Vienna Teng

Vienna Teng

There's song excerpts from the new album available online from her label. The album's out on 7/25 -- looking forward to it!

Gay men are 'born with big brothers' - World - Times Online

Gay men are 'born with big brothers' - World - Times Online: "The link between having older brothers and homosexuality has long been established, but the new findings indicate firmly that conditions in the womb before birth, and not the subsequent family environment, are responsible."

This piece is interesting, and I had never heard of this "fraternal birth order effect" before. I think it's too bad that our society is so bent on insisting that sexuality is biologically determined (so that we can breathe easy that it's nobody's "fault"), but that doesn't change the fact that these studies have intriguing findings.

2006 Bar Exam: For Those Who Don't Know

2006 Bar Exam: For Those Who Don't Know

These goats are amazing! What a video...

Where Did They Go? The Decline of Middle-Income Neighborhoods in Metropolitan America

Where Did They Go? The Decline of Middle-Income Neighborhoods in Metropolitan America: "Although middle-income families have declined considerably as a share of the overall family income distribution, it is noteworthy that middle-class neighborhoods have disappeared even faster in metropolitan areas, especially in cities. This trend suggests increased sorting of high- and low-income families into neighborhoods that reflect their own economic profiles, and increased vulnerability of middle-class neighborhoods 'tipping' towards higher- or lower-income status."

The full report is on the Brookings Institution's website in pdf form. An article in the SF Chronicle summarizes the results as they apply to the Bay Area. It points out that the decline of middle income neighborhoods in SF is a result of gentrification as opposed to urban decline in cities like Baltimore and Philly.

graduation pic

 

I downloaded a bunch of graduation pics from my dad's camera this morning. Here's one of me with my dad and sister! 

Also, more pictures are on flickr if you're interested.

Ancient Etruscans are unlikely the ancestors of modern Tuscans, study finds

Ancient Etruscans are unlikely the ancestors of modern Tuscans, study finds: "Rigorous tests used by the researchers have ruled out a genetic link between ancient Etruscans, the early inhabitants of central Italy, and the region's modern day residents."

This piece came in the Stanford newsletter, and I thought it was quite interesting. It's kind of a blast from the past, because I had actually met with the researcher to try and see if it might make sense to be a research assistant for her as an undergrad, but it didn't work out. Largely, there were departmental disagreements about how anthropology was being done, and there were major fights between the quantitative/science side versus social/cultural (and they've since split into two departments: cultural and social anthropology and anthropological sciences).

Now, it all looks interesting to me -- I guess when you're not in the midst of tense disagreements and tenure fights, it's easier to ponder different approaches to interesting questions. Of course, the genetic research is a far cry from the work that some of the professors "on the other side" were doing which involved seriously questionable activities such as categorizing Native Americans into different typologies. One of the professors actually showed a film in the first class that talked about what America got from different Native Americans and then played the U.S. National Anthem at the end.

Funny enough, I did end up in Stanford's Human Population Genetics Laboratory for one summer part time doing genetic anthro, although I was doing mostly gruntwork like copying files and scouring journals for certain repeating DNA sequences. The researchers were looking at repeating patterns in the structure of DNA (which did not code for any cellular activity but simply served to maintain the DNA's shape if I remember correctly) in human populations to try and trace changes by groups over time.

catch 18 mighy mountain warriors

18MMW is a hilarious Asian American comedy troupe. Catch them at Theater Artaud on 6/23-24 or on KQED 6/25 at 6pm.

How the World Works - Salon.com

How the World Works - Salon.com: "It is one of the miracles of globalization that soybeans farmed in the American Midwest are cheaper for Chinese processing plants than soybeans grown in China."

After my school's simulation last year where we focused on genetically modified foods, I became convinced that untested genetically modified crops still in the experimental phase would destroy at least one of the major world crops in the next decade. I should look for the sources and link, but there were interesting articles about how experimental crops were being sold on the black market in China to be spread through the world food supply.

This article is interesting in pointing out that the Chinese government may not care if its people are eating GMOs, but it wants to keep its own agriculture non-GMO so that they can continue selling to Europe and Japan. It's an interesting entry with a lot of links for those wanting to learn more.

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On a separate note, I'm being tortured by packing. I'm drowning in paper clutter and have just been lugging around boxes of binders...

But the weather here has been monstrous, so I'm ready to move back to sf. It's been 3 days of reunion activities here at Princeton, and they closed off the evening with fireworks which I caught when returning from an errand run to Staples to buy packing tape and 14x14 boxes.