Why Don’t People Believe In Evolution? Part II: Pareto Optimization
In an earlier post I argued that, ironically, disbelief in evolution evolved because it acted as a “greenbeard” for religious “conservatives”, improving their fitness by enhancing their group...
View ArticleThe Invisible Hand of the Black Queen
I’m guest-blogging this week at the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, so check out my post on economics, microbial social evolution theory, and the Black Queen Hypothesis. In the...
View ArticleManmade Reefs and Other Biomechanical Fantasies
I just read an editorial in PNAS asking whether or not decommissioned oil rigs should be converted to artificial reefs. A very intriguing study was recently published by Claisse and others showing that...
View ArticleWe Don’t Need No (More) Education
OMG, President Obama is gonna give free college to everybody! Poor kids everywhere, rejoice, a high-paying tech job is right around the corner! How could anybody be against this?!!? Bless his sweet...
View ArticleGreat Depressions vs. Plagues
A good bit of ongoing kvetching between left and right involves the relative importance of preventing spread of the coronavirus vs. preventing the complete collapse of the planetary economy in the wake...
View ArticleWhy American Corporations Don’t Care If You Boycott Them
Well it finally happened – Major League Baseball bent the knee. We all knew it would eventually happen, although one must admit to holding on to some hope after they held out throughout the Trump...
View ArticleAnarcho-tyranny in the Lab
It might not be obvious at times, reading this blog, but I do in fact run a laboratory full of brilliant scientists working on things microbiological. I mostly try to keep politics out of the...
View ArticleThoughts on the “digi-yuan”
Fred Reed posted an interesting – and disturbing, as is his style – article about the new digital yuan currency the Chinese government is debuting at the Winter Olympics (links from the original):...
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