Samstag, 27. Oktober 2012

The Relevance of Noncoding DNA Regions:

[M]ost of the genome that does something significant and can thus mutate in ways that cause harm is noncoding. We don’t understand that component as well. Certainly I don’t. A rough estimate would be that 1.5% of the genome makes proteins while another 3.5% does something else functional - regulation of protein expression, regulation of other regulators, etc.

Gregory Cochran

Mittwoch, 24. Oktober 2012

Two Versions of Fairness:

Fairness is important in all human social relations, wether large or small. But there are two different kinds of fairness. Experts call this equity and equality. Equality means treating everyone the same (obviously). Equity means giving out rewards in proportion to what each person contributed. Under equity, the person who contributes more or better work gets a proportionately bigger share of the reward.

Roy Baumeister, Is There Anything Good About Man?, 2010

Achievement & Appearance:

[However, there exists] a more fundamental genuine double standard. This has to do with how men and women are judged and evaluated. Men are judged by their achievements. Woman are judged by their appearance. To be sure, the lines are blurring now, and our society is succeeding to some extent in putting men and women on similar footings. Men's appearance counts for more than it used to, and the same goes for woman's achievements. Still, this double standard remains active. Men have to earn respect through their achievements more than woman do.

Roy Baumeister, Is There Anything Good About Man?, 2010

Sonntag, 14. Oktober 2012

Self-Perception and Intelligence:

[It] is possible for a person to think of herself as intelligent and yet to be without the capacity to reason effectively. Empirical studies have repeatedly shown that self-estimated intellectual abilities do not bear a close relation to actual abilities (D.L. Paulus, Lysy, & Yik, 1998).

Peterson, CSaV, 2004

Definition of Intelligence:

Intelligence refers to the ability to think abstractly - to understand similarities and differences among things, to recognize patterns, and to see other relations.

Peterson, CSaV, 2004

Mittwoch, 10. Oktober 2012

Fernsehen - eine Leerlauftätigkeit par excellence:

Television Viewing is a Passive and Relaxing, Low Concentration Activity. When viewing television, people report feeling more passive and less challenged and alert, while simultaneously concentrating less and using fewer skills, than in allmost any other daily activity except resting and "doing nothing".

Robert Kubey, Television and the Quality of Life, 1990

[Neben den 7-8 Stunden Nachtschlaf verbringt der Durchschnittsdeutsche noch zusätzlich etwa 3-4 Stunden mit Tagschlaf und verschläft somit etwa die Hälfte des Tages. Zusätzlich übt das Fernsehen vor allem auf Vielfernseher eine beträchtliche Suggestivwirkung aus.]

Dienstag, 9. Oktober 2012

Ernst Haeckel about Evolution:

"Evolution is the key word that will either answer all the riddles which sourround us, or put us on the way to their solution."

Two Forms of Evolution; Striving & Evolution:

The two forms of evolution - biological and cultural - are in complex interaction - an interaction that we must ultimately seek to understand as far as is possible today. However, since we have to begin somewhere, and since they have great similarity in essential form, let us grasp first the bases of biological evolution. For these bases have been far more scientifically studied and developed. We need to take a look also at a sense in which the Lamarckian view that striving creates progress is true. The giraffe's striving to reach its head higher into the trees does nothing to its germ plasm. But if a spontaneous mutation to a longer neck occurs, it will be given more advantage in the striving atmosphere. Mutations may die unrecognized where there is no environmental pressure in the direction that they favor. In this sense, the Larmackian view that striving and adventure produce mutations is true: they at least give scope for mutations to show their advantageousness.

Raymond Cattell, Beyondism - Religion from Science, 1987

Mittwoch, 3. Oktober 2012

Self Control & Pleasure Seeking:

Quite a few people have trouble controlling pleasure seeking, especially during adolescence when there is a developmental gap between the relatively immature control centers and the more fully developed pleasure centers; ...

Kevin MacDonald

Sexual Attitudes and Parenting:

The fact is that traditional sexual attitudes worked perfectly well in the West to produce a very adaptive culture of high-investment parenting combined with individualist social institutions.

Kevin MacDonald