Poor Mojo's Newswire

Richard Warren (c. 1580–1628) was a passenger on the Mayflower (old "May Floure") in 1620. He settled in Plymouth Colony and was among ten passengers of the Mayflower landing party with Myles Standish at Cape Cod on November 11, 1620.[1][2][3] Warren co-signed the Mayflower Compact[3] and was one of nineteen (among 41) signers who survived the first winter. Although most sources agree that his wife's name was Elizabeth, there is some dispute as to what her maiden surname was. One reference indicates her maiden name was Elizabeth Walker, and that she was baptised 1583 in Baldock, Hertfordshire, England, died October 2, 1673.[3] She and his first five children, all daughters, came to America in the ship Anne in 1623. Once in America, they then had two sons before Richard's untimely death in 1628.[1][2] Although the details are limited, Richard Warren and wife, Elizabeth, and children were mentioned in official records or books of the time period.[3] All seven of their children survived and had families, with thousands of descendants, including: President Ulysses S. Grant, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, astronaut Alan Shepard, author Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie series), actor Richard Gere, and the Wright brothers

If the public knew the truth, I expect two effects: 1. The public would consider scientists to be less authoritative as a neutral source on policy questions, and 2. Since scientists are respected, the public would become less conservative and more liberal. Which of these effects would dominate? Well since scientists tend to endorse liberal policies, the first effect should reduce support for liberal policies while the second should increase it. So who seems more eager to inform the public about scientist liberality? If liberals, that suggests the second effect is expected to dominate. If conservatives, the first effect dominates. My casual observation is that conservatives are more eager to speak up on this, suggesting the first effect dominates. So over time I expect the truth will get out, science will lose authority, and scientist support will help liberals less.

In India, China and sub-Saharan Africa, millions upon millions of women are missing. They are not lost, but dead: victims of violence, discrimination and neglect. A University of British Columbia economist is amongst those trying to find them – not the women themselves, who are long gone, but their numbers and ages, which paint a sad and startling picture of gender discrimination in the developing world. The term "missing women" was coined in 1990, when Indian economist Amartya Sen calculated a shocking figure. In parts of Asia and Africa, he wrote in The New York Review of Books, 100 million women who should be alive are not, because of unequal access to medical care, food and social services. These are excess deaths: women "missing" above and beyond natural mortality rates, compared to their male counterparts. Women who are dead because their lives were undervalued.