Interesting Links for 17-10-2014

[andrewducker]

• The effect of transgender students on America's women's colleges.
  (tags: education lgbt gender usa society feminism women )
• The myth of a wild British countryside
  (tags: uk wildlife history WarrenEllis )
• Bill Gates on "Why Inequality Matters"
  (tags: inequality billgates economics )
• After California decriminalized marijuana, teen arrest, overdose

Comments

[andrewducker]

I think I was most amused by the fact that people seemed to think this was going to be the Next Big Meme - and then effectively proceeded to create it. That's the kind of thing I love about the internet.

[cartesiandaemon]

The effect of transgender students on America's women's colleges.

I liked the discussion of the election.

Abstain campaign: I think he would do a really good job, but we think the election should have at least one non-white-male candidate.
Candidate: I agree. I'm not sure.

Very civilised...

[apostle_of_eris]

Interesting that the Labour/Green piece makes no mention of platform, principles, or performance. If your Green Party is as worthless as the one here in the States, it's quite damning that Labour has trouble competing.

[andrewducker]

It's not that they have problems competing, it's that losing 4% of your vote can cause you to be beaten by the opposition, due to the ridiculousness of FPTP.

[heron61]

Is reheated pasta less fattening?
That is truly bizarre.

Wrt the article on intelligence, I'm deeply unimpressed with the bit "These five findings arose primarily from twin studies." - Given that twin studies (IOW, studies that look at the same 40 or so pairs of separated-at-birth twins who have since learned of one another) are inherently junk for a multitude of reasons, the rest of this seems built on sand.

[andrewducker]

Twin studies with that low a number of people would indeed be terribly suspect. But if they're actively finding actual genetic correlations and groupings then that's very interesting in its own sake.

Edit: Particularly as the sample sizes they're talking about the genetic tests are in groups ranging from 3,000 to 11,500 people. That's certainly a large enough sample size to be interesting.

[heron61]

There are two sorts of studies involving identical twins and both are junk

[andrewducker]

Doesn't seem unreasonable.

I do have some sympathy for people who are mid-way through a degree when they change their legal gender - it's a stressful enough time without having to also negotiate a transfer to a different university.

But the general point still stands.