHSGF [Life History Strategy Genetic Factor] are characterized by faster LHS and shorter TO. The reason for this association is that these nations have relatively high percentages of people who carry AR, DRD4, and 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms that seem to stimulate risk-taking, impulsivity, and short-term-oriented mating competition (expressed as a tendency for earlier sexual initiation, sexual networking, and violence, in specific circumstances). The effect of the LHSGF on hypometropia-LHS seems stronger across societies with high socioeconomic inequality."
mr. billare objects to the paper on the grounds that, in some cases where data were lacking, the authors estimated the frequencies of the alleles based on the rates found in neighboring populations — neighboring populations that, perhaps, aren't all that related to those for which there were no available data. that is not ideal, i agree — for example, estimating the national frequency of the DRD4 7-repeat for venezuela based on mexico's frequency is…questionable. but i don't think that their reference populations (i.e. the neighboring populations) which they used are that far off in most of the cases — at least not from a first glance at the paper. still, not ideal. definitely a weakness of the study.
my biggest objection to the paper is that's we're just talking about three genes here — there must be waaaay more genes related to behavioral traits involved here, as there are with height or intelligence. the authors acknowledge this, though: "[N]ational/ethnic LHS-TO may be driven by a large package of genes, each of which produces a very small effect at the individual level (and, in some cases, no effect at all); however they produce a large cumulative effect at the national level. It is therefore quite possible that our LHSGF index is actually a proxy for a much larger package of genes…."
it's early days, of course, and teh scientists simply just don't know even half of the genes involved in our behavioral traits at this point in time. Further Research is RequiredTM! it'll certainly be exciting when more data arrives! (^_^) this is an intriguing first step, though.
(note: comments do not require an email. boobies!)
african americans and immigration
pretty much the only political issue that i get worked up about is immigration — mass immigration to be specific. too much immigration (esp. all at once) just doesn't seem like a good idea to me, for several reasons: 1) assimilation is *not* a thing ('cause of human biodiversity) — what you get with a large influx of a different people (or peoples) into a society is change, or at least division (see Albion's Seed and American Nations), not assimilation — and while change is not necessarily a bad thing, i think we should be cautious, since no one can know what the outcome will be; 2) diversity doesn't seem to work very well, not if you want a free and open and liberally democratic nation; and 3) the negative economic effects, in particular the supply of too much cheap labor.
that last reason really applies to african americans, which is why i can never figure out why they're not more p*ssed off at the current immigration situation.
in 2013, three members of the u.s. commission on civil rights — abigail thernstrom, gail heriot, and peter kirsanow — wrote a letter to the congressional black caucus (cbc) outlining the disastrous consequences the recent mass immigration has had on lower-skilled african-americans and how an amnesty would just further exacerbate those. i can't see anything to argue with in their letter (looking away from their obvious cluelessness re. human biology and hbd), so i'm just going to reproduce it here (stole it from here — my bolding). too bad the cbc are just another bunch of corrupt politicians who don't give a sh*t about their constituents:
Hon. Marcia L. Fudge, Chair Congressional Black Caucus
2344 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Fudge:
We write in our individual capacities as three members of the eight-member U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and not on behalf of the Commission as a whole. In light of recent debates on comprehensive immigration reform, we are writing to address a rarely-discussed effect of granting legal status or effective amnesty to illegal immigrants. Such grant of legal status will likely disproportionately harm lower-skilled African-Americans by making it more difficult for them to obtain employment and depressing their wages when they do obtain employment. The increased employment difficulties will likely have negative consequences that extend far beyond economics.
In 2008, the Commission held a briefing regarding the impact of illegal immigration on the wages and employment opportunities of African-Americans.1 The testimony at the briefing indicated that illegal immigration disproportionately impacts the wages and employment opportunities of African-American men.2
The briefing witnesses, well-regarded scholars from leading universities and independent groups, were ideologically diverse. All the witnesses acknowledged that illegal immigration has a negative impact on black employment, both in terms of employment opportunities and wages. The witnesses differed on the extent of that impact, but every witness agreed that illegal immigration has a discernible negative effect on black employment. For example, Professor Gordon Hanson's research showed that "Immigration . . . accounts for about 40 percent of the 18 percentage point decline [from 1960-2000] in black employment rates."3 Professor Vernon Briggs wrote that illegal immigrants and blacks (who are disproportionately likely to be low-skilled) often find themselves in competition for the same jobs, and the huge number of illegal immigrants ensures that there is a continual surplus of low-skilled labor, thus preventing wages from rising.4 Professor Gerald Jaynes's research found that illegal immigrants had displaced U.S. citizens in industries that had traditionally employed large numbers of African-Americans, such as meatpacking.5
Illegal immigration has a disparate impact on African-American men because these men are disproportionately represented in the low-skilled labor force. The Census Bureau released a new report on educational attainment after the Commission issued its report. This report, released in February 2012, found that 50.9 percent of native-born blacks had not continued their education beyond high school.6 The same report found that 75.5 percent of foreign-born Hispanics had not been educated beyond high school, although it does not disaggregate foreign-born Hispanics who are legal immigrants from those who are illegal immigrants.7 However, Professor Briggs estimated that illegal immigrants or former illegal immigrants who received amnesty constitute a third to over a half of the total foreign-born population.8 Foreign-born Hispanics who are in the United States illegally are disproportionately male.9 African-Americans who have not pursued education beyond high school are also disproportionately male.10 These poor educational attainment levels usually relegate both African-American men and illegal immigrant men to the same low-skilled labor market, where they must compete against each other for work.11
The obvious question is whether there are sufficient jobs in the low-skilled labor market for both African-Americans and illegal immigrants. The answer is no. As Professor Briggs noted in his testimony to the Commission, "In February 2008 . . . the national unemployment rate was 4.8 percent, but the unemployment rate for adults (over 25 years old) without a high school diploma was 7.3 percent."12 During 2007, "Black American adult workers without a high school diploma had an unemployment rate of 12.0 percent, and those with only a high school diploma had an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent."13 These statistics suggest both that there is an overall surplus of workers in the low-skilled labor market, and that African-Americans are particularly disfavored by employers.14 More recently, Professor George Borjas of Harvard wrote:
'Classifying workers by education level and age and comparing differences across groups over time shows that a 10 percent increase in the size of an education/age group due to the entry of immigrants (both legal and illegal) reduces the wage of native-born men in that group by 3.7 percent and the wage of all native-born workers by 2.5 percent. . . . The same type of education/age comparison used to measure the wage impact shows that a 10 percent increase in the size of a skill group reduced the fraction of native-born blacks in that group holding a job by 5.1 percentage points.15'
Furthermore, these statistics reflect an economy that was not experiencing the persistent stagnation we are experiencing today. The country's economic woes have disproportionately harmed African-Americans, especially those with little education. In 2011, 24.6 percent of African-Americans without a high school diploma were unemployed, as were 15.5 percent of African-Americans with only a high school diploma.16 Two and half years into the economic recovery, African-Americans face particular difficulty obtaining employment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the seasonally adjusted January 2013 unemployment rate for all black Americans — not just those with few skills — was 13.8 percent, nearly twice the white unemployment rate of 7.0 percent.17 The economy has a glut of low-skilled workers, not a shortage.
Not only do illegal immigrants compete for jobs with African-Americans, but that competition drives down wages for the jobs that are available. Harvard professor George Borjas writes:
'Illegal immigration reduces the wages of native workers by an estimated $99 to $118 billion a year . . . . A theory-based framework predicts that the immigrants who entered the country from 1990 to 2010 reduced the average annual earnings of American workers by $1,396 in the short run. Because immigration (legal and illegal) increased the supply of workers unevenly, the impact varies across skill groups, with high school dropouts being the most negatively affected group.18'
Immigration, both legal and illegal, resulted in a disproportionately large increase in the number of high school dropouts in the labor pool. This caused a drop in wages among the poorest and least-educated members of the workforce.19 As discussed above, these people are disproportionately likely to be African-American men. Furthermore, there is evidence that wages for these men have not just failed to increase as much as they would have in the absence of illegal immigration. Their real wages, the number of dollars they take home at the end of the week, have actually diminished. Julie Hotchkiss, a research economist and policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, estimated that "as a result of this growth in the share of undocumented workers, the annual earnings of the average documented worker in Georgia in 2007 were 2.9 percent ($960) lower than they were in 2000. . . . [A]nnual earnings for the average documented worker in the leisure and hospitality sector in 2007 were 9.1 percent ($1,520) lower than they were in 2000."20 A $960 annual decrease may not seem like much to a lawyer or a doctor. But as President Obama noted in regard to the 2012 payroll tax cut extension, an extra $80 a month makes a big difference to many families: "It means $40 extra in their paycheck, and that $40 helps to pay the rent, the groceries, the rising cost of gas . . . ."21
The consequences of illegal immigration for black men and the black community in general are not limited to wages. In another study, Borjas found that lower wages and fewer jobs also correlate with an increase in the black incarceration rate.
'Our study suggests that a 10% immigrant-induced increase in the supply of a particular skill group is associated with a reduction in the black wage of 2.5%, a reduction in the black employment rate of 5.9 percentage points, and an increase in the black institutionalization rate of 1.3%. Among white men, the same 10% increase in supply reduces the wage by 3.2%, but has much weaker employment and incarceration effects: a 2.1 percentage-point reduction in the employment rate and a 0.2 percentage-point increase in the incarceration rate. It seems, therefore, that black employment and incarceration rates are more sensitive to immigration rates than those of whites.22'
Both lower wages and incarceration likely contribute to one of the most serious problems facing the African-American community today: the dearth of intact nuclear families. The disintegration of the black family began to accelerate during the 1960s. It is one of the great tragedies of modern America that the disintegration of the African-American family has shown no signs of abating.23 Seventy-two percent of African-American children are born out of wedlock.24 It is now commonly recognized that children born out of wedlock are far more likely to experience a host of negative outcomes than are children raised by their own biological, married parents.25
Married men are more likely to be employed and to have higher earnings than unmarried men, although the relationship between marriage and economic success is complex. However, it is obvious that men who are unemployed or are incarcerated are far less appealing prospective spouses than men who hold down a steady job.26 Yet there are fewer and fewer jobs available — and at lower wages — for men in traditionally masculine industries.27 Giving amnesty to illegal immigrants would only exacerbate this problem facing low-skilled men, who are disproportionately African-American. The dearth of job opportunities gives these men less confidence in their ability to support a family, and gives women reason to fear that these prospective husbands will be only another mouth to feed.
Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants will only further harm African-American workers. Not only will the low-skilled labor market continue to experience a surplus of workers, making it difficult for African-Americans to find job opportunities, but African-Americans will be deprived of one of their few advantages in this market. Some states require private employers to use E-Verify to establish that their workers are in the country legally. This levels the playing field a bit for African-Americans. If illegal immigrants are granted legal status, this small advantage disappears.
Furthermore, recent history shows that granting amnesty to illegal immigrants will encourage more people to come to the United States illegally. The 1986 amnesty did not solve the illegal immigration problem. To the contrary, that amnesty established the precedent that if you come to America illegally, eventually you will obtain legal status. Thus, it is likely that if illegal immigrants are granted legal status, more people will come to America illegally and will further crowd African-American men (and other low-skilled men and women) out of the workforce.
Before the federal government decides to grant legal status to illegal immigrants, due deliberation should be given to what effect such grant will have on the employment and earnings prospects of low-skill Americans generally and black Americans specifically. We respectfully submit that granting such legal status is not without substantial costs to American workers.
Abigail Thernstrom Vice Chair
Gail Heriot Commissioner
Peter Kirsanow Commissioner
Cc: Congressional Black Caucus
1 U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS, THE IMPACT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE WAGES AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES OF BLACK WORKERS [hereinafter THE IMPACT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION], available at http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/IllegImmig_10-14-10_430pm.pdf.
2 Id. at 3, Finding 5:
Illegal immigration to the United States in recent decades has tended to depress both wages and employment rates for low-skilled American citizens, a disproportionate number of whom are black men. Expert economic opinions concerning the negative effects range from modest to significant. Those panelists that found modest effects overall nonetheless found significant effects in industry sectors such as meatpacking and construction.
3 Id. at 26.
4 Id.at 37, 38-39
5 Id. at 31.
6 CAMILLE L. RYAN & JULIE SIEBENS, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT IN THE UNITED STATES: 2009 (Feb. 2012), at 7, available at http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p20-566.pdf.
7 Id.
8 THE IMPACT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, supra note 1, at 35-36.
9 Peter Skerry, Splitting the Difference on Illegal Immigration, NATIONAL AFFAIRS (Winter 2013), at 5 ("Of the undocumented immigrants over the age of 18 currently residing in the U.S., there are approximately 5.8 million males, compared to 4.2 million females."), available at http://www.nationalaffairs.com/doclib/20130102_Skerry.pdf.
10 THE IMPACT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, supra note 1, at 52; see also Anne McDaniel, Thomas A. DiPrete, Claudia Buchmann & Uri Shwed, The Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: Historical Trends and Racial Comparisons, 48 DEMOGRAPHY 889, 890 (2011) ("It is well known that black males trail black females on a range of key educational outcomes, including high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion."), available at http://jrnetsolserver.shorensteincente.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fulltext.pdf.
11 THE IMPACT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, supra note 1, Statement of Vernon M. Briggs, Jr., at 37.
[I]t is not everywhere that there is likely to be significant competition between low skilled black workers and illegal immigrant workers, but there are ample circumstances where there is – such as the large metropolitan labor markets of Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami and Washington-Baltimore. Moreover, some of the fastest growing immigrant concentrations are now taking place in the urban and rural labor markets of the states of the Southeast – such as Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, which never before were significant immigrant receiving states in previous eras of mass immigration. Indeed, about 26 percent of the nation's foreign-born population are now found in the states of the South – the highest percentage ever for this region. There is mounting evidence that many of these new immigrants in this region are illegal immigrants.
12 THE IMPACT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, supra note 1, Statement of Vernon M. Briggs, Jr., at 36. 13 Id.
14 Id., Statement of Harry J. Holzer, at 41.
Other evidence, including that by ethnographers, indicates that employers filling low-wage jobs requiring little reading/writing or communication clearly prefer immigrants to native-born blacks, and encourage informal networks through which immigrants gain better access to these jobs. The native-born black workers likely would be interested in some, but not all of these jobs, depending on their wages.
15 George Borjas, Immigration and the American Worker: A Review of the Academic Literature, Center for Immigration Studies (April 2013), available at http://cis.org/immigration-and-the-american-worker-review-academic-literature?utm_source=E-mail+Updates&utm_campaign=344e45830d-Borjas_Study4_8_2013&utm_medium=email.
16 U.S. DEPT. OF LABOR, The African-American Labor Force in the Recovery (Feb. 29, 2012), at Chart 3, available at http://www.dol.gov/_sec/media/reports/BlackLaborForce/BlackLaborForce.pdf.
17 BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, Employment situation summary (Feb. 1, 2013), available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm.
18 Borjas, supra note 15.
19 Id.:
[The simulation] shows that immigration particularly increased supply at the bottom and top of the education distribution. Immigration increased the effective number of hours supplied by high school dropouts to 25.9 percent, and those of workers with more than a college degree by 15.0 percent. In contrast, immigration increased the number of hours supplied by workers with 12 to 15 years of school by only 6 to 8 percent. Overall, immigration increased effective supply by 10.6 percent during the two-decade period. Because of the skewed nature of the supply shift, the simulation shows that immigration particularly affected the wage of native workers at the two ends of the education distribution. The large supply increase experienced by high school dropouts decreased the wage of this group by 6.2 percent in the short run and 3.1 percent in the long run. Similarly, the wage declines for the most highly skilled workers (those with more than a college degree) were 4.1 percent in the short run and 0.9 percent in the long term.
20 THE IMPACT OF ILLLEGAL IMMIGRATION, supra note 1, at 46.
21 Amie Parnes, Obama: Payroll tax cut extension will help with higher gas prices, THE HILL, Feb. 21, 2012, available at http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/211765-obama-payroll-tax-cut-extension-will-help-with-higher-gas-prices.
22 George J. Borjas, Jeffrey Grogger, and Gordon Hanson, Immigration and the Economic Status of African-American Men, 77 ECONOMICA 255, 256 (2010).
23 Kay Hymowitz, The Black Family: 40 Years of Lies, CITY JOURNAL (Summer 2005), available at http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_3_black_family.html.
24 Jesse Washington, Blacks struggle with 72 percent unwed mothers rate, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 7, 2010, available at http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39993685/ns/health-womens_health/t/blacks-struggle-percent-unwed-mothers-rate/#.UWR6fZPvvn4.
25 See id. ("Children of unmarried mothers of any race are more likely to perform poorly in school, go to prison, use drugs, be poor as adults, and have their own children out of wedlock."); see also W. Bradford Wilcox and Jeffrey Dew, Protectors or Perpetrators: Fathers, Mothers, and Child Abuse and Neglect, Center for Marriage and Families (Feb. 2008), available at http://www.wbradfordwilcox.com/Dad.abuse.pdf:
[A] 1996 federal study found that the overall rate of child maltreatment among single- parent households was nearly double that of two-parent families: 27.3 children per 1,000 were maltreated in single-parent families, whereas 15.5 children per 1,000 were maltreated in two-parent families. Another study found that 7 percent of children who had lived with a single parent had been sexually abused, compared to 4 percent of children who lived in an intact, biological family. Still another study found that children were half as likely to suffer physical abuse involving a traumatic brain injury when they lived in a household with their father, compared to children living in a fatherless family.
Research also indicates that children living in stepfamilies are more likely to suffer from abuse. One study by David Finkelhofer of the University of New Hampshire and his colleagues found that "children currently living in single parent and stepfamilies had significantly greater lifetime exposure than those living with two biological or adoptive parents" to five different forms of victimization—sexual assault, child maltreatment, assault by peers or siblings, being a victim of a crime, or witnessing violence. Other studies have found that children are markedly more likely to be killed or sexually abused by stepfathers, compared to children living in an intact, married household.
26 See Hannah Rosin, THE END OF MEN (2012) 8–10 (a single mother's description of her daughter's underemployed father as "one less granola bar for the two of us").
27 Id. at 71–97 (2012).
(note: comments do not require an email.)
linkfest – 01/18/15
Ancient Jomon people not like present-day East Asians – "'We found a unique genetic position of the Jomon people who had diverged before the diversification of most of present-day East Eurasian populations including East Eurasian Islanders. This indicates that Jomon people were a basal population in East Eurasia and genetically isolated from other East Eurasians for long time.'" – h/t charles!
Uncovering the Genetic History of the Present-Day Greenlandic Population – "[W]e analyzed ∼200,000 SNPs from more than 10% of the adult Greenlandic population (n = 4,674). We found that recent gene flow from Europe has had a substantial impact on the population: more than 80% of the Greenlanders have some European ancestry (on average ∼25% of their genome). However, we also found that the amount of recent European gene flow varies across Greenland and is far smaller in the more historically isolated areas in the north and east and in the small villages in the south. Furthermore, we found that there is substantial population structure in the Inuit genetic component of the Greenlanders and that individuals from the east, west, and north can be distinguished from each other. Moreover, the genetic differences in the Inuit ancestry are consistent with a single colonization wave of the island from north to west to south to east. Although it has been speculated that there has been historical admixture between the Norse Vikings who lived in Greenland for a limited period ∼600–1,000 years ago and the Inuit, we found no evidence supporting this hypothesis. Similarly, we found no evidence supporting a previously hypothesized admixture event between the Inuit in East Greenland and the Dorset people, who lived in Greenland before the Inuit." – h/t razib!
Y chromosome super-fathers – "Most of these lineages are so young that there are good chances that their founders were figures from history or mythology." – from dienekes.
Bone Tool Discovered at Neanderthal Site in France – "A bone tool from the Grotte du Bison at Arcy-sur-Cure in France is further evidence that Neanderthals had abilities usually attributed solely to modern humans…."
Early age of alcohol initiation is not the cause of alcohol use disorders in adulthood, but is a major indicator of genetic risk. A population-based twin study. – "The association between early age of alcohol initiation and alcohol use disorders in later life does not reflect a causal relationship, but is due almost entirely to common genetic risk factors."
α-Actinin-3: Why Gene Loss Is an Evolutionary Gain – h/t billare! who tweeted: "Positive selection for broken proteins: Derived ACTN3 mutation seems to help fast-twitch muscles fatigue less slowly."
Do viruses make us smarter? – "[R]etroviruses seem to play a central role in the basic functions of the brain, more specifically in the regulation of which genes are to be expressed, and when."
Estimating the genotypic intelligence of populations and assessing the impact of socioeconomic factors and migrations – from davide piffer who tweeted: "New version of my paper with genetic distances. Migrations or drift less likely to explain results." also, from the paper: "The results also provide preliminary evidence in favor of the hypothesis that poor environmental conditions (i.e. economic and sociocultural) tend to depress national IQ scores. Countries with lower per capita GDP and a lower index of Human Development tended to have larger positive 'residuals', that is the difference between the score predicted by the regression (of IQs for developed countries on the 4 SNPs g factor) and the actually measured IQ was larger in countries with lower GDP and HDI (r around 0.7). Thus, poorer and less developed countries have yet to reach their full intellectual potential. The results of this study indicate that the gaps in intellectual performance between some populations can be narrowed via adequate improvement of environmental conditions, however the overall pattern of intellectual scores is due to relatively stable and fixed (genetic) factors and cannot be substantially altered." – see also terrific post from anatoly karlin on this paper!: Genetics, IQ, and Convergence.
Evidence of polygenic selection on human stature inferred from spatial distribution of allele frequencies – also from davide piffer.
Geographical Variation in Dementia: Examining the Role of Environmental Factors in Sweden and Scotland – "We found a 2- to 3-fold geographical variation in dementia odds in Sweden, after twin random effects — likely to capture genetic and shared environmental variance — were removed. In Scotland, we found no variation in dementia odds in childhood but substantial variation, following a broadly similar pattern to Sweden, by adulthood. Conclusion: There is geographical variation in dementia rates." – h/t erwin schmidt! – also Genetics and Underlying Pathology of Dementia.
Archaeogenomic insights into the adaptation of plants to the human environment: pushing plant–hominin co-evolution back to the Pliocene – "The colonization of the human environment by plants, and the consequent evolution of domesticated forms is increasingly being viewed as a co-evolutionary plant–human process that occurred over a long time period, with evidence for the co-evolutionary relationship between plants and humans reaching ever deeper into the hominin past. This developing view is characterized by a change in emphasis on the drivers of evolution in the case of plants. Rather than individual species being passive recipients of artificial selection pressures and ultimately becoming domesticates, entire plant communities adapted to the human environment." – h/t george perry!
Son of Edar – "[S]omebody should look for characteristic racial differences in tears, sebaceous glands, Meobomian glands, and salivary glands. And possibly fingernails. They may well exist, be driven by this EDAR mutation, and some might play a role in its selective advantage." – from greg cochran.
Quality vs Quantity – "To the extent that human capital is a product of genetic factors (quite a lot), this tradeoff *does not exist*." – also from greg cochran.
Lower mortality rates among Asian, Hispanic lupus patients – "Asian and Hispanic patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have lower mortality rates compared to Black, White, or Native Americans with the disease, scientists have found. Findings indicate that the risk for death among White patients is much lower than in Black and Native American SLE patients."
Genetic errors linked to more ALS cases than scientists had thought – h/t jayman!
Is your face special? – "Face recognition is highly heritable and weakly related to *g* so it probably has its own module, or a favoured set of circuits which only partly taps into the central processor power of general intelligence. So, not only is your face is special. but your specialised ability to recognise faces is even more special." – from dr. james thompson.
Are flu shots effective? Your genetics determine how the immune system responds
Environment, more than genetics, shapes immune system – "Everyone's immune system is slightly different—a unique mixture of hundreds of these cells and proteins. But the main driver of this variation is unclear. Although scientists know that our immune system can adapt to our environment—that's why vaccines work, for instance—it is also built by our genes…. After recruiting 210 identical and fraternal twins between 8 and 82 years old, Davis and colleagues took blood samples and measured more than 200 parameters of their immune systems. For example, they measured the numbers of 95 kinds of immune cells and 51 kinds of proteins. Today, the researchers report online in Cell that identical twins' immune systems were too different for the variation to boil down to genetics. Indeed, environment overshadowed inheritance in three-quarters of the measurements, and half showed no measurable genetic influence. Moreover, younger twins were more similar than were older twins, evidence that as the twins aged and were exposed to different environments, their immune systems diverged over time."
Levels of Selection Are Artefacts of Different Fitness Temporal Measures – "I show by comparing the fitness of individuals with that of collectives of individuals in the same environment and over the same period of time – as required to decide if one or more levels of selection is acting in a population – that the selection of collectives is a by-product of selection at the individual level; thus, talking about two or more levels of selection represents merely a different perspective on one and the same process."
Does incidental disgust amplify moral judgment? A meta-analytic review of experimental evidence [pdf] – "We meta-analyzed all available studies, published and unpublished, that experimentally manipulated incidental disgust prior to or concurrent with a moral judgment task (k=50). We found that there is evidence for a small amplification effect of disgust (d=.11), which is strongest for gustatory/olfactory modes of disgust induction. However, there is also some suggestion of publication bias in this literature, and when this is accounted for, the effect disappears entirely (d=-.01). Moreover, prevalent confounds mean that the effect size that we estimate is best interpreted as an upper bound on the size of the amplification effect. The results of this meta-analysis argue against strong claims about the causal role of affect in moral judgment and suggest a need for new, more rigorous research on this topic." – h/t stuart ritchie!
The DNA photofit: Amazing breakthrough means police can tell suspect's colour, height and even age – from a tiny speck of blood – daily mail.
The Coming Stability? The Decline of Warfare in Africa and Implications for International Security – "The years 2010–2013 saw an increase of 35 per cent in African battle deaths over 2005–2010, but they still are 87 per cent lower than the 1990–1999 average…. Consequently, there is no Africa exception to the systemic shift towards lower levels of armed conflict." – h/t mugwump!
The Scariest Explanation for America's Vast Prison Population: We Want It That Way – "[I]n federal prisons at least, Hispanics have overtaken blacks in the dubious distinction of being the most disproportionately imprisoned. Nor can we blame the war on drugs. The idea that vast numbers of Americans are in prison for smoking pot or snorting blow turns out to be a fantasy. About 20 percent of inmates are in for drug-related crimes, but those crimes are rarely limited to their own casual use. According to a 2004 estimate, only about 12,000 people were incarcerated for simple possession, without intent to traffic or distribute."
Sorry, liberals, Scandinavian countries aren't utopias – "Finland, which tops the charts in many surveys (they're the least corrupt people on Earth, its per-capita income is the highest in Western Europe and Helsinki often tops polls of the best cities), is also a leader in categories like alcoholism, murder (highest rate in Western Europe), suicide and antidepressant usage…." – [huh. even with all that tango dancing!] – "It turns out that the 'warrior gene' — actually the enzyme monoamine oxidase A, which is linked to impulsive behavior, violence and alcoholism — is especially prevalent in Finland. 'Dark' doesn't just describe winter in the Arctic suburbs, it applies to the Finnish character." – h/t ninja economics!
The relationship between anti-gay prejudice and the categorization of sexual orientation – "[I]ndividuals reporting higher levels of anti-gay bias appear to be less accurate judges of sexual orientation." but "Italians reporting greater anti-gay bias miscategorized fewer gay faces as straight." – h/t ben southwood!
Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Couples and Family Formation – "It has long been debated how legalizing same-sex marriage would affect (different-sex) family formation. In this article, I use data on OECD member countries for the period 1980–2009 to examine the effects of the legal recognition of same-sex couples (through marriage or an alternative institution) on different-sex marriage, divorce, and extramarital births. Estimates from difference-in-difference models indicate that the introduction of same-sex marriage or of alternative institutions has no negative effects on family formation…. In addition, the country-by-country case studies provide evidence of homogeneity of the estimated effects."
Pair-Bonding, Romantic Love, and Evolution – The Curious Case of Homo sapiens – "We conclude there is interdisciplinary support for the claim that romantic love and pair-bonding, along with alloparenting, played critical roles in the evolution of Homo sapiens."
Sex ratio effects on reproductive strategies in humans – among the makushi people of guyana.
Antiquity of dairy farming in Ireland revealed – "Research published today in the Journal of Environmental Archaeology shows that dairying on the island goes back approximately 6,000 years, revealed through traces of ancient dairy fats found in pots dating to around 4,000 to 2,500 BC." – h/t frau katze!
The origin and evolution of maize in the American Southwest
A Breeder Apart: Farmers Say Goodbye to the Bull Who Sired 500,000 Offspring – "Fans Commemorate 'Toystory,' a Dairy Legend With a Ravenous Libido" – the genghis khan of bulls! h/t mr. robert ford!
Items lost in the Stone Age are found in melting glaciers – "Mittens, shoes, weapons, walking sticks – lost in the high mountains of Norway thousands of years ago – are now emerging from melting ice."
bonus: 'I can haz genomes': cats claw their way into genetics – "Canine dominance bows to tabby chic as cat sequencing takes off."
bonus bonus: Some Microbes Can Eat And Breathe Electricity – whoa.
bonus bonus bonus: Britain's oldest person Ethel Lang dies aged 114 – "Ethel Lang was believed to be the last person living in the UK who was born in the reign of Queen Victoria." – h/t ed west!
bonus bonus bonus bonus: Two New Studies Posit At Least Two New Planets Out Beyond Pluto
bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus: Whaleworld: Looking for cetacean culture – h/t steve stewart williams! who tweeted: "Millions of years before human culture appeared, there was culture in the ocean." – cool!
bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus: Medieval Apps.
bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus: Archaeologists find 132-year-old Winchester rifle leaning against Nevada desert tree
bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus: Irn Bru release 57 Scottish tartan labels and clan finder website promotion (~_^)
bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus: "At some German crossings you can play a game of Pong with the person standing at the other side." (^_^)
bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus: If birds in a truck fly, does the truck get lighter? – hey…don't bogart that joint, new scientist!
bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Publish a Novel About Sherlock Holmes's Brother Mycroft – danced a few dances with kareem! (^_^) (not a euphemism. for anything!)
(note: comments do not require an email. i can haz genomz?)


text:
As beekeepers we're often asked what we do to care for honeybees. The best way to learn is come to our meetings and get involved. We realize that while not everyone can become beekeepers most folks still want to do what they can to help the local bee community. This brochure lists several ways to help.
When We Get Together
SCBA offers the following benefits and activities:
…Beekeeper continued education,
…Local honey bee product promotion,
…Current pattern and trend awareness,
…Community support, informal mentoring,
…National Honey Bee Day celebration, and
…Two annual field days.
How You Can Help
Honeybees are under threat worldwide because of virulent viruses against which they have no natural defenses. Many colonies in the wild have died out and without beekeepers to care for them, honeybees could disappear in a few years.
Who We Are & What We Do
We meet monthly to talk about upcoming bee events, seasonal conditions, and research findings. Join us on the second Thursday of each month for dinner beginning at 6:00 p.m. followed by a meeting at 7:00 p.m. Call the SCBA President for meeting locations around Stanly County.
|Officers and Committees
|Ellen McCarter
|Immediate Past President
|J R Whitley
|Vice President
|Venita Forbes
|Laura Krug
|Brinda Teeter
|Program Chair
|Pat Allen
|Assistant Program Chair
|H L Carpenter
|Technology Chair
|Boyd Furr
|County Liaison NC Cooperative Extension
|Dustin Adcock
|Member Liaison
|Peter Henkenjohann
|Web Master
|Nicky Teeter
|SCBA Email Address
8 Ways You Can Help Honeybees
- Become a beekeeper. Beekeeping is an enjoyable and fascinating hobby – where you get to eat your own honey.
- Find a sunny space for a beehive in your garden. Many would-be beekeepers, especially in urban areas, find it difficult to find a safe space for their bees. So, if you can't keep bees then;
- Buy honey from local beekeepers. This helps the beekeeper recover costs and supports local honey beekeepers who must comply with all food standards requirements.
- Ask your political officials to finance research in honey bee health. Beekeepers are concerned that we do not have enough information to combat diseases that affect honeybees.
- Help protect swarms. Swarming is a natural process when honeybee colonies increase their numbers. Honeybees in a swarm are usually very gentle and present very little danger if left alone. Call a local beekeeper to remove the swarm.
- Throw used honey containers away. Most honey brought in from overseas contains bacteria and spores that are harmful to local honeybees. If you leave a honey jar outside it encourages honeybees to feed on the remaining honey. This could infect local honeybees who in turn would infect the rest of the colony resulting in death of the colony.
- Invite a beekeeper to speak at a local group. Honeybees have been on earth for about 25 million years and have adapted to their environment.
- Bee aware of your bee-havior. When kept properly, bees are good neighbors and only sting when provoked. If a bee hovers inquiringly in front of you do not wave your hands. Stay calm and slowly move to a shaded area. The bee will soon lose interest.
Plants That Attract Honeybees in the Piedmont
See the What's Blooming page at NCSBA.
For a PDF of this flyer. Select the following link: scba-flyer-handout-pub

subset: commoncrawl


text:
What's so Awesome about an Ice Cream Party?
We know a thing or two about ice cream, and we know how to party. So take it from us: the ice cream party is one of the more epic ways to make a gathering memorable. Whether you're celebrating a recent win at work with an office party, throwing the graduation party of the year, or hosting an office building get-together, nothing makes quite the splash that Ben & Jerry's ice cream catering does.
Even better, we do it all: we show up, set up and clean up so all you have to do is enjoy ice cream. It's like bringing an ice cream shop right into your office, or backyard, or wedding, or building, or birthday party. You get the point.
How to Book an Event
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Treat your staff to an ice cream social! From 15 to 1,500 people, we can help you say, "Thank you!" From Montpelier to the Mad River, we'll bring the scoop shop to you!


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About cyreda
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Squad: Block warfare
cyreda posted a topic in General DiscussionDon't you just love the field of blocks? Ironically, now i can get 100fps...
How do you feel when you lose?
cyreda replied to RevolT's topic in General DiscussionLmao i dont give a **** about losing or winning whats wrong with ur EGO :D:D:D
Single fire shots are being represented as automatic bursts for other players.
cyreda posted a topic in General DiscussionThis bug happens when you have your gun at automatic mode, but still just click single shots. Other people in your team will think that you just mindlessly keep shooting as it sounds like automatic fire. I think its a bug worth fixing cause it caused some wtf moments last game Edit: oops maybe wrong thread?
How long does a ban hold?
cyreda replied to cyreda's topic in General Discussionok.. thanks!
How long does a ban hold?
cyreda posted a topic in General DiscussionI've been banned from one server due to an argument with a squadleader i had.. propably two months ago (resulted in teamkilling). Then there is another server that i am banned from, and I have absolutely no idea why. Seems like people are really easily kicking/banning people, how long does it hold?
If you are getting lower performance in v7, we need you!
cyreda replied to Drav's topic in Software SupportIts the CPU. Not that you have a bad one, but this game has alot of performance issues having to do with CPU. They are fixable so just wait. Same as above.
Please don't let the performance be like Arma 3
cyreda replied to Crichton's topic in General DiscussionCpu intensive tasks dont necessarily create 100% cpu usage, especially if all of those actions are called on the exact same core and every pawn goes through the same intensive tasks, creates a huge overhead and cpu usage drops down to 30% etc... Thus bad performance.
release Alpha 7.7 Released
cyreda replied to Chuc's topic in AnnouncementsI have i7 4770k and gtx 970. On medium settings i can manage 170 fps in Rainbow six Siege. Squad, everything low I get 20fps. This game is literally the worst performing game i have ever own. Unreal Engine 4 was a bad idea.
Please don't let the performance be like Arma 3
cyreda replied to Crichton's topic in General DiscussionUnreal Engine was very wrong game engine for this type of gameplay because of the way it handles pawns and calls animations. Those actions are really CPU intensive on this game engine, and 60 players on one server = disaster. They should've went with something else, maybe even Unity 5?
35% CPU usage, how to get it higher?
cyreda replied to cyreda's topic in General DiscussionThanx for the input guys! Though i have tried to disable hyperthreading, it did nothing for me for gaming expecially for squad, but i lost rendering power with for example Blender. This computer is used for other tasks aswell that need that feature, and disabling it does nothing for the gameplay. I'll try what unparking cores would do.
35% CPU usage, how to get it higher?
cyreda posted a topic in General DiscussionMy CPU is i7 4770k, I have huge FPS problems when over 60 player servers. I dropped everything low, also the resolution scale to 50%, no change to the fps its still around 30-40. GTX 970. The fps problems are all CPU related. Why is the CPU usage so bad (35%) and is it possible to get higher somehow? EDIT: Oh and its not about power settings All other games work just fine.
Would you like to join us for Squad Ops? (1 life)
cyreda replied to ParaPlays's topic in General DiscussionI signed up for Friday! Really awesome idea Steam ID Killmore53
DEVS! Please disable the possibility for over 60 player servers!!
cyreda replied to cyreda's topic in General DiscussionBad internet = bad fps? You seem to know pretty much about gaming not really. And BTW my up and down both are 100mb/s so my internet is pretty "high end" too.
AMD issues directly related to the number of online players
cyreda replied to heborn's topic in General DiscussionI have i7 4770k and the same thing happens to me.. 72 player servers are 30-40fps. i7 4770k is a pretty high end processor and still isnt enough
DEVS! Please disable the possibility for over 60 player servers!!
cyreda replied to cyreda's topic in General DiscussionNowadays hyperthreading doesnt force game logic to the "virtual cores" so having hyperthreading turned off makes no difference. It used to be a problem but it has been ironed out.


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Friday, April 13, 2012
This week is full of surprises. The world is smaller and smaller. An email came from Spain. I guess I left a lot of "MOI" in Spain, I loved it there and the laissez faire attitude of the Costa del Sol. I am just so delighted that old friends found my blog and wrote this morning. They owned our favorite restaurant and "hotel", Pepe Rico. I have told numerous stories of what had happened to us at that place. Bob, Bobby and I had gone back there so many moons ago and just enjoyed the quiet ambiance of the place not to mention Pollo Africana, our favorite dish. We celebrated my mothers 60th birthday there and I was pregnant with Bobby. When we were dirt poor and tried to sell watercolors by the church a bus of American ladies came by looked at Bob's watercolors, said how great he was and followed with where is that Balcon d'Europa I need a drink.....the two of us were almost in tears. They said his work was fabulous, it was too cheap, and ran to the first bar. When my courage had finally sunk into my shoes and I wondered how much rice I had left and if I could still get some merluzza at the market along came our life savers :The Ankers. Mrs. A. came from the same region as my Bob, Salinas CA, she had inherited her fathers fortune and she was a shopper and the Perle Mesta in Nerja. She knew how to throw a party. She saw us sitting there and quietly said: We do not want to be alone at lunch, we fight too much, could you join us at Pepe Rico's? She had so much tact. Hungry souls loved that place and we rejoiced at the invite. It was that day that Mr A decided he wanted a bar built. He wanted Bob to paint the front of the bar with trompe l'oeil style items. Her cameo jewelry, dollar bills, (he liked these) an assortment of objects. Bob and I delighted at the work and they gave us a down payment right then and there. One night when Bob had submitted some paintings in Brussels for an international contest, he and I went to Pepe's sat outside had a romantic dinner when I noticed the moon and the clouds almost exactly like he had painted this scene. I think I cried, we said it was an omen, it was going to be a prize. He did get a very good prize but for the other painting submitted. I have tried to copy the pollo but never did get it. Must be different spices. Bob and I returned after his diagnosis, we had been in Torremolinos 3 years in a row and would take a tourbus to Nerja. The guide knew we did not want the caves so he dropped us of in Nerja and we would meet later. Guide said: Now do not get lost!!!I just laughed out loud! Me? getting lost in Nerja??They left and we stood in a new modern park. I turned around and just did not have a clue where I was. I asked someone where the Balcon d'Europa was and slowly found our bearings. Trying to find our apartment was a total shock. It had been the first piso building when we purchased it in 1970, farmland around it....now I could not imagine where they had found all this land to built a shopping center, a little park, more high rises etc....where was all that land? Was it behind the wall at Suju's ? We walked with ease to the beach, not all this cement work in such a small place? I was shocked. Bob remembered some of it but I had written down where the new park was so we could get back on the bus. You can't go back......you just can't set the clock back. We had a friend who had been here in the 1950's and she moaned how quaint a village it had been and how we were changing it. She should see it now. A tour bus to Frigiliani was another shock but they had cleaned up the village and all the houses looked like they had just been whitewashed, while there was a parking place for busses and cars below the village, all very well organized. Every thing was changed. Our friend Louis Miles lives near me and he and his wife have been my main support in the last decades it is there that we met and with him we had many, many visits at Pepe Rico. He and I are 80 now and when we have lunch out he starts on Nerja and his wife goes into a sleep mode, after the word Nerja comes the word Pepe Rico and then the famous chicken. Patient Celia (his wife) tries to keep her eyes open as these two oldies talk about a place we loved so many moons ago. Thank you for writing Kathy!!!!
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Hosted Domains in Cloud Web Hosting
One of the differences between our cloud web hosting packages is the amount of domain addresses which you can host in a single account. Possessing more domain addresses with working websites for them usually means using additional server resources, so the more domain names you would like to host, the more expensive the plan. In this way, we provide you with the opportunity to select a more affordable plan if you wish to have just 1 or several sites. In the same time, you are able to upgrade the plan or keep the current one and only add additional slots for hosting more domain names in your existing account, so you'll not be limited by this feature. Regardless how many domains you host, there is no limit how many domains you can register in your account and it's your decision if you will also host them or you'll forward them to already existing domains using the parking feature.


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Fly, surf, race and jump in some of the most advanced technological machines in the world. Ever wanted to go sky-diving without the fear or cost? Now you can...View attraction
Visit Butterfly World to see hundreds of butterflies flying freely in a natural environment. Alongside Butterfly World is Fountain World with Italian & J...View attraction
You can expect the very best family day out at award-winning Mead Open Farm. With 30 acres of action-packed play indoors and out, as well as 'han...View attraction
This indoor play centre has plenty of crawling, swinging and sliding fun for all young children! Kids can enjoy the abunance of toys and softplay equipment, ...View attraction
Stockwood Discovery Centre tells the stories of real people behind the collections, exploring the history of the region from prehistoric times to the evoluti...View attraction
Wardown Park Museum is situated in the beautiful landscaped Wardown Park, on the outskirts of Luton town centre. The museum offers a range of displays includ...View attraction
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo is the rural branch of London Zoo and was one of the first to minimise the use of cages. At 600 acres, Whipsnade is Europe's largest conser...View attraction


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Love love love grilling. I just about have enough wood left for one more fire/grill night. I must get more wood because I would like to continue my weekly tradition of grilling at least one night a week (especially now that it is beautiful and sunny).
My mom was visiting for the weekend so I wanted to make something delicious but relatively easy. I had flank steak leftover from Korean rice bowls so I decided on another Asian-inspired recipe featuring flank steak. I did not grill seasonal veges as there was nothing grill worthy in my box this week. It might be entertaining to put fava beans or arugula on a skewer, but I did not want my dinner to turn into a large flaming mess. Instead I grilled meat, zucchini, bell pepper, red onions, and green onions. The zucchini and red onions were local and the marinade featured very potent green garlic from my CSA. I served the kabobs alongside rice and a kale-cabbage side.
Kabob-like meals are really easy to throw together which is nice because it give you extra time to enjoy the fire. Chop the veges and meat and throw it is a big bag or bowl with marinade.
After a while (2 hours maybe), everything is skewered.
I didn't bother arranging things in order of cooking time nor did I bother to get out my metal cooking untensils from the camping box. (This was a mistake as the presoaked bamboo skewers still managed to catch fire. We didn't loose anything.)
All in all the meal turned out very well. And there was even enough leftover for lunch the next day.
RECIPE Serves 4-6
- 2 lb flank steak, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into thick strips
- 1 green bell pepper, cut into thick strips
- 3 zucchini, 1″ chunks
- a bunch of green onions, white part cut into 2″ lengths; green part can be finely chopped and added to marinade.
- 1 red onion, quartered and separated
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 4 tbsp sake
- 3-4 tbsp white sugar
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1-2 tbsp fresh ginger, thinly sliced
- black pepper
Mix marinade ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. Adjust sugar and pepper to taste.
Cut up meat and veges according to preference and place in large bag or bowl.
Add marinade and thoroughly coat meat and vege mix. Place in the fridge and let stand for at least two hours.
Meanwhile, soak skewers (if using wood) for at least 30 minutes in water.
To assemble skewers, alternating meat and veges.
Grill until meat cooked and veges are tender.


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From the files of "I can't believe those aren't photos" come these sensational paintings by American artist Gregory Thielker. The series, Under the unminding sky, depicts rainy days viewed from inside a car, and they're so realistic that you can almost feel the wet. "My most recent paintings and drawings explore the sensation of seeing from a car while driving through the rain," Thielker says.......read more
From subject matter to materials, nature informs the work of Minnesota-based artist Gregory Euclide. From his home outside of Minneapolis, Euclide makes mixed-media landscape works that incorporate paper, found objects, and natural elements. The pieces are based on his memories and experiences of the outdoors. Euclide explained his process to Paper Darts Magazine: "I think about nature and I......read more
The Guardian has published the text a leaked document revealing the US government's increasingly controversial strategy in the global UN climate talks. The document was left on a European hotel computer and passed to the British newspaper. The text unveils the Obama's administration's hardline, "take it or leave it" approach to the agreement, signaling that the US intends......read more
Widely acclaimed during his lifetime, American painter Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893 - 1967) is curiously under-appreciated today. But an ambitous new touring retrospective, curated by artist Robert Gober, may change that. HEAT WAVES IN A SWAMP, which opens in June at New York's Whitney Museum, features over one hundred works by the visionary artist. Working predominantly in watercolor,......read more
In Santa Marta, a hillside favela in the heart of Rio de Janeiro, two artists from Holland are using a massive art intervention to transform the community. Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn originally came to Brazil in 2005 to shoot a documentary on the vibrant favela music scene. They never left. The two stayed in Rio to form Favela Painting, an organization dedicated to creating "striking......read more
For Dulux Walls' Let's Colour Project, director Adam Berg shot everyday citizens brightening their communities by painting schools, streets, homes and squares in vibrant colors. A total of 120 different colours were utilized in four weeks of footage shot in four countries: Brazil, France, the UK and India. The wonderful song is "Go Do" by Jonsi (of Sigur Ros fame)....read more
In his series Until the Kingdom Comes, New York-based artist Simen Johan creates dramatic tableaux of wildlife with weird and unnatural twists. In the large-scale color photos and taxidermy-based sculptures, nothing is quite as it seems. A pair of white owls sit perched on a picnic table in the fog; a pair of foxes huddle together in the snow, crying; two moose battle in a rugged landscape, with......read more
The abstract works of Japanese painter Yu Kawakita capture both the rhythm of nature and the event of creation between artist and media. She makes them by applying paint or ink onto a thin layer of water covering a primed surface, then blowing on the liquid to create patterns. When the water evaporates and the paint dries, the process is frozen in time and the work is complete. "There are......read more
With a deft hand and a quirky sense of humor, Brooklyn-based artist Chris Ballantyne highlights the desolate emptiness of American landscapes. In his paintings and murals, graphically rendered structures are isolated on flat fields of color, underscoring the anti-social effects of our built environment. "Growing up in a military family and moving to different parts of the country, there was a......read more
Sometimes, like with records or Polaroids, old media is fetishized and revered for having qualities that new tech can't replicate. But usually obsolete media is forgotten and condemned to the trash heap. Floppy disks land squarely in the category of unlucky ones. London-based artist Nick Gentry gives floppy disks a new lease on life, resurrecting the discarded technology to make canvases for......read more


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I was at a friend's house the other day having a few drinks and watching videos on MTV or some other music channel. As if the last song that played wasn't grim enough, I was now to be introduced to the world of the dawg, the Cuban link who calls himself 'Pitbull'. I knew within about four bars of the song starting that I wasn't going to like it, however I didn't anticipate some of the foul thoughts that were soon to follow.
So it started, and the first lines instantly annoyed me.
"You don't get them girls loose, you don't get the world loose, you don't get money, but I do"
…young people then listen to the same mindless crap…
Enough to infuriate anyone with half a brain! I know the music channels aren't the best source of education in regards to good poetry, however stuff like this is what is making people really thick these days. These songs get drilled into society every day via a millions of plays a day on many TV and radio channels. Thousands of young people then listen to the same mindless crap again in nightclubs and what have you, and then gradually fall into the fantasy world being created by the media.
Unsurprisingly many people are useless in this day and age as far as art is concerned and live out dead end jobs their whole life. This isn't shocking at all when it's clear they are being manipulated by lyrics that could have been written by a five year old. Look at them again, excusing the fact that many young boys won't understand slang terms like 'loose', can you really see a five year old, with a basic grasp of the English language finding it impossible to write something similar? And this is what is inspiring young adults to be the next change for good that the world needs, the next Marley or Lennon. The hilarious part is that the last half of that terrible intro is true, most people are broke and that idiot has more Benjamin's than he deserves.
…I had to endure some egotistic dick parade around a swimming pool…
A few years ago my first impulse after hearing those starting lines would have been a sudden burst of unrestrained hate, verbally being propelled towards the telly. However these days I just tend to start cracking up when I hear well produced diarrhoea. For the next few minutes, I had to endure some egotistic dick parade around a swimming pool and tell us how great he is, not the most original idea. Nevertheless fair play he did have lots of gorgeous women dancing around him, but most of them were taller than him though. As I continued to watch, I thought to myself it would be hilarious if someone from my neighbourhood ended up on the big screen like that. There are hundreds of talentless unimaginative pitbulls round my way, all of whom are over confident and obsessed with the image of a lavish lifestyle. To hear a scally singing about luxury over some run-of-the-mill beat during a summer party would have me in stitches. However deep down I would be hating them. I'd also be hoping they encounter a swift life changing accident before they have the chance to ruin Christmas with a second single.
In my eyes it's celebrities like this who are bastardising music culture. Music used to stand for something and could ignite powerful emotions and even movements. Now we're being drilled with complete and utter garbage whenever we switch the telly on. Personally I think it would be a good idea to knock one of these celebs down a peg or two. As for Pitbull, I'd happily pay a real dawg like DMX to make mincemeat of his backside and show the Pitbull that he's really a poodle!


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I was reading one of the assorted writing newsletters I get online and came across the latest in outsourcing: according to a post on http://main.travelwriters.com, writers bidding for assignments on a freelance site (apparently a la Priceline) may be driving down the pay rate - and "A lot of the bidders are in India and will work for much less pay. Granted, it's up to the client to decide who will do the work, but sometimes there are very qualified people who can afford to charge a lot less. "
Travel writing is an incredibly competitive field already, with many part-timers like myself along with the dedicated pros. While most of the industry is based in North America and Europe, many of the articles concern places elsewhere. So international competition is the name of the game here as in other businesses.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
It's always something ....
Posted by Valerienieman at Wednesday, April 20, 2005
1 comment:
- Billy Jones said...
What bothers me is the fact that some who have never been to a place are often paid to write about that place.
- Wednesday, 20 April, 2005
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