In the East African nation of Kenya, about 1 in 10 couples is affected by HIV

A 2007 study that tested the blood of a representative sample of 16,000 Kenyans between the ages of 15 and 64 found that only 15% of infected people knew they had the virus. The fraction of HIV-affected couples in which partners know each other's status is even lower - only 9%. In co-habiting couples, use of condoms, which could greatly lower the risk of transmitting the virus, is very low - about 5%. The consequence is that many of the continent's new infections occur among long-standing couples (albeit sometimes with the virus being introduced through an outside liaison). In Uganda, 65% of recent infections occur in married people. Furthermore, when one partner in an HIV-affected couple dies, that often opens new chances that the virus will be passed to others. In Zimbabwe, 8% - 17% of new HIV infections are attributed to the sexual activity of widows or widowers.

Darkmarket: Facebook for fraudsters

An immigrant from Sri Lanka who created a website trading in stolen financial information linked to tens of millions of pounds in losses has been jailed for nearly 5 years in Britain. Renukanth Subramaniam, 33, founded Darkmarket, a Facebook for fraudsters where criminals could buy and sell credit card details and bank log-ins. The site was shut down in 2008 after an FBI agent infiltrated it, leading to more than 60 arrests worldwide. Subramaniam admitted conspiracy to defraud at Blackfriars Crown Court. He also pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud. Prosecutors said the case was extraordinary because it was founded and promoted over the Internet. It even operated a secure payment system, allowing users to review the criminal services on offer - creating a one-stop-shop for criminals the world over. Subramaniam, originally from Sri Lanka, was given British citizenship in 2002 and ran Darkmarket from an Internet cafe.

Celebrities and criminals

Bianca Jagger thinks it is wrong to execute black murderers.

Muslims and free speech

Douglas Murray criticizes the Danish newspaper Politiken for apologizing to Islamic groups over cartoons of Mohammed.

Related:

Islam in America: why take the risk of Muslim immigration?

Child sacrifice in Uganda

Ugandan children are disappearing, victims of human sacrifice. The belief that burying a child's body parts will make you rich is being promoted by some traditional healers, known locally as witch doctors. Ugandan law enforcement officials say that parents have sold their children to the witch doctors for slaughter. If they can't find a child to buy, they will snatch one. One unfortunate child had his genitals cut off by a witch doctor who wanted them as a good luck charm to bury under a new house.

Congolese children are being lured to fight and serve as witch doctors for an armed group in volatile eastern Congo

Children are being targeted by the Mai Mai militia because the group believes their lack of sexual experience gives them special powers as witch doctors. The children are called on to administer potions believed to make fighters invincible. In doing so, the children are often given a false sense of invincibility themselves, putting them at further risk. Not all children are used by the Mai Mai as witch doctors. Some are used as front-line fighters and girls are often used as sex slaves.

Related:

Crisis in DR Congo

Blacks are less likely to drink alcohol than other adults - and have lower rates of binge drinking - but their rate of illicit-drug use is higher

A new report shows that 44.3% of African-American adults are current drinkers, compared to 55.2% overall for U.S. adults. Moreover, the binge-drinking rate among black Americans is 21.7%, compared to the national average of 24.5%. African-Americans ages 18-25 also had binge-drinking rates far below the norm - 25.3% compared to 41.6%. However, 9.5% of black American adults used illicit drugs, compared to the 7.9% national average. The rate of binge drinking among pregnant black women also was higher (8.1% compared to 3.6%). It is estimated that 4.4% of African-Americans were in need of addiction treatment, compared to the national average of 2.9%.

New immigrants vote Democrat by a two-to-one margin after becoming naturalized citizens

This ratio is even higher for immigrants from Mexico and Central America, the origin of 80% of those who would benefit from an immigration amnesty.

Jews, Israel and the New York Times

Jonathan Cook explains why the reporters who cover Israel for the New York Times are invariably Jewish.

A top UN official has condemned Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's call for a jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland

Col Gaddafi attacked a Swiss vote against the building of Islamic minarets. Libya and Switzerland are embroiled in a long-running diplomatic row. The dispute dates back to 2008, when one of Gaddafi's sons was arrested in Geneva, accused of assaulting two servants. The Libyan leader made his jihad comments while speaking at a meeting in Benghazi to mark the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.

A Danish newspaper has apologized for any offense caused when it reprinted a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban in 2008

Politiken said it was apologizing as part of a settlement with Muslim groups in the Middle East and Australia. Other Danish newspapers criticized Politiken for its move.

South African education officials are investigating reports that a girls' boarding school dormitory was closed because of lesbian relationships

Two girls who were caught kissing reportedly said that other pupils were involved in same-sex relationships, and 27 pupils were expelled. Rights activists say the high school in KwaZulu-Natal province has overreacted. South Africa is the only African country to guarantee freedom from discrimination to homosexuals. However, activists say that prejudice remains common.

Black women get almost 40% of the country's abortions, even though blacks make up only 13% of the population

Also nearly half of HIV infected individuals in the United States are black.

Promiscuous females may be the key to a species' survival

Known as polyandry among scientists, the phenomenon of females having multiple mates is shared across most animal species, from insects to mammals. Polyandry may reduce the risk of populations becoming extinct because of all-female broods being born. This can sometimes occur as a result of a sex-ratio distortion (SR) chromosome, which results in all of the Y chromosome-carrying sperm being killed before fertilization. The all-female offspring will carry the SR chromosome, which will be passed on to their sons in turn resulting in more all-female broods. Eventually there will be no males and the population will die out. Scientists have found that having multiple mates can suppress the spread of the SR chromosome, making all-female broods a rarity. This is because males that carry the SR chromosome produce only half as many sperm as normal males. When a female mates with multiple males, their sperm will compete to fertilize her eggs. The few sperm produced by males carrying the SR chromosome are out-competed by the sperm from normal males, and the SR chromosome cannot spread.

Black women are at significantly increased risk for developing a potentially deadly weakening of the heart muscle around the time of childbirth

A study examining the incidence of peripartum cardiomyopathy in women who gave birth showed that while 55% of the women were white, 93% of those who developed cardiomyopathy were black. Other risk factors include hypertension, being unmarried, smoking during pregnancy and having more than two previous pregnancies, but African-American race was the most important predictor. Two previously published studies from Haiti and South Africa found a higher incidence of peripartum cardiomyopathy than in other parts of the world. Further research is needed to identify potential environmental and/or genetic factors associated with African descent that explain the increased risk, the researchers said. They have begun follow up studies looking for any racial differences in healthy hearts following delivery, such as how much blood is ejected with each beat. Black women also are at increased risk for abnormal increases in blood pressure, called preeclampsia, that can occur late in pregnancy.

The human brain is a big believer in equality and a team of scientists has become the first to gather the images to prove it

Specifically, the team found that the reward centers in the human brain respond more strongly when a poor person receives a financial reward than when a rich person does. The surprising thing? This activity pattern holds true even if the brain being looked at is in the rich person's head, rather than the poor person's.

Genes and facial recognition

A new study included 164 identical twins (who share all of their genes) and 125 non-identical, same-sex twins (who share 50% of their genes). All of the study participants took part in a face memory test. Compared to non-identical twins, identical twins were twice as similar to each other in their ability to recognize faces, the researchers found. The findings show that shared genes, not shared family environment, are responsible for the strong similarity in identical twins.

Research suggests that religious belief can help protect against symptoms of depression

In patients diagnosed with clinical depression, belief in a concerned God can improve response to medical treatment. A total of 136 adults diagnosed with major depression or bipolar depression at inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care facilities in Chicago participated in the study. The patients were surveyed shortly after admission for treatment and eight weeks later, using the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the Religious Well-Being Scale - all standard instruments in the social sciences for assessing intensity, severity and depth of disease and feelings of hopelessness and spiritual satisfaction. Response to medication, defined as a 50% reduction in symptoms, can vary in psychiatric patients. Some may not respond at all. But the study found that those with strong beliefs in a personal and concerned God were more likely to experience an improvement. Specifically, participants who scored in the top third of the Religious Well-Being Scale were 75% more likely to get better with medical treatment for clinical depression. The researchers tested whether the explanation for the improved response was linked instead to the feeling of hope, which is typically a feature of religious belief. But degree of hopefulness, measured by feelings and expectations for the future and degree of motivation, did not predict whether a patient fared better on anti-depressants.

Highly intelligent people are more likely to exhibit social values and religious and political preferences that are novel to the human species

Specifically, liberalism and atheism, and for men (but not women), preference for sexual exclusivity correlate with higher intelligence. The study advances a new theory to explain why people form particular preferences and values. The theory suggests that more intelligent people are more likely than less intelligent people to adopt evolutionarily novel preferences and values, but intelligence does not correlate with preferences and values that are old enough to have been shaped by evolution over millions of years. Evolutionarily novel preferences and values are those that humans are not biologically designed to have and our ancestors probably did not possess. In contrast, those that our ancestors had for millions of years are evolutionarily familiar.

When a gene implicated in human autism is disabled in mice, the rodents show learning problems and obsessive, repetitive behaviors

The researchers also report that a drug affecting a specific type of nerve function reduced the obsessive behavior in the animals, suggesting a potential way to treat repetitive behaviors in humans. The study focused on a protein called neuroligin 1, or NL1, which helps physically hold nerve cells together so they can communicate better with one another. Mutations in proteins related to NL1 have been implicated in previous investigations to human autism and mental retardation. In the latest study, the UT Southwestern researchers studied mice that had been genetically engineered to lack NL1. These mice were normal in many ways, but they groomed themselves excessively and were not as good at learning a maze as normal mice. The altered mice showed weakened nerve signaling in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is involved in learning and memory, and in another brain region involved in grooming. When treated with a drug called D-cycloserine, which activates nerves in those brain regions, the excessive grooming lessened.

The brain structures that affect general intelligence have been mapped

The study adds new insight to a highly controversial question: What is intelligence, and how can we measure it? The research team examined a uniquely large data set of 241 brain-lesion patients who all had taken IQ tests. The researchers mapped the location of each patient's lesion in their brains, and correlated that with each patient's IQ score to produce a map of the brain regions that influence intelligence. The scientists found that, rather than residing in a single structure, general intelligence is determined by a network of regions across both sides of the brain. The researchers say the findings will open the door to further investigations about how the brain, intelligence, and environment all interact.

Related:

Intelligence Tracked To Brain Regions

Brain Development and Intelligence Linked, Study Says

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned that his country is now under a permanent and increased threat of Islamic attack

He also announced plans to fingerprint and face-scan visitors from 10 high-risk countries. Rudd said there was a growing threat from Islamist radicals born or raised in Australia. He said that many "home-grown terrorists" were inspired by what he called international jihadist narratives, as he released a new report compiled by intelligence agencies. Al-Qaida-linked groups in Yemen and Sudan are the new center of threat internationally, the policy paper says, and the risks posed by Afghanistan and Pakistan remain high. The paper says that, despite Indonesia's successes against terrorism, the Jakarta hotel attacks of July 2009 point to an ongoing threat there. Recently, five Australian citizens of Lebanese, Libyan and Bangladeshi origin were jailed for up to 28 years for gathering weapons in preparation for an attack on an unknown target. In August 2009, five men with alleged links to Somalia's al-Shabab militants were arrested and charged over an alleged plot to attack a Sydney military barracks.

It is illegal for migrant workers to have children in Israel

Hundreds of families face expulsion from Israel and more than 1,000 children expect to be deported at the end of their school year. Laws in Israel make it extremely hard for people to stay, to become citizens, if they are not Jewish. Right from its birth, Israel called itself the Jewish State. This is a country built for and built by immigrants from all over the world but with a key common factor - a Jewish heritage. According to Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, controlling immigration is largely about preserving Israel's Jewish character. His government intends to deport all illegal immigrants by 2013 and also to drastically reduce the number of legal foreign workers in Israel. A new immigration police force - the Oz Unit - now patrols Israel's streets as part of the government crackdown.

The Jewish ascendancy

Edmund Connelly explains the negative influence that Jews have on America:

But the terrifying reality is that the Jewish ascendancy remains hostile to the traditional people and culture of America. Jews continue to earn like Episcopalians (actually more than Episcopalians) and vote like Puerto Ricans. They are the financial backbone of the Democratic Party and its coalition of non-White ethnic groups. (83% voted for Obama.) The organized Jewish community is a major pillar of support for massive, non-White immigration that will add 100 million non-Whites to the US in the next few decades.

The new elite is definitely not about conserving America for the long term success of the society as a whole. It’s about ethnic paranoia, ancient hatreds, and the desire to completely transform the society at the expense of its traditional people –elite and non-elite alike — at whatever the cost to the society as a whole. Hey, when it falls apart, just take the money and run to Israel.

Small dogs may all originate from the Middle East

A study shows that a gene found in small dogs, IGF1, is closely related to one found in Middle Eastern wolves. Archaeologists have found the remains of small dogs dating back 12,000 years in the region. In Europe, older remains have been uncovered, dating from 31,000 years ago, but these are from larger dogs. The team of researchers took samples from grey wolf populations around the world. The study says the similarity between the variant found in small dogs and that in the Middle Eastern grey wolf shows small size probably originated as a result of the wolf's domestication. The scientists believe people may have preferred smaller dogs because they were easier to house in farming societies where space was at a premium. Animals often become smaller as a result of domestication and the trend can be seen in cattle, pigs and goats.

More whites are good for the Republicans while more non-whites are good for the Democrats

Why don't the Republicans get this simple electoral rule?

Researchers have identified a mutation in a small number of black American men with a family history of prostate cancer

This germline mutation of the androgen receptor (AR) may prove to be a genetic biomarker for familial prostate cancer in the black American male population. Black American men have a higher incidence of prostate cancer than any other racial group. Scientists have found a germline AR-A1675T substitution mutation in the DNA-binding domain in three black American men with a family history of early-onset prostate cancer. This mutation may contribute to prostate cancer by altering the AR DNA-binding affinity and its response to androgens, non-androgenic steroids or anti-androgens.

Frog monogamy

Scientists studying a species of frog have found that the more necessary it is for the parents to cooperate in raising the tadpoles the more likely they are to be faithful to each other.

Another fire department test shows that blacks are less intelligent than whites

Steve Sailer links to a news piece about Chicago:

In Monday's case, the city of Chicago decided to use a test to weed out potential firefighter trainee applicants. Anyone who scored 64 or below was deemed not qualified. But the city set a second cutoff score of 89 points.

Officials told applicants who scored below 89 but above 64 that although they passed the test, they likely would not be hired because of the large number of people who scored 89 or above. The majority of those in the top-scoring group were white; only 11 percent were black.

Of course, the blacks are suing as usual.

Immigration "reform" is dead says founder of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform

Immigration activist Niall O'Dowd says that because there is no filibuster-proof majority in the Senate that any pro-immigration legislation would just die there.

Jews are leaving a Swedish city to escape the violence of Muslim immigrants

One of the ironies of the Jewish support for immigration and diversity is that the newcomers often hate Jews.

A nap during the day doesn't just beat tiredness, but actually improves the brain's ability to absorb new information

Volunteers who slept for 90 minutes during the day did better at cognitive tests than those who were kept awake. The study suggests that the brain may need sleep to process short-term memories, creating space for new facts to be learned.

Teaching stroke patients to sing rewires their brains, helping them recover their speech

By singing, patients use a different area of the brain from the area involved in speech. If a person's speech center is damaged by a stroke, they can learn to use their singing center instead. An ongoing clinical trial has shown how the brain responds to this melodic intonation therapy. Previous brain imaging studies have shown that the singing center is overdeveloped in the brains of professional singers.

Is it really a good idea to replace a Protestant elite with a Jewish one?

Steve Sailer critiques a new David Brooks article. Brooks points out that while many of our most important institutions are no longer under Protestant control their public standing has plummeted. Sailer points out that this may be due to the fact that in many areas they have been replaced by Jews who act according to short-term ethnic self-interest rather than in the best long-term interests of the United States.

Related:

David Brooks digs in on the "educated class"

Talent and Competence

Rabbi tried to extort $4 million from a hedge fund by threatening to expose purported insider trading

New York's insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community collided with the area's secretive and ultra-wealthy hedge fund industry, leading to the arrest of a politically well-connected rabbi on blackmail and fraud charges. The rabbi, Milton Balkany, has been arrested and accused of trying to extort $4 million from a Connecticut hedge fund by threatening to expose purported illegal insider trading by the fund. Half the money was to go to a religious school for girls that Balkany runs in Brooklyn, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. The other half was to be a "loan" to another school, the complaint says. The case is the latest in a string of legal problems to hit the region's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, most notably a sting carried out against a group of New Jersey rabbis, who were charged with peddling political influence. Balkany is the brother-in-law of the owner of a kosher meat factory in Iowa who went to prison in 2009 after being convicted of financial fraud. Balkany himself avoided prison on 2003 federal charges, brought by the same U.S. attorney's office, that he had made personal use of a government grant. In the 1990s, Balkany was dubbed the "Brooklyn bundler" for his facility in pulling together political donations from the Jewish community, particularly for Republican candidates such as former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. In 2003, Balkany was welcomed to the U.S. House of Representatives as a guest chaplain. But a few months later, the rabbi faced a criminal charge accusing him of making personal use of a $700,000 government grant for the Bais Yaakov school, which he runs as dean. The ultra-Orthodox community has come under scrutiny for its use of government funds to support its religious schools and institutions.

Related:

Rubashkin bail appeal denied, brother-in-law arrested

Milton Balkany, Brooklyn Rabbi, Busted Again

Viruses have played a role in shaping human genetic variability

Viruses have represented a threat to human populations throughout history and still account for a large proportion of disease and death worldwide. Due to the long relationship between humans and viruses, gene variants conferring increased resistance to these pathogens have likely been targeted by natural selection. This concept has been exploited to identify variants in the human genome that modulate susceptibility to infection or the severity of the ensuing disease. Populations living in different geographic areas have been exposed to different viral loads and therefore have been subjected to a variable virus-driven selective pressure. By analysing genetic data for 52 populations distributed worldwide, scientists have identified variants that display higher frequency where the viral load is also high. Using this approach, they found 139 human genes that modulate susceptibility to viral infections; the protein products of several of these genes interact with one another and often with viral components.

Related:

Study Shows How Viruses Changed Human Evolution

Ancient Europeans in Western China

Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1 - a male genetic marker found in Eastern Europe and parts of Western Asia - has been found in Bronze Age human remains from the Tarim Basin.

An Illegal immigrant from Nigeria killed the six-week-old daughter he fathered in a bid to remain in Britain

An illegal immigrant murdered his baby daughter after subjecting her to a catalogue of abuse. Nigerian Olusola Akinrele saw tiny Leeya as his ticket to avoiding deportation, a judge said. When she finally died from a brain hemorrhage she had 22 broken ribs, a fractured skull, a broken leg and bite marks around her nose. Akinrele was jailed for life and must serve at least 16 years, after which he will be deported. The jobless 34-year-old, who had been refused permission to stay in Britain after arriving on a student visa, met Kelly Inman in 2004 and the pair had a baby. On December 18, 2006, paramedics arrived at the rented two-bedroom house in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, to find Leeya lying on the sitting room floor. She had catastrophic brain damage and died in hospital 12 days later when doctors decided to switch off her life support machine.

Related:

'Psychopathic' father jailed for baby murder

Predominantly Hispanic and black high school fires all its teachers

The district’s high school graduation rate is less than 50% and, of course, the blame is being put on the teachers and not on the demographic backgrounds of the school's student population.

Crystal Gale Mangum: Liar, Arsonist and Attempted Murderer

The black stripper who falsely accused three white college students of rape has been arrested and charged with arson and attempted murder.

Funerals have been held in Tanzania for 17 people hacked to death, amid rumors the massacre was sparked by the theft of goats

The sister of one of the victims believes the killings were revenge after three suspected goat thieves were chased and killed in 2005. The dead were mainly women and children from the northern Mgaranjabo village.

Implicit and explicit race bias

Kevin MacDonald explains how ovulation makes white women more realistic about race.

There's a strong possibility a Chicago man could be jailed for defying a court order that temporarily barred him from taking his daughter to church

Joseph Reyes has gone to court facing criminal charges. He pleaded not guilty. The charges were brought by Reyes' estranged wife, Rebecca Reyes (formerly Shapiro), who is Jewish. Reyes, a law student, is Catholic. When the couple married in 2004 Reyes agreed to convert to Judaism to make his in-laws – who would only accept him if he was Jewish – happy. But he never stopped practicing Catholicism. The couple is now in divorce court and battling over what faith their now 3-year-old daughter, Ela, should be raised in. In a petition for a temporary restraining order against Joseph taking their child to church, Rebecca claims they always agreed to raise Ela in the Jewish faith and "have done nothing other than to raise her in the Jewish faith." Joseph has denied the claims. He has also said that they did not attend Jewish services regularly – only on High Holy Days. The motion for a restraining order was filed after Joseph sent her photos of Ela's baptism at Queen of Martyrs Catholic Church in Evergreen Park. "It is not in Ela's best interests to be baptized and thrust into a religion outside of the Jewish faith," the motion states. It also argues that Ela and Rebecca will suffer "irreparable injury" if "inappropriate behavior such as baptizing the child outside her religion" and taking her to church continues. In December 2009, Judge Edward R. Jordan issued a court order, without hearing testimony, temporarily restraining the father from "exposing Ela Reyes to any other religion other than the Jewish religion" during his visitation. In an appeal, Joseph's attorney, Joel Brodsky, argued that the order is not a preliminary injunction because there was no evidentiary hearing. He also made the case that there was no evidence of Ela suffering harm, confusion or distress from the baptism. The appeal was denied by the First District Appellate Court. On Jan. 17 2010, Joseph invited a media crew to record him taking his daughter to Holy Name Cathedral. "I have been ordered by a judge not to expose my daughter to anything non-Judaism," Reyes said. "But I am taking her to hear the teachings of perhaps the most prominent Jewish Rabbi (Jesus Christ) in the history of this great planet of ours. I can't think of anything more Jewish than that." He now faces up to six months in jail if found guilty of indirect criminal contempt of court.

Africans are genetically distinct

Scientists have long known that natives of southern Africa are genetically distinct from people in the rest of the world, but a new study in which the genomes of four African Bushmen and one Bantu were sequenced indicates that there is a much greater diversity among the populations there than had previously been suspected. Two Bushmen from different tribes living within walking distance of each other can have greater genetic differences than a European and an Asian. The study, which marked the first time that the DNA of a hunter-gatherer had been sequenced, found about 1.3 million new variants in the genetic sequences, accounting for about 1% of the total human genome. The Bushmen had genetic variants that distinguish them from other population groups. They were missing a gene for metabolizing lactose, were lacking a gene that promotes malaria resistance, had genes that gave them denser bones, greater strength and a greater ability to run short distances, and had another gene that promotes their ability to retain salt and water at high temperatures. The greater strength and sprinting ability of the Bushmen would be a clear advantage for survival in the arid Kalahari, as would the ability to retain water and salt. The lactose intolerance and lack of resistance to malaria, however, could be significant problems as more and more of the Bushmen are forced into agrarian societies where milk is a staple and the density of malaria-bearing mosquitoes is much higher than in the desert.

Related:

Southern African Genomes Sequenced: Benefits for Human Health Expected

Archbishop Desmond Tutu in genome health study

Hillary 2012?

Patrick Roberts believes that Hillary Clinton should be the Democratic nominee for President in 2012:

Too late now Democrats see that Obama's lack of experience at the highest level has damaged his ability to be a good president. He is a policy wonk, not unlike Jimmy Carter, adrift in a sea of sharks and unable to know which way to turn next.

Hillary Clinton would have made a much better president, not as easily intimidated or impressed with the power structure in Washington. After all, she and her husband were on the inside track for years and knew how to get things done.

Americans look back with envy now on those days when America was debt free and there were wall to wall surpluses and low unemployment.

One way to bring that back might be for Hillary to throw down the challenge to Obama if the next year of his presidency continues on its current disastrous track.

If this continues Democrats with buyers remorse may well start to urge her to 'Run Hillary Run'. She should.

Related:

Most Don't Think Obama Deserves Re-Election

Only 8% of white American high-school students have a best friend of another race

The more diverse a school is, the less likely it is that kids will form cross-race friendships. The reason for this is that people are naturally threatened by diversity since humans evolved to be a tribal species. The more diverse a population the more threatened people with become and the more likely they are to seek the company of their own kind.

Related:

The downside of diversity

Oxytocin and social skills

Oxytocin may temporarily improve social skills in people with autism.

The R.E.A.L. threat to free speech

Apparently it was Jeffrey Imm of R.E.A.L. who got the 2010 American Renaissance Conference shut down. R.E.A.L. is one of those left wing groups that supports every one's right to free speech as long as they agree with what you have to say. While I personally disagree with the pro-Jewish sympathies of American Renaissance the fact that R.E.A.L. was able to shut down their conference through threats of violence means that other groups that R.E.A.L. opposes could also experience the same treatment. Free speech is one of the basic rights of every American. Let us not let these left wing groups rob us of that right in the name of diversity and political correctness.

Crypto-Jews in Turkey

Steve Sailer writes about the role played by Jewish converts to Islam in Turkey.

Nationally, black women were more than three times as likely to get an abortion in 2006 compared with white women, according to the CDC

Protesters claim that abortion in the black community is at epidemic proportions.

Love and race online

When it comes to Internet dating, white men tend to be most popular with women while black women tend to be least popular with men.

Related:

Do women fear mixed-race children?

A common underlying mechanism is shared by a group of previously unrelated disorders which all cause complex defects in brain development and function

Rett syndrome (RTT), Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) and Alpha-Thalassemia mental Retardation, X-linked syndrome (ATR-X) have each been linked with distinct abnormalities in chromatin, the spools of proteins and DNA that make up chromosomes and control how genetic information is read in a cell.

American Renaissance conference has been cancelled because of violent threats

A statement from Jared Taylor can be found at Nation of Cowards.

Related:

AR Cancelled

When ants of the species Temnothorax unifasciatus get sick, they abandon their nest, walking far away from their relatives to die alone

They perform this act of heroism to prevent the illness that is killing them from spreading to the colony. The discovery is the first time that such behavior has been shown in ants or any other social insect. Researchers decided to investigate the ants' behavior after becoming interested in anecdotal reports of dying individuals deserting their families. Such behaviour has been reported in dogs, cats, elephants and even people. But because it happens occasionally, it cannot be quantifiably studied. The researchers decided to set up an experiment to study the phenomenon in ants, which they also noticed would occasionally leave the colony for no apparent reason. The scientists exposed a colony of Temnothorax unifasciatus ants reared in their laboratory to the spores of a lethal parasitic fungus called Metarhizium anisopliae. Most of the workers who died from the fungal infection permanently left the nest hours or days before death, and died in a foraging area far from their nest mates.

In November 2009, 19.4% of all men in their prime working years, 25 to 54, did not have jobs

Steve Sailer points out that limiting immigration would increase the happiness - and job prospects - of many Americans.

Related:

Tell Mark Krikorian To Write An Immigration Moratorium Cover Story In National Review!

Welfare Use By Immigrant- and Native-Headed Households with Children

The group most disproportionately affected by obesity is poor black women

Eighty percent of black women aged 40 years or over are overweight and 50% are obese.

Children from the poorest homes are almost a year behind middle class pupils in language skills by the time they start school

A study looked at the results of a series of vocabulary tests carried out by 12,500 British children at the age of five. It found those from the poorest homes were nearly a year behind in their results. It also looked at the factors common to poorer children that might influence their development. It found that just under half of those from the poorest fifth of families were born to younger mothers under 25 and just under two-thirds did not live with both biological parents.

A gene that may give you an increased risk of a distressing early form of dementia has been identified

Fronto-temporal dementia (FTD) is the second most common type of dementia in the under 65s and can result in a complete personality change. The researchers studied the brains of 515 people with FTD and found the gene on chromosome 7.

African immigrants riot in Milan

Immigrants from North Africa rioted in a multi-ethnic district of Milan, smashing shop windows and overturning cars to protest at the knifing death of an Egyptian. It was the second episode of violence involving immigrants in 2010, after clashes in southern Italy brought about the worst racial violence in the country since World War Two and reignited a long-running debate on immigration. The rioting began after a 19-year-old Egyptian man, identified by police as Hamed Mamoud El Fayed Adou, was killed, apparently by a group of immigrants from South America. Police said the North Africans, most of them Egyptians, went on a rampage and some clashed with police in the northeastern neighborhood where some 70% of shops are owned by immigrants. Milan's deputy mayor, Riccardo De Corato, called the area a "Wild West between north African and South American gangs."

Related:

MUSLIMS RIOTING IN ITALY. AGAIN!

Statutory rape is apparently legal in parts of Guatemala

Brenda Walker discusses the case of a Guatemalan illegal alien who had sex with an 11-year-old girl because that is normal in his culture.

Related:

Man charged with statutory rape of 13-year-old girl

Intelligence is higher in Northern Italy than it is in the south

Regional IQs are highly correlated with average incomes, stature, infant mortality, literacy and education. The lower IQ in southern Italy may be attributable to genetic admixture with populations from the Near East and North Africa. In fact, IQ differences explain 88% of the variance in per capita incomes across Italian regions. IQs in Northern Italy are identical to those in central and northern Europe and they decline with latitude. Researchers have confirmed the genetic impact of immigration from the Near East and North Africa into southern Italy. In fact, Sardinians are genetically more closely related to the Greeks, Lebanese and North African Berbers than to central and northern Europeans. At the same time, Arabs ruled Sicily from 965 to 1091 - leaving a large genetic footprint - and also sacked Rome in 846.

Related:

R1b in Italy

Clinal patterns of human Y chromosomal diversity in continental Italy and Greece are dominated by drift and founder effects

Nationally, black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at ten times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined

In Chicago, black juveniles commit 78% of all juvenile gun assaults while white juveniles commit under 3% — though blacks comprise just 35% of the Chicago population and whites 28%.

A recent study shows the rate of newly diagnosed HIV cases in Missouri is more than eight times higher among blacks than whites

The rate of new cases is especially high for black women, who represent 12% of Missouri’s female population, but account for 69% of new HIV cases.

The Anti-Defamation League and David Duke

One of the reasons why the ADL hates David Duke is because he is opposed to their goal of transforming the United States from a white-majority nation into a white-minority one.

Immigrant use of welfare tends to be much higher than natives for food assistance programs and Medicaid

Households with children comprised entirely of immigrants have a welfare use rate of 47%.

Autocannibalism and re-rape in Africa

Depravity and sexual violence in Congo leads to the creation of some interesting new words.

Related:

UN Says 8,000 Rapes Reported in East Congo Last Year

Sexual Violence in Democratic Republic of Congo exacerbates national AIDS epidemic

Race and collaborating with the left

Peter Frost wonders why evolutionary psychologists such as John Tooby and Leda Cosmides felt it necessary to pander to Marxists such as Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin.

In Illinois only one out of every five African American students who took an AP exam passed it compared to 77% of Asian American students

Diversity is causing the decline of intelligence in the United States.

Haitians and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society is trying to make it easier for Haitians to leave Haiti and move to the United States. If the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society really wants to help Haitians - and not just undermine the white gentiles of the United States - then why don't they try to help Haitians move to Israel?

Related:

Voodoo Priests Asked to Aid Haitian Recovery

Jews want America to take in all non white refugees on the planet

Everything the left hates is "racist"

Duane Lester explains how the left is using the word "racist" as a way of silencing conservatives.

Researchers have identified three genes that may predispose people to stuttering

Because stuttering tends to run in families, it has long been suspected that genes play a role in the speech disorder. In unique genetic research involving families with clusters of persistent stutterers, investigators with the NIH's National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) identified a likely location of gene variants associated with the disorder. In their latest research, the researchers found specific gene mutations that appear to lead to stuttering. Normal speech involves a series of coordinated muscle movements associated with breathing, voice production, and movement of the throat, palate, tongue, and lips. These muscle movements are controlled by the brain and monitored through the senses of hearing and touch. This normal speech is disrupted in stutterers, but the cause of this disruption has not been understood. While stuttering affects all ages, it most often occurs in young children who are still learning verbal communication. Roughly one in 20 children has the condition. Young boys are twice as likely to stutter as young girls; older boys are three to four times more likely to stutter than older girls. Most children eventually outgrow stuttering; about 1% of adults stutter.

Related:

Stuttering Linked to Cell Waste Recycling Genes

Stephen Colbert - 100% European

A review of Faces of America:

The comedian Stephen Colbert, raised Roman Catholic in an Irish immigrant family, is surprised to learn that some of his ancestors were Lutheran, or, as he puts it, “heretics.” He is not shocked to learn that he has no African or Asian traces in his DNA, and is of 100 percent European ancestry: “I am the inescapable black hole of white people.”

It is interesting that this TV program - hosted by prominent black liberal Henry Louis Gates - acknowledges that race is a biological reality and that there are measurable differences between European, African and Asian DNA.

Mugabe is at it again

White-owned companies in Zimbabwe will be forced to hand control to black businessmen under laws reminiscent of those that led to the seizure of the nation's farms. The regulations demand that companies, including foreign firms, hand over at least 51% of ownership to black Zimbabweans. Thousands of businesses, including the operations of Barclays bank, Standard Chartered bank and mining company Rio Tinto, will be affected. They must submit their plans to comply by March 1, 2010. Owners who fail to comply will face jail sentences.

Hindu wins the right to be cremated on an open-air funeral pyre in Britain

A devout Hindu has won the right to be cremated on a traditional 'open air' funeral pyre when he dies. Davender Ghai, 71, believes that the tradition of open-air cremation is essential to the liberation of his soul after death. But his local authority - and the Ministry of Justice - contended that the ancient practice of 'natural cremation', widely carried out in other parts of the world breached the 1902 Cremation Act. However, London's Court of Appeal said that the spiritual healer and respected charity leader's heartfelt request could be accommodated under existing law. The landmark ruling means that thousands of Hindus, Sikhs - and anyone else wanting 'natural cremation' - can be content that their dying wishes can legally be carried out. Ghai came to England from Kenya in 1958.

Related:

Son of Allah Wins a Round against the West in Sweden

Hispanics are overrepresented amongst the uninsured

An analysis of the ethnic backgrounds of those lacking health insurance in the United States shows that Latinos are most likely to be uninsured while whites are least likely to not have insurance.

Related:

Six Of 10 Uninsured Hispanics Are Not U.S. Citizens

Nevada Democrats duck Illegals’ Hospital cost problem

A low IQ is one of the strongest predictors that someone will suffer with heart disease

After being a smoker a low IQ is the strongest predictor of the disease, ranking above blood pressure and lack of exercise.

Related:


Low IQ Among Strongest Predictors of Cardiovascular Disease -- Second Only to Cigarette Smoking in Large Population Study

Cardiovascular Fitness is Linked to Intelligence (in Young Men...Young Swedish Men...and Lab Mice)

Heart disease and IQ

The violent singers of South Asia

Steve Sailer writes about karaoke violence in the Philippines.

Advanced maternal age is linked to a significantly elevated risk of having a child with autism, regardless of the father's age

Advanced paternal age is associated with elevated autism risk only when the father is older and the mother is under 30. Scientists found that the incremental risk of having a child with autism increased by 18% - nearly one fifth - for every five-year increase in the mother's age. A 40-year-old woman's risk of having a child later diagnosed with autism was 50% greater than that of a woman between 25 and 29 years old.

Scientists think they may have discovered the part of the brain which makes people fear losing money

The study looked at two patients who had damaged their amygdala, deep within the brain. These patients were less worried about financial losses than the normal volunteers they were compared with. The scientists say this could translate to how people make decisions in fields ranging from politics to game shows.

Hitchens and Allah

Christopher Hitchens provides some interesting insights about Islam.

A Muslim jail chaplain who is also a convicted murderer brought razors and a pair of scissors into one of the NYC's most dangerous lockups

Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid was reporting to work at the Manhattan Detention Complex - known as "the Tombs" - when his duffel bag went through a mandatory scan. What correction cops found was stunning: three 1-1/2-inch-long straight razors and a pair of 7-inch scissors, authorities said. Abdu-Shahid of Staten Island was arrested and charged with promoting prison contraband. The 58-year-old imam, who's been with the department for three years, faces seven years in prison if he is convicted. Sources said Abdu-Shahid - who used to go by the name Paul Pitts - was convicted of a 1976 murder in Manhattan. He served 13 years in prison and was on parole until 2001, state records show.

By far the best predictor for income and status is your IQ at 10 or 11, rather than your social class

Alasdair Palmer writes that around half of the variation between two people's income and status at work is explained by differences in their IQ and that studies of twins separated at birth and raised in very different families indicate that up to 60% of a person's IQ score is down to their genes.

A Muslim man has gone to the Irish High Court demanding that he be allowed bring in his second wife to Ireland

The native of Lebanon, where polygamy is allowed, says his polygamous marriage must be recognized. The man first entered Ireland some years ago and claimed political asylum which was granted. It is believed there are numerous other cases involving second or even more wives awaiting the court's verdict. British law allows only one wife to legally emigrate.

Fewer blacks than whites develop multiple sclerosis but their disease progresses more rapidly, and they don't respond as well to therapies

Magnetic resonance images of a cohort of 567 consecutive MS patients showed that blacks with MS had more damage to brain tissue and had less normal white and grey matter compared to whites with the disease. "White matter" refers to the parts of the brain that contain nerve fibers sheathed in a white fatty insulating protein called myelin. The white matter is responsible for communication between the various grey matter regions, where nerve cells are concentrated and where cognitive processing occurs. In general, black MS patients tend to have more severe and more frequent attacks, followed by an incomplete recovery even after the first episode.

Scientists have identified a genetic variant that appears to make some individuals age more quickly

Carriers could be at increased risk from age-related diseases, and an unhealthy lifestyle could accelerate the process.

Girls as young as 12 have been attacked as sexual violence plagues Haitian quake survivors

In the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, women and young girls are suffering a rising number of rapes and sexual assaults. So widespread are the reports – and they include the rape of a girl of 12 by her rescuer after she was pulled out from the rubble – that emergency measures are now being taken. Displaced men and women patrol some camps with makeshift arms to ward off attackers; girls wear jeans under their skirts for protection if they go out after dark; temporary women-only health centers are being set up; and non-governmental organizations try to deliver aid to dangerous neighborhoods where women are too scared to go out in search for food.

Related:

Haiti protesters denounce aid corruption, hoarding

Florida rabbis seek to prevent Jewish murderer's execution

Florida rabbis have been working to prevent the execution of Martin Grossman, 45, who was convicted of murdering a female police officer in a nature reserve 26 years ago. A petition submitted to Florida Governor Charlie Crist pleaded with him to have pity on Grossman, who is scheduled to be executed with a lethal injection. Grossman was 19 when he and his 17-year-old friend traveled to an isolated nature reserve to fire a stolen handgun. The two were approached by wildlife officer Peggy Park, 26, who asked Grossman for his weapon license. Grossman pleaded with her to let him go, as he was violating his probation for a burglary charge, but she refused. When she tried to call for help over the radio, Grossman hit her 20 to 30 times, and when she tried to reach her weapon and fired one shot, Grossman shot her in the back of the head.

Related:

Death row inmate requests tefillin

Innocent Because He's Jewish?

Why are many Jews becoming hostile to illegal immigration?

Patrick Cleburne has reported that many Jews are becoming increasingly unhappy with their leaders support of illegal immigrants. This change in attitude likely has a lot to do with the fact that over 40% of Hispanic immigrants don't like Jews.

Black guy kills and cooks white girlfriend

You can take the savage out of Africa but you can't take the savage out of the African.

Jews keep up their attacks on Kevin MacDonald

Jews are still trying to get him fired because he uses his right to free speech.

Related:

The Persecution of Kevin MacDonald

Haiti quake raises fears of child-eating spirits

The earthquake that shattered Haiti has unleashed fears that child-eating spirits, mythological figures entrenched in Haitian culture, are prowling homeless camps in search of young prey. The 'loup-garou,' which means 'wolf man,' is similar to werewolf legends in other parts of the world, but in Haitian folklore it is a person who is possessed by a spirit and can turn into a beast or even a dog, cat, chicken, snake or another animal to suck the blood of babies and young children. Haitians fear loups-garous in the best of times and even more since a powerful earthquake wrecked the capital of Port-au-Prince, killing as many as 200,000 people and forcing hundreds of thousands more to sleep outside in vast camps or on the streets. Some people accused of being loups-garous have apparently been lynched since the earthquake, including a man killed at the La Grotte camp for displaced people on a barely accessible hillside that looks down on Port-au-Prince. Many Haitians practice voodoo, a religion with African roots.

British Conservative MP is accused of racism for pointing out that many immigrants are importing backward views about women

David Davies has been criticized for speaking the truth about a 14-year-old South Asian rapist named Balal Khan.

Related:

13-year-old boy gets just three-year detention for raping woman

A Conservative MP mentions honour-based violence against women. The BBC and Tories freak out

Religion of Peace . . . & 13-Year-Old Rapists

Claude Lévi-Strauss and race

Anthropologist called anti-racism a trap.

Genes in the mother and the fetus play a role in the risk of preterm labor, a leading cause of infant death and disability

Researchers found that gene variants in the mother and fetus can make them susceptible to an inflammatory response to infections inside the uterus, raising the risk that a baby will be born early - before 37 weeks of gestation. A preterm baby has a 120 times greater risk of death than a baby born full term, and survivors are at risk of breathing difficulties, bleeding into the brain, and having a significant neurological handicap such as cerebral palsy. Scientists said the findings support the notion that preterm delivery is an evolutionary mechanism intended to protect baby and mother from infection. The found that one of every three premature babies is born to a mother who has an infection in the normally sterile amniotic fluid that surrounds the developing fetus. In the fetus, the strongest gene influence was the interleukin 6 receptor, which is involved in the body's response to inflammation. In the mother, scientists focused on one gene called tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2, or TIMP2, which affects structures in the cervix and uterus that get broken down at the start of labor. Scientists said when there is an infection, the combination of these two genetic profiles raises the risk of preterm labor as the body attempts to preserve the mother's and baby's lives.

Barack Obama has criticized as odious proposed anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda

The bill calls for long jail terms or the death penalty in some cases of homosexual intercourse. Homosexual acts are already illegal in Uganda and punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The bill would raise that penalty to life in prison.

The 20 children of Jacob Zuma

The South African president, Jacob Zuma, is reported to have fathered a 20th child with the daughter of a friend. His latest offspring, a girl, was apparently born in October 2009 to Sonono Khoza, 39, the divorced daughter of Irvin Khoza. Mr Khoza is the chairman of the organizing committee for the football World Cup finals to be held in South Africa in 2010. Apparently the girl's name was registered as Thandekile Matina Zuma. Zuma, 67, is a proud Zulu traditionalist, and as well as his polygamy – he married his third current wife and fifth overall, Thobeka Madiba, recently – he has had a number of children out of wedlock. In all, he has had children by seven women. Apparently the Khoza family are not happy about the liaison – Mr Khoza is six years younger than the president – and a delegation from the president had visited them to discuss inhlawulo, the customary Zulu damages payable when a child is born out of wedlock.

Research shows that the least intelligent and least democratic part of the world is sub-Saharan Africa

The research of Tatu Vanhanen shows that colder countries tend to be both more intelligent and more democratic than warmer ones.

Research:

Why is Haiti So Poor?

I.Q.: Why Africa is Africa – and Haiti Haiti

A small number of extremely overweight people may be missing the same chunk of genetic material

Imperial College London scientists found dozens of people - all severely obese - who lacked approximately the same 30 genes. The gene "deletion" could not be found in people of normal weight. While much of the "obesity epidemic" currently affecting most Western countries has been attributed to a move towards high-calorie foods and more sedentary lifestyles, scientists have found evidence that genes may play a significant role in influencing weight gain in some people.

Orthodox Jews and anti-science

Joshua Zelinsky writes about the growing anti-scientific views of Orthodox Jews.

Does vitamin D really boost testosterone?

Yesterday I linked to a news story that said that vitamin D may boost testosterone. Testosterone levels may have more to do with melanin - in particular the dark variety known as eumelanin - than with vitamin D. Here is an abstract from 2003:

HIV is common in sub-Saharan Africa. Sexually transmitted bacterial and fungal infections increase the chance of HIV infection. Melanin can prevent the penetration of skin and mucus membranes by microorganisms, and soluble melanin can inhibit HIV replication. We suggest that melanin may reduce the incidence of HIV infection through venereally acquired skin lesions, thus reducing the risk of sero-conversion and slow the progress to AIDS. Indigenous sub-Saharan peoples are highly melanized, but there is pigment variation between populations. We show that skin reflectance, a negative correlate of melanin, is positively associated with adult rate of HIV in sub-Saharan countries. There is no such relationship in populations outside sub-Saharan Africa. We suggest that melanin concentration in black people may correlate with resistance to HIV infection.

Since HIV is a relatively new disease it seems unlikely that it is the reason behind the high levels of eumelanin in Africa, but it may play a role in protecting against a wide range of sexually transmitted diseases. If people with high levels of dark melanin are better protected against STDs then they may also have higher levels of testosterone since this androgen affects sex drive. Here is another abstract showing a link between pigmentation and testosterone:

IT is well known that there is an increased pigmentation of the skin in certain areas of the body in pregnancy. It has also been established that the occurrence of a malignant change in benign pigmented tumours or moles is rare before puberty in both sexes. Furthermore it is accepted that the growth of malignant melanomas and the formation of metastases is accelerated during pregnancy1. All these facts suggest that the activity of the melanocyte is under hormonal influence. Edwards, Hamilton, Duntley and Hubert2 reported that the human male castrate has a reduced amount of melanin in the skin. Treatment of these men with testosterone usually increased the melanin content in all areas, although the response was of small degree. Kupperman3, working on the male golden hamster, showed that testosterone increases the pigmentation of the skin, whereas castration causes a reduction in pigmentation. Wheeler et al. 4 found by macroscopical and microscopical observations that topical application of testosterone to the nipples and areolæ of immature castrated male guinea pigs produced no increased pigmentation. The present investigation was designed to investigate histochemically the effect of testosterone and orchidectomy on the activity of the melanocyte.

If there is a connection between melanin and testosterone then it may explain why people associate spring with mating since there is significantly more sunlight - and therefore opportunities for tanning - than there is in winter.

The English language in Britain

Ability to Speak English Is Derided in… England

Translation figures wrong, ministers admit

Immigration and the Treason Lobby

F. Roger Devlin has a review of Kevin Lamb's The Open-Borders Network. How a Web of Ethnic Activists, Journalists, Corporations, Politicians, Lawyers, and Clergy Undermine U.S. Border Security and National Sovereignty.

Related:

Aunt Zeituni Is Back In Court

They really want these Haitians

Illegal Aliens, Anti-Racists With Juiceboxes, And The English Language

A spot of sunbathing may be just the thing to lift a man's libido, say experts after an Austrian study finds testosterone is boosted by vitamin D

The bulk of this essential nutrient is made by the skin on exposure to sunlight. The rest comes from the diet. A study of 2,299 men found those with enough of the vitamin had more of the male sex hormone than those with less. Blood levels of both dipped in the winter and peaked in the summer. Low testosterone levels can impact on a man's libido as well as zap energy levels. It also performs essential functions in both men and women such as maintaining muscle strength and bone density. The researchers found men with at least 30 nanograms of vitamin D per milliliter of blood had much more testosterone circulating than those lacking in vitamin D. Across the 2,299 men studied, testosterone and vitamin D levels appeared to peak in the month of August, and drop off in the winter, hitting their lowest levels in March.

Racial differences and the movies

Steve Sailer has an insightful review of the French movie The Class. In contrast to American movies, this French import has no problems acknowledging that racial differences in academic ability exist. For example, amongst the immigrant students, the most intelligent is from China while the least intelligent is from sub-Saharan Africa.

Related:

Watch the movie “Defamation”

An infection of the uterine cavity during pregnancy combined with premature birth doubles the risk that an African American child will develop asthma

About 8% of pregnancies are marked by such bacterial infections, called chorioamnionitis, but it is not yet clear what proportion of asthma is induced by them. Nor is it clear whether the duration of the infection influences the risk and why different ethnicities respond differently. But blacks have about a 25% higher incidence of asthma and new findings could account for a significant portion of that increase. About 14% of American children suffer from asthma, an inflammation of the airways that is marked by wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightening and coughing. About half of such cases are believed to be of genetic origin, but the cause of the rest has been a mystery. Researchers found that chorioamnionitis had no apparent effect on the rate of asthma when the fetuses were carried full term. But when the mother suffered from the infection and gave birth prematurely, the risk of asthma developing before the age of 8 was 98% higher in black children, 70% higher in Latino children and 66% higher in whites. No increased risk was observed for children of Asian or Pacific Islander descent.

Taking a daily fish oil capsule can stave off mental illness in those at highest risk

A three-month course of the supplement appeared to be as effective as drugs, cutting the rate of psychotic illness like schizophrenia by a quarter. The researchers believe it is the omega-3 in fish oil - already hailed for promoting healthy hearts - that has beneficial effects in the brain.

Related:

Genetic Variants in Depressed People Raise Suicide Risk

Gene variation makes alcoholism less likely in some survivors of sexual abuse

Race and stem cells

The director of the University of Michigan's Center for Stem Cell Biology says that it is necessary to increase the diversity of embryonic stem cell lines since there are important genetic differences between various racial and ethnic groups.