Delicious LiveJournal Links for 6-24-2009

[andrewducker]

• Warrior Gene Linked To Gang Membership, Weapon Use
  (tags: genetics dna science biology violence behavior)
• Transparency
  Sums up my feelings on the 'facebook generation' and public openness.
  (tags: technology TransparentSociety)
• Can We Blame Our Bad Behavior on Stone-Age Genes?
  No, no we can't. A look at how evolutionary psychology is being edged out of the picture and behavioural ecology is replacing it.
  (tags: psychology evolution anthropology rape science sociology biology)
• Left-handers think more quickly
  Left-handed people can think quicker when carrying out tasks such as playing computer games or playing sport, say Australian researchers.
  
  Connections between the left and right hand sides or hemispheres of the brain are faster in left-handed people, a study in Neuropsychology shows.
  (tags: brain science neuroscience lefthanded health mind)
• Alternative medicine - if it worked it'd be called "medicine"
  Ten years ago the government set out to test herbal and other alternative health remedies to find the ones that work. After spending $2.5 billion, the disappointing answer seems to be that almost none of them do.
  (tags: medicine science research homeopathy drugs)
• The Gay Marriage Discussion chart
  For next time you get caught up in it.
  (tags: gay visualization funny law)
• Confusion Abounds Regarding Kindle Download Policy
  You gotta love DRM.
  (tags: drm copyright amazon books ebooks kindle)
• Women Read Comics, And Other Things You Never Knew
  So, why do people think that women aren't geeks?
  (tags: women geeks society)

Comments

[dapperscavenger.livejournal.com]

I'm in tears reading that discussion chart.

"Those studies were conducted by fags!" *dies laughing*

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Re: Alternative Medicine.

Needs more research. We know that a lot of herbal remedies work. That's why we have a pharmaceutical industry, after all. Willow bark, aspirin, etc, etc. Problem is, there's obviously crap that needs to be identified, but how to identify it? I read something recently, might've been something you linked, about a woman who was testing one of those crazy super-diluted...anti-histamine alternative medicine things? I think? And found that the dilution, which was so ridiculously small that you'd think it couldn't do anything, in fact worked in some fashion.

So, I'd like to see that research run into the ground some more. Let's give it another 30 years and billions more dollars.

[andrewducker]

You got a link to the anti-histamine one? I'm intrigued.

And pretty much all alternative medicines that work have now been pharmecuticalised. If there's money to be made, the pharma companies dive in. I'm in favour of investigating more of the current crop of alternative ones, but mostly to show they do nothing.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

I wish that I could find it again, because it was pretty much the only thing I'd ever seen that showed an alternative medicine that was actually beneficial.

But yeah, I don't really trust that the drive by the pharma companies will have exhausted what we can learn about the creation of useful compounds and the like. By and large I think we've gotten it all, but I still want to exhaust our interests in finding it, in case there is stuff that's not being caught.

Which, given how much we understand about biology and organic chemistry, might be a lot.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Actually beneficial as in, not total bullshit made up by someone selling alternative medicine for a quick buck.

Also, it reminds me of the Mythbusters testing two myths. Rolling your windows down instead of running AC, and using...glycerol? as a fuel additive.

In the AC test, they didn't test at the right speeds, and so got bad data the first time. In the second, they picked a percentage solution of the compound that was specifically too much and defeated the purpose of putting it in, so we don't really know if it would've worked.

[endless-psych.livejournal.com]

Like how you've gone for one study that is essentially evoloutionary psychology and one article that's fairly sloppy in it's decrying of it.

I'll have to look up "Anthropological studies such as Hill's on the Ache" for instance but I doubt that they nessecarily follow the scientific method. Also given anthropologys obsession with highly politicised research...

I'll also have to make a note here to look up Elizabeth Cashdan's studies. Might be interesting to compare, if the data is avaliable, average gut sizes. It's also worth noting that it doesn't explain how the hip to waist ratio appeared in the popular meeja in the first place...

Not much on whatever this idea of behavioural ecology is... But really it kinda sounds to me what I've been calling evolutionary psychology anyway...

All in all that article seems to be an army of straw men so it does...

[andrewducker]

More discussion for you here:
http://heron61.livejournal.com/619177.html

And most people who agree with evo-psych seem to actually agree with the weak version of it ("There are factors of human psychology which are genetrically influenced") rather than the hardline version ("The brain contains modules evolved for specific purposes").

[endless-psych.livejournal.com]

Can you post the "alternative medicine if it worked would be medicine" thing on the internets without linking to Tim Michins perfect storm?

Isn't that against the law or something?

[andrewducker]

I was relying on you!

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

The article on transparency was clearly written by somebody with no experience of journalists.

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

Left-handers have to think faster to cope with an environment not designed for them.