linkfest – 07/01/12

Racism is Innate: The Human Brain Makes Unconscious Decisions Based on Ethnicity – “Racism is hardwired into the brain and operates unconsciously because areas that detect ethnicity and control emotion are closely connected, according to scientists.” – original research article. see also How the brain views race.

CSIC recovers part of the genome of 2 hunter-gatherer individuals from 7,000 years ago – “The DNA data, which represent the 1.34% and the 0.5% of both individuals total genome, show that they are not directly connected to current populations of the Iberian Peninsula. Iberians from the Mesolithic Period were closer to current populations of northern Europe, who could have assimilated part of the genetic legacy of these hunters-gatherers.”

Food and Porn as Supernormal Stimuli – from dennis mangan

Pottery 20,000 years old found in a Chinese cave – “Pottery fragments found in a south China cave have been confirmed to be 20,000 years old, making them the oldest known pottery in the world, archaeologists say…. The findings … [refute] conventional theories that the invention of pottery correlates to the period about 10,000 years ago when humans moved from being hunter-gathers to farmers.” – original research article.

Steady studs, dysgenic dolls – “Jayman found that among black men, the trend is neutral, while a pronounced dysgenic trend exists among black women. The story is similar among whites, although the dysgenic tilt among white women is gentler than it is among black women.” – from mr. a. epigone, esq.

The crayola-fication of the world: How we gave colors names, and it messed with our brains (part I) – read this!

also this!: Your Color Red Really Could Be My Blue – “‘I would say recent experiments lead us down a road to the idea that we don’t all see the same colors,’ Neitz said. Another color vision scientist, Joseph Carroll of the Medical College of Wisconsin, took it one step further: ‘I think we can say for certain that people don’t see the same colors….’”

University of Pittsburgh study reveals moderate doses of alcohol increase social bonding in groups – cheers!

bonus: Phylogeny: Rewriting evolution – “Tiny molecules called microRNAs are tearing apart traditional ideas about the animal family tree.”

bonus bonus: Low-carb diet burns the most calories in small study

bonus bonus bonus: Mysterious Fairy Circles Are ‘Alive’ – whoa.

bonus bonus bonus bonus: How presidential elections are impacted by a 100 million year old coastline – cool!

bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus: Mumbai doctors remove 12.5cm-long worm from man’s eye – ewwww!

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linkfest – 05/27/12

Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath? – sounds like the answer is: uh-huh.

A Mathematical Challenge to Obesity – “The [obesity] epidemic was caused by the overproduction of food in the United States…. I think the food industry doesn’t want to know it. And ordinary people don’t particularly want to hear this, either. It’s so easy for someone to go out and eat 6,000 calories a day. There’s no magic bullet on this. You simply have to cut calories and be vigilant for the rest of your life.”

Chimps’ personalities are like people’s, study says

Feeling strong emotions makes peoples’ brains ‘tick together’ – “[F]eeling strong emotions makes different individuals’ brain activity literally synchronous.”

Humanity’s Best Friend: How Dogs May Have Helped Humans Beat the Neanderthals

Jews and Abortion – from mr. a. epigone, esq.

The oldest farming village in the Mediterranean islands is discovered in Cyprus – “[T]he discovery of Klimonas, a village that dates from nearly 9000 years before Christ, proves that early cultivators migrated to Cyprus from the Middle Eastern continent shortly after the emergence of agriculture there, bringing with them wheat as well as dogs and cats.”

Why great ideas come when you aren’t trying

‘Personality genes’ may help account for longevity – “[C]entenarians had lower scores for displaying neurotic personality and higher scores for being conscientious compared with a representative sample of the U.S. population.” – i’m doomed. (~_^)

Relationship Between Social Status and Wound-Healing in Wild Baboons – “[M]ale baboons that have a high rank within their society recover more quickly from injuries, and are less likely to become ill than other males.”

Relatively speaking: Researchers identify principles that shape kinship categories across languages

bonus: Schoolboy ‘genius’ solves puzzles posed by Sir Isaac Newton that have baffled mathematicians for 350 years – geek alert! (^_^)

bonus bonus: The General Age of Leadership: Older-Looking Presidential Candidates Win Elections during War

bonus bonus bonus: Mood darkens in Beijing amid crackdown on ‘illegal foreigners’

bonus bonus bonus bonus: Do Plants Smell Other Plants? This One Does, Then Strangles What It Smells

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linkfest – 04/29/12

Ancient DNA from Neolithic Sweden – “[I]t seems that ‘leapfrog’ colonization may be responsible for the spread of agriculture and its associated technologies (such as Megalithism) across Europe. In this model, farmers lept from place to place across the landscape intentionally, preserving their gene pool and largely ignoring the pre-existing foragers of the landscape…. In this respect, the colonization of Europe bears some resemblance to the settlement of the Americas by Europeans: it happened by leaps and bounds, and the early waves of explorers and pioneers may have opened the landscape but did not immediately fill it: this happened later as a result of demographic growth and new waves of migration, with the extant populations being differentially descended — in different proportions — from migrants and natives.” – great post from dienekes.

Bones of early American disappear from underwater cave – =/

Gay bashing by race – from the audacious one.

Like baboons, our elected leaders are literally addicted to power – “Political power has a similar effect on the brain to cocaine”

The Invisible Borders That Define American Culture

Meet the ancestors – or do you mean cousins?

Higher maternal age predicts risk of autism – “[C]hildren of mothers older than 35 years had 30% increased risk for autism.”

bonus: The Basis of a Real Conversation – from john derbyshire.

bonus bonus: Rare Protozoan from Sludge in Norwegian Lake Does Not Fit On Main Branches of Tree of Life – “The protozoan is not a fungus, alga, parasite, plant or animal.”

bonus bonus bonus: Astronomers find new planet capable of supporting life – let’s go!

bonus bonus bonus bonus: darwin award candidate – Swiss woman dies after attempting to live on sunlight; Woman gave up food and water on spiritual journey – no, humans are not plants.

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