Parasites drove human genetic variation – “Adapting to pathogens was more important than climate and diet in driving natural selection.”
Neanderthals ‘hit by globalisation’ – “Neanderthals may have vanished after being swallowed up by Stone Age ‘globalisation’, according to a new theory. Rather than being driven into extinction, they lost their identity after interbreeding with early modern humans and adopting their culture, it is claimed.”
Neanderthal Neuroscience – @the loom.
Oral contraceptive use is associated with prostate cancer: an ecological study – “A significant association between OCs and PCa has been shown. It is hypothesised that the OC effect may be mediated through environmental oestrogen levels; this novel concept is worth further investigation.” – oops.
Intelligence across childhood in relation to illegal drug use in adulthood: 1970 British Cohort Study – “High childhood IQ may increase the risk of illegal drug use in adolescence and adulthood.”
Frequent gamers have brain differences, study finds – “They couldn’t determine if the frequent gamers’ brains grew larger as a result of playing video games or if those kids were attracted to gaming because that part of their brain was enlarged in the first place….” – quite so.
Brain scans of happy people show they respond more positively to their environment
Study Finds Link Between Low IQ, Large Waistline – “More men with low intelligence scores at 18 had unhealthy belly size at 40″
Six Black Russians – heh. from greg cochran.
HBD, Left, and Right – @altright.
bonus: Antarctic mountain mystery solved
bonus bonus: Swedish scientists create light from almost nothing
(note: comments do not require an email. black russians?)
Neanderthals ‘hit by globalisation’ – “Neanderthals may have vanished after being swallowed up by Stone Age ‘globalisation’, according to a new theory. Rather than being driven into extinction, they lost their identity after interbreeding with early modern humans and adopting their culture, it is claimed.”
James Bowery theorized about this back in the day on Usenet:
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.archaeology/msg/48f6926e76dfc1ed?hl=en
“The African Erocide of Neanderthals”
“Neanderthals were BRED to near extinction via a phenomenon which we call
“erocide” — the destruction of a people incidental to genetic
encroachment typically involving de facto polygyny and differential male
fecundity between the gene-pools.
In the case of the neanderthals, it is plausible that their males, when
coupled with gracile females, would produce fewer live births due to the
narrow birth canal of the gracile females. The more gracile humans
emerged from Africa in one of the earliest erocidal gene-flows from that
area, through the Levant, north and west through europe.
Another aspect of erocide is that the encroaching gene-pool, for obvious
reasons, avoids violent confrontation and seeks friendly integration.”
Bowery originated and theorized about some other ideas years ago on Usenet such as Ashkenazi intelligence and the gay germ theory that are now associated with Greg Cochran.
More recent eras of globalization, including the contemporary one, may have lead/may lead to situations similar to what may have happened to the Neanderthals.
Peter Frost has written a series of posts on the current and future population replacement trends resulting from the ongoing globalization, especially emanating from Africa. It’s possible in the future that many current gene pools will like the Neanderthals only persist in traces among Africanized populations.
@hunter – “Bowery originated and theorized about some other ideas years ago on Usenet such as Ashkenazi intelligence and the gay germ theory that are now associated with Greg Cochran.”
interesting! i didn’t know. wasn’t familiar with his theories about neanderthals, either. he should be saying “i told you so” a lot nowadays. (~_^)
he’s got another theory (iirc) about an infectious source for autism, doesn’t he? — something coming from the third world and that that’s why there’s autism concentrations in places like silicon valley, i.e. where there’s concentrations of people from south asia. always thought that was an interesting idea.
@hunter – “More recent eras of globalization, including the contemporary one, may have lead/may lead to situations similar to what may have happened to the Neanderthals.”
yup. (and we think we’re so smart….)
On the Neanderthal thing: There is a guy who goes by “rdos” on the ‘net whose hobbyhorse is insisting that autistic tendencies are a consequence of having a good helping of Neanderthal genes.
An autistic gal who used to keep a blog, T.R. Kelley, did a post about that. She showed that famous reconstructed picture of the red-headed Neanderthal gal from the National Geographic, and swore that that’s what she would have seen when looking in a mirror when she was younger.
@justthisguy – oh, yeah. i’m familiar with rdos’ site. (^_^) i went through my learn-all-about-autism phase a few years ago now. now i’m in my think-a-lot-about-altruism” phase. (~_^)
Yeah he does have that idea about an infectious cause of autism. It is an interesting idea.
About that parasite hypothesis: Seems reasonable but doesn’t seem to have much to do with the sorts of variation hbd’ers are interested in most. Maybe I am missing something.
@luke – “Seems reasonable but doesn’t seem to have much to do with the sorts of variation hbd’ers are interested in most.”
well, i can’t speak for all hbd’ers, of course, but myself — i’m just interested in knowing how things work in nature. period.
if it turned out tomorrow that absolutely all of the variation we see in human populations was due to parasites and not other selective pressures — well, cool! i just wanna KNOW. (^_^)
given what we know about our biology so far, though, it’s pretty certain that other selective pressures (i.e. not just parasites) have also played a very big part in the differences we see between human populations and genders. like environmental stuff selecting for higher iqs (or not).
@ – “Oral contraceptive use is associated with prostate cancer: an ecological study ”
And oral sex is associated with oral cancer. I ought to know.* :( Make sure your kids get their Gardasil.
*There’s good news however. Turns out the death rate is only 10% for this kind versus over 50% for the kind caused by too much drinking and smoking. So I was a virtuous boy after all.
@luke – “Turns out the death rate is only 10%….”
good! don’t want you — or any of my readers — dying on me. i already worry about my regular commenters when they don’t show up for a day or two (i’m such a mother hen). (~_^)
so, no dying. it’s not allowed!
gardasil: “It does not contain mercury, thiomersal or live virus or dead virus, only virus-like particles, which cannot reproduce in the human body.”
cool!
Here’s a better link for that poorly publicized cancer risk mentioned above. Wonder why it’s not publicized? Look out for your young’uns.
re: Those six black Russians Cochran was referring to — they wouldn’t happen to be Ashkenazi oligarchs by any chance would they? Sorry. I just couldn’t resist.
@luke – “Those six black Russians Cochran was referring to — they wouldn’t happen to be Ashkenazi oligarchs by any chance would they?”
heh! (^_^)
“@luke – “Seems reasonable but doesn’t seem to have much to do with the sorts of variation hbd’ers are interested in most.”
well, i can’t speak for all hbd’ers, of course, but myself — i’m just interested in knowing how things work in nature. period.”
You are so catholic! Me, I frankly confess I am mostly intrigued by the ways genes effect differences in personality, tastes, aptitudes, talents, etc, at both the individual and the group level. I once overheard a mom telling her friend at the next table that her son reminded her of her ex in so many unexpected ways, including his posture and the funny way he walked. From dog breeding it’s clear that there is amazing plasticity in who and what we are, a lot of it influenced by just the last few generations of our ancestors (all of it interacting with our culture and environment of course). Not only are we made out of clay, but the potter turns out to have extraordinary dexterity. Which reminds me of a little ditty supposedly made up by my favorite human being one day while he was knee-deep in a mud hole trying to extricate his wagon:
Mortal man,
Made of clay,
Gone tomorrow,
Here today.
That would have been Abraham Lincoln. He was a real piece of work.
Don’t get me wrong. Lincoln was far from a perfect man. He once told about the dirtiest joke in history for instance. Would you like to hear it?
Seems there was an habitual drunk who passed out in a mud hold one night on his way home. Next morning he woke up and staggered back towards the saloon where he had been the night before. There just happened to be another drunk out, front bent over a hitching and getting ready to puke. Mistaking him for a water pump, the first one took hold of his elbow and started to pump it up and down, whereupon he was thoroughly covered in vomit. At that point he walked back into the saloon. The bar tender looked up and said, “Damn, you’re a sight for sore eyes!” He said, “Oh yeah? You should a seen me before I washed off.”
“he’s got another theory (iirc) about an infectious source for autism, doesn’t he? — something coming from the third world and that that’s why there’s autism concentrations in places like silicon valley, i.e. where there’s concentrations of people from south asia. always thought that was an interesting idea.”
I’ve often thought that the huge uptick in autism coincides with the affordability of air travel.
It wasn’t that long ago that working class and the middle class travelled only to those places they could reach by car.