Assistant Village Idiot

 I was looking for a strong bass version, but I got captured by this.  

I'm fascinated by Indo-Europeans and all their descendant peoples. But y'know, there's a limit. In Razib's interview with Pe...

 Believing Against  Extended comments from Donna B New England's old numbered roads.   Rte 3 is now Rte 6; Rte 6 is now Rte 3. Half Man ...

James mentioned upgrading Hesykhia to the status of Muse. I long sought her presence when young, but always murmuring, like Augustine, ...

 A debate over at Conspicuous Cognition, What Kind of Apes Are We?   So my response to Dan might be something like, “Yea, maybe humans are k...

I recall hearing about this paper a few years ago, and there may have been similar others in addition to this one. Assortative Mating at loc...

I love that topping harmony.  I use that with worship songs at church sometimes.  It makes visitors nervous.  Maybe everyone else as well.  ...

I have what is purportedly a young woman commenting on every post, telling me how much money I can make from home on Google-something.  My s...

 Why the worst idea in linguistics won't die , at Dead Language Society. I have written about both  Sapir  and Whorf over the years - in...

Human behavior is often paradoxical. We show humility to prove we’re better than other people, bravely defy social norms so that people will...

The running plays are more rugbyish, and there is much less strategy and technique in the line play, but it is still recognisably football, ...

I was on a Christian discussion site in the early 2000s called Ship of Fools . It is where I got the name Assistant Village Idiot rather tha...

The prevailing theory is that people find effort aversive, and people avoid aversive things. The Principle of Least Effort.  Some recent evi...

How do people even come up with these things ? Ollie Whitby ( who? ) on Substack: Our grandparents were on to something. Turns out slow morn...

 Why Poor Countries Stopped Catching Up . Notable for academic researchers being honest and saying "The data now says we were wrong....

One of the possible names for this blog 20 years ago was "Do I have to pull this car over?" I rejected it because I knew I would p...

 School is Way Worse for Kids Than Social Media.   Eli-Stark-Elster One of my favorite tests: "Compared to What?" We read about th...

Why it's good news that more people are dying of cancer.  Since 1980, the share of the global population that dies of cancer per year ha...

 The World Happiness Report is a Sham  by Yascha Mounk. What I have been saying for years, but better researched and more thorough. Scandina...

Book club did Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins  this month, and I was puzzled for a good deal of it.  Not that I couldn't pick anyt...