random notes: 11/09/12

about the semai, i forgot to mention that, apart from conflict, they also don’t like competition in activities like sports — from wikipedia (see also Cooperation and competition in peaceful societies):

“The games Semai children play are non-competitive…. A game of badminton for example uses no partition nets and keeps no score. The shuttlecock is deliberately hit so that it could be easily intercepted by the other player and passed back, and so forth.”
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more on the clannish albanians:

“An Insider’s View of EU Efforts in Kosovo”
“‘We Have Achieved Almost Nothing’

“Since 2008, the EU has had thousands of soldiers, judges and prosecutors in Kosovo to help it become a Western-style constitutional democracy. But a German police officer with years of experience there says it is still dominated by corruption, clan loyalties and drugs — with officials just waiting for the high-minded reformers to leave….

“[A] recent report by the European Court of Auditors finds that there have been hardly any successes. It concludes that levels of organized crime and corruption remain high, while the judiciary is inefficient and suffers from too much political influence. A German police officer familiar with conditions in Kosovo for many years confirms the report’s findings based on his own experiences in the country….

“It’s my impression that corruption is quite high among Kosovar police officers. I was told that, if you’re caught with a stolen car, all you have to do is pay the officer a bribe to take care of the problem.

“The major criminals are already out of reach, protected by traditional clan structures and the old-boys’ networks within the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), from which many police officers were recruited….

“Kosovo is a country in which centuries-old traditions live on, and blood feuds are part of the culture. We Central Europeans have not been able to convince the Kosovars of the benefits of adopting a new legal and value system like the one we have in the West. That’s because they see that the old structures remain powerful while government institutions are weak. I fear that the Kosovars will ride us out, just as the Taliban are waiting for Western troops to withdraw from Afghanistan….”
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the danes consider decriminalizing incest. danish geneticist points out that inbreeding can be a good or a bad thing:

“Aarhus siblings’ love child sets off incest debate”

“The recent case of a brother and sister in the city of Aarhus who said that they are in love and have a five-month-old child together has raised a national debate about sibling sex. The couple, who share the same father but have different mothers, face jail time for violating Denmark’s current statute prohibiting incest and inbreeding….

“The possibility of passing on genetic defects and damaging the social order have been the main reasons cited for making it illegal for siblings to have sex and produce offspring. But Niels Tommerup, a professor of genetics at the University of Copenhagen, said that mutations resulting from inbreeding can be both positive and negative.

“‘Our focus is always on the negative consequences like diseases and malformations,’ he told Information newspaper. ‘But positive mutations help develop the species.’

“Tommerup said that mutations like those that occur due to inbreeding can be ‘biologically positive’.

“‘It is hard to imagine that there would be the formation of new species without some form of inbreeding,’ he said.

“Tommerup would not go as far as changing the law prohibiting sex between brother and sister, however. He recommended that family sex get no closer than cousins.

“He said that the famous Danish blue eyes are a mutation that could only have occurred via inbreeding sometime in history.

“‘If inbreeding is banned, the possibility of promoting new, positive variants could be lost,’ he said.

“Vagn Greve, a law professor at Copenhagen Business School, would like to see even more taboos removed. Greve said there is ‘no logical reason’ that sex between parents and their children should be against the law.

“‘In my view, we should decriminalise sex between father and daughter as long as they are both adult and the relationship is voluntary,’ Greve told metroXpress newspaper. ‘There is no reason to treat the biological family different from the social family, but the age limit should be 18 or 20-years-old.’

“Greve said that sex among immediate family members has been legal in countries like Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and France for 200 years, and that there is no evidence that it has damaged either families or society….“

hmmmm….
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linkfest – 08/19/12

The genetic history of Europeans – from dienekes.

The DNA Olympics — Jamaicans Win Sprinting ‘Genetic Lottery’ — and Why We Should All Care – in which jon entine sneaks the phrase “human biodiveristy” into forbes online. (^_^)

Neandertal ancestry “Iced” – “The genome of this Neolithic-era individual [Ötzi] shows a substantially higher degree of Neandertal ancestry than living Europeans.” – from john hawks.

Analysis Of China’s PISA 2009 Results – anatoly concludes that china’s pisa-derived iq is ≈ 102.5.

What predicts college grades better than IQ score? – “At the university level, introversion predicts academic performance better than cognitive ability.” – from barking up the wrong tree, via foseti.

Parents also choose – “[I]n many if not most societies, men, i.e. fathers, decide which man is allowed to mate with his daughter or other female relative.” – @the breviary.

A GPS in Your DNA – “Using a probabilistic model of genetic traits for every coordinate on the globe, the researchers have developed a method for determining more precisely the geographical location of a person’s ancestral origins.”

Early birds have the best temperament profile – but night owls have higher iqs. (~_^) – from the inductivist.

Fertile Gals Have All the Right Dance Moves – “Women in the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle are judged as more attractive dancers by men than are women in a less-fertile phase, a new study finds.”

Genetically engineering ‘ethical’ babies is a moral obligation, says Oxford professor – “‘Indeed, when it comes to screening out personality flaws, such as potential alcoholism, psychopathy and disposition to violence, you could argue that people have a moral obligation to select ethically better children.’” – hmmm. who’s going to go first? mightn’t their kids be at a disadvantage in some situations? see also: The wrongs, and rights, of genetic screening for children.

Sporting aggression more common in opponents of a similar ability than in contests between unequal teams – “The same is also true of aggressive contests between individuals in the animal kingdom, whether it is rutting deer stags or quarrelsome Siamese fighting fish. Now scientists believe they have found evidence for the same trait in competing groups of sportsmen.”

bonus: ‘Who’s Your Daddy’ Truck Rolls Through NYC, Offers Answers With DNA Tests

bonus bonus: Gorillas certainly show emotion – but what do they feel?

bonus bonus bonus: What you don’t know can hurt you – “In 1972, the U.S. passed the Clean Water Act, despite a presidential veto by Richard Nixon. Did this act also end an era of unusually high estrogen levels in the environment?” – from peter frost.

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linkfest – 12/04/11

Ravens are the only species other than apes who can ‘point’ and share objects like humans

Researchers find poop-throwing by chimps is a sign of intelligence

The Nubian Complex of Dhofar, Oman: An African Middle Stone Age Industry in Southern Arabia – out-of-africa ca. 106,000 years ago. or maybe out-of-arabia?

Were native Europeans replaced? – in the neolithic, that is. peter frost says not entirely.

Our Crimes, Ourselves – cool historic crime data @those who can see.

Personality Is Reflected in the Brain’s Intrinsic Functional Architecture

Science Keeps Proving HBD Right – from dennis.

Atheist kids better at sports: study – in switzerland.

Regional Soccer Player Composites – in italy @italianthro.

The Hidden Potential of Autistic Kids – “What intelligence tests might be overlooking when it comes to autism”

Neandertals’ mammoth building project – “Extinct hominids may have been first to build with bones”

bonus: Distrust Feeds Anti-Atheist Prejudice – “New research finds atheists are widely perceived as untrustworthy, which may be a major factor in why they’re disliked more than other minorities.”

bonus bonus: Rainbows of mourning

bonus bonus bonus: In Sicily, Rice Farming Returns After Mussolini Had Dried Up Cultivation – arancini! aaaah!

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spaceball!

(^_^)

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