Is Donald Trump a Socialist? Tyler Cowen is a libertarian economist
The Origins of Homo longi and the Denisovans. This is available only to paid subscriptions of Razib Khans, but an underdiscussed point jumped out at me. Who has access to a fossil remain is often quite contentious, with some researchers holding a specimen out from circulation for years, even decades until they feel they have finished all they are going to do with it. There is a big push among younger researchers to make everything available as soon as possible. It is the sort of thing that occupies a great deal of the time and energy of those in the field, but does not make it to the science reporting that shows up in the popular press. I remember something similar, but even more extreme, has happened to the Dead Sea Scrolls
The very informative power of a single fossil, and the scarcity of remains, has often generated human drama in the field. Berkeley anthropologist Tim D. White took 16 years to finally publish his team’s analyses of Ardi after its 1994 discovery. Toumaï, the name for the human-chimp-gorilla common ancestor discovered in Chad in 2002, has already engendered a couple decades of controversy with disputes over who should be allowed to analyze the remains. The scarcity of high-quality fossils owes both to the small number of hominins alive at any given time before agriculture, and to the fragility of our skeletons. But this scarcity means that human fossils are a precious commodity whose control and distribution can make or break careers; the re-possession of the original “Hobbit” remains in Flores by Indonesian researchers from its Australian discoverers was initially nearly as big a story as the diminutive humans themselves.
Why Did Slaves Rebel? There is a parallel to revolutions, where it was not the poorest who rebelled, but those who had more status and believed they were unfairly deprived. Modern parallels of resentment of elites or "the 1%" have some similarity. Those angriest at the 1% are those who believe they should be the 1%.
I Will Quit if Zohran is Elected. Lots of New York is bright blue, and has been in high dudgeon* over the layoffs and stoppages of federal workers. I wonder how aware they are of indirect losses like this?
*What is low dudgeon? No one knows.
1 comment:
The "upper class" slaves, besides including some who had living memory of having been real upper class, included men selected for their ability. Those more skilled at supervising and planning would be better able to mount an effective rebellion. Those skilled at concealing their feelings would be more dangerous than those who lash out at the overseer instantly.
FWIW, in Roll, Jordan, Roll, Genovese quotes the wife of a plantation owner at the end of the war, when her slaves were freed. The high status house slaves, who had always acted friendly and cheerful before, wouldn't talk to her. The troublesome field slave, who had often been lashed, was willing to speak with her on terms of courteous equality--much to her surprise. (No, she hadn't done the lashing.)
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