The New England Colonies: A History Decided by Culture, or by Ecology?

Over at Gene Expression, Razib Khan has up an interesting post that compares and contrasts the genetics of South Africa’s Afrikaner population with New England whites: Afrikaner ancestry is overwhelmingly Northern European. But as you see in the PCA above they are notably African and Asian shifted when compared to their potential ancestral populations (I […]

Continue Reading

A Few Thoughts on Environmental History

“You may have horses…. But remember this: if you have horses everything will be changed for you forever.” -Cheyenne Myth quoted in Pekka Hamalainen, “The Rise and Fall of Plains Indian Horse Cultures,”  Journal of American History, vol. 90, no. 3 (December 2003), p.841. “The historian of the early military must first see how a […]

Continue Reading

Notes From All Over (3/02/2014): Ghosts, Empire, and Tribal Honor

A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. TOP BILLING “‘The standard of living in ancient societies: a comparison between the Han Empire, the Roman Empire, and Babylonia“ Bas van Leeuwen, Reinhard Pirgruber, and Jieli van Leeuwen-Li. Working Papers 50, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History. The global and long-term development of […]

Continue Reading

Notes From All Over (August 2013) Wars, Graphs, and Biospheres

A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. TOP BILLING “How To Lose a War: A Primer“Mark Safranski. Zenpundit.com. 28 July 2013. Since Pakistan is now attempting to get its victory over the United States in Afghanistan formally ratified, now seemed to be a good time to reflect on the performance of American […]

Continue Reading

Notes From All Over 13/06/2010

A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. As I have spent much of the last two weeks away from the blogosphere, this one is a bit smaller than usual. THE REPUBLIC Commentator’s DiseaseFred Reed. Fred on Everything. 11 June 2010. Mr. Reed identifies what is perhaps the greatest flaw of our pundit […]

Continue Reading

Notes From All Over 27/02/2010 (Civilizational Collapse Edition)

A Collection of essays, reports, and blog posts of merit.  Due to the particularities of my schedule, I will be unable to post much this next week. Perhaps the week after that as well.  We shall see. To make up for this lack of material, I offer you a few interesting readings loosely connected in […]

Continue Reading

Ocean Acidification: The Real Carbon Problem

Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Acidification National Resource Defense Council. 17 September 2009. I have long held that the greatest challenge posed by industrial carbon emissions is not anthropogenic global warming but ocean acidification.* Geoengineering and adaptation schemes offer policy makers answers to the problem posed by climate change; these options do diddly squat […]

Continue Reading