Following up on this post about lap dancers, here’s yet another story in The Economist on the mysterious mechanisms of sexual attraction. It seems that there is a part of our DNA that is responsible for building a part of the immune system called the major histocompatability complex (MHC). In mice, MHC also has a role in sexual attractiveness — it changes odors (in the case of mice, the odor […]
Reflecting on Hillary Clinton’s close victory in the New Hampshire primary, it seems that amidst all the talk of who was the “candidate of change,” it was a change in Ms. Clinton as a candidate that may have made the difference. From her showing at least a little sense of humor during the debates (“Well that hurts my feelings“), to her greater accessibility to reporters, to her much-commented upon emotional […]
I am fascinated with the notion that much of what drives our behavior results not from conscious decisions, but from “intuition” or subconscious perception. For this reason, one of my favorite scientific studies of last year was the simple, clever one reported in The Economist about fertile lap dancers. Geoffrey Miller of the University of New Mexico looked at whether lap dancers who were in oestrus, and thus fertile, earned […]
During our Thursday evening immersion in the Iowa Caucus results, because I’d used the term several times, my wife asked me what, exactly, did I mean by “populist.” I realized that this is one of those terms that I feel I know, but have a hard time explaining in words. (OK, maybe that’s a sign that I don’t really know.) I said that populists were those who distrusted big business […]
As a lapsed Iowan, the results of the Iowa Caucuses last evening did not surprise me. Iowans tend to have a populist streak, which affected both races. On the Republican side, I always figured that Mitt Romney would have trouble in Iowa. Not many Iowans can feel real kinship with an investment fund manager, specially one as preppy and squeaky clean as Mitt Romney. On the other hand, Mike Huckabee’s […]
Interesting results from a poll by Rasmussen Reports. The poll looked at “core” support and opposition for Presidential candidates — how many voters would “definitely” vote for or “definitely” vote against a given candidate. Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton has one of the highest “definitely vote against” figures — 47% of all voters say they would definitely vote against her. Mitt Romney has the same 47% “definitely vote against” figure. And […]
That’s Hillary Clinton’s percentage in the new Rasmussen poll in New Hampshire. Her lead over Barack Obama is 10 percent and her lead over John Edwards is 19%. But what strikes me most about the poll is that thirty-four percent figure. If I were Ms. Clinton, I’d be worried about what happens when the number of Democratic contenders is reduced to, say, two. In that scenario, how likely is it […]
Every time an article like this appears, or like this; and every time left-leaning blogs post stories like this (“the big one”?), or like this; every time a second of media airtime, an inch of print, or an ounce of effort goes into excoriating Alberto Gonzales, George Bush is thrilled. Just like I said four months ago, Democrats are squandering their political capital by continuing to make this such a […]
After my last post, I remembered that we did meet once perfectly charming group of Brewers fans, three lovely and engaging young ladies in the booth next to us at the Perkins off of I-94 in Waukesha (I think), where we had stopped to engage in our last fried-food hurrah of the trip. They were pleasant and nice and interested in the fact that we’d come all the way to […]
After a great experience in Wrigley Field, in which we thoroughly enjoyed almost all our interactions with the Chicago Cub fans, my boys and I attended two Giants-Brewers games in Miller Park in Milwaukee. What I’m going to say is no doubt a gross generalization, based upon a too-small sample size, but as far as we could tell, most Brewers fans were crude, dumb, loud, obnoxious, unfriendly, and xenophobic […]