In Genetics and New England Pathology, I sketched a possible line to medieval England to illustrate a simpler truth from population genetics: the number of ancestral positions doubles geometrically, while the number of people who actually left you DNA shrinks via pedigree collapse. From this follows an unsettling comfort: living humans are orders of magnitudeContinue reading “The Wadhams Surname”
Category Archives: Opinions
China is the Paper Tiger
Business is war, and war is business. — Sean Connery as Captain John Connor, Rising Sun (1993) In the early 1990s, Rising Sun captured an America unsettled by Japan’s economic ascent. Beneath its murder mystery plot lay a parable about national confidence; the fear that Japan’s discipline and precision might eclipse Western improvisation and ingenuity.Continue reading “China is the Paper Tiger”
Dum Dum Bullets and Shoot to Kill
The Sisters of Mercy released Floodland in 1987, a record of industrial choirs and end-of-empire glamour. On Lucretia, My Reflection, Andrew Eldritch croons about dum-dum bullets and shoot to kill, not as moral protest but as soundtrack for dying empires. The reference wasn’t metaphorical. “Dum-Dum” was a real place: a British arsenal outside Calcutta whereContinue reading “Dum Dum Bullets and Shoot to Kill”
Protective Arts 