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« Fact for the Day | Main | Zmirak on Defence »

February 28, 2009

 Razib and Greg

Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

GNXP's Razib and 2Blowhards fave Gregory Cochran show a lot of flair -- and share a lot of info and thinking -- as they make the leap to the little screen. World domination is nigh.

Access all five parts of our recent interview with Gregory Cocrhan here. Buy the fab and provocative new book that Greg has co-authored with Henry Harpending here. This book's very generous website is here.

Best,

Michael

UPDATE: Razib's review of the book is here.


posted by Michael at February 28, 2009




Comments

Ah, Ratzib, now there's a man with charisma and aplomb. I'd stalk him if I was younger and hotter, yes indeed.

Posted by: shiva on February 28, 2009 10:27 PM

It's good, though it only adds a little to what's already appeared at the combo of this site and GNXP on the book. It was interesting to see Razib in a video, first time I think that's been made web available. He's been shucking off anonymity for some time -- while also downplaying, without disowning, his earlier (esp. in the 2003-5 arcives of the classic site) HBD explorations and reportings. Two very smart and focused polymath curious/knowledgeable guys, of course. In Razib's case he's basically polymath about human genetic and cultural evolution and variation, with some other genetic and biological and other wanderings. Hence focused.

If you've read here about Cochran's and Harpendig's book and esp. also some elsewhere, the best section is the one near the end on the relationship between lactose tolerance and the Indo-European language (and group) expansion. The section on "smart enough for agriculture" was good too as a sort of quick summary of a whole lot of later human evolution stuff.

Posted by: dougjnn on March 1, 2009 9:39 PM

lactose tolerance = ability to easily digest milk as an adult = important in cow and other animal herder groups.

Posted by: dougjnn on March 1, 2009 9:41 PM

Razib's vocal mannerisms were more feminine than I expected, while Greg appeared more amiable than he does in print.

Posted by: green mamba on March 2, 2009 4:48 AM

I was astonished at the way Razib's voice would rise at the end of a point or question as much as a girl's. It was quite disconcerting, to tell the truth.

Cochran is generally pretty amiable toward Razib, even in print. I'm not sure if he would have been as polite if it had been, say, Mencius Moldbug asking him questions. That Cochran guy he no respect Mencius.

Posted by: PatrickH on March 2, 2009 4:31 PM

The question is: Is the prolific Ratzib a polymath or just a garrulous young upstart who likes to hear himself talk & copy and paste his oh-so-valuable thoughts on a multitude of blogs none of which get visited by anyone but Ratzib's alter-egos? I don't have a PhD or anything but evidence of racing thoughts while being unable to distinguish quantity from quality indicates Ratzib has one of those viruses responsible for aberrant behavior. Perhaps Cochran should apply his theories when choosing proteges.


Posted by: shiva on March 2, 2009 6:39 PM

I'm not an alter-ego of Razib but I read what he writes. You'll have to ask one of our hosts to verify our different IP addresses.

I was a bit surprised by the high voice though. I also thought that even if he got along with his interlocutor Greg would toss off some insults at people who weren't there to defend themselves. He'd said before that the idea that people stopped evolving is simply moronic, but perhaps he wanted to present a more polished image for a wider audience.

Posted by: TGGP on March 2, 2009 9:07 PM

Shiva--

You're annoying.

You've also never demonstrated any worthwhile intelligence that I've seen. Nor female hotness, or engagingness or beguiling.

So why should anyone listen to you?

As for Razib, no PatrickH and green mamba, he certainly doesn't come off as a high T stud. But that is not always necessary to get certain kinds of chicks, sometimes in numbers, hot and bothered. Heard of poets, novelists, lots of painters, and certain kinds of rock stars -- and so on?

On the other hand his site, GNXP, is truly impressive. It was a pretty early blog, certainly an early science / HBD blog, and has only gotten better and more prolific since. In fact in many ways GNXP seems to have become THE place on the web for exchanging late breaking info and views on genetic, particularly human genetics, info. It's at the cutting edge and has been for 6 years now.

BTW he started it with Godless Capitalist, a South Indian Hindu Brahmain atheist, who's was a remains a bit more HBD than Razib was or little doubt still is (soto voce).

Posted by: dougjnn on March 2, 2009 9:21 PM

dougjnn:

I'm an admirer of Razib and have no respect for the creature calling itself shiva at all--I second your dismissal of the thing and would welcome its banishment from here.

I was simply thrown off by Razib's tentative manner (the rising voice, not any real girlishness as such), given his fairly forceful blog personality. My reaction was superficial, a result of my stereotyping expectation that Razib would talk more like a nerd, with perhaps the faintest touch of "I know more than you do neener neener" that nerds sometimes give off (me guilty here muchly).

And somewhat back to topic: I read a defence of the Paleo diet from Marty Gallagher on DragonDoor based on the claim that we stopped evolving 50,000 years ago so should eat what people ate back then. After reading 10,000YE I think that reasoning needs to be re-examined.

Posted by: PatrickH on March 3, 2009 12:16 PM

People who yack about Razib being feminine or sounding high-pitched are surely joking. The guy is

I've sure learned a lot from the GNXP'ers. For free.

PS

Great video btw, I hope people like this will feature a lot more on Bloggingheads. I like BH a lot, but there are too many neocons, liberals and other assholes over there. It's always good to see normal people increase their numbers.

Posted by: Maciano on March 3, 2009 1:18 PM

"I was simply thrown off by Razib's tentative manner (the rising voice, not any real girlishness as such), given his fairly forceful blog personality. "

Typical of his culture, why don't you know that?

I really don't care what you think, PH. I was rudely lured to this place where I was assaulted by what appear to be HBD dweebs.

If I wanted your respect, I would've treated you better.

As for the Paleo diet, I think the hype is based on the mistaken belief that what we label as carbohydrates was ever fit for human consumption. Look to culprits like high fructose corn syrup and melamine additives as the source of diet related health problems.

Toodles, you insolent bags of dog doo.

Like I said, if I cared, it would've show'd.
: pppppppp

Posted by: shiva on March 3, 2009 1:27 PM

shiva, it's not what you want that matters, it's what you fail so utterly to give: anything of value.

Please go away. You've added nothing to this place. Please leave.

Posted by: PatrickH on March 3, 2009 4:28 PM

PatrickH and Maciano --

Props.

Posted by: dougjnn on March 3, 2009 10:41 PM


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