loose from the news: interesting reading

again, here are the highlights of what i've read lately

does family history matter to a health nut? 

lisa miller for new york magazine

"But genes can also be “marked” by the various proteins they’re wrapped in or bundled with — scientists talk about these proteins having the ability to turn genes “on” or “off” — in reaction to the environment around them. (The classic example here is this: When one identical twin has schizophrenia, the other twin will have it just 50 percent of the time. Twins may have the exact same DNA, but their environments differ, switching on the disease just half the time.) Now a growing body of research indicates that the “markers” are sometimes hereditary, too. (The questions of when, why, and in what circumstances represent the frontier of epigenetics.)"

who knew i was not the father?

ruth padawer for the new york times

"There is a strong cultural imperative that a man should never abandon his offspring: that a man who impregnates a woman should be responsible for their child, and that a man who acted as a child’s father should continue to nurture her. But what is the cultural standard when those roles are filled by two different men? Judges, legislators and policy makers have floundered trying to reconcile the issues — a tangle of sex, money, science, betrayal, abandonment and the competing interests of the child, the biological parents, the nonbiological father and the state itself. No matter how they decide, the collateral damage is high because fairness for one party inadvertently violates fairness for another."

what you should know about what's happening in iraq right now

andrew katz for time magazine

"One idea proposed by a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation is a deal between Damascus and the West to bring peace to vulnerable areas and allow Assad to focus on regaining land: “Assad could help NATO and other willing partners focus time and resources on ISIS, which poses the greatest threat to the Middle East, the United States, and Europe.”

the french are right: tear up public debt - most of it is illegitimate anyway

razmig keucheyan for the guardian

"Tax reductions for the wealthy and interest rates increases are political decisions. What the audit shows is that public deficits do not just grow naturally out of the normal course of social life. They are deliberately inflicted on society by the dominant classes, to legitimise austerity policies that will allow the transfer of value from the working classes to the wealthy ones."

the luxury of waiting for marriage to have kids

olga khazan for the atlantic

"Unlike in Western Europe, where couples cohabit for years and sometimes decades, often with kids, less-educated Americans tend to rotate in and out of cohabiting relationships as the years wear on. They have children with multiple different partners, creating complex webs of child obligations, step-parents, and half-siblings."

the psychology of anthropomorphic robots

eric jaffe for fast company

"The idea that people will trust robots that seem more human runs counter to conventional theories stating just the opposite. To some extent people may still fear human-like machines, and human features might be unnecessary for robots doing strictly physical jobs (say, working on an assembly line). But as robots shift into roles that require more human interaction--as health care assistants or autonomous taxi drivers--a certain degree of social intelligence will become increasingly important."