Skip to main content
Post a Comment

Why Am I Right-Handed? | FiveThirtyEight

In response to Why Am I Right-Handed? | FiveThirtyEight:

I have been aware of the strength of genetic correlations to intellectual and personality traits for over 20 years, and I get irritated by people that more recently learning of such things tending to take an "it's all the genes" mentality. One evening, after being annoyed yet again, this time by someone overgeneralizing about mental health, I went looking for such studies, but found something interesting, the placental environment. Studies of twins show the correlation with mental health issues to be strong, but one study attempted to asses the likelihood of having a shared or separate neonatal environment. The result was that if shared, the correlation shot up to ~.8, but if separate it dropped to about .3. It adds an interesting nuance to the genes/environment debate.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, Third Edition

Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, Third Edition by Geert Hofstede My rating: 4 of 5 stars A detailed and fascinating review of Hofstede's dimensions, by the researcher himself, showing broad high-level insights into history and culture, although a bit tedious, as it often describes in detail relationships many of us implicitly understand. View all my reviews
Post a Comment
Read more

Global Warming and Methane Reduction

I was an ovolactovegetarian for several years in my twenties, in the late 1980's, but the lack of convenient food sources, social pressure, and mild athletic anemia, pushed me to adopt more meat-oriented diet. Also, being an insulin-dependent diabetic, eating low-fat, low-carbohydrate protein sources reduced my need for injections. Over time, I have returned to vegetarianism, although my reasons are grounded in self-interest and concern for the environment. My energy consumption is relatively low, as I live in a major city and very selectively use automobiles for transportation. Lately though, I have been reminded that domesticated animals are large contributors to global warming (methane creation) and inefficient protein producers (4 to 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat). Additionally, vegetarianism, and related calorie reduction, are associated with increased longevity. Both have pushed my back to vegetarianism. Regardless of the history, vegetarianism is a better c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Daily Fantasy Fools

The NY Times ran a piece on daily fantasy sports , of which I felt the need to say something: #1: The skilled and privileged taking advantage of the stupid and the ill. #2: I remember being disgusted after reading how a startup founder for Box targeted the biggest losers on a poker site to raise 100K for his venture. Well, you could think him smart, or you could think him corrupt, taking advantage of the stupid and addicted, but regardless, do you want to buy anything from him, knowing that his path to success is based on taking advantage of others? Eventually, that means taking advantage of you...
Post a Comment
Read more