The BBC reports the first known painting of an Antarctic landscape in 1772 by an artist sailing on Captain Cook's second voyage (link from Cronaca). Of course, the BBC conveniently neglected to mention that it was the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-42 (aka the Wilkes Expedition) that actually established that Antarctica was a continent (as opposed to an island or a bunch of pack ice) by surveying a very long stretch of actual coastline. See Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery (Viking Books, 2003) by Nathaniel Philbrick.
Great brain shots over at Gene Expression, discussing an excellent article on the heritability of intelligence. It's nice to know that even if I didn't read to my kids every single night or make them do crossword puzzles instead of watch the Cartoon Network, I have still contributed to their intelligence.
A short piece on declining birth rates at The Idea Shop, citing a researcher who notes that "the social and financial costs of childbearing continue to rise." Someone just noticed? The good news is that children emit positive externalities--a surprise to many parents, no doubt. The article doesn't raise the interesting question of who captures those externalities: The immediate family? The village, neighborhood, or town? The tribe or church? The country or society at large? The whole world? In fact, I've rarely seen the scope of externalities addressed.
Feeling lucky today? Genghis Khan has over 17 million living descendents (from a short post at Marginal Revolution). Now there's a name it would be fun to have in your family tree! This story could be a real shot in the arm to genealogy research. Discover your inner barbarian.
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