Twelve Black Code Monkeys

I thought I’d experiment and finally try to add some pictures in here! This shot is of a crane, I think (hey, what do you want, I grew up in the city!), that I took on our trip to NYC last weekend. This is in central park, of course, on the lake. Never had seen a crane there growing up, but then I don’t remember going to this lake in central park much. They probably imported the crane more recently. I couldn’t get a very close view as the crane would fly away if you got too close and the lense on my camera does not allow for particularly long shots…

Mean Genes is a look at human behavior in all it’s constructive and destructive forms and how we can explain much of it in the context of genes and natural selection. Although they don’t discount psychological factors, they do note at the beginning that their focus is on the genetic and they do a good job explaining this side of things. They discuss why so many of us are compelled to eat unhealthfully, use drugs, and take other risks, what motivates male and female stereotypical relationship/sexual patterns, etc. The authors, Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan, are actually a couple and use some examples from their own lives, as well as a myriad of fascinating descriptions from the animal kingdom and modern humans (from those in developed countries to hunter gatherers). So this is no dry academic study, but more like a huge essay from Popular Science.

I actually listened to an unabridged audio version of the book on Audible.com. It was narrated by Pat Woodruff, who does a good job