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Writer on genetics, talent, and intelligence
11/24/09 3:27 PM
The man who turned Darwin into a determinist
In honor of the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of the Species, let's meet the man who arguably did more to corrupt his ideas than any figure in history: his half-cousin Francis Galton.Galton was an influential anthropologist and statistician who lived about forty miles from Darwin's home in Kent, and who interacted with him frequently. After the publication of Darwin's 1859 landmark work, which introduced the first coherent view of natural selection, Galton was among the first to recognize its importance and to see a unique opportunity to advance his own ideas. Galton immediately sought to further...More
Science, health and environment writer
11/24/09 11:15 AM
Miscommunicating the Mammography Message (Part 1)
A new public opinion poll out today shows a backlash among American women against controversial new breast cancer screening recommendations. Three-fourths of those participating in the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll said they disagree with the experts' advice and even more younger women said they will disregard it. The cacophony of angry, confused, accusatory reactions continues to drown out the fundamental message that a prestigious science advisory panel unsuccessfully attempted to deliver last week: namely that individualized, informed decision making should replace blanket guidelines for universal, routine mammography screening of women in their 40s. "I really think that mammography screening should not...More
Should civil libertarians celebrate the administration's decision to try five alleged 9/11 co-conspirators on criminal charges in federal court? Glenn Greenwald regretfully characterizes the decision as a scam, stressing that detainees "for whom conviction is less certain will be ...put in military commissions:" the administration's plan for a "multi-tiered justice system" is a set-up for "a rigged game of show trials." ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero, however, calls the decision "a huge victory for restoring due process and the rule of law." In fact, as soon as the Administration announced the transfer of the 9/11 conspiracy cases to federal court,...More
A "wish list" is called that because some of the things on it are things that one cannot, at the moment, afford. If it were otherwise, it wold be called a "shopping list". Regardless of which political party controls the government, we seem to get the two lists confused. To want is to need and to need is to buy.
How on earth did Oprah Winfrey--an unlikely media mogul if there ever was one--get so popular, powerful and rich, all at the same time? Ever since she announced at the end of last week that she was walking away from her legendarily popular syndicated talk show in 2011, the airwaves have been abuzz with discussion about what it means, what impact it will have ... and how she managed to get this successful in the first place. In yesterday's New York Times, columnist David Carr argued that Oprah Winfrey should be studied in every business school in America--not only for...More
"The Future of Journalism" has been the subject these many months of conferences and confabs from coast to coast. Some experts and pundits seem to be omnipresent. The problems under discussion are certainly acute. The prescriptions focus on a mix of entrepreneurial and nonprofit models. Contemplation has its place. But the real tests will be in what actually gets done as journalism under force majeure is reinvented. I have just been reading the spring 2010 master of science curriculum at the Columbia University School of Journalism. What comes through is that students at Columbia and other leading schools are being...More
Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in America. More than 72 million American adults are obese, according to estimates from the National Center for Health Statistics. But obesity varies greatly by state. The map below, from the Centers from Disease Control (CDC), shows the obesity rate for the 50 states, measured as the share of people with a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30 which the CDC classifies as "obese."More
There have always been reasons why some things -- desirable things, important things - don't happen. It is a question, always, of limits. Not limits in desirability but limits in capacity.Over the past year we have determined that some companies - auto companies, investment companies - are "too big to fail". The depths of their malfeasance have apparently given them protection against the workings of the market. While wise and careful stewards of smaller businesses have been swept away in the backwash, the giants whose blind grab for riches created the swells have been protected -- sometimes to the point...More
It now seems clear, thanks to the reliably egregious Senator Lieberman -- when it comes to being disappointing, he never disappoints -- with the pusillanimous complicity of Senators Nelson, Landrieu, and Lincoln, that genuine health care reform, reform that provides universal affordable care, is probably dead this Congressional session. Which is not to say there will be no legislation at all; I'd be surprised if some sort of health care bill doesn't pass before the end of the year, and I'd be downright gobsmacked if, after such a bill passes, the president doesn't sign it. Perhaps it will have an...More
While making my initial wander around Rutland, Vermont asking about the recession's local impact, I receive the same basic response from a man pumping gas at the Hess station, a cashier at Hannaford Supermarket, and the scooper at Ben & Jerry's: "Have you seen downtown?"...More
Two cult directors whose films I look forward to seeing are Woody Allen and Pedro Almodovar. I have seen every Allen film, and even when a picture is only mediocre, I always find something intriguing and enjoyable about it. Not so with all of Almodovar's films. While I haven't watched every one, I make an effort to see his pictures even when they receive less than passing grades from other reviewers. On several occasions, I felt disappointed when the picture ended and upset that I had wasted time seeing it. This is one such film which, in my opinion, may...More
"I hope that the rest of the country feels the same way." (via Footnotes of Mad Men)...More
I'd hoped the psychic would be wearing a colorful flowing gown, headscarf, and jangly gold bangles like the woman pictured on a sign in front of the otherwise nondescript little white house in Sandusky, Ohio. But the psychic who answered the door looked more like a librarian than a gypsy....More
In a democracy, it is said, we get the government we deserve. The same can be said of bestselling guru prescriptives. Malcolm Gladwell's new book What the Dog Saw, a compilation of some of his favorite New Yorker pieces, has drawn both praise and criticism. Personally, I'm not a big Gladwell fan. Shoot me. I'm told he's an interesting person. And he knows how to tell a good anecdote. But, at the risk of oversimplifying my critique of his work ... he oversimplifies. The general thesis of Blink, for example, was "trust your gut ... except when you shouldn't." Okay ... but...More
CAIRO -- After aerial bombing and rent control, I suppose one of the worst things that can happen to a city is acute mania for national sports. This week, Egypt went mad for soccer, as the Egyptian team played Algeria for the Arabs' only place in the 2010 World Cup. They beat Algeria in Cairo Saturday, scoring the decisive goal with seconds to go in stoppage time, then lost to Algeria in the tiebreaker game Wednesday night in Khartoum. I was present for the orgy of celebratory rioting and pyromania after the first match. This morning, after a citywide...More
Writer on genetics, talent, and intelligence
11/19/09 4:50 PM
Challenging The New York Times: Is FOXP2 really a "speech gene"?
One of the things I hope to do in this space is facilitate communication between scientists and science writers about how to best describe complex scientific research to the public. After hearing some concern from University of Iowa neuroscientist and Behavioral Neuroscience Editor-in-Chief Mark Blumberg about Nicholas Wade's recent New York Times story, "Speech gene shows his bossy nature," I invited Blumberg to submit an open letter to Wade. Here it is, along with Wade's response:*** Dear Nicholas Wade, I'm very sympathetic to the terrific challenges you face in making new scientific research appealing and digestible to the public. But I have...More
The US 12 Bar and Grill in Wayne, Michigan has an unusually-timed happy hour. Drink specials start at 9 pm, scheduled to attract local auto workers getting off second shift. For $3, the bartender pours me a full rocks glass of Grand Marnier. I appear to be the only female patron in the bar, which perhaps explains why the guys tolerate my incessant questions about how the recession has affected their industry and labor contracts....More
Last year at Thanksgiving we bought a turkey from a local farm and it cost $58. I couldn't help noticing, around the same time, that our local supermarkets were offering a comparably-sized bird for $8. The local turkey tasted quite good, but I've enjoyed many a Thanksgiving with the store-bought variety, and it seemed to me not just painful but profligate to spend all that additional money in this way. So this year we're going to buy the supermarket turkey and find a soup kitchen or homeless shelter to which we can donate $50. In fact I suppose we can donate...More
+Exclusive Todd Edwards mix for Piotr and Eric's excellent weekly Treehouse party. (While you're at it, be sure to bookmark the Treehouse blog...)+Some hip-hop for Fall '09: LM favorite JBX implores you to "Turn Off the Radio"+So International: Matthew Africa and DJ Fuze with an African funk mix and a dancehall/hip-hop mix, respectively+New soul mix from Deejay Om+Great UK hip-hop documentary (via Ian):+And a bugged-out video snippet for Edan's bugged-out, new Echo Party:...More
It's about time the medical profession began taking seriously the costs as well as the debatable benefits of annual mammograms for women over 40 (among other routine screening procedures). If the controversial new set of guidelines constitutes rationing, it may be one form of rationing that's overdue; the challenge is for women who consider "clean" mammograms clean bills of health to recognize that their value is limited, partly by the ability of doctors to interpret them. I've been a little lax about obeying the annual mammogram mandate for some years, since reluctantly submitting to a biopsy because of an anomaly...More
Last week, German goalkeeper Robert Enke committed suicide by stepping in front of an oncoming train near his home in Hanover. He was, by all standard metrics, a successful professional athlete: once a promising youngster, he had spent time abroad for clubs like Benfica and Barcelona; a consistent contributor to the national team, he had earned a roster spot for next summer's World Cup; he was a star and crowd favorite for his current team, Hannover 96. But he was also apparently a very depressed man still haunted by the death of his two-year-old daughter back in 2006. There was...More
As a lover of stuff and things, I find people like David France absolutely fascinating. For the past twenty years, from his home in America, he has patiently assembled one of the most comprehensive collections of soccer memorabilia in the world. The collection, which consists of some 10,000 items, details the early history of France's cherished club, Everton FC, as well as English football as a whole. The EPL Talk podcast has an interview with him here, and it's fascinating even if you could care less about the Toffees. France recently entrusted his massive collection to Everton (with stipulations being...More
Sarah Palin is not going away; she may or may not run for office -- for the Senate or the presidency -- but in any case she's going to be a part of the political conversation and, like Ross Perot, may play a major role in shaping candidacies and voter preferences. So what exactly is the nature of the Palin phenomenon? What are the issues she puts on the table? Let me suggest that there are two. The first is Palin herself: her skills, her persona, her knowledge, her capacity for learning. There are many for whom this matter is...More
Even as the economy improves, the unemployment rate continues to grow higher and job creation remains a central issue. Not only does unemployment vary widely across cities and regions, certain places have been able to generate many more new jobs than others. A couple days ago, I posted a chart which compares the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings for America's 50 largest metro areas. It's a pretty good metric of the resilience of job markets in the face of our ongoing employment crisis. The most resilient metros on this score, Greater D.C. and Baltimore, generate about one new...More
With hopes largely dashed for completing a comprehensive global climate change treaty agreement in Copenhagen next month, the spotlight will shift toward 2010 and upcoming international gatherings such as the United Nations climate change summit scheduled for next December in Mexico City. The greening of this gridlocked, sprawling metropolis is underway, so delegates to the meeting--or any visitors to the city--should consider doing their own small part to combat global warming by taking the Metrobús when they get there.The Mexico City Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System, a public transportation system in the heart of a city better known for its...More
The front page of Sunday's New York Times carried an eye-opening story about statements a number of Congressional Representatives--both Republican and Democratic--had entered into the Congressional Record before the House vote on the health care reform bill. The eye-opening bit was that it turned out the statements had been written not by the Representatives themselves, or even by a member of their staffs, but by a couple of lobbyists paid by the biotechnology firm Genentech. How did the ghost writing come to light? As with many a class cheating scandal, what let the cat out of the bag was that so...More
