More random links
- DNA Blueprint for Fetus Built Using Tests of Parents
- No invasive testing required. "For the first time, researchers have determined virtually the entire genome of a fetus using only a blood sample from the pregnant woman and a saliva specimen from the father." (They estimate accuracy at about 98%). Via Russ Douthat.
- Sounds of the Netherlands – day one: a history of Dutch pop in 10 songs
- As the article notes that "with most of the Netherlands able to speak English at least as well as the English can, the temptation has always existed for artists with one eye on the export market to perform in pop's primary lingua franca," a bunch of the songs here are in English.
- Digging Into New York City’s Trashy History
- New York City in the first half of the 19th century: "Imagine, on your own block, that you can’t cross the street, even at the corner, without paying a street kid with a broom to clear a path for you, because the streets were layered in this sludge of manure, rotting vegetables, ash, broken up furniture, debris of all kind. It was called “corporation pudding” after the city government. And it was deep -- in some cases knee-deep."
- Suicide Rate Greater Among Divorced Men, Research Finds
- ”suicide rates are higher among divorced men, and lowest among those still married. Single men fall somewhere in between. … Among women, differences in suicide risk among those who were married, divorced or widowed were statistically insignificant.“