[DM] "Some notes on Brazilian migration trends"

What the subject line says.

[PHOTO] Night on fire

Night on fire
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

I snapped this picture of the clouds fiercely illuminated by the setting sun towards the end of a party with friends at their house in the Annex. The beauty struck us all.

[DM] "A link on the history of Algerian emigration"

Over at Demography Matters I've a post up linking to an informative two-part article written by Nadia Agsous on the history of Algerian migration to France, arguably one of the first migrations from the underdeveloped world directed towards the developed world. Go, read the article.

[LINK] "Like having a birthday on December 25th"

Thanks to james_nicoll for reminding us that today is the 33rd anniversary of Viking 1's landing on Mars.

[LINK] "I love you, man. But, dude, so not in a gay way"

People interested in male bisexuality might be interested by this Globe and Mail article by Dave McGinn.

Ask any straight woman how many of her female friends she's kissed and the answer is likely to be “one or two” if not “all of them.” Ask any straight guy how many of his dude buddies he's kissed and the answer is probably going to be, “Are you out of your mind?”

Katy Perry can sing “I kissed a girl and I liked it” without throwing her sexual identity into question. But as shown by the new movie Humpday, about two schlubby straight friends in their 30s who decide to sleep together for an art project, the same isn't true for men.

“There's no question female sexuality is much more malleable,” says Roy Baumeister, a professor of psychology at Florida State University. “The evidence for why is not nearly as clear cut.”

While women kiss other women for curiosity or fun, with men, well, not so much. Why don't boys experiment?

The article concludes that, while cultural conditioning does play a role, the differences amount more to biological differences between the sexualities of men and women. Probably.

“Men are more either/or when it comes to their attractions to men or women,” says Richard Lippa, a professor of psychology at California State University, Fullerton, and author of Gender, Nature and Nurture . “Women seem to have more shades of grey in their attractions.”

A survey of 3,600 people conducted by Mr. Lippa in 2006, published in the journal Psychological Science, found that heterosexual women are 27 times more likely than heterosexual men to express attraction to their own sex.

Some researchers believe we can chalk this difference up to cultural influence.

“We sort of set it up that the definition of masculinity is to not be gay,” says Lisa Diamond, an associate professor of psychology and gender studies at the University of Utah. “That is not true of femininity at all.”

As a result, Dr. Diamond says, “there's a lot more cultural permission for women to experiment with other women, to talk about it, to joke about having a girl crush and stuff like that.”

Thoughts?

[LINK] "The Moon Landing and Belief in Political Conspiracy Theories"

The Volokh Conspiracy's Ilya Somin has a post up examining motives behind the various Apollo Moon landing hoax conspiracies.

Today is the 40th anniversary of man's first landing on the Moon, a great technological achievement. Unfortunately, public discussion of the Apollo program also exemplifies the problem of widepread belief in ridiculous conspiracy theories. In the United States, only 6% of Americans believe that the Moon landings were faked, with 5% saying they are not sure, though Fox claimed to have data showing that the figure increased to 20% after they aired a 2001 documentary promoting Moon landing conspiracy theories. Abroad, belief in Moon landing conspiracy theories is more common. For example, some 28% of Russians and 25% of Britons deny that American astronauts ever landed on the Moon.

Belief in Moon landing conspiracy theories is probably not as dangerous as other irrational political beliefs, such as the widespread view that the 9/11 attack was an "inside job," that "the Jews" (perhaps as part of a Jewish conspiracy) are responsible for the financial crisis, and so on. These are just a few of many conspiracy theories that have gained widespread adherence in the United States, and elsewhere. In many countries, far more people believe that the 9/11 attacks were a conspiracy perpetrated by the US government than realize that they were in fact carried out by a Muslim terrorist group.

Belief in Moon landing conspiracy theories may not be completely harmless. For example, it could diminish support for future space exploration efforts. In any event, it is yet another example of widespread political ignorance and irrationality.

It goes without saying that there is abundant independent evidence for the Moon landings, and at least one television show has demonstrated that the Moon landing holds up. (Yes, I'm listening to Wikipedia, but that's because the Wikipedia articles are good.)

It's a minor irony that deeper in the comments, birthers make an appearance to advocate on behalf of their craziness.