Equal Time

OK, here's a bone for all you Hardvarks: Who says economics can't be sexy? The NYTimes (again) has a long story on some very cool socio-economic research being done by a Harvard researcher just a few years older than me. His rags-to-riches story and clear-eyed approach to race problems is a novelty and an exception in the politically corrected Harvard atmosphere. Even the Times admits that no white could do the work he's doing. For instance, he's looking at the possibility that selectivity by slave traders (and the effects of nature) could have altered the African-American gene pool to the degree that genetics would explain much of the difference in life expectancy between blacks and others. Of course, what the article doesn't say is that two-thirds of the six-year lifespan discrepancy is due to young deaths; blacks who reach age 30 are only at a two-year disadvantage to their white counterparts. Anyway, interesting article if you've got the time.