I’ve written sentences like this many times: “While biological sex is a binary, gender in humans forms more of a spectrum.” But I was never really sure what “gender” meant. I know that it’s generally synonymous with “sex”, but that is clearly not what I meant when I spoke as I did above. What did […]
TweetHere’s a letter to USA Today. Editor: Defending Pres. Trump’s aluminum tariffs, Peter Navarro focuses exclusively on the effects of these tariffs on U.S. aluminum producers (“Trump tariffs will save American jobs and level the playing field,” Feb. 28). He points out what no serious defender of free trade denies, namely, that punitive taxation of…
This post presents the main points and exhibits from Professor de Lange’s presentation February 26, 2025. Most images are self explanatory, with some excerpts in italics lightly edited from captions, and some added images as well. H/T Bud Bromley. Prof. de Lange demonstrates that there is no credible climate crisis, and that there is much […]
Green energy advocates like to talk about job creation, but they ignore the elephant in the room: the cost. Renewable energy projects require vast amounts of taxpayer funding, and as we’ve seen with massive spending packages like the Inflation Reduction Act, this kind of government largesse is inflationary.
Adrian Orr has resigned as Reserve Bank Governor. I normally try to highlight the good as well as the bad when someone resigns, but I have to admit in this case I struggle. I welcomed his appointment in 2017. I noted the currency rose on his appointment and that he had a very good legacy […]
That’s the title of a 2024 book by a couple of Australian academic economists, Steven Hamilton (based in US) and Richard Holden (a professor at the University of New South Wales). The subtitle of the book is “How we crushed the curve but lost the race”. It is easy to get off on the wrong […]
More in Common have done some fascinating research on “progressive activists” (what we might call woke activists) in the UK. They are only 8% to 10% of the UK population but dominate the media, the arts, the universities, the NGOs etc. The report divides people up into seven groups, being: Some key beliefs are: As […]
As I wrote on February 13, three important societies representing evolutionary biology, ecology, and systematics issued a grossly misleading statement aimed at the government. (It is dated February 5, but I don’t think it’s yet been sent): As I reported recently, the Presidents of three organismal-biology societies, the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), […]
It’s time to pick up my recent thread of posts on the minimum wage (most recently in this post). I want to return for a moment to more conventional research on the minimum wage, specifically looking at the effects of higher minimum wages on employment. The majority of minimum wage research has focused on estimating…
I guess the number of papers and articles people send me about the definition of sex is one sign that it remains an important issue for the populace. Indeed, I think that in future decades people will see the kerfuffle about a simple and widely accepted definition (the gametic one) as a tempest in a […]
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
In Hume’s spirit, I will attempt to serve as an ambassador from my world of economics, and help in “finding topics of conversation fit for the entertainment of rational creatures.”
“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
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