Asmi Kumar recently competed in the Broadcom MASTERS science fair competition. Students participate at school, regional and state science fair level, and then top 10% of the selected science fair participants are eligible to apply for the Broadcom MASTERS national finals, organized by Society for Science & Public annually at Washington, DC. Beginning with 80,000 science fair participants, the SSP first announces its top 300 as semifinalists and then the top 30 finalists nationwide.
MASTERS is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and Kumar's project, ""Developing a Device to Predict Autistic Meltdowns," earned her a top 30 spot at the competition. The 30 national finalists competed in Washington from Oct. 19 to 24, collaborated with and presented their work to researchers, the science media, diplomats and engaged in on-site challenges.
Kumar says her project taught her more than just technology,"Presenting my project helped me improve my management, creative thinking, and presentation skills." She expresses that science fairs have helped her become more confident in her work, and in herself.
Kumar won the second-place prize for the Mathematics category, an iPad and a $2,500 stipend to be used for a STEM summer camp. "This summer, I hope to attend the Canada/USA Mathcamp," says Kumar. It is an intensive five-week summer program for students who are mathematically gifted.


Consider the effectiveness of the trial implementation, identify issues that arose during the trial and lessons that may be relevant to any future considerations regarding public access defibrillators.
Report on recent international developments and evidence on the public use of AEDs, their contribution to public health and how such programs are operated and funded.
A Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) survey of the population of host organisations.


text:
Beast in View by Margaret Millar
Tags: crime-fiction,
Margaret Millar's Beast in View opens with thirty-year-old Helen Clarvoe receving an unnerving, vaguely threatening phone call from a woman who claims to have once been her friend. Clarvoe is the sole daughter of a wealthy Southern California family whose dysfunction will be familiar to readers of the Lew Archer mysteries written by Millar's husband, Ross Macdonald.
The time is 1955, the place, Los Angeles. Miss Clarvoe, estranged from her mother and brother, spends most of her days alone in her room in the Monica Hotel, her door "locked against the ugliness of the world." The caller, Miss Evelyn Merrick, tells Helen she has foreseen in her crystal ball an accident that will befall her, and goes on to describe the wounds. After Helen Clarvoe suffers an accident close enough to the one described, she calls the only man she knows and asks for help.
Paul Blackshear, the fifty-year-old investment adviser to Helen's late father, is bored with life and looking for an adventure. He decides to track down the caller, whom he suspects to be vindictive and somewhat unhinged. He'll find out why she's been harrassing Helen Clarvoe, and then report back.
So begins a detective tale in the mold of Raymond Chandler or Ross Macdonald. But the richness of Millar's stories lies not only in the slow unfolding and unexpected twists of the mystery, but in the richness of her characterization and the extraordinary grace and wit of her prose.
Millar tells the story in third person, with alternating chapters taking the perspective of different characters. She gets inside their heads to provide a rich and detailed portrait, particularly of Helen Clarvoe, her mother Verna, and the vividly unhinged stalker, Evelyn Merrick.
Evelyn practices an especially sinister brand of evil. She stokes the secret fears of her targets, turning against those closest to them, so they can destroy each other.
The style and tone of Millar's prose changes to suit the characters. The writing in the opening chapter, in which Miss Clarvoe is alone in her room, feels overly formal and dated. It is, as the narrator describes Helen Clarvoe herself, "constrained." That changes in later chapters, to suit the subject, the scene, and the cast of mind of the character with whom the reader's perspective is most closely aligned.
Millar has a gift for bringing characters to life through both description and dialog. A number of the minor players that Blackshear encounters in his investigation would have been flat and one-dimensional in the hands of other authors, mere messengers of information to guide the detective toward his goal.
Millar's throwaway characters–the charm school matron, the doting mother, the solicitous, self-pitying madam of the skid-row brothel–are fully drawn, providing not only vivid portaits of individual psychologies, but of individuals inhabiting (or trapped in) specific roles within a stratified society. As in Ross Macdonald's Black Money, Beast in View brings the reader into contact with every element level of Southern California society, from the madame, Miss Bella at the bottom, to the Clarvoe family at the top.
I won't give away the plot, because it's a good one. Even if it weren't, the exceptional quality of Millar's prose would make the book worth reading simply on its literary merits.
It's a shame Millar's work isn't more well-known. In her day, she was popular with readers and deeply respected among authors, and she should be still. Penguin / Random House has reissued a number of her works, and Syndicate Books has published the full collection in seven volumes.
Unlike other popular mystery authors, who wrote series featuring a single detective, Millar experimented with a number of one-off works, starting fresh each time and having to build her world anew. That may account for her diminished popularity, as she left no signature detective for readers to latch onto. But the path she chose allowed her to develop a breadth and depth that other popular authors, constrained to a single main character, couldn't match. She really is a master, and this is one of her best works. Read it if you can find a copy.
The Hiding Girl by Dorian Box
Gate 76 – Coming This Summer
(Low)life by Charles Farrell
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Billion Dollar Whale
A Practical Guide to Self-Publishing
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Large four-room apartment situated in Camerano, close to the center of the village.
It's situated in a duplex and consists of a large living room with kitchenette, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, balcony. Also, there is a private garden at the ground floor and a garage.
Very new apartment, no one lived there before, ideal solution for families. No condominium fees.


text:
Gilbert boys slowly building toward state run: Tigers finish sixth in Class A at Mike Carr Invite
Gilbert knows it has an uphill climb to make it back to the state cross country meet and contend for a top 10 spot in Class 3A.
The Tigers placed sixth at state in 3A a year ago after winning back-to-back state titles in 2017 and 2018 under head coach Aaron Thomas. But the Tigers lost nearly their entire varsity lineup from that team.
So it will be one step at a time for the experienced Tigers this fall. On Monday the Tigers placed sixth out of 11 teams in Class A at the Mike Carr Invitational held at the Ballard Golf and Country Club in Huxley.
"It's been a grind this year since we lost a big chunk of seniors off last year's team," Gilbert runner Sam Vanderpool said. "But we still have a goal of making state to keep that tradition alive that coach Thomas has built here."
Vanderpool was the only runner competing for Gilbert on Monday that also ran at state last year. At the Mike Carr Invite he ran a 5-kilometer time of 18 minutes, 2.6 seconds to place 12th overall in a loaded field that featured the top two 3A runners from last year's state meet in Adel-Desoto-Minburn's Nate Mueller and Humboldt's Quinton Orr.
"It's almost a pre-state meet," Vanderpool said of the Mike Carr Invite. "Some of the best runners in 3A come here. So it was pretty fun to go out and race."
Vanderpool's time was 16 seconds faster than what he ran at state a year ago.
"It was awesome," Vanderpool said. "I run better in hot weather. Today was beautiful for me. I was able to start easy then just push in the second half."
Sophomore Wiliam Wadsley took 24th, senior Josiah Schuelka 33rd, freshman Zane Mueller 48th and seniors Owen Blumhagen and Addison Congdon 49th and 73rd respectively for the Tigers on Monday.
Vanderpool said it was strange to run at a meet with no spectators. Spectators were not allowed due to COVID-19 guidance from Story County Public Health.
"Our girls teams and JV runners did a really good job of being able to make up for it," Vanderpool said. "They were awesome."
But he'll take every meet he can in a sports year clouded with uncertainty due to the virus.
"I'm grateful for every opportunity I get to run my last season." Vanderpool said.
Ballard also competed in Class A, placing 10th. Gage Long was the first Bomber to cross the finish line, placing 31st.
Orr got some revenge on Mueller for beating him at state last year by winning the Class A boys' individual title at Huxley with a time of 15:42.3. Mueller was second in 16:04.8.
Dallas Center-Grimes, the top ranked boys' team in 3A, won the Class A team title on Monday with 45 points.
Nevada and Roland-Story both competed in Class B on Monday. Nevada took fifth and Roland-Story sixth out of 11 scored teams.
Owen Freeman ran the top time for the Nevada boys. Freeman placed 15th in 18:20.5 thanks to a strong finish.
""I just really wanted to see how many (people) I could beat," Freeman said. "I was really hauling in the second mile."
Zane Haglund continued the strong start to his senior season for Roland-Story with a 19th-place finish.
"It was rough," Haglund. "The first mile was really slow and that last hill really killed me."
Haglund completed the course in 18:28.6. His teammate Nathan Limas finished just outside the top 20 with a 21st-place time of 18:40.3.
"We run together," Haglund said. "We push each other. Without him I would not be where I'm at."
Madrid's Jason Renze and Clay Pehl were the first two runners to cross the finish line in the Class B boys' race. Renze, ranked second in 1A, won in 16:35.3 and Pehl, ranked sixth finished in 16:36.8.
Madrid, the top-ranked team in 1A, won a tiebreaker with Solon, the sixth-rated 3A school, to win the Class B boys' team championship. Both teams scored 43 points, but Madrid had the faster No. 6 runner.


Today I was asked how to pull cross reference info from the parent symbol into a footprint. This works great on child components. Simply add an XREF attribute to a child component (if its missing) and on placement it auto populates with the parents sheet and reference location. However add an XREF to a footprint and nothing happens to it.
In the surfer dialog above we can clearly see a reference between the parent, a child, and the footprint. So the question is, how do we go about getting this information info the footprint?
Below is a nifty utility wrote by Nate Holt back in 2009. (I tested it in 2014 and it still works great) It uses the same calls to the database that the Surfer users to capture this information and then writes it into an attribute named XREF on all the selected footprints.
(setq cross_ref_str (strcat sheet "/" ref))I highlighted it in red in the code below as well.
; symbols if target cross-reference attribute is present.
; may be needed later.
To use: 1. You will need to add attribute's named XREF to all panel footprints and terminal footprints that need this functionality.
2. APPLOAD the lsp file. Type PANEL_CROSSREF [Enter]. Select all panel footprints to update and press enter.
Wow! That is so cool! Is there a way to add this lisp to the Wire Annotation command. I can imagine that if a footprint has an XREF attribute, then it gets updated.


Recovery of absolute gas absorption line-shapes from 1st harmonic residual amplitude modulation (RAM) signals in tuneable diode laser spectroscopy with wavelength modulation (TDLS-WM) offers significant advantages in terms of measurement accuracy (for gas concentration and pressure), freedom from the need for calibration and resilience to errors or drift in system parameters / scaling factors. However, the signal strength and signal to noise ratio are compromised somewhat relative to conventional wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) by the signal dependency on the laser's intensity modulation amplitude rather than on the direct intensity, and by the need to operate at low modulation index, m (<0.75), in the previously reported work. In Part 1 of this two part publication, we report a more universal approach to the analysis of recovered RAM signals and absolute absorption line-shapes. This new approach extends the use of RAM techniques to arbitrary m values up to 2.2. In addition, it provides the basis for a comparison of signal strength between the RAM signals recovered by the phasor decomposition approach and conventional 1st and 2nd harmonic TDLS-WM signals. The experimental work reported here validates the new model and demonstrates the use of the RAM techniques for accurate recovery of absolute gas absorption line-shapes to m = 2.2 and above. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the RAM signal strengths can be increased significantly by increasing the modulation frequency and defines regimes of operation such that the directly recovered RAM signals are comparable to or even greater than the widely used, conventional 2nd harmonic TDLS-WM signal. Finally, a critique of the RAM techniques relative to the conventional approaches is given.


Allison, Dale C. 2009. The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Gaventa, Beverly Roberts and Richard B. Hays, eds. 2008. Seeking the Identity of Jesus: A Pilgrimage. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Theissen, Gerd and Annette Merz. 1998. The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide. Trans. J.Bowden. London: SCM Press.
Keener, Craig S. 2009. The Historical Jesus of the Gospels. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Bauckham, Richard J. 2007. The Testimony of the Beloved Disciple: Narrative, History, and Theology in the Gospel of John. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.
Beaton, Richard C. 2005. "How Matthew Writes." In The Written Gospel 116-34. Ed. M. Bockmuehland D. A. Hagner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barton, Stephen C., ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bird, Michael F. 2014. The Gospel of the Lord: How the Early Church Wrote the Story of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Brown, Raymond E. 2003. An Introduction to the Gospel of John.Ed. F. J. Moloney. ABRL. New York: Doubleday.
France, R. T. 1998. Matthew: Evangelist & Teacher. Ed. R. T.France. New Testament Profiles. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
Perkins, Pheme. 2007. Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Stanton, Graham. 2002. The Gospels and Jesus. 2nd edn. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Thatcher, Tom. 2007. What We Have Heard From the Beginning: The Past, Present, and Future of Johannine Studies. Waco: Baylor University Press.


Offering a stunning home for you in Oxfordshire as a Live-in Housekeeper/Nanny.
You will have your very own private 3 roomed cottage with a garden, all bills paid, and weekends off!
You will be working five days per week for a normal, happy family with lots of pets, no you don't take care of them. Oddly you only take care of half the house the cleaner does the rest! Yes I know bizarre! Anyway, no stress, no fuss!
Pick up and drop off the children, so you will need to drive, and assist with the evening routine. they have three children, a 6-year-old boy and two older girls.
For the other days in the week why not work for another home? Loads of jobs around that area or plant some veggies or come to think of it, put your feet up.
I think we can safely say this one is finders' keepers.


Offering 0.80 acres m/l of industrial zoned land and buildings located in Dyersville, Iowa. The largest building totals 10,374 sq. ft. and includes dry storage, a small office and a heated shop area. This building was originally built in 1967 and added on to in 1992, 1993 & 1996. The second 1,630 sq. ft. building was built in 1995 and features a drive through area with overhead doors. Property is being sold as-is Seller will convey title to the Property to Buyer by a special or limited warranty deed, subject to a restriction that for a period of twenty (20) years following the conveyance, the Property may not be used for the sale or distribution of agricultural chemicals, seed or fertilizer.
Long legal on file. Contact agent for details. Exact legal will be taken from abstract.
From the corner of 1st Avenue & 1st Street in Dyersville, travel east on 1st Avenue for 3 blocks to 3rd Street. Head north on 3rd Street for 4 blocks to 4th Avenue. Property is located on the SW corner of intersection.


Welcome Visitor! You stumbled upon the public pixpet userpage of Schnecco.
Pay a visit to Schnecco's home and play the interaction lottery to help increase their pixpets satisfaction level. In return you can collect up to 100 Pixcoins (PCs) which you can use for your registration on pixpet!
Thank you for visiting, and for all the treats you feed my pets! If you want, you can take a look at how my PixPet Tree is growing here.
Feel free to send a PM if you have questions or want to chat.
If I am not around, I am probably studying or looking into a microscope.
Xanthe is still not entirely aware of their size, which makes them rather clumsy. They love to cuddle, and act a bit like a lap dog, which can be a problem. Hopefully they will gain some more perspective about their size and the world with more experience.
Ramona the Tuxo brought home Xanthe's egg. "Xanthe" comes from the word for "yellow" in Greek.
Hardworking Ivaylo places his pack's needs above his own, but the others don't seem to notice, and he tends to get lost in the crowd.
Kwatoko loves nothing more than feeling the air rushing through his wings. He often accompanies his best friend, Chryseis the Altudrax, on hoards.
Alasdair found Kwatoko's egg. "Kwatoko" means "Bird with big beak." He thinks it would better suit a Tuxo, and thinks his own beak is sharp and elegant.
Misha's humility belies what a talented hoarder he is.
Inanna the Indigoat brought home Misha's egg. His name comes from the Russian word for "bear."
Chryseis feels a little overwhelmed by her large family, and mainly sticks together with Kwatoko the Parrogrine. They make a good team, and she is excited to finally be able to fly with her best friend.
Itzal prefers to laze around rather than going on hoards, but he can begrudgingly be coaxed to venture out when offered pumpkin pellets. He is a great listener, so the other pets love to recount their adventures to him or tell him their problems, if they can find him.
Agrona is named after the Welsh goddess of war and slaughter, but she insists that she only uses her spikes for self-defense. She is actually very curious and sweet, and it's not her fault that she isn't exactly cuddly.
Agrona's egg was brought home by Liadan.
This is Schnecco's usershop! You can purchase an item from Schnecco 3 times every 24 hours.


Here are some delectable creations this Mid-Autumn you definitely need to get your hands on.
From pizza to black pepper chicken, here are some of the amazing student discounts on food around Singapore!
The newly-opened Tipple and Dram is a plush two-level bar an old-world charm that invites you to relax and unwind after a busy day.
Muslim-owned and halal-certified cafes are popping up around the island, and here's our pick!
Restaurant chain Myra's, which serves delectable and authentic North Indian and Mexican cuisine, has opened its 6th outlet in Kuala Lumpur.
The eighth episode of Sarab says Make it with Snappy delights its audiences with the recipe for a wholesome cake everyone loves.
The seventh episode of Sarab says Make it with Snappy brings the flavour of Vietnam to your platter.


text:
TERESA M. WALKER
Tim Tebow struggling in Triple-A; still a work in progress
By John Kekis May. 17, 2019 02:21 AM EDT
Tebow goes 0 for 4 in Triple-A debut for NY Mets farm team
By John Kekis Apr. 04, 2019 06:01 PM EDT
GREG BEACHAM
Mets prospect Tim Tebow makes Triple-A debut for Syracuse
By John Kekis Apr. 04, 2019 03:27 AM EDT
K-State looks toward season with Madness in Manhattan event
By Dave Skretta Oct. 12, 2018 03:43 PM EDT
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas State coach Bruce Weber need only look at how difficult it was to build a schedule this season to know that his team, which returns all...
Tim Tebow in Syracuse for next step in his baseball odyssey
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Tim Tebow began the next step of his quest to make it to the major leagues , working out with the Triple-A Syracuse Mets on Tuesday. ...
Huddle up! Browns QB Mayfield takes turn as Brewers 1B coach
By Carrie Muskat Mar. 16, 2019 08:40 PM EDT
No. 2 Georgia gets toughest test yet at No. 13 LSU
By Brett Martel Oct. 12, 2018 12:30 PM EDT
Tim Tebow reassigned to minor league camp by Mets
Mar. 12, 2019 11:34 AM EDT
Middle Tennessee at Vanderbilt 9/1/2018
Sep. 12, 2018 10:49 AM EDT
Florida State at Miami (FL) 10/6/2018


We spent 26 hours on research, videography, and editing, to review the top choices for this wiki. Any kid growing up in the church will soon want their very own copy of the Good Book, and these children's Bibles are perfect for little believers. Our list includes options suitable for just about any age, from toddlers to teens, with translations tailored to any reading level. Oh, and some even have incredible, alluring illustrations, ensuring your child will love spending time with the Word. When users buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn commissions to support our work. Skip to the best children's bible on Amazon.
When your child is ready to take over and read to you for a change, The Early Reader's is a smart choice. Be aware, however, that it's more focused on teaching reading than on scripture, but your little ones will pick up the main ideas behind many stories all the same.
If your youngster has outgrown pictures and watered-down stories, the NIV for Kids can be their first "real" edition. It's nice and slim, so it'll be easy for them to carry, but the type is on the small side — but they're kids, right? Their young eyes can handle it.
Pray & Play is as much an activity center as it is a copy of the Good Book, as it comes complete with catchy songs, delicious snack recipes, and games. Perfect for church nurseries, it's a great way to keep preschool-aged kids involved while teaching them about God.
The Beginner's Bible breaks each story down so that it's simple for little ones to understand and apply, and the fun, cartoonish pictures make each tale inviting. In fact, adults may just find that they learn a thing or two while reading it as well.
The artwork inside The Complete Illustrated Children's is all beautifully, carefully rendered, so your little ones will be as content to curl up and stare at the pictures as they will be to have you read it to them (but don't worry — the stories are compelling, too).
For kids who love comic books, The Action Bible takes scripture and turns it into an action-packed thrill ride, all without losing respect for the source material. If you know a child who's complained that the Word is boring, this book will set them straight.
Jesus Calling recounts some of the most famous and important stories in a way that's easy for kids to digest, and entertaining enough that they'll look forward to getting into it every night, thanks to the fun and adorable illustrations.
The central conceit behind Love Letters from God is that the stories are told as personalized messages from the Creator. It's a great way to bring the Gospel home, as kids can realize that the text is as relevant to them as it was to people centuries ago.
The NKJV Adventure brings out the life in each story, as it's filled with activities, relevant maps, challenges, and more. It's great for kids who have outgrown the simple illustrated story bibles, but who aren't quite ready for "grown-up" versions just yet.
If you're looking for a faithful recounting of scripture that's still easily accessible for little ones, Every Story Whispers His Name comes in at a whopping 351 pages, with over 40 stories inside. The color pictures do a great job of livening up the narrative.


text:
Q: Why is this function is $O(x^n)$ $$f(x) = \prod_{k=0}^{n} (1+kx)^{ (-1)^k \binom {n} {k} }$$
How to prove that Taylor expansion of this function at zero stars from 1 and then $c x^n$ (all intermidiat terms are zero)?

A: All the coeffients of $x^j$, $1\leq j\leq n-1$ are $0$, in fact, as $f(0)=1$.
Let $\tau=x\frac{d}{dx}$. For $0\leq j\leq n-1$, We have
$$\tau^j((1-x)^n))=\sum_{k=0}^n(-1)^k{n \choose k}k^j x^k$$
Now by an easy induction, $\tau^j((1-x^n)=(1-x)^{n-j}A_j(x)$ for some polynomial $A_j$, hence if we put $x=1$, this gives for $0\leq j\leq n-1$:
$$\sum_{k=0}^n(-1)^k{n \choose k}k^j =0$$
Now
$$\log f(x)=\sum_{k=0}^n (-1)^k{n\choose k}\log (1+kx)$$
Hence  the coefficient of $x^j$ , $j\leq j\leq n-1$ in $\log f(x)$ is
$$\frac{(-1)^{j-1}}{j}(\sum_{k=0}^n(-1)^k{n \choose k}k^j) =0 $$
And $\log (f(x))=O(x^n)$. It is easy to finish.

A: The claim is false.  For $n=1$, $f(x) = \frac{1}{1+x} = 1-x+x^2-x^3+\cdots$.
In fact, I don't see any challenge to showing that the Taylor expansion around $0$ of these functions all start with "$1 - x^n + \cdots$".  So the zeroeth order term is always $1$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Gulbrandsen ist der Familienname folgender Personen:

 Fredrik Gulbrandsen (* 1992), norwegischer Fußballspieler
 Hans Martin Gulbrandsen (1914–1979), norwegischer Kanute
 Kate Gulbrandsen (* 1965), norwegische Sängerin
 Per Gulbrandsen (1897–1963), norwegischer Ruderer
 Ragnhild Gulbrandsen (* 1977), norwegische Fußballspielerin
 Solveig Gulbrandsen (* 1981), norwegische Fußballspielerin
 Terje Gulbrandsen († 2015), norwegischer Fußballspieler

Siehe auch:
 Trygve Emanuel Gulbranssen (1894–1962), norwegischer Schriftsteller
 Guldbrandsen
 Gulbransson

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Acts 2 Technology today announced it was selected as the eLearning Platform partner for Practical Financial Strategies online courses. PFS is one of the leading Family Money Management companies in the United States; it provides practical money management courses online, workshops, and transformational coaching for individuals and Churches. Acts 2 Technology is the leading online learning, translation and marketing solution for the Christian community.
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Acts 2 Technology is brought to you by Christians who take seriously Jesus' commission to "make disciples of all the nations." This elearning site has been developed as a tool to reach billions across the globe with God's Word as taught by the best authors, teachers and preachers. Our staff is experienced in elearning curriculum, content writing, online video, Christian publishing and marketing. This vast experience combined with new technology makes possible, as never before, an affordable way for writers, speakers, teachers and others to reach out internationally to those who want to learn and grow. Contact us for more information at www.acts2technology.com or call 469-287-5355.
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I intended yesterday to write a review of Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending's book, The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution. It is a book that I heartily recommend – particularly to those who are not already inclined to sympathy with "genetic-deterministic" arguments, precisely because it is a very, very different sort of book from the sorts of books you might have read.
Darwin remains scandalous because the theory of evolution appears to threaten human distinction from the natural world (not to mention, of course, contradicting the literal accounts of creation). But the really scandalous thing about Darwin's insight was not that he saw kinship between humans and other animals (plenty of others noticed that kinship), nor that he was a materialist (there were materialists all the way back to the ancient world), but that he articulated a simple mechanism by which evolution could take place, and that this mechanism was an exceedingly ugly one: natural selection.
People in Darwin's own day tended to hear his arguments and think he was explaining how we evolved "up" from "lower" animals, and felt relatively reassured. But there is no "up" in evolution, except in two trivial senses: there is a directional arrow in evolution (later forms evolve from earlier ones), and there is the possibility of increased complexity over time, an apparent reversal of entropy (apparent because it is in fact underwritten by input of energy from the sun). On one level, we're the "pinnacle" of evolution because we're at the top of the food chain, are extremely numerous, are able to adapt to numerous environments, and are relatively late arrivals on the scene. But from another perspective, the "pinnacle" of evolution is the horseshoe crab, because it has survived largely unchanged for hundreds of millions of years. More to the point, the very things that we might point to as evidence of our "success" – large numbers, broad expansion across the planet – are precisely the characteristics of "weedy" species that we generally despise in the rest of creation. That fact in and of itself should give us pause in deriving any kind of transcendent value judgement from the workings of natural selection.
In any event, Darwin's idea was simple and explosive, with repercussions that we are still assimilating. The deepest of these is the very conservative conclusion that victory in biological war is impossible. We cannot defeat disease, for example, merely hold it at bay, because our most successful efforts are precisely those that put selection pressure on microorganisms that will result in new diseases able to thwart our countermeasures. It remains to be seen whether we will be able to defeat our own weedy nature or whether we will ultimately return to the Mathusian world from which we only recently emerged. We may know a negative answer any time, but a positive answer we will never know for sure – certainly not until many generations have been born and given birth in our world of medically-controllable fertility.
So: what is special about Cochran and Harpending's book is that it tackles human history – the period of the last 10,000 years – from a real Darwinian perspective. This is not a pre-Darwinian story of struggle – how "what did not kill us made us strong" – nor is it a series of "just so" evolutionary-psychology parables. Rather, it's a story about how chance mutation can have massive historical consequences when that mutation turns out to be meaningfully adaptive.
- Agriculture increased the overall size of the human population. More people = more mutations. Mutations are the building-blocks of evolution. Hence, with more mutations, all else being equal human evolution should have accelerated, not slowed, in the last 10,000 years.
- Not all individual human beings are equally well-adapted to all environments. But human beings in general are able to survive in a wide array of environments. Therefore, having spread to a variety of different environments, different groups of human beings have been subject to very different kinds of selection pressure by different environments. The fact of human adaptability doesn't cut against arguments that human evolution has accelerated – our adaptability is a driver of accelerating evolution. And social environments are environments; they impose selection pressure just like any other environment.
- Adaptive mutations can spread with shocking speed precisely because they are adaptive. Relatively small differences in fertility – like relatively small differences in investment returns – compound quickly to massive advantages in population size.
None of these ideas should be especially controversial scientifically, but, like Darwin's original dangerous idea, none are especially intuitive either. What Cochran and Harpending do with these ideas is explore various ways in which human history may have been shaped by evolution during historic time. This is why I say the book is very different from other books about sociobiology or a Darwinian view of human nature: those books tend to be focused on pre-history, about how human nature as it is today owes this or that to our primate ancestry, not on how we have changed, biologically, within the span of human history.
- That a meaningful genetic inheritance from our Neanderthal cousins materially contributed to the cognitive leaps forward that made possible art, language, agriculture, etc.
- That the development of lactose tolerance was the main driver of Indo-European expansion across much of Eurasia (and, subsequently, Bantu expansion in Africa).
- That high average Ashkenazi intelligence (as measured by IQ tests) is the result of selection pressure caused by the unique social niche of Jews in medieval northern Europe.
All of these are, as I said, speculations – in none of these cases do the authors present anything resembling the kind of evidence that would pass peer-review. Of course, that's not the point of a book like this – their book is a work of popular science writing, and, as it should be, it is eminently readable and not at all too technical for the intelligent and reasonably informed lay reader. Anybody who could follow Guns, Germs and Steel or Before the Dawn can read this book with pleasure and interest. But precisely because it's a work of popular science writing, it is somewhat problematic that so much of the subject matter is highly speculative. This is, generally, the kind of book you'd write to summarize developments in a particular discipline, and then conclude with some speculation about where the field might go next. But this field has only barely come into being, and the research needed to validate any one of the big-ticket hypotheses above would cross a number of disciplines and require years of work. Moreover, as Stephen Pinker pointed out in an article about the scholarly paper that formed the basis for the Ashkenazi IQ chapter, these sorts of hypotheses depend on getting a whole series of debatable points right – and they all have to be right for the hypothesis to work out. That makes validation much harder, but it also means that the odds are, pretty much by definition, long.
Which is all the more reason for more researchers to do work in this emerging field, and for scholars in different disciplines – population genetics, history, anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, etc. – to talk to one another. Darwin's Origin of Species, after all, was written before anyone had any idea what could possibly cause the variation necessary for evolution by selection to occur. With nothing but Mendel to work with, Darwin's own grand hypothesis was wildly speculative at the time. But had he not speculated as he did, other scientists would not have explored the then-uncharted territory that now we are beginning to map. I think the authors of The 10,000 Year Explosion would be very pleased if their work led to so much research on human evolution in historic time that every one of their speculative hypotheses was roundly refuted, because whatever we did discover would validate their questions, if not their answers.
In addition to Pinker's article, Steve Sailer wrote a great post a while back on Cochran and Ashkenazi IQs.
Cochran is also (in)famous for his pathogenic theory of homosexuality, which, if nothing else, scores him points for intellectual courage (though he is in Utah).
And finally, if you want to read the National Academy of Sciences paper that spawned the book, here it is.
years ago greg stated this more pithily: selection is stochastic.
I happily purchased the book, even though Dr. Cochran once called me a f'ckin' a**hole.
He's probably right about that too.
What's the evidence for the claim about agriculture speeding human evolution? To my mind, it sits poorly with some facts about genetic change (not that the authors wouldn't know those same facts..). It will be true that increased population sizes will speed up beneficial single gene mutations, but those are probably not the important ones (basically, if a random mutation in a single gene was beneficial, it probably would have already happened).
Probably more fitness enhancing changes come from interactions between multiple genes. If gene X is only beneficial in the presence of Gene Y, but substantially more detrimental without gene Y, then gene X has a low probability of spreading in a population where Gene Y doesn't predominate. And as the population gets bigger, that probability decreases.
A heuristic argument for the above is that it's well known that speciation primarily occurs in small isolated populations. It's a heuristic because not all important beneficial mutations involve speciation.
Complexity, like entropy, is notoriously hard to define. And yet, I think Charles Bennett's definition of complexity as 'logical depth' is the most intuitive and useful, and, happily, forces us to accept human society as the pinnacle of existence full stop.
Also, the horseshoe crab continues to exist at our pleasure. Insolence will not be tolerated.
Justin: we disagree. Wright's shifting balance theory is probably just wrong, and epistatic effects not very important. As for all the good mutations already having happened – first, circumstances experienced by humans have been changing more and more rapidly, and what became advantageous recently was often not advantageous in the deeper past. Next, go calculate the expected time for the establishment of a nucleotide substitution with a 5% advantage in a population with an effective size of ~200,000, a reasonable Ne for 100,000 year ago. It takes a long time. It's far more rapid in a population of tens of millions.
The problem is that evolution does not take place in large populations of any sort anywhere. It takes place in small populations. This is not a controversial or marginal point. Everybody who has read like one book on evolution should have stumbled on this.
Fred, my problem is that I have read many books on evolution, not just one.
Bacteria evolve rapidly: antibiotic resistance, you've heard of it? Their population size is large. Insects develop resistance to insecticides. That resistance appears more rapidly the larger the population, and it usually takes the form of a single key mutation, rather than multi-gene effects.
Look at the house sparrow (also called English sparrow). It did not colonize North America until 1852, but that has been long enough for the evolution of regional races that differ in color and size. Was this something that happened in a tiny population? Nope: there may be as many as 400 million of the nasty things in North America.
Just want to point out that Gregor Mendel's famous paper on the laws of genetic inheritance was not written until 1865, published 1868 and rediscovered in 1900. Obviously Darwin could not have drawn upon it in 1859, nor is Mendel's name listed in the index to "The Descent of Man." Does someone know if Darwin, who must have been well-read in natural science, ever cited Mendel in a minor paper or letter?
On the other hand, Darwin's work was not as speculative as all that. Alfred Wallace had more or less the same theory, and plenty of evidence turned up as soon as people started seriously looking for it in the decades after "The Origin of Species" was published. Also, as you alluded to, evolution of natural species was an idea in the air since the late 18th century. I know you'll find it mentioned in Goethe and Keats (and one of Disraeli's novels), but I don't know enough to say which scientists took up the subject.
The deepest of these is the very conservative conclusion that victory in biological war is impossible.
And yet, here in the real world, smallpox – along with 99.9999% of all species that have ever existed – is extinct.
Proponents of the idea that "victory in biological war is impossible" need to grapple with the fact that defeat in biological war is not only entirely possible, but common and widespread. It's true that our efforts to combat disease apply a selection pressure to those organisms to evolve countermeasures to our efforts.
The problem for Noah is that there are actually two ways for a population to respond to a selection pressure: 1) adapt to it, or 2) become extinct. I realize it's advantageous for conservatives to pretend that the second can't possibly ever happen, but people who would like to live in the real world don't have that luxury.
We cannot defeat disease, for example, merely hold it at bay, because our most successful efforts are precisely those that put selection pressure on microorganisms that will result in new diseases able to thwart our countermeasures.
As Chet points out, selection pressure does not cause mutations nor can mutations necessarily make everything possible (contra X-Men), so it is not inevtiable that all countermeasures will be thwarted.
Moreover, the assumption here is that virulence is an advantageous trait, or at least a neutral one, in diseases, and that the way that a microorganism will evolve to adapt won't be to stop causing disease (at least cause much less harmful disease) so that the host organism doesn't try to get rid of it anymore.
I was under the impression that part of the reason why AIDS has become more manageable is not just the advent of HIV-inhibiting drugs, but the fact that, particularly with a somewhat less promiscuous gay population in the late 80s to at least the mid-to-late 90s making the disease spread slower, less deadly strains had a better chance of surviving and spreading.
What's really remarkable about Cochran's posts is their sheer efficiency. I've seen a lot of effective arguments made on this board, but I can't remember any that were so direct.


text:
Hashemi and Valentín strike gold at second successive IWF World Championships
By Daniel Etchells at the Ashgabat Olympic Complex's Martial Arts Arena
Iran's Ali Hashemi and Spain's Lidia Valentín replicated their gold medal-winning performances from last year by claiming the men's 102 kilograms and women's 81kg overall titles on day eight of the 2018 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships here in Turkmenistan's capital.
Hashemi, the winner in the men's 105kg category at the 2017 IWF World Championships in Anaheim, secured victory with a total of 396kg.
It came after the 27-year-old finished second in the snatch with 179kg and third in the clean and jerk with 217kg.
Ukraine's Dmytro Chumak was the overall silver medallist with 393kg having come third in the snatch with 176kg and second in the clean and jerk with 217kg.
His total was matched by Hashemi's compatriot Reza Beiralvand, who clinched the bronze medal after finishing fourth in the snatch with 175kg and first in the clean and jerk with 218kg.
Hashemi and Chumak had an opportunity to better Beiralvand's best clean and jerk lift, but they both failed at 221kg with their final attempts.
The snatch gold medallist was Uzbekistan's Akbar Djuraev with 180kg.
The 19-year-old's winning lift marked the second time he had broken the junior world standard in the event today, having managed 178kg with his second attempt.
He also broke the junior world standard total on two occasions, registering 387kg and then 392kg after lifting 207kg and 212kg with his second and third clean and jerk attempts respectively.
The 2018 World Championships are the first event to be held since the re-structuring of the IWF's weight classes, nullifying earlier records.
It is for this reason that the term "world standard" is being used as oppose to "world record".
Spain's Lidia Valentín came out on top in the women's 81kg division ©IWF
Earlier in the day, Valentín won the women's 81kg overall gold medal with 249kg after finishing first in the snatch with 113kg and third in the clean and jerk with 136kg.
The victory comes a year after the 33-year-old legend, who has an Olympic medal of every colour, claimed the world title in the 75kg category.
She competed in a higher bodyweight category than usual here, opting for the 81kg as oppose to the 76kg.
"I had an injury in my shoulder and I didn't want to be exhausted losing weight a few days before the competition," Valentín said.
"My coach said it could even be for my benefit, and he was right."
Belarus' Darya Naumava finished second in the total with 245kg having come third in the snatch with 108kg and first in the clean and jerk with 137kg.
Ecuadorian Tamara Yajaira Salazar Arce stood on the third step of the overall podium with 242kg.
She also earned the silver medal in the clean and jerk with 137kg.
Second place in the snatch went to Kazakhstan's Raushan Meshitkhanova, who earlier achieved 108kg when competing in Group B.
The United States' Jenny Lyvette Arthur would have won the clean and jerk gold medal and overall bronze had she not failed at 138kg with the last lift of the competition.
She ended up in fourth place in both those events, with 135kg and 241kg respectively, as well as the snatch, with 106kg.
Action in Ashgabat is due to continue tomorrow.
Medals will be won in the women's 87kg and men's 109kg categories.
November 2018: Olympic champion Moradi sets three global standards on way to triple gold at 2018 IWF World Championships
November 2018: Russia win first medals of 2018 IWF World Championships as Okulov holds onto take double gold in men's 89kg
November 2018: Deng a class above in women's 64kg as China dominate day five of 2018 IWF World Championships
November 2018: Shi leads the way as China make their mark on 2018 IWF World Championships
November 2018: Srisurat dominates women's 55kg event to cap off memorable day for Thailand at 2018 IWF World Championships
Daniel Etchells Senior reporter
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Daniel Etchells graduated from the University of Huddersfield with a BA honours degree in Media and Sports Journalism in 2010. Before joining insidethegames.biz, Daniel covered football for various national newspapers through the Wardle Whittell Agency and undertook placements writing for the official website of his beloved Manchester United, the Manchester Evening News and BBC Sport.
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