This article started out purely as a rant on overcooked steak, but it turned into a full discussion on sous vide and meat. I may end up writing a series of articles on this topic.« Continue »
Sous Vide and Meat: Part I

This article started out purely as a rant on overcooked steak, but it turned into a full discussion on sous vide and meat. I may end up writing a series of articles on this topic.« Continue »
The other night I got into an argument with my sister about discriminated classes, and I pointed out that one of the most discriminated classes that is almost completely ignored is left handed people. Both my sister and I are left handed, but she does not perceive any kind of real discrimination. Is it because there isn’t a significant amount of discrimination, or is it because social justice warriors don’t go around screaming about left handed discrimination?
But what discrimination is there? It can’t be that bad, can it? It can. In fact, our own language is permeated by that discrimination, as are our social norms. The “right” way is the correct way. Sinister, which has come to mean evil, is quite literally the Latin word for “left.” If you are ambidextrous, you have two right hands. If you are a poor dancer, you have two left feet. Moreover, when you go to greet someone, you shake their hand, but only by reaching out your right hand.
Of course there is also the obvious material issues with being left handed. The world is set up for right handed people. But issues are far more extreme than that. Research has suggested that left handed surgeons have more difficulty than right handed surgeons. There is evidence justifying the claim that people who are left handed have different brains, and yet left handed people seem to be generally excluded from research. This exclusion is not accidental. Left handed people still make up 10 – 15% of the population, but they are excluded from these studies to reduce variance.
Of course, we don’t have certain forms of discrimination that we used to have. Left handed people are no longer burned at the stake or beaten into using their right hands. Of course, since left-handedness is partially genetic, past discrimination very well may have had an influence on the current state of left handed people, and may also be one reason why it is difficult to find products designed to be used by left handed people. It’s also possible that families with a tendency towards left-handedness are also economically disadvantaged because of the past, though given that only about 25% of handedness is hereditary, that might be a bit of a stretch.
Of course, things have settled down a bit in the United States. In other countries, this is not necessarily the case. In India, eating food with your left hand is disrespectful. It can be quite offensive to use your left hand in the Middle East. Regardless, there is clear discrimination within our culture, against left handed people. It is embedded in our language and our greetings, as well as our production of tools and research criterion. It seems that the only reason why left handed people are not given more attention is that social justice warriors have not taken up the mantle.
The post Left Handed People appeared first on Politicoid.
I recently emailed the National Academy of Sciences in order to explain why their article on evolution is incorrect. I did not expect a reply, and I did not get one, as of yet, but misrepresenting science is not acceptable. Below is the email.
The post Email to the National Academy of Sciences: Why Evolution is not fF appeared first on The Spiritual Anthropologist.
In a recent article, posted on Atheist Republic, there was a suggestion that fundamentalist religion was positively associated with PNIMRs. However, the analysis seems to be an interpretation, of an interpretation, of maybe even one more level of interpretation before getting to the actual study. Furthemore, the study itself faces significant methodological errors.
The study, “Religion and Infant Mortality in the United States: A Community-Level Investigation of Denominational Variations in Postneonatal Deaths,” conducted by Garcia, Bartkowski, and Xu, and published in May of 2018 attempts to test the following hypotheses.
H1: Counties with a greater proportion of Catholic adherents will exhibit reduced PNIMRs.
H2: Counties with a greater proportion of conservative Protestants will exhibit higher PNIMRs.
H3: The effects of religious ecology on PNIMRs will be more pronounced in 2010 than in 1990 because of medical advancements and public awareness campaigns implemented after 1990.
For these reasons, the study should be thrown out as being incredibly flawed. The conclusion of the paper is not justified based on the actual findings of the paper.
The post Religion and Infant Mortality in the United States: A Flawed Study appeared first on The Spiritual Anthropologist.
In a recent article, posted on Atheist Republic, there was a suggestion that fundamentalist religion was positively associated with PNIMRs. However, the analysis seems to be an interpretation, of an interpretation, of maybe even one more level of interpretation before getting to the actual study. Furthemore, the study itself faces significant methodological errors.
The study, “Religion and Infant Mortality in the United States: A Community-Level Investigation of Denominational Variations in Postneonatal Deaths,” conducted by Garcia, Bartkowski, and Xu, and published in May of 2018 attempts to test the following hypotheses.
H1: Counties with a greater proportion of Catholic adherents will exhibit reduced PNIMRs.
H2: Counties with a greater proportion of conservative Protestants will exhibit higher PNIMRs.
H3: The effects of religious ecology on PNIMRs will be more pronounced in 2010 than in 1990 because of medical advancements and public awareness campaigns implemented after 1990.
For these reasons, the study should be thrown out as being incredibly flawed. The conclusion of the paper is not justified based on the actual findings of the paper.
The post Religion and Infant Mortality in the United States: A Flawed Study appeared first on The Spiritual Anthropologist.