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If I read Gassmann et al. correctly, the susceptibility of the current regime of maize growing for breeding resistance was well known beforehand, but it was adopted regardless. Are humans innately too stupid to use things like antibiotics sensibly? (more…)
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I’m very surprised by the explanation for zebra stripes by Caro et al. (unfortunately the full article is only accessible at an extortionate price) being touted as a new result. In his “Rätsel der Menschwerdung” Josef Reichholf already (more…)
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Powell et al. 2012 sounds interesting and seems to confirm a well accepted hypothesis. Going into the details though, there is no significant correlation between the cause and effect values and what there is points in the wrong direction.[1] The article doesn’t show a single meaningful diagram (more…)
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Riehl offers a very nice introductory summary of the neolithisation process but with one big omission. While citing an outsider hypothesis by Watkins, requiring a coincidence of timing, that reminds of Old Testament miracles and acts of G-d, (more…)
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Seemingly Stanford & Bradley are increasingly being disproved by the growing number of new aDNA determinations. On the other hand we should keep in mind the problems of finding remains of Anglo-Saxon invaders in the archeological record – so far all individuals tested have turned out to be acculturated Britains. The whole area where Solutréen immigrants may have settled, all of eastern USA, is known for its extremely bad bone preservation. To my mind Stanford & Bradley’s arguments are convincing. (more…)
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Of course a single study, even if a sizeable one like Burkert et al., is not sufficient for general conclusions and even less for determining the direction of causality. It is however strikingly divergent, in fact the opposite, of what current mainstream consensus tends to claim. So one thing we can say is that things are not as simple and monocausal as vegetarian propagandists would have us believe. (more…)
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I wanted to rubbish Alcock et al. but again found Feynman’s rule on primary sources confirmed. From the Nature’s research highlights through the abstract to results the interpretation better fits the data moving from utter nonsense to quite a sensible analysis. That said their data are open to an alternative analysis. Both groups (more…)
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If someone tells me, his result “was achieved through Microsoft Excel 2003’s summation function”, which is more or less what Jennings & Waters do, I know, he has not understood simple addition. What they offer is junior high school stuff: Throwing a dice n times, what is the probability never to get a single six? Like not finding a rare tool in a small sample this too rapidly diminishes with sample size. (more…)
