P.S. A Column On Things

Start of September 27 Column

Meme: Path of Life

Paul’s Poetry Corner: Joy

Link to: Joy
Up until this very day
I thought it funny folks would say
“I’m bursting with joy;” it seemed, before
Just a mushy metaphor.
But then it happened, as things do,
It means naught, until it comes to you

Right Column Redux: Richard Parker Tribute

The column to the right on this blog contains permanent content, most of which has appeared at one time or another in the main body. I’ve decided to include a few reminders of said content each week.

Richard Parker Tribute

What Your Genes Predict

I always thought it was simple: your genes set your limits, your environment determined if you reached them. If you had 6-foot genes and shit nutrition, you turned out to be 5-5. If you had 5-5 genes, it didn’t matter what you ate, you weren’t ever going to be taller than 5-5.

Turns out that, like everything in life, it is more complicated than that. Here’s a New Yorker profile (behind the pay wall) that ran on Sept. 13, 2021:

Can Progressives Be Convinced That Genetics Matters?

The behavior geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden is waging a two-front campaign: on her left are those who assume that genes are irrelevant, on her right those who insist that they’re everything.

For me, the nut graf was half-way into the story. A GWAS is a study that tries to correlate MANY genes with single traits:

“The largest gwas for educational attainment to date found almost thirteen hundred si+tes on the genome that are correlated with success in school. Though each might have an infinitesimally small statistical relationship with the outcome, together they can be summed to produce a score that has predictive validity: those in the group with the highest scores were approximately five times more likely to graduate from college than those with the lowest scores—about as accurate a predictor as traditional social-science variables like parental income.”

We need to find a way to use a predictor that accurate to equalize results. IMHO: people with the (many) genes don’t need help. People without them need extra help. Or, as one expert noted, we need to de-emphasize the need for education in some cases.

How You Got To Be You

Andy Singer’s Web Site

TV: If I Hadn’t Met You

Netflix is offering a time-travel series that seems innovative. I’m not a sci-fi expert; I don’t even play one on television. But the rules for this time traveler seem to be a change of pace from the ones I am used to. It was made in the Catalonia region of Spain, so it is slow-paced and obscure, since Europeans eschew American storytelling style. Still, interesting and worth a watch.

This and That

The Last Page of the Internet
Decades ago, Diana Ben-Aaron pointed me at The Last Page of The Internet. It’s still funny, and fortunately findable in the Internet Archive.

End of September 27 Column

Start of September 20 Column