benbreen

I really have to disagree with one aspect of this comment ("the erosion of standards in the humanities.") Perhaps that's to be expected because I'm an academic who works in the hum…

Keep in mind that mortality prior to reaching one's first birthday was upwards of 50% in most premodern societies, so the key factor here seems to me to be not only fertility, but the ability to …

Here's the actual study: http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ejhg20... "Here we surveyed a total of 5321 Y-chromosomes from 127 As…

I haven't found any hard evidence to support the local honey for allergies thing, but honey really does have some remarkable medicinal properties, especially as a natural antibacterial: http:&#x…

I've found that even academics who are actually quite good at writing for popular venues still fall into typically academic patterns (like the overuse of passive voice or jargon) in their journal…

The book illustration/art history blog BibliOdyssey has some great scans of a 16th century German longsword fighting manual called Der Fechtbuch that features some of the moves seen in this video…

I lived in Portugal for a year back in 2011-12. It's true that they've decriminalized drugs (and that society didn't break down) but I was struck by how often I still witnessed drug dea…

Also apropos here is episode #5 of the Startup podcast, which features a look into Lexicon's naming process. (And a glance at the anxiety induced by having to decide between dozens of choices, wh…