Blame My Breeding

From Saletan’s Human Nature blog on Slate:

If you haven’t heard about the study, maybe that’s because you get your news from television, National Public Radio, the Associated Press, or the New York Times, which have ignored it. Why would they ignore it? Because the study suggests the answer is yes. It’s OK to report that racial differences in cancer outcomes are caused by poverty and discrimination. It’s not OK to report that they’re inherited.

I’m surprised this study made it to publication; probably the size and therefore expense of the study is what pushed it through, but I imagine that there was a fight about this behind closed doors.  Science isn’t what’s advertised, my friends.  Conclusions are drawn first, then studies are funded to find supporting evidence.  If no such evidence is found, more studies are funded.  We’re all dupes.

The Well-Worn Path

Not long ago, the Angry Scientist posted an appreciation of Fred Saberhagen’s fiction.  (It was because of his recommendation that I picked up Empire of the East for $1.50 at a second-hand store.)  Saberhagen is most impressive when re-treading old ground.  Men have been visited in prison by spirits to be granted a boon and a mission in literature countless times (including in the Bible), but Saberhagen’s telling is the most pure and most enjoyable I’ve seen.  Vainglorious ladies find their comeuppance as often as plain girls spin tales, but the Satrap’s daughter’s is among the most delicious yet.  Larry Niven praised Empire of the East as better than Tolkien’s books; I didn’t find it so, but a scene-by-scene rewrite of Lord of the Rings by Saberhagen might be more fun than the original.