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The Idiocy of the Average - and Why It Matters
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Robin Hanson once wrote a blog post about how reasonably intelligent people (for instance, the sort of people who read his blog) tend to overestimate how smart everyone else is.

For instance, about half of Americans are unable to correctly read a table and do a simple addition/subtraction calculation:

Only 52% could do item AB30901, which is to look at a table on page 118 of the 1980 World Almanac and answer: According to the chart, did U.S. exports of oil (petroleum) increase or decrease between 1976 and 1978?

Such is the banal reality of the American high-90s average IQ, which is still a dozen points above the world average.

Why am I bringing this up?

Because whenever I write about IQ and its relationship to economic success there will inevitably be the skeptical commenters bringing up the same old tired responses. IQ is just a number. It doesn’t measure anything. You are a pseudo-intellectual. You are an IQ reductionism. You are an autist.

Now I acknowledge that there are understandable reasons for this. You can say that Country X has an IQ of 100 and Country Y has an IQ of 85 – but what the hell does it mean in real life?

And consequently, why should the ability to scribble down something for some irrelevant test matter for economic success?

Moreover, this to an extent even applies to the people who read and appreciate IQ realist writers like Steve Sailer and James Thompson on this website. You might have a good general appreciation of the different average IQs of the world’s major regions (Global North: ~100; Latin America and Middle East: ~85; Sub-Saharan Africa: ~70). And many do appreciate that national wealth depends largely on a population’s intelligence, especially of its “smart fractions” (as opposed to neoliberal hand-wringing over insufficient deregulation or the Marxist jeremiads about the “Golden Billion” keeping the Third World down). However, putting the two together – at least in an intuitive, non-autistic way – is quite tricky.

Fortunately, the PISA website has sample math questions from the 2012 assessment, corresponding to each of the six different levels of difficulty, as well as statistics on the percentage of 15-16 year old students from each of the participating countries that is capable of correctly answering it:

Distribution of countries by competence level in Math (PISA 2012)

Country Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6
Albania 68% 39% 16% 4% 1% 0%
Argentina 65% 34% 11% 2% 0% 0%
Australia 94% 80% 58% 34% 15% 4%
Austria 94% 81% 59% 35% 14% 3%
Belgium 93% 81% 63% 40% 19% 6%
Brazil 65% 33% 13% 4% 1% 0%
Bulgaria 80% 56% 32% 14% 4% 1%
Canada 96% 86% 65% 39% 16% 4%
Chile 78% 49% 23% 8% 2% 0%
Colombia 58% 26% 8% 2% 0% 0%
Costa Rica 76% 40% 13% 3% 1% 0%
Croatia 91% 70% 43% 21% 7% 2%
Czechia 93% 79% 57% 33% 13% 3%
Denmark 96% 83% 59% 30% 10% 2%
Estonia 98% 90% 68% 38% 15% 4%
Finland 97% 88% 67% 38% 15% 4%
France 91% 78% 56% 32% 13% 3%
Germany 95% 82% 63% 40% 18% 5%
Greece 86% 64% 37% 15% 4% 1%
Hong Kong 97% 92% 80% 60% 34% 12%
Hungary 90% 72% 47% 24% 9% 2%
Iceland 93% 79% 55% 29% 11% 2%
Indonesia 58% 24% 8% 2% 0% 0%
Ireland 95% 83% 59% 31% 11% 2%
Israel 84% 67% 45% 24% 9% 2%
Italy 92% 75% 51% 27% 10% 2%
Japan 97% 89% 72% 48% 24% 8%
Jordan 64% 31% 11% 2% 1% 0%
Kazakhstan 86% 55% 23% 6% 1% 0%
Korea 97% 91% 76% 55% 31% 12%
Latvia 95% 80% 53% 26% 8% 2%
Liechtenstein 97% 86% 71% 48% 25% 7%
Lithuania 91% 74% 48% 23% 8% 1%
Luxembourg 91% 76% 53% 30% 11% 3%
Macao 97% 89% 73% 49% 24% 8%
Malaysia 77% 48% 22% 7% 1% 0%
Mexico 78% 45% 18% 4% 1% 0%
Montenegro 73% 43% 19% 6% 1% 0%
Netherlands 96% 85% 67% 43% 19% 4%
New Zealand 93% 77% 56% 33% 15% 5%
Norway 93% 78% 53% 28% 9% 2%
Peru 53% 25% 9% 3% 1% 0%
Poland 97% 86% 64% 38% 17% 5%
Portugal 91% 75% 52% 28% 11% 2%
Qatar 53% 30% 15% 7% 2% 0%
Romania 86% 59% 31% 12% 3% 1%
Russia 93% 76% 50% 24% 8% 2%
Serbia 85% 61% 35% 15% 5% 1%
Shanghai 99% 96% 89% 76% 55% 31%
Singapore 98% 92% 80% 62% 40% 19%
Slovakia 90% 73% 49% 27% 11% 3%
Slovenia 95% 80% 56% 32% 14% 3%
Spain 92% 76% 52% 26% 8% 1%
Sweden 91% 73% 48% 24% 8% 2%
Switzerland 96% 88% 70% 45% 21% 7%
Taiwan 96% 87% 74% 57% 37% 18%
Thailand 81% 50% 23% 8% 3% 1%
Tunisia 64% 32% 11% 3% 1% 0%
Turkey 85% 58% 33% 16% 6% 1%
UAE 80% 54% 29% 12% 4% 1%
UK 92% 78% 55% 30% 12% 3%
USA 92% 74% 48% 25% 9% 2%
Uruguay 71% 44% 21% 7% 1% 0%
Vietnam 96% 86% 63% 35% 13% 4%
OECD average 92% 77% 55% 31% 13% 3%

I am going to go through them, essentially repeating Robin Hanson’s exercise for the United States for the world at large. Hopefully, this will give us a better perspective on what abstract things like “average national IQ” actually mean in practice. And why seemingly minor differences between them are important and explain the vast bulk of international differences in GDP per capita and general socio-economic success.

***

Look Around. There Are Stupid People Everywhere.

pisa-2012-math-lv1

Level 1

Very simple graph-reading problem that almost everyone (92%) in the OECD got correct.

Even so, even at this very elementary level, only 65% of Brazilians and not much more than half of Indonesians and Peruvians can be expected to get it right.

pisa-2012-math-lv2

Level 2

Not even so much a question of elementary arithmetic as of elementary common sense.

But the OECD average is now 77% – only three quarters of Europeans are getting this right, while only the East Asians are still scoring at around the 90% mark.

However, performance amongst outside the high-IQ northern world is already plummeting: Only around half of Malaysians and Mexicans are getting this right, a third of Brazilians, and only a quarter of Colombians, Indonesians, and Peruvians.

pisa-2012-math-lv3

Level 3

One would think that this not much harder than the most basic literacy test, but apparently not. There is not a single country where more than 80% got it right.

OECD average: 55. Elementary table reading is a struggle for half of Americans and Russians, and two thirds of Turks and Romanians.

But the results for the developing world are already veering into catastrophic territory: Only 18% of Mexicans, 13% of Brazilians, and 8% of Indonesians are still coping.

pisa-2012-math-lv4

Level 4

This is the first problem with at least some multi-step elements to it, though it only involves multiplying numbers in a straightforward sequence. I suspect this is the bare minimum cognitive level you need to be capable of productive work within the complex “O-Ring” economy.

OECD average: 31%. The major East Asian countries: ~50%, the Germanic lands: ~40%, the USA – 25%, Russia – 24%, Turkey – 16%.

Meanwhile, the figures for the developing world are diminishing into truly “(not so) smart fraction” territory: Only 4% of Mexicans and Brazilians, 3% of Tunisians and Peruvians, and 2% of Jordanians, Colombians, and Indonesians are still on board, hanging on.

pisa-2012-math-lv5

Level 5

The arithmetic procedure here is still elementary, but it is both multi-step, and has to be completed in the correct order.

I would estimate that this is the minimum level you have to be do competent intellectual work, such as programming.

OECD average: 13%, which broadly correlates to the actual percentage of “symbolic analysts” – mind workers who process information and symbols for a living – within the developed world economies.

But the percentage of people at this cognitive level in the developing world is now pretty much petering out: They constitute just 1% in Albania, Brazil, and Mexico, and less than 1% in Colombia and Indonesia.

Making teams at this level of competence for ordinary entrepreneurs is becoming increasingly unrealistic and, consequently, imposing an absolute limit on economic complexity.

pisa-2012-math-lv6

Level 6

This problem requires a multi-step approach, an understanding of rates, and the intelligence to complete it in the correct order.

Though not especially hard, even at this level. I suspect that many of you can do it in your heads within a minute.

But a majority of all the tested teens begged to differ.

OECD average: 3% (!!). Korea: 12%, Japan: 8%, Germany: 5%. The US, Italy, Sweden, and Russia were all at 2%; the Mediterranean was at 1%.

Some countries where a big fat 100% (rounded up) were unable to do this problem: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Qatar, Tunisia, Uruguay.

The number of people at this level, the highest measured by PISA, is dwindling away into insignificance in Latin America and the Middle East.

And yet this only translates to an IQ of 120-125. We’re nowhere even near genius level yet.

***

A Cognitive Model of the Economy

The classical definition of an economy is a system for the production and exchange of goods and services. However, I will argue that you can view it even more fundamentally as a system for generating and trading solutions to problems.

People with successful solutions acquire money, and in turn buy solutions for their own problems (which range from basic needs, such as food and shelter, to whims and fancies, such as a new Tesla). From this perspective, different systems of political economy are ultimately just different ways of organizing the problem-solving machine. For instance, under capitalism, everyone is largely free to buy and sell solutions, whereas under the central planning systems of the old socialist regimes, bureaucrats play the key role in deciding who works on which problem and who gets access to their solutions – and who doesn’t.

In this interpretation, loosening regulations should be generally good, since it effectively removes barriers to speedier exploration of any given problem space. But having people capable of such exploration in the first place is even more important.

Some of these problems, such as subsistence farming and trucking, are pretty simple and can be accomplished with reasonable efficiency even by relatively dull workers. This is because problems in this “Foolproof sector” (as Garett Jones calls it) require few steps and have only a minimal threshold difficulty, so production in this sector is governed by the standard Cobb-Douglas equation. More highly skilled workers are only modestly more productive, and are thus awarded with modestly higher salaries. Labor differs by productivity, but is substitutable – one experienced waiter is worth two novice ones.

complex-production-chain

Gregory Clark – A Farewell to Alms: A simple visual illustration of a multi-step production process. Even minor differences in competence – assuming they have an affect on p , the probability of failure, will have increasingly drastic effects on the success rate as the production chain gets longer.

Other problems are very complex and require teams of competent workers to perform multiple complicated steps to create a successful solution. The best are paired with the best for maximum productivity. Moreover, many O-Ring problems might have a threshold limit for IQ, below which no productive work can be done on them in principle (as per the Ushakov-Kulivets model). To be commercially viable, the risk of failure on any one link of a long production chain needs to be kept low. Examples of these “O-Ring” tasks may include: Aircraft manufacturing; corporate merger planning; computer chip design; machine building; open-heart surgeries.

Why is the O-Ring sector critical? Workers in this sector are richly awarded, corresponding to the massive amount of value generated in these enterprises. But these workers can also take jobs in the Foolproof sector – the chip designer in the O-Ring sector can always become a waiter in the Foolproof sector – thereby pushing up wages in the latter far beyond what they would otherwise be in a society with no substantial O-Ring sector to speak of. As Jones argues, this is because labor in the Foolproof sector is substitutable, and low-IQ people are broadly competitive with high-IQ workers.

According to Kremer/Jones, it is the relative strength of the O-Ring sector in the developed world which explains why a hairdresser earns five times as much in Belgium as in Brazil, even though productivity between the two cannot be much different. Or why a coffee at a cafe costs 10x less than in Turkey than in Norway, even though the Turkish coffee will if anything be better. This difference between 100 IQ Belgium and 85 IQ Brazil is much greater than the difference between two average persons with that IQ within either country.

Why is this O-Ring stronger in Belgium than in Brazil? Because in Brazil, only a tiny fraction of high school students can do anything much more complex than a simple, single-step arithmetic operation.

 
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  1. So why do foolproof sector workers in the US earn much more than foolproof sector workers in Korea? Or let’s say if you take into account medical, maybe they earn the same, but they should earn a lot more based on the difference in the percentage that answered level 6 correctly. Maybe there are diminishing returns in this theory beyond a certain point.

    • Replies: @Dan Bagrov
    The o-ring story is just one layer to the full model, albeit possibly the most important layer. There’re other things that matter, such as the USA being founded and still mostly run on Anglo principles (seems good for max GDP per head), the US having never been invaded, having a 100 year head start on South Korea in terms of industrialization. Look at Japan, who has a simile IQ to Korea, lower skilled workers there are well compensated, Korea (and Russia and Poland et c.) will catch up as their GDP per capita asymptotes toward the IQ potential.
    , @Saxon
    This is probably where behavioral biology matters. Germanic countries (and the US was definitely founded as one--with refs by several of the founding fathers to their Anglo-Saxon heritage and returning to more ancient ways of being like with the founding of England) are high trust, low corruption, and thus tended to create more efficiency, less waste, less money siphoned off by corruption. It's a multi-layered issue.

    South Korea is sort of sliding into a new form of Oriental despotism as US influence wanes, and Japan for example has issues that wouldn't make them blink but would gall someone from a Germanic country, such as certain middlemen-types needing their palms greased often with cash gifts to smooth business transactions.
    , @bumblechuck
    Level of development of O-ring sector, government policies (minimum wage? unions?), and actual competition between foolproof and O-ring sector workers may have something to do with it. Population size as well?
  2. PISA tests are a meme; at least here.

    “Here’s your test on a computer, kids”
    “Does it impact our grades?”
    “Nope”
    “Are the test results public?”
    “Nope”
    “LOL, watch this – record time”

    :Everyone does it as quickly as possible, those who try hard might be called out as nerds and uncool:

    Seriously, I have a distinct feeling that Asian schools prepare their kids in advance. The same way most of schools here practically abandoned normal teaching programme and instituted year long preparations aimed at drilling students into solving the specific exams that constitute the Abitur/Matura.
    Also, don’t pretend that actual IQ test solving can’t be trained.

    • Agree: melanf, Tyrion 2
    • Disagree: Colin Wright
    • Replies: @szopen
    This was already measured and the results were recently IIRC posted on unz.com somewhere. In short, you are wrong.

    On both issues, BTW. You can train IQ tests, but after training the value of the results fall (you can express taht idea in either saying g-loading will fall, or that the skills are not trasnferable to another task).
    , @Logan
    The biggest correlation of IQ tests with the real world is probably in how quickly a person can learn something new.

    A high-IQ person will quickly master a simple task. As you go down the IQ ladder, the amount of time it takes a person to master the same skill increases. But once he's achieved mastery, he's generally as good at it as the high-IQ guy. Sometimes better, as the high-IQ guy gets bored and stops trying.

    As the complexity of the skill we're talking about increases, the lower IQ people take longer and longer to achieve mastery, and the lowest-IQ types successively peel off the bottom, with mastery simply beyond their ability no matter how much time is spent teaching the skill.

    In the tests this articles discusses, it would be interesting to also track how long it took students to reach a correct answer.

    , @Vojkan
    Agree and disagree. I think everything you stated is true. But... I believe that a population average score on IQ tests has an impact on that population overall economic performance. It's a matter of productivity, not intelligence. Such tests can be at most treated as measures of an individual performance potential in specific areas, definitely not as scentific methods to quantify individuals' intelligence.
  3. economic success

    There’s no such thing as “economic success”.

    Or, rather, there is no single valid metric of “success” in this space.

    Consider Equatorial Guinea, an “economically successful” country with a GDP (PPP per capita) comparable to the Czech Republic. Yet it is still a classic African shithole, with literal cannibals roaming the streets.

    Consider again the Ukraine, which is a Somalia-tier failed state, with a failed economy to match it. Yet it is full of SWPL white people who drink craft beer, enjoy boutique board games and walk alone at night.

    • Replies: @AKAHorace
    This sounds very convincing, but have you been to both or either country ?
    , @Altai

    Consider again the Ukraine, which is a Somalia-tier failed state, with a failed economy to match it. Yet it is full of SWPL white people who drink craft beer, enjoy boutique board games and walk alone at night.
     
    LOL. Maybe in the wealthier parts of Kiev. Is the fact that Eastern Europe is utterly corrupt and low trust just something people have to be taught again?
    , @Tyrion 2
    I've not been to the Ukraine nor Equatorial Guinea but I have been to plenty of poor Sub-Saharan countries where life is substantially more enjoyable than "craft beer" and "boutique boardgames".
    , @marpa
    EG is a tiny country with a huge oil production economy. The average GDP is meaningless, because the rich take most of the money and the poor live terribly. It's a kleptocracy as a result, and thus not comparable to genuinely developed countries of similar GDP.
  4. Looking at this makes me a little sceptical of how well the PISA tests measure competence (at least in absolute terms).
    For instance, the claim that only such a small percentage of British schoolchildren can do advanced maths seems to be contradicted by the fact that over half can pass their Maths GCSEs, which require competence in similar levels of Maths.

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/aug/24/proportion-of-students-getting-good-gcse-grades-falls-after-reforms

    • Replies: @Anatoly Karlin
    GCSEs involve years of teaching to the test. Format is predictable, changes little from year to year. Past exams are available for practice.

    In contrast, PISA presents novel problems of the sort one is more likely to encounter in real life.
    , @Kratoklastes
    You don't understand credentialism, grade inflation and reduced pedagogic standards.

    The number of kiddies who get As (nowadays, A or A*) at GCSE has increased from 8% to 22% since 1988; A* was introduced in 1994 when the number of kiddies getting As changed from about 1 in 12 to about 1 in 8.

    So 'A' is the 'new B' (almost exactly, actually).

    A GCSE 'A' has changed from 'this kid is soundly inside the top decile for this subject' to 'this kid is definitely outside the top 6% (otherwise they would have got an A*). They could be outside the top quintile. They're safely inside the top quartile, though, innit.'.

    GCSE maths is like high school maths everywhere in the West nowadays: it has been shorn of all rigour.

    The same is true for university "Honours": in the UK, 25% of graduates get a First (in 1988 it was 4-10% depending on the institution). In Australia a First now means inside the 4th percentile (at Melbourne Uni Economics they had a tradition to only give a single First: that's gone now). In my year, there were 4 Firsts - a record up to that point, but it was four genuinely outstanding students; a dead-heat for top student (me and my mate Ritch), then 2 others dead-heated 4% lower (two other mates). Some years prior to 1995 there were no Firsts awarded.

    I know this is getting long: might take a whole minute more to finish...

    Back to high school maths and declining standards.

    As far back as the late 90s - before grade inflation really took off - even quasi-élite students were poorly prepared by high school mathematics.

    At the time I was a PhD candidate (in Econometrics, on a 'full ride' merit scholarship).

    To augment our scholarships we were given tutoring positions (3 1-hour tutes a week, plus exam and assignment marking, for a 0.35 full time, full-year salary - easiest money ever). So we were at the 'coal face' - teaching first year Econometrics, which was mandatory (I also tutored third year Applied Econometric Modelling, which was elective - and a cinch to teach because everyone who took it wanted to be there and the chaff had already been winnowed out).

    This was at a university in the top few dozen in the world in the field, which required high school marks solidly in the 5-6% to get into the undergraduate course. The entry requirements also included 2 units of maths (i.e., what we used to refer to as 'Pure' and 'Applied') at Year 12 final exams.

    It's difficult to score in the top decile of high school graduates with 2 maths subjects, unless you get an A in at least one of those subjects.

    With that as background: I had students in first year who didn't know
    what a logarithm was (for fuck's sake);
    • how to differentiate (forget chain and product rules - I mean simple differentiation of a univariate function);
    • how to manipulate powers (e.g., a²/a⁴= ?);
    • basic matrix and vector algebra (the hardest topic would have been Cholesky decomposition of a 5×5 matrix - by hand, because it's 1996).

    These kids were not outliers, or 'special entry' kids - my colleagues reported similar problems with their first-year classes, too.

    In the end my mates and I prepared a bunch of remedial mathematics notes that were distributed widely, and we pre-emptively handed them out during 'O' (Orientation) week in subsequent years.

    Less than 5 years prior to this, my mates and I were undergraduates ourselves: Econometrics was mandatory in first year, but elective subsequently: 'pure' Economics majors dropped it the moment they could.

    Every one of the second-year Econometrics students in our year had done first-year Mathematics (in the Science department) as an elective in first year... because it was free marks. Calculus, linear algebra, first-order differential equations - re-hashing year 11 and 12 maths.

    I know right? I'm old, and I'm one of those "shit was better/harder/tougher when I was younger, waaaaah" types.

    No, not really.

    Standards were higher, and they changed - markedly, radically, downwards - in the middle years of the 1990s.

    I watched it happen in real time: in my Honours year (1995), the person teaching Macroeconomic Theory was forced to "pump the brake" on a really good rigorous Modern Macro course (e.g., one based on Blanchard & Fisher).

    It was a mandatory subject for Honours; a fail meant you were booted with a Pass degree.

    Half the pure-Economics majors had spent their previous 3 years writing essays.

    After the first assignment, in which they did poorly, the pure-Ecotards saw the maths required for the next unit (a basic OLG model).

    They shit themselves, saw the impending train wreck, and agitated for the subsequent assignments and exam to be watered down.

    Faculty held their ground (but they changed the course the following year), but pure-Econometrics and joint Econ/Econometrics majors (i.e., me an my chums) were 'asked' to tutor the essay-writers.

    So we had to babysit these tards (only one of whom got a 'First') while managing a study load that for us included
    Math Eco Theory (which was heavy on Optimal Control and Calculus of variations - taught from Leonard & Long and Kamien & Schwartz),
    Quantitative Economic Policy (which was heavy on Itō Calculus), and
    Econometric Theory (heavy on integral calculus, linear algebra and probability).

    Oh... and on a historical note: that first-year Maths subject that I mentioned - it used to be a one-semester unit... it's now split into 3 subjects, one of which is a second-year subject.

    CREDENTIALISM.

    HAIL KEK (I'm all about Kek today)
    , @Peasant
    'advanced maths seems to be contradicted by the fact that over half can pass their Maths GCSEs'

    beleive me there is no such thing as advanced maths on a gcse test. My maths gcse was pretty basic and this was 15 years ago (god knows how easy it would be today with the constant lowering of standards) but I still pulled a bad result (I have a learning disorder which means i am no good at maths). Most people barely scraped by. Private schools in the UK use a supplemental advanced maths test for applications to universities etc.
    , @Intelligent Dasein

    For instance, the claim that only such a small percentage of British schoolchildren can do advanced maths seems to be contradicted by the fact that over half can pass their Maths GCSEs, which require competence in similar levels of Maths.
     
    How can the poor kids be expected to understand anything about the concept of numbers as long as you silly Brits keep pluralizing singular nouns?

    It's math, for crying out loud!
  5. Robin Hanson once wrote a blog post about how reasonably intelligent people (for instance, the sort of people who read his blog) tend to overestimate how smart everyone else is.

    I for one never make this mistake! For example, I knew that blocking Telegram was going to stifle its user growth in Russia, because most people are too dumb and too lazy to figure out how to use VPN.

    In my observation people who overstimate intelligence in others are themselves somewhat limited in their mental capacity – think of a typical college-educated Western liberal, who is reasonably “smart”, and thinks that African immigrants are smart people just like him.

    It takes a special kind of intelligence to see limitations in others, and some people are even smart enough to aknowledge their own limitations.

    Because in Brazil, only a tiny fraction of high school students can do anything much more complex than a simple, single-step arithmetic operation.

    That’s an interesting finding and a bit unexpected, because Brazil has a substantial white population, who enjoy access to superior schooling. This massive gap in performance cannot be explained solely by race.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more “diverse”? I questioned America’s ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.

    • Replies: @Anatoly Karlin

    For example, I knew that blocking Telegram was going to stifle its user growth in Russia...
     
    I think this is a bit different since the average Telegram user is more sophisticated than the average. Now yes, if say odnoklassniki was blocked, then usage would plummet. But I haven't noticed any major decline in usage amongst the people who were using it, e.g. people at a state-owned company that I was doing contract work for when the ban went into effect. Also, as I'm sure you well known, the actual blocking has been highly ineffective. I don't even have to use VPN to access it 99% of the time.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more “diverse”? I questioned America’s ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.
     
    In Hive Mind, Garett Jones mentions the peer effect - studies showing people work harder when they are observed by hard workers. It's highly plausible that the same goes for intellectual achievement. Not much point in working your brain off when surrounded by dumbos, since most success is relative, not absolute.
    , @DFH
    The fact that Argentines are so dumb (0% even getting level 5) when they are 80% white is what I find most astonishing. Maybe they are just extremely lazy.
    , @for-the-record
    some people are even smart enough to a(c)knowledge their own limitations.

    By this standard I must be very intelligent.
    , @AB

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more “diverse”? I questioned America’s ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.
     
    We are getting dumber as a country. It's not just the huge influx of immigrants from lower IQ black and brown countries, the increasing inter-marriage rate between whites and blacks/browns, but also a failing education system. Our schools care more about indoctrination than actual education these days. Elementary math is often taught by teachers who flunked algebra in high school. By the time most kids get to middle school, they've fallen too far behind.
    , @Chase
    I have to remind people all the time how truly and horrifyingly stupid most people are. My interaction with anyone with an IQ lower than ~115 is 100% superficial: the gas station attendant, waitress, etc. I like to say the best random sample of people you can find is the DMV. Everyone has to go, can’t get their assistants to do it. Do you want to be ruled by the folks around you at the DMV? Democracy - even though we haven’t had it for some time - is so stupid.
  6. @Felix Keverich

    Robin Hanson once wrote a blog post about how reasonably intelligent people (for instance, the sort of people who read his blog) tend to overestimate how smart everyone else is.
     
    I for one never make this mistake! For example, I knew that blocking Telegram was going to stifle its user growth in Russia, because most people are too dumb and too lazy to figure out how to use VPN.

    In my observation people who overstimate intelligence in others are themselves somewhat limited in their mental capacity - think of a typical college-educated Western liberal, who is reasonably "smart", and thinks that African immigrants are smart people just like him.

    It takes a special kind of intelligence to see limitations in others, and some people are even smart enough to aknowledge their own limitations.


    Because in Brazil, only a tiny fraction of high school students can do anything much more complex than a simple, single-step arithmetic operation.
     
    That's an interesting finding and a bit unexpected, because Brazil has a substantial white population, who enjoy access to superior schooling. This massive gap in performance cannot be explained solely by race.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more "diverse"? I questioned America's ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.

    For example, I knew that blocking Telegram was going to stifle its user growth in Russia…

    I think this is a bit different since the average Telegram user is more sophisticated than the average. Now yes, if say odnoklassniki was blocked, then usage would plummet. But I haven’t noticed any major decline in usage amongst the people who were using it, e.g. people at a state-owned company that I was doing contract work for when the ban went into effect. Also, as I’m sure you well known, the actual blocking has been highly ineffective. I don’t even have to use VPN to access it 99% of the time.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more “diverse”? I questioned America’s ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.

    In Hive Mind, Garett Jones mentions the peer effect – studies showing people work harder when they are observed by hard workers. It’s highly plausible that the same goes for intellectual achievement. Not much point in working your brain off when surrounded by dumbos, since most success is relative, not absolute.

    • Replies: @Wizard of Oz
    Level 4 surely creates an anomaly. Despite being very tired and sleepy I was able to figure out the answers on the other 5 levels almost as fast as I could read them but Level 4 held me up with visualisation and interpretation. On returning to it I decided the diagrams were telling me that the two people could leap in where the arrow said Entry and out where it said Exit so that the first two would be in and out of the door in 60÷4÷3 = 5 seconds, 2×12 would be through each minute and the number for 30 minutes could be as high as 720. But surely that's not as easy as Levels 5 and 6?
    , @Felix Keverich
    Actually, Telеgram usage declined in Russia since the ban was introduced. Keep up!

    https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3701472

    They had very strong growth going into ban, but since then a decline of 23%.
    , @KDM
    This is probably why everyone wants “white” kids in their diverse schools. Asians even want to go to school with white kids (probably so they look smarter against the mediocre whites, shrugs).
  7. @DFH
    Looking at this makes me a little sceptical of how well the PISA tests measure competence (at least in absolute terms).
    For instance, the claim that only such a small percentage of British schoolchildren can do advanced maths seems to be contradicted by the fact that over half can pass their Maths GCSEs, which require competence in similar levels of Maths.

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/aug/24/proportion-of-students-getting-good-gcse-grades-falls-after-reforms

    GCSEs involve years of teaching to the test. Format is predictable, changes little from year to year. Past exams are available for practice.

    In contrast, PISA presents novel problems of the sort one is more likely to encounter in real life.

    • Replies: @Aslangeo
    This is true - British teachers get graded and promoted on their GCSE (high school exam taken at age 16) results. The schools are also marked on their GCSE results and graded in published school league tables. Therefore there is massive pressure to get kids through, all teaching of 14 to 16 year old kids is geared to getting them to pass the exams which determine if they they can go on to do A levels (university entrance exams for 18 year old)

    School reputations also matter , I volunteered at a local school which had a banner displayed at the school entrance proudly announcing a 98% pass rate. Many kids however tend to forget everything that they had been taught in maths pretty quickly. There is also an anti maths prejudice amongst many girls and people from the white working class British community

    Another thing that volunteering at the school enabled me to see is how varied the general population's intelligence really is. Those of us who have worked in cognitive professions and went to Ivy League or Russell Group (or equivalent universities) are normally surrounded by reasonably smart people and as Anatoly said assume that everyone is just like us. They are not
    , @Peasant
    You really cannot teach to the test with advanced mathematics. The answer is that there is no such thing as advanced mathematics on a GCSE test. My test was (by international standards) easy and even then I and most others only scraped by with a C. A freind of my sister retook a maths GCSE at age 30 (she is training to be a teacher) and only scraped by with a C.

    The teaching of mathematics outside of private schools in the UK is a horrifyingly bad joke.
  8. “Or why a coffee at a cafe costs 10X less than in Turkey than in Norway”.
    10X less?
    Or 1/10th as much?

    • Agree: Byrresheim
  9. I think Karlin is converging on my elitist “nationalism”. The proles require leadership and noblesse oblige.

    It should not be forgotten that they have have very useful specific knowledge and skills and are often immune to “clever sillies” nonsense. I have double digit IQ employees who can work miracles with their hands.

    Our task is to mobilize them as soldiers to crush and replace existing elites with ourselves.

    • Replies: @iffen
    The proles require leadership and noblesse oblige.

    But they have to "like" you to follow you and that leaves out about 99.9% of would be elite leaders.
    , @Colin Wright
    '...Our task is to mobilize them as soldiers to crush and replace existing elites with ourselves.'

    Nice to hear someone else with some common sense.
    , @Serrice
    Been saying this for three years
  10. Post of the year. I mean it.

    Oh I’m gonna have fun playing this test and telling the results per country to people in China.

  11. @Felix Keverich

    Robin Hanson once wrote a blog post about how reasonably intelligent people (for instance, the sort of people who read his blog) tend to overestimate how smart everyone else is.
     
    I for one never make this mistake! For example, I knew that blocking Telegram was going to stifle its user growth in Russia, because most people are too dumb and too lazy to figure out how to use VPN.

    In my observation people who overstimate intelligence in others are themselves somewhat limited in their mental capacity - think of a typical college-educated Western liberal, who is reasonably "smart", and thinks that African immigrants are smart people just like him.

    It takes a special kind of intelligence to see limitations in others, and some people are even smart enough to aknowledge their own limitations.


    Because in Brazil, only a tiny fraction of high school students can do anything much more complex than a simple, single-step arithmetic operation.
     
    That's an interesting finding and a bit unexpected, because Brazil has a substantial white population, who enjoy access to superior schooling. This massive gap in performance cannot be explained solely by race.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more "diverse"? I questioned America's ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.

    The fact that Argentines are so dumb (0% even getting level 5) when they are 80% white is what I find most astonishing. Maybe they are just extremely lazy.

    • Replies: @Nznz
    How can it be so bad when their average is 96?
    , @AaronB
    The Argentinean probably saunters casually into the testing room thinking - why the f*** should I take this irrelevant nonsense seriously. That steak and wine dinner last night was amazing, I think ill save my mental effort for that history of Russian literature I'm reading.

    The Chinese guy walks grim-faced and serious into the room thinking - I must give this totally irrelevant question my absolute maximum effort, for the honor of my family and to avenge the humiliations of the Opium War and show we're equal to whites!

    Much later, guys like Anatoly Karlin scratch their heads and simply can't figure out why IQ tests significantly fail to measure up to real world outcomes between countries and groups, and individuals.

    Oh well, they say to themselves, w'ell just ignore the pesky details.

    And so the human comedy goes.
    , @Duke of Qin
    The simple answer is that Argentine demographics aren't 80% white, or at least not what would fall as European under North American definitions. A century of gradual decline is a century of shifting population ratios due to differentiate fertility.

    Also it needs to be said that the nations of Latin America are running de facto caste systems due to assortative mating. Caste systems have the side effect of maintained system stability at the cost of overall competitiveness because elite intragroup competition is much smaller and selection pressures much weaker because the proles are so dimwitted that they don't pose any threat.
    , @Epigon
    C’mon, everyone knows Argentinians are NOT white
    , @songbird
    I wonder how much emigration there's been of smarter Argentinians. Got to figure, the country is pretty unstable politically.

    Still, it is hard to reconcile Chile which is lower white, higher Amerind.

    I believe that the Amerind percentages are increasing in both places, at least theoretically, due to immigration.
    , @Bruno
    There is a stupid program in Spain for semi famous people where they like to test the IQ of the guest with a real psychologist . The Argentinian who had been tested was the dumbest ever on the program (90 versus an average of 115) for most guests. She was known in Argentina .

    Maybe the dumbest of Spanish and Italian migrated there ....
  12. Gigerenzers Work showed that tests, like the above, are strongly format dependent. Change the test format to one to which our cognitive abilities are evolutionary adapted and performance will improve a lot.

    The main problem I have with these tests is, that they are mostly irrelevant, in the same sense as university education is mostly irrelevant to work place performance, since most skills are *learned* when they are needed and kept in strength as long as they are needed. University and schools degrees are at best a kind of signaling of discipline, obedience and the like.

    What is more relevant than IQ imho (which has a dissapointing intra-individual validity btw; test the same individual at different times and you get different results, fluctuating up to 20%), is how *fast* an individual can behavioraly adapt to environmental requirements. Put differently, it is more important how fast an individual can learn or change its behavioral repertoire. Some individuals learn faster than others and are therefore more adaptible to and therefore successful in changing environements.

    You can train rats, pigeons and dogs quite surprisingly complex tasks. With the proper symbolic format (like colored buttons) and training you could train a rat to perform simple symbolic algorithms (think of how a turing machine operates). Human behavior is even more adaptable, putting the tests above in the purview of IQ-70 populations – with proper training that is (IQ tests are also subject to training effects btw, i.e. you can train for high IQ test scores).

    What is missing in the intelligence debate is a measure of this second order behavior, or the ability to learn new behaviors.

    • Replies: @Dmitry

    Some individuals learn faster than others and are therefore more adaptible to and therefore successful in changing environements.

     

    This might be supported, by a currently strong correlation between academic ability, and person's occupational and geographical mobility.

    People with higher academic achievements, are having more mobility on average both between professions, and also geographically movement between different industrial centers.

    But can you disentangle this from a fact that people with higher academic ability, have far greater opportunities and motivations for mobility? Visa requirements for many countries are quite openly based on skill levels.

    On the other hand, workers in some industries are often appearing not so much unable, as simply psychologically motivated not to change and adapt, with an almost cultural resistance to it.

    In discussions on this topic, it is usually referred to Margaret Thatcher, who has famously and unsuccessfully tried to break the laziness and immobility of British workers, that refused to adapt to the decline of their coal industry by changing profession.

    There is a depressing sense of "premature aging" in such cultures, professions and social strata, where people become very rigid against learning new topics after a certain age - and this rigidity surely being less a product of inability, than lack of willpower.

    , @Tyrion 2
    Yes to your post.

    What is missing in the intelligence debate is a measure of this second order behavior, or the ability to learn new behaviors.
     
    I don't think such a test is possible. At least not in a standard format. The results would be too random were the test not many hours or days long. Also, testing the ability to learn genuinely new behaviours requires the test creators to come up with new behaviours for every test, which would be extremely creative.
    , @dux.ie
    > What is missing in the intelligence debate is a measure of this second order behavior, or the ability to learn new behaviors.

    PISA Maths tends to test the application of mathematical knowledge to solve problems set in real-world contexts. While others like TIMSS, SAT, ACT tend to test classroom contents. There is a different OECD test on "Creative Problem Solving" CPS (which measures students’ capacity to respond to non-routine, fuzzy and ill defined situations in order to achieve their potential as constructive and reflective citizens) from a different testing body supervised by OECD,

    http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/pisa-2012-results-skills-for-life-volume-v_9789264208070-en

    The creative problem solving ability can be characterized by the ability to utilize (existing) knowledge and the ability for new knowledge acquisition. In the OECD Creative Problem Survey CPS, various countries were survey for the 15 yo on their ability in these two respects,

    http://i63.tinypic.com/5eimif.png

    The test is objective interaction with computers (to take out the human element) which present the fuzzy and ill defined novel problems and some (not all required) knowledge, and additional info will only be given only when the candidate intuitively know what additional knowledge are required and ask/search for them. Significant number of students just stared blankly at the screen. Rote learning does not help.

    There is tight relationship between the two characteristics, those above the regression line are generally more generalistic than specialistic and vice versa. If that is true then most western countries are more generalistic than specialistic whereas the East Asian countries are more specialistic, in complete contradiction to the commonly held narrative that they are mostly rote learners. (The testing organization is European.) What is more staggering is the gap between the top specialistic countries with the rest. Read the results from the OECD report. Very entertaining.
    , @HardcoreZen
    As I consider this response I ask myself why. Why am I reading this, why am interested, and what is the value of my response... Knowing that the value will be dictated by each and every reader based on an infinite number of variables just as as variable in context purpose, origin, and value in conveying MY thoughts from the abstract construct of my mind.

    Most I read are thoughtful and intelligent even when contrary. However they also are very masturbatory of ego...

    No man is without ego.

    Where does human psychology fit in this pedantic recursive self referential masturbatory conversation on human intellect?

    What is the role of the in-the-most-generic-sense 'higher-self', 'super-ego', 'übermensch' function of the human psyche? Is this were all the conversation on measuring intellect fail? IQ as I understand it is supposed to serve this function but a review of the comments most clearly demonstrates humans as petty and egotistical regardless of IQ.

    Moreover, where is the standardization of IQ testing and who sets it? Do you 'assume' it is the brightest and most intelligent? Those with the highest IQ in the human race being sequestered to a secret meeting where they set the standards of intelligence in the world...

    In my mind which consistently gives varying degrees of intelligence based on the irrefutable neuroscience that my brain operates on chemistry... Has the courage to refute my seeming intelligence and challenge it for what it honestly is. A human organ as frail and subject to environmental stresses as any other, and in many respects far more fragile to physical damage.

    What this general discourse on IQ does is masturbate the ego of those at the peak of intellect in their lives. Something that vanishes with simple physical trauma. Oh yes, the human body will demonstrate resilience in this regard but never back to the original state. Brain damage is forever when compared as before and after states.
  13. @DFH
    The fact that Argentines are so dumb (0% even getting level 5) when they are 80% white is what I find most astonishing. Maybe they are just extremely lazy.

    How can it be so bad when their average is 96?

  14. @DFH
    The fact that Argentines are so dumb (0% even getting level 5) when they are 80% white is what I find most astonishing. Maybe they are just extremely lazy.

    The Argentinean probably saunters casually into the testing room thinking – why the f*** should I take this irrelevant nonsense seriously. That steak and wine dinner last night was amazing, I think ill save my mental effort for that history of Russian literature I’m reading.

    The Chinese guy walks grim-faced and serious into the room thinking – I must give this totally irrelevant question my absolute maximum effort, for the honor of my family and to avenge the humiliations of the Opium War and show we’re equal to whites!

    Much later, guys like Anatoly Karlin scratch their heads and simply can’t figure out why IQ tests significantly fail to measure up to real world outcomes between countries and groups, and individuals.

    Oh well, they say to themselves, w’ell just ignore the pesky details.

    And so the human comedy goes.

    • Agree: utu, Triumph104
    • Troll: Anatoly Karlin
    • Replies: @Talha

    to avenge the humiliations of the Opium War
     
    LOOOOOL!!!!

    Peace.
    , @AaronB
    Don't troll me Anatoly - you must admit one of the most ridiculous things about HBD is how it purports to notice and celebrate a rich diversity in all human traits....except for competitive desire.

    That is supposed to be utterly invariant and constant across race, ethnic group, culture, history, environment, recent national humiliation, and time.

    This assumption is necessary to make competitive endeavors meaningful - if one group simply isn't competing as hard, kind of makes it less fun :)

    When you play sports, it feels really shitty when the other team just doesn't give it their best effort - really spoils the fun. We were all there, as kids.

    So believe me I get it. But it won't stop me poking fun at you silly kids :)
    , @Anonymous
    And the black guy blows off the test even more than the white people do. So that must mean that blacks have equal IQs than whites right?
  15. @DFH
    The fact that Argentines are so dumb (0% even getting level 5) when they are 80% white is what I find most astonishing. Maybe they are just extremely lazy.

    The simple answer is that Argentine demographics aren’t 80% white, or at least not what would fall as European under North American definitions. A century of gradual decline is a century of shifting population ratios due to differentiate fertility.

    Also it needs to be said that the nations of Latin America are running de facto caste systems due to assortative mating. Caste systems have the side effect of maintained system stability at the cost of overall competitiveness because elite intragroup competition is much smaller and selection pressures much weaker because the proles are so dimwitted that they don’t pose any threat.

    • Replies: @Nznz
    Well the White Mexican IQ is around 100 and White Mexicans are not that smart acting.
    , @DFH
    I thought I had read in the past that the Amerindian admixture in Argentines was about 20%, but apparently I was wrong; it is more like 30% with another 5% black (at best). That makes a lot more sense.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentines#DNA_Genetics_studies

    Apparently in Chile it is even more, 40%, which surprises me very much since I have been there and (those that I met) did not look it.

  16. @Felix Keverich

    Robin Hanson once wrote a blog post about how reasonably intelligent people (for instance, the sort of people who read his blog) tend to overestimate how smart everyone else is.
     
    I for one never make this mistake! For example, I knew that blocking Telegram was going to stifle its user growth in Russia, because most people are too dumb and too lazy to figure out how to use VPN.

    In my observation people who overstimate intelligence in others are themselves somewhat limited in their mental capacity - think of a typical college-educated Western liberal, who is reasonably "smart", and thinks that African immigrants are smart people just like him.

    It takes a special kind of intelligence to see limitations in others, and some people are even smart enough to aknowledge their own limitations.


    Because in Brazil, only a tiny fraction of high school students can do anything much more complex than a simple, single-step arithmetic operation.
     
    That's an interesting finding and a bit unexpected, because Brazil has a substantial white population, who enjoy access to superior schooling. This massive gap in performance cannot be explained solely by race.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more "diverse"? I questioned America's ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.

    some people are even smart enough to a(c)knowledge their own limitations.

    By this standard I must be very intelligent.

    • Replies: @DFH
    Average IQ of AK blog commentors is unironically probably very high. I would guess that the average IQ of almost any interent forum is reasonably above average high.
    , @Abelard Lindsey
    A good man always knows his limitations.
  17. @DFH
    The fact that Argentines are so dumb (0% even getting level 5) when they are 80% white is what I find most astonishing. Maybe they are just extremely lazy.

    C’mon, everyone knows Argentinians are NOT white

  18. @Thorfinnsson
    I think Karlin is converging on my elitist "nationalism". The proles require leadership and noblesse oblige.

    It should not be forgotten that they have have very useful specific knowledge and skills and are often immune to "clever sillies" nonsense. I have double digit IQ employees who can work miracles with their hands.

    Our task is to mobilize them as soldiers to crush and replace existing elites with ourselves.

    The proles require leadership and noblesse oblige.

    But they have to “like” you to follow you and that leaves out about 99.9% of would be elite leaders.

    • Agree: Talha
    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    If he uses a kitten for an avatar 99% of people will click "like."
    , @foolisholdman
    This where the British communist were (probably still are) so stupid. Most of them were intellectuals of one sort or another and consequently looked down (I mean they showed that they looked down) on the very few working class comrades they had, which was very bad for morale as can be imagined. As most of them had never done proletarian jobs, they had no idea how industrial working class people spoke. And they had very little idea how anti-intellectual or more generally how anti-posh most working people in Britain are. Their voices marked them out as "posh" the moment they opened their mouths.

    Because they valued education, they usually sent their children to private schools or at least to the "better sort of state school", so that their children also grew up not knowing how to speak to ordinary working class people, so even if the children survived their schooling
    without turning into conservatives or social democrats, they were still utterly useless at propaganda.

    Having worked on a variety of factory floors, I knew that most of their propaganda was an entirely wasted effort and I tried to explain this to them, but the usual response was that: I wanted them to "talk down to" their intended audience. They seemed not to grasp the fact that they might just as well have written their leaflets in Latin or German because the usual reaction to them was derision and/or incomprehension.

    Mao at least, understood this problem, though even in China some of his comrades thought his propaganda speeches and writings "rather shockingly uncouth".
  19. @Duke of Qin
    The simple answer is that Argentine demographics aren't 80% white, or at least not what would fall as European under North American definitions. A century of gradual decline is a century of shifting population ratios due to differentiate fertility.

    Also it needs to be said that the nations of Latin America are running de facto caste systems due to assortative mating. Caste systems have the side effect of maintained system stability at the cost of overall competitiveness because elite intragroup competition is much smaller and selection pressures much weaker because the proles are so dimwitted that they don't pose any threat.

    Well the White Mexican IQ is around 100 and White Mexicans are not that smart acting.

  20. @Duke of Qin
    The simple answer is that Argentine demographics aren't 80% white, or at least not what would fall as European under North American definitions. A century of gradual decline is a century of shifting population ratios due to differentiate fertility.

    Also it needs to be said that the nations of Latin America are running de facto caste systems due to assortative mating. Caste systems have the side effect of maintained system stability at the cost of overall competitiveness because elite intragroup competition is much smaller and selection pressures much weaker because the proles are so dimwitted that they don't pose any threat.

    I thought I had read in the past that the Amerindian admixture in Argentines was about 20%, but apparently I was wrong; it is more like 30% with another 5% black (at best). That makes a lot more sense.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentines#DNA_Genetics_studies

    Apparently in Chile it is even more, 40%, which surprises me very much since I have been there and (those that I met) did not look it.

  21. @for-the-record
    some people are even smart enough to a(c)knowledge their own limitations.

    By this standard I must be very intelligent.

    Average IQ of AK blog commentors is unironically probably very high. I would guess that the average IQ of almost any interent forum is reasonably above average high.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Agree unironically. Like at least 110. That's astronomically high by global standards.
  22. Anonymous[270] • Disclaimer says:

    The problem with Level 6 Math is that the correct answer as given is 28 whereas the actual one is 28.3(3). That the test-takers were not able to come up with a sensible question that tests concepts such as rates/normalization AND returns an integer answer speaks of low IQ of the test designers.

    Not arguing the main point, of course! The ranking is still roughly meaningful. That is, a largish part of the difference between Switzerland and Albania (or Singapore and Jamaica) can be explained in terms of the tests results shown.

    • Replies: @DFH

    the actual one is 28.3
     
    How?
    , @Anatoly Karlin
    No, the answer is 28 km/h. She traveled 7 km in 15 minutes (quarter of an hour).
    , @Epigon
    Congratulations, you are a subhuman
    , @ussr andy
    ha, I too took the arithmetic mean (in my defense, it already felt dodgy)

    Apparently, (bolding mine)


    ...given a series of sub-trips at different speeds, if each sub-trip covers the same distance, then the average speed is the harmonic mean of all the sub-trip speeds; and if each sub-trip takes the same amount of time, then the average speed is the arithmetic mean of all the sub-trip speeds. (If neither is the case, then a weighted harmonic mean or weighted arithmetic mean is needed. For the arithmetic mean, the speed of each portion of the trip is weighted by the duration of that portion, while for the harmonic mean, the corresponding weight is the distance. In both cases, the resulting formula reduces to dividing the total distance by the total time.
    (...)
    -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_mean
     
    , @NestorGoldman
    9 minutes of the ride was 26.6km/h and 6 minutes at 30.

    so how do you figure out the average?
    , @Bruno
    You would be right (i guess because I don’t bother to calculate it) if the question were about the average by traject, indepently of each traject length. But the question explicitly ask to calculate the speed for the « trip to the river and back »

    If calling you subhuman is really nasty, you should be more careful when reading and even more careful before criticizing. At a much higher cognitive level, there were many university math teacher who insulted Vos Savant Monthy Hall problem, and they had to eat their hat ...
    , @Bruno
    You would be right (i guess because I don’t bother to calculate it) if the question were about the average by traject, indepently of each traject length. But the question explicitly ask to calculate the speed for the « trip to the river and back »

    If calling you subhuman is really nasty, you should be more careful when reading and even more careful before criticizing. At a much higher cognitive level, there were many university math teacher who insulted Vos Savant Monthy Hall problem, and they had to eat their hat ...
    , @Tyrion 2
    Excellent trolling anon. Everyone with half an education considered doing what you did but then instantly smacked their head as to why they would bother. Doing this on a post about intelligence and also getting it wrong were nice touches.
    , @Lorne Carmichael
    She biked 7 km in 15 minutes. How is the answer not 28?
  23. What accounts for the relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA tests, but their exceptional performance in mathematical olympiads, where they outperformed the UK and France?

    • Replies: @Anatoly Karlin
    As with chess, the Communist bloc cared much more about these Olympiads.
    , @Epigon
    Those International Science Olympiads (Math, Physics, Informatics, Chemistry) are a combination of talent/IQ and drill - devoted study and preparation under mentors and University student volunteers.
    Or simple homeschooling/extra effort in private time.
    Top High School students/teens are chosen and then specially prepared. There are typical, standard problem in those exams, and solving the previous years’ exams helps a lot. Exams are compiled by all competitor states contributing problem proposals.
    Generally, it is teens/highschoolers competing at solving university level problems.
    , @Peripatetic commenter
    It may be that the Bulgarians and Romanians have a larger variance than other European populations and that Bulgaria and Romania sorts through their populations to find those at the extreme RHS of the curve for math ability.

    It should be remembered that the Catholic Church (and the Protestant religions as well) have discourage cousin marriage out to about sixth cousins as a way to avoid the concentration of wealth in the hands of clans, but it would also have served to spread the genes around and stop the concentration of certain skills among certain clans as well (until modern assortative mating came along with the advent of more people going to college.)

    It seems likely that Bulgaria and Romania were not controlled by Catholic church or that parts of it were not.

    Cf, also, the Endogamy practiced by the Jews, resulting in certain effects.

    , @notanon

    relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA
     
    mountains

    (mountainous regions are often low iodine so my guess is regions that look like this

    https://www.worldmapsonline.com/images/tp-eu-detail3_lg.jpg

    will have unusually high variance)
    , @Dmitry
    In mathematical olympiads, they test the maths skills of a few talented, not necessarily representative, kids.

    In PISA, they are testing cultural conformity, of a wider sample of children, to the OECD's educational psychologists. (Iit is not testing any maths skills, so much as question decoding - and the latter explains the differences between nations).

    You would not expect such strong connection between these two things, as they are two quite different measurements.

    They might still be interesting in themselves though. The PISA stuff really needs to read alongside the OECD's own descriptions of their aims and ideology.

    Their essays and methodology available online. (They want everyone to conform to their own pedagogical ideas, and PISA is their weapon for pushing their ideas through).

    https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/pisa_19963777

    , @Tyrion 2

    What accounts for the relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA tests, but their exceptional performance in mathematical olympiads, where they outperformed the UK and France?
     
    Surely your own words "exceptional performance in mathematical olympiads" answers your own question?

    What next? All the best stamp collections belong to us? A few people from our country are really good at Scrabble? Or Boggle...
  24. @DFH
    The fact that Argentines are so dumb (0% even getting level 5) when they are 80% white is what I find most astonishing. Maybe they are just extremely lazy.

    I wonder how much emigration there’s been of smarter Argentinians. Got to figure, the country is pretty unstable politically.

    Still, it is hard to reconcile Chile which is lower white, higher Amerind.

    I believe that the Amerind percentages are increasing in both places, at least theoretically, due to immigration.

  25. @Anonymous
    The problem with Level 6 Math is that the correct answer as given is 28 whereas the actual one is 28.3(3). That the test-takers were not able to come up with a sensible question that tests concepts such as rates/normalization AND returns an integer answer speaks of low IQ of the test designers.

    Not arguing the main point, of course! The ranking is still roughly meaningful. That is, a largish part of the difference between Switzerland and Albania (or Singapore and Jamaica) can be explained in terms of the tests results shown.

    the actual one is 28.3

    How?

    • Replies: @myself
    Yeah, it had unclear wording, so you couldn't be quite sure what it was asking.

    But, yes, depending on the precise question, both answers are valid.

    Just depends on whether you figure the trip as one leg (whole round trip), or 2 separate legs (outgoing, incoming). Like the OP said, lazy test designers.
  26. Are these results bundled from paper and computer?

    I used to find it more difficult to take computer tests. I took a practice SAT on the computer, and then the real one without any further prep. On the real, I believe I scored like 200 pts. higher. Out of 1600, though of course it is scaled.

    I think it was a couple of things. Kids are discouraged from doing math in their heads. You’ve got to “show your work.” It is much more comfortable on the eyes to look at paper, and the noise of a computer, I think takes away like 10 IQ points.

  27. @Anonymous
    The problem with Level 6 Math is that the correct answer as given is 28 whereas the actual one is 28.3(3). That the test-takers were not able to come up with a sensible question that tests concepts such as rates/normalization AND returns an integer answer speaks of low IQ of the test designers.

    Not arguing the main point, of course! The ranking is still roughly meaningful. That is, a largish part of the difference between Switzerland and Albania (or Singapore and Jamaica) can be explained in terms of the tests results shown.

    No, the answer is 28 km/h. She traveled 7 km in 15 minutes (quarter of an hour).

    • Replies: @res
    Any thoughts on how the test makers expect the test takers to solve the problem? Done as you (and I) did it (4 + 3 km) / (9 + 6 minutes) * (60 minutes / 1 hour) = 28 km/h
    it is a trivial in your head computation with the numbers being conveniently round.

    Done the longer way computing the averages separately and combining them is a much more complex computation.

    Which better qualifies as level 6: realizing the easy way works, or being able to do the harder way correctly?
    , @Anonymous
    Isn't there some ambiguity in the question? Is the average per distance or time?

    Your calculation assumes an average based on time. However, if the average is based on distance, then it's not exactly 28.
  28. @Anon.
    What accounts for the relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA tests, but their exceptional performance in mathematical olympiads, where they outperformed the UK and France?

    As with chess, the Communist bloc cared much more about these Olympiads.

  29. I wonder what the sample questions are on that African test that they administer to avoid comparison with other countries’ PISA results.

    • Replies: @DFH
    I could not find this, but found something else entertaining in one of the papers.

    In the TIMSS 1995 assessment, eighth-grade students were asked to solve the same math question mentioned above (“x/2 < 7 is equivalent to”). In 19 out of 39 mostly developed countries, eighth graders did as well or even better than teachers in the worst-performing Sub- Saharan country (Lesotho) and in four countries they did even better than the average teacher in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, 47% of eighth-grade students in the United States could solve this math question, and—judging by this item alone—are therefore at the level of teachers in Botswana and Namibia.
     
    also

    For instance, in a large-scale assessment across Sub- Saharan African countries, sixth-grade students were asked to choose the correct formula for calculating the number of remaining pages in a 130-page book when the first 78 pages have already been read. Only 30% of the students were able to answer this question correctly. In comparison, two-thirds of fourth-grade students from OECD countries answered this question correctly. Even in the worst-performing OECD country, the United Kingdom, fourth-grade students did substantially better than the average sixth- grade student in Sub-Saharan Africa.
     
  30. @Anonymous
    The problem with Level 6 Math is that the correct answer as given is 28 whereas the actual one is 28.3(3). That the test-takers were not able to come up with a sensible question that tests concepts such as rates/normalization AND returns an integer answer speaks of low IQ of the test designers.

    Not arguing the main point, of course! The ranking is still roughly meaningful. That is, a largish part of the difference between Switzerland and Albania (or Singapore and Jamaica) can be explained in terms of the tests results shown.

    Congratulations, you are a subhuman

    • LOL: Tyrion 2
  31. @Anon.
    What accounts for the relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA tests, but their exceptional performance in mathematical olympiads, where they outperformed the UK and France?

    Those International Science Olympiads (Math, Physics, Informatics, Chemistry) are a combination of talent/IQ and drill – devoted study and preparation under mentors and University student volunteers.
    Or simple homeschooling/extra effort in private time.
    Top High School students/teens are chosen and then specially prepared. There are typical, standard problem in those exams, and solving the previous years’ exams helps a lot. Exams are compiled by all competitor states contributing problem proposals.
    Generally, it is teens/highschoolers competing at solving university level problems.

    • Replies: @dux.ie
    > Generally, it is teens/highschoolers competing at solving university level problems.

    There were IMO problems that were extremely hard, e.g. IMO 1988 Problem 6, which was field tested with a group of professional mathematicians who could not solved it in 6 hours and they expected the IMO competitiors to solve it in 15 min.

    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=math+olympiad+problem+6&uploaded=a&aq=f

    The narrator a university lecturer admitted he took one year to solve the problem.

    , @Bruno
    Completely wrong. Olympiad math are pure g for high school people interested in math. You can’t prsent it when your at university level !


    And if you are audicious épigone, the way you handle figures in your site completely on criticizing anonymous error (if you even able to understand it ). If you are not , you are just rude .
  32. @Epigon
    PISA tests are a meme; at least here.

    “Here’s your test on a computer, kids”
    “Does it impact our grades?”
    “Nope”
    “Are the test results public?”
    “Nope”
    “LOL, watch this - record time”

    :Everyone does it as quickly as possible, those who try hard might be called out as nerds and uncool:

    Seriously, I have a distinct feeling that Asian schools prepare their kids in advance. The same way most of schools here practically abandoned normal teaching programme and instituted year long preparations aimed at drilling students into solving the specific exams that constitute the Abitur/Matura.
    Also, don’t pretend that actual IQ test solving can’t be trained.

    This was already measured and the results were recently IIRC posted on unz.com somewhere. In short, you are wrong.

    On both issues, BTW. You can train IQ tests, but after training the value of the results fall (you can express taht idea in either saying g-loading will fall, or that the skills are not trasnferable to another task).

    • Replies: @Seth Largo
    I'd like to see that data (and if it's self-reported, well, I'd probably lie about taking these tests seriously, too). Epigon is right. The vast majority of kids taking tests that don't affect their grades put zero effort into the test. I didn't. I got abysmal scores on PISA-type tests.

    /98th percentile GRE (a test I very much cared about)
  33. The most significant thing is that the results seems to be the same from immigrants children (Steve Sailer was posting once the results somewhere) i.e. Tunisians in Germany do not have results of the native Germans, but much worse.

    • Replies: @res
    Do you have a link to that analysis? I am curious how those results correspond to the IAB Brain Drain data. I use the latter as a measure of immigration selectivity and it would be useful if the PISA variation between source/host country pairs could serve as validation.
  34. @Anatoly Karlin
    GCSEs involve years of teaching to the test. Format is predictable, changes little from year to year. Past exams are available for practice.

    In contrast, PISA presents novel problems of the sort one is more likely to encounter in real life.

    This is true – British teachers get graded and promoted on their GCSE (high school exam taken at age 16) results. The schools are also marked on their GCSE results and graded in published school league tables. Therefore there is massive pressure to get kids through, all teaching of 14 to 16 year old kids is geared to getting them to pass the exams which determine if they they can go on to do A levels (university entrance exams for 18 year old)

    School reputations also matter , I volunteered at a local school which had a banner displayed at the school entrance proudly announcing a 98% pass rate. Many kids however tend to forget everything that they had been taught in maths pretty quickly. There is also an anti maths prejudice amongst many girls and people from the white working class British community

    Another thing that volunteering at the school enabled me to see is how varied the general population’s intelligence really is. Those of us who have worked in cognitive professions and went to Ivy League or Russell Group (or equivalent universities) are normally surrounded by reasonably smart people and as Anatoly said assume that everyone is just like us. They are not

    • Replies: @DFH
    People from non-Oxbridge/LSE/Imperial Russell Group universities usually seem a little slow, tbh
    , @PiqueABoo
    A GCSE Maths 'pass' (was seen as grade C but with nuGCSEs that's now grade 4) isn't very difficult and you only need correct answers for roughly 20% of the questions.

    Regarding prejudice, my (just) 15-year-old daughter is an anomalous, strong maths-geek and I've long been curious about this area. For girls I think it is less about them being anti-maths and more about them being pro-English.

    Piles of research has long had girls being better at reading/writing/verbal stuff than maths on average and unless there is a compelling economic or social motive to do otherwise, then children tend to pick their best(=favourite) subjects when contemplating post-GCSE choices. See 'the gender paradox" re. super-gender-neutral Sweden having one of the worst percentages for female representation in STEM etc.
  35. @songbird
    I wonder what the sample questions are on that African test that they administer to avoid comparison with other countries' PISA results.

    I could not find this, but found something else entertaining in one of the papers.

    In the TIMSS 1995 assessment, eighth-grade students were asked to solve the same math question mentioned above (“x/2 < 7 is equivalent to”). In 19 out of 39 mostly developed countries, eighth graders did as well or even better than teachers in the worst-performing Sub- Saharan country (Lesotho) and in four countries they did even better than the average teacher in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, 47% of eighth-grade students in the United States could solve this math question, and—judging by this item alone—are therefore at the level of teachers in Botswana and Namibia.

    also

    For instance, in a large-scale assessment across Sub- Saharan African countries, sixth-grade students were asked to choose the correct formula for calculating the number of remaining pages in a 130-page book when the first 78 pages have already been read. Only 30% of the students were able to answer this question correctly. In comparison, two-thirds of fourth-grade students from OECD countries answered this question correctly. Even in the worst-performing OECD country, the United Kingdom, fourth-grade students did substantially better than the average sixth- grade student in Sub-Saharan Africa.

    • Replies: @songbird
    It's quite funny to think about how the results of standardized tests are often given as geographic percentiles. In America: state vs. national. But geographic percentiles are close to meaningless, and their primary significance comes from demographics differences.

    It would be better to straight up give demographic percentiles. More informative for the test-taker individually and also for understanding society at large. Of course, it will never happen because it would burst one of the main myths of education.
  36. @DFH
    Average IQ of AK blog commentors is unironically probably very high. I would guess that the average IQ of almost any interent forum is reasonably above average high.

    Agree unironically. Like at least 110. That’s astronomically high by global standards.

  37. It really is shocking to talk to a person with an IQ under 110. I don’t do it all that often, at least beyond small talk, but it’s always jarring when I get beyond pleasantries and realize that this person really, truly doesn’t understand the concept of “the state” or have a clue about geography or whatever thing I foolishly reference.

    My problem is that I’m often among the dumbest in the room, day to day, so it’s easy to forget that I’m actually smarter than most randomly selected people, and care about more than visual entertainment. Over the years I’ve learned to just shut up and not steer the conversation into “intense” areas. It’s exhausting and a big reason why I gravitate toward the internet. I’m not really all that smart but it’s hard to find a worthwhile conversation with a peer (especially one who won’t crimestop) offline. Thank God for venues like this one!

    • Replies: @Epigon
    That problem might have motivated Freemasonry and similar membership in the past, pre-Internet times.

    Also, to understand the concept of state, society and causalities in it, one must also be well informed about history and political theory, not just intelligent.

    Off topic; Anatoly, what is your opinion of Vitali A. Meliantsev and his works on economy of Russia?
    Specifically, the numbers he presents and issues he raises in “Russia’s comparative economic development in the long run”?
    , @Rosie

    It really is shocking to talk to a person with an IQ under 110.
     
    And just think, some people say such people should have a free hand to rule over their wives and children as they see fit.
    , @The Plutonium Kid

    I’m not really all that smart but it’s hard to find a worthwhile conversation with a peer (especially one who won’t crimestop) offline.
     
    I'm puzzled by what is meant by "crimestop" in this context. Sure, I'm aware of the Newspeak concept of crimestop in 1984, but you seem to be using it differently here. If so, please explain. Thanks in advance.
  38. @AaronB
    The Argentinean probably saunters casually into the testing room thinking - why the f*** should I take this irrelevant nonsense seriously. That steak and wine dinner last night was amazing, I think ill save my mental effort for that history of Russian literature I'm reading.

    The Chinese guy walks grim-faced and serious into the room thinking - I must give this totally irrelevant question my absolute maximum effort, for the honor of my family and to avenge the humiliations of the Opium War and show we're equal to whites!

    Much later, guys like Anatoly Karlin scratch their heads and simply can't figure out why IQ tests significantly fail to measure up to real world outcomes between countries and groups, and individuals.

    Oh well, they say to themselves, w'ell just ignore the pesky details.

    And so the human comedy goes.

    to avenge the humiliations of the Opium War

    LOOOOOL!!!!

    Peace.

  39. @Aslangeo
    This is true - British teachers get graded and promoted on their GCSE (high school exam taken at age 16) results. The schools are also marked on their GCSE results and graded in published school league tables. Therefore there is massive pressure to get kids through, all teaching of 14 to 16 year old kids is geared to getting them to pass the exams which determine if they they can go on to do A levels (university entrance exams for 18 year old)

    School reputations also matter , I volunteered at a local school which had a banner displayed at the school entrance proudly announcing a 98% pass rate. Many kids however tend to forget everything that they had been taught in maths pretty quickly. There is also an anti maths prejudice amongst many girls and people from the white working class British community

    Another thing that volunteering at the school enabled me to see is how varied the general population's intelligence really is. Those of us who have worked in cognitive professions and went to Ivy League or Russell Group (or equivalent universities) are normally surrounded by reasonably smart people and as Anatoly said assume that everyone is just like us. They are not

    People from non-Oxbridge/LSE/Imperial Russell Group universities usually seem a little slow, tbh

    • Replies: @Tyrion 2
    It is Oxbridge and then the rest. Plenty of quick people at the latter but only the former are consistently so.
  40. Conclusion of the article about “O-ring theory” in development economics, is interesting – I have not heard this before.

    But there is a problem in using PISA “maths” test.

    If you download the sample papers, PISA “maths” test with no maths. It’s more a kind of idle puzzle collection.

    -

    I respect OECD’s economics knowledge, and general ideology.

    One of the problems of OECD’s approach, is trying to test children at 16, which is when real education is only beginning.

    To find comparative gaps in education systems was the purpose of OECD , with the aim of giving recommendations to countries in areas where they need to “catch up” academically.

    For OECD, it was impossible to test any substantial knowledge of children, as different countries have different syllabuses for this age-group.

    So OECD presumably hired some educational psychologists to create these puzzle questions which they believe to be transnationally valid.

    As a result, a large part of what you are measuring is how children, in various countries, can decode confusing questions designed by the OECD to be transnational.

    It’s functioning partly as a test of children’s (or their educational systems’) level of conformity to OECD’s transnational organizational culture.

    In this sense, it’s quite useful for seeing which countries’ youth are “onboard” with their agenda.

    -

    Aside from this particular topic, I would advocate skepticism that testing youth at 16 in general, is going to demonstrate level of the adults in the society.

    People are maturing at different speeds, and I would hypothesize plenty of cases of stupider kids maturing faster than kids with higher potential.

    The correct age for testing should be 21 or 22, when people are academically mature.

    • Replies: @Wizard of Oz
    Your point about maturation ages as you state it is irrelevant unless you think there could be group differences of the kind you attribute to individuals.
    , @dux.ie
    > One of the problems of OECD’s approach, is trying to test children at 16, which is when real education is only beginning.

    Trying to hand wave the facts away? The national 15 yo OECD PISA scores are statistically very very significant for predicting the GRE Quant scores of the corresponding national university graduates (estimated age 21),

    http://i68.tinypic.com/21khsn5.png

    Even the PIRLS scores of the approx. 10 yo are statistically very very significant for predicting the national PISA scores. At approx. 10 yo the relative age effect is significant, the difference between the oldest and the youngest can be about 1 year. i.e. about 10%. A better prediction can be obtained by adjusting the national PIRLS scores to the total sample mean age at 10.14,

    http://i65.tinypic.com/juwfwo.png

    Even the approx. 10 yo national PIRLS scores are statistically fairly significant predictors for the 21 yo graduate GRE Quant scores.

    http://i68.tinypic.com/2w38ga0.png

    > For OECD, it was impossible to test any substantial knowledge of children, as different countries have different syllabuses for this age-group.

    It PISA did not test substantial ability (not knowledge as GRE demands different set of knowledge) why it can very statistical significantly predict the GRE performance? Even with different syllabuses for the East Asian countries many of which are not in OECD why they performed so well?
  41. @Dan Bagrov
    It really is shocking to talk to a person with an IQ under 110. I don’t do it all that often, at least beyond small talk, but it’s always jarring when I get beyond pleasantries and realize that this person really, truly doesn’t understand the concept of “the state” or have a clue about geography or whatever thing I foolishly reference.

    My problem is that I’m often among the dumbest in the room, day to day, so it’s easy to forget that I’m actually smarter than most randomly selected people, and care about more than visual entertainment. Over the years I’ve learned to just shut up and not steer the conversation into “intense” areas. It’s exhausting and a big reason why I gravitate toward the internet. I’m not really all that smart but it’s hard to find a worthwhile conversation with a peer (especially one who won’t crimestop) offline. Thank God for venues like this one!

    That problem might have motivated Freemasonry and similar membership in the past, pre-Internet times.

    Also, to understand the concept of state, society and causalities in it, one must also be well informed about history and political theory, not just intelligent.

    Off topic; Anatoly, what is your opinion of Vitali A. Meliantsev and his works on economy of Russia?
    Specifically, the numbers he presents and issues he raises in “Russia’s comparative economic development in the long run”?

  42. @Anonymous
    The problem with Level 6 Math is that the correct answer as given is 28 whereas the actual one is 28.3(3). That the test-takers were not able to come up with a sensible question that tests concepts such as rates/normalization AND returns an integer answer speaks of low IQ of the test designers.

    Not arguing the main point, of course! The ranking is still roughly meaningful. That is, a largish part of the difference between Switzerland and Albania (or Singapore and Jamaica) can be explained in terms of the tests results shown.

    ha, I too took the arithmetic mean (in my defense, it already felt dodgy)

    Apparently, (bolding mine)

    …given a series of sub-trips at different speeds, if each sub-trip covers the same distance, then the average speed is the harmonic mean of all the sub-trip speeds; and if each sub-trip takes the same amount of time, then the average speed is the arithmetic mean of all the sub-trip speeds. (If neither is the case, then a weighted harmonic mean or weighted arithmetic mean is needed. For the arithmetic mean, the speed of each portion of the trip is weighted by the duration of that portion, while for the harmonic mean, the corresponding weight is the distance. In both cases, the resulting formula reduces to dividing the total distance by the total time.
    (…)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_mean

  43. You travel from point A to B at an average speed of 20 km/h, and return at an average speed of 30km/h. What was your average speed for the round trip?

    • Replies: @ussr andy
    ((20^-1+30^-1)/2)^-1?
    , @Epigon
    24 km/h.
    The “trickier” (8th primary school/1st high school class physics) question would be: You drove from point A to point B.
    Half the time you drove 20 km/h, the other half 30 km/h. Your average speed was?
    , @ThreeCranes
    Or: you have the choice of going from A to B by either pedaling your bike up a 20 km hill at 10 km/h and descending for 20 km at 40 km/h OR of going around the hill on the flat road of 40 km at a constant 20 km/h. Which will get you there faster and what are the average speeds? (by the way, this is a reasonable approximation of the real effect gravity has upon moving a body overland, which is why the railroads surveyed the Wild West and then ran tracks on the levelest grades available)
    , @Hippopotamusdrome, @TheDividualist
    These stuff are really too easy. Let's just assume it was 30km away so the trip back was 1 hour and the trip there 1.5 hours. So 60km in 2.5 hours, that is obviously 24 km/h.

    Just like with question 6 (if she rode 7 km in a quarter hour, how much in a full hour?) it is reformulating the question in an easier way what is key, not solving it.

    In such reformulations I always set a variable at 1, in this case the duration of the trip back. Because if it is the distance or the trip to, I would have to work with less round numbers. This is really obvious help you can give yourself.

    BTW poor Americans. If she ran to the river which is 900 yards away in 9 minutes and she found a shorter route 1200 feet away so she ran back in 6 minutes, what is her min/mile running pace? What is the mpg of a car that followed her all the way at the same speed and burned 3 fluid ounces of gas? LOL. I really hope your kids have to deal with shit like this at school, maybe it will make them adopt metric.

  44. @blatnoi
    So why do foolproof sector workers in the US earn much more than foolproof sector workers in Korea? Or let's say if you take into account medical, maybe they earn the same, but they should earn a lot more based on the difference in the percentage that answered level 6 correctly. Maybe there are diminishing returns in this theory beyond a certain point.

    The o-ring story is just one layer to the full model, albeit possibly the most important layer. There’re other things that matter, such as the USA being founded and still mostly run on Anglo principles (seems good for max GDP per head), the US having never been invaded, having a 100 year head start on South Korea in terms of industrialization. Look at Japan, who has a simile IQ to Korea, lower skilled workers there are well compensated, Korea (and Russia and Poland et c.) will catch up as their GDP per capita asymptotes toward the IQ potential.

  45. Very nice article.

    The examples of specific questions highlight the problems in the Balkans, also.

  46. @for-the-record
    You travel from point A to B at an average speed of 20 km/h, and return at an average speed of 30km/h. What was your average speed for the round trip?

    ((20^-1+30^-1)/2)^-1?

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    ((20^-1+30^-1)/2)^-1?

    Correct, but it's much easier to see the answer (and calculate it in your head) if you choose a concrete distance (the result is obviously independent of the distance)-- 60 km being particularly convenient.
  47. @DFH
    I could not find this, but found something else entertaining in one of the papers.

    In the TIMSS 1995 assessment, eighth-grade students were asked to solve the same math question mentioned above (“x/2 < 7 is equivalent to”). In 19 out of 39 mostly developed countries, eighth graders did as well or even better than teachers in the worst-performing Sub- Saharan country (Lesotho) and in four countries they did even better than the average teacher in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, 47% of eighth-grade students in the United States could solve this math question, and—judging by this item alone—are therefore at the level of teachers in Botswana and Namibia.
     
    also

    For instance, in a large-scale assessment across Sub- Saharan African countries, sixth-grade students were asked to choose the correct formula for calculating the number of remaining pages in a 130-page book when the first 78 pages have already been read. Only 30% of the students were able to answer this question correctly. In comparison, two-thirds of fourth-grade students from OECD countries answered this question correctly. Even in the worst-performing OECD country, the United Kingdom, fourth-grade students did substantially better than the average sixth- grade student in Sub-Saharan Africa.
     

    It’s quite funny to think about how the results of standardized tests are often given as geographic percentiles. In America: state vs. national. But geographic percentiles are close to meaningless, and their primary significance comes from demographics differences.

    It would be better to straight up give demographic percentiles. More informative for the test-taker individually and also for understanding society at large. Of course, it will never happen because it would burst one of the main myths of education.

    • Replies: @AP
    Steve Sailer broke down PISA results by race. It was also done by race and state (you have to hunt for the latter in google). White people from the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey are among the highest-scoring people in the world.
  48. @AaronB
    The Argentinean probably saunters casually into the testing room thinking - why the f*** should I take this irrelevant nonsense seriously. That steak and wine dinner last night was amazing, I think ill save my mental effort for that history of Russian literature I'm reading.

    The Chinese guy walks grim-faced and serious into the room thinking - I must give this totally irrelevant question my absolute maximum effort, for the honor of my family and to avenge the humiliations of the Opium War and show we're equal to whites!

    Much later, guys like Anatoly Karlin scratch their heads and simply can't figure out why IQ tests significantly fail to measure up to real world outcomes between countries and groups, and individuals.

    Oh well, they say to themselves, w'ell just ignore the pesky details.

    And so the human comedy goes.

    Don’t troll me Anatoly – you must admit one of the most ridiculous things about HBD is how it purports to notice and celebrate a rich diversity in all human traits….except for competitive desire.

    That is supposed to be utterly invariant and constant across race, ethnic group, culture, history, environment, recent national humiliation, and time.

    This assumption is necessary to make competitive endeavors meaningful – if one group simply isn’t competing as hard, kind of makes it less fun :)

    When you play sports, it feels really shitty when the other team just doesn’t give it their best effort – really spoils the fun. We were all there, as kids.

    So believe me I get it. But it won’t stop me poking fun at you silly kids :)

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Executive function likely has a genetic component and this affects economic performance as well. I don't think this is about competition as much as it is about awareness; it may be that population A just "doesn't care" as much about solving infrastructural problems as opposed to population B.

    But population A's lack of caring will mean that their infrastructural problems will mount and cause real consequence, e.g. fewer roads, lack of electrical coverage, blackouts, contamination of water, and so on.

    Lack of caring for the consequence does not mean that the consequences will not materialize. Its not necessary to have a moral opinion on this to observe the effects of such.

    Incidentally, since I believe that increased smartphone use harms executive function(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563216304915) and there's some research to support this, this probably means that we'll see more harm across-the-board.

    , @Anonymous
    So your whole point is that the test is invalid because white people blew off the test while the yellows studied for the test in advance?

    I highly doubt this but let's examine this further. If that is the case, why did whites out score the Latinos and Africans?

    Maybe Asians pulled an all nighter, while whites studied forb2 hours, and Latinos didn't study at all. So maybe Latinos are as smart as white people since the test scores don't show that Latinos didn't study for the test?

    You would have to be low IQ to believe this stuff. The whole Asians study for IQ tests are just a meme to make white people feel better about themselves. Sorry to hurt your self esteem.
    , @dux.ie
    For most people (about 75% of the countries) competitive pressure reduces the performance. For example the OECD PISA also survey the competition level among the student, the percentage who wanted to be the best. The results,

    http://i63.tinypic.com/2v8fztg.jpg

    For most countries, the higher WantBestPct the worse the performance, except for about 25% who thrived with competitions.
  49. @ussr andy
    ((20^-1+30^-1)/2)^-1?

    ((20^-1+30^-1)/2)^-1?

    Correct, but it’s much easier to see the answer (and calculate it in your head) if you choose a concrete distance (the result is obviously independent of the distance)– 60 km being particularly convenient.

    • Replies: @ussr andy
    whatkindofsorceryisthis.gif
  50. @for-the-record
    You travel from point A to B at an average speed of 20 km/h, and return at an average speed of 30km/h. What was your average speed for the round trip?

    24 km/h.
    The “trickier” (8th primary school/1st high school class physics) question would be: You drove from point A to point B.
    Half the time you drove 20 km/h, the other half 30 km/h. Your average speed was?

    • Replies: @reiner Tor
    I didn't spend a lot of time solving it, so I might be wrong, but I thought the answer was 24.

    My thinking was, that I drove 1 hour there (20 km distance), and then back at 30 km/h (so I needed two thirds of an hour to get back, a.k.a. 40 minutes), so I drove an altogether 40 km distance in 100 minutes. This means 20 km in 50 minutes, and 1.2X20 km = 24 km in 60 minutes, so 24 km/h.

    Regardless if the distance was longer, it would be the same, just easier to calculate with 1 hour.

    Is it wrong?
    , @for-the-record
    Half the time you drove 20 km/h, the other half 30 km/h. Your average speed was?

    That's far easier than the other one, every one will get that right without thinking.
  51. @songbird
    It's quite funny to think about how the results of standardized tests are often given as geographic percentiles. In America: state vs. national. But geographic percentiles are close to meaningless, and their primary significance comes from demographics differences.

    It would be better to straight up give demographic percentiles. More informative for the test-taker individually and also for understanding society at large. Of course, it will never happen because it would burst one of the main myths of education.

    Steve Sailer broke down PISA results by race. It was also done by race and state (you have to hunt for the latter in google). White people from the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey are among the highest-scoring people in the world.

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    That is because the east coast is filled with Ashkenazi Jews which matches their 115 IQ.

    Take a sampling of white people from South Dakota and tell me what you get.
    , @Mr. XYZ
    Sailer also showed that the U.S. performs extremely well overall when its scores are broken down by race. What hurts the U.S. is its racial demographics.
  52. The sample problems of Level 1 to 6 are cluttered with noise of useless informations that is culturally and economic development dependent.

    Why do we need to know that Helen has a speedometer? 20-30 years ago speedometers showing averages speed were not common. If you had a speedometer it was mechanical showing instantaneous speed only. To get the average speed you need time keeping. But anyway the fact that Helen has a speedometer is irrelevant to the problem.

    All problems are quantitative requiring mathematical operation (except for Level 1) and some idea how things work.

    If you reformulated the problems nad asked questions differently the score would be much higher.

    Level 1: For which months the black bar is taller than grey bar? Some kids were not exposed to graphs and haven’t learn how to read them.

    Level 2: What is larger/smaller/equal 4/10 or 2/5? The question is about the definition of the average speed. Give that definition first.

    Level 3: Which number in the lowest row is the largest? WhoTF needs to now what is engine capacity. The term “engine capacity” is not common. How does it sound Swahili?

    Level 4: How many kids in Uruguay saw a revolving door? Most people will have problem visualizing the problem and realizing that 6 people per rotation can pass the door. BTW, African Americans are familiar with revolving (one way only) doors as they are commonly used in prison.

    And so on. Solving the problem like these is to be conditioned by a lot of practice where you are exposed to problems like these. In Mt. Fuji problem you must realize that you must calculate the total time which is the sum of two times: going up and going down. In Helen Level 6 you need to know what is the average speed and that it is not the same as the average of speeds.

    It is all matter of preparation for the test which teaches how to convert stories that you do not have interest in (WGTF about Helen?) to mathematical abstractions. To do it you have to be acculturated to the high level of motivation to score high that you care about scoring the test more than pondering WTF it is all about and who needs it.

    Now the bigger issue. Do PISA tests tell us something? PISA tests scores are classical chicken-egg problem. Why do countries on the make like Eastern Europe often have high PISA scores? Why do they care? Russia is doing exceptionally well in them. But Russia also has impressive military parades on the Victory Day. Russia is known for Potemkin villages. But are Potemkin villages bad? Now, pretense is good because it shows what are important values. Like in case of hypocrisy: “hypocrisy is a tribute vice pays to virtue.” While building a Potemkin village a Russian muzhik gets some idea how a nice village suppose to look. When preparing tanks for the V-day parade the mechanics will put more effort to a make sure that the equipment does not breaks down and perhaps it will extend to normal operations. When cramming for PISA test kids actually learn something. And when they get high scores their confidence level goes up.

    • Replies: @Dmitry

    cluttered with noise of useless informations that is culturally and economic development dependent.
     
    If you download the full test (especially older ones) you'll see most questions are more confusingly written than these samples, and at the same time not testing abilities (if they could be written in a clear way).

    Difficulty of the exam for the children, is in decoding what the questions are trying to say.

    We could see it as a useful test of whether children can filter out unnecessary information, and discern the intentions of the transnational question designer the OECD has hired. Perhaps this is a skill in itself.

    Question format could be useful for preparing children for how their future exams, in areas like mechanics, can be formatted (with narrative and diagrams).

    But at the same time, a more imaginatively talented child, might prefer to dream about this picture of Mount Fuji, instead of the boring counting game beneath it. I would not blame them.

    , @ussr andy

    If you reformulated the problems nad asked questions differently the score would be much higher.

    Level 1: For which months the black bar is taller than grey bar?
     

    dats right. deskill everything. :)

    "find x" "here it is" (circles x)

    "What are you doing?" "I'm making these stupid bricks" (other guy, wipes sweat off his forehead, looks at the huge structure beside him) "I'm building the Chartres cathedral"

    , @dux.ie
    > Why do countries on the make like Eastern Europe often have high PISA scores? Why do they care?

    Why do those developing and least developed countries care? Those countries that reject/dont care about the concept of PISA as just like those cargo cult people hoping that prosperity will drop down from the sky. Otherwise they need the knowledge and resources to kick start their economy.

    One way to achieve that is through foreign investments, like those happened to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and China. Who are those decision makers on foreign investments? They are those that attend the World Economic Forum. WEF regularly surveys the multinational corporate chairmen, CEOs, CFOs, etc about foreign investments. What do you know, their country preferences are very very statistical significantly correlated to the PISA scores, irrespective of if they have partially consulted the PISA scores or if PISA measures anything tangible. They might have influence how OECD frames the PISA survey.

    http://i64.tinypic.com/2yl5n4w.png

    Those countries that are poor performers will just wait for ever, despite the low wages the local workers are very hard to train. Those with oil or mineral resources will be extracted by the multi-national without leaving any industrial infrastructure behind.
  53. @Epigon
    24 km/h.
    The “trickier” (8th primary school/1st high school class physics) question would be: You drove from point A to point B.
    Half the time you drove 20 km/h, the other half 30 km/h. Your average speed was?

    I didn’t spend a lot of time solving it, so I might be wrong, but I thought the answer was 24.

    My thinking was, that I drove 1 hour there (20 km distance), and then back at 30 km/h (so I needed two thirds of an hour to get back, a.k.a. 40 minutes), so I drove an altogether 40 km distance in 100 minutes. This means 20 km in 50 minutes, and 1.2X20 km = 24 km in 60 minutes, so 24 km/h.

    Regardless if the distance was longer, it would be the same, just easier to calculate with 1 hour.

    Is it wrong?

    • Replies: @Epigon
    Yes, the answer to first one is 24 km/h.
    The one I wrote is variation of it that shows difference between average speed and average of speeds, so 25 km/h is the correct answer.
    Typical gotcha problems.
  54. @for-the-record
    ((20^-1+30^-1)/2)^-1?

    Correct, but it's much easier to see the answer (and calculate it in your head) if you choose a concrete distance (the result is obviously independent of the distance)-- 60 km being particularly convenient.

    whatkindofsorceryisthis.gif

  55. @reiner Tor
    I didn't spend a lot of time solving it, so I might be wrong, but I thought the answer was 24.

    My thinking was, that I drove 1 hour there (20 km distance), and then back at 30 km/h (so I needed two thirds of an hour to get back, a.k.a. 40 minutes), so I drove an altogether 40 km distance in 100 minutes. This means 20 km in 50 minutes, and 1.2X20 km = 24 km in 60 minutes, so 24 km/h.

    Regardless if the distance was longer, it would be the same, just easier to calculate with 1 hour.

    Is it wrong?

    Yes, the answer to first one is 24 km/h.
    The one I wrote is variation of it that shows difference between average speed and average of speeds, so 25 km/h is the correct answer.
    Typical gotcha problems.

  56. @Frederic Bastiat
    Gigerenzers Work showed that tests, like the above, are strongly format dependent. Change the test format to one to which our cognitive abilities are evolutionary adapted and performance will improve a lot.

    The main problem I have with these tests is, that they are mostly irrelevant, in the same sense as university education is mostly irrelevant to work place performance, since most skills are *learned* when they are needed and kept in strength as long as they are needed. University and schools degrees are at best a kind of signaling of discipline, obedience and the like.

    What is more relevant than IQ imho (which has a dissapointing intra-individual validity btw; test the same individual at different times and you get different results, fluctuating up to 20%), is how *fast* an individual can behavioraly adapt to environmental requirements. Put differently, it is more important how fast an individual can learn or change its behavioral repertoire. Some individuals learn faster than others and are therefore more adaptible to and therefore successful in changing environements.

    You can train rats, pigeons and dogs quite surprisingly complex tasks. With the proper symbolic format (like colored buttons) and training you could train a rat to perform simple symbolic algorithms (think of how a turing machine operates). Human behavior is even more adaptable, putting the tests above in the purview of IQ-70 populations - with proper training that is (IQ tests are also subject to training effects btw, i.e. you can train for high IQ test scores).

    What is missing in the intelligence debate is a measure of this second order behavior, or the ability to learn new behaviors.

    Some individuals learn faster than others and are therefore more adaptible to and therefore successful in changing environements.

    This might be supported, by a currently strong correlation between academic ability, and person’s occupational and geographical mobility.

    People with higher academic achievements, are having more mobility on average both between professions, and also geographically movement between different industrial centers.

    But can you disentangle this from a fact that people with higher academic ability, have far greater opportunities and motivations for mobility? Visa requirements for many countries are quite openly based on skill levels.

    On the other hand, workers in some industries are often appearing not so much unable, as simply psychologically motivated not to change and adapt, with an almost cultural resistance to it.

    In discussions on this topic, it is usually referred to Margaret Thatcher, who has famously and unsuccessfully tried to break the laziness and immobility of British workers, that refused to adapt to the decline of their coal industry by changing profession.

    There is a depressing sense of “premature aging” in such cultures, professions and social strata, where people become very rigid against learning new topics after a certain age – and this rigidity surely being less a product of inability, than lack of willpower.

  57. @iffen
    The proles require leadership and noblesse oblige.

    But they have to "like" you to follow you and that leaves out about 99.9% of would be elite leaders.

    If he uses a kitten for an avatar 99% of people will click “like.”

    • Replies: @Talha
    Kittens are popular. Hello Kitty will probably bump it up to 100%.

    Peace.
  58. @Dan Bagrov
    It really is shocking to talk to a person with an IQ under 110. I don’t do it all that often, at least beyond small talk, but it’s always jarring when I get beyond pleasantries and realize that this person really, truly doesn’t understand the concept of “the state” or have a clue about geography or whatever thing I foolishly reference.

    My problem is that I’m often among the dumbest in the room, day to day, so it’s easy to forget that I’m actually smarter than most randomly selected people, and care about more than visual entertainment. Over the years I’ve learned to just shut up and not steer the conversation into “intense” areas. It’s exhausting and a big reason why I gravitate toward the internet. I’m not really all that smart but it’s hard to find a worthwhile conversation with a peer (especially one who won’t crimestop) offline. Thank God for venues like this one!

    It really is shocking to talk to a person with an IQ under 110.

    And just think, some people say such people should have a free hand to rule over their wives and children as they see fit.

    • Replies: @Bobzilla

    @Dan Bagrov

    It really is shocking to talk to a person with an IQ under 110.

     

    And just think, some people say such people should have a free hand to rule over their wives and children as they see fit.
     
    Rosie,

    You are confusing intelligence with being a wise and/or a good person. There are many intelligent people who are neither wise, nor good.
  59. @AaronB
    Don't troll me Anatoly - you must admit one of the most ridiculous things about HBD is how it purports to notice and celebrate a rich diversity in all human traits....except for competitive desire.

    That is supposed to be utterly invariant and constant across race, ethnic group, culture, history, environment, recent national humiliation, and time.

    This assumption is necessary to make competitive endeavors meaningful - if one group simply isn't competing as hard, kind of makes it less fun :)

    When you play sports, it feels really shitty when the other team just doesn't give it their best effort - really spoils the fun. We were all there, as kids.

    So believe me I get it. But it won't stop me poking fun at you silly kids :)

    Executive function likely has a genetic component and this affects economic performance as well. I don’t think this is about competition as much as it is about awareness; it may be that population A just “doesn’t care” as much about solving infrastructural problems as opposed to population B.

    But population A’s lack of caring will mean that their infrastructural problems will mount and cause real consequence, e.g. fewer roads, lack of electrical coverage, blackouts, contamination of water, and so on.

    Lack of caring for the consequence does not mean that the consequences will not materialize. Its not necessary to have a moral opinion on this to observe the effects of such.

    Incidentally, since I believe that increased smartphone use harms executive function(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563216304915) and there’s some research to support this, this probably means that we’ll see more harm across-the-board.

    • Replies: @AaronB

    it may be that population A just “doesn’t care” as much about solving infrastructural problems as opposed to population B.
     
    And thank God.

    A country like Thailand for instance has excellent roads - easily as good as what's found in America. And its airports, subway system, and elevated rail are miles ahead of what's available in NYC.

    But their IQ is certainly lower than America's and they don't have any high technology companies. A company that functions like Amazon reflects a society with a particular "priority profile". Its ludicrous to suggest the creation of a company like Amazon is primarily - or even largely - a product of IQ. I think you specifically know what I'm talking about.

    Each country has a unique "profile" of priorities, abilities, and "desire structures" that determine its real world "quiddity".

    I think a fruitful area of inquiry would be investigating the "desire structure" of different societies - I think that would be at least as revealing about outcomes as IQ and other tests of ability.

    Of course this would be more like anthropology than hard science, but it would be very revealing about the structure of the world.

    Unfortunately, tests of pure ability are conceptually impossible.

    But I think tests are peculiarly susceptible to be misleading because they are so abstract and detached from real world concerns.

    What they are good for are constructing elaborate imaginal "dominance hierarchies".
  60. @Daniel Chieh
    If he uses a kitten for an avatar 99% of people will click "like."

    Kittens are popular. Hello Kitty will probably bump it up to 100%.

    Peace.

  61. @utu
    The sample problems of Level 1 to 6 are cluttered with noise of useless informations that is culturally and economic development dependent.

    Why do we need to know that Helen has a speedometer? 20-30 years ago speedometers showing averages speed were not common. If you had a speedometer it was mechanical showing instantaneous speed only. To get the average speed you need time keeping. But anyway the fact that Helen has a speedometer is irrelevant to the problem.

    All problems are quantitative requiring mathematical operation (except for Level 1) and some idea how things work.

    If you reformulated the problems nad asked questions differently the score would be much higher.

    Level 1: For which months the black bar is taller than grey bar? Some kids were not exposed to graphs and haven't learn how to read them.

    Level 2: What is larger/smaller/equal 4/10 or 2/5? The question is about the definition of the average speed. Give that definition first.

    Level 3: Which number in the lowest row is the largest? WhoTF needs to now what is engine capacity. The term "engine capacity" is not common. How does it sound Swahili?

    Level 4: How many kids in Uruguay saw a revolving door? Most people will have problem visualizing the problem and realizing that 6 people per rotation can pass the door. BTW, African Americans are familiar with revolving (one way only) doors as they are commonly used in prison.

    And so on. Solving the problem like these is to be conditioned by a lot of practice where you are exposed to problems like these. In Mt. Fuji problem you must realize that you must calculate the total time which is the sum of two times: going up and going down. In Helen Level 6 you need to know what is the average speed and that it is not the same as the average of speeds.

    It is all matter of preparation for the test which teaches how to convert stories that you do not have interest in (WGTF about Helen?) to mathematical abstractions. To do it you have to be acculturated to the high level of motivation to score high that you care about scoring the test more than pondering WTF it is all about and who needs it.

    Now the bigger issue. Do PISA tests tell us something? PISA tests scores are classical chicken-egg problem. Why do countries on the make like Eastern Europe often have high PISA scores? Why do they care? Russia is doing exceptionally well in them. But Russia also has impressive military parades on the Victory Day. Russia is known for Potemkin villages. But are Potemkin villages bad? Now, pretense is good because it shows what are important values. Like in case of hypocrisy: "hypocrisy is a tribute vice pays to virtue." While building a Potemkin village a Russian muzhik gets some idea how a nice village suppose to look. When preparing tanks for the V-day parade the mechanics will put more effort to a make sure that the equipment does not breaks down and perhaps it will extend to normal operations. When cramming for PISA test kids actually learn something. And when they get high scores their confidence level goes up.

    cluttered with noise of useless informations that is culturally and economic development dependent.

    If you download the full test (especially older ones) you’ll see most questions are more confusingly written than these samples, and at the same time not testing abilities (if they could be written in a clear way).

    Difficulty of the exam for the children, is in decoding what the questions are trying to say.

    We could see it as a useful test of whether children can filter out unnecessary information, and discern the intentions of the transnational question designer the OECD has hired. Perhaps this is a skill in itself.

    Question format could be useful for preparing children for how their future exams, in areas like mechanics, can be formatted (with narrative and diagrams).

    But at the same time, a more imaginatively talented child, might prefer to dream about this picture of Mount Fuji, instead of the boring counting game beneath it. I would not blame them.

    • Replies: @utu

    We could see it as a useful test of whether children can filter out unnecessary information, and discern the intentions of the transnational question designer the OECD has hired. Perhaps this is a skill in itself.
     
    Yes, it is a skill. Anything can be a skill. In some cultures this skill is not valued. This skill measures acculturations to culture that is foreign and often considered hostile so the skill may not only be not valued but also will be resisted. The ones excelling in it will be seen as sell outs and traitors. The Uncle Toms. Culture is a bitch. It is a very complex system. That's why the IQ story is so appealing to simple minds because it allows the simpletons to ignore what they don't have an aptitude for.
  62. “the chip designer in the O-Ring sector can always become a waiter in the Foolproof sector – thereby pushing up wages in the latter far beyond what they would otherwise be in a society with no substantial O-Ring sector”

    “According to Kremer/Jones, it is the relative strength of the O-Ring sector in the developed world which explains why a hairdresser earns five times as much in Belgium as in Brazil”

    This theory is not even wrong. Can IQ explain why this nonsensical theory was created and is promoted by some? Or is it that IQ is not a foolproof protection against stupidity particularly when driven by ideology.

    I remember paying for my simple haircuts 50CHF in Switzerland while in the US they are still on the level of $10-15 at, say, at SuperCuts. Anybody knowns economic forces that are responsible for the difference between the US and Switzerland and IQ is not one of them.

    I think humanity would be better off if Kremer, Jones and Karlin because hair dressers and left the economics to people which gay

    • Replies: @songbird
    $50 for a buzzcut in Switzerland? Was that at some five star hotel on Lake Geneva? I can't believe it. I think the Swiss would cut their own hair, at that rate, putting the barbers out of work.

    Never been to Switzerland, but I remember paying like 50 cents for an ice cream cone in Germany circa 2000. It was small, but you couldn't get something like that in the US.
    , @utu
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F2SJS6B1wQ
  63. It is really staggering to think that in so many countries <1% can get #6 right. You would think that some would at least try it and get it right accidentally. That is to say, in a way that they could not reproduce, or without understanding the problem intuitively but just by doing some simple math.

    I wonder what the percentage of blank answers would be in each country.

    • Replies: @Rosie
    It is indeed staggering, but I don't think the implications are as dire as might appear at first blush. Yes, stupid people vote, but they usually vote with the guidance of some respected authority figure, like a pastor or union leader. Of course, these authority figures are corrupt now, but the point is that elites have a great deal of influence over voters even in a popular democracy with universal suffrage,
  64. @songbird
    It is really staggering to think that in so many countries <1% can get #6 right. You would think that some would at least try it and get it right accidentally. That is to say, in a way that they could not reproduce, or without understanding the problem intuitively but just by doing some simple math.

    I wonder what the percentage of blank answers would be in each country.

    It is indeed staggering, but I don’t think the implications are as dire as might appear at first blush. Yes, stupid people vote, but they usually vote with the guidance of some respected authority figure, like a pastor or union leader. Of course, these authority figures are corrupt now, but the point is that elites have a great deal of influence over voters even in a popular democracy with universal suffrage,

    • Replies: @opus
    Influence indeed, Robert Michels, the sociologist who devised the Iron Law of Oligarchy
    a political theory, first developed by the German sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book, Political Parties.

    "Who says organization, says oligarchy." "Historical evolution mocks all the prophylactic measures that have been adopted for the prevention of oligarchy."
  65. @szopen
    This was already measured and the results were recently IIRC posted on unz.com somewhere. In short, you are wrong.

    On both issues, BTW. You can train IQ tests, but after training the value of the results fall (you can express taht idea in either saying g-loading will fall, or that the skills are not trasnferable to another task).

    I’d like to see that data (and if it’s self-reported, well, I’d probably lie about taking these tests seriously, too). Epigon is right. The vast majority of kids taking tests that don’t affect their grades put zero effort into the test. I didn’t. I got abysmal scores on PISA-type tests.

    /98th percentile GRE (a test I very much cared about)

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    Not true for me. I try to do well on any test I take.

    Also, schools in Asia have the same populations of undermotivated students. If effort is a factor in these tests, then either we can apply the same discount to all countries, or it accurately reflects that some populations have more high performance individuals who are driven to succeed.

    99th percentile GRE
    99th percentile GMAT
    99th percentile LSAT
  66. @utu

    "the chip designer in the O-Ring sector can always become a waiter in the Foolproof sector – thereby pushing up wages in the latter far beyond what they would otherwise be in a society with no substantial O-Ring sector"

    "According to Kremer/Jones, it is the relative strength of the O-Ring sector in the developed world which explains why a hairdresser earns five times as much in Belgium as in Brazil"
     
    This theory is not even wrong. Can IQ explain why this nonsensical theory was created and is promoted by some? Or is it that IQ is not a foolproof protection against stupidity particularly when driven by ideology.

    I remember paying for my simple haircuts 50CHF in Switzerland while in the US they are still on the level of $10-15 at, say, at SuperCuts. Anybody knowns economic forces that are responsible for the difference between the US and Switzerland and IQ is not one of them.



    I think humanity would be better off if Kremer, Jones and Karlin because hair dressers and left the economics to people which gay

    $50 for a buzzcut in Switzerland? Was that at some five star hotel on Lake Geneva? I can’t believe it. I think the Swiss would cut their own hair, at that rate, putting the barbers out of work.

    Never been to Switzerland, but I remember paying like 50 cents for an ice cream cone in Germany circa 2000. It was small, but you couldn’t get something like that in the US.

    • Replies: @utu
    Regular haircuts in regular places about 50CHF and no tip necessary. They take more time (30-40min) though than in ShortCuts. In one case a was given a haircut by a hang-over women (Valerie iirc) in Geneva which she royally screws up partly because of communication problems. I do not think anybody would let he work in ShortCuts in the US in that state.
  67. And many do appreciate that national wealth depends largely on a population’s intelligence, especially of its “smart fractions”

    It’s not quite true – although it satisfies peoples’ “just world hypothesis” instincts.

    To falsify the hypothesis, just see the contradiction in writing: the intellectual genius of a wealthy people like the Qataris, or the stupidity of a poor nationality like the Chinese.

    In per capita terms, China is as poor and unsuccessful, as Thailand, Algeria and Brazil. And yet, their reported average academic test scores are higher than those of many wealthy countries.

    In the future, such a correlation should become stronger, as a result of the digital revolution making intelligence relevant to a larger proportion of the future economy. But even today, there many other factors, often less related to inherent qualities of the people, than to arbitrary things like geography, involved in economic success.

    • Replies: @Gerard2

    In per capita terms, China is as poor and unsuccessful, as Thailand, Algeria and Brazil. And yet, their reported average academic test scores are higher than those of many wealthy countries.
     
    If you look at the results in all the Olympiad competitions over the summer ( mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and so on)......then Russia did very , very , very well, (Ukraine did shit, of course). As for the Americans , ALL the winning contestants for their teams were either Chinese or Indian named. Particularly Chinese ( I'm sure not Japanese or Korean, but Chinese)

    Now, Indians are very clever in general but this dominance of Asians, I think is mainly down to "lock them in the room all day" driven parents. Numerous people in the west have experience of Orientals of average intelligence obtain high academic results.
    Russians who take part and do well in these events tend to be more strong-minded, independent-thinking people or "free spirits" ( let down by 1 POS who turns out to have been a Navalny hamster)

    Western Universities may now have become more plentiful with Chinese professors/lecturers but I think this is more driven by economics and availability, particularly with the so-called "lesser universities" now becoming more prestigious as more qualified people go to live in the UK and US

    In engineering the Chinese guys can understand and implement ad nauseum the mathematics behind the computer based methods in construction ( very simple but extensive and dull) , but could they come up with and have a firm grip on the classical "elastic" theory that underpins this and was the basis of engineering from the enlightenment period onwards?

    Or could they come up with and be comfortable with the more part empirical/part-theory ideas that are the bases for soil engineering.......I heavily doubt it in both cases.
    This is where the real fundamental understanding of engineering comes from....plus most of the creativity and intelligent thinking

    Incidentally, I think the most large example of racism is not towards blacks or jews.........but from aficionados of classical music towards Chinese/Japanese/Korean pianists and Musicians
  68. @Epigon
    24 km/h.
    The “trickier” (8th primary school/1st high school class physics) question would be: You drove from point A to point B.
    Half the time you drove 20 km/h, the other half 30 km/h. Your average speed was?

    Half the time you drove 20 km/h, the other half 30 km/h. Your average speed was?

    That’s far easier than the other one, every one will get that right without thinking.

  69. @Felix Keverich

    Robin Hanson once wrote a blog post about how reasonably intelligent people (for instance, the sort of people who read his blog) tend to overestimate how smart everyone else is.
     
    I for one never make this mistake! For example, I knew that blocking Telegram was going to stifle its user growth in Russia, because most people are too dumb and too lazy to figure out how to use VPN.

    In my observation people who overstimate intelligence in others are themselves somewhat limited in their mental capacity - think of a typical college-educated Western liberal, who is reasonably "smart", and thinks that African immigrants are smart people just like him.

    It takes a special kind of intelligence to see limitations in others, and some people are even smart enough to aknowledge their own limitations.


    Because in Brazil, only a tiny fraction of high school students can do anything much more complex than a simple, single-step arithmetic operation.
     
    That's an interesting finding and a bit unexpected, because Brazil has a substantial white population, who enjoy access to superior schooling. This massive gap in performance cannot be explained solely by race.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more "diverse"? I questioned America's ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more “diverse”? I questioned America’s ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.

    We are getting dumber as a country. It’s not just the huge influx of immigrants from lower IQ black and brown countries, the increasing inter-marriage rate between whites and blacks/browns, but also a failing education system. Our schools care more about indoctrination than actual education these days. Elementary math is often taught by teachers who flunked algebra in high school. By the time most kids get to middle school, they’ve fallen too far behind.

  70. @songbird
    $50 for a buzzcut in Switzerland? Was that at some five star hotel on Lake Geneva? I can't believe it. I think the Swiss would cut their own hair, at that rate, putting the barbers out of work.

    Never been to Switzerland, but I remember paying like 50 cents for an ice cream cone in Germany circa 2000. It was small, but you couldn't get something like that in the US.

    Regular haircuts in regular places about 50CHF and no tip necessary. They take more time (30-40min) though than in ShortCuts. In one case a was given a haircut by a hang-over women (Valerie iirc) in Geneva which she royally screws up partly because of communication problems. I do not think anybody would let he work in ShortCuts in the US in that state.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    I always liked Bern more than Geneva.
  71. Anonymous[441] • Disclaimer says:

    Ironically the commenters pointing up the large differences in motivation and test-taking attitudes *between* ethnic cohorts are really just reinforcing the usual stereotypes, e.g. high time-preference and high external locus-of-control and high cognitive-miserliness and low frustration-tolerance, apathy, lackadaisicalness, the inverse-ganbarism, with all the attendant empirical IQ-correlation implications. *Within* ethnic cohorts, this is exactly expected across the IQ distribution with good-but-not-perfect correlation. IOW the thinking goes, “the average test-taking motivation of some groups is much lower, but please, please, do not reflect on this any further, there is nothing to see here!” … except that one requires active crimestopping to prevent oneself noticing the expected group achievement gaps at the ethnic-and/or-national level, which just so happen to correlate to the measured and inferred average IQ. Yes, indeed, indolence is a major handicap, and yes, indeed, dems are the real raycisss.

  72. @utu

    "the chip designer in the O-Ring sector can always become a waiter in the Foolproof sector – thereby pushing up wages in the latter far beyond what they would otherwise be in a society with no substantial O-Ring sector"

    "According to Kremer/Jones, it is the relative strength of the O-Ring sector in the developed world which explains why a hairdresser earns five times as much in Belgium as in Brazil"
     
    This theory is not even wrong. Can IQ explain why this nonsensical theory was created and is promoted by some? Or is it that IQ is not a foolproof protection against stupidity particularly when driven by ideology.

    I remember paying for my simple haircuts 50CHF in Switzerland while in the US they are still on the level of $10-15 at, say, at SuperCuts. Anybody knowns economic forces that are responsible for the difference between the US and Switzerland and IQ is not one of them.



    I think humanity would be better off if Kremer, Jones and Karlin because hair dressers and left the economics to people which gay

  73. Of course average intelligence matters. The new knowledge economy will only separate the top countries from the bottom countries even further. The only countries in the world that can succeed in this knowledge economy are Western countries and Northeast Asian countries. All the black and brown countries will only fall further behind.

    But Western countries are at a precarious position. We are engineering our own downfall through stupid policies like open borders and a welfare scheme that rewards high birthrate among the lowest IQ groups. Never mind our 15 year olds, what % of our lawmakers can get passed Level 1? I’ll bet 99% of the black congressmen/women can’t even get passed Level 1, yet Maxine Waters could very well chair the next Finance committee.

  74. @Daniel Chieh
    Executive function likely has a genetic component and this affects economic performance as well. I don't think this is about competition as much as it is about awareness; it may be that population A just "doesn't care" as much about solving infrastructural problems as opposed to population B.

    But population A's lack of caring will mean that their infrastructural problems will mount and cause real consequence, e.g. fewer roads, lack of electrical coverage, blackouts, contamination of water, and so on.

    Lack of caring for the consequence does not mean that the consequences will not materialize. Its not necessary to have a moral opinion on this to observe the effects of such.

    Incidentally, since I believe that increased smartphone use harms executive function(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563216304915) and there's some research to support this, this probably means that we'll see more harm across-the-board.

    it may be that population A just “doesn’t care” as much about solving infrastructural problems as opposed to population B.

    And thank God.

    A country like Thailand for instance has excellent roads – easily as good as what’s found in America. And its airports, subway system, and elevated rail are miles ahead of what’s available in NYC.

    But their IQ is certainly lower than America’s and they don’t have any high technology companies. A company that functions like Amazon reflects a society with a particular “priority profile”. Its ludicrous to suggest the creation of a company like Amazon is primarily – or even largely – a product of IQ. I think you specifically know what I’m talking about.

    Each country has a unique “profile” of priorities, abilities, and “desire structures” that determine its real world “quiddity”.

    I think a fruitful area of inquiry would be investigating the “desire structure” of different societies – I think that would be at least as revealing about outcomes as IQ and other tests of ability.

    Of course this would be more like anthropology than hard science, but it would be very revealing about the structure of the world.

    Unfortunately, tests of pure ability are conceptually impossible.

    But I think tests are peculiarly susceptible to be misleading because they are so abstract and detached from real world concerns.

    What they are good for are constructing elaborate imaginal “dominance hierarchies”.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh

    A country like Thailand for instance has excellent roads – easily as good as what’s found in America. And its airports, subway system, and elevated rail are miles ahead of what’s available in NYC.
     
    Surely you know of the overwhelming financing by China and engineering by China there.

    A company that functions like Amazon reflects a society with a particular “priority profile”. Its ludicrous to suggest the creation of a company like Amazon is primarily – or even largely – a product of IQ. I think you specifically know what I’m talking about.
     
    Hard to say that Amazon wasn't the result of a combination of high aptitude people. Technology is really, really hard to get right, and Amazon is a pretty impressive feat of delivery and execution. It can be pretty evil, but its intelligent evil.

    I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley. Its a lot of smart people there - many of them are quite insane and its very cultish and strange at times, but its not lacking for intelligent, self-motivated people who would be bored to death by the idea of idleness.
  75. @utu
    Regular haircuts in regular places about 50CHF and no tip necessary. They take more time (30-40min) though than in ShortCuts. In one case a was given a haircut by a hang-over women (Valerie iirc) in Geneva which she royally screws up partly because of communication problems. I do not think anybody would let he work in ShortCuts in the US in that state.

    I always liked Bern more than Geneva.

    • Replies: @utu
    Geneva voted for accession to EU and Bern against it in 1992.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_referendums,_1992
  76. @for-the-record
    some people are even smart enough to a(c)knowledge their own limitations.

    By this standard I must be very intelligent.

    A good man always knows his limitations.

  77. @AaronB

    it may be that population A just “doesn’t care” as much about solving infrastructural problems as opposed to population B.
     
    And thank God.

    A country like Thailand for instance has excellent roads - easily as good as what's found in America. And its airports, subway system, and elevated rail are miles ahead of what's available in NYC.

    But their IQ is certainly lower than America's and they don't have any high technology companies. A company that functions like Amazon reflects a society with a particular "priority profile". Its ludicrous to suggest the creation of a company like Amazon is primarily - or even largely - a product of IQ. I think you specifically know what I'm talking about.

    Each country has a unique "profile" of priorities, abilities, and "desire structures" that determine its real world "quiddity".

    I think a fruitful area of inquiry would be investigating the "desire structure" of different societies - I think that would be at least as revealing about outcomes as IQ and other tests of ability.

    Of course this would be more like anthropology than hard science, but it would be very revealing about the structure of the world.

    Unfortunately, tests of pure ability are conceptually impossible.

    But I think tests are peculiarly susceptible to be misleading because they are so abstract and detached from real world concerns.

    What they are good for are constructing elaborate imaginal "dominance hierarchies".

    A country like Thailand for instance has excellent roads – easily as good as what’s found in America. And its airports, subway system, and elevated rail are miles ahead of what’s available in NYC.

    Surely you know of the overwhelming financing by China and engineering by China there.

    A company that functions like Amazon reflects a society with a particular “priority profile”. Its ludicrous to suggest the creation of a company like Amazon is primarily – or even largely – a product of IQ. I think you specifically know what I’m talking about.

    Hard to say that Amazon wasn’t the result of a combination of high aptitude people. Technology is really, really hard to get right, and Amazon is a pretty impressive feat of delivery and execution. It can be pretty evil, but its intelligent evil.

    I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley. Its a lot of smart people there – many of them are quite insane and its very cultish and strange at times, but its not lacking for intelligent, self-motivated people who would be bored to death by the idea of idleness.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Thai infrastructure was good in the 90s - the train system is I think German. I was using it as an example of priorities.

    I am positive that Bangkok has right now people just as smart as the creators of Amazon. I'm also positive Poland has many such people.

    What is lacking is the philosophical conviction that spending stupendous amounts of effort and energy to construct a vast highly organized system eating up the life energy of thousands of high aptitude people for the purpose of shortening delivery times by a few days is the best use of our limited time on this green earth.

    And the reason that's lacking in those countries, is that life is immensely more satisfying there, and people grow up far less mentally damaged.

    Have you read Steve Jobs daughters biography of her father?

    Any county that wants to boost creativity should study it in depth - learn how to create mentally damaged people like Jobs, its the secret to Western style creativity.

    I vote for idleness :)
    , @AaronB
    https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Idle-Loafers-Manifesto/dp/0060779691?crid=3PA3YPJD95KIK&keywords=tom+hodgkinson&qid=1536089206&sprefix=Tom+hodg&sr=8-1&ref=mp_s_a_1_1

    A deeply relevant book that everyone on this blog should be reading. The antidote for our times.

    Presented as a lighthearted romp, its actually a deeply religious text that reacquaints us with ancient wisdom that has been lost in the West since 1600.
    , @AB

    I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley. Its a lot of smart people there – many of them are quite insane and its very cultish and strange at times, but its not lacking for intelligent, self-motivated people who would be bored to death by the idea of idleness.
     
    Intelligence without morality is the most dangerous thing on earth. It could do far more damage than those who are morally corrupt but lack intelligence. SV is now run by intelligent people who are morally bankrupt, the same people who ran Wall Street, K Street, Washington DC, Hollywood, the media, academia, and our legal system into the ground.
    , @Jeff Stryker
    The downside to this are Chinese imports putting locals out of a business...Yin and Yang with there.
  78. @Dmitry

    cluttered with noise of useless informations that is culturally and economic development dependent.
     
    If you download the full test (especially older ones) you'll see most questions are more confusingly written than these samples, and at the same time not testing abilities (if they could be written in a clear way).

    Difficulty of the exam for the children, is in decoding what the questions are trying to say.

    We could see it as a useful test of whether children can filter out unnecessary information, and discern the intentions of the transnational question designer the OECD has hired. Perhaps this is a skill in itself.

    Question format could be useful for preparing children for how their future exams, in areas like mechanics, can be formatted (with narrative and diagrams).

    But at the same time, a more imaginatively talented child, might prefer to dream about this picture of Mount Fuji, instead of the boring counting game beneath it. I would not blame them.

    We could see it as a useful test of whether children can filter out unnecessary information, and discern the intentions of the transnational question designer the OECD has hired. Perhaps this is a skill in itself.

    Yes, it is a skill. Anything can be a skill. In some cultures this skill is not valued. This skill measures acculturations to culture that is foreign and often considered hostile so the skill may not only be not valued but also will be resisted. The ones excelling in it will be seen as sell outs and traitors. The Uncle Toms. Culture is a bitch. It is a very complex system. That’s why the IQ story is so appealing to simple minds because it allows the simpletons to ignore what they don’t have an aptitude for.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    Well questions testing to see if kids can count numbers and multiply. Almost all healthy (not-disabled) people can do this. Questions are too far easy for this age group (15-16 year olds).

    The difficulty is in distractions, irrelevant pictures, and unclear words.

    For example, "Level 4" question is asking them to multiply 3 numbers. Children can usually do this at age 10. It is a question at an 10 year old difficulty level.

    What is the reason for including a picture of a door - why not just ask them to multiply the three numbers? (The only advantage of adding the door picture, is to confused people from countries where these doors do not exist - it's a test of whether your country has this door type, not of multiplication).

    -

    A good exam for this age, would write the questions as clearly as possible, without any culturally dependent distractions.

    If they had actually a topic suitable for 15 year olds, like solving quadratic equation by factorization - they can write the questions normally, but test the children more by choosing larger and more awkward numbers.

    The transnational comparison could still be possible, by keeping simple topics which will be covered in syllabuses of schools in different countries, while making more difficult questions within those same topics.

    There's no reason African children should be culturally resistant to e.g. quadratic equation. It's a universal topic, which 15 year olds around the world are studying.

  79. @Daniel Chieh

    A country like Thailand for instance has excellent roads – easily as good as what’s found in America. And its airports, subway system, and elevated rail are miles ahead of what’s available in NYC.
     
    Surely you know of the overwhelming financing by China and engineering by China there.

    A company that functions like Amazon reflects a society with a particular “priority profile”. Its ludicrous to suggest the creation of a company like Amazon is primarily – or even largely – a product of IQ. I think you specifically know what I’m talking about.
     
    Hard to say that Amazon wasn't the result of a combination of high aptitude people. Technology is really, really hard to get right, and Amazon is a pretty impressive feat of delivery and execution. It can be pretty evil, but its intelligent evil.

    I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley. Its a lot of smart people there - many of them are quite insane and its very cultish and strange at times, but its not lacking for intelligent, self-motivated people who would be bored to death by the idea of idleness.

    Thai infrastructure was good in the 90s – the train system is I think German. I was using it as an example of priorities.

    I am positive that Bangkok has right now people just as smart as the creators of Amazon. I’m also positive Poland has many such people.

    What is lacking is the philosophical conviction that spending stupendous amounts of effort and energy to construct a vast highly organized system eating up the life energy of thousands of high aptitude people for the purpose of shortening delivery times by a few days is the best use of our limited time on this green earth.

    And the reason that’s lacking in those countries, is that life is immensely more satisfying there, and people grow up far less mentally damaged.

    Have you read Steve Jobs daughters biography of her father?

    Any county that wants to boost creativity should study it in depth – learn how to create mentally damaged people like Jobs, its the secret to Western style creativity.

    I vote for idleness :)

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh

    What is lacking is the philosophical conviction that spending stupendous amounts of effort and energy to construct a vast highly organized system eating up the life energy of thousands of high aptitude people for the purpose of shortening delivery times by a few days is the best use of our limited time on this green earth.
     

    This is why they are working on life extension. Besides, aren't you a kind of a Buddhist? They'll just reincarnate as a sloth or an oak to idle their days away then.

    I think that you fail to acknowledge that for a lot of tech people, the work is genuinely fun. Why does Karlin, for example, play video games? Video games are a form of work, they force you to obey rules and challenges, and yet some of the most popular ones repeatedly hurt their players. A lot of people like effort, even are addicted to it.

    , @utu
    Good that you brought up Jobs. Daniel Chieh earlier stated that the issue you guys are discussing has no moral dimension but Jobs is clearly an example of deeply immoral person. Look at the story how he ripped Wozniak off when they were still very young. Wozniak learned about it many many years later when he read it in the book about Atari and Jobs.

    Steve Wozniak: I Cried When Steve Jobs Kept Atari Bonus to Himself
    https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/steve-wozniak-cried-jobs-kept-atari-bonus-267711

    It was not about keeping the bonus but about the deception. It is not about money what people who are all about money do not get including the people who wrote that article.

    , @AB
    Much of Thailand remains a poverty stricken shithole. But of course it's all relative. Compared to even bigger shitholes like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, it's probably tolerable. But compared to Singapore, it's a shithole, with scammers crawling everywhere.
  80. @Daniel Chieh
    I always liked Bern more than Geneva.

    Geneva voted for accession to EU and Bern against it in 1992.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_referendums,_1992

  81. @Daniel Chieh

    A country like Thailand for instance has excellent roads – easily as good as what’s found in America. And its airports, subway system, and elevated rail are miles ahead of what’s available in NYC.
     
    Surely you know of the overwhelming financing by China and engineering by China there.

    A company that functions like Amazon reflects a society with a particular “priority profile”. Its ludicrous to suggest the creation of a company like Amazon is primarily – or even largely – a product of IQ. I think you specifically know what I’m talking about.
     
    Hard to say that Amazon wasn't the result of a combination of high aptitude people. Technology is really, really hard to get right, and Amazon is a pretty impressive feat of delivery and execution. It can be pretty evil, but its intelligent evil.

    I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley. Its a lot of smart people there - many of them are quite insane and its very cultish and strange at times, but its not lacking for intelligent, self-motivated people who would be bored to death by the idea of idleness.

    https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Idle-Loafers-Manifesto/dp/0060779691?crid=3PA3YPJD95KIK&keywords=tom+hodgkinson&qid=1536089206&sprefix=Tom+hodg&sr=8-1&ref=mp_s_a_1_1

    A deeply relevant book that everyone on this blog should be reading. The antidote for our times.

    Presented as a lighthearted romp, its actually a deeply religious text that reacquaints us with ancient wisdom that has been lost in the West since 1600.

  82. @AaronB
    Thai infrastructure was good in the 90s - the train system is I think German. I was using it as an example of priorities.

    I am positive that Bangkok has right now people just as smart as the creators of Amazon. I'm also positive Poland has many such people.

    What is lacking is the philosophical conviction that spending stupendous amounts of effort and energy to construct a vast highly organized system eating up the life energy of thousands of high aptitude people for the purpose of shortening delivery times by a few days is the best use of our limited time on this green earth.

    And the reason that's lacking in those countries, is that life is immensely more satisfying there, and people grow up far less mentally damaged.

    Have you read Steve Jobs daughters biography of her father?

    Any county that wants to boost creativity should study it in depth - learn how to create mentally damaged people like Jobs, its the secret to Western style creativity.

    I vote for idleness :)

    What is lacking is the philosophical conviction that spending stupendous amounts of effort and energy to construct a vast highly organized system eating up the life energy of thousands of high aptitude people for the purpose of shortening delivery times by a few days is the best use of our limited time on this green earth.

    This is why they are working on life extension. Besides, aren’t you a kind of a Buddhist? They’ll just reincarnate as a sloth or an oak to idle their days away then.

    I think that you fail to acknowledge that for a lot of tech people, the work is genuinely fun. Why does Karlin, for example, play video games? Video games are a form of work, they force you to obey rules and challenges, and yet some of the most popular ones repeatedly hurt their players. A lot of people like effort, even are addicted to it.

    • LOL: AaronB
    • Replies: @AaronB
    I don't deny that for a lot of people striving is necessary to stave off nihilism. So much so that as a society we've advanced technologically where we need to work very little but have increased our workload pointlessly by a ton. We refuse to look at that yawning black chasm right beneath our feet and pour ourselves into "projects,".

    It all began with the Puritans. I'm just saying this is the result of a mental disease.

    All sorts of effort can be good - gardening, walking in nature, philosophy, literature, art, good conversation.
    , @utu
    Mowgli raised by video games has spoken.
  83. @Daniel Chieh

    A country like Thailand for instance has excellent roads – easily as good as what’s found in America. And its airports, subway system, and elevated rail are miles ahead of what’s available in NYC.
     
    Surely you know of the overwhelming financing by China and engineering by China there.

    A company that functions like Amazon reflects a society with a particular “priority profile”. Its ludicrous to suggest the creation of a company like Amazon is primarily – or even largely – a product of IQ. I think you specifically know what I’m talking about.
     
    Hard to say that Amazon wasn't the result of a combination of high aptitude people. Technology is really, really hard to get right, and Amazon is a pretty impressive feat of delivery and execution. It can be pretty evil, but its intelligent evil.

    I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley. Its a lot of smart people there - many of them are quite insane and its very cultish and strange at times, but its not lacking for intelligent, self-motivated people who would be bored to death by the idea of idleness.

    I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley. Its a lot of smart people there – many of them are quite insane and its very cultish and strange at times, but its not lacking for intelligent, self-motivated people who would be bored to death by the idea of idleness.

    Intelligence without morality is the most dangerous thing on earth. It could do far more damage than those who are morally corrupt but lack intelligence. SV is now run by intelligent people who are morally bankrupt, the same people who ran Wall Street, K Street, Washington DC, Hollywood, the media, academia, and our legal system into the ground.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    The "morally corrupt" ones are not who you should fear. Their aims are relatively minor all things considered. They can be bribed or distracted; their evil is one we understand, a beast that we all fight and tame(or not) within ourselves.

    It is the true believers that you should truly be terrified of, because they have found spiritual truth in undoing this wicked world and no price is too great, no mountain too high, and no slaughter too terrible for them to belay delivering utopia upon us.

    SV has many true believers.
  84. @AaronB
    Thai infrastructure was good in the 90s - the train system is I think German. I was using it as an example of priorities.

    I am positive that Bangkok has right now people just as smart as the creators of Amazon. I'm also positive Poland has many such people.

    What is lacking is the philosophical conviction that spending stupendous amounts of effort and energy to construct a vast highly organized system eating up the life energy of thousands of high aptitude people for the purpose of shortening delivery times by a few days is the best use of our limited time on this green earth.

    And the reason that's lacking in those countries, is that life is immensely more satisfying there, and people grow up far less mentally damaged.

    Have you read Steve Jobs daughters biography of her father?

    Any county that wants to boost creativity should study it in depth - learn how to create mentally damaged people like Jobs, its the secret to Western style creativity.

    I vote for idleness :)

    Good that you brought up Jobs. Daniel Chieh earlier stated that the issue you guys are discussing has no moral dimension but Jobs is clearly an example of deeply immoral person. Look at the story how he ripped Wozniak off when they were still very young. Wozniak learned about it many many years later when he read it in the book about Atari and Jobs.

    Steve Wozniak: I Cried When Steve Jobs Kept Atari Bonus to Himself

    https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/steve-wozniak-cried-jobs-kept-atari-bonus-267711

    It was not about keeping the bonus but about the deception. It is not about money what people who are all about money do not get including the people who wrote that article.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Good point. Amazon is also highly immoral. Bezos has taken to dressing like a manospherian tough guy lately.
  85. Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?

    • Replies: @Toronto Russian

    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?
     
    One - it's the north pole, isn't it?
    , @Tyrion 2
    The North Pole and lots of places near the South Pole but I can't be bothered to work articulate a full explanation.

    TLDR, position yourself anywhere your 1km walk will take you through the South Pole and onto the line of latitude that is 1km in circumference...or 0.5km or 0.25km etc etc.

    N cancels out S so W needs to cancel itself out.
  86. @utu
    Good that you brought up Jobs. Daniel Chieh earlier stated that the issue you guys are discussing has no moral dimension but Jobs is clearly an example of deeply immoral person. Look at the story how he ripped Wozniak off when they were still very young. Wozniak learned about it many many years later when he read it in the book about Atari and Jobs.

    Steve Wozniak: I Cried When Steve Jobs Kept Atari Bonus to Himself
    https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/steve-wozniak-cried-jobs-kept-atari-bonus-267711

    It was not about keeping the bonus but about the deception. It is not about money what people who are all about money do not get including the people who wrote that article.

    Good point. Amazon is also highly immoral. Bezos has taken to dressing like a manospherian tough guy lately.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Whereas Google and Facebook are "highly moral" and adventuring in new frontiers of virtue signaling every day while learning how to "opinion engineer" their audience. The simple evil of greed may in fact be the lesser harm.
  87. Interesting result in the International Physics Olympiad 2018.

    The participants represent the smartest of smart fractions top 0.0001% of the respective countries.

    China and India came joint first with 5 Golds(The maximum possible each)

    In a world increasingly moving towards automation,the IQ of the top 0.5% is what is going to matter assuming the population at large are not a bunch of Cretins.

    A population with genetic IQ of 92+ but with a top 0.5% with IQ 135+ (India) is likely over decades going to outperform countries with IQ of 95+ with a top 0.5% with IQ 120+ (Lat Am,SE Asia,Turkey etc).We can see this playing out even today India’s industrial base Space,Nuclear(Full Civilian fuel cycle+nuclear weapons +nuclear submarines),Auto components etc dwarf anything these countries have despite the fact they are on average 3-5 times richer,do not suffer from horrendous malnourishment rates and have much better social infrastructure and did not spend the majority of their independent years under the asinine License Raj economic system.

    • Replies: @songbird
    So, far I would say India's history with nuclear subs is kind of embarrassing, with a hatch left open and flooding in port, of their prototype vessel.

    I don't think that ever would have happened on the USS Nautilus. Although, in the US a nuke sub was effectively destroyed in 2012, by arson from a worker who wanted to leave work early. Though it is incident, I think it represents a real decline, though the worker was white.

    India is an interesting case to think about because of raw numbers. Add in mobility and you could, if the politics allow, have some very smart organizations, perhaps even cities. The question really is how much the politics will allow and what are the natural differential fertility trends in India. Probably not encouraging. Still, I think it will quite likely outperform Turkey in the longterm.
    , @Anonymous
    India has an IQ of 82 not 92 lol. That is a huge difference as much of India is dumber than Africans. To many Dravidians who look like Aboriginals and have the IQ to match.

    Your point is wrong anyway. In the future it is more important to have a high floor than a high ceiling precisely because of automation.

    India will never overcome its low IQ fraction because it makes up the majority of the populous. So no matter how smart its 0.0001% are, those IQ points will likely go towards helping the West and not India.

    If you are a moderate IQ country with few low IQ people like Indians, you don't really need geniuses. You can just follow the economies and ideas of smarter people and nations and be good.

    This is what Chile is like and it is a much better country to live in that India.
    , @Tyrion 2

    Interesting result in the International Physics Olympiad 2018.

    The participants represent the smartest of smart fractions top 0.0001% of the respective countries.
     
    No, they don't. That is 1 out of a million. It seems that India and China are engaged in an educational cargo cult. "We gets pointless medals, we gets economic development".

    Having had the privilege to meet a number of British people who could potentially lay claim to such a rare title as top student in their national school year, I can assure you that none of them would bother with anything so silly.

    Those types of awards have zero prestige over here. At least in the types of private schools that not only suck in most of the smartest people's children but also, through full scholarships, take in the very brightest from the rest.
  88. @Daniel Chieh

    What is lacking is the philosophical conviction that spending stupendous amounts of effort and energy to construct a vast highly organized system eating up the life energy of thousands of high aptitude people for the purpose of shortening delivery times by a few days is the best use of our limited time on this green earth.
     

    This is why they are working on life extension. Besides, aren't you a kind of a Buddhist? They'll just reincarnate as a sloth or an oak to idle their days away then.

    I think that you fail to acknowledge that for a lot of tech people, the work is genuinely fun. Why does Karlin, for example, play video games? Video games are a form of work, they force you to obey rules and challenges, and yet some of the most popular ones repeatedly hurt their players. A lot of people like effort, even are addicted to it.

    I don’t deny that for a lot of people striving is necessary to stave off nihilism. So much so that as a society we’ve advanced technologically where we need to work very little but have increased our workload pointlessly by a ton. We refuse to look at that yawning black chasm right beneath our feet and pour ourselves into “projects,”.

    It all began with the Puritans. I’m just saying this is the result of a mental disease.

    All sorts of effort can be good – gardening, walking in nature, philosophy, literature, art, good conversation.

  89. @AaronB
    Good point. Amazon is also highly immoral. Bezos has taken to dressing like a manospherian tough guy lately.

    Whereas Google and Facebook are “highly moral” and adventuring in new frontiers of virtue signaling every day while learning how to “opinion engineer” their audience. The simple evil of greed may in fact be the lesser harm.

    • Agree: reiner Tor
    • Replies: @AaronB
    Oh, don't get me started on Google and Facebook. Definitely just as evil. You're right on that one.

    It's all rotten. And pointless.
  90. @Daniel Chieh
    Whereas Google and Facebook are "highly moral" and adventuring in new frontiers of virtue signaling every day while learning how to "opinion engineer" their audience. The simple evil of greed may in fact be the lesser harm.

    Oh, don’t get me started on Google and Facebook. Definitely just as evil. You’re right on that one.

    It’s all rotten. And pointless.

  91. @AB

    I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley. Its a lot of smart people there – many of them are quite insane and its very cultish and strange at times, but its not lacking for intelligent, self-motivated people who would be bored to death by the idea of idleness.
     
    Intelligence without morality is the most dangerous thing on earth. It could do far more damage than those who are morally corrupt but lack intelligence. SV is now run by intelligent people who are morally bankrupt, the same people who ran Wall Street, K Street, Washington DC, Hollywood, the media, academia, and our legal system into the ground.

    The “morally corrupt” ones are not who you should fear. Their aims are relatively minor all things considered. They can be bribed or distracted; their evil is one we understand, a beast that we all fight and tame(or not) within ourselves.

    It is the true believers that you should truly be terrified of, because they have found spiritual truth in undoing this wicked world and no price is too great, no mountain too high, and no slaughter too terrible for them to belay delivering utopia upon us.

    SV has many true believers.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    The problem with the True Believers is that they believe in "doing" - thus they become like the Evil Ones in their pursuit of refashioning the world. We become what we fight - we must. There is a reason the alt-right is busy studying and implementing all the strategies if the Left.

    If they just understood that everything is OK, they'd relax, and be merrier.
    , @AB
    Being a true believer and being morally bankrupt are not mutually exclusive, it depends on what you truly believe in. In fact, one is often used to justify the other.

    Read Brotopia. SV has sunk to Hollywood level of depravity, drugs, sex parties, hook-ups and spouse swapping are all the rage. Wherever there's lots of money to be made, Jews will find their way there, and wherever Jews go, liberalism and debauchery follows. All the virtue signaling is just a way to make up for their personal failings.

    The "true believers" of the left are faithful disciples of the religion of Liberalism. It is a religion that believes the end justifies the means, i.e. doesn't matter if you lie, cheat, steal, kill, as long as your goal is to advance the cause of liberalism, your deed is justified. That's why Facebook, Google, Twitter etc. feel justified to manipulate search results, ban conservative opinions and users, msm feel justified to deliver fake news to manipulate opinions, while the majority of the #MeToo perps are liberals. The left's virtue signaling is used to justify and make up for their moral degeneracy.

    Hollywood, Wall Street and the DNC are all full of true believers of the left, and all are morally bankrupt, because they are true believers of a morally bankrupt religion called Liberalism.

  92. @Aslangeo
    This is true - British teachers get graded and promoted on their GCSE (high school exam taken at age 16) results. The schools are also marked on their GCSE results and graded in published school league tables. Therefore there is massive pressure to get kids through, all teaching of 14 to 16 year old kids is geared to getting them to pass the exams which determine if they they can go on to do A levels (university entrance exams for 18 year old)

    School reputations also matter , I volunteered at a local school which had a banner displayed at the school entrance proudly announcing a 98% pass rate. Many kids however tend to forget everything that they had been taught in maths pretty quickly. There is also an anti maths prejudice amongst many girls and people from the white working class British community

    Another thing that volunteering at the school enabled me to see is how varied the general population's intelligence really is. Those of us who have worked in cognitive professions and went to Ivy League or Russell Group (or equivalent universities) are normally surrounded by reasonably smart people and as Anatoly said assume that everyone is just like us. They are not

    A GCSE Maths ‘pass’ (was seen as grade C but with nuGCSEs that’s now grade 4) isn’t very difficult and you only need correct answers for roughly 20% of the questions.

    Regarding prejudice, my (just) 15-year-old daughter is an anomalous, strong maths-geek and I’ve long been curious about this area. For girls I think it is less about them being anti-maths and more about them being pro-English.

    Piles of research has long had girls being better at reading/writing/verbal stuff than maths on average and unless there is a compelling economic or social motive to do otherwise, then children tend to pick their best(=favourite) subjects when contemplating post-GCSE choices. See ‘the gender paradox” re. super-gender-neutral Sweden having one of the worst percentages for female representation in STEM etc.

    • Replies: @Logan
    Girls who are high in math ability also tend to be high in linguistic ability, whereas this is less common in boys. A girl with high ability in two areas has a greater range of choices available to her than a boy with high ability in only one.
  93. I’m feeling like a fucking genius. Maybe an outlier in terms of IQ and income, but a fucking genius nonetheless.

  94. @Daniel Chieh

    What is lacking is the philosophical conviction that spending stupendous amounts of effort and energy to construct a vast highly organized system eating up the life energy of thousands of high aptitude people for the purpose of shortening delivery times by a few days is the best use of our limited time on this green earth.
     

    This is why they are working on life extension. Besides, aren't you a kind of a Buddhist? They'll just reincarnate as a sloth or an oak to idle their days away then.

    I think that you fail to acknowledge that for a lot of tech people, the work is genuinely fun. Why does Karlin, for example, play video games? Video games are a form of work, they force you to obey rules and challenges, and yet some of the most popular ones repeatedly hurt their players. A lot of people like effort, even are addicted to it.

    Mowgli raised by video games has spoken.

  95. @Anatoly Karlin
    No, the answer is 28 km/h. She traveled 7 km in 15 minutes (quarter of an hour).

    Any thoughts on how the test makers expect the test takers to solve the problem? Done as you (and I) did it (4 + 3 km) / (9 + 6 minutes) * (60 minutes / 1 hour) = 28 km/h
    it is a trivial in your head computation with the numbers being conveniently round.

    Done the longer way computing the averages separately and combining them is a much more complex computation.

    Which better qualifies as level 6: realizing the easy way works, or being able to do the harder way correctly?

    • Replies: @utu
    Bravo, res. You are Level 6. You can be a hairdresser in Belgium.
  96. @szopen
    The most significant thing is that the results seems to be the same from immigrants children (Steve Sailer was posting once the results somewhere) i.e. Tunisians in Germany do not have results of the native Germans, but much worse.

    Do you have a link to that analysis? I am curious how those results correspond to the IAB Brain Drain data. I use the latter as a measure of immigration selectivity and it would be useful if the PISA variation between source/host country pairs could serve as validation.

    • Replies: @szopen
    No, sorry. I only remember the graph and when I googled, I found only a difference between local population and children of first and of second generation (first generation: children born abroad who came as children, second generation: born in a host country). Maybe my memory has failed me.
  97. @AaronB
    The Argentinean probably saunters casually into the testing room thinking - why the f*** should I take this irrelevant nonsense seriously. That steak and wine dinner last night was amazing, I think ill save my mental effort for that history of Russian literature I'm reading.

    The Chinese guy walks grim-faced and serious into the room thinking - I must give this totally irrelevant question my absolute maximum effort, for the honor of my family and to avenge the humiliations of the Opium War and show we're equal to whites!

    Much later, guys like Anatoly Karlin scratch their heads and simply can't figure out why IQ tests significantly fail to measure up to real world outcomes between countries and groups, and individuals.

    Oh well, they say to themselves, w'ell just ignore the pesky details.

    And so the human comedy goes.

    And the black guy blows off the test even more than the white people do. So that must mean that blacks have equal IQs than whites right?

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Who can say? If he blows off the test, we just don't know.
  98. @res
    Any thoughts on how the test makers expect the test takers to solve the problem? Done as you (and I) did it (4 + 3 km) / (9 + 6 minutes) * (60 minutes / 1 hour) = 28 km/h
    it is a trivial in your head computation with the numbers being conveniently round.

    Done the longer way computing the averages separately and combining them is a much more complex computation.

    Which better qualifies as level 6: realizing the easy way works, or being able to do the harder way correctly?

    Bravo, res. You are Level 6. You can be a hairdresser in Belgium.

  99. Anonymous[119] • Disclaimer says:
    @AaronB
    Don't troll me Anatoly - you must admit one of the most ridiculous things about HBD is how it purports to notice and celebrate a rich diversity in all human traits....except for competitive desire.

    That is supposed to be utterly invariant and constant across race, ethnic group, culture, history, environment, recent national humiliation, and time.

    This assumption is necessary to make competitive endeavors meaningful - if one group simply isn't competing as hard, kind of makes it less fun :)

    When you play sports, it feels really shitty when the other team just doesn't give it their best effort - really spoils the fun. We were all there, as kids.

    So believe me I get it. But it won't stop me poking fun at you silly kids :)

    So your whole point is that the test is invalid because white people blew off the test while the yellows studied for the test in advance?

    I highly doubt this but let’s examine this further. If that is the case, why did whites out score the Latinos and Africans?

    Maybe Asians pulled an all nighter, while whites studied forb2 hours, and Latinos didn’t study at all. So maybe Latinos are as smart as white people since the test scores don’t show that Latinos didn’t study for the test?

    You would have to be low IQ to believe this stuff. The whole Asians study for IQ tests are just a meme to make white people feel better about themselves. Sorry to hurt your self esteem.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Sure, I don't think Latinos are significantly less intelligent than whites.

    I've never noticed it, and its impossible to measure since test scores measure effort as much as anything.

    I've dealt extensively with Asians and I haven't noticed they're more intelligent than whites, although Asian culture is my favourite culture! More ambitious and driven, at the moment, sure.

    I grew up among Jews and haven't noticed they're so much brighter. I remember the surprise of my Jewish friend when he started doing business in the big wide world of nyc and he told us breathlessly that it's a myth Jews are so much smarter than whites, as if it was some kind of momentous discovery :)

    Most of these differences are priorities, levels of ambition, needing to prove oneself, recent cultural humiliations - stuff like that, for the most part.

    There's probably some level of genetic difference but hard to say what. Definitely not the majority.
  100. @AP
    Steve Sailer broke down PISA results by race. It was also done by race and state (you have to hunt for the latter in google). White people from the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey are among the highest-scoring people in the world.

    That is because the east coast is filled with Ashkenazi Jews which matches their 115 IQ.

    Take a sampling of white people from South Dakota and tell me what you get.

    • Replies: @utu
    2015 PISA science scores in Canada and Jewish population

    Alberta 541 (0.4% Jews)
    BC 539 (0.8% Jews)
    Quebec 537 (1.2% Jews)
    Ontario 524 (1.8% Jews)
    Nova Scotia 517 (0.3%)
    New Brunswick 506 (0.1% Jews)
    Manitoba 499 (1.2% Jews)
    Saskatchewan 496 (0.2% Jews)

    https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA-2015-United-States.pdf
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Canada

    I do not see correlation between PISA score and Jewish percentage of population.
    , @AP
    MA is 1.8% Jewish. The high scores in New England are mostly a Puritan thing, not a Jewish phenomenon.
    , @DFH
    Even in New York, Jews are a very small proportion of the population, let alone the entire East Coast. 115 is ludicrous as an estimate for Ashkenazi IQ also.

    https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IooiIKeiRs4/VNbUwq1ZvzI/AAAAAAAAC2E/fxZyPd2Q5-g/s1600/whiteiq.png

    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2015/02/state-iq-estimates-whites-only-2013.html

    , @Kratoklastes
    The 115 number for US Ashkenazim has about the same factual content as the book of Joshua or Misha Defonseca's riveting Holocaust memoir (or her earlier riveting memoir of being a child victim of satanic ritual sexual abuse).

    Mr Unz has already shown that the numbers are significantly lower than the claimed 115 - it's somewhere in the masterful "American Pravda" material.

    Also... I've said this before: if you want to do some 'apples vs apples" tests, and test the 'inherent' chunk that can be ascribed to Ashkenazim per se... do some testing in a shtetl in the countryside around Lvov.

    That would be fair - it's the benchmark that generated the data used to paint SSAs as irretrievably backward. Get some kiddies from rural areas, give them fuck-all test prep, and use the resultant statistical bilge to reinforce some deeply-felt need to justify the history of Western paternalism and exploitation.

    I'm sure that Goebells would love to have thought of that:


    "Look - we did IQ tests throughout the parts of the Pale of Settlement that are under the protection of the Reich: the results were pretty awful... turns out that the average shtetl-dweller would be declared feeble-minded under the definition laid out inBuck v Bell 274 US 200 [1927] - the US Supreme court's 1927 declaration that governments have the right to compulsorily sterilise groups so defined "for the protection of the health of the state".

    Our considered view is that sterilising is a half-assed solution that is nowhere near 'Final' enough (as solutions go).

    Round them up.

    HAIL KEK."

     

    Jokes aside... the data on race and IQ is obviously problematic - the Irish problem, the Dutch problem (two populations that tested at average IQ of 70-80 in the 50s-70s, but are clearly >100 today). I guess they both get a pass because they're kinda-white?

    .

    I'm quite a fan of Gilad Atzmon's "cognitive bifurcation" thesis (it's not specifically Atzmon's but he does a very good job of presenting it); I would bet that the raw data for US Ashkenazim would be solidly bimodal - with one mode at 95, and another at 125. It's super super hard to get hold of that data, though... I wonder why that would be? It's almost as if nobody wants folks to look at it.

    Bog-standard Ashenazim are as dumb as a bag of hammers; smart Ashkenazim are as smart as smart goyim. Hyper-smart Ashkenazim (IQ above 135) are slightly less rare than hyper-smart goyim. It still makes a difference to outcomes, because group cohesion is a force multiplier for tiny intelligence differentials.

  101. @Daniel Chieh
    The "morally corrupt" ones are not who you should fear. Their aims are relatively minor all things considered. They can be bribed or distracted; their evil is one we understand, a beast that we all fight and tame(or not) within ourselves.

    It is the true believers that you should truly be terrified of, because they have found spiritual truth in undoing this wicked world and no price is too great, no mountain too high, and no slaughter too terrible for them to belay delivering utopia upon us.

    SV has many true believers.

    The problem with the True Believers is that they believe in “doing” – thus they become like the Evil Ones in their pursuit of refashioning the world. We become what we fight – we must. There is a reason the alt-right is busy studying and implementing all the strategies if the Left.

    If they just understood that everything is OK, they’d relax, and be merrier.

    • Replies: @Talha
    I always thought that the true genius in Tolkien's work was not the amazing world he crafted with its array of characters and various mythical beings, but the final scene in which the humble Hobbit has finally achieved the summit of the tremendous task he set out to do and then finally succumbs to the power of the ring.

    "The ring is mine." - Frodo

    Peace.
  102. @Vishnugupta
    Interesting result in the International Physics Olympiad 2018.

    The participants represent the smartest of smart fractions top 0.0001% of the respective countries.

    China and India came joint first with 5 Golds(The maximum possible each)

    In a world increasingly moving towards automation,the IQ of the top 0.5% is what is going to matter assuming the population at large are not a bunch of Cretins.

    A population with genetic IQ of 92+ but with a top 0.5% with IQ 135+ (India) is likely over decades going to outperform countries with IQ of 95+ with a top 0.5% with IQ 120+ (Lat Am,SE Asia,Turkey etc).We can see this playing out even today India's industrial base Space,Nuclear(Full Civilian fuel cycle+nuclear weapons +nuclear submarines),Auto components etc dwarf anything these countries have despite the fact they are on average 3-5 times richer,do not suffer from horrendous malnourishment rates and have much better social infrastructure and did not spend the majority of their independent years under the asinine License Raj economic system.

    So, far I would say India’s history with nuclear subs is kind of embarrassing, with a hatch left open and flooding in port, of their prototype vessel.

    I don’t think that ever would have happened on the USS Nautilus. Although, in the US a nuke sub was effectively destroyed in 2012, by arson from a worker who wanted to leave work early. Though it is incident, I think it represents a real decline, though the worker was white.

    India is an interesting case to think about because of raw numbers. Add in mobility and you could, if the politics allow, have some very smart organizations, perhaps even cities. The question really is how much the politics will allow and what are the natural differential fertility trends in India. Probably not encouraging. Still, I think it will quite likely outperform Turkey in the longterm.

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    This is a good point I hadn't considered.

    How can a country like India defend itself or even field a competent military when so many of it's people have an IQ if 82?

    Even if there are a lot of genius level generals designing war games in some bunker, where are the 90-100 IQ Indians to carry out the orders and what will this lead to?

    Scary thoughts.
    , @Vishnugupta
    Everyone makes mistakes.

    China's first nuclear submarine Xia class also had several much more significant accidents which resulted in loss of lives.That in no way hampered China's eventual emergence as a major naval power.

    India is frankly not fit for democracy (I am not convinced one man one vote democracy is in the long term good even for developed western countries) we have however evolved to a point where an effective semi authoritarian spell can propel us to a solid second world country within 15 years and I have grounds for cautious optimism that a movement in that direction is under way beyond that there are too many imponderables to hazard a guess.
  103. @Anonymous
    So your whole point is that the test is invalid because white people blew off the test while the yellows studied for the test in advance?

    I highly doubt this but let's examine this further. If that is the case, why did whites out score the Latinos and Africans?

    Maybe Asians pulled an all nighter, while whites studied forb2 hours, and Latinos didn't study at all. So maybe Latinos are as smart as white people since the test scores don't show that Latinos didn't study for the test?

    You would have to be low IQ to believe this stuff. The whole Asians study for IQ tests are just a meme to make white people feel better about themselves. Sorry to hurt your self esteem.

    Sure, I don’t think Latinos are significantly less intelligent than whites.

    I’ve never noticed it, and its impossible to measure since test scores measure effort as much as anything.

    I’ve dealt extensively with Asians and I haven’t noticed they’re more intelligent than whites, although Asian culture is my favourite culture! More ambitious and driven, at the moment, sure.

    I grew up among Jews and haven’t noticed they’re so much brighter. I remember the surprise of my Jewish friend when he started doing business in the big wide world of nyc and he told us breathlessly that it’s a myth Jews are so much smarter than whites, as if it was some kind of momentous discovery :)

    Most of these differences are priorities, levels of ambition, needing to prove oneself, recent cultural humiliations – stuff like that, for the most part.

    There’s probably some level of genetic difference but hard to say what. Definitely not the majority.

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    So blacks are not born superior athletes then? Asians and Latinos could dominate the NBA like blacks do if they just prioritized it?
    , @marpa
    If only there were some way of getting past subjective impressions and measuring actual cognitive abilities. Some kind of test that could be administered to people to see how well they do at this sort of thing. Perhaps some really smart people will figure this out and design tests like that and administer them widely to see what sort of results different people have around the world. You'd be in favor of that, right?
  104. @Anonymous
    And the black guy blows off the test even more than the white people do. So that must mean that blacks have equal IQs than whites right?

    Who can say? If he blows off the test, we just don’t know.

    • Replies: @ClarkC
    Isn't it odd that the lack of effort is not equal across the six categories of questions? If I walk into a test saying, "I don't care how I do at this test," why wouldn't I answer every question by filling in the first oval for each multiple choice question and finish in five minutes?

    This is nonsensical excuse-making.
  105. Anonymous[119] • Disclaimer says:
    @Vishnugupta
    Interesting result in the International Physics Olympiad 2018.

    The participants represent the smartest of smart fractions top 0.0001% of the respective countries.

    China and India came joint first with 5 Golds(The maximum possible each)

    In a world increasingly moving towards automation,the IQ of the top 0.5% is what is going to matter assuming the population at large are not a bunch of Cretins.

    A population with genetic IQ of 92+ but with a top 0.5% with IQ 135+ (India) is likely over decades going to outperform countries with IQ of 95+ with a top 0.5% with IQ 120+ (Lat Am,SE Asia,Turkey etc).We can see this playing out even today India's industrial base Space,Nuclear(Full Civilian fuel cycle+nuclear weapons +nuclear submarines),Auto components etc dwarf anything these countries have despite the fact they are on average 3-5 times richer,do not suffer from horrendous malnourishment rates and have much better social infrastructure and did not spend the majority of their independent years under the asinine License Raj economic system.

    India has an IQ of 82 not 92 lol. That is a huge difference as much of India is dumber than Africans. To many Dravidians who look like Aboriginals and have the IQ to match.

    Your point is wrong anyway. In the future it is more important to have a high floor than a high ceiling precisely because of automation.

    India will never overcome its low IQ fraction because it makes up the majority of the populous. So no matter how smart its 0.0001% are, those IQ points will likely go towards helping the West and not India.

    If you are a moderate IQ country with few low IQ people like Indians, you don’t really need geniuses. You can just follow the economies and ideas of smarter people and nations and be good.

    This is what Chile is like and it is a much better country to live in that India.

    • Replies: @Vishnugupta
    I stated genetic IQ not present IQ which is depressed due to various environmental factors.
    Though given the genetic diversity of a sub continent I await a much more thorough analysis of Indian IQ than Lynn's 82 figure that seems to be taken as the gospel truth.

    Given the fact that descendants of Indian indentured laborers(who originate mostly from Low /Middle castes from the most backward areas of India) in places like Trinidad,Suriname,Mauritius and South Africa score in the low 90s I believe I am being very conservative vis a vis genetic potential IQ of India as a whole.

    I believe AK had written something along these lines a few years back.
    , @britisharebasque
    I read somewhere dravidian southern India is much smarter than so called aryan northern india and is more developed and a lot less corrupt so maybe the 82IQ people are from the north , also a lot of silicon valley engineers are from the south of india.
  106. @Anonymous
    That is because the east coast is filled with Ashkenazi Jews which matches their 115 IQ.

    Take a sampling of white people from South Dakota and tell me what you get.

    2015 PISA science scores in Canada and Jewish population

    Alberta 541 (0.4% Jews)
    BC 539 (0.8% Jews)
    Quebec 537 (1.2% Jews)
    Ontario 524 (1.8% Jews)
    Nova Scotia 517 (0.3%)
    New Brunswick 506 (0.1% Jews)
    Manitoba 499 (1.2% Jews)
    Saskatchewan 496 (0.2% Jews)

    https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA-2015-United-States.pdf

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Canada

    I do not see correlation between PISA score and Jewish percentage of population.

    • Replies: @ClarkC
    But the poster asked for scores only of white students. How do I know the white scores across those Canadian provinces?
  107. @Anonymous
    The problem with Level 6 Math is that the correct answer as given is 28 whereas the actual one is 28.3(3). That the test-takers were not able to come up with a sensible question that tests concepts such as rates/normalization AND returns an integer answer speaks of low IQ of the test designers.

    Not arguing the main point, of course! The ranking is still roughly meaningful. That is, a largish part of the difference between Switzerland and Albania (or Singapore and Jamaica) can be explained in terms of the tests results shown.

    9 minutes of the ride was 26.6km/h and 6 minutes at 30.

    so how do you figure out the average?

    • Replies: @utu
    Students supposed to know what an average velocity is. This you learn at science or physics. But at math at about the same time you also learn about arithmetic, geometric and other types of mean. In many languages there is no distinction between mean and average. So it is possible that a student my calculate two velocities and then calculate their mean, say arithmetic.

    A student confronted with this problem goes through the list of templates that he created while solving problems in the past and identify it as: (1) it is physics, (2) about velocities, (3) average velocity, (4) they never ask about mean/average of velocities, so it must be the average velocity...and so on.

    Now if you had a student who is great at math and who knows what velocity is (you divide distance by speed) but who never heard how the average velocity is defined and has not been trained in solving problems like this one and thus has no list of templates to look up, he could be confused particularly because the problem does not offer a, b, c, d answers that he could check against several possibilities that he could have come up with by using different definitions of an average.
    , @Chet Bradley

    so how do you figure out the average?
     
    Assuming you're actually asking a question and not just asking Anon to explain his reasoning, you don't (figure out the average). You use total distance and total time to calculate average speed. First principles.
    , @Bruno
    The average speed is not the average of the two speeds except if you ponder them by time, and not by distance as most people here have done (wich wrongly gives 28.3). But it’s really dumb to ponder by time when the time is already given to you. It would be different if you had the distance and speed and were looking for the time of each portion to compute the average speed

    So to answer the guy who said he correctly average the speeds, it’s doubtful, but it’s really not bright . It’s applying a formula to complicate a simple deduction you can do in 10 seconds if you think straight.

    The important amount of wrong answers in the comments thread has convinced me that maybe it’s true that people need a 120 IQ to understand elementary math like that .

    For those who were able to do that at 4yo, you realize how lonely you are in this world ....
  108. Anonymous[119] • Disclaimer says:
    @songbird
    So, far I would say India's history with nuclear subs is kind of embarrassing, with a hatch left open and flooding in port, of their prototype vessel.

    I don't think that ever would have happened on the USS Nautilus. Although, in the US a nuke sub was effectively destroyed in 2012, by arson from a worker who wanted to leave work early. Though it is incident, I think it represents a real decline, though the worker was white.

    India is an interesting case to think about because of raw numbers. Add in mobility and you could, if the politics allow, have some very smart organizations, perhaps even cities. The question really is how much the politics will allow and what are the natural differential fertility trends in India. Probably not encouraging. Still, I think it will quite likely outperform Turkey in the longterm.

    This is a good point I hadn’t considered.

    How can a country like India defend itself or even field a competent military when so many of it’s people have an IQ if 82?

    Even if there are a lot of genius level generals designing war games in some bunker, where are the 90-100 IQ Indians to carry out the orders and what will this lead to?

    Scary thoughts.

  109. @songbird
    So, far I would say India's history with nuclear subs is kind of embarrassing, with a hatch left open and flooding in port, of their prototype vessel.

    I don't think that ever would have happened on the USS Nautilus. Although, in the US a nuke sub was effectively destroyed in 2012, by arson from a worker who wanted to leave work early. Though it is incident, I think it represents a real decline, though the worker was white.

    India is an interesting case to think about because of raw numbers. Add in mobility and you could, if the politics allow, have some very smart organizations, perhaps even cities. The question really is how much the politics will allow and what are the natural differential fertility trends in India. Probably not encouraging. Still, I think it will quite likely outperform Turkey in the longterm.

    Everyone makes mistakes.

    China’s first nuclear submarine Xia class also had several much more significant accidents which resulted in loss of lives.That in no way hampered China’s eventual emergence as a major naval power.

    India is frankly not fit for democracy (I am not convinced one man one vote democracy is in the long term good even for developed western countries) we have however evolved to a point where an effective semi authoritarian spell can propel us to a solid second world country within 15 years and I have grounds for cautious optimism that a movement in that direction is under way beyond that there are too many imponderables to hazard a guess.

    • Replies: @utu

    an effective semi authoritarian spell can propel us to a solid second world country within 15 years
     
    Whoever this authoritarian ruler going to be I hope he will put toilets high on his authoritarian agenda.

    PROFILES IN COURAGE - TOILET PIONEER
    http://www.cc.com/video-clips/o7dham/chappelle-s-show-profiles-in-courage---toilet-pioneer
  110. @Anonymous
    That is because the east coast is filled with Ashkenazi Jews which matches their 115 IQ.

    Take a sampling of white people from South Dakota and tell me what you get.

    MA is 1.8% Jewish. The high scores in New England are mostly a Puritan thing, not a Jewish phenomenon.

    • Replies: @Anatoly Karlin
    I would further note that the Puritan heartlands:

    * Consisted mostly off well to-do yeomen and gentlemen from East Anglia, England's most prosperous region in the 17th century;
    * Literacy amongst those early Puritans was at 2/3 of the population, relative to 40% in England proper;
    * A disproportionate percentage (relative to population) of eminent intellectuals have hailed from East Anglia and Mass/Conn in both England the US;
    * Harvard University was founded in 1636, when the Puritan population in the America numbered about 40,000 colonists;
    * The region today contains 2-3 of America's top 5 universities.

    It is a most impressive concentration of human capital.
    , @Mr. XYZ
    Actually, it states here that Massachusetts is 4.0% Jewish:

    https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-in-the-united-states-by-state

    Of course, since we're only talking about Massachusetts Whites--who make up perhaps 60% of the total population in Massachusetts--we're probably thinking of something like 7% Jewish.

    Still, a White population which is 7% Jewish wouldn't be enough for the Jews to have a significant impact on its average IQ. Indeed, the Jews in such a scenario should only add about one percentage point to the average IQ of Massachusetts Whites.

  111. @AaronB
    Sure, I don't think Latinos are significantly less intelligent than whites.

    I've never noticed it, and its impossible to measure since test scores measure effort as much as anything.

    I've dealt extensively with Asians and I haven't noticed they're more intelligent than whites, although Asian culture is my favourite culture! More ambitious and driven, at the moment, sure.

    I grew up among Jews and haven't noticed they're so much brighter. I remember the surprise of my Jewish friend when he started doing business in the big wide world of nyc and he told us breathlessly that it's a myth Jews are so much smarter than whites, as if it was some kind of momentous discovery :)

    Most of these differences are priorities, levels of ambition, needing to prove oneself, recent cultural humiliations - stuff like that, for the most part.

    There's probably some level of genetic difference but hard to say what. Definitely not the majority.

    So blacks are not born superior athletes then? Asians and Latinos could dominate the NBA like blacks do if they just prioritized it?

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Quite possibly. Asians and Latinos have other outlets for prestige and income. Its very hard to judge why one community specializes in particular niche. There is probably a genetic component but its impossible to measure it.

    Being around Jews, it's evident to me they prioritize money - I have acquaintances who will argue with me for hours over trivial amounts of money, with immense passion and energy and argumentative fecundity, essentially exhausting me - yet it is equally evident to me Jews have no special talent for money. Just a passion for it, for cultural reasons.

    If Chinese suddenly decided their honor depended entirely on basketball and poured all their striving into it, I wouldn't be surprised if suddenly China produced the world best players.

    Very hard to say, these things.
  112. @Anonymous
    That is because the east coast is filled with Ashkenazi Jews which matches their 115 IQ.

    Take a sampling of white people from South Dakota and tell me what you get.

    Even in New York, Jews are a very small proportion of the population, let alone the entire East Coast. 115 is ludicrous as an estimate for Ashkenazi IQ also.

    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2015/02/state-iq-estimates-whites-only-2013.html

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    Texas and Minnesota scored well because of their high amount of German blood which is intermixed with a lot of Jewish blood

    On the East Coast there are soooooo many white people with Ashkenazi blood even if they don't identify as Jews.

    Besides, these IQ numbers still don't match the IQ of Chinese or Ashkenazi Jews. So the poster above who said these white people had the highest test scores were obviously full of it.
    , @Bliss
    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2015/02/state-iq-estimates-whites-only-2013.html

    Hmm, the 5 states with the most intelligent whites voted for Hillary Clinton while the 5 states with the least intelligent whites voted for Trump.

    Add the fact that Whites with post-graduate degrees voted most heavily for Clinton while whites with the least education voted most heavily for Trump. And all the best colleges and universities in America are located in the Blue Democrat states: the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Caltech etc

    What conclusions can we draw from that, geniuses?
  113. Anatoly, do you have the answer key for this PISA test? I want to compare the answers that I calculated for this with the actual answers for this to see just how well I did.

    Also, posts such as this explain the danger of letting in a lot of low-IQ people into the First World. Basically, the First World is going to get screwed if the newcomers fail to converge to First World levels of average IQ. Also, given that decades of affirmative action have failed to make a significant dent in racial and ethnic achievement/IQ gaps in the U.S., one should probably be extremely skeptical that we’ll be able to make Third Worlders converge to First World levels of average IQ without things such as embryo selection for intelligence or gene editing of embryos.

    AK: It’s linked to in the text - http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test-2012/

  114. @AP
    Steve Sailer broke down PISA results by race. It was also done by race and state (you have to hunt for the latter in google). White people from the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey are among the highest-scoring people in the world.

    Sailer also showed that the U.S. performs extremely well overall when its scores are broken down by race. What hurts the U.S. is its racial demographics.

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    I would need to see specifics to believe this.

    Most likely white populations that test well will be Jewish or part Jewish. No way South Dakota or Tenessee tests as well.
  115. @Anonymous
    India has an IQ of 82 not 92 lol. That is a huge difference as much of India is dumber than Africans. To many Dravidians who look like Aboriginals and have the IQ to match.

    Your point is wrong anyway. In the future it is more important to have a high floor than a high ceiling precisely because of automation.

    India will never overcome its low IQ fraction because it makes up the majority of the populous. So no matter how smart its 0.0001% are, those IQ points will likely go towards helping the West and not India.

    If you are a moderate IQ country with few low IQ people like Indians, you don't really need geniuses. You can just follow the economies and ideas of smarter people and nations and be good.

    This is what Chile is like and it is a much better country to live in that India.

    I stated genetic IQ not present IQ which is depressed due to various environmental factors.
    Though given the genetic diversity of a sub continent I await a much more thorough analysis of Indian IQ than Lynn’s 82 figure that seems to be taken as the gospel truth.

    Given the fact that descendants of Indian indentured laborers(who originate mostly from Low /Middle castes from the most backward areas of India) in places like Trinidad,Suriname,Mauritius and South Africa score in the low 90s I believe I am being very conservative vis a vis genetic potential IQ of India as a whole.

    I believe AK had written something along these lines a few years back.

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

    North Koreans who are under much worse conditions than most of India have their genetic IQ preserved.

    Chinese IQ tests from just a few decades ago when China was still very impoverished still showed much higher IQ than India.

    Indians have a lower IQ built in because they have a high percentage of Aboriginal/Dravidian blood which you can see in their face.
    , @Anatoly Karlin
    Probably this article: http://www.unz.com/akarlin/the-puzzle-of-indian-iq-a-country-of-gypsies-and-jews/

    Also this one by recman1.
  116. @NestorGoldman
    9 minutes of the ride was 26.6km/h and 6 minutes at 30.

    so how do you figure out the average?

    Students supposed to know what an average velocity is. This you learn at science or physics. But at math at about the same time you also learn about arithmetic, geometric and other types of mean. In many languages there is no distinction between mean and average. So it is possible that a student my calculate two velocities and then calculate their mean, say arithmetic.

    A student confronted with this problem goes through the list of templates that he created while solving problems in the past and identify it as: (1) it is physics, (2) about velocities, (3) average velocity, (4) they never ask about mean/average of velocities, so it must be the average velocity…and so on.

    Now if you had a student who is great at math and who knows what velocity is (you divide distance by speed) but who never heard how the average velocity is defined and has not been trained in solving problems like this one and thus has no list of templates to look up, he could be confused particularly because the problem does not offer a, b, c, d answers that he could check against several possibilities that he could have come up with by using different definitions of an average.

  117. Anonymous[119] • Disclaimer says:
    @Vishnugupta
    I stated genetic IQ not present IQ which is depressed due to various environmental factors.
    Though given the genetic diversity of a sub continent I await a much more thorough analysis of Indian IQ than Lynn's 82 figure that seems to be taken as the gospel truth.

    Given the fact that descendants of Indian indentured laborers(who originate mostly from Low /Middle castes from the most backward areas of India) in places like Trinidad,Suriname,Mauritius and South Africa score in the low 90s I believe I am being very conservative vis a vis genetic potential IQ of India as a whole.

    I believe AK had written something along these lines a few years back.

    Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.

    North Koreans who are under much worse conditions than most of India have their genetic IQ preserved.

    Chinese IQ tests from just a few decades ago when China was still very impoverished still showed much higher IQ than India.

    Indians have a lower IQ built in because they have a high percentage of Aboriginal/Dravidian blood which you can see in their face.

    • Replies: @Wizard of Oz
    Tamils have a reputation for cognitive ability, especially mathematical, and they are Dravidian are they not? I don't know India very well (who can?) bit note that high tech and outsourcing appears to be strong in the south, notably in Bangalore (Bengaluru if you are a proud Kannada speaker in Karnataka State) but also Hyderabad and Chennai also (Madras). I have heard Tamils called the Jews of the East and they certainly seem to have got themselves both education and resentment in Sri Lanka despite being a small minority, rather like Jews in the Pale of Settlement.

    I think the correlation would be much stronger with caste than with Dravidian DNA.

  118. anon[132] • Disclaimer says:

    I guess I am missing the point or putting too fine a point on it. Auto assembly involves a complex, lengthy supply chain. The entire enterprise is based on the labor component becoming foolproof.

    Meanwhile, that the value of labor is limited by group intelligent is one of those things that is likely true but unprovable,

    3rd worlders can certainly use cellphones, but they would never be able to invent them. By extension, using technology is possible. Is there any instance of a country unable to implement cell technology?

  119. @Anonymous
    So blacks are not born superior athletes then? Asians and Latinos could dominate the NBA like blacks do if they just prioritized it?

    Quite possibly. Asians and Latinos have other outlets for prestige and income. Its very hard to judge why one community specializes in particular niche. There is probably a genetic component but its impossible to measure it.

    Being around Jews, it’s evident to me they prioritize money – I have acquaintances who will argue with me for hours over trivial amounts of money, with immense passion and energy and argumentative fecundity, essentially exhausting me – yet it is equally evident to me Jews have no special talent for money. Just a passion for it, for cultural reasons.

    If Chinese suddenly decided their honor depended entirely on basketball and poured all their striving into it, I wouldn’t be surprised if suddenly China produced the world best players.

    Very hard to say, these things.

  120. @Vishnugupta
    Everyone makes mistakes.

    China's first nuclear submarine Xia class also had several much more significant accidents which resulted in loss of lives.That in no way hampered China's eventual emergence as a major naval power.

    India is frankly not fit for democracy (I am not convinced one man one vote democracy is in the long term good even for developed western countries) we have however evolved to a point where an effective semi authoritarian spell can propel us to a solid second world country within 15 years and I have grounds for cautious optimism that a movement in that direction is under way beyond that there are too many imponderables to hazard a guess.

    an effective semi authoritarian spell can propel us to a solid second world country within 15 years

    Whoever this authoritarian ruler going to be I hope he will put toilets high on his authoritarian agenda.

    PROFILES IN COURAGE – TOILET PIONEER

    http://www.cc.com/video-clips/o7dham/chappelle-s-show-profiles-in-courage—toilet-pioneer

  121. @Mr. XYZ
    Sailer also showed that the U.S. performs extremely well overall when its scores are broken down by race. What hurts the U.S. is its racial demographics.

    I would need to see specifics to believe this.

    Most likely white populations that test well will be Jewish or part Jewish. No way South Dakota or Tenessee tests as well.

    • Replies: @Mr. XYZ
    Jews aren't numerous enough to make a significant difference in regards to this, though. Even if Jews are, say, 15% of the total White population in, say, New York and perform a full standard deviation above White Gentiles, they'll still only add a couple of points to the average IQ of Whites there.
    , @anon
    The lesson in these IQ statistics seems to be that learning is a function of directed and encountered experience. Performance is a measure of ability to apply learned or acquired experience to a problem or situation of the type one's culture expects its adults to perform in.

    Learning (that is the processing of experience) occurs with every human breath.

    The types of learning experiences are based in availability, access, random events. Each type of learning experience is a function of sensory access, if one cannot read, one cannot know the meanings of that words on the page, if one cannot hear one cannot know that the whistle sounds the time of day.

    Availability of the mother, father, siblings, the extended family, the community, the society, and activities directed toward preparation for adult demands in a target society all figure in the ability to perform. IQ is a measure of the ability to perform on a test which must be read [visual sensory capacity assumed to be adequate ], understood [assumptions misdirect performance], and taken seriously ( I don't feel well today or my mother just died or whatever, the gang will whip my ass if I do well on this test]

    So much performance determined IQ depends on the ability to perceive, to remember, to recall experience that it is difficult to compare performance test results even between siblings. Another factor is the language, grammar used, and even the type of print used by those who prepare the test.
    On no test anywhere have I seen a question like this..

    Your intended victim is a 42 yr old female tourist, she walks with a limp, keeps a very large red purse strapped to her wrist, the purse contains a pistol and she runs around the block of her hotel at 8:00 pm each evening. Which of the following is most likely to be successful in transporting the money in her purse to your hands?
    a. direct confrontation (beg or this is a holdup) b. artful brush by c. 2nd party diversion d. shoot, grab & run

    Obviously the answer depends on the imagined capacity of the victim and the social setting of the offender among other things but not so obvious is that the answer depends on prior directed and encountered experience and an assessment of the risk. No one tested will have the same set of these prior experiences.
  122. Anonymous[119] • Disclaimer says:
    @DFH
    Even in New York, Jews are a very small proportion of the population, let alone the entire East Coast. 115 is ludicrous as an estimate for Ashkenazi IQ also.

    https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IooiIKeiRs4/VNbUwq1ZvzI/AAAAAAAAC2E/fxZyPd2Q5-g/s1600/whiteiq.png

    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2015/02/state-iq-estimates-whites-only-2013.html

    Texas and Minnesota scored well because of their high amount of German blood which is intermixed with a lot of Jewish blood

    On the East Coast there are soooooo many white people with Ashkenazi blood even if they don’t identify as Jews.

    Besides, these IQ numbers still don’t match the IQ of Chinese or Ashkenazi Jews. So the poster above who said these white people had the highest test scores were obviously full of it.

    • Replies: @DFH
    Claiming that everyone is really genetically a Jew must be some strange form of Jew-obsessed monomania I have not encountered before
  123. @utu

    We could see it as a useful test of whether children can filter out unnecessary information, and discern the intentions of the transnational question designer the OECD has hired. Perhaps this is a skill in itself.
     
    Yes, it is a skill. Anything can be a skill. In some cultures this skill is not valued. This skill measures acculturations to culture that is foreign and often considered hostile so the skill may not only be not valued but also will be resisted. The ones excelling in it will be seen as sell outs and traitors. The Uncle Toms. Culture is a bitch. It is a very complex system. That's why the IQ story is so appealing to simple minds because it allows the simpletons to ignore what they don't have an aptitude for.

    Well questions testing to see if kids can count numbers and multiply. Almost all healthy (not-disabled) people can do this. Questions are too far easy for this age group (15-16 year olds).

    The difficulty is in distractions, irrelevant pictures, and unclear words.

    For example, “Level 4″ question is asking them to multiply 3 numbers. Children can usually do this at age 10. It is a question at an 10 year old difficulty level.

    What is the reason for including a picture of a door – why not just ask them to multiply the three numbers? (The only advantage of adding the door picture, is to confused people from countries where these doors do not exist – it’s a test of whether your country has this door type, not of multiplication).

    -

    A good exam for this age, would write the questions as clearly as possible, without any culturally dependent distractions.

    If they had actually a topic suitable for 15 year olds, like solving quadratic equation by factorization – they can write the questions normally, but test the children more by choosing larger and more awkward numbers.

    The transnational comparison could still be possible, by keeping simple topics which will be covered in syllabuses of schools in different countries, while making more difficult questions within those same topics.

    There’s no reason African children should be culturally resistant to e.g. quadratic equation. It’s a universal topic, which 15 year olds around the world are studying.

    • Replies: @utu
    I agree. Indoctrinate them in math formalism first to be fluent in it and only then create 'real life' problems where math can be applied. When I used to teach and tutor there were many 'real life' problems but they were not really original. The original ones you can encounter at math olympiads. You could classify problems into different categories and recognize which math template was needed for each category. One way to help to tutor students who needed to catch up was to teach about the categories so they do not have to form them by themselves through many exercises. This approach reduces the number of problems one must solve to become proficient.

    I think the 'real life' problems are created to address a frequent objection some may hear from student and parents nowadays: 'What is it good for?' or "Why do I need it?' The answer to it should be strict and non utilitarian but elitists: 'This is what education is about. In order to be educated that's what you need.' 'If you want a vocation go to a vocational school or if you want to be a millionaire go to the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire show.'
    , @Anatoly Karlin
    This is what TIMSS does (PISA and TIMSS correlate well).

    PISA proxies the sort of problems that one encounters in everyday life, and is arguably a truer test of intelligence.

    Also we don't really have any truly impoverished and backwards countries like Afghanistan doing PISA. I am sure that plenty of children even in Tunisia or Colombia have seen revolving doors.
  124. German blood which is intermixed with a lot of Jewish blood

    So you are a Jewish suprematist troll, aren’t you? And not a vey smart one.

    • Agree: AP, reiner Tor
  125. @DFH
    Looking at this makes me a little sceptical of how well the PISA tests measure competence (at least in absolute terms).
    For instance, the claim that only such a small percentage of British schoolchildren can do advanced maths seems to be contradicted by the fact that over half can pass their Maths GCSEs, which require competence in similar levels of Maths.

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/aug/24/proportion-of-students-getting-good-gcse-grades-falls-after-reforms

    You don’t understand credentialism, grade inflation and reduced pedagogic standards.

    The number of kiddies who get As (nowadays, A or A*) at GCSE has increased from 8% to 22% since 1988; A* was introduced in 1994 when the number of kiddies getting As changed from about 1 in 12 to about 1 in 8.

    So ‘A’ is the ‘new B’ (almost exactly, actually).

    A GCSE ‘A’ has changed from ‘this kid is soundly inside the top decile for this subject‘ to ‘this kid is definitely outside the top 6% (otherwise they would have got an A*). They could be outside the top quintile. They’re safely inside the top quartile, though, innit.‘.

    GCSE maths is like high school maths everywhere in the West nowadays: it has been shorn of all rigour.

    The same is true for university “Honours”: in the UK, 25% of graduates get a First (in 1988 it was 4-10% depending on the institution). In Australia a First now means inside the 4th percentile (at Melbourne Uni Economics they had a tradition to only give a single First: that’s gone now). In my year, there were 4 Firsts – a record up to that point, but it was four genuinely outstanding students; a dead-heat for top student (me and my mate Ritch), then 2 others dead-heated 4% lower (two other mates). Some years prior to 1995 there were no Firsts awarded.

    I know this is getting long: might take a whole minute more to finish…

    Back to high school maths and declining standards.

    As far back as the late 90s – before grade inflation really took off – even quasi-élite students were poorly prepared by high school mathematics.

    At the time I was a PhD candidate (in Econometrics, on a ‘full ride’ merit scholarship).

    To augment our scholarships we were given tutoring positions (3 1-hour tutes a week, plus exam and assignment marking, for a 0.35 full time, full-year salary – easiest money ever). So we were at the ‘coal face’ – teaching first year Econometrics, which was mandatory (I also tutored third year Applied Econometric Modelling, which was elective – and a cinch to teach because everyone who took it wanted to be there and the chaff had already been winnowed out).

    This was at a university in the top few dozen in the world in the field, which required high school marks solidly in the 5-6% to get into the undergraduate course. The entry requirements also included 2 units of maths (i.e., what we used to refer to as ‘Pure’ and ‘Applied’) at Year 12 final exams.

    It’s difficult to score in the top decile of high school graduates with 2 maths subjects, unless you get an A in at least one of those subjects.

    With that as background: I had students in first year who didn’t know
    what a logarithm was (for fuck’s sake);
    • how to differentiate (forget chain and product rules – I mean simple differentiation of a univariate function);
    • how to manipulate powers (e.g., a²/a⁴= ?);
    • basic matrix and vector algebra (the hardest topic would have been Cholesky decomposition of a 5×5 matrix – by hand, because it’s 1996).

    These kids were not outliers, or ‘special entry’ kids – my colleagues reported similar problems with their first-year classes, too.

    In the end my mates and I prepared a bunch of remedial mathematics notes that were distributed widely, and we pre-emptively handed them out during ‘O’ (Orientation) week in subsequent years.

    Less than 5 years prior to this, my mates and I were undergraduates ourselves: Econometrics was mandatory in first year, but elective subsequently: ‘pure’ Economics majors dropped it the moment they could.

    Every one of the second-year Econometrics students in our year had done first-year Mathematics (in the Science department) as an elective in first year… because it was free marks. Calculus, linear algebra, first-order differential equations – re-hashing year 11 and 12 maths.

    I know right? I’m old, and I’m one of those “shit was better/harder/tougher when I was younger, waaaaah” types.

    No, not really.

    Standards were higher, and they changed – markedly, radically, downwards – in the middle years of the 1990s.

    I watched it happen in real time: in my Honours year (1995), the person teaching Macroeconomic Theory was forced to “pump the brake” on a really good rigorous Modern Macro course (e.g., one based on Blanchard & Fisher).

    It was a mandatory subject for Honours; a fail meant you were booted with a Pass degree.

    Half the pure-Economics majors had spent their previous 3 years writing essays.

    After the first assignment, in which they did poorly, the pure-Ecotards saw the maths required for the next unit (a basic OLG model).

    They shit themselves, saw the impending train wreck, and agitated for the subsequent assignments and exam to be watered down.

    Faculty held their ground (but they changed the course the following year), but pure-Econometrics and joint Econ/Econometrics majors (i.e., me an my chums) were ‘asked’ to tutor the essay-writers.

    So we had to babysit these tards (only one of whom got a ‘First’) while managing a study load that for us included
    Math Eco Theory (which was heavy on Optimal Control and Calculus of variations – taught from Leonard & Long and Kamien & Schwartz),
    Quantitative Economic Policy (which was heavy on Itō Calculus), and
    Econometric Theory (heavy on integral calculus, linear algebra and probability).

    Oh… and on a historical note: that first-year Maths subject that I mentioned – it used to be a one-semester unit… it’s now split into 3 subjects, one of which is a second-year subject.

    CREDENTIALISM.

    HAIL KEK (I’m all about Kek today)

    • Replies: @utu

    This was at a university in the top few dozen in the world in the field
     
    Why not write in the 24th?
    , @DFH
    I did a Maths GCSE less than a decade ago. You can see just from looking at the sample questions that getting a pass would require getting at least some number of problems more complex than level 6, therefore if more than half of children got a pass then more than half of children are capable of doing it.
  126. @Anonymous
    Texas and Minnesota scored well because of their high amount of German blood which is intermixed with a lot of Jewish blood

    On the East Coast there are soooooo many white people with Ashkenazi blood even if they don't identify as Jews.

    Besides, these IQ numbers still don't match the IQ of Chinese or Ashkenazi Jews. So the poster above who said these white people had the highest test scores were obviously full of it.

    Claiming that everyone is really genetically a Jew must be some strange form of Jew-obsessed monomania I have not encountered before

    • LOL: utu
    • Replies: @AaronB
    Its quite common among Jews.

    Its sort of like when Europeans would claim Jesus and Buddha were really Aryans, and all culture is created by Aryans, etc.

    People get that way.
    , @Anonymous
    Give me a break.

    Don't white people claim that upper class Latinos are only smart because they are part white? And they do the same thing to American blacks vs African blacks.

    So why would you be so shocked that there is also truth to this in white people?

    Total hypocracy here.
  127. @Kratoklastes
    You don't understand credentialism, grade inflation and reduced pedagogic standards.

    The number of kiddies who get As (nowadays, A or A*) at GCSE has increased from 8% to 22% since 1988; A* was introduced in 1994 when the number of kiddies getting As changed from about 1 in 12 to about 1 in 8.

    So 'A' is the 'new B' (almost exactly, actually).

    A GCSE 'A' has changed from 'this kid is soundly inside the top decile for this subject' to 'this kid is definitely outside the top 6% (otherwise they would have got an A*). They could be outside the top quintile. They're safely inside the top quartile, though, innit.'.

    GCSE maths is like high school maths everywhere in the West nowadays: it has been shorn of all rigour.

    The same is true for university "Honours": in the UK, 25% of graduates get a First (in 1988 it was 4-10% depending on the institution). In Australia a First now means inside the 4th percentile (at Melbourne Uni Economics they had a tradition to only give a single First: that's gone now). In my year, there were 4 Firsts - a record up to that point, but it was four genuinely outstanding students; a dead-heat for top student (me and my mate Ritch), then 2 others dead-heated 4% lower (two other mates). Some years prior to 1995 there were no Firsts awarded.

    I know this is getting long: might take a whole minute more to finish...

    Back to high school maths and declining standards.

    As far back as the late 90s - before grade inflation really took off - even quasi-élite students were poorly prepared by high school mathematics.

    At the time I was a PhD candidate (in Econometrics, on a 'full ride' merit scholarship).

    To augment our scholarships we were given tutoring positions (3 1-hour tutes a week, plus exam and assignment marking, for a 0.35 full time, full-year salary - easiest money ever). So we were at the 'coal face' - teaching first year Econometrics, which was mandatory (I also tutored third year Applied Econometric Modelling, which was elective - and a cinch to teach because everyone who took it wanted to be there and the chaff had already been winnowed out).

    This was at a university in the top few dozen in the world in the field, which required high school marks solidly in the 5-6% to get into the undergraduate course. The entry requirements also included 2 units of maths (i.e., what we used to refer to as 'Pure' and 'Applied') at Year 12 final exams.

    It's difficult to score in the top decile of high school graduates with 2 maths subjects, unless you get an A in at least one of those subjects.

    With that as background: I had students in first year who didn't know
    what a logarithm was (for fuck's sake);
    • how to differentiate (forget chain and product rules - I mean simple differentiation of a univariate function);
    • how to manipulate powers (e.g., a²/a⁴= ?);
    • basic matrix and vector algebra (the hardest topic would have been Cholesky decomposition of a 5×5 matrix - by hand, because it's 1996).

    These kids were not outliers, or 'special entry' kids - my colleagues reported similar problems with their first-year classes, too.

    In the end my mates and I prepared a bunch of remedial mathematics notes that were distributed widely, and we pre-emptively handed them out during 'O' (Orientation) week in subsequent years.

    Less than 5 years prior to this, my mates and I were undergraduates ourselves: Econometrics was mandatory in first year, but elective subsequently: 'pure' Economics majors dropped it the moment they could.

    Every one of the second-year Econometrics students in our year had done first-year Mathematics (in the Science department) as an elective in first year... because it was free marks. Calculus, linear algebra, first-order differential equations - re-hashing year 11 and 12 maths.

    I know right? I'm old, and I'm one of those "shit was better/harder/tougher when I was younger, waaaaah" types.

    No, not really.

    Standards were higher, and they changed - markedly, radically, downwards - in the middle years of the 1990s.

    I watched it happen in real time: in my Honours year (1995), the person teaching Macroeconomic Theory was forced to "pump the brake" on a really good rigorous Modern Macro course (e.g., one based on Blanchard & Fisher).

    It was a mandatory subject for Honours; a fail meant you were booted with a Pass degree.

    Half the pure-Economics majors had spent their previous 3 years writing essays.

    After the first assignment, in which they did poorly, the pure-Ecotards saw the maths required for the next unit (a basic OLG model).

    They shit themselves, saw the impending train wreck, and agitated for the subsequent assignments and exam to be watered down.

    Faculty held their ground (but they changed the course the following year), but pure-Econometrics and joint Econ/Econometrics majors (i.e., me an my chums) were 'asked' to tutor the essay-writers.

    So we had to babysit these tards (only one of whom got a 'First') while managing a study load that for us included
    Math Eco Theory (which was heavy on Optimal Control and Calculus of variations - taught from Leonard & Long and Kamien & Schwartz),
    Quantitative Economic Policy (which was heavy on Itō Calculus), and
    Econometric Theory (heavy on integral calculus, linear algebra and probability).

    Oh... and on a historical note: that first-year Maths subject that I mentioned - it used to be a one-semester unit... it's now split into 3 subjects, one of which is a second-year subject.

    CREDENTIALISM.

    HAIL KEK (I'm all about Kek today)

    This was at a university in the top few dozen in the world in the field

    Why not write in the 24th?

    • Replies: @Kratoklastes
    I was being very conservative, or only quite conservative, depending on what measurement is used to determine rankings.

    When I was making decisions after undergrad, my alma mater (Monash) was 4th Econometrics department globally by research output as defined by what was thought to be the appropriate metric at the time - "standardised page count" (i.e., published output, weighted by the relative prestige of the journals in which research output was published).

    That's not an appropriate measure of undergraduate ranking, but was relevant as to whether I went further afield for graduate study (I had a full-ride open ticket to anywhere I wanted to go).

    Of more relevance to grad study for me personally: Monash was outright best in the world - with GTAP at Purdue a good second - for my specialism... Computable General Equilibrium economic modelling. (It's telling that the entire research centre where I was a PhD student moved to a different institution: it was genuinely "the jewel in the crown").

    For teaching, the old girl is currently ranked in the top 50 (#45), having dropped more than a dozen places in the last decade: the university's leadership is MBA types - "never mind the quality, feel the weight of aggregate student fees" - so rigour has declined.
    .
    Anyhow - that's by way of showing that 'top few dozen' is still not over-egging the pudding, even though the department (and the University) is a shadow of its former self. (Technically, I guess 'few' is 'not many but more than 1', which gives the interval [24,...,60(?)]

    Frankly, anyone who graduates in the top handful of students from any of the top 100 universities in a technical discipline should probably be deemed "adequate" a priori in any relevant domain. My mentor finished at the top of his Honours year (in the 60s, at Monash) and did the same in his PhD coursework at Harvard (he finished his PhD the year his supervisor - Leontief - got the Nobel Prize). Other colleagues did likewise.

    I think that's probably true even today: for Econometrics, that would mean all the way 'down' to the likes of Georgetown, McGill, Carnegie-Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, Sciences Po, and Paris I Sorbonne.

    Those from universities ranked #101 onwards? Fucking bums, the lot of 'em.

    HAIL KEK! (I'll get that stupid meme-shit out of my system in the next few days).

  128. @Kratoklastes
    You don't understand credentialism, grade inflation and reduced pedagogic standards.

    The number of kiddies who get As (nowadays, A or A*) at GCSE has increased from 8% to 22% since 1988; A* was introduced in 1994 when the number of kiddies getting As changed from about 1 in 12 to about 1 in 8.

    So 'A' is the 'new B' (almost exactly, actually).

    A GCSE 'A' has changed from 'this kid is soundly inside the top decile for this subject' to 'this kid is definitely outside the top 6% (otherwise they would have got an A*). They could be outside the top quintile. They're safely inside the top quartile, though, innit.'.

    GCSE maths is like high school maths everywhere in the West nowadays: it has been shorn of all rigour.

    The same is true for university "Honours": in the UK, 25% of graduates get a First (in 1988 it was 4-10% depending on the institution). In Australia a First now means inside the 4th percentile (at Melbourne Uni Economics they had a tradition to only give a single First: that's gone now). In my year, there were 4 Firsts - a record up to that point, but it was four genuinely outstanding students; a dead-heat for top student (me and my mate Ritch), then 2 others dead-heated 4% lower (two other mates). Some years prior to 1995 there were no Firsts awarded.

    I know this is getting long: might take a whole minute more to finish...

    Back to high school maths and declining standards.

    As far back as the late 90s - before grade inflation really took off - even quasi-élite students were poorly prepared by high school mathematics.

    At the time I was a PhD candidate (in Econometrics, on a 'full ride' merit scholarship).

    To augment our scholarships we were given tutoring positions (3 1-hour tutes a week, plus exam and assignment marking, for a 0.35 full time, full-year salary - easiest money ever). So we were at the 'coal face' - teaching first year Econometrics, which was mandatory (I also tutored third year Applied Econometric Modelling, which was elective - and a cinch to teach because everyone who took it wanted to be there and the chaff had already been winnowed out).

    This was at a university in the top few dozen in the world in the field, which required high school marks solidly in the 5-6% to get into the undergraduate course. The entry requirements also included 2 units of maths (i.e., what we used to refer to as 'Pure' and 'Applied') at Year 12 final exams.

    It's difficult to score in the top decile of high school graduates with 2 maths subjects, unless you get an A in at least one of those subjects.

    With that as background: I had students in first year who didn't know
    what a logarithm was (for fuck's sake);
    • how to differentiate (forget chain and product rules - I mean simple differentiation of a univariate function);
    • how to manipulate powers (e.g., a²/a⁴= ?);
    • basic matrix and vector algebra (the hardest topic would have been Cholesky decomposition of a 5×5 matrix - by hand, because it's 1996).

    These kids were not outliers, or 'special entry' kids - my colleagues reported similar problems with their first-year classes, too.

    In the end my mates and I prepared a bunch of remedial mathematics notes that were distributed widely, and we pre-emptively handed them out during 'O' (Orientation) week in subsequent years.

    Less than 5 years prior to this, my mates and I were undergraduates ourselves: Econometrics was mandatory in first year, but elective subsequently: 'pure' Economics majors dropped it the moment they could.

    Every one of the second-year Econometrics students in our year had done first-year Mathematics (in the Science department) as an elective in first year... because it was free marks. Calculus, linear algebra, first-order differential equations - re-hashing year 11 and 12 maths.

    I know right? I'm old, and I'm one of those "shit was better/harder/tougher when I was younger, waaaaah" types.

    No, not really.

    Standards were higher, and they changed - markedly, radically, downwards - in the middle years of the 1990s.

    I watched it happen in real time: in my Honours year (1995), the person teaching Macroeconomic Theory was forced to "pump the brake" on a really good rigorous Modern Macro course (e.g., one based on Blanchard & Fisher).

    It was a mandatory subject for Honours; a fail meant you were booted with a Pass degree.

    Half the pure-Economics majors had spent their previous 3 years writing essays.

    After the first assignment, in which they did poorly, the pure-Ecotards saw the maths required for the next unit (a basic OLG model).

    They shit themselves, saw the impending train wreck, and agitated for the subsequent assignments and exam to be watered down.

    Faculty held their ground (but they changed the course the following year), but pure-Econometrics and joint Econ/Econometrics majors (i.e., me an my chums) were 'asked' to tutor the essay-writers.

    So we had to babysit these tards (only one of whom got a 'First') while managing a study load that for us included
    Math Eco Theory (which was heavy on Optimal Control and Calculus of variations - taught from Leonard & Long and Kamien & Schwartz),
    Quantitative Economic Policy (which was heavy on Itō Calculus), and
    Econometric Theory (heavy on integral calculus, linear algebra and probability).

    Oh... and on a historical note: that first-year Maths subject that I mentioned - it used to be a one-semester unit... it's now split into 3 subjects, one of which is a second-year subject.

    CREDENTIALISM.

    HAIL KEK (I'm all about Kek today)

    I did a Maths GCSE less than a decade ago. You can see just from looking at the sample questions that getting a pass would require getting at least some number of problems more complex than level 6, therefore if more than half of children got a pass then more than half of children are capable of doing it.

  129. @DFH
    Claiming that everyone is really genetically a Jew must be some strange form of Jew-obsessed monomania I have not encountered before

    Its quite common among Jews.

    Its sort of like when Europeans would claim Jesus and Buddha were really Aryans, and all culture is created by Aryans, etc.

    People get that way.

  130. @AP
    MA is 1.8% Jewish. The high scores in New England are mostly a Puritan thing, not a Jewish phenomenon.

    I would further note that the Puritan heartlands:

    * Consisted mostly off well to-do yeomen and gentlemen from East Anglia, England’s most prosperous region in the 17th century;
    * Literacy amongst those early Puritans was at 2/3 of the population, relative to 40% in England proper;
    * A disproportionate percentage (relative to population) of eminent intellectuals have hailed from East Anglia and Mass/Conn in both England the US;
    * Harvard University was founded in 1636, when the Puritan population in the America numbered about 40,000 colonists;
    * The region today contains 2-3 of America’s top 5 universities.

    It is a most impressive concentration of human capital.

    • Replies: @Bliss

    It is a most impressive concentration of human capital.
     
    That judgement is not backed up by the list of prominent Puritans:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Puritans

    Lists of prominent Unitarians and Deists are far more impressive:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unitarians,_Universalists,_and_Unitarian_Universalists

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deists
    , @5371
    "Mostly well to do yeomen and gentlemen" is a wild exaggeration.
    , @gcochran
    Something like 1/6th of Massachusetts ancestry goes back to Puritans.
  131. @Vishnugupta
    I stated genetic IQ not present IQ which is depressed due to various environmental factors.
    Though given the genetic diversity of a sub continent I await a much more thorough analysis of Indian IQ than Lynn's 82 figure that seems to be taken as the gospel truth.

    Given the fact that descendants of Indian indentured laborers(who originate mostly from Low /Middle castes from the most backward areas of India) in places like Trinidad,Suriname,Mauritius and South Africa score in the low 90s I believe I am being very conservative vis a vis genetic potential IQ of India as a whole.

    I believe AK had written something along these lines a few years back.
    • Replies: @Mr. XYZ
    Yeah, I suspect that you're correct that India's genetic ceiling for its average IQ is around 95. This means that, in theory, India should be capable of enjoying Greece's living standards if it will actually be capable of raising its average IQ to its full genetic potential. This would be an extremely massive improvement over the status quo and thus is something that India should certainly strongly aim for.
  132. @for-the-record
    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?

    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?

    One – it’s the north pole, isn’t it?

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    One – it’s the north pole, isn’t it?

    Finally, some one who has dared to respond!

    Responses can be graded into 4 levels of "intelligence" (0, 1, 2, 3, definitely not to be confused with the PISA levels). Currently you are at Level 1 -- the north pole works, but it represents an infinitesimal part of the solution set.

    For those too lazy to look up the original question:

    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?

     

    In decades (far too many!) of giving this exam, I have encountered one person of Level 3 intelligence.

    Any one here?
  133. @Dmitry
    Well questions testing to see if kids can count numbers and multiply. Almost all healthy (not-disabled) people can do this. Questions are too far easy for this age group (15-16 year olds).

    The difficulty is in distractions, irrelevant pictures, and unclear words.

    For example, "Level 4" question is asking them to multiply 3 numbers. Children can usually do this at age 10. It is a question at an 10 year old difficulty level.

    What is the reason for including a picture of a door - why not just ask them to multiply the three numbers? (The only advantage of adding the door picture, is to confused people from countries where these doors do not exist - it's a test of whether your country has this door type, not of multiplication).

    -

    A good exam for this age, would write the questions as clearly as possible, without any culturally dependent distractions.

    If they had actually a topic suitable for 15 year olds, like solving quadratic equation by factorization - they can write the questions normally, but test the children more by choosing larger and more awkward numbers.

    The transnational comparison could still be possible, by keeping simple topics which will be covered in syllabuses of schools in different countries, while making more difficult questions within those same topics.

    There's no reason African children should be culturally resistant to e.g. quadratic equation. It's a universal topic, which 15 year olds around the world are studying.

    I agree. Indoctrinate them in math formalism first to be fluent in it and only then create ‘real life’ problems where math can be applied. When I used to teach and tutor there were many ‘real life’ problems but they were not really original. The original ones you can encounter at math olympiads. You could classify problems into different categories and recognize which math template was needed for each category. One way to help to tutor students who needed to catch up was to teach about the categories so they do not have to form them by themselves through many exercises. This approach reduces the number of problems one must solve to become proficient.

    I think the ‘real life’ problems are created to address a frequent objection some may hear from student and parents nowadays: ‘What is it good for?’ or “Why do I need it?’ The answer to it should be strict and non utilitarian but elitists: ‘This is what education is about. In order to be educated that’s what you need.’ ‘If you want a vocation go to a vocational school or if you want to be a millionaire go to the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire show.’

  134. @Anonymous
    I would need to see specifics to believe this.

    Most likely white populations that test well will be Jewish or part Jewish. No way South Dakota or Tenessee tests as well.

    Jews aren’t numerous enough to make a significant difference in regards to this, though. Even if Jews are, say, 15% of the total White population in, say, New York and perform a full standard deviation above White Gentiles, they’ll still only add a couple of points to the average IQ of Whites there.

  135. @Dmitry
    Well questions testing to see if kids can count numbers and multiply. Almost all healthy (not-disabled) people can do this. Questions are too far easy for this age group (15-16 year olds).

    The difficulty is in distractions, irrelevant pictures, and unclear words.

    For example, "Level 4" question is asking them to multiply 3 numbers. Children can usually do this at age 10. It is a question at an 10 year old difficulty level.

    What is the reason for including a picture of a door - why not just ask them to multiply the three numbers? (The only advantage of adding the door picture, is to confused people from countries where these doors do not exist - it's a test of whether your country has this door type, not of multiplication).

    -

    A good exam for this age, would write the questions as clearly as possible, without any culturally dependent distractions.

    If they had actually a topic suitable for 15 year olds, like solving quadratic equation by factorization - they can write the questions normally, but test the children more by choosing larger and more awkward numbers.

    The transnational comparison could still be possible, by keeping simple topics which will be covered in syllabuses of schools in different countries, while making more difficult questions within those same topics.

    There's no reason African children should be culturally resistant to e.g. quadratic equation. It's a universal topic, which 15 year olds around the world are studying.

    This is what TIMSS does (PISA and TIMSS correlate well).

    PISA proxies the sort of problems that one encounters in everyday life, and is arguably a truer test of intelligence.

    Also we don’t really have any truly impoverished and backwards countries like Afghanistan doing PISA. I am sure that plenty of children even in Tunisia or Colombia have seen revolving doors.

    • Replies: @utu
    There is even revolving door syndrom in Tunisia.

    Determinants of the « revolving door » syndrom in tunisian population of patients with schizophrenia
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924933812754858
    , @Dmitry

    I am sure that plenty of children even in Tunisia or Colombia have seen revolving doors.
     
    If the kids are not confused by the question - then how do you explain the lower numbers who get the correct answer?

    At school, if I remember, almost everyone could multiply 4 numbers, and we learn this at about 10 or 11 years old. So "maths" (multiplication) part of this question, is achievable by almost everyone at a much younger age. The difficulty for the kids in this exam, is the confusingly styled question (nothing to do with their multiplication ability).

    If 15-16 year old students are really not almost all able to easily multiply numbers, then I will be wrong and shocked. However, it's far more likely as a problem of incompetence in designing the questions. Now perhaps, not being distracted by the question is a skill in itself - but then it is still another skill.

    , @WorldOfMuppets
    Maybe you could also write a post on the rarely talked about and barely researched phenomenon of gullibility and susceptibility to manipulation, which, for I have observed in many high IQ libertarians, anarcho-capitalists and Holocaust, 9/11 and Oswald-killed-JFK non-skeptics, leading me to think it has seemingly little to do with IQ and Math capabilities.

    Could gullible and easy to manipulate people, unable to see through the bullshit and too lazy and arrogant to research for themselves because the "consensus is" and "occams razor tells me" be basically defined as morons?

  136. @Anonymous
    That is because the east coast is filled with Ashkenazi Jews which matches their 115 IQ.

    Take a sampling of white people from South Dakota and tell me what you get.

    The 115 number for US Ashkenazim has about the same factual content as the book of Joshua or Misha Defonseca’s riveting Holocaust memoir (or her earlier riveting memoir of being a child victim of satanic ritual sexual abuse).

    Mr Unz has already shown that the numbers are significantly lower than the claimed 115 – it’s somewhere in the masterful “American Pravda” material.

    Also… I’ve said this before: if you want to do some ‘apples vs apples” tests, and test the ‘inherent’ chunk that can be ascribed to Ashkenazim per sedo some testing in a shtetl in the countryside around Lvov.

    That would be fair – it’s the benchmark that generated the data used to paint SSAs as irretrievably backward. Get some kiddies from rural areas, give them fuck-all test prep, and use the resultant statistical bilge to reinforce some deeply-felt need to justify the history of Western paternalism and exploitation.

    I’m sure that Goebells would love to have thought of that:

    “Look – we did IQ tests throughout the parts of the Pale of Settlement that are under the protection of the Reich: the results were pretty awful… turns out that the average shtetl-dweller would be declared feeble-minded under the definition laid out inBuck v Bell 274 US 200 [1927] – the US Supreme court’s 1927 declaration that governments have the right to compulsorily sterilise groups so defined “for the protection of the health of the state”.

    Our considered view is that sterilising is a half-assed solution that is nowhere near ‘Final’ enough (as solutions go).

    Round them up.

    HAIL KEK.

    Jokes aside… the data on race and IQ is obviously problematic – the Irish problem, the Dutch problem (two populations that tested at average IQ of 70-80 in the 50s-70s, but are clearly >100 today). I guess they both get a pass because they’re kinda-white?

    .

    I’m quite a fan of Gilad Atzmon’s “cognitive bifurcation” thesis (it’s not specifically Atzmon’s but he does a very good job of presenting it); I would bet that the raw data for US Ashkenazim would be solidly bimodal – with one mode at 95, and another at 125. It’s super super hard to get hold of that data, though… I wonder why that would be? It’s almost as if nobody wants folks to look at it.

    Bog-standard Ashenazim are as dumb as a bag of hammers; smart Ashkenazim are as smart as smart goyim. Hyper-smart Ashkenazim (IQ above 135) are slightly less rare than hyper-smart goyim. It still makes a difference to outcomes, because group cohesion is a force multiplier for tiny intelligence differentials.

    • Replies: @Anon
    I believe that average 115 IQ askenazi Jewish comes from tests given in the NYC public school system in the 1920s for gifted children.

    I’ve never seen any proof of an actual study in which a representative sample of ashkenazi Jews were given an IQ test.
    The average Israeli Jew IQ is 95.

    If anyone knows of a real study done about askenazi jewish IQ please let me know.
    , @Anon
    What’s SSA? There aren’t any Shetls left in Poland.

    A lot of the 1900 Jews who swarmed out of the E European Shetls into the public school systems of our big cities really were above average intelligent. That was very unfortunate because they were communists bent on changing America for the worse. And they succeeded.
    , @JRB
    When I read that apparently IQ in the Netherlands had risen sharply from the fifties to the eighties I was amazed and also surprised. I don't see at all that the generation now in their eighties is >20 IQ points dumber then the generation now in their fifties. I just read in the article of Flynn that the Raven test in question was done in 1952 on 18 year olds. That explains a lots. Those boys were ten year olds in 1944-45. Much of them, especially the ones living in the big cities in Holland, had a full time job scavenging for food and firewood in the period between October 1944 and the Summer of 1945. Also in the northern and eastern provinces these boys had big responsibilities, because all older men (>16 years old) must hide or risk transport to Germany to work there. Lots of those boys were either severely malnourished during those months or lacking basic food ingredients. Apart from that, after this experience many of these boys were less inclined to accept authority and not very well suited for schools anymore. I would not be amazed that the guys who took the tests in 1952 took it far less seriously then the guys who did a same or similar tests in the eighties, when indeed average IQ in the Netherlands among young people was probably much higher then it is now.
  137. @AP
    MA is 1.8% Jewish. The high scores in New England are mostly a Puritan thing, not a Jewish phenomenon.

    Actually, it states here that Massachusetts is 4.0% Jewish:

    https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-in-the-united-states-by-state

    Of course, since we’re only talking about Massachusetts Whites–who make up perhaps 60% of the total population in Massachusetts–we’re probably thinking of something like 7% Jewish.

    Still, a White population which is 7% Jewish wouldn’t be enough for the Jews to have a significant impact on its average IQ. Indeed, the Jews in such a scenario should only add about one percentage point to the average IQ of Massachusetts Whites.

    • Replies: @Cicero2
    Massachusetts was 73.7% White in 2014, maybe around 65-67% in the age range for the PISA test. Of those roughly 1/3 are full or part-Irish, a group that gets a lot of grief historically for not being as intellectual as other Northern Europeans. Italians (descended from Sicilians and Calabrians) are number two in size, making up over an eight of the total population. The English are a distant third, and I am not sure how many are old stock Colonial Yankees, because from 1850 to 1965 over 2.5 million Englishmen settled in America and many would have ended up in Boston for practical reasons, but most of these were working-class folk who flocked to the textile mills. The next group down are "French", which in this case means French Canadians who came down from Quebec to do all sorts of menial, low-skill labor. Neither Jews nor Boston Brahmins are particularly large segments of the White population in this state, despite their outsized reputation. The Jews who settled up there were not even considered the best of that community, being predominately Litwaks who were seen as far more illiterate and backwards than the German, Austrian, Polish, or Ukrainian Jews.

    Clearly, something very remarkable happened in Massachusetts during the 20th Century that allowed the children of the above groups to achieve such high outcomes in education and cognitive ability, but what that was I am not sure. No one is ever going to claim modern Mass is a pillar of clean, cleared-headed government, so my educated guess is that the communities they were very good at organizing themselves towards self-improvement and economic development in same way many German and Scandinavians communities did out in the Midwest during the same time period.
  138. @Anatoly Karlin
    This is what TIMSS does (PISA and TIMSS correlate well).

    PISA proxies the sort of problems that one encounters in everyday life, and is arguably a truer test of intelligence.

    Also we don't really have any truly impoverished and backwards countries like Afghanistan doing PISA. I am sure that plenty of children even in Tunisia or Colombia have seen revolving doors.

    There is even revolving door syndrom in Tunisia.

    Determinants of the « revolving door » syndrom in tunisian population of patients with schizophrenia

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924933812754858

  139. Anonymous[119] • Disclaimer says:
    @DFH
    Claiming that everyone is really genetically a Jew must be some strange form of Jew-obsessed monomania I have not encountered before

    Give me a break.

    Don’t white people claim that upper class Latinos are only smart because they are part white? And they do the same thing to American blacks vs African blacks.

    So why would you be so shocked that there is also truth to this in white people?

    Total hypocracy here.

    • Replies: @Mr. XYZ
    I wouldn't be surprised if Whites with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry in the U.S. are, on average, smarter than Whites without such ancestry. That said, though, I don't think that Jewish ancestry should have a significant effect on the average IQ since even a White population which is, say, 10-15% Jewish should only see this Jewish admixture cause an increase of 1-2 points in its average IQ (assuming that Jews perform a full standard deviation above Gentile Whites, that is).

    However, I'm not sure that I would extend this logic to American Blacks versus African Blacks. Yes, American Blacks have White admixture, but it is also possible that this is compensated by a negative selection effect due to slavery. In other words, the Blacks who became slaves might have, on average, been less intelligent than the Blacks who didn't get enslaved.

    , @utu

    Don’t white people claim that upper class Latinos are only smart because they are part white? And they do the same thing to American blacks vs African blacks.
     
    Yes, they do. I mean the ones who acquired the IQ derangement syndrome. Most whites do not think about this stuff.

    I was mistaken thinking you were a Jew. You are a self hating person of color. That's why you are lashing out with the Jew thing to get back at the stupid whites. So I can understand you but acting stupid does not correct or cure the stupidity of others.
  140. @Anatoly Karlin
    Probably this article: http://www.unz.com/akarlin/the-puzzle-of-indian-iq-a-country-of-gypsies-and-jews/

    Also this one by recman1.

    Yeah, I suspect that you’re correct that India’s genetic ceiling for its average IQ is around 95. This means that, in theory, India should be capable of enjoying Greece’s living standards if it will actually be capable of raising its average IQ to its full genetic potential. This would be an extremely massive improvement over the status quo and thus is something that India should certainly strongly aim for.

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    I read both Indian IQ analysis linked from Anatoly and I find both flimsy especially from rec1man.

    I do think Indian IQ is suppressed due to disease, vegetarianism, and pollution. But what do you think will happen to this going forward? Pollution and disease will probably get worse, not better going forward.

    And while I think the food situation can improve in India, I don't think it will improve IQ as much as believed. North Korea is impoverished, but that doesn't mean when their economy improves it will suddenly gain a lot of IQ points. Nor will this apply to Africa.

    All of the proposed mechanism are marginal gains. Not something you can add 5 points here 5 points there until India is a Superpower!

    If we are talking about genetic potential, why not do this with every country and compare the results? We could see Mexico overtake European IQ if they could remove drugs, teen pregnancy, and violent homes right?
  141. @Anonymous
    Give me a break.

    Don't white people claim that upper class Latinos are only smart because they are part white? And they do the same thing to American blacks vs African blacks.

    So why would you be so shocked that there is also truth to this in white people?

    Total hypocracy here.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Whites with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry in the U.S. are, on average, smarter than Whites without such ancestry. That said, though, I don’t think that Jewish ancestry should have a significant effect on the average IQ since even a White population which is, say, 10-15% Jewish should only see this Jewish admixture cause an increase of 1-2 points in its average IQ (assuming that Jews perform a full standard deviation above Gentile Whites, that is).

    However, I’m not sure that I would extend this logic to American Blacks versus African Blacks. Yes, American Blacks have White admixture, but it is also possible that this is compensated by a negative selection effect due to slavery. In other words, the Blacks who became slaves might have, on average, been less intelligent than the Blacks who didn’t get enslaved.

    • Replies: @reiner Tor

    the Blacks who became slaves might have, on average, been less intelligent than the Blacks who didn’t get enslaved.
     
    That’s a good point.

    Still, it was only a one-off selection, which usually has smaller effects due to reversion to the mean. It was also probably not a very strong selection, because descending from a smaller or militarily weaker tribe doesn’t necessarily imply lower intelligence. There was also a reverse selection: those who survived the Middle Passage had on average lower genetic load (and so higher genetic potential IQ) than those who didn’t. And I bet you smarter slaves were also less likely to be worked to death and probably had higher status and so better access to women. (Although that selection probably went into reverse for the past century.)
  142. @DFH
    Looking at this makes me a little sceptical of how well the PISA tests measure competence (at least in absolute terms).
    For instance, the claim that only such a small percentage of British schoolchildren can do advanced maths seems to be contradicted by the fact that over half can pass their Maths GCSEs, which require competence in similar levels of Maths.

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/aug/24/proportion-of-students-getting-good-gcse-grades-falls-after-reforms

    ‘advanced maths seems to be contradicted by the fact that over half can pass their Maths GCSEs’

    beleive me there is no such thing as advanced maths on a gcse test. My maths gcse was pretty basic and this was 15 years ago (god knows how easy it would be today with the constant lowering of standards) but I still pulled a bad result (I have a learning disorder which means i am no good at maths). Most people barely scraped by. Private schools in the UK use a supplemental advanced maths test for applications to universities etc.

  143. Anonymous[119] • Disclaimer says:
    @Mr. XYZ
    Yeah, I suspect that you're correct that India's genetic ceiling for its average IQ is around 95. This means that, in theory, India should be capable of enjoying Greece's living standards if it will actually be capable of raising its average IQ to its full genetic potential. This would be an extremely massive improvement over the status quo and thus is something that India should certainly strongly aim for.

    I read both Indian IQ analysis linked from Anatoly and I find both flimsy especially from rec1man.

    I do think Indian IQ is suppressed due to disease, vegetarianism, and pollution. But what do you think will happen to this going forward? Pollution and disease will probably get worse, not better going forward.

    And while I think the food situation can improve in India, I don’t think it will improve IQ as much as believed. North Korea is impoverished, but that doesn’t mean when their economy improves it will suddenly gain a lot of IQ points. Nor will this apply to Africa.

    All of the proposed mechanism are marginal gains. Not something you can add 5 points here 5 points there until India is a Superpower!

    If we are talking about genetic potential, why not do this with every country and compare the results? We could see Mexico overtake European IQ if they could remove drugs, teen pregnancy, and violent homes right?

    • Replies: @Bliss
    The Fields Medal, awarded every 4 years, is called the Nobel Prize of Math, and 5 of the last 8 winners are from “low IQ” countries: 2 indians, 2 iranians and 1 brazilian.

    Methinks winning the Fields Medal trumps scoring high on the PISA test. Yes or no?

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fields_Medal#Fields_medalists

    Btw, the Brazilian winner looks mixed race. In other words part african, like the majority of brazilians. Indians of course are all mixed race as well.
    , @Anon
    India will continue to get worse, as will Mexico, rest of Latin America, Africa, because the smart will continue to leave, leaving the country to be run over by the corrupt, the criminal, sick, poor, old, young, stupid...all thanks to the open border policies of the rich world which exacerbate inequality around the world.

    In the colonial times we robbed the poor countries of their natural resources, now we rob them of their human resources.

  144. @Anatoly Karlin
    GCSEs involve years of teaching to the test. Format is predictable, changes little from year to year. Past exams are available for practice.

    In contrast, PISA presents novel problems of the sort one is more likely to encounter in real life.

    You really cannot teach to the test with advanced mathematics. The answer is that there is no such thing as advanced mathematics on a GCSE test. My test was (by international standards) easy and even then I and most others only scraped by with a C. A freind of my sister retook a maths GCSE at age 30 (she is training to be a teacher) and only scraped by with a C.

    The teaching of mathematics outside of private schools in the UK is a horrifyingly bad joke.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    For anything to first year of university (not actual maths or physics degree in university), this problem is just teaching.

    Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course.

    But often teachers are not adequate, or students not attentive, and if something is not clearly explained (and understood and memorized by a child), then the students rapidly become disorientated about things which would seem inherently simple to them if they had been taught well.

    It's not an issue of children being stupid, but of not having all steps clearly explained (and then practiced and memorized, before trying to learn a connected topic).

    , @utu

    You really cannot teach to the test with advanced mathematics.
     
    Believe me, you can. But a student must be very motivated by something like fear and aspirations of his parents.

    Probably you are a case of system failure like most people who think that they do not have what it takes to learn math. With some effort you could have been taught to pass much better than your C. You gave up and the system gave up on you too soon.

    It is much harder to learn to write well than to do math on a moderate level yet most people, particularly those who failed at math, think they are good at writing while they really suck except that they were not flunked for mediocre writing skills while they were flunked for bad math.
  145. @AaronB
    Who can say? If he blows off the test, we just don't know.

    Isn’t it odd that the lack of effort is not equal across the six categories of questions? If I walk into a test saying, “I don’t care how I do at this test,” why wouldn’t I answer every question by filling in the first oval for each multiple choice question and finish in five minutes?

    This is nonsensical excuse-making.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Levels of effort. Areas of interest.

    Use yer brain, mun! (Said with Scottish accent)
  146. @utu

    This was at a university in the top few dozen in the world in the field
     
    Why not write in the 24th?

    I was being very conservative, or only quite conservative, depending on what measurement is used to determine rankings.

    When I was making decisions after undergrad, my alma mater (Monash) was 4th Econometrics department globally by research output as defined by what was thought to be the appropriate metric at the time – “standardised page count” (i.e., published output, weighted by the relative prestige of the journals in which research output was published).

    That’s not an appropriate measure of undergraduate ranking, but was relevant as to whether I went further afield for graduate study (I had a full-ride open ticket to anywhere I wanted to go).

    Of more relevance to grad study for me personally: Monash was outright best in the world – with GTAP at Purdue a good second – for my specialism… Computable General Equilibrium economic modelling. (It’s telling that the entire research centre where I was a PhD student moved to a different institution: it was genuinely “the jewel in the crown”).

    For teaching, the old girl is currently ranked in the top 50 (#45), having dropped more than a dozen places in the last decade: the university’s leadership is MBA types – “never mind the quality, feel the weight of aggregate student fees” – so rigour has declined.
    .
    Anyhow – that’s by way of showing that ‘top few dozen’ is still not over-egging the pudding, even though the department (and the University) is a shadow of its former self. (Technically, I guess ‘few’ is ‘not many but more than 1‘, which gives the interval [24,...,60(?)]

    Frankly, anyone who graduates in the top handful of students from any of the top 100 universities in a technical discipline should probably be deemed “adequate” a priori in any relevant domain. My mentor finished at the top of his Honours year (in the 60s, at Monash) and did the same in his PhD coursework at Harvard (he finished his PhD the year his supervisor – Leontief – got the Nobel Prize). Other colleagues did likewise.

    I think that’s probably true even today: for Econometrics, that would mean all the way ‘down’ to the likes of Georgetown, McGill, Carnegie-Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, Sciences Po, and Paris I Sorbonne.

    Those from universities ranked #101 onwards? Fucking bums, the lot of ‘em.

    HAIL KEK! (I’ll get that stupid meme-shit out of my system in the next few days).

  147. @Anonymous
    Give me a break.

    Don't white people claim that upper class Latinos are only smart because they are part white? And they do the same thing to American blacks vs African blacks.

    So why would you be so shocked that there is also truth to this in white people?

    Total hypocracy here.

    Don’t white people claim that upper class Latinos are only smart because they are part white? And they do the same thing to American blacks vs African blacks.

    Yes, they do. I mean the ones who acquired the IQ derangement syndrome. Most whites do not think about this stuff.

    I was mistaken thinking you were a Jew. You are a self hating person of color. That’s why you are lashing out with the Jew thing to get back at the stupid whites. So I can understand you but acting stupid does not correct or cure the stupidity of others.

  148. @utu
    2015 PISA science scores in Canada and Jewish population

    Alberta 541 (0.4% Jews)
    BC 539 (0.8% Jews)
    Quebec 537 (1.2% Jews)
    Ontario 524 (1.8% Jews)
    Nova Scotia 517 (0.3%)
    New Brunswick 506 (0.1% Jews)
    Manitoba 499 (1.2% Jews)
    Saskatchewan 496 (0.2% Jews)

    https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA-2015-United-States.pdf
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Canada

    I do not see correlation between PISA score and Jewish percentage of population.

    But the poster asked for scores only of white students. How do I know the white scores across those Canadian provinces?

    • Replies: @utu
    I do not understand. Explain, pls.
  149. @Anatoly Karlin
    This is what TIMSS does (PISA and TIMSS correlate well).

    PISA proxies the sort of problems that one encounters in everyday life, and is arguably a truer test of intelligence.

    Also we don't really have any truly impoverished and backwards countries like Afghanistan doing PISA. I am sure that plenty of children even in Tunisia or Colombia have seen revolving doors.

    I am sure that plenty of children even in Tunisia or Colombia have seen revolving doors.

    If the kids are not confused by the question – then how do you explain the lower numbers who get the correct answer?

    At school, if I remember, almost everyone could multiply 4 numbers, and we learn this at about 10 or 11 years old. So “maths” (multiplication) part of this question, is achievable by almost everyone at a much younger age. The difficulty for the kids in this exam, is the confusingly styled question (nothing to do with their multiplication ability).

    If 15-16 year old students are really not almost all able to easily multiply numbers, then I will be wrong and shocked. However, it’s far more likely as a problem of incompetence in designing the questions. Now perhaps, not being distracted by the question is a skill in itself – but then it is still another skill.

  150. @ClarkC
    But the poster asked for scores only of white students. How do I know the white scores across those Canadian provinces?

    I do not understand. Explain, pls.

  151. @NestorGoldman
    9 minutes of the ride was 26.6km/h and 6 minutes at 30.

    so how do you figure out the average?

    so how do you figure out the average?

    Assuming you’re actually asking a question and not just asking Anon to explain his reasoning, you don’t (figure out the average). You use total distance and total time to calculate average speed. First principles.

  152. @Peasant
    You really cannot teach to the test with advanced mathematics. The answer is that there is no such thing as advanced mathematics on a GCSE test. My test was (by international standards) easy and even then I and most others only scraped by with a C. A freind of my sister retook a maths GCSE at age 30 (she is training to be a teacher) and only scraped by with a C.

    The teaching of mathematics outside of private schools in the UK is a horrifyingly bad joke.

    For anything to first year of university (not actual maths or physics degree in university), this problem is just teaching.

    Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course.

    But often teachers are not adequate, or students not attentive, and if something is not clearly explained (and understood and memorized by a child), then the students rapidly become disorientated about things which would seem inherently simple to them if they had been taught well.

    It’s not an issue of children being stupid, but of not having all steps clearly explained (and then practiced and memorized, before trying to learn a connected topic).

    • Replies: @Peasant
    'Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course'

    im not sure about this i know i couldnt.

    'But often teachers are not adequate, or students not attentive, and if something is not clearly explained (and understood and memorized by a child), then the students rapidly become disorientated about things which would seem inherently simple to them if they had been taught well'

    I see what you are saying here and I agree. I think the education system in the west has been deliberately sabotaged with bad teachers and a confusing pegadogy.

    My point still stands about GCSE having nothing to do with advanced mathematics though...
    , @Colin Wright
    'For anything to first year of university (not actual maths or physics degree in university), this problem is just teaching.

    Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course...'

    I taught high school math for three years, so I think I can comment on this.

    It's true -- to some extent. My experience was that anyone of even moderate intelligence could do well in first-year algebra if it was taught well, he applied himself, and he had the rudiments of arithmetic down.

    On the other hand, I never particularly enjoyed teaching geometry. Some kids just couldn't get it. For those who could, it was a snap, and it probably wasn't terribly important whether my lessons were well-thought out or not.

    , @for-the-record
    Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course.

    I don't know what dream world you grew up in, but this is complete rubbish. There are plenty of people, even quite intelligent ones, who no matter how well they were educated could not successfully learn undergraduate engineering and/or computer science.
  153. @Anatoly Karlin
    I would further note that the Puritan heartlands:

    * Consisted mostly off well to-do yeomen and gentlemen from East Anglia, England's most prosperous region in the 17th century;
    * Literacy amongst those early Puritans was at 2/3 of the population, relative to 40% in England proper;
    * A disproportionate percentage (relative to population) of eminent intellectuals have hailed from East Anglia and Mass/Conn in both England the US;
    * Harvard University was founded in 1636, when the Puritan population in the America numbered about 40,000 colonists;
    * The region today contains 2-3 of America's top 5 universities.

    It is a most impressive concentration of human capital.

    It is a most impressive concentration of human capital.

    That judgement is not backed up by the list of prominent Puritans:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Puritans

    Lists of prominent Unitarians and Deists are far more impressive:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unitarians,_Universalists,_and_Unitarian_Universalists

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deists

  154. @ClarkC
    Isn't it odd that the lack of effort is not equal across the six categories of questions? If I walk into a test saying, "I don't care how I do at this test," why wouldn't I answer every question by filling in the first oval for each multiple choice question and finish in five minutes?

    This is nonsensical excuse-making.

    Levels of effort. Areas of interest.

    Use yer brain, mun! (Said with Scottish accent)

  155. @Peasant
    You really cannot teach to the test with advanced mathematics. The answer is that there is no such thing as advanced mathematics on a GCSE test. My test was (by international standards) easy and even then I and most others only scraped by with a C. A freind of my sister retook a maths GCSE at age 30 (she is training to be a teacher) and only scraped by with a C.

    The teaching of mathematics outside of private schools in the UK is a horrifyingly bad joke.

    You really cannot teach to the test with advanced mathematics.

    Believe me, you can. But a student must be very motivated by something like fear and aspirations of his parents.

    Probably you are a case of system failure like most people who think that they do not have what it takes to learn math. With some effort you could have been taught to pass much better than your C. You gave up and the system gave up on you too soon.

    It is much harder to learn to write well than to do math on a moderate level yet most people, particularly those who failed at math, think they are good at writing while they really suck except that they were not flunked for mediocre writing skills while they were flunked for bad math.

    • Replies: @Peasant
    'Believe me, you can'

    No really I have a rare learning disorder that means I am essentially incapable of anything other than basic math.

    'Probably you are a case of system failure like most people who think that they do not have what it takes to learn math'

    I agree with this (though it does not apply to me as such). My twin sister has an iq of 144 (she took one pure ravens progressive matrices test-the only one she ever took and shes one of these people who has been convinced that iq tests are meaningless) and she only got a C in maths.Part of my point was that the teaching of math in the UK is abysmal and was particularly bad in my (otherwise perfectly average) school.

    It is my understanding that Higher Mathematics was alot more abstract than the regular kind and that limited the ability of students to test prep it. Am I incorrect? Let me know.

    'It is much harder to learn to write well than to do math on a moderate level yet most people, particularly those who failed at math, think they are good at writing while they really suck except that they were not flunked for mediocre writing skills while they were flunked for bad math'

    I really think that Math can be drilled very effectively but that higher math (calculas et al) is more abstract and that more people can be taught to write well than can learn advanced maths. Part of the problem with my writing now is the internet and smart phones-these have ruined my punctuation and grmmar.
  156. @Anonymous
    I read both Indian IQ analysis linked from Anatoly and I find both flimsy especially from rec1man.

    I do think Indian IQ is suppressed due to disease, vegetarianism, and pollution. But what do you think will happen to this going forward? Pollution and disease will probably get worse, not better going forward.

    And while I think the food situation can improve in India, I don't think it will improve IQ as much as believed. North Korea is impoverished, but that doesn't mean when their economy improves it will suddenly gain a lot of IQ points. Nor will this apply to Africa.

    All of the proposed mechanism are marginal gains. Not something you can add 5 points here 5 points there until India is a Superpower!

    If we are talking about genetic potential, why not do this with every country and compare the results? We could see Mexico overtake European IQ if they could remove drugs, teen pregnancy, and violent homes right?

    The Fields Medal, awarded every 4 years, is called the Nobel Prize of Math, and 5 of the last 8 winners are from “low IQ” countries: 2 indians, 2 iranians and 1 brazilian.

    Methinks winning the Fields Medal trumps scoring high on the PISA test. Yes or no?

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fields_Medal#Fields_medalists

    Btw, the Brazilian winner looks mixed race. In other words part african, like the majority of brazilians. Indians of course are all mixed race as well.

    • Replies: @Bliss
    Worth pointing out in this Russian blog: a disproportionately large number of Fields Medal winners are Russians. Disproportionate number of French names among the winners as well.

    East Asians are represented by 2 Chinese, 2 Japanese and 1 Vietnamese.
    , @Cicero2
    Artur Avila, the Brazilian you are referring to may very well have African ancestry, about half of all Brazilians do. How much of his total ancestry is African is up for debate unless he ever bothers to take an autosomal DNA test and publishes the results. Like many of his countrymen, his appearance can change greatly due to the tanning of his skin or the styling of his hair.

    https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/56340/area14mp/25vq6wkd-1407895480.jpg



    http://pictures.ozy.com/pictures/1500xany/2/0/8/77208_GettyImages-455259270.jpg

    https://plus.maths.org/content/sites/plus.maths.org/files/news/2014/Seoul/f3.jpg

    http://www.madrimasd.org/blogs/matematicas/files/2012/08/artur-avila.jpg

    http://www.korea.net/upload/content/editImage/math-140814-1.jpg

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YA3eoRn3VcA/maxresdefault.jpg

    All photos of Avila, and showing how radically he can change in appearance from one day to the next.
    , @Anonymous
    No one said that there aren't smart high IQ Indians, so your example does not matter.
    , @AnAnon
    The point of this article isn't that there are no smart people in the 3rd world, but that they make up an insignificant fraction of the total population, and thus can't sustain a high tech economy.
  157. @utu

    You really cannot teach to the test with advanced mathematics.
     
    Believe me, you can. But a student must be very motivated by something like fear and aspirations of his parents.

    Probably you are a case of system failure like most people who think that they do not have what it takes to learn math. With some effort you could have been taught to pass much better than your C. You gave up and the system gave up on you too soon.

    It is much harder to learn to write well than to do math on a moderate level yet most people, particularly those who failed at math, think they are good at writing while they really suck except that they were not flunked for mediocre writing skills while they were flunked for bad math.

    ‘Believe me, you can’

    No really I have a rare learning disorder that means I am essentially incapable of anything other than basic math.

    ‘Probably you are a case of system failure like most people who think that they do not have what it takes to learn math’

    I agree with this (though it does not apply to me as such). My twin sister has an iq of 144 (she took one pure ravens progressive matrices test-the only one she ever took and shes one of these people who has been convinced that iq tests are meaningless) and she only got a C in maths.Part of my point was that the teaching of math in the UK is abysmal and was particularly bad in my (otherwise perfectly average) school.

    It is my understanding that Higher Mathematics was alot more abstract than the regular kind and that limited the ability of students to test prep it. Am I incorrect? Let me know.

    ‘It is much harder to learn to write well than to do math on a moderate level yet most people, particularly those who failed at math, think they are good at writing while they really suck except that they were not flunked for mediocre writing skills while they were flunked for bad math’

    I really think that Math can be drilled very effectively but that higher math (calculas et al) is more abstract and that more people can be taught to write well than can learn advanced maths. Part of the problem with my writing now is the internet and smart phones-these have ruined my punctuation and grmmar.

  158. @Mr. XYZ
    Actually, it states here that Massachusetts is 4.0% Jewish:

    https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-in-the-united-states-by-state

    Of course, since we're only talking about Massachusetts Whites--who make up perhaps 60% of the total population in Massachusetts--we're probably thinking of something like 7% Jewish.

    Still, a White population which is 7% Jewish wouldn't be enough for the Jews to have a significant impact on its average IQ. Indeed, the Jews in such a scenario should only add about one percentage point to the average IQ of Massachusetts Whites.

    Massachusetts was 73.7% White in 2014, maybe around 65-67% in the age range for the PISA test. Of those roughly 1/3 are full or part-Irish, a group that gets a lot of grief historically for not being as intellectual as other Northern Europeans. Italians (descended from Sicilians and Calabrians) are number two in size, making up over an eight of the total population. The English are a distant third, and I am not sure how many are old stock Colonial Yankees, because from 1850 to 1965 over 2.5 million Englishmen settled in America and many would have ended up in Boston for practical reasons, but most of these were working-class folk who flocked to the textile mills. The next group down are “French”, which in this case means French Canadians who came down from Quebec to do all sorts of menial, low-skill labor. Neither Jews nor Boston Brahmins are particularly large segments of the White population in this state, despite their outsized reputation. The Jews who settled up there were not even considered the best of that community, being predominately Litwaks who were seen as far more illiterate and backwards than the German, Austrian, Polish, or Ukrainian Jews.

    Clearly, something very remarkable happened in Massachusetts during the 20th Century that allowed the children of the above groups to achieve such high outcomes in education and cognitive ability, but what that was I am not sure. No one is ever going to claim modern Mass is a pillar of clean, cleared-headed government, so my educated guess is that the communities they were very good at organizing themselves towards self-improvement and economic development in same way many German and Scandinavians communities did out in the Midwest during the same time period.

    • Replies: @songbird
    I'd say that if there is a difference, it primarily has to do with two or three things. The colleges, hospitals, and also the tech companies on the 128 belt. Basically, some smart people are attracted to the state and have children there. Plus, since housing costs can be high, many people probably move to cheaper states. That is the result of both having been long-settled and also of zoning which requires a certain lot size for houses.

    Where does that legacy of colleges come from? It might come from a mix of the English settlers and geography. Unlike NYC, Boston doesn't really have a major navigable river nearby. The Charles is really quite puny and isn't a highway into a rich agricultural valley like the Hudson is, so just as the North was less agricultural and more mercantile than the South, it could perhaps be said that Boston was less agricultural and more mercantile than NYC.

    Like for example, there was Frederic Tudor who put ice aboard clipper ships and sold it as far away as India in China in the 1830s.
    , @AP
    Good points all, but this:

    Clearly, something very remarkable happened in Massachusetts during the 20th Century
     
    As AK pointed out, this region has an extraordinary literacy level even in the 17th century, when it was a rough frontier environment. Yale and Harvard were founded well before the 20th century. So it seems that those Irish etc. newcomers often assimilated into the established framework.

    Anecdote: Latin is common in public schools in this region, and some of the public secondary schools in New England also offer classical Greek as an elective.
  159. @Dmitry
    For anything to first year of university (not actual maths or physics degree in university), this problem is just teaching.

    Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course.

    But often teachers are not adequate, or students not attentive, and if something is not clearly explained (and understood and memorized by a child), then the students rapidly become disorientated about things which would seem inherently simple to them if they had been taught well.

    It's not an issue of children being stupid, but of not having all steps clearly explained (and then practiced and memorized, before trying to learn a connected topic).

    ‘Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course’

    im not sure about this i know i couldnt.

    ‘But often teachers are not adequate, or students not attentive, and if something is not clearly explained (and understood and memorized by a child), then the students rapidly become disorientated about things which would seem inherently simple to them if they had been taught well’

    I see what you are saying here and I agree. I think the education system in the west has been deliberately sabotaged with bad teachers and a confusing pegadogy.

    My point still stands about GCSE having nothing to do with advanced mathematics though…

  160. @Bliss
    The Fields Medal, awarded every 4 years, is called the Nobel Prize of Math, and 5 of the last 8 winners are from “low IQ” countries: 2 indians, 2 iranians and 1 brazilian.

    Methinks winning the Fields Medal trumps scoring high on the PISA test. Yes or no?

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fields_Medal#Fields_medalists

    Btw, the Brazilian winner looks mixed race. In other words part african, like the majority of brazilians. Indians of course are all mixed race as well.

    Worth pointing out in this Russian blog: a disproportionately large number of Fields Medal winners are Russians. Disproportionate number of French names among the winners as well.

    East Asians are represented by 2 Chinese, 2 Japanese and 1 Vietnamese.

    • Replies: @Anonymous Jew
    I think you're actually undermining yourself. Your tenuous arguments - Egyptians were 'Black' despite DNA evidence showing they're overwhelmingly not because of some suspect evidence showing a single pharaoh possibly had Black Y-DNA, Beethoven was Black because...because? - only highlight the lack of Black achievement. It seems like the only ones that have achieved STEM prominence are mostly or at least partially White. Even Neil deGrasse Tyson looks barely a shade darker than Obama. How many pure Bantus have achieved anything of significance?

    As I've noted before, I grew up on the border of a Black neighborhood and attended half Black schools. (There were practically no Blacks in the local private schools, so this was 98-99% of the Black American bell curve). The smartest one in my class had test scores comparable to mine (I don't know exactly who had the higher SATs, though we ended up at the same college - really nice guy fwiw). But for an Ashkenazi I'm just a middling schmuck, barely on the right side of the meaty middle of the Jew-curve. Looking back, I'll never forget how many Blacks struggled to read in their early teens. I mean, you could lock me in a cave and beat me like a dog and I would still learn to read.

    To use the analogy of a man pulling a heavy sack - the man being the intellectual heavy lifters and the sack being the proles or lower - Blacks have too few pulling, and too many in the sack. I grew up with the Black masses, and even if one out of a 100 were Neil deGrasse Tyson you'd still end up with Haiti, the Congo, Detroit, etc.

    So please carry on. I'd like to find out who's Black on the next edition. Maybe Einstein since I've seen evidence that Ashkenazis have a tiny amount of Black admixture. You can tell by that curly hair! His second cousins's mailman's girlfriend described his as dark!

  161. @Bliss
    The Fields Medal, awarded every 4 years, is called the Nobel Prize of Math, and 5 of the last 8 winners are from “low IQ” countries: 2 indians, 2 iranians and 1 brazilian.

    Methinks winning the Fields Medal trumps scoring high on the PISA test. Yes or no?

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fields_Medal#Fields_medalists

    Btw, the Brazilian winner looks mixed race. In other words part african, like the majority of brazilians. Indians of course are all mixed race as well.

    Artur Avila, the Brazilian you are referring to may very well have African ancestry, about half of all Brazilians do. How much of his total ancestry is African is up for debate unless he ever bothers to take an autosomal DNA test and publishes the results. Like many of his countrymen, his appearance can change greatly due to the tanning of his skin or the styling of his hair.

    [MORE]

    All photos of Avila, and showing how radically he can change in appearance from one day to the next.

    • Replies: @Bliss
    Typically I think most Brazilians are tri-racials, with some Amerindian in them as well. That combination gives them a more ambiguous look.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Artur_Avila.jpg

    https://www.as-coa.org/sites/default/files/field/image/avila_thumb.jpg
    , @AP
    Looks to be of about 10% African descent at most. Probably of typical upper class Brazilian background.
    , @Colin Wright
    'All photos of Avila, and showing how radically he can change in appearance from one day to the next.'

    I'm sorry, but all I see are pictures of some white dude.

    Maybe a touch of the ol' tar brush, but evidently not enough to severely impact his IQ.

    I don't know if it extends to intelligence, but what comes through in people of mixed racial background is unpredictable.

    My wife is from El Salvador, and since my daughter got curious and got some genetic tests done, we know she's about two-thirds Indian -- although she doesn't look it. I'm white, it's perhaps needless to say.

    Anyway, our kids... You'd never know Lydia was Hispanic unless she told you -- but she's decidedly short -- 5' 5". The Boy is this brown giant: 6' 2" -- but darker than either me or his mother.

    It's too bad we didn't have more kids. I wonder if we would have gotten small and dark on one of the rounds?
  162. @Cicero2
    Artur Avila, the Brazilian you are referring to may very well have African ancestry, about half of all Brazilians do. How much of his total ancestry is African is up for debate unless he ever bothers to take an autosomal DNA test and publishes the results. Like many of his countrymen, his appearance can change greatly due to the tanning of his skin or the styling of his hair.

    https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/56340/area14mp/25vq6wkd-1407895480.jpg



    http://pictures.ozy.com/pictures/1500xany/2/0/8/77208_GettyImages-455259270.jpg

    https://plus.maths.org/content/sites/plus.maths.org/files/news/2014/Seoul/f3.jpg

    http://www.madrimasd.org/blogs/matematicas/files/2012/08/artur-avila.jpg

    http://www.korea.net/upload/content/editImage/math-140814-1.jpg

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YA3eoRn3VcA/maxresdefault.jpg

    All photos of Avila, and showing how radically he can change in appearance from one day to the next.

    Typically I think most Brazilians are tri-racials, with some Amerindian in them as well. That combination gives them a more ambiguous look.

    • Replies: @Cicero2
    It's a matter of degree though. Your average Brazilian triracial varies from about 60% to 80% European, more in the South and South-East, less in the North, North-East, and Central-West. His remaining ancestry is typically some mixture of African and Amerindian, with the former more common near the coastline, and the latter more dominant in the interior.

    Whites make up the next largest group, and they are still a very significant segment of the population. Blacks as a recognizable minority are much smaller. Large-scale intermarriage among the lower classes after the abolition of slavery in 1888 significantly diluted their identity and heritage. Outside of certain regions and cities, Blacks tend to make up less than 6 or 7% of the population. Even Bahia, the state with the closest links to African culture more closely resembles the Dominican Republic than a New World Africa. The Whites in Bahia make up a substantial part of the population because they never left the land or abandoned the cities after the old system fell apart. What happened was that the population (of all colors and phenotypes) adopted elements of African culture, music, and cuisine but also altered it as needed. It has very little parallel with the experience of African-Americans in the United States, and the only neighboring country that sort of resembles it is Venezuela.

    Brazil's birthrate crashed in the late 1990's and has never recovered, and it hit almost all segments of the population equally. It has been rather stable in composition for a long while now. Large scale Venezuelan migration into the North region may be the biggest change to Brazil's demographics in over 50 years, but I wonder if the Brazilians will passively allow themselves to be overrun.

    All of the above probably means little to outsiders who see Brazil as just another Third-World loser country that will never be able to reach its full potential. But within Latin America it is a very distinct bloc with its own unique high culture and folk traditions. It stands out from its neighbors in many positive respects, and rarely fails any harder than they do. The nation is in crisis right now, but my own feeling is that it will be limping along long after most of its rivals are gone. That is the nature of Brazil, a slow and lukewarm but enduring simmer.
  163. @Cicero2
    Massachusetts was 73.7% White in 2014, maybe around 65-67% in the age range for the PISA test. Of those roughly 1/3 are full or part-Irish, a group that gets a lot of grief historically for not being as intellectual as other Northern Europeans. Italians (descended from Sicilians and Calabrians) are number two in size, making up over an eight of the total population. The English are a distant third, and I am not sure how many are old stock Colonial Yankees, because from 1850 to 1965 over 2.5 million Englishmen settled in America and many would have ended up in Boston for practical reasons, but most of these were working-class folk who flocked to the textile mills. The next group down are "French", which in this case means French Canadians who came down from Quebec to do all sorts of menial, low-skill labor. Neither Jews nor Boston Brahmins are particularly large segments of the White population in this state, despite their outsized reputation. The Jews who settled up there were not even considered the best of that community, being predominately Litwaks who were seen as far more illiterate and backwards than the German, Austrian, Polish, or Ukrainian Jews.

    Clearly, something very remarkable happened in Massachusetts during the 20th Century that allowed the children of the above groups to achieve such high outcomes in education and cognitive ability, but what that was I am not sure. No one is ever going to claim modern Mass is a pillar of clean, cleared-headed government, so my educated guess is that the communities they were very good at organizing themselves towards self-improvement and economic development in same way many German and Scandinavians communities did out in the Midwest during the same time period.

    I’d say that if there is a difference, it primarily has to do with two or three things. The colleges, hospitals, and also the tech companies on the 128 belt. Basically, some smart people are attracted to the state and have children there. Plus, since housing costs can be high, many people probably move to cheaper states. That is the result of both having been long-settled and also of zoning which requires a certain lot size for houses.

    Where does that legacy of colleges come from? It might come from a mix of the English settlers and geography. Unlike NYC, Boston doesn’t really have a major navigable river nearby. The Charles is really quite puny and isn’t a highway into a rich agricultural valley like the Hudson is, so just as the North was less agricultural and more mercantile than the South, it could perhaps be said that Boston was less agricultural and more mercantile than NYC.

    Like for example, there was Frederic Tudor who put ice aboard clipper ships and sold it as far away as India in China in the 1830s.

  164. @Cicero2
    Massachusetts was 73.7% White in 2014, maybe around 65-67% in the age range for the PISA test. Of those roughly 1/3 are full or part-Irish, a group that gets a lot of grief historically for not being as intellectual as other Northern Europeans. Italians (descended from Sicilians and Calabrians) are number two in size, making up over an eight of the total population. The English are a distant third, and I am not sure how many are old stock Colonial Yankees, because from 1850 to 1965 over 2.5 million Englishmen settled in America and many would have ended up in Boston for practical reasons, but most of these were working-class folk who flocked to the textile mills. The next group down are "French", which in this case means French Canadians who came down from Quebec to do all sorts of menial, low-skill labor. Neither Jews nor Boston Brahmins are particularly large segments of the White population in this state, despite their outsized reputation. The Jews who settled up there were not even considered the best of that community, being predominately Litwaks who were seen as far more illiterate and backwards than the German, Austrian, Polish, or Ukrainian Jews.

    Clearly, something very remarkable happened in Massachusetts during the 20th Century that allowed the children of the above groups to achieve such high outcomes in education and cognitive ability, but what that was I am not sure. No one is ever going to claim modern Mass is a pillar of clean, cleared-headed government, so my educated guess is that the communities they were very good at organizing themselves towards self-improvement and economic development in same way many German and Scandinavians communities did out in the Midwest during the same time period.

    Good points all, but this:

    Clearly, something very remarkable happened in Massachusetts during the 20th Century

    As AK pointed out, this region has an extraordinary literacy level even in the 17th century, when it was a rough frontier environment. Yale and Harvard were founded well before the 20th century. So it seems that those Irish etc. newcomers often assimilated into the established framework.

    Anecdote: Latin is common in public schools in this region, and some of the public secondary schools in New England also offer classical Greek as an elective.

    • Replies: @Dan Bagrov
    The Irish in greater Boston retained a hard edge into the 1980s. Even as late as 2010 a negro might be verbally abused by low IQ Irish in Southie. Alas they have gone essentially full shitlib at this point, little different from their swine Puritan-descended neighbors, if perhaps not as smart, at the group level.
  165. @Cicero2
    Artur Avila, the Brazilian you are referring to may very well have African ancestry, about half of all Brazilians do. How much of his total ancestry is African is up for debate unless he ever bothers to take an autosomal DNA test and publishes the results. Like many of his countrymen, his appearance can change greatly due to the tanning of his skin or the styling of his hair.

    https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/56340/area14mp/25vq6wkd-1407895480.jpg



    http://pictures.ozy.com/pictures/1500xany/2/0/8/77208_GettyImages-455259270.jpg

    https://plus.maths.org/content/sites/plus.maths.org/files/news/2014/Seoul/f3.jpg

    http://www.madrimasd.org/blogs/matematicas/files/2012/08/artur-avila.jpg

    http://www.korea.net/upload/content/editImage/math-140814-1.jpg

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YA3eoRn3VcA/maxresdefault.jpg

    All photos of Avila, and showing how radically he can change in appearance from one day to the next.

    Looks to be of about 10% African descent at most. Probably of typical upper class Brazilian background.

    • Replies: @Bliss
    I am guessing closer to 25% African descent. He looks like Kris Humphries of the NBA:

    https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/111027074935-kris-humphries-kim-kardashian-1027-horizontal-large-gallery.jpg



    Whose father is african-American:

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yyq5MR6lKF4/hqdefault.jpg

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yyq5MR6lKF4

    Which means Kris Humphries is at least 25% african.
  166. @DFH
    Even in New York, Jews are a very small proportion of the population, let alone the entire East Coast. 115 is ludicrous as an estimate for Ashkenazi IQ also.

    https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IooiIKeiRs4/VNbUwq1ZvzI/AAAAAAAAC2E/fxZyPd2Q5-g/s1600/whiteiq.png

    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2015/02/state-iq-estimates-whites-only-2013.html

    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2015/02/state-iq-estimates-whites-only-2013.html

    Hmm, the 5 states with the most intelligent whites voted for Hillary Clinton while the 5 states with the least intelligent whites voted for Trump.

    Add the fact that Whites with post-graduate degrees voted most heavily for Clinton while whites with the least education voted most heavily for Trump. And all the best colleges and universities in America are located in the Blue Democrat states: the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Caltech etc

    What conclusions can we draw from that, geniuses?

    • Replies: @Lars Porsena
    Did you notice that the intelligent whites in those states voted differently from how the state as a whole went? 2 of the top 5 went for Romney in 2012, 2 democrat and 1 is evenly split. And the next 4 out of the top 10 were all for Romney.

    On the basis of white voting only, I think Trump won something like 45 states, so I don't know what conclusions you think you can draw from that other than non-whites like to live in the states with the best universities and not rural farm states.
    , @Colin Wright
    'What conclusions can we draw from that, geniuses?'

    We can conclude that most college graduates are actually dumb shits.

    They voted for Clinton.
  167. @Bliss
    Typically I think most Brazilians are tri-racials, with some Amerindian in them as well. That combination gives them a more ambiguous look.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Artur_Avila.jpg

    https://www.as-coa.org/sites/default/files/field/image/avila_thumb.jpg

    It’s a matter of degree though. Your average Brazilian triracial varies from about 60% to 80% European, more in the South and South-East, less in the North, North-East, and Central-West. His remaining ancestry is typically some mixture of African and Amerindian, with the former more common near the coastline, and the latter more dominant in the interior.

    Whites make up the next largest group, and they are still a very significant segment of the population. Blacks as a recognizable minority are much smaller. Large-scale intermarriage among the lower classes after the abolition of slavery in 1888 significantly diluted their identity and heritage. Outside of certain regions and cities, Blacks tend to make up less than 6 or 7% of the population. Even Bahia, the state with the closest links to African culture more closely resembles the Dominican Republic than a New World Africa. The Whites in Bahia make up a substantial part of the population because they never left the land or abandoned the cities after the old system fell apart. What happened was that the population (of all colors and phenotypes) adopted elements of African culture, music, and cuisine but also altered it as needed. It has very little parallel with the experience of African-Americans in the United States, and the only neighboring country that sort of resembles it is Venezuela.

    Brazil’s birthrate crashed in the late 1990′s and has never recovered, and it hit almost all segments of the population equally. It has been rather stable in composition for a long while now. Large scale Venezuelan migration into the North region may be the biggest change to Brazil’s demographics in over 50 years, but I wonder if the Brazilians will passively allow themselves to be overrun.

    All of the above probably means little to outsiders who see Brazil as just another Third-World loser country that will never be able to reach its full potential. But within Latin America it is a very distinct bloc with its own unique high culture and folk traditions. It stands out from its neighbors in many positive respects, and rarely fails any harder than they do. The nation is in crisis right now, but my own feeling is that it will be limping along long after most of its rivals are gone. That is the nature of Brazil, a slow and lukewarm but enduring simmer.

    • Replies: @Bliss

    All of the above probably means little to outsiders who see Brazil as just another Third-World loser country that will never be able to reach its full potential. But within Latin America it is a very distinct bloc with its own unique high culture and folk traditions. It stands out from its neighbors in many positive respects, and rarely fails any harder than they do. The nation is in crisis right now, but my own feeling is that it will be limping along long after most of its rivals are gone.
     
    No doubt. Brazil will have a better future than Argentina. The 3 most unique, diverse and interesting regions in the Americas are:

    United States
    Brazil
    The Caribbean Islands
    , @songbird
    I'm not sure about the future of Brazil, but I'd guess Venezuela is permanently ruined. Dysgenics, including emigration. The result is that they are unlikely to ever have a functional government. People will not want to move there but will want to move away.

    A pity, since once it was a prosperous country.
    , @Hyperborean
    Brazil is the Land of the Future and always will be.
    , @AB
    I look for America's future, and I see Brazil.
  168. @Dan Bagrov
    It really is shocking to talk to a person with an IQ under 110. I don’t do it all that often, at least beyond small talk, but it’s always jarring when I get beyond pleasantries and realize that this person really, truly doesn’t understand the concept of “the state” or have a clue about geography or whatever thing I foolishly reference.

    My problem is that I’m often among the dumbest in the room, day to day, so it’s easy to forget that I’m actually smarter than most randomly selected people, and care about more than visual entertainment. Over the years I’ve learned to just shut up and not steer the conversation into “intense” areas. It’s exhausting and a big reason why I gravitate toward the internet. I’m not really all that smart but it’s hard to find a worthwhile conversation with a peer (especially one who won’t crimestop) offline. Thank God for venues like this one!

    I’m not really all that smart but it’s hard to find a worthwhile conversation with a peer (especially one who won’t crimestop) offline.

    I’m puzzled by what is meant by “crimestop” in this context. Sure, I’m aware of the Newspeak concept of crimestop in 1984, but you seem to be using it differently here. If so, please explain. Thanks in advance.

  169. @AP
    Looks to be of about 10% African descent at most. Probably of typical upper class Brazilian background.

    I am guessing closer to 25% African descent. He looks like Kris Humphries of the NBA:

    [MORE]

    Whose father is african-American:

    Which means Kris Humphries is at least 25% african.

    • Replies: @Bliss
    Brazil’s greatest writer, and probably the greatest writer of prose in the Portuguese language, was also mixed race:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machado_de_Assis

    Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis....was a pioneer Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short story writer. Widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature, nevertheless he did not gain widespread popularity outside Brazil in his own lifetime. In 1897 he founded and became the first President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

    Machado's works had a great influence on Brazilian literary schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1941, the Brazilian Academy of Letters founded in his honor the Prêmio Machado de Assis (Machado de Assis Award), the most prestigious literary award in Brazil. For his innovation and audacity in early themes, Assis is often seen as a writer of unprecedented production, being known for his irony and wide vocabulary. Among his most famous works are Dom Casmurro (1899), Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas ("Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas", also translated as Epitaph of a Small Winner) and Quincas Borba (also known in English as Philosopher or Dog).

    https://abrilveja.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/machado-de-assis-aos-25-anos-original.jpeg



    http://f.i.uol.com.br/folha/ilustrada/images/16204656.jpeg

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Machado_de_Assis_1904.jpg
    , @AP

    I am guessing closer to 25% African descent. He looks like Kris Humphries of the NBA
     
    Yes, they are indeed similar in appearance and racial features.

    According to wikipedia, Kris Humphries is 25% African-American (his father is half African-American). Since African-Americans are about 80% African, this would make Humphries of 20% African descent.

    So Avila may be 20% African also.
  170. @blatnoi
    So why do foolproof sector workers in the US earn much more than foolproof sector workers in Korea? Or let's say if you take into account medical, maybe they earn the same, but they should earn a lot more based on the difference in the percentage that answered level 6 correctly. Maybe there are diminishing returns in this theory beyond a certain point.

    This is probably where behavioral biology matters. Germanic countries (and the US was definitely founded as one–with refs by several of the founding fathers to their Anglo-Saxon heritage and returning to more ancient ways of being like with the founding of England) are high trust, low corruption, and thus tended to create more efficiency, less waste, less money siphoned off by corruption. It’s a multi-layered issue.

    South Korea is sort of sliding into a new form of Oriental despotism as US influence wanes, and Japan for example has issues that wouldn’t make them blink but would gall someone from a Germanic country, such as certain middlemen-types needing their palms greased often with cash gifts to smooth business transactions.

    • Replies: @Twinkie

    Germanic countries... are high trust, low corruption, and thus tended to create more efficiency, less waste, less money siphoned off by corruption. It’s a multi-layered issue.

    South Korea is sort of sliding into a new form of Oriental despotism as US influence wanes...
     
    https://youtu.be/kWW4xzlrOWQ



    https://youtu.be/xSDHhLCHxV0
  171. @Cicero2
    It's a matter of degree though. Your average Brazilian triracial varies from about 60% to 80% European, more in the South and South-East, less in the North, North-East, and Central-West. His remaining ancestry is typically some mixture of African and Amerindian, with the former more common near the coastline, and the latter more dominant in the interior.

    Whites make up the next largest group, and they are still a very significant segment of the population. Blacks as a recognizable minority are much smaller. Large-scale intermarriage among the lower classes after the abolition of slavery in 1888 significantly diluted their identity and heritage. Outside of certain regions and cities, Blacks tend to make up less than 6 or 7% of the population. Even Bahia, the state with the closest links to African culture more closely resembles the Dominican Republic than a New World Africa. The Whites in Bahia make up a substantial part of the population because they never left the land or abandoned the cities after the old system fell apart. What happened was that the population (of all colors and phenotypes) adopted elements of African culture, music, and cuisine but also altered it as needed. It has very little parallel with the experience of African-Americans in the United States, and the only neighboring country that sort of resembles it is Venezuela.

    Brazil's birthrate crashed in the late 1990's and has never recovered, and it hit almost all segments of the population equally. It has been rather stable in composition for a long while now. Large scale Venezuelan migration into the North region may be the biggest change to Brazil's demographics in over 50 years, but I wonder if the Brazilians will passively allow themselves to be overrun.

    All of the above probably means little to outsiders who see Brazil as just another Third-World loser country that will never be able to reach its full potential. But within Latin America it is a very distinct bloc with its own unique high culture and folk traditions. It stands out from its neighbors in many positive respects, and rarely fails any harder than they do. The nation is in crisis right now, but my own feeling is that it will be limping along long after most of its rivals are gone. That is the nature of Brazil, a slow and lukewarm but enduring simmer.

    All of the above probably means little to outsiders who see Brazil as just another Third-World loser country that will never be able to reach its full potential. But within Latin America it is a very distinct bloc with its own unique high culture and folk traditions. It stands out from its neighbors in many positive respects, and rarely fails any harder than they do. The nation is in crisis right now, but my own feeling is that it will be limping along long after most of its rivals are gone.

    No doubt. Brazil will have a better future than Argentina. The 3 most unique, diverse and interesting regions in the Americas are:

    United States
    Brazil
    The Caribbean Islands

  172. @Bliss
    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2015/02/state-iq-estimates-whites-only-2013.html

    Hmm, the 5 states with the most intelligent whites voted for Hillary Clinton while the 5 states with the least intelligent whites voted for Trump.

    Add the fact that Whites with post-graduate degrees voted most heavily for Clinton while whites with the least education voted most heavily for Trump. And all the best colleges and universities in America are located in the Blue Democrat states: the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Caltech etc

    What conclusions can we draw from that, geniuses?

    Did you notice that the intelligent whites in those states voted differently from how the state as a whole went? 2 of the top 5 went for Romney in 2012, 2 democrat and 1 is evenly split. And the next 4 out of the top 10 were all for Romney.

    On the basis of white voting only, I think Trump won something like 45 states, so I don’t know what conclusions you think you can draw from that other than non-whites like to live in the states with the best universities and not rural farm states.

    • Replies: @Bliss

    Did you notice that the intelligent whites in those states voted differently from how the state as a whole went?
     
    No I didn’t notice that. Where did you notice that? Give us the link.
    , @Lars Porsena
    Ah, here we go. I don't know why I couldn't find it before I posted my comment. 2008/2012/2016.

    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2009/11/2008-presidential-election-electoral.html

    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2012/11/2012-electoral-maps-by-sex-race-and_12.html

    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2018/05/trumps-2016-white-vote-share-by-state.html
  173. @Cicero2
    It's a matter of degree though. Your average Brazilian triracial varies from about 60% to 80% European, more in the South and South-East, less in the North, North-East, and Central-West. His remaining ancestry is typically some mixture of African and Amerindian, with the former more common near the coastline, and the latter more dominant in the interior.

    Whites make up the next largest group, and they are still a very significant segment of the population. Blacks as a recognizable minority are much smaller. Large-scale intermarriage among the lower classes after the abolition of slavery in 1888 significantly diluted their identity and heritage. Outside of certain regions and cities, Blacks tend to make up less than 6 or 7% of the population. Even Bahia, the state with the closest links to African culture more closely resembles the Dominican Republic than a New World Africa. The Whites in Bahia make up a substantial part of the population because they never left the land or abandoned the cities after the old system fell apart. What happened was that the population (of all colors and phenotypes) adopted elements of African culture, music, and cuisine but also altered it as needed. It has very little parallel with the experience of African-Americans in the United States, and the only neighboring country that sort of resembles it is Venezuela.

    Brazil's birthrate crashed in the late 1990's and has never recovered, and it hit almost all segments of the population equally. It has been rather stable in composition for a long while now. Large scale Venezuelan migration into the North region may be the biggest change to Brazil's demographics in over 50 years, but I wonder if the Brazilians will passively allow themselves to be overrun.

    All of the above probably means little to outsiders who see Brazil as just another Third-World loser country that will never be able to reach its full potential. But within Latin America it is a very distinct bloc with its own unique high culture and folk traditions. It stands out from its neighbors in many positive respects, and rarely fails any harder than they do. The nation is in crisis right now, but my own feeling is that it will be limping along long after most of its rivals are gone. That is the nature of Brazil, a slow and lukewarm but enduring simmer.

    I’m not sure about the future of Brazil, but I’d guess Venezuela is permanently ruined. Dysgenics, including emigration. The result is that they are unlikely to ever have a functional government. People will not want to move there but will want to move away.

    A pity, since once it was a prosperous country.

  174. @Bliss
    I am guessing closer to 25% African descent. He looks like Kris Humphries of the NBA:

    https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/111027074935-kris-humphries-kim-kardashian-1027-horizontal-large-gallery.jpg



    Whose father is african-American:

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yyq5MR6lKF4/hqdefault.jpg

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yyq5MR6lKF4

    Which means Kris Humphries is at least 25% african.

    Brazil’s greatest writer, and probably the greatest writer of prose in the Portuguese language, was also mixed race:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machado_de_Assis

    Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis….was a pioneer Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short story writer. Widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature, nevertheless he did not gain widespread popularity outside Brazil in his own lifetime. In 1897 he founded and became the first President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

    Machado’s works had a great influence on Brazilian literary schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1941, the Brazilian Academy of Letters founded in his honor the Prêmio Machado de Assis (Machado de Assis Award), the most prestigious literary award in Brazil. For his innovation and audacity in early themes, Assis is often seen as a writer of unprecedented production, being known for his irony and wide vocabulary. Among his most famous works are Dom Casmurro (1899), Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (“Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas”, also translated as Epitaph of a Small Winner) and Quincas Borba (also known in English as Philosopher or Dog).

    [MORE]

  175. @Lars Porsena
    Did you notice that the intelligent whites in those states voted differently from how the state as a whole went? 2 of the top 5 went for Romney in 2012, 2 democrat and 1 is evenly split. And the next 4 out of the top 10 were all for Romney.

    On the basis of white voting only, I think Trump won something like 45 states, so I don't know what conclusions you think you can draw from that other than non-whites like to live in the states with the best universities and not rural farm states.

    Did you notice that the intelligent whites in those states voted differently from how the state as a whole went?

    No I didn’t notice that. Where did you notice that? Give us the link.

    • Replies: @Lars Porsena
    It is there in the link you linked you. Red means voted for Romney, blue means Obama, white vote only.

    D.C. and Massachusetts are blue, New Jersey and Maryland red, Connecticut is 49%/49% in the top 5.

    See my reply to myself above for links to maps at the same website for 2008, 2012 and 2016.

  176. @Lars Porsena
    Did you notice that the intelligent whites in those states voted differently from how the state as a whole went? 2 of the top 5 went for Romney in 2012, 2 democrat and 1 is evenly split. And the next 4 out of the top 10 were all for Romney.

    On the basis of white voting only, I think Trump won something like 45 states, so I don't know what conclusions you think you can draw from that other than non-whites like to live in the states with the best universities and not rural farm states.
    • Replies: @Bliss
    Thanks.

    Considering that Trump won the national white vote by a landslide it is telling that he lost the white vote by a landslide in the 2 states with the highest white IQ: DC and Massachusetts where he got only 36.3% and 40.8% of the white vote respectively. In Connecticut he got 48% of the white vote. In New Jersey he got 50.4% and in Maryland 51.9%.

    In stark contrast here are his percentages of the white vote in the lowest white IQ states, ranking from lowest IQ:

    West Virginia 68.7%
    Alabama.........77.2%
    Oklahoma.......65.5%
    Mississippi..... 81.5%
    Arkansas ........71.4%

    What a huge difference between the highest and lowest white IQ states. There seems to be a correlation between IQ and likelihood of voting Democrat among white Americans.
  177. @AP
    Good points all, but this:

    Clearly, something very remarkable happened in Massachusetts during the 20th Century
     
    As AK pointed out, this region has an extraordinary literacy level even in the 17th century, when it was a rough frontier environment. Yale and Harvard were founded well before the 20th century. So it seems that those Irish etc. newcomers often assimilated into the established framework.

    Anecdote: Latin is common in public schools in this region, and some of the public secondary schools in New England also offer classical Greek as an elective.

    The Irish in greater Boston retained a hard edge into the 1980s. Even as late as 2010 a negro might be verbally abused by low IQ Irish in Southie. Alas they have gone essentially full shitlib at this point, little different from their swine Puritan-descended neighbors, if perhaps not as smart, at the group level.

    • Replies: @AP
    There is an actual Irish-American ghetto in southern Boston but most Irish in New England do not live like that. Many of them seem to have assimilated with the Puritans long before this decade (the Kennedy clan are famous examples).
  178. @Bliss

    Did you notice that the intelligent whites in those states voted differently from how the state as a whole went?
     
    No I didn’t notice that. Where did you notice that? Give us the link.

    It is there in the link you linked you. Red means voted for Romney, blue means Obama, white vote only.

    D.C. and Massachusetts are blue, New Jersey and Maryland red, Connecticut is 49%/49% in the top 5.

    See my reply to myself above for links to maps at the same website for 2008, 2012 and 2016.

  179. @Dan Bagrov
    The Irish in greater Boston retained a hard edge into the 1980s. Even as late as 2010 a negro might be verbally abused by low IQ Irish in Southie. Alas they have gone essentially full shitlib at this point, little different from their swine Puritan-descended neighbors, if perhaps not as smart, at the group level.

    There is an actual Irish-American ghetto in southern Boston but most Irish in New England do not live like that. Many of them seem to have assimilated with the Puritans long before this decade (the Kennedy clan are famous examples).

  180. @Bliss
    I am guessing closer to 25% African descent. He looks like Kris Humphries of the NBA:

    https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/111027074935-kris-humphries-kim-kardashian-1027-horizontal-large-gallery.jpg



    Whose father is african-American:

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yyq5MR6lKF4/hqdefault.jpg

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yyq5MR6lKF4

    Which means Kris Humphries is at least 25% african.

    I am guessing closer to 25% African descent. He looks like Kris Humphries of the NBA

    Yes, they are indeed similar in appearance and racial features.

    According to wikipedia, Kris Humphries is 25% African-American (his father is half African-American). Since African-Americans are about 80% African, this would make Humphries of 20% African descent.

    So Avila may be 20% African also.

    • Replies: @utu
    Did some googling and could not find any hint anywhere of him being mulatto. There are many interviews with Artur Avila and his race is never discussed.
    , @Bliss
    What percent african do you think this Haitian basketball coach is?



    https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/tulsaworld.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/13/213b9bd5-8c63-5232-a8c0-73d54a01d388/5500522090125.image.jpg

    Divide that by 2 and that would be how african his son, NBA star Blake Griffin, is. Blake is very often mistaken for Kris Humphries. Here he is with his parents:

    https://78.media.tumblr.com/ae8de0d994d996aa84a0a59382a18965/tumblr_mk17jv4pU41rk1fawo1_500.jpg
  181. @Lars Porsena
    Ah, here we go. I don't know why I couldn't find it before I posted my comment. 2008/2012/2016.

    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2009/11/2008-presidential-election-electoral.html

    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2012/11/2012-electoral-maps-by-sex-race-and_12.html

    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2018/05/trumps-2016-white-vote-share-by-state.html

    Thanks.

    Considering that Trump won the national white vote by a landslide it is telling that he lost the white vote by a landslide in the 2 states with the highest white IQ: DC and Massachusetts where he got only 36.3% and 40.8% of the white vote respectively. In Connecticut he got 48% of the white vote. In New Jersey he got 50.4% and in Maryland 51.9%.

    In stark contrast here are his percentages of the white vote in the lowest white IQ states, ranking from lowest IQ:

    West Virginia 68.7%
    Alabama………77.2%
    Oklahoma…….65.5%
    Mississippi….. 81.5%
    Arkansas ……..71.4%

    What a huge difference between the highest and lowest white IQ states. There seems to be a correlation between IQ and likelihood of voting Democrat among white Americans.

    • Replies: @Lars Porsena
    You're forcing it to be there because you want to see it man (or maybe just because you want to call your political opponents dumb).

    Check the map at the bottom of the 2016 results that separates women out of it (and it's mostly unmarried women who want the state to be their beta orbiting boyfriend).

    If only white males voted, the only places Clinton wins is D.C, Oregon, Hawaii, and New Hampshire for 18 electoral votes to 520.

    And DC has other reasons to vote Clinton, they are the establishment.

    Even with women in the picture, Trump carried the white vote of 37 out of 50 states.

    Of the 13 states he did not win, 10 are in the top 25 of IQ ranks, but his vote ranges from 36.3% to 49.9%, with 10 of the 13 in the 40s and 7 of the 13 over 45%. And this is counting DC as a state. DC is the establishment, we're talking about who James Comey and Mueller voted for here.

    Of the top 10 out of 50 states for IQ, Trump carried 5. So Trump cleaned house with stupid states but he still split the top 10 smartest evenly, including 2 of the top 5 counting DC (or 3 of the top 5 and 6 of top 10 not counting DC).
    , @Colin Wright
    '...Considering that Trump won the national white vote by a landslide it is telling that he lost the white vote by a landslide in the 2 states...'

    Sorting the vote by state is a fallacy in the first place. It was urban area -- Clinton, rural areas -- Trump.

    Take two states: Missouri and Oregon. Missouri went for Trump, Oregon for Clinton. However, in both cases, the urban areas went for Clinton while the rural areas went for Trump. In Missouri it was Saint Louis and Kansas City for Clinton, everywhere else for Trump. In Oregon, it was Portlandia and Eugene for Clinton, everywhere else for Trump. The distinction was that Portlandia plus Eugene outweighed the rest of Oregon, but Saint Louis plus Kansas City did not outweigh the rest of Missouri. Heck, here in Douglas County, in 'blue' Oregon, Trump outpolled Clinton 66% to 25%. But then, the biggest town in the county only has twenty thousand people.

    Look the electoral maps. Aside from such outliers as California and Massachusetts, it was practically universal. Like, I was following the returns on election night. Washington State was going for Trump!

    I practically jumped out of my chair. Then I checked out what parts of Washington State were going for Trump. Oh: the Puget Sound urban areas haven't checked in yet. So much for that.
    , @AP

    What a huge difference between the highest and lowest white IQ states. There seems to be a correlation between IQ and likelihood of voting Democrat among white Americans
     
    It's a Trump and class thing, not a "Democrat" vs. "Republican" issue. High IQ whites voted heavily for Romney. They benefit from policies that Trump opposes, such as immigration of unskilled people (driving down cost of labor, making lawn work and home reno cheaper) and foreign manufacturing (making consumer goods cheaper) that harm less educated white people, and don't face the consequences - those low-skilled immigrants aren't moving into neighborhoods were wealthy high IQ whites live.
  182. Anon[286] • Disclaimer says:
    @Anonymous
    I read both Indian IQ analysis linked from Anatoly and I find both flimsy especially from rec1man.

    I do think Indian IQ is suppressed due to disease, vegetarianism, and pollution. But what do you think will happen to this going forward? Pollution and disease will probably get worse, not better going forward.

    And while I think the food situation can improve in India, I don't think it will improve IQ as much as believed. North Korea is impoverished, but that doesn't mean when their economy improves it will suddenly gain a lot of IQ points. Nor will this apply to Africa.

    All of the proposed mechanism are marginal gains. Not something you can add 5 points here 5 points there until India is a Superpower!

    If we are talking about genetic potential, why not do this with every country and compare the results? We could see Mexico overtake European IQ if they could remove drugs, teen pregnancy, and violent homes right?

    India will continue to get worse, as will Mexico, rest of Latin America, Africa, because the smart will continue to leave, leaving the country to be run over by the corrupt, the criminal, sick, poor, old, young, stupid…all thanks to the open border policies of the rich world which exacerbate inequality around the world.

    In the colonial times we robbed the poor countries of their natural resources, now we rob them of their human resources.

    • Replies: @Colin Wright
    '...In the colonial times we robbed the poor countries of their natural resources, now we rob them of their human resources.'

    In that case, I for one wish to immediately repent and go and sin no more. If we go further and repatriate all of the arrivals, will that make amends?
  183. @Bliss
    Thanks.

    Considering that Trump won the national white vote by a landslide it is telling that he lost the white vote by a landslide in the 2 states with the highest white IQ: DC and Massachusetts where he got only 36.3% and 40.8% of the white vote respectively. In Connecticut he got 48% of the white vote. In New Jersey he got 50.4% and in Maryland 51.9%.

    In stark contrast here are his percentages of the white vote in the lowest white IQ states, ranking from lowest IQ:

    West Virginia 68.7%
    Alabama.........77.2%
    Oklahoma.......65.5%
    Mississippi..... 81.5%
    Arkansas ........71.4%

    What a huge difference between the highest and lowest white IQ states. There seems to be a correlation between IQ and likelihood of voting Democrat among white Americans.

    You’re forcing it to be there because you want to see it man (or maybe just because you want to call your political opponents dumb).

    Check the map at the bottom of the 2016 results that separates women out of it (and it’s mostly unmarried women who want the state to be their beta orbiting boyfriend).

    If only white males voted, the only places Clinton wins is D.C, Oregon, Hawaii, and New Hampshire for 18 electoral votes to 520.

    And DC has other reasons to vote Clinton, they are the establishment.

    Even with women in the picture, Trump carried the white vote of 37 out of 50 states.

    Of the 13 states he did not win, 10 are in the top 25 of IQ ranks, but his vote ranges from 36.3% to 49.9%, with 10 of the 13 in the 40s and 7 of the 13 over 45%. And this is counting DC as a state. DC is the establishment, we’re talking about who James Comey and Mueller voted for here.

    Of the top 10 out of 50 states for IQ, Trump carried 5. So Trump cleaned house with stupid states but he still split the top 10 smartest evenly, including 2 of the top 5 counting DC (or 3 of the top 5 and 6 of top 10 not counting DC).

  184. @Thorfinnsson
    I think Karlin is converging on my elitist "nationalism". The proles require leadership and noblesse oblige.

    It should not be forgotten that they have have very useful specific knowledge and skills and are often immune to "clever sillies" nonsense. I have double digit IQ employees who can work miracles with their hands.

    Our task is to mobilize them as soldiers to crush and replace existing elites with ourselves.

    ‘…Our task is to mobilize them as soldiers to crush and replace existing elites with ourselves.’

    Nice to hear someone else with some common sense.

  185. @Anon
    India will continue to get worse, as will Mexico, rest of Latin America, Africa, because the smart will continue to leave, leaving the country to be run over by the corrupt, the criminal, sick, poor, old, young, stupid...all thanks to the open border policies of the rich world which exacerbate inequality around the world.

    In the colonial times we robbed the poor countries of their natural resources, now we rob them of their human resources.

    ‘…In the colonial times we robbed the poor countries of their natural resources, now we rob them of their human resources.’

    In that case, I for one wish to immediately repent and go and sin no more. If we go further and repatriate all of the arrivals, will that make amends?

  186. @Bliss
    Thanks.

    Considering that Trump won the national white vote by a landslide it is telling that he lost the white vote by a landslide in the 2 states with the highest white IQ: DC and Massachusetts where he got only 36.3% and 40.8% of the white vote respectively. In Connecticut he got 48% of the white vote. In New Jersey he got 50.4% and in Maryland 51.9%.

    In stark contrast here are his percentages of the white vote in the lowest white IQ states, ranking from lowest IQ:

    West Virginia 68.7%
    Alabama.........77.2%
    Oklahoma.......65.5%
    Mississippi..... 81.5%
    Arkansas ........71.4%

    What a huge difference between the highest and lowest white IQ states. There seems to be a correlation between IQ and likelihood of voting Democrat among white Americans.

    ‘…Considering that Trump won the national white vote by a landslide it is telling that he lost the white vote by a landslide in the 2 states…’

    Sorting the vote by state is a fallacy in the first place. It was urban area — Clinton, rural areas — Trump.

    Take two states: Missouri and Oregon. Missouri went for Trump, Oregon for Clinton. However, in both cases, the urban areas went for Clinton while the rural areas went for Trump. In Missouri it was Saint Louis and Kansas City for Clinton, everywhere else for Trump. In Oregon, it was Portlandia and Eugene for Clinton, everywhere else for Trump. The distinction was that Portlandia plus Eugene outweighed the rest of Oregon, but Saint Louis plus Kansas City did not outweigh the rest of Missouri. Heck, here in Douglas County, in ‘blue’ Oregon, Trump outpolled Clinton 66% to 25%. But then, the biggest town in the county only has twenty thousand people.

    Look the electoral maps. Aside from such outliers as California and Massachusetts, it was practically universal. Like, I was following the returns on election night. Washington State was going for Trump!

    I practically jumped out of my chair. Then I checked out what parts of Washington State were going for Trump. Oh: the Puget Sound urban areas haven’t checked in yet. So much for that.

  187. @Bliss
    https://anepigone.blogspot.com/2015/02/state-iq-estimates-whites-only-2013.html

    Hmm, the 5 states with the most intelligent whites voted for Hillary Clinton while the 5 states with the least intelligent whites voted for Trump.

    Add the fact that Whites with post-graduate degrees voted most heavily for Clinton while whites with the least education voted most heavily for Trump. And all the best colleges and universities in America are located in the Blue Democrat states: the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Caltech etc

    What conclusions can we draw from that, geniuses?

    ‘What conclusions can we draw from that, geniuses?’

    We can conclude that most college graduates are actually dumb shits.

    They voted for Clinton.

    • Replies: @Bliss

    We can conclude that most college graduates are actually dumb shits. They voted for Clinton.
     
    Also: among non-hispanic whites the voters with post-graduate degrees voted the most overwhelmingly for Clinton, while those without even a high school diploma voted for Trump by the biggest margin. Clearly there is a correlation between years of education and likelihood of voting Democrat, among white voters.

    Earlier I showed a similar positive correlation between higher IQ and voting Democrat, among non-hispanic whites. So Democrats/Liberals have a significant built-in advantage among higher IQ and better educated white Americans.

    In Western Europe too, the Conservatives are significantly dumber than the Progressives. The Far Right being the dumbest.
    , @Peripatetic commenter
    With grade inflation and affirmative action and worthless subjects like Womens Studies, AfAm Studies, AsAm studies, yes, most college graduates are pretty dumb.

    There is also the problem that many of them are followers and just not independent thinkers.
  188. @AP

    I am guessing closer to 25% African descent. He looks like Kris Humphries of the NBA
     
    Yes, they are indeed similar in appearance and racial features.

    According to wikipedia, Kris Humphries is 25% African-American (his father is half African-American). Since African-Americans are about 80% African, this would make Humphries of 20% African descent.

    So Avila may be 20% African also.

    Did some googling and could not find any hint anywhere of him being mulatto. There are many interviews with Artur Avila and his race is never discussed.

    • Replies: @AP
    I'm guessing he is of old Brazilian stock so the mixing would have occurred many generations ago, involves African ancestry from various lines, and probably is the result of the overall genetic background of that population rather than some specific grandparent or great-grandparent. But I don't know.
  189. @Dmitry
    For anything to first year of university (not actual maths or physics degree in university), this problem is just teaching.

    Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course.

    But often teachers are not adequate, or students not attentive, and if something is not clearly explained (and understood and memorized by a child), then the students rapidly become disorientated about things which would seem inherently simple to them if they had been taught well.

    It's not an issue of children being stupid, but of not having all steps clearly explained (and then practiced and memorized, before trying to learn a connected topic).

    ‘For anything to first year of university (not actual maths or physics degree in university), this problem is just teaching.

    Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course…’

    I taught high school math for three years, so I think I can comment on this.

    It’s true — to some extent. My experience was that anyone of even moderate intelligence could do well in first-year algebra if it was taught well, he applied himself, and he had the rudiments of arithmetic down.

    On the other hand, I never particularly enjoyed teaching geometry. Some kids just couldn’t get it. For those who could, it was a snap, and it probably wasn’t terribly important whether my lessons were well-thought out or not.

  190. @Cicero2
    It's a matter of degree though. Your average Brazilian triracial varies from about 60% to 80% European, more in the South and South-East, less in the North, North-East, and Central-West. His remaining ancestry is typically some mixture of African and Amerindian, with the former more common near the coastline, and the latter more dominant in the interior.

    Whites make up the next largest group, and they are still a very significant segment of the population. Blacks as a recognizable minority are much smaller. Large-scale intermarriage among the lower classes after the abolition of slavery in 1888 significantly diluted their identity and heritage. Outside of certain regions and cities, Blacks tend to make up less than 6 or 7% of the population. Even Bahia, the state with the closest links to African culture more closely resembles the Dominican Republic than a New World Africa. The Whites in Bahia make up a substantial part of the population because they never left the land or abandoned the cities after the old system fell apart. What happened was that the population (of all colors and phenotypes) adopted elements of African culture, music, and cuisine but also altered it as needed. It has very little parallel with the experience of African-Americans in the United States, and the only neighboring country that sort of resembles it is Venezuela.

    Brazil's birthrate crashed in the late 1990's and has never recovered, and it hit almost all segments of the population equally. It has been rather stable in composition for a long while now. Large scale Venezuelan migration into the North region may be the biggest change to Brazil's demographics in over 50 years, but I wonder if the Brazilians will passively allow themselves to be overrun.

    All of the above probably means little to outsiders who see Brazil as just another Third-World loser country that will never be able to reach its full potential. But within Latin America it is a very distinct bloc with its own unique high culture and folk traditions. It stands out from its neighbors in many positive respects, and rarely fails any harder than they do. The nation is in crisis right now, but my own feeling is that it will be limping along long after most of its rivals are gone. That is the nature of Brazil, a slow and lukewarm but enduring simmer.

    Brazil is the Land of the Future and always will be.

    • Replies: @Hyperborean

    Brazil is the Land of the Future and always will be.
     
    Well, I don't believe Brazil will ever be any kind of great power, but at least they can be fun.

    Bolsonaro's antics have been fun to watch, like a Brazilian Zhirinovsky or Duterte.

  191. @Cicero2
    Artur Avila, the Brazilian you are referring to may very well have African ancestry, about half of all Brazilians do. How much of his total ancestry is African is up for debate unless he ever bothers to take an autosomal DNA test and publishes the results. Like many of his countrymen, his appearance can change greatly due to the tanning of his skin or the styling of his hair.

    https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/56340/area14mp/25vq6wkd-1407895480.jpg



    http://pictures.ozy.com/pictures/1500xany/2/0/8/77208_GettyImages-455259270.jpg

    https://plus.maths.org/content/sites/plus.maths.org/files/news/2014/Seoul/f3.jpg

    http://www.madrimasd.org/blogs/matematicas/files/2012/08/artur-avila.jpg

    http://www.korea.net/upload/content/editImage/math-140814-1.jpg

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YA3eoRn3VcA/maxresdefault.jpg

    All photos of Avila, and showing how radically he can change in appearance from one day to the next.

    ‘All photos of Avila, and showing how radically he can change in appearance from one day to the next.’

    I’m sorry, but all I see are pictures of some white dude.

    Maybe a touch of the ol’ tar brush, but evidently not enough to severely impact his IQ.

    I don’t know if it extends to intelligence, but what comes through in people of mixed racial background is unpredictable.

    My wife is from El Salvador, and since my daughter got curious and got some genetic tests done, we know she’s about two-thirds Indian — although she doesn’t look it. I’m white, it’s perhaps needless to say.

    Anyway, our kids… You’d never know Lydia was Hispanic unless she told you — but she’s decidedly short — 5′ 5″. The Boy is this brown giant: 6′ 2″ — but darker than either me or his mother.

    It’s too bad we didn’t have more kids. I wonder if we would have gotten small and dark on one of the rounds?

  192. @utu
    Did some googling and could not find any hint anywhere of him being mulatto. There are many interviews with Artur Avila and his race is never discussed.

    I’m guessing he is of old Brazilian stock so the mixing would have occurred many generations ago, involves African ancestry from various lines, and probably is the result of the overall genetic background of that population rather than some specific grandparent or great-grandparent. But I don’t know.

  193. @Bliss
    Thanks.

    Considering that Trump won the national white vote by a landslide it is telling that he lost the white vote by a landslide in the 2 states with the highest white IQ: DC and Massachusetts where he got only 36.3% and 40.8% of the white vote respectively. In Connecticut he got 48% of the white vote. In New Jersey he got 50.4% and in Maryland 51.9%.

    In stark contrast here are his percentages of the white vote in the lowest white IQ states, ranking from lowest IQ:

    West Virginia 68.7%
    Alabama.........77.2%
    Oklahoma.......65.5%
    Mississippi..... 81.5%
    Arkansas ........71.4%

    What a huge difference between the highest and lowest white IQ states. There seems to be a correlation between IQ and likelihood of voting Democrat among white Americans.

    What a huge difference between the highest and lowest white IQ states. There seems to be a correlation between IQ and likelihood of voting Democrat among white Americans

    It’s a Trump and class thing, not a “Democrat” vs. “Republican” issue. High IQ whites voted heavily for Romney. They benefit from policies that Trump opposes, such as immigration of unskilled people (driving down cost of labor, making lawn work and home reno cheaper) and foreign manufacturing (making consumer goods cheaper) that harm less educated white people, and don’t face the consequences – those low-skilled immigrants aren’t moving into neighborhoods were wealthy high IQ whites live.

    • Agree: reiner Tor
  194. @AP

    I am guessing closer to 25% African descent. He looks like Kris Humphries of the NBA
     
    Yes, they are indeed similar in appearance and racial features.

    According to wikipedia, Kris Humphries is 25% African-American (his father is half African-American). Since African-Americans are about 80% African, this would make Humphries of 20% African descent.

    So Avila may be 20% African also.

    What percent african do you think this Haitian basketball coach is?

    [MORE]

    Divide that by 2 and that would be how african his son, NBA star Blake Griffin, is. Blake is very often mistaken for Kris Humphries. Here he is with his parents:

    • Replies: @AP
    Blake Griffin looks more African than does Humphries. His and Humphries' mothers are light-skinned northern Europeans, whereas Avila's European ancestors were dark Mediterranean people. This would make the two basketball players whiter-looking relative to their African ancestry than does Avila. For example look at the half-Italian, half-African actor Giancarlo Esposito:

    https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/587ad80e2a677fe11973b503/master/pass/giancarlo-espositoo.jpg

    Avila is much more European in appearance than him. Perhaps Avila is 10% African after all.
  195. @Anatoly Karlin
    I would further note that the Puritan heartlands:

    * Consisted mostly off well to-do yeomen and gentlemen from East Anglia, England's most prosperous region in the 17th century;
    * Literacy amongst those early Puritans was at 2/3 of the population, relative to 40% in England proper;
    * A disproportionate percentage (relative to population) of eminent intellectuals have hailed from East Anglia and Mass/Conn in both England the US;
    * Harvard University was founded in 1636, when the Puritan population in the America numbered about 40,000 colonists;
    * The region today contains 2-3 of America's top 5 universities.

    It is a most impressive concentration of human capital.

    “Mostly well to do yeomen and gentlemen” is a wild exaggeration.

    • Replies: @Anon
    Right. None were gentlemen. Most were low level tradesmen, not masters but journeymen. Yoemen were actually tenant farmers who were being squeezed out by the enclosure movement and sheep ranching.
  196. @Bliss
    What percent african do you think this Haitian basketball coach is?



    https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/tulsaworld.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/13/213b9bd5-8c63-5232-a8c0-73d54a01d388/5500522090125.image.jpg

    Divide that by 2 and that would be how african his son, NBA star Blake Griffin, is. Blake is very often mistaken for Kris Humphries. Here he is with his parents:

    https://78.media.tumblr.com/ae8de0d994d996aa84a0a59382a18965/tumblr_mk17jv4pU41rk1fawo1_500.jpg

    Blake Griffin looks more African than does Humphries. His and Humphries’ mothers are light-skinned northern Europeans, whereas Avila’s European ancestors were dark Mediterranean people. This would make the two basketball players whiter-looking relative to their African ancestry than does Avila. For example look at the half-Italian, half-African actor Giancarlo Esposito:

    Avila is much more European in appearance than him. Perhaps Avila is 10% African after all.

    • Replies: @Colin Wright
    'For example look at the half-Italian, half-African actor Giancarlo Esposito...'

    You may be keying too much on skin tone. He's no competition for Avila, but Esposito's features are pretty European; visualize his photo in black and white.

    It's interesting to realize that such a high proportion of the 'blacks' we are exposed to are actually mulattos or quadroons that we start to forget what actual 100% blacks look like. It's not just figures in the media; 'blacks' in mixed neighborhoods or in white-collar occupations tend to be mulattos, while since Hispanics took over most of the menial jobs, full blacks just aren't seen any more unless you go out looking for them.
  197. @Saxon
    This is probably where behavioral biology matters. Germanic countries (and the US was definitely founded as one--with refs by several of the founding fathers to their Anglo-Saxon heritage and returning to more ancient ways of being like with the founding of England) are high trust, low corruption, and thus tended to create more efficiency, less waste, less money siphoned off by corruption. It's a multi-layered issue.

    South Korea is sort of sliding into a new form of Oriental despotism as US influence wanes, and Japan for example has issues that wouldn't make them blink but would gall someone from a Germanic country, such as certain middlemen-types needing their palms greased often with cash gifts to smooth business transactions.

    Germanic countries… are high trust, low corruption, and thus tended to create more efficiency, less waste, less money siphoned off by corruption. It’s a multi-layered issue.

    South Korea is sort of sliding into a new form of Oriental despotism as US influence wanes…

    [MORE]

    • Replies: @Saxon
    It's a separate issue to that. When it comes to small things like that they will act very much like native English. Japanese in particular will. Social experiments involving honesty sussed that out. What's happening is this sort of extremely stratified system that existed before is re-emerging but with this big corporations and their owners on top instead of kings with opulent wealth and crushingly dirt poor peasants. Yes, people in Japan and South Korea are a lot more honest than say China, but that is a separate issue from whether they're recreating the same general type of system that existed before. Which they seem to be.

    To an extent this is also happening in western countries but it's mostly the result of subversive alien elements pushing propaganda about "free trade" which has been universally disastrous for anyone but a few who directly benefit and are essentially stripmining these countries.
  198. @DFH
    The fact that Argentines are so dumb (0% even getting level 5) when they are 80% white is what I find most astonishing. Maybe they are just extremely lazy.

    There is a stupid program in Spain for semi famous people where they like to test the IQ of the guest with a real psychologist . The Argentinian who had been tested was the dumbest ever on the program (90 versus an average of 115) for most guests. She was known in Argentina .

    Maybe the dumbest of Spanish and Italian migrated there ….

    • Replies: @Saxon
    Or they're just mixed with the natives which is the likely explanation since virtually all of them seem to be much darker than in Europe.
    , @Bruno
    I found that :

    Argentineans carried a large fraction of European genetic heritage in their Y-chromosomal (94.1%) and autosomal (78.5%) DNA, but their mitochondrial gene pool is mostly of Native American ancestry (53.7%); instead, African heritage was small in
  199. @Bliss
    The Fields Medal, awarded every 4 years, is called the Nobel Prize of Math, and 5 of the last 8 winners are from “low IQ” countries: 2 indians, 2 iranians and 1 brazilian.

    Methinks winning the Fields Medal trumps scoring high on the PISA test. Yes or no?

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fields_Medal#Fields_medalists

    Btw, the Brazilian winner looks mixed race. In other words part african, like the majority of brazilians. Indians of course are all mixed race as well.

    No one said that there aren’t smart high IQ Indians, so your example does not matter.

  200. @Mr. XYZ
    I wouldn't be surprised if Whites with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry in the U.S. are, on average, smarter than Whites without such ancestry. That said, though, I don't think that Jewish ancestry should have a significant effect on the average IQ since even a White population which is, say, 10-15% Jewish should only see this Jewish admixture cause an increase of 1-2 points in its average IQ (assuming that Jews perform a full standard deviation above Gentile Whites, that is).

    However, I'm not sure that I would extend this logic to American Blacks versus African Blacks. Yes, American Blacks have White admixture, but it is also possible that this is compensated by a negative selection effect due to slavery. In other words, the Blacks who became slaves might have, on average, been less intelligent than the Blacks who didn't get enslaved.

    the Blacks who became slaves might have, on average, been less intelligent than the Blacks who didn’t get enslaved.

    That’s a good point.

    Still, it was only a one-off selection, which usually has smaller effects due to reversion to the mean. It was also probably not a very strong selection, because descending from a smaller or militarily weaker tribe doesn’t necessarily imply lower intelligence. There was also a reverse selection: those who survived the Middle Passage had on average lower genetic load (and so higher genetic potential IQ) than those who didn’t. And I bet you smarter slaves were also less likely to be worked to death and probably had higher status and so better access to women. (Although that selection probably went into reverse for the past century.)

    • Replies: @utu

    due to reversion to the mean
     
    Whether regression or reversion to the mean people overestimate how it works in their imagination. Providing that mathematically the breeder's equation is valid it applies to expected values only. The 2nd generation has some distribution of non-zero SD which must provide a room for offspring to violate the regression or reversion to the mean. Otherwise the standard deviation of population would be shrinking from generation to generation. Mathematically it is a convolution of two Gaussian function. If you took subpopulation below the mean and observe it over many generations the subpopulation would remain stable with almost the same distribution below the mean with some spillage going above the mean.

    Now the genetic load is another crock of crap tautology that ToE is full of. It suppose to measure/predict the number of offsprings. It is possible that those who died on the ship if they were left in Africa would have had more offsprings than the survivors.

    Incontinent ToE babble. I know it is very seductive and hard to resist and it makes you sound so smart but pause sometimes for a minute and engage in some thinking. You don't want to end up being Karlinesque dilettante.
    , @Logan
    And I bet you smarter slaves were also less likely to be worked to death and probably had higher status and so better access to women.

    Possibly. Though I suggest a highly intelligent slave is also more likely to "act uppity" and get himself into serious trouble with the master. The type of trouble that may significantly impact his survival and ability to reproduce.

    OTOH, the highly intelligent slave was also probably far more likely to be trained in a skill and thus achieve a higher value to the master, giving him stronger incentive not to kill him.
  201. @Toronto Russian

    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?
     
    One - it's the north pole, isn't it?

    One – it’s the north pole, isn’t it?

    Finally, some one who has dared to respond!

    Responses can be graded into 4 levels of “intelligence” (0, 1, 2, 3, definitely not to be confused with the PISA levels). Currently you are at Level 1 — the north pole works, but it represents an infinitesimal part of the solution set.

    For those too lazy to look up the original question:

    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?

    In decades (far too many!) of giving this exam, I have encountered one person of Level 3 intelligence.

    Any one here?

    • Replies: @utu
    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.
    , @dux.ie
    You are at latitude 1 km north of the south pole. You walk 1 km south to the south pole. At the south pole you walk in circle around the fixed south pole counter clockwise (west) for 1 km. Then you walk 1 km north back to the starting point. Thus the answer is infinite number of points on the latitude of circle 1 km north of the south pole + 1.
    , @The Alarmist
    True north or magnetic north?
    , @mathy mcmatherson
    Depending on the dimensions of the spheroid (the "Earth"), there may also be an infinite number of points between 1km and 2km north of the South Pole.

    For example, begin at a point 1.15km north of the pole (A). Walk 1km south to (B). Walk 1km west, tracing a circle 0.15km north of the pole, and ending up at some point on that circle (C). Walk 1km north to (D). There is an infinite number of starting points A such that C is identical to B. All such paths also have D identical to A.

    This example assumes that the cross-section (the circle of latitude) of the spheroid, on the plane of your westward walk, has a circumference of 1km / i, where i is a positive integer. For example, if the circumference is 0.2km, you'll walk in a circle precisely 5 times (stopping at C, equal to B). The particular latitudes of these circles depend on the dimensions of the spheroid.

    For reference, the circumference of the circle of latitude at 1km, on the actual Earth, is about 6km. At about 0.15km north, it is 1km (i=1). So all the points of this type will be at or south of 1.15km.

    The answer to the question is still "infinity", but it seems you're also asking "which".
    , @valentine frobisher
    lol
    this question was on a freshman geography class test at northern michigan university that i took when i was in high school. (long story. i was 14.)

    i solved it then in detail. the north pole and also a family of concentric rings around the south pole. easy peasy.
  202. @AP
    Blake Griffin looks more African than does Humphries. His and Humphries' mothers are light-skinned northern Europeans, whereas Avila's European ancestors were dark Mediterranean people. This would make the two basketball players whiter-looking relative to their African ancestry than does Avila. For example look at the half-Italian, half-African actor Giancarlo Esposito:

    https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/587ad80e2a677fe11973b503/master/pass/giancarlo-espositoo.jpg

    Avila is much more European in appearance than him. Perhaps Avila is 10% African after all.

    ‘For example look at the half-Italian, half-African actor Giancarlo Esposito…’

    You may be keying too much on skin tone. He’s no competition for Avila, but Esposito’s features are pretty European; visualize his photo in black and white.

    It’s interesting to realize that such a high proportion of the ‘blacks’ we are exposed to are actually mulattos or quadroons that we start to forget what actual 100% blacks look like. It’s not just figures in the media; ‘blacks’ in mixed neighborhoods or in white-collar occupations tend to be mulattos, while since Hispanics took over most of the menial jobs, full blacks just aren’t seen any more unless you go out looking for them.

  203. @Twinkie

    Germanic countries... are high trust, low corruption, and thus tended to create more efficiency, less waste, less money siphoned off by corruption. It’s a multi-layered issue.

    South Korea is sort of sliding into a new form of Oriental despotism as US influence wanes...
     
    https://youtu.be/kWW4xzlrOWQ



    https://youtu.be/xSDHhLCHxV0

    It’s a separate issue to that. When it comes to small things like that they will act very much like native English. Japanese in particular will. Social experiments involving honesty sussed that out. What’s happening is this sort of extremely stratified system that existed before is re-emerging but with this big corporations and their owners on top instead of kings with opulent wealth and crushingly dirt poor peasants. Yes, people in Japan and South Korea are a lot more honest than say China, but that is a separate issue from whether they’re recreating the same general type of system that existed before. Which they seem to be.

    To an extent this is also happening in western countries but it’s mostly the result of subversive alien elements pushing propaganda about “free trade” which has been universally disastrous for anyone but a few who directly benefit and are essentially stripmining these countries.

    • Replies: @Twinkie
    All indications are that corruption is declining and social trust is increasing in South Korea. I suspect something similar will occur in China as its economy and social institutions develop further, though there is no guarantee that the Chinese will follow exactly the route the Koreans did (although some broad outlines are similar, the Korean socio-economic trajectory is different from that of Japan).
    , @Lars Porsena

    To an extent this is also happening in western countries but it’s mostly the result of subversive alien elements pushing propaganda about “free trade”
     
    Scotts and Anglo-Saxons?
    , @Anonymous
    I don't see any real signs that the native English, particularly the native English working class, are better behaved than their Korean or Japanese counterparts. The native English working class has a bad reputation for bad behavior, petty criminality, etc.

    The English ruling class was famous for its immense, opulent wealth, especially its landed wealth and country homes. The English ruling class "solved" potential problems of social stratification and discontent by seizing and giving away free land in Ireland and the colonies. In other words, it exported its potential problems and managed having to deal with it internally.
  204. @Bruno
    There is a stupid program in Spain for semi famous people where they like to test the IQ of the guest with a real psychologist . The Argentinian who had been tested was the dumbest ever on the program (90 versus an average of 115) for most guests. She was known in Argentina .

    Maybe the dumbest of Spanish and Italian migrated there ....

    Or they’re just mixed with the natives which is the likely explanation since virtually all of them seem to be much darker than in Europe.

    • Replies: @Jeff Stryker
    "Spanish"

    Cuban Spanish are Canary Islanders. Essentially these are Moroccans with some Spanish blood.

    The same goes for many Latin American whites.

    If you want to get down to their actual genetics, they are descended from Moroccan women who intermarried in Canary Islands with Spanish males.
  205. @Saxon
    It's a separate issue to that. When it comes to small things like that they will act very much like native English. Japanese in particular will. Social experiments involving honesty sussed that out. What's happening is this sort of extremely stratified system that existed before is re-emerging but with this big corporations and their owners on top instead of kings with opulent wealth and crushingly dirt poor peasants. Yes, people in Japan and South Korea are a lot more honest than say China, but that is a separate issue from whether they're recreating the same general type of system that existed before. Which they seem to be.

    To an extent this is also happening in western countries but it's mostly the result of subversive alien elements pushing propaganda about "free trade" which has been universally disastrous for anyone but a few who directly benefit and are essentially stripmining these countries.

    All indications are that corruption is declining and social trust is increasing in South Korea. I suspect something similar will occur in China as its economy and social institutions develop further, though there is no guarantee that the Chinese will follow exactly the route the Koreans did (although some broad outlines are similar, the Korean socio-economic trajectory is different from that of Japan).

  206. If Pb 6 requires a 120 (wich I find amazing because it takes less than 10 seconds for me) , then white countries are capped at a fraction of 10% (from 2 to 7) and East Asian with an average of 110 of math IQ at a fraction of 25%. Shanghai is different because it’s an elite region .

    What’s formidable is the difference between that and math Olympiad . math Olympiad pbs would be a level 100 if you consider progression from 1 to 6. That’s who fluid intelligence double every IQ points and a 150 IQ is 1000 more intelligent (for logic, not for regular bio-physical processes like handling ones heart or opening a beer can) than a 100 IQ person.

  207. @for-the-record
    One – it’s the north pole, isn’t it?

    Finally, some one who has dared to respond!

    Responses can be graded into 4 levels of "intelligence" (0, 1, 2, 3, definitely not to be confused with the PISA levels). Currently you are at Level 1 -- the north pole works, but it represents an infinitesimal part of the solution set.

    For those too lazy to look up the original question:

    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?

     

    In decades (far too many!) of giving this exam, I have encountered one person of Level 3 intelligence.

    Any one here?

    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.

    • Replies: @Intelligent Dasein

    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.
     
    But also, any point on a circle that is one kilometer north of of any circle around the South Pole whose circumference is any integer fraction of 1km would work just as well, and there are an infinite number of such circles.

    So the solution set consists of the North Pole and any point on any circle centered around the South Pole whose radius is 1 + 1/2πn kilometers, where n is an integer from 1 to ∞.
    , @for-the-record
    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.

    Congratulations! You are now Level 2.

    Any Level 3 out there? [Hint: there is a countably infinite set of such continuums/continuua].
  208. @DFH
    Looking at this makes me a little sceptical of how well the PISA tests measure competence (at least in absolute terms).
    For instance, the claim that only such a small percentage of British schoolchildren can do advanced maths seems to be contradicted by the fact that over half can pass their Maths GCSEs, which require competence in similar levels of Maths.

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/aug/24/proportion-of-students-getting-good-gcse-grades-falls-after-reforms

    For instance, the claim that only such a small percentage of British schoolchildren can do advanced maths seems to be contradicted by the fact that over half can pass their Maths GCSEs, which require competence in similar levels of Maths.

    How can the poor kids be expected to understand anything about the concept of numbers as long as you silly Brits keep pluralizing singular nouns?

    It’s math, for crying out loud!

    • Replies: @Dr. Krieger
    In Michigan, we like to pluralize/possessive certain words. People work at Fords and we go to Meijers and Krogers. They're usually places named after people, so it might be Ford's. Ain't language grand?
    , @for-the-record
    as long as you silly Brits keep pluralizing singular nouns

    In defense of the silly Brits one could point out that mathematics was originally a plural noun.
  209. @res
    Do you have a link to that analysis? I am curious how those results correspond to the IAB Brain Drain data. I use the latter as a measure of immigration selectivity and it would be useful if the PISA variation between source/host country pairs could serve as validation.

    No, sorry. I only remember the graph and when I googled, I found only a difference between local population and children of first and of second generation (first generation: children born abroad who came as children, second generation: born in a host country). Maybe my memory has failed me.

  210. @reiner Tor

    the Blacks who became slaves might have, on average, been less intelligent than the Blacks who didn’t get enslaved.
     
    That’s a good point.

    Still, it was only a one-off selection, which usually has smaller effects due to reversion to the mean. It was also probably not a very strong selection, because descending from a smaller or militarily weaker tribe doesn’t necessarily imply lower intelligence. There was also a reverse selection: those who survived the Middle Passage had on average lower genetic load (and so higher genetic potential IQ) than those who didn’t. And I bet you smarter slaves were also less likely to be worked to death and probably had higher status and so better access to women. (Although that selection probably went into reverse for the past century.)

    due to reversion to the mean

    Whether regression or reversion to the mean people overestimate how it works in their imagination. Providing that mathematically the breeder’s equation is valid it applies to expected values only. The 2nd generation has some distribution of non-zero SD which must provide a room for offspring to violate the regression or reversion to the mean. Otherwise the standard deviation of population would be shrinking from generation to generation. Mathematically it is a convolution of two Gaussian function. If you took subpopulation below the mean and observe it over many generations the subpopulation would remain stable with almost the same distribution below the mean with some spillage going above the mean.

    Now the genetic load is another crock of crap tautology that ToE is full of. It suppose to measure/predict the number of offsprings. It is possible that those who died on the ship if they were left in Africa would have had more offsprings than the survivors.

    Incontinent ToE babble. I know it is very seductive and hard to resist and it makes you sound so smart but pause sometimes for a minute and engage in some thinking. You don’t want to end up being Karlinesque dilettante.

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    Whether regression or reversion to the mean people overestimate how it works in their imagination.

    You're entirely correct here. I was initially quite impressed with the constant references to "regression to the mean" before I worked out that many, if not most, were misusing it and did not understand it at all, at least if my understanding of it is correct.

    To be specific, and please correct me if I am wrong:

    Person A has an IQ of 130. This represents a "genetic" (for want of better term) IQ plus a random element. One could figure out a probability distribution for the genetic element, which would have a mean less than 130 (i.e., it is more likely that a 130 IQ represents a "positive" random element than a "negative" one). It is this mean that would be "reverted" to in subsequent generations, in this case certainly well above 100.

    Similarly, if you have a sub-group of below average intelligence, over time they will revert to a below-average mean (albeit somewhat higher than the original one).
    , @reiner Tor
    I wanted to write regression to the mean, reversion to the mean is a different thing.

    It means that the selection effect will get smaller, because of the part of the variance which is random. On average, it will move the descendants of the selected dumb subgroup (here the slaves) towards the mean of the original group. It only works for one generation, and if the part of the variance unexplained by genetics (which is mostly random) is 0.4, than the effect of the difference between the slaves mean and the mean of the original group will get that much smaller.

    It's quite simple why. The genetically determined IQ (GIQ) of those with a high IQ will be lower than their phenotypical IQ, and the GIQ of those with a very low IQ will be higher than their phenotypical IQ. Randomness works both ways, so for example those with an IQ of 130 will have people with a GIQ of 140 and 120 among them, but because those with a GIQ of 120 are much more numerous, there will be many more with a GIQ of 120 than with a GIQ of 140 among those with a phenotypical IQ of 130. So if you take a group of 130 IQ people, their GIQ will be lower (depending on the size of the random effect, i.e. the size of 1-h^2, or, in other words, on the size of h^2, where h^2 is the narrow sense heritability also used in the Breeder's Equation), and so their children will have an average phenotypical IQ equal to the GIQ of their parents' group. From that point on, no regression to the mean is going to happen.

    genetic load is another crock of crap tautology
     
    It's not tautology. Higher IQ people have higher life expectancy, even adjusting for lifestyle and income. At least part of the explanation is genetic load. It's not at all obvious from the outset that this would be so, some people created complicated theories around how the smartness causes the longer lifespans. (Which is still possible, but since now it's known that genetic load is causing the dumbness of many dumb people, it's quite likely that the genetic load is depressing not only IQs but also lifespans.)
  211. “For instance, about half of Americans are unable to correctly read a table and do a simple addition/subtraction calculation”

    This explains a lot. I made the simplest possible strong proofs for the Holocaust case with just addition and subtraction thinking anybody can understand and check them. I see now that it is not that the Holocaust believers maliciously pretended they do not understand the arguments. Apparently they just are incapable of doing even that level math. Sad.

    • Replies: @utu
    Sensible people will not follow your calculations because they are based on garbage data. Everybody believes you that you can add and subtract but the data you are using are garbage. You yourself might be an excellent computing machine but this is the case of GIGO. On top of it you come up with some crazy metaphysical and cabalistic symbology that suppose to reinforce your conclusions like for instance that the Nazis preserved Jewish hair for some cabalistic reason. I am sorry, it is hard to take you seriously then. Getting unhinged happens to smart people. Look at Ted Kaczynski or Breivik who was very capable.
    , @Gerard2

    This explains a lot. I made the simplest possible strong proofs for the Holocaust case with just addition and subtraction thinking anybody can understand and check them. I see now that it is not that the Holocaust believers maliciously pretended they do not understand the arguments. Apparently they just are incapable of doing even that level math. Sad.
     
    The Holocaust has way, way more going for it as a plausible event then the laughably dumb lie of "mass rape" by the Red Army to the Nazi scum.

    The Holocaust 6 million figure is based on a sensible extrapolation of 100's of thousands of witnesses, documented victims, named victims from family of survivors also at camps, personal possessions recovered after liberation...and so on

    The "mass rape" by the Red Army joke is extrapolated from......100 women listing "Russian" as ethnicity of father in Berlin ! This somehow then gets to 2 million rapes! With the added joke that not a single child at the time born 9-12 months after appears to have any features of anybody from the Soviet Union, wioth 1945 containing the higher proportion of Kavkaz and asiatics then any other year in the red army, for obvious reasons.

    Official Soviet records show a strict discipline on this type of behaviour and no more than 250 soldiers

    A very small number of "witnesses" of the "mass rapes" ......and most of them just paid German /NATzO scum

  212. @Dmitry
    For anything to first year of university (not actual maths or physics degree in university), this problem is just teaching.

    Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course.

    But often teachers are not adequate, or students not attentive, and if something is not clearly explained (and understood and memorized by a child), then the students rapidly become disorientated about things which would seem inherently simple to them if they had been taught well.

    It's not an issue of children being stupid, but of not having all steps clearly explained (and then practiced and memorized, before trying to learn a connected topic).

    Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course.

    I don’t know what dream world you grew up in, but this is complete rubbish. There are plenty of people, even quite intelligent ones, who no matter how well they were educated could not successfully learn undergraduate engineering and/or computer science.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    I think everyone can be taught to pass basic html classes, but using it might be another story.
    , @Dmitry
    There are some people with mental disabilities, that would prevent them.

    For almost anyone else, it is only lack of sufficient clear teaching of all stages, and a lack of personal motivation (desire), that prevent this basic level of maths knowledge.

    I.e. if a person is motivated to expend sufficient hours, and had access to the clear explanations and teaching of all stages, from the beginning - there is nothing to stop them (vast majority) from learning the maths required for entry to any main undergraduate course modules. It is lack of good teaching and personal desire.

    There is nothing that is not open and accessible in the tools which are used - it's just the need to have been clearly taught and studied all the way.

    The subjects themselves are another issue (and these subjects can include difficult concepts and modules) - we are talking about the maths tools (outside the topic itself) required to reach the course.

  213. @Anatoly Karlin

    For example, I knew that blocking Telegram was going to stifle its user growth in Russia...
     
    I think this is a bit different since the average Telegram user is more sophisticated than the average. Now yes, if say odnoklassniki was blocked, then usage would plummet. But I haven't noticed any major decline in usage amongst the people who were using it, e.g. people at a state-owned company that I was doing contract work for when the ban went into effect. Also, as I'm sure you well known, the actual blocking has been highly ineffective. I don't even have to use VPN to access it 99% of the time.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more “diverse”? I questioned America’s ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.
     
    In Hive Mind, Garett Jones mentions the peer effect - studies showing people work harder when they are observed by hard workers. It's highly plausible that the same goes for intellectual achievement. Not much point in working your brain off when surrounded by dumbos, since most success is relative, not absolute.

    Level 4 surely creates an anomaly. Despite being very tired and sleepy I was able to figure out the answers on the other 5 levels almost as fast as I could read them but Level 4 held me up with visualisation and interpretation. On returning to it I decided the diagrams were telling me that the two people could leap in where the arrow said Entry and out where it said Exit so that the first two would be in and out of the door in 60÷4÷3 = 5 seconds, 2×12 would be through each minute and the number for 30 minutes could be as high as 720. But surely that’s not as easy as Levels 5 and 6?

    • Agree: lavoisier
  214. @j2
    "For instance, about half of Americans are unable to correctly read a table and do a simple addition/subtraction calculation"

    This explains a lot. I made the simplest possible strong proofs for the Holocaust case with just addition and subtraction thinking anybody can understand and check them. I see now that it is not that the Holocaust believers maliciously pretended they do not understand the arguments. Apparently they just are incapable of doing even that level math. Sad.

    Sensible people will not follow your calculations because they are based on garbage data. Everybody believes you that you can add and subtract but the data you are using are garbage. You yourself might be an excellent computing machine but this is the case of GIGO. On top of it you come up with some crazy metaphysical and cabalistic symbology that suppose to reinforce your conclusions like for instance that the Nazis preserved Jewish hair for some cabalistic reason. I am sorry, it is hard to take you seriously then. Getting unhinged happens to smart people. Look at Ted Kaczynski or Breivik who was very capable.

    • Replies: @j2
    The data I use is from American Jewish Yearbooks with very few well-known corrections. The results are the same if Yad Vashem data is used. I also compared the data to two main-stream Holocaust researcher's data. Their numbers were practically identical for Western Europe and Poland. From any data I know one can derive the upper bound 400,000 to Auschwitz, the total death toll of 4.5M and that 260,000 survived Operation Reinhard. What data that I use you think is incorrect?

    "the Nazis preserved Jewish hair for some cabalistic reason"

    I see this hair issue irritated you. The reason is not cabalistic but prophetic. I think it is that "not a hair from your head will fall to the ground" is promised in prophesies of Tanakh and also in the New testament. As Nazis had to cut the hair to prevent diseases, the only thing to do was not to allow the hair to fall to the ground. I think the reason is that orthodox Jews needed fulfillment of end of the time prophesies before they could accept the return to Palestine. Consider also the fact that Rabbis were leading their people like sheep to gas chambers. That is a sacrifice, holocaust. It is also from prophesies, from Zechariah, cleansing of the people with fire. Consider Zvi Hirch Kalischer in 1842 saying that the time of redemption started in 1840 and if Jews have not returned to Palestine in 100 years (that is 1939), they will do so but with much suffering, and that Rothschild and Cremieux (high Jewish Freemason) are the people who will help them in the restoration of the Jews to Palestine (as they indeed were). Compare Kalisher to Hitler's speech: if Jewish bankers again plunge the world into a world war, the result will be that Jews are pushed out of Europe. The threat of extermination of Jews, like in the time of Hamas, just before the second exodus. Holocaust, as the burning of the offering. It is language of exodus, messianic. Personally, I think Kabbalah and prophesies are garbage, but Mizraim logde Masons studied them, so did Martinists.

    We apparently are now on different sides of the fence, so be it.
    , @Yevardian
    Kaczynski has always struck me as perfectly sane and lucid; more so than some of the columnists here, to say nothing of the rabble.
  215. @utu
    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.

    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.

    But also, any point on a circle that is one kilometer north of of any circle around the South Pole whose circumference is any integer fraction of 1km would work just as well, and there are an infinite number of such circles.

    So the solution set consists of the North Pole and any point on any circle centered around the South Pole whose radius is 1 + 1/2πn kilometers, where n is an integer from 1 to ∞.

    • Agree: utu
    • Replies: @for-the-record
    Level 3!
  216. @utu
    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.

    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.

    Congratulations! You are now Level 2.

    Any Level 3 out there? [Hint: there is a countably infinite set of such continuums/continuua].

    • Replies: @g2k
    Draw a circle of 1/(2^n) km for n=0,1,2,.... circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point.
    , @Epigon
    1. North pole

    2. Any point 1+1/(n*pi) distance from South pole

    , @marpa
    No, there is not a countably infinite set of such continuums. If you can tell me why, you can qualify as level 4. If not, you go back to level 2. Or maybe 1.
  217. @Intelligent Dasein

    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.
     
    But also, any point on a circle that is one kilometer north of of any circle around the South Pole whose circumference is any integer fraction of 1km would work just as well, and there are an infinite number of such circles.

    So the solution set consists of the North Pole and any point on any circle centered around the South Pole whose radius is 1 + 1/2πn kilometers, where n is an integer from 1 to ∞.

    Level 3!

    • Replies: @Wizard of Oz
    I haven't bothered to sit up, grab pencil and paper and try some remembered mathematics but will ask you indulge me if I seek approval for a verbal version which puts the emphasis on there being an infinite number of circles around the S Pole on which one can travel 1 km W - or E - and end up in the same place. There are, correspondingly, an infinite number of circles 1 km N of the former circles.
    , @The Big Red Scary
    This is a cute problem. I'll have to pass it around.
    , @szopen
    Wow. I must say I am far, far less intelligent than I thought I was. It took me at least two minutes to understand the solution. Kudos if you really get that on your own while being 12.
  218. @Saxon
    Or they're just mixed with the natives which is the likely explanation since virtually all of them seem to be much darker than in Europe.

    “Spanish”

    Cuban Spanish are Canary Islanders. Essentially these are Moroccans with some Spanish blood.

    The same goes for many Latin American whites.

    If you want to get down to their actual genetics, they are descended from Moroccan women who intermarried in Canary Islands with Spanish males.

    • Replies: @Logan
    Correct. Except I would suggest that it's more accurate to refer to the native Guanches as Berbers rather than Moroccans, as the second term implies Arab/Muslim cultural and ethnic admixture that simply isn't relevant to the Canaries.
  219. @Anonymous
    Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

    North Koreans who are under much worse conditions than most of India have their genetic IQ preserved.

    Chinese IQ tests from just a few decades ago when China was still very impoverished still showed much higher IQ than India.

    Indians have a lower IQ built in because they have a high percentage of Aboriginal/Dravidian blood which you can see in their face.

    Tamils have a reputation for cognitive ability, especially mathematical, and they are Dravidian are they not? I don’t know India very well (who can?) bit note that high tech and outsourcing appears to be strong in the south, notably in Bangalore (Bengaluru if you are a proud Kannada speaker in Karnataka State) but also Hyderabad and Chennai also (Madras). I have heard Tamils called the Jews of the East and they certainly seem to have got themselves both education and resentment in Sri Lanka despite being a small minority, rather like Jews in the Pale of Settlement.

    I think the correlation would be much stronger with caste than with Dravidian DNA.

  220. You managed to scare the hell out of me. Is an international, separatist movement to go live in Antarctica with penguins possible? Or, maybe we could figure out how to live on the moon? What can we, feasibly, do?

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Develop a language that requires understanding of polymorphism and near infinite overloading to understand.

    Finnish power!
  221. Idiocy of the Average.

  222. @utu

    due to reversion to the mean
     
    Whether regression or reversion to the mean people overestimate how it works in their imagination. Providing that mathematically the breeder's equation is valid it applies to expected values only. The 2nd generation has some distribution of non-zero SD which must provide a room for offspring to violate the regression or reversion to the mean. Otherwise the standard deviation of population would be shrinking from generation to generation. Mathematically it is a convolution of two Gaussian function. If you took subpopulation below the mean and observe it over many generations the subpopulation would remain stable with almost the same distribution below the mean with some spillage going above the mean.

    Now the genetic load is another crock of crap tautology that ToE is full of. It suppose to measure/predict the number of offsprings. It is possible that those who died on the ship if they were left in Africa would have had more offsprings than the survivors.

    Incontinent ToE babble. I know it is very seductive and hard to resist and it makes you sound so smart but pause sometimes for a minute and engage in some thinking. You don't want to end up being Karlinesque dilettante.

    Whether regression or reversion to the mean people overestimate how it works in their imagination.

    You’re entirely correct here. I was initially quite impressed with the constant references to “regression to the mean” before I worked out that many, if not most, were misusing it and did not understand it at all, at least if my understanding of it is correct.

    To be specific, and please correct me if I am wrong:

    Person A has an IQ of 130. This represents a “genetic” (for want of better term) IQ plus a random element. One could figure out a probability distribution for the genetic element, which would have a mean less than 130 (i.e., it is more likely that a 130 IQ represents a “positive” random element than a “negative” one). It is this mean that would be “reverted” to in subsequent generations, in this case certainly well above 100.

    Similarly, if you have a sub-group of below average intelligence, over time they will revert to a below-average mean (albeit somewhat higher than the original one).

    • Replies: @j2
    "Person A has an IQ of 130. This represents a “genetic” (for want of better term) IQ plus a random element. One could figure out a probability distribution for the genetic element, which would have a mean less than 130 (i.e., it is more likely that a 130 IQ represents a “positive” random element than a “negative” one). It is this mean that would be “reverted” to in subsequent generations, in this case certainly well above 100.

    Similarly, if you have a sub-group of below average intelligence, over time they will revert to a below-average mean (albeit somewhat higher than the original one)."

    Regression to the mean in the case of IQ is a phenomenological rule that works to some extent. If both parents have IQ 130 and are from a population with average IQ 100 and genetic heritability of IQ is, say 60%, then the descendants tend to have IQ centered on 0.6*(130-100)+100=118.

    However, the rule is phenomenological and not actually true. I tried to derive the rule from consideration of dominant, partially dominant and recessive IQ genes and their effect on IQ including the effect of lucky combinations. It seemed to me that the relation is not as simple as the rule and though the rule seems to work rather well, it is not simply that we have hidden gene alleles that are not expressed and that is why many descendants express gene alleles that are more typical to the population but are hidden in us. It depended on many things: some genes causing retardation are recessive, a few are dominant. Many IQ genes probably are partially dominant. The mechanism causing very high IQ is different from the one causing very low IQ. Not simple.
    , @utu
    Perhaps you can take a look here where, I think, I figured out the problem mathematically:

    http://www.unz.com/isteve/vox-charles-murray-is-once-again-peddling-junk-science-about/#comment-1883701

    the variance of children is V*(1-(h^2)^2) where V is variance of population and h^2 is heritability.

    An example:

    _____________
    Your IQ=140
    Heritability h^2=0.8

    Children’s IQ expected value=100+(140-100)*0.8=132

    Children SD=sqrt(V)=9

    where V=15^2*(1-0.8^2)=81

    Probability that your children have IQ≥132 is 50% IQ≥141 is 17%
    ______________
    Your IQ=140
    Heritability h^2=0.5

    Children’s IQ expected value=100+(140-100)*0.5=120

    Children SD=sqrt(V)=13

    where V=15^2*(1-0.5^2)= 168.75

    Probability that your children have IQ≥120 is 50% IQ≥133 is 17%

     

  223. @Anatoly Karlin
    I would further note that the Puritan heartlands:

    * Consisted mostly off well to-do yeomen and gentlemen from East Anglia, England's most prosperous region in the 17th century;
    * Literacy amongst those early Puritans was at 2/3 of the population, relative to 40% in England proper;
    * A disproportionate percentage (relative to population) of eminent intellectuals have hailed from East Anglia and Mass/Conn in both England the US;
    * Harvard University was founded in 1636, when the Puritan population in the America numbered about 40,000 colonists;
    * The region today contains 2-3 of America's top 5 universities.

    It is a most impressive concentration of human capital.

    Something like 1/6th of Massachusetts ancestry goes back to Puritans.

    • Replies: @AP
    I don't think that Puritans (or Anglians, wherever in England Puritans are from) have some magic genes that differentiate them from other northern Europeans. Rather, it's a cultural emphasis on high education, industriousness, cunning, hard work, mutual aid, etc. Puritans set up the framework in New England and other northern Europeans such as Irish were able to adopt it, in general. And thus you have one of the wealthiest and most intelligent and educated societies in the world.

    Of course, that framework also included harsh dour moralism, and this has morphed from Calvinist extremism to Progressive extremism.
    , @benjaminl
    Source? Thanks in advance.
  224. @for-the-record
    Level 3!

    I haven’t bothered to sit up, grab pencil and paper and try some remembered mathematics but will ask you indulge me if I seek approval for a verbal version which puts the emphasis on there being an infinite number of circles around the S Pole on which one can travel 1 km W – or E – and end up in the same place. There are, correspondingly, an infinite number of circles 1 km N of the former circles.

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    I didn't work it out mathematically either (I was 12 when I came up with the solution). To say that

    there [are] an infinite number of circles around the S Pole on which one can travel 1 km W – or E – and end up in the same place.

    is correct as far as it goes, but it does not define which circles these are, because clearly most circles around the S Pole do not qualify (consider, for example, the circle with a circumference of 0.45 km).

    The "qualifying" circles are in fact those with diameters 1/integer: 1, 1/2, 1/3 . . . ad infinitum, hence the solution set will consist of circles one mile N of these "qualifying" circles, which corresponds to the mathematical solution given by Intelligent Dasein -- a countably infinite set of infinite spaces.
  225. @utu
    Sensible people will not follow your calculations because they are based on garbage data. Everybody believes you that you can add and subtract but the data you are using are garbage. You yourself might be an excellent computing machine but this is the case of GIGO. On top of it you come up with some crazy metaphysical and cabalistic symbology that suppose to reinforce your conclusions like for instance that the Nazis preserved Jewish hair for some cabalistic reason. I am sorry, it is hard to take you seriously then. Getting unhinged happens to smart people. Look at Ted Kaczynski or Breivik who was very capable.

    The data I use is from American Jewish Yearbooks with very few well-known corrections. The results are the same if Yad Vashem data is used. I also compared the data to two main-stream Holocaust researcher’s data. Their numbers were practically identical for Western Europe and Poland. From any data I know one can derive the upper bound 400,000 to Auschwitz, the total death toll of 4.5M and that 260,000 survived Operation Reinhard. What data that I use you think is incorrect?

    “the Nazis preserved Jewish hair for some cabalistic reason”

    I see this hair issue irritated you. The reason is not cabalistic but prophetic. I think it is that “not a hair from your head will fall to the ground” is promised in prophesies of Tanakh and also in the New testament. As Nazis had to cut the hair to prevent diseases, the only thing to do was not to allow the hair to fall to the ground. I think the reason is that orthodox Jews needed fulfillment of end of the time prophesies before they could accept the return to Palestine. Consider also the fact that Rabbis were leading their people like sheep to gas chambers. That is a sacrifice, holocaust. It is also from prophesies, from Zechariah, cleansing of the people with fire. Consider Zvi Hirch Kalischer in 1842 saying that the time of redemption started in 1840 and if Jews have not returned to Palestine in 100 years (that is 1939), they will do so but with much suffering, and that Rothschild and Cremieux (high Jewish Freemason) are the people who will help them in the restoration of the Jews to Palestine (as they indeed were). Compare Kalisher to Hitler’s speech: if Jewish bankers again plunge the world into a world war, the result will be that Jews are pushed out of Europe. The threat of extermination of Jews, like in the time of Hamas, just before the second exodus. Holocaust, as the burning of the offering. It is language of exodus, messianic. Personally, I think Kabbalah and prophesies are garbage, but Mizraim logde Masons studied them, so did Martinists.

    We apparently are now on different sides of the fence, so be it.

    • Replies: @utu

    We apparently are now on different sides of the fence, so be it.
     
    I am not sure.
    , @DFH

    The data I use is from American Jewish Yearbooks
     
    You believe that the US Jewish population went up by only 300,000 between 1937-1949?
  226. @Anatoly Karlin

    For example, I knew that blocking Telegram was going to stifle its user growth in Russia...
     
    I think this is a bit different since the average Telegram user is more sophisticated than the average. Now yes, if say odnoklassniki was blocked, then usage would plummet. But I haven't noticed any major decline in usage amongst the people who were using it, e.g. people at a state-owned company that I was doing contract work for when the ban went into effect. Also, as I'm sure you well known, the actual blocking has been highly ineffective. I don't even have to use VPN to access it 99% of the time.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more “diverse”? I questioned America’s ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.
     
    In Hive Mind, Garett Jones mentions the peer effect - studies showing people work harder when they are observed by hard workers. It's highly plausible that the same goes for intellectual achievement. Not much point in working your brain off when surrounded by dumbos, since most success is relative, not absolute.

    Actually, Telеgram usage declined in Russia since the ban was introduced. Keep up!

    https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3701472

    They had very strong growth going into ban, but since then a decline of 23%.

  227. @for-the-record
    Whether regression or reversion to the mean people overestimate how it works in their imagination.

    You're entirely correct here. I was initially quite impressed with the constant references to "regression to the mean" before I worked out that many, if not most, were misusing it and did not understand it at all, at least if my understanding of it is correct.

    To be specific, and please correct me if I am wrong:

    Person A has an IQ of 130. This represents a "genetic" (for want of better term) IQ plus a random element. One could figure out a probability distribution for the genetic element, which would have a mean less than 130 (i.e., it is more likely that a 130 IQ represents a "positive" random element than a "negative" one). It is this mean that would be "reverted" to in subsequent generations, in this case certainly well above 100.

    Similarly, if you have a sub-group of below average intelligence, over time they will revert to a below-average mean (albeit somewhat higher than the original one).

    “Person A has an IQ of 130. This represents a “genetic” (for want of better term) IQ plus a random element. One could figure out a probability distribution for the genetic element, which would have a mean less than 130 (i.e., it is more likely that a 130 IQ represents a “positive” random element than a “negative” one). It is this mean that would be “reverted” to in subsequent generations, in this case certainly well above 100.

    Similarly, if you have a sub-group of below average intelligence, over time they will revert to a below-average mean (albeit somewhat higher than the original one).”

    Regression to the mean in the case of IQ is a phenomenological rule that works to some extent. If both parents have IQ 130 and are from a population with average IQ 100 and genetic heritability of IQ is, say 60%, then the descendants tend to have IQ centered on 0.6*(130-100)+100=118.

    However, the rule is phenomenological and not actually true. I tried to derive the rule from consideration of dominant, partially dominant and recessive IQ genes and their effect on IQ including the effect of lucky combinations. It seemed to me that the relation is not as simple as the rule and though the rule seems to work rather well, it is not simply that we have hidden gene alleles that are not expressed and that is why many descendants express gene alleles that are more typical to the population but are hidden in us. It depended on many things: some genes causing retardation are recessive, a few are dominant. Many IQ genes probably are partially dominant. The mechanism causing very high IQ is different from the one causing very low IQ. Not simple.

  228. The questions seemed very odd in that you should read the questions backwards to do better. There is a lot of extraneous detail presented, and reading it in linear order requires accepting a bunch of assumptions and data before even getting to the task. Someone who is knowledgeable about doors, cars, hiking, or cycling might get bogged down thinking about the assumptions. It was telling that the last question was in many ways the easiest, and I was stumped by your comment “I suspect that many of you can do it in your heads within a minute.” Suspect? Within a minute?

    Also, where did the IQ estimate of 120 to 125 come from? If 2% of the US can answer the question, given a mean IQ of 98, that entails an IQ of 128. Using a mean of 106 and SD of 14 for Japan and Korea gives an estimate of 124.

  229. @Bruno
    There is a stupid program in Spain for semi famous people where they like to test the IQ of the guest with a real psychologist . The Argentinian who had been tested was the dumbest ever on the program (90 versus an average of 115) for most guests. She was known in Argentina .

    Maybe the dumbest of Spanish and Italian migrated there ....

    I found that :

    Argentineans carried a large fraction of European genetic heritage in their Y-chromosomal (94.1%) and autosomal (78.5%) DNA, but their mitochondrial gene pool is mostly of Native American ancestry (53.7%); instead, African heritage was small in

  230. @for-the-record
    One – it’s the north pole, isn’t it?

    Finally, some one who has dared to respond!

    Responses can be graded into 4 levels of "intelligence" (0, 1, 2, 3, definitely not to be confused with the PISA levels). Currently you are at Level 1 -- the north pole works, but it represents an infinitesimal part of the solution set.

    For those too lazy to look up the original question:

    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?

     

    In decades (far too many!) of giving this exam, I have encountered one person of Level 3 intelligence.

    Any one here?

    You are at latitude 1 km north of the south pole. You walk 1 km south to the south pole. At the south pole you walk in circle around the fixed south pole counter clockwise (west) for 1 km. Then you walk 1 km north back to the starting point. Thus the answer is infinite number of points on the latitude of circle 1 km north of the south pole + 1.

    • Replies: @dux.ie
    Hmm. beaten by time zone.
    , @for-the-record
    At the south pole you walk in circle around the fixed south pole counter clockwise (west)

    It is impossible to walk "west" from the South Pole, any direction you walk is north.
  231. @Joshua Jordan, KSC
    You managed to scare the hell out of me. Is an international, separatist movement to go live in Antarctica with penguins possible? Or, maybe we could figure out how to live on the moon? What can we, feasibly, do?

    Develop a language that requires understanding of polymorphism and near infinite overloading to understand.

    Finnish power!

    • LOL: Anatoly Karlin
  232. @dux.ie
    You are at latitude 1 km north of the south pole. You walk 1 km south to the south pole. At the south pole you walk in circle around the fixed south pole counter clockwise (west) for 1 km. Then you walk 1 km north back to the starting point. Thus the answer is infinite number of points on the latitude of circle 1 km north of the south pole + 1.

    Hmm. beaten by time zone.

  233. @for-the-record
    Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course.

    I don't know what dream world you grew up in, but this is complete rubbish. There are plenty of people, even quite intelligent ones, who no matter how well they were educated could not successfully learn undergraduate engineering and/or computer science.

    I think everyone can be taught to pass basic html classes, but using it might be another story.

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    I think everyone can be taught to pass basic html classes

    But that is not the same as undergraduate engineering and computer programming, which was the standard I was referring to. Even a brief look at an undergraduate engineering curriculum will confirm that not everyone can do this, including many "intelligent" people:

    https://web.uri.edu/engineering/files/CVE-Curriculum-and-Check-Sheets-Class-of-20181.pdf
  234. @for-the-record
    Whether regression or reversion to the mean people overestimate how it works in their imagination.

    You're entirely correct here. I was initially quite impressed with the constant references to "regression to the mean" before I worked out that many, if not most, were misusing it and did not understand it at all, at least if my understanding of it is correct.

    To be specific, and please correct me if I am wrong:

    Person A has an IQ of 130. This represents a "genetic" (for want of better term) IQ plus a random element. One could figure out a probability distribution for the genetic element, which would have a mean less than 130 (i.e., it is more likely that a 130 IQ represents a "positive" random element than a "negative" one). It is this mean that would be "reverted" to in subsequent generations, in this case certainly well above 100.

    Similarly, if you have a sub-group of below average intelligence, over time they will revert to a below-average mean (albeit somewhat higher than the original one).

    Perhaps you can take a look here where, I think, I figured out the problem mathematically:

    http://www.unz.com/isteve/vox-charles-murray-is-once-again-peddling-junk-science-about/#comment-1883701

    the variance of children is V*(1-(h^2)^2) where V is variance of population and h^2 is heritability.

    An example:

    _____________
    Your IQ=140
    Heritability h^2=0.8

    Children’s IQ expected value=100+(140-100)*0.8=132

    Children SD=sqrt(V)=9

    where V=15^2*(1-0.8^2)=81

    Probability that your children have IQ≥132 is 50% IQ≥141 is 17%
    ______________
    Your IQ=140
    Heritability h^2=0.5

    Children’s IQ expected value=100+(140-100)*0.5=120

    Children SD=sqrt(V)=13

    where V=15^2*(1-0.5^2)= 168.75

    Probability that your children have IQ≥120 is 50% IQ≥133 is 17%

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    Thanks, that's essentially what I was trying to express verbally, I think. The basic point is that reversion is not back to the overall population mean, but to the inherited one. Perhaps an obvious point, but it seems to me that at least some people do not understand this correctly.
  235. @j2
    The data I use is from American Jewish Yearbooks with very few well-known corrections. The results are the same if Yad Vashem data is used. I also compared the data to two main-stream Holocaust researcher's data. Their numbers were practically identical for Western Europe and Poland. From any data I know one can derive the upper bound 400,000 to Auschwitz, the total death toll of 4.5M and that 260,000 survived Operation Reinhard. What data that I use you think is incorrect?

    "the Nazis preserved Jewish hair for some cabalistic reason"

    I see this hair issue irritated you. The reason is not cabalistic but prophetic. I think it is that "not a hair from your head will fall to the ground" is promised in prophesies of Tanakh and also in the New testament. As Nazis had to cut the hair to prevent diseases, the only thing to do was not to allow the hair to fall to the ground. I think the reason is that orthodox Jews needed fulfillment of end of the time prophesies before they could accept the return to Palestine. Consider also the fact that Rabbis were leading their people like sheep to gas chambers. That is a sacrifice, holocaust. It is also from prophesies, from Zechariah, cleansing of the people with fire. Consider Zvi Hirch Kalischer in 1842 saying that the time of redemption started in 1840 and if Jews have not returned to Palestine in 100 years (that is 1939), they will do so but with much suffering, and that Rothschild and Cremieux (high Jewish Freemason) are the people who will help them in the restoration of the Jews to Palestine (as they indeed were). Compare Kalisher to Hitler's speech: if Jewish bankers again plunge the world into a world war, the result will be that Jews are pushed out of Europe. The threat of extermination of Jews, like in the time of Hamas, just before the second exodus. Holocaust, as the burning of the offering. It is language of exodus, messianic. Personally, I think Kabbalah and prophesies are garbage, but Mizraim logde Masons studied them, so did Martinists.

    We apparently are now on different sides of the fence, so be it.

    We apparently are now on different sides of the fence, so be it.

    I am not sure.

  236. @Epigon
    Those International Science Olympiads (Math, Physics, Informatics, Chemistry) are a combination of talent/IQ and drill - devoted study and preparation under mentors and University student volunteers.
    Or simple homeschooling/extra effort in private time.
    Top High School students/teens are chosen and then specially prepared. There are typical, standard problem in those exams, and solving the previous years’ exams helps a lot. Exams are compiled by all competitor states contributing problem proposals.
    Generally, it is teens/highschoolers competing at solving university level problems.

    > Generally, it is teens/highschoolers competing at solving university level problems.

    There were IMO problems that were extremely hard, e.g. IMO 1988 Problem 6, which was field tested with a group of professional mathematicians who could not solved it in 6 hours and they expected the IMO competitiors to solve it in 15 min.

    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=math+olympiad+problem+6&uploaded=a&aq=f

    The narrator a university lecturer admitted he took one year to solve the problem.

    • Replies: @Epigon
    You singled out a single problem in a specific year to counter my claim.
    Now look up the medal distribution over the years and how medals are awarded, and draw your conclusion on whether the average problems in IMO are something extraordinary.
    That there are years when 100% score is achieved, not to mention multiple such performances, points that way.
    In competition terms, if a genius mathematician was present, his genius would transpire in a distinct and huge advantage over others because he would have been able to solve a problem no one else was.
  237. @utu
    The sample problems of Level 1 to 6 are cluttered with noise of useless informations that is culturally and economic development dependent.

    Why do we need to know that Helen has a speedometer? 20-30 years ago speedometers showing averages speed were not common. If you had a speedometer it was mechanical showing instantaneous speed only. To get the average speed you need time keeping. But anyway the fact that Helen has a speedometer is irrelevant to the problem.

    All problems are quantitative requiring mathematical operation (except for Level 1) and some idea how things work.

    If you reformulated the problems nad asked questions differently the score would be much higher.

    Level 1: For which months the black bar is taller than grey bar? Some kids were not exposed to graphs and haven't learn how to read them.

    Level 2: What is larger/smaller/equal 4/10 or 2/5? The question is about the definition of the average speed. Give that definition first.

    Level 3: Which number in the lowest row is the largest? WhoTF needs to now what is engine capacity. The term "engine capacity" is not common. How does it sound Swahili?

    Level 4: How many kids in Uruguay saw a revolving door? Most people will have problem visualizing the problem and realizing that 6 people per rotation can pass the door. BTW, African Americans are familiar with revolving (one way only) doors as they are commonly used in prison.

    And so on. Solving the problem like these is to be conditioned by a lot of practice where you are exposed to problems like these. In Mt. Fuji problem you must realize that you must calculate the total time which is the sum of two times: going up and going down. In Helen Level 6 you need to know what is the average speed and that it is not the same as the average of speeds.

    It is all matter of preparation for the test which teaches how to convert stories that you do not have interest in (WGTF about Helen?) to mathematical abstractions. To do it you have to be acculturated to the high level of motivation to score high that you care about scoring the test more than pondering WTF it is all about and who needs it.

    Now the bigger issue. Do PISA tests tell us something? PISA tests scores are classical chicken-egg problem. Why do countries on the make like Eastern Europe often have high PISA scores? Why do they care? Russia is doing exceptionally well in them. But Russia also has impressive military parades on the Victory Day. Russia is known for Potemkin villages. But are Potemkin villages bad? Now, pretense is good because it shows what are important values. Like in case of hypocrisy: "hypocrisy is a tribute vice pays to virtue." While building a Potemkin village a Russian muzhik gets some idea how a nice village suppose to look. When preparing tanks for the V-day parade the mechanics will put more effort to a make sure that the equipment does not breaks down and perhaps it will extend to normal operations. When cramming for PISA test kids actually learn something. And when they get high scores their confidence level goes up.

    If you reformulated the problems nad asked questions differently the score would be much higher.

    Level 1: For which months the black bar is taller than grey bar?

    dats right. deskill everything. :)

    “find x” “here it is” (circles x)

    “What are you doing?” “I’m making these stupid bricks” (other guy, wipes sweat off his forehead, looks at the huge structure beside him) “I’m building the Chartres cathedral”

  238. @Wizard of Oz
    I haven't bothered to sit up, grab pencil and paper and try some remembered mathematics but will ask you indulge me if I seek approval for a verbal version which puts the emphasis on there being an infinite number of circles around the S Pole on which one can travel 1 km W - or E - and end up in the same place. There are, correspondingly, an infinite number of circles 1 km N of the former circles.

    I didn’t work it out mathematically either (I was 12 when I came up with the solution). To say that

    there [are] an infinite number of circles around the S Pole on which one can travel 1 km W – or E – and end up in the same place.

    is correct as far as it goes, but it does not define which circles these are, because clearly most circles around the S Pole do not qualify (consider, for example, the circle with a circumference of 0.45 km).

    The “qualifying” circles are in fact those with diameters 1/integer: 1, 1/2, 1/3 . . . ad infinitum, hence the solution set will consist of circles one mile N of these “qualifying” circles, which corresponds to the mathematical solution given by Intelligent Dasein — a countably infinite set of infinite spaces.

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    Important correction:

    The “qualifying” circles are in fact those with circumferences 1/integer: 1, 1/2, 1/3 . . . ad infinitum, hence the solution set will consist of circles one mile N of these “qualifying” circles . . .
  239. @dux.ie
    You are at latitude 1 km north of the south pole. You walk 1 km south to the south pole. At the south pole you walk in circle around the fixed south pole counter clockwise (west) for 1 km. Then you walk 1 km north back to the starting point. Thus the answer is infinite number of points on the latitude of circle 1 km north of the south pole + 1.

    At the south pole you walk in circle around the fixed south pole counter clockwise (west)

    It is impossible to walk “west” from the South Pole, any direction you walk is north.

    • Replies: @dux.ie
    Because of short of time I did not elaborate.

    Not when you pivot your left foot fixed and directly on the south pole with the centre of gravity on your left foot, lift your right foot and swing it forward along the latitude circle (west) and plant it across where you are facing, drag/rotate your body anti-clockwise. Technically your right foot and most of your body are "walking" west. Then a little hop to exchange the right foot as the pivot and swing you left foot along the latitude circle backward (west) and drag/swing your body counter-clockwise (west). Since both your feet and your body are moving "west", the second condition is satisfied.

    The other proposals did not answer how the second condition is satisfied. You also took it for granted.
  240. @Anatoly Karlin
    No, the answer is 28 km/h. She traveled 7 km in 15 minutes (quarter of an hour).

    Isn’t there some ambiguity in the question? Is the average per distance or time?

    Your calculation assumes an average based on time. However, if the average is based on distance, then it’s not exactly 28.

    • Replies: @ussr andy
    km/h
    , @Chet Bradley
    Total distance travelled was 7 km. Total time travelled was 0.25 hours. Please show us how you can come with an answer different from 28 km/h AND have it make sense.
  241. @Daniel Chieh
    I think everyone can be taught to pass basic html classes, but using it might be another story.

    I think everyone can be taught to pass basic html classes

    But that is not the same as undergraduate engineering and computer programming, which was the standard I was referring to. Even a brief look at an undergraduate engineering curriculum will confirm that not everyone can do this, including many “intelligent” people:

    https://web.uri.edu/engineering/files/CVE-Curriculum-and-Check-Sheets-Class-of-20181.pdf

    • Replies: @ussr andy
    "Programming is another kind of literacy" -- A.Ershov

    Deciding so to name my speech, I realize that this is a metaphor, which many will find risky. On one side of our equation is an exotic, though already very massive profession, requiring the ability and long training, and on the other - the common property, the fundamental property of modern man.

    Nevertheless, I will try to demonstrate the instructiveness and fruitfulness of this metaphor. Not wishing to kill the reader with long syllogisms, nor to amaze him with tricks, I will explain in advance the scheme for revealing the basic situation.
     

    (holy f..., GT is getting good)

    http://ershov.iis.nsk.su/ru/second_literacy/article

    https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fershov.iis.nsk.su%2Fru%2Fsecond_literacy%2Farticle&edit-text=&act=url

  242. @AaronB
    Don't troll me Anatoly - you must admit one of the most ridiculous things about HBD is how it purports to notice and celebrate a rich diversity in all human traits....except for competitive desire.

    That is supposed to be utterly invariant and constant across race, ethnic group, culture, history, environment, recent national humiliation, and time.

    This assumption is necessary to make competitive endeavors meaningful - if one group simply isn't competing as hard, kind of makes it less fun :)

    When you play sports, it feels really shitty when the other team just doesn't give it their best effort - really spoils the fun. We were all there, as kids.

    So believe me I get it. But it won't stop me poking fun at you silly kids :)

    For most people (about 75% of the countries) competitive pressure reduces the performance. For example the OECD PISA also survey the competition level among the student, the percentage who wanted to be the best. The results,

    For most countries, the higher WantBestPct the worse the performance, except for about 25% who thrived with competitions.

    • Agree: Anatoly Karlin
    • Replies: @Wizard of Oz
    How did they assess the level of competitiveness? Self-report of attitudes or some objective measure like hours of prep - or how many of them arranged to have their rivals woken every hour during the night before the tests :-)
  243. @j2
    The data I use is from American Jewish Yearbooks with very few well-known corrections. The results are the same if Yad Vashem data is used. I also compared the data to two main-stream Holocaust researcher's data. Their numbers were practically identical for Western Europe and Poland. From any data I know one can derive the upper bound 400,000 to Auschwitz, the total death toll of 4.5M and that 260,000 survived Operation Reinhard. What data that I use you think is incorrect?

    "the Nazis preserved Jewish hair for some cabalistic reason"

    I see this hair issue irritated you. The reason is not cabalistic but prophetic. I think it is that "not a hair from your head will fall to the ground" is promised in prophesies of Tanakh and also in the New testament. As Nazis had to cut the hair to prevent diseases, the only thing to do was not to allow the hair to fall to the ground. I think the reason is that orthodox Jews needed fulfillment of end of the time prophesies before they could accept the return to Palestine. Consider also the fact that Rabbis were leading their people like sheep to gas chambers. That is a sacrifice, holocaust. It is also from prophesies, from Zechariah, cleansing of the people with fire. Consider Zvi Hirch Kalischer in 1842 saying that the time of redemption started in 1840 and if Jews have not returned to Palestine in 100 years (that is 1939), they will do so but with much suffering, and that Rothschild and Cremieux (high Jewish Freemason) are the people who will help them in the restoration of the Jews to Palestine (as they indeed were). Compare Kalisher to Hitler's speech: if Jewish bankers again plunge the world into a world war, the result will be that Jews are pushed out of Europe. The threat of extermination of Jews, like in the time of Hamas, just before the second exodus. Holocaust, as the burning of the offering. It is language of exodus, messianic. Personally, I think Kabbalah and prophesies are garbage, but Mizraim logde Masons studied them, so did Martinists.

    We apparently are now on different sides of the fence, so be it.

    The data I use is from American Jewish Yearbooks

    You believe that the US Jewish population went up by only 300,000 between 1937-1949?

    • Replies: @j2
    "You believe that the US Jewish population went up by only 300,000 between 1937-1949?"

    I looked at the US Jewish population data in
    http://www.pienisalaliittotutkimus.com/2017/11/20/h4-finished-this-conspiracy-theory/
    and after the table giving the US Jewish population I wrote:
    "These numbers are odd to say the least. There is a huge range of uncertainty of a million in 1910, yet the upper bound is given in the precision of a person. The figure for 1930 is not given, instead there are figures for 1927 and 1937, and the one in 1927 is precise. "

    If you mean by garbage that the Jewish numbers may not be correct, that can be valid criticism. However, I wanted to derive a proof that uses numbers that Holocaust researchers claim are correct. Suggesting any other numbers would face the objection that their numbers are correct, they have studied the topic from whatever sources, while I obviously did other things than spent time on studying Jewish populations in different countries. Thus, I use Holocaust numbers and derive the contradictions to Holocaust claims. Yet, the Jewish numbers for Western Europe seem correct to me, as seem the immigration numbers and the Polish census of 1931. This is sufficient for Auschwitz, Operation Reinhard and 4.5M.

    Your comment on the US Jewish population numbers being in doubt is justified. They are from a Jewish site, not from a denier site.Soviet and US numbers can indeed be largely incorrect, but I actually do not need those numbers. The DP camp numbers already force the conclusion that over 200,000 survived Operation Reinhard camps. This strengthens the conclusion that 1M had immigrated additionally from the Soviet Union because otherwise the losses are difficult to explain, especially as mass graves have not been verified.

  244. @utu
    Sensible people will not follow your calculations because they are based on garbage data. Everybody believes you that you can add and subtract but the data you are using are garbage. You yourself might be an excellent computing machine but this is the case of GIGO. On top of it you come up with some crazy metaphysical and cabalistic symbology that suppose to reinforce your conclusions like for instance that the Nazis preserved Jewish hair for some cabalistic reason. I am sorry, it is hard to take you seriously then. Getting unhinged happens to smart people. Look at Ted Kaczynski or Breivik who was very capable.

    Kaczynski has always struck me as perfectly sane and lucid; more so than some of the columnists here, to say nothing of the rabble.

  245. @for-the-record
    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.

    Congratulations! You are now Level 2.

    Any Level 3 out there? [Hint: there is a countably infinite set of such continuums/continuua].

    Draw a circle of 1/(2^n) km for n=0,1,2,…. circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point.

    • Replies: @g2k
    Crap, bad fraction. The first circle just needs to be 1/n
  246. @utu
    Perhaps you can take a look here where, I think, I figured out the problem mathematically:

    http://www.unz.com/isteve/vox-charles-murray-is-once-again-peddling-junk-science-about/#comment-1883701

    the variance of children is V*(1-(h^2)^2) where V is variance of population and h^2 is heritability.

    An example:

    _____________
    Your IQ=140
    Heritability h^2=0.8

    Children’s IQ expected value=100+(140-100)*0.8=132

    Children SD=sqrt(V)=9

    where V=15^2*(1-0.8^2)=81

    Probability that your children have IQ≥132 is 50% IQ≥141 is 17%
    ______________
    Your IQ=140
    Heritability h^2=0.5

    Children’s IQ expected value=100+(140-100)*0.5=120

    Children SD=sqrt(V)=13

    where V=15^2*(1-0.5^2)= 168.75

    Probability that your children have IQ≥120 is 50% IQ≥133 is 17%

     

    Thanks, that’s essentially what I was trying to express verbally, I think. The basic point is that reversion is not back to the overall population mean, but to the inherited one. Perhaps an obvious point, but it seems to me that at least some people do not understand this correctly.

  247. @Epigon
    PISA tests are a meme; at least here.

    “Here’s your test on a computer, kids”
    “Does it impact our grades?”
    “Nope”
    “Are the test results public?”
    “Nope”
    “LOL, watch this - record time”

    :Everyone does it as quickly as possible, those who try hard might be called out as nerds and uncool:

    Seriously, I have a distinct feeling that Asian schools prepare their kids in advance. The same way most of schools here practically abandoned normal teaching programme and instituted year long preparations aimed at drilling students into solving the specific exams that constitute the Abitur/Matura.
    Also, don’t pretend that actual IQ test solving can’t be trained.

    The biggest correlation of IQ tests with the real world is probably in how quickly a person can learn something new.

    A high-IQ person will quickly master a simple task. As you go down the IQ ladder, the amount of time it takes a person to master the same skill increases. But once he’s achieved mastery, he’s generally as good at it as the high-IQ guy. Sometimes better, as the high-IQ guy gets bored and stops trying.

    As the complexity of the skill we’re talking about increases, the lower IQ people take longer and longer to achieve mastery, and the lowest-IQ types successively peel off the bottom, with mastery simply beyond their ability no matter how much time is spent teaching the skill.

    In the tests this articles discusses, it would be interesting to also track how long it took students to reach a correct answer.

    • Replies: @jilles dykstra
    Alan Turing in WWII indeed selected applicants for the Enigma project by the speed with which they were able to solve problems;
    Nothing special these days, any psychological test measures time.
    , @Tyrion 2
    Great comment. One can easily drill low IQ individuals for this test.

    Meanwhile, high IQ individuals would likely just work it out from previous experience.

    (Very high IQ individuals probably wouldn't bother.)

  248. @Dmitry

    And many do appreciate that national wealth depends largely on a population’s intelligence, especially of its “smart fractions”
     
    It's not quite true - although it satisfies peoples' "just world hypothesis" instincts.

    To falsify the hypothesis, just see the contradiction in writing: the intellectual genius of a wealthy people like the Qataris, or the stupidity of a poor nationality like the Chinese.

    In per capita terms, China is as poor and unsuccessful, as Thailand, Algeria and Brazil. And yet, their reported average academic test scores are higher than those of many wealthy countries.

    In the future, such a correlation should become stronger, as a result of the digital revolution making intelligence relevant to a larger proportion of the future economy. But even today, there many other factors, often less related to inherent qualities of the people, than to arbitrary things like geography, involved in economic success.

    In per capita terms, China is as poor and unsuccessful, as Thailand, Algeria and Brazil. And yet, their reported average academic test scores are higher than those of many wealthy countries.

    If you look at the results in all the Olympiad competitions over the summer ( mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and so on)……then Russia did very , very , very well, (Ukraine did shit, of course). As for the Americans , ALL the winning contestants for their teams were either Chinese or Indian named. Particularly Chinese ( I’m sure not Japanese or Korean, but Chinese)

    Now, Indians are very clever in general but this dominance of Asians, I think is mainly down to “lock them in the room all day” driven parents. Numerous people in the west have experience of Orientals of average intelligence obtain high academic results.
    Russians who take part and do well in these events tend to be more strong-minded, independent-thinking people or “free spirits” ( let down by 1 POS who turns out to have been a Navalny hamster)

    Western Universities may now have become more plentiful with Chinese professors/lecturers but I think this is more driven by economics and availability, particularly with the so-called “lesser universities” now becoming more prestigious as more qualified people go to live in the UK and US

    In engineering the Chinese guys can understand and implement ad nauseum the mathematics behind the computer based methods in construction ( very simple but extensive and dull) , but could they come up with and have a firm grip on the classical “elastic” theory that underpins this and was the basis of engineering from the enlightenment period onwards?

    Or could they come up with and be comfortable with the more part empirical/part-theory ideas that are the bases for soil engineering…….I heavily doubt it in both cases.
    This is where the real fundamental understanding of engineering comes from….plus most of the creativity and intelligent thinking

    Incidentally, I think the most large example of racism is not towards blacks or jews………but from aficionados of classical music towards Chinese/Japanese/Korean pianists and Musicians

    • Replies: @AP

    If you look at the results in all the Olympiad competitions over the summer ( mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and so on)……then Russia did very , very , very well, (Ukraine did shit, of course)
     
    Math Olympiad 2018:

    https://www.imo-official.org/results.aspx

    Ukraine 4th place, its best result ever. Last year it was 14th place.

    USA #1, Russia #2, China #3, Ukraine #4, Thailand #5, Taiwan #6, Korea #7, Singapore #8, Poland #9.

    :::::::

    Overall pattern of post-2014 winning for Ukraine.
    , @Dmitry
    The exams are divided now (since 2015) into base (easy) and optional advanced (profile) papers.

    Looking at some of recent profile papers, it's still the same mix of some easy, and some difficult or tricky questions, as was in the part C of the old exam.

    Now considering that around half are still taking the advanced option, and the majority passing.

    However, the number of students taking the exam is rapidly falling already since 2015, which is quite depressing.

    -

    On balance, the mathematics level is still surely a lot higher than in countries like America. (Where they have funny exams like GRE).

    , @Bliss

    Incidentally, I think the most large example of racism is not towards blacks or jews………but from aficionados of classical music towards Chinese/Japanese/Korean pianists and Musicians
     
    First time I have heard of this. Had to google to educate myself. Found lots of racism and snobbery in the classical music world directed towards Africans (anyone surprised?), despite the biggest name in European classical music, Beethoven, being of visibly African ancestry. But there were also examples of anti-asian racism:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/7hi6ba/racism_n_classical_music/

    There is a tendency toward racism against Asian musicians. They're unjustly characterized as uncreative because they tend to be content to stick to the high romantic tradition of performance (or are HP, I suppose) and perhaps because of the prevalence of the Suzuki method worldwide.

    A notable example of this would be pianist Dang Thai Son, a great pianist whose win at the Chopin competition is still aggressively minimized by many Europeans. There's also a political aspect to this because some Japanese musicians won competitions (such as the Wieniawski competition) through obvious corruption, but there are far worse examples of corruption by Europeans (*koff* Pierre Amoyal) so that's an unjust criticism as well.

    Racism probably played a role in the history of black musicians, but I think it's a minimal factor now. There are many Hispanic musicians: Urguayans, Mexicans, etc. Many of them are white Hispanics though.

  249. @for-the-record
    I think everyone can be taught to pass basic html classes

    But that is not the same as undergraduate engineering and computer programming, which was the standard I was referring to. Even a brief look at an undergraduate engineering curriculum will confirm that not everyone can do this, including many "intelligent" people:

    https://web.uri.edu/engineering/files/CVE-Curriculum-and-Check-Sheets-Class-of-20181.pdf

    “Programming is another kind of literacy” — A.Ershov

    Deciding so to name my speech, I realize that this is a metaphor, which many will find risky. On one side of our equation is an exotic, though already very massive profession, requiring the ability and long training, and on the other – the common property, the fundamental property of modern man.

    Nevertheless, I will try to demonstrate the instructiveness and fruitfulness of this metaphor. Not wishing to kill the reader with long syllogisms, nor to amaze him with tricks, I will explain in advance the scheme for revealing the basic situation.

    (holy f…, GT is getting good)

    http://ershov.iis.nsk.su/ru/second_literacy/article

    https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fershov.iis.nsk.su%2Fru%2Fsecond_literacy%2Farticle&edit-text=&act=url

  250. @Intelligent Dasein

    For instance, the claim that only such a small percentage of British schoolchildren can do advanced maths seems to be contradicted by the fact that over half can pass their Maths GCSEs, which require competence in similar levels of Maths.
     
    How can the poor kids be expected to understand anything about the concept of numbers as long as you silly Brits keep pluralizing singular nouns?

    It's math, for crying out loud!

    In Michigan, we like to pluralize/possessive certain words. People work at Fords and we go to Meijers and Krogers. They’re usually places named after people, so it might be Ford’s. Ain’t language grand?

  251. @Jeff Stryker
    "Spanish"

    Cuban Spanish are Canary Islanders. Essentially these are Moroccans with some Spanish blood.

    The same goes for many Latin American whites.

    If you want to get down to their actual genetics, they are descended from Moroccan women who intermarried in Canary Islands with Spanish males.

    Correct. Except I would suggest that it’s more accurate to refer to the native Guanches as Berbers rather than Moroccans, as the second term implies Arab/Muslim cultural and ethnic admixture that simply isn’t relevant to the Canaries.

    • Replies: @Jeff Stryker
    Canary Island Spanish is the official form of Spanish in Cuba. It would be accurate to describe the Cuban whites as combination of Basque and Canary Islander-basically Atlantic Mediterranean and Canary Islander.
  252. anon[317] • Disclaimer says:
    @Anonymous
    I would need to see specifics to believe this.

    Most likely white populations that test well will be Jewish or part Jewish. No way South Dakota or Tenessee tests as well.

    The lesson in these IQ statistics seems to be that learning is a function of directed and encountered experience. Performance is a measure of ability to apply learned or acquired experience to a problem or situation of the type one’s culture expects its adults to perform in.

    Learning (that is the processing of experience) occurs with every human breath.

    The types of learning experiences are based in availability, access, random events. Each type of learning experience is a function of sensory access, if one cannot read, one cannot know the meanings of that words on the page, if one cannot hear one cannot know that the whistle sounds the time of day.

    Availability of the mother, father, siblings, the extended family, the community, the society, and activities directed toward preparation for adult demands in a target society all figure in the ability to perform. IQ is a measure of the ability to perform on a test which must be read [visual sensory capacity assumed to be adequate ], understood [assumptions misdirect performance], and taken seriously ( I don’t feel well today or my mother just died or whatever, the gang will whip my ass if I do well on this test]

    So much performance determined IQ depends on the ability to perceive, to remember, to recall experience that it is difficult to compare performance test results even between siblings. Another factor is the language, grammar used, and even the type of print used by those who prepare the test.
    On no test anywhere have I seen a question like this..

    Your intended victim is a 42 yr old female tourist, she walks with a limp, keeps a very large red purse strapped to her wrist, the purse contains a pistol and she runs around the block of her hotel at 8:00 pm each evening. Which of the following is most likely to be successful in transporting the money in her purse to your hands?
    a. direct confrontation (beg or this is a holdup) b. artful brush by c. 2nd party diversion d. shoot, grab & run

    Obviously the answer depends on the imagined capacity of the victim and the social setting of the offender among other things but not so obvious is that the answer depends on prior directed and encountered experience and an assessment of the risk. No one tested will have the same set of these prior experiences.

    • Replies: @ChrisS
    This can be solved, people can and are re-tested. Interestingly, despite of bad days, etc., IQ test scores are reliable, which means that when re-tested, the score is close to the previous one.
    External variables matter, but as much as many would like to imply.
  253. @PiqueABoo
    A GCSE Maths 'pass' (was seen as grade C but with nuGCSEs that's now grade 4) isn't very difficult and you only need correct answers for roughly 20% of the questions.

    Regarding prejudice, my (just) 15-year-old daughter is an anomalous, strong maths-geek and I've long been curious about this area. For girls I think it is less about them being anti-maths and more about them being pro-English.

    Piles of research has long had girls being better at reading/writing/verbal stuff than maths on average and unless there is a compelling economic or social motive to do otherwise, then children tend to pick their best(=favourite) subjects when contemplating post-GCSE choices. See 'the gender paradox" re. super-gender-neutral Sweden having one of the worst percentages for female representation in STEM etc.

    Girls who are high in math ability also tend to be high in linguistic ability, whereas this is less common in boys. A girl with high ability in two areas has a greater range of choices available to her than a boy with high ability in only one.

  254. @g2k
    Draw a circle of 1/(2^n) km for n=0,1,2,.... circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point.

    Crap, bad fraction. The first circle just needs to be 1/n

    • Agree: for-the-record
  255. @Epigon
    Those International Science Olympiads (Math, Physics, Informatics, Chemistry) are a combination of talent/IQ and drill - devoted study and preparation under mentors and University student volunteers.
    Or simple homeschooling/extra effort in private time.
    Top High School students/teens are chosen and then specially prepared. There are typical, standard problem in those exams, and solving the previous years’ exams helps a lot. Exams are compiled by all competitor states contributing problem proposals.
    Generally, it is teens/highschoolers competing at solving university level problems.

    Completely wrong. Olympiad math are pure g for high school people interested in math. You can’t prsent it when your at university level !

    And if you are audicious épigone, the way you handle figures in your site completely on criticizing anonymous error (if you even able to understand it ). If you are not , you are just rude .

    • Replies: @Epigon
    1. I am not a blogger, Epigon is the successor of Diadochi.

    2. How well did you do at national and international math competitions?

    3. I don't place much value in social sciences and research, statistics presented by them, especially when their conclusions directly contradict my personal experience.
  256. …. Disqualify you completely on any IQ related matter

  257. @reiner Tor

    the Blacks who became slaves might have, on average, been less intelligent than the Blacks who didn’t get enslaved.
     
    That’s a good point.

    Still, it was only a one-off selection, which usually has smaller effects due to reversion to the mean. It was also probably not a very strong selection, because descending from a smaller or militarily weaker tribe doesn’t necessarily imply lower intelligence. There was also a reverse selection: those who survived the Middle Passage had on average lower genetic load (and so higher genetic potential IQ) than those who didn’t. And I bet you smarter slaves were also less likely to be worked to death and probably had higher status and so better access to women. (Although that selection probably went into reverse for the past century.)

    And I bet you smarter slaves were also less likely to be worked to death and probably had higher status and so better access to women.

    Possibly. Though I suggest a highly intelligent slave is also more likely to “act uppity” and get himself into serious trouble with the master. The type of trouble that may significantly impact his survival and ability to reproduce.

    OTOH, the highly intelligent slave was also probably far more likely to be trained in a skill and thus achieve a higher value to the master, giving him stronger incentive not to kill him.

    • Replies: @ChrisS
    Depends on the master/society. If it happens in a society which values knowledge and intelligence, a highly intelligent slave would be seen as an asset. If the slave lives in a country with poor educational system, where muscles matter and subordination, he can still win but only if he hides his abilities and does as much as needed so he doesn't raise the defense mechanisms of the master.
  258. call me tribal but I hate it when these clickbaity threads attract posters from other quarters of Unz Review.

    • Agree: reiner Tor
    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    We do get some really annoying types.
  259. @for-the-record
    Level 3!

    This is a cute problem. I’ll have to pass it around.

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    This is a cute problem. I’ll have to pass it around.

    Here is another one, simple but elegant, which surprisingly few people (including scientists) have answered correctly over the years:

    A priori, one would expect the seasons to be of equal lengths. Yet in the northern hemisphere this year summer lasted 92.6 days, while the upcoming winter will last only 89.0 days. What is the explanation for this?
     
  260. @Anonymous
    Isn't there some ambiguity in the question? Is the average per distance or time?

    Your calculation assumes an average based on time. However, if the average is based on distance, then it's not exactly 28.

    km/h

    • Replies: @ussr andy
    no, strike that.

    you're still wrong though, there's nothing ambiguous about the question, but I lack the IQ points to tell you exactly why.


    they're asking for the average speed. speed is distance over time (v=s/t), so the average is presumably also over time because dimensions. what would the physical significance of average speed over distance be, anyway?
  261. @Anonymous
    The problem with Level 6 Math is that the correct answer as given is 28 whereas the actual one is 28.3(3). That the test-takers were not able to come up with a sensible question that tests concepts such as rates/normalization AND returns an integer answer speaks of low IQ of the test designers.

    Not arguing the main point, of course! The ranking is still roughly meaningful. That is, a largish part of the difference between Switzerland and Albania (or Singapore and Jamaica) can be explained in terms of the tests results shown.

    You would be right (i guess because I don’t bother to calculate it) if the question were about the average by traject, indepently of each traject length. But the question explicitly ask to calculate the speed for the « trip to the river and back »

    If calling you subhuman is really nasty, you should be more careful when reading and even more careful before criticizing. At a much higher cognitive level, there were many university math teacher who insulted Vos Savant Monthy Hall problem, and they had to eat their hat …

  262. @Anonymous
    The problem with Level 6 Math is that the correct answer as given is 28 whereas the actual one is 28.3(3). That the test-takers were not able to come up with a sensible question that tests concepts such as rates/normalization AND returns an integer answer speaks of low IQ of the test designers.

    Not arguing the main point, of course! The ranking is still roughly meaningful. That is, a largish part of the difference between Switzerland and Albania (or Singapore and Jamaica) can be explained in terms of the tests results shown.

    You would be right (i guess because I don’t bother to calculate it) if the question were about the average by traject, indepently of each traject length. But the question explicitly ask to calculate the speed for the « trip to the river and back »

    If calling you subhuman is really nasty, you should be more careful when reading and even more careful before criticizing. At a much higher cognitive level, there were many university math teacher who insulted Vos Savant Monthy Hall problem, and they had to eat their hat …

  263. @dux.ie
    > Generally, it is teens/highschoolers competing at solving university level problems.

    There were IMO problems that were extremely hard, e.g. IMO 1988 Problem 6, which was field tested with a group of professional mathematicians who could not solved it in 6 hours and they expected the IMO competitiors to solve it in 15 min.

    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=math+olympiad+problem+6&uploaded=a&aq=f

    The narrator a university lecturer admitted he took one year to solve the problem.

    You singled out a single problem in a specific year to counter my claim.
    Now look up the medal distribution over the years and how medals are awarded, and draw your conclusion on whether the average problems in IMO are something extraordinary.
    That there are years when 100% score is achieved, not to mention multiple such performances, points that way.
    In competition terms, if a genius mathematician was present, his genius would transpire in a distinct and huge advantage over others because he would have been able to solve a problem no one else was.

  264. @Bruno
    Completely wrong. Olympiad math are pure g for high school people interested in math. You can’t prsent it when your at university level !


    And if you are audicious épigone, the way you handle figures in your site completely on criticizing anonymous error (if you even able to understand it ). If you are not , you are just rude .

    1. I am not a blogger, Epigon is the successor of Diadochi.

    2. How well did you do at national and international math competitions?

    3. I don’t place much value in social sciences and research, statistics presented by them, especially when their conclusions directly contradict my personal experience.

    • Replies: @Bruno
    I was selected to be in the French team but didn’t go because I used to spend 2,5 months holidays in south Spain in my family house with friends .

    PhD in math have 1 chance in 10 000 to get a field medal.

    Chances for Harvard PhD - the highest in the USA - is below 7 out of all their PhD in maths delivered since 60 years (I would guess 1 in 150)

    Gold medalist (50 a year) have 1 chance in 100 (12 out of 1200 for last 24 years)

    Perfect scorers have 1 chance in 10 (8 out of around 80 for the last 24 years)

    So math Olympiad is the best high performance predictor there is for genius level activity. It’s the best reality advocate for any g theory because the math is absolutely not intensive in knowledge and require a lot of mental dexterity. That’s why it’s looked down by French math elite who prepare form Normale Sup very knowledge and proof intensive competition.

    Math Olympiad is like a truly 5sd math IQ test ...
  265. @ussr andy
    km/h

    no, strike that.

    you’re still wrong though, there’s nothing ambiguous about the question, but I lack the IQ points to tell you exactly why.

    they’re asking for the average speed. speed is distance over time (v=s/t), so the average is presumably also over time because dimensions. what would the physical significance of average speed over distance be, anyway?

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    I concede that I may be completely off base here. But let's say the question was put this way:

    Helen rode her speedster 1000 miles in 1 hr. Then she rode her bike 1 mile in 1 hr. What was her average speed over the distance of 1001 miles?

    Is it 1) 500.5 m/h?

    Or 2) 999 m/h?

    It would seem to me that the latter makes sense if you appreciate the distance traveled. She traveled a 1000 miles in the first leg. (ie, 1000 m/h) Then she went just a mile in her second leg. (1 m/h)

    So she went 1000 m/h for 1000 miles. And then just 1 m/h for 1 mile. What's the average? But average of "what"? If it's the distance of 1001 miles, is it unreasonable to give additional weight for that 1000 miles vs. 1 mile traveled?

    However, if the question is posed as, "What was her average speed over 2 hrs", then the answer is more unambiguously 1) 500.5 m/h.
    , @anonymous coward

    they’re asking for the average speed
     
    Speed is already the average distance over time, so asking for "average speed" makes no sense.

    (Only slightly trolling here.)
  266. Thilo Sarrazin, ‘Deutschland schafft sich ab, Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen’, München 2010
    argued, even before the mass immigration, how stupid immigrants destroy Germany.
    They get lots of children, intelligent German women none, or one or two.
    He also mentions that these days hardly anyone can read an intelligent article of a few pages.
    I suppose this is demonstrated through ‘arguing’ by copying web site adresses, where someone finds something that seems to support his or her point of view.
    The argument ‘this is such and so because of so and so’, something like that, is seldom seen any more.
    Assertions all over the place.
    The most stupid reproach is not having an own opinion, ‘hiding behind books or authors’.
    These people think it is possible to grab an opinion out of thin air.
    It reminds me about a statement about the holocaust “we know a lot for which we have no proof”.
    How on earth anyone can know anything for which there is no proof, beyond my imagination.

    • Replies: @DFH
    "Intelligent womens'" intelligence doesn't seem to help them out very much in working out that having (non-autistic) children becomes a lot more difficult after 30, as does finding a man when the best men are already married or less attracted to them.
  267. @for-the-record
    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.

    Congratulations! You are now Level 2.

    Any Level 3 out there? [Hint: there is a countably infinite set of such continuums/continuua].

    1. North pole

    2. Any point 1+1/(n*pi) distance from South pole

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    2. Any point 1+1/(n*pi) distance from South pole

    Only works for n that is even:

    2'. Any point 1+1/(2n*pi) distance from South pole
  268. @Logan
    The biggest correlation of IQ tests with the real world is probably in how quickly a person can learn something new.

    A high-IQ person will quickly master a simple task. As you go down the IQ ladder, the amount of time it takes a person to master the same skill increases. But once he's achieved mastery, he's generally as good at it as the high-IQ guy. Sometimes better, as the high-IQ guy gets bored and stops trying.

    As the complexity of the skill we're talking about increases, the lower IQ people take longer and longer to achieve mastery, and the lowest-IQ types successively peel off the bottom, with mastery simply beyond their ability no matter how much time is spent teaching the skill.

    In the tests this articles discusses, it would be interesting to also track how long it took students to reach a correct answer.

    Alan Turing in WWII indeed selected applicants for the Enigma project by the speed with which they were able to solve problems;
    Nothing special these days, any psychological test measures time.

  269. @DFH

    The data I use is from American Jewish Yearbooks
     
    You believe that the US Jewish population went up by only 300,000 between 1937-1949?

    “You believe that the US Jewish population went up by only 300,000 between 1937-1949?”

    I looked at the US Jewish population data in

    http://www.pienisalaliittotutkimus.com/2017/11/20/h4-finished-this-conspiracy-theory/

    and after the table giving the US Jewish population I wrote:
    “These numbers are odd to say the least. There is a huge range of uncertainty of a million in 1910, yet the upper bound is given in the precision of a person. The figure for 1930 is not given, instead there are figures for 1927 and 1937, and the one in 1927 is precise. ”

    If you mean by garbage that the Jewish numbers may not be correct, that can be valid criticism. However, I wanted to derive a proof that uses numbers that Holocaust researchers claim are correct. Suggesting any other numbers would face the objection that their numbers are correct, they have studied the topic from whatever sources, while I obviously did other things than spent time on studying Jewish populations in different countries. Thus, I use Holocaust numbers and derive the contradictions to Holocaust claims. Yet, the Jewish numbers for Western Europe seem correct to me, as seem the immigration numbers and the Polish census of 1931. This is sufficient for Auschwitz, Operation Reinhard and 4.5M.

    Your comment on the US Jewish population numbers being in doubt is justified. They are from a Jewish site, not from a denier site.Soviet and US numbers can indeed be largely incorrect, but I actually do not need those numbers. The DP camp numbers already force the conclusion that over 200,000 survived Operation Reinhard camps. This strengthens the conclusion that 1M had immigrated additionally from the Soviet Union because otherwise the losses are difficult to explain, especially as mass graves have not been verified.

  270. @Intelligent Dasein

    For instance, the claim that only such a small percentage of British schoolchildren can do advanced maths seems to be contradicted by the fact that over half can pass their Maths GCSEs, which require competence in similar levels of Maths.
     
    How can the poor kids be expected to understand anything about the concept of numbers as long as you silly Brits keep pluralizing singular nouns?

    It's math, for crying out loud!

    as long as you silly Brits keep pluralizing singular nouns

    In defense of the silly Brits one could point out that mathematics was originally a plural noun.

  271. @jilles dykstra
    Thilo Sarrazin, 'Deutschland schafft sich ab, Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen', München 2010
    argued, even before the mass immigration, how stupid immigrants destroy Germany.
    They get lots of children, intelligent German women none, or one or two.
    He also mentions that these days hardly anyone can read an intelligent article of a few pages.
    I suppose this is demonstrated through 'arguing' by copying web site adresses, where someone finds something that seems to support his or her point of view.
    The argument 'this is such and so because of so and so', something like that, is seldom seen any more.
    Assertions all over the place.
    The most stupid reproach is not having an own opinion, 'hiding behind books or authors'.
    These people think it is possible to grab an opinion out of thin air.
    It reminds me about a statement about the holocaust "we know a lot for which we have no proof".
    How on earth anyone can know anything for which there is no proof, beyond my imagination.

    “Intelligent womens’” intelligence doesn’t seem to help them out very much in working out that having (non-autistic) children becomes a lot more difficult after 30, as does finding a man when the best men are already married or less attracted to them.

    • Replies: @Toronto Russian

    “Intelligent womens’” intelligence doesn’t seem to help them out very much in working out that having (non-autistic) children becomes a lot more difficult after 30, as does finding a man when the best men are already married or less attracted to them.
     
    The nature of autism risk is not really known to science. Some say it's paternal age or just inheritance of "geek" traits.

    https://www.healthline.com/health-news/does-older-sperm-cause-autism

    With Holocaust denial and "Beethoven was black" already in this thread, I wonder if vaccines cause autism people are going to show up?

    The 30-year-old brides are marrying their boyfriends after being together for several years. Low divorce rate among the educated class can be explained by that - no unpleasant surprises after the wedding.
  272. The whole of the article

    Wacky science from five to six:

    - There is no linearity over the whole of the extend of IQ range as to levels of success.
    - Success is not intelligent design, but an evolutionary matter (longer, harder, hazard, network, capital …)
    - Societies are build on smart tools (bulldozers, smart-phones) that can be used without understanding them by ninety to hundred-thirty IQs alike.
    - There is a no strong correlation between IQ and capital. Capital primes as to success. Capital and how it is “produced” is not a high IQ matter, does not need individual achievement, is a dumb number game.
    - Societies built on IQ averages between 100 and 130 are not smart enough, the tools exceed the critters.
    - Societies built on IQ averages as above, select for achievement as above, weed out any outliers that might matter. Waisting talent is “economy”.
    - Average IQ does not matter, “middle class” IQ matters as to herding the average, and how to.
    - Level IQ individuals tend to select slightly brighter IQ individuals as leaders, accept leadership …as a single parameter only.
    - Being “smarter” outside of the in-group does not pay.
    The list is endless.
    The differences between societies, though real, consist of a multitude of correlations, variables that are as important. The differences between societies, though very real are secondary as to the planetary failing human experiment.

    Point made: average IQ might boost the number of higher IQ individuals, that is it. That is why Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California for the “wrong” party. Our elites do not select for IQ brides, IQ off-spring, talent (in the real sense) in collaborators, systemic revisionism and open experiments. And on.

    An average IQ of a hundred over the whole of the globe, would probably make matters worse than as is. The derivatives of higher average IQ societies are far more important then the short term gains. Metabolic overload probably.

    • Replies: @Epigon
    Would you rather have a society with mean of 95 and SD of 20 or a mean of 105 and SD of 10?
  273. @j2
    "For instance, about half of Americans are unable to correctly read a table and do a simple addition/subtraction calculation"

    This explains a lot. I made the simplest possible strong proofs for the Holocaust case with just addition and subtraction thinking anybody can understand and check them. I see now that it is not that the Holocaust believers maliciously pretended they do not understand the arguments. Apparently they just are incapable of doing even that level math. Sad.

    This explains a lot. I made the simplest possible strong proofs for the Holocaust case with just addition and subtraction thinking anybody can understand and check them. I see now that it is not that the Holocaust believers maliciously pretended they do not understand the arguments. Apparently they just are incapable of doing even that level math. Sad.

    The Holocaust has way, way more going for it as a plausible event then the laughably dumb lie of “mass rape” by the Red Army to the Nazi scum.

    The Holocaust 6 million figure is based on a sensible extrapolation of 100′s of thousands of witnesses, documented victims, named victims from family of survivors also at camps, personal possessions recovered after liberation…and so on

    The “mass rape” by the Red Army joke is extrapolated from……100 women listing “Russian” as ethnicity of father in Berlin ! This somehow then gets to 2 million rapes! With the added joke that not a single child at the time born 9-12 months after appears to have any features of anybody from the Soviet Union, wioth 1945 containing the higher proportion of Kavkaz and asiatics then any other year in the red army, for obvious reasons.

    Official Soviet records show a strict discipline on this type of behaviour and no more than 250 soldiers

    A very small number of “witnesses” of the “mass rapes” ……and most of them just paid German /NATzO scum

    • Replies: @j2
    "The Holocaust 6 million figure is based on a sensible extrapolation of 100′s of thousands of witnesses, documented victims, named victims from family of survivors also at camps, personal possessions recovered after liberation…and so on"

    Take a careful look at it yourself at some point, it is worth it, you'll be surprised. I suggest nothing else than check it yourself. I did.
  274. @m___
    The whole of the article

    Wacky science from five to six:

    - There is no linearity over the whole of the extend of IQ range as to levels of success.
    - Success is not intelligent design, but an evolutionary matter (longer, harder, hazard, network, capital ...)
    - Societies are build on smart tools (bulldozers, smart-phones) that can be used without understanding them by ninety to hundred-thirty IQs alike.
    - There is a no strong correlation between IQ and capital. Capital primes as to success. Capital and how it is "produced" is not a high IQ matter, does not need individual achievement, is a dumb number game.
    - Societies built on IQ averages between 100 and 130 are not smart enough, the tools exceed the critters.
    - Societies built on IQ averages as above, select for achievement as above, weed out any outliers that might matter. Waisting talent is "economy".
    - Average IQ does not matter, "middle class" IQ matters as to herding the average, and how to.
    - Level IQ individuals tend to select slightly brighter IQ individuals as leaders, accept leadership ...as a single parameter only.
    - Being "smarter" outside of the in-group does not pay.
    The list is endless.
    The differences between societies, though real, consist of a multitude of correlations, variables that are as important. The differences between societies, though very real are secondary as to the planetary failing human experiment.

    Point made: average IQ might boost the number of higher IQ individuals, that is it. That is why Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California for the "wrong" party. Our elites do not select for IQ brides, IQ off-spring, talent (in the real sense) in collaborators, systemic revisionism and open experiments. And on.

    An average IQ of a hundred over the whole of the globe, would probably make matters worse than as is. The derivatives of higher average IQ societies are far more important then the short term gains. Metabolic overload probably.

    Would you rather have a society with mean of 95 and SD of 20 or a mean of 105 and SD of 10?

    • Replies: @m___

    Would you rather have a society
     
    The first suggestion would do. Now the real question is, what matters, the mean or the next two SDs, in deciding who gets a say in policy making. We average apes decide on the frequency of our rulers indirectly, that should be conceded, but then, direct policy making by smarter individuals as ourselves seems to falter. A matter of absolute ignorance?
  275. @for-the-record
    I didn't work it out mathematically either (I was 12 when I came up with the solution). To say that

    there [are] an infinite number of circles around the S Pole on which one can travel 1 km W – or E – and end up in the same place.

    is correct as far as it goes, but it does not define which circles these are, because clearly most circles around the S Pole do not qualify (consider, for example, the circle with a circumference of 0.45 km).

    The "qualifying" circles are in fact those with diameters 1/integer: 1, 1/2, 1/3 . . . ad infinitum, hence the solution set will consist of circles one mile N of these "qualifying" circles, which corresponds to the mathematical solution given by Intelligent Dasein -- a countably infinite set of infinite spaces.

    Important correction:

    The “qualifying” circles are in fact those with circumferences 1/integer: 1, 1/2, 1/3 . . . ad infinitum, hence the solution set will consist of circles one mile N of these “qualifying” circles . . .

  276. @Gerard2

    This explains a lot. I made the simplest possible strong proofs for the Holocaust case with just addition and subtraction thinking anybody can understand and check them. I see now that it is not that the Holocaust believers maliciously pretended they do not understand the arguments. Apparently they just are incapable of doing even that level math. Sad.
     
    The Holocaust has way, way more going for it as a plausible event then the laughably dumb lie of "mass rape" by the Red Army to the Nazi scum.

    The Holocaust 6 million figure is based on a sensible extrapolation of 100's of thousands of witnesses, documented victims, named victims from family of survivors also at camps, personal possessions recovered after liberation...and so on

    The "mass rape" by the Red Army joke is extrapolated from......100 women listing "Russian" as ethnicity of father in Berlin ! This somehow then gets to 2 million rapes! With the added joke that not a single child at the time born 9-12 months after appears to have any features of anybody from the Soviet Union, wioth 1945 containing the higher proportion of Kavkaz and asiatics then any other year in the red army, for obvious reasons.

    Official Soviet records show a strict discipline on this type of behaviour and no more than 250 soldiers

    A very small number of "witnesses" of the "mass rapes" ......and most of them just paid German /NATzO scum

    “The Holocaust 6 million figure is based on a sensible extrapolation of 100′s of thousands of witnesses, documented victims, named victims from family of survivors also at camps, personal possessions recovered after liberation…and so on”

    Take a careful look at it yourself at some point, it is worth it, you’ll be surprised. I suggest nothing else than check it yourself. I did.

    • Replies: @jilles dykstra
    Lindbergh just after WWII visited Buchenwald.
    There was a crematorium for two corpses at the same time.
    Yet he accepted without any hesitation that 150.000 people were cremated there;
    The idea of making a simple calculation did apparently not enter his mind.
    Yet, I suppose, nobody sees or saw Lindbergh as stupid, he himself designed the flying fuel tank that took him over the ocean.
    I'm unable to copy here two pages from a book about the CO2 nonsense, on the left page the IPCC data, on the right page the same data on a vastly different scale, one then sees there is no global heating, just tiny fluctuations over a very long period.
    Homo sapiens, the words found out to see us as the top of evolution.
    Alas, homo sapiens is just a herd animal, critical thinking has no place in a herd.
    Any textbook politology explains that politicians hate intellectuals, they do not take at face value political fairy tales, that is, real intellectuals.
    The Dutch fools that rule us have decided that the Netherlands in, say 2030, should no longer use gas for heating, heat pumps are to save the planet.
    Alas, a calculation has been made, I neither saw it nor, of course, could do any check, that seems to show that these heat pumps use so much electricity that in future w'll need more gas, for producing electricity.
    That the plan is impossible, not just because of costs, but also technically, has been argued by many already.
  277. @Epigon
    1. North pole

    2. Any point 1+1/(n*pi) distance from South pole

    2. Any point 1+1/(n*pi) distance from South pole

    Only works for n that is even:

    2′. Any point 1+1/(2n*pi) distance from South pole

    • Replies: @Epigon
    I never wrote what n stands for :p n=2k, k ∈ N

    Just kidding. You are of course correct. The circumferences of the circles are 1, 1/2, 1/3...; but the radii are 1/2, 1/4...
    To tell you the truth, I was presented with this exact problem during a job application. Projecting the sphere onto a plane is what did the trick for me. To my amusement, other candidates commented on the test afterwards and singled out the simplicity of that problem: "the North pole, DUHH!"

    , @utu

    Any point 1+1/(2n*pi) distance from South pole
     
    What is this "1+" for? When Intelligent Dasein wrote it I thought it was a typo but now when you write it I begin to wonder if I do not get something?
    , @Cultural Imperialist
    So I'm starting to see a problem with all the South pole answers; they require inconsistent definitions of the compass directions.

    To go past the south pole while walking south you have to define "walking south" as something like - walking in a straight line in the direction that was south when I started walking.

    To go west making one or more loops you need to define "walking west" as going west as determined by gps (does that work there?) or by constantly recalibrating west based on dead reckoning with the south pole or something similar. Even though this will not feel like walking straight especially for the circuits of less than 1 km.

    Basically all the circle around the south pole answers require going by what feels right for north/south and by what we intellectually know is right, but feels wrong for west.

    Thus I have to answer the just North pole, though an argument could be made for the points on a circle 1km from the south pole under a definition of traveling according gps where I can get away with not moving from the south pole when I should be walking west.
  278. @NestorGoldman
    9 minutes of the ride was 26.6km/h and 6 minutes at 30.

    so how do you figure out the average?

    The average speed is not the average of the two speeds except if you ponder them by time, and not by distance as most people here have done (wich wrongly gives 28.3). But it’s really dumb to ponder by time when the time is already given to you. It would be different if you had the distance and speed and were looking for the time of each portion to compute the average speed

    So to answer the guy who said he correctly average the speeds, it’s doubtful, but it’s really not bright . It’s applying a formula to complicate a simple deduction you can do in 10 seconds if you think straight.

    The important amount of wrong answers in the comments thread has convinced me that maybe it’s true that people need a 120 IQ to understand elementary math like that .

    For those who were able to do that at 4yo, you realize how lonely you are in this world ….

    • Replies: @Vinh
    "For those who were able to do that at 4yo, you realize how lonely you are in this world …."

    Yes, of course. As everyone here knows, Bruno at four years old was a greater prodigy than Gauss. Shortly after his fourth birthday, he had already worked out Gauss's method of instantly summing integers from 1 to n. A day or so later, he was able to instantly sum a large number of even integers from 2 to whatever. He had read Euclid in the original Sumerian by the age of five and had quickly moved on to Teichmuller theory. When other boys asked for toys for their birthday, Bruno would request graduate texts on Riemann surfaces or harmonic analysis. As he approached the age of ten, he was completing his doctoral program at Jussieu. He has been working on a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis for some time and is said to be nearly finished.

    None of this is surprising for a boy with an IQ of 175+ who may be the greatest mathematician of all times.

    Coherent English, on the other hand, has always been beyond him. No matter; he's very young.

    So how old are you now, Bruno? Have you reached your teen years yet?

  279. A couple of Russian Skripal suspects have been named. They are assumed to have used pseudonyms, so only their pictures are certain.

    I think what it proves (though maybe not beyond reasonable doubt) is that Russia might have had a surveillance operation against Sergei Skripal. It’s impossible to know if such pairs of Russians often sniffed around Skripal, but that’s a possible explanation.

    Another possible explanation is that a false flag operation team struck at the exact moment a suspicious looking (though perfectly innocent) Russian couple arrived from Moscow.

    However, I think that with the suspects named, and I guess they are not outright lying (i.e. the two guys really did arrive from Moscow, really did leave the UK shortly afterwards, and really did visit Salisbury and were seen in the neighborhood where Skripal lived), some more serious explanations are needed from the skeptical community (i.e. us).

    Because, if two Russians were there at the exact time of the poisoning, then that’s quite a bit of a coincidence. For example it makes a number of explanations (e.g. a poisoning unrelated to Russia and not a deliberate false flag) unlikely.

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    The Russians are saying that the "names and photos" don't mean anything to them, but this would appear to be a bit disingenuous since, if these 2 people really did fly back to Moscow on the evening of March 4, surely the Russians would be in a position to identify them.
  280. Well, that was gratifying. I could do all those maths questions easily, which puts me in the top five percent of New Zealanders.

    Why am I not super-rich? If my auntie had not been good with money, I would today be the diametric opposite of rich.

    I am chronically forgetful and disorganized. If a test could be devised to measure that and it were incorporated into an IQ test, I suspect my score would fall off a cliff.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Stroop test is a decent measure of executive function.
  281. @for-the-record
    2. Any point 1+1/(n*pi) distance from South pole

    Only works for n that is even:

    2'. Any point 1+1/(2n*pi) distance from South pole

    I never wrote what n stands for :p n=2k, k ∈ N

    Just kidding. You are of course correct. The circumferences of the circles are 1, 1/2, 1/3…; but the radii are 1/2, 1/4…
    To tell you the truth, I was presented with this exact problem during a job application. Projecting the sphere onto a plane is what did the trick for me. To my amusement, other candidates commented on the test afterwards and singled out the simplicity of that problem: “the North pole, DUHH!”

  282. How do they score less than 25% in multiple choice? That’s statistically impossible, which means there must be some intelligence at work.

    Sure they’re not just trolling you?

  283. @utu

    due to reversion to the mean
     
    Whether regression or reversion to the mean people overestimate how it works in their imagination. Providing that mathematically the breeder's equation is valid it applies to expected values only. The 2nd generation has some distribution of non-zero SD which must provide a room for offspring to violate the regression or reversion to the mean. Otherwise the standard deviation of population would be shrinking from generation to generation. Mathematically it is a convolution of two Gaussian function. If you took subpopulation below the mean and observe it over many generations the subpopulation would remain stable with almost the same distribution below the mean with some spillage going above the mean.

    Now the genetic load is another crock of crap tautology that ToE is full of. It suppose to measure/predict the number of offsprings. It is possible that those who died on the ship if they were left in Africa would have had more offsprings than the survivors.

    Incontinent ToE babble. I know it is very seductive and hard to resist and it makes you sound so smart but pause sometimes for a minute and engage in some thinking. You don't want to end up being Karlinesque dilettante.

    I wanted to write regression to the mean, reversion to the mean is a different thing.

    It means that the selection effect will get smaller, because of the part of the variance which is random. On average, it will move the descendants of the selected dumb subgroup (here the slaves) towards the mean of the original group. It only works for one generation, and if the part of the variance unexplained by genetics (which is mostly random) is 0.4, than the effect of the difference between the slaves mean and the mean of the original group will get that much smaller.

    It’s quite simple why. The genetically determined IQ (GIQ) of those with a high IQ will be lower than their phenotypical IQ, and the GIQ of those with a very low IQ will be higher than their phenotypical IQ. Randomness works both ways, so for example those with an IQ of 130 will have people with a GIQ of 140 and 120 among them, but because those with a GIQ of 120 are much more numerous, there will be many more with a GIQ of 120 than with a GIQ of 140 among those with a phenotypical IQ of 130. So if you take a group of 130 IQ people, their GIQ will be lower (depending on the size of the random effect, i.e. the size of 1-h^2, or, in other words, on the size of h^2, where h^2 is the narrow sense heritability also used in the Breeder’s Equation), and so their children will have an average phenotypical IQ equal to the GIQ of their parents’ group. From that point on, no regression to the mean is going to happen.

    genetic load is another crock of crap tautology

    It’s not tautology. Higher IQ people have higher life expectancy, even adjusting for lifestyle and income. At least part of the explanation is genetic load. It’s not at all obvious from the outset that this would be so, some people created complicated theories around how the smartness causes the longer lifespans. (Which is still possible, but since now it’s known that genetic load is causing the dumbness of many dumb people, it’s quite likely that the genetic load is depressing not only IQs but also lifespans.)

    • Replies: @The Alarmist

    "Higher IQ people have higher life expectancy, even adjusting for lifestyle and income. At least part of the explanation is genetic load."
     
    The major part is natural selection. The fact that we in the West are engineering too much safety into our systems and processes is leading to a dumbing down of our native populations. The importation of third worlders is amplifying the effect.
    , @utu
    It's a tautology because it leads to identical conclusion for different environments. Let suppose a population has two traits X and Y that are not correlated. The environment A selects for high value of X and environment B for low value of X. In the end result you will end up with two different surviving subpopulations which will have the same statistics of the trait Y. Yes you when confronted with the case of environment A would argue that the statistics Y would get altered if the suited your goals. Then few days later you could argue the same for the environment B.

    Let consider a herd of sheep. The timid and risk averse stay inside the herd while the risk takers wonder around by themselves. When on the meadows the risk takers are more likely to be eaten by the wolves but when rounded up for the slaughterhouse are more likely to escape and survive and vice versa for the timid ones. Can we tell which ones are more intelligent? Timidity does not have to correlate with intelligence whatever it suppose to be for sheep.

    Somehow you let yourself to conclude that survivors of the slave ship will be more intelligent. Why do you make this conclusion? Because you want this conclusion and the lax framework of tautological just-so stories of the ToE is very tolerant of undisciplined thinking.

    We have no idea what traits if any were helpful in survival of the slave ship. This could have been totally random uncorrelated to any trait.
  284. @gcochran
    Something like 1/6th of Massachusetts ancestry goes back to Puritans.

    I don’t think that Puritans (or Anglians, wherever in England Puritans are from) have some magic genes that differentiate them from other northern Europeans. Rather, it’s a cultural emphasis on high education, industriousness, cunning, hard work, mutual aid, etc. Puritans set up the framework in New England and other northern Europeans such as Irish were able to adopt it, in general. And thus you have one of the wealthiest and most intelligent and educated societies in the world.

    Of course, that framework also included harsh dour moralism, and this has morphed from Calvinist extremism to Progressive extremism.

    • Replies: @gcochran
    I think there's not much cultural continuity.
  285. @for-the-record
    One – it’s the north pole, isn’t it?

    Finally, some one who has dared to respond!

    Responses can be graded into 4 levels of "intelligence" (0, 1, 2, 3, definitely not to be confused with the PISA levels). Currently you are at Level 1 -- the north pole works, but it represents an infinitesimal part of the solution set.

    For those too lazy to look up the original question:

    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?

     

    In decades (far too many!) of giving this exam, I have encountered one person of Level 3 intelligence.

    Any one here?

    True north or magnetic north?

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    True north or magnetic north?

    True north.

    Interesting question whether the answer works with the magnetic north and south poles, it probably depends on compass behavior in a perhaps nonobvious manner. Also of course the magnetic poles are not actually stationary, which might affect things -- if I remember correctly the magnetic poles are moving around 1 meter per hour.
  286. @reiner Tor
    I wanted to write regression to the mean, reversion to the mean is a different thing.

    It means that the selection effect will get smaller, because of the part of the variance which is random. On average, it will move the descendants of the selected dumb subgroup (here the slaves) towards the mean of the original group. It only works for one generation, and if the part of the variance unexplained by genetics (which is mostly random) is 0.4, than the effect of the difference between the slaves mean and the mean of the original group will get that much smaller.

    It's quite simple why. The genetically determined IQ (GIQ) of those with a high IQ will be lower than their phenotypical IQ, and the GIQ of those with a very low IQ will be higher than their phenotypical IQ. Randomness works both ways, so for example those with an IQ of 130 will have people with a GIQ of 140 and 120 among them, but because those with a GIQ of 120 are much more numerous, there will be many more with a GIQ of 120 than with a GIQ of 140 among those with a phenotypical IQ of 130. So if you take a group of 130 IQ people, their GIQ will be lower (depending on the size of the random effect, i.e. the size of 1-h^2, or, in other words, on the size of h^2, where h^2 is the narrow sense heritability also used in the Breeder's Equation), and so their children will have an average phenotypical IQ equal to the GIQ of their parents' group. From that point on, no regression to the mean is going to happen.

    genetic load is another crock of crap tautology
     
    It's not tautology. Higher IQ people have higher life expectancy, even adjusting for lifestyle and income. At least part of the explanation is genetic load. It's not at all obvious from the outset that this would be so, some people created complicated theories around how the smartness causes the longer lifespans. (Which is still possible, but since now it's known that genetic load is causing the dumbness of many dumb people, it's quite likely that the genetic load is depressing not only IQs but also lifespans.)

    “Higher IQ people have higher life expectancy, even adjusting for lifestyle and income. At least part of the explanation is genetic load.”

    The major part is natural selection. The fact that we in the West are engineering too much safety into our systems and processes is leading to a dumbing down of our native populations. The importation of third worlders is amplifying the effect.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Let's say "intelligence has a free-rider, trait T'. They're correlated 100 percent, so if one is selected then so is the other. Natural selection cannot distinguish between "intelligence" and trait T' because natural selection is not an agent (it does not have a mind to choose between the two coextensive traits), nor are there any laws of trait selection (laws can distinguish between counterfactuals). Since both options are false, natural selection cannot distinguish between coextensive traits. Therefore the claim that natural selection is a mechanism is not true. Natural selection does not explain trait fixation/speciation.
  287. @Epigon
    1. I am not a blogger, Epigon is the successor of Diadochi.

    2. How well did you do at national and international math competitions?

    3. I don't place much value in social sciences and research, statistics presented by them, especially when their conclusions directly contradict my personal experience.

    I was selected to be in the French team but didn’t go because I used to spend 2,5 months holidays in south Spain in my family house with friends .

    PhD in math have 1 chance in 10 000 to get a field medal.

    Chances for Harvard PhD – the highest in the USA – is below 7 out of all their PhD in maths delivered since 60 years (I would guess 1 in 150)

    Gold medalist (50 a year) have 1 chance in 100 (12 out of 1200 for last 24 years)

    Perfect scorers have 1 chance in 10 (8 out of around 80 for the last 24 years)

    So math Olympiad is the best high performance predictor there is for genius level activity. It’s the best reality advocate for any g theory because the math is absolutely not intensive in knowledge and require a lot of mental dexterity. That’s why it’s looked down by French math elite who prepare form Normale Sup very knowledge and proof intensive competition.

    Math Olympiad is like a truly 5sd math IQ test …

    • Replies: @Tyrion 2

    Math Olympiad is like a truly 5sd math IQ test …
     
    It sounds like a lot of work. I imagine the very smart people who do it must insist on getting a paid a lot for their labour.
  288. All those questions were trivially simple. I am distressed to see those low numbers, even in the East Asian countries. For myself, I’m 64, and won’t have to live too awfully long on Planet Dumbass. But my kids … for them I feel bad.

  289. @reiner Tor
    A couple of Russian Skripal suspects have been named. They are assumed to have used pseudonyms, so only their pictures are certain.

    I think what it proves (though maybe not beyond reasonable doubt) is that Russia might have had a surveillance operation against Sergei Skripal. It's impossible to know if such pairs of Russians often sniffed around Skripal, but that's a possible explanation.

    Another possible explanation is that a false flag operation team struck at the exact moment a suspicious looking (though perfectly innocent) Russian couple arrived from Moscow.

    However, I think that with the suspects named, and I guess they are not outright lying (i.e. the two guys really did arrive from Moscow, really did leave the UK shortly afterwards, and really did visit Salisbury and were seen in the neighborhood where Skripal lived), some more serious explanations are needed from the skeptical community (i.e. us).

    Because, if two Russians were there at the exact time of the poisoning, then that's quite a bit of a coincidence. For example it makes a number of explanations (e.g. a poisoning unrelated to Russia and not a deliberate false flag) unlikely.

    The Russians are saying that the “names and photos” don’t mean anything to them, but this would appear to be a bit disingenuous since, if these 2 people really did fly back to Moscow on the evening of March 4, surely the Russians would be in a position to identify them.

  290. @for-the-record
    Almost any child can, in theory, learn the necessary basics to a level to study subjects like engineering or undergraduate computer science course.

    I don't know what dream world you grew up in, but this is complete rubbish. There are plenty of people, even quite intelligent ones, who no matter how well they were educated could not successfully learn undergraduate engineering and/or computer science.

    There are some people with mental disabilities, that would prevent them.

    For almost anyone else, it is only lack of sufficient clear teaching of all stages, and a lack of personal motivation (desire), that prevent this basic level of maths knowledge.

    I.e. if a person is motivated to expend sufficient hours, and had access to the clear explanations and teaching of all stages, from the beginning – there is nothing to stop them (vast majority) from learning the maths required for entry to any main undergraduate course modules. It is lack of good teaching and personal desire.

    There is nothing that is not open and accessible in the tools which are used – it’s just the need to have been clearly taught and studied all the way.

    The subjects themselves are another issue (and these subjects can include difficult concepts and modules) – we are talking about the maths tools (outside the topic itself) required to reach the course.

    • Replies: @Dmitry

    we are talking about the maths tools (outside the topic itself) required to reach the course.
     
    This for computer science, engineering (and also topics like economics).
  291. @The Alarmist
    True north or magnetic north?

    True north or magnetic north?

    True north.

    Interesting question whether the answer works with the magnetic north and south poles, it probably depends on compass behavior in a perhaps nonobvious manner. Also of course the magnetic poles are not actually stationary, which might affect things — if I remember correctly the magnetic poles are moving around 1 meter per hour.

    • Replies: @The Alarmist
    It would not work with magnetic references, not so much because they move, rather because of the offset from the true reference.
  292. @22pp22
    Well, that was gratifying. I could do all those maths questions easily, which puts me in the top five percent of New Zealanders.

    Why am I not super-rich? If my auntie had not been good with money, I would today be the diametric opposite of rich.

    I am chronically forgetful and disorganized. If a test could be devised to measure that and it were incorporated into an IQ test, I suspect my score would fall off a cliff.

    Stroop test is a decent measure of executive function.

  293. @for-the-record
    Level 3!

    Wow. I must say I am far, far less intelligent than I thought I was. It took me at least two minutes to understand the solution. Kudos if you really get that on your own while being 12.

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    Kudos if you really get that on your own while being 12.

    Here's another one from age 12, albeit quite a bit easier: John has 2 girl friends, one on the North Side, the other on the South Side. Being totally impartial he lets "fate" decide which one to visit -- there are an equal number of northbound and southbound trains per hour, and arriving at the station at a totally random time he takes the first train to appear.

    The North Side girlfriend complains incessantly, however, that he does not visit her sufficiently often. Looking at his daily record, John sees that indeed 2/3 of the time he visits the South Side girlfriend. Is this an act of God showing favoritism, or is there a more earthly explanation?
    , @for-the-record
    Kudos if you really get that on your own while being 12.

    Alas, that was the apogee of my mental development.
  294. Some otherwise smart people spend way too much time and effort worrying about thinning the herd when the effort should be directed toward getting the herd travelling in the optimum direction. I worry a hell of lot more about what the conditions will be 5 years from now instead of 500.

  295. @Gerard2

    In per capita terms, China is as poor and unsuccessful, as Thailand, Algeria and Brazil. And yet, their reported average academic test scores are higher than those of many wealthy countries.
     
    If you look at the results in all the Olympiad competitions over the summer ( mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and so on)......then Russia did very , very , very well, (Ukraine did shit, of course). As for the Americans , ALL the winning contestants for their teams were either Chinese or Indian named. Particularly Chinese ( I'm sure not Japanese or Korean, but Chinese)

    Now, Indians are very clever in general but this dominance of Asians, I think is mainly down to "lock them in the room all day" driven parents. Numerous people in the west have experience of Orientals of average intelligence obtain high academic results.
    Russians who take part and do well in these events tend to be more strong-minded, independent-thinking people or "free spirits" ( let down by 1 POS who turns out to have been a Navalny hamster)

    Western Universities may now have become more plentiful with Chinese professors/lecturers but I think this is more driven by economics and availability, particularly with the so-called "lesser universities" now becoming more prestigious as more qualified people go to live in the UK and US

    In engineering the Chinese guys can understand and implement ad nauseum the mathematics behind the computer based methods in construction ( very simple but extensive and dull) , but could they come up with and have a firm grip on the classical "elastic" theory that underpins this and was the basis of engineering from the enlightenment period onwards?

    Or could they come up with and be comfortable with the more part empirical/part-theory ideas that are the bases for soil engineering.......I heavily doubt it in both cases.
    This is where the real fundamental understanding of engineering comes from....plus most of the creativity and intelligent thinking

    Incidentally, I think the most large example of racism is not towards blacks or jews.........but from aficionados of classical music towards Chinese/Japanese/Korean pianists and Musicians

    If you look at the results in all the Olympiad competitions over the summer ( mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and so on)……then Russia did very , very , very well, (Ukraine did shit, of course)

    Math Olympiad 2018:

    https://www.imo-official.org/results.aspx

    Ukraine 4th place, its best result ever. Last year it was 14th place.

    USA #1, Russia #2, China #3, Ukraine #4, Thailand #5, Taiwan #6, Korea #7, Singapore #8, Poland #9.

    :::::::

    Overall pattern of post-2014 winning for Ukraine.

    • Replies: @Gerard2

    Math Olympiad 2018:

    https://www.imo-official.org/results.aspx

    Ukraine 4th place, its best result ever. Last year it was 14th place.
     
    hahaha you dumb sack of faeces! I was talking about all the Olympiads together this summer ....Ukraine is nowhere

    As for this maths result that you probably spent hours looking up like the compulsive liar, Odessa-massacre denying insidious c*nt you are........ Ukraine got to use their exact same team from the previous year , dickhead, .....otherwise known as cheating or something not normally done. Russia's is an entirely different team from 2017.
    Of course Ukraine are going to have an advantage you prick. Student competitions aren't supposed to have the same team carried forward in the Olympiads.

    Overall pattern of post-2014 winning for Ukraine.
     
    Not only is this time-wasting bollocks that even Poroshenko, Avakov and all these other freaks won't propogate but ...

    Oh no, wait, I'm sorry......Measles...post-2014 Ukraine has shot to the top with a brilliant health policy headed by the crazi Banderatard Canadian Nazi bitch

    Now in Ukraine......28000 out of 41000 cases this year in Europe belong to Ukraine
    Mr Diphtheria and TB also going "well", not to mention the bribery in the healthcare ( and everywhere else) , quality of the treatment and hospitals. Perhaps Ukraines national "identity" involves equating Measles to getting a Rolex?

    "post 2014 " ukropia hasn't got close to 2013 levels in quality of living you prick.....and that in turn hasn't got used to 1990 levels you POS

    FDI not even at 2016 levels , nevermind 2014 levels ( with Russia still by a huge distance the number 1 FDI in Banderastan)....same thing with interest rates, mortgage rates, everything.....and about a zillion other things proving the ineptitude of Ukropia
  296. @Dmitry
    There are some people with mental disabilities, that would prevent them.

    For almost anyone else, it is only lack of sufficient clear teaching of all stages, and a lack of personal motivation (desire), that prevent this basic level of maths knowledge.

    I.e. if a person is motivated to expend sufficient hours, and had access to the clear explanations and teaching of all stages, from the beginning - there is nothing to stop them (vast majority) from learning the maths required for entry to any main undergraduate course modules. It is lack of good teaching and personal desire.

    There is nothing that is not open and accessible in the tools which are used - it's just the need to have been clearly taught and studied all the way.

    The subjects themselves are another issue (and these subjects can include difficult concepts and modules) - we are talking about the maths tools (outside the topic itself) required to reach the course.

    we are talking about the maths tools (outside the topic itself) required to reach the course.

    This for computer science, engineering (and also topics like economics).

    • Replies: @Lars Porsena
    I have heard there is a test they can give you that can determine whether you can learn computer programming in advance of any knowledge of the subject. Some programming teachers are aware of these tests and hate them because it suggests they can't actually make any difference with teaching - either you have the ability to learn computer programming or you don't.

    If I recall the test was all about interpreting syntax of code lines. You are not expected to know the correct syntax before you learn the code language, but what they were measuring was the consistency of your interpretation. If you interpreted syntax consistently you could learn to code, but if you interpreted syntax inconsistently the test predicted with very high accuracy that you couldn't learn no matter who taught you or how long and hard you studied.
  297. @Logan
    Correct. Except I would suggest that it's more accurate to refer to the native Guanches as Berbers rather than Moroccans, as the second term implies Arab/Muslim cultural and ethnic admixture that simply isn't relevant to the Canaries.

    Canary Island Spanish is the official form of Spanish in Cuba. It would be accurate to describe the Cuban whites as combination of Basque and Canary Islander-basically Atlantic Mediterranean and Canary Islander.

  298. OT: I’ve been measuring my reaction time weekly ever since 11/2017 when it was average for my age around 0.322, until 1/24/2018. I stopped recording weekly at that point, switching to monthly to avoid risks of retesting effect.

    At any rate: after about a year of healthier living incorporating exercise and meditation, it has dropped to 0.266, or slightly better than average for my age(and the same as college-aged adults).

    Since reaction time may be a proxy of neural speed and I’ve been spending more time on AK’s blog, this means that reading Russian Reaction will make you smarter.

  299. Anonymous[309] • Disclaimer says:
    @ussr andy
    no, strike that.

    you're still wrong though, there's nothing ambiguous about the question, but I lack the IQ points to tell you exactly why.


    they're asking for the average speed. speed is distance over time (v=s/t), so the average is presumably also over time because dimensions. what would the physical significance of average speed over distance be, anyway?

    I concede that I may be completely off base here. But let’s say the question was put this way:

    Helen rode her speedster 1000 miles in 1 hr. Then she rode her bike 1 mile in 1 hr. What was her average speed over the distance of 1001 miles?

    Is it 1) 500.5 m/h?

    Or 2) 999 m/h?

    It would seem to me that the latter makes sense if you appreciate the distance traveled. She traveled a 1000 miles in the first leg. (ie, 1000 m/h) Then she went just a mile in her second leg. (1 m/h)

    So she went 1000 m/h for 1000 miles. And then just 1 m/h for 1 mile. What’s the average? But average of “what”? If it’s the distance of 1001 miles, is it unreasonable to give additional weight for that 1000 miles vs. 1 mile traveled?

    However, if the question is posed as, “What was her average speed over 2 hrs”, then the answer is more unambiguously 1) 500.5 m/h.

    • Replies: @Bruno
    You have to ponderate by time not by distance .
    If you do 100 km at 100km per h and then 200km at 200km per hour, you average speed is 150km per hour and not (166 km per hour). If you had done 50 km at 200 km per hour, your average speed is 120 km per hour and not 133km per hour.

    If you are not able to logically see that the ponderation is by time and not by distance , you learn it by rote memory and once you applied it to many pbs, it becomes crystallized intelligence .

    And that allows you to know your logical limitation and avoid jumping to conclusion. Alas, this other thing is also an inherited trait, but I believe people can contrôle themselves to a certain degree
    , @Chet Bradley
    Total distance travelled was 1001 miles. Total time travelled was 2 hours. There is only one mathematically possible average speed over either total time or total distance.


    But if you start arbitrarily adding or subtracting chunks of time or distance that you don't like, then you can get any result you want. Just not the correct result.
  300. @dux.ie
    For most people (about 75% of the countries) competitive pressure reduces the performance. For example the OECD PISA also survey the competition level among the student, the percentage who wanted to be the best. The results,

    http://i63.tinypic.com/2v8fztg.jpg

    For most countries, the higher WantBestPct the worse the performance, except for about 25% who thrived with competitions.

    How did they assess the level of competitiveness? Self-report of attitudes or some objective measure like hours of prep – or how many of them arranged to have their rivals woken every hour during the night before the tests :-)

    • Replies: @dux.ie
    > How did they assess the level of competitiveness?

    Self reported wanted to be the best. May be initial exploratory by OECD, but it did show up significant trend though OECD did not elaborate much about it even the trend is clearer than motivation or anxiety levels. The Economist Mag just ignored it (do not fit their narrative, they just concentrated on test anxiety and rubbishing standard tests).

    From the OECD data, the Tunisians are serious about being the best. Plot of percent of students with MathOffSchoolTute greater than 4 hrs per week against WantBestPct,

    http://i63.tinypic.com/2zgatjo.png

    Except for Korea, the normal narrative about EastAsian spending too much time on tuitions is over-emphasized, they are just moderate. Even US and MX students had about the same amount of tutes compare to that for HK and TW.

  301. Prosperity is a function of intelligence and other things. If you look at raw intellectual capacity, various Asians are HUGELY superior to all others. The disproportion between small Asian populations and their overwhelming dominance at high-end universities and elite high schools, on tests like National Merit, are boggling. If memory serves, the 2016—I’m not going to check—Math Olympiad championship team of the US was all Asian. Is this success explainable by their IQ advantage? It would seem to indicate that they will shortly dwarf a cognitively comparatively dim European world. They are said to be genetically unable to innovate. True? They can sure engineer, as the Kirin 980 and Q-bit work suggests.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    That's a self-selecting minority, though. IIRC Igbo immigrants also do very well. Actual question of national significance will rely upon the ability of the larger population to coordinate in a healthy way. China still has a lot of problems, much which can't be solved by money.
    , @Anonymous
    Fred, just want to say you are my favorite writer here at Unz. You write with intelligence and wit.

    Please comment more on your own and other peoples articles.
    , @marpa
    Some recent genetic studies discovered that the alleles associated with IQ and cognitive ability are different from the alleles associated with creativity and artistic expression. It may be that Asians have superior alleles in the first category, but not so in the second.
  302. @for-the-record
    True north or magnetic north?

    True north.

    Interesting question whether the answer works with the magnetic north and south poles, it probably depends on compass behavior in a perhaps nonobvious manner. Also of course the magnetic poles are not actually stationary, which might affect things -- if I remember correctly the magnetic poles are moving around 1 meter per hour.

    It would not work with magnetic references, not so much because they move, rather because of the offset from the true reference.

  303. @Frederick V. Reed
    Prosperity is a function of intelligence and other things. If you look at raw intellectual capacity, various Asians are HUGELY superior to all others. The disproportion between small Asian populations and their overwhelming dominance at high-end universities and elite high schools, on tests like National Merit, are boggling. If memory serves, the 2016—I'm not going to check—Math Olympiad championship team of the US was all Asian. Is this success explainable by their IQ advantage? It would seem to indicate that they will shortly dwarf a cognitively comparatively dim European world. They are said to be genetically unable to innovate. True? They can sure engineer, as the Kirin 980 and Q-bit work suggests.

    That’s a self-selecting minority, though. IIRC Igbo immigrants also do very well. Actual question of national significance will rely upon the ability of the larger population to coordinate in a healthy way. China still has a lot of problems, much which can’t be solved by money.

  304. the IQ of the british diaspora is high because it imports smart people from all over the world , otherwise their real IQ is probably in the high 80′s like the southern US he he.

    • Troll: Daniel Chieh
    • Replies: @Anonymous
    Obviously an Indian.

    Easy to spot Indian trolls with an IQ of 82.
    , @Wizard of Oz
    Do you know what "diaspora" means? Apparently not.
    , @DFH
    Bottom of the barrel anti-Angloism
  305. @szopen
    Wow. I must say I am far, far less intelligent than I thought I was. It took me at least two minutes to understand the solution. Kudos if you really get that on your own while being 12.

    Kudos if you really get that on your own while being 12.

    Here’s another one from age 12, albeit quite a bit easier: John has 2 girl friends, one on the North Side, the other on the South Side. Being totally impartial he lets “fate” decide which one to visit — there are an equal number of northbound and southbound trains per hour, and arriving at the station at a totally random time he takes the first train to appear.

    The North Side girlfriend complains incessantly, however, that he does not visit her sufficiently often. Looking at his daily record, John sees that indeed 2/3 of the time he visits the South Side girlfriend. Is this an act of God showing favoritism, or is there a more earthly explanation?

    • Replies: @Epigon
    He arrives in random time, but the trains don't - my guess.
    2 trains per hour in each direction.
    Northbound arrive at :00 and :30
    Southbound arrive at :20 and :50

    So he takes the northbound train if he arrives any time between :20 and 0:30 and :50 and :00, but takes southbound train if he arrives from :00 to :20 or :30 to :50 at the station.
    This might be wrong because I didn't take the roundtrip/whole cycle duration into account.

  306. @Dmitry
    Conclusion of the article about "O-ring theory" in development economics, is interesting - I have not heard this before.

    But there is a problem in using PISA "maths" test.

    If you download the sample papers, PISA "maths" test with no maths. It's more a kind of idle puzzle collection.

    -

    I respect OECD's economics knowledge, and general ideology.

    One of the problems of OECD's approach, is trying to test children at 16, which is when real education is only beginning.

    To find comparative gaps in education systems was the purpose of OECD , with the aim of giving recommendations to countries in areas where they need to "catch up" academically.

    For OECD, it was impossible to test any substantial knowledge of children, as different countries have different syllabuses for this age-group.

    So OECD presumably hired some educational psychologists to create these puzzle questions which they believe to be transnationally valid.

    As a result, a large part of what you are measuring is how children, in various countries, can decode confusing questions designed by the OECD to be transnational.

    It's functioning partly as a test of children's (or their educational systems') level of conformity to OECD's transnational organizational culture.

    In this sense, it's quite useful for seeing which countries' youth are "onboard" with their agenda.

    -

    Aside from this particular topic, I would advocate skepticism that testing youth at 16 in general, is going to demonstrate level of the adults in the society.

    People are maturing at different speeds, and I would hypothesize plenty of cases of stupider kids maturing faster than kids with higher potential.

    The correct age for testing should be 21 or 22, when people are academically mature.

    Your point about maturation ages as you state it is irrelevant unless you think there could be group differences of the kind you attribute to individuals.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    Of course, many relevant aspects of maturation ages.

    In some school systems, children are accustomed to taking tests at earlier or later ages, and in some there is no test-taking culture at all.

    Between countries, the syllabuses themselves, children are often at very different stages.

    Also many psychological traits mature earlier or later (girls on average maturing, in some aspects, earlier than boys).

    We can add common stereotypes as well: such as how highest potential children are usually maturing later, while more superficial children ones are maturing earlier.
  307. @Frederick V. Reed
    Prosperity is a function of intelligence and other things. If you look at raw intellectual capacity, various Asians are HUGELY superior to all others. The disproportion between small Asian populations and their overwhelming dominance at high-end universities and elite high schools, on tests like National Merit, are boggling. If memory serves, the 2016—I'm not going to check—Math Olympiad championship team of the US was all Asian. Is this success explainable by their IQ advantage? It would seem to indicate that they will shortly dwarf a cognitively comparatively dim European world. They are said to be genetically unable to innovate. True? They can sure engineer, as the Kirin 980 and Q-bit work suggests.

    Fred, just want to say you are my favorite writer here at Unz. You write with intelligence and wit.

    Please comment more on your own and other peoples articles.

  308. Very good post, very mixed quality comments.

    I have little time this morning so I’ll just assert my conclusions not prove them (credentials: MathPhD and consultant and teacher, 2400 GRE).

    1) You can come up with as many excuses as you like about why groups do badly on a test but the correlation with real world success shows that you are merely explaining away, not explaining. Particularly pathetic are the comments criticizing the test questions for extraneous information, when ability to identify which information is relevant is a big part of what the test wants to measure.
    2) The people voting for Trump being less smart doesn’t mean it was a stupid decision, more likely is that they correctly perceived that his policies would be better for non-smart people like themselves than Hillary’s would have been. You don’t have to be smart to figure that out.
    3) Performance on all tests can be improved by study and practice, and it is possible to do this for IQ tests too, but that’s because enough of the right kind of study and practice actually makes you smarter.
    4) Adult IQ is much more stable and reliably measurable than childhood and teenage IQ because educational systems vary widely even though most people eventually attain a personally suitable educational level.
    5) No, most people cannot learn high school math sufficient to prepare for college work. Multiply the grade by 10 to get the IQ level needed to master it: 90 for basic algebra, 100 for geometry, 110 for algebra 2 and trigonometry, 120 for Calculus (AP BC exam “5″ level). Subtract 10 points from that, which was about “mastery”, to get the level needed to get a passing grade with lots of effort and tutoring. Of course that’s a very rough guide because verbal and mathematical components of IQ can diverge substantially.
    6) Being a good judge of the cognitive level of people you converse with is a very useful skill, if you pitch what you say correctly you make them feel smart rather than dumb or resentful (go for the highest level they can handle without slowing down the conversation if they pay 100% attention).

    • Agree: Anatoly Karlin
    • Replies: @Dmitry

    pathetic are the comments criticizing the test questions for extraneous information
     
    Again - multiplication is quite a universally accessible skill (we should expect children in all countries to have no problems from about age 10).

    For crosscountry comparison, a test of multiplication would be suitable (although at a younger age).

    However, this test format is more measuring people's ability to decode the intentions of the question-designer, and is introducing high levels of irrelevant information. There's no intelligence required to answer the questions beyond 10 year old's level of arithmetic, but there is some skill to ignore how confusingly written the questions are.

    So decoding these intentions, and filtering the distractions, is a skill in itself? Sure. But it's a cultural dependent one, and will vary on your exposure to tests like this one, and your cultural similarity to the person who wrote the questions.

    In some educational systems, children will be accustomed to well-designed questions, where all the information is relevant. In others, they will be accustomed to ones with useless noise, that has to be filtered.

    Differences between national scores, will now largely reflect their habituation to this style of question, rather than the actual skills (which for some reason, are far more basic than suitable for their age-level).

    In Russian exams (since around 2010), this style of question is now common in some of the exam, although without the same amount of noise. So now in Russia, the scores in the PISA will inevitably start to increase, as there is convergence in exam format. Is this an indication that the children are better at maths? No - it's just a sign of acculturation to an American exam format. And the OECD itself will not view it differently, except with the additional belief that this is the correct pedagogy.

    In reality, maths exams in school have been in complete degradation for the last twenty years (yet Russian scores in PISA will continue to improve). It's an example where skill level of children is decreasing, as their PISA scores will increase.

    , @Anon
    Could you get answers for all 6 items?
    lol
  309. @britishbrainsize1325ccsnicker
    the IQ of the british diaspora is high because it imports smart people from all over the world , otherwise their real IQ is probably in the high 80's like the southern US he he.

    Obviously an Indian.

    Easy to spot Indian trolls with an IQ of 82.

  310. @Anonymous
    I concede that I may be completely off base here. But let's say the question was put this way:

    Helen rode her speedster 1000 miles in 1 hr. Then she rode her bike 1 mile in 1 hr. What was her average speed over the distance of 1001 miles?

    Is it 1) 500.5 m/h?

    Or 2) 999 m/h?

    It would seem to me that the latter makes sense if you appreciate the distance traveled. She traveled a 1000 miles in the first leg. (ie, 1000 m/h) Then she went just a mile in her second leg. (1 m/h)

    So she went 1000 m/h for 1000 miles. And then just 1 m/h for 1 mile. What's the average? But average of "what"? If it's the distance of 1001 miles, is it unreasonable to give additional weight for that 1000 miles vs. 1 mile traveled?

    However, if the question is posed as, "What was her average speed over 2 hrs", then the answer is more unambiguously 1) 500.5 m/h.

    You have to ponderate by time not by distance .
    If you do 100 km at 100km per h and then 200km at 200km per hour, you average speed is 150km per hour and not (166 km per hour). If you had done 50 km at 200 km per hour, your average speed is 120 km per hour and not 133km per hour.

    If you are not able to logically see that the ponderation is by time and not by distance , you learn it by rote memory and once you applied it to many pbs, it becomes crystallized intelligence .

    And that allows you to know your logical limitation and avoid jumping to conclusion. Alas, this other thing is also an inherited trait, but I believe people can contrôle themselves to a certain degree

    • Replies: @Bruno
    Or here an easier example :

    If you drive 80km at 120 km/h and then back at 80km/h,
    If you erroneously pondered by distance it would be 100kmh when the real figure is 96km/h. Because you’ve done 160 km in 40+60 minutes, or 1.6 km a minute, that’s 96km per hour !

    Now that should be easy ....
  311. @for-the-record
    Kudos if you really get that on your own while being 12.

    Here's another one from age 12, albeit quite a bit easier: John has 2 girl friends, one on the North Side, the other on the South Side. Being totally impartial he lets "fate" decide which one to visit -- there are an equal number of northbound and southbound trains per hour, and arriving at the station at a totally random time he takes the first train to appear.

    The North Side girlfriend complains incessantly, however, that he does not visit her sufficiently often. Looking at his daily record, John sees that indeed 2/3 of the time he visits the South Side girlfriend. Is this an act of God showing favoritism, or is there a more earthly explanation?

    He arrives in random time, but the trains don’t – my guess.
    2 trains per hour in each direction.
    Northbound arrive at :00 and :30
    Southbound arrive at :20 and :50

    So he takes the northbound train if he arrives any time between :20 and 0:30 and :50 and :00, but takes southbound train if he arrives from :00 to :20 or :30 to :50 at the station.
    This might be wrong because I didn’t take the roundtrip/whole cycle duration into account.

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    He arrives in random time, but the trains don’t – my guess.

    Precisely. Another example would be 4 trains per hour, northbound at 00, 15, 30, 45 and southbound at 05, 20, 35, 50.

    [don't think that "round trip/whole cycle duration" plays any role]
  312. @ussr andy
    no, strike that.

    you're still wrong though, there's nothing ambiguous about the question, but I lack the IQ points to tell you exactly why.


    they're asking for the average speed. speed is distance over time (v=s/t), so the average is presumably also over time because dimensions. what would the physical significance of average speed over distance be, anyway?

    they’re asking for the average speed

    Speed is already the average distance over time, so asking for “average speed” makes no sense.

    (Only slightly trolling here.)

    • Replies: @Lars Porsena
    No.

    To give an example, the speed of a bullet in the split second that it leaves the 4" barrel of a .357 magnum revolver is apx. 1100 miles per hour. However the bullet will not go 1100 miles nor will it travel an hour. Nor does it speed remain consistent, it slows down constantly after leaving the barrel. It's not an averaged speed over any length the bullet will travel, it's an initial speed at the moment it leaves the barrel.

    Exactly speaking speed is not an average distance over time it is measured as a precise distance per time. It is a quality that exists even in a (hypothetical) still frame of infinitesimal time and perfectly still and not going anywhere. It is a measurement of kinetic energy.

    It can also be measured as something like ft-lbs/gram.

  313. @Felix Keverich

    Robin Hanson once wrote a blog post about how reasonably intelligent people (for instance, the sort of people who read his blog) tend to overestimate how smart everyone else is.
     
    I for one never make this mistake! For example, I knew that blocking Telegram was going to stifle its user growth in Russia, because most people are too dumb and too lazy to figure out how to use VPN.

    In my observation people who overstimate intelligence in others are themselves somewhat limited in their mental capacity - think of a typical college-educated Western liberal, who is reasonably "smart", and thinks that African immigrants are smart people just like him.

    It takes a special kind of intelligence to see limitations in others, and some people are even smart enough to aknowledge their own limitations.


    Because in Brazil, only a tiny fraction of high school students can do anything much more complex than a simple, single-step arithmetic operation.
     
    That's an interesting finding and a bit unexpected, because Brazil has a substantial white population, who enjoy access to superior schooling. This massive gap in performance cannot be explained solely by race.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more "diverse"? I questioned America's ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.

    I have to remind people all the time how truly and horrifyingly stupid most people are. My interaction with anyone with an IQ lower than ~115 is 100% superficial: the gas station attendant, waitress, etc. I like to say the best random sample of people you can find is the DMV. Everyone has to go, can’t get their assistants to do it. Do you want to be ruled by the folks around you at the DMV? Democracy – even though we haven’t had it for some time – is so stupid.

    • Replies: @Anon
    Gas stations haven’t had attendants for the last 40 years. If you pay with cash you have to give it to a cashier but most people nowadays use debit or credit cards because it’s much faster.

    Have you no neighbors friends or relatives? Don’t belong to any clubs or churches? Never get medical treatment? No need for a tax accountant or attorney?
  314. @Saxon
    It's a separate issue to that. When it comes to small things like that they will act very much like native English. Japanese in particular will. Social experiments involving honesty sussed that out. What's happening is this sort of extremely stratified system that existed before is re-emerging but with this big corporations and their owners on top instead of kings with opulent wealth and crushingly dirt poor peasants. Yes, people in Japan and South Korea are a lot more honest than say China, but that is a separate issue from whether they're recreating the same general type of system that existed before. Which they seem to be.

    To an extent this is also happening in western countries but it's mostly the result of subversive alien elements pushing propaganda about "free trade" which has been universally disastrous for anyone but a few who directly benefit and are essentially stripmining these countries.

    To an extent this is also happening in western countries but it’s mostly the result of subversive alien elements pushing propaganda about “free trade”

    Scotts and Anglo-Saxons?

    • Replies: @Saxon
    Not so sure there are many Scottish or English people with names that end with -berg, or -stein suffixes, and are the ones who created this nonsense propaganda. I'm sure there are some actual people who benefit from it financially who aren't alien elements, though. You see for example the beneficiaries of imported scab labor--virtual slave labor really--who pass the costs off onto the taxpayer, continuing to argue for more of that rather than just paying a bit more for labor.
    , @notanon
    the form of "free trade" promoted by "scots and anglo-saxons" in the past wasn't free trade it was mercantilism - forcing other countries to buy their goods.

    the form of "free trade" the banking mafia promote isn't free trade either - it's using other countries as a base to leech the accumulated wealth of the western world into the pockets of the banking mafia.

    mass consumption economic ideology is almost always self-serving lies.
  315. According to the people who develop and administer IQ tests, such tests do not measure some objective thing called “intelligence”. They measure adaptation to the society in which you live. Thus, use of IQs to claim that this or that ethnic group is more intelligent than another is pseudo-science. Thus, if you administer an American-designed IQ test to the whole planet, Americans will naturally score higher and, since the people who design such tests are, by definition, well-educated, middle class people, their idea of what constitutes “adaptation” will reflect the values of educated, middle class people in that society. Such people will tend to score higher than people from other backgrounds. In addition, the figure of 100 is an average. Amusingly, all this information comes from an article some years ago on a site which peddles white supremacy. The author (foolishly!) linked us to the raw data, where the scientists who had conducted the tests provided the above expalnation by way of caveat. That site has never since repeated the mistake of linking its readers to raw data!

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    If the claim "IQ tests test intelligence" is true, then there must be construct validity for IQ. Construct validity for IQ does not exist. Therefore the claim "IQ tests test intelligence" is false.

    P1) IQ tests are experience-dependent.
    P2) IQ tests are experience-dependent because some social classes are more exposed to the knowledge and structure of the tests by virtue of their being born in a certain social class.
    P3) Since IQ tests are experience-dependent, then how an individual scores on a given test is predicated on his exposure to the middle-class knowledge structure
    C) So if IQ tests are experience-dependent because some social classes are more exposed to the knowledge and structure of the tests, then IQ tests test distance from the middle class and it's knowledge structure, not "intelligence"; "IQ test scores" are really "middle-class scores."
    , @marpa
    And yet American-designed IQ tests produce higher scores for many Asian cultures that are completely foreign to America. How can that be?
  316. @j2
    "The Holocaust 6 million figure is based on a sensible extrapolation of 100′s of thousands of witnesses, documented victims, named victims from family of survivors also at camps, personal possessions recovered after liberation…and so on"

    Take a careful look at it yourself at some point, it is worth it, you'll be surprised. I suggest nothing else than check it yourself. I did.

    Lindbergh just after WWII visited Buchenwald.
    There was a crematorium for two corpses at the same time.
    Yet he accepted without any hesitation that 150.000 people were cremated there;
    The idea of making a simple calculation did apparently not enter his mind.
    Yet, I suppose, nobody sees or saw Lindbergh as stupid, he himself designed the flying fuel tank that took him over the ocean.
    I’m unable to copy here two pages from a book about the CO2 nonsense, on the left page the IPCC data, on the right page the same data on a vastly different scale, one then sees there is no global heating, just tiny fluctuations over a very long period.
    Homo sapiens, the words found out to see us as the top of evolution.
    Alas, homo sapiens is just a herd animal, critical thinking has no place in a herd.
    Any textbook politology explains that politicians hate intellectuals, they do not take at face value political fairy tales, that is, real intellectuals.
    The Dutch fools that rule us have decided that the Netherlands in, say 2030, should no longer use gas for heating, heat pumps are to save the planet.
    Alas, a calculation has been made, I neither saw it nor, of course, could do any check, that seems to show that these heat pumps use so much electricity that in future w’ll need more gas, for producing electricity.
    That the plan is impossible, not just because of costs, but also technically, has been argued by many already.

  317. @britishbrainsize1325ccsnicker
    the IQ of the british diaspora is high because it imports smart people from all over the world , otherwise their real IQ is probably in the high 80's like the southern US he he.

    Do you know what “diaspora” means? Apparently not.

    • Replies: @britishbrainsize1325cclol
    I will tell you what it means petaing to the british if you ask me poiltely
  318. @Epigon
    He arrives in random time, but the trains don't - my guess.
    2 trains per hour in each direction.
    Northbound arrive at :00 and :30
    Southbound arrive at :20 and :50

    So he takes the northbound train if he arrives any time between :20 and 0:30 and :50 and :00, but takes southbound train if he arrives from :00 to :20 or :30 to :50 at the station.
    This might be wrong because I didn't take the roundtrip/whole cycle duration into account.

    He arrives in random time, but the trains don’t – my guess.

    Precisely. Another example would be 4 trains per hour, northbound at 00, 15, 30, 45 and southbound at 05, 20, 35, 50.

    [don't think that "round trip/whole cycle duration" plays any role]

  319. @anonymous coward

    economic success
     
    There's no such thing as "economic success".

    Or, rather, there is no single valid metric of "success" in this space.

    Consider Equatorial Guinea, an "economically successful" country with a GDP (PPP per capita) comparable to the Czech Republic. Yet it is still a classic African shithole, with literal cannibals roaming the streets.

    Consider again the Ukraine, which is a Somalia-tier failed state, with a failed economy to match it. Yet it is full of SWPL white people who drink craft beer, enjoy boutique board games and walk alone at night.

    This sounds very convincing, but have you been to both or either country ?

    • Replies: @anonymous coward
    I've been to Ukraine, of course.

    Haven't been to Equatorial Guinea and will never go there. I guess I'll have to live with second-hand accounts of African life, that's one sacrifice I'm willing to make, lol.
  320. @britishbrainsize1325ccsnicker
    the IQ of the british diaspora is high because it imports smart people from all over the world , otherwise their real IQ is probably in the high 80's like the southern US he he.

    Bottom of the barrel anti-Angloism

  321. @anonymous coward

    they’re asking for the average speed
     
    Speed is already the average distance over time, so asking for "average speed" makes no sense.

    (Only slightly trolling here.)

    No.

    To give an example, the speed of a bullet in the split second that it leaves the 4″ barrel of a .357 magnum revolver is apx. 1100 miles per hour. However the bullet will not go 1100 miles nor will it travel an hour. Nor does it speed remain consistent, it slows down constantly after leaving the barrel. It’s not an averaged speed over any length the bullet will travel, it’s an initial speed at the moment it leaves the barrel.

    Exactly speaking speed is not an average distance over time it is measured as a precise distance per time. It is a quality that exists even in a (hypothetical) still frame of infinitesimal time and perfectly still and not going anywhere. It is a measurement of kinetic energy.

    It can also be measured as something like ft-lbs/gram.

    • Replies: @anonymous coward
    It was a joke, you silly man. The punchline was a hypothetical imagining of speed as a probability-theoretical construct instead of being framed in calculus terms.
    , @marpa
    Nonetheless, average speed is a very important thing to know precisely in the example you give. Knowing the average speed of a bullet fired at a distance of 1 km is essential in aiming a gun at a moving target, or in calculating how much the bullet will "fall" during its flight. One must know that average speed to accurately hit that target. I would imagine snipers would memorize such tables if they wish to have any success.
  322. @AKAHorace
    This sounds very convincing, but have you been to both or either country ?

    I’ve been to Ukraine, of course.

    Haven’t been to Equatorial Guinea and will never go there. I guess I’ll have to live with second-hand accounts of African life, that’s one sacrifice I’m willing to make, lol.

  323. @Bruno
    You have to ponderate by time not by distance .
    If you do 100 km at 100km per h and then 200km at 200km per hour, you average speed is 150km per hour and not (166 km per hour). If you had done 50 km at 200 km per hour, your average speed is 120 km per hour and not 133km per hour.

    If you are not able to logically see that the ponderation is by time and not by distance , you learn it by rote memory and once you applied it to many pbs, it becomes crystallized intelligence .

    And that allows you to know your logical limitation and avoid jumping to conclusion. Alas, this other thing is also an inherited trait, but I believe people can contrôle themselves to a certain degree

    Or here an easier example :

    If you drive 80km at 120 km/h and then back at 80km/h,
    If you erroneously pondered by distance it would be 100kmh when the real figure is 96km/h. Because you’ve done 160 km in 40+60 minutes, or 1.6 km a minute, that’s 96km per hour !

    Now that should be easy ….

    • Replies: @Anonymous
    Thanks. This example was helpful.

    I can see it from both points of view and I was wondering why. Why the intuitive pull to give weight to distance? I think I was conflating "average" with "expected mean" and overcomplicating.

    I'm not sure if this means I'm low IQ or math retarded.
  324. @Lars Porsena
    No.

    To give an example, the speed of a bullet in the split second that it leaves the 4" barrel of a .357 magnum revolver is apx. 1100 miles per hour. However the bullet will not go 1100 miles nor will it travel an hour. Nor does it speed remain consistent, it slows down constantly after leaving the barrel. It's not an averaged speed over any length the bullet will travel, it's an initial speed at the moment it leaves the barrel.

    Exactly speaking speed is not an average distance over time it is measured as a precise distance per time. It is a quality that exists even in a (hypothetical) still frame of infinitesimal time and perfectly still and not going anywhere. It is a measurement of kinetic energy.

    It can also be measured as something like ft-lbs/gram.

    It was a joke, you silly man. The punchline was a hypothetical imagining of speed as a probability-theoretical construct instead of being framed in calculus terms.

  325. @Wizard of Oz
    Your point about maturation ages as you state it is irrelevant unless you think there could be group differences of the kind you attribute to individuals.

    Of course, many relevant aspects of maturation ages.

    In some school systems, children are accustomed to taking tests at earlier or later ages, and in some there is no test-taking culture at all.

    Between countries, the syllabuses themselves, children are often at very different stages.

    Also many psychological traits mature earlier or later (girls on average maturing, in some aspects, earlier than boys).

    We can add common stereotypes as well: such as how highest potential children are usually maturing later, while more superficial children ones are maturing earlier.

  326. @Dmitry

    we are talking about the maths tools (outside the topic itself) required to reach the course.
     
    This for computer science, engineering (and also topics like economics).

    I have heard there is a test they can give you that can determine whether you can learn computer programming in advance of any knowledge of the subject. Some programming teachers are aware of these tests and hate them because it suggests they can’t actually make any difference with teaching – either you have the ability to learn computer programming or you don’t.

    If I recall the test was all about interpreting syntax of code lines. You are not expected to know the correct syntax before you learn the code language, but what they were measuring was the consistency of your interpretation. If you interpreted syntax consistently you could learn to code, but if you interpreted syntax inconsistently the test predicted with very high accuracy that you couldn’t learn no matter who taught you or how long and hard you studied.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    In computer science, it's just needed to do your best studying all relevant maths courses in a standard way (can vary in module and university) - real analysis, linear algebra, discrete maths, probability theory, logic, etc. And then afterwards, you won't get completely lost and confused by the topics.

    But you don't need to be a genius, or Cynthia Rudin - and you can a lot of the time use methods without understanding the theorems, or their proofs, underlying them (mathematical basis is a lot of the time not understood by people implementing them).

    For example, datascientists are implementing often SVM algorithms for text classification. But how many of them know their way around functional analysis and Hilbert spaces, which underlies it?

    , @Peter Lund
    It was later retracted.

    https://retractionwatch.com/2014/07/18/the-camel-doesnt-have-two-humps-programming-aptitude-test-canned-for-overzealous-conclusion/

    The retraction was probably overzealous: it retracted too much. And people reacted to that by believing the unscientific things they wanted to believe: there is no innate intelligence, everybody can be taught, we need better teachers, we get better teachers by having them go to school for longer, etc.
  327. All the talk of standardized testing reminded me of this. Here is a fun puzzle that usually sends most people screaming for the hills.

    http://faculty.uml.edu/jpropp/srat-Q.txt

  328. @Anonymous
    India has an IQ of 82 not 92 lol. That is a huge difference as much of India is dumber than Africans. To many Dravidians who look like Aboriginals and have the IQ to match.

    Your point is wrong anyway. In the future it is more important to have a high floor than a high ceiling precisely because of automation.

    India will never overcome its low IQ fraction because it makes up the majority of the populous. So no matter how smart its 0.0001% are, those IQ points will likely go towards helping the West and not India.

    If you are a moderate IQ country with few low IQ people like Indians, you don't really need geniuses. You can just follow the economies and ideas of smarter people and nations and be good.

    This is what Chile is like and it is a much better country to live in that India.

    I read somewhere dravidian southern India is much smarter than so called aryan northern india and is more developed and a lot less corrupt so maybe the 82IQ people are from the north , also a lot of silicon valley engineers are from the south of india.

  329. @AaronB
    The problem with the True Believers is that they believe in "doing" - thus they become like the Evil Ones in their pursuit of refashioning the world. We become what we fight - we must. There is a reason the alt-right is busy studying and implementing all the strategies if the Left.

    If they just understood that everything is OK, they'd relax, and be merrier.

    I always thought that the true genius in Tolkien’s work was not the amazing world he crafted with its array of characters and various mythical beings, but the final scene in which the humble Hobbit has finally achieved the summit of the tremendous task he set out to do and then finally succumbs to the power of the ring.

    “The ring is mine.” – Frodo

    Peace.

    • Replies: @reiner Tor
    He got the idea of the curse of the Ring from Wagner, though.
    , @AaronB
    Its the classic tale of not fighting evil using its own methods - one does not use the power of the ring, one does not fight power with power, one opposes power with humility, with weakness.

    That's the only meaningful victory because fighting power with power means becoming another version of your enemy.

    This insight was well understood in all traditional cultures.

    That's what's so disappointing about China - it chose to use the ring, despite more than anyone else, knowing better. Today, it's impossible not to notice how China is becoming just like the worst aspects of America.

    Jews have so much power these days because so many of them devote their entire lives to simply making money by any means possible (that's why they can staff the NYT with Jewish mediocrities. Money comes first). It's as if white people were to fight this by devoting all their lives to making money. They'd surely wrest power from Jews, having far more intelligent people, but they'd have to have the same policies (globalism, insecurity of work, etc) because those policies make the rich richer.

    This is why traditional cultures saw contemplation as higher than action - and non-interference as the highest principle. America is already declining from its own insanity and internal contradictions - it never had to be fought or opposed, certainly not at the cost of ones own culture. It needed to be sidestepped, and waited out. Jews are losing their vitality and need to prove themselves quite without any one opposing them. And the Left is reaching unsustainable levels of insanity, internal division, rancor, backbiting, and is heading towards an implosion.
  330. What’s up with Israel at Level 6 only 2%?
    How does this square with the oft comment about Jewish high IQ?

    • Replies: @Triumph104
    Ashkenazi Jews have high IQs. Only 45% of Israel's population is Ashkenazi. The country of Israel is 75% Jewish, 20% Arab, and 4% other. Ashkenazis make up 60% of Jews in the country or 45% of total population. It should also be noted that 15% of Jews in Israel are Ultra-Orthodox, many of whom are poorly educated in secular subjects.


    The Level 6 scores in English-speaking countries are due primarily to Asians. The US population is 5% Asian, United Kingdom 7%, Australia and New Zealand 12% each, and Canada is 15% Asian.

  331. @Polymath
    Very good post, very mixed quality comments.

    I have little time this morning so I'll just assert my conclusions not prove them (credentials: MathPhD and consultant and teacher, 2400 GRE).

    1) You can come up with as many excuses as you like about why groups do badly on a test but the correlation with real world success shows that you are merely explaining away, not explaining. Particularly pathetic are the comments criticizing the test questions for extraneous information, when ability to identify which information is relevant is a big part of what the test wants to measure.
    2) The people voting for Trump being less smart doesn't mean it was a stupid decision, more likely is that they correctly perceived that his policies would be better for non-smart people like themselves than Hillary's would have been. You don't have to be smart to figure that out.
    3) Performance on all tests can be improved by study and practice, and it is possible to do this for IQ tests too, but that's because enough of the right kind of study and practice actually makes you smarter.
    4) Adult IQ is much more stable and reliably measurable than childhood and teenage IQ because educational systems vary widely even though most people eventually attain a personally suitable educational level.
    5) No, most people cannot learn high school math sufficient to prepare for college work. Multiply the grade by 10 to get the IQ level needed to master it: 90 for basic algebra, 100 for geometry, 110 for algebra 2 and trigonometry, 120 for Calculus (AP BC exam "5" level). Subtract 10 points from that, which was about "mastery", to get the level needed to get a passing grade with lots of effort and tutoring. Of course that's a very rough guide because verbal and mathematical components of IQ can diverge substantially.
    6) Being a good judge of the cognitive level of people you converse with is a very useful skill, if you pitch what you say correctly you make them feel smart rather than dumb or resentful (go for the highest level they can handle without slowing down the conversation if they pay 100% attention).

    pathetic are the comments criticizing the test questions for extraneous information

    Again – multiplication is quite a universally accessible skill (we should expect children in all countries to have no problems from about age 10).

    For crosscountry comparison, a test of multiplication would be suitable (although at a younger age).

    However, this test format is more measuring people’s ability to decode the intentions of the question-designer, and is introducing high levels of irrelevant information. There’s no intelligence required to answer the questions beyond 10 year old’s level of arithmetic, but there is some skill to ignore how confusingly written the questions are.

    So decoding these intentions, and filtering the distractions, is a skill in itself? Sure. But it’s a cultural dependent one, and will vary on your exposure to tests like this one, and your cultural similarity to the person who wrote the questions.

    In some educational systems, children will be accustomed to well-designed questions, where all the information is relevant. In others, they will be accustomed to ones with useless noise, that has to be filtered.

    Differences between national scores, will now largely reflect their habituation to this style of question, rather than the actual skills (which for some reason, are far more basic than suitable for their age-level).

    In Russian exams (since around 2010), this style of question is now common in some of the exam, although without the same amount of noise. So now in Russia, the scores in the PISA will inevitably start to increase, as there is convergence in exam format. Is this an indication that the children are better at maths? No – it’s just a sign of acculturation to an American exam format. And the OECD itself will not view it differently, except with the additional belief that this is the correct pedagogy.

    In reality, maths exams in school have been in complete degradation for the last twenty years (yet Russian scores in PISA will continue to improve). It’s an example where skill level of children is decreasing, as their PISA scores will increase.

  332. @Talha
    I always thought that the true genius in Tolkien's work was not the amazing world he crafted with its array of characters and various mythical beings, but the final scene in which the humble Hobbit has finally achieved the summit of the tremendous task he set out to do and then finally succumbs to the power of the ring.

    "The ring is mine." - Frodo

    Peace.

    He got the idea of the curse of the Ring from Wagner, though.

    • Replies: @Talha
    Did not know that - thanks!

    I don't know if Wagner was responsible for how the ring was ultimately destroyed; by the very one who had completely lost his soul to it above anyone else. Pure genius!

    Peace.
  333. @anonymous coward

    economic success
     
    There's no such thing as "economic success".

    Or, rather, there is no single valid metric of "success" in this space.

    Consider Equatorial Guinea, an "economically successful" country with a GDP (PPP per capita) comparable to the Czech Republic. Yet it is still a classic African shithole, with literal cannibals roaming the streets.

    Consider again the Ukraine, which is a Somalia-tier failed state, with a failed economy to match it. Yet it is full of SWPL white people who drink craft beer, enjoy boutique board games and walk alone at night.

    Consider again the Ukraine, which is a Somalia-tier failed state, with a failed economy to match it. Yet it is full of SWPL white people who drink craft beer, enjoy boutique board games and walk alone at night.

    LOL. Maybe in the wealthier parts of Kiev. Is the fact that Eastern Europe is utterly corrupt and low trust just something people have to be taught again?

    • Replies: @anonymous coward

    Is the fact that Eastern Europe is utterly corrupt and low trust just something people have to be taught again?
     
    Nothing of that I mention has anything to do with corruption or high trust, you dumbass. One can enjoy craft beer and crimeless streets without high-trust government institutions. A population that doesn't act like literal wild apes is enough.
  334. @reiner Tor
    He got the idea of the curse of the Ring from Wagner, though.

    Did not know that – thanks!

    I don’t know if Wagner was responsible for how the ring was ultimately destroyed; by the very one who had completely lost his soul to it above anyone else. Pure genius!

    Peace.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    The ring motif was from ancient Germanic legends, which is where Wagner got it from.

    Frodo succumbing to it was Tolkien - although very much in accordance with pre-modern sensibilities.
  335. @Talha
    I always thought that the true genius in Tolkien's work was not the amazing world he crafted with its array of characters and various mythical beings, but the final scene in which the humble Hobbit has finally achieved the summit of the tremendous task he set out to do and then finally succumbs to the power of the ring.

    "The ring is mine." - Frodo

    Peace.

    Its the classic tale of not fighting evil using its own methods – one does not use the power of the ring, one does not fight power with power, one opposes power with humility, with weakness.

    That’s the only meaningful victory because fighting power with power means becoming another version of your enemy.

    This insight was well understood in all traditional cultures.

    That’s what’s so disappointing about China – it chose to use the ring, despite more than anyone else, knowing better. Today, it’s impossible not to notice how China is becoming just like the worst aspects of America.

    Jews have so much power these days because so many of them devote their entire lives to simply making money by any means possible (that’s why they can staff the NYT with Jewish mediocrities. Money comes first). It’s as if white people were to fight this by devoting all their lives to making money. They’d surely wrest power from Jews, having far more intelligent people, but they’d have to have the same policies (globalism, insecurity of work, etc) because those policies make the rich richer.

    This is why traditional cultures saw contemplation as higher than action – and non-interference as the highest principle. America is already declining from its own insanity and internal contradictions – it never had to be fought or opposed, certainly not at the cost of ones own culture. It needed to be sidestepped, and waited out. Jews are losing their vitality and need to prove themselves quite without any one opposing them. And the Left is reaching unsustainable levels of insanity, internal division, rancor, backbiting, and is heading towards an implosion.

    • Replies: @Talha

    It needed to be sidestepped, and waited out.
     
    This seems to be the case with every empire that arose in the past, became decadent and crumbled. This is basically intro Ibn Khaldun 101:
    https://fountainmagazine.com/2017/issue-117-may-june-2017/ibn-khaldun-on-luxury-and-the-destruction-of-civilizations

    Well, what a run, eh? They'll definitely be writing about this one in the history books.

    Yet, in the words of another wise sage...
    "I don't know what they want from me. It seems the mo' money we come across, the mo' problems we see."

    Peace.
    , @iffen
    Jews have so much power these days because so many of them devote their entire lives to simply making money

    You are saying that Jews are more avaricious than the average bear. Are they also more unscrupulous?

    Two thousand year old Jewish misdirection and trolling:

    Matthew 16:26-28
    26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
  336. @for-the-record
    2. Any point 1+1/(n*pi) distance from South pole

    Only works for n that is even:

    2'. Any point 1+1/(2n*pi) distance from South pole

    Any point 1+1/(2n*pi) distance from South pole

    What is this “1+” for? When Intelligent Dasein wrote it I thought it was a typo but now when you write it I begin to wonder if I do not get something?

    • Replies: @Lars Porsena
    Because you start 1 km north.
    , @for-the-record
    What is this “1+” for?

    For any integer n, there are 2 concentric circles centered at the South Pole. The first has circumference 1/n, so that going 1 km west will correspond to precisely n revolutions. The second circle is 1 km north of the first circle, so everywhere on this circle will satisfy the condition (1 km S, 1 km W, 1 km N).

    Any point 1/(2n*pi) will be located on the first circle with circumference 1/n. So 1+1/(2n*pi) will represent points on the corresponding 2nd circle, all of which are solution points.
    , @res

    What is this “1+” for?
     
    You want to walk 1 km south but not reach the South Pole. Therefore you start more than 1 km away from the pole (1+).

    Projecting the sphere onto a plane (concentric circles) as Epigon describes in comment 281 is helpful for thinking about this and understanding the 1/(2n*pi) part.

    Though it might consist of an infinity of starting points, we are talking about a small band between 1 and 1.16 km north of the South Pole.
  337. @utu

    Any point 1+1/(2n*pi) distance from South pole
     
    What is this "1+" for? When Intelligent Dasein wrote it I thought it was a typo but now when you write it I begin to wonder if I do not get something?

    Because you start 1 km north.

  338. @for-the-record
    You travel from point A to B at an average speed of 20 km/h, and return at an average speed of 30km/h. What was your average speed for the round trip?

    Or: you have the choice of going from A to B by either pedaling your bike up a 20 km hill at 10 km/h and descending for 20 km at 40 km/h OR of going around the hill on the flat road of 40 km at a constant 20 km/h. Which will get you there faster and what are the average speeds? (by the way, this is a reasonable approximation of the real effect gravity has upon moving a body overland, which is why the railroads surveyed the Wild West and then ran tracks on the levelest grades available)

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    by the way, this is a reasonable approximation of the real effect gravity has upon moving a body overland, which is why the railroads surveyed the Wild West and then ran tracks on the levelest grades available

    Good example, but I suspect that the greater difficulty of laying tracks over hilly terrain played at least an equally important role.
  339. Anonymous[276] • Disclaimer says:
    @Saxon
    It's a separate issue to that. When it comes to small things like that they will act very much like native English. Japanese in particular will. Social experiments involving honesty sussed that out. What's happening is this sort of extremely stratified system that existed before is re-emerging but with this big corporations and their owners on top instead of kings with opulent wealth and crushingly dirt poor peasants. Yes, people in Japan and South Korea are a lot more honest than say China, but that is a separate issue from whether they're recreating the same general type of system that existed before. Which they seem to be.

    To an extent this is also happening in western countries but it's mostly the result of subversive alien elements pushing propaganda about "free trade" which has been universally disastrous for anyone but a few who directly benefit and are essentially stripmining these countries.

    I don’t see any real signs that the native English, particularly the native English working class, are better behaved than their Korean or Japanese counterparts. The native English working class has a bad reputation for bad behavior, petty criminality, etc.

    The English ruling class was famous for its immense, opulent wealth, especially its landed wealth and country homes. The English ruling class “solved” potential problems of social stratification and discontent by seizing and giving away free land in Ireland and the colonies. In other words, it exported its potential problems and managed having to deal with it internally.

  340. @Talha
    Did not know that - thanks!

    I don't know if Wagner was responsible for how the ring was ultimately destroyed; by the very one who had completely lost his soul to it above anyone else. Pure genius!

    Peace.

    The ring motif was from ancient Germanic legends, which is where Wagner got it from.

    Frodo succumbing to it was Tolkien – although very much in accordance with pre-modern sensibilities.

    • Replies: @reiner Tor

    The ring motif was from ancient Germanic legends, which is where Wagner got it from.
     
    But in the ancient Germanic legends the ring didn't have power over its owners. The curse of the Ring was Wagner's own invention. At least that's what I read.
  341. “According to Kremer/Jones, it is the relative strength of the O-Ring sector in the developed world which explains why a hairdresser earns five times as much in Belgium as in Brazil, even though productivity between the two cannot be much different. Or why a coffee at a cafe costs 10x less than in Turkey than in Norway, even though the Turkish coffee will if anything be better. ”

    I think this is basically Baumol’s disease. Although the irony here is that the “disease” really seems to lie in those societies who fail to experience it.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease

  342. @utu

    Any point 1+1/(2n*pi) distance from South pole
     
    What is this "1+" for? When Intelligent Dasein wrote it I thought it was a typo but now when you write it I begin to wonder if I do not get something?

    What is this “1+” for?

    For any integer n, there are 2 concentric circles centered at the South Pole. The first has circumference 1/n, so that going 1 km west will correspond to precisely n revolutions. The second circle is 1 km north of the first circle, so everywhere on this circle will satisfy the condition (1 km S, 1 km W, 1 km N).

    Any point 1/(2n*pi) will be located on the first circle with circumference 1/n. So 1+1/(2n*pi) will represent points on the corresponding 2nd circle, all of which are solution points.

    • Replies: @utu
    Right. Thanks.
  343. Level 6

    Though not especially hard, even at this level. I suspect that many of you can do it in your heads within a minute.

    Within a minute! LOL.

    She rode 4 + 3 km in 9 + 6 minutes = 7 km in 15 minutes, and thus at an average speed of 28 kph.

    The answer can be reached in no more time than is required to state the facts of the case. or about five seconds. So this is not a question of intelligence, it is a question of literacy and numeracy.

    Intelligence may be limited by genetic factors, but in the broad middle range, population differences in IQ are all about availability and quality of schooling. Declining IQs of Americans, Brits and other Westerners is largely due to the transformation of schools from educational institutions to institutions for paying large salaries to numerous teachers engaged in pointless or counter-productive “administrative” activities, and for indoctrinating children in the religion of political correctness and white self-hatred.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    "Intelligence may be limited by genetic factors"


    For this claim to hold there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structures or genes).

    P1) Intelligence is a mental ability.
    P2) If intelligence is a mental ability, then it cannot be "limited by genetic factors", because for the claim that intelligence is "limited by genetic factors" to be true, there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structure or genes, since they are physical).
    P3) But psychophysical laws do not exist (see Donald Davidson's anomalous monism; Ross' Immaterial Aspects of Thought; Nagel's Mind and Cosmos; the Kripke-Wittgenstein rule-following argument etc).
    C) Therefore intelligence cannot "be limited by genetic factors."
  344. @AaronB
    The ring motif was from ancient Germanic legends, which is where Wagner got it from.

    Frodo succumbing to it was Tolkien - although very much in accordance with pre-modern sensibilities.

    The ring motif was from ancient Germanic legends, which is where Wagner got it from.

    But in the ancient Germanic legends the ring didn’t have power over its owners. The curse of the Ring was Wagner’s own invention. At least that’s what I read.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    That could be, I know it was a magic ring but I don't know the details.
    , @DFH
    Almost like AaronB just makes his drivel up
  345. The comment about the productivity of hairdresers was nonsense.
    Productivity is not a measure of business efficiency or anything similar.
    It simply meausres gross value added per hour – this is an economic term and roughly means profit before wages and depreciation.
    In the case of the hairdressers, their productivity is determined almost entirely by the market price for haircuts.
    The market price of haircuts is, of course, determined by market forces within the economy – and has nothing much to do with the efforts of the hairdressers themselves.
    Productivity is thus best thought of as a macro eonomic statistic, and caution should be used when using it on smaller units of the economy.

  346. @utu

    Any point 1+1/(2n*pi) distance from South pole
     
    What is this "1+" for? When Intelligent Dasein wrote it I thought it was a typo but now when you write it I begin to wonder if I do not get something?

    What is this “1+” for?

    You want to walk 1 km south but not reach the South Pole. Therefore you start more than 1 km away from the pole (1+).

    Projecting the sphere onto a plane (concentric circles) as Epigon describes in comment 281 is helpful for thinking about this and understanding the 1/(2n*pi) part.

    Though it might consist of an infinity of starting points, we are talking about a small band between 1 and 1.16 km north of the South Pole.

    • Replies: @utu
    I got it.
  347. The GRU hitman sent for Skripal was using the name Ruslan Boshirov, are they taking the piss?

  348. @for-the-record
    What is this “1+” for?

    For any integer n, there are 2 concentric circles centered at the South Pole. The first has circumference 1/n, so that going 1 km west will correspond to precisely n revolutions. The second circle is 1 km north of the first circle, so everywhere on this circle will satisfy the condition (1 km S, 1 km W, 1 km N).

    Any point 1/(2n*pi) will be located on the first circle with circumference 1/n. So 1+1/(2n*pi) will represent points on the corresponding 2nd circle, all of which are solution points.

    Right. Thanks.

  349. @Daniel Chieh
    The "morally corrupt" ones are not who you should fear. Their aims are relatively minor all things considered. They can be bribed or distracted; their evil is one we understand, a beast that we all fight and tame(or not) within ourselves.

    It is the true believers that you should truly be terrified of, because they have found spiritual truth in undoing this wicked world and no price is too great, no mountain too high, and no slaughter too terrible for them to belay delivering utopia upon us.

    SV has many true believers.

    Being a true believer and being morally bankrupt are not mutually exclusive, it depends on what you truly believe in. In fact, one is often used to justify the other.

    Read Brotopia. SV has sunk to Hollywood level of depravity, drugs, sex parties, hook-ups and spouse swapping are all the rage. Wherever there’s lots of money to be made, Jews will find their way there, and wherever Jews go, liberalism and debauchery follows. All the virtue signaling is just a way to make up for their personal failings.

    The “true believers” of the left are faithful disciples of the religion of Liberalism. It is a religion that believes the end justifies the means, i.e. doesn’t matter if you lie, cheat, steal, kill, as long as your goal is to advance the cause of liberalism, your deed is justified. That’s why Facebook, Google, Twitter etc. feel justified to manipulate search results, ban conservative opinions and users, msm feel justified to deliver fake news to manipulate opinions, while the majority of the #MeToo perps are liberals. The left’s virtue signaling is used to justify and make up for their moral degeneracy.

    Hollywood, Wall Street and the DNC are all full of true believers of the left, and all are morally bankrupt, because they are true believers of a morally bankrupt religion called Liberalism.

  350. @res

    What is this “1+” for?
     
    You want to walk 1 km south but not reach the South Pole. Therefore you start more than 1 km away from the pole (1+).

    Projecting the sphere onto a plane (concentric circles) as Epigon describes in comment 281 is helpful for thinking about this and understanding the 1/(2n*pi) part.

    Though it might consist of an infinity of starting points, we are talking about a small band between 1 and 1.16 km north of the South Pole.

    I got it.

  351. @reiner Tor

    The ring motif was from ancient Germanic legends, which is where Wagner got it from.
     
    But in the ancient Germanic legends the ring didn't have power over its owners. The curse of the Ring was Wagner's own invention. At least that's what I read.

    That could be, I know it was a magic ring but I don’t know the details.

    • Replies: @reiner Tor
    Wagner's idea was that not only did the Ring give power to its owners, but the Ring in turn also had power over its owners (and even prospective owners) by changing their behavior. For example it binds them, making it impossible for all but the strongest to give it up voluntarily, and once lost, making them all strongly desire to get it back. Basically, they fall under the curse of the Ring, which in Wagner's version is a literal curse of the Ring's creator, Alberich, who stole the gold from which he forged it, but in turn it was stolen from him, too, so he cursed it.

    The Ring's curse in Wagner's version also causes the death of all owners or prospective owners (except Alberich, who is the originator of the curse; his fate is unclear, though it appears that he dies at some point, too, and his last appearance to me seems to be just a ghost - it's never explicitly spelled out), so basically it's both highly desired by most characters and it's also highly destructive. Usually they are killed while fighting for it, or while it's taken from them.

    The original German sagas only had the idea of the powerful Ring, but in the originals the Ring didn't have power over its owners: it was merely a highly desirable thing which gave a lot of power to its owners. In a sense, the ancient Germanics didn't seem to contemplate the fact that people desire this artifact so much that it actually gives it power over them. They also didn't think owning it was or even could be a curse.
  352. @AaronB
    Thai infrastructure was good in the 90s - the train system is I think German. I was using it as an example of priorities.

    I am positive that Bangkok has right now people just as smart as the creators of Amazon. I'm also positive Poland has many such people.

    What is lacking is the philosophical conviction that spending stupendous amounts of effort and energy to construct a vast highly organized system eating up the life energy of thousands of high aptitude people for the purpose of shortening delivery times by a few days is the best use of our limited time on this green earth.

    And the reason that's lacking in those countries, is that life is immensely more satisfying there, and people grow up far less mentally damaged.

    Have you read Steve Jobs daughters biography of her father?

    Any county that wants to boost creativity should study it in depth - learn how to create mentally damaged people like Jobs, its the secret to Western style creativity.

    I vote for idleness :)

    Much of Thailand remains a poverty stricken shithole. But of course it’s all relative. Compared to even bigger shitholes like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, it’s probably tolerable. But compared to Singapore, it’s a shithole, with scammers crawling everywhere.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Tastes vary. Singapore is my idea of death by boredom.

    I like the organic, the alive, the chaotic, that which works with nature and doesn't control it or sanitize it.

    Thailand has many scammers, but if you think that's bad, I think I was scammed 4 times in the New Delhi airport before getting into a taxi. I took it with a laugh - I love India.
  353. @reiner Tor

    The ring motif was from ancient Germanic legends, which is where Wagner got it from.
     
    But in the ancient Germanic legends the ring didn't have power over its owners. The curse of the Ring was Wagner's own invention. At least that's what I read.

    Almost like AaronB just makes his drivel up

  354. @Cicero2
    It's a matter of degree though. Your average Brazilian triracial varies from about 60% to 80% European, more in the South and South-East, less in the North, North-East, and Central-West. His remaining ancestry is typically some mixture of African and Amerindian, with the former more common near the coastline, and the latter more dominant in the interior.

    Whites make up the next largest group, and they are still a very significant segment of the population. Blacks as a recognizable minority are much smaller. Large-scale intermarriage among the lower classes after the abolition of slavery in 1888 significantly diluted their identity and heritage. Outside of certain regions and cities, Blacks tend to make up less than 6 or 7% of the population. Even Bahia, the state with the closest links to African culture more closely resembles the Dominican Republic than a New World Africa. The Whites in Bahia make up a substantial part of the population because they never left the land or abandoned the cities after the old system fell apart. What happened was that the population (of all colors and phenotypes) adopted elements of African culture, music, and cuisine but also altered it as needed. It has very little parallel with the experience of African-Americans in the United States, and the only neighboring country that sort of resembles it is Venezuela.

    Brazil's birthrate crashed in the late 1990's and has never recovered, and it hit almost all segments of the population equally. It has been rather stable in composition for a long while now. Large scale Venezuelan migration into the North region may be the biggest change to Brazil's demographics in over 50 years, but I wonder if the Brazilians will passively allow themselves to be overrun.

    All of the above probably means little to outsiders who see Brazil as just another Third-World loser country that will never be able to reach its full potential. But within Latin America it is a very distinct bloc with its own unique high culture and folk traditions. It stands out from its neighbors in many positive respects, and rarely fails any harder than they do. The nation is in crisis right now, but my own feeling is that it will be limping along long after most of its rivals are gone. That is the nature of Brazil, a slow and lukewarm but enduring simmer.

    I look for America’s future, and I see Brazil.

  355. @ThreeCranes
    Or: you have the choice of going from A to B by either pedaling your bike up a 20 km hill at 10 km/h and descending for 20 km at 40 km/h OR of going around the hill on the flat road of 40 km at a constant 20 km/h. Which will get you there faster and what are the average speeds? (by the way, this is a reasonable approximation of the real effect gravity has upon moving a body overland, which is why the railroads surveyed the Wild West and then ran tracks on the levelest grades available)

    by the way, this is a reasonable approximation of the real effect gravity has upon moving a body overland, which is why the railroads surveyed the Wild West and then ran tracks on the levelest grades available

    Good example, but I suspect that the greater difficulty of laying tracks over hilly terrain played at least an equally important role.

  356. @szopen
    Wow. I must say I am far, far less intelligent than I thought I was. It took me at least two minutes to understand the solution. Kudos if you really get that on your own while being 12.

    Kudos if you really get that on your own while being 12.

    Alas, that was the apogee of my mental development.

  357. @AaronB
    That could be, I know it was a magic ring but I don't know the details.

    Wagner’s idea was that not only did the Ring give power to its owners, but the Ring in turn also had power over its owners (and even prospective owners) by changing their behavior. For example it binds them, making it impossible for all but the strongest to give it up voluntarily, and once lost, making them all strongly desire to get it back. Basically, they fall under the curse of the Ring, which in Wagner’s version is a literal curse of the Ring’s creator, Alberich, who stole the gold from which he forged it, but in turn it was stolen from him, too, so he cursed it.

    The Ring’s curse in Wagner’s version also causes the death of all owners or prospective owners (except Alberich, who is the originator of the curse; his fate is unclear, though it appears that he dies at some point, too, and his last appearance to me seems to be just a ghost – it’s never explicitly spelled out), so basically it’s both highly desired by most characters and it’s also highly destructive. Usually they are killed while fighting for it, or while it’s taken from them.

    The original German sagas only had the idea of the powerful Ring, but in the originals the Ring didn’t have power over its owners: it was merely a highly desirable thing which gave a lot of power to its owners. In a sense, the ancient Germanics didn’t seem to contemplate the fact that people desire this artifact so much that it actually gives it power over them. They also didn’t think owning it was or even could be a curse.

    • Replies: @AB
    Interesting. I had no idea. Since Wagner far precedes Tolkien, I would say it's definitely likely that Wagner's The Ring was what inspired Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, though Wagner rarely gets the credit for it. Symphonies in the US almost never play Wagner. The Jews who dominate our classical music scene just can't possibly play a Wagner piece.
    , @AaronB
    Very interesting, thanks.

    Wagner of course was heavily influenced by Buddhism and practically a Buddhist - so perhaps that was why he was able to make the leap that something that is intensely desired is a form of bondage and a curse, especially if it gives power.
  358. @reiner Tor
    Wagner's idea was that not only did the Ring give power to its owners, but the Ring in turn also had power over its owners (and even prospective owners) by changing their behavior. For example it binds them, making it impossible for all but the strongest to give it up voluntarily, and once lost, making them all strongly desire to get it back. Basically, they fall under the curse of the Ring, which in Wagner's version is a literal curse of the Ring's creator, Alberich, who stole the gold from which he forged it, but in turn it was stolen from him, too, so he cursed it.

    The Ring's curse in Wagner's version also causes the death of all owners or prospective owners (except Alberich, who is the originator of the curse; his fate is unclear, though it appears that he dies at some point, too, and his last appearance to me seems to be just a ghost - it's never explicitly spelled out), so basically it's both highly desired by most characters and it's also highly destructive. Usually they are killed while fighting for it, or while it's taken from them.

    The original German sagas only had the idea of the powerful Ring, but in the originals the Ring didn't have power over its owners: it was merely a highly desirable thing which gave a lot of power to its owners. In a sense, the ancient Germanics didn't seem to contemplate the fact that people desire this artifact so much that it actually gives it power over them. They also didn't think owning it was or even could be a curse.

    Interesting. I had no idea. Since Wagner far precedes Tolkien, I would say it’s definitely likely that Wagner’s The Ring was what inspired Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, though Wagner rarely gets the credit for it. Symphonies in the US almost never play Wagner. The Jews who dominate our classical music scene just can’t possibly play a Wagner piece.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Its interesting that Tolkien strongly denied it personally("Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases"), but was almost certainly influenced by it.
    , @utu
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nS66IvbvcI
    , @reiner Tor
    Tolkien himself denied it. He had a point: Tolkien's One Ring is totally different from the Nibelung's Ring in Wagner's magnum opus, and yet he got the comparisons all the time. All the while he didn't like Wagner much (I think one of the inspirations he got from Wagner was that he wanted to "get it right"), and so he got annoyed to the point of just flat out denying any influence.

    Reality is probably in between: they both worked from the exact same Germanic myths, so a lot of the similarity is caused by that. Then there's the fact that their work is quite a bit different, to the point that we could ascribe a great deal of originality to Tolkien even if he was working from Wagner only. But, crucially, there are a few points which Tolkien probably got from Wagner, and he didn't acknowledge because he was just annoyed by all the comparisons, and also probably because he worried his originality wouldn't be acknowledged.

    I also think that the original ring in the Germanic sagas and songs was basically just a powerful thing, but it was also Wagner's idea that it gave its owner the power to at least attempt world-domination. Since Tolkien's One Ring is similar to the Nibelung's Ring in that it's all-powerful, it seems to be a Wagnerian influence on Tolkien.
    , @j2
    I always loved this Tolkien stuff. He started from Kalevala, Kullervo's story, but the later works really say something. They are not written for kids.

    Tolkien's ring is a secret society. I wrote some thoughts about it to the following post:
    http://www.pienisalaliittotutkimus.com/2018/04/29/is-tolkiens-lord-of-the-ring-an-allegory-and-if-then-of-what/

    Wagner had a society also, the Bayreuth circle. That is where European anti-Semitism started. The Bayreuth circle had ideas very similar to Theosophists and there for sure is a connection. Anti-Semitism was created at the same time as Zionism and both aimed to creation of Israel. Obviously there is a connection from the Bayreuth circle to Hitler.
    , @songbird
    I admire Tolkien for putting together different influences - religious, mythological and historical - to create something that feels like it has character, like it comes from a particular place - Europe. And is not from some corporate committee, survey, or pie chart. It is in sharp contrast with a lot of modern fantasy which seems incredibly insipid.

    Some people today hate his guts for doing it. They want to subvert the world he created in order to push their ideology. What will Bezos do with it, now that he has the TV rights? I think we can all imagine.
  359. @AB
    Interesting. I had no idea. Since Wagner far precedes Tolkien, I would say it's definitely likely that Wagner's The Ring was what inspired Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, though Wagner rarely gets the credit for it. Symphonies in the US almost never play Wagner. The Jews who dominate our classical music scene just can't possibly play a Wagner piece.

    Its interesting that Tolkien strongly denied it personally(“Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases”), but was almost certainly influenced by it.

  360. Two questions:

    If a selection of countries (smallish subset of PISA participant countries, perhaps a single country) experiences an increase over time in math scores, may that be taken as indicative of a Flynn effect reflecting an underlying increase an actual intelligence?

    If such an increase corresponds, with the appropriate time delay, to an improvement in physical environment, e.g. (re)introduction of dietary iodination or elimination of e.g. leaded gasoline, may we take it that the environment was responsible for the change in IQ, regardless of twin study correlations (which subtract the mean—of both genetic and environmental terms in the gene-invariant dose response/uptake model—by definition of the Pearson correlation coefficient)?

    As the mean IQ is by definition 100, another check for real intelligence increase in the presence of Flynn effects is whether the IQ needed for a given cognitively loaded task is constant across generations.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    No, because PISA exam does not test related to maths - but it tests some kind of ability of children to understand the culture of the person who made the test. In a sense, it is a score of how globalized the children are to OECD standards. There's no intelligence involved in the test, as the questions are easier than the age-level.

    Compare that Russia's PISA math score increased since 2000, even between 2009-2015.

    Now compare the difficulty of maths exams and quality of maths education in this time period. The level of maths exams and high school mathematics education is falling (becoming easier and reducing the range and depth of topics studied).
    , @notanon

    an improvement in physical environment, e.g. (re)introduction of dietary iodination ... snip ... may we take it that the environment was responsible for the change in IQ, regardless of twin study correlations
     
    i may have misunderstood your question but my understanding is the UN has been running iodine programs in parts of Africa for years and it works in the sense it raises the local average IQ but only to the local genetic baseline - so it's like height, better nutrition makes everyone taller but not as tall as the Dutch )cos they don't the bonus genes the Dutch have).

    so for example if China's average IQ has increased dramatically over the last 40 years or so (as reported and maybe due to increased fish consumption) then my guess would be people in the coastal cities always had that average IQ (cos genetic baseline) but the people living in the interior were well below the baseline (cos deficiency) and they are the ones who had a big jump - thus boosting the overall average. you'd need to know the regional data to know for sure.
  361. @AB
    Interesting. I had no idea. Since Wagner far precedes Tolkien, I would say it's definitely likely that Wagner's The Ring was what inspired Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, though Wagner rarely gets the credit for it. Symphonies in the US almost never play Wagner. The Jews who dominate our classical music scene just can't possibly play a Wagner piece.

  362. @AB
    Interesting. I had no idea. Since Wagner far precedes Tolkien, I would say it's definitely likely that Wagner's The Ring was what inspired Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, though Wagner rarely gets the credit for it. Symphonies in the US almost never play Wagner. The Jews who dominate our classical music scene just can't possibly play a Wagner piece.

    Tolkien himself denied it. He had a point: Tolkien’s One Ring is totally different from the Nibelung’s Ring in Wagner’s magnum opus, and yet he got the comparisons all the time. All the while he didn’t like Wagner much (I think one of the inspirations he got from Wagner was that he wanted to “get it right”), and so he got annoyed to the point of just flat out denying any influence.

    Reality is probably in between: they both worked from the exact same Germanic myths, so a lot of the similarity is caused by that. Then there’s the fact that their work is quite a bit different, to the point that we could ascribe a great deal of originality to Tolkien even if he was working from Wagner only. But, crucially, there are a few points which Tolkien probably got from Wagner, and he didn’t acknowledge because he was just annoyed by all the comparisons, and also probably because he worried his originality wouldn’t be acknowledged.

    I also think that the original ring in the Germanic sagas and songs was basically just a powerful thing, but it was also Wagner’s idea that it gave its owner the power to at least attempt world-domination. Since Tolkien’s One Ring is similar to the Nibelung’s Ring in that it’s all-powerful, it seems to be a Wagnerian influence on Tolkien.

  363. @reiner Tor
    Wagner's idea was that not only did the Ring give power to its owners, but the Ring in turn also had power over its owners (and even prospective owners) by changing their behavior. For example it binds them, making it impossible for all but the strongest to give it up voluntarily, and once lost, making them all strongly desire to get it back. Basically, they fall under the curse of the Ring, which in Wagner's version is a literal curse of the Ring's creator, Alberich, who stole the gold from which he forged it, but in turn it was stolen from him, too, so he cursed it.

    The Ring's curse in Wagner's version also causes the death of all owners or prospective owners (except Alberich, who is the originator of the curse; his fate is unclear, though it appears that he dies at some point, too, and his last appearance to me seems to be just a ghost - it's never explicitly spelled out), so basically it's both highly desired by most characters and it's also highly destructive. Usually they are killed while fighting for it, or while it's taken from them.

    The original German sagas only had the idea of the powerful Ring, but in the originals the Ring didn't have power over its owners: it was merely a highly desirable thing which gave a lot of power to its owners. In a sense, the ancient Germanics didn't seem to contemplate the fact that people desire this artifact so much that it actually gives it power over them. They also didn't think owning it was or even could be a curse.

    Very interesting, thanks.

    Wagner of course was heavily influenced by Buddhism and practically a Buddhist – so perhaps that was why he was able to make the leap that something that is intensely desired is a form of bondage and a curse, especially if it gives power.

  364. @AB
    Much of Thailand remains a poverty stricken shithole. But of course it's all relative. Compared to even bigger shitholes like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, it's probably tolerable. But compared to Singapore, it's a shithole, with scammers crawling everywhere.

    Tastes vary. Singapore is my idea of death by boredom.

    I like the organic, the alive, the chaotic, that which works with nature and doesn’t control it or sanitize it.

    Thailand has many scammers, but if you think that’s bad, I think I was scammed 4 times in the New Delhi airport before getting into a taxi. I took it with a laugh – I love India.

  365. @AB
    Interesting. I had no idea. Since Wagner far precedes Tolkien, I would say it's definitely likely that Wagner's The Ring was what inspired Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, though Wagner rarely gets the credit for it. Symphonies in the US almost never play Wagner. The Jews who dominate our classical music scene just can't possibly play a Wagner piece.

    I always loved this Tolkien stuff. He started from Kalevala, Kullervo’s story, but the later works really say something. They are not written for kids.

    Tolkien’s ring is a secret society. I wrote some thoughts about it to the following post:

    http://www.pienisalaliittotutkimus.com/2018/04/29/is-tolkiens-lord-of-the-ring-an-allegory-and-if-then-of-what/

    Wagner had a society also, the Bayreuth circle. That is where European anti-Semitism started. The Bayreuth circle had ideas very similar to Theosophists and there for sure is a connection. Anti-Semitism was created at the same time as Zionism and both aimed to creation of Israel. Obviously there is a connection from the Bayreuth circle to Hitler.

  366. @Johan Meyer
    Two questions:

    If a selection of countries (smallish subset of PISA participant countries, perhaps a single country) experiences an increase over time in math scores, may that be taken as indicative of a Flynn effect reflecting an underlying increase an actual intelligence?

    If such an increase corresponds, with the appropriate time delay, to an improvement in physical environment, e.g. (re)introduction of dietary iodination or elimination of e.g. leaded gasoline, may we take it that the environment was responsible for the change in IQ, regardless of twin study correlations (which subtract the mean---of both genetic and environmental terms in the gene-invariant dose response/uptake model---by definition of the Pearson correlation coefficient)?

    As the mean IQ is by definition 100, another check for real intelligence increase in the presence of Flynn effects is whether the IQ needed for a given cognitively loaded task is constant across generations.

    No, because PISA exam does not test related to maths – but it tests some kind of ability of children to understand the culture of the person who made the test. In a sense, it is a score of how globalized the children are to OECD standards. There’s no intelligence involved in the test, as the questions are easier than the age-level.

    Compare that Russia’s PISA math score increased since 2000, even between 2009-2015.

    Now compare the difficulty of maths exams and quality of maths education in this time period. The level of maths exams and high school mathematics education is falling (becoming easier and reducing the range and depth of topics studied).

    • Replies: @Anatoly Karlin

    Compare that Russia’s PISA math score increased since 2000, even between 2009-2015.
     
    Russian performance on this Army test has been increasing rapidly since the 1990 cohort (so, equivalent of PISA 2006).

    https://recrut.mil.ru/career/soldiering/test/start.htm

    While people born between 1973 and 1987 performed at a stable 19.5-20/30, the post-1988 period saw a steady improvement towards an average score of 21/30.

    S.D. is around 6 points.
     
    Which happens to be analogous to the increase in PISA:

    https://sputnikipogrom.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/03-russia-pisa-history-f.png
  367. @AB
    Interesting. I had no idea. Since Wagner far precedes Tolkien, I would say it's definitely likely that Wagner's The Ring was what inspired Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, though Wagner rarely gets the credit for it. Symphonies in the US almost never play Wagner. The Jews who dominate our classical music scene just can't possibly play a Wagner piece.

    I admire Tolkien for putting together different influences – religious, mythological and historical – to create something that feels like it has character, like it comes from a particular place – Europe. And is not from some corporate committee, survey, or pie chart. It is in sharp contrast with a lot of modern fantasy which seems incredibly insipid.

    Some people today hate his guts for doing it. They want to subvert the world he created in order to push their ideology. What will Bezos do with it, now that he has the TV rights? I think we can all imagine.

    • Replies: @Che Guava
    That is frightening. What did Chris sell to Bezos? BTW, I replied to you on 744 or 722
    on this thread, but the site is programmed to time out and lose links from replies after two or three hours (perhaps less time). Thinking one or two sentences of my reply
    may be of interest.
  368. @The Big Red Scary
    This is a cute problem. I'll have to pass it around.

    This is a cute problem. I’ll have to pass it around.

    Here is another one, simple but elegant, which surprisingly few people (including scientists) have answered correctly over the years:

    A priori, one would expect the seasons to be of equal lengths. Yet in the northern hemisphere this year summer lasted 92.6 days, while the upcoming winter will last only 89.0 days. What is the explanation for this?

    • Replies: @The Big Red Scary
    What happens in the southern hemisphere? I don't want to start looking it up, since that might spoil the fun.

    The standard explanation for seasons is that the northern hemisphere has summer when the north pole is tilted toward the sun, and that the distance of the Earth from the Sun has a negligible affect on the seasons (the Earth's elliptical orbit is close enough to being a circle). Is it safe to assume, for the purposes of this problem, that the north pole spends roughly an equal amount of tilted toward the sun as it does tilted away?
    , @Epigon
    Earth's speed varies during revolution, because the distance from Sun varies - Kepler Laws describe it.
  369. For instance, under capitalism, everyone is largely free to buy and sell solutions, whereas under the central planning systems of the old socialist regimes, bureaucrats play the key role in deciding who works on which problem and who gets access to their solutions – and who doesn’t.

    In this interpretation, loosening regulations should be generally good, since it effectively removes barriers to speedier exploration of any given problem space.

    you need to take into account internal parasitism – the IQ gap means one easy way for smart people to make money is to prey on stupider people e.g. money lending.

    a well-regulated society would prevent this, forcing the clever people to think up productive ways to make a living.

    (of course what usually happens is the regulators then turn into a different kind of parasite)

  370. @Johan Meyer
    Two questions:

    If a selection of countries (smallish subset of PISA participant countries, perhaps a single country) experiences an increase over time in math scores, may that be taken as indicative of a Flynn effect reflecting an underlying increase an actual intelligence?

    If such an increase corresponds, with the appropriate time delay, to an improvement in physical environment, e.g. (re)introduction of dietary iodination or elimination of e.g. leaded gasoline, may we take it that the environment was responsible for the change in IQ, regardless of twin study correlations (which subtract the mean---of both genetic and environmental terms in the gene-invariant dose response/uptake model---by definition of the Pearson correlation coefficient)?

    As the mean IQ is by definition 100, another check for real intelligence increase in the presence of Flynn effects is whether the IQ needed for a given cognitively loaded task is constant across generations.

    an improvement in physical environment, e.g. (re)introduction of dietary iodination … snip … may we take it that the environment was responsible for the change in IQ, regardless of twin study correlations

    i may have misunderstood your question but my understanding is the UN has been running iodine programs in parts of Africa for years and it works in the sense it raises the local average IQ but only to the local genetic baseline – so it’s like height, better nutrition makes everyone taller but not as tall as the Dutch )cos they don’t the bonus genes the Dutch have).

    so for example if China’s average IQ has increased dramatically over the last 40 years or so (as reported and maybe due to increased fish consumption) then my guess would be people in the coastal cities always had that average IQ (cos genetic baseline) but the people living in the interior were well below the baseline (cos deficiency) and they are the ones who had a big jump – thus boosting the overall average. you’d need to know the regional data to know for sure.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    How do you discriminate the genetic baseline from the local mean of other (non-iodine) environmental variables not addressed in the intervention? Especially using twin correlations, or by other methods?

    Note that e.g. lead paint is poorly detected, due to the combination of sporadic poisoning, short biological half-life, usually a single measure, and use of geometric instead of arithmetic mean to estimate population exposure, which may be shown (use a Poisson dosing process) to grossly underestimate arithmetic mean dose and thus arithmetic mean IQ deficiency.

    By which means does one estimate infant and prenatal gross malnutrition (i.e. iodine aside), when such data for a given group has not been collected, and one measures the child or adult's IQ?

  371. @for-the-record
    One – it’s the north pole, isn’t it?

    Finally, some one who has dared to respond!

    Responses can be graded into 4 levels of "intelligence" (0, 1, 2, 3, definitely not to be confused with the PISA levels). Currently you are at Level 1 -- the north pole works, but it represents an infinitesimal part of the solution set.

    For those too lazy to look up the original question:

    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?

     

    In decades (far too many!) of giving this exam, I have encountered one person of Level 3 intelligence.

    Any one here?

    Depending on the dimensions of the spheroid (the “Earth”), there may also be an infinite number of points between 1km and 2km north of the South Pole.

    For example, begin at a point 1.15km north of the pole (A). Walk 1km south to (B). Walk 1km west, tracing a circle 0.15km north of the pole, and ending up at some point on that circle (C). Walk 1km north to (D). There is an infinite number of starting points A such that C is identical to B. All such paths also have D identical to A.

    This example assumes that the cross-section (the circle of latitude) of the spheroid, on the plane of your westward walk, has a circumference of 1km / i, where i is a positive integer. For example, if the circumference is 0.2km, you’ll walk in a circle precisely 5 times (stopping at C, equal to B). The particular latitudes of these circles depend on the dimensions of the spheroid.

    For reference, the circumference of the circle of latitude at 1km, on the actual Earth, is about 6km. At about 0.15km north, it is 1km (i=1). So all the points of this type will be at or south of 1.15km.

    The answer to the question is still “infinity”, but it seems you’re also asking “which”.

    • Replies: @mathy mcmatherson
    Correction - doesn't depend on the dimensions/largeness of the spheroid; true of all spheroids.
  372. the UK government directly accusing Russian intelligence officers of poisoning Skirpol implies…

    (assuming premise: neocons are more evil than a normal person can imagine and the media are corrupt lying filth)

    … that there is going to be another false flag gas attack when Russia/Syria go for Idlib and this time either it will be blamed directly on Russia or there will another kind of escalation e.g. an attack on a US ship.

    (if US/Russia military are privately trying to prevent a war then it might be a good idea to quietly agree to mutually attack any unidentified subs in the vicinity.)

  373. @notanon

    an improvement in physical environment, e.g. (re)introduction of dietary iodination ... snip ... may we take it that the environment was responsible for the change in IQ, regardless of twin study correlations
     
    i may have misunderstood your question but my understanding is the UN has been running iodine programs in parts of Africa for years and it works in the sense it raises the local average IQ but only to the local genetic baseline - so it's like height, better nutrition makes everyone taller but not as tall as the Dutch )cos they don't the bonus genes the Dutch have).

    so for example if China's average IQ has increased dramatically over the last 40 years or so (as reported and maybe due to increased fish consumption) then my guess would be people in the coastal cities always had that average IQ (cos genetic baseline) but the people living in the interior were well below the baseline (cos deficiency) and they are the ones who had a big jump - thus boosting the overall average. you'd need to know the regional data to know for sure.

    How do you discriminate the genetic baseline from the local mean of other (non-iodine) environmental variables not addressed in the intervention? Especially using twin correlations, or by other methods?

    Note that e.g. lead paint is poorly detected, due to the combination of sporadic poisoning, short biological half-life, usually a single measure, and use of geometric instead of arithmetic mean to estimate population exposure, which may be shown (use a Poisson dosing process) to grossly underestimate arithmetic mean dose and thus arithmetic mean IQ deficiency.

    By which means does one estimate infant and prenatal gross malnutrition (i.e. iodine aside), when such data for a given group has not been collected, and one measures the child or adult’s IQ?

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    How do you separate genes and environment, nature and nurture, if they depend on each other? That's why computing "heritability estimates" is a useless endeavor. Twin studies are useless.
    , @notanon

    How do you discriminate the genetic baseline from the local mean of other (non-iodine) environmental variables not addressed in the intervention? Especially using twin correlations, or by other methods?
     
    i guess you'd need example of twins being separated and then raised in a high vs low iodine environment (e.g. some countries iodized their salt at different times) - doing this might actually increase the correlation found in twin studies as it might find one explanation for some of the exceptions to the rule.
  374. @mathy mcmatherson
    Depending on the dimensions of the spheroid (the "Earth"), there may also be an infinite number of points between 1km and 2km north of the South Pole.

    For example, begin at a point 1.15km north of the pole (A). Walk 1km south to (B). Walk 1km west, tracing a circle 0.15km north of the pole, and ending up at some point on that circle (C). Walk 1km north to (D). There is an infinite number of starting points A such that C is identical to B. All such paths also have D identical to A.

    This example assumes that the cross-section (the circle of latitude) of the spheroid, on the plane of your westward walk, has a circumference of 1km / i, where i is a positive integer. For example, if the circumference is 0.2km, you'll walk in a circle precisely 5 times (stopping at C, equal to B). The particular latitudes of these circles depend on the dimensions of the spheroid.

    For reference, the circumference of the circle of latitude at 1km, on the actual Earth, is about 6km. At about 0.15km north, it is 1km (i=1). So all the points of this type will be at or south of 1.15km.

    The answer to the question is still "infinity", but it seems you're also asking "which".

    Correction – doesn’t depend on the dimensions/largeness of the spheroid; true of all spheroids.

  375. @Epigon
    Would you rather have a society with mean of 95 and SD of 20 or a mean of 105 and SD of 10?

    Would you rather have a society

    The first suggestion would do. Now the real question is, what matters, the mean or the next two SDs, in deciding who gets a say in policy making. We average apes decide on the frequency of our rulers indirectly, that should be conceded, but then, direct policy making by smarter individuals as ourselves seems to falter. A matter of absolute ignorance?

    • Replies: @bomag

    The first suggestion would do.
     
    Not a good choice.
  376. There’s no logical or empirical reason to accept the claim “IQ/achievement tests (etc) test intelligence.”

    • Replies: @DFH
    I see that akarlin88 has attracted RaceRealist88
    How do you explain the fact that they're the single best predictor of life outcomes and job performance and that they correlate with self and peer assessed intelligence then?

    http://www.emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Intelligence-and-socioeconomic-success-A-meta-analytic-review-of-longitudinal-research.pdf

    http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/PSYC%20651/Huffcutt%20&%20Arthur%20(1994)%20Interview.pdf

    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/per.799/abstract

    , @Peripatetic commenter
    If you are a moron there’s no logical or empirical reason to accept the claim “IQ/achievement tests (etc) test intelligence.”

    FIFY.
  377. @Johan Meyer
    How do you discriminate the genetic baseline from the local mean of other (non-iodine) environmental variables not addressed in the intervention? Especially using twin correlations, or by other methods?

    Note that e.g. lead paint is poorly detected, due to the combination of sporadic poisoning, short biological half-life, usually a single measure, and use of geometric instead of arithmetic mean to estimate population exposure, which may be shown (use a Poisson dosing process) to grossly underestimate arithmetic mean dose and thus arithmetic mean IQ deficiency.

    By which means does one estimate infant and prenatal gross malnutrition (i.e. iodine aside), when such data for a given group has not been collected, and one measures the child or adult's IQ?

    How do you separate genes and environment, nature and nurture, if they depend on each other? That’s why computing “heritability estimates” is a useless endeavor. Twin studies are useless.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    In the standard additive model, a correlation may be included between genes and environment. Although I reject that model, it is standard (Falconer equations, for example), and my argument assumes its validity.

    Your argument assumes an instant or short time delay connection between genes and environment, which is unlikely. In light of recent mass migration (colonization of North America and trans-Atlantic slave trade), very limited correlation is expected between genes and environment.

    The issue that I raised is that the correlations can only measure the ratios of variances of environment and genetic contributions (a covariance term may appear in the numerator if there is a correlation between genes and environment), and make no comment about mean genetic and environmental effects, by definition.
    , @marpa
    There are several ways. Here's one:

    Study the correlation between specific gene alleles and IQ.

    Develop a statistical relationship between these alleles, such that adding or subtracting them can predict IQ.

    Then, turn it around. Conduct studies of the alleles of random people, without knowing what their IQ is, and try to predict their IQ.

    See how close that gets you to their actual test results.

    Researchers have actually done this. They've found they can predict IQ with a correlation of 60-70% simply by knowing which alleles are present in a person's DNA. That's pretty good. It also tracks with other ways of studying the genetic component of IQ, which has been in the range of 50-80% depending on the study methods.

    One thing that's interesting about the racial component of this is that the first study done this way was conducted in Europe on Europeans. The predictive results were meaningful. However, when they tried to do the same test on Sub-Saharan Africans, the results were meaningless. They could not use the same allele distribution to predict their IQs. The implication is that SSAs use different alleles for the development of cognitive reasoning ability. It might well be true of Asians also. So they have to do entirely new studies on these different groups to see which alleles are associated with cognitive reasoning ability in their populations.

    This suggests that people really might not all think alike.

  378. @RaceRealist88
    There's no logical or empirical reason to accept the claim "IQ/achievement tests (etc) test intelligence."

    I see that akarlin88 has attracted RaceRealist88
    How do you explain the fact that they’re the single best predictor of life outcomes and job performance and that they correlate with self and peer assessed intelligence then?

    http://www.emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Intelligence-and-socioeconomic-success-A-meta-analytic-review-of-longitudinal-research.pdf

    http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/PSYC%20651/Huffcutt%20&%20Arthur%20(1994)%20Interview.pdf

    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/per.799/abstract

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    "How do you explain the fact that they’re the single best predictor of life outcomes and job performance and that they correlate with self and peer assessed intelligence then?"

    IQ tests are constructed to predict school performance by testing for specific knowledge (see my argument on IQ tests and middle class knowledge above). The claim that "job performance", "life outcomes" (which?) correlated with "intelligence" is evidence that IQ tests are construct valid is false. It's a circular claim.

    There is no justification at all for the claim.
  379. @Anon.
    What accounts for the relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA tests, but their exceptional performance in mathematical olympiads, where they outperformed the UK and France?

    It may be that the Bulgarians and Romanians have a larger variance than other European populations and that Bulgaria and Romania sorts through their populations to find those at the extreme RHS of the curve for math ability.

    It should be remembered that the Catholic Church (and the Protestant religions as well) have discourage cousin marriage out to about sixth cousins as a way to avoid the concentration of wealth in the hands of clans, but it would also have served to spread the genes around and stop the concentration of certain skills among certain clans as well (until modern assortative mating came along with the advent of more people going to college.)

    It seems likely that Bulgaria and Romania were not controlled by Catholic church or that parts of it were not.

    Cf, also, the Endogamy practiced by the Jews, resulting in certain effects.

    • Replies: @songbird

    out to about sixth cousins
     
    I don't believe that is right. Maybe six or seven degrees or something, but not sixth cousins. That would be close to the whole population of a place. Anyway, illiterate people could only reasonably know their great, great grandparents, which means that 3rd cousins are about the max they would know. And that is what is reflected if you look at actual dispensations in parish registers.

    I believe a degree of consanguinity works by connecting individuals. Groom to his father (+1 degree), to his grandfather (+1), to his great grandparents (+1), who are the great great grandparents of his bride (+4). Something like that.

    Of course, Henry the VIII tried some legal argument about being very distantly related to his bride, that actually didn't fly with the Church.
  380. @CanSpeccy

    Level 6
    ...
    Though not especially hard, even at this level. I suspect that many of you can do it in your heads within a minute.
     
    Within a minute! LOL.

    She rode 4 + 3 km in 9 + 6 minutes = 7 km in 15 minutes, and thus at an average speed of 28 kph.

    The answer can be reached in no more time than is required to state the facts of the case. or about five seconds. So this is not a question of intelligence, it is a question of literacy and numeracy.

    Intelligence may be limited by genetic factors, but in the broad middle range, population differences in IQ are all about availability and quality of schooling. Declining IQs of Americans, Brits and other Westerners is largely due to the transformation of schools from educational institutions to institutions for paying large salaries to numerous teachers engaged in pointless or counter-productive "administrative" activities, and for indoctrinating children in the religion of political correctness and white self-hatred.

    “Intelligence may be limited by genetic factors”

    For this claim to hold there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structures or genes).

    P1) Intelligence is a mental ability.
    P2) If intelligence is a mental ability, then it cannot be “limited by genetic factors”, because for the claim that intelligence is “limited by genetic factors” to be true, there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structure or genes, since they are physical).
    P3) But psychophysical laws do not exist (see Donald Davidson’s anomalous monism; Ross’ Immaterial Aspects of Thought; Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos; the Kripke-Wittgenstein rule-following argument etc).
    C) Therefore intelligence cannot “be limited by genetic factors.”

    • Replies: @Talha
    I'm glad you're on this thread, I learn a lot on this subject from your posts.

    One question, you said:

    Therefore intelligence cannot “be limited by genetic factors.”
     
    Does this case hold, for instance with, say, something like Down's Syndrome (which, if I remember correctly, is due to genetic factors)? That certainly seems to make a difference in intelligence for people with DS no matter what their racial/ethnic background is.

    Peace.
    , @DFH
    If there's no link between physical and mental states, then what reason is there to think that the physical world exists?
    , @Johan Meyer
    A long response follows, hence the more tag.

    Anomalous monism is a very confused concept. Let the mental operation be more than the external stimuli, for example, the physical working of the brain, which may be a stimulus or cause in itself, let alone more abstract systems such as memory. Take away the event über alles mentality, allow physical processes, and one may begin to model, within available computational power, the mental world of an earthworm. By various simplifications, one may approximate more complex mental worlds.

    As for Ross, observe that his incompossible possible functions argument boils down to a predicate logical situation in which F_T(x) is the function in mind, and \forall_n F_{F,n}(x) are incompossible, but equal to F_T(x) for all x thusfar considered or physically estimated. Allowing human capacity for mistakes, the human mental capacity of interest to Ross is that the incompossible nature of an approximation can be recognised. It is not clear to me why the existence of this mental capacity should exclude the causation of this mental capacity from the physical workings of the neural subsystems of the human brain---his argument strikes me as a non sequitur, though the problem may be beyond the computational powers available for more than extremely rough approximation.

    Nagel (admittedly per wikipedia) seems to rely on "common sense" instead of logic and falsifiable hypotheses. If a mind, e.g. as described through consciousness and Ross's definitional thinking (action is based on implied definitions, rightly or wrongly applied), and if such a thought-action system allows greater chance of survival, then any coherent alternative does not disprove the evolutionary concept as reflecting nature, but is at best a competing theory.

    As for Kripke and Wittgenstein, consider a physical analog. Is a single measure of blood lead equal to (or perfectly correlated with) dose? One can show it not to be under basic assumptions, yet that "quus" operation is the norm. A more likely explanation is economy of effort in the working of neural systems, which allows the recognition, on additional data, when "quus" is intended rather than "plus"---a non-physical mind is not needed to have the quus-plus paradox.
    , @CanSpeccy

    Therefore intelligence cannot “be limited by genetic factors.”
     
    An obvious nonsense. All characteristics of the organism depend on an interaction of genes and environment, and many mental defects and brain abnormalities have known and specific genetic causes, cf: Genetic Basis of Brain Malformations
  381. @RaceRealist88
    There's no logical or empirical reason to accept the claim "IQ/achievement tests (etc) test intelligence."

    If you are a moron there’s no logical or empirical reason to accept the claim “IQ/achievement tests (etc) test intelligence.”

    FIFY.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    What's the empirical/logical justification for the claim?
  382. @Gerard2

    In per capita terms, China is as poor and unsuccessful, as Thailand, Algeria and Brazil. And yet, their reported average academic test scores are higher than those of many wealthy countries.
     
    If you look at the results in all the Olympiad competitions over the summer ( mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and so on)......then Russia did very , very , very well, (Ukraine did shit, of course). As for the Americans , ALL the winning contestants for their teams were either Chinese or Indian named. Particularly Chinese ( I'm sure not Japanese or Korean, but Chinese)

    Now, Indians are very clever in general but this dominance of Asians, I think is mainly down to "lock them in the room all day" driven parents. Numerous people in the west have experience of Orientals of average intelligence obtain high academic results.
    Russians who take part and do well in these events tend to be more strong-minded, independent-thinking people or "free spirits" ( let down by 1 POS who turns out to have been a Navalny hamster)

    Western Universities may now have become more plentiful with Chinese professors/lecturers but I think this is more driven by economics and availability, particularly with the so-called "lesser universities" now becoming more prestigious as more qualified people go to live in the UK and US

    In engineering the Chinese guys can understand and implement ad nauseum the mathematics behind the computer based methods in construction ( very simple but extensive and dull) , but could they come up with and have a firm grip on the classical "elastic" theory that underpins this and was the basis of engineering from the enlightenment period onwards?

    Or could they come up with and be comfortable with the more part empirical/part-theory ideas that are the bases for soil engineering.......I heavily doubt it in both cases.
    This is where the real fundamental understanding of engineering comes from....plus most of the creativity and intelligent thinking

    Incidentally, I think the most large example of racism is not towards blacks or jews.........but from aficionados of classical music towards Chinese/Japanese/Korean pianists and Musicians

    The exams are divided now (since 2015) into base (easy) and optional advanced (profile) papers.

    Looking at some of recent profile papers, it’s still the same mix of some easy, and some difficult or tricky questions, as was in the part C of the old exam.

    Now considering that around half are still taking the advanced option, and the majority passing.

    However, the number of students taking the exam is rapidly falling already since 2015, which is quite depressing.

    -

    On balance, the mathematics level is still surely a lot higher than in countries like America. (Where they have funny exams like GRE).

  383. @Michael Kenny
    According to the people who develop and administer IQ tests, such tests do not measure some objective thing called "intelligence". They measure adaptation to the society in which you live. Thus, use of IQs to claim that this or that ethnic group is more intelligent than another is pseudo-science. Thus, if you administer an American-designed IQ test to the whole planet, Americans will naturally score higher and, since the people who design such tests are, by definition, well-educated, middle class people, their idea of what constitutes "adaptation" will reflect the values of educated, middle class people in that society. Such people will tend to score higher than people from other backgrounds. In addition, the figure of 100 is an average. Amusingly, all this information comes from an article some years ago on a site which peddles white supremacy. The author (foolishly!) linked us to the raw data, where the scientists who had conducted the tests provided the above expalnation by way of caveat. That site has never since repeated the mistake of linking its readers to raw data!

    If the claim “IQ tests test intelligence” is true, then there must be construct validity for IQ. Construct validity for IQ does not exist. Therefore the claim “IQ tests test intelligence” is false.

    P1) IQ tests are experience-dependent.
    P2) IQ tests are experience-dependent because some social classes are more exposed to the knowledge and structure of the tests by virtue of their being born in a certain social class.
    P3) Since IQ tests are experience-dependent, then how an individual scores on a given test is predicated on his exposure to the middle-class knowledge structure
    C) So if IQ tests are experience-dependent because some social classes are more exposed to the knowledge and structure of the tests, then IQ tests test distance from the middle class and it’s knowledge structure, not “intelligence”; “IQ test scores” are really “middle-class scores.”

    • Replies: @szopen
    For example, within families some siblings are somehow more exposed to the middle-class knowledge structure and some are not. Another interesting thing is that the exposure to the middle-class knowledge structure would mandate that heritability should raise with age, while it's not (your all objections to the heritability calculations notwithstanding). Another is that people from lower classes can have and do have higher scores (and hence, higher exposure etc) than people from higher classes. Moreover, whatever are your objections to the predictive power of IQ tests, it seems they are higher than, for example, SES (especially since in modern society belonging to particular SES WILL be somewhat mediated by the intelligence and genetics).

    RR88, I respect some of your work and articles on your site, but the claim that IQ tests measures exposure etc is just intuitively wrong.
  384. @RaceRealist88
    How do you separate genes and environment, nature and nurture, if they depend on each other? That's why computing "heritability estimates" is a useless endeavor. Twin studies are useless.

    In the standard additive model, a correlation may be included between genes and environment. Although I reject that model, it is standard (Falconer equations, for example), and my argument assumes its validity.

    Your argument assumes an instant or short time delay connection between genes and environment, which is unlikely. In light of recent mass migration (colonization of North America and trans-Atlantic slave trade), very limited correlation is expected between genes and environment.

    The issue that I raised is that the correlations can only measure the ratios of variances of environment and genetic contributions (a covariance term may appear in the numerator if there is a correlation between genes and environment), and make no comment about mean genetic and environmental effects, by definition.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    1 For heritability estimates to be useful, then there can be no interaction between G and E
    2 There is interaction between G and E
    3 Therefore heritability estimates are not useful.

    (Good book on the matter: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Versus-Understand-Interaction-Philosophical/dp/0262027372)
  385. May 14, 2013 The Truth about School

    Did you ever wonder how it is that kids spend 13 years from kindergarten to high school supposedly being prepared for life, yet when they get out they don’t have any real skills?

  386. @RaceRealist88
    "Intelligence may be limited by genetic factors"


    For this claim to hold there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structures or genes).

    P1) Intelligence is a mental ability.
    P2) If intelligence is a mental ability, then it cannot be "limited by genetic factors", because for the claim that intelligence is "limited by genetic factors" to be true, there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structure or genes, since they are physical).
    P3) But psychophysical laws do not exist (see Donald Davidson's anomalous monism; Ross' Immaterial Aspects of Thought; Nagel's Mind and Cosmos; the Kripke-Wittgenstein rule-following argument etc).
    C) Therefore intelligence cannot "be limited by genetic factors."

    I’m glad you’re on this thread, I learn a lot on this subject from your posts.

    One question, you said:

    Therefore intelligence cannot “be limited by genetic factors.”

    Does this case hold, for instance with, say, something like Down’s Syndrome (which, if I remember correctly, is due to genetic factors)? That certainly seems to make a difference in intelligence for people with DS no matter what their racial/ethnic background is.

    Peace.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Down syndrome is a genetic disorder, not a psychological trait (intelligence is claimed to be a mental ability/psychological trait).
  387. @DFH
    I see that akarlin88 has attracted RaceRealist88
    How do you explain the fact that they're the single best predictor of life outcomes and job performance and that they correlate with self and peer assessed intelligence then?

    http://www.emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Intelligence-and-socioeconomic-success-A-meta-analytic-review-of-longitudinal-research.pdf

    http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/PSYC%20651/Huffcutt%20&%20Arthur%20(1994)%20Interview.pdf

    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/per.799/abstract

    “How do you explain the fact that they’re the single best predictor of life outcomes and job performance and that they correlate with self and peer assessed intelligence then?”

    IQ tests are constructed to predict school performance by testing for specific knowledge (see my argument on IQ tests and middle class knowledge above). The claim that “job performance”, “life outcomes” (which?) correlated with “intelligence” is evidence that IQ tests are construct valid is false. It’s a circular claim.

    There is no justification at all for the claim.

    • Replies: @DFH
    That doesn't make any sense.
  388. @Anon.
    What accounts for the relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA tests, but their exceptional performance in mathematical olympiads, where they outperformed the UK and France?

    relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA

    mountains

    (mountainous regions are often low iodine so my guess is regions that look like this

    will have unusually high variance)

    • Replies: @awry

    mountains

     

    More likely gypsies.
    , @Peripatetic commenter
    You didn't deal with the meat of the objection.

    They perform poorly on the PISA test yet do well on the Math Olympiads.
  389. @RaceRealist88
    "Intelligence may be limited by genetic factors"


    For this claim to hold there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structures or genes).

    P1) Intelligence is a mental ability.
    P2) If intelligence is a mental ability, then it cannot be "limited by genetic factors", because for the claim that intelligence is "limited by genetic factors" to be true, there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structure or genes, since they are physical).
    P3) But psychophysical laws do not exist (see Donald Davidson's anomalous monism; Ross' Immaterial Aspects of Thought; Nagel's Mind and Cosmos; the Kripke-Wittgenstein rule-following argument etc).
    C) Therefore intelligence cannot "be limited by genetic factors."

    If there’s no link between physical and mental states, then what reason is there to think that the physical world exists?

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    How does that follow? The physical is necessary for the mental to exist but the physical does not explain the mental, nor are there any (strict) laws linking the mental to the physical (see Donald Davidson).
  390. @Talha
    I'm glad you're on this thread, I learn a lot on this subject from your posts.

    One question, you said:

    Therefore intelligence cannot “be limited by genetic factors.”
     
    Does this case hold, for instance with, say, something like Down's Syndrome (which, if I remember correctly, is due to genetic factors)? That certainly seems to make a difference in intelligence for people with DS no matter what their racial/ethnic background is.

    Peace.

    Down syndrome is a genetic disorder, not a psychological trait (intelligence is claimed to be a mental ability/psychological trait).

    • Replies: @notanon
    so define intelligence as a relative lack of genetic defects (i.e. intelligence = healthy brain)

    easy peasy lemon squeezy
  391. @DFH
    If there's no link between physical and mental states, then what reason is there to think that the physical world exists?

    How does that follow? The physical is necessary for the mental to exist but the physical does not explain the mental, nor are there any (strict) laws linking the mental to the physical (see Donald Davidson).

    • Replies: @DFH
    P1, There are no relations between physical and mental states
    P2, If a has no relation to b, then a cannot provide evidence for b
    P3, We only have access to mental states
    C We don't have any evidence for physical states
  392. I’m no genius, but I have to listen to 2 of my colleagues every day whining and complaining about every single blessed duty to which they have been assigned. They simply cannot grasp the importance of those duties. They think that everything they do is completely unnecessary and is being forced upon them by their supervisor’s immense stupidity. They spend at least 3 hours a day misunderstanding their supervisor’s instructions and then vociferously refusing to perform them. They are painfully dull witted.

    I tell you, I am in Hell having to listen to these 2, a middle aged African-American woman and a young lady whose parents are some kind of Chinese ethnic minority (they speak a rare dialect of Chinese) who lived in Vietnam before emigrating. Every other sentence out of the young lady’s mouth is, “F$%k that $hit! I ain’t doing that $hit!” Last week my supervisor offered me the sister of the Chinese-Vietnamese ghetto girl to help me out in my Dept. I desperately need help, but.. I have had the chance to see her in action and she is worse than her sister, and I told him that I would rather be boiled in oil than have her join the worse than useless crew of people I already work with. He agreed with me. I have been taking as much vacation time off as possible because I just can’t stand to listen to these people.

    • Replies: @Anon
    Must affirmative action black women are like that. They spend more time avoiding work than they spend doing work. They really think they should be paid for gossiping, chuckling and chortling, planning potlucks and hours of personal phone conversations
    , @AB
    LOL do you work for the government? Or live in CA? Both?

    Sounds like a chapter straight out of Heather MacDonald's The Burden of Bad Ideas.

  393. @Johan Meyer
    In the standard additive model, a correlation may be included between genes and environment. Although I reject that model, it is standard (Falconer equations, for example), and my argument assumes its validity.

    Your argument assumes an instant or short time delay connection between genes and environment, which is unlikely. In light of recent mass migration (colonization of North America and trans-Atlantic slave trade), very limited correlation is expected between genes and environment.

    The issue that I raised is that the correlations can only measure the ratios of variances of environment and genetic contributions (a covariance term may appear in the numerator if there is a correlation between genes and environment), and make no comment about mean genetic and environmental effects, by definition.

    1 For heritability estimates to be useful, then there can be no interaction between G and E
    2 There is interaction between G and E
    3 Therefore heritability estimates are not useful.

    (Good book on the matter: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Versus-Understand-Interaction-Philosophical/dp/0262027372)

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    That merely leads to a distinction between narrow sense (genetic) and wide sense (genetic and environment correlated with genetic) heritability.
  394. @Peripatetic commenter
    If you are a moron there’s no logical or empirical reason to accept the claim “IQ/achievement tests (etc) test intelligence.”

    FIFY.

    What’s the empirical/logical justification for the claim?

  395. @RaceRealist88
    "How do you explain the fact that they’re the single best predictor of life outcomes and job performance and that they correlate with self and peer assessed intelligence then?"

    IQ tests are constructed to predict school performance by testing for specific knowledge (see my argument on IQ tests and middle class knowledge above). The claim that "job performance", "life outcomes" (which?) correlated with "intelligence" is evidence that IQ tests are construct valid is false. It's a circular claim.

    There is no justification at all for the claim.

    That doesn’t make any sense.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Why?
  396. @Johan Meyer
    How do you discriminate the genetic baseline from the local mean of other (non-iodine) environmental variables not addressed in the intervention? Especially using twin correlations, or by other methods?

    Note that e.g. lead paint is poorly detected, due to the combination of sporadic poisoning, short biological half-life, usually a single measure, and use of geometric instead of arithmetic mean to estimate population exposure, which may be shown (use a Poisson dosing process) to grossly underestimate arithmetic mean dose and thus arithmetic mean IQ deficiency.

    By which means does one estimate infant and prenatal gross malnutrition (i.e. iodine aside), when such data for a given group has not been collected, and one measures the child or adult's IQ?

    How do you discriminate the genetic baseline from the local mean of other (non-iodine) environmental variables not addressed in the intervention? Especially using twin correlations, or by other methods?

    i guess you’d need example of twins being separated and then raised in a high vs low iodine environment (e.g. some countries iodized their salt at different times) – doing this might actually increase the correlation found in twin studies as it might find one explanation for some of the exceptions to the rule.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    One problem is that much of the iodine effect is in utero.
  397. @Anon.
    What accounts for the relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA tests, but their exceptional performance in mathematical olympiads, where they outperformed the UK and France?

    In mathematical olympiads, they test the maths skills of a few talented, not necessarily representative, kids.

    In PISA, they are testing cultural conformity, of a wider sample of children, to the OECD’s educational psychologists. (Iit is not testing any maths skills, so much as question decoding – and the latter explains the differences between nations).

    You would not expect such strong connection between these two things, as they are two quite different measurements.

    They might still be interesting in themselves though. The PISA stuff really needs to read alongside the OECD’s own descriptions of their aims and ideology.

    Their essays and methodology available online. (They want everyone to conform to their own pedagogical ideas, and PISA is their weapon for pushing their ideas through).

    https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/pisa_19963777

  398. @RaceRealist88
    How does that follow? The physical is necessary for the mental to exist but the physical does not explain the mental, nor are there any (strict) laws linking the mental to the physical (see Donald Davidson).

    P1, There are no relations between physical and mental states
    P2, If a has no relation to b, then a cannot provide evidence for b
    P3, We only have access to mental states
    C We don’t have any evidence for physical states

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    You reject the claim that the physical (brain) is necessary for the mental to exist? How do we have access to mental states? The only mental states you can be sure of are your own.

    That there is no lawlike relation between the mental and the physical means psychophysical reductionism is false (meaning mental abilities/psychological states/traits cannot be reduced to genes/brain states/structure), thus mental/psychological traits cannot be genetically inherited.

    Where's the error in my reasoning? Check out Davidson's and Ross's arguments against psychophysical reductionism and get back to me.

  399. @DFH
    That doesn't make any sense.

    Why?

    • Replies: @EH
    Your argument is insane because you are. All your arguments on the subject are wrong, as has been shown in thread after thread, but you don't care. No amount of disproof or pointing out fallacies ever has the slightest effect on you, you never acknowledge your defeats, your fixed idea that intelligence doesn't exist or is unmeasurable is totally immune from all reality checks, even to the absurd point that you claim IQ is an invalid measure because IQ correlates with health and wealth!

    Literally insane, delusional, and stinking up every thread on the topic with post after crazy post that reveals to everyone how delusional you are - so delusional that you think your compulsive flood of insane posts is actually winning over readers rather than just embarrassing yourself. Only fools agree with you but few argue any longer since arguing against this fixed delusion of yours has never done any good.
  400. @DFH
    P1, There are no relations between physical and mental states
    P2, If a has no relation to b, then a cannot provide evidence for b
    P3, We only have access to mental states
    C We don't have any evidence for physical states

    You reject the claim that the physical (brain) is necessary for the mental to exist? How do we have access to mental states? The only mental states you can be sure of are your own.

    That there is no lawlike relation between the mental and the physical means psychophysical reductionism is false (meaning mental abilities/psychological states/traits cannot be reduced to genes/brain states/structure), thus mental/psychological traits cannot be genetically inherited.

    Where’s the error in my reasoning? Check out Davidson’s and Ross’s arguments against psychophysical reductionism and get back to me.

    • Replies: @szopen
    The fact that we do not know the laws does not mean they do not exist. Hence, your reasoning is "X is true only if Y, we don't know if Y, hence X is false"
  401. @reiner Tor
    I wanted to write regression to the mean, reversion to the mean is a different thing.

    It means that the selection effect will get smaller, because of the part of the variance which is random. On average, it will move the descendants of the selected dumb subgroup (here the slaves) towards the mean of the original group. It only works for one generation, and if the part of the variance unexplained by genetics (which is mostly random) is 0.4, than the effect of the difference between the slaves mean and the mean of the original group will get that much smaller.

    It's quite simple why. The genetically determined IQ (GIQ) of those with a high IQ will be lower than their phenotypical IQ, and the GIQ of those with a very low IQ will be higher than their phenotypical IQ. Randomness works both ways, so for example those with an IQ of 130 will have people with a GIQ of 140 and 120 among them, but because those with a GIQ of 120 are much more numerous, there will be many more with a GIQ of 120 than with a GIQ of 140 among those with a phenotypical IQ of 130. So if you take a group of 130 IQ people, their GIQ will be lower (depending on the size of the random effect, i.e. the size of 1-h^2, or, in other words, on the size of h^2, where h^2 is the narrow sense heritability also used in the Breeder's Equation), and so their children will have an average phenotypical IQ equal to the GIQ of their parents' group. From that point on, no regression to the mean is going to happen.

    genetic load is another crock of crap tautology
     
    It's not tautology. Higher IQ people have higher life expectancy, even adjusting for lifestyle and income. At least part of the explanation is genetic load. It's not at all obvious from the outset that this would be so, some people created complicated theories around how the smartness causes the longer lifespans. (Which is still possible, but since now it's known that genetic load is causing the dumbness of many dumb people, it's quite likely that the genetic load is depressing not only IQs but also lifespans.)

    It’s a tautology because it leads to identical conclusion for different environments. Let suppose a population has two traits X and Y that are not correlated. The environment A selects for high value of X and environment B for low value of X. In the end result you will end up with two different surviving subpopulations which will have the same statistics of the trait Y. Yes you when confronted with the case of environment A would argue that the statistics Y would get altered if the suited your goals. Then few days later you could argue the same for the environment B.

    Let consider a herd of sheep. The timid and risk averse stay inside the herd while the risk takers wonder around by themselves. When on the meadows the risk takers are more likely to be eaten by the wolves but when rounded up for the slaughterhouse are more likely to escape and survive and vice versa for the timid ones. Can we tell which ones are more intelligent? Timidity does not have to correlate with intelligence whatever it suppose to be for sheep.

    Somehow you let yourself to conclude that survivors of the slave ship will be more intelligent. Why do you make this conclusion? Because you want this conclusion and the lax framework of tautological just-so stories of the ToE is very tolerant of undisciplined thinking.

    We have no idea what traits if any were helpful in survival of the slave ship. This could have been totally random uncorrelated to any trait.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    "The environment A selects for"

    Why the intensional language?
  402. @Peripatetic commenter
    It may be that the Bulgarians and Romanians have a larger variance than other European populations and that Bulgaria and Romania sorts through their populations to find those at the extreme RHS of the curve for math ability.

    It should be remembered that the Catholic Church (and the Protestant religions as well) have discourage cousin marriage out to about sixth cousins as a way to avoid the concentration of wealth in the hands of clans, but it would also have served to spread the genes around and stop the concentration of certain skills among certain clans as well (until modern assortative mating came along with the advent of more people going to college.)

    It seems likely that Bulgaria and Romania were not controlled by Catholic church or that parts of it were not.

    Cf, also, the Endogamy practiced by the Jews, resulting in certain effects.

    out to about sixth cousins

    I don’t believe that is right. Maybe six or seven degrees or something, but not sixth cousins. That would be close to the whole population of a place. Anyway, illiterate people could only reasonably know their great, great grandparents, which means that 3rd cousins are about the max they would know. And that is what is reflected if you look at actual dispensations in parish registers.

    I believe a degree of consanguinity works by connecting individuals. Groom to his father (+1 degree), to his grandfather (+1), to his great grandparents (+1), who are the great great grandparents of his bride (+4). Something like that.

    Of course, Henry the VIII tried some legal argument about being very distantly related to his bride, that actually didn’t fly with the Church.

    • Replies: @utu

    http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04264a.htm
    The Church was prompted by various reasons first to recognize the prohibitive legislation of the Roman State and then to extend the impediment of consanguinity beyond the limits of the civil legislation. The welfare of the social order, according to St. Augustine (City of God XV.16) and St. Thomas (Suppl. Q. liii, a. 3), demanded the widest possible extension of friendship and love among all humankind, to which desirable aim the intermarriage of close blood-relations was opposed; this was especially true in the first half of the Middle Ages, when the best interests of society required the unification of the numerous tribes and peoples which had settled on the soil of the Roman Empire. By overthrowing the barriers between inimical families and races, ruinous internecine warfare was diminished and greater peace and harmony secured among the newly-converted Christians. In the moral order the prohibition of marriage between near relations served as a barrier against early corruption among young persons of either sex brought habitually into close intimacy with one another; it tended also to strengthen the natural feeling of respect for closely related persons (St. Thomas, II-II.154.9; St. Augustine, City of God XV.10).
     

    Gregory I (590-604), if the letter in question be truly his, granted to the newly converted Anglo-Saxons restriction of the impediment to the fourth degree of consanguinity (c. 20, C. 35, qq. 2, 3); Paul III restricted it to the second degree for American Indians (Zitelli, Apparat. Jur. Eccl., 405), and also for natives of the Philippines.

    We then meet with the canon (c. 16, C. 55, q. 2), attributed to various popes and embodied in a letter of Gregory III (732), which forbids marriage among the Germans to the seventh degree of consanguinity. Wernz (Jus Decretal., IV, p. 624), says that at this date so severe a prohibition cannot be based on the canonical computation, but rather on that of the Roman law;
     
    , @notanon

    Maybe six or seven degrees
     
    yes (h/t hubchik) the church ban was in degrees of relatedness so a cousin would be three degrees of separation and according to this chart

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consanguinity

    six degrees of separation would be something like first cousin once removed.
  403. @RaceRealist88
    Down syndrome is a genetic disorder, not a psychological trait (intelligence is claimed to be a mental ability/psychological trait).

    so define intelligence as a relative lack of genetic defects (i.e. intelligence = healthy brain)

    easy peasy lemon squeezy

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Is "intelligence" a mental ability (intentional state) or behavior (disposition)?
  404. @notanon
    so define intelligence as a relative lack of genetic defects (i.e. intelligence = healthy brain)

    easy peasy lemon squeezy

    Is “intelligence” a mental ability (intentional state) or behavior (disposition)?

    • Replies: @DFH
    Science with predictive validity vs. Word Fetishism ......... who will win?
    , @notanon
    if intelligence is (mostly) brain health then maybe it's both and neither?
    , @Kratoklastes

    Is “intelligence” a mental ability (intentional state) or behavior (disposition)?
     
    Or a combination of both, or a combination of both with other stuff... it's actually a good question, and it's not clear that anybody bothers to think hard enough about it.

    My own 'pulled out of my ass' notion is that what we think of as intelligence is a combination of
    ① raw processing speed;
    ② domain selection; and
    ③ application-to-task.

    The processor speed gives some indication of potential; the selection of the domain/s and the commitment to task are the things that determine whether or not the potential is put to practical use.

    Drivers of all three things are combinations of genetics, nutrition (from in utero to adolescence), training, and social examples. Social examples aren't changing anyone's processor speed, obviously - but they will certainly affect the domain selection, and the commitment to task, even more so.

    This is why I've said before that a person with an IQ of 120, coupled with some guidance and a lot of 'grit', should be expected to outperform a person with an IQ of 130 who doesn't give a fuck and/or has had no (or poor) guidance. I say this as someone who was capable of spending a good half-decade (in the 80s) not giving a fuck, despite having had all the good examples in the world.

    But on an equal-effort basis, the kid whose brain clock is running at 130 whatsits, will wipe the floor with the 120-tard. That's one of the great things about having good cognitive 'grunt': once you get your shit in one sock, the return on effort is high.

    So although we know IQ differentials across individuals contribute meaningfully to differences economic outcomes, I'm not convinced that it's enough by itself.

    I choose 130 advisedly, because it's my observation that people with an IQ σ/2 above that are ornery buggers, who recognise a hamster wheel and tend to give it the miss-in-baulk (and or declare a curt nolle prosequi): the further up the cognitive spectrum you go, the more likely the individual is to be unmotivated to do things to impress others. Having an IQ above about 145 is pretty much the same as being actually autistic (not "child-psychologist autistic", which is just a diagnosis of stupidity, expressed in such a way as to be palatable to parents of a type who take having stupid progeny as a personal slight).

    .

    A reasonable analogy is what people mean when they discuss "physical fitness" (in the everyday, non-Darwinian sense of the term).

    Again, it seems pretty obvious that there is an interplay between genetics, nutrition, training/guidance and dedication.

    At élite levels the genetic component stands out like dog's nuts - and in one domain in particular: the men's marathon.

    A Kenyan - especially one from the Kalenji (sometimes Kalenjin) tribe - is vastly more likely to run a sub-2:10 marathon than any Westerner. There are Westerners who have done so (not many - only 14 Americans, vs 350-odd Kalenji[n]); and of course there are many Kalenji[n] who haven't. But there's an obvious 'tilt'.

    The Westerners who have done so, were starting without the considerable genetic advantages of the Kalenji[n], and without the Kalenji[n]'s cultural 'pain tolerance' rituals the endow them with an understanding of the difference between actual pain and discomfort[1].

    Conversely, Western athletes of even modest means have access to first-world nutrition, professional guidance... and of course élite athletes all have absolute commitment to their task.

    The reality is, though, that 'like for like' (i.e., same nutrition, guidance and commitment) an arbitrarily-selected Kalenji[n] 'good' marathoner would eventually embarrass all but the absolute elite Westerner.

    So we know that genetics makes a huge difference at élite level; and in groups with similar levels of genetics, the other factors provide differentiation.

    We take that as read in sports, so why would it be controversial when the exertions are cerebral/cognitive rather than physical/cardiovascular?

    We also take it as read that there is a significant mental component to physical/cardiovascular efforts, too - we tend to concentrate on motivation, as in the willingness to 'dig deep', 'gut-run' and so on.

    But there is also a cognitive aspect: monitoring, recognising, interpreting and understanding the feedback that your body gives your brain in real time (either as-perceived, or via sensors). That's critical for any sports performance longer than a 400m sprint.

    It takes significant mental effort to perform a full-blown "threshold test", for example - it burns, it hurts, you can't get your breath, and you feel like your heart is going to come out of your mouth.

    However familiarity with the test protocol makes a significant difference to results, and that difference cannot be explained by physical adaptation.

    Consider the two primary ways of assessing 'endurance', for example:

    • 'constant threshold effort' tests (where the subject picks an output level and tries to hold it for the entire test, and must abandon the test if the output level drops by more than 5%), or
    • 'ramp' tests (where the subject is required to perform consecutive blocks of a set time, at progressively-higher levels of exertion - again, failure to stay within the range of each block's target means the test ends).

    The very first time a 'normal' (i.e., relatively untrained) person does a ramp test, they will give up well before they hit anything close to their actual threshold.

    This is because the first time you do a ramp test, the fact that it keeps getting harder is mentally confronting: it's mildly dispiriting each time the resistance goes up.

    If the same person does the same test the next day, their results will routinely improve by 10-20%.

    And the same is true for 'constant effort' tests - for the simple reason that on first exposure to the test, semi-trained subjects simply don't know how to pace themselves: they have no sense of what effort level they could barely sustain for 20, 30, or 60 minutes. Some people (young men, mostly) attack the test and 'gas out' before the allotted time... others are conservative and pick a level that is too low, and realise at the end that they had plenty left in the tank.

    Once they do their first test and realise afterwards that they had either over- or under-cooked it, they perform vastly better (again, 10-20% in 24 hours is not uncommon).

    People for whom near-threshold exertion is routine, are far more accurate in their perceptions of exertion - so much so that they can accurately assess what their heart-rate is at any point in a session, to within a 10-beat range... without looking at a sensor.

    [1] Almost everything that 'hurts' doesn't hurt as much as we think it does. Anyone who thinks that a papercut with lemon juice on it 'hurts', has never had to pass a kidney stone (nor have I).

  405. @utu
    It's a tautology because it leads to identical conclusion for different environments. Let suppose a population has two traits X and Y that are not correlated. The environment A selects for high value of X and environment B for low value of X. In the end result you will end up with two different surviving subpopulations which will have the same statistics of the trait Y. Yes you when confronted with the case of environment A would argue that the statistics Y would get altered if the suited your goals. Then few days later you could argue the same for the environment B.

    Let consider a herd of sheep. The timid and risk averse stay inside the herd while the risk takers wonder around by themselves. When on the meadows the risk takers are more likely to be eaten by the wolves but when rounded up for the slaughterhouse are more likely to escape and survive and vice versa for the timid ones. Can we tell which ones are more intelligent? Timidity does not have to correlate with intelligence whatever it suppose to be for sheep.

    Somehow you let yourself to conclude that survivors of the slave ship will be more intelligent. Why do you make this conclusion? Because you want this conclusion and the lax framework of tautological just-so stories of the ToE is very tolerant of undisciplined thinking.

    We have no idea what traits if any were helpful in survival of the slave ship. This could have been totally random uncorrelated to any trait.

    “The environment A selects for”

    Why the intensional language?

    • Replies: @DFH

    intensional
     
    *intentional
  406. @RaceRealist88
    "The environment A selects for"

    Why the intensional language?

    intensional

    *intentional

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Are you not familiar with intensionality?
  407. Anon[257] • Disclaimer says:
    @Kratoklastes
    The 115 number for US Ashkenazim has about the same factual content as the book of Joshua or Misha Defonseca's riveting Holocaust memoir (or her earlier riveting memoir of being a child victim of satanic ritual sexual abuse).

    Mr Unz has already shown that the numbers are significantly lower than the claimed 115 - it's somewhere in the masterful "American Pravda" material.

    Also... I've said this before: if you want to do some 'apples vs apples" tests, and test the 'inherent' chunk that can be ascribed to Ashkenazim per se... do some testing in a shtetl in the countryside around Lvov.

    That would be fair - it's the benchmark that generated the data used to paint SSAs as irretrievably backward. Get some kiddies from rural areas, give them fuck-all test prep, and use the resultant statistical bilge to reinforce some deeply-felt need to justify the history of Western paternalism and exploitation.

    I'm sure that Goebells would love to have thought of that:


    "Look - we did IQ tests throughout the parts of the Pale of Settlement that are under the protection of the Reich: the results were pretty awful... turns out that the average shtetl-dweller would be declared feeble-minded under the definition laid out inBuck v Bell 274 US 200 [1927] - the US Supreme court's 1927 declaration that governments have the right to compulsorily sterilise groups so defined "for the protection of the health of the state".

    Our considered view is that sterilising is a half-assed solution that is nowhere near 'Final' enough (as solutions go).

    Round them up.

    HAIL KEK."

     

    Jokes aside... the data on race and IQ is obviously problematic - the Irish problem, the Dutch problem (two populations that tested at average IQ of 70-80 in the 50s-70s, but are clearly >100 today). I guess they both get a pass because they're kinda-white?

    .

    I'm quite a fan of Gilad Atzmon's "cognitive bifurcation" thesis (it's not specifically Atzmon's but he does a very good job of presenting it); I would bet that the raw data for US Ashkenazim would be solidly bimodal - with one mode at 95, and another at 125. It's super super hard to get hold of that data, though... I wonder why that would be? It's almost as if nobody wants folks to look at it.

    Bog-standard Ashenazim are as dumb as a bag of hammers; smart Ashkenazim are as smart as smart goyim. Hyper-smart Ashkenazim (IQ above 135) are slightly less rare than hyper-smart goyim. It still makes a difference to outcomes, because group cohesion is a force multiplier for tiny intelligence differentials.

    I believe that average 115 IQ askenazi Jewish comes from tests given in the NYC public school system in the 1920s for gifted children.

    I’ve never seen any proof of an actual study in which a representative sample of ashkenazi Jews were given an IQ test.
    The average Israeli Jew IQ is 95.

    If anyone knows of a real study done about askenazi jewish IQ please let me know.

  408. @The Alarmist

    "Higher IQ people have higher life expectancy, even adjusting for lifestyle and income. At least part of the explanation is genetic load."
     
    The major part is natural selection. The fact that we in the West are engineering too much safety into our systems and processes is leading to a dumbing down of our native populations. The importation of third worlders is amplifying the effect.

    Let’s say “intelligence has a free-rider, trait T’. They’re correlated 100 percent, so if one is selected then so is the other. Natural selection cannot distinguish between “intelligence” and trait T’ because natural selection is not an agent (it does not have a mind to choose between the two coextensive traits), nor are there any laws of trait selection (laws can distinguish between counterfactuals). Since both options are false, natural selection cannot distinguish between coextensive traits. Therefore the claim that natural selection is a mechanism is not true. Natural selection does not explain trait fixation/speciation.

    • Replies: @The Alarmist
    PhD ... Piled high & deep.
  409. @songbird

    out to about sixth cousins
     
    I don't believe that is right. Maybe six or seven degrees or something, but not sixth cousins. That would be close to the whole population of a place. Anyway, illiterate people could only reasonably know their great, great grandparents, which means that 3rd cousins are about the max they would know. And that is what is reflected if you look at actual dispensations in parish registers.

    I believe a degree of consanguinity works by connecting individuals. Groom to his father (+1 degree), to his grandfather (+1), to his great grandparents (+1), who are the great great grandparents of his bride (+4). Something like that.

    Of course, Henry the VIII tried some legal argument about being very distantly related to his bride, that actually didn't fly with the Church.

    http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04264a.htm
    The Church was prompted by various reasons first to recognize the prohibitive legislation of the Roman State and then to extend the impediment of consanguinity beyond the limits of the civil legislation. The welfare of the social order, according to St. Augustine (City of God XV.16) and St. Thomas (Suppl. Q. liii, a. 3), demanded the widest possible extension of friendship and love among all humankind, to which desirable aim the intermarriage of close blood-relations was opposed; this was especially true in the first half of the Middle Ages, when the best interests of society required the unification of the numerous tribes and peoples which had settled on the soil of the Roman Empire. By overthrowing the barriers between inimical families and races, ruinous internecine warfare was diminished and greater peace and harmony secured among the newly-converted Christians. In the moral order the prohibition of marriage between near relations served as a barrier against early corruption among young persons of either sex brought habitually into close intimacy with one another; it tended also to strengthen the natural feeling of respect for closely related persons (St. Thomas, II-II.154.9; St. Augustine, City of God XV.10).

    Gregory I (590-604), if the letter in question be truly his, granted to the newly converted Anglo-Saxons restriction of the impediment to the fourth degree of consanguinity (c. 20, C. 35, qq. 2, 3); Paul III restricted it to the second degree for American Indians (Zitelli, Apparat. Jur. Eccl., 405), and also for natives of the Philippines.

    We then meet with the canon (c. 16, C. 55, q. 2), attributed to various popes and embodied in a letter of Gregory III (732), which forbids marriage among the Germans to the seventh degree of consanguinity. Wernz (Jus Decretal., IV, p. 624), says that at this date so severe a prohibition cannot be based on the canonical computation, but rather on that of the Roman law;

    • Replies: @songbird
    Wow, 2nd degree seems kind of low. Indians and Filipinos could marry their aunts and uncles? That is like what the Inca did when they weren't marrying brother to sister. Actually, I believe the Church did sanction one brother/sister marriage among the Inca as diplomacy - they were probably already married or something.

    I guess it makes sense, if you are entering into an area where they might not have many strictures to start with, but they must have changed that eventually. I wonder what that says about the societal differences. If they really had a concept like monogamy to start with.
  410. @RaceRealist88
    Is "intelligence" a mental ability (intentional state) or behavior (disposition)?

    Science with predictive validity vs. Word Fetishism ……… who will win?

    • Agree: songbird
    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Can you answer the question? Whether or not psychophysical reductionism is true is a conceptual, not empirical, matter therefore empirical evidence is irrelevant.
  411. @DFH

    intensional
     
    *intentional

    Are you not familiar with intensionality?

    • Replies: @DFH
    I am, that's how I know you were using it incorrectly.
  412. @DFH
    Science with predictive validity vs. Word Fetishism ......... who will win?

    Can you answer the question? Whether or not psychophysical reductionism is true is a conceptual, not empirical, matter therefore empirical evidence is irrelevant.

  413. @songbird

    out to about sixth cousins
     
    I don't believe that is right. Maybe six or seven degrees or something, but not sixth cousins. That would be close to the whole population of a place. Anyway, illiterate people could only reasonably know their great, great grandparents, which means that 3rd cousins are about the max they would know. And that is what is reflected if you look at actual dispensations in parish registers.

    I believe a degree of consanguinity works by connecting individuals. Groom to his father (+1 degree), to his grandfather (+1), to his great grandparents (+1), who are the great great grandparents of his bride (+4). Something like that.

    Of course, Henry the VIII tried some legal argument about being very distantly related to his bride, that actually didn't fly with the Church.

    Maybe six or seven degrees

    yes (h/t hubchik) the church ban was in degrees of relatedness so a cousin would be three degrees of separation and according to this chart

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consanguinity

    six degrees of separation would be something like first cousin once removed.

    • Replies: @songbird
    That makes sense. One wonders why Sicily seems to have been somewhat different.
  414. @RaceRealist88
    If the claim "IQ tests test intelligence" is true, then there must be construct validity for IQ. Construct validity for IQ does not exist. Therefore the claim "IQ tests test intelligence" is false.

    P1) IQ tests are experience-dependent.
    P2) IQ tests are experience-dependent because some social classes are more exposed to the knowledge and structure of the tests by virtue of their being born in a certain social class.
    P3) Since IQ tests are experience-dependent, then how an individual scores on a given test is predicated on his exposure to the middle-class knowledge structure
    C) So if IQ tests are experience-dependent because some social classes are more exposed to the knowledge and structure of the tests, then IQ tests test distance from the middle class and it's knowledge structure, not "intelligence"; "IQ test scores" are really "middle-class scores."

    For example, within families some siblings are somehow more exposed to the middle-class knowledge structure and some are not. Another interesting thing is that the exposure to the middle-class knowledge structure would mandate that heritability should raise with age, while it’s not (your all objections to the heritability calculations notwithstanding). Another is that people from lower classes can have and do have higher scores (and hence, higher exposure etc) than people from higher classes. Moreover, whatever are your objections to the predictive power of IQ tests, it seems they are higher than, for example, SES (especially since in modern society belonging to particular SES WILL be somewhat mediated by the intelligence and genetics).

    RR88, I respect some of your work and articles on your site, but the claim that IQ tests measures exposure etc is just intuitively wrong.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    First para: so what? How does that identify an error in my reasoning? The argument is sound.

    "somewhat mediated by the intelligence and genetics" what's the justification for this claim?

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.15252/embr.201744140
  415. @szopen
    For example, within families some siblings are somehow more exposed to the middle-class knowledge structure and some are not. Another interesting thing is that the exposure to the middle-class knowledge structure would mandate that heritability should raise with age, while it's not (your all objections to the heritability calculations notwithstanding). Another is that people from lower classes can have and do have higher scores (and hence, higher exposure etc) than people from higher classes. Moreover, whatever are your objections to the predictive power of IQ tests, it seems they are higher than, for example, SES (especially since in modern society belonging to particular SES WILL be somewhat mediated by the intelligence and genetics).

    RR88, I respect some of your work and articles on your site, but the claim that IQ tests measures exposure etc is just intuitively wrong.

    First para: so what? How does that identify an error in my reasoning? The argument is sound.

    “somewhat mediated by the intelligence and genetics” what’s the justification for this claim?

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.15252/embr.201744140

    • Replies: @DFH
    If you really believe that there is no connection between physical and mental, then you have no reason to think that a non-mental world exists since the mental world could never provide you with any evidence for it. Even if you did think that we could know about a non-mental world (although this would be absurd as it would require relations between mental and physical), then you'd have to think that it was pure chance that the mental and physical states seemed to be in parallel. This is absurd.
    , @szopen

    First para: so what? How does that identify an error in my reasoning? The argument is sound.
     
    It's not. If there is a regular difference between the siblings raised by the same parents in the same house, then you would have to be able to measure those differences. But you can't.

    There is also regression to the mean phenomenon, which is predicted and expected if intelligence is heritable, while IMO would have no sense if iq tests would merely measure exposure to the middle class values.


    somewhat mediated by the intelligence and genetics” what’s the justification for this claim?
     
    Because intelligent people will earn more and get to the higher SES. If intelligence is heritable, then their children would inherit their genes.

    And intelligence has to be heritable, because there is no spiritual world and no mental states without physical structures and physical structures MUST be heritable somewhat. The fact that we don't know the laws does not mean they do not exist.

    What experiment would you propose to differentiate between two hypothesis:
    (1) IQ tests are imperfect proxy for intelligence test, intelligence is measurable. The correlation with SES exists only because in modern world on average more intelligent people will have higher SES

    (2) IQ tests measure exposure to middle-class values, and is not heritable.

    I am genuinely curious.
  416. @RaceRealist88
    You reject the claim that the physical (brain) is necessary for the mental to exist? How do we have access to mental states? The only mental states you can be sure of are your own.

    That there is no lawlike relation between the mental and the physical means psychophysical reductionism is false (meaning mental abilities/psychological states/traits cannot be reduced to genes/brain states/structure), thus mental/psychological traits cannot be genetically inherited.

    Where's the error in my reasoning? Check out Davidson's and Ross's arguments against psychophysical reductionism and get back to me.

    The fact that we do not know the laws does not mean they do not exist. Hence, your reasoning is “X is true only if Y, we don’t know if Y, hence X is false”

  417. Anon[257] • Disclaimer says:
    @Kratoklastes
    The 115 number for US Ashkenazim has about the same factual content as the book of Joshua or Misha Defonseca's riveting Holocaust memoir (or her earlier riveting memoir of being a child victim of satanic ritual sexual abuse).

    Mr Unz has already shown that the numbers are significantly lower than the claimed 115 - it's somewhere in the masterful "American Pravda" material.

    Also... I've said this before: if you want to do some 'apples vs apples" tests, and test the 'inherent' chunk that can be ascribed to Ashkenazim per se... do some testing in a shtetl in the countryside around Lvov.

    That would be fair - it's the benchmark that generated the data used to paint SSAs as irretrievably backward. Get some kiddies from rural areas, give them fuck-all test prep, and use the resultant statistical bilge to reinforce some deeply-felt need to justify the history of Western paternalism and exploitation.

    I'm sure that Goebells would love to have thought of that:


    "Look - we did IQ tests throughout the parts of the Pale of Settlement that are under the protection of the Reich: the results were pretty awful... turns out that the average shtetl-dweller would be declared feeble-minded under the definition laid out inBuck v Bell 274 US 200 [1927] - the US Supreme court's 1927 declaration that governments have the right to compulsorily sterilise groups so defined "for the protection of the health of the state".

    Our considered view is that sterilising is a half-assed solution that is nowhere near 'Final' enough (as solutions go).

    Round them up.

    HAIL KEK."

     

    Jokes aside... the data on race and IQ is obviously problematic - the Irish problem, the Dutch problem (two populations that tested at average IQ of 70-80 in the 50s-70s, but are clearly >100 today). I guess they both get a pass because they're kinda-white?

    .

    I'm quite a fan of Gilad Atzmon's "cognitive bifurcation" thesis (it's not specifically Atzmon's but he does a very good job of presenting it); I would bet that the raw data for US Ashkenazim would be solidly bimodal - with one mode at 95, and another at 125. It's super super hard to get hold of that data, though... I wonder why that would be? It's almost as if nobody wants folks to look at it.

    Bog-standard Ashenazim are as dumb as a bag of hammers; smart Ashkenazim are as smart as smart goyim. Hyper-smart Ashkenazim (IQ above 135) are slightly less rare than hyper-smart goyim. It still makes a difference to outcomes, because group cohesion is a force multiplier for tiny intelligence differentials.

    What’s SSA? There aren’t any Shetls left in Poland.

    A lot of the 1900 Jews who swarmed out of the E European Shetls into the public school systems of our big cities really were above average intelligent. That was very unfortunate because they were communists bent on changing America for the worse. And they succeeded.

    • Replies: @notanon
    SSA = sub saharan African
  418. @RaceRealist88
    Is "intelligence" a mental ability (intentional state) or behavior (disposition)?

    if intelligence is (mostly) brain health then maybe it’s both and neither?

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    It can't be both.
  419. @blatnoi
    So why do foolproof sector workers in the US earn much more than foolproof sector workers in Korea? Or let's say if you take into account medical, maybe they earn the same, but they should earn a lot more based on the difference in the percentage that answered level 6 correctly. Maybe there are diminishing returns in this theory beyond a certain point.

    Level of development of O-ring sector, government policies (minimum wage? unions?), and actual competition between foolproof and O-ring sector workers may have something to do with it. Population size as well?

  420. @RaceRealist88
    Are you not familiar with intensionality?

    I am, that’s how I know you were using it incorrectly.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    What's the difference between intentional and intensional?
  421. @Anon
    What’s SSA? There aren’t any Shetls left in Poland.

    A lot of the 1900 Jews who swarmed out of the E European Shetls into the public school systems of our big cities really were above average intelligent. That was very unfortunate because they were communists bent on changing America for the worse. And they succeeded.

    SSA = sub saharan African

    • Replies: @Anon
    Thanks.
  422. @RaceRealist88
    First para: so what? How does that identify an error in my reasoning? The argument is sound.

    "somewhat mediated by the intelligence and genetics" what's the justification for this claim?

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.15252/embr.201744140

    If you really believe that there is no connection between physical and mental, then you have no reason to think that a non-mental world exists since the mental world could never provide you with any evidence for it. Even if you did think that we could know about a non-mental world (although this would be absurd as it would require relations between mental and physical), then you’d have to think that it was pure chance that the mental and physical states seemed to be in parallel. This is absurd.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Numerous a priori arguments establish that the mental is irreducible to the physical. Physical stuff exists. Mental stuff exists. The two are not equal. M does not equal P; P does not equal M.

    "mental and physical states seemed to be in parallel"

    How?
  423. @Michelle
    I'm no genius, but I have to listen to 2 of my colleagues every day whining and complaining about every single blessed duty to which they have been assigned. They simply cannot grasp the importance of those duties. They think that everything they do is completely unnecessary and is being forced upon them by their supervisor's immense stupidity. They spend at least 3 hours a day misunderstanding their supervisor's instructions and then vociferously refusing to perform them. They are painfully dull witted.

    I tell you, I am in Hell having to listen to these 2, a middle aged African-American woman and a young lady whose parents are some kind of Chinese ethnic minority (they speak a rare dialect of Chinese) who lived in Vietnam before emigrating. Every other sentence out of the young lady's mouth is, "F$%k that $hit! I ain't doing that $hit!" Last week my supervisor offered me the sister of the Chinese-Vietnamese ghetto girl to help me out in my Dept. I desperately need help, but.. I have had the chance to see her in action and she is worse than her sister, and I told him that I would rather be boiled in oil than have her join the worse than useless crew of people I already work with. He agreed with me. I have been taking as much vacation time off as possible because I just can't stand to listen to these people.

    Must affirmative action black women are like that. They spend more time avoiding work than they spend doing work. They really think they should be paid for gossiping, chuckling and chortling, planning potlucks and hours of personal phone conversations

    • Agree: RadicalCenter
    • Replies: @Michelle
    Oh, God, did you ever nail it. The Black lady has been spending the last 3 weeks selling her neice's lunches. Last week her neice sold us Jambalaya, which was delicious, but another co-worker and I said that the $14 price should have included cornbread as well. We got read the riot act. Apparently, Black people don't eat corn bread with Jambalaya. We got a spoon and no napkins either. Co-worker spent hours touting the lunch, walking around, and making copies of the menu, with many revisions, because she is helpless at her clerical job. All of this went on at the City taxpayers' cost. She is currently spending all of her time planning the next lunch, Fettuccine Alfredo with garlic bread. Very little, if any, work will be done during the sales of the neice's lunches.
  424. @notanon
    SSA = sub saharan African

    Thanks.

  425. @DFH
    If you really believe that there is no connection between physical and mental, then you have no reason to think that a non-mental world exists since the mental world could never provide you with any evidence for it. Even if you did think that we could know about a non-mental world (although this would be absurd as it would require relations between mental and physical), then you'd have to think that it was pure chance that the mental and physical states seemed to be in parallel. This is absurd.

    Numerous a priori arguments establish that the mental is irreducible to the physical. Physical stuff exists. Mental stuff exists. The two are not equal. M does not equal P; P does not equal M.

    “mental and physical states seemed to be in parallel”

    How?

    • Replies: @DFH
    But I wasn't talking about the claim that the mental is irreducible to the physical, I was talking about your absurd claim that there is no relation between mental and physical states.

    “mental and physical states seemed to be in parallel”
     
    If a bee stings me, then I feel pain etc.
  426. @RaceRealist88
    First para: so what? How does that identify an error in my reasoning? The argument is sound.

    "somewhat mediated by the intelligence and genetics" what's the justification for this claim?

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.15252/embr.201744140

    First para: so what? How does that identify an error in my reasoning? The argument is sound.

    It’s not. If there is a regular difference between the siblings raised by the same parents in the same house, then you would have to be able to measure those differences. But you can’t.

    There is also regression to the mean phenomenon, which is predicted and expected if intelligence is heritable, while IMO would have no sense if iq tests would merely measure exposure to the middle class values.

    somewhat mediated by the intelligence and genetics” what’s the justification for this claim?

    Because intelligent people will earn more and get to the higher SES. If intelligence is heritable, then their children would inherit their genes.

    And intelligence has to be heritable, because there is no spiritual world and no mental states without physical structures and physical structures MUST be heritable somewhat. The fact that we don’t know the laws does not mean they do not exist.

    What experiment would you propose to differentiate between two hypothesis:
    (1) IQ tests are imperfect proxy for intelligence test, intelligence is measurable. The correlation with SES exists only because in modern world on average more intelligent people will have higher SES

    (2) IQ tests measure exposure to middle-class values, and is not heritable.

    I am genuinely curious.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    "If there is a regular difference between the siblings raised by the same parents in the same house, then you would have to be able to measure those differences."

    People experience the "same" "environment" in the same way?

    "physical structures MUST be heritable somewhat"

    No one denied this.

    "The fact that we don’t know the laws does not mean they do not exist."

    There are no laws.

    "IQ tests are imperfect proxy for intelligence test, intelligence is measurable"

    Create a test that's no biased by class/current knowledge. But that's impossible since IQ tests are, by their very nature, bound by culture.

    "IQ tests measure exposure to middle-class values, and is not heritable."

    My argument establishes (1), as for (2), it can be "heritable", it doesn't affect my argument.

    http://www.academia.edu/30672400/The_heritability_fallacy
    , @Tyrion 2

    There is also regression to the mean phenomenon, which is predicted and expected if intelligence is heritable
     
    Is there? Or is it just towards and actually as banal an observation as that when I walk North to my neighbour's house I am walking towards the North Pole? What mean?
  427. @DFH
    I am, that's how I know you were using it incorrectly.

    What’s the difference between intentional and intensional?

    • Replies: @DFH
    Intensional = referentially opaque/non-substitutable
  428. @szopen

    First para: so what? How does that identify an error in my reasoning? The argument is sound.
     
    It's not. If there is a regular difference between the siblings raised by the same parents in the same house, then you would have to be able to measure those differences. But you can't.

    There is also regression to the mean phenomenon, which is predicted and expected if intelligence is heritable, while IMO would have no sense if iq tests would merely measure exposure to the middle class values.


    somewhat mediated by the intelligence and genetics” what’s the justification for this claim?
     
    Because intelligent people will earn more and get to the higher SES. If intelligence is heritable, then their children would inherit their genes.

    And intelligence has to be heritable, because there is no spiritual world and no mental states without physical structures and physical structures MUST be heritable somewhat. The fact that we don't know the laws does not mean they do not exist.

    What experiment would you propose to differentiate between two hypothesis:
    (1) IQ tests are imperfect proxy for intelligence test, intelligence is measurable. The correlation with SES exists only because in modern world on average more intelligent people will have higher SES

    (2) IQ tests measure exposure to middle-class values, and is not heritable.

    I am genuinely curious.

    “If there is a regular difference between the siblings raised by the same parents in the same house, then you would have to be able to measure those differences.”

    People experience the “same” “environment” in the same way?

    “physical structures MUST be heritable somewhat”

    No one denied this.

    “The fact that we don’t know the laws does not mean they do not exist.”

    There are no laws.

    “IQ tests are imperfect proxy for intelligence test, intelligence is measurable”

    Create a test that’s no biased by class/current knowledge. But that’s impossible since IQ tests are, by their very nature, bound by culture.

    “IQ tests measure exposure to middle-class values, and is not heritable.”

    My argument establishes (1), as for (2), it can be “heritable”, it doesn’t affect my argument.

    http://www.academia.edu/30672400/The_heritability_fallacy

    • Replies: @szopen
    I haven't seen establishing (1), I have seen only postulating (1).

    If IQ tests measures exposure to middle class values, then this has to be testable; there should be a set of experiments which would convince you it's not true. If you say "well, those kids were raised in the same family, so they should have the same exposure to the middle-class values, but they have different IQ values, so they clearly had not the same exposure" AND "this kid from lower class have higher IQ than this kid from middle-class, so this proves he has higher exposure... etc" then it's kind of "just-so" story (to borrow the term).

    Especially, when the "exposure to middle-class" is measured by things like mental rotation or reciting backwards the memorized numbers.

    From you argument, p1) IQ are experience dependent is true, but it does not mean it excludes possibility that it is ONLY experience dependent and independent of other factors.

    this in turn influences your p3), since it means that the tests might measure exposure PLUS something more and it's hard to say which influences the score more.

    for example, height depends on being well-fed and genetic factors. In some societies people from higher classes would be better nourished and more healthy, but it would be wrong to conclude from that that height merely measures the distance from the middle class and height is illusion.

    I would also like to know your stance on the regression to the mean. Do you think it exists? If it exists, how it would be explained by theory that IQ tests measure exposure to the middle class culture?
  429. @RaceRealist88
    What's the difference between intentional and intensional?

    Intensional = referentially opaque/non-substitutable

  430. @RaceRealist88
    Numerous a priori arguments establish that the mental is irreducible to the physical. Physical stuff exists. Mental stuff exists. The two are not equal. M does not equal P; P does not equal M.

    "mental and physical states seemed to be in parallel"

    How?

    But I wasn’t talking about the claim that the mental is irreducible to the physical, I was talking about your absurd claim that there is no relation between mental and physical states.

    “mental and physical states seemed to be in parallel”

    If a bee stings me, then I feel pain etc.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    What's your response to Ross' Immaterial Aspects of Thought?
  431. @RaceRealist88
    "Intelligence may be limited by genetic factors"


    For this claim to hold there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structures or genes).

    P1) Intelligence is a mental ability.
    P2) If intelligence is a mental ability, then it cannot be "limited by genetic factors", because for the claim that intelligence is "limited by genetic factors" to be true, there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structure or genes, since they are physical).
    P3) But psychophysical laws do not exist (see Donald Davidson's anomalous monism; Ross' Immaterial Aspects of Thought; Nagel's Mind and Cosmos; the Kripke-Wittgenstein rule-following argument etc).
    C) Therefore intelligence cannot "be limited by genetic factors."

    A long response follows, hence the more tag.

    [MORE]

    Anomalous monism is a very confused concept. Let the mental operation be more than the external stimuli, for example, the physical working of the brain, which may be a stimulus or cause in itself, let alone more abstract systems such as memory. Take away the event über alles mentality, allow physical processes, and one may begin to model, within available computational power, the mental world of an earthworm. By various simplifications, one may approximate more complex mental worlds.

    As for Ross, observe that his incompossible possible functions argument boils down to a predicate logical situation in which F_T(x) is the function in mind, and \forall_n F_{F,n}(x) are incompossible, but equal to F_T(x) for all x thusfar considered or physically estimated. Allowing human capacity for mistakes, the human mental capacity of interest to Ross is that the incompossible nature of an approximation can be recognised. It is not clear to me why the existence of this mental capacity should exclude the causation of this mental capacity from the physical workings of the neural subsystems of the human brain—his argument strikes me as a non sequitur, though the problem may be beyond the computational powers available for more than extremely rough approximation.

    Nagel (admittedly per wikipedia) seems to rely on “common sense” instead of logic and falsifiable hypotheses. If a mind, e.g. as described through consciousness and Ross’s definitional thinking (action is based on implied definitions, rightly or wrongly applied), and if such a thought-action system allows greater chance of survival, then any coherent alternative does not disprove the evolutionary concept as reflecting nature, but is at best a competing theory.

    As for Kripke and Wittgenstein, consider a physical analog. Is a single measure of blood lead equal to (or perfectly correlated with) dose? One can show it not to be under basic assumptions, yet that “quus” operation is the norm. A more likely explanation is economy of effort in the working of neural systems, which allows the recognition, on additional data, when “quus” is intended rather than “plus”—a non-physical mind is not needed to have the quus-plus paradox.

  432. @Gerard2

    In per capita terms, China is as poor and unsuccessful, as Thailand, Algeria and Brazil. And yet, their reported average academic test scores are higher than those of many wealthy countries.
     
    If you look at the results in all the Olympiad competitions over the summer ( mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and so on)......then Russia did very , very , very well, (Ukraine did shit, of course). As for the Americans , ALL the winning contestants for their teams were either Chinese or Indian named. Particularly Chinese ( I'm sure not Japanese or Korean, but Chinese)

    Now, Indians are very clever in general but this dominance of Asians, I think is mainly down to "lock them in the room all day" driven parents. Numerous people in the west have experience of Orientals of average intelligence obtain high academic results.
    Russians who take part and do well in these events tend to be more strong-minded, independent-thinking people or "free spirits" ( let down by 1 POS who turns out to have been a Navalny hamster)

    Western Universities may now have become more plentiful with Chinese professors/lecturers but I think this is more driven by economics and availability, particularly with the so-called "lesser universities" now becoming more prestigious as more qualified people go to live in the UK and US

    In engineering the Chinese guys can understand and implement ad nauseum the mathematics behind the computer based methods in construction ( very simple but extensive and dull) , but could they come up with and have a firm grip on the classical "elastic" theory that underpins this and was the basis of engineering from the enlightenment period onwards?

    Or could they come up with and be comfortable with the more part empirical/part-theory ideas that are the bases for soil engineering.......I heavily doubt it in both cases.
    This is where the real fundamental understanding of engineering comes from....plus most of the creativity and intelligent thinking

    Incidentally, I think the most large example of racism is not towards blacks or jews.........but from aficionados of classical music towards Chinese/Japanese/Korean pianists and Musicians

    Incidentally, I think the most large example of racism is not towards blacks or jews………but from aficionados of classical music towards Chinese/Japanese/Korean pianists and Musicians

    First time I have heard of this. Had to google to educate myself. Found lots of racism and snobbery in the classical music world directed towards Africans (anyone surprised?), despite the biggest name in European classical music, Beethoven, being of visibly African ancestry. But there were also examples of anti-asian racism:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/7hi6ba/racism_n_classical_music/

    There is a tendency toward racism against Asian musicians. They’re unjustly characterized as uncreative because they tend to be content to stick to the high romantic tradition of performance (or are HP, I suppose) and perhaps because of the prevalence of the Suzuki method worldwide.

    A notable example of this would be pianist Dang Thai Son, a great pianist whose win at the Chopin competition is still aggressively minimized by many Europeans. There’s also a political aspect to this because some Japanese musicians won competitions (such as the Wieniawski competition) through obvious corruption, but there are far worse examples of corruption by Europeans (*koff* Pierre Amoyal) so that’s an unjust criticism as well.

    Racism probably played a role in the history of black musicians, but I think it’s a minimal factor now. There are many Hispanic musicians: Urguayans, Mexicans, etc. Many of them are white Hispanics though.

    • Replies: @DFH

    despite the biggest name in European classical music, Beethoven, being of visibly African ancestry
     
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUZEB-fy4Ek
    , @notanon
    is that racism or is cultural Marxist types disliking that Asian musicians only like the good classical music from before it was corrupted?
  433. @notanon

    How do you discriminate the genetic baseline from the local mean of other (non-iodine) environmental variables not addressed in the intervention? Especially using twin correlations, or by other methods?
     
    i guess you'd need example of twins being separated and then raised in a high vs low iodine environment (e.g. some countries iodized their salt at different times) - doing this might actually increase the correlation found in twin studies as it might find one explanation for some of the exceptions to the rule.

    One problem is that much of the iodine effect is in utero.

    • Replies: @notanon
    doh!

    good point
  434. @RaceRealist88
    1 For heritability estimates to be useful, then there can be no interaction between G and E
    2 There is interaction between G and E
    3 Therefore heritability estimates are not useful.

    (Good book on the matter: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Versus-Understand-Interaction-Philosophical/dp/0262027372)

    That merely leads to a distinction between narrow sense (genetic) and wide sense (genetic and environment correlated with genetic) heritability.

  435. @Anonymous
    Isn't there some ambiguity in the question? Is the average per distance or time?

    Your calculation assumes an average based on time. However, if the average is based on distance, then it's not exactly 28.

    Total distance travelled was 7 km. Total time travelled was 0.25 hours. Please show us how you can come with an answer different from 28 km/h AND have it make sense.

  436. @Bliss

    Incidentally, I think the most large example of racism is not towards blacks or jews………but from aficionados of classical music towards Chinese/Japanese/Korean pianists and Musicians
     
    First time I have heard of this. Had to google to educate myself. Found lots of racism and snobbery in the classical music world directed towards Africans (anyone surprised?), despite the biggest name in European classical music, Beethoven, being of visibly African ancestry. But there were also examples of anti-asian racism:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/7hi6ba/racism_n_classical_music/

    There is a tendency toward racism against Asian musicians. They're unjustly characterized as uncreative because they tend to be content to stick to the high romantic tradition of performance (or are HP, I suppose) and perhaps because of the prevalence of the Suzuki method worldwide.

    A notable example of this would be pianist Dang Thai Son, a great pianist whose win at the Chopin competition is still aggressively minimized by many Europeans. There's also a political aspect to this because some Japanese musicians won competitions (such as the Wieniawski competition) through obvious corruption, but there are far worse examples of corruption by Europeans (*koff* Pierre Amoyal) so that's an unjust criticism as well.

    Racism probably played a role in the history of black musicians, but I think it's a minimal factor now. There are many Hispanic musicians: Urguayans, Mexicans, etc. Many of them are white Hispanics though.

    despite the biggest name in European classical music, Beethoven, being of visibly African ancestry

  437. @RaceRealist88
    "If there is a regular difference between the siblings raised by the same parents in the same house, then you would have to be able to measure those differences."

    People experience the "same" "environment" in the same way?

    "physical structures MUST be heritable somewhat"

    No one denied this.

    "The fact that we don’t know the laws does not mean they do not exist."

    There are no laws.

    "IQ tests are imperfect proxy for intelligence test, intelligence is measurable"

    Create a test that's no biased by class/current knowledge. But that's impossible since IQ tests are, by their very nature, bound by culture.

    "IQ tests measure exposure to middle-class values, and is not heritable."

    My argument establishes (1), as for (2), it can be "heritable", it doesn't affect my argument.

    http://www.academia.edu/30672400/The_heritability_fallacy

    I haven’t seen establishing (1), I have seen only postulating (1).

    If IQ tests measures exposure to middle class values, then this has to be testable; there should be a set of experiments which would convince you it’s not true. If you say “well, those kids were raised in the same family, so they should have the same exposure to the middle-class values, but they have different IQ values, so they clearly had not the same exposure” AND “this kid from lower class have higher IQ than this kid from middle-class, so this proves he has higher exposure… etc” then it’s kind of “just-so” story (to borrow the term).

    Especially, when the “exposure to middle-class” is measured by things like mental rotation or reciting backwards the memorized numbers.

    From you argument, p1) IQ are experience dependent is true, but it does not mean it excludes possibility that it is ONLY experience dependent and independent of other factors.

    this in turn influences your p3), since it means that the tests might measure exposure PLUS something more and it’s hard to say which influences the score more.

    for example, height depends on being well-fed and genetic factors. In some societies people from higher classes would be better nourished and more healthy, but it would be wrong to conclude from that that height merely measures the distance from the middle class and height is illusion.

    I would also like to know your stance on the regression to the mean. Do you think it exists? If it exists, how it would be explained by theory that IQ tests measure exposure to the middle class culture?

    • Replies: @utu

    I would also like to know your stance on the regression to the mean.
     
    I wonder why I haven's seen regression to the mean studies of IQ where you would determine the slope between children and parents IQs. The slope suppose to be the heritability h^2. There should be a lot of data available for doing it. Much more than doing twin studies which suppose to determine H^2. What is relation between h^2 and H^2 for IQ for a given society. The heritabilities are society dependent. They are not universal constants.
    , @RaceRealist88
    "I haven’t seen establishing (1), I have seen only postulating (1)."

    My argument established it.

    "If IQ tests measures exposure to middle class values, then this has to be testable"

    The argument is a priori.

    "but it does not mean it excludes possibility that it is ONLY experience dependent and independent of other factors."

    What other factors? What influences these factors? What's the argument?

    "since it means that the tests might measure exposure PLUS something more and it’s hard to say which influences the score more."

    P3 follows from P2. The questions on the test are not culture free. Therefore if one is not exposed to the knowledge structure of the test then they will necessarily score lower.

    You need an argument that they test intelligence.

    "I would also like to know your stance on the regression to the mean. Do you think it exists? If it exists, how it would be explained by theory that IQ tests measure exposure to the middle class culture?"

    Has it been tested in humans?
  438. The author, as well as most commenters, has unnecessarily complicated the issue(s). The real question is: how to have a qualified discussion about anything?

    Some of the prerequsities are:

    1. one has to possess a degree of detachment. If you’re emotionally too involved with the issue, you cannot participate in a qualified discussion. Being too involved frequently – not necessarily- means using ad hominem “arguments”, which is a waste of time.

    2. one has to have knowledge of the field discussed. If you’re not informed, better stay out of it. In many cases, being informed means having read 20+ books on the topic.

    3. one has to possess analytic-synthetic ability or logical culture (I don’t know how else to put it). If you’re mostly imaginative/freely associating type, better leave it to others (not that imagination is bad, it is great, but without logic it just creates muddle)

    4. you have to have the ability to listen, ponder on others’ arguments (if they’re worth it) & not just preach your cause. If not, this is not a discussion. It is, on your part, a sermon.

    There must be a few other points, but the above mentioned are basics of qualified discussion culture.

    • Agree: Talha
  439. @for-the-record
    You travel from point A to B at an average speed of 20 km/h, and return at an average speed of 30km/h. What was your average speed for the round trip?
  440. @szopen
    I haven't seen establishing (1), I have seen only postulating (1).

    If IQ tests measures exposure to middle class values, then this has to be testable; there should be a set of experiments which would convince you it's not true. If you say "well, those kids were raised in the same family, so they should have the same exposure to the middle-class values, but they have different IQ values, so they clearly had not the same exposure" AND "this kid from lower class have higher IQ than this kid from middle-class, so this proves he has higher exposure... etc" then it's kind of "just-so" story (to borrow the term).

    Especially, when the "exposure to middle-class" is measured by things like mental rotation or reciting backwards the memorized numbers.

    From you argument, p1) IQ are experience dependent is true, but it does not mean it excludes possibility that it is ONLY experience dependent and independent of other factors.

    this in turn influences your p3), since it means that the tests might measure exposure PLUS something more and it's hard to say which influences the score more.

    for example, height depends on being well-fed and genetic factors. In some societies people from higher classes would be better nourished and more healthy, but it would be wrong to conclude from that that height merely measures the distance from the middle class and height is illusion.

    I would also like to know your stance on the regression to the mean. Do you think it exists? If it exists, how it would be explained by theory that IQ tests measure exposure to the middle class culture?

    I would also like to know your stance on the regression to the mean.

    I wonder why I haven’s seen regression to the mean studies of IQ where you would determine the slope between children and parents IQs. The slope suppose to be the heritability h^2. There should be a lot of data available for doing it. Much more than doing twin studies which suppose to determine H^2. What is relation between h^2 and H^2 for IQ for a given society. The heritabilities are society dependent. They are not universal constants.

  441. @Johan Meyer
    One problem is that much of the iodine effect is in utero.

    doh!

    good point

  442. @Bliss

    Incidentally, I think the most large example of racism is not towards blacks or jews………but from aficionados of classical music towards Chinese/Japanese/Korean pianists and Musicians
     
    First time I have heard of this. Had to google to educate myself. Found lots of racism and snobbery in the classical music world directed towards Africans (anyone surprised?), despite the biggest name in European classical music, Beethoven, being of visibly African ancestry. But there were also examples of anti-asian racism:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/7hi6ba/racism_n_classical_music/

    There is a tendency toward racism against Asian musicians. They're unjustly characterized as uncreative because they tend to be content to stick to the high romantic tradition of performance (or are HP, I suppose) and perhaps because of the prevalence of the Suzuki method worldwide.

    A notable example of this would be pianist Dang Thai Son, a great pianist whose win at the Chopin competition is still aggressively minimized by many Europeans. There's also a political aspect to this because some Japanese musicians won competitions (such as the Wieniawski competition) through obvious corruption, but there are far worse examples of corruption by Europeans (*koff* Pierre Amoyal) so that's an unjust criticism as well.

    Racism probably played a role in the history of black musicians, but I think it's a minimal factor now. There are many Hispanic musicians: Urguayans, Mexicans, etc. Many of them are white Hispanics though.

    is that racism or is cultural Marxist types disliking that Asian musicians only like the good classical music from before it was corrupted?

  443. @Wizard of Oz
    Do you know what "diaspora" means? Apparently not.

    I will tell you what it means petaing to the british if you ask me poiltely

    • Replies: @Autochthon
    It means the same thing with regard to the British ass it does with regard to every other people, Aristotle.
  444. @Michelle
    I'm no genius, but I have to listen to 2 of my colleagues every day whining and complaining about every single blessed duty to which they have been assigned. They simply cannot grasp the importance of those duties. They think that everything they do is completely unnecessary and is being forced upon them by their supervisor's immense stupidity. They spend at least 3 hours a day misunderstanding their supervisor's instructions and then vociferously refusing to perform them. They are painfully dull witted.

    I tell you, I am in Hell having to listen to these 2, a middle aged African-American woman and a young lady whose parents are some kind of Chinese ethnic minority (they speak a rare dialect of Chinese) who lived in Vietnam before emigrating. Every other sentence out of the young lady's mouth is, "F$%k that $hit! I ain't doing that $hit!" Last week my supervisor offered me the sister of the Chinese-Vietnamese ghetto girl to help me out in my Dept. I desperately need help, but.. I have had the chance to see her in action and she is worse than her sister, and I told him that I would rather be boiled in oil than have her join the worse than useless crew of people I already work with. He agreed with me. I have been taking as much vacation time off as possible because I just can't stand to listen to these people.

    LOL do you work for the government? Or live in CA? Both?

    Sounds like a chapter straight out of Heather MacDonald’s The Burden of Bad Ideas.

    • Replies: @Anon
    I just assumed it’s a government office.
    , @Michelle
    Yes to both!! I work for a City Government in California! Good guess!
    , @RadicalCenter
    I live in LA and that sounds about right ;)
  445. @Colin Wright
    'What conclusions can we draw from that, geniuses?'

    We can conclude that most college graduates are actually dumb shits.

    They voted for Clinton.

    We can conclude that most college graduates are actually dumb shits. They voted for Clinton.

    Also: among non-hispanic whites the voters with post-graduate degrees voted the most overwhelmingly for Clinton, while those without even a high school diploma voted for Trump by the biggest margin. Clearly there is a correlation between years of education and likelihood of voting Democrat, among white voters.

    Earlier I showed a similar positive correlation between higher IQ and voting Democrat, among non-hispanic whites. So Democrats/Liberals have a significant built-in advantage among higher IQ and better educated white Americans.

    In Western Europe too, the Conservatives are significantly dumber than the Progressives. The Far Right being the dumbest.

    • Replies: @notanon

    Clearly there is a correlation between years of education and likelihood of voting Democrat, among white voters.
     
    yes - the upper middle class believe the completely false version of reality created by the media because they are insulated whereas people lower down the social scale see the truth with their own eyes.
    , @AP
    Conservatives tend to be more physically attractive, on average, than are liberals, however:

    https://www.newsweek.com/attractive-people-vote-democrat-republican-easier-lives-study-794966

    But research shows that intelligence is correlated with economic conservatism and social liberalism.
    , @songbird
    Are you proposing that we ditch universal suffrage and use an IQ of a 100 as a cutoff?

    Great idea, Bliss! But why not make it 105 to take more blacks off the rolls? Or maybe something a little lower than that to make room for the full Talented Tenth.
    , @Peripatetic commenter

    The Far Right being the dumbest.
     
    And yet it is the AfD etc who realizes that importing lots of low-IQ, low-Talent, high-propensity-for-violence individuals is not a good thing to do in the long run.

    Perhaps your definition of intelligence is the Bizarro definition of intelligence.
  446. @notanon

    relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA
     
    mountains

    (mountainous regions are often low iodine so my guess is regions that look like this

    https://www.worldmapsonline.com/images/tp-eu-detail3_lg.jpg

    will have unusually high variance)

    mountains

    More likely gypsies.

    • Replies: @notanon
    maybe that too but

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK285556/

    Iodine deficient soils are most common in inland regions, mountainous areas and areas of frequent flooding
     
    #

    (hence himalayas - inland and mountainous - have a big problem with it - which you'd think might lead to them developing genes which process iodine more efficiently?)

    (aka yetis uber alles)
  447. @5371
    "Mostly well to do yeomen and gentlemen" is a wild exaggeration.

    Right. None were gentlemen. Most were low level tradesmen, not masters but journeymen. Yoemen were actually tenant farmers who were being squeezed out by the enclosure movement and sheep ranching.

  448. @Bliss

    We can conclude that most college graduates are actually dumb shits. They voted for Clinton.
     
    Also: among non-hispanic whites the voters with post-graduate degrees voted the most overwhelmingly for Clinton, while those without even a high school diploma voted for Trump by the biggest margin. Clearly there is a correlation between years of education and likelihood of voting Democrat, among white voters.

    Earlier I showed a similar positive correlation between higher IQ and voting Democrat, among non-hispanic whites. So Democrats/Liberals have a significant built-in advantage among higher IQ and better educated white Americans.

    In Western Europe too, the Conservatives are significantly dumber than the Progressives. The Far Right being the dumbest.

    Clearly there is a correlation between years of education and likelihood of voting Democrat, among white voters.

    yes – the upper middle class believe the completely false version of reality created by the media because they are insulated whereas people lower down the social scale see the truth with their own eyes.

  449. @AB
    LOL do you work for the government? Or live in CA? Both?

    Sounds like a chapter straight out of Heather MacDonald's The Burden of Bad Ideas.

    I just assumed it’s a government office.

    • Replies: @Michelle
    Well, you pegged it!
  450. @Kratoklastes
    The 115 number for US Ashkenazim has about the same factual content as the book of Joshua or Misha Defonseca's riveting Holocaust memoir (or her earlier riveting memoir of being a child victim of satanic ritual sexual abuse).

    Mr Unz has already shown that the numbers are significantly lower than the claimed 115 - it's somewhere in the masterful "American Pravda" material.

    Also... I've said this before: if you want to do some 'apples vs apples" tests, and test the 'inherent' chunk that can be ascribed to Ashkenazim per se... do some testing in a shtetl in the countryside around Lvov.

    That would be fair - it's the benchmark that generated the data used to paint SSAs as irretrievably backward. Get some kiddies from rural areas, give them fuck-all test prep, and use the resultant statistical bilge to reinforce some deeply-felt need to justify the history of Western paternalism and exploitation.

    I'm sure that Goebells would love to have thought of that:


    "Look - we did IQ tests throughout the parts of the Pale of Settlement that are under the protection of the Reich: the results were pretty awful... turns out that the average shtetl-dweller would be declared feeble-minded under the definition laid out inBuck v Bell 274 US 200 [1927] - the US Supreme court's 1927 declaration that governments have the right to compulsorily sterilise groups so defined "for the protection of the health of the state".

    Our considered view is that sterilising is a half-assed solution that is nowhere near 'Final' enough (as solutions go).

    Round them up.

    HAIL KEK."

     

    Jokes aside... the data on race and IQ is obviously problematic - the Irish problem, the Dutch problem (two populations that tested at average IQ of 70-80 in the 50s-70s, but are clearly >100 today). I guess they both get a pass because they're kinda-white?

    .

    I'm quite a fan of Gilad Atzmon's "cognitive bifurcation" thesis (it's not specifically Atzmon's but he does a very good job of presenting it); I would bet that the raw data for US Ashkenazim would be solidly bimodal - with one mode at 95, and another at 125. It's super super hard to get hold of that data, though... I wonder why that would be? It's almost as if nobody wants folks to look at it.

    Bog-standard Ashenazim are as dumb as a bag of hammers; smart Ashkenazim are as smart as smart goyim. Hyper-smart Ashkenazim (IQ above 135) are slightly less rare than hyper-smart goyim. It still makes a difference to outcomes, because group cohesion is a force multiplier for tiny intelligence differentials.

    When I read that apparently IQ in the Netherlands had risen sharply from the fifties to the eighties I was amazed and also surprised. I don’t see at all that the generation now in their eighties is >20 IQ points dumber then the generation now in their fifties. I just read in the article of Flynn that the Raven test in question was done in 1952 on 18 year olds. That explains a lots. Those boys were ten year olds in 1944-45. Much of them, especially the ones living in the big cities in Holland, had a full time job scavenging for food and firewood in the period between October 1944 and the Summer of 1945. Also in the northern and eastern provinces these boys had big responsibilities, because all older men (>16 years old) must hide or risk transport to Germany to work there. Lots of those boys were either severely malnourished during those months or lacking basic food ingredients. Apart from that, after this experience many of these boys were less inclined to accept authority and not very well suited for schools anymore. I would not be amazed that the guys who took the tests in 1952 took it far less seriously then the guys who did a same or similar tests in the eighties, when indeed average IQ in the Netherlands among young people was probably much higher then it is now.

  451. @Bliss

    We can conclude that most college graduates are actually dumb shits. They voted for Clinton.
     
    Also: among non-hispanic whites the voters with post-graduate degrees voted the most overwhelmingly for Clinton, while those without even a high school diploma voted for Trump by the biggest margin. Clearly there is a correlation between years of education and likelihood of voting Democrat, among white voters.

    Earlier I showed a similar positive correlation between higher IQ and voting Democrat, among non-hispanic whites. So Democrats/Liberals have a significant built-in advantage among higher IQ and better educated white Americans.

    In Western Europe too, the Conservatives are significantly dumber than the Progressives. The Far Right being the dumbest.

    Conservatives tend to be more physically attractive, on average, than are liberals, however:

    https://www.newsweek.com/attractive-people-vote-democrat-republican-easier-lives-study-794966

    But research shows that intelligence is correlated with economic conservatism and social liberalism.

    • Replies: @Bliss

    Conservatives tend to be more physically attractive, on average, than are liberals
     
    Says who? Physical beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It is subjective. It varies in time and place.

    Obesity on the other hand is an objective measurement. The states with the highest obesity rates are all Conservative Red States. The fattest states are also the ones with the lowest white IQ.

    Do you find obese people physically attractive?
  452. @awry

    mountains

     

    More likely gypsies.

    maybe that too but

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK285556/

    Iodine deficient soils are most common in inland regions, mountainous areas and areas of frequent flooding

    #

    (hence himalayas – inland and mountainous – have a big problem with it – which you’d think might lead to them developing genes which process iodine more efficiently?)

    (aka yetis uber alles)

  453. Anon[257] • Disclaimer says:
    @Chase
    I have to remind people all the time how truly and horrifyingly stupid most people are. My interaction with anyone with an IQ lower than ~115 is 100% superficial: the gas station attendant, waitress, etc. I like to say the best random sample of people you can find is the DMV. Everyone has to go, can’t get their assistants to do it. Do you want to be ruled by the folks around you at the DMV? Democracy - even though we haven’t had it for some time - is so stupid.

    Gas stations haven’t had attendants for the last 40 years. If you pay with cash you have to give it to a cashier but most people nowadays use debit or credit cards because it’s much faster.

    Have you no neighbors friends or relatives? Don’t belong to any clubs or churches? Never get medical treatment? No need for a tax accountant or attorney?

    • Replies: @RadicalCenter
    Nine million people live in a State that prohibits pumping your own gas, New Jersey. I think Oregon had the same stupid law but finally repealed it.
  454. @utu

    http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04264a.htm
    The Church was prompted by various reasons first to recognize the prohibitive legislation of the Roman State and then to extend the impediment of consanguinity beyond the limits of the civil legislation. The welfare of the social order, according to St. Augustine (City of God XV.16) and St. Thomas (Suppl. Q. liii, a. 3), demanded the widest possible extension of friendship and love among all humankind, to which desirable aim the intermarriage of close blood-relations was opposed; this was especially true in the first half of the Middle Ages, when the best interests of society required the unification of the numerous tribes and peoples which had settled on the soil of the Roman Empire. By overthrowing the barriers between inimical families and races, ruinous internecine warfare was diminished and greater peace and harmony secured among the newly-converted Christians. In the moral order the prohibition of marriage between near relations served as a barrier against early corruption among young persons of either sex brought habitually into close intimacy with one another; it tended also to strengthen the natural feeling of respect for closely related persons (St. Thomas, II-II.154.9; St. Augustine, City of God XV.10).
     

    Gregory I (590-604), if the letter in question be truly his, granted to the newly converted Anglo-Saxons restriction of the impediment to the fourth degree of consanguinity (c. 20, C. 35, qq. 2, 3); Paul III restricted it to the second degree for American Indians (Zitelli, Apparat. Jur. Eccl., 405), and also for natives of the Philippines.

    We then meet with the canon (c. 16, C. 55, q. 2), attributed to various popes and embodied in a letter of Gregory III (732), which forbids marriage among the Germans to the seventh degree of consanguinity. Wernz (Jus Decretal., IV, p. 624), says that at this date so severe a prohibition cannot be based on the canonical computation, but rather on that of the Roman law;
     

    Wow, 2nd degree seems kind of low. Indians and Filipinos could marry their aunts and uncles? That is like what the Inca did when they weren’t marrying brother to sister. Actually, I believe the Church did sanction one brother/sister marriage among the Inca as diplomacy – they were probably already married or something.

    I guess it makes sense, if you are entering into an area where they might not have many strictures to start with, but they must have changed that eventually. I wonder what that says about the societal differences. If they really had a concept like monogamy to start with.

  455. @notanon

    relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA
     
    mountains

    (mountainous regions are often low iodine so my guess is regions that look like this

    https://www.worldmapsonline.com/images/tp-eu-detail3_lg.jpg

    will have unusually high variance)

    You didn’t deal with the meat of the objection.

    They perform poorly on the PISA test yet do well on the Math Olympiads.

    • Replies: @notanon
    another commenter said the disparity in Romania/Bulgaria could be explained by an unusually wide IQ variance among the population - my point was to offer one possible explanation for such a wide variance - iodine deficiency in the mountain regions but smart people along the Black Sea coast.
  456. @Bliss

    We can conclude that most college graduates are actually dumb shits. They voted for Clinton.
     
    Also: among non-hispanic whites the voters with post-graduate degrees voted the most overwhelmingly for Clinton, while those without even a high school diploma voted for Trump by the biggest margin. Clearly there is a correlation between years of education and likelihood of voting Democrat, among white voters.

    Earlier I showed a similar positive correlation between higher IQ and voting Democrat, among non-hispanic whites. So Democrats/Liberals have a significant built-in advantage among higher IQ and better educated white Americans.

    In Western Europe too, the Conservatives are significantly dumber than the Progressives. The Far Right being the dumbest.

    Are you proposing that we ditch universal suffrage and use an IQ of a 100 as a cutoff?

    Great idea, Bliss! But why not make it 105 to take more blacks off the rolls? Or maybe something a little lower than that to make room for the full Talented Tenth.

  457. @Colin Wright
    'What conclusions can we draw from that, geniuses?'

    We can conclude that most college graduates are actually dumb shits.

    They voted for Clinton.

    With grade inflation and affirmative action and worthless subjects like Womens Studies, AfAm Studies, AsAm studies, yes, most college graduates are pretty dumb.

    There is also the problem that many of them are followers and just not independent thinkers.

  458. @Bliss

    We can conclude that most college graduates are actually dumb shits. They voted for Clinton.
     
    Also: among non-hispanic whites the voters with post-graduate degrees voted the most overwhelmingly for Clinton, while those without even a high school diploma voted for Trump by the biggest margin. Clearly there is a correlation between years of education and likelihood of voting Democrat, among white voters.

    Earlier I showed a similar positive correlation between higher IQ and voting Democrat, among non-hispanic whites. So Democrats/Liberals have a significant built-in advantage among higher IQ and better educated white Americans.

    In Western Europe too, the Conservatives are significantly dumber than the Progressives. The Far Right being the dumbest.

    The Far Right being the dumbest.

    And yet it is the AfD etc who realizes that importing lots of low-IQ, low-Talent, high-propensity-for-violence individuals is not a good thing to do in the long run.

    Perhaps your definition of intelligence is the Bizarro definition of intelligence.

  459. @Peripatetic commenter
    You didn't deal with the meat of the objection.

    They perform poorly on the PISA test yet do well on the Math Olympiads.

    another commenter said the disparity in Romania/Bulgaria could be explained by an unusually wide IQ variance among the population – my point was to offer one possible explanation for such a wide variance – iodine deficiency in the mountain regions but smart people along the Black Sea coast.

    • Replies: @Peripatetic commenter
    Iodine deficiency would pull the mean down and depress the LHS of the curve but a lack of iodine deficiency would do little to the RHS, especially compared with other countries, unless they too had an iodine deficiency.

    In addition, it would seem to do nothing to support claims that there are high-performing individuals in those populations that help little with PISA (which samples pretty much the whole population) but outperforms the British and others in Math Olympiads.

    I think you would need to demonstrate that the non-Iodine deficient portion of those populations had an average IQ above 100 in order to provide a sufficient number of high performing Olympiads compared with the much larger populations of England etc.
  460. @notanon

    Maybe six or seven degrees
     
    yes (h/t hubchik) the church ban was in degrees of relatedness so a cousin would be three degrees of separation and according to this chart

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consanguinity

    six degrees of separation would be something like first cousin once removed.

    That makes sense. One wonders why Sicily seems to have been somewhat different.

    • Replies: @notanon
    i don't know what the difference in Sicily was but generally it seems the church pushed the issue as far as the local resistance would allow - so if they were more lenient in Sicily (if that is the difference you mean?) it might just have been the priests were getting assassinated when they pushed too hard?
  461. @songbird
    That makes sense. One wonders why Sicily seems to have been somewhat different.

    i don’t know what the difference in Sicily was but generally it seems the church pushed the issue as far as the local resistance would allow – so if they were more lenient in Sicily (if that is the difference you mean?) it might just have been the priests were getting assassinated when they pushed too hard?

  462. @DFH
    "Intelligent womens'" intelligence doesn't seem to help them out very much in working out that having (non-autistic) children becomes a lot more difficult after 30, as does finding a man when the best men are already married or less attracted to them.

    “Intelligent womens’” intelligence doesn’t seem to help them out very much in working out that having (non-autistic) children becomes a lot more difficult after 30, as does finding a man when the best men are already married or less attracted to them.

    The nature of autism risk is not really known to science. Some say it’s paternal age or just inheritance of “geek” traits.

    https://www.healthline.com/health-news/does-older-sperm-cause-autism

    With Holocaust denial and “Beethoven was black” already in this thread, I wonder if vaccines cause autism people are going to show up?

    The 30-year-old brides are marrying their boyfriends after being together for several years. Low divorce rate among the educated class can be explained by that – no unpleasant surprises after the wedding.

    • Replies: @DFH

    The 30-year-old brides are marrying their boyfriends after being together for several years. Low divorce rate among the educated class can be explained by that – no unpleasant surprises after the wedding.
     
    But then why does prior cohabitation make divorce more likely?
  463. @RaceRealist88
    "Intelligence may be limited by genetic factors"


    For this claim to hold there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structures or genes).

    P1) Intelligence is a mental ability.
    P2) If intelligence is a mental ability, then it cannot be "limited by genetic factors", because for the claim that intelligence is "limited by genetic factors" to be true, there must be laws linking psychological or mental states with physical states (i.e., laws linking intelligence to brain states/structure or genes, since they are physical).
    P3) But psychophysical laws do not exist (see Donald Davidson's anomalous monism; Ross' Immaterial Aspects of Thought; Nagel's Mind and Cosmos; the Kripke-Wittgenstein rule-following argument etc).
    C) Therefore intelligence cannot "be limited by genetic factors."

    Therefore intelligence cannot “be limited by genetic factors.”

    An obvious nonsense. All characteristics of the organism depend on an interaction of genes and environment, and many mental defects and brain abnormalities have known and specific genetic causes, cf: Genetic Basis of Brain Malformations

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    "many mental defects and brain abnormalities have known and specific genetic causes"

    The relation between the mental and the physical is not an empirical matter. The brain is a necessary pre-condition for consciousness/human mindedness (other irreducible mental (intentional states), but it is not a sufficient condition.

    The brain is physical. Genes affect physical traits. The mind is not physical.

    Are thoughts a physical or functional process? Thinking is what one does during an IQ test, right?
  464. @Anonymous
    I concede that I may be completely off base here. But let's say the question was put this way:

    Helen rode her speedster 1000 miles in 1 hr. Then she rode her bike 1 mile in 1 hr. What was her average speed over the distance of 1001 miles?

    Is it 1) 500.5 m/h?

    Or 2) 999 m/h?

    It would seem to me that the latter makes sense if you appreciate the distance traveled. She traveled a 1000 miles in the first leg. (ie, 1000 m/h) Then she went just a mile in her second leg. (1 m/h)

    So she went 1000 m/h for 1000 miles. And then just 1 m/h for 1 mile. What's the average? But average of "what"? If it's the distance of 1001 miles, is it unreasonable to give additional weight for that 1000 miles vs. 1 mile traveled?

    However, if the question is posed as, "What was her average speed over 2 hrs", then the answer is more unambiguously 1) 500.5 m/h.

    Total distance travelled was 1001 miles. Total time travelled was 2 hours. There is only one mathematically possible average speed over either total time or total distance.

    But if you start arbitrarily adding or subtracting chunks of time or distance that you don’t like, then you can get any result you want. Just not the correct result.

  465. @DFH
    But I wasn't talking about the claim that the mental is irreducible to the physical, I was talking about your absurd claim that there is no relation between mental and physical states.

    “mental and physical states seemed to be in parallel”
     
    If a bee stings me, then I feel pain etc.

    What’s your response to Ross’ Immaterial Aspects of Thought?

  466. @notanon
    if intelligence is (mostly) brain health then maybe it's both and neither?

    It can’t be both.

    • Replies: @notanon
    a healthy brain can't be a factor in both?
  467. @RaceRealist88
    Is "intelligence" a mental ability (intentional state) or behavior (disposition)?

    Is “intelligence” a mental ability (intentional state) or behavior (disposition)?

    Or a combination of both, or a combination of both with other stuff… it’s actually a good question, and it’s not clear that anybody bothers to think hard enough about it.

    My own ‘pulled out of my ass’ notion is that what we think of as intelligence is a combination of
    ① raw processing speed;
    ② domain selection; and
    ③ application-to-task.

    The processor speed gives some indication of potential; the selection of the domain/s and the commitment to task are the things that determine whether or not the potential is put to practical use.

    Drivers of all three things are combinations of genetics, nutrition (from in utero to adolescence), training, and social examples. Social examples aren’t changing anyone’s processor speed, obviously – but they will certainly affect the domain selection, and the commitment to task, even more so.

    This is why I’ve said before that a person with an IQ of 120, coupled with some guidance and a lot of ‘grit’, should be expected to outperform a person with an IQ of 130 who doesn’t give a fuck and/or has had no (or poor) guidance. I say this as someone who was capable of spending a good half-decade (in the 80s) not giving a fuck, despite having had all the good examples in the world.

    But on an equal-effort basis, the kid whose brain clock is running at 130 whatsits, will wipe the floor with the 120-tard. That’s one of the great things about having good cognitive ‘grunt’: once you get your shit in one sock, the return on effort is high.

    So although we know IQ differentials across individuals contribute meaningfully to differences economic outcomes, I’m not convinced that it’s enough by itself.

    I choose 130 advisedly, because it’s my observation that people with an IQ σ/2 above that are ornery buggers, who recognise a hamster wheel and tend to give it the miss-in-baulk (and or declare a curt nolle prosequi): the further up the cognitive spectrum you go, the more likely the individual is to be unmotivated to do things to impress others. Having an IQ above about 145 is pretty much the same as being actually autistic (not “child-psychologist autistic”, which is just a diagnosis of stupidity, expressed in such a way as to be palatable to parents of a type who take having stupid progeny as a personal slight).

    .

    A reasonable analogy is what people mean when they discuss “physical fitness” (in the everyday, non-Darwinian sense of the term).

    Again, it seems pretty obvious that there is an interplay between genetics, nutrition, training/guidance and dedication.

    At élite levels the genetic component stands out like dog’s nuts – and in one domain in particular: the men’s marathon.

    A Kenyan – especially one from the Kalenji (sometimes Kalenjin) tribe – is vastly more likely to run a sub-2:10 marathon than any Westerner. There are Westerners who have done so (not many – only 14 Americans, vs 350-odd Kalenji[n]); and of course there are many Kalenji[n] who haven’t. But there’s an obvious ’tilt’.

    The Westerners who have done so, were starting without the considerable genetic advantages of the Kalenji[n], and without the Kalenji[n]‘s cultural ‘pain tolerance’ rituals the endow them with an understanding of the difference between actual pain and discomfort[1].

    Conversely, Western athletes of even modest means have access to first-world nutrition, professional guidance… and of course élite athletes all have absolute commitment to their task.

    The reality is, though, that ‘like for like’ (i.e., same nutrition, guidance and commitment) an arbitrarily-selected Kalenji[n] ‘good’ marathoner would eventually embarrass all but the absolute elite Westerner.

    So we know that genetics makes a huge difference at élite level; and in groups with similar levels of genetics, the other factors provide differentiation.

    We take that as read in sports, so why would it be controversial when the exertions are cerebral/cognitive rather than physical/cardiovascular?

    We also take it as read that there is a significant mental component to physical/cardiovascular efforts, too – we tend to concentrate on motivation, as in the willingness to ‘dig deep’, ‘gut-run’ and so on.

    But there is also a cognitive aspect: monitoring, recognising, interpreting and understanding the feedback that your body gives your brain in real time (either as-perceived, or via sensors). That’s critical for any sports performance longer than a 400m sprint.

    It takes significant mental effort to perform a full-blown “threshold test”, for example – it burns, it hurts, you can’t get your breath, and you feel like your heart is going to come out of your mouth.

    However familiarity with the test protocol makes a significant difference to results, and that difference cannot be explained by physical adaptation.

    Consider the two primary ways of assessing ‘endurance’, for example:

    • ‘constant threshold effort’ tests (where the subject picks an output level and tries to hold it for the entire test, and must abandon the test if the output level drops by more than 5%), or
    • ‘ramp‘ tests (where the subject is required to perform consecutive blocks of a set time, at progressively-higher levels of exertion – again, failure to stay within the range of each block’s target means the test ends).

    The very first time a ‘normal’ (i.e., relatively untrained) person does a ramp test, they will give up well before they hit anything close to their actual threshold.

    This is because the first time you do a ramp test, the fact that it keeps getting harder is mentally confronting: it’s mildly dispiriting each time the resistance goes up.

    If the same person does the same test the next day, their results will routinely improve by 10-20%.

    And the same is true for ‘constant effort’ tests – for the simple reason that on first exposure to the test, semi-trained subjects simply don’t know how to pace themselves: they have no sense of what effort level they could barely sustain for 20, 30, or 60 minutes. Some people (young men, mostly) attack the test and ‘gas out’ before the allotted time… others are conservative and pick a level that is too low, and realise at the end that they had plenty left in the tank.

    Once they do their first test and realise afterwards that they had either over- or under-cooked it, they perform vastly better (again, 10-20% in 24 hours is not uncommon).

    People for whom near-threshold exertion is routine, are far more accurate in their perceptions of exertion – so much so that they can accurately assess what their heart-rate is at any point in a session, to within a 10-beat range… without looking at a sensor.

    [1] Almost everything that ‘hurts’ doesn’t hurt as much as we think it does. Anyone who thinks that a papercut with lemon juice on it ‘hurts’, has never had to pass a kidney stone (nor have I).

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Thanks for the comment. It is unfortunately irrelevant. I never denied genes affect the physical so your example is useless to me. I also know all about that. (It's my job.)

    Intelligence is either a mental ability or disposition. It can't be both.
  468. @CanSpeccy

    Therefore intelligence cannot “be limited by genetic factors.”
     
    An obvious nonsense. All characteristics of the organism depend on an interaction of genes and environment, and many mental defects and brain abnormalities have known and specific genetic causes, cf: Genetic Basis of Brain Malformations

    “many mental defects and brain abnormalities have known and specific genetic causes”

    The relation between the mental and the physical is not an empirical matter. The brain is a necessary pre-condition for consciousness/human mindedness (other irreducible mental (intentional states), but it is not a sufficient condition.

    The brain is physical. Genes affect physical traits. The mind is not physical.

    Are thoughts a physical or functional process? Thinking is what one does during an IQ test, right?

    • Replies: @songbird
    Serious question: is your name supposed to be ironic, or do you think the races are naturally behaviorally different, but reject the idea of IQ, or of them having different average IQs?
    , @CanSpeccy

    The mind is not physical.
     
    If you mean that the existence of a mind cannot be directly known, other than to the possessor of the mind, your claim is correct.

    But behavior indicative of the possession of a mind is never observed in the absence of a brain, so it is reasonable to assume that the brain is a prerequisite of mind.

    In any case, there is a clear, scientifically established relationship between mental and neurological abnormalities, so we can conclude that your quibble about minds and brains is mere game playing leading to no useful or valid conclusions.

  469. @Thorfinnsson
    I think Karlin is converging on my elitist "nationalism". The proles require leadership and noblesse oblige.

    It should not be forgotten that they have have very useful specific knowledge and skills and are often immune to "clever sillies" nonsense. I have double digit IQ employees who can work miracles with their hands.

    Our task is to mobilize them as soldiers to crush and replace existing elites with ourselves.

    Been saying this for three years

  470. @for-the-record
    At the south pole you walk in circle around the fixed south pole counter clockwise (west)

    It is impossible to walk "west" from the South Pole, any direction you walk is north.

    Because of short of time I did not elaborate.

    Not when you pivot your left foot fixed and directly on the south pole with the centre of gravity on your left foot, lift your right foot and swing it forward along the latitude circle (west) and plant it across where you are facing, drag/rotate your body anti-clockwise. Technically your right foot and most of your body are “walking” west. Then a little hop to exchange the right foot as the pivot and swing you left foot along the latitude circle backward (west) and drag/swing your body counter-clockwise (west). Since both your feet and your body are moving “west”, the second condition is satisfied.

    The other proposals did not answer how the second condition is satisfied. You also took it for granted.

  471. @RaceRealist88
    "many mental defects and brain abnormalities have known and specific genetic causes"

    The relation between the mental and the physical is not an empirical matter. The brain is a necessary pre-condition for consciousness/human mindedness (other irreducible mental (intentional states), but it is not a sufficient condition.

    The brain is physical. Genes affect physical traits. The mind is not physical.

    Are thoughts a physical or functional process? Thinking is what one does during an IQ test, right?

    Serious question: is your name supposed to be ironic, or do you think the races are naturally behaviorally different, but reject the idea of IQ, or of them having different average IQs?

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    I believe in the biological reality of race. The existence of race is not a scientific question, it's philosophical. Michael Hardimon's minimalist and populationist race arguments and Quayshawn Spencer's argument for the existence of Blumenbachian partitions establish the claim that race exists. One does not need to accept hereditarian psychological claims to accept the existence of race. Why the two positions are conflated is beyond me.

    I don't deny differences in IQ. I deny the explanations/conclusions people draw from the tests because their conclusions are untenable (there is no lawlike relation between the mental and the physical therefore mental traits cannot be genetically inherited).

  472. @RaceRealist88
    It can't be both.

    a healthy brain can’t be a factor in both?

  473. Somewhat OT but speaking of the idiocy of the average:

    another victim of the “it’s not the genes but the training that make pit bulls ornery” orthodoxy…

    https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2018/09/04/woman-mauled-to-death-by-rescue-pit-bull/

  474. @Dmitry
    Conclusion of the article about "O-ring theory" in development economics, is interesting - I have not heard this before.

    But there is a problem in using PISA "maths" test.

    If you download the sample papers, PISA "maths" test with no maths. It's more a kind of idle puzzle collection.

    -

    I respect OECD's economics knowledge, and general ideology.

    One of the problems of OECD's approach, is trying to test children at 16, which is when real education is only beginning.

    To find comparative gaps in education systems was the purpose of OECD , with the aim of giving recommendations to countries in areas where they need to "catch up" academically.

    For OECD, it was impossible to test any substantial knowledge of children, as different countries have different syllabuses for this age-group.

    So OECD presumably hired some educational psychologists to create these puzzle questions which they believe to be transnationally valid.

    As a result, a large part of what you are measuring is how children, in various countries, can decode confusing questions designed by the OECD to be transnational.

    It's functioning partly as a test of children's (or their educational systems') level of conformity to OECD's transnational organizational culture.

    In this sense, it's quite useful for seeing which countries' youth are "onboard" with their agenda.

    -

    Aside from this particular topic, I would advocate skepticism that testing youth at 16 in general, is going to demonstrate level of the adults in the society.

    People are maturing at different speeds, and I would hypothesize plenty of cases of stupider kids maturing faster than kids with higher potential.

    The correct age for testing should be 21 or 22, when people are academically mature.

    > One of the problems of OECD’s approach, is trying to test children at 16, which is when real education is only beginning.

    Trying to hand wave the facts away? The national 15 yo OECD PISA scores are statistically very very significant for predicting the GRE Quant scores of the corresponding national university graduates (estimated age 21),

    Even the PIRLS scores of the approx. 10 yo are statistically very very significant for predicting the national PISA scores. At approx. 10 yo the relative age effect is significant, the difference between the oldest and the youngest can be about 1 year. i.e. about 10%. A better prediction can be obtained by adjusting the national PIRLS scores to the total sample mean age at 10.14,

    Even the approx. 10 yo national PIRLS scores are statistically fairly significant predictors for the 21 yo graduate GRE Quant scores.

    > For OECD, it was impossible to test any substantial knowledge of children, as different countries have different syllabuses for this age-group.

    It PISA did not test substantial ability (not knowledge as GRE demands different set of knowledge) why it can very statistical significantly predict the GRE performance? Even with different syllabuses for the East Asian countries many of which are not in OECD why they performed so well?

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    GRE test is, of course, far less of joke than PISA - but that's still another very silly test.

    PISA is really a joke, let us be honest - although made according to OECD ideology (you can read their reports to understand their reasoning).*

    Still GRE test is also a joke. I was going through this exam with a friend some months ago. We could not understand that language portion was supposed to be examining native English speakers. The essay part is challenging. But the rest, is like a test for foreigners to show they know some English words. And for foreigners this is easy. And yet native Americans are taking this test, for post-grad admissions? (If they only give it to foreigners, I could understand).

    As for the quantitative portion, is generally very stupid - some silly trick questions, but idiotically easy if and only if you become accustomed to this kind of question, and it has no real testing of ability. Your score in the exam will be inevitably high, as long as you do a little preparation to see the kinds of silly questions they use. It's useless for testing students for technical subjects.

    While the verbal part of the test, will be inevitably high if you are a native English-speaking American, or if you have studied English to a high level.


    statistically very very significant for predicting the national PISA scores.

     

    More similar to this, would be correlation of PISA scores to iphone usage, or to age of first-marriage, and number of dogs per person.

    The higher scores measure something - maybe that the teachers can keep the children focused on the exam for an hour. Maybe that the country has greater Westernization and acculturation to OECD methodology. Perhaps, that itself, correlates with various things.

    In other words, it is useless, since it is not directly the skills it claims to test.

    We could perhaps equally put the children to sit in the room for an hour, and correlate how still they sit, with their future GRE scores. The countries with children who sit more still and quietly, will receive higher scores in the future. That doesn't indicate that sitting still is an accurate test of maths skills.

    -


    PISA is the weapon for OECD to push through its educational psychology. Their advice is something wholly bad.

    Because PISA has no maths in it (even less than things like GRE), their advice seems to involve telling teacher how not to teach maths.

    For example, they make a chart to show that countries where people memorize more in maths class, have lower scores in PISA. And then they conclude that students should memorize less things in maths class.

    But PISA has no maths, so how is this even relevant?

    https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/ten-questions-for-mathematics-teachers-and-how-pisa-can-help-answer-them_5jlr56znxjr7.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2Fpublication%2F9789264265387-en&mimeType=pdf

  475. @gcochran
    Something like 1/6th of Massachusetts ancestry goes back to Puritans.

    Source? Thanks in advance.

  476. Anatoly, thank you, this has given me a much better understanding of PISA tests. I had never looked into their actual content before.

    It is now clear to me that the percentage scores are largely and perhaps unpredictably determined by the effort expended by those taking the tests; and those preparing the students.

    The Level 6 question is a very straightforward speed = distance over time calculation of the sort which I’ve taught quite far left of the bell curve individuals to perform successfully, repeatedly and with much more complex framing.

    Wherever PISA scores are being used to predict IQ scores, huge mistakes are being made.

    PISA scores, in the OECD, seem mostly a predictor for social conformism, which makes sense given that they’re a pointless, rewardless test.

  477. @Logan
    The biggest correlation of IQ tests with the real world is probably in how quickly a person can learn something new.

    A high-IQ person will quickly master a simple task. As you go down the IQ ladder, the amount of time it takes a person to master the same skill increases. But once he's achieved mastery, he's generally as good at it as the high-IQ guy. Sometimes better, as the high-IQ guy gets bored and stops trying.

    As the complexity of the skill we're talking about increases, the lower IQ people take longer and longer to achieve mastery, and the lowest-IQ types successively peel off the bottom, with mastery simply beyond their ability no matter how much time is spent teaching the skill.

    In the tests this articles discusses, it would be interesting to also track how long it took students to reach a correct answer.

    Great comment. One can easily drill low IQ individuals for this test.

    Meanwhile, high IQ individuals would likely just work it out from previous experience.

    (Very high IQ individuals probably wouldn’t bother.)

  478. @AP
    I don't think that Puritans (or Anglians, wherever in England Puritans are from) have some magic genes that differentiate them from other northern Europeans. Rather, it's a cultural emphasis on high education, industriousness, cunning, hard work, mutual aid, etc. Puritans set up the framework in New England and other northern Europeans such as Irish were able to adopt it, in general. And thus you have one of the wealthiest and most intelligent and educated societies in the world.

    Of course, that framework also included harsh dour moralism, and this has morphed from Calvinist extremism to Progressive extremism.

    I think there’s not much cultural continuity.

  479. @anonymous coward

    economic success
     
    There's no such thing as "economic success".

    Or, rather, there is no single valid metric of "success" in this space.

    Consider Equatorial Guinea, an "economically successful" country with a GDP (PPP per capita) comparable to the Czech Republic. Yet it is still a classic African shithole, with literal cannibals roaming the streets.

    Consider again the Ukraine, which is a Somalia-tier failed state, with a failed economy to match it. Yet it is full of SWPL white people who drink craft beer, enjoy boutique board games and walk alone at night.

    I’ve not been to the Ukraine nor Equatorial Guinea but I have been to plenty of poor Sub-Saharan countries where life is substantially more enjoyable than “craft beer” and “boutique boardgames”.

  480. @DFH
    People from non-Oxbridge/LSE/Imperial Russell Group universities usually seem a little slow, tbh

    It is Oxbridge and then the rest. Plenty of quick people at the latter but only the former are consistently so.

  481. @Rosie

    It really is shocking to talk to a person with an IQ under 110.
     
    And just think, some people say such people should have a free hand to rule over their wives and children as they see fit.

    It really is shocking to talk to a person with an IQ under 110.

    And just think, some people say such people should have a free hand to rule over their wives and children as they see fit.

    Rosie,

    You are confusing intelligence with being a wise and/or a good person. There are many intelligent people who are neither wise, nor good.

    • Agree: Talha
    • Replies: @Rosie

    You are confusing intelligence with being a wise and/or a good person.
     
    No I'm not, but I have found that there is a great deal of overlap.

    There are many intelligent people who are neither wise, nor good.
     
    Agreed, but what's your point? Are you saying it's just as well to be ruled over by the stupid as the intelligent? Hierarchy requires some sort of justification other than might makes Right. If not intelligence, what then?
  482. @Frederic Bastiat
    Gigerenzers Work showed that tests, like the above, are strongly format dependent. Change the test format to one to which our cognitive abilities are evolutionary adapted and performance will improve a lot.

    The main problem I have with these tests is, that they are mostly irrelevant, in the same sense as university education is mostly irrelevant to work place performance, since most skills are *learned* when they are needed and kept in strength as long as they are needed. University and schools degrees are at best a kind of signaling of discipline, obedience and the like.

    What is more relevant than IQ imho (which has a dissapointing intra-individual validity btw; test the same individual at different times and you get different results, fluctuating up to 20%), is how *fast* an individual can behavioraly adapt to environmental requirements. Put differently, it is more important how fast an individual can learn or change its behavioral repertoire. Some individuals learn faster than others and are therefore more adaptible to and therefore successful in changing environements.

    You can train rats, pigeons and dogs quite surprisingly complex tasks. With the proper symbolic format (like colored buttons) and training you could train a rat to perform simple symbolic algorithms (think of how a turing machine operates). Human behavior is even more adaptable, putting the tests above in the purview of IQ-70 populations - with proper training that is (IQ tests are also subject to training effects btw, i.e. you can train for high IQ test scores).

    What is missing in the intelligence debate is a measure of this second order behavior, or the ability to learn new behaviors.

    Yes to your post.

    What is missing in the intelligence debate is a measure of this second order behavior, or the ability to learn new behaviors.

    I don’t think such a test is possible. At least not in a standard format. The results would be too random were the test not many hours or days long. Also, testing the ability to learn genuinely new behaviours requires the test creators to come up with new behaviours for every test, which would be extremely creative.

  483. @notanon
    another commenter said the disparity in Romania/Bulgaria could be explained by an unusually wide IQ variance among the population - my point was to offer one possible explanation for such a wide variance - iodine deficiency in the mountain regions but smart people along the Black Sea coast.

    Iodine deficiency would pull the mean down and depress the LHS of the curve but a lack of iodine deficiency would do little to the RHS, especially compared with other countries, unless they too had an iodine deficiency.

    In addition, it would seem to do nothing to support claims that there are high-performing individuals in those populations that help little with PISA (which samples pretty much the whole population) but outperforms the British and others in Math Olympiads.

    I think you would need to demonstrate that the non-Iodine deficient portion of those populations had an average IQ above 100 in order to provide a sufficient number of high performing Olympiads compared with the much larger populations of England etc.

    • Replies: @Peripatetic commenter
    Compare the population of the UK with that of Bulgaria.

    Bulgaria has a population of ~7M according to the latest info, while the UK has ~66M.

    Reducing the Bulgarian population by ~20% for Iodine deficiency and the UK population by ~10% because of inbred Muslims and blacks, that still makes it hard for Bulgaria to come up with a people who could compete with the UK on the Olympiads (especially considering the Chinese in the UK who would be into that) unless Bulgaria has a sub-population with a much higher average IQ or a much larger variance.
    , @notanon
    fair point - the iodine thing might explain how one country could have a lower average performance than another but an equal performance at the top end but it wouldn't explain a superior performance at the top end.

    maybe romanians/bulgarians have more neanderthal genes?
  484. @TomV
    What's up with Israel at Level 6 only 2%?
    How does this square with the oft comment about Jewish high IQ?

    Ashkenazi Jews have high IQs. Only 45% of Israel’s population is Ashkenazi. The country of Israel is 75% Jewish, 20% Arab, and 4% other. Ashkenazis make up 60% of Jews in the country or 45% of total population. It should also be noted that 15% of Jews in Israel are Ultra-Orthodox, many of whom are poorly educated in secular subjects.

    The Level 6 scores in English-speaking countries are due primarily to Asians. The US population is 5% Asian, United Kingdom 7%, Australia and New Zealand 12% each, and Canada is 15% Asian.

    • Replies: @res

    The Level 6 scores in English-speaking countries are due primarily to Asians. The US population is 5% Asian, United Kingdom 7%, Australia and New Zealand 12% each, and Canada is 15% Asian.
     
    On what do you base this assertion? In the US whites outnumber Asians over 12 to 1. Even assuming Asians have a higher quantitative IQ, the IQ threshold for level 6 (2% in the US implies about 130) is not high enough to overcome the difference in populations.

    To see an actual calculation, use http://emilkirkegaard.dk/understanding_statistics/?app=tail_effects
    I used a 12:1 population ratio, 130 threshold, and a 1 SD (unlikely it is that large in reality) mean IQ difference giving a 63/37 white/Asian split.
    , @DFH
    East Asians are under 2% of the UK population. Even with a very generous estimate of Asian quantitative intelligence, they would still be a very small proportion of those at the right of the curve.
  485. @utu
    The sample problems of Level 1 to 6 are cluttered with noise of useless informations that is culturally and economic development dependent.

    Why do we need to know that Helen has a speedometer? 20-30 years ago speedometers showing averages speed were not common. If you had a speedometer it was mechanical showing instantaneous speed only. To get the average speed you need time keeping. But anyway the fact that Helen has a speedometer is irrelevant to the problem.

    All problems are quantitative requiring mathematical operation (except for Level 1) and some idea how things work.

    If you reformulated the problems nad asked questions differently the score would be much higher.

    Level 1: For which months the black bar is taller than grey bar? Some kids were not exposed to graphs and haven't learn how to read them.

    Level 2: What is larger/smaller/equal 4/10 or 2/5? The question is about the definition of the average speed. Give that definition first.

    Level 3: Which number in the lowest row is the largest? WhoTF needs to now what is engine capacity. The term "engine capacity" is not common. How does it sound Swahili?

    Level 4: How many kids in Uruguay saw a revolving door? Most people will have problem visualizing the problem and realizing that 6 people per rotation can pass the door. BTW, African Americans are familiar with revolving (one way only) doors as they are commonly used in prison.

    And so on. Solving the problem like these is to be conditioned by a lot of practice where you are exposed to problems like these. In Mt. Fuji problem you must realize that you must calculate the total time which is the sum of two times: going up and going down. In Helen Level 6 you need to know what is the average speed and that it is not the same as the average of speeds.

    It is all matter of preparation for the test which teaches how to convert stories that you do not have interest in (WGTF about Helen?) to mathematical abstractions. To do it you have to be acculturated to the high level of motivation to score high that you care about scoring the test more than pondering WTF it is all about and who needs it.

    Now the bigger issue. Do PISA tests tell us something? PISA tests scores are classical chicken-egg problem. Why do countries on the make like Eastern Europe often have high PISA scores? Why do they care? Russia is doing exceptionally well in them. But Russia also has impressive military parades on the Victory Day. Russia is known for Potemkin villages. But are Potemkin villages bad? Now, pretense is good because it shows what are important values. Like in case of hypocrisy: "hypocrisy is a tribute vice pays to virtue." While building a Potemkin village a Russian muzhik gets some idea how a nice village suppose to look. When preparing tanks for the V-day parade the mechanics will put more effort to a make sure that the equipment does not breaks down and perhaps it will extend to normal operations. When cramming for PISA test kids actually learn something. And when they get high scores their confidence level goes up.

    > Why do countries on the make like Eastern Europe often have high PISA scores? Why do they care?

    Why do those developing and least developed countries care? Those countries that reject/dont care about the concept of PISA as just like those cargo cult people hoping that prosperity will drop down from the sky. Otherwise they need the knowledge and resources to kick start their economy.

    One way to achieve that is through foreign investments, like those happened to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and China. Who are those decision makers on foreign investments? They are those that attend the World Economic Forum. WEF regularly surveys the multinational corporate chairmen, CEOs, CFOs, etc about foreign investments. What do you know, their country preferences are very very statistical significantly correlated to the PISA scores, irrespective of if they have partially consulted the PISA scores or if PISA measures anything tangible. They might have influence how OECD frames the PISA survey.

    Those countries that are poor performers will just wait for ever, despite the low wages the local workers are very hard to train. Those with oil or mineral resources will be extracted by the multi-national without leaving any industrial infrastructure behind.

  486. @Anonymous
    The problem with Level 6 Math is that the correct answer as given is 28 whereas the actual one is 28.3(3). That the test-takers were not able to come up with a sensible question that tests concepts such as rates/normalization AND returns an integer answer speaks of low IQ of the test designers.

    Not arguing the main point, of course! The ranking is still roughly meaningful. That is, a largish part of the difference between Switzerland and Albania (or Singapore and Jamaica) can be explained in terms of the tests results shown.

    Excellent trolling anon. Everyone with half an education considered doing what you did but then instantly smacked their head as to why they would bother. Doing this on a post about intelligence and also getting it wrong were nice touches.

  487. @RaceRealist88
    "many mental defects and brain abnormalities have known and specific genetic causes"

    The relation between the mental and the physical is not an empirical matter. The brain is a necessary pre-condition for consciousness/human mindedness (other irreducible mental (intentional states), but it is not a sufficient condition.

    The brain is physical. Genes affect physical traits. The mind is not physical.

    Are thoughts a physical or functional process? Thinking is what one does during an IQ test, right?

    The mind is not physical.

    If you mean that the existence of a mind cannot be directly known, other than to the possessor of the mind, your claim is correct.

    But behavior indicative of the possession of a mind is never observed in the absence of a brain, so it is reasonable to assume that the brain is a prerequisite of mind.

    In any case, there is a clear, scientifically established relationship between mental and neurological abnormalities, so we can conclude that your quibble about minds and brains is mere game playing leading to no useful or valid conclusions.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    No I mean there is mental stuff and there is physical stuff. The mental is not physical nor is the mental reducible to the physical.

    "In any case, there is a clear, scientifically established relationship between mental and neurological abnormalities"

    Since the physical (brain) is needed for human mindedness it is a necessary pre-condition. Due to this, damage to the physical affects the mental (which I didn't deny. No idea why you brought it up).
  488. I can’t believe no one has pointed out (((Israel’s))) place in the standings. Can we now dispense with the myth of superior (((Israeli))) intelligence?

    • Replies: @Anon
    I did, average Israeli IQ is 95.
  489. @Peripatetic commenter
    Iodine deficiency would pull the mean down and depress the LHS of the curve but a lack of iodine deficiency would do little to the RHS, especially compared with other countries, unless they too had an iodine deficiency.

    In addition, it would seem to do nothing to support claims that there are high-performing individuals in those populations that help little with PISA (which samples pretty much the whole population) but outperforms the British and others in Math Olympiads.

    I think you would need to demonstrate that the non-Iodine deficient portion of those populations had an average IQ above 100 in order to provide a sufficient number of high performing Olympiads compared with the much larger populations of England etc.

    Compare the population of the UK with that of Bulgaria.

    Bulgaria has a population of ~7M according to the latest info, while the UK has ~66M.

    Reducing the Bulgarian population by ~20% for Iodine deficiency and the UK population by ~10% because of inbred Muslims and blacks, that still makes it hard for Bulgaria to come up with a people who could compete with the UK on the Olympiads (especially considering the Chinese in the UK who would be into that) unless Bulgaria has a sub-population with a much higher average IQ or a much larger variance.

  490. @Peripatetic commenter
    Iodine deficiency would pull the mean down and depress the LHS of the curve but a lack of iodine deficiency would do little to the RHS, especially compared with other countries, unless they too had an iodine deficiency.

    In addition, it would seem to do nothing to support claims that there are high-performing individuals in those populations that help little with PISA (which samples pretty much the whole population) but outperforms the British and others in Math Olympiads.

    I think you would need to demonstrate that the non-Iodine deficient portion of those populations had an average IQ above 100 in order to provide a sufficient number of high performing Olympiads compared with the much larger populations of England etc.

    fair point – the iodine thing might explain how one country could have a lower average performance than another but an equal performance at the top end but it wouldn’t explain a superior performance at the top end.

    maybe romanians/bulgarians have more neanderthal genes?

  491. @Anon.
    What accounts for the relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA tests, but their exceptional performance in mathematical olympiads, where they outperformed the UK and France?

    What accounts for the relatively poor performance of Bulgaria and Romania on PISA tests, but their exceptional performance in mathematical olympiads, where they outperformed the UK and France?

    Surely your own words “exceptional performance in mathematical olympiads” answers your own question?

    What next? All the best stamp collections belong to us? A few people from our country are really good at Scrabble? Or Boggle…

  492. @dux.ie
    > One of the problems of OECD’s approach, is trying to test children at 16, which is when real education is only beginning.

    Trying to hand wave the facts away? The national 15 yo OECD PISA scores are statistically very very significant for predicting the GRE Quant scores of the corresponding national university graduates (estimated age 21),

    http://i68.tinypic.com/21khsn5.png

    Even the PIRLS scores of the approx. 10 yo are statistically very very significant for predicting the national PISA scores. At approx. 10 yo the relative age effect is significant, the difference between the oldest and the youngest can be about 1 year. i.e. about 10%. A better prediction can be obtained by adjusting the national PIRLS scores to the total sample mean age at 10.14,

    http://i65.tinypic.com/juwfwo.png

    Even the approx. 10 yo national PIRLS scores are statistically fairly significant predictors for the 21 yo graduate GRE Quant scores.

    http://i68.tinypic.com/2w38ga0.png

    > For OECD, it was impossible to test any substantial knowledge of children, as different countries have different syllabuses for this age-group.

    It PISA did not test substantial ability (not knowledge as GRE demands different set of knowledge) why it can very statistical significantly predict the GRE performance? Even with different syllabuses for the East Asian countries many of which are not in OECD why they performed so well?

    GRE test is, of course, far less of joke than PISA – but that’s still another very silly test.

    PISA is really a joke, let us be honest – although made according to OECD ideology (you can read their reports to understand their reasoning).*

    Still GRE test is also a joke. I was going through this exam with a friend some months ago. We could not understand that language portion was supposed to be examining native English speakers. The essay part is challenging. But the rest, is like a test for foreigners to show they know some English words. And for foreigners this is easy. And yet native Americans are taking this test, for post-grad admissions? (If they only give it to foreigners, I could understand).

    As for the quantitative portion, is generally very stupid – some silly trick questions, but idiotically easy if and only if you become accustomed to this kind of question, and it has no real testing of ability. Your score in the exam will be inevitably high, as long as you do a little preparation to see the kinds of silly questions they use. It’s useless for testing students for technical subjects.

    While the verbal part of the test, will be inevitably high if you are a native English-speaking American, or if you have studied English to a high level.

    statistically very very significant for predicting the national PISA scores.

    More similar to this, would be correlation of PISA scores to iphone usage, or to age of first-marriage, and number of dogs per person.

    The higher scores measure something – maybe that the teachers can keep the children focused on the exam for an hour. Maybe that the country has greater Westernization and acculturation to OECD methodology. Perhaps, that itself, correlates with various things.

    In other words, it is useless, since it is not directly the skills it claims to test.

    We could perhaps equally put the children to sit in the room for an hour, and correlate how still they sit, with their future GRE scores. The countries with children who sit more still and quietly, will receive higher scores in the future. That doesn’t indicate that sitting still is an accurate test of maths skills.

    -

    PISA is the weapon for OECD to push through its educational psychology. Their advice is something wholly bad.

    Because PISA has no maths in it (even less than things like GRE), their advice seems to involve telling teacher how not to teach maths.

    For example, they make a chart to show that countries where people memorize more in maths class, have lower scores in PISA. And then they conclude that students should memorize less things in maths class.

    But PISA has no maths, so how is this even relevant?

    https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/ten-questions-for-mathematics-teachers-and-how-pisa-can-help-answer-them_5jlr56znxjr7.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2Fpublication%2F9789264265387-en&mimeType=pdf

  493. @Bruno
    I was selected to be in the French team but didn’t go because I used to spend 2,5 months holidays in south Spain in my family house with friends .

    PhD in math have 1 chance in 10 000 to get a field medal.

    Chances for Harvard PhD - the highest in the USA - is below 7 out of all their PhD in maths delivered since 60 years (I would guess 1 in 150)

    Gold medalist (50 a year) have 1 chance in 100 (12 out of 1200 for last 24 years)

    Perfect scorers have 1 chance in 10 (8 out of around 80 for the last 24 years)

    So math Olympiad is the best high performance predictor there is for genius level activity. It’s the best reality advocate for any g theory because the math is absolutely not intensive in knowledge and require a lot of mental dexterity. That’s why it’s looked down by French math elite who prepare form Normale Sup very knowledge and proof intensive competition.

    Math Olympiad is like a truly 5sd math IQ test ...

    Math Olympiad is like a truly 5sd math IQ test …

    It sounds like a lot of work. I imagine the very smart people who do it must insist on getting a paid a lot for their labour.

    • Replies: @Bruno
    If your speaking about the math doing the test, I don’t think so. It must be a lot of fun. If someone is extremely good at recognizing faces, it’s not a lot of work for him to recognize anyone.

    For pupils, it’s a great way to be admitted in the most selective programs. Even more famous that Putnam competition. And again, it’s not a knowledge intensive thing. Must preparation in the USA is simply selection of the 6 right candidates .
  494. @Frederic Bastiat
    Gigerenzers Work showed that tests, like the above, are strongly format dependent. Change the test format to one to which our cognitive abilities are evolutionary adapted and performance will improve a lot.

    The main problem I have with these tests is, that they are mostly irrelevant, in the same sense as university education is mostly irrelevant to work place performance, since most skills are *learned* when they are needed and kept in strength as long as they are needed. University and schools degrees are at best a kind of signaling of discipline, obedience and the like.

    What is more relevant than IQ imho (which has a dissapointing intra-individual validity btw; test the same individual at different times and you get different results, fluctuating up to 20%), is how *fast* an individual can behavioraly adapt to environmental requirements. Put differently, it is more important how fast an individual can learn or change its behavioral repertoire. Some individuals learn faster than others and are therefore more adaptible to and therefore successful in changing environements.

    You can train rats, pigeons and dogs quite surprisingly complex tasks. With the proper symbolic format (like colored buttons) and training you could train a rat to perform simple symbolic algorithms (think of how a turing machine operates). Human behavior is even more adaptable, putting the tests above in the purview of IQ-70 populations - with proper training that is (IQ tests are also subject to training effects btw, i.e. you can train for high IQ test scores).

    What is missing in the intelligence debate is a measure of this second order behavior, or the ability to learn new behaviors.

    > What is missing in the intelligence debate is a measure of this second order behavior, or the ability to learn new behaviors.

    PISA Maths tends to test the application of mathematical knowledge to solve problems set in real-world contexts. While others like TIMSS, SAT, ACT tend to test classroom contents. There is a different OECD test on “Creative Problem Solving” CPS (which measures students’ capacity to respond to non-routine, fuzzy and ill defined situations in order to achieve their potential as constructive and reflective citizens) from a different testing body supervised by OECD,

    http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/pisa-2012-results-skills-for-life-volume-v_9789264208070-en

    The creative problem solving ability can be characterized by the ability to utilize (existing) knowledge and the ability for new knowledge acquisition. In the OECD Creative Problem Survey CPS, various countries were survey for the 15 yo on their ability in these two respects,

    The test is objective interaction with computers (to take out the human element) which present the fuzzy and ill defined novel problems and some (not all required) knowledge, and additional info will only be given only when the candidate intuitively know what additional knowledge are required and ask/search for them. Significant number of students just stared blankly at the screen. Rote learning does not help.

    There is tight relationship between the two characteristics, those above the regression line are generally more generalistic than specialistic and vice versa. If that is true then most western countries are more generalistic than specialistic whereas the East Asian countries are more specialistic, in complete contradiction to the commonly held narrative that they are mostly rote learners. (The testing organization is European.) What is more staggering is the gap between the top specialistic countries with the rest. Read the results from the OECD report. Very entertaining.

  495. @for-the-record
    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?

    The North Pole and lots of places near the South Pole but I can’t be bothered to work articulate a full explanation.

    TLDR, position yourself anywhere your 1km walk will take you through the South Pole and onto the line of latitude that is 1km in circumference…or 0.5km or 0.25km etc etc.

    N cancels out S so W needs to cancel itself out.

  496. @Vishnugupta
    Interesting result in the International Physics Olympiad 2018.

    The participants represent the smartest of smart fractions top 0.0001% of the respective countries.

    China and India came joint first with 5 Golds(The maximum possible each)

    In a world increasingly moving towards automation,the IQ of the top 0.5% is what is going to matter assuming the population at large are not a bunch of Cretins.

    A population with genetic IQ of 92+ but with a top 0.5% with IQ 135+ (India) is likely over decades going to outperform countries with IQ of 95+ with a top 0.5% with IQ 120+ (Lat Am,SE Asia,Turkey etc).We can see this playing out even today India's industrial base Space,Nuclear(Full Civilian fuel cycle+nuclear weapons +nuclear submarines),Auto components etc dwarf anything these countries have despite the fact they are on average 3-5 times richer,do not suffer from horrendous malnourishment rates and have much better social infrastructure and did not spend the majority of their independent years under the asinine License Raj economic system.

    Interesting result in the International Physics Olympiad 2018.

    The participants represent the smartest of smart fractions top 0.0001% of the respective countries.

    No, they don’t. That is 1 out of a million. It seems that India and China are engaged in an educational cargo cult. “We gets pointless medals, we gets economic development”.

    Having had the privilege to meet a number of British people who could potentially lay claim to such a rare title as top student in their national school year, I can assure you that none of them would bother with anything so silly.

    Those types of awards have zero prestige over here. At least in the types of private schools that not only suck in most of the smartest people’s children but also, through full scholarships, take in the very brightest from the rest.

  497. @szopen

    First para: so what? How does that identify an error in my reasoning? The argument is sound.
     
    It's not. If there is a regular difference between the siblings raised by the same parents in the same house, then you would have to be able to measure those differences. But you can't.

    There is also regression to the mean phenomenon, which is predicted and expected if intelligence is heritable, while IMO would have no sense if iq tests would merely measure exposure to the middle class values.


    somewhat mediated by the intelligence and genetics” what’s the justification for this claim?
     
    Because intelligent people will earn more and get to the higher SES. If intelligence is heritable, then their children would inherit their genes.

    And intelligence has to be heritable, because there is no spiritual world and no mental states without physical structures and physical structures MUST be heritable somewhat. The fact that we don't know the laws does not mean they do not exist.

    What experiment would you propose to differentiate between two hypothesis:
    (1) IQ tests are imperfect proxy for intelligence test, intelligence is measurable. The correlation with SES exists only because in modern world on average more intelligent people will have higher SES

    (2) IQ tests measure exposure to middle-class values, and is not heritable.

    I am genuinely curious.

    There is also regression to the mean phenomenon, which is predicted and expected if intelligence is heritable

    Is there? Or is it just towards and actually as banal an observation as that when I walk North to my neighbour’s house I am walking towards the North Pole? What mean?

  498. @Bruno
    The average speed is not the average of the two speeds except if you ponder them by time, and not by distance as most people here have done (wich wrongly gives 28.3). But it’s really dumb to ponder by time when the time is already given to you. It would be different if you had the distance and speed and were looking for the time of each portion to compute the average speed

    So to answer the guy who said he correctly average the speeds, it’s doubtful, but it’s really not bright . It’s applying a formula to complicate a simple deduction you can do in 10 seconds if you think straight.

    The important amount of wrong answers in the comments thread has convinced me that maybe it’s true that people need a 120 IQ to understand elementary math like that .

    For those who were able to do that at 4yo, you realize how lonely you are in this world ....

    “For those who were able to do that at 4yo, you realize how lonely you are in this world ….”

    Yes, of course. As everyone here knows, Bruno at four years old was a greater prodigy than Gauss. Shortly after his fourth birthday, he had already worked out Gauss’s method of instantly summing integers from 1 to n. A day or so later, he was able to instantly sum a large number of even integers from 2 to whatever. He had read Euclid in the original Sumerian by the age of five and had quickly moved on to Teichmuller theory. When other boys asked for toys for their birthday, Bruno would request graduate texts on Riemann surfaces or harmonic analysis. As he approached the age of ten, he was completing his doctoral program at Jussieu. He has been working on a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis for some time and is said to be nearly finished.

    None of this is surprising for a boy with an IQ of 175+ who may be the greatest mathematician of all times.

    Coherent English, on the other hand, has always been beyond him. No matter; he’s very young.

    So how old are you now, Bruno? Have you reached your teen years yet?

    • LOL: utu
    • Replies: @Bruno
    I didn’t say nor even imply that. I think a logical mind is neither a sufficient nor even a necessary condition for creating genious work. I haven’t done anything remarkable and don’t really intend to try. I certainly lack the dedication among other things but the main thing is the lack of motivation. And my field is not math ...

    My point was not even precocity, that is not important to me, but the solitude of logical minds ... certainly, they are other traits that bring same consequences .
    , @Bruno
    And you had a point (even 2 points), I ve worked on Boltzmann machines and have been published when doing my bachelor. And when I was a kid, I never played with toys. But I think it had more to do with a « mental condition » and in particular my lack of imagination than anything else !
  499. @AaronB
    Its the classic tale of not fighting evil using its own methods - one does not use the power of the ring, one does not fight power with power, one opposes power with humility, with weakness.

    That's the only meaningful victory because fighting power with power means becoming another version of your enemy.

    This insight was well understood in all traditional cultures.

    That's what's so disappointing about China - it chose to use the ring, despite more than anyone else, knowing better. Today, it's impossible not to notice how China is becoming just like the worst aspects of America.

    Jews have so much power these days because so many of them devote their entire lives to simply making money by any means possible (that's why they can staff the NYT with Jewish mediocrities. Money comes first). It's as if white people were to fight this by devoting all their lives to making money. They'd surely wrest power from Jews, having far more intelligent people, but they'd have to have the same policies (globalism, insecurity of work, etc) because those policies make the rich richer.

    This is why traditional cultures saw contemplation as higher than action - and non-interference as the highest principle. America is already declining from its own insanity and internal contradictions - it never had to be fought or opposed, certainly not at the cost of ones own culture. It needed to be sidestepped, and waited out. Jews are losing their vitality and need to prove themselves quite without any one opposing them. And the Left is reaching unsustainable levels of insanity, internal division, rancor, backbiting, and is heading towards an implosion.

    It needed to be sidestepped, and waited out.

    This seems to be the case with every empire that arose in the past, became decadent and crumbled. This is basically intro Ibn Khaldun 101:

    https://fountainmagazine.com/2017/issue-117-may-june-2017/ibn-khaldun-on-luxury-and-the-destruction-of-civilizations

    Well, what a run, eh? They’ll definitely be writing about this one in the history books.

    Yet, in the words of another wise sage…
    “I don’t know what they want from me. It seems the mo’ money we come across, the mo’ problems we see.”

    Peace.

  500. @Lars Porsena
    I have heard there is a test they can give you that can determine whether you can learn computer programming in advance of any knowledge of the subject. Some programming teachers are aware of these tests and hate them because it suggests they can't actually make any difference with teaching - either you have the ability to learn computer programming or you don't.

    If I recall the test was all about interpreting syntax of code lines. You are not expected to know the correct syntax before you learn the code language, but what they were measuring was the consistency of your interpretation. If you interpreted syntax consistently you could learn to code, but if you interpreted syntax inconsistently the test predicted with very high accuracy that you couldn't learn no matter who taught you or how long and hard you studied.

    In computer science, it’s just needed to do your best studying all relevant maths courses in a standard way (can vary in module and university) – real analysis, linear algebra, discrete maths, probability theory, logic, etc. And then afterwards, you won’t get completely lost and confused by the topics.

    But you don’t need to be a genius, or Cynthia Rudin – and you can a lot of the time use methods without understanding the theorems, or their proofs, underlying them (mathematical basis is a lot of the time not understood by people implementing them).

    For example, datascientists are implementing often SVM algorithms for text classification. But how many of them know their way around functional analysis and Hilbert spaces, which underlies it?

    • Replies: @Dmitry

    But you don’t need to be a genius, or Cynthia Rudin – and you can a lot of the time use methods without understanding the theorems, or their proofs, underlying them (mathematical basis is a lot of the time not understood by people implementing them).

    For example, datascientists are implementing often SVM algorithms for text classification. But how many of them know their way around functional analysis and Hilbert spaces, which underlies it?
     

    My post wasn't clear. I mention it as an example of something people are just implementing it like a "magic spell" with some overall feeling for it, but no deep understanding.

    Most people are not studying the theorems that underlie it like this lecturer - Cynthia Rudin :
    https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/15-097-prediction-machine-learning-and-statistics-spring-2012/lecture-notes/MIT15_097S12_lec13.pdf

    Obviously average people will not be like this, and neither even many people who use it for work. (Average computer scientist is not even close to a real mathematician, and the subject can therefore be a lot easier).

  501. Sub-Saharan Africa: ~70

    I’m sub-Saharan African and I’m smarter than you. Prove that sub-Saharan Africans have an IQ of 70 or shut-up.

    The irony is, like most race and IQ exponents, the fake Russian Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There’s no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.

    • Agree: Bliss
    • Replies: @DFH
    Kenyan children can't recognise themselves in the mirror. Even crows can do that.
    , @songbird

    Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There’s no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.
     
    I don't believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends.

    It would be way more accurate to compare an adult African with an IQ of 70 to a white child of around 9 or so of average intelligence. You could have a society of 9 year olds. It would not be the same society, but it would not be absolute chaos and a return to the jungle, like a society of retards more likely would be.

    Besides, many think that the genetic potential of Africans is closer to American blacks' 85. They just don't seem able to achieve it in their own societies. Not to mention, there are undoubtedly individuals and perhaps even groups among Africans with a higher IQ.

    I believe your problem is that you see that as a hopeless situation, when it may be possible that there are different solutions: voluntary segregation of higher IQ blacks from lower, so they can form their own countries, or eugenics. Neither easy politically, but not entirely hopeless.
    , @Che Guava
    That is a comical rant. Really, proving the point
    , @Bliss
    What’s funny is that Karlin moved back to Russia hoping to convert Russians to the religion of IQism.

    He wants to be the Prophet who convinces Russians that they are hopelessly doomed, by their own inferior genes. The Chinese, who outnumber Russians by 10 to 1, have on top of that a genetically unassailable 10 point IQ advantage.

    So fuggedabout holding onto Siberia and the Far East fellow Slavic dummkopfs, is what he is trying to tell the “sovoks” (serfs?).

    Maybe he is setting them up for a Han Yoke under Emperor Xi? He is a monarchist after all. Lol.
  502. Anonymous[158] • Disclaimer says:
    @Bruno
    Or here an easier example :

    If you drive 80km at 120 km/h and then back at 80km/h,
    If you erroneously pondered by distance it would be 100kmh when the real figure is 96km/h. Because you’ve done 160 km in 40+60 minutes, or 1.6 km a minute, that’s 96km per hour !

    Now that should be easy ....

    Thanks. This example was helpful.

    I can see it from both points of view and I was wondering why. Why the intuitive pull to give weight to distance? I think I was conflating “average” with “expected mean” and overcomplicating.

    I’m not sure if this means I’m low IQ or math retarded.

    • Replies: @notanon

    I’m not sure if this means I’m low IQ or math retarded.
     
    maybe you thought it was a trick question - are you naturally suspicious minded?
    , @Bruno
    No your are right . And then I read in Robert Lindsay blog who claims to have a 145+ IQ to be bad at math . Maybe math is like pitch. A specialized ability. I was rude. I beg you pardon.
  503. @Lars Porsena

    To an extent this is also happening in western countries but it’s mostly the result of subversive alien elements pushing propaganda about “free trade”
     
    Scotts and Anglo-Saxons?

    Not so sure there are many Scottish or English people with names that end with -berg, or -stein suffixes, and are the ones who created this nonsense propaganda. I’m sure there are some actual people who benefit from it financially who aren’t alien elements, though. You see for example the beneficiaries of imported scab labor–virtual slave labor really–who pass the costs off onto the taxpayer, continuing to argue for more of that rather than just paying a bit more for labor.

  504. Anonymous[126] • Disclaimer says:
    @Seth Largo
    I'd like to see that data (and if it's self-reported, well, I'd probably lie about taking these tests seriously, too). Epigon is right. The vast majority of kids taking tests that don't affect their grades put zero effort into the test. I didn't. I got abysmal scores on PISA-type tests.

    /98th percentile GRE (a test I very much cared about)

    Not true for me. I try to do well on any test I take.

    Also, schools in Asia have the same populations of undermotivated students. If effort is a factor in these tests, then either we can apply the same discount to all countries, or it accurately reflects that some populations have more high performance individuals who are driven to succeed.

    99th percentile GRE
    99th percentile GMAT
    99th percentile LSAT

  505. @Okechukwu

    Sub-Saharan Africa: ~70
     
    I'm sub-Saharan African and I'm smarter than you. Prove that sub-Saharan Africans have an IQ of 70 or shut-up.

    The irony is, like most race and IQ exponents, the fake Russian Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There's no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.

    Kenyan children can’t recognise themselves in the mirror. Even crows can do that.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu
    And you clowns wonder why no one takes you seriously, why you're relegated to the dregs of the Internet sewer.

    Ironically, you have to be pretty stupid to believe that Kenyan children can't recognize their own image.

    , @Anon
    Now, I am not so sure you or I would understand our reflection in a mirror, had no-one ever explained to us that it "is" us.
    (Of course even having or not having someone wbo explains you what mirrors do can be traced back toIQ, as can "what education are people granted in country X".)
    , @notanon

    Kenyan children can’t recognise themselves in the mirror.
     
    i wonder if one of the collection of traits (good memory, faster CPU etc) which collectively make up what we call intelligence is the ability to handle abstractions - from my experience working with dummies that seems to be one of the main differences, people who are perfectly okay doing practical tasks like driving a truck can't get their head around abstractions.

    for example say what we call intelligence is the combination of x, y and z traits where each is necessary and each limits the effect of the others i.e. x+y+z gives the same intelligence x+y+2z

    then say you have two populations one of which is 2x+2y+2z and one is 2x+2y+z who are about the same on practical (x+y) tasks but the missing z on the 2nd population makes them unable to deal with certain kinds of abstraction.

    so in a way the antis may be right that IQ tests are designed for the people who designed them but that's not necessarily a flaw in the tests - the tests might simply be telling us where the problem lies in the populations who can't do them.

    #

    by extension is ability to deal with abstractions a mild form of mental illness?
  506. @Wizard of Oz
    How did they assess the level of competitiveness? Self-report of attitudes or some objective measure like hours of prep - or how many of them arranged to have their rivals woken every hour during the night before the tests :-)

    > How did they assess the level of competitiveness?

    Self reported wanted to be the best. May be initial exploratory by OECD, but it did show up significant trend though OECD did not elaborate much about it even the trend is clearer than motivation or anxiety levels. The Economist Mag just ignored it (do not fit their narrative, they just concentrated on test anxiety and rubbishing standard tests).

    From the OECD data, the Tunisians are serious about being the best. Plot of percent of students with MathOffSchoolTute greater than 4 hrs per week against WantBestPct,

    Except for Korea, the normal narrative about EastAsian spending too much time on tuitions is over-emphasized, they are just moderate. Even US and MX students had about the same amount of tutes compare to that for HK and TW.

  507. @DFH
    Kenyan children can't recognise themselves in the mirror. Even crows can do that.

    And you clowns wonder why no one takes you seriously, why you’re relegated to the dregs of the Internet sewer.

    Ironically, you have to be pretty stupid to believe that Kenyan children can’t recognize their own image.

    • Replies: @DFH
    Do you have some sort of evidence that they can?
    , @Dmitry

    And you clowns wonder why no one takes you seriously, why you’re relegated to the dregs of the Internet sewer.

     

    And what need for writing insults?

    The claim originates from this paper.
    http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.726.1873&rep=rep1&type=pdf

    I think it's, as the people who wrote the paper think, children's cultural unfamiliarity of you are expected to behave in front of a mirror (i.e. in the test, removing sticker from their face).

    , @Johan Meyer
    Imago, I doubt he dey pass unn eng maths.

    I do think though that you are underestimating the scope of heavy metal brain damage, let alone malnutrition induced. It is to be doubted whether the engineering feats, on which much progress was made in 1969, could be repeated by the corresponding generation today, using the same size group. Perhaps those born after 2006, but I doubt those born up to that year. Education cannot achieve miracles. A bit worrying with middle belt events arising from the same heavy metal induced brain damage---the past is prologue.

    Or whether the electronic communication achievements that the larger neighbours to the west made in the 1950s could be made today, starting again from scratch. Money grubbing south east and south west is a symptom, not the disease.

    Kenya's economic problems in the 1990s seems to have eased some of the poisoning, and they are advanced in their fertility transition.

    As the young are now unpoisoned relative to those born prior to 2006 (Pb) , now would be a rewarding time to invest in primary and secondary education. Someone should give Buhari a flogging---given his history, a little taste of his own medicine should not be a problem---and get schools funded.

    Although given US support for ISIS in Syria, it would be wise not to share much Boko Haldiram intelligence that way---one should expect the US to pass it along. Is Maidaguri still in federal hands?
  508. @Dmitry
    In computer science, it's just needed to do your best studying all relevant maths courses in a standard way (can vary in module and university) - real analysis, linear algebra, discrete maths, probability theory, logic, etc. And then afterwards, you won't get completely lost and confused by the topics.

    But you don't need to be a genius, or Cynthia Rudin - and you can a lot of the time use methods without understanding the theorems, or their proofs, underlying them (mathematical basis is a lot of the time not understood by people implementing them).

    For example, datascientists are implementing often SVM algorithms for text classification. But how many of them know their way around functional analysis and Hilbert spaces, which underlies it?

    But you don’t need to be a genius, or Cynthia Rudin – and you can a lot of the time use methods without understanding the theorems, or their proofs, underlying them (mathematical basis is a lot of the time not understood by people implementing them).

    For example, datascientists are implementing often SVM algorithms for text classification. But how many of them know their way around functional analysis and Hilbert spaces, which underlies it?

    My post wasn’t clear. I mention it as an example of something people are just implementing it like a “magic spell” with some overall feeling for it, but no deep understanding.

    Most people are not studying the theorems that underlie it like this lecturer – Cynthia Rudin :

    https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/15-097-prediction-machine-learning-and-statistics-spring-2012/lecture-notes/MIT15_097S12_lec13.pdf

    Obviously average people will not be like this, and neither even many people who use it for work. (Average computer scientist is not even close to a real mathematician, and the subject can therefore be a lot easier).

  509. @Okechukwu
    And you clowns wonder why no one takes you seriously, why you're relegated to the dregs of the Internet sewer.

    Ironically, you have to be pretty stupid to believe that Kenyan children can't recognize their own image.

    Do you have some sort of evidence that they can?

    • Replies: @Okechukwu
    Provide evidence that you aren't dumber than every Kenyan who ever lived.
    , @Wizard of Oz
    What's the evidence you rely on to say they can't. And what is distribution?
  510. @DFH
    Do you have some sort of evidence that they can?

    Provide evidence that you aren’t dumber than every Kenyan who ever lived.

    • Replies: @DFH
    I think you'd be a less angry person if you just accepted the reality of your race instead of impotently raging at anyone who points it out.
  511. @Okechukwu
    And you clowns wonder why no one takes you seriously, why you're relegated to the dregs of the Internet sewer.

    Ironically, you have to be pretty stupid to believe that Kenyan children can't recognize their own image.

    And you clowns wonder why no one takes you seriously, why you’re relegated to the dregs of the Internet sewer.

    And what need for writing insults?

    The claim originates from this paper.

    http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.726.1873&rep=rep1&type=pdf

    I think it’s, as the people who wrote the paper think, children’s cultural unfamiliarity of you are expected to behave in front of a mirror (i.e. in the test, removing sticker from their face).

    • Replies: @Bliss

    And what need for writing insults?
     
    Why didn’t you say that to the trashy poster (DFH) whose racist insults Okechukwu was responding to?

    The claim originates from this paper.

    http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.726.1873&rep=rep1&type=pdf
     
    Why didn’t you point out that children from Fiji, Peru, Grenada and St. Lucia were also part of the experiment?

    I thought the Kenyan and Fijian children freezing before their reflections in the mirror showed higher development than reaching out to touch the reflection as if it was another child. The experiment was crappy BS and produced no really conclusive results.
  512. @Okechukwu
    Provide evidence that you aren't dumber than every Kenyan who ever lived.

    I think you’d be a less angry person if you just accepted the reality of your race instead of impotently raging at anyone who points it out.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    What's the "reality"? There's no logical or empirical reason to accept the claim that IQ tests test intelligence.
  513. @Bobzilla
    I can't believe no one has pointed out (((Israel's))) place in the standings. Can we now dispense with the myth of superior (((Israeli))) intelligence?

    I did, average Israeli IQ is 95.

  514. @Okechukwu
    And you clowns wonder why no one takes you seriously, why you're relegated to the dregs of the Internet sewer.

    Ironically, you have to be pretty stupid to believe that Kenyan children can't recognize their own image.

    Imago, I doubt he dey pass unn eng maths.

    I do think though that you are underestimating the scope of heavy metal brain damage, let alone malnutrition induced. It is to be doubted whether the engineering feats, on which much progress was made in 1969, could be repeated by the corresponding generation today, using the same size group. Perhaps those born after 2006, but I doubt those born up to that year. Education cannot achieve miracles. A bit worrying with middle belt events arising from the same heavy metal induced brain damage—the past is prologue.

    Or whether the electronic communication achievements that the larger neighbours to the west made in the 1950s could be made today, starting again from scratch. Money grubbing south east and south west is a symptom, not the disease.

    Kenya’s economic problems in the 1990s seems to have eased some of the poisoning, and they are advanced in their fertility transition.

    As the young are now unpoisoned relative to those born prior to 2006 (Pb) , now would be a rewarding time to invest in primary and secondary education. Someone should give Buhari a flogging—given his history, a little taste of his own medicine should not be a problem—and get schools funded.

    Although given US support for ISIS in Syria, it would be wise not to share much Boko Haldiram intelligence that way—one should expect the US to pass it along. Is Maidaguri still in federal hands?

  515. @DFH

    the actual one is 28.3
     
    How?

    Yeah, it had unclear wording, so you couldn’t be quite sure what it was asking.

    But, yes, depending on the precise question, both answers are valid.

    Just depends on whether you figure the trip as one leg (whole round trip), or 2 separate legs (outgoing, incoming). Like the OP said, lazy test designers.

  516. @Altai

    Consider again the Ukraine, which is a Somalia-tier failed state, with a failed economy to match it. Yet it is full of SWPL white people who drink craft beer, enjoy boutique board games and walk alone at night.
     
    LOL. Maybe in the wealthier parts of Kiev. Is the fact that Eastern Europe is utterly corrupt and low trust just something people have to be taught again?

    Is the fact that Eastern Europe is utterly corrupt and low trust just something people have to be taught again?

    Nothing of that I mention has anything to do with corruption or high trust, you dumbass. One can enjoy craft beer and crimeless streets without high-trust government institutions. A population that doesn’t act like literal wild apes is enough.

  517. OT

    Why is it that truly bad news are not reflected on by the Unz Review bloggers? Steve Sailer didn’t write about the article written by a Trump administration insider (Pence?) in the NYT. And Anatoly Karlin has yet to write anything about the new Skripal development, which frankly seems to corroborate that it really was an incompetent GRU operation.

    See discussion here:

    http://www.unz.com/akarlin/donbass-or-death/

    AK: No conspiracy – I have just been quite busy with other matters this week, hence why I posted this piece (I keep a number of big pieces in reserve for periods of low blogging activity). I’ll cover that in tomorrow’s Open Thread

    • Agree: for-the-record
    • Replies: @Epigon
    You still cling to the notion that Russians sent two assassins to eliminate a traitor agent who lost all relevance a decade ago, by using a supposedly Russian unique deadly poison - that failed to kill him.

    Cui bono and basic common sense suggests otherwise.

    The article is a sorry affair containing the usual "treason of negotiating with dictator Putin" nonsense.


    Usual Jew York Times.

    , @for-the-record
    Why is it that truly bad news are not reflected on by the Unz Review bloggers?

    Fiddling while Rome burns?
    , @iffen
    Why is it that truly bad news are not reflected on by the Unz Review bloggers?


    Perhaps the Unz Enquirer is more about directing rather than informing.
    , @The Big Red Scary
    I haven't been following carefully l'affaire Skripal. But why do you think the new story should cause you to update your prior?

    As far as I can tell, the British government has shown some pictures of some guys in what appears to be an airport, then some pictures of what appear to be the same guys on a street somewhere. They claim that these same guys entered the UK under some particular Russian names, and that they found residue of "Novichok" in their hotel room. Since the British government is not giving any means to falsify this story, and since they are known to lie about all kinds of other things, why should I pay attention?

    (By the way, you may know that Craig Murray pointed out that there was some doctoring of the airport photos, at least of the time stamp, and that the airport photos are no longer on the MET website. This is perhaps neither here nor there, but doesn't inspire confidence.)

    Naturally, if people associated with the GRU did do something so incredibly stupid, then the Russian government should be very concerned about it, and some heads should roll. But does the GRU have a history of such idiocy? If they really had it in for Skripal, why not just handle it the usual way: "suicide"?
    , @notanon
    the UK govt is priming people for the collective media narrative after the next gas attack which will be blamed directly on Russia imo.
  518. @reiner Tor
    OT

    Why is it that truly bad news are not reflected on by the Unz Review bloggers? Steve Sailer didn’t write about the article written by a Trump administration insider (Pence?) in the NYT. And Anatoly Karlin has yet to write anything about the new Skripal development, which frankly seems to corroborate that it really was an incompetent GRU operation.

    See discussion here:

    http://www.unz.com/akarlin/donbass-or-death/

    AK: No conspiracy - I have just been quite busy with other matters this week, hence why I posted this piece (I keep a number of big pieces in reserve for periods of low blogging activity). I'll cover that in tomorrow's Open Thread

    You still cling to the notion that Russians sent two assassins to eliminate a traitor agent who lost all relevance a decade ago, by using a supposedly Russian unique deadly poison – that failed to kill him.

    Cui bono and basic common sense suggests otherwise.

    The article is a sorry affair containing the usual “treason of negotiating with dictator Putin” nonsense.

    Usual Jew York Times.

  519. @reiner Tor
    OT

    Why is it that truly bad news are not reflected on by the Unz Review bloggers? Steve Sailer didn’t write about the article written by a Trump administration insider (Pence?) in the NYT. And Anatoly Karlin has yet to write anything about the new Skripal development, which frankly seems to corroborate that it really was an incompetent GRU operation.

    See discussion here:

    http://www.unz.com/akarlin/donbass-or-death/

    AK: No conspiracy - I have just been quite busy with other matters this week, hence why I posted this piece (I keep a number of big pieces in reserve for periods of low blogging activity). I'll cover that in tomorrow's Open Thread

    Why is it that truly bad news are not reflected on by the Unz Review bloggers?

    Fiddling while Rome burns?

  520. @RaceRealist88
    Let's say "intelligence has a free-rider, trait T'. They're correlated 100 percent, so if one is selected then so is the other. Natural selection cannot distinguish between "intelligence" and trait T' because natural selection is not an agent (it does not have a mind to choose between the two coextensive traits), nor are there any laws of trait selection (laws can distinguish between counterfactuals). Since both options are false, natural selection cannot distinguish between coextensive traits. Therefore the claim that natural selection is a mechanism is not true. Natural selection does not explain trait fixation/speciation.

    PhD … Piled high & deep.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Well?
  521. @AaronB
    Its the classic tale of not fighting evil using its own methods - one does not use the power of the ring, one does not fight power with power, one opposes power with humility, with weakness.

    That's the only meaningful victory because fighting power with power means becoming another version of your enemy.

    This insight was well understood in all traditional cultures.

    That's what's so disappointing about China - it chose to use the ring, despite more than anyone else, knowing better. Today, it's impossible not to notice how China is becoming just like the worst aspects of America.

    Jews have so much power these days because so many of them devote their entire lives to simply making money by any means possible (that's why they can staff the NYT with Jewish mediocrities. Money comes first). It's as if white people were to fight this by devoting all their lives to making money. They'd surely wrest power from Jews, having far more intelligent people, but they'd have to have the same policies (globalism, insecurity of work, etc) because those policies make the rich richer.

    This is why traditional cultures saw contemplation as higher than action - and non-interference as the highest principle. America is already declining from its own insanity and internal contradictions - it never had to be fought or opposed, certainly not at the cost of ones own culture. It needed to be sidestepped, and waited out. Jews are losing their vitality and need to prove themselves quite without any one opposing them. And the Left is reaching unsustainable levels of insanity, internal division, rancor, backbiting, and is heading towards an implosion.

    Jews have so much power these days because so many of them devote their entire lives to simply making money

    You are saying that Jews are more avaricious than the average bear. Are they also more unscrupulous?

    Two thousand year old Jewish misdirection and trolling:

    Matthew 16:26-28
    26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

    • Replies: @notanon
    living as a minority is insecure
    wealth is security
  522. @reiner Tor
    OT

    Why is it that truly bad news are not reflected on by the Unz Review bloggers? Steve Sailer didn’t write about the article written by a Trump administration insider (Pence?) in the NYT. And Anatoly Karlin has yet to write anything about the new Skripal development, which frankly seems to corroborate that it really was an incompetent GRU operation.

    See discussion here:

    http://www.unz.com/akarlin/donbass-or-death/

    AK: No conspiracy - I have just been quite busy with other matters this week, hence why I posted this piece (I keep a number of big pieces in reserve for periods of low blogging activity). I'll cover that in tomorrow's Open Thread

    Why is it that truly bad news are not reflected on by the Unz Review bloggers?

    Perhaps the Unz Enquirer is more about directing rather than informing.

    • Replies: @reiner Tor
    Sad!
  523. @for-the-record
    This is a cute problem. I’ll have to pass it around.

    Here is another one, simple but elegant, which surprisingly few people (including scientists) have answered correctly over the years:

    A priori, one would expect the seasons to be of equal lengths. Yet in the northern hemisphere this year summer lasted 92.6 days, while the upcoming winter will last only 89.0 days. What is the explanation for this?
     

    What happens in the southern hemisphere? I don’t want to start looking it up, since that might spoil the fun.

    The standard explanation for seasons is that the northern hemisphere has summer when the north pole is tilted toward the sun, and that the distance of the Earth from the Sun has a negligible affect on the seasons (the Earth’s elliptical orbit is close enough to being a circle). Is it safe to assume, for the purposes of this problem, that the north pole spends roughly an equal amount of tilted toward the sun as it does tilted away?

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    What happens in the southern hemisphere?

    The southern hemisphere is obviously the opposite of the northern hemisphere: long winters and short summers.

    Is it safe to assume, for the purposes of this problem, that the north pole spends roughly an equal amount of tilted toward the sun as it does tilted away?

    Roughly, but not exactly! 92.6 days tilted toward the sun vs 89.0 days tilted away (currently).

    I will give you a one-word hint, if you need more just ask!

    APOGEE
  524. @iffen
    Why is it that truly bad news are not reflected on by the Unz Review bloggers?


    Perhaps the Unz Enquirer is more about directing rather than informing.

    Sad!

    • Agree: iffen
  525. @Hyperborean
    Brazil is the Land of the Future and always will be.

    Brazil is the Land of the Future and always will be.

    Well, I don’t believe Brazil will ever be any kind of great power, but at least they can be fun.

    Bolsonaro’s antics have been fun to watch, like a Brazilian Zhirinovsky or Duterte.

  526. @reiner Tor
    OT

    Why is it that truly bad news are not reflected on by the Unz Review bloggers? Steve Sailer didn’t write about the article written by a Trump administration insider (Pence?) in the NYT. And Anatoly Karlin has yet to write anything about the new Skripal development, which frankly seems to corroborate that it really was an incompetent GRU operation.

    See discussion here:

    http://www.unz.com/akarlin/donbass-or-death/

    AK: No conspiracy - I have just been quite busy with other matters this week, hence why I posted this piece (I keep a number of big pieces in reserve for periods of low blogging activity). I'll cover that in tomorrow's Open Thread

    I haven’t been following carefully l’affaire Skripal. But why do you think the new story should cause you to update your prior?

    As far as I can tell, the British government has shown some pictures of some guys in what appears to be an airport, then some pictures of what appear to be the same guys on a street somewhere. They claim that these same guys entered the UK under some particular Russian names, and that they found residue of “Novichok” in their hotel room. Since the British government is not giving any means to falsify this story, and since they are known to lie about all kinds of other things, why should I pay attention?

    (By the way, you may know that Craig Murray pointed out that there was some doctoring of the airport photos, at least of the time stamp, and that the airport photos are no longer on the MET website. This is perhaps neither here nor there, but doesn’t inspire confidence.)

    Naturally, if people associated with the GRU did do something so incredibly stupid, then the Russian government should be very concerned about it, and some heads should roll. But does the GRU have a history of such idiocy? If they really had it in for Skripal, why not just handle it the usual way: “suicide”?

    • Replies: @DFH

    By the way, you may know that Craig Murray pointed out that there was some doctoring of the airport photos, at least of the time stamp, and that the airport photos are no longer on the MET website. This is perhaps neither here nor there, but doesn’t inspire confidence.
     
    This?

    https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/theimpossiblephoto.jpg?itok=dh0JsjCo
    , @reiner Tor

    But why do you think the new story should cause you to update your prior?
     
    It's easy to say weasel words and put out unreliable information based on hot air. It's another to outright falsify things. It's very easy to believe that the "of a type developed by Russia" weasel expression meant that... well, all they knew was that this type of poison had been developed by Russia, and knew nothing more.

    Now the claims are getting less weasely, and more concrete. Of course they can still be outright lies, but it'd require the cooperation of more and more people. Porton Down could've been cool (after some internal haggling) with the expression "of a type developed by Russia," because it's true, though meaningless. Now some people would be lying: either they identified those people, or they didn't. A number of people are involved in the investigation. Unless we want to get into 911 truther tier conspiracy theories, it looks way more likely that they are telling the truth. If they didn't dare telling outright lies regarding the origins of the Novichok agent, why would they suddenly change to outright lies?

    Therefore, it's now very likely that two people using Russian passports traveled from Moscow all the way to Salisbury, and they were there on the day of the attempted murder. That is quite a bit of a coincidence. I don't think it's very likely that a third party falsified those passports. So either these people were Russians and their names matched their passports, or their passports were forged for the purposes of some Russian intelligence service. Of course, it's possible that a third party somehow managed to do that, or managed to slip through the sloppiness of Russian passport controls. It's just not very likely.

    The Russians must know who those two guys are: they could show them on TV. One of them works as a pizza delivery man, the other one as a librarian. Here's the pizzeria and the library they work in, respectively. They have nothing to do with GRU. Everyone would have a laugh.

    It's possible these people are Russian citizens living abroad in a third country. Even so, it must be easy for Russia to find out where they live. At the very least, that they live abroad. They could give journalists access to their former classmates and people like that. That way, at least, they might expose the foreign service (Israel? Ukraine?) using Russian citizens (and passports) to commit crimes in third countries. That's what governments usually do, for example the EU countries whose (forged) passports were used by Israel to murder the Hamas leader in Dubai.

    However, Russia pretends not to know who these people are. That's not very credible. Until yesterday, the UK was putting out not very credible weasely information, while Russia didn't say anything which was not consistent with their innocence. Now the situation changed: Russia is putting out not credible statements (that the names and photos meant nothing to them - sure they must know they traveled to and from a Moscow airport), while the UK is now sharing concrete evidence (photos of the suspects and CCTV images at the airport and in Salisbury) with the world.
  527. @for-the-record
    This is a cute problem. I’ll have to pass it around.

    Here is another one, simple but elegant, which surprisingly few people (including scientists) have answered correctly over the years:

    A priori, one would expect the seasons to be of equal lengths. Yet in the northern hemisphere this year summer lasted 92.6 days, while the upcoming winter will last only 89.0 days. What is the explanation for this?
     

    Earth’s speed varies during revolution, because the distance from Sun varies – Kepler Laws describe it.

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    Earth’s speed varies during revolution, because the distance from Sun varies – Kepler Laws describe it.

    You've got the basics, but I still need more. Which law of Kepler? And what explains that it is winter and summer that are "outliers" while spring and fall are essentially "normal" in length?
  528. @for-the-record
    You travel from point A to B at an average speed of 20 km/h, and return at an average speed of 30km/h. What was your average speed for the round trip?

    These stuff are really too easy. Let’s just assume it was 30km away so the trip back was 1 hour and the trip there 1.5 hours. So 60km in 2.5 hours, that is obviously 24 km/h.

    Just like with question 6 (if she rode 7 km in a quarter hour, how much in a full hour?) it is reformulating the question in an easier way what is key, not solving it.

    In such reformulations I always set a variable at 1, in this case the duration of the trip back. Because if it is the distance or the trip to, I would have to work with less round numbers. This is really obvious help you can give yourself.

    BTW poor Americans. If she ran to the river which is 900 yards away in 9 minutes and she found a shorter route 1200 feet away so she ran back in 6 minutes, what is her min/mile running pace? What is the mpg of a car that followed her all the way at the same speed and burned 3 fluid ounces of gas? LOL. I really hope your kids have to deal with shit like this at school, maybe it will make them adopt metric.

    • Replies: @ThreeCranes
    Great paragraph about the stupidity of the American system of units. I've made the same point before and been hooted down for doing so. But if only......if only they had studied chemistry, physics or engineering and used a system in which both weight and measure were directly related in base ten units then they would realize how crippling the American system is with its endless conversion factors.

    Isaac Asimov made the same point in response to criticism launched by those who claimed that good ol' Grandad passed tests in high school that we today can't pass in college! Yeah, Asimov said, and let's have a look at one of those tests. The first ten questions involved converting such things as hogsheads to barrels, ricks of wood to bales of hay, stacks of hides and so on. Utterly useless stuff, relevant only to persons steeped in those archaic units.

    Make Unit systems as transparent as possible.
  529. @CanSpeccy

    The mind is not physical.
     
    If you mean that the existence of a mind cannot be directly known, other than to the possessor of the mind, your claim is correct.

    But behavior indicative of the possession of a mind is never observed in the absence of a brain, so it is reasonable to assume that the brain is a prerequisite of mind.

    In any case, there is a clear, scientifically established relationship between mental and neurological abnormalities, so we can conclude that your quibble about minds and brains is mere game playing leading to no useful or valid conclusions.

    No I mean there is mental stuff and there is physical stuff. The mental is not physical nor is the mental reducible to the physical.

    “In any case, there is a clear, scientifically established relationship between mental and neurological abnormalities”

    Since the physical (brain) is needed for human mindedness it is a necessary pre-condition. Due to this, damage to the physical affects the mental (which I didn’t deny. No idea why you brought it up).

    • Replies: @notanon

    there is mental stuff and there is physical stuff. The mental is not physical nor is the mental reducible to the physical

     


    Due to this, damage to the physical affects the mental (which I didn’t deny. No idea why you brought it up).
     
    so you accept redefining intelligence as the lack of damage invalidates your position?
  530. @DFH
    I think you'd be a less angry person if you just accepted the reality of your race instead of impotently raging at anyone who points it out.

    What’s the “reality”? There’s no logical or empirical reason to accept the claim that IQ tests test intelligence.

    • Replies: @DFH
    There is an empirical reason to accept the claim that IQ tests test intelligence. We can predict how well people perform in other mental tasks from how well they perform in IQ tests.
    , @Daniel Chieh
    Reality is a computer simulation, donate your bitcoin in this emulation of life to Karlin as a cheat code.
  531. @The Alarmist
    PhD ... Piled high & deep.

    Well?

  532. @songbird
    Serious question: is your name supposed to be ironic, or do you think the races are naturally behaviorally different, but reject the idea of IQ, or of them having different average IQs?

    I believe in the biological reality of race. The existence of race is not a scientific question, it’s philosophical. Michael Hardimon’s minimalist and populationist race arguments and Quayshawn Spencer’s argument for the existence of Blumenbachian partitions establish the claim that race exists. One does not need to accept hereditarian psychological claims to accept the existence of race. Why the two positions are conflated is beyond me.

    I don’t deny differences in IQ. I deny the explanations/conclusions people draw from the tests because their conclusions are untenable (there is no lawlike relation between the mental and the physical therefore mental traits cannot be genetically inherited).

    • Replies: @DFH

    there is no lawlike relation between the mental and the physical
     
    What exactly is a 'non-lawlike' relation? Is it random? Or is there just no connection at all?
  533. @Kratoklastes

    Is “intelligence” a mental ability (intentional state) or behavior (disposition)?
     
    Or a combination of both, or a combination of both with other stuff... it's actually a good question, and it's not clear that anybody bothers to think hard enough about it.

    My own 'pulled out of my ass' notion is that what we think of as intelligence is a combination of
    ① raw processing speed;
    ② domain selection; and
    ③ application-to-task.

    The processor speed gives some indication of potential; the selection of the domain/s and the commitment to task are the things that determine whether or not the potential is put to practical use.

    Drivers of all three things are combinations of genetics, nutrition (from in utero to adolescence), training, and social examples. Social examples aren't changing anyone's processor speed, obviously - but they will certainly affect the domain selection, and the commitment to task, even more so.

    This is why I've said before that a person with an IQ of 120, coupled with some guidance and a lot of 'grit', should be expected to outperform a person with an IQ of 130 who doesn't give a fuck and/or has had no (or poor) guidance. I say this as someone who was capable of spending a good half-decade (in the 80s) not giving a fuck, despite having had all the good examples in the world.

    But on an equal-effort basis, the kid whose brain clock is running at 130 whatsits, will wipe the floor with the 120-tard. That's one of the great things about having good cognitive 'grunt': once you get your shit in one sock, the return on effort is high.

    So although we know IQ differentials across individuals contribute meaningfully to differences economic outcomes, I'm not convinced that it's enough by itself.

    I choose 130 advisedly, because it's my observation that people with an IQ σ/2 above that are ornery buggers, who recognise a hamster wheel and tend to give it the miss-in-baulk (and or declare a curt nolle prosequi): the further up the cognitive spectrum you go, the more likely the individual is to be unmotivated to do things to impress others. Having an IQ above about 145 is pretty much the same as being actually autistic (not "child-psychologist autistic", which is just a diagnosis of stupidity, expressed in such a way as to be palatable to parents of a type who take having stupid progeny as a personal slight).

    .

    A reasonable analogy is what people mean when they discuss "physical fitness" (in the everyday, non-Darwinian sense of the term).

    Again, it seems pretty obvious that there is an interplay between genetics, nutrition, training/guidance and dedication.

    At élite levels the genetic component stands out like dog's nuts - and in one domain in particular: the men's marathon.

    A Kenyan - especially one from the Kalenji (sometimes Kalenjin) tribe - is vastly more likely to run a sub-2:10 marathon than any Westerner. There are Westerners who have done so (not many - only 14 Americans, vs 350-odd Kalenji[n]); and of course there are many Kalenji[n] who haven't. But there's an obvious 'tilt'.

    The Westerners who have done so, were starting without the considerable genetic advantages of the Kalenji[n], and without the Kalenji[n]'s cultural 'pain tolerance' rituals the endow them with an understanding of the difference between actual pain and discomfort[1].

    Conversely, Western athletes of even modest means have access to first-world nutrition, professional guidance... and of course élite athletes all have absolute commitment to their task.

    The reality is, though, that 'like for like' (i.e., same nutrition, guidance and commitment) an arbitrarily-selected Kalenji[n] 'good' marathoner would eventually embarrass all but the absolute elite Westerner.

    So we know that genetics makes a huge difference at élite level; and in groups with similar levels of genetics, the other factors provide differentiation.

    We take that as read in sports, so why would it be controversial when the exertions are cerebral/cognitive rather than physical/cardiovascular?

    We also take it as read that there is a significant mental component to physical/cardiovascular efforts, too - we tend to concentrate on motivation, as in the willingness to 'dig deep', 'gut-run' and so on.

    But there is also a cognitive aspect: monitoring, recognising, interpreting and understanding the feedback that your body gives your brain in real time (either as-perceived, or via sensors). That's critical for any sports performance longer than a 400m sprint.

    It takes significant mental effort to perform a full-blown "threshold test", for example - it burns, it hurts, you can't get your breath, and you feel like your heart is going to come out of your mouth.

    However familiarity with the test protocol makes a significant difference to results, and that difference cannot be explained by physical adaptation.

    Consider the two primary ways of assessing 'endurance', for example:

    • 'constant threshold effort' tests (where the subject picks an output level and tries to hold it for the entire test, and must abandon the test if the output level drops by more than 5%), or
    • 'ramp' tests (where the subject is required to perform consecutive blocks of a set time, at progressively-higher levels of exertion - again, failure to stay within the range of each block's target means the test ends).

    The very first time a 'normal' (i.e., relatively untrained) person does a ramp test, they will give up well before they hit anything close to their actual threshold.

    This is because the first time you do a ramp test, the fact that it keeps getting harder is mentally confronting: it's mildly dispiriting each time the resistance goes up.

    If the same person does the same test the next day, their results will routinely improve by 10-20%.

    And the same is true for 'constant effort' tests - for the simple reason that on first exposure to the test, semi-trained subjects simply don't know how to pace themselves: they have no sense of what effort level they could barely sustain for 20, 30, or 60 minutes. Some people (young men, mostly) attack the test and 'gas out' before the allotted time... others are conservative and pick a level that is too low, and realise at the end that they had plenty left in the tank.

    Once they do their first test and realise afterwards that they had either over- or under-cooked it, they perform vastly better (again, 10-20% in 24 hours is not uncommon).

    People for whom near-threshold exertion is routine, are far more accurate in their perceptions of exertion - so much so that they can accurately assess what their heart-rate is at any point in a session, to within a 10-beat range... without looking at a sensor.

    [1] Almost everything that 'hurts' doesn't hurt as much as we think it does. Anyone who thinks that a papercut with lemon juice on it 'hurts', has never had to pass a kidney stone (nor have I).

    Thanks for the comment. It is unfortunately irrelevant. I never denied genes affect the physical so your example is useless to me. I also know all about that. (It’s my job.)

    Intelligence is either a mental ability or disposition. It can’t be both.

  534. @szopen
    I haven't seen establishing (1), I have seen only postulating (1).

    If IQ tests measures exposure to middle class values, then this has to be testable; there should be a set of experiments which would convince you it's not true. If you say "well, those kids were raised in the same family, so they should have the same exposure to the middle-class values, but they have different IQ values, so they clearly had not the same exposure" AND "this kid from lower class have higher IQ than this kid from middle-class, so this proves he has higher exposure... etc" then it's kind of "just-so" story (to borrow the term).

    Especially, when the "exposure to middle-class" is measured by things like mental rotation or reciting backwards the memorized numbers.

    From you argument, p1) IQ are experience dependent is true, but it does not mean it excludes possibility that it is ONLY experience dependent and independent of other factors.

    this in turn influences your p3), since it means that the tests might measure exposure PLUS something more and it's hard to say which influences the score more.

    for example, height depends on being well-fed and genetic factors. In some societies people from higher classes would be better nourished and more healthy, but it would be wrong to conclude from that that height merely measures the distance from the middle class and height is illusion.

    I would also like to know your stance on the regression to the mean. Do you think it exists? If it exists, how it would be explained by theory that IQ tests measure exposure to the middle class culture?

    “I haven’t seen establishing (1), I have seen only postulating (1).”

    My argument established it.

    “If IQ tests measures exposure to middle class values, then this has to be testable”

    The argument is a priori.

    “but it does not mean it excludes possibility that it is ONLY experience dependent and independent of other factors.”

    What other factors? What influences these factors? What’s the argument?

    “since it means that the tests might measure exposure PLUS something more and it’s hard to say which influences the score more.”

    P3 follows from P2. The questions on the test are not culture free. Therefore if one is not exposed to the knowledge structure of the test then they will necessarily score lower.

    You need an argument that they test intelligence.

    “I would also like to know your stance on the regression to the mean. Do you think it exists? If it exists, how it would be explained by theory that IQ tests measure exposure to the middle class culture?”

    Has it been tested in humans?

    • Replies: @szopen
    Different people might be exposed to the same experience and yet be affected differently. THerefore, your argument is flawed and in fact is not an properly built argument, you are just handwaving a lot of problems.

    (1) IQ tests are experience dependent, but it's like saying height is environment dependent, or sport ability is experience dependent.

    Yet, just as height is also definetely heritable, and just as not all people would develop exactly the same abilities after exactly the same training, it's wrong to expect that all people would get the same thing from experience. The ability to learn from experience and to transfer that knowledge is part what we commonly would call "intelligence" in common speech.

    Hence IQ tests cannot measure solely the exposure to experience/culture/whatever, because, (unless you are blank slatist) different people do react to same thing differently. It follows that if IQ tests measure exposure to the middle class value then it also measures what people make of it, and since ability to learn is included in common folk definition of intelligence, then IQ tests measure also the intelligence.

    Moreover, since different people react to different thing differently, the reasons for that (again, unless you are blank slatist or believing in spiritual world independent of material world) should be at least partially heritable. It does not matter here whether we can measure that heritability or not.

    (2) Since you don't know how experience influences the results of IQ tests and what parts of experience influence IQ tests, it's wrong to assume "IQ are experience related" hence "experience=culture" and hence "IQ measures impact to middle class culture".

    (3) Since you don't know how experience influences the IQ tests, you also don't know whether the relation is linear or not. Proper nourishment definetely impacts height but only up to some point. Making children eat more and more will not make them even higher and higher, only more fat. Running more and more will not make you faster. Why can't it be the same with experience? Maybe there is some threshold, after which any more exposure to whatever constitutes "experience" or "middle class values" does not affect in visible way IQ tests. You don't know that (neither I am).

    Because of (2) (we don't know which parts of culture influence IQ tests) and (3) (we don't know the relation and whether there is some threshold) it's wrong and illogical to conclude that social classes are exposed in different way, in a way that meaningfully affects the IQ tests results. Maybe for the vast majority of population, except the poorest, abused etc, the exposure to middle class culture (or whatever it is which influences IQ tests) is enough and what only matters is what people would make of that exposure. I am not arguing it is, I am pointing the possibility which you have ignored, a possibility which makes your argument looks like a full of non sequiturs.

    And even if (3) is false (i.e. there is no threshold above which further gains from being exposed to the "culture"), saying or proving that IQ tests are not culture free, or that they measure exposure to some culture is not the same as proving that they measure ONLY the exposure to some culture.

    Note that above I do not argue that IQ tests measure intelligence. Merely I point that the claim they are solely measurement of exposure to culture/experience/whatever is wrong.
  535. @The Big Red Scary
    I haven't been following carefully l'affaire Skripal. But why do you think the new story should cause you to update your prior?

    As far as I can tell, the British government has shown some pictures of some guys in what appears to be an airport, then some pictures of what appear to be the same guys on a street somewhere. They claim that these same guys entered the UK under some particular Russian names, and that they found residue of "Novichok" in their hotel room. Since the British government is not giving any means to falsify this story, and since they are known to lie about all kinds of other things, why should I pay attention?

    (By the way, you may know that Craig Murray pointed out that there was some doctoring of the airport photos, at least of the time stamp, and that the airport photos are no longer on the MET website. This is perhaps neither here nor there, but doesn't inspire confidence.)

    Naturally, if people associated with the GRU did do something so incredibly stupid, then the Russian government should be very concerned about it, and some heads should roll. But does the GRU have a history of such idiocy? If they really had it in for Skripal, why not just handle it the usual way: "suicide"?

    By the way, you may know that Craig Murray pointed out that there was some doctoring of the airport photos, at least of the time stamp, and that the airport photos are no longer on the MET website. This is perhaps neither here nor there, but doesn’t inspire confidence.

    This?

    • Replies: @reiner Tor
    This has been debunked.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/09/the-impossible-photo/
  536. @RaceRealist88
    I believe in the biological reality of race. The existence of race is not a scientific question, it's philosophical. Michael Hardimon's minimalist and populationist race arguments and Quayshawn Spencer's argument for the existence of Blumenbachian partitions establish the claim that race exists. One does not need to accept hereditarian psychological claims to accept the existence of race. Why the two positions are conflated is beyond me.

    I don't deny differences in IQ. I deny the explanations/conclusions people draw from the tests because their conclusions are untenable (there is no lawlike relation between the mental and the physical therefore mental traits cannot be genetically inherited).

    there is no lawlike relation between the mental and the physical

    What exactly is a ‘non-lawlike’ relation? Is it random? Or is there just no connection at all?

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    The physical is needed for the mental to exist but the physical does not explain the mental. If there were a lawlike relation between the mental and the physical, then the claim "genes cause psychological traits" would be true. But it's not.
  537. @The Big Red Scary
    What happens in the southern hemisphere? I don't want to start looking it up, since that might spoil the fun.

    The standard explanation for seasons is that the northern hemisphere has summer when the north pole is tilted toward the sun, and that the distance of the Earth from the Sun has a negligible affect on the seasons (the Earth's elliptical orbit is close enough to being a circle). Is it safe to assume, for the purposes of this problem, that the north pole spends roughly an equal amount of tilted toward the sun as it does tilted away?

    What happens in the southern hemisphere?

    The southern hemisphere is obviously the opposite of the northern hemisphere: long winters and short summers.

    Is it safe to assume, for the purposes of this problem, that the north pole spends roughly an equal amount of tilted toward the sun as it does tilted away?

    Roughly, but not exactly! 92.6 days tilted toward the sun vs 89.0 days tilted away (currently).

    I will give you a one-word hint, if you need more just ask!

    APOGEE

  538. @RaceRealist88
    What's the "reality"? There's no logical or empirical reason to accept the claim that IQ tests test intelligence.

    There is an empirical reason to accept the claim that IQ tests test intelligence. We can predict how well people perform in other mental tasks from how well they perform in IQ tests.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    "We can predict how well people perform in other mental tasks from how well they perform in IQ tests."

    It's due to test construction.
  539. @Epigon
    Earth's speed varies during revolution, because the distance from Sun varies - Kepler Laws describe it.

    Earth’s speed varies during revolution, because the distance from Sun varies – Kepler Laws describe it.

    You’ve got the basics, but I still need more. Which law of Kepler? And what explains that it is winter and summer that are “outliers” while spring and fall are essentially “normal” in length?

    • Replies: @Epigon
    I didn’t want to be a huge spoiler initially.
    Second law of Kepler dictates the answer.
    The Earth is closest to Sun during Winter on Northern hemisphere and therefore the velocity is the highest so winter season defined by solstice and equinox lasts the shortest.
    Conversely, Earth is at its furthest during Summer of Northern hemisphere, the corresponding velocity is the smallest, so the season lasts longer.
    However, Spring and Autumn are not balanced and of equal length. Perihelion and Aphelion don’t fall on solstice days, so Spring lasts longer right now because solstice is sooner than perihelion. This exact question bothered me as a kid, as well as the stellar vs solar day difference and lunar/solar calendar relations and evolution. Physics is what got me interested in Maths, and I still harbor resentment towards theoretical Maths, theoretical Physics and Astrophysics because they are detached from scientific method and practical, worldly application.
  540. @RaceRealist88
    "I haven’t seen establishing (1), I have seen only postulating (1)."

    My argument established it.

    "If IQ tests measures exposure to middle class values, then this has to be testable"

    The argument is a priori.

    "but it does not mean it excludes possibility that it is ONLY experience dependent and independent of other factors."

    What other factors? What influences these factors? What's the argument?

    "since it means that the tests might measure exposure PLUS something more and it’s hard to say which influences the score more."

    P3 follows from P2. The questions on the test are not culture free. Therefore if one is not exposed to the knowledge structure of the test then they will necessarily score lower.

    You need an argument that they test intelligence.

    "I would also like to know your stance on the regression to the mean. Do you think it exists? If it exists, how it would be explained by theory that IQ tests measure exposure to the middle class culture?"

    Has it been tested in humans?

    Different people might be exposed to the same experience and yet be affected differently. THerefore, your argument is flawed and in fact is not an properly built argument, you are just handwaving a lot of problems.

    (1) IQ tests are experience dependent, but it’s like saying height is environment dependent, or sport ability is experience dependent.

    Yet, just as height is also definetely heritable, and just as not all people would develop exactly the same abilities after exactly the same training, it’s wrong to expect that all people would get the same thing from experience. The ability to learn from experience and to transfer that knowledge is part what we commonly would call “intelligence” in common speech.

    Hence IQ tests cannot measure solely the exposure to experience/culture/whatever, because, (unless you are blank slatist) different people do react to same thing differently. It follows that if IQ tests measure exposure to the middle class value then it also measures what people make of it, and since ability to learn is included in common folk definition of intelligence, then IQ tests measure also the intelligence.

    Moreover, since different people react to different thing differently, the reasons for that (again, unless you are blank slatist or believing in spiritual world independent of material world) should be at least partially heritable. It does not matter here whether we can measure that heritability or not.

    (2) Since you don’t know how experience influences the results of IQ tests and what parts of experience influence IQ tests, it’s wrong to assume “IQ are experience related” hence “experience=culture” and hence “IQ measures impact to middle class culture”.

    (3) Since you don’t know how experience influences the IQ tests, you also don’t know whether the relation is linear or not. Proper nourishment definetely impacts height but only up to some point. Making children eat more and more will not make them even higher and higher, only more fat. Running more and more will not make you faster. Why can’t it be the same with experience? Maybe there is some threshold, after which any more exposure to whatever constitutes “experience” or “middle class values” does not affect in visible way IQ tests. You don’t know that (neither I am).

    Because of (2) (we don’t know which parts of culture influence IQ tests) and (3) (we don’t know the relation and whether there is some threshold) it’s wrong and illogical to conclude that social classes are exposed in different way, in a way that meaningfully affects the IQ tests results. Maybe for the vast majority of population, except the poorest, abused etc, the exposure to middle class culture (or whatever it is which influences IQ tests) is enough and what only matters is what people would make of that exposure. I am not arguing it is, I am pointing the possibility which you have ignored, a possibility which makes your argument looks like a full of non sequiturs.

    And even if (3) is false (i.e. there is no threshold above which further gains from being exposed to the “culture”), saying or proving that IQ tests are not culture free, or that they measure exposure to some culture is not the same as proving that they measure ONLY the exposure to some culture.

    Note that above I do not argue that IQ tests measure intelligence. Merely I point that the claim they are solely measurement of exposure to culture/experience/whatever is wrong.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    "THerefore, your argument is flawed and in fact is not an properly built argument, you are just handwaving a lot of problems."

    My argument is properly built. I'm not handwaving anything. Sure they may be exposed to the same experience (though, by proxy, social classes are exposed to different knowledge structures).

    "The ability to learn from experience and to transfer that knowledge is part what we commonly would call “intelligence” in common speech."

    That's what IQ tests test?

    "Hence IQ tests cannot measure solely the exposure to experience/culture/whatever, because"

    Sure it does, since middle class people are more likely to be exposed to the knowledge and structure of the test.

    "Blank slatist"?

    "(2) Since you don’t know how experience influences the results of IQ tests and what parts of experience influence IQ tests, it’s wrong to assume “IQ are experience related” hence “experience=culture” and hence “IQ measures impact to middle class culture”."

    The argument is sound though.

    "Running more and more will not make you faster"

    Ill pretend you didn't say this.

    "Because of (2) (we don’t know which parts of culture influence IQ tests) and (3) (we don’t know the relation and whether there is some threshold) it’s wrong and illogical to conclude that social classes are exposed in different way, in a way that meaningfully affects the IQ tests results. Maybe for the vast majority of population, except the poorest, abused etc, the exposure to middle class culture (or whatever it is which influences IQ tests) is enough and what only matters is what people would make of that exposure. I am not arguing it is, I am pointing the possibility which you have ignored, a possibility which makes your argument looks like a full of non sequiturs."

    We only need to know 3 things: (1) items are selected or removed on the basis of confirming to the test constructors presuppositions; (2) what's on the test are more likely to be found in the middle class; and (3) classes are differentially prepared for the test due to exposure to different knowledge, not found on the tests.

    "Merely I point that the claim they are solely measurement of exposure to culture/experience/whatever is wrong."

    My argument establishes my claim that "IQ tests measure distance from the middle class."
  541. @DFH

    By the way, you may know that Craig Murray pointed out that there was some doctoring of the airport photos, at least of the time stamp, and that the airport photos are no longer on the MET website. This is perhaps neither here nor there, but doesn’t inspire confidence.
     
    This?

    https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/theimpossiblephoto.jpg?itok=dh0JsjCo
  542. @RaceRealist88
    What's the "reality"? There's no logical or empirical reason to accept the claim that IQ tests test intelligence.

    Reality is a computer simulation, donate your bitcoin in this emulation of life to Karlin as a cheat code.

  543. @Dmitry
    No, because PISA exam does not test related to maths - but it tests some kind of ability of children to understand the culture of the person who made the test. In a sense, it is a score of how globalized the children are to OECD standards. There's no intelligence involved in the test, as the questions are easier than the age-level.

    Compare that Russia's PISA math score increased since 2000, even between 2009-2015.

    Now compare the difficulty of maths exams and quality of maths education in this time period. The level of maths exams and high school mathematics education is falling (becoming easier and reducing the range and depth of topics studied).

    Compare that Russia’s PISA math score increased since 2000, even between 2009-2015.

    Russian performance on this Army test has been increasing rapidly since the 1990 cohort (so, equivalent of PISA 2006).

    https://recrut.mil.ru/career/soldiering/test/start.htm

    While people born between 1973 and 1987 performed at a stable 19.5-20/30, the post-1988 period saw a steady improvement towards an average score of 21/30.

    S.D. is around 6 points.

    Which happens to be analogous to the increase in PISA:

  544. @The Big Red Scary
    I haven't been following carefully l'affaire Skripal. But why do you think the new story should cause you to update your prior?

    As far as I can tell, the British government has shown some pictures of some guys in what appears to be an airport, then some pictures of what appear to be the same guys on a street somewhere. They claim that these same guys entered the UK under some particular Russian names, and that they found residue of "Novichok" in their hotel room. Since the British government is not giving any means to falsify this story, and since they are known to lie about all kinds of other things, why should I pay attention?

    (By the way, you may know that Craig Murray pointed out that there was some doctoring of the airport photos, at least of the time stamp, and that the airport photos are no longer on the MET website. This is perhaps neither here nor there, but doesn't inspire confidence.)

    Naturally, if people associated with the GRU did do something so incredibly stupid, then the Russian government should be very concerned about it, and some heads should roll. But does the GRU have a history of such idiocy? If they really had it in for Skripal, why not just handle it the usual way: "suicide"?

    But why do you think the new story should cause you to update your prior?

    It’s easy to say weasel words and put out unreliable information based on hot air. It’s another to outright falsify things. It’s very easy to believe that the “of a type developed by Russia” weasel expression meant that… well, all they knew was that this type of poison had been developed by Russia, and knew nothing more.

    Now the claims are getting less weasely, and more concrete. Of course they can still be outright lies, but it’d require the cooperation of more and more people. Porton Down could’ve been cool (after some internal haggling) with the expression “of a type developed by Russia,” because it’s true, though meaningless. Now some people would be lying: either they identified those people, or they didn’t. A number of people are involved in the investigation. Unless we want to get into 911 truther tier conspiracy theories, it looks way more likely that they are telling the truth. If they didn’t dare telling outright lies regarding the origins of the Novichok agent, why would they suddenly change to outright lies?

    Therefore, it’s now very likely that two people using Russian passports traveled from Moscow all the way to Salisbury, and they were there on the day of the attempted murder. That is quite a bit of a coincidence. I don’t think it’s very likely that a third party falsified those passports. So either these people were Russians and their names matched their passports, or their passports were forged for the purposes of some Russian intelligence service. Of course, it’s possible that a third party somehow managed to do that, or managed to slip through the sloppiness of Russian passport controls. It’s just not very likely.

    The Russians must know who those two guys are: they could show them on TV. One of them works as a pizza delivery man, the other one as a librarian. Here’s the pizzeria and the library they work in, respectively. They have nothing to do with GRU. Everyone would have a laugh.

    It’s possible these people are Russian citizens living abroad in a third country. Even so, it must be easy for Russia to find out where they live. At the very least, that they live abroad. They could give journalists access to their former classmates and people like that. That way, at least, they might expose the foreign service (Israel? Ukraine?) using Russian citizens (and passports) to commit crimes in third countries. That’s what governments usually do, for example the EU countries whose (forged) passports were used by Israel to murder the Hamas leader in Dubai.

    However, Russia pretends not to know who these people are. That’s not very credible. Until yesterday, the UK was putting out not very credible weasely information, while Russia didn’t say anything which was not consistent with their innocence. Now the situation changed: Russia is putting out not credible statements (that the names and photos meant nothing to them – sure they must know they traveled to and from a Moscow airport), while the UK is now sharing concrete evidence (photos of the suspects and CCTV images at the airport and in Salisbury) with the world.

    • Agree: for-the-record
    • Replies: @The Big Red Scary
    I don't find any source of information on this trust-worthy, so I don't find it worth while trying to form an opinion. I've asked a few times now on Paul Robinson's blog what are his priors for mischief-making in the British and Russian intelligence service. He hasn't responded.

    That said, there are a handful of plausible ultimate suspects: the British government, the Russian government, and the Ukrainian government (in alphabetical order). In none of these cases does it require a large conspiracy to arrange a job like this. For example, if it's the British: You have one person who orders it, one person who does the poisoning, maybe another who plants some residue of "Novichok" in their hotel room two months later, and you have two guys who are asked to fly from Moscow, stay in a hotel in London, visit Salisbury, then go back. The guys flying back and forth between Moscow don't have to know a thing, nor do they have to stay in Russia afterwards. So the situation is on a completely different scale from 9/11.

    You are right, though, that it would be easy for the Russian government to look at the video record of those entering the country at the expected time. Given what we know of the Russian government, however, we can expect that they'll take their time before acting and announcing conclusions. The appropriate response would have been "we're looking into it" (regardless of who is or is not responsible).
    , @for-the-record
    However, Russia pretends not to know who these people are. That’s not very credible.

    On the other hand:

    Responding to the Met's new claims, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the published names and photos "do not tell us anything," and urged London to "switch from public accusations and the manipulation of information to practical cooperation between law enforcement agencies."

    Later in the day, Zakharova told reporters that the UK's ambassador to Russia turned down a request to provide further information on the suspects, including their fingerprints, which she recalled were a requirement for Russian citizens seeking to get UK visas. "The ambassador said the British side will not provide any materials," Zakharova said.

    "London refused to provide any information at all about the case — their passport numbers, patronymics, personal details, etc.," Zakharova complained. "We will proceed from the idea that this information will be transferred through the Interpol line," she added.

    Echoing Zakharova, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office told Sputnik that it was ready to cooperate with British law enforcement on the Skripal case, but also said that it expected to receive material evidence of the possible involvement of Russian citizens.
     
    and

    Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has expressed regret that London has refused to cooperate with Russia on an investigation concerning the attempted murder of ex-Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, and reiterated that Russia is ready to work with British authorities on the case if they make a formal request to do so.

    "In order to check the identity [of the two men suspected by UK prosecutors], in order for us to have legal grounds to check their identities, we must receive a request to do so by the British side. … There is such a thing as customary practice. And from the very beginning, the Russian side offered cooperation on investigating the circumstances" of the poisoning, Peskov said, answering a question about whether Russia was checking the identities of the two men UK Metropolitan police accused on Wednesday.

    Unfortunately, the spokesman noted, the British side rejected the proposal to cooperate. Furthermore, he said, "publications by the media and statements in parliament" do not constitute a substitute for legal requests made through formal channels. Peskov said that Moscow "can only regret" that London does not find any sense in cooperating on the case.
     
    , @for-the-record
    If you haven't already, have a look at Craig Murray's contribution today ("Skripals – The Mystery Deepens") , which is far better than the one yesterday. The very real possibility he suggests is that Boshirov and Petrov met up with the Skripals on the morning of the 4th, during the "mysterious" period in which both Skripals had their phones switched off.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
  545. Obligatory George Carlin reference:

  546. You have courage to write an article like this, probably because there aren’t enough honest & courageous high I.Q. people around to support Your views. Really, we’re scared of the not too smart people. They tend to group think, and are such a large percent of the population, that if honest views such as yours are expressed, we put ourselves at risk.

  547. @reiner Tor

    But why do you think the new story should cause you to update your prior?
     
    It's easy to say weasel words and put out unreliable information based on hot air. It's another to outright falsify things. It's very easy to believe that the "of a type developed by Russia" weasel expression meant that... well, all they knew was that this type of poison had been developed by Russia, and knew nothing more.

    Now the claims are getting less weasely, and more concrete. Of course they can still be outright lies, but it'd require the cooperation of more and more people. Porton Down could've been cool (after some internal haggling) with the expression "of a type developed by Russia," because it's true, though meaningless. Now some people would be lying: either they identified those people, or they didn't. A number of people are involved in the investigation. Unless we want to get into 911 truther tier conspiracy theories, it looks way more likely that they are telling the truth. If they didn't dare telling outright lies regarding the origins of the Novichok agent, why would they suddenly change to outright lies?

    Therefore, it's now very likely that two people using Russian passports traveled from Moscow all the way to Salisbury, and they were there on the day of the attempted murder. That is quite a bit of a coincidence. I don't think it's very likely that a third party falsified those passports. So either these people were Russians and their names matched their passports, or their passports were forged for the purposes of some Russian intelligence service. Of course, it's possible that a third party somehow managed to do that, or managed to slip through the sloppiness of Russian passport controls. It's just not very likely.

    The Russians must know who those two guys are: they could show them on TV. One of them works as a pizza delivery man, the other one as a librarian. Here's the pizzeria and the library they work in, respectively. They have nothing to do with GRU. Everyone would have a laugh.

    It's possible these people are Russian citizens living abroad in a third country. Even so, it must be easy for Russia to find out where they live. At the very least, that they live abroad. They could give journalists access to their former classmates and people like that. That way, at least, they might expose the foreign service (Israel? Ukraine?) using Russian citizens (and passports) to commit crimes in third countries. That's what governments usually do, for example the EU countries whose (forged) passports were used by Israel to murder the Hamas leader in Dubai.

    However, Russia pretends not to know who these people are. That's not very credible. Until yesterday, the UK was putting out not very credible weasely information, while Russia didn't say anything which was not consistent with their innocence. Now the situation changed: Russia is putting out not credible statements (that the names and photos meant nothing to them - sure they must know they traveled to and from a Moscow airport), while the UK is now sharing concrete evidence (photos of the suspects and CCTV images at the airport and in Salisbury) with the world.

    I don’t find any source of information on this trust-worthy, so I don’t find it worth while trying to form an opinion. I’ve asked a few times now on Paul Robinson’s blog what are his priors for mischief-making in the British and Russian intelligence service. He hasn’t responded.

    That said, there are a handful of plausible ultimate suspects: the British government, the Russian government, and the Ukrainian government (in alphabetical order). In none of these cases does it require a large conspiracy to arrange a job like this. For example, if it’s the British: You have one person who orders it, one person who does the poisoning, maybe another who plants some residue of “Novichok” in their hotel room two months later, and you have two guys who are asked to fly from Moscow, stay in a hotel in London, visit Salisbury, then go back. The guys flying back and forth between Moscow don’t have to know a thing, nor do they have to stay in Russia afterwards. So the situation is on a completely different scale from 9/11.

    You are right, though, that it would be easy for the Russian government to look at the video record of those entering the country at the expected time. Given what we know of the Russian government, however, we can expect that they’ll take their time before acting and announcing conclusions. The appropriate response would have been “we’re looking into it” (regardless of who is or is not responsible).

  548. @Okechukwu

    Sub-Saharan Africa: ~70
     
    I'm sub-Saharan African and I'm smarter than you. Prove that sub-Saharan Africans have an IQ of 70 or shut-up.

    The irony is, like most race and IQ exponents, the fake Russian Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There's no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.

    Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There’s no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.

    I don’t believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends.

    It would be way more accurate to compare an adult African with an IQ of 70 to a white child of around 9 or so of average intelligence. You could have a society of 9 year olds. It would not be the same society, but it would not be absolute chaos and a return to the jungle, like a society of retards more likely would be.

    Besides, many think that the genetic potential of Africans is closer to American blacks’ 85. They just don’t seem able to achieve it in their own societies. Not to mention, there are undoubtedly individuals and perhaps even groups among Africans with a higher IQ.

    I believe your problem is that you see that as a hopeless situation, when it may be possible that there are different solutions: voluntary segregation of higher IQ blacks from lower, so they can form their own countries, or eugenics. Neither easy politically, but not entirely hopeless.

    • Replies: @Peripatetic commenter

    I don’t believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends.
     
    What I think is happening here is recruitment of parts of the expensive brain tissue to one function or the other.

    That is, in blacks it is skewed towards social interaction because, at least for males, it is more important in their natural environment for attracting mates.

    However, in whites, it is more skewed towards being able to solve complex problems because that is what is required in their natural environment.

    In addition, there has been selection among whites and East Asians for a larger amount of brain tissue.
    , @AP
    As Flynn noted, Siberian villagers 1o0 years ago had IQs in the 70s. I have seen a number of modern Balkan villagers who led functional lives (raised families, worked, etc.) and who scored in the 70s on nonverbal IQ tests.

    Africans almost certainly will have a lower ceiling for their average than do Europeans and Asians, but it is not 70.
    , @Bliss

    Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal
     
    So where are the millions of socially abnormal retards among the white caucasian Levantine people of the middle-east (Syria etc) whose IQ is in the high 70s? If, as the American Association on Mental Retardation defines it, someone is mentally retarded if they have an IQ below 70-75:

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2001/07/what_are_the_legal_rights_of_the_retarded.html

    there should be many tens of millions of drooling ”white Caucasian” retards in the MENA region since the average IQ of that region is so close to the cut off point for mental retardation.


    https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/48d7/843f6ce714a684a93530a0c8b7da65d185db.pdf
    , @Daniel Chieh
    What's funny is that AK is probably one of the most positive people about Africans in Unz.
    , @Okechukwu

    I don’t believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends
     
    That's very cute, trying to devise ever more ridiculous talking points to explain why the allegedly functionally retarded Africans are nevertheless perfectly functional. However, either IQ measures functionality or it doesn't. Test your theories at a scientific conference and prepare for uproarious laughter. That's before the men in white coats come and take you away.


    It would be way more accurate to compare an adult African with an IQ of 70 to a white child of around 9 or so of average intelligence. You could have a society of 9 year olds. It would not be the same society, but it would not be absolute chaos and a return to the jungle, like a society of retards more likely would be
     
    You still haven't presented concrete evidence that Africans have an IQ of 70. Don't prescribe solutions to a "problem" that exists only in the minds of dumb and delusional white supremacists.

    Besides, many think that the genetic potential of Africans is closer to American blacks’ 85. They just don’t seem able to achieve it in their own societies. Not to mention, there are undoubtedly individuals and perhaps even groups among Africans with a higher IQ.
     
    First of all, black Americans have an IQ of 91. Further, when adjusted for sociological and historical factors black Americans are likely the highest IQ population in the world. Secondly, achievement is modulated by a range of factors of which intelligence is not the primary causal agent. Besides which, an idea of achievement is highly subjective.

    I believe your problem is that you see that as a hopeless situation, when it may be possible that there are different solutions: voluntary segregation of higher IQ blacks from lower, so they can form their own countries, or eugenics. Neither easy politically, but not entirely hopeless.
     
    No. You desperately want me to see a made-up "problem" as hopeless. There's absolutely no evidence to support the proposition that IQ tests actually capture intrinsic intelligence. There are plenty of Africans sitting in villages right now who are natively more intelligent than you. There are also many white high IQ types who are actually stupid with regard to native intelligence. Separated from their learned and highly structured environments, they're useless.

    The world doesn't operate on the presumption that Africans are less intelligent. Every country on earth, be it the US, China, Russia, Germany, UK, etc., pursues Africa policy in the full knowledge that Africans are equal in intellectual capacity and intellectual potential. Yet you speak as though Africans being intellectually handicapped is a foregone conclusion that enjoys universal acceptance. But in fact it's a position held by a vanishingly small fringe of racists and supremacists who aren't very bright themselves.
  549. @szopen
    Different people might be exposed to the same experience and yet be affected differently. THerefore, your argument is flawed and in fact is not an properly built argument, you are just handwaving a lot of problems.

    (1) IQ tests are experience dependent, but it's like saying height is environment dependent, or sport ability is experience dependent.

    Yet, just as height is also definetely heritable, and just as not all people would develop exactly the same abilities after exactly the same training, it's wrong to expect that all people would get the same thing from experience. The ability to learn from experience and to transfer that knowledge is part what we commonly would call "intelligence" in common speech.

    Hence IQ tests cannot measure solely the exposure to experience/culture/whatever, because, (unless you are blank slatist) different people do react to same thing differently. It follows that if IQ tests measure exposure to the middle class value then it also measures what people make of it, and since ability to learn is included in common folk definition of intelligence, then IQ tests measure also the intelligence.

    Moreover, since different people react to different thing differently, the reasons for that (again, unless you are blank slatist or believing in spiritual world independent of material world) should be at least partially heritable. It does not matter here whether we can measure that heritability or not.

    (2) Since you don't know how experience influences the results of IQ tests and what parts of experience influence IQ tests, it's wrong to assume "IQ are experience related" hence "experience=culture" and hence "IQ measures impact to middle class culture".

    (3) Since you don't know how experience influences the IQ tests, you also don't know whether the relation is linear or not. Proper nourishment definetely impacts height but only up to some point. Making children eat more and more will not make them even higher and higher, only more fat. Running more and more will not make you faster. Why can't it be the same with experience? Maybe there is some threshold, after which any more exposure to whatever constitutes "experience" or "middle class values" does not affect in visible way IQ tests. You don't know that (neither I am).

    Because of (2) (we don't know which parts of culture influence IQ tests) and (3) (we don't know the relation and whether there is some threshold) it's wrong and illogical to conclude that social classes are exposed in different way, in a way that meaningfully affects the IQ tests results. Maybe for the vast majority of population, except the poorest, abused etc, the exposure to middle class culture (or whatever it is which influences IQ tests) is enough and what only matters is what people would make of that exposure. I am not arguing it is, I am pointing the possibility which you have ignored, a possibility which makes your argument looks like a full of non sequiturs.

    And even if (3) is false (i.e. there is no threshold above which further gains from being exposed to the "culture"), saying or proving that IQ tests are not culture free, or that they measure exposure to some culture is not the same as proving that they measure ONLY the exposure to some culture.

    Note that above I do not argue that IQ tests measure intelligence. Merely I point that the claim they are solely measurement of exposure to culture/experience/whatever is wrong.

    “THerefore, your argument is flawed and in fact is not an properly built argument, you are just handwaving a lot of problems.”

    My argument is properly built. I’m not handwaving anything. Sure they may be exposed to the same experience (though, by proxy, social classes are exposed to different knowledge structures).

    “The ability to learn from experience and to transfer that knowledge is part what we commonly would call “intelligence” in common speech.”

    That’s what IQ tests test?

    “Hence IQ tests cannot measure solely the exposure to experience/culture/whatever, because”

    Sure it does, since middle class people are more likely to be exposed to the knowledge and structure of the test.

    “Blank slatist”?

    “(2) Since you don’t know how experience influences the results of IQ tests and what parts of experience influence IQ tests, it’s wrong to assume “IQ are experience related” hence “experience=culture” and hence “IQ measures impact to middle class culture”.”

    The argument is sound though.

    “Running more and more will not make you faster”

    Ill pretend you didn’t say this.

    “Because of (2) (we don’t know which parts of culture influence IQ tests) and (3) (we don’t know the relation and whether there is some threshold) it’s wrong and illogical to conclude that social classes are exposed in different way, in a way that meaningfully affects the IQ tests results. Maybe for the vast majority of population, except the poorest, abused etc, the exposure to middle class culture (or whatever it is which influences IQ tests) is enough and what only matters is what people would make of that exposure. I am not arguing it is, I am pointing the possibility which you have ignored, a possibility which makes your argument looks like a full of non sequiturs.”

    We only need to know 3 things: (1) items are selected or removed on the basis of confirming to the test constructors presuppositions; (2) what’s on the test are more likely to be found in the middle class; and (3) classes are differentially prepared for the test due to exposure to different knowledge, not found on the tests.

    “Merely I point that the claim they are solely measurement of exposure to culture/experience/whatever is wrong.”

    My argument establishes my claim that “IQ tests measure distance from the middle class.”

    • Replies: @szopen
    "I’m not handwaving anything."
    You are. E.g. you have no idea which elements of the "knowledge structure" are important and how they influence the test results, you just assume that they exist and somehow are common only for the middle class.

    "by proxy, social classes are exposed to different knowledge structures"

    But you had not established that those are the same structures which are important for IQ tests.

    Let me repeat once again, since it seems you had ignored this:

    " Sure they may be exposed to the same experience" AND the results are different. I.e. it's possible and even more, very likely, two boys may experience exactly the same things, and yet they can have different results. Which means that tests do not measure only exposure, but also how exposure influenced people.

    Only blank slatists (supporters of the blank slate, i.e. that all people have exactly the same mental abilities and they differ only because of the experience) would deny that.

    "Sure it does, since middle class people are more likely to be exposed to the knowledge and structure of the test."

    Sure it doesn't, because you have not established that middle class people are more likely exposed to the structures which MATTERS.

    Once again, siblings from the same family can have different IQ tests results. Either:

    (1) Handwaving (and circular argument): they have different IQ because they have different exposure, and the proof that they had different exposure is that they have different IQ test results.

    It's not enough that the experiences are different, because not all differences would matter.

    (2) They differ with inborn qualities how to react to the same exposure: ie. some react to it better, some worse, which means some learn and some don't. which means some are more intelligent and some are less - which means IQ test measures intelligence (since usually we call people who learn fast "more intelligent" than those who learn slower, where learning is not limited to the school).

    If you think (1), then you are making "just-so" story and the argument cannot be think to be sound. If you think (2) i.e. the IQ test measures imperfectly intelligence differences for people with the same exposure, then, obviously, it will also measure intelligence with different exposures, just less perfectly.

    " (1) items are selected or removed on the basis of confirming to the test constructors presuppositions; (2) what’s on the test are more likely to be found in the middle class; and (3) classes are differentially prepared for the test due to exposure to different knowledge,"

    No. (1) yes (2) that's your presupposition, not proven (3) you have not established that this different knowledge matters in any way. Classes might have different exposure, but this does not mean that different exposure matters. Maybe the differences in exposures are so small, that they have no impact on the tests results except for the most poor.

    You ignored all those possibilities and you have just repeated your previous argument. That's why I am saying about "handwaving".

    You have also ignored the "threshold" possibility that is: the presuppositions are in fact so common within a given country, that for all purposes that could be ignored in modern western societies.

    Also, by your idea, how to explain that children whites from lower classes have results comparable or better than children of blacks from wealthy families? It would be possible only if somehow "middle class blacks" were exposed to radically different knowledge. This is preposterous.

    "Ill pretend you didn’t say this. [run more to run faster]"

    Why? I thought this is obvious. I've heard it many times from the sportsmen that if you overtrain, you will not get any more results, and even your results will get worse. There is a point after which running more and more and more will not bring any more gains. If you will run 24h per day 7 days in a week you won't get any better.

    Which actually gave me a nice example. Imagine you have different cultures, some of which value running, some not. Some encourage jogging, some encourage sitting at the computer. Now let's assume there is a simple run test, in which people measure your speed on 100m.

    Obviously, the results of the run tests would be highly dependent on the culture. Obviously, you could say, in a sense, that results of the run tests "measure the distance from the >>run<< culture". But it would be wrong to conclude that because of that, the run test does not, actually, measure run speed, but it just measures a distance from "run culture".

    Similarly, it's possible that in away, IQ tests measure how succesfully one imbibes middle class knowledge. But what if what we commonly think as "intelligence" is in fact equivalent with succesful adaptation to middles class values? Then calling "IQ test" "a test of distance from middle class", in my opinion, would only confuse the matter without bringing anything to the discussion.

    Finally, I have only now noticed that I forgot to reply to regression to mean question. Frankly, I don't know. I have read so many times luminaries bringing this argument that I assume they have their studies done. But still, that would be a nice test to your theory: assume for a moment, for the sake of intellectual fun, that regression to mean in humans does matter. How would your theory explain that?

    For that matter, how your theory would be invalidated? That is, what could convince you that your theory (iq tests measure only the exposure to knowledge and nothing more) is wrong?

  550. @DFH
    There is an empirical reason to accept the claim that IQ tests test intelligence. We can predict how well people perform in other mental tasks from how well they perform in IQ tests.

    “We can predict how well people perform in other mental tasks from how well they perform in IQ tests.”

    It’s due to test construction.

    • Replies: @DFH

    It’s due to test construction.
     
    ????????????????? How does this rebut what I said?
  551. @DFH

    there is no lawlike relation between the mental and the physical
     
    What exactly is a 'non-lawlike' relation? Is it random? Or is there just no connection at all?

    The physical is needed for the mental to exist but the physical does not explain the mental. If there were a lawlike relation between the mental and the physical, then the claim “genes cause psychological traits” would be true. But it’s not.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Nonsense easily disproven by the existence of alcohol.
    , @DFH
    That didn't answer my question.
    Is there a causal connection between the mental and physical? Is the connection lawlike, random or 'non-lawlike' in some way you need to explain?
    , @Bliss

    the physical does not explain the mental.
     
    This is true. By definition even. The physical can not create the metaphysical. The observable does not explain the observer.

    These atheist-materialist IQists are all ass-backwards.
  552. Anon[156] • Disclaimer says:

    And yet this only translates to an IQ of 120-125. We’re nowhere even near genius level yet.

    Disagree. My IQ is round the 123-124 mark and I can solve questions quite harder than item 6).
    (And still every coder I have ever known does visibly better than I. Can we really say overcoming item 5) means one can program?!).

    Generally speaking, the world % left me agape.
    One spends his days on Twitter, reading the best papers and blogs and books and comes to deem himself as bordering on dim-witted, t
    completely oblivious to what the “real world” is like.
    Dr. Thompson laid it out very well in his The Seven Tribes piece. Basically there are many (mental, then material and political and economic) worlds within what, for the sake of social rest, is publically and culturally believed a shared world. And each of these world understands very little of every non-adjacent world.

  553. @Polymath
    Very good post, very mixed quality comments.

    I have little time this morning so I'll just assert my conclusions not prove them (credentials: MathPhD and consultant and teacher, 2400 GRE).

    1) You can come up with as many excuses as you like about why groups do badly on a test but the correlation with real world success shows that you are merely explaining away, not explaining. Particularly pathetic are the comments criticizing the test questions for extraneous information, when ability to identify which information is relevant is a big part of what the test wants to measure.
    2) The people voting for Trump being less smart doesn't mean it was a stupid decision, more likely is that they correctly perceived that his policies would be better for non-smart people like themselves than Hillary's would have been. You don't have to be smart to figure that out.
    3) Performance on all tests can be improved by study and practice, and it is possible to do this for IQ tests too, but that's because enough of the right kind of study and practice actually makes you smarter.
    4) Adult IQ is much more stable and reliably measurable than childhood and teenage IQ because educational systems vary widely even though most people eventually attain a personally suitable educational level.
    5) No, most people cannot learn high school math sufficient to prepare for college work. Multiply the grade by 10 to get the IQ level needed to master it: 90 for basic algebra, 100 for geometry, 110 for algebra 2 and trigonometry, 120 for Calculus (AP BC exam "5" level). Subtract 10 points from that, which was about "mastery", to get the level needed to get a passing grade with lots of effort and tutoring. Of course that's a very rough guide because verbal and mathematical components of IQ can diverge substantially.
    6) Being a good judge of the cognitive level of people you converse with is a very useful skill, if you pitch what you say correctly you make them feel smart rather than dumb or resentful (go for the highest level they can handle without slowing down the conversation if they pay 100% attention).

    Could you get answers for all 6 items?
    lol

  554. Anon[156] • Disclaimer says:
    @DFH
    Kenyan children can't recognise themselves in the mirror. Even crows can do that.

    Now, I am not so sure you or I would understand our reflection in a mirror, had no-one ever explained to us that it “is” us.
    (Of course even having or not having someone wbo explains you what mirrors do can be traced back toIQ, as can “what education are people granted in country X”.)

    • Replies: @Chet Bradley

    I am not so sure you or I would understand our reflection in a mirror, had no-one ever explained to us that it “is” us.
     
    Are you serious? Do you have kids?


    I didn't explain to my kids what a mirror is or told them that it is them in the reflection. I just told them "this is a mirror" and let them figure out what it does. This happens at around age two, speaking from a very hazy memory. It's something so uneventful that I didn't even bother to remember when it happened. I do remember when my kids started to walk or when they were potty-trained; those were more important milestones.
  555. @RaceRealist88
    The physical is needed for the mental to exist but the physical does not explain the mental. If there were a lawlike relation between the mental and the physical, then the claim "genes cause psychological traits" would be true. But it's not.

    Nonsense easily disproven by the existence of alcohol.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    How?
    , @Peripatetic commenter
    You really shouldn't bother arguing with morons.

    However, I can see two effects of interest here, or perhaps more.

    1. The lower tolerance for alcohol and general inability to metabolize alcohol in some racial groups. This is genetic, and makes alcoholism more likely in some of those groups.

    2. The genetic propensity for some individuals to be unable to resist alcohol consumption, making them very unsuitable as mating partners.

    The general claim made by the moron that behavior is not genetically mediated is, of course, only something a moron would say. The evidence is clear.
  556. @reiner Tor

    But why do you think the new story should cause you to update your prior?
     
    It's easy to say weasel words and put out unreliable information based on hot air. It's another to outright falsify things. It's very easy to believe that the "of a type developed by Russia" weasel expression meant that... well, all they knew was that this type of poison had been developed by Russia, and knew nothing more.

    Now the claims are getting less weasely, and more concrete. Of course they can still be outright lies, but it'd require the cooperation of more and more people. Porton Down could've been cool (after some internal haggling) with the expression "of a type developed by Russia," because it's true, though meaningless. Now some people would be lying: either they identified those people, or they didn't. A number of people are involved in the investigation. Unless we want to get into 911 truther tier conspiracy theories, it looks way more likely that they are telling the truth. If they didn't dare telling outright lies regarding the origins of the Novichok agent, why would they suddenly change to outright lies?

    Therefore, it's now very likely that two people using Russian passports traveled from Moscow all the way to Salisbury, and they were there on the day of the attempted murder. That is quite a bit of a coincidence. I don't think it's very likely that a third party falsified those passports. So either these people were Russians and their names matched their passports, or their passports were forged for the purposes of some Russian intelligence service. Of course, it's possible that a third party somehow managed to do that, or managed to slip through the sloppiness of Russian passport controls. It's just not very likely.

    The Russians must know who those two guys are: they could show them on TV. One of them works as a pizza delivery man, the other one as a librarian. Here's the pizzeria and the library they work in, respectively. They have nothing to do with GRU. Everyone would have a laugh.

    It's possible these people are Russian citizens living abroad in a third country. Even so, it must be easy for Russia to find out where they live. At the very least, that they live abroad. They could give journalists access to their former classmates and people like that. That way, at least, they might expose the foreign service (Israel? Ukraine?) using Russian citizens (and passports) to commit crimes in third countries. That's what governments usually do, for example the EU countries whose (forged) passports were used by Israel to murder the Hamas leader in Dubai.

    However, Russia pretends not to know who these people are. That's not very credible. Until yesterday, the UK was putting out not very credible weasely information, while Russia didn't say anything which was not consistent with their innocence. Now the situation changed: Russia is putting out not credible statements (that the names and photos meant nothing to them - sure they must know they traveled to and from a Moscow airport), while the UK is now sharing concrete evidence (photos of the suspects and CCTV images at the airport and in Salisbury) with the world.

    However, Russia pretends not to know who these people are. That’s not very credible.

    On the other hand:

    Responding to the Met’s new claims, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the published names and photos “do not tell us anything,” and urged London to “switch from public accusations and the manipulation of information to practical cooperation between law enforcement agencies.”

    Later in the day, Zakharova told reporters that the UK’s ambassador to Russia turned down a request to provide further information on the suspects, including their fingerprints, which she recalled were a requirement for Russian citizens seeking to get UK visas. “The ambassador said the British side will not provide any materials,” Zakharova said.

    “London refused to provide any information at all about the case — their passport numbers, patronymics, personal details, etc.,” Zakharova complained. “We will proceed from the idea that this information will be transferred through the Interpol line,” she added.

    Echoing Zakharova, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office told Sputnik that it was ready to cooperate with British law enforcement on the Skripal case, but also said that it expected to receive material evidence of the possible involvement of Russian citizens.

    and

    Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has expressed regret that London has refused to cooperate with Russia on an investigation concerning the attempted murder of ex-Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, and reiterated that Russia is ready to work with British authorities on the case if they make a formal request to do so.

    “In order to check the identity [of the two men suspected by UK prosecutors], in order for us to have legal grounds to check their identities, we must receive a request to do so by the British side. … There is such a thing as customary practice. And from the very beginning, the Russian side offered cooperation on investigating the circumstances” of the poisoning, Peskov said, answering a question about whether Russia was checking the identities of the two men UK Metropolitan police accused on Wednesday.

    Unfortunately, the spokesman noted, the British side rejected the proposal to cooperate. Furthermore, he said, “publications by the media and statements in parliament” do not constitute a substitute for legal requests made through formal channels. Peskov said that Moscow “can only regret” that London does not find any sense in cooperating on the case.

  557. @Epigon
    PISA tests are a meme; at least here.

    “Here’s your test on a computer, kids”
    “Does it impact our grades?”
    “Nope”
    “Are the test results public?”
    “Nope”
    “LOL, watch this - record time”

    :Everyone does it as quickly as possible, those who try hard might be called out as nerds and uncool:

    Seriously, I have a distinct feeling that Asian schools prepare their kids in advance. The same way most of schools here practically abandoned normal teaching programme and instituted year long preparations aimed at drilling students into solving the specific exams that constitute the Abitur/Matura.
    Also, don’t pretend that actual IQ test solving can’t be trained.

    Agree and disagree. I think everything you stated is true. But… I believe that a population average score on IQ tests has an impact on that population overall economic performance. It’s a matter of productivity, not intelligence. Such tests can be at most treated as measures of an individual performance potential in specific areas, definitely not as scentific methods to quantify individuals’ intelligence.

  558. @RaceRealist88
    "THerefore, your argument is flawed and in fact is not an properly built argument, you are just handwaving a lot of problems."

    My argument is properly built. I'm not handwaving anything. Sure they may be exposed to the same experience (though, by proxy, social classes are exposed to different knowledge structures).

    "The ability to learn from experience and to transfer that knowledge is part what we commonly would call “intelligence” in common speech."

    That's what IQ tests test?

    "Hence IQ tests cannot measure solely the exposure to experience/culture/whatever, because"

    Sure it does, since middle class people are more likely to be exposed to the knowledge and structure of the test.

    "Blank slatist"?

    "(2) Since you don’t know how experience influences the results of IQ tests and what parts of experience influence IQ tests, it’s wrong to assume “IQ are experience related” hence “experience=culture” and hence “IQ measures impact to middle class culture”."

    The argument is sound though.

    "Running more and more will not make you faster"

    Ill pretend you didn't say this.

    "Because of (2) (we don’t know which parts of culture influence IQ tests) and (3) (we don’t know the relation and whether there is some threshold) it’s wrong and illogical to conclude that social classes are exposed in different way, in a way that meaningfully affects the IQ tests results. Maybe for the vast majority of population, except the poorest, abused etc, the exposure to middle class culture (or whatever it is which influences IQ tests) is enough and what only matters is what people would make of that exposure. I am not arguing it is, I am pointing the possibility which you have ignored, a possibility which makes your argument looks like a full of non sequiturs."

    We only need to know 3 things: (1) items are selected or removed on the basis of confirming to the test constructors presuppositions; (2) what's on the test are more likely to be found in the middle class; and (3) classes are differentially prepared for the test due to exposure to different knowledge, not found on the tests.

    "Merely I point that the claim they are solely measurement of exposure to culture/experience/whatever is wrong."

    My argument establishes my claim that "IQ tests measure distance from the middle class."

    “I’m not handwaving anything.”
    You are. E.g. you have no idea which elements of the “knowledge structure” are important and how they influence the test results, you just assume that they exist and somehow are common only for the middle class.

    “by proxy, social classes are exposed to different knowledge structures”

    But you had not established that those are the same structures which are important for IQ tests.

    Let me repeat once again, since it seems you had ignored this:

    ” Sure they may be exposed to the same experience” AND the results are different. I.e. it’s possible and even more, very likely, two boys may experience exactly the same things, and yet they can have different results. Which means that tests do not measure only exposure, but also how exposure influenced people.

    Only blank slatists (supporters of the blank slate, i.e. that all people have exactly the same mental abilities and they differ only because of the experience) would deny that.

    “Sure it does, since middle class people are more likely to be exposed to the knowledge and structure of the test.”

    Sure it doesn’t, because you have not established that middle class people are more likely exposed to the structures which MATTERS.

    Once again, siblings from the same family can have different IQ tests results. Either:

    (1) Handwaving (and circular argument): they have different IQ because they have different exposure, and the proof that they had different exposure is that they have different IQ test results.

    It’s not enough that the experiences are different, because not all differences would matter.

    (2) They differ with inborn qualities how to react to the same exposure: ie. some react to it better, some worse, which means some learn and some don’t. which means some are more intelligent and some are less – which means IQ test measures intelligence (since usually we call people who learn fast “more intelligent” than those who learn slower, where learning is not limited to the school).

    If you think (1), then you are making “just-so” story and the argument cannot be think to be sound. If you think (2) i.e. the IQ test measures imperfectly intelligence differences for people with the same exposure, then, obviously, it will also measure intelligence with different exposures, just less perfectly.

    ” (1) items are selected or removed on the basis of confirming to the test constructors presuppositions; (2) what’s on the test are more likely to be found in the middle class; and (3) classes are differentially prepared for the test due to exposure to different knowledge,”

    No. (1) yes (2) that’s your presupposition, not proven (3) you have not established that this different knowledge matters in any way. Classes might have different exposure, but this does not mean that different exposure matters. Maybe the differences in exposures are so small, that they have no impact on the tests results except for the most poor.

    You ignored all those possibilities and you have just repeated your previous argument. That’s why I am saying about “handwaving”.

    You have also ignored the “threshold” possibility that is: the presuppositions are in fact so common within a given country, that for all purposes that could be ignored in modern western societies.

    Also, by your idea, how to explain that children whites from lower classes have results comparable or better than children of blacks from wealthy families? It would be possible only if somehow “middle class blacks” were exposed to radically different knowledge. This is preposterous.

    “Ill pretend you didn’t say this. [run more to run faster]”

    Why? I thought this is obvious. I’ve heard it many times from the sportsmen that if you overtrain, you will not get any more results, and even your results will get worse. There is a point after which running more and more and more will not bring any more gains. If you will run 24h per day 7 days in a week you won’t get any better.

    Which actually gave me a nice example. Imagine you have different cultures, some of which value running, some not. Some encourage jogging, some encourage sitting at the computer. Now let’s assume there is a simple run test, in which people measure your speed on 100m.

    Obviously, the results of the run tests would be highly dependent on the culture. Obviously, you could say, in a sense, that results of the run tests “measure the distance from the >>run<< culture". But it would be wrong to conclude that because of that, the run test does not, actually, measure run speed, but it just measures a distance from "run culture".

    Similarly, it's possible that in away, IQ tests measure how succesfully one imbibes middle class knowledge. But what if what we commonly think as "intelligence" is in fact equivalent with succesful adaptation to middles class values? Then calling "IQ test" "a test of distance from middle class", in my opinion, would only confuse the matter without bringing anything to the discussion.

    Finally, I have only now noticed that I forgot to reply to regression to mean question. Frankly, I don't know. I have read so many times luminaries bringing this argument that I assume they have their studies done. But still, that would be a nice test to your theory: assume for a moment, for the sake of intellectual fun, that regression to mean in humans does matter. How would your theory explain that?

    For that matter, how your theory would be invalidated? That is, what could convince you that your theory (iq tests measure only the exposure to knowledge and nothing more) is wrong?

    • Replies: @Peripatetic commenter
    You should never bother arguing with morons.

    It only annoys the moron and wastes your time.
    , @RaceRealist88
    "You are. E.g. you have no idea which elements of the “knowledge structure” are important and how they influence the test results, you just assume that they exist and somehow are common only for the middle class."

    Because of the questions on the test.

    "Which means that tests do not measure only exposure, but also how exposure influenced people"

    So what?

    "Only blank slatists (supporters of the blank slate, i.e. that all people have exactly the same mental abilities and they differ only because of the experience) would deny that."

    I never said that "all people have exactly the same mental abilities", mental abilities are intentional states and are therefore irreducible to the physical.

    "Blank slatist"?

    "(1) Handwaving (and circular argument): they have different IQ because they have different exposure, and the proof that they had different exposure is that they have different IQ test results."

    A priori, different social classes are exposed to different knowledge. The argument isn't circular.

    "(2) They differ with inborn qualities how to react to the same exposure: ie. some react to it better, some worse, which means some learn and some don’t. which means some are more intelligent and some are less – which means IQ test measures intelligence (since usually we call people who learn fast “more intelligent” than those who learn slower, where learning is not limited to the school)."

    What's the cause?

    "(2) that’s your presupposition, not proven "

    If you accept (1) then you accept (2).

    "You have also ignored the “threshold” possibility that is: the presuppositions are in fact so common within a given country, that for all purposes that could be ignored in modern western societies"

    What's the argument?

    "Why? I thought this is obvious. I’ve heard it many times from the sportsmen that if you overtrain, you will not get any more results, and even your results will get worse. There is a point after which running more and more and more will not bring any more gains. If you will run 24h per day 7 days in a week you won’t get any better."

    Clarify your statements. You made it seem like you can't get faster *at all.*

    "For that matter, how your theory would be invalidated? That is, what could convince you that your theory (iq tests measure only the exposure to knowledge and nothing more) is wrong?"

    An a priori argument.
  559. @RaceRealist88
    "We can predict how well people perform in other mental tasks from how well they perform in IQ tests."

    It's due to test construction.

    It’s due to test construction.

    ????????????????? How does this rebut what I said?

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    That's why there is a relationship.
  560. @RaceRealist88
    The physical is needed for the mental to exist but the physical does not explain the mental. If there were a lawlike relation between the mental and the physical, then the claim "genes cause psychological traits" would be true. But it's not.

    That didn’t answer my question.
    Is there a causal connection between the mental and physical? Is the connection lawlike, random or ‘non-lawlike’ in some way you need to explain?

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    There are no psychophysical laws.
  561. @Toronto Russian

    “Intelligent womens’” intelligence doesn’t seem to help them out very much in working out that having (non-autistic) children becomes a lot more difficult after 30, as does finding a man when the best men are already married or less attracted to them.
     
    The nature of autism risk is not really known to science. Some say it's paternal age or just inheritance of "geek" traits.

    https://www.healthline.com/health-news/does-older-sperm-cause-autism

    With Holocaust denial and "Beethoven was black" already in this thread, I wonder if vaccines cause autism people are going to show up?

    The 30-year-old brides are marrying their boyfriends after being together for several years. Low divorce rate among the educated class can be explained by that - no unpleasant surprises after the wedding.

    The 30-year-old brides are marrying their boyfriends after being together for several years. Low divorce rate among the educated class can be explained by that – no unpleasant surprises after the wedding.

    But then why does prior cohabitation make divorce more likely?

    • Replies: @Toronto Russian

    But then why does prior cohabitation make divorce more likely?
     
    Same people who are forbidden by their religion to cohabit are also forbidden or discouraged to divorce.
  562. @AP

    If you look at the results in all the Olympiad competitions over the summer ( mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and so on)……then Russia did very , very , very well, (Ukraine did shit, of course)
     
    Math Olympiad 2018:

    https://www.imo-official.org/results.aspx

    Ukraine 4th place, its best result ever. Last year it was 14th place.

    USA #1, Russia #2, China #3, Ukraine #4, Thailand #5, Taiwan #6, Korea #7, Singapore #8, Poland #9.

    :::::::

    Overall pattern of post-2014 winning for Ukraine.

    [MORE]

    Math Olympiad 2018:

    https://www.imo-official.org/results.aspx

    Ukraine 4th place, its best result ever. Last year it was 14th place.

    hahaha you dumb sack of faeces! I was talking about all the Olympiads together this summer ….Ukraine is nowhere

    As for this maths result that you probably spent hours looking up like the compulsive liar, Odessa-massacre denying insidious c*nt you are…….. Ukraine got to use their exact same team from the previous year , dickhead, …..otherwise known as cheating or something not normally done. Russia’s is an entirely different team from 2017.
    Of course Ukraine are going to have an advantage you prick. Student competitions aren’t supposed to have the same team carried forward in the Olympiads.

    Overall pattern of post-2014 winning for Ukraine.

    Not only is this time-wasting bollocks that even Poroshenko, Avakov and all these other freaks won’t propogate but …

    Oh no, wait, I’m sorry……Measles…post-2014 Ukraine has shot to the top with a brilliant health policy headed by the crazi Banderatard Canadian Nazi bitch

    Now in Ukraine……28000 out of 41000 cases this year in Europe belong to Ukraine
    Mr Diphtheria and TB also going “well”, not to mention the bribery in the healthcare ( and everywhere else) , quality of the treatment and hospitals. Perhaps Ukraines national “identity” involves equating Measles to getting a Rolex?

    “post 2014 ” ukropia hasn’t got close to 2013 levels in quality of living you prick…..and that in turn hasn’t got used to 1990 levels you POS

    FDI not even at 2016 levels , nevermind 2014 levels ( with Russia still by a huge distance the number 1 FDI in Banderastan)….same thing with interest rates, mortgage rates, everything…..and about a zillion other things proving the ineptitude of Ukropia

    • Replies: @AP

    I was talking about all the Olympiads together this summer ….Ukraine is nowhere
    As for this maths result that you probably spent hours looking up like the compulsive liar,
     
    When I googled math Olympiad it came up on the first page. I then clicked on results. It took one-two minutes:

    https://www.imo-official.org/results.aspx

    Perhaps you are slow and it takes you hours to find what a normal person can find in one minute.

    So in the math Olympiad Ukraine came in 4th place in the world.

    Ukraine got to use their exact same team from the previous year
     

    Russia’s is an entirely different team from 2017.
     
    False. Russia had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 - Nazar Agakhanov.

    https://imo-official.org/year_country_r.aspx?year=2017

    America had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 - Po-Shen Loh. So did Korea - Yongjin Song. Japan, like Ukraine, had the same leader and coleader in 2017 and 2018. Japan came in 6th place in 2017 but 13th place in 2018, so your silly idea that retaining the team explains improved results is not supported.

    Your excuses are as funny as your desperate "shouting" :-)

    It hurts you so badly that Ukraine keeps winning after getting rid of Yanukovich. You'll feel better if you shout some more and tell yourself fairytales that Ukraine has become another Africa :-)

    28000 out of 41000 [Measles] cases this year in Europe belong to Ukraine
     
    Russia, Italy and France are up there, also. All of these countries have high anti-vaccination sentiment:

    https://www.undispatch.com/europe-is-in-the-midst-of-its-largest-measles-outbreak-in-years-ukraine-is-a-big-part-of-the-problem/

    https://themoscowtimes.com/news/measles-cases-jump-13-fold-russia-2018-62659

    Measles Cases Jump 13-Fold in Russia in 2018

    So measles are not something to brag about, for a Russian.

    FDI not even at 2016 levels , nevermind 2014 levels
     
    In the first quarter of 2014 FDI was negative 500 million in Ukraine. In first quarter 2018 it was positive $300 million dollars. It peaked at $1.4 billion in first quarter 2016.

    Ukraine's all-time high FDI was under Yushchenko - $6.5 billion in the 4th quarter of 2005.

    “post 2014 ” ukropia hasn’t got close to 2013 levels in quality of living
     
    Per capita GDP PPP on average is higher in 2018 than in 2013, in those regions that were part of Ukraine in both 2013 and 2018. Nominal GDP and wages in dollars are lower due to the currency devaluation. Crime is now slightly lower than in 2013, though not by much (I remember Russians boasting about the crime spike in 2014-2015 - sorry, it's over).

    Moreover, the parts of Ukraine that are doing more poorly in 2018 are those nearer to the Russian border and who are more pro-Russian. So you are just making fun at the expense of your would-be allies in Ukraine.
  563. @Anonymous
    The problem with Level 6 Math is that the correct answer as given is 28 whereas the actual one is 28.3(3). That the test-takers were not able to come up with a sensible question that tests concepts such as rates/normalization AND returns an integer answer speaks of low IQ of the test designers.

    Not arguing the main point, of course! The ranking is still roughly meaningful. That is, a largish part of the difference between Switzerland and Albania (or Singapore and Jamaica) can be explained in terms of the tests results shown.

    She biked 7 km in 15 minutes. How is the answer not 28?

  564. @ussr andy
    call me tribal but I hate it when these clickbaity threads attract posters from other quarters of Unz Review.

    We do get some really annoying types.

  565. @songbird

    Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There’s no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.
     
    I don't believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends.

    It would be way more accurate to compare an adult African with an IQ of 70 to a white child of around 9 or so of average intelligence. You could have a society of 9 year olds. It would not be the same society, but it would not be absolute chaos and a return to the jungle, like a society of retards more likely would be.

    Besides, many think that the genetic potential of Africans is closer to American blacks' 85. They just don't seem able to achieve it in their own societies. Not to mention, there are undoubtedly individuals and perhaps even groups among Africans with a higher IQ.

    I believe your problem is that you see that as a hopeless situation, when it may be possible that there are different solutions: voluntary segregation of higher IQ blacks from lower, so they can form their own countries, or eugenics. Neither easy politically, but not entirely hopeless.

    I don’t believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends.

    What I think is happening here is recruitment of parts of the expensive brain tissue to one function or the other.

    That is, in blacks it is skewed towards social interaction because, at least for males, it is more important in their natural environment for attracting mates.

    However, in whites, it is more skewed towards being able to solve complex problems because that is what is required in their natural environment.

    In addition, there has been selection among whites and East Asians for a larger amount of brain tissue.

    • Replies: @songbird
    The way I view it is through standard deviations. A white with an IQ of 70 is about 2 SD below their normal, whereas an American black with an IQ of 70 would be roughly about 1 SD below their normal.

    IQ can also be thought of a proxy for health. Someone 2 SD below normal would be very abnormal or very unhealthy, whereas someone only 1 SD below normal would be much closer to the normal health. I view this as being related to mutational load and the structure of the brain.

    I don't think the test was particularly designed to show differences on the lower end, and that is why two children one black and one white who both score 70 will appear different.
  566. @for-the-record
    Earth’s speed varies during revolution, because the distance from Sun varies – Kepler Laws describe it.

    You've got the basics, but I still need more. Which law of Kepler? And what explains that it is winter and summer that are "outliers" while spring and fall are essentially "normal" in length?

    I didn’t want to be a huge spoiler initially.
    Second law of Kepler dictates the answer.
    The Earth is closest to Sun during Winter on Northern hemisphere and therefore the velocity is the highest so winter season defined by solstice and equinox lasts the shortest.
    Conversely, Earth is at its furthest during Summer of Northern hemisphere, the corresponding velocity is the smallest, so the season lasts longer.
    However, Spring and Autumn are not balanced and of equal length. Perihelion and Aphelion don’t fall on solstice days, so Spring lasts longer right now because solstice is sooner than perihelion. This exact question bothered me as a kid, as well as the stellar vs solar day difference and lunar/solar calendar relations and evolution. Physics is what got me interested in Maths, and I still harbor resentment towards theoretical Maths, theoretical Physics and Astrophysics because they are detached from scientific method and practical, worldly application.

    • Replies: @Peripatetic commenter

    The Earth is closest to Sun during Winter on Northern hemisphere and therefore the velocity is the highest so winter season defined by solstice and equinox lasts the shortest.
    Conversely, Earth is at its furthest during Summer of Northern hemisphere, the corresponding velocity is the smallest, so the season lasts longer.
     
    It is more complex than that.

    One of the reasons is this: http://hosting.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro201/earth_precess.htm

    Another is: http://astro.wsu.edu/worthey/astro/html/lec-precession.html
    , @for-the-record
    You got it, I continue to be surprised by the fact that I have yet to meet a physicist (or indeed anyone prior to you) who has come up with the answer without some prompting.

    You're right about spring and autumn having different lengths (although not so marked as winter-summer). But it seems to me that for equal lengths perihelion would need to be early February or early August (as compared to the current 3 January), midway between mid-autumn and mid-spring, is this not the case?

    The other interesting thing, if I remember correctly, is that due to the precession of the equinoxes in 13,000 years the situation (long summer, short winter) will be reversed.
  567. @songbird

    Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There’s no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.
     
    I don't believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends.

    It would be way more accurate to compare an adult African with an IQ of 70 to a white child of around 9 or so of average intelligence. You could have a society of 9 year olds. It would not be the same society, but it would not be absolute chaos and a return to the jungle, like a society of retards more likely would be.

    Besides, many think that the genetic potential of Africans is closer to American blacks' 85. They just don't seem able to achieve it in their own societies. Not to mention, there are undoubtedly individuals and perhaps even groups among Africans with a higher IQ.

    I believe your problem is that you see that as a hopeless situation, when it may be possible that there are different solutions: voluntary segregation of higher IQ blacks from lower, so they can form their own countries, or eugenics. Neither easy politically, but not entirely hopeless.

    As Flynn noted, Siberian villagers 1o0 years ago had IQs in the 70s. I have seen a number of modern Balkan villagers who led functional lives (raised families, worked, etc.) and who scored in the 70s on nonverbal IQ tests.

    Africans almost certainly will have a lower ceiling for their average than do Europeans and Asians, but it is not 70.

    • Replies: @Anonymous Jew
    The only large-scale, trans-racial adoption study following Blacks well into puberty found those adopted by White upper-middle class households averaged 89 at age 17 - comparable to other Blacks in the surrounding Upper Midwest. The had regressed considerably since age 7, so let's say they continue to regress in early adulthood and settle into 87 by age 30*. Blacks in this region have more White admixture.

    I would guess 80-83 for average, un-admixed Bantus raised in a contemporary, middle class American setting.

    Equalizing for environment (middle class American) I would guesstimate the following numbers for a few major racial groups based on 100 for Whites. Equalizing for environment means you can't compare SE Asian street kids to White or Black Americans. Again, just a guesstimate based on lots of studies I've seen but can't cite off memory.

    NE. Asians: 103-106
    US Whites: 100
    50/50 mestizos; SE Asians; S Indians: 94-96
    Pure Bantu: 80+

    *Heritablility of IQ is low in childhood, increases sharply at puberty, and continues to increase very slowly and slightly until death (same pattern is observed for all measurable behavioral traits).

    On a side note, posters on here need to reconcile their assertions with studies of Monozygotic Twins Reared Apart (MZA). MZA offer the best evidence and estimates of the heritablility of IQ. It's the only true method we have to isolate heritability within certain environments. Note MZA studies are large, numerous, and replicate. Basically the gold standard of science. To make it at as brief as possible for the uninitiated:

    MZA studies show:
    -no effect of SES on IQ including environments as diverse as American working class to wealthy (there's no evidence on extreme environments that I know of, eg: harsh physical abuse; growing up in a third-world slum, etc)
    -in normal American environments (working class to wealthy), the heritability of IQ in adulthood is around .70-.78

    For a quick summary, see "Sources of Human Psychological Differences" Bouchard et al in Science Vol 250.

    For more detailed analysis, see Segal's book "Born Together—Reared Apart" She was one of the main researchers in the Minnesota study.

  568. @szopen
    "I’m not handwaving anything."
    You are. E.g. you have no idea which elements of the "knowledge structure" are important and how they influence the test results, you just assume that they exist and somehow are common only for the middle class.

    "by proxy, social classes are exposed to different knowledge structures"

    But you had not established that those are the same structures which are important for IQ tests.

    Let me repeat once again, since it seems you had ignored this:

    " Sure they may be exposed to the same experience" AND the results are different. I.e. it's possible and even more, very likely, two boys may experience exactly the same things, and yet they can have different results. Which means that tests do not measure only exposure, but also how exposure influenced people.

    Only blank slatists (supporters of the blank slate, i.e. that all people have exactly the same mental abilities and they differ only because of the experience) would deny that.

    "Sure it does, since middle class people are more likely to be exposed to the knowledge and structure of the test."

    Sure it doesn't, because you have not established that middle class people are more likely exposed to the structures which MATTERS.

    Once again, siblings from the same family can have different IQ tests results. Either:

    (1) Handwaving (and circular argument): they have different IQ because they have different exposure, and the proof that they had different exposure is that they have different IQ test results.

    It's not enough that the experiences are different, because not all differences would matter.

    (2) They differ with inborn qualities how to react to the same exposure: ie. some react to it better, some worse, which means some learn and some don't. which means some are more intelligent and some are less - which means IQ test measures intelligence (since usually we call people who learn fast "more intelligent" than those who learn slower, where learning is not limited to the school).

    If you think (1), then you are making "just-so" story and the argument cannot be think to be sound. If you think (2) i.e. the IQ test measures imperfectly intelligence differences for people with the same exposure, then, obviously, it will also measure intelligence with different exposures, just less perfectly.

    " (1) items are selected or removed on the basis of confirming to the test constructors presuppositions; (2) what’s on the test are more likely to be found in the middle class; and (3) classes are differentially prepared for the test due to exposure to different knowledge,"

    No. (1) yes (2) that's your presupposition, not proven (3) you have not established that this different knowledge matters in any way. Classes might have different exposure, but this does not mean that different exposure matters. Maybe the differences in exposures are so small, that they have no impact on the tests results except for the most poor.

    You ignored all those possibilities and you have just repeated your previous argument. That's why I am saying about "handwaving".

    You have also ignored the "threshold" possibility that is: the presuppositions are in fact so common within a given country, that for all purposes that could be ignored in modern western societies.

    Also, by your idea, how to explain that children whites from lower classes have results comparable or better than children of blacks from wealthy families? It would be possible only if somehow "middle class blacks" were exposed to radically different knowledge. This is preposterous.

    "Ill pretend you didn’t say this. [run more to run faster]"

    Why? I thought this is obvious. I've heard it many times from the sportsmen that if you overtrain, you will not get any more results, and even your results will get worse. There is a point after which running more and more and more will not bring any more gains. If you will run 24h per day 7 days in a week you won't get any better.

    Which actually gave me a nice example. Imagine you have different cultures, some of which value running, some not. Some encourage jogging, some encourage sitting at the computer. Now let's assume there is a simple run test, in which people measure your speed on 100m.

    Obviously, the results of the run tests would be highly dependent on the culture. Obviously, you could say, in a sense, that results of the run tests "measure the distance from the >>run<< culture". But it would be wrong to conclude that because of that, the run test does not, actually, measure run speed, but it just measures a distance from "run culture".

    Similarly, it's possible that in away, IQ tests measure how succesfully one imbibes middle class knowledge. But what if what we commonly think as "intelligence" is in fact equivalent with succesful adaptation to middles class values? Then calling "IQ test" "a test of distance from middle class", in my opinion, would only confuse the matter without bringing anything to the discussion.

    Finally, I have only now noticed that I forgot to reply to regression to mean question. Frankly, I don't know. I have read so many times luminaries bringing this argument that I assume they have their studies done. But still, that would be a nice test to your theory: assume for a moment, for the sake of intellectual fun, that regression to mean in humans does matter. How would your theory explain that?

    For that matter, how your theory would be invalidated? That is, what could convince you that your theory (iq tests measure only the exposure to knowledge and nothing more) is wrong?

    You should never bother arguing with morons.

    It only annoys the moron and wastes your time.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Where's the error in my reasoning?
  569. @Tyrion 2

    Math Olympiad is like a truly 5sd math IQ test …
     
    It sounds like a lot of work. I imagine the very smart people who do it must insist on getting a paid a lot for their labour.

    If your speaking about the math doing the test, I don’t think so. It must be a lot of fun. If someone is extremely good at recognizing faces, it’s not a lot of work for him to recognize anyone.

    For pupils, it’s a great way to be admitted in the most selective programs. Even more famous that Putnam competition. And again, it’s not a knowledge intensive thing. Must preparation in the USA is simply selection of the 6 right candidates .

    • Replies: @Tyrion 2
    Way to fail the intermediate comprehension test I set for you!
  570. @reiner Tor

    But why do you think the new story should cause you to update your prior?
     
    It's easy to say weasel words and put out unreliable information based on hot air. It's another to outright falsify things. It's very easy to believe that the "of a type developed by Russia" weasel expression meant that... well, all they knew was that this type of poison had been developed by Russia, and knew nothing more.

    Now the claims are getting less weasely, and more concrete. Of course they can still be outright lies, but it'd require the cooperation of more and more people. Porton Down could've been cool (after some internal haggling) with the expression "of a type developed by Russia," because it's true, though meaningless. Now some people would be lying: either they identified those people, or they didn't. A number of people are involved in the investigation. Unless we want to get into 911 truther tier conspiracy theories, it looks way more likely that they are telling the truth. If they didn't dare telling outright lies regarding the origins of the Novichok agent, why would they suddenly change to outright lies?

    Therefore, it's now very likely that two people using Russian passports traveled from Moscow all the way to Salisbury, and they were there on the day of the attempted murder. That is quite a bit of a coincidence. I don't think it's very likely that a third party falsified those passports. So either these people were Russians and their names matched their passports, or their passports were forged for the purposes of some Russian intelligence service. Of course, it's possible that a third party somehow managed to do that, or managed to slip through the sloppiness of Russian passport controls. It's just not very likely.

    The Russians must know who those two guys are: they could show them on TV. One of them works as a pizza delivery man, the other one as a librarian. Here's the pizzeria and the library they work in, respectively. They have nothing to do with GRU. Everyone would have a laugh.

    It's possible these people are Russian citizens living abroad in a third country. Even so, it must be easy for Russia to find out where they live. At the very least, that they live abroad. They could give journalists access to their former classmates and people like that. That way, at least, they might expose the foreign service (Israel? Ukraine?) using Russian citizens (and passports) to commit crimes in third countries. That's what governments usually do, for example the EU countries whose (forged) passports were used by Israel to murder the Hamas leader in Dubai.

    However, Russia pretends not to know who these people are. That's not very credible. Until yesterday, the UK was putting out not very credible weasely information, while Russia didn't say anything which was not consistent with their innocence. Now the situation changed: Russia is putting out not credible statements (that the names and photos meant nothing to them - sure they must know they traveled to and from a Moscow airport), while the UK is now sharing concrete evidence (photos of the suspects and CCTV images at the airport and in Salisbury) with the world.

    If you haven’t already, have a look at Craig Murray’s contribution today (“Skripals – The Mystery Deepens”) , which is far better than the one yesterday. The very real possibility he suggests is that Boshirov and Petrov met up with the Skripals on the morning of the 4th, during the “mysterious” period in which both Skripals had their phones switched off.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

  571. Way too many comments in this thread. So am adding my own.

    The pop band Devo (contraction of de-evolution band) talking about related things many years ago (starting to make a mark in the immediate post-punk-rock era, but havlng started a little earlier).

    From what I have heard and seen, they were very smart people.

    I have one non-Japanese friend of now (except by mail), he is, at best, IQ abt. 75. Puerto Rican and Dominican Republic parents. He is an idiot, born in N.Y., so a U.S.A. citizen.

    ‘Graduated high school’, as you ‘murrcans’ say, although a near-moron. It seems that graduation is only a matter of attendance there, even that, only at choice. Pathetic.

    However, he has already polluted the gene pool here with four children.

    Since he is a useless arsehole who has worked only one day after his one-year visa renewal in Feb., his aim is to get a new Japanese woman pregnant, to force marriage. I am not cooperating, avoiding the hideous man now.

    Such factors are extremely dysgenic, and all over the place.

    Not only here.

    The morons are taking over (‘control’ would be the exaggeration).

    • Replies: @songbird

    It seems that graduation is only a matter of attendance there,
     
    This is true. I believe the general American notion that the average person should go through 12 years of school is quite silly. Probably related to diversity, since many other less diverse countries do not have this system.

    I wonder if that will change though as they get more diverse. Germany has a track system. I've heard there are political pressures to destroy it, and I think it will be destroyed or altered, once a certain threshold is passed, unless something dramatic happens to change that course.
  572. @Peripatetic commenter

    I don’t believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends.
     
    What I think is happening here is recruitment of parts of the expensive brain tissue to one function or the other.

    That is, in blacks it is skewed towards social interaction because, at least for males, it is more important in their natural environment for attracting mates.

    However, in whites, it is more skewed towards being able to solve complex problems because that is what is required in their natural environment.

    In addition, there has been selection among whites and East Asians for a larger amount of brain tissue.

    The way I view it is through standard deviations. A white with an IQ of 70 is about 2 SD below their normal, whereas an American black with an IQ of 70 would be roughly about 1 SD below their normal.

    IQ can also be thought of a proxy for health. Someone 2 SD below normal would be very abnormal or very unhealthy, whereas someone only 1 SD below normal would be much closer to the normal health. I view this as being related to mutational load and the structure of the brain.

    I don’t think the test was particularly designed to show differences on the lower end, and that is why two children one black and one white who both score 70 will appear different.

    • Replies: @j2
    I think some non-African populations have obtained mutations that increase their IQ and give them better cognitive skills for tasks that are needed in a modern society, but they also have a lot of mutations that reduce IQ, while Africans have less mutations that increase IQ. This is what GWAS on IQ genes so far has shown, though African specific IQ genes have not been much studied.

    Thus, a white person with an IQ of 70 usually has at least one mutation that reduces IQ quite much and also affects his performance in any society, even traditional one. But an African with IQ 70 does not have any mutations that reduce IQ much, he simply does not have those non-African mutations that increase IQ to the level that is needed in a modern society. So his performance in normal communication and operation in a traditional society is not reduced, but he is not capable of doing intellectually as demanding tasks of a modern society as members of certain non-African populations.
  573. @Daniel Chieh
    Nonsense easily disproven by the existence of alcohol.

    How?

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Chemical or electrical modifications of mental state is a clear example of physical manipulation with mental effects.
  574. @Epigon
    I didn’t want to be a huge spoiler initially.
    Second law of Kepler dictates the answer.
    The Earth is closest to Sun during Winter on Northern hemisphere and therefore the velocity is the highest so winter season defined by solstice and equinox lasts the shortest.
    Conversely, Earth is at its furthest during Summer of Northern hemisphere, the corresponding velocity is the smallest, so the season lasts longer.
    However, Spring and Autumn are not balanced and of equal length. Perihelion and Aphelion don’t fall on solstice days, so Spring lasts longer right now because solstice is sooner than perihelion. This exact question bothered me as a kid, as well as the stellar vs solar day difference and lunar/solar calendar relations and evolution. Physics is what got me interested in Maths, and I still harbor resentment towards theoretical Maths, theoretical Physics and Astrophysics because they are detached from scientific method and practical, worldly application.

    The Earth is closest to Sun during Winter on Northern hemisphere and therefore the velocity is the highest so winter season defined by solstice and equinox lasts the shortest.
    Conversely, Earth is at its furthest during Summer of Northern hemisphere, the corresponding velocity is the smallest, so the season lasts longer.

    It is more complex than that.

    One of the reasons is this: http://hosting.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro201/earth_precess.htm

    Another is: http://astro.wsu.edu/worthey/astro/html/lec-precession.html

    • Replies: @Epigon
    Variable tilt of Earth (Milankovic cycle) impacts the date/moment of solstice and equinox, so of course it is a factor. But the primary cause is the variable velocity of Earth.
  575. @Lars Porsena

    To an extent this is also happening in western countries but it’s mostly the result of subversive alien elements pushing propaganda about “free trade”
     
    Scotts and Anglo-Saxons?

    the form of “free trade” promoted by “scots and anglo-saxons” in the past wasn’t free trade it was mercantilism – forcing other countries to buy their goods.

    the form of “free trade” the banking mafia promote isn’t free trade either – it’s using other countries as a base to leech the accumulated wealth of the western world into the pockets of the banking mafia.

    mass consumption economic ideology is almost always self-serving lies.

  576. @Che Guava
    Way too many comments in this thread. So am adding my own.

    The pop band Devo (contraction of de-evolution band) talking about related things many years ago (starting to make a mark in the immediate post-punk-rock era, but havlng started a little earlier).

    From what I have heard and seen, they were very smart people.

    I have one non-Japanese friend of now (except by mail), he is, at best, IQ abt. 75. Puerto Rican and Dominican Republic parents. He is an idiot, born in N.Y., so a U.S.A. citizen.

    'Graduated high school', as you 'murrcans' say, although a near-moron. It seems that graduation is only a matter of attendance there, even that, only at choice. Pathetic.

    However, he has already polluted the gene pool here with four children.

    Since he is a useless arsehole who has worked only one day after his one-year visa renewal in Feb., his aim is to get a new Japanese woman pregnant, to force marriage. I am not cooperating, avoiding the hideous man now.

    Such factors are extremely dysgenic, and all over the place.

    Not only here.

    The morons are taking over ('control' would be the exaggeration).

    It seems that graduation is only a matter of attendance there,

    This is true. I believe the general American notion that the average person should go through 12 years of school is quite silly. Probably related to diversity, since many other less diverse countries do not have this system.

    I wonder if that will change though as they get more diverse. Germany has a track system. I’ve heard there are political pressures to destroy it, and I think it will be destroyed or altered, once a certain threshold is passed, unless something dramatic happens to change that course.

  577. @Anonymous
    Thanks. This example was helpful.

    I can see it from both points of view and I was wondering why. Why the intuitive pull to give weight to distance? I think I was conflating "average" with "expected mean" and overcomplicating.

    I'm not sure if this means I'm low IQ or math retarded.

    I’m not sure if this means I’m low IQ or math retarded.

    maybe you thought it was a trick question – are you naturally suspicious minded?

  578. @Bruno
    If your speaking about the math doing the test, I don’t think so. It must be a lot of fun. If someone is extremely good at recognizing faces, it’s not a lot of work for him to recognize anyone.

    For pupils, it’s a great way to be admitted in the most selective programs. Even more famous that Putnam competition. And again, it’s not a knowledge intensive thing. Must preparation in the USA is simply selection of the 6 right candidates .

    Way to fail the intermediate comprehension test I set for you!

    • Replies: @Epigon
    He likes to LARP as a genius, prodigy. So he must make sure that everyone acknowledges his exceptionality.
    Who knows how he would have turned out had he actually competed, let alone won a gold medal at IMO.
  579. @RaceRealist88
    How?

    Chemical or electrical modifications of mental state is a clear example of physical manipulation with mental effects.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Doesn't refute the claim.
  580. @Daniel Chieh
    Nonsense easily disproven by the existence of alcohol.

    You really shouldn’t bother arguing with morons.

    However, I can see two effects of interest here, or perhaps more.

    1. The lower tolerance for alcohol and general inability to metabolize alcohol in some racial groups. This is genetic, and makes alcoholism more likely in some of those groups.

    2. The genetic propensity for some individuals to be unable to resist alcohol consumption, making them very unsuitable as mating partners.

    The general claim made by the moron that behavior is not genetically mediated is, of course, only something a moron would say. The evidence is clear.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Genes are a necessary precondition for behavior but it can't be shown that genes are difference-makers for behavior.
    , @Daniel Chieh
    The beauty of my argument is that genetics is completely extraneous to this. It is enough to show mental effects simply from neurochemistry as a reaction to exogenous chemicals. Denying it would suggest that flying while intoxicated has no mental effects and thus no negative consequences, a completely nutty position.
  581. @Peripatetic commenter

    The Earth is closest to Sun during Winter on Northern hemisphere and therefore the velocity is the highest so winter season defined by solstice and equinox lasts the shortest.
    Conversely, Earth is at its furthest during Summer of Northern hemisphere, the corresponding velocity is the smallest, so the season lasts longer.
     
    It is more complex than that.

    One of the reasons is this: http://hosting.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro201/earth_precess.htm

    Another is: http://astro.wsu.edu/worthey/astro/html/lec-precession.html

    Variable tilt of Earth (Milankovic cycle) impacts the date/moment of solstice and equinox, so of course it is a factor. But the primary cause is the variable velocity of Earth.

    • Replies: @utu

    But the primary cause is the variable velocity of Earth.
     
    Is it also because the arc on the ellipsis between winter solstice and spring equinox is shorter than the arc between summer solstice and autumn equinox? So even if Earth linear speed was constant winter still would be shorter than summer.
  582. @szopen
    "I’m not handwaving anything."
    You are. E.g. you have no idea which elements of the "knowledge structure" are important and how they influence the test results, you just assume that they exist and somehow are common only for the middle class.

    "by proxy, social classes are exposed to different knowledge structures"

    But you had not established that those are the same structures which are important for IQ tests.

    Let me repeat once again, since it seems you had ignored this:

    " Sure they may be exposed to the same experience" AND the results are different. I.e. it's possible and even more, very likely, two boys may experience exactly the same things, and yet they can have different results. Which means that tests do not measure only exposure, but also how exposure influenced people.

    Only blank slatists (supporters of the blank slate, i.e. that all people have exactly the same mental abilities and they differ only because of the experience) would deny that.

    "Sure it does, since middle class people are more likely to be exposed to the knowledge and structure of the test."

    Sure it doesn't, because you have not established that middle class people are more likely exposed to the structures which MATTERS.

    Once again, siblings from the same family can have different IQ tests results. Either:

    (1) Handwaving (and circular argument): they have different IQ because they have different exposure, and the proof that they had different exposure is that they have different IQ test results.

    It's not enough that the experiences are different, because not all differences would matter.

    (2) They differ with inborn qualities how to react to the same exposure: ie. some react to it better, some worse, which means some learn and some don't. which means some are more intelligent and some are less - which means IQ test measures intelligence (since usually we call people who learn fast "more intelligent" than those who learn slower, where learning is not limited to the school).

    If you think (1), then you are making "just-so" story and the argument cannot be think to be sound. If you think (2) i.e. the IQ test measures imperfectly intelligence differences for people with the same exposure, then, obviously, it will also measure intelligence with different exposures, just less perfectly.

    " (1) items are selected or removed on the basis of confirming to the test constructors presuppositions; (2) what’s on the test are more likely to be found in the middle class; and (3) classes are differentially prepared for the test due to exposure to different knowledge,"

    No. (1) yes (2) that's your presupposition, not proven (3) you have not established that this different knowledge matters in any way. Classes might have different exposure, but this does not mean that different exposure matters. Maybe the differences in exposures are so small, that they have no impact on the tests results except for the most poor.

    You ignored all those possibilities and you have just repeated your previous argument. That's why I am saying about "handwaving".

    You have also ignored the "threshold" possibility that is: the presuppositions are in fact so common within a given country, that for all purposes that could be ignored in modern western societies.

    Also, by your idea, how to explain that children whites from lower classes have results comparable or better than children of blacks from wealthy families? It would be possible only if somehow "middle class blacks" were exposed to radically different knowledge. This is preposterous.

    "Ill pretend you didn’t say this. [run more to run faster]"

    Why? I thought this is obvious. I've heard it many times from the sportsmen that if you overtrain, you will not get any more results, and even your results will get worse. There is a point after which running more and more and more will not bring any more gains. If you will run 24h per day 7 days in a week you won't get any better.

    Which actually gave me a nice example. Imagine you have different cultures, some of which value running, some not. Some encourage jogging, some encourage sitting at the computer. Now let's assume there is a simple run test, in which people measure your speed on 100m.

    Obviously, the results of the run tests would be highly dependent on the culture. Obviously, you could say, in a sense, that results of the run tests "measure the distance from the >>run<< culture". But it would be wrong to conclude that because of that, the run test does not, actually, measure run speed, but it just measures a distance from "run culture".

    Similarly, it's possible that in away, IQ tests measure how succesfully one imbibes middle class knowledge. But what if what we commonly think as "intelligence" is in fact equivalent with succesful adaptation to middles class values? Then calling "IQ test" "a test of distance from middle class", in my opinion, would only confuse the matter without bringing anything to the discussion.

    Finally, I have only now noticed that I forgot to reply to regression to mean question. Frankly, I don't know. I have read so many times luminaries bringing this argument that I assume they have their studies done. But still, that would be a nice test to your theory: assume for a moment, for the sake of intellectual fun, that regression to mean in humans does matter. How would your theory explain that?

    For that matter, how your theory would be invalidated? That is, what could convince you that your theory (iq tests measure only the exposure to knowledge and nothing more) is wrong?

    “You are. E.g. you have no idea which elements of the “knowledge structure” are important and how they influence the test results, you just assume that they exist and somehow are common only for the middle class.”

    Because of the questions on the test.

    “Which means that tests do not measure only exposure, but also how exposure influenced people”

    So what?

    “Only blank slatists (supporters of the blank slate, i.e. that all people have exactly the same mental abilities and they differ only because of the experience) would deny that.”

    I never said that “all people have exactly the same mental abilities”, mental abilities are intentional states and are therefore irreducible to the physical.

    “Blank slatist”?

    “(1) Handwaving (and circular argument): they have different IQ because they have different exposure, and the proof that they had different exposure is that they have different IQ test results.”

    A priori, different social classes are exposed to different knowledge. The argument isn’t circular.

    “(2) They differ with inborn qualities how to react to the same exposure: ie. some react to it better, some worse, which means some learn and some don’t. which means some are more intelligent and some are less – which means IQ test measures intelligence (since usually we call people who learn fast “more intelligent” than those who learn slower, where learning is not limited to the school).”

    What’s the cause?

    “(2) that’s your presupposition, not proven ”

    If you accept (1) then you accept (2).

    “You have also ignored the “threshold” possibility that is: the presuppositions are in fact so common within a given country, that for all purposes that could be ignored in modern western societies”

    What’s the argument?

    “Why? I thought this is obvious. I’ve heard it many times from the sportsmen that if you overtrain, you will not get any more results, and even your results will get worse. There is a point after which running more and more and more will not bring any more gains. If you will run 24h per day 7 days in a week you won’t get any better.”

    Clarify your statements. You made it seem like you can’t get faster *at all.*

    “For that matter, how your theory would be invalidated? That is, what could convince you that your theory (iq tests measure only the exposure to knowledge and nothing more) is wrong?”

    An a priori argument.

  583. @Tyrion 2
    Way to fail the intermediate comprehension test I set for you!

    He likes to LARP as a genius, prodigy. So he must make sure that everyone acknowledges his exceptionality.
    Who knows how he would have turned out had he actually competed, let alone won a gold medal at IMO.

  584. @Peripatetic commenter
    You should never bother arguing with morons.

    It only annoys the moron and wastes your time.

    Where’s the error in my reasoning?

    • Replies: @notanon
    1) if dummies were tasked with repairing military helicopters they'd be falling out of the sky every day
    2) the military have IQ tests and only those who pass above a certain threshold are allowed to repair helicopters
    3) military helicopters aren't falling out of the sky every day
    ergo IQ tests measure something which is a reasonable proxy for what we call intelligence.

    obviously.

    you seem to be hung up on the idea that "intelligence" isn't a measurable thing so it can't be measured but if you can measure a proxy then so what?
  585. @Peripatetic commenter
    You really shouldn't bother arguing with morons.

    However, I can see two effects of interest here, or perhaps more.

    1. The lower tolerance for alcohol and general inability to metabolize alcohol in some racial groups. This is genetic, and makes alcoholism more likely in some of those groups.

    2. The genetic propensity for some individuals to be unable to resist alcohol consumption, making them very unsuitable as mating partners.

    The general claim made by the moron that behavior is not genetically mediated is, of course, only something a moron would say. The evidence is clear.

    Genes are a necessary precondition for behavior but it can’t be shown that genes are difference-makers for behavior.

    • Replies: @Peripatetic commenter
    It has been shown.

    See, for example: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228198508_Genetic_Variation_in_Political_Behavior

  586. @Daniel Chieh
    Chemical or electrical modifications of mental state is a clear example of physical manipulation with mental effects.

    Doesn’t refute the claim.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Volunteer for deep brain stimulation experiments.
  587. @RaceRealist88
    Doesn't refute the claim.

    Volunteer for deep brain stimulation experiments.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    Psychophysical laws exist?
  588. @Epigon
    I didn’t want to be a huge spoiler initially.
    Second law of Kepler dictates the answer.
    The Earth is closest to Sun during Winter on Northern hemisphere and therefore the velocity is the highest so winter season defined by solstice and equinox lasts the shortest.
    Conversely, Earth is at its furthest during Summer of Northern hemisphere, the corresponding velocity is the smallest, so the season lasts longer.
    However, Spring and Autumn are not balanced and of equal length. Perihelion and Aphelion don’t fall on solstice days, so Spring lasts longer right now because solstice is sooner than perihelion. This exact question bothered me as a kid, as well as the stellar vs solar day difference and lunar/solar calendar relations and evolution. Physics is what got me interested in Maths, and I still harbor resentment towards theoretical Maths, theoretical Physics and Astrophysics because they are detached from scientific method and practical, worldly application.

    You got it, I continue to be surprised by the fact that I have yet to meet a physicist (or indeed anyone prior to you) who has come up with the answer without some prompting.

    You’re right about spring and autumn having different lengths (although not so marked as winter-summer). But it seems to me that for equal lengths perihelion would need to be early February or early August (as compared to the current 3 January), midway between mid-autumn and mid-spring, is this not the case?

    The other interesting thing, if I remember correctly, is that due to the precession of the equinoxes in 13,000 years the situation (long summer, short winter) will be reversed.

  589. @DFH

    It’s due to test construction.
     
    ????????????????? How does this rebut what I said?

    That’s why there is a relationship.

  590. @Vinh
    "For those who were able to do that at 4yo, you realize how lonely you are in this world …."

    Yes, of course. As everyone here knows, Bruno at four years old was a greater prodigy than Gauss. Shortly after his fourth birthday, he had already worked out Gauss's method of instantly summing integers from 1 to n. A day or so later, he was able to instantly sum a large number of even integers from 2 to whatever. He had read Euclid in the original Sumerian by the age of five and had quickly moved on to Teichmuller theory. When other boys asked for toys for their birthday, Bruno would request graduate texts on Riemann surfaces or harmonic analysis. As he approached the age of ten, he was completing his doctoral program at Jussieu. He has been working on a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis for some time and is said to be nearly finished.

    None of this is surprising for a boy with an IQ of 175+ who may be the greatest mathematician of all times.

    Coherent English, on the other hand, has always been beyond him. No matter; he's very young.

    So how old are you now, Bruno? Have you reached your teen years yet?

    I didn’t say nor even imply that. I think a logical mind is neither a sufficient nor even a necessary condition for creating genious work. I haven’t done anything remarkable and don’t really intend to try. I certainly lack the dedication among other things but the main thing is the lack of motivation. And my field is not math …

    My point was not even precocity, that is not important to me, but the solitude of logical minds … certainly, they are other traits that bring same consequences .

  591. @DFH
    That didn't answer my question.
    Is there a causal connection between the mental and physical? Is the connection lawlike, random or 'non-lawlike' in some way you need to explain?

    There are no psychophysical laws.

    • Replies: @DFH
    So what is a 'non-lawlike' relationship? Is it random? If not, what is it? Of course you won't answer this question because you can't, as any answer would be absurd.
  592. @Daniel Chieh
    Volunteer for deep brain stimulation experiments.

    Psychophysical laws exist?

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    For all purposes of function, yes. Which is why your silly word games are meaningless; we've know about this since at least Delgrado.
  593. @DFH
    Kenyan children can't recognise themselves in the mirror. Even crows can do that.

    Kenyan children can’t recognise themselves in the mirror.

    i wonder if one of the collection of traits (good memory, faster CPU etc) which collectively make up what we call intelligence is the ability to handle abstractions – from my experience working with dummies that seems to be one of the main differences, people who are perfectly okay doing practical tasks like driving a truck can’t get their head around abstractions.

    for example say what we call intelligence is the combination of x, y and z traits where each is necessary and each limits the effect of the others i.e. x+y+z gives the same intelligence x+y+2z

    then say you have two populations one of which is 2x+2y+2z and one is 2x+2y+z who are about the same on practical (x+y) tasks but the missing z on the 2nd population makes them unable to deal with certain kinds of abstraction.

    so in a way the antis may be right that IQ tests are designed for the people who designed them but that’s not necessarily a flaw in the tests – the tests might simply be telling us where the problem lies in the populations who can’t do them.

    #

    by extension is ability to deal with abstractions a mild form of mental illness?

    • Replies: @j2
    "Kenyan children can’t recognise themselves in the mirror."

    That does not mean low IQ. I think I am smart enough and to me all Kenyan children look alike.
  594. @RaceRealist88
    Where's the error in my reasoning?

    1) if dummies were tasked with repairing military helicopters they’d be falling out of the sky every day
    2) the military have IQ tests and only those who pass above a certain threshold are allowed to repair helicopters
    3) military helicopters aren’t falling out of the sky every day
    ergo IQ tests measure something which is a reasonable proxy for what we call intelligence.

    obviously.

    you seem to be hung up on the idea that “intelligence” isn’t a measurable thing so it can’t be measured but if you can measure a proxy then so what?

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    (2) is true on the basis of test construction. Surely now you'd say there is validation of test construction since those who pass these tests can repair helicopters and those who score below can't. But (1) you don't need these tests to know if someone can repair a helicopter and (2) it's not justification for the claim "IQ tests test intelligence."
  595. @Gerard2

    Math Olympiad 2018:

    https://www.imo-official.org/results.aspx

    Ukraine 4th place, its best result ever. Last year it was 14th place.
     
    hahaha you dumb sack of faeces! I was talking about all the Olympiads together this summer ....Ukraine is nowhere

    As for this maths result that you probably spent hours looking up like the compulsive liar, Odessa-massacre denying insidious c*nt you are........ Ukraine got to use their exact same team from the previous year , dickhead, .....otherwise known as cheating or something not normally done. Russia's is an entirely different team from 2017.
    Of course Ukraine are going to have an advantage you prick. Student competitions aren't supposed to have the same team carried forward in the Olympiads.

    Overall pattern of post-2014 winning for Ukraine.
     
    Not only is this time-wasting bollocks that even Poroshenko, Avakov and all these other freaks won't propogate but ...

    Oh no, wait, I'm sorry......Measles...post-2014 Ukraine has shot to the top with a brilliant health policy headed by the crazi Banderatard Canadian Nazi bitch

    Now in Ukraine......28000 out of 41000 cases this year in Europe belong to Ukraine
    Mr Diphtheria and TB also going "well", not to mention the bribery in the healthcare ( and everywhere else) , quality of the treatment and hospitals. Perhaps Ukraines national "identity" involves equating Measles to getting a Rolex?

    "post 2014 " ukropia hasn't got close to 2013 levels in quality of living you prick.....and that in turn hasn't got used to 1990 levels you POS

    FDI not even at 2016 levels , nevermind 2014 levels ( with Russia still by a huge distance the number 1 FDI in Banderastan)....same thing with interest rates, mortgage rates, everything.....and about a zillion other things proving the ineptitude of Ukropia

    I was talking about all the Olympiads together this summer ….Ukraine is nowhere
    As for this maths result that you probably spent hours looking up like the compulsive liar,

    When I googled math Olympiad it came up on the first page. I then clicked on results. It took one-two minutes:

    https://www.imo-official.org/results.aspx

    Perhaps you are slow and it takes you hours to find what a normal person can find in one minute.

    So in the math Olympiad Ukraine came in 4th place in the world.

    Ukraine got to use their exact same team from the previous year

    Russia’s is an entirely different team from 2017.

    False. Russia had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Nazar Agakhanov.

    https://imo-official.org/year_country_r.aspx?year=2017

    America had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Po-Shen Loh. So did Korea – Yongjin Song. Japan, like Ukraine, had the same leader and coleader in 2017 and 2018. Japan came in 6th place in 2017 but 13th place in 2018, so your silly idea that retaining the team explains improved results is not supported.

    Your excuses are as funny as your desperate “shouting” :-)

    It hurts you so badly that Ukraine keeps winning after getting rid of Yanukovich. You’ll feel better if you shout some more and tell yourself fairytales that Ukraine has become another Africa :-)

    28000 out of 41000 [Measles] cases this year in Europe belong to Ukraine

    Russia, Italy and France are up there, also. All of these countries have high anti-vaccination sentiment:

    https://www.undispatch.com/europe-is-in-the-midst-of-its-largest-measles-outbreak-in-years-ukraine-is-a-big-part-of-the-problem/

    https://themoscowtimes.com/news/measles-cases-jump-13-fold-russia-2018-62659

    Measles Cases Jump 13-Fold in Russia in 2018

    So measles are not something to brag about, for a Russian.

    FDI not even at 2016 levels , nevermind 2014 levels

    In the first quarter of 2014 FDI was negative 500 million in Ukraine. In first quarter 2018 it was positive $300 million dollars. It peaked at $1.4 billion in first quarter 2016.

    Ukraine’s all-time high FDI was under Yushchenko – $6.5 billion in the 4th quarter of 2005.

    “post 2014 ” ukropia hasn’t got close to 2013 levels in quality of living

    Per capita GDP PPP on average is higher in 2018 than in 2013, in those regions that were part of Ukraine in both 2013 and 2018. Nominal GDP and wages in dollars are lower due to the currency devaluation. Crime is now slightly lower than in 2013, though not by much (I remember Russians boasting about the crime spike in 2014-2015 – sorry, it’s over).

    Moreover, the parts of Ukraine that are doing more poorly in 2018 are those nearer to the Russian border and who are more pro-Russian. So you are just making fun at the expense of your would-be allies in Ukraine.

    • Replies: @Gerard2

    False. Russia had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Nazar Agakhanov.

    https://imo-official.org/year_country_r.aspx?year=2017

    America had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Po-Shen Loh. So did Korea – Yongjin Song. Japan, like Ukraine, had the same leader and coleader in 2017 and 2018. Japan came in 6th place in 2017 but 13th place in 2018, so your silly idea that retaining the team explains improved results is not supported.
     
    HAHAHA.....ermmmm........those are leaders, not actual contestants in the competition you dumb, thick lying prick!

    It could easily be another sign of your stupidity but for a tramp like you , you would have checked the names of all the members of the team to see their ethnicity,
    in which case you would easily have known that the team leaders and deputy leaders are not participants in the Olympiad, and thus not in a position to win a medal, you POS.

    Typical of the lies an attention-whore, dumb compulsive liar as you will do to waste everybody's time on here. An intellectual like @AnonNT somehow puts up with this dumb BS


    The same team two years in a row , in a student competition, is a combination of pathetic, desperate behaviour.....and cheating. No other team does it.

    Russia, Italy and France are up there, also. All of these countries have high anti-vaccination sentiment:

    https://www.undispatch.com/europe-is-in-the-midst-of-its-largest-measles-outbreak-in-years-ukraine-is-a-big-part-of-the-problem/

    https://themoscowtimes.com/news/measles-cases-jump-13-fold-russia-2018-62659

    Measles Cases Jump 13-Fold in Russia in 2018

    So measles are not something to brag about, for a Russian.

     

    HAHAHA! Moscow Times? Seriously?
    What part of 28000 out of 41000 from Ukraine are you too thick to understand, you attention whore?

    A thirteen-fold increase (fake) is a nothing statistic for a contagious disease ( the beubonic plauge would have been a nothing story in the Middle Ages), the Ukraine outbreak though is a very serious health situation you prick...the "anti-vaccination" is a load of mroe time-wasting BS

    In the first quarter of 2014 FDI was negative 500 million in Ukraine. In first quarter 2018 it was positive $300 million dollars. It peaked at $1.4 billion in first quarter 2016.

    Ukraine’s all-time high FDI was under Yushchenko – $6.5 billion in the 4th quarter of 2005.

     

    You tried this laughably moronic provocation of promoting Yushchenko's (inept) handling of the Ukrainian economy, Here are more lies that I won't waste more time on.

    Incidentally and hilariously, you braindead excrement series of lies in your comment must have taken you at lest 3 hours..that is the sick, obsessive f*ck you are
  596. @RaceRealist88
    There are no psychophysical laws.

    So what is a ‘non-lawlike’ relationship? Is it random? If not, what is it? Of course you won’t answer this question because you can’t, as any answer would be absurd.

    • Replies: @RaceRealist88
    I just said that there are no psychophysical laws so the physical cannot explain the mental. That answers the question.
  597. At the same time, I think the average human is extremely intelligent for most cognitive functions outside of logical thinking : first the organism ability to maintain life and homeostasis is wonderful (who would be able to manage a liver ? Or manage blood presssure ?), the ability to learn the maternal language with extremely complicated rules and 40k words is awesome, the social skills etc . So the evolution made all living creature and human beings in particular a marvel of intelligence .

    It’s just that the logical parts who are not pré-programmed and depend on our cortex are not as sophisticated. And that in this respect alone, the average person can look very dumb to people who are far on the right of the bell curve …

  598. @Vinh
    "For those who were able to do that at 4yo, you realize how lonely you are in this world …."

    Yes, of course. As everyone here knows, Bruno at four years old was a greater prodigy than Gauss. Shortly after his fourth birthday, he had already worked out Gauss's method of instantly summing integers from 1 to n. A day or so later, he was able to instantly sum a large number of even integers from 2 to whatever. He had read Euclid in the original Sumerian by the age of five and had quickly moved on to Teichmuller theory. When other boys asked for toys for their birthday, Bruno would request graduate texts on Riemann surfaces or harmonic analysis. As he approached the age of ten, he was completing his doctoral program at Jussieu. He has been working on a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis for some time and is said to be nearly finished.

    None of this is surprising for a boy with an IQ of 175+ who may be the greatest mathematician of all times.

    Coherent English, on the other hand, has always been beyond him. No matter; he's very young.

    So how old are you now, Bruno? Have you reached your teen years yet?

    And you had a point (even 2 points), I ve worked on Boltzmann machines and have been published when doing my bachelor. And when I was a kid, I never played with toys. But I think it had more to do with a « mental condition » and in particular my lack of imagination than anything else !

  599. @reiner Tor
    OT

    Why is it that truly bad news are not reflected on by the Unz Review bloggers? Steve Sailer didn’t write about the article written by a Trump administration insider (Pence?) in the NYT. And Anatoly Karlin has yet to write anything about the new Skripal development, which frankly seems to corroborate that it really was an incompetent GRU operation.

    See discussion here:

    http://www.unz.com/akarlin/donbass-or-death/

    AK: No conspiracy - I have just been quite busy with other matters this week, hence why I posted this piece (I keep a number of big pieces in reserve for periods of low blogging activity). I'll cover that in tomorrow's Open Thread

    the UK govt is priming people for the collective media narrative after the next gas attack which will be blamed directly on Russia imo.

  600. @notanon
    1) if dummies were tasked with repairing military helicopters they'd be falling out of the sky every day
    2) the military have IQ tests and only those who pass above a certain threshold are allowed to repair helicopters
    3) military helicopters aren't falling out of the sky every day
    ergo IQ tests measure something which is a reasonable proxy for what we call intelligence.

    obviously.

    you seem to be hung up on the idea that "intelligence" isn't a measurable thing so it can't be measured but if you can measure a proxy then so what?

    (2) is true on the basis of test construction. Surely now you’d say there is validation of test construction since those who pass these tests can repair helicopters and those who score below can’t. But (1) you don’t need these tests to know if someone can repair a helicopter and (2) it’s not justification for the claim “IQ tests test intelligence.”

    • Replies: @notanon

    Surely now you’d say there is validation of test construction since those who pass these tests can repair helicopters and those who score below can’t.

     

    if those tests reliably measure a proxy for what we call intelligence then sure.

    But (1) you don’t need these tests to know if someone can repair a helicopter
     
    sure - you can always use trial and error but expensive things, helicopters.
  601. @iffen
    Jews have so much power these days because so many of them devote their entire lives to simply making money

    You are saying that Jews are more avaricious than the average bear. Are they also more unscrupulous?

    Two thousand year old Jewish misdirection and trolling:

    Matthew 16:26-28
    26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

    living as a minority is insecure
    wealth is security

    • Replies: @iffen
    Interesting point and I can't say that it doesn't have an impact.

    I note that some (most?) of the "smartest" ones seem to take the scholarly and scientific path which indicates to me that the perceived "insecurity" is not evenly distributed.

  602. @DFH
    So what is a 'non-lawlike' relationship? Is it random? If not, what is it? Of course you won't answer this question because you can't, as any answer would be absurd.

    I just said that there are no psychophysical laws so the physical cannot explain the mental. That answers the question.

    • Replies: @szopen
    No. Once again, the fact that we don't know such laws does not mean they do not exist. Hence, your argument is invalid.
    , @DFH
    But that is absurd for reasons I've explained above. You just keep repeating it fetishistically. You are definitely among the top 3 worst AK commeters, maybe even beating the guy who wrote Anatoly's rationalwiki entry and spent years trying to uncover an easter egg in a ps1 game.
    , @FatBloke
    https://i.imgur.com/fDDwiFW.jpg

    https://i.imgur.com/aYvhRMp.jpg

  603. @RaceRealist88
    No I mean there is mental stuff and there is physical stuff. The mental is not physical nor is the mental reducible to the physical.

    "In any case, there is a clear, scientifically established relationship between mental and neurological abnormalities"

    Since the physical (brain) is needed for human mindedness it is a necessary pre-condition. Due to this, damage to the physical affects the mental (which I didn't deny. No idea why you brought it up).

    there is mental stuff and there is physical stuff. The mental is not physical nor is the mental reducible to the physical

    Due to this, damage to the physical affects the mental (which I didn’t deny. No idea why you brought it up).

    so you accept redefining intelligence as the lack of damage invalidates your position?

    • Agree: CanSpeccy
  604. I see you have choosen not to answer to half of my post, this is fine, maybe it would be better going point by point.

    “different social classes are exposed to different knowledge. The argument isn’t circular. ”

    But this is not an answer! I am saying two kids, even the same gender,the same social class, the same family, they are brothers, yet they can have different IQ scores. You are saying well maybe they are in the same family, but they got exposed to different knowledge. THIS is circular argument, because it’s not enough to say that they have different experiences, because you have to show that the differences matter. Your argument is “they do matter because IQ test results are different”.

    Talking about social classes is irrevelant to my argument and makes me think that either I can’t write clear enough (which I am willing to admit, not being native speaker) or you don’t bother to read.

    “mental abilities are intentional states and are therefore irreducible to the physical.”

    Of course they are reducible (in theory). When you write the program, you debug by looking at the assembler, not at the flow of the electrons etc but only that way it’s waaay easier for humans, not because it’s impossible (in theory, in practice it would be prohibitively expensive).

    Postulating that something is not reducible to the physical is the same as postulating that spiritual world exist, which I, as an atheist and materialist, think as wrong. There are no ghosts, no soul, and no mental states changes without reflecting those changes in physical structure.

    Any philosopher who think and argues otherwise is wrong, no matter how famous he was.

    “What’s the cause? [that some react differently do same experiences]”

    Two possibilities. Either blank slate (solely due to experiences, no inborn) or hereditarian (at least some of that is due to inborn qualities). I say blank slate position is absurd. If you say the differences are solely due to different exposure, it mean you came from blank slate position.

    “If you accept (1) then you accept (2).”

    No! There is non sequitur between (1) and (2). Surely the researchers have some presuppositions about what items should be. Some of those presuppositions would influence the test results and some would not. But there is no proof that exactly THOSE presuppositions which actually influence the test ARE actually more likely to be found in the middle class. Middle class is exposed to different knowledge/structure etc, but some of the exposure is shared. What if that exposure which actually matters belongs to things which are shared?

    “What’s the argument? ”

    “Clarify your statements. You made it seem like you can’t get faster *at all.*”

    No, for Darwin’s sake! The example was intended to show that, while at first running more would help you, you will eventually reach the moment when running even more won’t help you.

    The argument is: assume the exposure to culture influences IQ test results. Assume, for the sake of simplicity of an example, that you can actually measure it in a simple 0-100 scale. There could be that from increase from 0-10 would greatly improve IQ tests results, from 10 to 20 it would somewhat, while from 20 to 100 it would have no discernible effects.

    Just as my example with food and height. Surely eating more healthy and more would increase chances of being higher, but only up to certain point. Eventually you reach the point when eating more no longer will increase the height.

    You, OTOH, just assume that this is not the case. You assume, without any proof, that if test IQ requires exposure to some culture/knowledge/experience and middle class is exposed more (to that very elements which matter; and you don’t know which matter, you just postulate there some which matter), then it means the differences will necessitate higher results. But this is wrong assumption, because the alternative would be that you just need some minimal exposure, and what the lower classes got is good enough.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    They're not going to be "reducible" in some simple way.

    But this topic ("mind-body problem") is obviously an error not well understood by us yet.

    At least more sophisticated materialist position, using concepts like "supervenience" nowadays to avoid some of the issues.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervenience

    And lol, I'm not sure how RaceRealist88 believes this validates, or invalidates, rather more boring topic of results of OECD giving its confusing tests to 15 year olds in different countries.

  605. OT

    A guy punched another, but because the jury agreed with him and didn’t like the political opinions of the victim, he was only fined $1.

    https://www.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/paw75y/man-who-punched-charlottesville-organizer-jason-kessler-fined-1-dollar-vgtrn

  606. @RaceRealist88
    I just said that there are no psychophysical laws so the physical cannot explain the mental. That answers the question.

    No. Once again, the fact that we don’t know such laws does not mean they do not exist. Hence, your argument is invalid.

  607. @Triumph104
    Ashkenazi Jews have high IQs. Only 45% of Israel's population is Ashkenazi. The country of Israel is 75% Jewish, 20% Arab, and 4% other. Ashkenazis make up 60% of Jews in the country or 45% of total population. It should also be noted that 15% of Jews in Israel are Ultra-Orthodox, many of whom are poorly educated in secular subjects.


    The Level 6 scores in English-speaking countries are due primarily to Asians. The US population is 5% Asian, United Kingdom 7%, Australia and New Zealand 12% each, and Canada is 15% Asian.

    The Level 6 scores in English-speaking countries are due primarily to Asians. The US population is 5% Asian, United Kingdom 7%, Australia and New Zealand 12% each, and Canada is 15% Asian.

    On what do you base this assertion? In the US whites outnumber Asians over 12 to 1. Even assuming Asians have a higher quantitative IQ, the IQ threshold for level 6 (2% in the US implies about 130) is not high enough to overcome the difference in populations.

    To see an actual calculation, use http://emilkirkegaard.dk/understanding_statistics/?app=tail_effects
    I used a 12:1 population ratio, 130 threshold, and a 1 SD (unlikely it is that large in reality) mean IQ difference giving a 63/37 white/Asian split.

  608. @Anonymous
    Thanks. This example was helpful.

    I can see it from both points of view and I was wondering why. Why the intuitive pull to give weight to distance? I think I was conflating "average" with "expected mean" and overcomplicating.

    I'm not sure if this means I'm low IQ or math retarded.

    No your are right . And then I read in Robert Lindsay blog who claims to have a 145+ IQ to be bad at math . Maybe math is like pitch. A specialized ability. I was rude. I beg you pardon.

  609. @Bobzilla

    @Dan Bagrov

    It really is shocking to talk to a person with an IQ under 110.

     

    And just think, some people say such people should have a free hand to rule over their wives and children as they see fit.
     
    Rosie,

    You are confusing intelligence with being a wise and/or a good person. There are many intelligent people who are neither wise, nor good.

    You are confusing intelligence with being a wise and/or a good person.

    No I’m not, but I have found that there is a great deal of overlap.

    There are many intelligent people who are neither wise, nor good.

    Agreed, but what’s your point? Are you saying it’s just as well to be ruled over by the stupid as the intelligent? Hierarchy requires some sort of justification other than might makes Right. If not intelligence, what then?

    • Replies: @Bobzilla

    Agreed, but what’s your point? Are you saying it’s just as well to be ruled over by the stupid as the intelligent?
     
    I would put it this way...

    1. There is absolutely zero correlation between intelligence and where one lies on the moral or political spectrum.

    2. An indvidual can be taught by some person / organization that is intelligent / wise / moral, or taught by some person / organization that is intelligent / unwise / immoral.

    3. People that are of average or even below average intelligence (to a point), can act morally good and take positions which would be considered wise if they were taught by an intelligent / wise / moral person or organization.
  610. @Anon
    Now, I am not so sure you or I would understand our reflection in a mirror, had no-one ever explained to us that it "is" us.
    (Of course even having or not having someone wbo explains you what mirrors do can be traced back toIQ, as can "what education are people granted in country X".)

    I am not so sure you or I would understand our reflection in a mirror, had no-one ever explained to us that it “is” us.

    Are you serious? Do you have kids?

    I didn’t explain to my kids what a mirror is or told them that it is them in the reflection. I just told them “this is a mirror” and let them figure out what it does. This happens at around age two, speaking from a very hazy memory. It’s something so uneventful that I didn’t even bother to remember when it happened. I do remember when my kids started to walk or when they were potty-trained; those were more important milestones.

  611. @szopen
    I see you have choosen not to answer to half of my post, this is fine, maybe it would be better going point by point.

    "different social classes are exposed to different knowledge. The argument isn’t circular. "

    But this is not an answer! I am saying two kids, even the same gender,the same social class, the same family, they are brothers, yet they can have different IQ scores. You are saying well maybe they are in the same family, but they got exposed to different knowledge. THIS is circular argument, because it's not enough to say that they have different experiences, because you have to show that the differences matter. Your argument is "they do matter because IQ test results are different".

    Talking about social classes is irrevelant to my argument and makes me think that either I can't write clear enough (which I am willing to admit, not being native speaker) or you don't bother to read.

    "mental abilities are intentional states and are therefore irreducible to the physical."

    Of course they are reducible (in theory). When you write the program, you debug by looking at the assembler, not at the flow of the electrons etc but only that way it's waaay easier for humans, not because it's impossible (in theory, in practice it would be prohibitively expensive).

    Postulating that something is not reducible to the physical is the same as postulating that spiritual world exist, which I, as an atheist and materialist, think as wrong. There are no ghosts, no soul, and no mental states changes without reflecting those changes in physical structure.

    Any philosopher who think and argues otherwise is wrong, no matter how famous he was.

    "What’s the cause? [that some react differently do same experiences]"

    Two possibilities. Either blank slate (solely due to experiences, no inborn) or hereditarian (at least some of that is due to inborn qualities). I say blank slate position is absurd. If you say the differences are solely due to different exposure, it mean you came from blank slate position.

    "If you accept (1) then you accept (2)."

    No! There is non sequitur between (1) and (2). Surely the researchers have some presuppositions about what items should be. Some of those presuppositions would influence the test results and some would not. But there is no proof that exactly THOSE presuppositions which actually influence the test ARE actually more likely to be found in the middle class. Middle class is exposed to different knowledge/structure etc, but some of the exposure is shared. What if that exposure which actually matters belongs to things which are shared?

    "What’s the argument? "

    "Clarify your statements. You made it seem like you can’t get faster *at all.*"

    No, for Darwin's sake! The example was intended to show that, while at first running more would help you, you will eventually reach the moment when running even more won't help you.

    The argument is: assume the exposure to culture influences IQ test results. Assume, for the sake of simplicity of an example, that you can actually measure it in a simple 0-100 scale. There could be that from increase from 0-10 would greatly improve IQ tests results, from 10 to 20 it would somewhat, while from 20 to 100 it would have no discernible effects.

    Just as my example with food and height. Surely eating more healthy and more would increase chances of being higher, but only up to certain point. Eventually you reach the point when eating more no longer will increase the height.

    You, OTOH, just assume that this is not the case. You assume, without any proof, that if test IQ requires exposure to some culture/knowledge/experience and middle class is exposed more (to that very elements which matter; and you don't know which matter, you just postulate there some which matter), then it means the differences will necessitate higher results. But this is wrong assumption, because the alternative would be that you just need some minimal exposure, and what the lower classes got is good enough.

    They’re not going to be “reducible” in some simple way.

    But this topic (“mind-body problem”) is obviously an error not well understood by us yet.

    At least more sophisticated materialist position, using concepts like “supervenience” nowadays to avoid some of the issues.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervenience

    And lol, I’m not sure how RaceRealist88 believes this validates, or invalidates, rather more boring topic of results of OECD giving its confusing tests to 15 year olds in different countries.

  612. @RaceRealist88
    (2) is true on the basis of test construction. Surely now you'd say there is validation of test construction since those who pass these tests can repair helicopters and those who score below can't. But (1) you don't need these tests to know if someone can repair a helicopter and (2) it's not justification for the claim "IQ tests test intelligence."

    Surely now you’d say there is validation of test construction since those who pass these tests can repair helicopters and those who score below can’t.

    if those tests reliably measure a proxy for what we call intelligence then sure.

    But (1) you don’t need these tests to know if someone can repair a helicopter

    sure – you can always use trial and error but expensive things, helicopters.

  613. @RaceRealist88
    Psychophysical laws exist?

    For all purposes of function, yes. Which is why your silly word games are meaningless; we’ve know about this since at least Delgrado.

  614. @RaceRealist88
    Why?

    Your argument is insane because you are. All your arguments on the subject are wrong, as has been shown in thread after thread, but you don’t care. No amount of disproof or pointing out fallacies ever has the slightest effect on you, you never acknowledge your defeats, your fixed idea that intelligence doesn’t exist or is unmeasurable is totally immune from all reality checks, even to the absurd point that you claim IQ is an invalid measure because IQ correlates with health and wealth!

    Literally insane, delusional, and stinking up every thread on the topic with post after crazy post that reveals to everyone how delusional you are – so delusional that you think your compulsive flood of insane posts is actually winning over readers rather than just embarrassing yourself. Only fools agree with you but few argue any longer since arguing against this fixed delusion of yours has never done any good.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    He's correct in some ways, but just irrelevant to discussion of this issue. I think he is trying to say that intelligence is a not a scientific concept, in the sense of - it is not an actual feature of the world.

    Of course this is true. Just as "tasty" and "beautiful" are not actual features of the world, although they require a certain arrangement of the physical world in order for us to perceive them.

    With "intelligence" concepts - we use it as the way to talk about people with different test score results, people with different mental skills, people we consider good decision makers, or people who are unable to do certain tasks, etc.

    Usually "intelligence" is used with some kind of behaviourist criteria, and we talk about people's intelligence without needing insight into their first-person perspective or consciousness.

    We could be talking about robots- and we might still talk about some showing more intelligence than others. Robots (as currently constructed) can have no minds or consciousness - yet we at the same time could easily consider some more intelligent than others. So it's clear that belief in different people having different intelligence does not require or is not relevant to any controversial discussion of "mind-body" problem.

  615. @RaceRealist88
    I just said that there are no psychophysical laws so the physical cannot explain the mental. That answers the question.

    But that is absurd for reasons I’ve explained above. You just keep repeating it fetishistically. You are definitely among the top 3 worst AK commeters, maybe even beating the guy who wrote Anatoly’s rationalwiki entry and spent years trying to uncover an easter egg in a ps1 game.

  616. @Triumph104
    Ashkenazi Jews have high IQs. Only 45% of Israel's population is Ashkenazi. The country of Israel is 75% Jewish, 20% Arab, and 4% other. Ashkenazis make up 60% of Jews in the country or 45% of total population. It should also be noted that 15% of Jews in Israel are Ultra-Orthodox, many of whom are poorly educated in secular subjects.


    The Level 6 scores in English-speaking countries are due primarily to Asians. The US population is 5% Asian, United Kingdom 7%, Australia and New Zealand 12% each, and Canada is 15% Asian.

    East Asians are under 2% of the UK population. Even with a very generous estimate of Asian quantitative intelligence, they would still be a very small proportion of those at the right of the curve.

  617. @Okechukwu

    Sub-Saharan Africa: ~70
     
    I'm sub-Saharan African and I'm smarter than you. Prove that sub-Saharan Africans have an IQ of 70 or shut-up.

    The irony is, like most race and IQ exponents, the fake Russian Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There's no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.

    That is a comical rant. Really, proving the point

  618. @EH
    Your argument is insane because you are. All your arguments on the subject are wrong, as has been shown in thread after thread, but you don't care. No amount of disproof or pointing out fallacies ever has the slightest effect on you, you never acknowledge your defeats, your fixed idea that intelligence doesn't exist or is unmeasurable is totally immune from all reality checks, even to the absurd point that you claim IQ is an invalid measure because IQ correlates with health and wealth!

    Literally insane, delusional, and stinking up every thread on the topic with post after crazy post that reveals to everyone how delusional you are - so delusional that you think your compulsive flood of insane posts is actually winning over readers rather than just embarrassing yourself. Only fools agree with you but few argue any longer since arguing against this fixed delusion of yours has never done any good.

    He’s correct in some ways, but just irrelevant to discussion of this issue. I think he is trying to say that intelligence is a not a scientific concept, in the sense of – it is not an actual feature of the world.

    Of course this is true. Just as “tasty” and “beautiful” are not actual features of the world, although they require a certain arrangement of the physical world in order for us to perceive them.

    With “intelligence” concepts – we use it as the way to talk about people with different test score results, people with different mental skills, people we consider good decision makers, or people who are unable to do certain tasks, etc.

    Usually “intelligence” is used with some kind of behaviourist criteria, and we talk about people’s intelligence without needing insight into their first-person perspective or consciousness.

    We could be talking about robots- and we might still talk about some showing more intelligence than others. Robots (as currently constructed) can have no minds or consciousness – yet we at the same time could easily consider some more intelligent than others. So it’s clear that belief in different people having different intelligence does not require or is not relevant to any controversial discussion of “mind-body” problem.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    His argument is much more insane in it's overreach. He argues there is no physical relationship to mental manifestation except a requirement for existence. That's laughable due to obvious results of chemical or electronic interactions.
    , @AaronB
    My God, Dmitry, you are discovering metaphysical truths about the world and the severe limitations of the scientific world view!

    I guess one can say stone and glass may be needed to construct a beautiful cathedral, but its "beauty" is in no way limited by the physical properties of stone and glass. It can be outstandingly beautiful using very inferior quality stone.

    So too, physical structures may need to exist for intelligence to manifest, but like beauty, there is no clear relationship between the "quality" of this structure and intelligence.

    They merely appear together.

    Sort of like cause and effect - they merely appear together, but we can't say there is a Law there.

    In fact, this argument is ultimately reducible to the conundrum of causality - you drink alcohol, and your faculties are altered - Can we say there is a Law here, or merely simultaneity?

    Ah, what a mysterious universe!
    , @utu
    Good. Stay on track and dig deeper. You may find something. Intelligence and mind-body problem certainly deserves more depth.
  619. @Dmitry
    He's correct in some ways, but just irrelevant to discussion of this issue. I think he is trying to say that intelligence is a not a scientific concept, in the sense of - it is not an actual feature of the world.

    Of course this is true. Just as "tasty" and "beautiful" are not actual features of the world, although they require a certain arrangement of the physical world in order for us to perceive them.

    With "intelligence" concepts - we use it as the way to talk about people with different test score results, people with different mental skills, people we consider good decision makers, or people who are unable to do certain tasks, etc.

    Usually "intelligence" is used with some kind of behaviourist criteria, and we talk about people's intelligence without needing insight into their first-person perspective or consciousness.

    We could be talking about robots- and we might still talk about some showing more intelligence than others. Robots (as currently constructed) can have no minds or consciousness - yet we at the same time could easily consider some more intelligent than others. So it's clear that belief in different people having different intelligence does not require or is not relevant to any controversial discussion of "mind-body" problem.

    His argument is much more insane in it’s overreach. He argues there is no physical relationship to mental manifestation except a requirement for existence. That’s laughable due to obvious results of chemical or electronic interactions.

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    He mentioned something above about Hilary Putnam?

    I wanted to read this philosopher's ideas for years, but I never have had any to read his book.

    I skim read over a few articles like this though:

    https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/multiple-realizability/

    , @DFH
    It is worse than that. Either there is no connection between the mental and physical states/worlds, in which case there is no reason to even think that the physical world exists, or there is some connection which is non-lawlike, but that's incoherent.
  620. @songbird
    The way I view it is through standard deviations. A white with an IQ of 70 is about 2 SD below their normal, whereas an American black with an IQ of 70 would be roughly about 1 SD below their normal.

    IQ can also be thought of a proxy for health. Someone 2 SD below normal would be very abnormal or very unhealthy, whereas someone only 1 SD below normal would be much closer to the normal health. I view this as being related to mutational load and the structure of the brain.

    I don't think the test was particularly designed to show differences on the lower end, and that is why two children one black and one white who both score 70 will appear different.

    I think some non-African populations have obtained mutations that increase their IQ and give them better cognitive skills for tasks that are needed in a modern society, but they also have a lot of mutations that reduce IQ, while Africans have less mutations that increase IQ. This is what GWAS on IQ genes so far has shown, though African specific IQ genes have not been much studied.

    Thus, a white person with an IQ of 70 usually has at least one mutation that reduces IQ quite much and also affects his performance in any society, even traditional one. But an African with IQ 70 does not have any mutations that reduce IQ much, he simply does not have those non-African mutations that increase IQ to the level that is needed in a modern society. So his performance in normal communication and operation in a traditional society is not reduced, but he is not capable of doing intellectually as demanding tasks of a modern society as members of certain non-African populations.

  621. What I find amusing is that Karlin is unwittingly providing one of the premier venues for the undermining of the “strong” IQ theory, in direct contradiction to his intentions.

    The universe cracks me up.

    And, PEOPLE – settle down, people. Settle down.

  622. @Peripatetic commenter
    You really shouldn't bother arguing with morons.

    However, I can see two effects of interest here, or perhaps more.

    1. The lower tolerance for alcohol and general inability to metabolize alcohol in some racial groups. This is genetic, and makes alcoholism more likely in some of those groups.

    2. The genetic propensity for some individuals to be unable to resist alcohol consumption, making them very unsuitable as mating partners.

    The general claim made by the moron that behavior is not genetically mediated is, of course, only something a moron would say. The evidence is clear.

    The beauty of my argument is that genetics is completely extraneous to this. It is enough to show mental effects simply from neurochemistry as a reaction to exogenous chemicals. Denying it would suggest that flying while intoxicated has no mental effects and thus no negative consequences, a completely nutty position.

    • Replies: @szopen
    BTW, I should have written it earlier how awed I was by the simplicity on this one-liner refutation :D I was preparing a long list of effects of physical damages to brain and how they affect different mental abilities, and then... chapeau-bas, camarade.
  623. @notanon

    Kenyan children can’t recognise themselves in the mirror.
     
    i wonder if one of the collection of traits (good memory, faster CPU etc) which collectively make up what we call intelligence is the ability to handle abstractions - from my experience working with dummies that seems to be one of the main differences, people who are perfectly okay doing practical tasks like driving a truck can't get their head around abstractions.

    for example say what we call intelligence is the combination of x, y and z traits where each is necessary and each limits the effect of the others i.e. x+y+z gives the same intelligence x+y+2z

    then say you have two populations one of which is 2x+2y+2z and one is 2x+2y+z who are about the same on practical (x+y) tasks but the missing z on the 2nd population makes them unable to deal with certain kinds of abstraction.

    so in a way the antis may be right that IQ tests are designed for the people who designed them but that's not necessarily a flaw in the tests - the tests might simply be telling us where the problem lies in the populations who can't do them.

    #

    by extension is ability to deal with abstractions a mild form of mental illness?

    “Kenyan children can’t recognise themselves in the mirror.”

    That does not mean low IQ. I think I am smart enough and to me all Kenyan children look alike.

    • LOL: reiner Tor, szopen
  624. @Daniel Chieh
    His argument is much more insane in it's overreach. He argues there is no physical relationship to mental manifestation except a requirement for existence. That's laughable due to obvious results of chemical or electronic interactions.

    He mentioned something above about Hilary Putnam?

    I wanted to read this philosopher’s ideas for years, but I never have had any to read his book.

    I skim read over a few articles like this though:

    https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/multiple-realizability/

  625. @Dmitry
    He's correct in some ways, but just irrelevant to discussion of this issue. I think he is trying to say that intelligence is a not a scientific concept, in the sense of - it is not an actual feature of the world.

    Of course this is true. Just as "tasty" and "beautiful" are not actual features of the world, although they require a certain arrangement of the physical world in order for us to perceive them.

    With "intelligence" concepts - we use it as the way to talk about people with different test score results, people with different mental skills, people we consider good decision makers, or people who are unable to do certain tasks, etc.

    Usually "intelligence" is used with some kind of behaviourist criteria, and we talk about people's intelligence without needing insight into their first-person perspective or consciousness.

    We could be talking about robots- and we might still talk about some showing more intelligence than others. Robots (as currently constructed) can have no minds or consciousness - yet we at the same time could easily consider some more intelligent than others. So it's clear that belief in different people having different intelligence does not require or is not relevant to any controversial discussion of "mind-body" problem.

    My God, Dmitry, you are discovering metaphysical truths about the world and the severe limitations of the scientific world view!

    I guess one can say stone and glass may be needed to construct a beautiful cathedral, but its “beauty” is in no way limited by the physical properties of stone and glass. It can be outstandingly beautiful using very inferior quality stone.

    So too, physical structures may need to exist for intelligence to manifest, but like beauty, there is no clear relationship between the “quality” of this structure and intelligence.

    They merely appear together.

    Sort of like cause and effect – they merely appear together, but we can’t say there is a Law there.

    In fact, this argument is ultimately reducible to the conundrum of causality – you drink alcohol, and your faculties are altered – Can we say there is a Law here, or merely simultaneity?

    Ah, what a mysterious universe!

    • Replies: @Talha

    Ah, what a mysterious universe!
     
    Indeed - it's always the anomalies that I love thinking about:
    "Scientists research man missing 90% of his brain who leads a normal life"
    https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.3679117/scientists-research-man-missing-90-of-his-brain-who-leads-a-normal-life-1.3679125

    Also - OT, but connected to the mysterious universe thing:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGFq-qpkvbA

    "Hundreds of eggs, abandoned at a dump site in Georgia, have hatched to free a swarm of newborn chicks. The emergence of the little tweeting babies has been filmed by locals, some of whom took the birds home."

    Love it!

    Peace.
  626. @Daniel Chieh
    His argument is much more insane in it's overreach. He argues there is no physical relationship to mental manifestation except a requirement for existence. That's laughable due to obvious results of chemical or electronic interactions.

    It is worse than that. Either there is no connection between the mental and physical states/worlds, in which case there is no reason to even think that the physical world exists, or there is some connection which is non-lawlike, but that’s incoherent.

    • Agree: Tyrion 2
    • Replies: @AaronB

    in which case there is no reason to even think that the physical world exists,
     
    Another one who finally beginning to see the light.

    Impressive, my little ones.
    , @Daniel Chieh
    Indeed. Thus why I initially mocked it with the modern solipsism of computer simulation of reality. Nothing exists, so he should give everything he has(which doesn't exist) to Karlin.
  627. @AaronB
    My God, Dmitry, you are discovering metaphysical truths about the world and the severe limitations of the scientific world view!

    I guess one can say stone and glass may be needed to construct a beautiful cathedral, but its "beauty" is in no way limited by the physical properties of stone and glass. It can be outstandingly beautiful using very inferior quality stone.

    So too, physical structures may need to exist for intelligence to manifest, but like beauty, there is no clear relationship between the "quality" of this structure and intelligence.

    They merely appear together.

    Sort of like cause and effect - they merely appear together, but we can't say there is a Law there.

    In fact, this argument is ultimately reducible to the conundrum of causality - you drink alcohol, and your faculties are altered - Can we say there is a Law here, or merely simultaneity?

    Ah, what a mysterious universe!

    Ah, what a mysterious universe!

    Indeed – it’s always the anomalies that I love thinking about:
    “Scientists research man missing 90% of his brain who leads a normal life”

    https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.3679117/scientists-research-man-missing-90-of-his-brain-who-leads-a-normal-life-1.3679125

    Also – OT, but connected to the mysterious universe thing:

    “Hundreds of eggs, abandoned at a dump site in Georgia, have hatched to free a swarm of newborn chicks. The emergence of the little tweeting babies has been filmed by locals, some of whom took the birds home.”

    Love it!

    Peace.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Good stuff!
  628. @Daniel Chieh
    The beauty of my argument is that genetics is completely extraneous to this. It is enough to show mental effects simply from neurochemistry as a reaction to exogenous chemicals. Denying it would suggest that flying while intoxicated has no mental effects and thus no negative consequences, a completely nutty position.

    BTW, I should have written it earlier how awed I was by the simplicity on this one-liner refutation :D I was preparing a long list of effects of physical damages to brain and how they affect different mental abilities, and then… chapeau-bas, camarade.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Thank you. Brevity is the soul of wit.
  629. @DFH
    It is worse than that. Either there is no connection between the mental and physical states/worlds, in which case there is no reason to even think that the physical world exists, or there is some connection which is non-lawlike, but that's incoherent.

    in which case there is no reason to even think that the physical world exists,

    Another one who finally beginning to see the light.

    Impressive, my little ones.

  630. @Talha

    Ah, what a mysterious universe!
     
    Indeed - it's always the anomalies that I love thinking about:
    "Scientists research man missing 90% of his brain who leads a normal life"
    https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.3679117/scientists-research-man-missing-90-of-his-brain-who-leads-a-normal-life-1.3679125

    Also - OT, but connected to the mysterious universe thing:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGFq-qpkvbA

    "Hundreds of eggs, abandoned at a dump site in Georgia, have hatched to free a swarm of newborn chicks. The emergence of the little tweeting babies has been filmed by locals, some of whom took the birds home."

    Love it!

    Peace.

    Good stuff!

  631. @DFH
    It is worse than that. Either there is no connection between the mental and physical states/worlds, in which case there is no reason to even think that the physical world exists, or there is some connection which is non-lawlike, but that's incoherent.

    Indeed. Thus why I initially mocked it with the modern solipsism of computer simulation of reality. Nothing exists, so he should give everything he has(which doesn’t exist) to Karlin.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    But you continually fail to take the next logical step, Daniel -

    Why bother giving non-existent money to a non-existent person?

    Take it, and you will be liberated.
    , @Dmitry
    I don't think solipsism.

    He just believes in something like "Dualism" position on "mind-body problem".

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind%E2%80%93body_dualism

    And a lot of different kinds of this even.

    -

    There are even more hardcore views though, like Leibnitz, that believes that mind and body both exist, but there is no interaction. Instead they are separate realms that parallel each other as a result of grace.

  632. @szopen
    BTW, I should have written it earlier how awed I was by the simplicity on this one-liner refutation :D I was preparing a long list of effects of physical damages to brain and how they affect different mental abilities, and then... chapeau-bas, camarade.

    Thank you. Brevity is the soul of wit.

    • Replies: @Talha
    I gotta admit bro, you've had some great short quips over the time I've been reading your posts. Were you ever into (as a performer or producer of) poetry or song-writing or even comedy?

    Peace.
  633. @Daniel Chieh
    Indeed. Thus why I initially mocked it with the modern solipsism of computer simulation of reality. Nothing exists, so he should give everything he has(which doesn't exist) to Karlin.

    But you continually fail to take the next logical step, Daniel –

    Why bother giving non-existent money to a non-existent person?

    Take it, and you will be liberated.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Because I said so.
  634. @Epigon
    Variable tilt of Earth (Milankovic cycle) impacts the date/moment of solstice and equinox, so of course it is a factor. But the primary cause is the variable velocity of Earth.

    But the primary cause is the variable velocity of Earth.

    Is it also because the arc on the ellipsis between winter solstice and spring equinox is shorter than the arc between summer solstice and autumn equinox? So even if Earth linear speed was constant winter still would be shorter than summer.

  635. @Daniel Chieh
    Indeed. Thus why I initially mocked it with the modern solipsism of computer simulation of reality. Nothing exists, so he should give everything he has(which doesn't exist) to Karlin.

    I don’t think solipsism.

    He just believes in something like “Dualism” position on “mind-body problem”.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind%E2%80%93body_dualism

    And a lot of different kinds of this even.

    -

    There are even more hardcore views though, like Leibnitz, that believes that mind and body both exist, but there is no interaction. Instead they are separate realms that parallel each other as a result of grace.

  636. @AaronB
    But you continually fail to take the next logical step, Daniel -

    Why bother giving non-existent money to a non-existent person?

    Take it, and you will be liberated.

    Because I said so.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    But you don't exist :)
  637. @DFH
    Do you have some sort of evidence that they can?

    What’s the evidence you rely on to say they can’t. And what is distribution?

  638. @Daniel Chieh
    Thank you. Brevity is the soul of wit.

    I gotta admit bro, you’ve had some great short quips over the time I’ve been reading your posts. Were you ever into (as a performer or producer of) poetry or song-writing or even comedy?

    Peace.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    I am a published writer and you have almost certainly seen my group's work in other places but I won't dox myself.
  639. @Daniel Chieh
    Because I said so.

    But you don’t exist :)

    • Replies: @Tyrion 2
    If your idea of epistemology is that you know nothing then I might as well take you at your word.

    The only sane conclusion I can take is to ignore you.
  640. @AaronB
    But you don't exist :)

    If your idea of epistemology is that you know nothing then I might as well take you at your word.

    The only sane conclusion I can take is to ignore you.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Sanity is overrated. It suggests seriousness.
  641. @Talha
    I gotta admit bro, you've had some great short quips over the time I've been reading your posts. Were you ever into (as a performer or producer of) poetry or song-writing or even comedy?

    Peace.

    I am a published writer and you have almost certainly seen my group’s work in other places but I won’t dox myself.

    • Replies: @reiner Tor

    I am a published writer
     
    Me too. I got published at The Unz Review comment sections.

    you have almost certainly seen my group’s work in other places
     
    And my work, too, for example at Steve Sailer's blog.

    but I won’t dox myself.
     
    Me neither! Smart!
    , @Talha
    Sweet - well it shows.

    Peace.
  642. @Tyrion 2
    If your idea of epistemology is that you know nothing then I might as well take you at your word.

    The only sane conclusion I can take is to ignore you.

    Sanity is overrated. It suggests seriousness.

    • Replies: @Tyrion 2
    I liked the way Heath Ledger played The Joker too. He was very funny. Ultimately, though, nihilism is for teenage sophists. There's no point.
  643. @Daniel Chieh
    I am a published writer and you have almost certainly seen my group's work in other places but I won't dox myself.

    I am a published writer

    Me too. I got published at The Unz Review comment sections.

    you have almost certainly seen my group’s work in other places

    And my work, too, for example at Steve Sailer’s blog.

    but I won’t dox myself.

    Me neither! Smart!

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Hee.

    I really like writing; I was musing on utu's comment that good writing is hard to learning and debated it internally for awhile. I think ultimately its one of those things that you can improve through practice, but having the right personality and mentality is essential, and how much of that is genetically influenced? My grandfather was a diplomat and journalist, so there's definitely some heritage there.

    My initial work was horrific, I still remember it faintly: my 15 year old self and the verbal vomit I must have inflicted on some poor beings. Over many years of practice, I've had some wins along with the reams of crap I produce so gradually I think that I've gotten somewhere. Adult life has made it harder, of course but I still try to do bits and pieces. Its "one's soul" so to speak, an almost religious experience at times and a desire to, for what little it is worth, to produce something of beauty. Vanishing as it might be, its a joy to share one's thoughts with others and hope that it holds some meaning for them too.
  644. @Dmitry
    He's correct in some ways, but just irrelevant to discussion of this issue. I think he is trying to say that intelligence is a not a scientific concept, in the sense of - it is not an actual feature of the world.

    Of course this is true. Just as "tasty" and "beautiful" are not actual features of the world, although they require a certain arrangement of the physical world in order for us to perceive them.

    With "intelligence" concepts - we use it as the way to talk about people with different test score results, people with different mental skills, people we consider good decision makers, or people who are unable to do certain tasks, etc.

    Usually "intelligence" is used with some kind of behaviourist criteria, and we talk about people's intelligence without needing insight into their first-person perspective or consciousness.

    We could be talking about robots- and we might still talk about some showing more intelligence than others. Robots (as currently constructed) can have no minds or consciousness - yet we at the same time could easily consider some more intelligent than others. So it's clear that belief in different people having different intelligence does not require or is not relevant to any controversial discussion of "mind-body" problem.

    Good. Stay on track and dig deeper. You may find something. Intelligence and mind-body problem certainly deserves more depth.

  645. @Daniel Chieh
    I am a published writer and you have almost certainly seen my group's work in other places but I won't dox myself.

    Sweet – well it shows.

    Peace.

  646. @reiner Tor

    I am a published writer
     
    Me too. I got published at The Unz Review comment sections.

    you have almost certainly seen my group’s work in other places
     
    And my work, too, for example at Steve Sailer's blog.

    but I won’t dox myself.
     
    Me neither! Smart!

    Hee.

    I really like writing; I was musing on utu’s comment that good writing is hard to learning and debated it internally for awhile. I think ultimately its one of those things that you can improve through practice, but having the right personality and mentality is essential, and how much of that is genetically influenced? My grandfather was a diplomat and journalist, so there’s definitely some heritage there.

    My initial work was horrific, I still remember it faintly: my 15 year old self and the verbal vomit I must have inflicted on some poor beings. Over many years of practice, I’ve had some wins along with the reams of crap I produce so gradually I think that I’ve gotten somewhere. Adult life has made it harder, of course but I still try to do bits and pieces. Its “one’s soul” so to speak, an almost religious experience at times and a desire to, for what little it is worth, to produce something of beauty. Vanishing as it might be, its a joy to share one’s thoughts with others and hope that it holds some meaning for them too.

    • Replies: @Talha
    Ah the age old quest for immortality and the hope that the pages of history will not fold on oneself as they have for millions of others and that you will be forgotten as a part of the human enterprise...not even a whisper through the ages that you even existed at all. The attempts to escape the inevitability, even if it be in the form of a social security number recorded in some archive deep below some mountain.

    "O Farid! Do not speak bad about the dust for there is nothing like it.
    While you exist it remain below your feet but when you die it covers your head." - Farid uddin Attar (ra)

    Peace.

    , @utu

    I was musing on utu’s comment that good writing is hard to learn
     
    I think some people have aptitude for it while it is very hard for many. They teach creative writing in schools. I think it is an American invention. In the past some people wrote and some of them became successful writers though they got some ideas from other writers but on their own and not via teachers and creative writing workshops.

    But when I wrote about it it was really a put down for all those who bailed out form studying math and accepted a self defeating belief that they were not good at math while probably thinking that they were good at something else like writing, which most often there were not. Yes, they can write but their writing skills are often equivalent to the skills of basic arithmetic. There is no phrase 'I am not good at writing' functioning in our culture while there is one for math meaning that everybody thinks that can write and even may think they are good at it. Contrary to a majority view I believe one can teach math to more people than good writing.

    Good creative writing is really an interesting phenomena. Many great writers had completely different methods and mental processes. I am particularly impressed by those in 19 c and earlier who wrote on impulse like in a trans and their first version was final not needing any edits. I suspect that if you took computers away most contemporary writers would not be able to write as they are dependent on ability of doing countless edits. Good editing greatly improves things but often it can't hide bad writing. Bad writing is a norm nowadays. An interesting case is Raymond Carver (who I used to like) who was really a creation of his editor.
  647. @AaronB
    Sanity is overrated. It suggests seriousness.

    I liked the way Heath Ledger played The Joker too. He was very funny. Ultimately, though, nihilism is for teenage sophists. There’s no point.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    If you believe meaning can only be found in physical existence, then you are the nihilist.

    And being a joker comes from being so intensely serious that one sees through it all.

    Unserious people like you stop st the surface, and take it all seriously.

    Humor is the mark of the philosopher.
  648. @Daniel Chieh
    Hee.

    I really like writing; I was musing on utu's comment that good writing is hard to learning and debated it internally for awhile. I think ultimately its one of those things that you can improve through practice, but having the right personality and mentality is essential, and how much of that is genetically influenced? My grandfather was a diplomat and journalist, so there's definitely some heritage there.

    My initial work was horrific, I still remember it faintly: my 15 year old self and the verbal vomit I must have inflicted on some poor beings. Over many years of practice, I've had some wins along with the reams of crap I produce so gradually I think that I've gotten somewhere. Adult life has made it harder, of course but I still try to do bits and pieces. Its "one's soul" so to speak, an almost religious experience at times and a desire to, for what little it is worth, to produce something of beauty. Vanishing as it might be, its a joy to share one's thoughts with others and hope that it holds some meaning for them too.

    Ah the age old quest for immortality and the hope that the pages of history will not fold on oneself as they have for millions of others and that you will be forgotten as a part of the human enterprise…not even a whisper through the ages that you even existed at all. The attempts to escape the inevitability, even if it be in the form of a social security number recorded in some archive deep below some mountain.

    “O Farid! Do not speak bad about the dust for there is nothing like it.
    While you exist it remain below your feet but when you die it covers your head.” – Farid uddin Attar (ra)

    Peace.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    I honestly find that a bit silly. If a story of mine has made someone I care feel something, that's all that really matters.

    As Vonnegut said, if you try to make love to the world, you'll just get pneumonia.
  649. @Tyrion 2
    I liked the way Heath Ledger played The Joker too. He was very funny. Ultimately, though, nihilism is for teenage sophists. There's no point.

    If you believe meaning can only be found in physical existence, then you are the nihilist.

    And being a joker comes from being so intensely serious that one sees through it all.

    Unserious people like you stop st the surface, and take it all seriously.

    Humor is the mark of the philosopher.

    • Replies: @Tyrion 2
    Lay off the acid for a few months and get back to me.
  650. @Talha
    Ah the age old quest for immortality and the hope that the pages of history will not fold on oneself as they have for millions of others and that you will be forgotten as a part of the human enterprise...not even a whisper through the ages that you even existed at all. The attempts to escape the inevitability, even if it be in the form of a social security number recorded in some archive deep below some mountain.

    "O Farid! Do not speak bad about the dust for there is nothing like it.
    While you exist it remain below your feet but when you die it covers your head." - Farid uddin Attar (ra)

    Peace.

    I honestly find that a bit silly. If a story of mine has made someone I care feel something, that’s all that really matters.

    As Vonnegut said, if you try to make love to the world, you’ll just get pneumonia.

    • Replies: @Talha
    It wasn't meant to be a criticism. The certainty of one's mortality is often the catalyst for some of the greatest efforts of human beings.

    The spiritual realm certainly does not escape this - the spiritual masters of the path I tread mentioned often how one should reflect on the fact that one will never be able to recover the number of minutes and seconds that have passed one by, and that it should spur one to action to make the most of their life - especially striving towards one's ultimate goal.


    As Vonnegut said, if you try to make love to the world
     
    My point was not about trying to please people either; Caligula also made his mark on the world, but for the wrong reasons.

    One figures out what one's goal is and the specter of death lurking around the corner should spur one on to pursue it with excellence. If writing does that for you - awesome!

    Either way, your diction and style makes it clear you have a refinement to your writing and have a good command of the English language.

    Peace.

    , @Jeff Stryker
    Nothing online is really "published". Its just digital bits uploaded. Graphic artist here. If your writing is in print and you did not pay to self-publish and its in the book stores.
  651. @AP
    As Flynn noted, Siberian villagers 1o0 years ago had IQs in the 70s. I have seen a number of modern Balkan villagers who led functional lives (raised families, worked, etc.) and who scored in the 70s on nonverbal IQ tests.

    Africans almost certainly will have a lower ceiling for their average than do Europeans and Asians, but it is not 70.

    The only large-scale, trans-racial adoption study following Blacks well into puberty found those adopted by White upper-middle class households averaged 89 at age 17 – comparable to other Blacks in the surrounding Upper Midwest. The had regressed considerably since age 7, so let’s say they continue to regress in early adulthood and settle into 87 by age 30*. Blacks in this region have more White admixture.

    I would guess 80-83 for average, un-admixed Bantus raised in a contemporary, middle class American setting.

    Equalizing for environment (middle class American) I would guesstimate the following numbers for a few major racial groups based on 100 for Whites. Equalizing for environment means you can’t compare SE Asian street kids to White or Black Americans. Again, just a guesstimate based on lots of studies I’ve seen but can’t cite off memory.

    NE. Asians: 103-106
    US Whites: 100
    50/50 mestizos; SE Asians; S Indians: 94-96
    Pure Bantu: 80+

    *Heritablility of IQ is low in childhood, increases sharply at puberty, and continues to increase very slowly and slightly until death (same pattern is observed for all measurable behavioral traits).

    On a side note, posters on here need to reconcile their assertions with studies of Monozygotic Twins Reared Apart (MZA). MZA offer the best evidence and estimates of the heritablility of IQ. It’s the only true method we have to isolate heritability within certain environments. Note MZA studies are large, numerous, and replicate. Basically the gold standard of science. To make it at as brief as possible for the uninitiated:

    MZA studies show:
    -no effect of SES on IQ including environments as diverse as American working class to wealthy (there’s no evidence on extreme environments that I know of, eg: harsh physical abuse; growing up in a third-world slum, etc)
    -in normal American environments (working class to wealthy), the heritability of IQ in adulthood is around .70-.78

    For a quick summary, see “Sources of Human Psychological Differences” Bouchard et al in Science Vol 250.

    For more detailed analysis, see Segal’s book “Born Together—Reared Apart” She was one of the main researchers in the Minnesota study.

    • Replies: @res
    Bouchard paper available at http://web.missouri.edu/~segerti/1000H/Bouchard.pdf
  652. @Daniel Chieh
    I honestly find that a bit silly. If a story of mine has made someone I care feel something, that's all that really matters.

    As Vonnegut said, if you try to make love to the world, you'll just get pneumonia.

    It wasn’t meant to be a criticism. The certainty of one’s mortality is often the catalyst for some of the greatest efforts of human beings.

    The spiritual realm certainly does not escape this – the spiritual masters of the path I tread mentioned often how one should reflect on the fact that one will never be able to recover the number of minutes and seconds that have passed one by, and that it should spur one to action to make the most of their life – especially striving towards one’s ultimate goal.

    As Vonnegut said, if you try to make love to the world

    My point was not about trying to please people either; Caligula also made his mark on the world, but for the wrong reasons.

    One figures out what one’s goal is and the specter of death lurking around the corner should spur one on to pursue it with excellence. If writing does that for you – awesome!

    Either way, your diction and style makes it clear you have a refinement to your writing and have a good command of the English language.

    Peace.

  653. @TheDividualist
    These stuff are really too easy. Let's just assume it was 30km away so the trip back was 1 hour and the trip there 1.5 hours. So 60km in 2.5 hours, that is obviously 24 km/h.

    Just like with question 6 (if she rode 7 km in a quarter hour, how much in a full hour?) it is reformulating the question in an easier way what is key, not solving it.

    In such reformulations I always set a variable at 1, in this case the duration of the trip back. Because if it is the distance or the trip to, I would have to work with less round numbers. This is really obvious help you can give yourself.

    BTW poor Americans. If she ran to the river which is 900 yards away in 9 minutes and she found a shorter route 1200 feet away so she ran back in 6 minutes, what is her min/mile running pace? What is the mpg of a car that followed her all the way at the same speed and burned 3 fluid ounces of gas? LOL. I really hope your kids have to deal with shit like this at school, maybe it will make them adopt metric.

    Great paragraph about the stupidity of the American system of units. I’ve made the same point before and been hooted down for doing so. But if only……if only they had studied chemistry, physics or engineering and used a system in which both weight and measure were directly related in base ten units then they would realize how crippling the American system is with its endless conversion factors.

    Isaac Asimov made the same point in response to criticism launched by those who claimed that good ol’ Grandad passed tests in high school that we today can’t pass in college! Yeah, Asimov said, and let’s have a look at one of those tests. The first ten questions involved converting such things as hogsheads to barrels, ricks of wood to bales of hay, stacks of hides and so on. Utterly useless stuff, relevant only to persons steeped in those archaic units.

    Make Unit systems as transparent as possible.

    • Replies: @songbird
    Asimov had some really crazy ideas too. He was for global government and mass immigration. He did, however, support nuclear energy which is an odd combination.
  654. @ThreeCranes
    Great paragraph about the stupidity of the American system of units. I've made the same point before and been hooted down for doing so. But if only......if only they had studied chemistry, physics or engineering and used a system in which both weight and measure were directly related in base ten units then they would realize how crippling the American system is with its endless conversion factors.

    Isaac Asimov made the same point in response to criticism launched by those who claimed that good ol' Grandad passed tests in high school that we today can't pass in college! Yeah, Asimov said, and let's have a look at one of those tests. The first ten questions involved converting such things as hogsheads to barrels, ricks of wood to bales of hay, stacks of hides and so on. Utterly useless stuff, relevant only to persons steeped in those archaic units.

    Make Unit systems as transparent as possible.

    Asimov had some really crazy ideas too. He was for global government and mass immigration. He did, however, support nuclear energy which is an odd combination.

    • Replies: @Anatoly Karlin
    Global government was much more popular in the 1940s-50s than it is today. I think support for nuclear energy was even stronger then than it is now (Americans are relative atomophiles by global standards). So it's only the mass immigration part that would be unusual.
  655. @Daniel Chieh
    Hee.

    I really like writing; I was musing on utu's comment that good writing is hard to learning and debated it internally for awhile. I think ultimately its one of those things that you can improve through practice, but having the right personality and mentality is essential, and how much of that is genetically influenced? My grandfather was a diplomat and journalist, so there's definitely some heritage there.

    My initial work was horrific, I still remember it faintly: my 15 year old self and the verbal vomit I must have inflicted on some poor beings. Over many years of practice, I've had some wins along with the reams of crap I produce so gradually I think that I've gotten somewhere. Adult life has made it harder, of course but I still try to do bits and pieces. Its "one's soul" so to speak, an almost religious experience at times and a desire to, for what little it is worth, to produce something of beauty. Vanishing as it might be, its a joy to share one's thoughts with others and hope that it holds some meaning for them too.

    I was musing on utu’s comment that good writing is hard to learn

    I think some people have aptitude for it while it is very hard for many. They teach creative writing in schools. I think it is an American invention. In the past some people wrote and some of them became successful writers though they got some ideas from other writers but on their own and not via teachers and creative writing workshops.

    But when I wrote about it it was really a put down for all those who bailed out form studying math and accepted a self defeating belief that they were not good at math while probably thinking that they were good at something else like writing, which most often there were not. Yes, they can write but their writing skills are often equivalent to the skills of basic arithmetic. There is no phrase ‘I am not good at writing’ functioning in our culture while there is one for math meaning that everybody thinks that can write and even may think they are good at it. Contrary to a majority view I believe one can teach math to more people than good writing.

    Good creative writing is really an interesting phenomena. Many great writers had completely different methods and mental processes. I am particularly impressed by those in 19 c and earlier who wrote on impulse like in a trans and their first version was final not needing any edits. I suspect that if you took computers away most contemporary writers would not be able to write as they are dependent on ability of doing countless edits. Good editing greatly improves things but often it can’t hide bad writing. Bad writing is a norm nowadays. An interesting case is Raymond Carver (who I used to like) who was really a creation of his editor.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    I never understood "creative writing" courses. I think that Scott Fitzgerald taught one once and it might have benefitted a few but its really silly for something that's so personal, and when it comes to basic style and grammar, one would think that English classes are more appropriate for that.

    At any rate, I learned in a rather traditional way, I suppose; through a guild and an artist colony, which was an interesting experience. I think that's the best way to learn something like that, to be surrounded by peers of equal literary enthusiasm and to take notes from the masters more spiritually than literally. There was a writer(Nabokov? I think) who took the time to rewrite one of his influences letter by letter, word by word, until he could "feel" the thought process of the original writer. I've doing something like that once and I can attest to some value of it.

    I've heard of the notion of the editor as a co-creator as of late. The notion escapes me - writing seems to be such a personal endeavour that having the editor engage too much would seem to wander into "writing by committee" which is sure to produce dross. But yes, its pretty amazing looking at today's lit and then at say, R.E. Howard's poetry-in-prose and wonder what the heck happened.
  656. @AaronB
    If you believe meaning can only be found in physical existence, then you are the nihilist.

    And being a joker comes from being so intensely serious that one sees through it all.

    Unserious people like you stop st the surface, and take it all seriously.

    Humor is the mark of the philosopher.

    Lay off the acid for a few months and get back to me.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    No can do.
  657. @RaceRealist88
    I just said that there are no psychophysical laws so the physical cannot explain the mental. That answers the question.

    • LOL: Tyrion 2
  658. @Tyrion 2
    Lay off the acid for a few months and get back to me.

    No can do.

  659. @AP
    Conservatives tend to be more physically attractive, on average, than are liberals, however:

    https://www.newsweek.com/attractive-people-vote-democrat-republican-easier-lives-study-794966

    But research shows that intelligence is correlated with economic conservatism and social liberalism.

    Conservatives tend to be more physically attractive, on average, than are liberals

    Says who? Physical beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It is subjective. It varies in time and place.

    Obesity on the other hand is an objective measurement. The states with the highest obesity rates are all Conservative Red States. The fattest states are also the ones with the lowest white IQ.

    Do you find obese people physically attractive?

    • Replies: @DFH
    And yet poor white people are still better than your people. But I suppose hating them is a coping strategy, like claiming that Beethoven was black.
    , @AP

    "Conservatives tend to be more physically attractive, on average, than are liberals"

    Says who?
     
    For example:

    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-the-life-sciences/article/effects-of-physical-attractiveness-on-political-beliefs/D5214D0CAE37EE5947B7BF29762547EE

    Physical attractiveness is an important social factor in our daily interactions. Scholars in social psychology provide evidence that attractiveness stereotypes and the “halo effect” are prominent in affecting the traits we attribute to others. However, the interest in attractiveness has not directly filtered down to questions of political behavior beyond candidates and elites. Utilizing measures of attractiveness across multiple surveys, we examine the relationship between attractiveness and political beliefs. Controlling for socioeconomic status, we find that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican. These findings suggest an additional mechanism for political socialization that has further implications for understanding how the body intertwines with the social nature of politics.

    Physical beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It is subjective. It varies in time and place.
     
    Sure, but people do have an intuitive sense of who is or is not attractive, with underlying aspects such as facial symmetry, pleasantness of demeanor, etc.

    Obesity on the other hand is an objective measurement. The states with the highest obesity rates are all Conservative Red States. The fattest states are also the ones with the lowest white IQ.
     
    Obesity is also linked to poverty and race. Those obese Red states have a lot of people of color living in them. Those are the conservative people in those states.

    The study controls for socioeconomic status and health: on average, wealthy attractive people tend to be more conservative than wealthy poor unattractive ones, similar phenomenon among poor people.

    Do you find obese people physically attractive?
     
    Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles are much more conservative than Westerners. And also much more attractive.

    Within the USA, Utah is famous for how attractive its people are. It is a very conservative state.
  660. @songbird
    Asimov had some really crazy ideas too. He was for global government and mass immigration. He did, however, support nuclear energy which is an odd combination.

    Global government was much more popular in the 1940s-50s than it is today. I think support for nuclear energy was even stronger then than it is now (Americans are relative atomophiles by global standards). So it’s only the mass immigration part that would be unusual.

    • Replies: @songbird
    You're probably right: generational. Makes it an interesting question of how he was imprinted by the earlier culture, and how was it that the culture changed to imprint others differently.

    You can really read some of his love for atomics in his fiction, but, much later, he used to even boost it in front of what I'd consider a hostile audience - college kids in the '70s or '80s. He also made a lot of gab about being a feminist, though I think that was part of his technique to pick up desperate women.

    I'd still say global government is kind of weird for an American, esp. during the Cold War, esp. if you were born in Russia. I mean it is one thing to be a little naive about the UN near the time it was founded, but to actually boost the idea of a future one-world government in the '80s or so is another order of magnitude greater in rarity, I think, even though it was an early theme of his.

    As to diversity, I think he was one of those hypocrites who used to complain when the black school kids walked noisily by his apartment. He talked about how his old neighborhood had been ghettoized, but probably in the leftist sense of some conspiracy to keep blacks down.
  661. @RaceRealist88
    The physical is needed for the mental to exist but the physical does not explain the mental. If there were a lawlike relation between the mental and the physical, then the claim "genes cause psychological traits" would be true. But it's not.

    the physical does not explain the mental.

    This is true. By definition even. The physical can not create the metaphysical. The observable does not explain the observer.

    These atheist-materialist IQists are all ass-backwards.

    • Replies: @DFH

    The physical can not create the metaphysical. The observable does not explain the observer.
     
    Is this the brilliant African philosophy I've heard so much about?
  662. @Bliss

    Conservatives tend to be more physically attractive, on average, than are liberals
     
    Says who? Physical beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It is subjective. It varies in time and place.

    Obesity on the other hand is an objective measurement. The states with the highest obesity rates are all Conservative Red States. The fattest states are also the ones with the lowest white IQ.

    Do you find obese people physically attractive?

    And yet poor white people are still better than your people. But I suppose hating them is a coping strategy, like claiming that Beethoven was black.

    • Replies: @Bliss

    like claiming that Beethoven was black.
     
    Based on descriptions of his physical appearance by those who saw him in real life, Beethoven indeed had african ancestry. He would have been forced to use the black restrooms during the Jim Crow era.



    http://theconcordian.org/2015/02/19/beethoven-may-have-been-african-american

    the following are physical descriptions of Beethoven from various credible sources including, his lovers, students, teachers, anthropologists, historians, and authors.

    “Negroid traits, dark skin, flat, thick nose.”

    “ His face reveals no trace of the German… He was so dark that people dubbed him ‘The Spagnol’ [dark-skinned]”

    “Coal-black hair… stood up around his head.”

    “His somewhat flat, broad nose and rather wide mouth, his small, piercing eyes and swarthy [dark] complexion, pockmarked into the bargain, gave him a strong resemblance to a mulatto”

    “Complexion was brownish, his hair was thick, black, and bristly”

    “Short, stocky, broad shoulders, short neck, round nose, blackish-brown complexion”
     
  663. @Bliss

    the physical does not explain the mental.
     
    This is true. By definition even. The physical can not create the metaphysical. The observable does not explain the observer.

    These atheist-materialist IQists are all ass-backwards.

    The physical can not create the metaphysical. The observable does not explain the observer.

    Is this the brilliant African philosophy I’ve heard so much about?

    • Replies: @Bliss
    If you are so brilliant why didn’t you explain how matter creates the mind?

    Go ahead, amuse us...
  664. @DFH

    The 30-year-old brides are marrying their boyfriends after being together for several years. Low divorce rate among the educated class can be explained by that – no unpleasant surprises after the wedding.
     
    But then why does prior cohabitation make divorce more likely?

    But then why does prior cohabitation make divorce more likely?

    Same people who are forbidden by their religion to cohabit are also forbidden or discouraged to divorce.

  665. @Okechukwu

    Sub-Saharan Africa: ~70
     
    I'm sub-Saharan African and I'm smarter than you. Prove that sub-Saharan Africans have an IQ of 70 or shut-up.

    The irony is, like most race and IQ exponents, the fake Russian Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There's no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.

    What’s funny is that Karlin moved back to Russia hoping to convert Russians to the religion of IQism.

    He wants to be the Prophet who convinces Russians that they are hopelessly doomed, by their own inferior genes. The Chinese, who outnumber Russians by 10 to 1, have on top of that a genetically unassailable 10 point IQ advantage.

    So fuggedabout holding onto Siberia and the Far East fellow Slavic dummkopfs, is what he is trying to tell the “sovoks” (serfs?).

    Maybe he is setting them up for a Han Yoke under Emperor Xi? He is a monarchist after all. Lol.

  666. @RaceRealist88
    Genes are a necessary precondition for behavior but it can't be shown that genes are difference-makers for behavior.
  667. @Anatoly Karlin
    Global government was much more popular in the 1940s-50s than it is today. I think support for nuclear energy was even stronger then than it is now (Americans are relative atomophiles by global standards). So it's only the mass immigration part that would be unusual.

    You’re probably right: generational. Makes it an interesting question of how he was imprinted by the earlier culture, and how was it that the culture changed to imprint others differently.

    You can really read some of his love for atomics in his fiction, but, much later, he used to even boost it in front of what I’d consider a hostile audience – college kids in the ’70s or ’80s. He also made a lot of gab about being a feminist, though I think that was part of his technique to pick up desperate women.

    I’d still say global government is kind of weird for an American, esp. during the Cold War, esp. if you were born in Russia. I mean it is one thing to be a little naive about the UN near the time it was founded, but to actually boost the idea of a future one-world government in the ’80s or so is another order of magnitude greater in rarity, I think, even though it was an early theme of his.

    As to diversity, I think he was one of those hypocrites who used to complain when the black school kids walked noisily by his apartment. He talked about how his old neighborhood had been ghettoized, but probably in the leftist sense of some conspiracy to keep blacks down.

  668. @Bliss

    Conservatives tend to be more physically attractive, on average, than are liberals
     
    Says who? Physical beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It is subjective. It varies in time and place.

    Obesity on the other hand is an objective measurement. The states with the highest obesity rates are all Conservative Red States. The fattest states are also the ones with the lowest white IQ.

    Do you find obese people physically attractive?

    “Conservatives tend to be more physically attractive, on average, than are liberals”

    Says who?

    For example:

    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-the-life-sciences/article/effects-of-physical-attractiveness-on-political-beliefs/D5214D0CAE37EE5947B7BF29762547EE

    Physical attractiveness is an important social factor in our daily interactions. Scholars in social psychology provide evidence that attractiveness stereotypes and the “halo effect” are prominent in affecting the traits we attribute to others. However, the interest in attractiveness has not directly filtered down to questions of political behavior beyond candidates and elites. Utilizing measures of attractiveness across multiple surveys, we examine the relationship between attractiveness and political beliefs. Controlling for socioeconomic status, we find that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican. These findings suggest an additional mechanism for political socialization that has further implications for understanding how the body intertwines with the social nature of politics.

    Physical beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It is subjective. It varies in time and place.

    Sure, but people do have an intuitive sense of who is or is not attractive, with underlying aspects such as facial symmetry, pleasantness of demeanor, etc.

    Obesity on the other hand is an objective measurement. The states with the highest obesity rates are all Conservative Red States. The fattest states are also the ones with the lowest white IQ.

    Obesity is also linked to poverty and race. Those obese Red states have a lot of people of color living in them. Those are the conservative people in those states.

    The study controls for socioeconomic status and health: on average, wealthy attractive people tend to be more conservative than wealthy poor unattractive ones, similar phenomenon among poor people.

    Do you find obese people physically attractive?

    Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles are much more conservative than Westerners. And also much more attractive.

    Within the USA, Utah is famous for how attractive its people are. It is a very conservative state.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Hmmm, seems unlikely.

    White people in NYC are pretty good looking, and pretty damn liberal.

    Its kind of like IQ innit - what studies SAY should be bears little relationship to reality.

    Which, btw, doesn't exist anyways.

    I think we've reached a point where your typical modern scientistic person will look outside the window and see its raining, but will rather believe a study that tells him it isn't.
    , @Dmitry
    Sure, Russia is more politically conservative than many Western countries.

    But within Russia? Let's look for example at Moscow. It sucks up a lot of more beautiful women from across the country, so many attractive girls (at least for girls) are moving to live there compared to many other cities. And yet there is an atmosphere for the city of comparatively more liberal politics.

  669. @AP

    "Conservatives tend to be more physically attractive, on average, than are liberals"

    Says who?
     
    For example:

    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-the-life-sciences/article/effects-of-physical-attractiveness-on-political-beliefs/D5214D0CAE37EE5947B7BF29762547EE

    Physical attractiveness is an important social factor in our daily interactions. Scholars in social psychology provide evidence that attractiveness stereotypes and the “halo effect” are prominent in affecting the traits we attribute to others. However, the interest in attractiveness has not directly filtered down to questions of political behavior beyond candidates and elites. Utilizing measures of attractiveness across multiple surveys, we examine the relationship between attractiveness and political beliefs. Controlling for socioeconomic status, we find that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican. These findings suggest an additional mechanism for political socialization that has further implications for understanding how the body intertwines with the social nature of politics.

    Physical beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It is subjective. It varies in time and place.
     
    Sure, but people do have an intuitive sense of who is or is not attractive, with underlying aspects such as facial symmetry, pleasantness of demeanor, etc.

    Obesity on the other hand is an objective measurement. The states with the highest obesity rates are all Conservative Red States. The fattest states are also the ones with the lowest white IQ.
     
    Obesity is also linked to poverty and race. Those obese Red states have a lot of people of color living in them. Those are the conservative people in those states.

    The study controls for socioeconomic status and health: on average, wealthy attractive people tend to be more conservative than wealthy poor unattractive ones, similar phenomenon among poor people.

    Do you find obese people physically attractive?
     
    Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles are much more conservative than Westerners. And also much more attractive.

    Within the USA, Utah is famous for how attractive its people are. It is a very conservative state.

    Hmmm, seems unlikely.

    White people in NYC are pretty good looking, and pretty damn liberal.

    Its kind of like IQ innit – what studies SAY should be bears little relationship to reality.

    Which, btw, doesn’t exist anyways.

    I think we’ve reached a point where your typical modern scientistic person will look outside the window and see its raining, but will rather believe a study that tells him it isn’t.

    • Replies: @AP

    Hmmm, seems unlikely.

    White people in NYC are pretty good looking, and pretty damn liberal.
     
    And the more conservative among them are also the more attractive among them.

    But they aren't even that good-looking (unless they are immigrants from Eastern Europe), though they are thinner from all the walking.
  670. @DFH
    And yet poor white people are still better than your people. But I suppose hating them is a coping strategy, like claiming that Beethoven was black.

    like claiming that Beethoven was black.

    Based on descriptions of his physical appearance by those who saw him in real life, Beethoven indeed had african ancestry. He would have been forced to use the black restrooms during the Jim Crow era.

    [MORE]

    http://theconcordian.org/2015/02/19/beethoven-may-have-been-african-american

    the following are physical descriptions of Beethoven from various credible sources including, his lovers, students, teachers, anthropologists, historians, and authors.

    “Negroid traits, dark skin, flat, thick nose.”

    “ His face reveals no trace of the German… He was so dark that people dubbed him ‘The Spagnol’ [dark-skinned]”

    “Coal-black hair… stood up around his head.”

    “His somewhat flat, broad nose and rather wide mouth, his small, piercing eyes and swarthy [dark] complexion, pockmarked into the bargain, gave him a strong resemblance to a mulatto”

    “Complexion was brownish, his hair was thick, black, and bristly”

    “Short, stocky, broad shoulders, short neck, round nose, blackish-brown complexion”

    • Replies: @AP

    Based on descriptions of his physical appearance by those who saw him in real life,

    http://theconcordian.org/2015/02/19/beethoven-may-have-been-african-american
     
    The linked source is bizarre:

    I’ll start with a little history. In 711 A.D., the Moors (black-skinned Muslims of North Africa) crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into what was then the Spanish Netherlands.
     
    Author is ignorant of really basic history.

    Moors were not black-skinned and Spanish Netherlands aren't directly north of Gibraltar.

    Beethoven’s mother, Maria Magdalena Keverich, was likely Moorish, being born in the area that was under the direct control of the Moors. Beethoven’s father, Johann Van, was half-Flemish, with Belgium also being within the Moorish territory.
     
    Belgium was never Moorish territory. And Maria Magdalene was born near Koblenz, in western Germany, which was never owned by the Moors.

    Was your post a joke?
    , @Hyperborean
    Why link to something where one can easily find refutations in the comments section?

    From commenter 'Matteo De Nero', and he doesn't even touch on every error:


    This essay is incorrect on so many basic, irrefutable points.

    1) The “Spanish Netherlands”, established in 1581, were not across the Gibraltar Straits from North Africa: they were up by the North Sea, in the area of the present-day Netherlands and Belgium. The Moors DID invade the Iberian Peninsula in the year 711, and though their realm lasted hundreds of years, it never occupied more than about 2/3rds of the peninsula, hundreds of miles from the Netherlands. The Moors never set foot in the Netherlands as conquerors or rulers. By the late 1200s, this Moorish realm was reduced to a small rump in the far south of the Iberian Peninsula, hanging on until it was conquered by Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1492, eighty-nine years BEFORE the establishment of the “Spanish Netherlands”.

    2)During the time of the Moorish realm in Spain, the Netherlands were part of the ancestral holdings of the House of Valois-Burgundy. In 1477, the heir of this dynasty, Mary of Burgundy, married the Austrian Maximilian von Habsburg. Maximilian was Archduke of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor (i.e. King of the Germans), and also ruled parts of Italy. After their marriage, the Netherlands became known as the “Habsburg Netherlands”. Mary and Maximilian arranged the marriage of their son, Philip I, to Joanna of Castille, the daughter of Ferdinand II and Isabella. Philip and Joanna’s son, Charles V, was probably the greatest ruler in the history of Europe, inheriting Spain and its New World possessions, Burgundy, and the Habsburg’s possessions in Central Europe and Italy. Charles eventually grew weary of his vast realm and decided to abdicate, bequeathing his Central European and Italian holdings to his brother, Frederick, and his Spanish and Burgundian holdings to his son, Philip II. Finally, with the Act of Abjuration of 1581, eighty-nine years AFTER the end of the Moorish realm, the “Habsburg Netherlands” became known as the “Spanish Netherlands”. The Spanish connection was as a hereditary possession of the Spanish branch of the Habsburg Dynasty. The right was through Salic Law, not through conquest.

    3)Beethoven’s genealogy is well-researched: he was 3/4 German of peasant and middle-class stock. The other 1/4 was Dutch and Flemish of peasant stock. His paternal grandfather’s family came from the Brabant region of what is now the north of Belgium and the south of the Netherlands, with some Flemish as well. His mother was Rheinland German. Beethoven’s face, especially his eyes, look typical of so many Dutch and Belgians even today, with slight epicanthic folds. His lips were thin, not full, as shown clearly in his life mask and numerous paintings. Lots of Europeans have coarse or wiry hair – it doesn’t necessarily mean wooly hair! Lots of Europeans, even Northern Europeans, have dark or tanned skin. Is there a chance that he had an African ancestor? Sure! I have some a[n]d you wou[l]d never guess it in a million years. Of course I’m not famous. Maybe Beethoven was descended from a Moorish trader who traveled to Bruges centuries before, but not because of nonsensical, non-existant “Moorish rule” of the Spanish Netherlands!
     
  671. @anonymous coward

    economic success
     
    There's no such thing as "economic success".

    Or, rather, there is no single valid metric of "success" in this space.

    Consider Equatorial Guinea, an "economically successful" country with a GDP (PPP per capita) comparable to the Czech Republic. Yet it is still a classic African shithole, with literal cannibals roaming the streets.

    Consider again the Ukraine, which is a Somalia-tier failed state, with a failed economy to match it. Yet it is full of SWPL white people who drink craft beer, enjoy boutique board games and walk alone at night.

    EG is a tiny country with a huge oil production economy. The average GDP is meaningless, because the rich take most of the money and the poor live terribly. It’s a kleptocracy as a result, and thus not comparable to genuinely developed countries of similar GDP.

  672. @Bliss

    like claiming that Beethoven was black.
     
    Based on descriptions of his physical appearance by those who saw him in real life, Beethoven indeed had african ancestry. He would have been forced to use the black restrooms during the Jim Crow era.



    http://theconcordian.org/2015/02/19/beethoven-may-have-been-african-american

    the following are physical descriptions of Beethoven from various credible sources including, his lovers, students, teachers, anthropologists, historians, and authors.

    “Negroid traits, dark skin, flat, thick nose.”

    “ His face reveals no trace of the German… He was so dark that people dubbed him ‘The Spagnol’ [dark-skinned]”

    “Coal-black hair… stood up around his head.”

    “His somewhat flat, broad nose and rather wide mouth, his small, piercing eyes and swarthy [dark] complexion, pockmarked into the bargain, gave him a strong resemblance to a mulatto”

    “Complexion was brownish, his hair was thick, black, and bristly”

    “Short, stocky, broad shoulders, short neck, round nose, blackish-brown complexion”
     

    Based on descriptions of his physical appearance by those who saw him in real life,

    http://theconcordian.org/2015/02/19/beethoven-may-have-been-african-american

    The linked source is bizarre:

    I’ll start with a little history. In 711 A.D., the Moors (black-skinned Muslims of North Africa) crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into what was then the Spanish Netherlands.

    Author is ignorant of really basic history.

    Moors were not black-skinned and Spanish Netherlands aren’t directly north of Gibraltar.

    Beethoven’s mother, Maria Magdalena Keverich, was likely Moorish, being born in the area that was under the direct control of the Moors. Beethoven’s father, Johann Van, was half-Flemish, with Belgium also being within the Moorish territory.

    Belgium was never Moorish territory. And Maria Magdalene was born near Koblenz, in western Germany, which was never owned by the Moors.

    Was your post a joke?

    • Replies: @Tyrion 2
    The URL is hilarious. It says Beethoven may have been African American...
  673. @AaronB
    Hmmm, seems unlikely.

    White people in NYC are pretty good looking, and pretty damn liberal.

    Its kind of like IQ innit - what studies SAY should be bears little relationship to reality.

    Which, btw, doesn't exist anyways.

    I think we've reached a point where your typical modern scientistic person will look outside the window and see its raining, but will rather believe a study that tells him it isn't.

    Hmmm, seems unlikely.

    White people in NYC are pretty good looking, and pretty damn liberal.

    And the more conservative among them are also the more attractive among them.

    But they aren’t even that good-looking (unless they are immigrants from Eastern Europe), though they are thinner from all the walking.

  674. @Bliss

    like claiming that Beethoven was black.
     
    Based on descriptions of his physical appearance by those who saw him in real life, Beethoven indeed had african ancestry. He would have been forced to use the black restrooms during the Jim Crow era.



    http://theconcordian.org/2015/02/19/beethoven-may-have-been-african-american

    the following are physical descriptions of Beethoven from various credible sources including, his lovers, students, teachers, anthropologists, historians, and authors.

    “Negroid traits, dark skin, flat, thick nose.”

    “ His face reveals no trace of the German… He was so dark that people dubbed him ‘The Spagnol’ [dark-skinned]”

    “Coal-black hair… stood up around his head.”

    “His somewhat flat, broad nose and rather wide mouth, his small, piercing eyes and swarthy [dark] complexion, pockmarked into the bargain, gave him a strong resemblance to a mulatto”

    “Complexion was brownish, his hair was thick, black, and bristly”

    “Short, stocky, broad shoulders, short neck, round nose, blackish-brown complexion”
     

    Why link to something where one can easily find refutations in the comments section?

    From commenter ‘Matteo De Nero’, and he doesn’t even touch on every error:

    [MORE]

    This essay is incorrect on so many basic, irrefutable points.

    1) The “Spanish Netherlands”, established in 1581, were not across the Gibraltar Straits from North Africa: they were up by the North Sea, in the area of the present-day Netherlands and Belgium. The Moors DID invade the Iberian Peninsula in the year 711, and though their realm lasted hundreds of years, it never occupied more than about 2/3rds of the peninsula, hundreds of miles from the Netherlands. The Moors never set foot in the Netherlands as conquerors or rulers. By the late 1200s, this Moorish realm was reduced to a small rump in the far south of the Iberian Peninsula, hanging on until it was conquered by Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1492, eighty-nine years BEFORE the establishment of the “Spanish Netherlands”.

    2)During the time of the Moorish realm in Spain, the Netherlands were part of the ancestral holdings of the House of Valois-Burgundy. In 1477, the heir of this dynasty, Mary of Burgundy, married the Austrian Maximilian von Habsburg. Maximilian was Archduke of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor (i.e. King of the Germans), and also ruled parts of Italy. After their marriage, the Netherlands became known as the “Habsburg Netherlands”. Mary and Maximilian arranged the marriage of their son, Philip I, to Joanna of Castille, the daughter of Ferdinand II and Isabella. Philip and Joanna’s son, Charles V, was probably the greatest ruler in the history of Europe, inheriting Spain and its New World possessions, Burgundy, and the Habsburg’s possessions in Central Europe and Italy. Charles eventually grew weary of his vast realm and decided to abdicate, bequeathing his Central European and Italian holdings to his brother, Frederick, and his Spanish and Burgundian holdings to his son, Philip II. Finally, with the Act of Abjuration of 1581, eighty-nine years AFTER the end of the Moorish realm, the “Habsburg Netherlands” became known as the “Spanish Netherlands”. The Spanish connection was as a hereditary possession of the Spanish branch of the Habsburg Dynasty. The right was through Salic Law, not through conquest.

    3)Beethoven’s genealogy is well-researched: he was 3/4 German of peasant and middle-class stock. The other 1/4 was Dutch and Flemish of peasant stock. His paternal grandfather’s family came from the Brabant region of what is now the north of Belgium and the south of the Netherlands, with some Flemish as well. His mother was Rheinland German. Beethoven’s face, especially his eyes, look typical of so many Dutch and Belgians even today, with slight epicanthic folds. His lips were thin, not full, as shown clearly in his life mask and numerous paintings. Lots of Europeans have coarse or wiry hair – it doesn’t necessarily mean wooly hair! Lots of Europeans, even Northern Europeans, have dark or tanned skin. Is there a chance that he had an African ancestor? Sure! I have some a[n]d you wou[l]d never guess it in a million years. Of course I’m not famous. Maybe Beethoven was descended from a Moorish trader who traveled to Bruges centuries before, but not because of nonsensical, non-existant “Moorish rule” of the Spanish Netherlands!

    • Replies: @Bliss

    Why link to something where one can easily find refutations in the comments section?
     
    If you think that refutes the eyewitness descriptions of Beethoven you need your head examined. Why do you think his contemporaries would lie about his looks?

    And refute this:

    https://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lypdk5KnkH1qglqe6.jpg

    That’s Beethoven’s favorite portrait of himself. He would have been amazed if he could see the way he has been portrayed by later artists, painting from tainted imagination.
  675. @songbird

    Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There’s no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.
     
    I don't believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends.

    It would be way more accurate to compare an adult African with an IQ of 70 to a white child of around 9 or so of average intelligence. You could have a society of 9 year olds. It would not be the same society, but it would not be absolute chaos and a return to the jungle, like a society of retards more likely would be.

    Besides, many think that the genetic potential of Africans is closer to American blacks' 85. They just don't seem able to achieve it in their own societies. Not to mention, there are undoubtedly individuals and perhaps even groups among Africans with a higher IQ.

    I believe your problem is that you see that as a hopeless situation, when it may be possible that there are different solutions: voluntary segregation of higher IQ blacks from lower, so they can form their own countries, or eugenics. Neither easy politically, but not entirely hopeless.

    Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal

    So where are the millions of socially abnormal retards among the white caucasian Levantine people of the middle-east (Syria etc) whose IQ is in the high 70s? If, as the American Association on Mental Retardation defines it, someone is mentally retarded if they have an IQ below 70-75:

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2001/07/what_are_the_legal_rights_of_the_retarded.html

    there should be many tens of millions of drooling ”white Caucasian” retards in the MENA region since the average IQ of that region is so close to the cut off point for mental retardation.

    https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/48d7/843f6ce714a684a93530a0c8b7da65d185db.pdf

    • Replies: @songbird
    The situation with MENA people is pretty analogous.

    You have the current MENA average, and probably a genetic potential somewhat above that but not 100. There's a similar question of whether this genetic potential can be fully actualized in their own society or only in a more prosperous foreign society.

    Anyway, one would expect you've got to take the average of the MENA group as a reference point, when searching for true mental retardation of MENA people, and use SD from that.

    I'd expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.
  676. @Hyperborean
    Why link to something where one can easily find refutations in the comments section?

    From commenter 'Matteo De Nero', and he doesn't even touch on every error:


    This essay is incorrect on so many basic, irrefutable points.

    1) The “Spanish Netherlands”, established in 1581, were not across the Gibraltar Straits from North Africa: they were up by the North Sea, in the area of the present-day Netherlands and Belgium. The Moors DID invade the Iberian Peninsula in the year 711, and though their realm lasted hundreds of years, it never occupied more than about 2/3rds of the peninsula, hundreds of miles from the Netherlands. The Moors never set foot in the Netherlands as conquerors or rulers. By the late 1200s, this Moorish realm was reduced to a small rump in the far south of the Iberian Peninsula, hanging on until it was conquered by Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1492, eighty-nine years BEFORE the establishment of the “Spanish Netherlands”.

    2)During the time of the Moorish realm in Spain, the Netherlands were part of the ancestral holdings of the House of Valois-Burgundy. In 1477, the heir of this dynasty, Mary of Burgundy, married the Austrian Maximilian von Habsburg. Maximilian was Archduke of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor (i.e. King of the Germans), and also ruled parts of Italy. After their marriage, the Netherlands became known as the “Habsburg Netherlands”. Mary and Maximilian arranged the marriage of their son, Philip I, to Joanna of Castille, the daughter of Ferdinand II and Isabella. Philip and Joanna’s son, Charles V, was probably the greatest ruler in the history of Europe, inheriting Spain and its New World possessions, Burgundy, and the Habsburg’s possessions in Central Europe and Italy. Charles eventually grew weary of his vast realm and decided to abdicate, bequeathing his Central European and Italian holdings to his brother, Frederick, and his Spanish and Burgundian holdings to his son, Philip II. Finally, with the Act of Abjuration of 1581, eighty-nine years AFTER the end of the Moorish realm, the “Habsburg Netherlands” became known as the “Spanish Netherlands”. The Spanish connection was as a hereditary possession of the Spanish branch of the Habsburg Dynasty. The right was through Salic Law, not through conquest.

    3)Beethoven’s genealogy is well-researched: he was 3/4 German of peasant and middle-class stock. The other 1/4 was Dutch and Flemish of peasant stock. His paternal grandfather’s family came from the Brabant region of what is now the north of Belgium and the south of the Netherlands, with some Flemish as well. His mother was Rheinland German. Beethoven’s face, especially his eyes, look typical of so many Dutch and Belgians even today, with slight epicanthic folds. His lips were thin, not full, as shown clearly in his life mask and numerous paintings. Lots of Europeans have coarse or wiry hair – it doesn’t necessarily mean wooly hair! Lots of Europeans, even Northern Europeans, have dark or tanned skin. Is there a chance that he had an African ancestor? Sure! I have some a[n]d you wou[l]d never guess it in a million years. Of course I’m not famous. Maybe Beethoven was descended from a Moorish trader who traveled to Bruges centuries before, but not because of nonsensical, non-existant “Moorish rule” of the Spanish Netherlands!
     

    Why link to something where one can easily find refutations in the comments section?

    If you think that refutes the eyewitness descriptions of Beethoven you need your head examined. Why do you think his contemporaries would lie about his looks?

    And refute this:

    That’s Beethoven’s favorite portrait of himself. He would have been amazed if he could see the way he has been portrayed by later artists, painting from tainted imagination.

    • Replies: @Hyperborean

    And refute this
     
    I can't see it, perhaps you should repost it in another format.

    He would have been amazed if he could see the way he has been portrayed by later artists, painting from tainted imagination.
     
    From a painter who knew and befriended Beethoven.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beethoven-M%C3%A4hler_1804_hires.jpg

    According to wikipedia:

    ''Beethoven apparently liked this portrait very much and owned it until his death.''

  677. @DFH

    The physical can not create the metaphysical. The observable does not explain the observer.
     
    Is this the brilliant African philosophy I've heard so much about?

    If you are so brilliant why didn’t you explain how matter creates the mind?

    Go ahead, amuse us…

  678. @utu

    I was musing on utu’s comment that good writing is hard to learn
     
    I think some people have aptitude for it while it is very hard for many. They teach creative writing in schools. I think it is an American invention. In the past some people wrote and some of them became successful writers though they got some ideas from other writers but on their own and not via teachers and creative writing workshops.

    But when I wrote about it it was really a put down for all those who bailed out form studying math and accepted a self defeating belief that they were not good at math while probably thinking that they were good at something else like writing, which most often there were not. Yes, they can write but their writing skills are often equivalent to the skills of basic arithmetic. There is no phrase 'I am not good at writing' functioning in our culture while there is one for math meaning that everybody thinks that can write and even may think they are good at it. Contrary to a majority view I believe one can teach math to more people than good writing.

    Good creative writing is really an interesting phenomena. Many great writers had completely different methods and mental processes. I am particularly impressed by those in 19 c and earlier who wrote on impulse like in a trans and their first version was final not needing any edits. I suspect that if you took computers away most contemporary writers would not be able to write as they are dependent on ability of doing countless edits. Good editing greatly improves things but often it can't hide bad writing. Bad writing is a norm nowadays. An interesting case is Raymond Carver (who I used to like) who was really a creation of his editor.

    I never understood “creative writing” courses. I think that Scott Fitzgerald taught one once and it might have benefitted a few but its really silly for something that’s so personal, and when it comes to basic style and grammar, one would think that English classes are more appropriate for that.

    At any rate, I learned in a rather traditional way, I suppose; through a guild and an artist colony, which was an interesting experience. I think that’s the best way to learn something like that, to be surrounded by peers of equal literary enthusiasm and to take notes from the masters more spiritually than literally. There was a writer(Nabokov? I think) who took the time to rewrite one of his influences letter by letter, word by word, until he could “feel” the thought process of the original writer. I’ve doing something like that once and I can attest to some value of it.

    I’ve heard of the notion of the editor as a co-creator as of late. The notion escapes me – writing seems to be such a personal endeavour that having the editor engage too much would seem to wander into “writing by committee” which is sure to produce dross. But yes, its pretty amazing looking at today’s lit and then at say, R.E. Howard’s poetry-in-prose and wonder what the heck happened.

  679. @Dmitry

    And you clowns wonder why no one takes you seriously, why you’re relegated to the dregs of the Internet sewer.

     

    And what need for writing insults?

    The claim originates from this paper.
    http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.726.1873&rep=rep1&type=pdf

    I think it's, as the people who wrote the paper think, children's cultural unfamiliarity of you are expected to behave in front of a mirror (i.e. in the test, removing sticker from their face).

    And what need for writing insults?

    Why didn’t you say that to the trashy poster (DFH) whose racist insults Okechukwu was responding to?

    The claim originates from this paper.

    http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.726.1873&rep=rep1&type=pdf

    Why didn’t you point out that children from Fiji, Peru, Grenada and St. Lucia were also part of the experiment?

    I thought the Kenyan and Fijian children freezing before their reflections in the mirror showed higher development than reaching out to touch the reflection as if it was another child. The experiment was crappy BS and produced no really conclusive results.

    • Replies: @for-the-record
    Why didn’t you point out that children from Fiji, Peru, Grenada and St. Lucia were also part of the experiment?

    Here's an interesting interpretation of the results of the experiment from Scientific American:

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/kids-and-animals-who-fail-classic-mirror/
  680. @Anon
    Must affirmative action black women are like that. They spend more time avoiding work than they spend doing work. They really think they should be paid for gossiping, chuckling and chortling, planning potlucks and hours of personal phone conversations

    Oh, God, did you ever nail it. The Black lady has been spending the last 3 weeks selling her neice’s lunches. Last week her neice sold us Jambalaya, which was delicious, but another co-worker and I said that the $14 price should have included cornbread as well. We got read the riot act. Apparently, Black people don’t eat corn bread with Jambalaya. We got a spoon and no napkins either. Co-worker spent hours touting the lunch, walking around, and making copies of the menu, with many revisions, because she is helpless at her clerical job. All of this went on at the City taxpayers’ cost. She is currently spending all of her time planning the next lunch, Fettuccine Alfredo with garlic bread. Very little, if any, work will be done during the sales of the neice’s lunches.

  681. @AB
    LOL do you work for the government? Or live in CA? Both?

    Sounds like a chapter straight out of Heather MacDonald's The Burden of Bad Ideas.

    Yes to both!! I work for a City Government in California! Good guess!

  682. @Anon
    I just assumed it’s a government office.

    Well, you pegged it!

  683. @Bliss

    Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal
     
    So where are the millions of socially abnormal retards among the white caucasian Levantine people of the middle-east (Syria etc) whose IQ is in the high 70s? If, as the American Association on Mental Retardation defines it, someone is mentally retarded if they have an IQ below 70-75:

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2001/07/what_are_the_legal_rights_of_the_retarded.html

    there should be many tens of millions of drooling ”white Caucasian” retards in the MENA region since the average IQ of that region is so close to the cut off point for mental retardation.


    https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/48d7/843f6ce714a684a93530a0c8b7da65d185db.pdf

    The situation with MENA people is pretty analogous.

    You have the current MENA average, and probably a genetic potential somewhat above that but not 100. There’s a similar question of whether this genetic potential can be fully actualized in their own society or only in a more prosperous foreign society.

    Anyway, one would expect you’ve got to take the average of the MENA group as a reference point, when searching for true mental retardation of MENA people, and use SD from that.

    I’d expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.

    • Replies: @Bliss

    I’d expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.
     
    If white Europeans who score 70 on the IQ test are drooling, poorly functioning retards while white Levantines and black Africans are not, then what does that tell you about the veracity of IQ tests?

    Surely it can’t be a true measure of intelligence, can it?
    , @AaronB
    I

    ’d expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.
     
    So a person of one race with an IQ of 70 can be more "functional" (i.e intelligent) than a person of another race.

    Lets extend this principle to high IQs as well, as is only logical - a person of one race with an IQ of 140 can be more intelligent, er, I mean "functional", than a person of another race with an IQ of 140.

    Yet comparisons between races are meaningful, and IQ measures the same quality across races.

    *face palm*

    In 20 years, when materialism is finished, they will write books on the astonishing mass psychosis that afflicted so many people, who somehow were still able to "function" in their daily lives despite suffering severe cognitive distress of some poorly understood etiology.

    Perhaps Daniel Chieh as the only professional writer here will deign to do so.
  684. @songbird

    Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There’s no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.
     
    I don't believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends.

    It would be way more accurate to compare an adult African with an IQ of 70 to a white child of around 9 or so of average intelligence. You could have a society of 9 year olds. It would not be the same society, but it would not be absolute chaos and a return to the jungle, like a society of retards more likely would be.

    Besides, many think that the genetic potential of Africans is closer to American blacks' 85. They just don't seem able to achieve it in their own societies. Not to mention, there are undoubtedly individuals and perhaps even groups among Africans with a higher IQ.

    I believe your problem is that you see that as a hopeless situation, when it may be possible that there are different solutions: voluntary segregation of higher IQ blacks from lower, so they can form their own countries, or eugenics. Neither easy politically, but not entirely hopeless.

    What’s funny is that AK is probably one of the most positive people about Africans in Unz.

    • Agree: songbird
  685. @Daniel Chieh
    I honestly find that a bit silly. If a story of mine has made someone I care feel something, that's all that really matters.

    As Vonnegut said, if you try to make love to the world, you'll just get pneumonia.

    Nothing online is really “published”. Its just digital bits uploaded. Graphic artist here. If your writing is in print and you did not pay to self-publish and its in the book stores.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    It is in book stores and this was way before there was this notion of "self-publish."

    These days, sadly, it'd probably be a lot easier for me to get published. I'll just have to self-identify as a minority gender dysphoric male with lesbian inclinations.

    Fun times.

  686. @songbird
    The situation with MENA people is pretty analogous.

    You have the current MENA average, and probably a genetic potential somewhat above that but not 100. There's a similar question of whether this genetic potential can be fully actualized in their own society or only in a more prosperous foreign society.

    Anyway, one would expect you've got to take the average of the MENA group as a reference point, when searching for true mental retardation of MENA people, and use SD from that.

    I'd expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.

    I’d expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.

    If white Europeans who score 70 on the IQ test are drooling, poorly functioning retards while white Levantines and black Africans are not, then what does that tell you about the veracity of IQ tests?

    Surely it can’t be a true measure of intelligence, can it?

    • Replies: @AP

    If white Europeans who score 70 on the IQ test are drooling, poorly functioning retards
     
    No one, including a white person, who gets an IQ score of 70 is a "drooling, poorly functioning retard." Someone with an IQ of 70 is capable of having a simple job such as bagging groceries, buying things (though counting change may be a problem), taking public transportation home and back, cooking simple things, getting dressed, etc. Some of them may drive. Someone whose IQ is 70 is more intelligent than about 2% of the general population. 1 in 50 people are not less intelligent than a "drooling, poorly functioning retard."
    , @songbird

    Surely it can’t be a true measure of intelligence, can it?
     
    IQ should be treated as a proxy. It is correlated better than just about anything else is to intelligence. That's what gives it meaning, not that it is a 1:1 correlation.

    I think that a paper test inevitably becomes less meaningful at the lower end, when you are trying to compare people on the lower end. It probably would be possible to design such a test, to compare stupid people, but it would probably have to be administered directly by another person and be much more costly.

    IQ tests work better when you get closer to the norm. They also work well far above the norm. Just not well far below it, especially when you are comparing different populations.

    , @Jeff Stryker
    Northeast Asians score higher on IQ tests than Jews.

    But Jews possess a verbal dexterity ideal for deal-making while the Asian manipulates symbols autistically.

    Thus far it means that lawyers run the planet.
    , @The Big Red Scary

    If white Europeans who score 70 on the IQ test are drooling, poorly functioning retards while white Levantines and black Africans are not, then what does that tell you about the veracity of IQ tests?
     
    Take a trait, say height, which is easy and non-controversial to measure, and which, given good nutrition, is known to be highly heritable. If a Kalenjin man is as short as your average Mbuti, then there is probably something seriously wrong with him and you wouldn't be surprised if he had other kinds of problems, while if a Mbuti man is as tall as the average Mbuti man, then you might reasonably expect him to be otherwise normal and healthy.

    Given even a modest degree of heritability of intelligence (however defined or measured), it would be passing strange if every ethnic group on earth had the same mean level of intelligence. Some groups on average are going to be more intelligent than others, just as some groups on average are taller than others. Given two people P and Q of comparable intelligence, one from a group of high average intelligence and the other from a group of low average intelligence, I would expect P to be less functional than Q, since there is probably something wrong with P, while Q is probably just normal.


    The only reason this is in the least controversial is that we have all been indoctrinated into secular humanism, which rejects the soul and so is left only with the brain as the defining characteristic of humanity.
  687. @Bliss

    Why link to something where one can easily find refutations in the comments section?
     
    If you think that refutes the eyewitness descriptions of Beethoven you need your head examined. Why do you think his contemporaries would lie about his looks?

    And refute this:

    https://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lypdk5KnkH1qglqe6.jpg

    That’s Beethoven’s favorite portrait of himself. He would have been amazed if he could see the way he has been portrayed by later artists, painting from tainted imagination.

    And refute this

    I can’t see it, perhaps you should repost it in another format.

    He would have been amazed if he could see the way he has been portrayed by later artists, painting from tainted imagination.

    From a painter who knew and befriended Beethoven.

    According to wikipedia:

    ”Beethoven apparently liked this portrait very much and owned it until his death.”

  688. @Jeff Stryker
    Nothing online is really "published". Its just digital bits uploaded. Graphic artist here. If your writing is in print and you did not pay to self-publish and its in the book stores.

    It is in book stores and this was way before there was this notion of “self-publish.”

    These days, sadly, it’d probably be a lot easier for me to get published. I’ll just have to self-identify as a minority gender dysphoric male with lesbian inclinations.

    Fun times.

  689. @songbird
    The situation with MENA people is pretty analogous.

    You have the current MENA average, and probably a genetic potential somewhat above that but not 100. There's a similar question of whether this genetic potential can be fully actualized in their own society or only in a more prosperous foreign society.

    Anyway, one would expect you've got to take the average of the MENA group as a reference point, when searching for true mental retardation of MENA people, and use SD from that.

    I'd expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.

    I

    ’d expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.

    So a person of one race with an IQ of 70 can be more “functional” (i.e intelligent) than a person of another race.

    Lets extend this principle to high IQs as well, as is only logical – a person of one race with an IQ of 140 can be more intelligent, er, I mean “functional”, than a person of another race with an IQ of 140.

    Yet comparisons between races are meaningful, and IQ measures the same quality across races.

    *face palm*

    In 20 years, when materialism is finished, they will write books on the astonishing mass psychosis that afflicted so many people, who somehow were still able to “function” in their daily lives despite suffering severe cognitive distress of some poorly understood etiology.

    Perhaps Daniel Chieh as the only professional writer here will deign to do so.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    I'll remember to include your fate in one of my scribblings someday.
    , @songbird
    I think comparisons at the middle or the higher end are much more valid than comparisons at the lower end.

    Are people fully interchangeable when they have the same IQ, but it is not at the lower end? Is a Japanese=German=Somali, if they all have a 100 IQ? I very much doubt it. It is quite possible that each may have their additional seperate psychological norms. Maybe, one would make a better salesmen than the others.

    But you'd probably do better to rank job candidates by giving them an IQ test than giving them Myers-Briggs, or by calling their references, or just about anything else, short of hiring them all and comparing them on the job.
  690. @Rosie

    You are confusing intelligence with being a wise and/or a good person.
     
    No I'm not, but I have found that there is a great deal of overlap.

    There are many intelligent people who are neither wise, nor good.
     
    Agreed, but what's your point? Are you saying it's just as well to be ruled over by the stupid as the intelligent? Hierarchy requires some sort of justification other than might makes Right. If not intelligence, what then?

    Agreed, but what’s your point? Are you saying it’s just as well to be ruled over by the stupid as the intelligent?

    I would put it this way…

    1. There is absolutely zero correlation between intelligence and where one lies on the moral or political spectrum.

    2. An indvidual can be taught by some person / organization that is intelligent / wise / moral, or taught by some person / organization that is intelligent / unwise / immoral.

    3. People that are of average or even below average intelligence (to a point), can act morally good and take positions which would be considered wise if they were taught by an intelligent / wise / moral person or organization.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    One of the strongest notions that I've acquired recently from working with someone who is good-natured but really quite dumb(and probably mentally ill) is that "irrational" rules for society-positive behavior are not only valuable, but will be of increasing importance as the world becomes more dumbed down.
    , @Rosie
    OK, Bob. Let's all sign up to be ruled over by morons. You first.
  691. @AaronB
    I

    ’d expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.
     
    So a person of one race with an IQ of 70 can be more "functional" (i.e intelligent) than a person of another race.

    Lets extend this principle to high IQs as well, as is only logical - a person of one race with an IQ of 140 can be more intelligent, er, I mean "functional", than a person of another race with an IQ of 140.

    Yet comparisons between races are meaningful, and IQ measures the same quality across races.

    *face palm*

    In 20 years, when materialism is finished, they will write books on the astonishing mass psychosis that afflicted so many people, who somehow were still able to "function" in their daily lives despite suffering severe cognitive distress of some poorly understood etiology.

    Perhaps Daniel Chieh as the only professional writer here will deign to do so.

    I’ll remember to include your fate in one of my scribblings someday.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Thank you :)

    I trust you will do me full justice.
  692. @Bobzilla

    Agreed, but what’s your point? Are you saying it’s just as well to be ruled over by the stupid as the intelligent?
     
    I would put it this way...

    1. There is absolutely zero correlation between intelligence and where one lies on the moral or political spectrum.

    2. An indvidual can be taught by some person / organization that is intelligent / wise / moral, or taught by some person / organization that is intelligent / unwise / immoral.

    3. People that are of average or even below average intelligence (to a point), can act morally good and take positions which would be considered wise if they were taught by an intelligent / wise / moral person or organization.

    One of the strongest notions that I’ve acquired recently from working with someone who is good-natured but really quite dumb(and probably mentally ill) is that “irrational” rules for society-positive behavior are not only valuable, but will be of increasing importance as the world becomes more dumbed down.

  693. @Daniel Chieh
    I'll remember to include your fate in one of my scribblings someday.

    Thank you :)

    I trust you will do me full justice.

  694. @Bliss

    I’d expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.
     
    If white Europeans who score 70 on the IQ test are drooling, poorly functioning retards while white Levantines and black Africans are not, then what does that tell you about the veracity of IQ tests?

    Surely it can’t be a true measure of intelligence, can it?

    If white Europeans who score 70 on the IQ test are drooling, poorly functioning retards

    No one, including a white person, who gets an IQ score of 70 is a “drooling, poorly functioning retard.” Someone with an IQ of 70 is capable of having a simple job such as bagging groceries, buying things (though counting change may be a problem), taking public transportation home and back, cooking simple things, getting dressed, etc. Some of them may drive. Someone whose IQ is 70 is more intelligent than about 2% of the general population. 1 in 50 people are not less intelligent than a “drooling, poorly functioning retard.”

  695. @Bliss

    I’d expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.
     
    If white Europeans who score 70 on the IQ test are drooling, poorly functioning retards while white Levantines and black Africans are not, then what does that tell you about the veracity of IQ tests?

    Surely it can’t be a true measure of intelligence, can it?

    Surely it can’t be a true measure of intelligence, can it?

    IQ should be treated as a proxy. It is correlated better than just about anything else is to intelligence. That’s what gives it meaning, not that it is a 1:1 correlation.

    I think that a paper test inevitably becomes less meaningful at the lower end, when you are trying to compare people on the lower end. It probably would be possible to design such a test, to compare stupid people, but it would probably have to be administered directly by another person and be much more costly.

    IQ tests work better when you get closer to the norm. They also work well far above the norm. Just not well far below it, especially when you are comparing different populations.

  696. @Bliss

    I’d expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.
     
    If white Europeans who score 70 on the IQ test are drooling, poorly functioning retards while white Levantines and black Africans are not, then what does that tell you about the veracity of IQ tests?

    Surely it can’t be a true measure of intelligence, can it?

    Northeast Asians score higher on IQ tests than Jews.

    But Jews possess a verbal dexterity ideal for deal-making while the Asian manipulates symbols autistically.

    Thus far it means that lawyers run the planet.

  697. These results are hard to believe. The questions top out at jr high algebra story problem level. This isn’t stuff you get rusty at, as perhaps with writing equations involving variables (let x = …let y = ). Even in jr high they gave you harder numbers to multiply or divide.

    So if I have it right: 1) C 2) B 3) D 4) D 5) 11 am 6) 28 km/h. I hope I got those right after writing how easy they are.

    Let’s see if any of you want to take on level 7. I’ve put a lot of thought into this question. Here it is, level 7:

    Our cyclist Helen (from level 2 – more recent pic below) went on a 25 mile out-and-back bike ride. Helen averaged 20.57 mph on the way out, and 23.87 mph on the way back. What was her average speed for the ride?

  698. @AaronB
    I

    ’d expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.
     
    So a person of one race with an IQ of 70 can be more "functional" (i.e intelligent) than a person of another race.

    Lets extend this principle to high IQs as well, as is only logical - a person of one race with an IQ of 140 can be more intelligent, er, I mean "functional", than a person of another race with an IQ of 140.

    Yet comparisons between races are meaningful, and IQ measures the same quality across races.

    *face palm*

    In 20 years, when materialism is finished, they will write books on the astonishing mass psychosis that afflicted so many people, who somehow were still able to "function" in their daily lives despite suffering severe cognitive distress of some poorly understood etiology.

    Perhaps Daniel Chieh as the only professional writer here will deign to do so.

    I think comparisons at the middle or the higher end are much more valid than comparisons at the lower end.

    Are people fully interchangeable when they have the same IQ, but it is not at the lower end? Is a Japanese=German=Somali, if they all have a 100 IQ? I very much doubt it. It is quite possible that each may have their additional seperate psychological norms. Maybe, one would make a better salesmen than the others.

    But you’d probably do better to rank job candidates by giving them an IQ test than giving them Myers-Briggs, or by calling their references, or just about anything else, short of hiring them all and comparing them on the job.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    I suspect interviews are a much better way to assess someone's intellect than giving IQ tests. The German army created a far superior officer corps through that method than the Americans, who unsurprisingly relied on scientific testing.

    Also, job related specific skills testing - as in, a series of problems and situations taken directly from the job that simulate what you're likely to encounter and that will holistically assess your entire psycho-cognitive-social performance in relation to what's required, including performing under stress in realistic conditions.

    But that's not my point.

    My point is if a white person at IQ 70 is severely impaired but a black person isn't, the tests are meaningless across races, and don't measure functionality.
    , @anonymous coward

    But you’d probably do better to rank job candidates by giving them an IQ test than giving them Myers-Briggs, or by calling their references, or just about anything else, short of hiring them all and comparing them on the job.
     
    Business who are only there to make money and have no skin in the political game universally converged on interviews for candidates, not IQ tests. If IQ tests really worked, they'd be used for hiring. I do hiring interviews for elite programmers myself, and "intelligence" is not something I really screen for. Ultimately, "intelligence" doesn't matter even in this very IQ-intensive job. Much more important is an ability to properly budget your time and decompose problems into step-by-step pieces.
  699. @songbird
    I think comparisons at the middle or the higher end are much more valid than comparisons at the lower end.

    Are people fully interchangeable when they have the same IQ, but it is not at the lower end? Is a Japanese=German=Somali, if they all have a 100 IQ? I very much doubt it. It is quite possible that each may have their additional seperate psychological norms. Maybe, one would make a better salesmen than the others.

    But you'd probably do better to rank job candidates by giving them an IQ test than giving them Myers-Briggs, or by calling their references, or just about anything else, short of hiring them all and comparing them on the job.

    I suspect interviews are a much better way to assess someone’s intellect than giving IQ tests. The German army created a far superior officer corps through that method than the Americans, who unsurprisingly relied on scientific testing.

    Also, job related specific skills testing – as in, a series of problems and situations taken directly from the job that simulate what you’re likely to encounter and that will holistically assess your entire psycho-cognitive-social performance in relation to what’s required, including performing under stress in realistic conditions.

    But that’s not my point.

    My point is if a white person at IQ 70 is severely impaired but a black person isn’t, the tests are meaningless across races, and don’t measure functionality.

    • Replies: @Talha

    My point is if a white person at IQ 70 is severely impaired but a black person isn’t, the tests are meaningless across races, and don’t measure functionality.
     
    Agreed; if the initial postulate is true, I don’t know how you can escape the conclusion, unless you can find some other measurable variable as a multiplier or adjuster (like a modifier for personality or aptitude) to make it of use across a racial spectrum. Thus far, I don’t see anybody doing so.

    Peace.

    , @songbird

    My point is if a white person at IQ 70 is severely impaired but a black person isn’t, the tests are meaningless across races, and don’t measure functionality.
     
    That's overreach.

    The tests were originally designed to discover special ed. kids who could benefit from remedial help. That might be someone of 85 or 90 IQ, it is not someone with a 70 IQ. Blacks and whites of IQ 85 are probably much more comparable than 70.

    The whole point of the tests was to find "normal" and compare people to it, not to compare stupid individuals of different races to each other.

    Yes, races have different "normals." That doesn't mean they are meaningless. It is still quite useful to know if an African scores 70 and a German scores 100 and a Japanese scores 130.

    It was originally designed for French kids, so it is really not surprising that it
  700. @AaronB
    I suspect interviews are a much better way to assess someone's intellect than giving IQ tests. The German army created a far superior officer corps through that method than the Americans, who unsurprisingly relied on scientific testing.

    Also, job related specific skills testing - as in, a series of problems and situations taken directly from the job that simulate what you're likely to encounter and that will holistically assess your entire psycho-cognitive-social performance in relation to what's required, including performing under stress in realistic conditions.

    But that's not my point.

    My point is if a white person at IQ 70 is severely impaired but a black person isn't, the tests are meaningless across races, and don't measure functionality.

    My point is if a white person at IQ 70 is severely impaired but a black person isn’t, the tests are meaningless across races, and don’t measure functionality.

    Agreed; if the initial postulate is true, I don’t know how you can escape the conclusion, unless you can find some other measurable variable as a multiplier or adjuster (like a modifier for personality or aptitude) to make it of use across a racial spectrum. Thus far, I don’t see anybody doing so.

    Peace.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Of course. The whole theory just gets sillier the more you examine it.

    But they won't accept it. They haven't been argued into it, they won't be argued out of it.

    Intellectual cultures are a package, a set of ideas that stand and fall together - materialism comes as a package, a set of ideas. You can't pick off individual ideas.

    IQ is part of the materialist package - it will fall with it. No amount of pointing out the illogic in the meantime will do anything.

    A new generation will arise, and see materialism as seriously non functional, and reject it.
    , @songbird
    I thought you and Aaron B would be a supporter of IQ tests.

    Credentialism discourages people from having families. It is economically inefficient, and it helps brainwash the susceptible to hold all the core SJW beliefs - they come from colleges and universities, where classes like feminist studies are taught. It is materialism in a nutshell.

    That bubble needs to be burst, and IQ tests are the only thing that can do it.
  701. @Rosie
    It is indeed staggering, but I don't think the implications are as dire as might appear at first blush. Yes, stupid people vote, but they usually vote with the guidance of some respected authority figure, like a pastor or union leader. Of course, these authority figures are corrupt now, but the point is that elites have a great deal of influence over voters even in a popular democracy with universal suffrage,

    Influence indeed, Robert Michels, the sociologist who devised the Iron Law of Oligarchy
    a political theory, first developed by the German sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book, Political Parties.

    “Who says organization, says oligarchy.” “Historical evolution mocks all the prophylactic measures that have been adopted for the prevention of oligarchy.”

  702. @AP

    Based on descriptions of his physical appearance by those who saw him in real life,

    http://theconcordian.org/2015/02/19/beethoven-may-have-been-african-american
     
    The linked source is bizarre:

    I’ll start with a little history. In 711 A.D., the Moors (black-skinned Muslims of North Africa) crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into what was then the Spanish Netherlands.
     
    Author is ignorant of really basic history.

    Moors were not black-skinned and Spanish Netherlands aren't directly north of Gibraltar.

    Beethoven’s mother, Maria Magdalena Keverich, was likely Moorish, being born in the area that was under the direct control of the Moors. Beethoven’s father, Johann Van, was half-Flemish, with Belgium also being within the Moorish territory.
     
    Belgium was never Moorish territory. And Maria Magdalene was born near Koblenz, in western Germany, which was never owned by the Moors.

    Was your post a joke?

    The URL is hilarious. It says Beethoven may have been African American…

  703. @AP

    "Conservatives tend to be more physically attractive, on average, than are liberals"

    Says who?
     
    For example:

    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-the-life-sciences/article/effects-of-physical-attractiveness-on-political-beliefs/D5214D0CAE37EE5947B7BF29762547EE

    Physical attractiveness is an important social factor in our daily interactions. Scholars in social psychology provide evidence that attractiveness stereotypes and the “halo effect” are prominent in affecting the traits we attribute to others. However, the interest in attractiveness has not directly filtered down to questions of political behavior beyond candidates and elites. Utilizing measures of attractiveness across multiple surveys, we examine the relationship between attractiveness and political beliefs. Controlling for socioeconomic status, we find that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican. These findings suggest an additional mechanism for political socialization that has further implications for understanding how the body intertwines with the social nature of politics.

    Physical beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It is subjective. It varies in time and place.
     
    Sure, but people do have an intuitive sense of who is or is not attractive, with underlying aspects such as facial symmetry, pleasantness of demeanor, etc.

    Obesity on the other hand is an objective measurement. The states with the highest obesity rates are all Conservative Red States. The fattest states are also the ones with the lowest white IQ.
     
    Obesity is also linked to poverty and race. Those obese Red states have a lot of people of color living in them. Those are the conservative people in those states.

    The study controls for socioeconomic status and health: on average, wealthy attractive people tend to be more conservative than wealthy poor unattractive ones, similar phenomenon among poor people.

    Do you find obese people physically attractive?
     
    Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles are much more conservative than Westerners. And also much more attractive.

    Within the USA, Utah is famous for how attractive its people are. It is a very conservative state.

    Sure, Russia is more politically conservative than many Western countries.

    But within Russia? Let’s look for example at Moscow. It sucks up a lot of more beautiful women from across the country, so many attractive girls (at least for girls) are moving to live there compared to many other cities. And yet there is an atmosphere for the city of comparatively more liberal politics.

  704. @Lars Porsena
    I have heard there is a test they can give you that can determine whether you can learn computer programming in advance of any knowledge of the subject. Some programming teachers are aware of these tests and hate them because it suggests they can't actually make any difference with teaching - either you have the ability to learn computer programming or you don't.

    If I recall the test was all about interpreting syntax of code lines. You are not expected to know the correct syntax before you learn the code language, but what they were measuring was the consistency of your interpretation. If you interpreted syntax consistently you could learn to code, but if you interpreted syntax inconsistently the test predicted with very high accuracy that you couldn't learn no matter who taught you or how long and hard you studied.

    It was later retracted.

    https://retractionwatch.com/2014/07/18/the-camel-doesnt-have-two-humps-programming-aptitude-test-canned-for-overzealous-conclusion/

    The retraction was probably overzealous: it retracted too much. And people reacted to that by believing the unscientific things they wanted to believe: there is no innate intelligence, everybody can be taught, we need better teachers, we get better teachers by having them go to school for longer, etc.

  705. Why do the people here and Katlin fetishize IQ so much given that it was the high IQ types that pushed for moral degeneracy and like like promoting hookup culture and the gay rights movement? Possibly because high IQ types see their high IQ as a sign of superiority and so feel that they should not be bounded by old rules on sexual morality.

    • Replies: @Talha
    This is true; higher IQ generally correlated with higher rates of poz.

    Maybe a built-in upper bound for the species, a population control mechanism of sorts...

    Peace.

  706. I’ve long been struck by the difference between Turkey and Mexico on PISA results. In Turkey, 6% score in the second highest rank and 1% in the highest rank. That’s not great, but it’s at least a noticeable number of smart people. In Mexico, only 1% make the second rank and 0% the highest rank. And yet Mexico doesn’t score all that badly overall, it just has only a tiny number of very smart and very hard working people.

    That generally fits with my impression of the two countries. I went to a conference in an upscale resort town in Turkey and the grocery story across the street from the hotel carried a selection of books and magazines, some of which appeared to be intellectually serious. I had lunch with a smart Turkish journalist who now writes smart columns for the NYT. I used to exchange emails with a fellow in Istanbul who advised me that Derrida was as worthless as I assumed, but I should not dismiss Foucault out of hand.

    Mexico, in contrast, appears to have a much smaller intellectual elite than Turkey.

    Perhaps it has something to do with puritanism never getting a foothold in Mexico due to the counter-reformation keeping out potential puritans?

    • Replies: @Anatoly Karlin
    Interesting travel observations.

    Speculations:

    Turks are basically acculturated Greeks (Greek IQ ~= 95; note that Turkey included some of the best Greeks - Ionia had the highest rate of human accomplishment, IIRC; also, a Greek friend observes that Turkey and Greece are incredibly similar, though he's no particular fan of the Turks); acculturated Armenians (Armenian IQ ~= 90, but it might go higher, plus they certainly have the biggest smart fraction of any Caucasian country); a minor Central Asian component (IQ ~= 85, but could go higher); a very minor Slavic component from the Black Sea slave trade (IQ ~= 100); and Kurds (who are pretty dumb, but wouldn't impinge much on the smart fraction share).

    As I understand it, Mexicans are the union (to various regional degrees) of the descendants of Spanish conquistadors (who mostly hailed from Extremadura - hillbilly country, poorest Spanish region today, IQ perhaps 95) and indigenous Indians (IQ ~= 80).
    , @dux.ie
    > Mexico, in contrast, appears to have a much smaller intellectual elite than Turkey.

    http://i63.tinypic.com/2m4uijl.png

    Without consideration of population density, the regional PISA Math histograms of Turkey and Mexico. It seems that the distributions of both populations are bimodal and so unimodal averages are not that meaningful. The upper cluster modal value for TR seems to be higher than that for Mexico and thus TR should have more in PISA Math level 6.
    , @T.Theodore
    Turkey is one the most genetically diverse places in Europe and MENA area. It attracted a constant stream of migrants and conquerors due to Constantinople and the Bosporus etc. Armenians were quite known to be the merchant class, Turkic tribes moving there, the old janaisary system transplanting Balkan euro's to Turkey to become turkified and incorporated in the elite due to their military prowess, huge migration of turkified Balkan people to turkey (These numbers I think were higher then the Greeks kicked out of Turkey), slavery with especially the Crimea Tatars bringing in Slavic and Caucasus people and besides that a large Anatolian population that seems quite okay in intelligence of itself, much like the Alawites, Druze, Copts and other original MENA populations.

    besides that, the Kurds are cousin-cousin inbreeding like mad in the east of the country, which should take its toll. And western Anatolia, aka best turkey, is on par with Germany in reproduction rates.
  707. @songbird

    Anatoly Karlin is a complete moron. There’s no other way to characterize someone who believes that perfectly functional Africans have the same mental capacity as Special Olympics participants.
     
    I don't believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends.

    It would be way more accurate to compare an adult African with an IQ of 70 to a white child of around 9 or so of average intelligence. You could have a society of 9 year olds. It would not be the same society, but it would not be absolute chaos and a return to the jungle, like a society of retards more likely would be.

    Besides, many think that the genetic potential of Africans is closer to American blacks' 85. They just don't seem able to achieve it in their own societies. Not to mention, there are undoubtedly individuals and perhaps even groups among Africans with a higher IQ.

    I believe your problem is that you see that as a hopeless situation, when it may be possible that there are different solutions: voluntary segregation of higher IQ blacks from lower, so they can form their own countries, or eugenics. Neither easy politically, but not entirely hopeless.

    I don’t believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends

    That’s very cute, trying to devise ever more ridiculous talking points to explain why the allegedly functionally retarded Africans are nevertheless perfectly functional. However, either IQ measures functionality or it doesn’t. Test your theories at a scientific conference and prepare for uproarious laughter. That’s before the men in white coats come and take you away.

    It would be way more accurate to compare an adult African with an IQ of 70 to a white child of around 9 or so of average intelligence. You could have a society of 9 year olds. It would not be the same society, but it would not be absolute chaos and a return to the jungle, like a society of retards more likely would be

    You still haven’t presented concrete evidence that Africans have an IQ of 70. Don’t prescribe solutions to a “problem” that exists only in the minds of dumb and delusional white supremacists.

    Besides, many think that the genetic potential of Africans is closer to American blacks’ 85. They just don’t seem able to achieve it in their own societies. Not to mention, there are undoubtedly individuals and perhaps even groups among Africans with a higher IQ.

    First of all, black Americans have an IQ of 91. Further, when adjusted for sociological and historical factors black Americans are likely the highest IQ population in the world. Secondly, achievement is modulated by a range of factors of which intelligence is not the primary causal agent. Besides which, an idea of achievement is highly subjective.

    I believe your problem is that you see that as a hopeless situation, when it may be possible that there are different solutions: voluntary segregation of higher IQ blacks from lower, so they can form their own countries, or eugenics. Neither easy politically, but not entirely hopeless.

    No. You desperately want me to see a made-up “problem” as hopeless. There’s absolutely no evidence to support the proposition that IQ tests actually capture intrinsic intelligence. There are plenty of Africans sitting in villages right now who are natively more intelligent than you. There are also many white high IQ types who are actually stupid with regard to native intelligence. Separated from their learned and highly structured environments, they’re useless.

    The world doesn’t operate on the presumption that Africans are less intelligent. Every country on earth, be it the US, China, Russia, Germany, UK, etc., pursues Africa policy in the full knowledge that Africans are equal in intellectual capacity and intellectual potential. Yet you speak as though Africans being intellectually handicapped is a foregone conclusion that enjoys universal acceptance. But in fact it’s a position held by a vanishingly small fringe of racists and supremacists who aren’t very bright themselves.

    • Replies: @DFH

    You still haven’t presented concrete evidence that Africans have an IQ of 70.
     
    https://archive.org/details/TheAverageIQOfSubSaharanAfricans

    First of all, black Americans have an IQ of 91
     
    Based on what?


    Further, when adjusted for sociological and historical factors black Americans are likely the highest IQ population in the world.
     
    https://img.ifcdn.com/images/d4bb00097bc88179c52f4fab954374ce9b0e15d10d2a3f6848e0631e59a9ee56_1.jpg

    Secondly, achievement is modulated by a range of factors of which intelligence is not the primary causal agent.
     
    IQ is the best single predictor of life outcomes.

    https://i.imgur.com/qIGdGqI.png

    www.emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Intelligence-and-socioeconomic-success-A-meta-analytic-review-of-longitudinal-research.pdf
    (n = 97,083)

    There are plenty of Africans sitting in villages right now who are natively more intelligent than you. There are also many white high IQ types who are actually stupid with regard to native intelligence. Separated from their learned and highly structured environments, they’re useless.

     

    Extreme levels of coping. White Rhodesians, who werequite possibly one of the highest IQ populations on Earth, turned Rhodesia, where Africans had been living in huts for tens of thousands of years, into a modern, advanced country.

    But in fact it’s a position held by a vanishingly small fringe of racists and supremacists who aren’t very bright themselves.
     
    It's accepted by the majority of experts on intelligence.

    https://i.imgur.com/5ThVCxW.png
    , @Tyrion 2

    Further, when adjusted for sociological and historical factors black Americans are likely the highest IQ population in the world.
     
    Anything is possible. Which historical factors are you thinking of?
  708. @Bliss

    And what need for writing insults?
     
    Why didn’t you say that to the trashy poster (DFH) whose racist insults Okechukwu was responding to?

    The claim originates from this paper.

    http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.726.1873&rep=rep1&type=pdf
     
    Why didn’t you point out that children from Fiji, Peru, Grenada and St. Lucia were also part of the experiment?

    I thought the Kenyan and Fijian children freezing before their reflections in the mirror showed higher development than reaching out to touch the reflection as if it was another child. The experiment was crappy BS and produced no really conclusive results.

    Why didn’t you point out that children from Fiji, Peru, Grenada and St. Lucia were also part of the experiment?

    Here’s an interesting interpretation of the results of the experiment from Scientific American:

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/kids-and-animals-who-fail-classic-mirror/

  709. @songbird
    I think comparisons at the middle or the higher end are much more valid than comparisons at the lower end.

    Are people fully interchangeable when they have the same IQ, but it is not at the lower end? Is a Japanese=German=Somali, if they all have a 100 IQ? I very much doubt it. It is quite possible that each may have their additional seperate psychological norms. Maybe, one would make a better salesmen than the others.

    But you'd probably do better to rank job candidates by giving them an IQ test than giving them Myers-Briggs, or by calling their references, or just about anything else, short of hiring them all and comparing them on the job.

    But you’d probably do better to rank job candidates by giving them an IQ test than giving them Myers-Briggs, or by calling their references, or just about anything else, short of hiring them all and comparing them on the job.

    Business who are only there to make money and have no skin in the political game universally converged on interviews for candidates, not IQ tests. If IQ tests really worked, they’d be used for hiring. I do hiring interviews for elite programmers myself, and “intelligence” is not something I really screen for. Ultimately, “intelligence” doesn’t matter even in this very IQ-intensive job. Much more important is an ability to properly budget your time and decompose problems into step-by-step pieces.

    • Replies: @Hyperborean

    Business who are only there to make money and have no skin in the political game universally converged on interviews for candidates, not IQ tests.

     

    At least in America, this is because the courts disliked them.

    Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971)

    https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/401/424/
    , @reiner Tor
    I was hired based mostly on a mathematical test. There were interviews afterwards. Though the interviews seem to be totally useless. I have yet to see an interviewer who could accurately predict on the job performance.
    , @Daniel Chieh
    Do you have your candidates execute unit tests for functionality?
    , @songbird
    There are a lot of very poor business practices.

    How many places in the US have surly blacks in positions where they interact with customers? Or otherwise rude employees? Why aren't they fired immediately? I'll answer: politics. It is hard to fire them, particularly blacks. You might get sued. It will be very expensive.

    No, businesses are nowhere optimized for pure performance or best practices in every regard - that is a demonstrable myth.

    How many require references? Just about all. How useful are they? I'll answer: almost totally useless. The average person doesn't have the integrity to give an honest evaluation of their acquaintances. Some employers just want to get rid of poor employees, so will give glowing references. The only way they are remotely useful might be in identifying axe-murderers, not serial-killer pyschopaths, who are more refined, just rabid axe-murders. Really, they just punish people without social connections.

    IQ tests were banned in the US, exactly because they were useful. Can they be used in the most of the rest of the West? Where they don't even have free speech? I doubt it. Sure, that might leave places like Korea and Japan and China. But as Karlin pointed out, people are smarter there, besides we are ignorant of their practices, and China, for instance, has a very demanding test at the end of high school that helps determine life outcome.

    Many interviews in the US actually use questions designed to be substitutes of IQ tests. For instance, that exact puzzle question about going one mile south, one mile west, and one mile north, and ending up in the same place. How many points like that on the globe? That was one Microsoft used to use, along with many others, like why does a mirror seem to reverse right and left? And, I think that was a bit of vanity. In programing, you can easily ask programing questions to evaluate intelligence. It is not as perfect as an IQ test. But in many other fields, and even in simple jobs, it is much harder.

    Jobs screen for intelligence all the time actually. Why do you think some require a bachelor's degree, other's a graduate or doctoral degree? Better to give an IQ test. It is much cheaper, much fairer, and much less dysgenic than credentialism.
  710. @anonymous coward

    But you’d probably do better to rank job candidates by giving them an IQ test than giving them Myers-Briggs, or by calling their references, or just about anything else, short of hiring them all and comparing them on the job.
     
    Business who are only there to make money and have no skin in the political game universally converged on interviews for candidates, not IQ tests. If IQ tests really worked, they'd be used for hiring. I do hiring interviews for elite programmers myself, and "intelligence" is not something I really screen for. Ultimately, "intelligence" doesn't matter even in this very IQ-intensive job. Much more important is an ability to properly budget your time and decompose problems into step-by-step pieces.

    Business who are only there to make money and have no skin in the political game universally converged on interviews for candidates, not IQ tests.

    At least in America, this is because the courts disliked them.

    Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971)

    https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/401/424/

    • Agree: songbird
    • Replies: @anonymous coward

    At least in America, this is because the courts disliked them.
     
    I don't care about America, let it sink into the sea tomorrow. I'm talking about normal, sane countries.
  711. @Bliss

    I’d expect MENA people with an IQ of 70 to be quite stupid, but probably more functional than whites with the same IQ, though not as functional as blacks.
     
    If white Europeans who score 70 on the IQ test are drooling, poorly functioning retards while white Levantines and black Africans are not, then what does that tell you about the veracity of IQ tests?

    Surely it can’t be a true measure of intelligence, can it?

    If white Europeans who score 70 on the IQ test are drooling, poorly functioning retards while white Levantines and black Africans are not, then what does that tell you about the veracity of IQ tests?

    Take a trait, say height, which is easy and non-controversial to measure, and which, given good nutrition, is known to be highly heritable. If a Kalenjin man is as short as your average Mbuti, then there is probably something seriously wrong with him and you wouldn’t be surprised if he had other kinds of problems, while if a Mbuti man is as tall as the average Mbuti man, then you might reasonably expect him to be otherwise normal and healthy.

    Given even a modest degree of heritability of intelligence (however defined or measured), it would be passing strange if every ethnic group on earth had the same mean level of intelligence. Some groups on average are going to be more intelligent than others, just as some groups on average are taller than others. Given two people P and Q of comparable intelligence, one from a group of high average intelligence and the other from a group of low average intelligence, I would expect P to be less functional than Q, since there is probably something wrong with P, while Q is probably just normal.

    The only reason this is in the least controversial is that we have all been indoctrinated into secular humanism, which rejects the soul and so is left only with the brain as the defining characteristic of humanity.

    • Agree: reiner Tor
    • Replies: @Talha
    Now we're getting somewhere. This points to IQ being linked with environmental factors (functionality in society, etc.) which is what Prof. Lynn has spoken to when mentioning that Westerners of just a few generations ago would be functionally retarded by today's standards in society:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vpqilhW9uI

    Peace.
  712. @AaronB
    Sure, I don't think Latinos are significantly less intelligent than whites.

    I've never noticed it, and its impossible to measure since test scores measure effort as much as anything.

    I've dealt extensively with Asians and I haven't noticed they're more intelligent than whites, although Asian culture is my favourite culture! More ambitious and driven, at the moment, sure.

    I grew up among Jews and haven't noticed they're so much brighter. I remember the surprise of my Jewish friend when he started doing business in the big wide world of nyc and he told us breathlessly that it's a myth Jews are so much smarter than whites, as if it was some kind of momentous discovery :)

    Most of these differences are priorities, levels of ambition, needing to prove oneself, recent cultural humiliations - stuff like that, for the most part.

    There's probably some level of genetic difference but hard to say what. Definitely not the majority.

    If only there were some way of getting past subjective impressions and measuring actual cognitive abilities. Some kind of test that could be administered to people to see how well they do at this sort of thing. Perhaps some really smart people will figure this out and design tests like that and administer them widely to see what sort of results different people have around the world. You’d be in favor of that, right?

    • Replies: @AaronB
    If only. But there isn't.

    What I'm trying to suggest is that this entire concept of extreme scientific control when it comes to humans and is misguided and stupid.

    Elite institutions like the German Army and Oxbridge and Harvard rely on interviews fur a reason, and outperform institutions that don't.

    Countless people with perfect scores on scientific tests turn out to be people of utterly mediocre ability.

  713. @anonymous coward

    But you’d probably do better to rank job candidates by giving them an IQ test than giving them Myers-Briggs, or by calling their references, or just about anything else, short of hiring them all and comparing them on the job.
     
    Business who are only there to make money and have no skin in the political game universally converged on interviews for candidates, not IQ tests. If IQ tests really worked, they'd be used for hiring. I do hiring interviews for elite programmers myself, and "intelligence" is not something I really screen for. Ultimately, "intelligence" doesn't matter even in this very IQ-intensive job. Much more important is an ability to properly budget your time and decompose problems into step-by-step pieces.

    I was hired based mostly on a mathematical test. There were interviews afterwards. Though the interviews seem to be totally useless. I have yet to see an interviewer who could accurately predict on the job performance.

    • Replies: @anonymous coward

    Though the interviews seem to be totally useless. I have yet to see an interviewer who could accurately predict on the job performance.
     
    You're absolutely wrong. Here's the "one trick" you don't realize: most people are very similar and stereotypical, at least in their professional aspects. I need about five minutes to slot a candidate into his proper role, and I'm rarely wrong. The rest of the interview is just there to make the candidate feel better, like he got a fair shake and all.

    The other "one trick" you don't realize is that often your idea of 'on the job performance' doesn't match your manager's idea. Very, very few companies actually put employee performance into managers' KPI. Most do the opposite: your pay grade is directly proportional to the number of your subordinates. This means hiring lots and lots of incompetents is incentivized, hiring efficiently is punished. (Going up the food chain, this dysfunction is present on all levels: a company with lots of incompetents has a higher valuation, a country with lots of incompetents has a higher GDP.)
  714. @Hyperborean

    Business who are only there to make money and have no skin in the political game universally converged on interviews for candidates, not IQ tests.

     

    At least in America, this is because the courts disliked them.

    Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971)

    https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/401/424/

    At least in America, this is because the courts disliked them.

    I don’t care about America, let it sink into the sea tomorrow. I’m talking about normal, sane countries.

  715. @Bobzilla

    Agreed, but what’s your point? Are you saying it’s just as well to be ruled over by the stupid as the intelligent?
     
    I would put it this way...

    1. There is absolutely zero correlation between intelligence and where one lies on the moral or political spectrum.

    2. An indvidual can be taught by some person / organization that is intelligent / wise / moral, or taught by some person / organization that is intelligent / unwise / immoral.

    3. People that are of average or even below average intelligence (to a point), can act morally good and take positions which would be considered wise if they were taught by an intelligent / wise / moral person or organization.

    OK, Bob. Let’s all sign up to be ruled over by morons. You first.

  716. @reiner Tor
    I was hired based mostly on a mathematical test. There were interviews afterwards. Though the interviews seem to be totally useless. I have yet to see an interviewer who could accurately predict on the job performance.

    Though the interviews seem to be totally useless. I have yet to see an interviewer who could accurately predict on the job performance.

    You’re absolutely wrong. Here’s the “one trick” you don’t realize: most people are very similar and stereotypical, at least in their professional aspects. I need about five minutes to slot a candidate into his proper role, and I’m rarely wrong. The rest of the interview is just there to make the candidate feel better, like he got a fair shake and all.

    The other “one trick” you don’t realize is that often your idea of ‘on the job performance’ doesn’t match your manager’s idea. Very, very few companies actually put employee performance into managers’ KPI. Most do the opposite: your pay grade is directly proportional to the number of your subordinates. This means hiring lots and lots of incompetents is incentivized, hiring efficiently is punished. (Going up the food chain, this dysfunction is present on all levels: a company with lots of incompetents has a higher valuation, a country with lots of incompetents has a higher GDP.)

  717. @Okechukwu

    I don’t believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends
     
    That's very cute, trying to devise ever more ridiculous talking points to explain why the allegedly functionally retarded Africans are nevertheless perfectly functional. However, either IQ measures functionality or it doesn't. Test your theories at a scientific conference and prepare for uproarious laughter. That's before the men in white coats come and take you away.


    It would be way more accurate to compare an adult African with an IQ of 70 to a white child of around 9 or so of average intelligence. You could have a society of 9 year olds. It would not be the same society, but it would not be absolute chaos and a return to the jungle, like a society of retards more likely would be
     
    You still haven't presented concrete evidence that Africans have an IQ of 70. Don't prescribe solutions to a "problem" that exists only in the minds of dumb and delusional white supremacists.

    Besides, many think that the genetic potential of Africans is closer to American blacks’ 85. They just don’t seem able to achieve it in their own societies. Not to mention, there are undoubtedly individuals and perhaps even groups among Africans with a higher IQ.
     
    First of all, black Americans have an IQ of 91. Further, when adjusted for sociological and historical factors black Americans are likely the highest IQ population in the world. Secondly, achievement is modulated by a range of factors of which intelligence is not the primary causal agent. Besides which, an idea of achievement is highly subjective.

    I believe your problem is that you see that as a hopeless situation, when it may be possible that there are different solutions: voluntary segregation of higher IQ blacks from lower, so they can form their own countries, or eugenics. Neither easy politically, but not entirely hopeless.
     
    No. You desperately want me to see a made-up "problem" as hopeless. There's absolutely no evidence to support the proposition that IQ tests actually capture intrinsic intelligence. There are plenty of Africans sitting in villages right now who are natively more intelligent than you. There are also many white high IQ types who are actually stupid with regard to native intelligence. Separated from their learned and highly structured environments, they're useless.

    The world doesn't operate on the presumption that Africans are less intelligent. Every country on earth, be it the US, China, Russia, Germany, UK, etc., pursues Africa policy in the full knowledge that Africans are equal in intellectual capacity and intellectual potential. Yet you speak as though Africans being intellectually handicapped is a foregone conclusion that enjoys universal acceptance. But in fact it's a position held by a vanishingly small fringe of racists and supremacists who aren't very bright themselves.

    You still haven’t presented concrete evidence that Africans have an IQ of 70.

    https://archive.org/details/TheAverageIQOfSubSaharanAfricans

    First of all, black Americans have an IQ of 91

    Based on what?

    Further, when adjusted for sociological and historical factors black Americans are likely the highest IQ population in the world.

    Secondly, achievement is modulated by a range of factors of which intelligence is not the primary causal agent.

    IQ is the best single predictor of life outcomes.

    http://www.emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Intelligence-and-socioeconomic-success-A-meta-analytic-review-of-longitudinal-research.pdf
    (n = 97,083)

    There are plenty of Africans sitting in villages right now who are natively more intelligent than you. There are also many white high IQ types who are actually stupid with regard to native intelligence. Separated from their learned and highly structured environments, they’re useless.

    Extreme levels of coping. White Rhodesians, who werequite possibly one of the highest IQ populations on Earth, turned Rhodesia, where Africans had been living in huts for tens of thousands of years, into a modern, advanced country.

    But in fact it’s a position held by a vanishingly small fringe of racists and supremacists who aren’t very bright themselves.

    It’s accepted by the majority of experts on intelligence.

    • Replies: @Bliss

    IQ is the best single predictor of life outcomes.
     
    That is a flawed study, and the author himself acknowledges it’s limitations. In that chart the lowest correlation of IQ is with income level, which is the life outcome most Americans strive for. What does that tell you?

    Fact is IQ is unreliable and inconsistent as a measurement of intelligence:

    1. IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.

    2. East Asian nations are consistently found to have the highest IQ, yet, as white IQists love to point out, they lag behind in producing creative geniuses.


    White Rhodesians, who were quite possibly one of the highest IQ populations on Earth
     
    You must have learned that at Stormfront. Common sense should have told you that if white South Africans had an IQ of 94 (google it) then white Rhodesians who were of similar stock couldn’t outscore them by that much.
  718. @Nznz
    Why do the people here and Katlin fetishize IQ so much given that it was the high IQ types that pushed for moral degeneracy and like like promoting hookup culture and the gay rights movement? Possibly because high IQ types see their high IQ as a sign of superiority and so feel that they should not be bounded by old rules on sexual morality.

    This is true; higher IQ generally correlated with higher rates of poz.

    Maybe a built-in upper bound for the species, a population control mechanism of sorts…

    Peace.

  719. @Steve Sailer
    I've long been struck by the difference between Turkey and Mexico on PISA results. In Turkey, 6% score in the second highest rank and 1% in the highest rank. That's not great, but it's at least a noticeable number of smart people. In Mexico, only 1% make the second rank and 0% the highest rank. And yet Mexico doesn't score all that badly overall, it just has only a tiny number of very smart and very hard working people.

    That generally fits with my impression of the two countries. I went to a conference in an upscale resort town in Turkey and the grocery story across the street from the hotel carried a selection of books and magazines, some of which appeared to be intellectually serious. I had lunch with a smart Turkish journalist who now writes smart columns for the NYT. I used to exchange emails with a fellow in Istanbul who advised me that Derrida was as worthless as I assumed, but I should not dismiss Foucault out of hand.

    Mexico, in contrast, appears to have a much smaller intellectual elite than Turkey.

    Perhaps it has something to do with puritanism never getting a foothold in Mexico due to the counter-reformation keeping out potential puritans?

    Interesting travel observations.

    Speculations:

    Turks are basically acculturated Greeks (Greek IQ ~= 95; note that Turkey included some of the best Greeks – Ionia had the highest rate of human accomplishment, IIRC; also, a Greek friend observes that Turkey and Greece are incredibly similar, though he’s no particular fan of the Turks); acculturated Armenians (Armenian IQ ~= 90, but it might go higher, plus they certainly have the biggest smart fraction of any Caucasian country); a minor Central Asian component (IQ ~= 85, but could go higher); a very minor Slavic component from the Black Sea slave trade (IQ ~= 100); and Kurds (who are pretty dumb, but wouldn’t impinge much on the smart fraction share).

    As I understand it, Mexicans are the union (to various regional degrees) of the descendants of Spanish conquistadors (who mostly hailed from Extremadura – hillbilly country, poorest Spanish region today, IQ perhaps 95) and indigenous Indians (IQ ~= 80).

  720. @The Big Red Scary

    If white Europeans who score 70 on the IQ test are drooling, poorly functioning retards while white Levantines and black Africans are not, then what does that tell you about the veracity of IQ tests?
     
    Take a trait, say height, which is easy and non-controversial to measure, and which, given good nutrition, is known to be highly heritable. If a Kalenjin man is as short as your average Mbuti, then there is probably something seriously wrong with him and you wouldn't be surprised if he had other kinds of problems, while if a Mbuti man is as tall as the average Mbuti man, then you might reasonably expect him to be otherwise normal and healthy.

    Given even a modest degree of heritability of intelligence (however defined or measured), it would be passing strange if every ethnic group on earth had the same mean level of intelligence. Some groups on average are going to be more intelligent than others, just as some groups on average are taller than others. Given two people P and Q of comparable intelligence, one from a group of high average intelligence and the other from a group of low average intelligence, I would expect P to be less functional than Q, since there is probably something wrong with P, while Q is probably just normal.


    The only reason this is in the least controversial is that we have all been indoctrinated into secular humanism, which rejects the soul and so is left only with the brain as the defining characteristic of humanity.

    Now we’re getting somewhere. This points to IQ being linked with environmental factors (functionality in society, etc.) which is what Prof. Lynn has spoken to when mentioning that Westerners of just a few generations ago would be functionally retarded by today’s standards in society:

    Peace.

    • Disagree: YetAnotherAnon
  721. “If IQ tests really worked, they’d be used for hiring.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co.

    I started my current career with an interview and an IQ test, but that was in the UK. I’m sure a poor IQ test would have ruled me out.

    • Replies: @DFH
    I was rejected for a graduate training scheme because, even though I did extremely well on the IQ test component, the woman sitting in on the group exercise didn't like me enough.
  722. All your obsession with IQ scores here as the alpha and omega of everything makes you people come across as mentally retarded, yes IQ scores probably do play an important role in personal and success, but the big 5 personality traits, in addition to intelligence, are a lot more relevant when you count personal success as bedding a lot of beautiful women driving Ferraris and owning Patel Philippe watches.

    • Replies: @marpa
    While it's true that IQ isn't everything, it remains the biggest statistical correlation to financial success. The personality traits you mention are also important, but they are not as important as IQ. And financial success (in today's world) is the most important fact in male sexual/reproductive success as well. Again, not the only factor, but more important than the others.
    , @notanon

    obsession with IQ scores ... the big 5 personality traits
     
    partially fair point but the reason why it gets obsessive and why the obsessiveness is understandable is the dominant culture doesn't deny the big 5 personality traits but they put all their strength into suppressing the truth about hereditary intelligence.

    why?

    (A: partly liberals not wanting to admit racial differences cos they don't want to upset people and partly the banking mafia wanting to create a planet of 85 IQ slave-cattle)

    (the second reason is quite important)
  723. I remained bothered by the level 4 question.

    The obvious answer is 720, of course, but there’s a problem. The first “complete revolution” of the revolving door will not allow six people to enter the building, but only four. Two will remain inside the door, and not yet in the building. Every following rotation deposits six people, so the total number of people entering the building should be 718, and not 720. Or am I overthinking this?

    • Replies: @Dmitry
    No you're correct. And you can also get different answers still, if you determine whether people inside the door, can be counted, as inside the building or not. (There is ambiguity even in this part of the question)

    A more intelligent, or intellectually honest, child will mark the four options to the question with "None are correct."

    Question is nonsense, for various reasons, which more intelligent children will be distracted by.

    Children who get the "correct" answer, will be the children who can culturally guess what the examiner wants.

    It's a test of cultural closeness to the examiner, but also a test of the student having lack of deeper thinking.

    The "maths" (2 multiplied by 3 multiplied by 4 multiplied by 30) is a question for 10 year olds. However, it's being presented to 15 year olds - so it is far too easy for the age-group.

    If the question was a correctly-designed question, it would write the 4 numbers, and ask people to multiply them. And in this case, we would expect the vast majority, to answer correctly.

    -

    By the way, if discussed this question in university, I would hope more intelligent or engineering students, would see it as question of mechanics, or even crowd dynamics, and think about how fast people (assuming representative sample of the population, which would include obese people, etc) can move through a door of a diameter specifically discussed in the question.

    The door (with a specified 2 meter diameter) is very narrow. It could be that 240 is closer to the correct answer, to an engineer .

    In reality, it also depends on the type of pedestrian involved.

    https://d1rkab7tlqy5f1.cloudfront.net/CiTG/Over%20faculteit/Afdelingen/Transport%20%26%20Planning/Research/Competence%20Centres/Pedestrians/TRB2008.pdf

  724. @Nznz
    All your obsession with IQ scores here as the alpha and omega of everything makes you people come across as mentally retarded, yes IQ scores probably do play an important role in personal and success, but the big 5 personality traits, in addition to intelligence, are a lot more relevant when you count personal success as bedding a lot of beautiful women driving Ferraris and owning Patel Philippe watches.

    While it’s true that IQ isn’t everything, it remains the biggest statistical correlation to financial success. The personality traits you mention are also important, but they are not as important as IQ. And financial success (in today’s world) is the most important fact in male sexual/reproductive success as well. Again, not the only factor, but more important than the others.

  725. @Daniel Chieh

    A country like Thailand for instance has excellent roads – easily as good as what’s found in America. And its airports, subway system, and elevated rail are miles ahead of what’s available in NYC.
     
    Surely you know of the overwhelming financing by China and engineering by China there.

    A company that functions like Amazon reflects a society with a particular “priority profile”. Its ludicrous to suggest the creation of a company like Amazon is primarily – or even largely – a product of IQ. I think you specifically know what I’m talking about.
     
    Hard to say that Amazon wasn't the result of a combination of high aptitude people. Technology is really, really hard to get right, and Amazon is a pretty impressive feat of delivery and execution. It can be pretty evil, but its intelligent evil.

    I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley. Its a lot of smart people there - many of them are quite insane and its very cultish and strange at times, but its not lacking for intelligent, self-motivated people who would be bored to death by the idea of idleness.

    The downside to this are Chinese imports putting locals out of a business…Yin and Yang with there.

  726. @anonymous coward

    But you’d probably do better to rank job candidates by giving them an IQ test than giving them Myers-Briggs, or by calling their references, or just about anything else, short of hiring them all and comparing them on the job.
     
    Business who are only there to make money and have no skin in the political game universally converged on interviews for candidates, not IQ tests. If IQ tests really worked, they'd be used for hiring. I do hiring interviews for elite programmers myself, and "intelligence" is not something I really screen for. Ultimately, "intelligence" doesn't matter even in this very IQ-intensive job. Much more important is an ability to properly budget your time and decompose problems into step-by-step pieces.

    Do you have your candidates execute unit tests for functionality?

  727. @marpa
    I remained bothered by the level 4 question.

    The obvious answer is 720, of course, but there's a problem. The first "complete revolution" of the revolving door will not allow six people to enter the building, but only four. Two will remain inside the door, and not yet in the building. Every following rotation deposits six people, so the total number of people entering the building should be 718, and not 720. Or am I overthinking this?

    No you’re correct. And you can also get different answers still, if you determine whether people inside the door, can be counted, as inside the building or not. (There is ambiguity even in this part of the question)

    A more intelligent, or intellectually honest, child will mark the four options to the question with “None are correct.”

    Question is nonsense, for various reasons, which more intelligent children will be distracted by.

    Children who get the “correct” answer, will be the children who can culturally guess what the examiner wants.

    It’s a test of cultural closeness to the examiner, but also a test of the student having lack of deeper thinking.

    The “maths” (2 multiplied by 3 multiplied by 4 multiplied by 30) is a question for 10 year olds. However, it’s being presented to 15 year olds – so it is far too easy for the age-group.

    If the question was a correctly-designed question, it would write the 4 numbers, and ask people to multiply them. And in this case, we would expect the vast majority, to answer correctly.

    -

    By the way, if discussed this question in university, I would hope more intelligent or engineering students, would see it as question of mechanics, or even crowd dynamics, and think about how fast people (assuming representative sample of the population, which would include obese people, etc) can move through a door of a diameter specifically discussed in the question.

    The door (with a specified 2 meter diameter) is very narrow. It could be that 240 is closer to the correct answer, to an engineer .

    In reality, it also depends on the type of pedestrian involved.

    https://d1rkab7tlqy5f1.cloudfront.net/CiTG/Over%20faculteit/Afdelingen/Transport%20%26%20Planning/Research/Competence%20Centres/Pedestrians/TRB2008.pdf

  728. @marpa
    If only there were some way of getting past subjective impressions and measuring actual cognitive abilities. Some kind of test that could be administered to people to see how well they do at this sort of thing. Perhaps some really smart people will figure this out and design tests like that and administer them widely to see what sort of results different people have around the world. You'd be in favor of that, right?

    If only. But there isn’t.

    What I’m trying to suggest is that this entire concept of extreme scientific control when it comes to humans and is misguided and stupid.

    Elite institutions like the German Army and Oxbridge and Harvard rely on interviews fur a reason, and outperform institutions that don’t.

    Countless people with perfect scores on scientific tests turn out to be people of utterly mediocre ability.

    • Replies: @marpa
    "extreme scientific control" is a straw man. No one believes in that, certainly not IQ testers.

    IQ tests don't predict any specific skill or performance. They don't have anything to say about genetics, environment, culture, or success in life. All they do is measure cognitive reasoning ability. And they do that pretty well.

    But cognitive reasoning ability isn't everything. Of course elite institutions don't rely solely on IQ tests for admission. They don't need to. Most of those who apply already possess high test scores. So they look for other things also. But if applicants lack high scores, that matters. A lot. Because evidence shows that of all the things that matter to success, IQ matters most. It's not enough on its own, but without it, many tasks requiring high cognitive ability are much harder.

    Fortunately, a lot of things in life don't require high cognitive ability. Even important and high-earning positions. European corporate CEOS have an average IQ of only 115. A standard deviation above average, but nothing special. Why? Because other factors are more important than a super high IQ for that job.

    But overall? It still matters. A guy with an 85 IQ won't be able to do that job. Or a lot of higher paying jobs. And some jobs, especially STEM work, really does require high IQ. The tests aren't perfect at measuring it, but they're better than most anything else.

    Cognitive ability, like every other ability, varies by population group. Why? Because of selection pressures. Just as some jobs don't require higher IQ, some environments have not selected for higher IQ. Instead, they select for other traits. The testing supports that assertion. It doesn't make anyone less than human to have a lower IQ than the average. After all, half will always be below average by definition. But it does vary by genetic grouping, just as everything else does. Silly to pretend otherwise.

  729. @anonymous coward

    But you’d probably do better to rank job candidates by giving them an IQ test than giving them Myers-Briggs, or by calling their references, or just about anything else, short of hiring them all and comparing them on the job.
     
    Business who are only there to make money and have no skin in the political game universally converged on interviews for candidates, not IQ tests. If IQ tests really worked, they'd be used for hiring. I do hiring interviews for elite programmers myself, and "intelligence" is not something I really screen for. Ultimately, "intelligence" doesn't matter even in this very IQ-intensive job. Much more important is an ability to properly budget your time and decompose problems into step-by-step pieces.

    There are a lot of very poor business practices.

    How many places in the US have surly blacks in positions where they interact with customers? Or otherwise rude employees? Why aren’t they fired immediately? I’ll answer: politics. It is hard to fire them, particularly blacks. You might get sued. It will be very expensive.

    No, businesses are nowhere optimized for pure performance or best practices in every regard – that is a demonstrable myth.

    How many require references? Just about all. How useful are they? I’ll answer: almost totally useless. The average person doesn’t have the integrity to give an honest evaluation of their acquaintances. Some employers just want to get rid of poor employees, so will give glowing references. The only way they are remotely useful might be in identifying axe-murderers, not serial-killer pyschopaths, who are more refined, just rabid axe-murders. Really, they just punish people without social connections.

    IQ tests were banned in the US, exactly because they were useful. Can they be used in the most of the rest of the West? Where they don’t even have free speech? I doubt it. Sure, that might leave places like Korea and Japan and China. But as Karlin pointed out, people are smarter there, besides we are ignorant of their practices, and China, for instance, has a very demanding test at the end of high school that helps determine life outcome.

    Many interviews in the US actually use questions designed to be substitutes of IQ tests. For instance, that exact puzzle question about going one mile south, one mile west, and one mile north, and ending up in the same place. How many points like that on the globe? That was one Microsoft used to use, along with many others, like why does a mirror seem to reverse right and left? And, I think that was a bit of vanity. In programing, you can easily ask programing questions to evaluate intelligence. It is not as perfect as an IQ test. But in many other fields, and even in simple jobs, it is much harder.

    Jobs screen for intelligence all the time actually. Why do you think some require a bachelor’s degree, other’s a graduate or doctoral degree? Better to give an IQ test. It is much cheaper, much fairer, and much less dysgenic than credentialism.

  730. @notanon
    living as a minority is insecure
    wealth is security

    Interesting point and I can’t say that it doesn’t have an impact.

    I note that some (most?) of the “smartest” ones seem to take the scholarly and scientific path which indicates to me that the perceived “insecurity” is not evenly distributed.

    • Replies: @notanon

    the perceived “insecurity” is not evenly distributed
     
    yes, bell curves - the most paranoid -> the most wealth obsessed
  731. @Talha

    My point is if a white person at IQ 70 is severely impaired but a black person isn’t, the tests are meaningless across races, and don’t measure functionality.
     
    Agreed; if the initial postulate is true, I don’t know how you can escape the conclusion, unless you can find some other measurable variable as a multiplier or adjuster (like a modifier for personality or aptitude) to make it of use across a racial spectrum. Thus far, I don’t see anybody doing so.

    Peace.

    Of course. The whole theory just gets sillier the more you examine it.

    But they won’t accept it. They haven’t been argued into it, they won’t be argued out of it.

    Intellectual cultures are a package, a set of ideas that stand and fall together – materialism comes as a package, a set of ideas. You can’t pick off individual ideas.

    IQ is part of the materialist package – it will fall with it. No amount of pointing out the illogic in the meantime will do anything.

    A new generation will arise, and see materialism as seriously non functional, and reject it.

  732. @YetAnotherAnon
    "If IQ tests really worked, they’d be used for hiring."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co.

    I started my current career with an interview and an IQ test, but that was in the UK. I'm sure a poor IQ test would have ruled me out.

    I was rejected for a graduate training scheme because, even though I did extremely well on the IQ test component, the woman sitting in on the group exercise didn’t like me enough.

  733. @AaronB
    I suspect interviews are a much better way to assess someone's intellect than giving IQ tests. The German army created a far superior officer corps through that method than the Americans, who unsurprisingly relied on scientific testing.

    Also, job related specific skills testing - as in, a series of problems and situations taken directly from the job that simulate what you're likely to encounter and that will holistically assess your entire psycho-cognitive-social performance in relation to what's required, including performing under stress in realistic conditions.

    But that's not my point.

    My point is if a white person at IQ 70 is severely impaired but a black person isn't, the tests are meaningless across races, and don't measure functionality.

    My point is if a white person at IQ 70 is severely impaired but a black person isn’t, the tests are meaningless across races, and don’t measure functionality.

    That’s overreach.

    The tests were originally designed to discover special ed. kids who could benefit from remedial help. That might be someone of 85 or 90 IQ, it is not someone with a 70 IQ. Blacks and whites of IQ 85 are probably much more comparable than 70.

    The whole point of the tests was to find “normal” and compare people to it, not to compare stupid individuals of different races to each other.

    Yes, races have different “normals.” That doesn’t mean they are meaningless. It is still quite useful to know if an African scores 70 and a German scores 100 and a Japanese scores 130.

    It was originally designed for French kids, so it is really not surprising that it

  734. @Talha

    My point is if a white person at IQ 70 is severely impaired but a black person isn’t, the tests are meaningless across races, and don’t measure functionality.
     
    Agreed; if the initial postulate is true, I don’t know how you can escape the conclusion, unless you can find some other measurable variable as a multiplier or adjuster (like a modifier for personality or aptitude) to make it of use across a racial spectrum. Thus far, I don’t see anybody doing so.

    Peace.

    I thought you and Aaron B would be a supporter of IQ tests.

    Credentialism discourages people from having families. It is economically inefficient, and it helps brainwash the susceptible to hold all the core SJW beliefs – they come from colleges and universities, where classes like feminist studies are taught. It is materialism in a nutshell.

    That bubble needs to be burst, and IQ tests are the only thing that can do it.

    • Replies: @Talha
    I’m fine with IQ tests as well as other sorts of tests. They help measure cognitive capabilities. I also think there is a hereditary portion of IQ along with something that is controlled by other factors. I just don’t see why someone would use it as almost a guiding philosophy or algorithm in how to view or determine human achievement. Especially since it seems to be flexible and a moving target.

    It seems to be what Prof. Flynn points out in the video; test for adaptation to abstract forms of thought and knowledge.

    Peace
  735. Greg Cochran on why genes matter more than environment … note the comments on canalization!

    https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2018/09/05/landscapes/

    It’s worth a read!

  736. @songbird
    I thought you and Aaron B would be a supporter of IQ tests.

    Credentialism discourages people from having families. It is economically inefficient, and it helps brainwash the susceptible to hold all the core SJW beliefs - they come from colleges and universities, where classes like feminist studies are taught. It is materialism in a nutshell.

    That bubble needs to be burst, and IQ tests are the only thing that can do it.

    I’m fine with IQ tests as well as other sorts of tests. They help measure cognitive capabilities. I also think there is a hereditary portion of IQ along with something that is controlled by other factors. I just don’t see why someone would use it as almost a guiding philosophy or algorithm in how to view or determine human achievement. Especially since it seems to be flexible and a moving target.

    It seems to be what Prof. Flynn points out in the video; test for adaptation to abstract forms of thought and knowledge.

    Peace

    • Replies: @DFH

    It seems to be what Prof. Flynn points out in the video; test for adaptation to abstract forms of thought and knowledge.
     
    But high-IQ people/populations are better at any mental task (apart from maybe path-finding, which eskimos and aborigines are specialised for). That's what 'g' means.
  737. @Talha
    I’m fine with IQ tests as well as other sorts of tests. They help measure cognitive capabilities. I also think there is a hereditary portion of IQ along with something that is controlled by other factors. I just don’t see why someone would use it as almost a guiding philosophy or algorithm in how to view or determine human achievement. Especially since it seems to be flexible and a moving target.

    It seems to be what Prof. Flynn points out in the video; test for adaptation to abstract forms of thought and knowledge.

    Peace

    It seems to be what Prof. Flynn points out in the video; test for adaptation to abstract forms of thought and knowledge.

    But high-IQ people/populations are better at any mental task (apart from maybe path-finding, which eskimos and aborigines are specialised for). That’s what ‘g’ means.

    • Replies: @Talha
    Sure and their grandparents were registering as mental retards. IQ can move in a population over time; multiple studies have born this out.

    Peace.
    , @Peripatetic commenter

    But high-IQ people/populations are better at any mental task (apart from maybe path-finding, which eskimos and aborigines are specialised for)
     
    And there is evidence that Australian Aborigines have been selected for better visual acuity because it helps their tracking ability.

    In particular, they seem to have a larger striate cortex than any other group.

    http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC1261675

    The brain volumes of 8 male Australian Aborigines and 11 male Caucasians were determined. Total brain volume was significantly smaller for Aborigines (1199 +/- 84 ml) compared to Caucasians (1386 +/- 98 ml). Significantly smaller volumes were also found for cerebellum, prosencephalon-mesencephalon unit, cerebral cortex, frontal cortex, parieto-occipitotemporal cortex, and hippocampus. Volumes of ponsmedulla oblongata unit (21 +/- 3 ml for Aborigines and 22 +/- 3 ml for Caucasians) and visual cortex (14.9 ml +/- 2.6 ml and 14.6 +/- 2.2 ml, respectively) did not differ significantly. The striate cortex extended further onto the lateral surface of the occipital lobe in Aboriginal brains.
     
  738. @Okechukwu

    I don’t believe he ever said that. And that would not be a good way to characterize the real comparison. Blacks with an IQ of 70 are generally not comparable to whites with an IQ of 70, not at the same age. A black with an IQ of 70 is often found to be much more socially normal, more able to talk and have friends
     
    That's very cute, trying to devise ever more ridiculous talking points to explain why the allegedly functionally retarded Africans are nevertheless perfectly functional. However, either IQ measures functionality or it doesn't. Test your theories at a scientific conference and prepare for uproarious laughter. That's before the men in white coats come and take you away.


    It would be way more accurate to compare an adult African with an IQ of 70 to a white child of around 9 or so of average intelligence. You could have a society of 9 year olds. It would not be the same society, but it would not be absolute chaos and a return to the jungle, like a society of retards more likely would be
     
    You still haven't presented concrete evidence that Africans have an IQ of 70. Don't prescribe solutions to a "problem" that exists only in the minds of dumb and delusional white supremacists.

    Besides, many think that the genetic potential of Africans is closer to American blacks’ 85. They just don’t seem able to achieve it in their own societies. Not to mention, there are undoubtedly individuals and perhaps even groups among Africans with a higher IQ.
     
    First of all, black Americans have an IQ of 91. Further, when adjusted for sociological and historical factors black Americans are likely the highest IQ population in the world. Secondly, achievement is modulated by a range of factors of which intelligence is not the primary causal agent. Besides which, an idea of achievement is highly subjective.

    I believe your problem is that you see that as a hopeless situation, when it may be possible that there are different solutions: voluntary segregation of higher IQ blacks from lower, so they can form their own countries, or eugenics. Neither easy politically, but not entirely hopeless.
     
    No. You desperately want me to see a made-up "problem" as hopeless. There's absolutely no evidence to support the proposition that IQ tests actually capture intrinsic intelligence. There are plenty of Africans sitting in villages right now who are natively more intelligent than you. There are also many white high IQ types who are actually stupid with regard to native intelligence. Separated from their learned and highly structured environments, they're useless.

    The world doesn't operate on the presumption that Africans are less intelligent. Every country on earth, be it the US, China, Russia, Germany, UK, etc., pursues Africa policy in the full knowledge that Africans are equal in intellectual capacity and intellectual potential. Yet you speak as though Africans being intellectually handicapped is a foregone conclusion that enjoys universal acceptance. But in fact it's a position held by a vanishingly small fringe of racists and supremacists who aren't very bright themselves.

    Further, when adjusted for sociological and historical factors black Americans are likely the highest IQ population in the world.

    Anything is possible. Which historical factors are you thinking of?

  739. @DFH

    It seems to be what Prof. Flynn points out in the video; test for adaptation to abstract forms of thought and knowledge.
     
    But high-IQ people/populations are better at any mental task (apart from maybe path-finding, which eskimos and aborigines are specialised for). That's what 'g' means.

    Sure and their grandparents were registering as mental retards. IQ can move in a population over time; multiple studies have born this out.

    Peace.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    You can effect population changes through bottleneck effects. Do you know what this means in practical terms?
    , @DFH
    What does that have to do with what I said?
    Anyway, hat just means that pre-Flynn effect, the ancestors of low-IQ populations were even more retarded and even worse at virtually all mental tasks. Doubtless the African average IQ could be higher if they were all somehow given functioning first-world societies, but the situation of blacks in America shows that this is still very far from making up the gap.
  740. @Bliss
    The Fields Medal, awarded every 4 years, is called the Nobel Prize of Math, and 5 of the last 8 winners are from “low IQ” countries: 2 indians, 2 iranians and 1 brazilian.

    Methinks winning the Fields Medal trumps scoring high on the PISA test. Yes or no?

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fields_Medal#Fields_medalists

    Btw, the Brazilian winner looks mixed race. In other words part african, like the majority of brazilians. Indians of course are all mixed race as well.

    The point of this article isn’t that there are no smart people in the 3rd world, but that they make up an insignificant fraction of the total population, and thus can’t sustain a high tech economy.

  741. @Talha
    Sure and their grandparents were registering as mental retards. IQ can move in a population over time; multiple studies have born this out.

    Peace.

    You can effect population changes through bottleneck effects. Do you know what this means in practical terms?

    • Replies: @Talha
    I understand the concept (just as catastrophic wars can be dysgenic), but do not claim to know how one goes about pulling it off. I'm watching the fireworks fly with popcorn in hand. It's fairly obvious to me that:
    1) there are differences of opinion on these matters in the scientific community as to how much is hereditary and how much environmental
    2) IQ in populations has been shown to both increase and decrease over time

    Again, I'm not against testing IQ or using it to help determine capability or merit. I just think any absolutist or determinist approach to this is silly.

    Peace.

  742. Also to all the people saying the results are just people blowing off the test, America has a legal concept known as Disparate Impact because even with employment on the line people still fumble these tests.

    • Replies: @Che Guava
    Not being a 'Murrkhin, never heard of it before.

    You are obviously being dishonest, the mechanism is clearly just to favour idiots incapable of passing, and push them through.
  743. Songbird, since you are agreeing with me obviously I agree. Children should not be forced to stay after the sixth or seventh year of formal education, for basic literacy and numeracy, some science, a little lit., history, and culture, but from my reading, even many ‘University’ or ‘College’ grads in the USA and some other, mainly ‘western’ places graduate with none of those things.

    Children should also be able to leave at any time between sixth and seventh year and the customary tenth or twelfth if they want. I have

    Factors why this not the case are many, but include

    1. The desire of capitalism to force the costs of most apprentice-style training onto the state

    This is not yet the full situation in Japan, for a close friend’s son as he was nearing the finish of school, I was suggesting a trade career for him, many companies still have them, smart boy, if he had acquired trade skills, he would easily have been able to become a superior engineer.

    She was dismissing the idea (parental ambition invested in the child), so he is on the way to a commerce-economics degree. At best, will get him a job in the bureaucracy or the business or sales division of a major company.

    2. OECD rankings

    These are a stinking pile of filth for education. In many places in the west, they have changed the systems so that total morons can even get a ‘Ph. D.’ by parroting dogma. It goes deep into the primary-school level in many western countries

    Give me a break, most degrees of those places where ‘college’ or ‘university’ graduates are the majority or near majority, the ‘degrees’ are only worth using to wipe excretory organs. I know from my moronic friend that high-school diplomas in the USA had become meaningless as such, some time ago.

    3. Sports

    Particulary in the USA, it seems, morons who happen to be particularly strong, violent, etc., are retained to tertiary ed. level. I gather they are even awarded degrees, even if they would have no intellect.

    I had more points, as anyone knows, when morons stay in school trying to learn nothing, it harms the learning of the others.

    Adding a fourth.

    4. Modern western leftists in general are cretinous morons (sure。a few have IQs just beyond the peak of the bell curve, the majority not).

    I had seven points, but leaving it at that, tired from work.

    Depressing, my anectodotal experience is only backing up Anatoly’s article.

    De-evolution is real, where is ending is now only a matter of how far.

  744. @Daniel Chieh
    You can effect population changes through bottleneck effects. Do you know what this means in practical terms?

    I understand the concept (just as catastrophic wars can be dysgenic), but do not claim to know how one goes about pulling it off. I’m watching the fireworks fly with popcorn in hand. It’s fairly obvious to me that:
    1) there are differences of opinion on these matters in the scientific community as to how much is hereditary and how much environmental
    2) IQ in populations has been shown to both increase and decrease over time

    Again, I’m not against testing IQ or using it to help determine capability or merit. I just think any absolutist or determinist approach to this is silly.

    Peace.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh

    I understand the concept (just as catastrophic wars can be dysgenic), but do not claim to know how one goes about pulling it off.
     
    Recently there is a theory to help determine how animals acquire their characteristics. Its described in the book On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, you should check it out.
    , @Johan Meyer
    This will be a long response, hence the more tag [AK: Good & relevant comment, so removing the more tag].

    "It’s fairly obvious to me that:
    1) there are differences of opinion on these matters in the scientific community as to how much is hereditary and how much environmental"

    The assumption implicit in your formulation is that individual IQ can be represented as

    IQ_\ell=IQ_{gene,\ell}+IQ_{environment,\ell}

    Where \ell iterates the individual. Note that the environmental term is, to first approximation (first order Taylor series) the product of environmental dose with dose response, for each environmental variable,

    IQ_{environment_x,\ell}=\beta_{x,\ell} D_{x,\ell}

    Where \beta is the dose response, D is the dose, x iterates the environmental variables, and \ell iterates the individuals. The total environmental effect is the sum (I ignore synergistic effects of both signs due to first order) of the individual effects.

    If the dose response is invariant to the individual, and the uptake of dose is also invariant to the individual (same external environment results in the same dose, within random variation), it becomes meaningful to speak of genes or environment contributing a given fraction of variation in IQ. A correlation may exist between environment and genetic variation, which may obscure the contribution of each, e.g. in twin studies.

    If either of the two conditions in the previous paragraph are relaxed due to genetic variation in dose response or uptake, then it becomes meaningless to speak of fractional genetic or environmental contribution to IQ, and impossible to separate, using only IQ and genes, the genes that contribute to uptake or dose response from those that contribute directly to IQ.

    There is evidence that blacks take up more lead from a given exposure than whites, which is expected on the basis of the weak to missing Sub-Saharan bronze age---iron was seen as a more useful material. I take it that you would be familiar with Biruni and the Zanj.
  745. @Talha
    Sure and their grandparents were registering as mental retards. IQ can move in a population over time; multiple studies have born this out.

    Peace.

    What does that have to do with what I said?
    Anyway, hat just means that pre-Flynn effect, the ancestors of low-IQ populations were even more retarded and even worse at virtually all mental tasks. Doubtless the African average IQ could be higher if they were all somehow given functioning first-world societies, but the situation of blacks in America shows that this is still very far from making up the gap.

    • Replies: @Talha

    the ancestors of low-IQ populations were even more retarded and even worse at virtually all mental tasks
     
    OK - so their grandparents were at 35 (somewhere between vegetables and turtles) and now they are at 65-70. Still a tremendous gain. Is the only point here that they are playing catch-up? If so, agreed; give them some time to make adjustments.

    Peace.
  746. De-evolution is real

    This doesn’t sound right…evolution has no stated purpose or goalpost. The strongest and most adapted organisms survive; if that means the stupid inherit the earth, then intellect was obviously not that important to survival in the human species in the long run after all.

    Human beings eventually becoming reptiles doesn’t mean they went back to being reptiles, but that they went forward to being reptiles because the environment they found themselves in was best suited to reptiles.

    Peace.

    • Replies: @AaronB
    Its hard to see why we should be concerned about ant development whatsoever - whether we get smarter, stupider, etc.

    By definition, anything that happens is evolution.
  747. @AnAnon
    Also to all the people saying the results are just people blowing off the test, America has a legal concept known as Disparate Impact because even with employment on the line people still fumble these tests.

    Not being a ‘Murrkhin, never heard of it before.

    You are obviously being dishonest, the mechanism is clearly just to favour idiots incapable of passing, and push them through.

    • Replies: @AnAnon
    Perhaps I worded it poorly, but yes, they are idiots incapable of passing a test with simple questions. Sailer occiasonally writes about Disparate Impact if you're interested in this particular bit of retarded policy.
  748. @Talha
    I understand the concept (just as catastrophic wars can be dysgenic), but do not claim to know how one goes about pulling it off. I'm watching the fireworks fly with popcorn in hand. It's fairly obvious to me that:
    1) there are differences of opinion on these matters in the scientific community as to how much is hereditary and how much environmental
    2) IQ in populations has been shown to both increase and decrease over time

    Again, I'm not against testing IQ or using it to help determine capability or merit. I just think any absolutist or determinist approach to this is silly.

    Peace.

    I understand the concept (just as catastrophic wars can be dysgenic), but do not claim to know how one goes about pulling it off.

    Recently there is a theory to help determine how animals acquire their characteristics. Its described in the book On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, you should check it out.

    • LOL: Talha
    • Replies: @Talha
    So are you stating that IQ is fully genetically hereditary and determined?

    Peace.
  749. @Daniel Chieh

    I understand the concept (just as catastrophic wars can be dysgenic), but do not claim to know how one goes about pulling it off.
     
    Recently there is a theory to help determine how animals acquire their characteristics. Its described in the book On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, you should check it out.

    So are you stating that IQ is fully genetically hereditary and determined?

    Peace.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    The brain's capabilities is too complicated to be simplified to a number, IQ is only a proxy: a "best measure" that nonetheless misses many important attributes. Additionally, mental performance is influenced by many factors, including much that is exogenous and functionally defined to be environmental including that which is environmental mediated by that which is endogenous.

    Nonetheless, it is fully cogent to be aware of selection effects and their ability to create or modify a population's characteristics, including those which are cognitive. Social policies can be part of such selectional mechanisms and help affect the result.

    Blasé dismissal of what we know due to the incompleteness of the knowledge is silly. It is an epistemic vice.

    , @Peripatetic commenter
    You should read Greg Cochran on that subject.

    Don't be scared, it won't hurt you!

    https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2018/09/05/landscapes/
  750. @AP

    I was talking about all the Olympiads together this summer ….Ukraine is nowhere
    As for this maths result that you probably spent hours looking up like the compulsive liar,
     
    When I googled math Olympiad it came up on the first page. I then clicked on results. It took one-two minutes:

    https://www.imo-official.org/results.aspx

    Perhaps you are slow and it takes you hours to find what a normal person can find in one minute.

    So in the math Olympiad Ukraine came in 4th place in the world.

    Ukraine got to use their exact same team from the previous year
     

    Russia’s is an entirely different team from 2017.
     
    False. Russia had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 - Nazar Agakhanov.

    https://imo-official.org/year_country_r.aspx?year=2017

    America had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 - Po-Shen Loh. So did Korea - Yongjin Song. Japan, like Ukraine, had the same leader and coleader in 2017 and 2018. Japan came in 6th place in 2017 but 13th place in 2018, so your silly idea that retaining the team explains improved results is not supported.

    Your excuses are as funny as your desperate "shouting" :-)

    It hurts you so badly that Ukraine keeps winning after getting rid of Yanukovich. You'll feel better if you shout some more and tell yourself fairytales that Ukraine has become another Africa :-)

    28000 out of 41000 [Measles] cases this year in Europe belong to Ukraine
     
    Russia, Italy and France are up there, also. All of these countries have high anti-vaccination sentiment:

    https://www.undispatch.com/europe-is-in-the-midst-of-its-largest-measles-outbreak-in-years-ukraine-is-a-big-part-of-the-problem/

    https://themoscowtimes.com/news/measles-cases-jump-13-fold-russia-2018-62659

    Measles Cases Jump 13-Fold in Russia in 2018

    So measles are not something to brag about, for a Russian.

    FDI not even at 2016 levels , nevermind 2014 levels
     
    In the first quarter of 2014 FDI was negative 500 million in Ukraine. In first quarter 2018 it was positive $300 million dollars. It peaked at $1.4 billion in first quarter 2016.

    Ukraine's all-time high FDI was under Yushchenko - $6.5 billion in the 4th quarter of 2005.

    “post 2014 ” ukropia hasn’t got close to 2013 levels in quality of living
     
    Per capita GDP PPP on average is higher in 2018 than in 2013, in those regions that were part of Ukraine in both 2013 and 2018. Nominal GDP and wages in dollars are lower due to the currency devaluation. Crime is now slightly lower than in 2013, though not by much (I remember Russians boasting about the crime spike in 2014-2015 - sorry, it's over).

    Moreover, the parts of Ukraine that are doing more poorly in 2018 are those nearer to the Russian border and who are more pro-Russian. So you are just making fun at the expense of your would-be allies in Ukraine.

    [MORE]

    False. Russia had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Nazar Agakhanov.

    https://imo-official.org/year_country_r.aspx?year=2017

    America had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Po-Shen Loh. So did Korea – Yongjin Song. Japan, like Ukraine, had the same leader and coleader in 2017 and 2018. Japan came in 6th place in 2017 but 13th place in 2018, so your silly idea that retaining the team explains improved results is not supported.

    HAHAHA…..ermmmm……..those are leaders, not actual contestants in the competition you dumb, thick lying prick!

    It could easily be another sign of your stupidity but for a tramp like you , you would have checked the names of all the members of the team to see their ethnicity,
    in which case you would easily have known that the team leaders and deputy leaders are not participants in the Olympiad, and thus not in a position to win a medal, you POS.

    Typical of the lies an attention-whore, dumb compulsive liar as you will do to waste everybody’s time on here. An intellectual like NT somehow puts up with this dumb BS

    The same team two years in a row , in a student competition, is a combination of pathetic, desperate behaviour…..and cheating. No other team does it.

    Russia, Italy and France are up there, also. All of these countries have high anti-vaccination sentiment:

    https://www.undispatch.com/europe-is-in-the-midst-of-its-largest-measles-outbreak-in-years-ukraine-is-a-big-part-of-the-problem/

    https://themoscowtimes.com/news/measles-cases-jump-13-fold-russia-2018-62659

    Measles Cases Jump 13-Fold in Russia in 2018

    So measles are not something to brag about, for a Russian.

    HAHAHA! Moscow Times? Seriously?
    What part of 28000 out of 41000 from Ukraine are you too thick to understand, you attention whore?

    A thirteen-fold increase (fake) is a nothing statistic for a contagious disease ( the beubonic plauge would have been a nothing story in the Middle Ages), the Ukraine outbreak though is a very serious health situation you prick…the “anti-vaccination” is a load of mroe time-wasting BS

    In the first quarter of 2014 FDI was negative 500 million in Ukraine. In first quarter 2018 it was positive $300 million dollars. It peaked at $1.4 billion in first quarter 2016.

    Ukraine’s all-time high FDI was under Yushchenko – $6.5 billion in the 4th quarter of 2005.

    You tried this laughably moronic provocation of promoting Yushchenko’s (inept) handling of the Ukrainian economy, Here are more lies that I won’t waste more time on.

    Incidentally and hilariously, you braindead excrement series of lies in your comment must have taken you at lest 3 hours..that is the sick, obsessive f*ck you are

    • Replies: @AP

    False. Russia had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Nazar Agakhanov.

    https://imo-official.org/year_country_r.aspx?year=2017

    "America had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Po-Shen Loh. So did Korea – Yongjin Song. Japan, like Ukraine, had the same leader and coleader in 2017 and 2018. Japan came in 6th place in 2017 but 13th place in 2018, so your silly idea that retaining the team explains improved results is not supported."

    HAHAHA…..ermmmm……..those are leaders, not actual contestants in the competition
     

    I go with the names listed on the Olympiad's website. If you have searched for and found the full roster of each national team, provide them and prove your claims.

    Again, it is very funny that Ukraine getting 4th place in the world Math Olympiad triggers you so much.


    your comment must have taken you at lest 3 hours
     
    Projection? I'm not the one who hunted down the names of every member of every national team on the Math Olympiads.

    You are dumb, simple, and easily triggered. Responses to your claims take no more than 10 minutes :-)

    Which is more than you are worth. Consider yourself flattered.


    HAHAHA! Moscow Times? Seriously?
     
    Is their number of 13 fold increase in measles in Russia false? They were recommending measles vaccines for people going to the World Cup. Even though the outbreak is worse in Ukraine, a Russian bragging about Ukraine's measles outbreak is rather ridiculous. What next - will you make fun of Africa's HIV rate?
  751. @DFH
    What does that have to do with what I said?
    Anyway, hat just means that pre-Flynn effect, the ancestors of low-IQ populations were even more retarded and even worse at virtually all mental tasks. Doubtless the African average IQ could be higher if they were all somehow given functioning first-world societies, but the situation of blacks in America shows that this is still very far from making up the gap.

    the ancestors of low-IQ populations were even more retarded and even worse at virtually all mental tasks

    OK – so their grandparents were at 35 (somewhere between vegetables and turtles) and now they are at 65-70. Still a tremendous gain. Is the only point here that they are playing catch-up? If so, agreed; give them some time to make adjustments.

    Peace.

  752. @DFH

    It seems to be what Prof. Flynn points out in the video; test for adaptation to abstract forms of thought and knowledge.
     
    But high-IQ people/populations are better at any mental task (apart from maybe path-finding, which eskimos and aborigines are specialised for). That's what 'g' means.

    But high-IQ people/populations are better at any mental task (apart from maybe path-finding, which eskimos and aborigines are specialised for)

    And there is evidence that Australian Aborigines have been selected for better visual acuity because it helps their tracking ability.

    In particular, they seem to have a larger striate cortex than any other group.

    http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC1261675

    The brain volumes of 8 male Australian Aborigines and 11 male Caucasians were determined. Total brain volume was significantly smaller for Aborigines (1199 +/- 84 ml) compared to Caucasians (1386 +/- 98 ml). Significantly smaller volumes were also found for cerebellum, prosencephalon-mesencephalon unit, cerebral cortex, frontal cortex, parieto-occipitotemporal cortex, and hippocampus. Volumes of ponsmedulla oblongata unit (21 +/- 3 ml for Aborigines and 22 +/- 3 ml for Caucasians) and visual cortex (14.9 ml +/- 2.6 ml and 14.6 +/- 2.2 ml, respectively) did not differ significantly. The striate cortex extended further onto the lateral surface of the occipital lobe in Aboriginal brains.

  753. @Anonymous Jew
    The only large-scale, trans-racial adoption study following Blacks well into puberty found those adopted by White upper-middle class households averaged 89 at age 17 - comparable to other Blacks in the surrounding Upper Midwest. The had regressed considerably since age 7, so let's say they continue to regress in early adulthood and settle into 87 by age 30*. Blacks in this region have more White admixture.

    I would guess 80-83 for average, un-admixed Bantus raised in a contemporary, middle class American setting.

    Equalizing for environment (middle class American) I would guesstimate the following numbers for a few major racial groups based on 100 for Whites. Equalizing for environment means you can't compare SE Asian street kids to White or Black Americans. Again, just a guesstimate based on lots of studies I've seen but can't cite off memory.

    NE. Asians: 103-106
    US Whites: 100
    50/50 mestizos; SE Asians; S Indians: 94-96
    Pure Bantu: 80+

    *Heritablility of IQ is low in childhood, increases sharply at puberty, and continues to increase very slowly and slightly until death (same pattern is observed for all measurable behavioral traits).

    On a side note, posters on here need to reconcile their assertions with studies of Monozygotic Twins Reared Apart (MZA). MZA offer the best evidence and estimates of the heritablility of IQ. It's the only true method we have to isolate heritability within certain environments. Note MZA studies are large, numerous, and replicate. Basically the gold standard of science. To make it at as brief as possible for the uninitiated:

    MZA studies show:
    -no effect of SES on IQ including environments as diverse as American working class to wealthy (there's no evidence on extreme environments that I know of, eg: harsh physical abuse; growing up in a third-world slum, etc)
    -in normal American environments (working class to wealthy), the heritability of IQ in adulthood is around .70-.78

    For a quick summary, see "Sources of Human Psychological Differences" Bouchard et al in Science Vol 250.

    For more detailed analysis, see Segal's book "Born Together—Reared Apart" She was one of the main researchers in the Minnesota study.

  754. @Talha
    So are you stating that IQ is fully genetically hereditary and determined?

    Peace.

    The brain’s capabilities is too complicated to be simplified to a number, IQ is only a proxy: a “best measure” that nonetheless misses many important attributes. Additionally, mental performance is influenced by many factors, including much that is exogenous and functionally defined to be environmental including that which is environmental mediated by that which is endogenous.

    Nonetheless, it is fully cogent to be aware of selection effects and their ability to create or modify a population’s characteristics, including those which are cognitive. Social policies can be part of such selectional mechanisms and help affect the result.

    Blasé dismissal of what we know due to the incompleteness of the knowledge is silly. It is an epistemic vice.

    • Replies: @Talha
    I actually have zero problems with what you just said. As I said, I have a problem with absolutist or deterministic approaches to the subject.

    Peace.

    , @AaronB
    It is also an epistemic vice to fail to see that from the standpoint of evolution there can be no basis for our preference that evolution head in any particular direction - by definition, the direction it heads in is the correct one.

    Whatever survives, is by definition most evolved and adapted.

    Of course, unless we introduce a perspective beyond Evolution - then we might have a basis for preferences.

    But then wed have to exit the closed circle of materialism. Can't do that.

    I guess we have to settle for incoherence.
    , @utu

    The brain’s capabilities is too complicated to be simplified to a number, IQ is only a proxy
     
    Tell it to Karlin and other citizens of the IQ lala land.
  755. @Talha

    De-evolution is real
     
    This doesn't sound right...evolution has no stated purpose or goalpost. The strongest and most adapted organisms survive; if that means the stupid inherit the earth, then intellect was obviously not that important to survival in the human species in the long run after all.

    Human beings eventually becoming reptiles doesn't mean they went back to being reptiles, but that they went forward to being reptiles because the environment they found themselves in was best suited to reptiles.

    Peace.

    Its hard to see why we should be concerned about ant development whatsoever – whether we get smarter, stupider, etc.

    By definition, anything that happens is evolution.

    • Replies: @Talha

    By definition, anything that happens is evolution
     
    Agreed.It's axiomatic.

    Its hard to see why we should be concerned about
     
    I actually understand why people are concerned. It actually comes from a goal-oriented viewpoint. That is the starting point of the conversation. If you believe the purpose of human beings is to produce maximally capitalist and technologically advanced societies with streets so clean you can eat off of them and safe from all harms like disease, murder, and boring conversations - then I totally understand why IQ is at the top of the totem pole and extremely valued. We are on track - full-speed ahead for the Singularity (or Dajjal - whatever comes first).

    If you feel the purpose of society is different, you can just bypass all of that because very different traits are what determines likelihood of success to you.

    So...one has to come up with some sort of an end goal and then the rest of how to determine the prioritization and value of traits, competencies, aptitudes will naturally fall in place.

    Peace.

  756. @Talha
    So are you stating that IQ is fully genetically hereditary and determined?

    Peace.

    You should read Greg Cochran on that subject.

    Don’t be scared, it won’t hurt you!

    https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2018/09/05/landscapes/

    • Replies: @Talha
    That's fine, as I stated, I'm good with certain traits being completely heritable.

    The problem with twin studies is that they assume only the materialistic cause. Of course, how could they possibly measure anything else. Is there a strong spiritual connection between two people whose souls shared the the same womb as a locus for 9 months. I don't know.

    There's a lot of weird stuff that goes on in the world man. I have a friend who suffered a lung collapse suddenly and had to be taken to the ER. He told me that his mother lived far away from him and had not been informed, but she went into panic mode at the same time, telling everyone around her something had happened to her son and that they needed to get in touch with him right away.

    Don’t be scared; we're not in as much control as we think we are, but it's OK if you trust the One that is.

    Peace.
  757. @Daniel Chieh
    The brain's capabilities is too complicated to be simplified to a number, IQ is only a proxy: a "best measure" that nonetheless misses many important attributes. Additionally, mental performance is influenced by many factors, including much that is exogenous and functionally defined to be environmental including that which is environmental mediated by that which is endogenous.

    Nonetheless, it is fully cogent to be aware of selection effects and their ability to create or modify a population's characteristics, including those which are cognitive. Social policies can be part of such selectional mechanisms and help affect the result.

    Blasé dismissal of what we know due to the incompleteness of the knowledge is silly. It is an epistemic vice.

    I actually have zero problems with what you just said. As I said, I have a problem with absolutist or deterministic approaches to the subject.

    Peace.

  758. @iffen
    Interesting point and I can't say that it doesn't have an impact.

    I note that some (most?) of the "smartest" ones seem to take the scholarly and scientific path which indicates to me that the perceived "insecurity" is not evenly distributed.

    the perceived “insecurity” is not evenly distributed

    yes, bell curves – the most paranoid -> the most wealth obsessed

    • Replies: @iffen
    I'm not sure what you mean.

    The top of the line pursue knowledge and are very good at it. Not a lot of hard-core Zionists among that special group and not a lot of penny counters either.

  759. @songbird
    I admire Tolkien for putting together different influences - religious, mythological and historical - to create something that feels like it has character, like it comes from a particular place - Europe. And is not from some corporate committee, survey, or pie chart. It is in sharp contrast with a lot of modern fantasy which seems incredibly insipid.

    Some people today hate his guts for doing it. They want to subvert the world he created in order to push their ideology. What will Bezos do with it, now that he has the TV rights? I think we can all imagine.

    That is frightening. What did Chris sell to Bezos? BTW, I replied to you on 744 or 722
    on this thread, but the site is programmed to time out and lose links from replies after two or three hours (perhaps less time). Thinking one or two sentences of my reply
    may be of interest.

    • Replies: @songbird
    I'm not sure how involved Cristopher Tolkien was in the sale. I think he retired shortly before it went through, so it may have had to do with other family members or something.

    If I understand it, JRR Tolkien sold the movie rights in 1969, and just the movie rights. Essentially, anything on TV is fair and square, as far as I know. The characters from The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings or anything. I think even those stories. The rumors are of some sort of story taking place before those stories, but it will likely keep expanding, if it is profitable. I think Amazon paid like $250 million.

    As to k-12 schooling in America, I have often gotten the impression it is like day care. A lot of it is geared to making sure teenagers are off the streets, so they don't bother the elderly and businesses in the middle of the day by loitering.
  760. @Daniel Chieh
    The brain's capabilities is too complicated to be simplified to a number, IQ is only a proxy: a "best measure" that nonetheless misses many important attributes. Additionally, mental performance is influenced by many factors, including much that is exogenous and functionally defined to be environmental including that which is environmental mediated by that which is endogenous.

    Nonetheless, it is fully cogent to be aware of selection effects and their ability to create or modify a population's characteristics, including those which are cognitive. Social policies can be part of such selectional mechanisms and help affect the result.

    Blasé dismissal of what we know due to the incompleteness of the knowledge is silly. It is an epistemic vice.

    It is also an epistemic vice to fail to see that from the standpoint of evolution there can be no basis for our preference that evolution head in any particular direction – by definition, the direction it heads in is the correct one.

    Whatever survives, is by definition most evolved and adapted.

    Of course, unless we introduce a perspective beyond Evolution – then we might have a basis for preferences.

    But then wed have to exit the closed circle of materialism. Can’t do that.

    I guess we have to settle for incoherence.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    "epistemic virtue" implies certain terminal values
    , @Talha

    I guess we have to settle for incoherence.
     
    Agree here - you can't retcon purpose (such as "the spice must flow...") into evolutionary theory because it refuses a slot for one. Movements of atoms and molecular bonding has no purpose or ulterior motives.

    But human beings seem to not to be able to help but act like human beings...go figure.

    Peace.

  761. @AaronB
    Its hard to see why we should be concerned about ant development whatsoever - whether we get smarter, stupider, etc.

    By definition, anything that happens is evolution.

    By definition, anything that happens is evolution

    Agreed.It’s axiomatic.

    Its hard to see why we should be concerned about

    I actually understand why people are concerned. It actually comes from a goal-oriented viewpoint. That is the starting point of the conversation. If you believe the purpose of human beings is to produce maximally capitalist and technologically advanced societies with streets so clean you can eat off of them and safe from all harms like disease, murder, and boring conversations – then I totally understand why IQ is at the top of the totem pole and extremely valued. We are on track – full-speed ahead for the Singularity (or Dajjal – whatever comes first).

    If you feel the purpose of society is different, you can just bypass all of that because very different traits are what determines likelihood of success to you.

    So…one has to come up with some sort of an end goal and then the rest of how to determine the prioritization and value of traits, competencies, aptitudes will naturally fall in place.

    Peace.

    • Replies: @anonymous
    Chapeau!
  762. @Daniel Chieh
    The brain's capabilities is too complicated to be simplified to a number, IQ is only a proxy: a "best measure" that nonetheless misses many important attributes. Additionally, mental performance is influenced by many factors, including much that is exogenous and functionally defined to be environmental including that which is environmental mediated by that which is endogenous.

    Nonetheless, it is fully cogent to be aware of selection effects and their ability to create or modify a population's characteristics, including those which are cognitive. Social policies can be part of such selectional mechanisms and help affect the result.

    Blasé dismissal of what we know due to the incompleteness of the knowledge is silly. It is an epistemic vice.

    The brain’s capabilities is too complicated to be simplified to a number, IQ is only a proxy

    Tell it to Karlin and other citizens of the IQ lala land.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    It has utility as a gross metric.

    I think we talked about this before. If I had to appraise the world for fitness, I'd probably use a metric like VO2 max. It'd give me a decent idea of fitness, though I would have inconsistencies at specific measures of cardio-related achievement such as 100 meter sprints(which might rely more on mixture of fast/slow twitch muscles). Still, if I had to use a gross measure, it'd be the best which I can use.

    The map isn't the territory, but its still usually better to have even a medieval map complete with Here Be Dragons than be without one entirely.
  763. @utu

    The brain’s capabilities is too complicated to be simplified to a number, IQ is only a proxy
     
    Tell it to Karlin and other citizens of the IQ lala land.

    It has utility as a gross metric.

    I think we talked about this before. If I had to appraise the world for fitness, I’d probably use a metric like VO2 max. It’d give me a decent idea of fitness, though I would have inconsistencies at specific measures of cardio-related achievement such as 100 meter sprints(which might rely more on mixture of fast/slow twitch muscles). Still, if I had to use a gross measure, it’d be the best which I can use.

    The map isn’t the territory, but its still usually better to have even a medieval map complete with Here Be Dragons than be without one entirely.

    • Agree: Anatoly Karlin
    • Replies: @notanon
    PQ (physical quotient) is a good analogy imo - test kids at running, jumping, climbing, swimming etc, give them a score out of 10 in each and average them to get their PQ.

    it won't be 100% accurate as some people might get a 10 in swimming and 5 in all the rest but it would be a good first start and from there you can work out what causes the anomalies.
  764. @AaronB
    It is also an epistemic vice to fail to see that from the standpoint of evolution there can be no basis for our preference that evolution head in any particular direction - by definition, the direction it heads in is the correct one.

    Whatever survives, is by definition most evolved and adapted.

    Of course, unless we introduce a perspective beyond Evolution - then we might have a basis for preferences.

    But then wed have to exit the closed circle of materialism. Can't do that.

    I guess we have to settle for incoherence.

    “epistemic virtue” implies certain terminal values

  765. @Peripatetic commenter
    You should read Greg Cochran on that subject.

    Don't be scared, it won't hurt you!

    https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2018/09/05/landscapes/

    That’s fine, as I stated, I’m good with certain traits being completely heritable.

    The problem with twin studies is that they assume only the materialistic cause. Of course, how could they possibly measure anything else. Is there a strong spiritual connection between two people whose souls shared the the same womb as a locus for 9 months. I don’t know.

    There’s a lot of weird stuff that goes on in the world man. I have a friend who suffered a lung collapse suddenly and had to be taken to the ER. He told me that his mother lived far away from him and had not been informed, but she went into panic mode at the same time, telling everyone around her something had happened to her son and that they needed to get in touch with him right away.

    Don’t be scared; we’re not in as much control as we think we are, but it’s OK if you trust the One that is.

    Peace.

    • Replies: @anonymous
    I am the master of my fate:
    I am the captain of my soul.

    It's the motto of IQ worshipers. If they only knew. Most won't understand your post.

  766. the disparity between IQ 70 Africans and IQ 70 Caucasians is important as a clue to what is going on underneath the hood so it should be pondered on.

    one possible explanation is limiting factors i.e. say there are two factors x and y and your score is limited by the lowest so

    x = 100 and y = 100 = 100
    x = 85 and y = 100 = 85
    x = 100 and y = 115 = 100

    then say you have one population which averages x = 85 and y = 70 – their average person scores 70 on the test but at some tasks functions like an 85

    while say a second population averages x = 100 and y = 100 so an x = 70, y = 100 in that group acts like an IQ 70 (and maybe at 100 in some tasks)

    then say x is concrete and y = abstract you get to the point where both sides are right 1) the tests are loaded to traits that only certain populations have but at the same time 2) those traits are critical for performing well in the modern context.

    if correct a possible explanation for the disparity might be those traits which allow abstract thinking are maladaptive in HG environments and only became adaptive with complex societies – hence being selected at different rates among different populations in different regions based on how long they’ve had complex societies.

    if correct my guess as to the reason for this is maybe the ability to deal with abstractions is the result of a mild form of disassociative* mental illness – which in tribal societies only trippy shaman have .

    (*disassociative may be the wrong word but it sounds like what i mean so whatever)

    • Replies: @AP

    the disparity between IQ 70 Africans and IQ 70 Caucasians is important as a clue to what is going on underneath the hood so it should be pondered on.
     
    Why do you think there is a disparity?

    Place a 70 IQ African in a modern Western environment requiring a lot of abstract reasoning and technical prowess, fairly atomized without a large village support network, and he will be about as functional as is the 70 IQ Caucasian. That is, he can eventually be trained to do something like bag groceries or sweep floors, use a stove for simple things, use busses, read at an upper grade school level, etc.

    Place a 70 IQ Caucasian in a tight-knit hunter-gatherer or in a pre-modern agricultural community in a warm climate and he will learn the basic and simple daily rhythm and rituals of what he must do, guided by the family tribe is is embedded in.
  767. @AaronB
    It is also an epistemic vice to fail to see that from the standpoint of evolution there can be no basis for our preference that evolution head in any particular direction - by definition, the direction it heads in is the correct one.

    Whatever survives, is by definition most evolved and adapted.

    Of course, unless we introduce a perspective beyond Evolution - then we might have a basis for preferences.

    But then wed have to exit the closed circle of materialism. Can't do that.

    I guess we have to settle for incoherence.

    I guess we have to settle for incoherence.

    Agree here – you can’t retcon purpose (such as “the spice must flow…”) into evolutionary theory because it refuses a slot for one. Movements of atoms and molecular bonding has no purpose or ulterior motives.

    But human beings seem to not to be able to help but act like human beings…go figure.

    Peace.

  768. @Che Guava
    Not being a 'Murrkhin, never heard of it before.

    You are obviously being dishonest, the mechanism is clearly just to favour idiots incapable of passing, and push them through.

    Perhaps I worded it poorly, but yes, they are idiots incapable of passing a test with simple questions. Sailer occiasonally writes about Disparate Impact if you’re interested in this particular bit of retarded policy.

    • Replies: @Che Guava
    Sincerely, thank you very much, I have a vague recall of Mr. Sailer using the term more than once, but not paying much attention at the time, it is so euphemistic, not living or having lived there, didn't think about what its meaning was (although you will clearly see that I was quick to work out the meaning, with the hint from you).

    So, thx again,

    Since I am never ever uploading content to social media, and working out others from the past is dull (though you and others would likely appreciate some).
  769. @Nznz
    All your obsession with IQ scores here as the alpha and omega of everything makes you people come across as mentally retarded, yes IQ scores probably do play an important role in personal and success, but the big 5 personality traits, in addition to intelligence, are a lot more relevant when you count personal success as bedding a lot of beautiful women driving Ferraris and owning Patel Philippe watches.

    obsession with IQ scores … the big 5 personality traits

    partially fair point but the reason why it gets obsessive and why the obsessiveness is understandable is the dominant culture doesn’t deny the big 5 personality traits but they put all their strength into suppressing the truth about hereditary intelligence.

    why?

    (A: partly liberals not wanting to admit racial differences cos they don’t want to upset people and partly the banking mafia wanting to create a planet of 85 IQ slave-cattle)

    (the second reason is quite important)

  770. @Daniel Chieh
    It has utility as a gross metric.

    I think we talked about this before. If I had to appraise the world for fitness, I'd probably use a metric like VO2 max. It'd give me a decent idea of fitness, though I would have inconsistencies at specific measures of cardio-related achievement such as 100 meter sprints(which might rely more on mixture of fast/slow twitch muscles). Still, if I had to use a gross measure, it'd be the best which I can use.

    The map isn't the territory, but its still usually better to have even a medieval map complete with Here Be Dragons than be without one entirely.

    PQ (physical quotient) is a good analogy imo – test kids at running, jumping, climbing, swimming etc, give them a score out of 10 in each and average them to get their PQ.

    it won’t be 100% accurate as some people might get a 10 in swimming and 5 in all the rest but it would be a good first start and from there you can work out what causes the anomalies.

  771. @Che Guava
    That is frightening. What did Chris sell to Bezos? BTW, I replied to you on 744 or 722
    on this thread, but the site is programmed to time out and lose links from replies after two or three hours (perhaps less time). Thinking one or two sentences of my reply
    may be of interest.

    I’m not sure how involved Cristopher Tolkien was in the sale. I think he retired shortly before it went through, so it may have had to do with other family members or something.

    If I understand it, JRR Tolkien sold the movie rights in 1969, and just the movie rights. Essentially, anything on TV is fair and square, as far as I know. The characters from The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings or anything. I think even those stories. The rumors are of some sort of story taking place before those stories, but it will likely keep expanding, if it is profitable. I think Amazon paid like $250 million.

    As to k-12 schooling in America, I have often gotten the impression it is like day care. A lot of it is geared to making sure teenagers are off the streets, so they don’t bother the elderly and businesses in the middle of the day by loitering.

    • Replies: @Che Guava
    Yes, as an outside observer, at many schools, you are right, like a form of day-care, but damaging to the brighter students, through bullying. However, i was making several points in my post, you didn't notice,
    this being an overfull thread, would suppose nobody did.

    Saw a tragic sign on a telegraph pole (I think that is the correct term in English, even if telegraphy no longer exists).

    Someone had lost a beloved parakeet, inko, my first thought was 'must have been a "domestic" cat ', so my first thought after that was to post a sticker saying 'it was likely killed by a cat', under the sign ... and cat lovers, fools as they are, like to ignore their preying on birds.

    However, the ferocious winds on some days lately, make me think that was the more probable reason. Maybe it was killed by a cat, but only after being blown away by the wind.

    The owner or owners clearly loved the bird (the poster was in colour, ornate and detailed description, two photos, i will sure be calling them and bring it back if I see it), but were placing it in danger by taking it outside at the wrong time.
  772. While it’s no doubt true that people tend to overestimate the abilities of others the author seems to have gone to the other extreme and is severely underestimating the abilities of the average person. The biggest factor on most of these standardized tests is time. While the author indicates that most people reading could do the level 6 problem in their head in under a minute, the students were probably only given 30 secs or less to solve such a problem and many may not have even gotten the chance to attempt an answer because of time management earlier in the test. It’s one thing to say that the average person can’t solve 25 or 30 such problems in 10 minutes or less and is therefore not fit to work as a programmer or some other similar job, that may be a perfectly valid, but to suggest that all but the top 2 or 5 or 10 percent is incapable of formulating an answer to such a problem is ridiculous. There are lots Algebra 2 problems that are more complicated and require more steps and the average high school student takes and passes Algebra 2. If I had to guess, I would say about 50% of adults would be able to answer such a question if given 2 minutes to solve and much more than that if given a review of distance problems before quizzing.

  773. @Gerard2

    False. Russia had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Nazar Agakhanov.

    https://imo-official.org/year_country_r.aspx?year=2017

    America had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Po-Shen Loh. So did Korea – Yongjin Song. Japan, like Ukraine, had the same leader and coleader in 2017 and 2018. Japan came in 6th place in 2017 but 13th place in 2018, so your silly idea that retaining the team explains improved results is not supported.
     
    HAHAHA.....ermmmm........those are leaders, not actual contestants in the competition you dumb, thick lying prick!

    It could easily be another sign of your stupidity but for a tramp like you , you would have checked the names of all the members of the team to see their ethnicity,
    in which case you would easily have known that the team leaders and deputy leaders are not participants in the Olympiad, and thus not in a position to win a medal, you POS.

    Typical of the lies an attention-whore, dumb compulsive liar as you will do to waste everybody's time on here. An intellectual like @AnonNT somehow puts up with this dumb BS


    The same team two years in a row , in a student competition, is a combination of pathetic, desperate behaviour.....and cheating. No other team does it.

    Russia, Italy and France are up there, also. All of these countries have high anti-vaccination sentiment:

    https://www.undispatch.com/europe-is-in-the-midst-of-its-largest-measles-outbreak-in-years-ukraine-is-a-big-part-of-the-problem/

    https://themoscowtimes.com/news/measles-cases-jump-13-fold-russia-2018-62659

    Measles Cases Jump 13-Fold in Russia in 2018

    So measles are not something to brag about, for a Russian.

     

    HAHAHA! Moscow Times? Seriously?
    What part of 28000 out of 41000 from Ukraine are you too thick to understand, you attention whore?

    A thirteen-fold increase (fake) is a nothing statistic for a contagious disease ( the beubonic plauge would have been a nothing story in the Middle Ages), the Ukraine outbreak though is a very serious health situation you prick...the "anti-vaccination" is a load of mroe time-wasting BS

    In the first quarter of 2014 FDI was negative 500 million in Ukraine. In first quarter 2018 it was positive $300 million dollars. It peaked at $1.4 billion in first quarter 2016.

    Ukraine’s all-time high FDI was under Yushchenko – $6.5 billion in the 4th quarter of 2005.

     

    You tried this laughably moronic provocation of promoting Yushchenko's (inept) handling of the Ukrainian economy, Here are more lies that I won't waste more time on.

    Incidentally and hilariously, you braindead excrement series of lies in your comment must have taken you at lest 3 hours..that is the sick, obsessive f*ck you are

    False. Russia had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Nazar Agakhanov.

    https://imo-official.org/year_country_r.aspx?year=2017

    “America had the same leader in 2018 as in 2017 – Po-Shen Loh. So did Korea – Yongjin Song. Japan, like Ukraine, had the same leader and coleader in 2017 and 2018. Japan came in 6th place in 2017 but 13th place in 2018, so your silly idea that retaining the team explains improved results is not supported.”

    HAHAHA…..ermmmm……..those are leaders, not actual contestants in the competition

    I go with the names listed on the Olympiad’s website. If you have searched for and found the full roster of each national team, provide them and prove your claims.

    Again, it is very funny that Ukraine getting 4th place in the world Math Olympiad triggers you so much.

    your comment must have taken you at lest 3 hours

    Projection? I’m not the one who hunted down the names of every member of every national team on the Math Olympiads.

    You are dumb, simple, and easily triggered. Responses to your claims take no more than 10 minutes :-)

    Which is more than you are worth. Consider yourself flattered.

    HAHAHA! Moscow Times? Seriously?

    Is their number of 13 fold increase in measles in Russia false? They were recommending measles vaccines for people going to the World Cup. Even though the outbreak is worse in Ukraine, a Russian bragging about Ukraine’s measles outbreak is rather ridiculous. What next – will you make fun of Africa’s HIV rate?

  774. @AnAnon
    Perhaps I worded it poorly, but yes, they are idiots incapable of passing a test with simple questions. Sailer occiasonally writes about Disparate Impact if you're interested in this particular bit of retarded policy.

    Sincerely, thank you very much, I have a vague recall of Mr. Sailer using the term more than once, but not paying much attention at the time, it is so euphemistic, not living or having lived there, didn’t think about what its meaning was (although you will clearly see that I was quick to work out the meaning, with the hint from you).

    So, thx again,

    Since I am never ever uploading content to social media, and working out others from the past is dull (though you and others would likely appreciate some).

  775. @AB
    LOL do you work for the government? Or live in CA? Both?

    Sounds like a chapter straight out of Heather MacDonald's The Burden of Bad Ideas.

    I live in LA and that sounds about right ;)

  776. @Anon
    Gas stations haven’t had attendants for the last 40 years. If you pay with cash you have to give it to a cashier but most people nowadays use debit or credit cards because it’s much faster.

    Have you no neighbors friends or relatives? Don’t belong to any clubs or churches? Never get medical treatment? No need for a tax accountant or attorney?

    Nine million people live in a State that prohibits pumping your own gas, New Jersey. I think Oregon had the same stupid law but finally repealed it.

  777. @Talha
    I understand the concept (just as catastrophic wars can be dysgenic), but do not claim to know how one goes about pulling it off. I'm watching the fireworks fly with popcorn in hand. It's fairly obvious to me that:
    1) there are differences of opinion on these matters in the scientific community as to how much is hereditary and how much environmental
    2) IQ in populations has been shown to both increase and decrease over time

    Again, I'm not against testing IQ or using it to help determine capability or merit. I just think any absolutist or determinist approach to this is silly.

    Peace.

    This will be a long response, hence the more tag [AK: Good & relevant comment, so removing the more tag].

    “It’s fairly obvious to me that:
    1) there are differences of opinion on these matters in the scientific community as to how much is hereditary and how much environmental”

    The assumption implicit in your formulation is that individual IQ can be represented as

    IQ_\ell=IQ_{gene,\ell}+IQ_{environment,\ell}

    Where \ell iterates the individual. Note that the environmental term is, to first approximation (first order Taylor series) the product of environmental dose with dose response, for each environmental variable,

    IQ_{environment_x,\ell}=\beta_{x,\ell} D_{x,\ell}

    Where \beta is the dose response, D is the dose, x iterates the environmental variables, and \ell iterates the individuals. The total environmental effect is the sum (I ignore synergistic effects of both signs due to first order) of the individual effects.

    If the dose response is invariant to the individual, and the uptake of dose is also invariant to the individual (same external environment results in the same dose, within random variation), it becomes meaningful to speak of genes or environment contributing a given fraction of variation in IQ. A correlation may exist between environment and genetic variation, which may obscure the contribution of each, e.g. in twin studies.

    If either of the two conditions in the previous paragraph are relaxed due to genetic variation in dose response or uptake, then it becomes meaningless to speak of fractional genetic or environmental contribution to IQ, and impossible to separate, using only IQ and genes, the genes that contribute to uptake or dose response from those that contribute directly to IQ.

    There is evidence that blacks take up more lead from a given exposure than whites, which is expected on the basis of the weak to missing Sub-Saharan bronze age—iron was seen as a more useful material. I take it that you would be familiar with Biruni and the Zanj.

  778. @Talha

    By definition, anything that happens is evolution
     
    Agreed.It's axiomatic.

    Its hard to see why we should be concerned about
     
    I actually understand why people are concerned. It actually comes from a goal-oriented viewpoint. That is the starting point of the conversation. If you believe the purpose of human beings is to produce maximally capitalist and technologically advanced societies with streets so clean you can eat off of them and safe from all harms like disease, murder, and boring conversations - then I totally understand why IQ is at the top of the totem pole and extremely valued. We are on track - full-speed ahead for the Singularity (or Dajjal - whatever comes first).

    If you feel the purpose of society is different, you can just bypass all of that because very different traits are what determines likelihood of success to you.

    So...one has to come up with some sort of an end goal and then the rest of how to determine the prioritization and value of traits, competencies, aptitudes will naturally fall in place.

    Peace.

    Chapeau!

  779. if correct a possible explanation for the disparity might be those traits which allow abstract thinking are maladaptive in HG environments and only became adaptive with complex societies – hence being selected at different rates among different populations in different regions based on how long they’ve had complex societies.

    Close, but not quite.

    Firstly, there are costs (or disadvantages) and benefits to more neural tissue.

    It is expensive to build, give birth to and maintain.

    If you environment does not require it, you will see a gradual elimination of alleles that provide for more brain tissue, because the cost does not give you any reproductive advantage.

    However, if your environment does require more brain tissue, perhaps because it is a more complex environment, both physically and socially, then you will see selection for increased brain tissue.

    In most environments, however, there is a lower-bar in social skills that you don’t want to go under or you wont be reproducing.

    In my view, the fact that a 70 IQ Caucasian is less socially adept than a 70 IQ black person is likely due to sharing of the brain tissue between social skills and abstract skills among Caucasians.

    Indeed, in more complex societies you likely need more abstract skills during your social interactions because there are many abstractions in use.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150424-animals-that-lost-their-brains
  780. @Peripatetic commenter

    if correct a possible explanation for the disparity might be those traits which allow abstract thinking are maladaptive in HG environments and only became adaptive with complex societies – hence being selected at different rates among different populations in different regions based on how long they’ve had complex societies.
     
    Close, but not quite.

    Firstly, there are costs (or disadvantages) and benefits to more neural tissue.

    It is expensive to build, give birth to and maintain.

    If you environment does not require it, you will see a gradual elimination of alleles that provide for more brain tissue, because the cost does not give you any reproductive advantage.

    However, if your environment does require more brain tissue, perhaps because it is a more complex environment, both physically and socially, then you will see selection for increased brain tissue.

    In most environments, however, there is a lower-bar in social skills that you don't want to go under or you wont be reproducing.

    In my view, the fact that a 70 IQ Caucasian is less socially adept than a 70 IQ black person is likely due to sharing of the brain tissue between social skills and abstract skills among Caucasians.

    Indeed, in more complex societies you likely need more abstract skills during your social interactions because there are many abstractions in use.
    • Replies: @anonymous
    Very interesting indeed. Thanks.

    "Either way, the tale of the sponges' brains is a reminder that one of the standard myths about evolution is wrong.

    Many of us have the idea that evolution takes simple organisms and makes them more complex. It does sometimes do that, but it can also do the exact opposite and simplify things – and sometimes it keeps animals virtually unchanged for millions of years."

    Maybe it's time to admit that we really don't know what's going on and that all our knowledge will never be more than a drop of water in ocean ? Time to try to be more humble and decent ?
  781. @Bliss
    Worth pointing out in this Russian blog: a disproportionately large number of Fields Medal winners are Russians. Disproportionate number of French names among the winners as well.

    East Asians are represented by 2 Chinese, 2 Japanese and 1 Vietnamese.

    I think you’re actually undermining yourself. Your tenuous arguments – Egyptians were ‘Black’ despite DNA evidence showing they’re overwhelmingly not because of some suspect evidence showing a single pharaoh possibly had Black Y-DNA, Beethoven was Black because…because? – only highlight the lack of Black achievement. It seems like the only ones that have achieved STEM prominence are mostly or at least partially White. Even Neil deGrasse Tyson looks barely a shade darker than Obama. How many pure Bantus have achieved anything of significance?

    As I’ve noted before, I grew up on the border of a Black neighborhood and attended half Black schools. (There were practically no Blacks in the local private schools, so this was 98-99% of the Black American bell curve). The smartest one in my class had test scores comparable to mine (I don’t know exactly who had the higher SATs, though we ended up at the same college – really nice guy fwiw). But for an Ashkenazi I’m just a middling schmuck, barely on the right side of the meaty middle of the Jew-curve. Looking back, I’ll never forget how many Blacks struggled to read in their early teens. I mean, you could lock me in a cave and beat me like a dog and I would still learn to read.

    To use the analogy of a man pulling a heavy sack – the man being the intellectual heavy lifters and the sack being the proles or lower – Blacks have too few pulling, and too many in the sack. I grew up with the Black masses, and even if one out of a 100 were Neil deGrasse Tyson you’d still end up with Haiti, the Congo, Detroit, etc.

    So please carry on. I’d like to find out who’s Black on the next edition. Maybe Einstein since I’ve seen evidence that Ashkenazis have a tiny amount of Black admixture. You can tell by that curly hair! His second cousins’s mailman’s girlfriend described his as dark!

    • Replies: @Bliss

    some suspect evidence showing a single pharaoh possibly had Black Y-DNA
     
    What the hell is “suspect” about that genetic evidence?

    What’s suspect here are your claims of high IQ. For it didn’t occur to you that if you know the Y-DNA of one Pharaoh in a lineage you know it for all the Pharaohs of that lineage.

    I’d like to find out who’s Black on the next edition. Maybe Einstein
     
    If you searched for Einstein’s doppelgängers you would be most likely to find them among mixed race peoples. Take a look at Einstein’s mother:



    http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/pauline_koch.jpg

    His sister, on the left:

    https://scilogs.spektrum.de/relativ-einfach/files/StaudeJ_8.png
  782. @Anatoly Karlin

    For example, I knew that blocking Telegram was going to stifle its user growth in Russia...
     
    I think this is a bit different since the average Telegram user is more sophisticated than the average. Now yes, if say odnoklassniki was blocked, then usage would plummet. But I haven't noticed any major decline in usage amongst the people who were using it, e.g. people at a state-owned company that I was doing contract work for when the ban went into effect. Also, as I'm sure you well known, the actual blocking has been highly ineffective. I don't even have to use VPN to access it 99% of the time.

    Can we expect that whites in USA will grow dumber as the country becomes more disfunctional and more “diverse”? I questioned America’s ability to sustain its techological edge in the future, and now there is some empirical data that might support my thesis.
     
    In Hive Mind, Garett Jones mentions the peer effect - studies showing people work harder when they are observed by hard workers. It's highly plausible that the same goes for intellectual achievement. Not much point in working your brain off when surrounded by dumbos, since most success is relative, not absolute.

    This is probably why everyone wants “white” kids in their diverse schools. Asians even want to go to school with white kids (probably so they look smarter against the mediocre whites, shrugs).

  783. @notanon

    the perceived “insecurity” is not evenly distributed
     
    yes, bell curves - the most paranoid -> the most wealth obsessed

    I’m not sure what you mean.

    The top of the line pursue knowledge and are very good at it. Not a lot of hard-core Zionists among that special group and not a lot of penny counters either.

    • Replies: @notanon
    i was agreeing with your point by saying there's a bell curve for everything not just IQ and the people on the far-right side of the paranoia bell curve would be the ones obsessed with financial security.
  784. An IRL example of the O-ring problem being disrupted from my life currently:

    After having planned out everything with a migration that I could possibly think of, I have been partly defeated by the fact that the servers that we are moving were damaged by a truck driver who got lost trying to find the destination site, and then proceeded to speed-drive to make up for last time. On top of that, someone didn’t pack the servers correctly.

    Thanks, guys.

    Next time I’ll remember that apparently I also have to supervise “Did you put peanuts in the boxes?” and “Please use your GPS when driving.”

    • LOL: Anatoly Karlin
    • Replies: @Peripatetic commenter
    One of the things I do IRL is write code that generates code.

    That creates some interesting frustrations, because:

    Firstly, the code that generates code has to compile (well, it has to be well formed enough that the Python Interpreter is happy with it.)

    Then the code that it generates has to compile.

    Then the code that it generates has to work.

    Of course, it's all up to me. I don't have to worry about any other morons.
  785. @Daniel Chieh
    An IRL example of the O-ring problem being disrupted from my life currently:

    After having planned out everything with a migration that I could possibly think of, I have been partly defeated by the fact that the servers that we are moving were damaged by a truck driver who got lost trying to find the destination site, and then proceeded to speed-drive to make up for last time. On top of that, someone didn't pack the servers correctly.

    Thanks, guys.

    Next time I'll remember that apparently I also have to supervise "Did you put peanuts in the boxes?" and "Please use your GPS when driving."

    One of the things I do IRL is write code that generates code.

    That creates some interesting frustrations, because:

    Firstly, the code that generates code has to compile (well, it has to be well formed enough that the Python Interpreter is happy with it.)

    Then the code that it generates has to compile.

    Then the code that it generates has to work.

    Of course, it’s all up to me. I don’t have to worry about any other morons.

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Recursion always reminds me of the funny acronyms when it was all the rage: GNU, XNA, LAME.
  786. @Peripatetic commenter
    One of the things I do IRL is write code that generates code.

    That creates some interesting frustrations, because:

    Firstly, the code that generates code has to compile (well, it has to be well formed enough that the Python Interpreter is happy with it.)

    Then the code that it generates has to compile.

    Then the code that it generates has to work.

    Of course, it's all up to me. I don't have to worry about any other morons.

    Recursion always reminds me of the funny acronyms when it was all the rage: GNU, XNA, LAME.

  787. anonymous[253] • Disclaimer says:
    @Daniel Chieh
    http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150424-animals-that-lost-their-brains

    Very interesting indeed. Thanks.

    “Either way, the tale of the sponges’ brains is a reminder that one of the standard myths about evolution is wrong.

    Many of us have the idea that evolution takes simple organisms and makes them more complex. It does sometimes do that, but it can also do the exact opposite and simplify things – and sometimes it keeps animals virtually unchanged for millions of years.”

    Maybe it’s time to admit that we really don’t know what’s going on and that all our knowledge will never be more than a drop of water in ocean ? Time to try to be more humble and decent ?

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We760YM5-iM
  788. @Talha
    That's fine, as I stated, I'm good with certain traits being completely heritable.

    The problem with twin studies is that they assume only the materialistic cause. Of course, how could they possibly measure anything else. Is there a strong spiritual connection between two people whose souls shared the the same womb as a locus for 9 months. I don't know.

    There's a lot of weird stuff that goes on in the world man. I have a friend who suffered a lung collapse suddenly and had to be taken to the ER. He told me that his mother lived far away from him and had not been informed, but she went into panic mode at the same time, telling everyone around her something had happened to her son and that they needed to get in touch with him right away.

    Don’t be scared; we're not in as much control as we think we are, but it's OK if you trust the One that is.

    Peace.

    I am the master of my fate:
    I am the captain of my soul.

    It’s the motto of IQ worshipers. If they only knew. Most won’t understand your post.

  789. @notanon
    the disparity between IQ 70 Africans and IQ 70 Caucasians is important as a clue to what is going on underneath the hood so it should be pondered on.

    one possible explanation is limiting factors i.e. say there are two factors x and y and your score is limited by the lowest so

    x = 100 and y = 100 = 100
    x = 85 and y = 100 = 85
    x = 100 and y = 115 = 100

    then say you have one population which averages x = 85 and y = 70 - their average person scores 70 on the test but at some tasks functions like an 85

    while say a second population averages x = 100 and y = 100 so an x = 70, y = 100 in that group acts like an IQ 70 (and maybe at 100 in some tasks)

    then say x is concrete and y = abstract you get to the point where both sides are right 1) the tests are loaded to traits that only certain populations have but at the same time 2) those traits are critical for performing well in the modern context.

    if correct a possible explanation for the disparity might be those traits which allow abstract thinking are maladaptive in HG environments and only became adaptive with complex societies - hence being selected at different rates among different populations in different regions based on how long they've had complex societies.

    if correct my guess as to the reason for this is maybe the ability to deal with abstractions is the result of a mild form of disassociative* mental illness - which in tribal societies only trippy shaman have .

    (*disassociative may be the wrong word but it sounds like what i mean so whatever)

    the disparity between IQ 70 Africans and IQ 70 Caucasians is important as a clue to what is going on underneath the hood so it should be pondered on.

    Why do you think there is a disparity?

    Place a 70 IQ African in a modern Western environment requiring a lot of abstract reasoning and technical prowess, fairly atomized without a large village support network, and he will be about as functional as is the 70 IQ Caucasian. That is, he can eventually be trained to do something like bag groceries or sweep floors, use a stove for simple things, use busses, read at an upper grade school level, etc.

    Place a 70 IQ Caucasian in a tight-knit hunter-gatherer or in a pre-modern agricultural community in a warm climate and he will learn the basic and simple daily rhythm and rituals of what he must do, guided by the family tribe is is embedded in.

    • Replies: @notanon

    Why do you think there is a disparity?
     
    mostly cos it's been repeated a lot

    but also i kinda get what they mean from personal experience where white (actually non-black as i've known quite a few south Asian retards) actually seem damaged whereas the black ones seem like they're missing a necessary component but are otherwise normal.
    , @Hippopotamusdrome


    That is, he can eventually be trained to do something like bag groceries or sweep floors

     

    Do you know what the unemployment rate of the bottom-half of blacks is?
  790. @Steve Sailer
    I've long been struck by the difference between Turkey and Mexico on PISA results. In Turkey, 6% score in the second highest rank and 1% in the highest rank. That's not great, but it's at least a noticeable number of smart people. In Mexico, only 1% make the second rank and 0% the highest rank. And yet Mexico doesn't score all that badly overall, it just has only a tiny number of very smart and very hard working people.

    That generally fits with my impression of the two countries. I went to a conference in an upscale resort town in Turkey and the grocery story across the street from the hotel carried a selection of books and magazines, some of which appeared to be intellectually serious. I had lunch with a smart Turkish journalist who now writes smart columns for the NYT. I used to exchange emails with a fellow in Istanbul who advised me that Derrida was as worthless as I assumed, but I should not dismiss Foucault out of hand.

    Mexico, in contrast, appears to have a much smaller intellectual elite than Turkey.

    Perhaps it has something to do with puritanism never getting a foothold in Mexico due to the counter-reformation keeping out potential puritans?

    > Mexico, in contrast, appears to have a much smaller intellectual elite than Turkey.

    Without consideration of population density, the regional PISA Math histograms of Turkey and Mexico. It seems that the distributions of both populations are bimodal and so unimodal averages are not that meaningful. The upper cluster modal value for TR seems to be higher than that for Mexico and thus TR should have more in PISA Math level 6.

    • Replies: @songbird
    There may have been a greater mercantile tradition in what is now Turkey.
  791. @DFH

    You still haven’t presented concrete evidence that Africans have an IQ of 70.
     
    https://archive.org/details/TheAverageIQOfSubSaharanAfricans

    First of all, black Americans have an IQ of 91
     
    Based on what?


    Further, when adjusted for sociological and historical factors black Americans are likely the highest IQ population in the world.
     
    https://img.ifcdn.com/images/d4bb00097bc88179c52f4fab954374ce9b0e15d10d2a3f6848e0631e59a9ee56_1.jpg

    Secondly, achievement is modulated by a range of factors of which intelligence is not the primary causal agent.
     
    IQ is the best single predictor of life outcomes.

    https://i.imgur.com/qIGdGqI.png

    www.emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Intelligence-and-socioeconomic-success-A-meta-analytic-review-of-longitudinal-research.pdf
    (n = 97,083)

    There are plenty of Africans sitting in villages right now who are natively more intelligent than you. There are also many white high IQ types who are actually stupid with regard to native intelligence. Separated from their learned and highly structured environments, they’re useless.

     

    Extreme levels of coping. White Rhodesians, who werequite possibly one of the highest IQ populations on Earth, turned Rhodesia, where Africans had been living in huts for tens of thousands of years, into a modern, advanced country.

    But in fact it’s a position held by a vanishingly small fringe of racists and supremacists who aren’t very bright themselves.
     
    It's accepted by the majority of experts on intelligence.

    https://i.imgur.com/5ThVCxW.png

    IQ is the best single predictor of life outcomes.

    That is a flawed study, and the author himself acknowledges it’s limitations. In that chart the lowest correlation of IQ is with income level, which is the life outcome most Americans strive for. What does that tell you?

    Fact is IQ is unreliable and inconsistent as a measurement of intelligence:

    1. IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.

    2. East Asian nations are consistently found to have the highest IQ, yet, as white IQists love to point out, they lag behind in producing creative geniuses.

    White Rhodesians, who were quite possibly one of the highest IQ populations on Earth

    You must have learned that at Stormfront. Common sense should have told you that if white South Africans had an IQ of 94 (google it) then white Rhodesians who were of similar stock couldn’t outscore them by that much.

    • Replies: @DFH

    In that chart the lowest correlation of IQ is with income level, which is the life outcome most Americans strive for.
     
    I doubt that is really true, but in any case, it still correlates better than the other indicators.

    1. IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.
     
    But dysfunctional retardation is not of very much interest to anyone. It correctly predicts that middle easterners and africans are not very good at mental tasks.

    2. East Asian nations are consistently found to have the highest IQ, yet, as white IQists love to point out, they lag behind in producing creative geniuses.
     
    Possibly, but they are still very good generally at mental tasks.

    It's not like you have some other metric of mental ability with any better claim on which Africans perform well.


    white Rhodesians who were of similar stock
     
    But they weren't, I don't know why you would think this apart from the fact they colonised regions near one another.

    http://jonjayray.tripod.com/weyl.html

    , @notanon

    2. East Asian nations are consistently found to have the highest IQ, yet, as white IQists love to point out, they lag behind in producing creative geniuses.
     
    straw man - "IQists" don't say genius is solely a function of IQ - they say average IQ correlates with economic success and the east Asian scores reinforce that claim.
    , @notanon

    1. IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.
     
    i've only known a few but based on that limited number i'd say middle eastern retards (and south Asian) are the same as white ones i.e. they appear damaged.

    it's like the difference between a working wind-up watch and a broken digital watch.
    , @AP

    IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards
     
    Not at IQ of 70. Repeating this many times doesn't make it true.
    , @Hippopotamusdrome


    with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.

     

    Middle-easterners and africans don't act like retards?
  792. @Anonymous Jew
    I think you're actually undermining yourself. Your tenuous arguments - Egyptians were 'Black' despite DNA evidence showing they're overwhelmingly not because of some suspect evidence showing a single pharaoh possibly had Black Y-DNA, Beethoven was Black because...because? - only highlight the lack of Black achievement. It seems like the only ones that have achieved STEM prominence are mostly or at least partially White. Even Neil deGrasse Tyson looks barely a shade darker than Obama. How many pure Bantus have achieved anything of significance?

    As I've noted before, I grew up on the border of a Black neighborhood and attended half Black schools. (There were practically no Blacks in the local private schools, so this was 98-99% of the Black American bell curve). The smartest one in my class had test scores comparable to mine (I don't know exactly who had the higher SATs, though we ended up at the same college - really nice guy fwiw). But for an Ashkenazi I'm just a middling schmuck, barely on the right side of the meaty middle of the Jew-curve. Looking back, I'll never forget how many Blacks struggled to read in their early teens. I mean, you could lock me in a cave and beat me like a dog and I would still learn to read.

    To use the analogy of a man pulling a heavy sack - the man being the intellectual heavy lifters and the sack being the proles or lower - Blacks have too few pulling, and too many in the sack. I grew up with the Black masses, and even if one out of a 100 were Neil deGrasse Tyson you'd still end up with Haiti, the Congo, Detroit, etc.

    So please carry on. I'd like to find out who's Black on the next edition. Maybe Einstein since I've seen evidence that Ashkenazis have a tiny amount of Black admixture. You can tell by that curly hair! His second cousins's mailman's girlfriend described his as dark!

    some suspect evidence showing a single pharaoh possibly had Black Y-DNA

    What the hell is “suspect” about that genetic evidence?

    What’s suspect here are your claims of high IQ. For it didn’t occur to you that if you know the Y-DNA of one Pharaoh in a lineage you know it for all the Pharaohs of that lineage.

    I’d like to find out who’s Black on the next edition. Maybe Einstein

    If you searched for Einstein’s doppelgängers you would be most likely to find them among mixed race peoples. Take a look at Einstein’s mother:

    [MORE]

    His sister, on the left:

    • Replies: @anonymous
    With all due respect, I'd like to suggest that you're as obsessed by IQ as the IQ worshipers.

    Let's just presume that Beethoven was indeed black and that blacks gave the world the pyramids.

    And so what ?

    What that would change in the life of a black man ? You believe that will be the end of racism because people do not respect black people because they ignore the great achievements of the African civilization ? Because they ignore great African scientists,composers, writers etc...?

    I some how doubt that will happen. But anyway, how about the racism between black themselves ?

    It's not called racism but tribalism ...Believe me, they are more blacks being killed because they don't belong to the right tribe than those who are being killed by white supremacists.

    Shouldn't blacks be more concerned in putting and end to tribalism than "fighting" against racism ?

    Or is there some true that "racism" is in fact a card played by those who like to play the victim card?

    And it's a card that you can play only in a rich, developed and tolerant and "racist" society.
    Racist societies that most blacks are willing to risk their lives to get into.

    Of course I'm not saying that racism doesn't exist. It does. But it is a moral question. It's for each one to decide if S/He wants to be a racist or not. But don't give too much importance to the warriors against racism. They often have an agenda and most of them are really interested in power. They are not interested in justice. That includes 99% of BLM's leaders.

    Here is my suggestion: convince as many African leaders as you can about the importance of IQ.-and IQ is important although it isn't as important as some fools believe-

    Then you should go and see the Chinese government ans ask them to help Africa build a cognitive elite.

    I believe in two generations, Africa will have enough high IQ people in power who would be able to build technological developed countries like the whites they admire so much that they hate them.

    In two -generation African scientist will start winning Nobel in physics, chemistry, biology...

    I believe Africa should change but I'm not sure they should copy western civilization...

    Maybe African civilizations could try to bring something different...

    We already have enough stuff and technology, no ?

    No offense meant.

    Cheers

    , @Anon
    Mother looks part aborigine. That is one ugly family. Must have been an arranged marriage.
  793. @AaronB
    If only. But there isn't.

    What I'm trying to suggest is that this entire concept of extreme scientific control when it comes to humans and is misguided and stupid.

    Elite institutions like the German Army and Oxbridge and Harvard rely on interviews fur a reason, and outperform institutions that don't.

    Countless people with perfect scores on scientific tests turn out to be people of utterly mediocre ability.

    “extreme scientific control” is a straw man. No one believes in that, certainly not IQ testers.

    IQ tests don’t predict any specific skill or performance. They don’t have anything to say about genetics, environment, culture, or success in life. All they do is measure cognitive reasoning ability. And they do that pretty well.

    But cognitive reasoning ability isn’t everything. Of course elite institutions don’t rely solely on IQ tests for admission. They don’t need to. Most of those who apply already possess high test scores. So they look for other things also. But if applicants lack high scores, that matters. A lot. Because evidence shows that of all the things that matter to success, IQ matters most. It’s not enough on its own, but without it, many tasks requiring high cognitive ability are much harder.

    Fortunately, a lot of things in life don’t require high cognitive ability. Even important and high-earning positions. European corporate CEOS have an average IQ of only 115. A standard deviation above average, but nothing special. Why? Because other factors are more important than a super high IQ for that job.

    But overall? It still matters. A guy with an 85 IQ won’t be able to do that job. Or a lot of higher paying jobs. And some jobs, especially STEM work, really does require high IQ. The tests aren’t perfect at measuring it, but they’re better than most anything else.

    Cognitive ability, like every other ability, varies by population group. Why? Because of selection pressures. Just as some jobs don’t require higher IQ, some environments have not selected for higher IQ. Instead, they select for other traits. The testing supports that assertion. It doesn’t make anyone less than human to have a lower IQ than the average. After all, half will always be below average by definition. But it does vary by genetic grouping, just as everything else does. Silly to pretend otherwise.

  794. @Bliss

    IQ is the best single predictor of life outcomes.
     
    That is a flawed study, and the author himself acknowledges it’s limitations. In that chart the lowest correlation of IQ is with income level, which is the life outcome most Americans strive for. What does that tell you?

    Fact is IQ is unreliable and inconsistent as a measurement of intelligence:

    1. IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.

    2. East Asian nations are consistently found to have the highest IQ, yet, as white IQists love to point out, they lag behind in producing creative geniuses.


    White Rhodesians, who were quite possibly one of the highest IQ populations on Earth
     
    You must have learned that at Stormfront. Common sense should have told you that if white South Africans had an IQ of 94 (google it) then white Rhodesians who were of similar stock couldn’t outscore them by that much.

    In that chart the lowest correlation of IQ is with income level, which is the life outcome most Americans strive for.

    I doubt that is really true, but in any case, it still correlates better than the other indicators.

    1. IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.

    But dysfunctional retardation is not of very much interest to anyone. It correctly predicts that middle easterners and africans are not very good at mental tasks.

    2. East Asian nations are consistently found to have the highest IQ, yet, as white IQists love to point out, they lag behind in producing creative geniuses.

    Possibly, but they are still very good generally at mental tasks.

    It’s not like you have some other metric of mental ability with any better claim on which Africans perform well.

    white Rhodesians who were of similar stock

    But they weren’t, I don’t know why you would think this apart from the fact they colonised regions near one another.

    http://jonjayray.tripod.com/weyl.html

  795. anonymous[253] • Disclaimer says:
    @Bliss

    some suspect evidence showing a single pharaoh possibly had Black Y-DNA
     
    What the hell is “suspect” about that genetic evidence?

    What’s suspect here are your claims of high IQ. For it didn’t occur to you that if you know the Y-DNA of one Pharaoh in a lineage you know it for all the Pharaohs of that lineage.

    I’d like to find out who’s Black on the next edition. Maybe Einstein
     
    If you searched for Einstein’s doppelgängers you would be most likely to find them among mixed race peoples. Take a look at Einstein’s mother:



    http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/pauline_koch.jpg

    His sister, on the left:

    https://scilogs.spektrum.de/relativ-einfach/files/StaudeJ_8.png

    With all due respect, I’d like to suggest that you’re as obsessed by IQ as the IQ worshipers.

    Let’s just presume that Beethoven was indeed black and that blacks gave the world the pyramids.

    And so what ?

    What that would change in the life of a black man ? You believe that will be the end of racism because people do not respect black people because they ignore the great achievements of the African civilization ? Because they ignore great African scientists,composers, writers etc…?

    I some how doubt that will happen. But anyway, how about the racism between black themselves ?

    It’s not called racism but tribalism …Believe me, they are more blacks being killed because they don’t belong to the right tribe than those who are being killed by white supremacists.

    Shouldn’t blacks be more concerned in putting and end to tribalism than “fighting” against racism ?

    Or is there some true that “racism” is in fact a card played by those who like to play the victim card?

    And it’s a card that you can play only in a rich, developed and tolerant and “racist” society.
    Racist societies that most blacks are willing to risk their lives to get into.

    Of course I’m not saying that racism doesn’t exist. It does. But it is a moral question. It’s for each one to decide if S/He wants to be a racist or not. But don’t give too much importance to the warriors against racism. They often have an agenda and most of them are really interested in power. They are not interested in justice. That includes 99% of BLM’s leaders.

    Here is my suggestion: convince as many African leaders as you can about the importance of IQ.-and IQ is important although it isn’t as important as some fools believe-

    Then you should go and see the Chinese government ans ask them to help Africa build a cognitive elite.

    I believe in two generations, Africa will have enough high IQ people in power who would be able to build technological developed countries like the whites they admire so much that they hate them.

    In two -generation African scientist will start winning Nobel in physics, chemistry, biology…

    I believe Africa should change but I’m not sure they should copy western civilization…

    Maybe African civilizations could try to bring something different…

    We already have enough stuff and technology, no ?

    No offense meant.

    Cheers

  796. @iffen
    I'm not sure what you mean.

    The top of the line pursue knowledge and are very good at it. Not a lot of hard-core Zionists among that special group and not a lot of penny counters either.

    i was agreeing with your point by saying there’s a bell curve for everything not just IQ and the people on the far-right side of the paranoia bell curve would be the ones obsessed with financial security.

    • Replies: @iffen
    OIC

    I was trying to plot the penny counting trait complex along with the IQ curve and it didn’t make sense to me.

    Are you and AaronB asserting that the penny counting trait complex curve for Ashkenazim is extremely right shifted vis-à-vis Europeans and their descendants?
  797. @AP

    the disparity between IQ 70 Africans and IQ 70 Caucasians is important as a clue to what is going on underneath the hood so it should be pondered on.
     
    Why do you think there is a disparity?

    Place a 70 IQ African in a modern Western environment requiring a lot of abstract reasoning and technical prowess, fairly atomized without a large village support network, and he will be about as functional as is the 70 IQ Caucasian. That is, he can eventually be trained to do something like bag groceries or sweep floors, use a stove for simple things, use busses, read at an upper grade school level, etc.

    Place a 70 IQ Caucasian in a tight-knit hunter-gatherer or in a pre-modern agricultural community in a warm climate and he will learn the basic and simple daily rhythm and rituals of what he must do, guided by the family tribe is is embedded in.

    Why do you think there is a disparity?

    mostly cos it’s been repeated a lot

    but also i kinda get what they mean from personal experience where white (actually non-black as i’ve known quite a few south Asian retards) actually seem damaged whereas the black ones seem like they’re missing a necessary component but are otherwise normal.

    • Replies: @AP
    Someone with an IQ of 70 is not mentally retarded, he is borderline. There is a difference. There is also a large difference between someone with mild mental retardation (IQ in the 60s) and someone with an IQ in the 50s. The "drooling" incoherent people have IQs in the 40s or low 50s.

    As I wrote, a white person in the West with an IQ of 70 is not worse-functioning than an African person with an IQ of 70. He is simply functioning in a more complex environment requiring a lot of abstract thought, which forces him to take low positions such as being a street sweeper or grocery bagger. Raise that same person with the same IQ in a premodern village where everyone helps one another, rituals of life are simple and have been practiced for generations, and he'll do fine and be like most other people.
  798. @Bliss

    IQ is the best single predictor of life outcomes.
     
    That is a flawed study, and the author himself acknowledges it’s limitations. In that chart the lowest correlation of IQ is with income level, which is the life outcome most Americans strive for. What does that tell you?

    Fact is IQ is unreliable and inconsistent as a measurement of intelligence:

    1. IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.

    2. East Asian nations are consistently found to have the highest IQ, yet, as white IQists love to point out, they lag behind in producing creative geniuses.


    White Rhodesians, who were quite possibly one of the highest IQ populations on Earth
     
    You must have learned that at Stormfront. Common sense should have told you that if white South Africans had an IQ of 94 (google it) then white Rhodesians who were of similar stock couldn’t outscore them by that much.

    2. East Asian nations are consistently found to have the highest IQ, yet, as white IQists love to point out, they lag behind in producing creative geniuses.

    straw man – “IQists” don’t say genius is solely a function of IQ – they say average IQ correlates with economic success and the east Asian scores reinforce that claim.

  799. @Bliss

    IQ is the best single predictor of life outcomes.
     
    That is a flawed study, and the author himself acknowledges it’s limitations. In that chart the lowest correlation of IQ is with income level, which is the life outcome most Americans strive for. What does that tell you?

    Fact is IQ is unreliable and inconsistent as a measurement of intelligence:

    1. IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.

    2. East Asian nations are consistently found to have the highest IQ, yet, as white IQists love to point out, they lag behind in producing creative geniuses.


    White Rhodesians, who were quite possibly one of the highest IQ populations on Earth
     
    You must have learned that at Stormfront. Common sense should have told you that if white South Africans had an IQ of 94 (google it) then white Rhodesians who were of similar stock couldn’t outscore them by that much.

    1. IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.

    i’ve only known a few but based on that limited number i’d say middle eastern retards (and south Asian) are the same as white ones i.e. they appear damaged.

    it’s like the difference between a working wind-up watch and a broken digital watch.

  800. @for-the-record
    Draw a circle of 1km circumference around the South Pole. Any point on a lager circle around the South Pole that is 1km North from the first circle is good as a starting point. You are right there is a continuum of points that are solutions to your problem.

    Congratulations! You are now Level 2.

    Any Level 3 out there? [Hint: there is a countably infinite set of such continuums/continuua].

    No, there is not a countably infinite set of such continuums. If you can tell me why, you can qualify as level 4. If not, you go back to level 2. Or maybe 1.

  801. @Frederick V. Reed
    Prosperity is a function of intelligence and other things. If you look at raw intellectual capacity, various Asians are HUGELY superior to all others. The disproportion between small Asian populations and their overwhelming dominance at high-end universities and elite high schools, on tests like National Merit, are boggling. If memory serves, the 2016—I'm not going to check—Math Olympiad championship team of the US was all Asian. Is this success explainable by their IQ advantage? It would seem to indicate that they will shortly dwarf a cognitively comparatively dim European world. They are said to be genetically unable to innovate. True? They can sure engineer, as the Kirin 980 and Q-bit work suggests.

    Some recent genetic studies discovered that the alleles associated with IQ and cognitive ability are different from the alleles associated with creativity and artistic expression. It may be that Asians have superior alleles in the first category, but not so in the second.

  802. @Michael Kenny
    According to the people who develop and administer IQ tests, such tests do not measure some objective thing called "intelligence". They measure adaptation to the society in which you live. Thus, use of IQs to claim that this or that ethnic group is more intelligent than another is pseudo-science. Thus, if you administer an American-designed IQ test to the whole planet, Americans will naturally score higher and, since the people who design such tests are, by definition, well-educated, middle class people, their idea of what constitutes "adaptation" will reflect the values of educated, middle class people in that society. Such people will tend to score higher than people from other backgrounds. In addition, the figure of 100 is an average. Amusingly, all this information comes from an article some years ago on a site which peddles white supremacy. The author (foolishly!) linked us to the raw data, where the scientists who had conducted the tests provided the above expalnation by way of caveat. That site has never since repeated the mistake of linking its readers to raw data!

    And yet American-designed IQ tests produce higher scores for many Asian cultures that are completely foreign to America. How can that be?

  803. @Lars Porsena
    No.

    To give an example, the speed of a bullet in the split second that it leaves the 4" barrel of a .357 magnum revolver is apx. 1100 miles per hour. However the bullet will not go 1100 miles nor will it travel an hour. Nor does it speed remain consistent, it slows down constantly after leaving the barrel. It's not an averaged speed over any length the bullet will travel, it's an initial speed at the moment it leaves the barrel.

    Exactly speaking speed is not an average distance over time it is measured as a precise distance per time. It is a quality that exists even in a (hypothetical) still frame of infinitesimal time and perfectly still and not going anywhere. It is a measurement of kinetic energy.

    It can also be measured as something like ft-lbs/gram.

    Nonetheless, average speed is a very important thing to know precisely in the example you give. Knowing the average speed of a bullet fired at a distance of 1 km is essential in aiming a gun at a moving target, or in calculating how much the bullet will “fall” during its flight. One must know that average speed to accurately hit that target. I would imagine snipers would memorize such tables if they wish to have any success.

  804. @dux.ie
    > Mexico, in contrast, appears to have a much smaller intellectual elite than Turkey.

    http://i63.tinypic.com/2m4uijl.png

    Without consideration of population density, the regional PISA Math histograms of Turkey and Mexico. It seems that the distributions of both populations are bimodal and so unimodal averages are not that meaningful. The upper cluster modal value for TR seems to be higher than that for Mexico and thus TR should have more in PISA Math level 6.

    There may have been a greater mercantile tradition in what is now Turkey.

  805. @Bliss

    some suspect evidence showing a single pharaoh possibly had Black Y-DNA
     
    What the hell is “suspect” about that genetic evidence?

    What’s suspect here are your claims of high IQ. For it didn’t occur to you that if you know the Y-DNA of one Pharaoh in a lineage you know it for all the Pharaohs of that lineage.

    I’d like to find out who’s Black on the next edition. Maybe Einstein
     
    If you searched for Einstein’s doppelgängers you would be most likely to find them among mixed race peoples. Take a look at Einstein’s mother:



    http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/pauline_koch.jpg

    His sister, on the left:

    https://scilogs.spektrum.de/relativ-einfach/files/StaudeJ_8.png

    Mother looks part aborigine. That is one ugly family. Must have been an arranged marriage.

    • Replies: @Bliss

    That is one ugly family.
     
    Evil is ugly. Therefore what’s certain is that you are the ugly one.
  806. @notanon
    i was agreeing with your point by saying there's a bell curve for everything not just IQ and the people on the far-right side of the paranoia bell curve would be the ones obsessed with financial security.

    OIC

    I was trying to plot the penny counting trait complex along with the IQ curve and it didn’t make sense to me.

    Are you and AaronB asserting that the penny counting trait complex curve for Ashkenazim is extremely right shifted vis-à-vis Europeans and their descendants?

    • Replies: @notanon
    i'm saying their paranoia trait complex is extremely right-shifted and that trait has an influence on many behaviors including desire for security through wealth but it's not 100% cos bell curves.
  807. @songbird
    I'm not sure how involved Cristopher Tolkien was in the sale. I think he retired shortly before it went through, so it may have had to do with other family members or something.

    If I understand it, JRR Tolkien sold the movie rights in 1969, and just the movie rights. Essentially, anything on TV is fair and square, as far as I know. The characters from The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings or anything. I think even those stories. The rumors are of some sort of story taking place before those stories, but it will likely keep expanding, if it is profitable. I think Amazon paid like $250 million.

    As to k-12 schooling in America, I have often gotten the impression it is like day care. A lot of it is geared to making sure teenagers are off the streets, so they don't bother the elderly and businesses in the middle of the day by loitering.

    Yes, as an outside observer, at many schools, you are right, like a form of day-care, but damaging to the brighter students, through bullying. However, i was making several points in my post, you didn’t notice,
    this being an overfull thread, would suppose nobody did.

    Saw a tragic sign on a telegraph pole (I think that is the correct term in English, even if telegraphy no longer exists).

    Someone had lost a beloved parakeet, inko, my first thought was ‘must have been a “domestic” cat ‘, so my first thought after that was to post a sticker saying ‘it was likely killed by a cat’, under the sign … and cat lovers, fools as they are, like to ignore their preying on birds.

    However, the ferocious winds on some days lately, make me think that was the more probable reason. Maybe it was killed by a cat, but only after being blown away by the wind.

    The owner or owners clearly loved the bird (the poster was in colour, ornate and detailed description, two photos, i will sure be calling them and bring it back if I see it), but were placing it in danger by taking it outside at the wrong time.

  808. @notanon

    Why do you think there is a disparity?
     
    mostly cos it's been repeated a lot

    but also i kinda get what they mean from personal experience where white (actually non-black as i've known quite a few south Asian retards) actually seem damaged whereas the black ones seem like they're missing a necessary component but are otherwise normal.

    Someone with an IQ of 70 is not mentally retarded, he is borderline. There is a difference. There is also a large difference between someone with mild mental retardation (IQ in the 60s) and someone with an IQ in the 50s. The “drooling” incoherent people have IQs in the 40s or low 50s.

    As I wrote, a white person in the West with an IQ of 70 is not worse-functioning than an African person with an IQ of 70. He is simply functioning in a more complex environment requiring a lot of abstract thought, which forces him to take low positions such as being a street sweeper or grocery bagger. Raise that same person with the same IQ in a premodern village where everyone helps one another, rituals of life are simple and have been practiced for generations, and he’ll do fine and be like most other people.

    • Replies: @notanon
    fair enough but the bad guys are going to keep repeating it anyway (cos they're not after the truth; they'e trying to obscure it) and them saying one thing and you directly refuting it ends in stalemate - cos observers won't know who to believe.

    plan B is accept their premise but then create a pleasingly plausible layman's explanation why they're still wrong which makes them scramble to refute.

    that's the idea anyway.
  809. @Bliss

    IQ is the best single predictor of life outcomes.
     
    That is a flawed study, and the author himself acknowledges it’s limitations. In that chart the lowest correlation of IQ is with income level, which is the life outcome most Americans strive for. What does that tell you?

    Fact is IQ is unreliable and inconsistent as a measurement of intelligence:

    1. IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.

    2. East Asian nations are consistently found to have the highest IQ, yet, as white IQists love to point out, they lag behind in producing creative geniuses.


    White Rhodesians, who were quite possibly one of the highest IQ populations on Earth
     
    You must have learned that at Stormfront. Common sense should have told you that if white South Africans had an IQ of 94 (google it) then white Rhodesians who were of similar stock couldn’t outscore them by that much.

    IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards

    Not at IQ of 70. Repeating this many times doesn’t make it true.

    • Replies: @Bliss
    Whatever you arbitrarily decide is the IQ cutoff point for retardation there should be a helluva lot more retards, percentage wise, in Syria than in Sweden since the average IQ of Sweden is ~20 points higher than that of Syria. This is not observable reality.

    https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/ustat/ustat0301-01.htm

    People with mental retardation in the U.S., currently estimated to number between 6.2 and 7.5 million.......To be diagnosed as having mental retardation, a person must have an I.Q. below 70-75.......Although all persons with mental retardation have significantly impaired mental development, their intellectual level can vary considerably. An estimated 89 percent of all people with retardation have I.Q.s in the 51-70 range. An I.Q. in the 60 to 70 range is approximately the scholastic equivalent to the third grade.


    https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-considered-a-low-iq-2795282

    Older conceptions of low IQ tended to focus purely on cognitive abilities, but more modern approaches also stress how well an individual functions mentally and in areas of everyday life. Individuals with an IQ score below 70 may be diagnosed with an intellectual disability if they also experience deficits in two or more areas that influence daily living. Examples of such adaptive behaviors include the ability to take care of oneself and the ability to communicate and interact with other people.

    So where are all these maladaptive retards hiding in the low IQ nations of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa?

  810. Hmmmm, when humans create colonies in space, on the moon etc, the average IQ of those populations will likely need to be 130, because having an IQ below 100 will likely lead to a quick death.

    • Replies: @Talha
    “What does this red button in the airlock do? I’ll find out!"

    Peace.
  811. @Peripatetic commenter
    Hmmmm, when humans create colonies in space, on the moon etc, the average IQ of those populations will likely need to be 130, because having an IQ below 100 will likely lead to a quick death.

    “What does this red button in the airlock do? I’ll find out!”

    Peace.

    • Replies: @iffen
    Hey Bubba, watch this!
  812. @iffen
    OIC

    I was trying to plot the penny counting trait complex along with the IQ curve and it didn’t make sense to me.

    Are you and AaronB asserting that the penny counting trait complex curve for Ashkenazim is extremely right shifted vis-à-vis Europeans and their descendants?

    i’m saying their paranoia trait complex is extremely right-shifted and that trait has an influence on many behaviors including desire for security through wealth but it’s not 100% cos bell curves.

    • Replies: @iffen
    I do not dismiss the proposition out of hand that there is a complex that produces behavior that puts wealth accumulation at center stage. I don't think that it has anything to do with paranoia. Besides, it can't be paranoia if some people really are (and have been) out to get you.
  813. @AP
    Someone with an IQ of 70 is not mentally retarded, he is borderline. There is a difference. There is also a large difference between someone with mild mental retardation (IQ in the 60s) and someone with an IQ in the 50s. The "drooling" incoherent people have IQs in the 40s or low 50s.

    As I wrote, a white person in the West with an IQ of 70 is not worse-functioning than an African person with an IQ of 70. He is simply functioning in a more complex environment requiring a lot of abstract thought, which forces him to take low positions such as being a street sweeper or grocery bagger. Raise that same person with the same IQ in a premodern village where everyone helps one another, rituals of life are simple and have been practiced for generations, and he'll do fine and be like most other people.

    fair enough but the bad guys are going to keep repeating it anyway (cos they’re not after the truth; they’e trying to obscure it) and them saying one thing and you directly refuting it ends in stalemate – cos observers won’t know who to believe.

    plan B is accept their premise but then create a pleasingly plausible layman’s explanation why they’re still wrong which makes them scramble to refute.

    that’s the idea anyway.

  814. @anonymous
    Very interesting indeed. Thanks.

    "Either way, the tale of the sponges' brains is a reminder that one of the standard myths about evolution is wrong.

    Many of us have the idea that evolution takes simple organisms and makes them more complex. It does sometimes do that, but it can also do the exact opposite and simplify things – and sometimes it keeps animals virtually unchanged for millions of years."

    Maybe it's time to admit that we really don't know what's going on and that all our knowledge will never be more than a drop of water in ocean ? Time to try to be more humble and decent ?

  815. @Talha
    “What does this red button in the airlock do? I’ll find out!"

    Peace.

    Hey Bubba, watch this!

    • LOL: Talha
    • Replies: @Talha
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw

    Bonus:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYE2kfveYIo
  816. @notanon
    i'm saying their paranoia trait complex is extremely right-shifted and that trait has an influence on many behaviors including desire for security through wealth but it's not 100% cos bell curves.

    I do not dismiss the proposition out of hand that there is a complex that produces behavior that puts wealth accumulation at center stage. I don’t think that it has anything to do with paranoia. Besides, it can’t be paranoia if some people really are (and have been) out to get you.

  817. @iffen
    Hey Bubba, watch this!

    Bonus:

  818. @RaceRealist88
    How do you separate genes and environment, nature and nurture, if they depend on each other? That's why computing "heritability estimates" is a useless endeavor. Twin studies are useless.

    There are several ways. Here’s one:

    Study the correlation between specific gene alleles and IQ.

    Develop a statistical relationship between these alleles, such that adding or subtracting them can predict IQ.

    Then, turn it around. Conduct studies of the alleles of random people, without knowing what their IQ is, and try to predict their IQ.

    See how close that gets you to their actual test results.

    Researchers have actually done this. They’ve found they can predict IQ with a correlation of 60-70% simply by knowing which alleles are present in a person’s DNA. That’s pretty good. It also tracks with other ways of studying the genetic component of IQ, which has been in the range of 50-80% depending on the study methods.

    One thing that’s interesting about the racial component of this is that the first study done this way was conducted in Europe on Europeans. The predictive results were meaningful. However, when they tried to do the same test on Sub-Saharan Africans, the results were meaningless. They could not use the same allele distribution to predict their IQs. The implication is that SSAs use different alleles for the development of cognitive reasoning ability. It might well be true of Asians also. So they have to do entirely new studies on these different groups to see which alleles are associated with cognitive reasoning ability in their populations.

    This suggests that people really might not all think alike.

    • Replies: @Simulacra Chili
    Can you point me to the studies that can predict IQ with correlations of 60-70%?
    , @Johan Meyer
    How do they go about distinguishing between IQ contributions that are directly due to genes, versus genetic variation in uptake or dose response being multiplied by environmental means? Stated differently, how well do these studies predict future cohorts when the means of environmental variables (e.g. lead) change?
  819. @AP

    IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards
     
    Not at IQ of 70. Repeating this many times doesn't make it true.

    Whatever you arbitrarily decide is the IQ cutoff point for retardation there should be a helluva lot more retards, percentage wise, in Syria than in Sweden since the average IQ of Sweden is ~20 points higher than that of Syria. This is not observable reality.

    https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/ustat/ustat0301-01.htm

    People with mental retardation in the U.S., currently estimated to number between 6.2 and 7.5 million…….To be diagnosed as having mental retardation, a person must have an I.Q. below 70-75…….Although all persons with mental retardation have significantly impaired mental development, their intellectual level can vary considerably. An estimated 89 percent of all people with retardation have I.Q.s in the 51-70 range. An I.Q. in the 60 to 70 range is approximately the scholastic equivalent to the third grade.

    https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-considered-a-low-iq-2795282

    Older conceptions of low IQ tended to focus purely on cognitive abilities, but more modern approaches also stress how well an individual functions mentally and in areas of everyday life. Individuals with an IQ score below 70 may be diagnosed with an intellectual disability if they also experience deficits in two or more areas that influence daily living. Examples of such adaptive behaviors include the ability to take care of oneself and the ability to communicate and interact with other people.

    So where are all these maladaptive retards hiding in the low IQ nations of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa?

    • Replies: @Peripatetic commenter

    Whatever you arbitrarily decide is the IQ cutoff point for retardation there should be a helluva lot more retards, percentage wise, in Syria than in Sweden since the average IQ of Sweden is ~20 points higher than that of Syria. This is not observable reality.
     
    Yeah. That 's why those Syrians, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc, so easily become fine, upstanding and productive citizens in Sweden when they move there.

    Oh, wait. Never mind.

    , @notanon

    So where are all these maladaptive retards hiding in the low IQ nations of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa?
     
    familial welfare

    businesses which need maybe 2-4 workers have 6-8 including the family retards
    , @AP

    helluva lot more retards, percentage wise, in Syria than in Sweden since the average IQ of Sweden is ~20 points higher than that of Syria. This is not observable reality
     
    About 2% of the population in the West are classified as mentally retarded. Most of these are mildly retarded, which means that with some help they can function. The ones you think of as retards would have IQ scores in the 50s. It is something like .1% of the population.

    If there are three times as many mentally retarded people in Syria, it is still a small number. And again, most of these will be mildly retarded. A mildly retarded person is more normal and can have a more functional life in, say, a Syrian peasant village than he can in a modern Western city. People with other impairments such as schizophrenia lead much more "normal" lives in more primitive societies too. It is easier to get around in such societies, rules and requirements are simpler and easier to navigate, there is much more social support - such a life may be more physically demanding but it is much easier from the perspective of cognitive functioning.

    Someone with an IQ of 68 can toil in the field just as well as someone with an IQ of 90. But put that someone in a modern western city and he is mentally retarded.

    Modern Western and Asian socieites are designed for people with high IQs by global standards. Subsaharan societies and to a lesser extent Middle Eastern, rural southern Asian, and rural Balkan societies are not.
  820. @Bliss
    Whatever you arbitrarily decide is the IQ cutoff point for retardation there should be a helluva lot more retards, percentage wise, in Syria than in Sweden since the average IQ of Sweden is ~20 points higher than that of Syria. This is not observable reality.

    https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/ustat/ustat0301-01.htm

    People with mental retardation in the U.S., currently estimated to number between 6.2 and 7.5 million.......To be diagnosed as having mental retardation, a person must have an I.Q. below 70-75.......Although all persons with mental retardation have significantly impaired mental development, their intellectual level can vary considerably. An estimated 89 percent of all people with retardation have I.Q.s in the 51-70 range. An I.Q. in the 60 to 70 range is approximately the scholastic equivalent to the third grade.


    https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-considered-a-low-iq-2795282

    Older conceptions of low IQ tended to focus purely on cognitive abilities, but more modern approaches also stress how well an individual functions mentally and in areas of everyday life. Individuals with an IQ score below 70 may be diagnosed with an intellectual disability if they also experience deficits in two or more areas that influence daily living. Examples of such adaptive behaviors include the ability to take care of oneself and the ability to communicate and interact with other people.

    So where are all these maladaptive retards hiding in the low IQ nations of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa?

    Whatever you arbitrarily decide is the IQ cutoff point for retardation there should be a helluva lot more retards, percentage wise, in Syria than in Sweden since the average IQ of Sweden is ~20 points higher than that of Syria. This is not observable reality.

    Yeah. That ‘s why those Syrians, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc, so easily become fine, upstanding and productive citizens in Sweden when they move there.

    Oh, wait. Never mind.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu

    Yeah. That ‘s why those Syrians, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc, so easily become fine, upstanding and productive citizens in Sweden when they move there.
     
    They grossly outperform whites when they move to America though. Environment is everything.
  821. @Bliss
    Whatever you arbitrarily decide is the IQ cutoff point for retardation there should be a helluva lot more retards, percentage wise, in Syria than in Sweden since the average IQ of Sweden is ~20 points higher than that of Syria. This is not observable reality.

    https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/ustat/ustat0301-01.htm

    People with mental retardation in the U.S., currently estimated to number between 6.2 and 7.5 million.......To be diagnosed as having mental retardation, a person must have an I.Q. below 70-75.......Although all persons with mental retardation have significantly impaired mental development, their intellectual level can vary considerably. An estimated 89 percent of all people with retardation have I.Q.s in the 51-70 range. An I.Q. in the 60 to 70 range is approximately the scholastic equivalent to the third grade.


    https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-considered-a-low-iq-2795282

    Older conceptions of low IQ tended to focus purely on cognitive abilities, but more modern approaches also stress how well an individual functions mentally and in areas of everyday life. Individuals with an IQ score below 70 may be diagnosed with an intellectual disability if they also experience deficits in two or more areas that influence daily living. Examples of such adaptive behaviors include the ability to take care of oneself and the ability to communicate and interact with other people.

    So where are all these maladaptive retards hiding in the low IQ nations of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa?

    So where are all these maladaptive retards hiding in the low IQ nations of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa?

    familial welfare

    businesses which need maybe 2-4 workers have 6-8 including the family retards

    • Replies: @AP
    Correct. An example I am familiar with - a low functioning schizophrenic of rural Shiite Lebanese background - he "works" at his family bakery, doing simple stuff while being supervised and controlled by the extended family. Isn't homeless, gets paid (family controls his money), has a structured life, but isn't mumbling to himself on the streets. If this family were still in their Lebanese village it is possible that some hapless girl would get an arranged marriage with him. She would then function as an additional caretaker and "babysitter."

    Mentally retarded people in such cultures have a similar advantage.

    The bottom line: cultures full of people with 70 IQs are built to have plenty of people with 70 IQs, and in such cultures people with 70 IQs lead normal lives. This doesn't mean that those IQ scores don't reflect actual cognitive ability.
  822. @Peripatetic commenter

    Whatever you arbitrarily decide is the IQ cutoff point for retardation there should be a helluva lot more retards, percentage wise, in Syria than in Sweden since the average IQ of Sweden is ~20 points higher than that of Syria. This is not observable reality.
     
    Yeah. That 's why those Syrians, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc, so easily become fine, upstanding and productive citizens in Sweden when they move there.

    Oh, wait. Never mind.

    Yeah. That ‘s why those Syrians, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc, so easily become fine, upstanding and productive citizens in Sweden when they move there.

    They grossly outperform whites when they move to America though. Environment is everything.

    • Replies: @AP
    No they don't:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income
  823. @Okechukwu

    Yeah. That ‘s why those Syrians, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc, so easily become fine, upstanding and productive citizens in Sweden when they move there.
     
    They grossly outperform whites when they move to America though. Environment is everything.
    • Replies: @Okechukwu
    Yes they do. Even your link confirms it. Arabs, Iranians, Nigerians, Indians and many other allegedly low IQ nationalities overtake whites rather quickly in educational and occupational attainment upon immigrating to the United States.
  824. @Bliss
    Whatever you arbitrarily decide is the IQ cutoff point for retardation there should be a helluva lot more retards, percentage wise, in Syria than in Sweden since the average IQ of Sweden is ~20 points higher than that of Syria. This is not observable reality.

    https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/ustat/ustat0301-01.htm

    People with mental retardation in the U.S., currently estimated to number between 6.2 and 7.5 million.......To be diagnosed as having mental retardation, a person must have an I.Q. below 70-75.......Although all persons with mental retardation have significantly impaired mental development, their intellectual level can vary considerably. An estimated 89 percent of all people with retardation have I.Q.s in the 51-70 range. An I.Q. in the 60 to 70 range is approximately the scholastic equivalent to the third grade.


    https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-considered-a-low-iq-2795282

    Older conceptions of low IQ tended to focus purely on cognitive abilities, but more modern approaches also stress how well an individual functions mentally and in areas of everyday life. Individuals with an IQ score below 70 may be diagnosed with an intellectual disability if they also experience deficits in two or more areas that influence daily living. Examples of such adaptive behaviors include the ability to take care of oneself and the ability to communicate and interact with other people.

    So where are all these maladaptive retards hiding in the low IQ nations of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa?

    helluva lot more retards, percentage wise, in Syria than in Sweden since the average IQ of Sweden is ~20 points higher than that of Syria. This is not observable reality

    About 2% of the population in the West are classified as mentally retarded. Most of these are mildly retarded, which means that with some help they can function. The ones you think of as retards would have IQ scores in the 50s. It is something like .1% of the population.

    If there are three times as many mentally retarded people in Syria, it is still a small number. And again, most of these will be mildly retarded. A mildly retarded person is more normal and can have a more functional life in, say, a Syrian peasant village than he can in a modern Western city. People with other impairments such as schizophrenia lead much more “normal” lives in more primitive societies too. It is easier to get around in such societies, rules and requirements are simpler and easier to navigate, there is much more social support – such a life may be more physically demanding but it is much easier from the perspective of cognitive functioning.

    Someone with an IQ of 68 can toil in the field just as well as someone with an IQ of 90. But put that someone in a modern western city and he is mentally retarded.

    Modern Western and Asian socieites are designed for people with high IQs by global standards. Subsaharan societies and to a lesser extent Middle Eastern, rural southern Asian, and rural Balkan societies are not.

  825. @notanon

    So where are all these maladaptive retards hiding in the low IQ nations of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa?
     
    familial welfare

    businesses which need maybe 2-4 workers have 6-8 including the family retards

    Correct. An example I am familiar with – a low functioning schizophrenic of rural Shiite Lebanese background – he “works” at his family bakery, doing simple stuff while being supervised and controlled by the extended family. Isn’t homeless, gets paid (family controls his money), has a structured life, but isn’t mumbling to himself on the streets. If this family were still in their Lebanese village it is possible that some hapless girl would get an arranged marriage with him. She would then function as an additional caretaker and “babysitter.”

    Mentally retarded people in such cultures have a similar advantage.

    The bottom line: cultures full of people with 70 IQs are built to have plenty of people with 70 IQs, and in such cultures people with 70 IQs lead normal lives. This doesn’t mean that those IQ scores don’t reflect actual cognitive ability.

    • Replies: @notanon

    a low functioning schizophrenic of rural Shiite Lebanese background – he “works” at his family bakery, doing simple stuff while being supervised and controlled by the extended family
     
    yes - people can easily check this for themselves if they live near convenience stores, restaurants, fast food places etc that always look like they have more workers then they need - take a minute next time you visit and spot the retards.
    , @Bliss
    Your anecdotal evidence proves nothing. You can’t hide retards all the time. And certainly not at times when family life is seriously disrupted such as during wars. Iraq and Syria, both low IQ countries, suffered wars recently. What happened to their retards?

    Show us real evidence that the Middle-East has a much higher percentage of dysfunctional retards than North America.

  826. @Bliss

    IQ is the best single predictor of life outcomes.
     
    That is a flawed study, and the author himself acknowledges it’s limitations. In that chart the lowest correlation of IQ is with income level, which is the life outcome most Americans strive for. What does that tell you?

    Fact is IQ is unreliable and inconsistent as a measurement of intelligence:

    1. IQ, at low levels, does not predict dysfunctional retardation correctly. White europeans with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.

    2. East Asian nations are consistently found to have the highest IQ, yet, as white IQists love to point out, they lag behind in producing creative geniuses.


    White Rhodesians, who were quite possibly one of the highest IQ populations on Earth
     
    You must have learned that at Stormfront. Common sense should have told you that if white South Africans had an IQ of 94 (google it) then white Rhodesians who were of similar stock couldn’t outscore them by that much.

    with an IQ of 70 or less look and act like stereotypical retards, while middle-easterners and africans with the same IQ do not.

    Middle-easterners and africans don’t act like retards?

  827. @AP

    the disparity between IQ 70 Africans and IQ 70 Caucasians is important as a clue to what is going on underneath the hood so it should be pondered on.
     
    Why do you think there is a disparity?

    Place a 70 IQ African in a modern Western environment requiring a lot of abstract reasoning and technical prowess, fairly atomized without a large village support network, and he will be about as functional as is the 70 IQ Caucasian. That is, he can eventually be trained to do something like bag groceries or sweep floors, use a stove for simple things, use busses, read at an upper grade school level, etc.

    Place a 70 IQ Caucasian in a tight-knit hunter-gatherer or in a pre-modern agricultural community in a warm climate and he will learn the basic and simple daily rhythm and rituals of what he must do, guided by the family tribe is is embedded in.

    That is, he can eventually be trained to do something like bag groceries or sweep floors

    Do you know what the unemployment rate of the bottom-half of blacks is?

    • Replies: @notanon
    they don't have the Arab/Asian familial welfare structure that manages the family retards
  828. @AP
    No they don't:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income

    Yes they do. Even your link confirms it. Arabs, Iranians, Nigerians, Indians and many other allegedly low IQ nationalities overtake whites rather quickly in educational and occupational attainment upon immigrating to the United States.

    • Agree: Bliss
    • Replies: @notanon
    yes, people who come from societies where extreme levels of ethnic nepotism is necessary to survive go through open western societies like a hot knife through butter - eventually recreating the kind of society they were trying to escape from.
    , @notanon
    to be fairer, just in case...

    yes, immigrants from low *average* IQ countries who are selected on the basis of educational attainment will have a high average IQ. This doesn't prove or disprove anything.

    (especially as all those low average population will probably have a mercantile minority sub-population with a much higher average)

    however some people try to claim that the relative success of immigrants who were specifically selected for their higher than average IQ means millions of immigrants from rural villages will be similarly successful - which is dangerously wrong.

    #

    the second argument is if there are measured average IQ 70 or average IQ 85 populations then where are all the retards?

    for some populations the answer to that is they are clearly visible being shepherded by their extended family - you just have to notice them.

    for other populations there's the possibility there may be two kinds of people who test at IQ 70 (or whatever number the cutoff is)
    a) people who test as 70 and who look and act damaged
    b) people who test as 70 who don't look damaged but test low cos they are missing some component that only starts to get selected for after a society reaches a minimum level of complexity.
  829. All answers to test question level 4 are wrong. Let’s look at the start of the process. At second 0 the first 2 people enter the door. At second 5 nobody goes out of the door because the first 2 people are in the closed sector. At second 10 the first 2 people leave the door. After that moment 2 people exit the door every 5 seconds. The correct answer is 720 -2 = 718.
    A friend solved test question level 6 in the following manner.
    1) The average speed for the first part of the route = 26,666 km/h
    2) The average speed for the second part of the route = 30 km/h
    3) The average speed for the entire trip (30 + 26,666)/2 = 28,333 km/h
    Rounded up to 28 km/h. The correct answer.
    That’s why I am sceptical about all tests.

    • Replies: @Peripatetic commenter


    A friend solved test question level 6 in the following manner.
    1) The average speed for the first part of the route = 26,666 km/h
    2) The average speed for the second part of the route = 30 km/h
    3) The average speed for the entire trip (30 + 26,666)/2 = 28,333 km/h
    Rounded up to 28 km/h. The correct answer.
    That’s why I am sceptical about all tests.

     

    You should get your fried to start a new branch of mathematics. He could call it Bizarro Mathematics. It would be all the rage among low IQ people.
    , @notanon

    1) The average speed for the first part of the route = 26,666 km/h
    2) The average speed for the second part of the route = 30 km/h
     
    1) is the average speed for 9 minutes
    2) is the average speed for 6 minutes

    so if you weight the average speeds by that ratio it still comes to 28 but by a more convoluted route.

    (i did it this long way round cos my suspicious brain assumed it was a trick question)
  830. @marpa
    There are several ways. Here's one:

    Study the correlation between specific gene alleles and IQ.

    Develop a statistical relationship between these alleles, such that adding or subtracting them can predict IQ.

    Then, turn it around. Conduct studies of the alleles of random people, without knowing what their IQ is, and try to predict their IQ.

    See how close that gets you to their actual test results.

    Researchers have actually done this. They've found they can predict IQ with a correlation of 60-70% simply by knowing which alleles are present in a person's DNA. That's pretty good. It also tracks with other ways of studying the genetic component of IQ, which has been in the range of 50-80% depending on the study methods.

    One thing that's interesting about the racial component of this is that the first study done this way was conducted in Europe on Europeans. The predictive results were meaningful. However, when they tried to do the same test on Sub-Saharan Africans, the results were meaningless. They could not use the same allele distribution to predict their IQs. The implication is that SSAs use different alleles for the development of cognitive reasoning ability. It might well be true of Asians also. So they have to do entirely new studies on these different groups to see which alleles are associated with cognitive reasoning ability in their populations.

    This suggests that people really might not all think alike.

    Can you point me to the studies that can predict IQ with correlations of 60-70%?

    • Replies: @marpa
    http://www.frontlinegenomics.com/news/20419/using-dna-to-predict-intelligence/
    , @marpa
    I keep trying, but for some reason it won't post. Maybe this time?

    http://www.frontlinegenomics.com/news/20419/using-dna-to-predict-intelligence/
  831. @Logan
    And I bet you smarter slaves were also less likely to be worked to death and probably had higher status and so better access to women.

    Possibly. Though I suggest a highly intelligent slave is also more likely to "act uppity" and get himself into serious trouble with the master. The type of trouble that may significantly impact his survival and ability to reproduce.

    OTOH, the highly intelligent slave was also probably far more likely to be trained in a skill and thus achieve a higher value to the master, giving him stronger incentive not to kill him.

    Depends on the master/society. If it happens in a society which values knowledge and intelligence, a highly intelligent slave would be seen as an asset. If the slave lives in a country with poor educational system, where muscles matter and subordination, he can still win but only if he hides his abilities and does as much as needed so he doesn’t raise the defense mechanisms of the master.

  832. @Hippopotamusdrome


    That is, he can eventually be trained to do something like bag groceries or sweep floors

     

    Do you know what the unemployment rate of the bottom-half of blacks is?

    they don’t have the Arab/Asian familial welfare structure that manages the family retards

  833. @Okechukwu
    Yes they do. Even your link confirms it. Arabs, Iranians, Nigerians, Indians and many other allegedly low IQ nationalities overtake whites rather quickly in educational and occupational attainment upon immigrating to the United States.

    yes, people who come from societies where extreme levels of ethnic nepotism is necessary to survive go through open western societies like a hot knife through butter – eventually recreating the kind of society they were trying to escape from.

  834. @anon
    The lesson in these IQ statistics seems to be that learning is a function of directed and encountered experience. Performance is a measure of ability to apply learned or acquired experience to a problem or situation of the type one's culture expects its adults to perform in.

    Learning (that is the processing of experience) occurs with every human breath.

    The types of learning experiences are based in availability, access, random events. Each type of learning experience is a function of sensory access, if one cannot read, one cannot know the meanings of that words on the page, if one cannot hear one cannot know that the whistle sounds the time of day.

    Availability of the mother, father, siblings, the extended family, the community, the society, and activities directed toward preparation for adult demands in a target society all figure in the ability to perform. IQ is a measure of the ability to perform on a test which must be read [visual sensory capacity assumed to be adequate ], understood [assumptions misdirect performance], and taken seriously ( I don't feel well today or my mother just died or whatever, the gang will whip my ass if I do well on this test]

    So much performance determined IQ depends on the ability to perceive, to remember, to recall experience that it is difficult to compare performance test results even between siblings. Another factor is the language, grammar used, and even the type of print used by those who prepare the test.
    On no test anywhere have I seen a question like this..

    Your intended victim is a 42 yr old female tourist, she walks with a limp, keeps a very large red purse strapped to her wrist, the purse contains a pistol and she runs around the block of her hotel at 8:00 pm each evening. Which of the following is most likely to be successful in transporting the money in her purse to your hands?
    a. direct confrontation (beg or this is a holdup) b. artful brush by c. 2nd party diversion d. shoot, grab & run

    Obviously the answer depends on the imagined capacity of the victim and the social setting of the offender among other things but not so obvious is that the answer depends on prior directed and encountered experience and an assessment of the risk. No one tested will have the same set of these prior experiences.

    This can be solved, people can and are re-tested. Interestingly, despite of bad days, etc., IQ test scores are reliable, which means that when re-tested, the score is close to the previous one.
    External variables matter, but as much as many would like to imply.

  835. @AP
    Correct. An example I am familiar with - a low functioning schizophrenic of rural Shiite Lebanese background - he "works" at his family bakery, doing simple stuff while being supervised and controlled by the extended family. Isn't homeless, gets paid (family controls his money), has a structured life, but isn't mumbling to himself on the streets. If this family were still in their Lebanese village it is possible that some hapless girl would get an arranged marriage with him. She would then function as an additional caretaker and "babysitter."

    Mentally retarded people in such cultures have a similar advantage.

    The bottom line: cultures full of people with 70 IQs are built to have plenty of people with 70 IQs, and in such cultures people with 70 IQs lead normal lives. This doesn't mean that those IQ scores don't reflect actual cognitive ability.

    a low functioning schizophrenic of rural Shiite Lebanese background – he “works” at his family bakery, doing simple stuff while being supervised and controlled by the extended family

    yes – people can easily check this for themselves if they live near convenience stores, restaurants, fast food places etc that always look like they have more workers then they need – take a minute next time you visit and spot the retards.

  836. @Simulacra Chili
    Can you point me to the studies that can predict IQ with correlations of 60-70%?

    I keep trying, but for some reason it won’t post. Maybe this time?

    http://www.frontlinegenomics.com/news/20419/using-dna-to-predict-intelligence/

  837. @Okechukwu
    Yes they do. Even your link confirms it. Arabs, Iranians, Nigerians, Indians and many other allegedly low IQ nationalities overtake whites rather quickly in educational and occupational attainment upon immigrating to the United States.

    to be fairer, just in case…

    yes, immigrants from low *average* IQ countries who are selected on the basis of educational attainment will have a high average IQ. This doesn’t prove or disprove anything.

    (especially as all those low average population will probably have a mercantile minority sub-population with a much higher average)

    however some people try to claim that the relative success of immigrants who were specifically selected for their higher than average IQ means millions of immigrants from rural villages will be similarly successful – which is dangerously wrong.

    #

    the second argument is if there are measured average IQ 70 or average IQ 85 populations then where are all the retards?

    for some populations the answer to that is they are clearly visible being shepherded by their extended family – you just have to notice them.

    for other populations there’s the possibility there may be two kinds of people who test at IQ 70 (or whatever number the cutoff is)
    a) people who test as 70 and who look and act damaged
    b) people who test as 70 who don’t look damaged but test low cos they are missing some component that only starts to get selected for after a society reaches a minimum level of complexity.

    • Replies: @Tyrion 2

    however some people try to claim that the relative success of immigrants who were specifically selected for their higher than average IQ means millions of immigrants from rural villages will be similarly successful – which is dangerously wrong.
     
    No one knows this better than the people from those countries. Should they be honest with you, they will readily pronounce it.
    , @Bliss

    yes, immigrants from low *average* IQ countries who are selected on the basis of educational attainment will have a high average IQ. This doesn’t prove or disprove anything.
     
    Show us where you learned that Filipino (#5) and Sri Lankan (#15) immigrants were selected “on the basis of educational attainment” while Korean (#48) and Yugoslavian (#56) immigrants were not.
    , @Okechukwu

    yes, immigrants from low *average* IQ countries who are selected on the basis of educational attainment will have a high average IQ. This doesn’t prove or disprove anything.
     
    There's no such selection process in the immigration system. These people represent a cross-section of their societies, not some elite. Consider that most immigrants arrive either via chain migration or the visa lottery. Neither scheme selects for intelligence or professional credentials or educational attainment.
  838. @O.E.N.
    All answers to test question level 4 are wrong. Let’s look at the start of the process. At second 0 the first 2 people enter the door. At second 5 nobody goes out of the door because the first 2 people are in the closed sector. At second 10 the first 2 people leave the door. After that moment 2 people exit the door every 5 seconds. The correct answer is 720 -2 = 718.
    A friend solved test question level 6 in the following manner.
    1) The average speed for the first part of the route = 26,666 km/h
    2) The average speed for the second part of the route = 30 km/h
    3) The average speed for the entire trip (30 + 26,666)/2 = 28,333 km/h
    Rounded up to 28 km/h. The correct answer.
    That’s why I am sceptical about all tests.

    A friend solved test question level 6 in the following manner.
    1) The average speed for the first part of the route = 26,666 km/h
    2) The average speed for the second part of the route = 30 km/h
    3) The average speed for the entire trip (30 + 26,666)/2 = 28,333 km/h
    Rounded up to 28 km/h. The correct answer.
    That’s why I am sceptical about all tests.

    You should get your fried to start a new branch of mathematics. He could call it Bizarro Mathematics. It would be all the rage among low IQ people.

  839. @O.E.N.
    All answers to test question level 4 are wrong. Let’s look at the start of the process. At second 0 the first 2 people enter the door. At second 5 nobody goes out of the door because the first 2 people are in the closed sector. At second 10 the first 2 people leave the door. After that moment 2 people exit the door every 5 seconds. The correct answer is 720 -2 = 718.
    A friend solved test question level 6 in the following manner.
    1) The average speed for the first part of the route = 26,666 km/h
    2) The average speed for the second part of the route = 30 km/h
    3) The average speed for the entire trip (30 + 26,666)/2 = 28,333 km/h
    Rounded up to 28 km/h. The correct answer.
    That’s why I am sceptical about all tests.

    1) The average speed for the first part of the route = 26,666 km/h
    2) The average speed for the second part of the route = 30 km/h

    1) is the average speed for 9 minutes
    2) is the average speed for 6 minutes

    so if you weight the average speeds by that ratio it still comes to 28 but by a more convoluted route.

    (i did it this long way round cos my suspicious brain assumed it was a trick question)

    • Replies: @Peripatetic commenter
    Fundamentally, you cannot add averages unless the divisors are the same.

    Try it with 5 miles in 15 minutes and 7 miles in the next fifteen minutes. Do it by both routes:

    1. Compute the averages and then average them.

    2. Compute the total distance traveled and the total time taken and then compute the average speed.

    You will find they are the same.

    Then do the same with example given. You will find they are not the same, because averaging the averages in this case is wrong.

    It's the same problem as adding fractions.

    This explanation given for those who admire Bizarro Mathematics.

    (PS, ignore the fact that 5 or 7 miles in 15 minutes may be impossible for most people.)

  840. @notanon
    to be fairer, just in case...

    yes, immigrants from low *average* IQ countries who are selected on the basis of educational attainment will have a high average IQ. This doesn't prove or disprove anything.

    (especially as all those low average population will probably have a mercantile minority sub-population with a much higher average)

    however some people try to claim that the relative success of immigrants who were specifically selected for their higher than average IQ means millions of immigrants from rural villages will be similarly successful - which is dangerously wrong.

    #

    the second argument is if there are measured average IQ 70 or average IQ 85 populations then where are all the retards?

    for some populations the answer to that is they are clearly visible being shepherded by their extended family - you just have to notice them.

    for other populations there's the possibility there may be two kinds of people who test at IQ 70 (or whatever number the cutoff is)
    a) people who test as 70 and who look and act damaged
    b) people who test as 70 who don't look damaged but test low cos they are missing some component that only starts to get selected for after a society reaches a minimum level of complexity.

    however some people try to claim that the relative success of immigrants who were specifically selected for their higher than average IQ means millions of immigrants from rural villages will be similarly successful – which is dangerously wrong.

    No one knows this better than the people from those countries. Should they be honest with you, they will readily pronounce it.

  841. @notanon

    1) The average speed for the first part of the route = 26,666 km/h
    2) The average speed for the second part of the route = 30 km/h
     
    1) is the average speed for 9 minutes
    2) is the average speed for 6 minutes

    so if you weight the average speeds by that ratio it still comes to 28 but by a more convoluted route.

    (i did it this long way round cos my suspicious brain assumed it was a trick question)

    Fundamentally, you cannot add averages unless the divisors are the same.

    Try it with 5 miles in 15 minutes and 7 miles in the next fifteen minutes. Do it by both routes:

    1. Compute the averages and then average them.

    2. Compute the total distance traveled and the total time taken and then compute the average speed.

    You will find they are the same.

    Then do the same with example given. You will find they are not the same, because averaging the averages in this case is wrong.

    It’s the same problem as adding fractions.

    This explanation given for those who admire Bizarro Mathematics.

    (PS, ignore the fact that 5 or 7 miles in 15 minutes may be impossible for most people.)

  842. @marpa
    There are several ways. Here's one:

    Study the correlation between specific gene alleles and IQ.

    Develop a statistical relationship between these alleles, such that adding or subtracting them can predict IQ.

    Then, turn it around. Conduct studies of the alleles of random people, without knowing what their IQ is, and try to predict their IQ.

    See how close that gets you to their actual test results.

    Researchers have actually done this. They've found they can predict IQ with a correlation of 60-70% simply by knowing which alleles are present in a person's DNA. That's pretty good. It also tracks with other ways of studying the genetic component of IQ, which has been in the range of 50-80% depending on the study methods.

    One thing that's interesting about the racial component of this is that the first study done this way was conducted in Europe on Europeans. The predictive results were meaningful. However, when they tried to do the same test on Sub-Saharan Africans, the results were meaningless. They could not use the same allele distribution to predict their IQs. The implication is that SSAs use different alleles for the development of cognitive reasoning ability. It might well be true of Asians also. So they have to do entirely new studies on these different groups to see which alleles are associated with cognitive reasoning ability in their populations.

    This suggests that people really might not all think alike.

    How do they go about distinguishing between IQ contributions that are directly due to genes, versus genetic variation in uptake or dose response being multiplied by environmental means? Stated differently, how well do these studies predict future cohorts when the means of environmental variables (e.g. lead) change?

    • Replies: @marpa
    Since I haven't read the underlying study, I don't know the answer. But I don't think this approach is as yet trying to address all these issues. That will probably come in time. For now they are just trying to identify the specific alleles that produce intelligence. The difficulty seems to be that the alleles differ in various different population groups. So there's probably not one single set of alleles that produce intelligence that all groups have in common.

    But this is far from the only study that shows a sizeable genetic component to IQ. There are literally hundreds of studies that demonstrate this, and that do take into account extraneous factors that can produce meaningful counter-effects. Thats why these studies virtually all show "only" a 50-80% genetic effect.

    The basic idea most have is that there's a genetic "baseline" that the individual is working from, but that genes are of course merely a set of instructions, a plan for development, using various proteins activated by different factors to grow the human body and brain. All sorts of environmental factors can influence that development, or even "channel" development into different areas, since humans are highly adaptable in their intelligence. But it's understood that even the best of factors can't turn a genetically limited brain into a genius. Though a genetic "genius" can be brought down by negative factors, particularly nutritional deficits. And so can everyone else. A lot of work is also being done trying to identify those negative factors and address them. The Gates Foundation effort to introduce iodine into the diets of some third world populations is one of them. But while iodine in a mother's diet will indeed prevent deficits in her child's IQ, it won't raise its genetic potential.

  843. @for-the-record
    2. Any point 1+1/(n*pi) distance from South pole

    Only works for n that is even:

    2'. Any point 1+1/(2n*pi) distance from South pole

    So I’m starting to see a problem with all the South pole answers; they require inconsistent definitions of the compass directions.

    To go past the south pole while walking south you have to define “walking south” as something like – walking in a straight line in the direction that was south when I started walking.

    To go west making one or more loops you need to define “walking west” as going west as determined by gps (does that work there?) or by constantly recalibrating west based on dead reckoning with the south pole or something similar. Even though this will not feel like walking straight especially for the circuits of less than 1 km.

    Basically all the circle around the south pole answers require going by what feels right for north/south and by what we intellectually know is right, but feels wrong for west.

    Thus I have to answer the just North pole, though an argument could be made for the points on a circle 1km from the south pole under a definition of traveling according gps where I can get away with not moving from the south pole when I should be walking west.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    All the starting points are more than 1km north of the south pole---none of the solutions involve crossing the pole. West is anticlockwise, as seen from space above the south pole, corresponding to the normal usage---only at the equator is westward travel experienced as a straight line.
  844. @Cultural Imperialist
    So I'm starting to see a problem with all the South pole answers; they require inconsistent definitions of the compass directions.

    To go past the south pole while walking south you have to define "walking south" as something like - walking in a straight line in the direction that was south when I started walking.

    To go west making one or more loops you need to define "walking west" as going west as determined by gps (does that work there?) or by constantly recalibrating west based on dead reckoning with the south pole or something similar. Even though this will not feel like walking straight especially for the circuits of less than 1 km.

    Basically all the circle around the south pole answers require going by what feels right for north/south and by what we intellectually know is right, but feels wrong for west.

    Thus I have to answer the just North pole, though an argument could be made for the points on a circle 1km from the south pole under a definition of traveling according gps where I can get away with not moving from the south pole when I should be walking west.

    All the starting points are more than 1km north of the south pole—none of the solutions involve crossing the pole. West is anticlockwise, as seen from space above the south pole, corresponding to the normal usage—only at the equator is westward travel experienced as a straight line.

    • Replies: @CulturalImperialist
    That makes more sense, thanks.
  845. @Johan Meyer
    All the starting points are more than 1km north of the south pole---none of the solutions involve crossing the pole. West is anticlockwise, as seen from space above the south pole, corresponding to the normal usage---only at the equator is westward travel experienced as a straight line.

    That makes more sense, thanks.

  846. @notanon
    to be fairer, just in case...

    yes, immigrants from low *average* IQ countries who are selected on the basis of educational attainment will have a high average IQ. This doesn't prove or disprove anything.

    (especially as all those low average population will probably have a mercantile minority sub-population with a much higher average)

    however some people try to claim that the relative success of immigrants who were specifically selected for their higher than average IQ means millions of immigrants from rural villages will be similarly successful - which is dangerously wrong.

    #

    the second argument is if there are measured average IQ 70 or average IQ 85 populations then where are all the retards?

    for some populations the answer to that is they are clearly visible being shepherded by their extended family - you just have to notice them.

    for other populations there's the possibility there may be two kinds of people who test at IQ 70 (or whatever number the cutoff is)
    a) people who test as 70 and who look and act damaged
    b) people who test as 70 who don't look damaged but test low cos they are missing some component that only starts to get selected for after a society reaches a minimum level of complexity.

    yes, immigrants from low *average* IQ countries who are selected on the basis of educational attainment will have a high average IQ. This doesn’t prove or disprove anything.

    Show us where you learned that Filipino (#5) and Sri Lankan (#15) immigrants were selected “on the basis of educational attainment” while Korean (#48) and Yugoslavian (#56) immigrants were not.

  847. @AP
    Correct. An example I am familiar with - a low functioning schizophrenic of rural Shiite Lebanese background - he "works" at his family bakery, doing simple stuff while being supervised and controlled by the extended family. Isn't homeless, gets paid (family controls his money), has a structured life, but isn't mumbling to himself on the streets. If this family were still in their Lebanese village it is possible that some hapless girl would get an arranged marriage with him. She would then function as an additional caretaker and "babysitter."

    Mentally retarded people in such cultures have a similar advantage.

    The bottom line: cultures full of people with 70 IQs are built to have plenty of people with 70 IQs, and in such cultures people with 70 IQs lead normal lives. This doesn't mean that those IQ scores don't reflect actual cognitive ability.

    Your anecdotal evidence proves nothing. You can’t hide retards all the time. And certainly not at times when family life is seriously disrupted such as during wars. Iraq and Syria, both low IQ countries, suffered wars recently. What happened to their retards?

    Show us real evidence that the Middle-East has a much higher percentage of dysfunctional retards than North America.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu

    Your anecdotal evidence proves nothing. You can’t hide retards all the time. And certainly not at times when family life is seriously disrupted such as during wars. Iraq and Syria, both low IQ countries, suffered wars recently. What happened to their retards?
     
    And it's odd that the "low IQ" nations of Iraq and Afghanistan somehow overcame their alleged retardation to execute brilliant strategies to fight the United States and all of NATO to a standstill. If you want an answer as to how dumb or smart these people are, ask US soldiers.
    , @notanon

    You can’t hide retards all the time
     
    they're not hidden - people simply don't notice them until it's pointed out
    , @AP

    Show us real evidence that the Middle-East has a much higher percentage of dysfunctional retards than North America.
     
    I didn't make claims about "dysfunctional" - I actually showed how in IQ cultures consisting of people with low average IQs, low IQ people can function.

    Low IQ societies allow low IQ people to function. A guy with an IQ of, say, 68, can work and have a family in a premodern agricultural peasant society in rural Serbia, or rural Iraq, or rural sub-Saharan Africa just fine. In a modern Western society - not so much.

    A much more extreme example - non-human primates, wolves, etc. function just fine in their native habitats. This does not mean they are as intelligent as people.
  848. @Anon
    Mother looks part aborigine. That is one ugly family. Must have been an arranged marriage.

    That is one ugly family.

    Evil is ugly. Therefore what’s certain is that you are the ugly one.

  849. @Bliss
    Your anecdotal evidence proves nothing. You can’t hide retards all the time. And certainly not at times when family life is seriously disrupted such as during wars. Iraq and Syria, both low IQ countries, suffered wars recently. What happened to their retards?

    Show us real evidence that the Middle-East has a much higher percentage of dysfunctional retards than North America.

    Your anecdotal evidence proves nothing. You can’t hide retards all the time. And certainly not at times when family life is seriously disrupted such as during wars. Iraq and Syria, both low IQ countries, suffered wars recently. What happened to their retards?

    And it’s odd that the “low IQ” nations of Iraq and Afghanistan somehow overcame their alleged retardation to execute brilliant strategies to fight the United States and all of NATO to a standstill. If you want an answer as to how dumb or smart these people are, ask US soldiers.

    • Replies: @Bliss
    IQism is akin to a religion for the alt-right. As if IQ scores are written in stone tablets like the Ten Commandments in the Bible. They have been brainwashed into believing that IQ explains everything and justifies racism, despite the overwhelming evidences to the contrary.

    Facts like IQ scores for the same ethnicity fluctuating up and down as in the Flynn and Reverse Flynn Effects does not shake their faith in the almighty IQ. They come up with all kinds of excuses when their religion is proved false. IQism is really like a cult.

    The way to free these brainwashed fools is to hoist them with their own petards: use IQ scores and race to scramble their brains. Which is what we are doing here. Out of compassion for them, and even more out of compassion for the victims of their malice....
  850. @iffen
    The proles require leadership and noblesse oblige.

    But they have to "like" you to follow you and that leaves out about 99.9% of would be elite leaders.

    This where the British communist were (probably still are) so stupid. Most of them were intellectuals of one sort or another and consequently looked down (I mean they showed that they looked down) on the very few working class comrades they had, which was very bad for morale as can be imagined. As most of them had never done proletarian jobs, they had no idea how industrial working class people spoke. And they had very little idea how anti-intellectual or more generally how anti-posh most working people in Britain are. Their voices marked them out as “posh” the moment they opened their mouths.

    Because they valued education, they usually sent their children to private schools or at least to the “better sort of state school”, so that their children also grew up not knowing how to speak to ordinary working class people, so even if the children survived their schooling
    without turning into conservatives or social democrats, they were still utterly useless at propaganda.

    Having worked on a variety of factory floors, I knew that most of their propaganda was an entirely wasted effort and I tried to explain this to them, but the usual response was that: I wanted them to “talk down to” their intended audience. They seemed not to grasp the fact that they might just as well have written their leaflets in Latin or German because the usual reaction to them was derision and/or incomprehension.

    Mao at least, understood this problem, though even in China some of his comrades thought his propaganda speeches and writings “rather shockingly uncouth”.

    • Replies: @iffen
    (I mean they showed that they looked down) on the very few working class comrades they had,

    I consider the gap unbridgeable.

    We can have a one-off populist leader that has appeal, but a comprehensive political program or organization is a bridge too far. I also believe that this helps explain why most people with an economic egalitarian impulse have deserted the working class in exchange for minorities and exotics.

  851. @Bliss
    Your anecdotal evidence proves nothing. You can’t hide retards all the time. And certainly not at times when family life is seriously disrupted such as during wars. Iraq and Syria, both low IQ countries, suffered wars recently. What happened to their retards?

    Show us real evidence that the Middle-East has a much higher percentage of dysfunctional retards than North America.

    You can’t hide retards all the time

    they’re not hidden – people simply don’t notice them until it’s pointed out

    • Replies: @marpa
    This whole issue of "retards" is a red herring. If a group has the genetic potential for an average IQ of 70, even healthy people will be in that range. They will not be "retards", they will be healthy people who simply lack higher analytical reasoning ability. However, if the group has a genetic potential of 100 or even 110, those with IQs in the 70s or less are likely to have other problems also, whether genetic or environmental. The people often called "retards" in groups with high genetic IQ potential have many serious genetic or environmentally damaged problems, and that makes them much more dysfunctional than their lower IQ alone would make them. So often we are dealing with severe genetic load, not merely an unfortunate lack of alleles that produce an IQ deficit and nothing else. Groups that have lower IQ potential undoubtedly have genetic advantages in other areas that have given them evolutionary success in the past. It's just that in the modern world IQ advantage tends to be much more important than it has been in many environments of the past.
  852. @Okechukwu

    Your anecdotal evidence proves nothing. You can’t hide retards all the time. And certainly not at times when family life is seriously disrupted such as during wars. Iraq and Syria, both low IQ countries, suffered wars recently. What happened to their retards?
     
    And it's odd that the "low IQ" nations of Iraq and Afghanistan somehow overcame their alleged retardation to execute brilliant strategies to fight the United States and all of NATO to a standstill. If you want an answer as to how dumb or smart these people are, ask US soldiers.

    IQism is akin to a religion for the alt-right. As if IQ scores are written in stone tablets like the Ten Commandments in the Bible. They have been brainwashed into believing that IQ explains everything and justifies racism, despite the overwhelming evidences to the contrary.

    Facts like IQ scores for the same ethnicity fluctuating up and down as in the Flynn and Reverse Flynn Effects does not shake their faith in the almighty IQ. They come up with all kinds of excuses when their religion is proved false. IQism is really like a cult.

    The way to free these brainwashed fools is to hoist them with their own petards: use IQ scores and race to scramble their brains. Which is what we are doing here. Out of compassion for them, and even more out of compassion for the victims of their malice….

    • Agree: Okechukwu
    • Replies: @DFH
    Imagine having to cope this hard because your race has contributed so little to the world.

    They come up with all kinds of excuses when their religion is proved false
     
    It's hilarious because you have spent comments and comments flailing desperately for a reason that IQ scores do not really count. You've been claiming that there are less retards among low-IQ populations, without showing any reason to think this is the case.

    Facts like IQ scores for the same ethnicity fluctuating up and down as in the Flynn and Reverse Flynn Effects does not shake their faith in the almighty IQ.
     
    Average height has also increased. And?

    What are other metrics on which Africans do so well, if you don't like IQ? Can you name any?

  853. @Johan Meyer
    How do they go about distinguishing between IQ contributions that are directly due to genes, versus genetic variation in uptake or dose response being multiplied by environmental means? Stated differently, how well do these studies predict future cohorts when the means of environmental variables (e.g. lead) change?

    Since I haven’t read the underlying study, I don’t know the answer. But I don’t think this approach is as yet trying to address all these issues. That will probably come in time. For now they are just trying to identify the specific alleles that produce intelligence. The difficulty seems to be that the alleles differ in various different population groups. So there’s probably not one single set of alleles that produce intelligence that all groups have in common.

    But this is far from the only study that shows a sizeable genetic component to IQ. There are literally hundreds of studies that demonstrate this, and that do take into account extraneous factors that can produce meaningful counter-effects. Thats why these studies virtually all show “only” a 50-80% genetic effect.

    The basic idea most have is that there’s a genetic “baseline” that the individual is working from, but that genes are of course merely a set of instructions, a plan for development, using various proteins activated by different factors to grow the human body and brain. All sorts of environmental factors can influence that development, or even “channel” development into different areas, since humans are highly adaptable in their intelligence. But it’s understood that even the best of factors can’t turn a genetically limited brain into a genius. Though a genetic “genius” can be brought down by negative factors, particularly nutritional deficits. And so can everyone else. A lot of work is also being done trying to identify those negative factors and address them. The Gates Foundation effort to introduce iodine into the diets of some third world populations is one of them. But while iodine in a mother’s diet will indeed prevent deficits in her child’s IQ, it won’t raise its genetic potential.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    Let there be two sets of genes, call them direct and uptake.

    The direct set contributes directly to IQ. The uptake set varies the uptake of brain-damaging neuro-toxins; use lead for example. Given some average (mean) non-zero exposure to lead in a particular study population, and given consistent dose response, the genes that vary uptake should contribute to variation in IQ (dose is product of exposure with uptake). The IQ effect of these latter genes will have a larger variance than those that contribute directly to IQ, as the variance of exposure is expected to be non-zero, but the effect of mean exposure should be discriminable.

    How do you propose to discriminate between genes, found or tested in these studies, that vary direct genetic contribution to IQ versus those that vary uptake of neurotoxins?

    Note that both sets of genes (direct and uptake) will contribute to apparent heritability on the basis of twin studies.
  854. IQism is akin to a religion for the alt-right.

    heredity vs environment is – cos it’s the truth.

    the focus on IQ is simply a side effect of the resistance to heredity being focused there.

    As if IQ scores are written in stone

    average IQ is easy to change – if the media/academia told the truth it would start to change 9 months later.

    Facts like IQ scores for the same ethnicity fluctuating up and down as in the Flynn and Reverse Flynn Effects

    seafood

    the victims of their malice…

    the people who deny hereditary intelligence want dumb people to stay dumb so they can rule over them

    • Replies: @Bliss

    the focus on IQ is simply a side effect of the resistance to heredity being focused there.
     
    Focusing on IQ is foolish. Because IQ is pseudoscience. You should be focusing on genetics instead:

    https://www.medicalnewsbulletin.com/is-intelligence-genetic-new-links/

    Two new studies published in Nature Genetics have shed some light on the links between genetics and intelligence. In one study, Danielle Posthuma of Vrije University in the Netherlands, and her team used new statistical analyses on 14 different genetic databases including data from 250,000 individuals to identify 939 genes associated with intelligence. The researchers found that many variants of these genes were associated with higher intelligence as well as reduced risks of Alzheimer’s, ADHD, and schizophrenia, but a higher risk of autism.

    However, some issues with this approach are that the links between genes and intelligence still rely on standard intelligence scores based on mathematics and language skills. These are highly correlated with education and socioeconomic status. Future work will need to expand on these results and apply to them to improve people’s lives.
  855. @Bliss
    IQism is akin to a religion for the alt-right. As if IQ scores are written in stone tablets like the Ten Commandments in the Bible. They have been brainwashed into believing that IQ explains everything and justifies racism, despite the overwhelming evidences to the contrary.

    Facts like IQ scores for the same ethnicity fluctuating up and down as in the Flynn and Reverse Flynn Effects does not shake their faith in the almighty IQ. They come up with all kinds of excuses when their religion is proved false. IQism is really like a cult.

    The way to free these brainwashed fools is to hoist them with their own petards: use IQ scores and race to scramble their brains. Which is what we are doing here. Out of compassion for them, and even more out of compassion for the victims of their malice....

    Imagine having to cope this hard because your race has contributed so little to the world.

    They come up with all kinds of excuses when their religion is proved false

    It’s hilarious because you have spent comments and comments flailing desperately for a reason that IQ scores do not really count. You’ve been claiming that there are less retards among low-IQ populations, without showing any reason to think this is the case.

    Facts like IQ scores for the same ethnicity fluctuating up and down as in the Flynn and Reverse Flynn Effects does not shake their faith in the almighty IQ.

    Average height has also increased. And?

    What are other metrics on which Africans do so well, if you don’t like IQ? Can you name any?

  856. @notanon

    You can’t hide retards all the time
     
    they're not hidden - people simply don't notice them until it's pointed out

    This whole issue of “retards” is a red herring. If a group has the genetic potential for an average IQ of 70, even healthy people will be in that range. They will not be “retards”, they will be healthy people who simply lack higher analytical reasoning ability. However, if the group has a genetic potential of 100 or even 110, those with IQs in the 70s or less are likely to have other problems also, whether genetic or environmental. The people often called “retards” in groups with high genetic IQ potential have many serious genetic or environmentally damaged problems, and that makes them much more dysfunctional than their lower IQ alone would make them. So often we are dealing with severe genetic load, not merely an unfortunate lack of alleles that produce an IQ deficit and nothing else. Groups that have lower IQ potential undoubtedly have genetic advantages in other areas that have given them evolutionary success in the past. It’s just that in the modern world IQ advantage tends to be much more important than it has been in many environments of the past.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu

    This whole issue of “retards” is a red herring. If a group has the genetic potential for an average IQ of 70, even healthy people will be in that range. They will not be “retards”, they will be healthy people who simply lack higher analytical reasoning ability. 
     
    But if those allegedly 70 IQ people can function at the same or even at higher levels than the 100 IQ people, then either the IQ test is deeply flawed or conspicuously fraudulent (see Richard Lynn). You want to adopt different standards of retardation for different races in a hopeless quest to plug the gaping holes in your absurd idealogy. Sorry, no can do. We don't play such games in the real world.

    If people who master multiple languages (often including a command of English superior to that of native speakers), function normally, and as an added bonus, grossly outperform whites when competing in the same US environment, are deemed functionally retarded then something stinks to high heaven. In other words, the IQ claims are a scam.

  857. @notanon

    IQism is akin to a religion for the alt-right.
     
    heredity vs environment is - cos it's the truth.

    the focus on IQ is simply a side effect of the resistance to heredity being focused there.

    As if IQ scores are written in stone
     
    average IQ is easy to change - if the media/academia told the truth it would start to change 9 months later.

    Facts like IQ scores for the same ethnicity fluctuating up and down as in the Flynn and Reverse Flynn Effects
     
    seafood

    the victims of their malice…
     
    the people who deny hereditary intelligence want dumb people to stay dumb so they can rule over them

    the focus on IQ is simply a side effect of the resistance to heredity being focused there.

    Focusing on IQ is foolish. Because IQ is pseudoscience. You should be focusing on genetics instead:

    https://www.medicalnewsbulletin.com/is-intelligence-genetic-new-links/

    Two new studies published in Nature Genetics have shed some light on the links between genetics and intelligence. In one study, Danielle Posthuma of Vrije University in the Netherlands, and her team used new statistical analyses on 14 different genetic databases including data from 250,000 individuals to identify 939 genes associated with intelligence. The researchers found that many variants of these genes were associated with higher intelligence as well as reduced risks of Alzheimer’s, ADHD, and schizophrenia, but a higher risk of autism.

    However, some issues with this approach are that the links between genes and intelligence still rely on standard intelligence scores based on mathematics and language skills. These are highly correlated with education and socioeconomic status. Future work will need to expand on these results and apply to them to improve people’s lives.

    • Replies: @notanon

    Focusing on IQ is foolish.
     
    i agree it's maybe foolish as it's where the most resistance is - maybe better to go round the maginot line by arguing for heredity in other areas until IQ is surrounded by heredity on all sides - but people are drawn to it cos it's probably the most fundamental.
  858. @notanon
    to be fairer, just in case...

    yes, immigrants from low *average* IQ countries who are selected on the basis of educational attainment will have a high average IQ. This doesn't prove or disprove anything.

    (especially as all those low average population will probably have a mercantile minority sub-population with a much higher average)

    however some people try to claim that the relative success of immigrants who were specifically selected for their higher than average IQ means millions of immigrants from rural villages will be similarly successful - which is dangerously wrong.

    #

    the second argument is if there are measured average IQ 70 or average IQ 85 populations then where are all the retards?

    for some populations the answer to that is they are clearly visible being shepherded by their extended family - you just have to notice them.

    for other populations there's the possibility there may be two kinds of people who test at IQ 70 (or whatever number the cutoff is)
    a) people who test as 70 and who look and act damaged
    b) people who test as 70 who don't look damaged but test low cos they are missing some component that only starts to get selected for after a society reaches a minimum level of complexity.

    yes, immigrants from low *average* IQ countries who are selected on the basis of educational attainment will have a high average IQ. This doesn’t prove or disprove anything.

    There’s no such selection process in the immigration system. These people represent a cross-section of their societies, not some elite. Consider that most immigrants arrive either via chain migration or the visa lottery. Neither scheme selects for intelligence or professional credentials or educational attainment.

    • Replies: @notanon

    There’s no such selection process in the immigration system.
     
    there has been in the past - education - or due to recruiting for particular jobs from particular countries (like India and IT or China and STEM)

    These people represent a cross-section of their societies, not some elite. Consider that most immigrants arrive either via chain migration or the visa lottery.
     
    you're right the degree of selection is going down now for the reasons you mention (and others e.g. refugees) which is why the relative success of some groups will go down too - with a time lag of course as high income etc tends to come after people have been in their career a while so the current figures will be heavily influenced by people in their 40s and 50s now and the conditions that existed 20-30 years ago.
  859. @marpa
    This whole issue of "retards" is a red herring. If a group has the genetic potential for an average IQ of 70, even healthy people will be in that range. They will not be "retards", they will be healthy people who simply lack higher analytical reasoning ability. However, if the group has a genetic potential of 100 or even 110, those with IQs in the 70s or less are likely to have other problems also, whether genetic or environmental. The people often called "retards" in groups with high genetic IQ potential have many serious genetic or environmentally damaged problems, and that makes them much more dysfunctional than their lower IQ alone would make them. So often we are dealing with severe genetic load, not merely an unfortunate lack of alleles that produce an IQ deficit and nothing else. Groups that have lower IQ potential undoubtedly have genetic advantages in other areas that have given them evolutionary success in the past. It's just that in the modern world IQ advantage tends to be much more important than it has been in many environments of the past.

    This whole issue of “retards” is a red herring. If a group has the genetic potential for an average IQ of 70, even healthy people will be in that range. They will not be “retards”, they will be healthy people who simply lack higher analytical reasoning ability. 

    But if those allegedly 70 IQ people can function at the same or even at higher levels than the 100 IQ people, then either the IQ test is deeply flawed or conspicuously fraudulent (see Richard Lynn). You want to adopt different standards of retardation for different races in a hopeless quest to plug the gaping holes in your absurd idealogy. Sorry, no can do. We don’t play such games in the real world.

    If people who master multiple languages (often including a command of English superior to that of native speakers), function normally, and as an added bonus, grossly outperform whites when competing in the same US environment, are deemed functionally retarded then something stinks to high heaven. In other words, the IQ claims are a scam.

    • Replies: @marpa
    the groups that have IQ's in the 70s range are very well adapted to their environment and the various stresses they have historically encountered. They are healthy, strong, and able to reproduce and survive in that environment. However, if your change that environment, introducing new pressures and cultural patterns, or take them out of that environment and culture entirely, they are likely to have problems. The same is true if you were to reverse things, and drop people from a high-IQ group that isn't well adapted to the 70s IQ environmental pressures and culture into that world. "Genetic superiority" is always relative to environment.

    That doesn't mean IQ tests are invalid. They are probably the best test of any psychological capability we have. But they of course don't in themselves describe the whole picture. Context is always necessary.

    Btw, I don't have the political ideology you suspect. I'm a progressive liberal. Just a realistic one who doesn't deny the differences in human beings.

    People who come to the US and demonstrate the skills you describe are clearly not "retarded". But that is a self-selecting group. Often, such people are fleeing a culture that they are unable to thrive in, and coming to one better suited to their skill set.

    , @notanon

    If people who master multiple languages (often including a command of English superior to that of native speakers), function normally, and as an added bonus, grossly outperform whites when competing in the same US environment, are deemed functionally retarded then something stinks to high heaven. In other words, the IQ claims are a scam.
     
    dishonest straw man

    no one is saying that the high IQ end of an average 70 IQ population are functionally retarded.

    some people are saying there is a difference between individuals who score low from population A and individuals who score low from population B - which may not even be true but if it is it would be an interesting clue e.g. maybe it would imply certain intelligence boosting traits are mildly harmful and only become selected for when societies get complex enough to make them net beneficial.
  860. @marpa
    Since I haven't read the underlying study, I don't know the answer. But I don't think this approach is as yet trying to address all these issues. That will probably come in time. For now they are just trying to identify the specific alleles that produce intelligence. The difficulty seems to be that the alleles differ in various different population groups. So there's probably not one single set of alleles that produce intelligence that all groups have in common.

    But this is far from the only study that shows a sizeable genetic component to IQ. There are literally hundreds of studies that demonstrate this, and that do take into account extraneous factors that can produce meaningful counter-effects. Thats why these studies virtually all show "only" a 50-80% genetic effect.

    The basic idea most have is that there's a genetic "baseline" that the individual is working from, but that genes are of course merely a set of instructions, a plan for development, using various proteins activated by different factors to grow the human body and brain. All sorts of environmental factors can influence that development, or even "channel" development into different areas, since humans are highly adaptable in their intelligence. But it's understood that even the best of factors can't turn a genetically limited brain into a genius. Though a genetic "genius" can be brought down by negative factors, particularly nutritional deficits. And so can everyone else. A lot of work is also being done trying to identify those negative factors and address them. The Gates Foundation effort to introduce iodine into the diets of some third world populations is one of them. But while iodine in a mother's diet will indeed prevent deficits in her child's IQ, it won't raise its genetic potential.

    Let there be two sets of genes, call them direct and uptake.

    The direct set contributes directly to IQ. The uptake set varies the uptake of brain-damaging neuro-toxins; use lead for example. Given some average (mean) non-zero exposure to lead in a particular study population, and given consistent dose response, the genes that vary uptake should contribute to variation in IQ (dose is product of exposure with uptake). The IQ effect of these latter genes will have a larger variance than those that contribute directly to IQ, as the variance of exposure is expected to be non-zero, but the effect of mean exposure should be discriminable.

    How do you propose to discriminate between genes, found or tested in these studies, that vary direct genetic contribution to IQ versus those that vary uptake of neurotoxins?

    Note that both sets of genes (direct and uptake) will contribute to apparent heritability on the basis of twin studies.

    • Replies: @marpa
    I think in large population studies both genes would show a correlation to intelligence, regardless of the route taken. But that's a different level of study. The first level is merely to identify which genes correlate to general intelligence, overall. And then break that down by group and geography and other factors. Some genes may not contribute to intelligence in some groups or situations, and it's important to not that. If you find that some genes correlate to intelligence in areas with high levels of heavy metals, that would be an very interesting finding.

    The second level of study is to try to figure out how each specific gene allele actually works to increase intelligence. And also, how they interact with other genes, and the environment. Obviously a very complex situation, but not indecipherable. None of that suggests that genetics isn't important to intelligence. Quite the opposite.

    btw, the studies we are referring to are not twin studies. They are large population studies.
  861. @Okechukwu

    This whole issue of “retards” is a red herring. If a group has the genetic potential for an average IQ of 70, even healthy people will be in that range. They will not be “retards”, they will be healthy people who simply lack higher analytical reasoning ability. 
     
    But if those allegedly 70 IQ people can function at the same or even at higher levels than the 100 IQ people, then either the IQ test is deeply flawed or conspicuously fraudulent (see Richard Lynn). You want to adopt different standards of retardation for different races in a hopeless quest to plug the gaping holes in your absurd idealogy. Sorry, no can do. We don't play such games in the real world.

    If people who master multiple languages (often including a command of English superior to that of native speakers), function normally, and as an added bonus, grossly outperform whites when competing in the same US environment, are deemed functionally retarded then something stinks to high heaven. In other words, the IQ claims are a scam.

    the groups that have IQ’s in the 70s range are very well adapted to their environment and the various stresses they have historically encountered. They are healthy, strong, and able to reproduce and survive in that environment. However, if your change that environment, introducing new pressures and cultural patterns, or take them out of that environment and culture entirely, they are likely to have problems. The same is true if you were to reverse things, and drop people from a high-IQ group that isn’t well adapted to the 70s IQ environmental pressures and culture into that world. “Genetic superiority” is always relative to environment.

    That doesn’t mean IQ tests are invalid. They are probably the best test of any psychological capability we have. But they of course don’t in themselves describe the whole picture. Context is always necessary.

    Btw, I don’t have the political ideology you suspect. I’m a progressive liberal. Just a realistic one who doesn’t deny the differences in human beings.

    People who come to the US and demonstrate the skills you describe are clearly not “retarded”. But that is a self-selecting group. Often, such people are fleeing a culture that they are unable to thrive in, and coming to one better suited to their skill set.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu

    The groups that have IQ’s in the 70s range are very well adapted to their environment and the various stresses they have historically encountered. They are healthy, strong, and able to reprodpuce and survive in that environment. However, if your change that 
     
    You still don't get it. These people aren't actually 70 IQ. The data is fraudulent for a variety of reasons. That's why they aren't drooling retards. That's why athletes from these countries compete in the real Olympics rather than the Special Olympics. Athletes, students, diplomats, businesspeople, vacationers and immigrants from these countries are automatically presumed to have the same intellectual potential as everyone else, because they do.

    You cannot on the one hand claim that these IQ tests are universally applicable in terms of divining intelligence, then on the other hand claim that we have to massage their interpretation to account for the dichotomy of low IQ scores and high levels of functionality. The only way to massage the results is upward such that scores reflect reality as opposed to promoting racialist ideologies.
    , @Unzerker

    The same is true if you were to reverse things, and drop people from a high-IQ group that isn’t well adapted to the 70s IQ environmental pressures and culture into that world.
     
    Europeans seem to have done great in Australia, North America or South Africa. Much better than the low IQ indigenous populations in fact
  862. @Okechukwu

    yes, immigrants from low *average* IQ countries who are selected on the basis of educational attainment will have a high average IQ. This doesn’t prove or disprove anything.
     
    There's no such selection process in the immigration system. These people represent a cross-section of their societies, not some elite. Consider that most immigrants arrive either via chain migration or the visa lottery. Neither scheme selects for intelligence or professional credentials or educational attainment.

    There’s no such selection process in the immigration system.

    there has been in the past – education – or due to recruiting for particular jobs from particular countries (like India and IT or China and STEM)

    These people represent a cross-section of their societies, not some elite. Consider that most immigrants arrive either via chain migration or the visa lottery.

    you’re right the degree of selection is going down now for the reasons you mention (and others e.g. refugees) which is why the relative success of some groups will go down too – with a time lag of course as high income etc tends to come after people have been in their career a while so the current figures will be heavily influenced by people in their 40s and 50s now and the conditions that existed 20-30 years ago.

  863. @Bliss

    the focus on IQ is simply a side effect of the resistance to heredity being focused there.
     
    Focusing on IQ is foolish. Because IQ is pseudoscience. You should be focusing on genetics instead:

    https://www.medicalnewsbulletin.com/is-intelligence-genetic-new-links/

    Two new studies published in Nature Genetics have shed some light on the links between genetics and intelligence. In one study, Danielle Posthuma of Vrije University in the Netherlands, and her team used new statistical analyses on 14 different genetic databases including data from 250,000 individuals to identify 939 genes associated with intelligence. The researchers found that many variants of these genes were associated with higher intelligence as well as reduced risks of Alzheimer’s, ADHD, and schizophrenia, but a higher risk of autism.

    However, some issues with this approach are that the links between genes and intelligence still rely on standard intelligence scores based on mathematics and language skills. These are highly correlated with education and socioeconomic status. Future work will need to expand on these results and apply to them to improve people’s lives.

    Focusing on IQ is foolish.

    i agree it’s maybe foolish as it’s where the most resistance is – maybe better to go round the maginot line by arguing for heredity in other areas until IQ is surrounded by heredity on all sides – but people are drawn to it cos it’s probably the most fundamental.

  864. @Johan Meyer
    Let there be two sets of genes, call them direct and uptake.

    The direct set contributes directly to IQ. The uptake set varies the uptake of brain-damaging neuro-toxins; use lead for example. Given some average (mean) non-zero exposure to lead in a particular study population, and given consistent dose response, the genes that vary uptake should contribute to variation in IQ (dose is product of exposure with uptake). The IQ effect of these latter genes will have a larger variance than those that contribute directly to IQ, as the variance of exposure is expected to be non-zero, but the effect of mean exposure should be discriminable.

    How do you propose to discriminate between genes, found or tested in these studies, that vary direct genetic contribution to IQ versus those that vary uptake of neurotoxins?

    Note that both sets of genes (direct and uptake) will contribute to apparent heritability on the basis of twin studies.

    I think in large population studies both genes would show a correlation to intelligence, regardless of the route taken. But that’s a different level of study. The first level is merely to identify which genes correlate to general intelligence, overall. And then break that down by group and geography and other factors. Some genes may not contribute to intelligence in some groups or situations, and it’s important to not that. If you find that some genes correlate to intelligence in areas with high levels of heavy metals, that would be an very interesting finding.

    The second level of study is to try to figure out how each specific gene allele actually works to increase intelligence. And also, how they interact with other genes, and the environment. Obviously a very complex situation, but not indecipherable. None of that suggests that genetics isn’t important to intelligence. Quite the opposite.

    btw, the studies we are referring to are not twin studies. They are large population studies.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    The reason that I brought up twin studies is that it is normal to estimate heritability on such a basis. Further, in much of the world, lead petrol (gasoline) was only phased out recently---the brain damage associated with lead poisoning occurs mainly in infancy. Also, beyond a certain atmospheric concentration, one may expect the aerosol to precipitate, thus limiting the variance in exposure. Thus the generation studied is also important. Finally, the standard epidemiology (geometric mean blood lead level) is as good as designed to miss population exposure to sporadic poisoning, as occurs with lead paint (biological half-life of blood lead is five weeks), which may affect many of the North American (born before mid 1990s) and third world populations, let alone industrially exposed populations.
    , @Johan Meyer
    Note also that murder rates are a good proxy for lead poisoning 23 years prior.
  865. @Okechukwu

    This whole issue of “retards” is a red herring. If a group has the genetic potential for an average IQ of 70, even healthy people will be in that range. They will not be “retards”, they will be healthy people who simply lack higher analytical reasoning ability. 
     
    But if those allegedly 70 IQ people can function at the same or even at higher levels than the 100 IQ people, then either the IQ test is deeply flawed or conspicuously fraudulent (see Richard Lynn). You want to adopt different standards of retardation for different races in a hopeless quest to plug the gaping holes in your absurd idealogy. Sorry, no can do. We don't play such games in the real world.

    If people who master multiple languages (often including a command of English superior to that of native speakers), function normally, and as an added bonus, grossly outperform whites when competing in the same US environment, are deemed functionally retarded then something stinks to high heaven. In other words, the IQ claims are a scam.

    If people who master multiple languages (often including a command of English superior to that of native speakers), function normally, and as an added bonus, grossly outperform whites when competing in the same US environment, are deemed functionally retarded then something stinks to high heaven. In other words, the IQ claims are a scam.

    dishonest straw man

    no one is saying that the high IQ end of an average 70 IQ population are functionally retarded.

    some people are saying there is a difference between individuals who score low from population A and individuals who score low from population B – which may not even be true but if it is it would be an interesting clue e.g. maybe it would imply certain intelligence boosting traits are mildly harmful and only become selected for when societies get complex enough to make them net beneficial.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu

    no one is saying that the high IQ end of an average 70 IQ population are functionally retarded.
     
    A 70 IQ is, at best, borderline retardation. If IQ tests are universally applicable, then 60-70 IQ Africans should have the same level of functionality (or dysfunctionality) as 60-70 IQ white Americans. I've even seen IQ's in the 50's attributed to Africans.

    Since Africans are not mentally retarded or developmentally disabled, the IQ data is either fraudulent or the IQ concept itself is ineffective in capturing intellectual capacity. Case closed. There's no wiggle room.
  866. @marpa
    the groups that have IQ's in the 70s range are very well adapted to their environment and the various stresses they have historically encountered. They are healthy, strong, and able to reproduce and survive in that environment. However, if your change that environment, introducing new pressures and cultural patterns, or take them out of that environment and culture entirely, they are likely to have problems. The same is true if you were to reverse things, and drop people from a high-IQ group that isn't well adapted to the 70s IQ environmental pressures and culture into that world. "Genetic superiority" is always relative to environment.

    That doesn't mean IQ tests are invalid. They are probably the best test of any psychological capability we have. But they of course don't in themselves describe the whole picture. Context is always necessary.

    Btw, I don't have the political ideology you suspect. I'm a progressive liberal. Just a realistic one who doesn't deny the differences in human beings.

    People who come to the US and demonstrate the skills you describe are clearly not "retarded". But that is a self-selecting group. Often, such people are fleeing a culture that they are unable to thrive in, and coming to one better suited to their skill set.

    The groups that have IQ’s in the 70s range are very well adapted to their environment and the various stresses they have historically encountered. They are healthy, strong, and able to reprodpuce and survive in that environment. However, if your change that 

    You still don’t get it. These people aren’t actually 70 IQ. The data is fraudulent for a variety of reasons. That’s why they aren’t drooling retards. That’s why athletes from these countries compete in the real Olympics rather than the Special Olympics. Athletes, students, diplomats, businesspeople, vacationers and immigrants from these countries are automatically presumed to have the same intellectual potential as everyone else, because they do.

    You cannot on the one hand claim that these IQ tests are universally applicable in terms of divining intelligence, then on the other hand claim that we have to massage their interpretation to account for the dichotomy of low IQ scores and high levels of functionality. The only way to massage the results is upward such that scores reflect reality as opposed to promoting racialist ideologies.

    • Agree: Bliss
  867. @marpa
    I think in large population studies both genes would show a correlation to intelligence, regardless of the route taken. But that's a different level of study. The first level is merely to identify which genes correlate to general intelligence, overall. And then break that down by group and geography and other factors. Some genes may not contribute to intelligence in some groups or situations, and it's important to not that. If you find that some genes correlate to intelligence in areas with high levels of heavy metals, that would be an very interesting finding.

    The second level of study is to try to figure out how each specific gene allele actually works to increase intelligence. And also, how they interact with other genes, and the environment. Obviously a very complex situation, but not indecipherable. None of that suggests that genetics isn't important to intelligence. Quite the opposite.

    btw, the studies we are referring to are not twin studies. They are large population studies.

    The reason that I brought up twin studies is that it is normal to estimate heritability on such a basis. Further, in much of the world, lead petrol (gasoline) was only phased out recently—the brain damage associated with lead poisoning occurs mainly in infancy. Also, beyond a certain atmospheric concentration, one may expect the aerosol to precipitate, thus limiting the variance in exposure. Thus the generation studied is also important. Finally, the standard epidemiology (geometric mean blood lead level) is as good as designed to miss population exposure to sporadic poisoning, as occurs with lead paint (biological half-life of blood lead is five weeks), which may affect many of the North American (born before mid 1990s) and third world populations, let alone industrially exposed populations.

  868. @notanon

    If people who master multiple languages (often including a command of English superior to that of native speakers), function normally, and as an added bonus, grossly outperform whites when competing in the same US environment, are deemed functionally retarded then something stinks to high heaven. In other words, the IQ claims are a scam.
     
    dishonest straw man

    no one is saying that the high IQ end of an average 70 IQ population are functionally retarded.

    some people are saying there is a difference between individuals who score low from population A and individuals who score low from population B - which may not even be true but if it is it would be an interesting clue e.g. maybe it would imply certain intelligence boosting traits are mildly harmful and only become selected for when societies get complex enough to make them net beneficial.

    no one is saying that the high IQ end of an average 70 IQ population are functionally retarded.

    A 70 IQ is, at best, borderline retardation. If IQ tests are universally applicable, then 60-70 IQ Africans should have the same level of functionality (or dysfunctionality) as 60-70 IQ white Americans. I’ve even seen IQ’s in the 50′s attributed to Africans.

    Since Africans are not mentally retarded or developmentally disabled, the IQ data is either fraudulent or the IQ concept itself is ineffective in capturing intellectual capacity. Case closed. There’s no wiggle room.

    • Agree: Bliss
    • Replies: @notanon

    Since Africans are not mentally retarded or developmentally disabled, the IQ data is either fraudulent or the IQ concept itself is ineffective in capturing intellectual capacity.
     
    70 IQ people are developmentally disabled - the argument is over whether they are disabled in a different way to 70 IQ non-Africans.

    Case closed. There’s no wiggle room.
     
    sure there is - one of the often repeated criticisms of the IQ thing on this blog is the claim that intelligence (or g) isn't a singular concrete thing in itself - maybe it's not - maybe it's a composite and some populations are simply missing one of the components even though they have an average amount (for recent HGs) of the other components.
    , @AP

    A 70 IQ is, at best, borderline retardation. If IQ tests are universally applicable, then 60-70 IQ Africans should have the same level of functionality (or dysfunctionality) as 60-70 IQ white Americans.
     
    Send an African with an IQ of 70 from his village and place him in a modern Western city, and even after several years he will function about as well as will a white person with an IQ 70. That is, he will figure out how to do some simple job, how to use public transportation, how an oven works, etc.
  869. You’re putting too much emphasis on IQ as the sole arbiter of what makes human beings functional. Which is ironic.

    I’m sure there are some flaws in IQ testing, particularly in some cultures. I’m also sure that in some places environmental factors prevent people from realizing their genetic IQ potential due to various detrimental influences, including cultural ones. If those detriments were dealt with, IQ scores would undoubtedly rise. But would they rise such that every group in the world was of equal IQ? Highly doubtful. You’d be as likely to see every culture produce NBA or track stars.

    I don’t know many people except you who think athletes need to have competitive IQs. They don’t. Running fast requires a completely different set of alleles than analytical thinkinig. Selecting for that means not selecting for other traits. So those with west African heritage dominate sprinting, Kenyan/Ugandans dominate long distance running, and African-Americans dominate basketball. But they don’t tend towards high IQs. I assume living in their African environments and culture selected for such traits, but didn’t select for IQ because it didn’t add very much to their survival and reproduction.

    Those selection pressures changed when people migrated out of Africa and tried to survive and reproduce in places their ancestors had never lived before. In such situations, higher analytical reasoning ability probably made a much bigger difference than it had back in Africa, our homeland. So did other factors, like lighter skin to synthesize more Vitamin D. These are real differences based on equations that people had little conscious control over.

    “Divine Intelligence” is a different matter. IQ tests don’t try to capture such a thing. It’s not even clear what you mean by it. Given that I believe in reincarnation, I would speculate that it has something to do with our ability to “connect” via our body and nervous system to the “higher self”, and that this can even give us a competitive evolutionary advantage. And perhaps that does have something to do with our genetics also. That some genes help us connect better, and can also be selected for. And that such a connection may even give us higher intelligence, but not necessarily of the analytical kind measured by IQ tests. So it’s entirely possible that people who score in the 70s on IQ tests may have a capacity to connection to higher, Divine energy and intelligence in a way that higher IQ may not. Or at least that it’s a different capacity altogether developed in different ways, though perhaps also compatible. Or maybe not entirely?

    Not sure how you study that objectively much less test for it. But it’s an interesting topic to speculate on. It doesn’t negate the value of IQ however, or the underlying rational reasoning process. After all, most religions attributed such things to a Divine inspiration or gift. And it may well be. But a part of that gift is undoubtedly in our genetics as well.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    I am doubtful that deficient IQ was ever more tenable for survival in Africa than elsewhere. Cold may impose one survival strategy; inadequate water another, inadequate fuel (fire) another, excessive moisture in one season followed by excessive dryness in the next another, specific predators another, and so forth.

    Lead is likely to play a substantial role in black-white IQ gaps, as excessive moisture in cold climates, and lack of fuel, would drive populations to pursue bronze metallurgy over iron metallurgy. Soft metal deposits usually contain lead, unlike iron deposits. Lead poisoning reduces sperm quality, thereby creating an evolutionary pressure to reduce lead uptake. Africa largely skipped the bronze age, going directly for iron work, with the oldest iron workshop remains containing stone age iron working tools; copper alloys were used mainly for status objects. See e.g. Mining and Metallurgy in Negro Africa, Bantam books (1937 IIRC).

    Note also that Australian aborigines tend to have comparable to lower IQs than Sub-Saharan Africans, despite their ancestral trek through the ice age wastes of Eurasia. As they had obsidian, they had no need for metallurgy.
    , @Okechukwu

    You’re putting too much emphasis on IQ as the sole arbiter of what makes human beings functional. Which is ironic.
     
    No. I'm arguing that IQ is a pseudoscience which deems perfectly functional people as functionally retarded by virtue of often spurious data.

    But would they rise such that every group in the world was of equal IQ? Highly doubtful. You’d be as likely to see every culture produce NBA or track stars.
     
    How did white American IQ rise 2 standard deviations over the last 100 years if IQ is, in fact, set in stone for all eternity? What makes you think, assuming fair and unbiased testing, that other groups will not achieve a similar rise once they become acculturated to the values the IQ test is designed to reward?

    Running fast requires a completely different set of alleles than analytical thinkinig.
     
    I see you're ignorant of the intellectual demands on world class athletes. Championship sprinters are, in fact, well above average in intelligence. Analytical thinking, in depth, is as instrumental to their success as raw physical ability and training. No dumbass is going to win the Olympic gold in sprinting, or even make it to the Olympics in the first place.

    So those with west African heritage dominate sprinting,
     
    No they don't. Americans and Jamaicans do. The pure West Africans often don't make it through trials.

    Kenyan/Ugandans dominate long distance running,
     
    But Kenyan-Americans don't. Hmmm....smells like culture to me.

    and African-Americans dominate basketball.
     
    And the real Africans in Africa suck at basketball. This, again, is redolent of culture as opposed to genetics.

    But they don’t tend towards high IQs.
     
    An asinine statement. In terms of true intrinsic intelligence, many of these athletes are absolute geniuses. Lebron James certainly is. Mike Krzyzewski, who's coached plenty of blue blooded white guys at Duke, said Lebron was the smartest player he's ever coached (having coached him in the Olympics). He said it wasn't even close. Lebron is known to recall from a database in his mind every opposing team's plays. He knows when they're going to run them, how they're going to run them and in which situations. We're talking about thousands of plays. I don't how someone like Lebron would score on Stanford-Binet or Raven's, but his real IQ is off the charts.

    I assume living in their African environments and culture selected for such traits, but didn’t select for IQ because it didn’t add very much to their survival and reproduction.
     
    The modern human brain was formed in the crucible of the harsh African environment -- an environment much harsher in fact than the Eurasian environment, which I will remind you, is a TEMPERATE environment. An equatorial or tropical environment is by definition much more hostile to human life than a temperate one. Which is precisely why humans evolved in Africa in the first place. The brain that evolved in Africa, by the way, is unchanged for the last 100,000 years. That's why those early humans are called MODERN humans. They were no different from us as regards brain power except insofar as they may have been smarter, as they had larger brains.

    What Happened to the Hominids Who May Have Been Smarter Than Us?

    Two neuroscientists say that a now-extinct race of humans had big eyes, child-like faces, and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens.

    http://discovermagazine.com/2009/the-brain-2/28-what-happened-to-hominids-who-were-smarter-than-us

    So not only was the human brain fully formed and developed prior to dispersal within and without Africa, those early African humans were likely smarter than we are today.


    Those selection pressures changed when people migrated out of Africa and tried to survive and reproduce in places their ancestors had never lived before
     
    In the cold you wear animal skins and build a fire. Any caveman could do it and they did. The brutally harsh African environment presented much more acute challenges. In the cold you had "refrigeration" in the form of permafrost. Dead animals were preserved where they fell, affording scavenging opportunities. Water was abundant and tropical diseases were non-existent. Most importantly, you had control. Any animal can escape the cold with modifications to its environment. But the heat is inescapable. As a matter of fact, if our pre-human ancestors had to negotiate the unchallenging European environment, they never would've evolved into modern humans.

    In such situations, higher analytical reasoning ability probably made a much bigger difference than it had back in Africa, our homeland.
     
    You must be a moron if you really believe the African environment didn't select for strong analytical ability.

    So did other factors, like lighter skin to synthesize more Vitamin D. These are real differences based on equations that people had little conscious control over.
     
    Much like intelligence, the alleles for lighter skin were already present in the African genome. It only took a minor, relatively superficial genetic tweak to create it.
  870. “Since Africans are not mentally retarded or developmentally disabled, the IQ data is either fraudulent or the IQ concept itself is ineffective in capturing intellectual capacity. Case closed. There’s no wiggle room.”

    I’d like to add that this either/or dichotomy is a false one.

    IQ data is not fraudulent, but how one defines “intellectual capacity” depends on many factors. One can certainly say that IQ measures what is measurable, but that may be an example of looking for a lost item where the light is, rather than where it actually is.

    The IQ concept and testing only measures a certain aspect of what we call “intelligence”, which is abstract reasoning ability. There’s a lot of things it doesn’t measure, and doesn’t even try to, because no one knows how to measure such things. But what it does measure is clearly very important in the modern world. Not as important in some places as others, however, especially places like SSA that we were already extremely well adapted to over millions of years. But due to colonialism and the world that has left us it has become increasingly important even in those places, which has introduced new stresses on those people and their recent descendants.

    So the case is not at all closed. I’m not sure why you want it to be, when there is so much more to learn.

  871. @marpa
    You're putting too much emphasis on IQ as the sole arbiter of what makes human beings functional. Which is ironic.

    I'm sure there are some flaws in IQ testing, particularly in some cultures. I'm also sure that in some places environmental factors prevent people from realizing their genetic IQ potential due to various detrimental influences, including cultural ones. If those detriments were dealt with, IQ scores would undoubtedly rise. But would they rise such that every group in the world was of equal IQ? Highly doubtful. You'd be as likely to see every culture produce NBA or track stars.

    I don't know many people except you who think athletes need to have competitive IQs. They don't. Running fast requires a completely different set of alleles than analytical thinkinig. Selecting for that means not selecting for other traits. So those with west African heritage dominate sprinting, Kenyan/Ugandans dominate long distance running, and African-Americans dominate basketball. But they don't tend towards high IQs. I assume living in their African environments and culture selected for such traits, but didn't select for IQ because it didn't add very much to their survival and reproduction.

    Those selection pressures changed when people migrated out of Africa and tried to survive and reproduce in places their ancestors had never lived before. In such situations, higher analytical reasoning ability probably made a much bigger difference than it had back in Africa, our homeland. So did other factors, like lighter skin to synthesize more Vitamin D. These are real differences based on equations that people had little conscious control over.

    "Divine Intelligence" is a different matter. IQ tests don't try to capture such a thing. It's not even clear what you mean by it. Given that I believe in reincarnation, I would speculate that it has something to do with our ability to "connect" via our body and nervous system to the "higher self", and that this can even give us a competitive evolutionary advantage. And perhaps that does have something to do with our genetics also. That some genes help us connect better, and can also be selected for. And that such a connection may even give us higher intelligence, but not necessarily of the analytical kind measured by IQ tests. So it's entirely possible that people who score in the 70s on IQ tests may have a capacity to connection to higher, Divine energy and intelligence in a way that higher IQ may not. Or at least that it's a different capacity altogether developed in different ways, though perhaps also compatible. Or maybe not entirely?

    Not sure how you study that objectively much less test for it. But it's an interesting topic to speculate on. It doesn't negate the value of IQ however, or the underlying rational reasoning process. After all, most religions attributed such things to a Divine inspiration or gift. And it may well be. But a part of that gift is undoubtedly in our genetics as well.

    I am doubtful that deficient IQ was ever more tenable for survival in Africa than elsewhere. Cold may impose one survival strategy; inadequate water another, inadequate fuel (fire) another, excessive moisture in one season followed by excessive dryness in the next another, specific predators another, and so forth.

    Lead is likely to play a substantial role in black-white IQ gaps, as excessive moisture in cold climates, and lack of fuel, would drive populations to pursue bronze metallurgy over iron metallurgy. Soft metal deposits usually contain lead, unlike iron deposits. Lead poisoning reduces sperm quality, thereby creating an evolutionary pressure to reduce lead uptake. Africa largely skipped the bronze age, going directly for iron work, with the oldest iron workshop remains containing stone age iron working tools; copper alloys were used mainly for status objects. See e.g. Mining and Metallurgy in Negro Africa, Bantam books (1937 IIRC).

    Note also that Australian aborigines tend to have comparable to lower IQs than Sub-Saharan Africans, despite their ancestral trek through the ice age wastes of Eurasia. As they had obsidian, they had no need for metallurgy.

    • Replies: @Peripatetic commenter

    I am doubtful that deficient IQ was ever more tenable for survival in Africa than elsewhere.
     
    What on earth is deficient IQ? Every population tends to have the amount of brainpower needed to survive in their environment. Well, actually, a reasonably normally distributed about around the mean for that environment.

    Australian Aborigines, for example, didn't really need much brain power for their environment and there is clear evidence of smaller average brain sizes.

    That didn't matter in their environment until the environment changed when whites arrived.

    http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC1261675

    Similarly, SS Africa was/is an environment that is socially much less complex than the environment in Europe and North America.

    That translates into a lower necessary IQ and smaller, on average, brain sizes. The data is out there.


    Cold may impose one survival strategy; inadequate water another, inadequate fuel (fire) another, excessive moisture in one season followed by excessive dryness in the next another, specific predators another, and so forth.
     
    You are grasping at straws. The predictable changes in more northern or more southern latitudes selects for the following traits:

    1. Long-term planning,
    2. Low time preference, ie patience,
    3. Willingness to work hard ...

    But more than that, the complex societies that developed in Europe and China have selected for an enhanced capacity for symbolic and abstract thinking.

  872. @marpa
    I think in large population studies both genes would show a correlation to intelligence, regardless of the route taken. But that's a different level of study. The first level is merely to identify which genes correlate to general intelligence, overall. And then break that down by group and geography and other factors. Some genes may not contribute to intelligence in some groups or situations, and it's important to not that. If you find that some genes correlate to intelligence in areas with high levels of heavy metals, that would be an very interesting finding.

    The second level of study is to try to figure out how each specific gene allele actually works to increase intelligence. And also, how they interact with other genes, and the environment. Obviously a very complex situation, but not indecipherable. None of that suggests that genetics isn't important to intelligence. Quite the opposite.

    btw, the studies we are referring to are not twin studies. They are large population studies.

    Note also that murder rates are a good proxy for lead poisoning 23 years prior.

    • Replies: @marpa
    Definitely a strong relationship there, but not sure it rises to the level of a proxy. And I'm not aware of any genes that protect against lead poisoning. Seems that everyone is affected, even at the slightest levels.
  873. @Okechukwu

    no one is saying that the high IQ end of an average 70 IQ population are functionally retarded.
     
    A 70 IQ is, at best, borderline retardation. If IQ tests are universally applicable, then 60-70 IQ Africans should have the same level of functionality (or dysfunctionality) as 60-70 IQ white Americans. I've even seen IQ's in the 50's attributed to Africans.

    Since Africans are not mentally retarded or developmentally disabled, the IQ data is either fraudulent or the IQ concept itself is ineffective in capturing intellectual capacity. Case closed. There's no wiggle room.

    Since Africans are not mentally retarded or developmentally disabled, the IQ data is either fraudulent or the IQ concept itself is ineffective in capturing intellectual capacity.

    70 IQ people are developmentally disabled – the argument is over whether they are disabled in a different way to 70 IQ non-Africans.

    Case closed. There’s no wiggle room.

    sure there is – one of the often repeated criticisms of the IQ thing on this blog is the claim that intelligence (or g) isn’t a singular concrete thing in itself – maybe it’s not – maybe it’s a composite and some populations are simply missing one of the components even though they have an average amount (for recent HGs) of the other components.

  874. @Johan Meyer
    Note also that murder rates are a good proxy for lead poisoning 23 years prior.

    Definitely a strong relationship there, but not sure it rises to the level of a proxy. And I’m not aware of any genes that protect against lead poisoning. Seems that everyone is affected, even at the slightest levels.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    The protection against lead poisoning that is suggested by black versus white blood lead distributions in the same neighborhoods is against getting a high blood lead level---less lead gets transferred to the blood among whites. The genes that predict group IQ---I have in mind Davide Piffer's work---are good candidates for such investigation---an explanation is needed for why blacks have higher blood lead (higher peaks of the distribution of blood lead under sporadic poisoning) than whites, for the same neighborhoods or neighborhoods of the same age and thus lead hazard. Alternatively, perhaps you would care to explain why a number of Sub-Saharan African countries have had recent murder rates that are lower than the US, especially those that had economic trouble e.g. civil wars in the 1990s.

    Geometric mean of blood lead level under sporadic dosing is a terrible proxy of lead dose. The lead paint clean up in the mid 1990s lead to increased poisoning before poisoning collapsed. Youth murder rates have collapsed, as have teen pregnancy---down by more than 50% in most of the US since 2009, albeit still with about three times higher rates among blacks than whites.
    , @Johan Meyer
    https://nebula.wsimg.com/08bcefac4c450fecb1d91d0d517ae431?AccessKeyId=0C0B5E388F2FB5E1BB9B

    Note the consistent tendency of blacks to be overrepresented at the higher levels---the higher levels are more representative of the arithmetic mean dose under sporadic poisoning than the geometric mean blood lead level is of the arithmetic mean dose. To the extent that the distribution shifts, it is because either blacks or whites received more clean up attention in a given period.

    A simple test may be done---do white infants who move into these black used dwellings have the same rates of elevated blood lead levels? Sailer's comments about magic dirt suggest not. I think he's correct.
  875. @Bliss
    Your anecdotal evidence proves nothing. You can’t hide retards all the time. And certainly not at times when family life is seriously disrupted such as during wars. Iraq and Syria, both low IQ countries, suffered wars recently. What happened to their retards?

    Show us real evidence that the Middle-East has a much higher percentage of dysfunctional retards than North America.

    Show us real evidence that the Middle-East has a much higher percentage of dysfunctional retards than North America.

    I didn’t make claims about “dysfunctional” – I actually showed how in IQ cultures consisting of people with low average IQs, low IQ people can function.

    Low IQ societies allow low IQ people to function. A guy with an IQ of, say, 68, can work and have a family in a premodern agricultural peasant society in rural Serbia, or rural Iraq, or rural sub-Saharan Africa just fine. In a modern Western society – not so much.

    A much more extreme example – non-human primates, wolves, etc. function just fine in their native habitats. This does not mean they are as intelligent as people.

  876. @Okechukwu

    no one is saying that the high IQ end of an average 70 IQ population are functionally retarded.
     
    A 70 IQ is, at best, borderline retardation. If IQ tests are universally applicable, then 60-70 IQ Africans should have the same level of functionality (or dysfunctionality) as 60-70 IQ white Americans. I've even seen IQ's in the 50's attributed to Africans.

    Since Africans are not mentally retarded or developmentally disabled, the IQ data is either fraudulent or the IQ concept itself is ineffective in capturing intellectual capacity. Case closed. There's no wiggle room.

    A 70 IQ is, at best, borderline retardation. If IQ tests are universally applicable, then 60-70 IQ Africans should have the same level of functionality (or dysfunctionality) as 60-70 IQ white Americans.

    Send an African with an IQ of 70 from his village and place him in a modern Western city, and even after several years he will function about as well as will a white person with an IQ 70. That is, he will figure out how to do some simple job, how to use public transportation, how an oven works, etc.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu

    Send an African with an IQ of 70 from his village and place him in a modern Western city, and even after several years he will function about as well as will a white person with an IQ 70.
     
    I have no idea of the true IQs of village Africans. No credible IQ study has been done. But I do know that village Africans immigrate to America and clean your clocks. Others clean your clocks from African villages by outsmarting you in sophisticated business schemes that transfer billions of dollars yearly from you to them.

    The problem is that you people are stuck in your little bubbles and have no idea what's going on in the real world. There are geniuses in African villages, bro. There are people there smarter than you and everyone you know. So keep thinking that Africans are stupid and they'll keep raping you.
  877. @marpa
    Definitely a strong relationship there, but not sure it rises to the level of a proxy. And I'm not aware of any genes that protect against lead poisoning. Seems that everyone is affected, even at the slightest levels.

    The protection against lead poisoning that is suggested by black versus white blood lead distributions in the same neighborhoods is against getting a high blood lead level—less lead gets transferred to the blood among whites. The genes that predict group IQ—I have in mind Davide Piffer’s work—are good candidates for such investigation—an explanation is needed for why blacks have higher blood lead (higher peaks of the distribution of blood lead under sporadic poisoning) than whites, for the same neighborhoods or neighborhoods of the same age and thus lead hazard. Alternatively, perhaps you would care to explain why a number of Sub-Saharan African countries have had recent murder rates that are lower than the US, especially those that had economic trouble e.g. civil wars in the 1990s.

    Geometric mean of blood lead level under sporadic dosing is a terrible proxy of lead dose. The lead paint clean up in the mid 1990s lead to increased poisoning before poisoning collapsed. Youth murder rates have collapsed, as have teen pregnancy—down by more than 50% in most of the US since 2009, albeit still with about three times higher rates among blacks than whites.

    • Replies: @marpa
    That's really interesting. I knew there were worse effects on black groups, but thought it had to do with higher exposure etc. I guess that's not entirely clear, but seems like more is involved. Whether it's genetic or not is hard to say, of course.

    murder rates here and worldwide have a lot of sources, most of them cultural, so it's hard to say how much of it is do to lead exposure. I don't think worldwide murder rates necessarily equate to lead exposure, or the greater susceptibility to it of some genetic groups, if that's even a thing.

    I'm not really sure how this relates to the larger issue, however. I'm all in favor of reducing all environmental sources of bad health outcomes, including ones that affect behavior negatively. I do know that exposure to lead in utero and childhood has a negative effect on IQ. Is that where you are going with this?
  878. @Johan Meyer
    I am doubtful that deficient IQ was ever more tenable for survival in Africa than elsewhere. Cold may impose one survival strategy; inadequate water another, inadequate fuel (fire) another, excessive moisture in one season followed by excessive dryness in the next another, specific predators another, and so forth.

    Lead is likely to play a substantial role in black-white IQ gaps, as excessive moisture in cold climates, and lack of fuel, would drive populations to pursue bronze metallurgy over iron metallurgy. Soft metal deposits usually contain lead, unlike iron deposits. Lead poisoning reduces sperm quality, thereby creating an evolutionary pressure to reduce lead uptake. Africa largely skipped the bronze age, going directly for iron work, with the oldest iron workshop remains containing stone age iron working tools; copper alloys were used mainly for status objects. See e.g. Mining and Metallurgy in Negro Africa, Bantam books (1937 IIRC).

    Note also that Australian aborigines tend to have comparable to lower IQs than Sub-Saharan Africans, despite their ancestral trek through the ice age wastes of Eurasia. As they had obsidian, they had no need for metallurgy.

    I am doubtful that deficient IQ was ever more tenable for survival in Africa than elsewhere.

    What on earth is deficient IQ? Every population tends to have the amount of brainpower needed to survive in their environment. Well, actually, a reasonably normally distributed about around the mean for that environment.

    Australian Aborigines, for example, didn’t really need much brain power for their environment and there is clear evidence of smaller average brain sizes.

    That didn’t matter in their environment until the environment changed when whites arrived.

    http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC1261675

    Similarly, SS Africa was/is an environment that is socially much less complex than the environment in Europe and North America.

    That translates into a lower necessary IQ and smaller, on average, brain sizes. The data is out there.

    Cold may impose one survival strategy; inadequate water another, inadequate fuel (fire) another, excessive moisture in one season followed by excessive dryness in the next another, specific predators another, and so forth.

    You are grasping at straws. The predictable changes in more northern or more southern latitudes selects for the following traits:

    1. Long-term planning,
    2. Low time preference, ie patience,
    3. Willingness to work hard …

    But more than that, the complex societies that developed in Europe and China have selected for an enhanced capacity for symbolic and abstract thinking.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    The relevant question is brain volume in the absence of pathology. Both Sub-Saharan Africa and Australian aborigines have ample pathology. For the same IQ, blacks and whites have on average the same brain volume.

    Thus the only argument that needs to be made to demonstrate that group differences are directly caused by genes rather than environment (genetically varied sensitivity of otherwise), is that the mean is not reflective of pathology. If, upon the removal of pathology, the IQ differences remain, then direct causation of IQ by genes produces the (remaining) group differences in IQ. What is the problem?
  879. @marpa
    Definitely a strong relationship there, but not sure it rises to the level of a proxy. And I'm not aware of any genes that protect against lead poisoning. Seems that everyone is affected, even at the slightest levels.

    https://nebula.wsimg.com/08bcefac4c450fecb1d91d0d517ae431?AccessKeyId=0C0B5E388F2FB5E1BB9B

    Note the consistent tendency of blacks to be overrepresented at the higher levels—the higher levels are more representative of the arithmetic mean dose under sporadic poisoning than the geometric mean blood lead level is of the arithmetic mean dose. To the extent that the distribution shifts, it is because either blacks or whites received more clean up attention in a given period.

    A simple test may be done—do white infants who move into these black used dwellings have the same rates of elevated blood lead levels? Sailer’s comments about magic dirt suggest not. I think he’s correct.

    • Replies: @marpa
    You can't do those kinds of experiments on human beings. In any case, figuring out the source of the difference isn't as important as cleaning up the lead problem in the first place, wherever it is and whoever it affects.
  880. @Peripatetic commenter

    I am doubtful that deficient IQ was ever more tenable for survival in Africa than elsewhere.
     
    What on earth is deficient IQ? Every population tends to have the amount of brainpower needed to survive in their environment. Well, actually, a reasonably normally distributed about around the mean for that environment.

    Australian Aborigines, for example, didn't really need much brain power for their environment and there is clear evidence of smaller average brain sizes.

    That didn't matter in their environment until the environment changed when whites arrived.

    http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC1261675

    Similarly, SS Africa was/is an environment that is socially much less complex than the environment in Europe and North America.

    That translates into a lower necessary IQ and smaller, on average, brain sizes. The data is out there.


    Cold may impose one survival strategy; inadequate water another, inadequate fuel (fire) another, excessive moisture in one season followed by excessive dryness in the next another, specific predators another, and so forth.
     
    You are grasping at straws. The predictable changes in more northern or more southern latitudes selects for the following traits:

    1. Long-term planning,
    2. Low time preference, ie patience,
    3. Willingness to work hard ...

    But more than that, the complex societies that developed in Europe and China have selected for an enhanced capacity for symbolic and abstract thinking.

    The relevant question is brain volume in the absence of pathology. Both Sub-Saharan Africa and Australian aborigines have ample pathology. For the same IQ, blacks and whites have on average the same brain volume.

    Thus the only argument that needs to be made to demonstrate that group differences are directly caused by genes rather than environment (genetically varied sensitivity of otherwise), is that the mean is not reflective of pathology. If, upon the removal of pathology, the IQ differences remain, then direct causation of IQ by genes produces the (remaining) group differences in IQ. What is the problem?

  881. @Johan Meyer
    The protection against lead poisoning that is suggested by black versus white blood lead distributions in the same neighborhoods is against getting a high blood lead level---less lead gets transferred to the blood among whites. The genes that predict group IQ---I have in mind Davide Piffer's work---are good candidates for such investigation---an explanation is needed for why blacks have higher blood lead (higher peaks of the distribution of blood lead under sporadic poisoning) than whites, for the same neighborhoods or neighborhoods of the same age and thus lead hazard. Alternatively, perhaps you would care to explain why a number of Sub-Saharan African countries have had recent murder rates that are lower than the US, especially those that had economic trouble e.g. civil wars in the 1990s.

    Geometric mean of blood lead level under sporadic dosing is a terrible proxy of lead dose. The lead paint clean up in the mid 1990s lead to increased poisoning before poisoning collapsed. Youth murder rates have collapsed, as have teen pregnancy---down by more than 50% in most of the US since 2009, albeit still with about three times higher rates among blacks than whites.

    That’s really interesting. I knew there were worse effects on black groups, but thought it had to do with higher exposure etc. I guess that’s not entirely clear, but seems like more is involved. Whether it’s genetic or not is hard to say, of course.

    murder rates here and worldwide have a lot of sources, most of them cultural, so it’s hard to say how much of it is do to lead exposure. I don’t think worldwide murder rates necessarily equate to lead exposure, or the greater susceptibility to it of some genetic groups, if that’s even a thing.

    I’m not really sure how this relates to the larger issue, however. I’m all in favor of reducing all environmental sources of bad health outcomes, including ones that affect behavior negatively. I do know that exposure to lead in utero and childhood has a negative effect on IQ. Is that where you are going with this?

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    In utero exposure was mainly a problem with leaded gasoline---paint affects mainly infants. Except for contaminated water (e.g. Flint Michigan), in utero exposure should be addressed by now. As such, it would be worth checking at birth brain volumes cross-racially for the new cohorts in the US. Fontanelles allow for different brain volumes to be contained as the infant developes, so comparison between later age groups raise the environmental question, requiring the use of mathematically justifiable dose proxies (not bs such as a single measure of blood lead level). Then again, it would be a good idea to check maternal urine lead weekly during the pregnancy to be sure.
    , @Johan Meyer
    Incidentally, blacks do not receive higher exposure---blacks are no more likely to live in lead painted housing than are whites. If you are up for a bit of data analysis (I did it with zsh's floating point arithmetic, grep and sed), you can check the December 1994 supplement to the CPS (they checked for housing age and known presence of lead paint):

    http://mobile.nber.org/data/current-population-survey-data.html

    Neither housing age distribution nor known presence of lead paint can explain the difference in lead poisoning.
  882. @Johan Meyer
    https://nebula.wsimg.com/08bcefac4c450fecb1d91d0d517ae431?AccessKeyId=0C0B5E388F2FB5E1BB9B

    Note the consistent tendency of blacks to be overrepresented at the higher levels---the higher levels are more representative of the arithmetic mean dose under sporadic poisoning than the geometric mean blood lead level is of the arithmetic mean dose. To the extent that the distribution shifts, it is because either blacks or whites received more clean up attention in a given period.

    A simple test may be done---do white infants who move into these black used dwellings have the same rates of elevated blood lead levels? Sailer's comments about magic dirt suggest not. I think he's correct.

    You can’t do those kinds of experiments on human beings. In any case, figuring out the source of the difference isn’t as important as cleaning up the lead problem in the first place, wherever it is and whoever it affects.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    Actually, one can do such experiments quite ethically.

    A simple way would be to give a white family in a given neighborhood, with a given presence of lead paint the opportunity to switch places with a black family with the same lead paint presence.

    As most of the pathology is due to infant poisoning, one can do uptake studies quite ethically on elderly volunteers. It will literally be for the children.

    As for showing that dosing is sporadic, on can do quite cheap (K edge subtraction radiographic imaging) urinalysis for lead on a weekly basis (nappy analysis for babies), with occasional individual calibration to blood lead, and solve for differential dose (dBLL/dt+BLL ln2 / \tau_{half-life} = dDOSE/dt ). It is relatively cheap (compare to lead paint clean up while actually following LEAD SAFE guidelines---the burst in murder rates in the US the last three years are plain evidence that contractors did not during the mid 1990s. The evidence then obtained can be used to justify clean-up of what remains, preferably using LEAD SAFE compliant robots.

  883. @AP

    A 70 IQ is, at best, borderline retardation. If IQ tests are universally applicable, then 60-70 IQ Africans should have the same level of functionality (or dysfunctionality) as 60-70 IQ white Americans.
     
    Send an African with an IQ of 70 from his village and place him in a modern Western city, and even after several years he will function about as well as will a white person with an IQ 70. That is, he will figure out how to do some simple job, how to use public transportation, how an oven works, etc.

    Send an African with an IQ of 70 from his village and place him in a modern Western city, and even after several years he will function about as well as will a white person with an IQ 70.

    I have no idea of the true IQs of village Africans. No credible IQ study has been done. But I do know that village Africans immigrate to America and clean your clocks. Others clean your clocks from African villages by outsmarting you in sophisticated business schemes that transfer billions of dollars yearly from you to them.

    The problem is that you people are stuck in your little bubbles and have no idea what’s going on in the real world. There are geniuses in African villages, bro. There are people there smarter than you and everyone you know. So keep thinking that Africans are stupid and they’ll keep raping you.

    • Replies: @AP

    I have no idea of the true IQs of village Africans. No credible IQ study has been done.
     
    I've seen IQ scores of dozens of African villagers (refugees from places like Burundi) and they are in the low 70s.

    But I do know that village Africans immigrate to America and clean your clocks.
     
    They are more likely to be cleaning floors.

    (not that there is anything wrong with good, honest work)

    Most Africans who come to America are not "typical" peasants like those refugees. They are highly enterprising people, elites in their country.

    And yet, by family income, they get outperformed in the USA. The richest African ethnic group is Ghanian:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income

    They beat the Scotch-Irish, Yugoslavians, Dutch, French, Argentines, and Amish (Amish choose not to participate in the modern world). All other European ethnic groups outperform them. The next richest African ethnic group, Nigerians, outperform only the Argentines and the Amish.

    Others clean your clocks from African villages by outsmarting you in sophisticated business schemes that transfer billions of dollars yearly from you to them.
     
    The scammers are mostly from places like Lagos, right? That's not a village. I'm not sure being able to find some scammers on a continent of over a billion people, who prey on greedy naive white people (or older ones with dementia), is an indicator of high average intelligence.

    There are geniuses in African villages, bro.
     
    Perhaps among the scientists doing research there.

    There are no geniuses within deep African villages, as there were none among peasants in places like deep rural Russia 500 years ago. At most you can say that there are people with the genetic potential to be a genius. Given a population of over a billion people in Africa, this is likely, even if the percentage of people with such potential will be lower than among comparable non-African populations.
  884. @Steve Sailer
    I've long been struck by the difference between Turkey and Mexico on PISA results. In Turkey, 6% score in the second highest rank and 1% in the highest rank. That's not great, but it's at least a noticeable number of smart people. In Mexico, only 1% make the second rank and 0% the highest rank. And yet Mexico doesn't score all that badly overall, it just has only a tiny number of very smart and very hard working people.

    That generally fits with my impression of the two countries. I went to a conference in an upscale resort town in Turkey and the grocery story across the street from the hotel carried a selection of books and magazines, some of which appeared to be intellectually serious. I had lunch with a smart Turkish journalist who now writes smart columns for the NYT. I used to exchange emails with a fellow in Istanbul who advised me that Derrida was as worthless as I assumed, but I should not dismiss Foucault out of hand.

    Mexico, in contrast, appears to have a much smaller intellectual elite than Turkey.

    Perhaps it has something to do with puritanism never getting a foothold in Mexico due to the counter-reformation keeping out potential puritans?

    Turkey is one the most genetically diverse places in Europe and MENA area. It attracted a constant stream of migrants and conquerors due to Constantinople and the Bosporus etc. Armenians were quite known to be the merchant class, Turkic tribes moving there, the old janaisary system transplanting Balkan euro’s to Turkey to become turkified and incorporated in the elite due to their military prowess, huge migration of turkified Balkan people to turkey (These numbers I think were higher then the Greeks kicked out of Turkey), slavery with especially the Crimea Tatars bringing in Slavic and Caucasus people and besides that a large Anatolian population that seems quite okay in intelligence of itself, much like the Alawites, Druze, Copts and other original MENA populations.

    besides that, the Kurds are cousin-cousin inbreeding like mad in the east of the country, which should take its toll. And western Anatolia, aka best turkey, is on par with Germany in reproduction rates.

  885. @foolisholdman
    This where the British communist were (probably still are) so stupid. Most of them were intellectuals of one sort or another and consequently looked down (I mean they showed that they looked down) on the very few working class comrades they had, which was very bad for morale as can be imagined. As most of them had never done proletarian jobs, they had no idea how industrial working class people spoke. And they had very little idea how anti-intellectual or more generally how anti-posh most working people in Britain are. Their voices marked them out as "posh" the moment they opened their mouths.

    Because they valued education, they usually sent their children to private schools or at least to the "better sort of state school", so that their children also grew up not knowing how to speak to ordinary working class people, so even if the children survived their schooling
    without turning into conservatives or social democrats, they were still utterly useless at propaganda.

    Having worked on a variety of factory floors, I knew that most of their propaganda was an entirely wasted effort and I tried to explain this to them, but the usual response was that: I wanted them to "talk down to" their intended audience. They seemed not to grasp the fact that they might just as well have written their leaflets in Latin or German because the usual reaction to them was derision and/or incomprehension.

    Mao at least, understood this problem, though even in China some of his comrades thought his propaganda speeches and writings "rather shockingly uncouth".

    (I mean they showed that they looked down) on the very few working class comrades they had,

    I consider the gap unbridgeable.

    We can have a one-off populist leader that has appeal, but a comprehensive political program or organization is a bridge too far. I also believe that this helps explain why most people with an economic egalitarian impulse have deserted the working class in exchange for minorities and exotics.

  886. @marpa
    You can't do those kinds of experiments on human beings. In any case, figuring out the source of the difference isn't as important as cleaning up the lead problem in the first place, wherever it is and whoever it affects.

    Actually, one can do such experiments quite ethically.

    A simple way would be to give a white family in a given neighborhood, with a given presence of lead paint the opportunity to switch places with a black family with the same lead paint presence.

    As most of the pathology is due to infant poisoning, one can do uptake studies quite ethically on elderly volunteers. It will literally be for the children.

    As for showing that dosing is sporadic, on can do quite cheap (K edge subtraction radiographic imaging) urinalysis for lead on a weekly basis (nappy analysis for babies), with occasional individual calibration to blood lead, and solve for differential dose (dBLL/dt+BLL ln2 / \tau_{half-life} = dDOSE/dt ). It is relatively cheap (compare to lead paint clean up while actually following LEAD SAFE guidelines—the burst in murder rates in the US the last three years are plain evidence that contractors did not during the mid 1990s. The evidence then obtained can be used to justify clean-up of what remains, preferably using LEAD SAFE compliant robots.

    • Replies: @marpa
    You have a strange idea of ethics, not to mention the power of a researcher to get people to switch their homes with someone else where lead levels are worse. The cost of such a project would be immense, and the danger to the children involved beyond every code of ethical research. And what is even the point? All the research done so far shows that there is literally NO level of lead that is safe. There is literally no doubt that it should all be cleaned up, everywhere, regardless of whether there is a black or white family involved. The issue is the cost and the politics and so on. In fact, given the politics of the current government, showing that black children are hit worse by this would lessen the incentive to do anything about it.
  887. @marpa
    That's really interesting. I knew there were worse effects on black groups, but thought it had to do with higher exposure etc. I guess that's not entirely clear, but seems like more is involved. Whether it's genetic or not is hard to say, of course.

    murder rates here and worldwide have a lot of sources, most of them cultural, so it's hard to say how much of it is do to lead exposure. I don't think worldwide murder rates necessarily equate to lead exposure, or the greater susceptibility to it of some genetic groups, if that's even a thing.

    I'm not really sure how this relates to the larger issue, however. I'm all in favor of reducing all environmental sources of bad health outcomes, including ones that affect behavior negatively. I do know that exposure to lead in utero and childhood has a negative effect on IQ. Is that where you are going with this?

    In utero exposure was mainly a problem with leaded gasoline—paint affects mainly infants. Except for contaminated water (e.g. Flint Michigan), in utero exposure should be addressed by now. As such, it would be worth checking at birth brain volumes cross-racially for the new cohorts in the US. Fontanelles allow for different brain volumes to be contained as the infant developes, so comparison between later age groups raise the environmental question, requiring the use of mathematically justifiable dose proxies (not bs such as a single measure of blood lead level). Then again, it would be a good idea to check maternal urine lead weekly during the pregnancy to be sure.

  888. @Okechukwu

    Send an African with an IQ of 70 from his village and place him in a modern Western city, and even after several years he will function about as well as will a white person with an IQ 70.
     
    I have no idea of the true IQs of village Africans. No credible IQ study has been done. But I do know that village Africans immigrate to America and clean your clocks. Others clean your clocks from African villages by outsmarting you in sophisticated business schemes that transfer billions of dollars yearly from you to them.

    The problem is that you people are stuck in your little bubbles and have no idea what's going on in the real world. There are geniuses in African villages, bro. There are people there smarter than you and everyone you know. So keep thinking that Africans are stupid and they'll keep raping you.

    I have no idea of the true IQs of village Africans. No credible IQ study has been done.

    I’ve seen IQ scores of dozens of African villagers (refugees from places like Burundi) and they are in the low 70s.

    But I do know that village Africans immigrate to America and clean your clocks.

    They are more likely to be cleaning floors.

    (not that there is anything wrong with good, honest work)

    Most Africans who come to America are not “typical” peasants like those refugees. They are highly enterprising people, elites in their country.

    And yet, by family income, they get outperformed in the USA. The richest African ethnic group is Ghanian:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income

    They beat the Scotch-Irish, Yugoslavians, Dutch, French, Argentines, and Amish (Amish choose not to participate in the modern world). All other European ethnic groups outperform them. The next richest African ethnic group, Nigerians, outperform only the Argentines and the Amish.

    Others clean your clocks from African villages by outsmarting you in sophisticated business schemes that transfer billions of dollars yearly from you to them.

    The scammers are mostly from places like Lagos, right? That’s not a village. I’m not sure being able to find some scammers on a continent of over a billion people, who prey on greedy naive white people (or older ones with dementia), is an indicator of high average intelligence.

    There are geniuses in African villages, bro.

    Perhaps among the scientists doing research there.

    There are no geniuses within deep African villages, as there were none among peasants in places like deep rural Russia 500 years ago. At most you can say that there are people with the genetic potential to be a genius. Given a population of over a billion people in Africa, this is likely, even if the percentage of people with such potential will be lower than among comparable non-African populations.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu

    I’ve seen IQ scores of dozens of African villagers (refugees from places like Burundi) and they are in the low 70s.
     
    I don't buy it. Links please.

    They are more likely to be cleaning floors.
     
    Nope. They're well-educated professionals. But you can continue to delude yourself if you wish.

    Most Africans who come to America are not “typical” peasants like those refugees. They are highly enterprising people, elites in their country.
     
    No they're not elites. But they can become elites here because all they have to do is buckle down and work hard, and the competition isn't keen.

    They beat the Scotch-Irish, Yugoslavians, Dutch, French, Argentines, and Amish (Amish choose not to participate in the modern world). All other European ethnic groups outperform them. The next richest African ethnic group, Nigerians, outperform only the Argentines and the Amish.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_househo
     

     This is a dead link. I don't know where you got your info.

    The scammers are mostly from places like Lagos, right?
     
    Nope. Any place with Internet and phone service, which is pretty much every village in Africa.

    I’m not sure being able to find some scammers on a continent of over a billion people, who prey on greedy naive white people (or older ones with dementia), is an indicator of high average intelligence.
     
    Nope. Victims constitute the so-called high IQ elite, including doctors, politicians, bank presidents, accountants, oil company executives, etc. Often times it's African teenagers that are cleaning out these people's bank accounts. So who's really smarter?

    Perhaps among the scientists doing research there.
     
    Nope. Raw intelligence, often with minimal education. Nigerian computer geniuses are among the best hackers in the world, and they have little formal education.

    How a one man hacking operation was able to infiltrate international firms

    A recent phishing and malware campaign looked like the work of a cybercriminal gang -- but researchers have tracked it back to a lone attacker in Nigeria.

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-a-one-man-hacking-operation-was-able-to-compromise-international-firms/

    Nigeria Team Qualify For Finals At World Hackers’ Competition

    https://itedgenews.ng/2018/08/08/nigeria-team-qualify-finals-world-hackers-competition/

    There are no geniuses within deep African villages,
     
    Silly statement. Village living is not incompatible with genius. It's just geography.

    as there were none among peasants in places like deep rural Russia 500 years ago.
     
    Of course there were, silly. It was generally unrealized or unrecognized though.

    Given a population of over a billion people in Africa, this is likely, even if the percentage of people with such potential will be lower than among comparable non-African populations.

     
    Another dumb statement. Nature would not arbitrarily decree that there should be fewer geniuses per capita among Africans. There's no evidence to support the notion that Africans are less prone to genius. You have evidence? Great. Post it.
  889. @marpa
    That's really interesting. I knew there were worse effects on black groups, but thought it had to do with higher exposure etc. I guess that's not entirely clear, but seems like more is involved. Whether it's genetic or not is hard to say, of course.

    murder rates here and worldwide have a lot of sources, most of them cultural, so it's hard to say how much of it is do to lead exposure. I don't think worldwide murder rates necessarily equate to lead exposure, or the greater susceptibility to it of some genetic groups, if that's even a thing.

    I'm not really sure how this relates to the larger issue, however. I'm all in favor of reducing all environmental sources of bad health outcomes, including ones that affect behavior negatively. I do know that exposure to lead in utero and childhood has a negative effect on IQ. Is that where you are going with this?

    Incidentally, blacks do not receive higher exposure—blacks are no more likely to live in lead painted housing than are whites. If you are up for a bit of data analysis (I did it with zsh’s floating point arithmetic, grep and sed), you can check the December 1994 supplement to the CPS (they checked for housing age and known presence of lead paint):

    http://mobile.nber.org/data/current-population-survey-data.html

    Neither housing age distribution nor known presence of lead paint can explain the difference in lead poisoning.

    • Replies: @marpa
    ok, so it may well be that blacks are more susceptible to lead poisoning than whites, and that there may be a genetic component. So what? What good does that information do us? Assume that it's true. What will we do differently?
  890. Here’s a little gem I picked up over the weekend:

    https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-count-zero

    Here’s the key statement:

    “We know that it will be arduous to conceive, and expensive—so expensive that having children may no longer be an option available to all couples.”

    Those of you concerned about HBD and dysgenics, would this not be more of a feature than a bug because it would be wugenic?

    • Replies: @Daniel Chieh
    Gay chemicals in the water, check.
    , @Abelard Lindsey
    One other implication of this is an end to abortion as a political issue.
    , @notanon
    the poisoning of the west isn't eugenic - the bad guys are trying to create a planet of 85 IQ slave-cattle

    (nb i'm not saying the poisoning part is deliberate - it's probably accidental but the lack of response to it is probably deliberate imo as it suits the policy of replacement migration.)
    , @Daniel Chieh
    FWIW, I was insanely paranoid about BPA while my wife was pregnant, ultimately resulting in RO water and glass/metal to exclude almost all plastics. I echo the author's belief: we are running a huge control-free experiment on ourselves.

    I believe a lot of the pathologies of the modern world is because the psychoactives we consume as a daily matter have driven us crazy.

    Clown world, as I often say.
    , @marpa
    That's pretty amazing. I'd suspected something along these lines, but didn't realize it had gotten so bad. I've long been saying that the biggest environmental problem we are facing isn't CO2, but the chemical industry. Turns out I was probably right. Thanks for the link.
  891. @Abelard Lindsey
    Here's a little gem I picked up over the weekend:

    https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-count-zero

    Here's the key statement:

    "We know that it will be arduous to conceive, and expensive—so expensive that having children may no longer be an option available to all couples."

    Those of you concerned about HBD and dysgenics, would this not be more of a feature than a bug because it would be wugenic?

    Gay chemicals in the water, check.

  892. @britishbrainsize1325cclol
    I will tell you what it means petaing to the british if you ask me poiltely

    It means the same thing with regard to the British ass it does with regard to every other people, Aristotle.

  893. @Abelard Lindsey
    Here's a little gem I picked up over the weekend:

    https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-count-zero

    Here's the key statement:

    "We know that it will be arduous to conceive, and expensive—so expensive that having children may no longer be an option available to all couples."

    Those of you concerned about HBD and dysgenics, would this not be more of a feature than a bug because it would be wugenic?

    One other implication of this is an end to abortion as a political issue.

  894. @Abelard Lindsey
    Here's a little gem I picked up over the weekend:

    https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-count-zero

    Here's the key statement:

    "We know that it will be arduous to conceive, and expensive—so expensive that having children may no longer be an option available to all couples."

    Those of you concerned about HBD and dysgenics, would this not be more of a feature than a bug because it would be wugenic?

    the poisoning of the west isn’t eugenic – the bad guys are trying to create a planet of 85 IQ slave-cattle

    (nb i’m not saying the poisoning part is deliberate – it’s probably accidental but the lack of response to it is probably deliberate imo as it suits the policy of replacement migration.)

  895. I couldn’t calculate. Too busy watching her ride.

    As the country song says, “We hate to see her leave, but love to watch her go.”

  896. @Abelard Lindsey
    Here's a little gem I picked up over the weekend:

    https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-count-zero

    Here's the key statement:

    "We know that it will be arduous to conceive, and expensive—so expensive that having children may no longer be an option available to all couples."

    Those of you concerned about HBD and dysgenics, would this not be more of a feature than a bug because it would be wugenic?

    FWIW, I was insanely paranoid about BPA while my wife was pregnant, ultimately resulting in RO water and glass/metal to exclude almost all plastics. I echo the author’s belief: we are running a huge control-free experiment on ourselves.

    I believe a lot of the pathologies of the modern world is because the psychoactives we consume as a daily matter have driven us crazy.

    Clown world, as I often say.

    • Agree: Talha
    • Replies: @Talha
    Don’t forget to add onto it the many waves of communication we are constantly being bombarded with. One of my spiritual teachers doesn’t have a cell phone; one reason being that he experiences a massive migraine if they are too close to him.

    Peace.
  897. @Daniel Chieh
    FWIW, I was insanely paranoid about BPA while my wife was pregnant, ultimately resulting in RO water and glass/metal to exclude almost all plastics. I echo the author's belief: we are running a huge control-free experiment on ourselves.

    I believe a lot of the pathologies of the modern world is because the psychoactives we consume as a daily matter have driven us crazy.

    Clown world, as I often say.

    Don’t forget to add onto it the many waves of communication we are constantly being bombarded with. One of my spiritual teachers doesn’t have a cell phone; one reason being that he experiences a massive migraine if they are too close to him.

    Peace.

  898. @Johan Meyer
    Actually, one can do such experiments quite ethically.

    A simple way would be to give a white family in a given neighborhood, with a given presence of lead paint the opportunity to switch places with a black family with the same lead paint presence.

    As most of the pathology is due to infant poisoning, one can do uptake studies quite ethically on elderly volunteers. It will literally be for the children.

    As for showing that dosing is sporadic, on can do quite cheap (K edge subtraction radiographic imaging) urinalysis for lead on a weekly basis (nappy analysis for babies), with occasional individual calibration to blood lead, and solve for differential dose (dBLL/dt+BLL ln2 / \tau_{half-life} = dDOSE/dt ). It is relatively cheap (compare to lead paint clean up while actually following LEAD SAFE guidelines---the burst in murder rates in the US the last three years are plain evidence that contractors did not during the mid 1990s. The evidence then obtained can be used to justify clean-up of what remains, preferably using LEAD SAFE compliant robots.

    You have a strange idea of ethics, not to mention the power of a researcher to get people to switch their homes with someone else where lead levels are worse. The cost of such a project would be immense, and the danger to the children involved beyond every code of ethical research. And what is even the point? All the research done so far shows that there is literally NO level of lead that is safe. There is literally no doubt that it should all be cleaned up, everywhere, regardless of whether there is a black or white family involved. The issue is the cost and the politics and so on. In fact, given the politics of the current government, showing that black children are hit worse by this would lessen the incentive to do anything about it.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    Switch homes to where lead is worse? I specifically stated that the switch should be between houses that are objectively equivalent (e.g. same amount of paint, etc).

    The bigger problem is funding---no one wants to pay for cleaning up more housing, which is expensive, even where LEAD SAFE regulations are flaunted in the usual fashion. Setting up a K-edge fluorescent measurement system for quick measurement is cheap. The "no level is blood lead is safe" is at once a statement of confidence in the ab initio fraudulent notion of blood lead as a valid proxy for dose under sporadic poisoning, and a recipe for inaction in the face of absent funding.

    , @RadicalCenter
    It’s not “the current government” that realizes that more african-“Americans” means more murder, rape, assault, theft, and intimidation directed at everyone else. Sensible people of all races realize this.

    How terrrible that they don’t want to increase the number of future aggressors against their own children and grandchildren. They’re so racist.

    Why are non-Africans obligated to subsidize the survival and proliferation of people who will disproportionately harm us?

  899. @Johan Meyer
    Incidentally, blacks do not receive higher exposure---blacks are no more likely to live in lead painted housing than are whites. If you are up for a bit of data analysis (I did it with zsh's floating point arithmetic, grep and sed), you can check the December 1994 supplement to the CPS (they checked for housing age and known presence of lead paint):

    http://mobile.nber.org/data/current-population-survey-data.html

    Neither housing age distribution nor known presence of lead paint can explain the difference in lead poisoning.

    ok, so it may well be that blacks are more susceptible to lead poisoning than whites, and that there may be a genetic component. So what? What good does that information do us? Assume that it’s true. What will we do differently?

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    One obvious course of action is to abandon certain homes and perhaps neighborhoods, perhaps to wealthy gentrifiers. Either new neighborhoods can be built, or a voluntary swap can be arranged; if new neighborhoods are built, public transportation should be available to facilitate employment after the move. Awareness of the hazards of specific neighborhoods and houses or other dwellings may be posted. Counseling for blacks may result in fewer cases of infant poisoning as well.
  900. @marpa
    You have a strange idea of ethics, not to mention the power of a researcher to get people to switch their homes with someone else where lead levels are worse. The cost of such a project would be immense, and the danger to the children involved beyond every code of ethical research. And what is even the point? All the research done so far shows that there is literally NO level of lead that is safe. There is literally no doubt that it should all be cleaned up, everywhere, regardless of whether there is a black or white family involved. The issue is the cost and the politics and so on. In fact, given the politics of the current government, showing that black children are hit worse by this would lessen the incentive to do anything about it.

    Switch homes to where lead is worse? I specifically stated that the switch should be between houses that are objectively equivalent (e.g. same amount of paint, etc).

    The bigger problem is funding—no one wants to pay for cleaning up more housing, which is expensive, even where LEAD SAFE regulations are flaunted in the usual fashion. Setting up a K-edge fluorescent measurement system for quick measurement is cheap. The “no level is blood lead is safe” is at once a statement of confidence in the ab initio fraudulent notion of blood lead as a valid proxy for dose under sporadic poisoning, and a recipe for inaction in the face of absent funding.

    • Replies: @marpa
    First, researchers in no way have the ability to get people to switch homes, just to prove a point that doesn't much matter. And of course it's unethical. If you are going to switch homes, move them to homes without lead toxicity present. Do that for both blacks and whites. See how much difference that makes for both racial groups. That would be the ethical experiment.
  901. @marpa
    ok, so it may well be that blacks are more susceptible to lead poisoning than whites, and that there may be a genetic component. So what? What good does that information do us? Assume that it's true. What will we do differently?

    One obvious course of action is to abandon certain homes and perhaps neighborhoods, perhaps to wealthy gentrifiers. Either new neighborhoods can be built, or a voluntary swap can be arranged; if new neighborhoods are built, public transportation should be available to facilitate employment after the move. Awareness of the hazards of specific neighborhoods and houses or other dwellings may be posted. Counseling for blacks may result in fewer cases of infant poisoning as well.

    • Replies: @marpa
    I don't think gentrifiers want to move into toxic black neighborhoods and spend a fortune trying to clean them up. This is the kind of thing that requires government action. And a lot of money. But sure, let's give tax cuts to the richest people and see if that helps.
    , @marpa
    Also, abandoning lead toxic homes and neighborhoods may be the only workable solution, but that's incredibly expensive. Who's going to take the loss? Poor black families? Rich landlords? Hmm, so hard to figure out how that's going to work out.
  902. @Abelard Lindsey
    Here's a little gem I picked up over the weekend:

    https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-count-zero

    Here's the key statement:

    "We know that it will be arduous to conceive, and expensive—so expensive that having children may no longer be an option available to all couples."

    Those of you concerned about HBD and dysgenics, would this not be more of a feature than a bug because it would be wugenic?

    That’s pretty amazing. I’d suspected something along these lines, but didn’t realize it had gotten so bad. I’ve long been saying that the biggest environmental problem we are facing isn’t CO2, but the chemical industry. Turns out I was probably right. Thanks for the link.

  903. @Johan Meyer
    One obvious course of action is to abandon certain homes and perhaps neighborhoods, perhaps to wealthy gentrifiers. Either new neighborhoods can be built, or a voluntary swap can be arranged; if new neighborhoods are built, public transportation should be available to facilitate employment after the move. Awareness of the hazards of specific neighborhoods and houses or other dwellings may be posted. Counseling for blacks may result in fewer cases of infant poisoning as well.

    I don’t think gentrifiers want to move into toxic black neighborhoods and spend a fortune trying to clean them up. This is the kind of thing that requires government action. And a lot of money. But sure, let’s give tax cuts to the richest people and see if that helps.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    Demolition is exempt from LEAD SAFE regulations. If there is no one in the neighborhood to be poisoned, there is no harm.
  904. @Johan Meyer
    Switch homes to where lead is worse? I specifically stated that the switch should be between houses that are objectively equivalent (e.g. same amount of paint, etc).

    The bigger problem is funding---no one wants to pay for cleaning up more housing, which is expensive, even where LEAD SAFE regulations are flaunted in the usual fashion. Setting up a K-edge fluorescent measurement system for quick measurement is cheap. The "no level is blood lead is safe" is at once a statement of confidence in the ab initio fraudulent notion of blood lead as a valid proxy for dose under sporadic poisoning, and a recipe for inaction in the face of absent funding.

    First, researchers in no way have the ability to get people to switch homes, just to prove a point that doesn’t much matter. And of course it’s unethical. If you are going to switch homes, move them to homes without lead toxicity present. Do that for both blacks and whites. See how much difference that makes for both racial groups. That would be the ethical experiment.

  905. @Johan Meyer
    One obvious course of action is to abandon certain homes and perhaps neighborhoods, perhaps to wealthy gentrifiers. Either new neighborhoods can be built, or a voluntary swap can be arranged; if new neighborhoods are built, public transportation should be available to facilitate employment after the move. Awareness of the hazards of specific neighborhoods and houses or other dwellings may be posted. Counseling for blacks may result in fewer cases of infant poisoning as well.

    Also, abandoning lead toxic homes and neighborhoods may be the only workable solution, but that’s incredibly expensive. Who’s going to take the loss? Poor black families? Rich landlords? Hmm, so hard to figure out how that’s going to work out.

    • Replies: @Johan Meyer
    Most black home owners should still be under water from the 2008 crisis. If a write-off can be arranged for the remaining debt... Ditto most landlords, who in the ghettos will have a weak financial position, unless they are engaged in rather successful criminal conduct in general.

    As to your ethical concerns, they strike me as bizarre. We can be confident in ongoing lead poisoning. Somehow this is and remains ethically unproblematic until the very moment that a case is detected, and then it is all of a sudden the epitome of evil to fail to address the poisoning in that particular case. How does that work?

    Consider that by the time one detects a case, a fair dose will have been absorbed. I sense a belief in dose-invariant destructive nature of lead. Surely a group seeking that such real problems as are associated with lead poisoning, of which the older generation suffered, be addressed, would be willing to suffer some more to enable a detailed study to justify the complete solution of the problem. That way the next generation can be rescued, with the expense justified.
  906. @marpa
    I don't think gentrifiers want to move into toxic black neighborhoods and spend a fortune trying to clean them up. This is the kind of thing that requires government action. And a lot of money. But sure, let's give tax cuts to the richest people and see if that helps.

    Demolition is exempt from LEAD SAFE regulations. If there is no one in the neighborhood to be poisoned, there is no harm.

  907. @marpa
    Also, abandoning lead toxic homes and neighborhoods may be the only workable solution, but that's incredibly expensive. Who's going to take the loss? Poor black families? Rich landlords? Hmm, so hard to figure out how that's going to work out.

    Most black home owners should still be under water from the 2008 crisis. If a write-off can be arranged for the remaining debt… Ditto most landlords, who in the ghettos will have a weak financial position, unless they are engaged in rather successful criminal conduct in general.

    As to your ethical concerns, they strike me as bizarre. We can be confident in ongoing lead poisoning. Somehow this is and remains ethically unproblematic until the very moment that a case is detected, and then it is all of a sudden the epitome of evil to fail to address the poisoning in that particular case. How does that work?

    Consider that by the time one detects a case, a fair dose will have been absorbed. I sense a belief in dose-invariant destructive nature of lead. Surely a group seeking that such real problems as are associated with lead poisoning, of which the older generation suffered, be addressed, would be willing to suffer some more to enable a detailed study to justify the complete solution of the problem. That way the next generation can be rescued, with the expense justified.

  908. @AP

    I have no idea of the true IQs of village Africans. No credible IQ study has been done.
     
    I've seen IQ scores of dozens of African villagers (refugees from places like Burundi) and they are in the low 70s.

    But I do know that village Africans immigrate to America and clean your clocks.
     
    They are more likely to be cleaning floors.

    (not that there is anything wrong with good, honest work)

    Most Africans who come to America are not "typical" peasants like those refugees. They are highly enterprising people, elites in their country.

    And yet, by family income, they get outperformed in the USA. The richest African ethnic group is Ghanian:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income

    They beat the Scotch-Irish, Yugoslavians, Dutch, French, Argentines, and Amish (Amish choose not to participate in the modern world). All other European ethnic groups outperform them. The next richest African ethnic group, Nigerians, outperform only the Argentines and the Amish.

    Others clean your clocks from African villages by outsmarting you in sophisticated business schemes that transfer billions of dollars yearly from you to them.
     
    The scammers are mostly from places like Lagos, right? That's not a village. I'm not sure being able to find some scammers on a continent of over a billion people, who prey on greedy naive white people (or older ones with dementia), is an indicator of high average intelligence.

    There are geniuses in African villages, bro.
     
    Perhaps among the scientists doing research there.

    There are no geniuses within deep African villages, as there were none among peasants in places like deep rural Russia 500 years ago. At most you can say that there are people with the genetic potential to be a genius. Given a population of over a billion people in Africa, this is likely, even if the percentage of people with such potential will be lower than among comparable non-African populations.

    I’ve seen IQ scores of dozens of African villagers (refugees from places like Burundi) and they are in the low 70s.

    I don’t buy it. Links please.

    They are more likely to be cleaning floors.

    Nope. They’re well-educated professionals. But you can continue to delude yourself if you wish.

    Most Africans who come to America are not “typical” peasants like those refugees. They are highly enterprising people, elites in their country.

    No they’re not elites. But they can become elites here because all they have to do is buckle down and work hard, and the competition isn’t keen.

    They beat the Scotch-Irish, Yugoslavians, Dutch, French, Argentines, and Amish (Amish choose not to participate in the modern world). All other European ethnic groups outperform them. The next richest African ethnic group, Nigerians, outperform only the Argentines and the Amish.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_househo

    This is a dead link. I don’t know where you got your info.

    The scammers are mostly from places like Lagos, right?

    Nope. Any place with Internet and phone service, which is pretty much every village in Africa.

    I’m not sure being able to find some scammers on a continent of over a billion people, who prey on greedy naive white people (or older ones with dementia), is an indicator of high average intelligence.

    Nope. Victims constitute the so-called high IQ elite, including doctors, politicians, bank presidents, accountants, oil company executives, etc. Often times it’s African teenagers that are cleaning out these people’s bank accounts. So who’s really smarter?

    Perhaps among the scientists doing research there.

    Nope. Raw intelligence, often with minimal education. Nigerian computer geniuses are among the best hackers in the world, and they have little formal education.

    How a one man hacking operation was able to infiltrate international firms

    A recent phishing and malware campaign looked like the work of a cybercriminal gang — but researchers have tracked it back to a lone attacker in Nigeria.

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-a-one-man-hacking-operation-was-able-to-compromise-international-firms/

    Nigeria Team Qualify For Finals At World Hackers’ Competition

    https://itedgenews.ng/2018/08/08/nigeria-team-qualify-finals-world-hackers-competition/

    There are no geniuses within deep African villages,

    Silly statement. Village living is not incompatible with genius. It’s just geography.

    as there were none among peasants in places like deep rural Russia 500 years ago.

    Of course there were, silly. It was generally unrealized or unrecognized though.

    Given a population of over a billion people in Africa, this is likely, even if the percentage of people with such potential will be lower than among comparable non-African populations.

    Another dumb statement. Nature would not arbitrarily decree that there should be fewer geniuses per capita among Africans. There’s no evidence to support the notion that Africans are less prone to genius. You have evidence? Great. Post it.

    • Replies: @AP

    I’ve seen IQ scores of dozens of African villagers (refugees from places like Burundi) and they are in the low 70s.

    I don’t buy it. Links please.
     
    No links, I have access to files.

    Refugees with IQs of 70 live about the same as do natives of IQ of 70. They have simple jobs, and survive. To their credit, they tend to be hardworking and crime-free. Their children who grow up here are smarter.

    They beat the Scotch-Irish, Yugoslavians, Dutch, French, Argentines, and Amish (Amish choose not to participate in the modern world). All other European ethnic groups outperform them. The next richest African ethnic group, Nigerians, outperform only the Argentines and the Amish.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_househo

    This is a dead link. I don’t know where you got your info.
     
    US census. I accidentally didn't paste the last letters - you should have figured that out.

    Here is the ink:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income

    Africans families are overall among the poorest in America. Richest Africans, Ghanaians, are poorer than most white and Asian ethnic groups. Nigerians only surpass Argentines and Amish. No other African groups surpass any European ethnic groups.

    So you make false claims.

    Most Africans who come to America are not “typical” peasants like those refugees. They are highly enterprising people, elites in their country.

    No they’re not elites. But they can become elites here because all they have to do is buckle down and work hard, and the competition isn’t keen.
     
    One of my Nigerian colleagues comes from an elite family and doesn't let his kids mix with African-Americans. Typical attitude.

    Immigration to the USA from Africa is not so easy (even from Mexico is not so easy, and this requires walking - it is much harder and more expensive from Africa). Unless UN sends people here, 70 IQ villagers don't make it.

    I’m not sure being able to find some scammers on a continent of over a billion people, who prey on greedy naive white people (or older ones with dementia), is an indicator of high average intelligence.

    Nope. Victims constitute the so-called high IQ elite, including doctors, politicians, bank presidents, accountants, oil company executives, etc.
     
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam

    "The elderly are particularly susceptible to online scams such as this, as they typically come from a generation that was more trusting,"

    Taking advantage of old trusting people, even rich ones, who are used to dealing with honest people, is not "intelligence."

    Moreover, the ones doing this are not African villagers but African cognitive elites...scamming old trusting people rather than building hospitals, discovering things, etc.

    Nigeria Team Qualify For Finals At World Hackers’ Competition

    https://itedgenews.ng/2018/08/08/nigeria-team-qualify-finals-world-hackers-competition/
     
    From the link:

    The Naija Cybersec team became the only African team in the top ten category in the 12-hour competition that saw over 134 teams across the world participate in the challenge.

    Africa has over a billion people. Only one team in top ten category?

    There are no geniuses within deep African villages,

    Silly statement. Village living is not incompatible with genius. It’s just geography.

    as there were none among peasants in places like deep rural Russia 500 years ago.

    Of course there were, silly. It was generally unrealized or unrecognized though.
     
    No geniuses in deep African villages or past deep Russian villages.

    Pay attention. I wrote:

    At most you can say that there are people with the genetic potential to be a genius.

    Nature would not arbitrarily decree that there should be fewer geniuses per capita among Africans. There’s no evidence to support the notion that Africans are less prone to genius. You have evidence?
     
    Since you made the positive claim (per capita number of geniuses in Africa same as in Europe or Asia) burden of proof is on you to prove it. But you can't name the Newtons, Einsteins, etc. There are more people in African than in Europe, so there should be many more such geniuses. Where are they? Too busy stealing money from bank accounts of trusting old Westerners?

    There are lists of Fields Medals winners, for example.
    , @notanon

    Often times it’s African teenagers that are cleaning out these people’s bank accounts.
     
    you're making a great argument for why high IQ immigration can be just as bad as low IQ immigration
    , @notanon

    Nature would not arbitrarily decree that there should be fewer geniuses per capita among Africans.
     
    not arbitrarily no

    There’s no evidence to support the notion that Africans are less prone to genius. You have evidence? Great. Post it.
     
    Africa is the evidence.
  909. @m___

    Would you rather have a society
     
    The first suggestion would do. Now the real question is, what matters, the mean or the next two SDs, in deciding who gets a say in policy making. We average apes decide on the frequency of our rulers indirectly, that should be conceded, but then, direct policy making by smarter individuals as ourselves seems to falter. A matter of absolute ignorance?

    The first suggestion would do.

    Not a good choice.

    • Replies: @m___
    Please explain yourself. We would appreciate the effort.
  910. @marpa
    You're putting too much emphasis on IQ as the sole arbiter of what makes human beings functional. Which is ironic.

    I'm sure there are some flaws in IQ testing, particularly in some cultures. I'm also sure that in some places environmental factors prevent people from realizing their genetic IQ potential due to various detrimental influences, including cultural ones. If those detriments were dealt with, IQ scores would undoubtedly rise. But would they rise such that every group in the world was of equal IQ? Highly doubtful. You'd be as likely to see every culture produce NBA or track stars.

    I don't know many people except you who think athletes need to have competitive IQs. They don't. Running fast requires a completely different set of alleles than analytical thinkinig. Selecting for that means not selecting for other traits. So those with west African heritage dominate sprinting, Kenyan/Ugandans dominate long distance running, and African-Americans dominate basketball. But they don't tend towards high IQs. I assume living in their African environments and culture selected for such traits, but didn't select for IQ because it didn't add very much to their survival and reproduction.

    Those selection pressures changed when people migrated out of Africa and tried to survive and reproduce in places their ancestors had never lived before. In such situations, higher analytical reasoning ability probably made a much bigger difference than it had back in Africa, our homeland. So did other factors, like lighter skin to synthesize more Vitamin D. These are real differences based on equations that people had little conscious control over.

    "Divine Intelligence" is a different matter. IQ tests don't try to capture such a thing. It's not even clear what you mean by it. Given that I believe in reincarnation, I would speculate that it has something to do with our ability to "connect" via our body and nervous system to the "higher self", and that this can even give us a competitive evolutionary advantage. And perhaps that does have something to do with our genetics also. That some genes help us connect better, and can also be selected for. And that such a connection may even give us higher intelligence, but not necessarily of the analytical kind measured by IQ tests. So it's entirely possible that people who score in the 70s on IQ tests may have a capacity to connection to higher, Divine energy and intelligence in a way that higher IQ may not. Or at least that it's a different capacity altogether developed in different ways, though perhaps also compatible. Or maybe not entirely?

    Not sure how you study that objectively much less test for it. But it's an interesting topic to speculate on. It doesn't negate the value of IQ however, or the underlying rational reasoning process. After all, most religions attributed such things to a Divine inspiration or gift. And it may well be. But a part of that gift is undoubtedly in our genetics as well.

    You’re putting too much emphasis on IQ as the sole arbiter of what makes human beings functional. Which is ironic.

    No. I’m arguing that IQ is a pseudoscience which deems perfectly functional people as functionally retarded by virtue of often spurious data.

    But would they rise such that every group in the world was of equal IQ? Highly doubtful. You’d be as likely to see every culture produce NBA or track stars.

    How did white American IQ rise 2 standard deviations over the last 100 years if IQ is, in fact, set in stone for all eternity? What makes you think, assuming fair and unbiased testing, that other groups will not achieve a similar rise once they become acculturated to the values the IQ test is designed to reward?

    Running fast requires a completely different set of alleles than analytical thinkinig.

    I see you’re ignorant of the intellectual demands on world class athletes. Championship sprinters are, in fact, well above average in intelligence. Analytical thinking, in depth, is as instrumental to their success as raw physical ability and training. No dumbass is going to win the Olympic gold in sprinting, or even make it to the Olympics in the first place.

    So those with west African heritage dominate sprinting,

    No they don’t. Americans and Jamaicans do. The pure West Africans often don’t make it through trials.

    Kenyan/Ugandans dominate long distance running,

    But Kenyan-Americans don’t. Hmmm….smells like culture to me.

    and African-Americans dominate basketball.

    And the real Africans in Africa suck at basketball. This, again, is redolent of culture as opposed to genetics.

    But they don’t tend towards high IQs.

    An asinine statement. In terms of true intrinsic intelligence, many of these athletes are absolute geniuses. Lebron James certainly is. Mike Krzyzewski, who’s coached plenty of blue blooded white guys at Duke, said Lebron was the smartest player he’s ever coached (having coached him in the Olympics). He said it wasn’t even close. Lebron is known to recall from a database in his mind every opposing team’s plays. He knows when they’re going to run them, how they’re going to run them and in which situations. We’re talking about thousands of plays. I don’t how someone like Lebron would score on Stanford-Binet or Raven’s, but his real IQ is off the charts.

    I assume living in their African environments and culture selected for such traits, but didn’t select for IQ because it didn’t add very much to their survival and reproduction.

    The modern human brain was formed in the crucible of the harsh African environment — an environment much harsher in fact than the Eurasian environment, which I will remind you, is a TEMPERATE environment. An equatorial or tropical environment is by definition much more hostile to human life than a temperate one. Which is precisely why humans evolved in Africa in the first place. The brain that evolved in Africa, by the way, is unchanged for the last 100,000 years. That’s why those early humans are called MODERN humans. They were no different from us as regards brain power except insofar as they may have been smarter, as they had larger brains.

    What Happened to the Hominids Who May Have Been Smarter Than Us?

    Two neuroscientists say that a now-extinct race of humans had big eyes, child-like faces, and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens.

    http://discovermagazine.com/2009/the-brain-2/28-what-happened-to-hominids-who-were-smarter-than-us

    So not only was the human brain fully formed and developed prior to dispersal within and without Africa, those early African humans were likely smarter than we are today.

    Those selection pressures changed when people migrated out of Africa and tried to survive and reproduce in places their ancestors had never lived before

    In the cold you wear animal skins and build a fire. Any caveman could do it and they did. The brutally harsh African environment presented much more acute challenges. In the cold you had “refrigeration” in the form of permafrost. Dead animals were preserved where they fell, affording scavenging opportunities. Water was abundant and tropical diseases were non-existent. Most importantly, you had control. Any animal can escape the cold with modifications to its environment. But the heat is inescapable. As a matter of fact, if our pre-human ancestors had to negotiate the unchallenging European environment, they never would’ve evolved into modern humans.

    In such situations, higher analytical reasoning ability probably made a much bigger difference than it had back in Africa, our homeland.

    You must be a moron if you really believe the African environment didn’t select for strong analytical ability.

    So did other factors, like lighter skin to synthesize more Vitamin D. These are real differences based on equations that people had little conscious control over.

    Much like intelligence, the alleles for lighter skin were already present in the African genome. It only took a minor, relatively superficial genetic tweak to create it.

    • Replies: @marpa

    No. I’m arguing that IQ is a pseudoscience which deems perfectly functional people as functionally retarded by virtue of often spurious data.

     

    That's a losing argument right off the bat. IQ has a very strong scientific basis. You would have a better point that the scores are affected by many factors, however, genetics only being one of them.

    How did white American IQ rise 2 standard deviations over the last 100 years if IQ is, in fact, set in stone for all eternity?
     
    First, no one has ever claimed IQ scores are set in stone for all eternity. They are variable and affected by many factors. Nutrition being one of the most important. The Flynn effect (it's not 2SD's, but still significant) largely is noticeable on the lower end of the scale, not the upper end. In other words, the mentally deficient are markedly less so than before, which has moved the overall average IQ up. But the very smart people have not got appreciably smarter. Perhaps even lost a bit there. The best theory to explain this is that better nutritional for the poor has resulted in a marked betterment in brain development for the previously nutritionally challenged. However, the smart people are among those who didn't suffer from nutritional deprivation in the first place, so their brains haven't improved much, if at all. It's also probably why the Flynn affect has dropped off so much in the west.

    And that's one reason to give hope to a future rising IQ among Africans and other third worlders who still suffer from nutritional problems, especially in utero and early childhood, where the worst effects occur. It will be interesting to see just how far that can bring IQ scores up. The thing is, in America, the Flynn effect has brought both black and white scores up, but the difference remains pretty much the same. That may also be the case in Africa.

    What makes you think, assuming fair and unbiased testing, that other groups will not achieve a similar rise once they become acculturated to the values the IQ test is designed to reward?
     
    If the Flynn affect were merely about culture, we would see it only in places where the culture had changed. But we don't. Instead, we see it where living conditions, especially nutrition, have changed.

    I see you’re ignorant of the intellectual demands on world class athletes. Championship sprinters are, in fact, well above average in intelligence. Analytical thinking, in depth, is as instrumental to their success as raw physical ability and training.
     
    While I'm sure some degree of intellect is important to sprinting, it really doesn't require much of it. Not on the runner's part at least. Good coaching and training is essential, but most important is the right genetic makeup for speed. That happens when you have a high proportion of fast-twitch muscles as opposed to slow-twitch muscles. You get that in African-Americans, and by American I mean the whole of the New World. No amount of culture or training or smarts is going to make those muscles sprint fast enough to win the Olympics without that combination. In some rare cases, a European will luck out and get those genes, but not very common. That's why virtually all the top sprinters in the world are of African ancestry. Europeans obviously have plenty of smarts, but smarts won't make you run faster than your muscles are capable of running, and so we don't have many top European runners despite their smarts and training money and a great desire to win gold medals. Not to mention Chinese or other Asians. It's in the genetics.

    No they don’t. Americans and Jamaicans do. The pure West Africans often don’t make it through trials.
     
    The only Americans or Jamaicans who do well in sprinting are of West African origin. The West Africans would probably do better if they had better nutrition and money for training and coaching. But then again, perhaps the mixture of genes in the New World has produced some hybrid benefits. Plus, one might sadly add, the severe selective breeding enforced by slavery.

    But Kenyan-Americans don’t. Hmmm….smells like culture to me.
     
    Are there very many? I don't think so. And it's not just any Kenyans, it's those who live in a particular mountainous region, several tribes there. But sure, the culture there does matter. But culture and genetics feed one another. In a culture that values long-distance running, there's selection pressure for those who are good at long distance running. Plus, of course, it's all about hunting down prey over long periods of time. Humans can actually outrun large antelope over many hours of running. And that's just what they do to feed themselves. That produces excellent marathoners by natural selection.

    And the real Africans in Africa suck at basketball. This, again, is redolent of culture as opposed to genetics.
     
    There have been lots of excellent Africans playing basketball. But that isn't really the point. The point is that basketball was invented in America by people of European origin, and played enthusiastically by white people ever since. White people love the game. But once they allowed African-Americans to play professionally, the game has been dominated by them. How can you explain that by culture? The simple explanation is, again, those fast-twitch muscles, that allow African American players to jump higher and move faster with greater coordination than those of European ancestry. White players are largely reduced to playing in roles where speed and jumping ability aren't as important as size and strength. So we get some lumbering white giants taking up space on the court, with speedy black guys using them as shields to make dazzling plays. Or, a few smart white point guards making passes to those speedy black guys scoring the points.

    In terms of true intrinsic intelligence, many of these athletes are absolute geniuses. Lebron James certainly is. Mike Krzyzewski, who’s coached plenty of blue blooded white guys at Duke, said Lebron was the smartest player he’s ever coached (having coached him in the Olympics).
     
    I have no doubt that James is a very smart guy. But he's exceptional for any athlete, white or black. In every respect. You don't discern patterns by looking at the exceptions. Overall, athletes, white or black, don't score above average on IQ tests. A few do, but not many. Strength, speed, coordination, and reaction skills are much more important, as is working memory, which blacks score higher at than whites do.

    The modern human brain was formed in the crucible of the harsh African environment — an environment much harsher in fact than the Eurasian environment, which I will remind you, is a TEMPERATE environment. An equatorial or tropical environment is by definition much more hostile to human life than a temperate one.
     
    The tropics are only harsher for the creatures that didn't evolve there and adapt to that climate. Human beings evolved in the African tropics, and so that's where they do best. Same is true for every tropical species. Take a tropical animal out of the tropics, and it won't do very well. And that was the human experience. Leaving Africa was very hard for humans, and it forced them to adapt quickly, especially the ones who moved into colder climates. They had to adapt, which is what human brains are great at. And so that adaptation required better, smarter brains. It wasn't so long a period of time that they evolved into some different level of intelligence, just enough to give them that extra boost in what for humans was a very harsh climate, especially in the far north, where, coincidentally,we find the highest IQs. Not just in northern Europe, but in northern Asia as well. Funny how that worked out. Keep in mind, it's not a huge difference, but it is a noticeable one.

    The brain that evolved in Africa, by the way, is unchanged for the last 100,000 years. That’s why those early humans are called MODERN humans.
     
    That's simply not true. We refer to "anatomically modern humans", which means people who generally looked like us. But that says nothing about neurological evolution, which isn't possible to see in fossils. But what we do see in fossils are fairly recent developments, such as a change in the position and length of the voice box, about 60,000 years ago, which is associated with the development of modern speech. And we see a massive change in tools around that time also. An explosion of creativity occurred in east Africa some 50-70,000 years ago, in which human beings changed their way of living completely, almost becoming a new species. Not anatomically, but culturally. We get all sorts of creative inventions, including religious ritual, elaborate burials, an explosion of artistic ability, drawings, paintings, all sorts of things never before seen in the human species. So yes, there were big changes in the human brain during this time, and they continued into and beyond the first exodus from Africa. There are many new alleles affecting neurology and brain development that occurred outside of Africa that didn't make their way back in. And likewise, there were new alleles that came about in Africa that didn't make their way back out. Most of the genetic diversity in the world is found in Africa. Those outside Africa started with a very small group, maybe no more than 200 people total over several migrations. That kind of population stress produces rapid genetic variation and mutation by necessity. Some of it bad, some of it good.

    They were no different from us as regards brain power except insofar as they may have been smarter, as they had larger brains.
     
    Humans of 100,000 years ago were definitely different than us in brain power. Very much inferior. That's completely evident in their tools and culture, which were severely lacking compared to what came about later on.

    Two neuroscientists say that a now-extinct race of humans had big eyes, child-like faces, and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens.

     

    Whatever the origins of the Boskop skull, it's largely irrelevant to modern humans in any respect. If a very smart species of humans did exist, it was wiped out, which would only go to show that high IQ isn't selected for in the tropics over other traits.

    So not only was the human brain fully formed and developed prior to dispersal within and without Africa, those early African humans were likely smarter than we are today.
     
    Well, no, since no humans in Africa or out have skulls that size now or anywhere else in the fossil record. There's no evidence of actual higher intelligence there or anywhere else in the human fossil record prior to the creative explosion that occurred around 50-70,000 years ago. That isn't speculative, that's based on the real evidence of tools and art and many artifacts. If there were any Boskops of high intellect, they didn't use if for anything we can see evidence of. And then they died out without leaving any genetic ancestors with similar traits.

    In the cold you wear animal skins and build a fire. Any caveman could do it and they did.
     
    The only cavemen who did it were those that survived. The rest died. That's how natural selection works. If you don't make the cut, you die and don't reproduce. The European cave men had to get smart fast or die. And many undoubtedly died, leaving behind only the ones smart enough to survive in the cold.

    The brutally harsh African environment presented much more acute challenges.
     
    To Europeans, sure, because they lost the ability to live in the tropics and fight off tropical diseases and so on. But Africans didn't find Africa to be a harsh environment, any more than lions or elephants or chimpanzees did.

    Your further rationalizations of how much better cold is than warmth is pretty laughable. Surely you realize that warm is better? Unless, maybe, you've adapted to the cold for tens of thousands of years?

    You must be a moron if you really believe the African environment didn’t select for strong analytical ability.
     
    Of course it did. Human beings evolved in Africa over millions of years, and that's where we developed our strong analytical reasoning ability. Natural selection in Africa is what made human beings what they are today. Leaving Africa made only minor modifications to our genome. And the higher IQ of some humans outside of Africa is well within the range of those still in Africa. It's not as big a deal as some people like to think. It matters some in the modern context, but in the bigger picture it's just an SD or maybe two in some cases.

    Much like intelligence, the alleles for lighter skin were already present in the African genome. It only took a minor, relatively superficial genetic tweak to create it.
     
    A new allele is a new allele. And it didn't happen quickly. White skin only came about through genetic mutations in Europe some 6-12,000 years ago. Until then, all Europeans were as dark as many Africans. So the allele was not already present in Africa. Likewise, white skin evolved in Asia through an entirely different set of alleles, not at all the same as in Europe. All kinds of new alleles governing all sorts of physiological and neurological functions came about after people left Africa. And in Africa too. The San evolved their intelligence through alleles that came about during a nearly 200,000 year separation from the rest of the human race, both in Africa and out. So that's interesting too. Humans and their brains have never stopped evolving. If anything, it's been accelerating.
    , @notanon

    How did white American IQ rise 2 standard deviations over the last 100 years...
     
    iodized salt

    ... if IQ is, in fact, set in stone for all eternity?
     
    dishonest straw man, again
    , @Jssh

    No they don’t. Americans and Jamaicans do. The pure West Africans often don’t make it through trials.
     
    Nigerians and British West Africans perform very well at the Olympic games. They consistently make it into international finals. Do you really watch sports?

    But Kenyan-Americans don’t. Hmmm….smells like culture to me.
     
    Are you really this clumsy of a thinker? There are very few Kenyan-Americans. Period. The intersecting pool of (i) Kenyan, (ii) scouted, (iii) passionate and (iv) talented is extremely small.

    Whereas in East Africa you have entire ethnic groups that are predisposed for the sport. FYI, it's the Kalinjin ethnic group of Kenya that has the extreme stamina. You won't see a Kikuyu (think Mau-Mau fighters) or Luo (think the Obama's) breaking records. In more honest times, they were known as Mountain Nilotes because of their high altitude homeland.

    It's down to their ectomorphic physique and life-long habituation to low oxygen conditions. You need both. Andeans and Himalayans don't marathon because they're squatty, not lean. The genes are concentrated among Ethiopian highlanders, Rwandan Tutsis, Kenyan Kalinjin and Ugandan Nilotes. This correlates well with the "Cushitic" clades of E3b (E-M215).

  911. @Anatoly Karlin
    This is what TIMSS does (PISA and TIMSS correlate well).

    PISA proxies the sort of problems that one encounters in everyday life, and is arguably a truer test of intelligence.

    Also we don't really have any truly impoverished and backwards countries like Afghanistan doing PISA. I am sure that plenty of children even in Tunisia or Colombia have seen revolving doors.

    Maybe you could also write a post on the rarely talked about and barely researched phenomenon of gullibility and susceptibility to manipulation, which, for I have observed in many high IQ libertarians, anarcho-capitalists and Holocaust, 9/11 and Oswald-killed-JFK non-skeptics, leading me to think it has seemingly little to do with IQ and Math capabilities.

    Could gullible and easy to manipulate people, unable to see through the bullshit and too lazy and arrogant to research for themselves because the “consensus is” and “occams razor tells me” be basically defined as morons?

  912. @Okechukwu

    You’re putting too much emphasis on IQ as the sole arbiter of what makes human beings functional. Which is ironic.
     
    No. I'm arguing that IQ is a pseudoscience which deems perfectly functional people as functionally retarded by virtue of often spurious data.

    But would they rise such that every group in the world was of equal IQ? Highly doubtful. You’d be as likely to see every culture produce NBA or track stars.
     
    How did white American IQ rise 2 standard deviations over the last 100 years if IQ is, in fact, set in stone for all eternity? What makes you think, assuming fair and unbiased testing, that other groups will not achieve a similar rise once they become acculturated to the values the IQ test is designed to reward?

    Running fast requires a completely different set of alleles than analytical thinkinig.
     
    I see you're ignorant of the intellectual demands on world class athletes. Championship sprinters are, in fact, well above average in intelligence. Analytical thinking, in depth, is as instrumental to their success as raw physical ability and training. No dumbass is going to win the Olympic gold in sprinting, or even make it to the Olympics in the first place.

    So those with west African heritage dominate sprinting,
     
    No they don't. Americans and Jamaicans do. The pure West Africans often don't make it through trials.

    Kenyan/Ugandans dominate long distance running,
     
    But Kenyan-Americans don't. Hmmm....smells like culture to me.

    and African-Americans dominate basketball.
     
    And the real Africans in Africa suck at basketball. This, again, is redolent of culture as opposed to genetics.

    But they don’t tend towards high IQs.
     
    An asinine statement. In terms of true intrinsic intelligence, many of these athletes are absolute geniuses. Lebron James certainly is. Mike Krzyzewski, who's coached plenty of blue blooded white guys at Duke, said Lebron was the smartest player he's ever coached (having coached him in the Olympics). He said it wasn't even close. Lebron is known to recall from a database in his mind every opposing team's plays. He knows when they're going to run them, how they're going to run them and in which situations. We're talking about thousands of plays. I don't how someone like Lebron would score on Stanford-Binet or Raven's, but his real IQ is off the charts.

    I assume living in their African environments and culture selected for such traits, but didn’t select for IQ because it didn’t add very much to their survival and reproduction.
     
    The modern human brain was formed in the crucible of the harsh African environment -- an environment much harsher in fact than the Eurasian environment, which I will remind you, is a TEMPERATE environment. An equatorial or tropical environment is by definition much more hostile to human life than a temperate one. Which is precisely why humans evolved in Africa in the first place. The brain that evolved in Africa, by the way, is unchanged for the last 100,000 years. That's why those early humans are called MODERN humans. They were no different from us as regards brain power except insofar as they may have been smarter, as they had larger brains.

    What Happened to the Hominids Who May Have Been Smarter Than Us?

    Two neuroscientists say that a now-extinct race of humans had big eyes, child-like faces, and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens.

    http://discovermagazine.com/2009/the-brain-2/28-what-happened-to-hominids-who-were-smarter-than-us

    So not only was the human brain fully formed and developed prior to dispersal within and without Africa, those early African humans were likely smarter than we are today.


    Those selection pressures changed when people migrated out of Africa and tried to survive and reproduce in places their ancestors had never lived before
     
    In the cold you wear animal skins and build a fire. Any caveman could do it and they did. The brutally harsh African environment presented much more acute challenges. In the cold you had "refrigeration" in the form of permafrost. Dead animals were preserved where they fell, affording scavenging opportunities. Water was abundant and tropical diseases were non-existent. Most importantly, you had control. Any animal can escape the cold with modifications to its environment. But the heat is inescapable. As a matter of fact, if our pre-human ancestors had to negotiate the unchallenging European environment, they never would've evolved into modern humans.

    In such situations, higher analytical reasoning ability probably made a much bigger difference than it had back in Africa, our homeland.
     
    You must be a moron if you really believe the African environment didn't select for strong analytical ability.

    So did other factors, like lighter skin to synthesize more Vitamin D. These are real differences based on equations that people had little conscious control over.
     
    Much like intelligence, the alleles for lighter skin were already present in the African genome. It only took a minor, relatively superficial genetic tweak to create it.

    No. I’m arguing that IQ is a pseudoscience which deems perfectly functional people as functionally retarded by virtue of often spurious data.

    That’s a losing argument right off the bat. IQ has a very strong scientific basis. You would have a better point that the scores are affected by many factors, however, genetics only being one of them.

    How did white American IQ rise 2 standard deviations over the last 100 years if IQ is, in fact, set in stone for all eternity?

    First, no one has ever claimed IQ scores are set in stone for all eternity. They are variable and affected by many factors. Nutrition being one of the most important. The Flynn effect (it’s not 2SD’s, but still significant) largely is noticeable on the lower end of the scale, not the upper end. In other words, the mentally deficient are markedly less so than before, which has moved the overall average IQ up. But the very smart people have not got appreciably smarter. Perhaps even lost a bit there. The best theory to explain this is that better nutritional for the poor has resulted in a marked betterment in brain development for the previously nutritionally challenged. However, the smart people are among those who didn’t suffer from nutritional deprivation in the first place, so their brains haven’t improved much, if at all. It’s also probably why the Flynn affect has dropped off so much in the west.

    And that’s one reason to give hope to a future rising IQ among Africans and other third worlders who still suffer from nutritional problems, especially in utero and early childhood, where the worst effects occur. It will be interesting to see just how far that can bring IQ scores up. The thing is, in America, the Flynn effect has brought both black and white scores up, but the difference remains pretty much the same. That may also be the case in Africa.

    What makes you think, assuming fair and unbiased testing, that other groups will not achieve a similar rise once they become acculturated to the values the IQ test is designed to reward?

    If the Flynn affect were merely about culture, we would see it only in places where the culture had changed. But we don’t. Instead, we see it where living conditions, especially nutrition, have changed.

    I see you’re ignorant of the intellectual demands on world class athletes. Championship sprinters are, in fact, well above average in intelligence. Analytical thinking, in depth, is as instrumental to their success as raw physical ability and training.

    While I’m sure some degree of intellect is important to sprinting, it really doesn’t require much of it. Not on the runner’s part at least. Good coaching and training is essential, but most important is the right genetic makeup for speed. That happens when you have a high proportion of fast-twitch muscles as opposed to slow-twitch muscles. You get that in African-Americans, and by American I mean the whole of the New World. No amount of culture or training or smarts is going to make those muscles sprint fast enough to win the Olympics without that combination. In some rare cases, a European will luck out and get those genes, but not very common. That’s why virtually all the top sprinters in the world are of African ancestry. Europeans obviously have plenty of smarts, but smarts won’t make you run faster than your muscles are capable of running, and so we don’t have many top European runners despite their smarts and training money and a great desire to win gold medals. Not to mention Chinese or other Asians. It’s in the genetics.

    No they don’t. Americans and Jamaicans do. The pure West Africans often don’t make it through trials.

    The only Americans or Jamaicans who do well in sprinting are of West African origin. The West Africans would probably do better if they had better nutrition and money for training and coaching. But then again, perhaps the mixture of genes in the New World has produced some hybrid benefits. Plus, one might sadly add, the severe selective breeding enforced by slavery.

    But Kenyan-Americans don’t. Hmmm….smells like culture to me.

    Are there very many? I don’t think so. And it’s not just any Kenyans, it’s those who live in a particular mountainous region, several tribes there. But sure, the culture there does matter. But culture and genetics feed one another. In a culture that values long-distance running, there’s selection pressure for those who are good at long distance running. Plus, of course, it’s all about hunting down prey over long periods of time. Humans can actually outrun large antelope over many hours of running. And that’s just what they do to feed themselves. That produces excellent marathoners by natural selection.

    And the real Africans in Africa suck at basketball. This, again, is redolent of culture as opposed to genetics.

    There have been lots of excellent Africans playing basketball. But that isn’t really the point. The point is that basketball was invented in America by people of European origin, and played enthusiastically by white people ever since. White people love the game. But once they allowed African-Americans to play professionally, the game has been dominated by them. How can you explain that by culture? The simple explanation is, again, those fast-twitch muscles, that allow African American players to jump higher and move faster with greater coordination than those of European ancestry. White players are largely reduced to playing in roles where speed and jumping ability aren’t as important as size and strength. So we get some lumbering white giants taking up space on the court, with speedy black guys using them as shields to make dazzling plays. Or, a few smart white point guards making passes to those speedy black guys scoring the points.

    In terms of true intrinsic intelligence, many of these athletes are absolute geniuses. Lebron James certainly is. Mike Krzyzewski, who’s coached plenty of blue blooded white guys at Duke, said Lebron was the smartest player he’s ever coached (having coached him in the Olympics).

    I have no doubt that James is a very smart guy. But he’s exceptional for any athlete, white or black. In every respect. You don’t discern patterns by looking at the exceptions. Overall, athletes, white or black, don’t score above average on IQ tests. A few do, but not many. Strength, speed, coordination, and reaction skills are much more important, as is working memory, which blacks score higher at than whites do.

    The modern human brain was formed in the crucible of the harsh African environment — an environment much harsher in fact than the Eurasian environment, which I will remind you, is a TEMPERATE environment. An equatorial or tropical environment is by definition much more hostile to human life than a temperate one.

    The tropics are only harsher for the creatures that didn’t evolve there and adapt to that climate. Human beings evolved in the African tropics, and so that’s where they do best. Same is true for every tropical species. Take a tropical animal out of the tropics, and it won’t do very well. And that was the human experience. Leaving Africa was very hard for humans, and it forced them to adapt quickly, especially the ones who moved into colder climates. They had to adapt, which is what human brains are great at. And so that adaptation required better, smarter brains. It wasn’t so long a period of time that they evolved into some different level of intelligence, just enough to give them that extra boost in what for humans was a very harsh climate, especially in the far north, where, coincidentally,we find the highest IQs. Not just in northern Europe, but in northern Asia as well. Funny how that worked out. Keep in mind, it’s not a huge difference, but it is a noticeable one.

    The brain that evolved in Africa, by the way, is unchanged for the last 100,000 years. That’s why those early humans are called MODERN humans.

    That’s simply not true. We refer to “anatomically modern humans”, which means people who generally looked like us. But that says nothing about neurological evolution, which isn’t possible to see in fossils. But what we do see in fossils are fairly recent developments, such as a change in the position and length of the voice box, about 60,000 years ago, which is associated with the development of modern speech. And we see a massive change in tools around that time also. An explosion of creativity occurred in east Africa some 50-70,000 years ago, in which human beings changed their way of living completely, almost becoming a new species. Not anatomically, but culturally. We get all sorts of creative inventions, including religious ritual, elaborate burials, an explosion of artistic ability, drawings, paintings, all sorts of things never before seen in the human species. So yes, there were big changes in the human brain during this time, and they continued into and beyond the first exodus from Africa. There are many new alleles affecting neurology and brain development that occurred outside of Africa that didn’t make their way back in. And likewise, there were new alleles that came about in Africa that didn’t make their way back out. Most of the genetic diversity in the world is found in Africa. Those outside Africa started with a very small group, maybe no more than 200 people total over several migrations. That kind of population stress produces rapid genetic variation and mutation by necessity. Some of it bad, some of it good.

    They were no different from us as regards brain power except insofar as they may have been smarter, as they had larger brains.

    Humans of 100,000 years ago were definitely different than us in brain power. Very much inferior. That’s completely evident in their tools and culture, which were severely lacking compared to what came about later on.

    Two neuroscientists say that a now-extinct race of humans had big eyes, child-like faces, and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens.

    Whatever the origins of the Boskop skull, it’s largely irrelevant to modern humans in any respect. If a very smart species of humans did exist, it was wiped out, which would only go to show that high IQ isn’t selected for in the tropics over other traits.

    So not only was the human brain fully formed and developed prior to dispersal within and without Africa, those early African humans were likely smarter than we are today.

    Well, no, since no humans in Africa or out have skulls that size now or anywhere else in the fossil record. There’s no evidence of actual higher intelligence there or anywhere else in the human fossil record prior to the creative explosion that occurred around 50-70,000 years ago. That isn’t speculative, that’s based on the real evidence of tools and art and many artifacts. If there were any Boskops of high intellect, they didn’t use if for anything we can see evidence of. And then they died out without leaving any genetic ancestors with similar traits.

    In the cold you wear animal skins and build a fire. Any caveman could do it and they did.

    The only cavemen who did it were those that survived. The rest died. That’s how natural selection works. If you don’t make the cut, you die and don’t reproduce. The European cave men had to get smart fast or die. And many undoubtedly died, leaving behind only the ones smart enough to survive in the cold.

    The brutally harsh African environment presented much more acute challenges.

    To Europeans, sure, because they lost the ability to live in the tropics and fight off tropical diseases and so on. But Africans didn’t find Africa to be a harsh environment, any more than lions or elephants or chimpanzees did.

    Your further rationalizations of how much better cold is than warmth is pretty laughable. Surely you realize that warm is better? Unless, maybe, you’ve adapted to the cold for tens of thousands of years?

    You must be a moron if you really believe the African environment didn’t select for strong analytical ability.

    Of course it did. Human beings evolved in Africa over millions of years, and that’s where we developed our strong analytical reasoning ability. Natural selection in Africa is what made human beings what they are today. Leaving Africa made only minor modifications to our genome. And the higher IQ of some humans outside of Africa is well within the range of those still in Africa. It’s not as big a deal as some people like to think. It matters some in the modern context, but in the bigger picture it’s just an SD or maybe two in some cases.

    Much like intelligence, the alleles for lighter skin were already present in the African genome. It only took a minor, relatively superficial genetic tweak to create it.

    A new allele is a new allele. And it didn’t happen quickly. White skin only came about through genetic mutations in Europe some 6-12,000 years ago. Until then, all Europeans were as dark as many Africans. So the allele was not already present in Africa. Likewise, white skin evolved in Asia through an entirely different set of alleles, not at all the same as in Europe. All kinds of new alleles governing all sorts of physiological and neurological functions came about after people left Africa. And in Africa too. The San evolved their intelligence through alleles that came about during a nearly 200,000 year separation from the rest of the human race, both in Africa and out. So that’s interesting too. Humans and their brains have never stopped evolving. If anything, it’s been accelerating.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu

    That’s a losing argument right off the bat. IQ has a very strong scientific basis. You would have a better point that the scores are affected by many factors, however, genetics only being one of them.
     
    IQists aren't interested in any legitimate science. Their goal is to drive an ideological agenda. Whether or not the data is credible is immaterial to them. They even manufacturer their own fake data. The predictive value of IQ is greatly overstated. A dumb person from a stable, nurturing, well-off environment has a much greater chance of success than a genius in a hardscrabble ghetto environment. It's only when these ghetto people find pathways to express their genius that it finally dawns on people how brilliant they are. Consider some of the hip-hop artists who might otherwise have rotted in prison but are now successful billionaire entrepreneurs.

    The best theory to explain this is that better nutritional for the poor has resulted in a marked betterment in brain development for the previously nutritionally challenged. However, the smart people are among those who didn’t suffer from nutritional deprivation in the first place, so their brains haven’t improved much, if at all. It’s also probably why the Flynn affect has dropped off so much in the west.
     
    Listen to James Flynn himself on this matter. Your great-great-grandfather might have been innately smarter than you in spite of his IQ of 70. Flynn posits, therefore, that IQ doesn't measure intelligence as such, it measures adaptation to westernized modernity.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vpqilhW9uI
    Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents' | James Flynn

    The thing is, in America, the Flynn effect has brought both black and white scores up, but the difference remains pretty much the same. That may also be the case in Africa.
     
    This is a white nationalist talking point. The truth is, the black/white IQ gap in America has been narrowing and will at some point converge as society becomes less racist and less culturally stratified.

    The black-white IQ gap is decreasing, and is now closer to 10 points than the widely cited one standard deviation (15 points), which is the erroneous value Murray cites in the interview. Academic achievement of blacks has also improved by about one-third standard deviation in recent decades.

    https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/5/18/15655638/charles-murray-race-iq-sam-harris-science-free-speech

    If the Flynn affect were merely about culture, we would see it only in places where the culture had changed. But we don’t. Instead, we see it where living conditions, especially nutrition, have changed.
     
    White Americans weren't starving circa 1900, yet they had an IQ of 70. Obviously, culture rather than diet is the prime causal factor in the IQ increase.

    While I’m sure some degree of intellect is important to sprinting, it really doesn’t require much of it. Not on the runner’s part at least. Good coaching and training is essential, but most important is the right genetic makeup for speed.
     
    Every human is born with the genetic make-up for speed. Most of us, with proper training, can get within 1 second of Usain Bolt. On a professional level, differences among all races are measured in tenths of a second, which is statistically insignificant. The discipline, dedication and iron will required to succeed in sprints are not unlike the values required for high-level success in any field of endeavor. Only a highly evolved brain can call up the reserves of those traits and maintain the searing focus and concentration that the vast majority of people on the planet are unable to tap. At those very high levels, intelligence makes all the difference between the truly exceptional and the mere average.

    That happens when you have a high proportion of fast-twitch muscles as opposed to slow-twitch muscles.
     
    The twitch fiber stuff is a myth. How these athletes become successful is that they do this thing called TRAINING. Watch a video of their training routines and you'll come away with the understanding that anyone willing to literally torture themselves to that degree is going to achieve some measure of success, assuming they are young and healthy. The fast-twitch fiber myth is promulgated for the express purpose of reducing the success of these athletes to genetic freakery.

    Now tell me, is this woman relying on her "genetics" to be successful or is she undergoing training regimens that 99.9% of the people on this planet would recoil from?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2XwvDI3BMU

    That’s why virtually all the top sprinters in the world are of African ancestry.
     
    This is what you people do, you ignore the historical and socio-cultural context of every subject. To wit, at one time the sprints were the only events black people were allowed to compete in. Ironically, initially blacks were deemed physiologically incapable by virtue of the reverse of many of the arguments you are making now as to their physiological fitness. But once blacks were allowed to compete in sprints, and once Jesse Owens broke through in the Nazi games, the very next day every black kid in America wanted to be a sprinter. These were hungry people fanatically dedicated to a single sport. It isn't easy to compete with such people. So slowly and incrementally sprints became a "black sport." Whites, in comparison, had a plethora of other options in and out of sports. Beyond that, whites who might have otherwise been successful were discouraged, both internally and externally, from pursuing the sport.

    The only Americans or Jamaicans who do well in sprinting are of West African origin. The West Africans would probably do better if they had better nutrition and money for training and coaching. But then again, perhaps the mixture of genes in the New World has produced some hybrid benefits. Plus, one might sadly add, the severe selective breeding enforced by slavery.
     
    But there are other West African descended nationalities in the new world with a similar history of slavery and a similar genetic profile that also compete and are not anywhere as successful. There are many other black majority countries in the Caribbean, most of them wealthier than Jamaica, that have failed utterly to replicate Jamaica's success. The global superpower status of a tiny, impoverished, small population island nation like Jamaica CANNOT be attributed to genetics or physiology. Rather, their success is informed by a total immersion in a culture of sprinting, by history and by tradition.

    Are there very many? I don’t think so. And it’s not just any Kenyans, it’s those who live in a particular mountainous region, several tribes there.
     
    Yeah, now you're starting to get it. These people were rared in a thin-air environment. Growing up they would run many miles to school and back, often uphill, for lack of transportation. In essence they've been training their whole lives in an ideal environment. And they're hungry -- very hungry. How are soft, pampered Americans supposed to compete with that? You hit the nail on the head. It's cultural.

    There have been lots of excellent Africans playing basketball.
     
    There have been even more excellent Europeans playing basketball.

    But once they allowed African-Americans to play professionally, the game has been dominated by them.
     
    That's due to cultural and sociological reasons. To be successful in basketball you have to start early. To shoot for the NBA you have to start early. But the odds of actually making it are as unlikely as winning the lottery. How many white families, with a range of other options that are statistically more lucrative in the long-term, are going to take that gamble with their kids? How many are going to devote the time and energy to something with such long odds of success? There are much easier professions that offer a surety of success without the need to be particularly gifted or talented or dedicated. These professions last an adult lifetime and won't be derailed by one sprained knee or ankle. When Jews faced discrimination and circumscribed social and professional mobility, they dominated the NBA because they were desperate and willing to gamble.

    White players are largely reduced to playing in roles where speed and jumping ability aren’t as important as size and strength. So we get some lumbering white giants taking up space on the court, with speedy black guys using them as shields to make dazzling plays.
     
    LOL. You don't know what you're talking about. I remember growing up there was such a thing as a Big White Stiff. They were unskilled players who had roster spots reserved for them so teams wouldn't field all-black teams. But that all changed with the introduction of white European big men. Far from being "lumbering white giants" these guys have actually revolutionized the game. They brought a skill set that American big men didn't have, black or white. Now your average 7 foot center can break his man down off the dribble, lead the break like a point guard and drain 3-pointers. That's all thanks to white European big men. Once they entered the NBA it was either adapt or die. So now all big men, black and white, have these point guard skills. Go watch YouTube videos of Dirk Nowitzki or Kristaps Porzingis or Nikola jokic and then watch videos of the truly lumbering black giants of the 80's and 90's. You'll see that these modern white big men have skills that those black big men could only dream about.

    I have no doubt that James is a very smart guy. But he’s exceptional for any athlete, white or black. In every respect. You don’t discern patterns by looking at the exceptions. Overall, athletes, white or black, don’t score above average on IQ tests.
     
    Then that's yet more evidence that IQ tests don't actually measure intelligence. These athletes may butcher the English language in interviews, but they're whip smart in terms of real intelligence. Have you seen how thick, dense and convoluted an NFL playbook is? Few of the "high IQ" types writing here can memorize those books and recall the plays and schemes instantly and then adjust instantly, selecting from a numberless variety of countermeasures pursuant to how the offense or defense reacts to the initial action. It requires high-level brain power. But they're so laser-focused on that aspect of cognition that others are bound to suffer. It's not unlike an erudite scholar who has been so consumed by a particular subject matter that he can't seem to perform mundane, day-to-day tasks. I had college professors like that.

    The tropics are only harsher for the creatures that didn’t evolve there and adapt to that climate. Human beings evolved in the African tropics, and so that’s where they do best.
     
    LMAO. Humans do better in a TEMPERATE environment with stable, predictable seasons, not in a hot jungle or arid savanna, white people in particular. It's not by accident that white Europeans were only able to settle temperate zones in large numbers, including South Africa. They tried to enter the African interior and failed miserably. There were deadly infectious diseases that killed them and their livestock. Plus alternating droughts and floods made farming precarious. Prior to the introduction of modern medicines the African interior was known as the graveyard of the white man.

    Leaving Africa was very hard for humans, and it forced them to adapt quickly, especially the ones who moved into colder climates. They had to adapt, which is what human brains are great at. And so that adaptation required better, smarter brains.
     
    Total pseudoscientific garbage. Once again, the human brain was already fully and completely evolved before groups left Africa. Secondly, there was no adaptive challenge in Europe that enhanced cognition vis-a-vis Africans. I'm of African equatorial descent and I don't at all sense that Europeans have a cognitive advantage over me owing to their cold-weather lineage. Thirdly, while Europeans were eating each other in their caves scintillating civilizations were extant for thousands of years in the southerly latitudes. It was the civilizational influence of those warm weather people that would eventually radiate up to Europe, dragging them out of their caves and dung huts.

    That’s simply not true. We refer to “anatomically modern humans”, which means people who generally looked like us. But that says nothing about neurological evolution, which isn’t possible to see in fossils.
     
    No. We refer to modern humans, meaning people just like us. 100,000 years is a nano second in evolutionary time scales. Particularly, something as complex and as central to survival as the brain is very resistant to change. There has been no appreciable change, at all, in the human brain in the last 100,000 years. Those are just the facts. You can take a child from any "primitive" tribe anywhere on the planet, raise him in a modern western environment and he will automatically assimilate all the technology and lifestyle of that society. He could become a mathematician or a nuclear physicist or a rocket scientist or a neurosurgeon. In other words, no field of endeavor or function would be off-limits to him because he's working with the same brain as everyone else.

    Regarding the evolution of the human brain:

    How Has the Human Brain Evolved?

    Early Homo sapiens had brains within the range of people today, averaging 1,200 ml or more. As our cultural and linguistic complexity, dietary needs and technological prowess took a significant leap forward at this stage, our brains grew to accommodate the changes. The shape changes we see accentuate the regions related to depth of planning, communication, problem solving and other more advanced cognitive functions.

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-has-human-brain-evolved/

    There are many new alleles affecting neurology and brain development that occurred outside of Africa that didn’t make their way back in.
     
    Prove it. What are those alleles? And in proving it, make certain that alternative African alleles don't provide the same function.

    Those outside Africa started with a very small group, maybe no more than 200 people total over several migrations. That kind of population stress produces rapid genetic variation and mutation by necessity. Some of it bad, some of it good.
     
    No. You get more rapid and frequent positive mutations if you have a larger store of genetic material to work with. The only thing that bottle-necking promotes is deleterious mutations. That's why we don't mate with our sisters or cousins.

    Humans of 100,000 years ago were definitely different than us in brain power. Very much inferior. That’s completely evident in their tools and culture, which were severely lacking compared to what came about later on.
     
    This is sheer ignorance. An effective stone tool or the control of fire was far more ingenious, revolutionary and epochal than anything humans have developed or invented in the last 10,000 years, including jet liners and smart phones and whatever else you can think of. Moreover, those early human benefited far less from a continuity of history. It was that technological continuum that eventually led to the modern technology we have today.

    Whatever the origins of the Boskop skull, it’s largely irrelevant to modern humans in any respect. If a very smart species of humans did exist, it was wiped out, which would only go to show that high IQ isn’t selected for in the tropics over other traits.
     
    First of all, South Africa isn't tropical. It's temperate, which is why Europeans were able to settle there in large numbers. What's more, there's no indication that our direct early human ancestors were dumber than we are. What they lacked was the aforementioned store of knowledge and the technological legacies that succeeding generations of humans would take advantage of. But they had everything we have: same brain, same language, same capacity to engage in culture, to think rationally, analyse and plan. Some scientists go even further and push back the advent of the modern human brain to between 1 and 2 million years ago.

    There’s no evidence of actual higher intelligence there or anywhere else in the human fossil record prior to the creative explosion that occurred around 50-70,000 years ago. That isn’t speculative, that’s based on the real evidence of tools and art and many artifact
     
    That's exactly what I said. The dates are fluid. 70,000 years is certainly closer to my assessment than your initial assessment.

    The only cavemen who did it were those that survived. The rest died. That’s how natural selection works. If you don’t make the cut, you die and don’t reproduce. The European cave men had to get smart fast or die. And many undoubtedly died, leaving behind only the ones smart enough to survive in the cold.
     
    That's how natural selection works in every environment. If they couldn't figure out how to survive in Europe, they wouldn't have lasted a day in Africa.

    But Africans didn’t find Africa to be a harsh environment, any more than lions or elephants or chimpanzees did.
     
    Indeed they did. It was very harsh. But Africans developed survival strategies to counteract the inhospitable African environment. Consider the ingenious ways in which pre-colonial Africans kept malaria at bay. Conversely, Africans didn't find Europe or America particularly harsh. Africans could survive and thrive in Europe, but Europeans were dead men walking in Africa. That should clue you in as to which environment was sufficiently challenging to weed out the unfit and hone its inhabitants for survival.

    Your further rationalizations of how much better cold is than warmth is pretty laughable. Surely you realize that warm is better? Unless, maybe, you’ve adapted to the cold for tens of thousands of years?
     
    Warm, yes. But we're talking about hot jungles and arid savannas here. You had no control. Disease spread, food spoiled, water was scarce. What's the one thing that humans need even more than food? Right, water.

    The ideal climate, once again, is TEMPERATE. That's why we set our thermostats to temperate temperatures. Europe is in the temperate zone. North America is in the temperate zone. Northeast Asia is in the temperate zone. You seem to be having trouble with concept so let me share a map with you:

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/World_map_temperate.svg

    The shaded areas are the temperate zones, the most comfortable, most livable, most hospital zones for humans to live in.

    And the higher IQ of some humans outside of Africa is well within the range of those still in Africa
     
    Well then you don't have discrete genetic differentiation, which I think you were trying to argue but this admission on your part makes that entire line of argument moot. What we know for certain is that Africans are capable of high IQ. What we can never know is whether or not there is a smaller or larger percentage of Africans capable of high IQ's in comparison to other populations. To truly answer this questions you'd have to raise healthy kids of different races on an island somewhere. Expose them to the same culture, language, diet and lifestyle. I don't believe that under this scenario, Africans would have lower IQ's than anyone else. They may in fact have the highest IQ's.

    Until then, all Europeans were as dark as many Africans. So the allele was not already present in Africa.
     
    Yes, the allele itself was and is present in Africans. It underwent a minor tweak to create white skin. But Africans also have independent alleles for light skin. We exhibit a full spectrum of skin tones, from nearly black to nearly white.

    All kinds of new alleles governing all sorts of physiological and neurological functions came about after people left Africa.
     
    Okay, I'll play along. Name them. Make sure these functions are in complex traits and are specific to non-Africans to the exclusion of Africans. Good luck.
  913. @Okechukwu

    I’ve seen IQ scores of dozens of African villagers (refugees from places like Burundi) and they are in the low 70s.
     
    I don't buy it. Links please.

    They are more likely to be cleaning floors.
     
    Nope. They're well-educated professionals. But you can continue to delude yourself if you wish.

    Most Africans who come to America are not “typical” peasants like those refugees. They are highly enterprising people, elites in their country.
     
    No they're not elites. But they can become elites here because all they have to do is buckle down and work hard, and the competition isn't keen.

    They beat the Scotch-Irish, Yugoslavians, Dutch, French, Argentines, and Amish (Amish choose not to participate in the modern world). All other European ethnic groups outperform them. The next richest African ethnic group, Nigerians, outperform only the Argentines and the Amish.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_househo
     

     This is a dead link. I don't know where you got your info.

    The scammers are mostly from places like Lagos, right?
     
    Nope. Any place with Internet and phone service, which is pretty much every village in Africa.

    I’m not sure being able to find some scammers on a continent of over a billion people, who prey on greedy naive white people (or older ones with dementia), is an indicator of high average intelligence.
     
    Nope. Victims constitute the so-called high IQ elite, including doctors, politicians, bank presidents, accountants, oil company executives, etc. Often times it's African teenagers that are cleaning out these people's bank accounts. So who's really smarter?

    Perhaps among the scientists doing research there.
     
    Nope. Raw intelligence, often with minimal education. Nigerian computer geniuses are among the best hackers in the world, and they have little formal education.

    How a one man hacking operation was able to infiltrate international firms

    A recent phishing and malware campaign looked like the work of a cybercriminal gang -- but researchers have tracked it back to a lone attacker in Nigeria.

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-a-one-man-hacking-operation-was-able-to-compromise-international-firms/

    Nigeria Team Qualify For Finals At World Hackers’ Competition

    https://itedgenews.ng/2018/08/08/nigeria-team-qualify-finals-world-hackers-competition/

    There are no geniuses within deep African villages,
     
    Silly statement. Village living is not incompatible with genius. It's just geography.

    as there were none among peasants in places like deep rural Russia 500 years ago.
     
    Of course there were, silly. It was generally unrealized or unrecognized though.

    Given a population of over a billion people in Africa, this is likely, even if the percentage of people with such potential will be lower than among comparable non-African populations.

     
    Another dumb statement. Nature would not arbitrarily decree that there should be fewer geniuses per capita among Africans. There's no evidence to support the notion that Africans are less prone to genius. You have evidence? Great. Post it.

    I’ve seen IQ scores of dozens of African villagers (refugees from places like Burundi) and they are in the low 70s.

    I don’t buy it. Links please.

    No links, I have access to files.

    Refugees with IQs of 70 live about the same as do natives of IQ of 70. They have simple jobs, and survive. To their credit, they tend to be hardworking and crime-free. Their children who grow up here are smarter.

    They beat the Scotch-Irish, Yugoslavians, Dutch, French, Argentines, and Amish (Amish choose not to participate in the modern world). All other European ethnic groups outperform them. The next richest African ethnic group, Nigerians, outperform only the Argentines and the Amish.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_househo

    This is a dead link. I don’t know where you got your info.

    US census. I accidentally didn’t paste the last letters – you should have figured that out.

    Here is the ink:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income

    Africans families are overall among the poorest in America. Richest Africans, Ghanaians, are poorer than most white and Asian ethnic groups. Nigerians only surpass Argentines and Amish. No other African groups surpass any European ethnic groups.

    So you make false claims.

    Most Africans who come to America are not “typical” peasants like those refugees. They are highly enterprising people, elites in their country.

    No they’re not elites. But they can become elites here because all they have to do is buckle down and work hard, and the competition isn’t keen.

    One of my Nigerian colleagues comes from an elite family and doesn’t let his kids mix with African-Americans. Typical attitude.

    Immigration to the USA from Africa is not so easy (even from Mexico is not so easy, and this requires walking – it is much harder and more expensive from Africa). Unless UN sends people here, 70 IQ villagers don’t make it.

    I’m not sure being able to find some scammers on a continent of over a billion people, who prey on greedy naive white people (or older ones with dementia), is an indicator of high average intelligence.

    Nope. Victims constitute the so-called high IQ elite, including doctors, politicians, bank presidents, accountants, oil company executives, etc.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam

    “The elderly are particularly susceptible to online scams such as this, as they typically come from a generation that was more trusting,”

    Taking advantage of old trusting people, even rich ones, who are used to dealing with honest people, is not “intelligence.”

    Moreover, the ones doing this are not African villagers but African cognitive elites…scamming old trusting people rather than building hospitals, discovering things, etc.

    Nigeria Team Qualify For Finals At World Hackers’ Competition

    https://itedgenews.ng/2018/08/08/nigeria-team-qualify-finals-world-hackers-competition/

    From the link:

    The Naija Cybersec team became the only African team in the top ten category in the 12-hour competition that saw over 134 teams across the world participate in the challenge.

    Africa has over a billion people. Only one team in top ten category?

    There are no geniuses within deep African villages,

    Silly statement. Village living is not incompatible with genius. It’s just geography.

    as there were none among peasants in places like deep rural Russia 500 years ago.

    Of course there were, silly. It was generally unrealized or unrecognized though.

    No geniuses in deep African villages or past deep Russian villages.

    Pay attention. I wrote:

    At most you can say that there are people with the genetic potential to be a genius.

    Nature would not arbitrarily decree that there should be fewer geniuses per capita among Africans. There’s no evidence to support the notion that Africans are less prone to genius. You have evidence?

    Since you made the positive claim (per capita number of geniuses in Africa same as in Europe or Asia) burden of proof is on you to prove it. But you can’t name the Newtons, Einsteins, etc. There are more people in African than in Europe, so there should be many more such geniuses. Where are they? Too busy stealing money from bank accounts of trusting old Westerners?

    There are lists of Fields Medals winners, for example.

  914. @Okechukwu

    I’ve seen IQ scores of dozens of African villagers (refugees from places like Burundi) and they are in the low 70s.
     
    I don't buy it. Links please.

    They are more likely to be cleaning floors.
     
    Nope. They're well-educated professionals. But you can continue to delude yourself if you wish.

    Most Africans who come to America are not “typical” peasants like those refugees. They are highly enterprising people, elites in their country.
     
    No they're not elites. But they can become elites here because all they have to do is buckle down and work hard, and the competition isn't keen.

    They beat the Scotch-Irish, Yugoslavians, Dutch, French, Argentines, and Amish (Amish choose not to participate in the modern world). All other European ethnic groups outperform them. The next richest African ethnic group, Nigerians, outperform only the Argentines and the Amish.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_househo
     

     This is a dead link. I don't know where you got your info.

    The scammers are mostly from places like Lagos, right?
     
    Nope. Any place with Internet and phone service, which is pretty much every village in Africa.

    I’m not sure being able to find some scammers on a continent of over a billion people, who prey on greedy naive white people (or older ones with dementia), is an indicator of high average intelligence.
     
    Nope. Victims constitute the so-called high IQ elite, including doctors, politicians, bank presidents, accountants, oil company executives, etc. Often times it's African teenagers that are cleaning out these people's bank accounts. So who's really smarter?

    Perhaps among the scientists doing research there.
     
    Nope. Raw intelligence, often with minimal education. Nigerian computer geniuses are among the best hackers in the world, and they have little formal education.

    How a one man hacking operation was able to infiltrate international firms

    A recent phishing and malware campaign looked like the work of a cybercriminal gang -- but researchers have tracked it back to a lone attacker in Nigeria.

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-a-one-man-hacking-operation-was-able-to-compromise-international-firms/

    Nigeria Team Qualify For Finals At World Hackers’ Competition

    https://itedgenews.ng/2018/08/08/nigeria-team-qualify-finals-world-hackers-competition/

    There are no geniuses within deep African villages,
     
    Silly statement. Village living is not incompatible with genius. It's just geography.

    as there were none among peasants in places like deep rural Russia 500 years ago.
     
    Of course there were, silly. It was generally unrealized or unrecognized though.

    Given a population of over a billion people in Africa, this is likely, even if the percentage of people with such potential will be lower than among comparable non-African populations.

     
    Another dumb statement. Nature would not arbitrarily decree that there should be fewer geniuses per capita among Africans. There's no evidence to support the notion that Africans are less prone to genius. You have evidence? Great. Post it.

    Often times it’s African teenagers that are cleaning out these people’s bank accounts.

    you’re making a great argument for why high IQ immigration can be just as bad as low IQ immigration

  915. @Okechukwu

    I’ve seen IQ scores of dozens of African villagers (refugees from places like Burundi) and they are in the low 70s.
     
    I don't buy it. Links please.

    They are more likely to be cleaning floors.
     
    Nope. They're well-educated professionals. But you can continue to delude yourself if you wish.

    Most Africans who come to America are not “typical” peasants like those refugees. They are highly enterprising people, elites in their country.
     
    No they're not elites. But they can become elites here because all they have to do is buckle down and work hard, and the competition isn't keen.

    They beat the Scotch-Irish, Yugoslavians, Dutch, French, Argentines, and Amish (Amish choose not to participate in the modern world). All other European ethnic groups outperform them. The next richest African ethnic group, Nigerians, outperform only the Argentines and the Amish.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_househo
     

     This is a dead link. I don't know where you got your info.

    The scammers are mostly from places like Lagos, right?
     
    Nope. Any place with Internet and phone service, which is pretty much every village in Africa.

    I’m not sure being able to find some scammers on a continent of over a billion people, who prey on greedy naive white people (or older ones with dementia), is an indicator of high average intelligence.
     
    Nope. Victims constitute the so-called high IQ elite, including doctors, politicians, bank presidents, accountants, oil company executives, etc. Often times it's African teenagers that are cleaning out these people's bank accounts. So who's really smarter?

    Perhaps among the scientists doing research there.
     
    Nope. Raw intelligence, often with minimal education. Nigerian computer geniuses are among the best hackers in the world, and they have little formal education.

    How a one man hacking operation was able to infiltrate international firms

    A recent phishing and malware campaign looked like the work of a cybercriminal gang -- but researchers have tracked it back to a lone attacker in Nigeria.

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-a-one-man-hacking-operation-was-able-to-compromise-international-firms/

    Nigeria Team Qualify For Finals At World Hackers’ Competition

    https://itedgenews.ng/2018/08/08/nigeria-team-qualify-finals-world-hackers-competition/

    There are no geniuses within deep African villages,
     
    Silly statement. Village living is not incompatible with genius. It's just geography.

    as there were none among peasants in places like deep rural Russia 500 years ago.
     
    Of course there were, silly. It was generally unrealized or unrecognized though.

    Given a population of over a billion people in Africa, this is likely, even if the percentage of people with such potential will be lower than among comparable non-African populations.

     
    Another dumb statement. Nature would not arbitrarily decree that there should be fewer geniuses per capita among Africans. There's no evidence to support the notion that Africans are less prone to genius. You have evidence? Great. Post it.

    Nature would not arbitrarily decree that there should be fewer geniuses per capita among Africans.

    not arbitrarily no

    There’s no evidence to support the notion that Africans are less prone to genius. You have evidence? Great. Post it.

    Africa is the evidence.

  916. @Okechukwu

    You’re putting too much emphasis on IQ as the sole arbiter of what makes human beings functional. Which is ironic.
     
    No. I'm arguing that IQ is a pseudoscience which deems perfectly functional people as functionally retarded by virtue of often spurious data.

    But would they rise such that every group in the world was of equal IQ? Highly doubtful. You’d be as likely to see every culture produce NBA or track stars.
     
    How did white American IQ rise 2 standard deviations over the last 100 years if IQ is, in fact, set in stone for all eternity? What makes you think, assuming fair and unbiased testing, that other groups will not achieve a similar rise once they become acculturated to the values the IQ test is designed to reward?

    Running fast requires a completely different set of alleles than analytical thinkinig.
     
    I see you're ignorant of the intellectual demands on world class athletes. Championship sprinters are, in fact, well above average in intelligence. Analytical thinking, in depth, is as instrumental to their success as raw physical ability and training. No dumbass is going to win the Olympic gold in sprinting, or even make it to the Olympics in the first place.

    So those with west African heritage dominate sprinting,
     
    No they don't. Americans and Jamaicans do. The pure West Africans often don't make it through trials.

    Kenyan/Ugandans dominate long distance running,
     
    But Kenyan-Americans don't. Hmmm....smells like culture to me.

    and African-Americans dominate basketball.
     
    And the real Africans in Africa suck at basketball. This, again, is redolent of culture as opposed to genetics.

    But they don’t tend towards high IQs.
     
    An asinine statement. In terms of true intrinsic intelligence, many of these athletes are absolute geniuses. Lebron James certainly is. Mike Krzyzewski, who's coached plenty of blue blooded white guys at Duke, said Lebron was the smartest player he's ever coached (having coached him in the Olympics). He said it wasn't even close. Lebron is known to recall from a database in his mind every opposing team's plays. He knows when they're going to run them, how they're going to run them and in which situations. We're talking about thousands of plays. I don't how someone like Lebron would score on Stanford-Binet or Raven's, but his real IQ is off the charts.

    I assume living in their African environments and culture selected for such traits, but didn’t select for IQ because it didn’t add very much to their survival and reproduction.
     
    The modern human brain was formed in the crucible of the harsh African environment -- an environment much harsher in fact than the Eurasian environment, which I will remind you, is a TEMPERATE environment. An equatorial or tropical environment is by definition much more hostile to human life than a temperate one. Which is precisely why humans evolved in Africa in the first place. The brain that evolved in Africa, by the way, is unchanged for the last 100,000 years. That's why those early humans are called MODERN humans. They were no different from us as regards brain power except insofar as they may have been smarter, as they had larger brains.

    What Happened to the Hominids Who May Have Been Smarter Than Us?

    Two neuroscientists say that a now-extinct race of humans had big eyes, child-like faces, and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens.

    http://discovermagazine.com/2009/the-brain-2/28-what-happened-to-hominids-who-were-smarter-than-us

    So not only was the human brain fully formed and developed prior to dispersal within and without Africa, those early African humans were likely smarter than we are today.


    Those selection pressures changed when people migrated out of Africa and tried to survive and reproduce in places their ancestors had never lived before
     
    In the cold you wear animal skins and build a fire. Any caveman could do it and they did. The brutally harsh African environment presented much more acute challenges. In the cold you had "refrigeration" in the form of permafrost. Dead animals were preserved where they fell, affording scavenging opportunities. Water was abundant and tropical diseases were non-existent. Most importantly, you had control. Any animal can escape the cold with modifications to its environment. But the heat is inescapable. As a matter of fact, if our pre-human ancestors had to negotiate the unchallenging European environment, they never would've evolved into modern humans.

    In such situations, higher analytical reasoning ability probably made a much bigger difference than it had back in Africa, our homeland.
     
    You must be a moron if you really believe the African environment didn't select for strong analytical ability.

    So did other factors, like lighter skin to synthesize more Vitamin D. These are real differences based on equations that people had little conscious control over.
     
    Much like intelligence, the alleles for lighter skin were already present in the African genome. It only took a minor, relatively superficial genetic tweak to create it.

    How did white American IQ rise 2 standard deviations over the last 100 years…

    iodized salt

    … if IQ is, in fact, set in stone for all eternity?

    dishonest straw man, again

  917. @marpa

    No. I’m arguing that IQ is a pseudoscience which deems perfectly functional people as functionally retarded by virtue of often spurious data.

     

    That's a losing argument right off the bat. IQ has a very strong scientific basis. You would have a better point that the scores are affected by many factors, however, genetics only being one of them.

    How did white American IQ rise 2 standard deviations over the last 100 years if IQ is, in fact, set in stone for all eternity?
     
    First, no one has ever claimed IQ scores are set in stone for all eternity. They are variable and affected by many factors. Nutrition being one of the most important. The Flynn effect (it's not 2SD's, but still significant) largely is noticeable on the lower end of the scale, not the upper end. In other words, the mentally deficient are markedly less so than before, which has moved the overall average IQ up. But the very smart people have not got appreciably smarter. Perhaps even lost a bit there. The best theory to explain this is that better nutritional for the poor has resulted in a marked betterment in brain development for the previously nutritionally challenged. However, the smart people are among those who didn't suffer from nutritional deprivation in the first place, so their brains haven't improved much, if at all. It's also probably why the Flynn affect has dropped off so much in the west.

    And that's one reason to give hope to a future rising IQ among Africans and other third worlders who still suffer from nutritional problems, especially in utero and early childhood, where the worst effects occur. It will be interesting to see just how far that can bring IQ scores up. The thing is, in America, the Flynn effect has brought both black and white scores up, but the difference remains pretty much the same. That may also be the case in Africa.

    What makes you think, assuming fair and unbiased testing, that other groups will not achieve a similar rise once they become acculturated to the values the IQ test is designed to reward?
     
    If the Flynn affect were merely about culture, we would see it only in places where the culture had changed. But we don't. Instead, we see it where living conditions, especially nutrition, have changed.

    I see you’re ignorant of the intellectual demands on world class athletes. Championship sprinters are, in fact, well above average in intelligence. Analytical thinking, in depth, is as instrumental to their success as raw physical ability and training.
     
    While I'm sure some degree of intellect is important to sprinting, it really doesn't require much of it. Not on the runner's part at least. Good coaching and training is essential, but most important is the right genetic makeup for speed. That happens when you have a high proportion of fast-twitch muscles as opposed to slow-twitch muscles. You get that in African-Americans, and by American I mean the whole of the New World. No amount of culture or training or smarts is going to make those muscles sprint fast enough to win the Olympics without that combination. In some rare cases, a European will luck out and get those genes, but not very common. That's why virtually all the top sprinters in the world are of African ancestry. Europeans obviously have plenty of smarts, but smarts won't make you run faster than your muscles are capable of running, and so we don't have many top European runners despite their smarts and training money and a great desire to win gold medals. Not to mention Chinese or other Asians. It's in the genetics.

    No they don’t. Americans and Jamaicans do. The pure West Africans often don’t make it through trials.
     
    The only Americans or Jamaicans who do well in sprinting are of West African origin. The West Africans would probably do better if they had better nutrition and money for training and coaching. But then again, perhaps the mixture of genes in the New World has produced some hybrid benefits. Plus, one might sadly add, the severe selective breeding enforced by slavery.

    But Kenyan-Americans don’t. Hmmm….smells like culture to me.
     
    Are there very many? I don't think so. And it's not just any Kenyans, it's those who live in a particular mountainous region, several tribes there. But sure, the culture there does matter. But culture and genetics feed one another. In a culture that values long-distance running, there's selection pressure for those who are good at long distance running. Plus, of course, it's all about hunting down prey over long periods of time. Humans can actually outrun large antelope over many hours of running. And that's just what they do to feed themselves. That produces excellent marathoners by natural selection.

    And the real Africans in Africa suck at basketball. This, again, is redolent of culture as opposed to genetics.
     
    There have been lots of excellent Africans playing basketball. But that isn't really the point. The point is that basketball was invented in America by people of European origin, and played enthusiastically by white people ever since. White people love the game. But once they allowed African-Americans to play professionally, the game has been dominated by them. How can you explain that by culture? The simple explanation is, again, those fast-twitch muscles, that allow African American players to jump higher and move faster with greater coordination than those of European ancestry. White players are largely reduced to playing in roles where speed and jumping ability aren't as important as size and strength. So we get some lumbering white giants taking up space on the court, with speedy black guys using them as shields to make dazzling plays. Or, a few smart white point guards making passes to those speedy black guys scoring the points.

    In terms of true intrinsic intelligence, many of these athletes are absolute geniuses. Lebron James certainly is. Mike Krzyzewski, who’s coached plenty of blue blooded white guys at Duke, said Lebron was the smartest player he’s ever coached (having coached him in the Olympics).
     
    I have no doubt that James is a very smart guy. But he's exceptional for any athlete, white or black. In every respect. You don't discern patterns by looking at the exceptions. Overall, athletes, white or black, don't score above average on IQ tests. A few do, but not many. Strength, speed, coordination, and reaction skills are much more important, as is working memory, which blacks score higher at than whites do.

    The modern human brain was formed in the crucible of the harsh African environment — an environment much harsher in fact than the Eurasian environment, which I will remind you, is a TEMPERATE environment. An equatorial or tropical environment is by definition much more hostile to human life than a temperate one.
     
    The tropics are only harsher for the creatures that didn't evolve there and adapt to that climate. Human beings evolved in the African tropics, and so that's where they do best. Same is true for every tropical species. Take a tropical animal out of the tropics, and it won't do very well. And that was the human experience. Leaving Africa was very hard for humans, and it forced them to adapt quickly, especially the ones who moved into colder climates. They had to adapt, which is what human brains are great at. And so that adaptation required better, smarter brains. It wasn't so long a period of time that they evolved into some different level of intelligence, just enough to give them that extra boost in what for humans was a very harsh climate, especially in the far north, where, coincidentally,we find the highest IQs. Not just in northern Europe, but in northern Asia as well. Funny how that worked out. Keep in mind, it's not a huge difference, but it is a noticeable one.

    The brain that evolved in Africa, by the way, is unchanged for the last 100,000 years. That’s why those early humans are called MODERN humans.
     
    That's simply not true. We refer to "anatomically modern humans", which means people who generally looked like us. But that says nothing about neurological evolution, which isn't possible to see in fossils. But what we do see in fossils are fairly recent developments, such as a change in the position and length of the voice box, about 60,000 years ago, which is associated with the development of modern speech. And we see a massive change in tools around that time also. An explosion of creativity occurred in east Africa some 50-70,000 years ago, in which human beings changed their way of living completely, almost becoming a new species. Not anatomically, but culturally. We get all sorts of creative inventions, including religious ritual, elaborate burials, an explosion of artistic ability, drawings, paintings, all sorts of things never before seen in the human species. So yes, there were big changes in the human brain during this time, and they continued into and beyond the first exodus from Africa. There are many new alleles affecting neurology and brain development that occurred outside of Africa that didn't make their way back in. And likewise, there were new alleles that came about in Africa that didn't make their way back out. Most of the genetic diversity in the world is found in Africa. Those outside Africa started with a very small group, maybe no more than 200 people total over several migrations. That kind of population stress produces rapid genetic variation and mutation by necessity. Some of it bad, some of it good.

    They were no different from us as regards brain power except insofar as they may have been smarter, as they had larger brains.
     
    Humans of 100,000 years ago were definitely different than us in brain power. Very much inferior. That's completely evident in their tools and culture, which were severely lacking compared to what came about later on.

    Two neuroscientists say that a now-extinct race of humans had big eyes, child-like faces, and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens.

     

    Whatever the origins of the Boskop skull, it's largely irrelevant to modern humans in any respect. If a very smart species of humans did exist, it was wiped out, which would only go to show that high IQ isn't selected for in the tropics over other traits.

    So not only was the human brain fully formed and developed prior to dispersal within and without Africa, those early African humans were likely smarter than we are today.
     
    Well, no, since no humans in Africa or out have skulls that size now or anywhere else in the fossil record. There's no evidence of actual higher intelligence there or anywhere else in the human fossil record prior to the creative explosion that occurred around 50-70,000 years ago. That isn't speculative, that's based on the real evidence of tools and art and many artifacts. If there were any Boskops of high intellect, they didn't use if for anything we can see evidence of. And then they died out without leaving any genetic ancestors with similar traits.

    In the cold you wear animal skins and build a fire. Any caveman could do it and they did.
     
    The only cavemen who did it were those that survived. The rest died. That's how natural selection works. If you don't make the cut, you die and don't reproduce. The European cave men had to get smart fast or die. And many undoubtedly died, leaving behind only the ones smart enough to survive in the cold.

    The brutally harsh African environment presented much more acute challenges.
     
    To Europeans, sure, because they lost the ability to live in the tropics and fight off tropical diseases and so on. But Africans didn't find Africa to be a harsh environment, any more than lions or elephants or chimpanzees did.

    Your further rationalizations of how much better cold is than warmth is pretty laughable. Surely you realize that warm is better? Unless, maybe, you've adapted to the cold for tens of thousands of years?

    You must be a moron if you really believe the African environment didn’t select for strong analytical ability.
     
    Of course it did. Human beings evolved in Africa over millions of years, and that's where we developed our strong analytical reasoning ability. Natural selection in Africa is what made human beings what they are today. Leaving Africa made only minor modifications to our genome. And the higher IQ of some humans outside of Africa is well within the range of those still in Africa. It's not as big a deal as some people like to think. It matters some in the modern context, but in the bigger picture it's just an SD or maybe two in some cases.

    Much like intelligence, the alleles for lighter skin were already present in the African genome. It only took a minor, relatively superficial genetic tweak to create it.
     
    A new allele is a new allele. And it didn't happen quickly. White skin only came about through genetic mutations in Europe some 6-12,000 years ago. Until then, all Europeans were as dark as many Africans. So the allele was not already present in Africa. Likewise, white skin evolved in Asia through an entirely different set of alleles, not at all the same as in Europe. All kinds of new alleles governing all sorts of physiological and neurological functions came about after people left Africa. And in Africa too. The San evolved their intelligence through alleles that came about during a nearly 200,000 year separation from the rest of the human race, both in Africa and out. So that's interesting too. Humans and their brains have never stopped evolving. If anything, it's been accelerating.

    That’s a losing argument right off the bat. IQ has a very strong scientific basis. You would have a better point that the scores are affected by many factors, however, genetics only being one of them.

    IQists aren’t interested in any legitimate science. Their goal is to drive an ideological agenda. Whether or not the data is credible is immaterial to them. They even manufacturer their own fake data. The predictive value of IQ is greatly overstated. A dumb person from a stable, nurturing, well-off environment has a much greater chance of success than a genius in a hardscrabble ghetto environment. It’s only when these ghetto people find pathways to express their genius that it finally dawns on people how brilliant they are. Consider some of the hip-hop artists who might otherwise have rotted in prison but are now successful billionaire entrepreneurs.

    The best theory to explain this is that better nutritional for the poor has resulted in a marked betterment in brain development for the previously nutritionally challenged. However, the smart people are among those who didn’t suffer from nutritional deprivation in the first place, so their brains haven’t improved much, if at all. It’s also probably why the Flynn affect has dropped off so much in the west.

    Listen to James Flynn himself on this matter. Your great-great-grandfather might have been innately smarter than you in spite of his IQ of 70. Flynn posits, therefore, that IQ doesn’t measure intelligence as such, it measures adaptation to westernized modernity.

    Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents’ | James Flynn

    The thing is, in America, the Flynn effect has brought both black and white scores up, but the difference remains pretty much the same. That may also be the case in Africa.

    This is a white nationalist talking point. The truth is, the black/white IQ gap in America has been narrowing and will at some point converge as society becomes less racist and less culturally stratified.

    The black-white IQ gap is decreasing, and is now closer to 10 points than the widely cited one standard deviation (15 points), which is the erroneous value Murray cites in the interview. Academic achievement of blacks has also improved by about one-third standard deviation in recent decades.

    https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/5/18/15655638/charles-murray-race-iq-sam-harris-science-free-speech

    If the Flynn affect were merely about culture, we would see it only in places where the culture had changed. But we don’t. Instead, we see it where living conditions, especially nutrition, have changed.

    White Americans weren’t starving circa 1900, yet they had an IQ of 70. Obviously, culture rather than diet is the prime causal factor in the IQ increase.

    While I’m sure some degree of intellect is important to sprinting, it really doesn’t require much of it. Not on the runner’s part at least. Good coaching and training is essential, but most important is the right genetic makeup for speed.

    Every human is born with the genetic make-up for speed. Most of us, with proper training, can get within 1 second of Usain Bolt. On a professional level, differences among all races are measured in tenths of a second, which is statistically insignificant. The discipline, dedication and iron will required to succeed in sprints are not unlike the values required for high-level success in any field of endeavor. Only a highly evolved brain can call up the reserves of those traits and maintain the searing focus and concentration that the vast majority of people on the planet are unable to tap. At those very high levels, intelligence makes all the difference between the truly exceptional and the mere average.

    That happens when you have a high proportion of fast-twitch muscles as opposed to slow-twitch muscles.

    The twitch fiber stuff is a myth. How these athletes become successful is that they do this thing called TRAINING. Watch a video of their training routines and you’ll come away with the understanding that anyone willing to literally torture themselves to that degree is going to achieve some measure of success, assuming they are young and healthy. The fast-twitch fiber myth is promulgated for the express purpose of reducing the success of these athletes to genetic freakery.

    Now tell me, is this woman relying on her “genetics” to be successful or is she undergoing training regimens that 99.9% of the people on this planet would recoil from?

    That’s why virtually all the top sprinters in the world are of African ancestry.

    This is what you people do, you ignore the historical and socio-cultural context of every subject. To wit, at one time the sprints were the only events black people were allowed to compete in. Ironically, initially blacks were deemed physiologically incapable by virtue of the reverse of many of the arguments you are making now as to their physiological fitness. But once blacks were allowed to compete in sprints, and once Jesse Owens broke through in the Nazi games, the very next day every black kid in America wanted to be a sprinter. These were hungry people fanatically dedicated to a single sport. It isn’t easy to compete with such people. So slowly and incrementally sprints became a “black sport.” Whites, in comparison, had a plethora of other options in and out of sports. Beyond that, whites who might have otherwise been successful were discouraged, both internally and externally, from pursuing the sport.

    The only Americans or Jamaicans who do well in sprinting are of West African origin. The West Africans would probably do better if they had better nutrition and money for training and coaching. But then again, perhaps the mixture of genes in the New World has produced some hybrid benefits. Plus, one might sadly add, the severe selective breeding enforced by slavery.

    But there are other West African descended nationalities in the new world with a similar history of slavery and a similar genetic profile that also compete and are not anywhere as successful. There are many other black majority countries in the Caribbean, most of them wealthier than Jamaica, that have failed utterly to replicate Jamaica’s success. The global superpower status of a tiny, impoverished, small population island nation like Jamaica CANNOT be attributed to genetics or physiology. Rather, their success is informed by a total immersion in a culture of sprinting, by history and by tradition.

    Are there very many? I don’t think so. And it’s not just any Kenyans, it’s those who live in a particular mountainous region, several tribes there.

    Yeah, now you’re starting to get it. These people were rared in a thin-air environment. Growing up they would run many miles to school and back, often uphill, for lack of transportation. In essence they’ve been training their whole lives in an ideal environment. And they’re hungry — very hungry. How are soft, pampered Americans supposed to compete with that? You hit the nail on the head. It’s cultural.

    There have been lots of excellent Africans playing basketball.

    There have been even more excellent Europeans playing basketball.

    But once they allowed African-Americans to play professionally, the game has been dominated by them.

    That’s due to cultural and sociological reasons. To be successful in basketball you have to start early. To shoot for the NBA you have to start early. But the odds of actually making it are as unlikely as winning the lottery. How many white families, with a range of other options that are statistically more lucrative in the long-term, are going to take that gamble with their kids? How many are going to devote the time and energy to something with such long odds of success? There are much easier professions that offer a surety of success without the need to be particularly gifted or talented or dedicated. These professions last an adult lifetime and won’t be derailed by one sprained knee or ankle. When Jews faced discrimination and circumscribed social and professional mobility, they dominated the NBA because they were desperate and willing to gamble.

    White players are largely reduced to playing in roles where speed and jumping ability aren’t as important as size and strength. So we get some lumbering white giants taking up space on the court, with speedy black guys using them as shields to make dazzling plays.

    LOL. You don’t know what you’re talking about. I remember growing up there was such a thing as a Big White Stiff. They were unskilled players who had roster spots reserved for them so teams wouldn’t field all-black teams. But that all changed with the introduction of white European big men. Far from being “lumbering white giants” these guys have actually revolutionized the game. They brought a skill set that American big men didn’t have, black or white. Now your average 7 foot center can break his man down off the dribble, lead the break like a point guard and drain 3-pointers. That’s all thanks to white European big men. Once they entered the NBA it was either adapt or die. So now all big men, black and white, have these point guard skills. Go watch YouTube videos of Dirk Nowitzki or Kristaps Porzingis or Nikola jokic and then watch videos of the truly lumbering black giants of the 80′s and 90′s. You’ll see that these modern white big men have skills that those black big men could only dream about.

    I have no doubt that James is a very smart guy. But he’s exceptional for any athlete, white or black. In every respect. You don’t discern patterns by looking at the exceptions. Overall, athletes, white or black, don’t score above average on IQ tests.

    Then that’s yet more evidence that IQ tests don’t actually measure intelligence. These athletes may butcher the English language in interviews, but they’re whip smart in terms of real intelligence. Have you seen how thick, dense and convoluted an NFL playbook is? Few of the “high IQ” types writing here can memorize those books and recall the plays and schemes instantly and then adjust instantly, selecting from a numberless variety of countermeasures pursuant to how the offense or defense reacts to the initial action. It requires high-level brain power. But they’re so laser-focused on that aspect of cognition that others are bound to suffer. It’s not unlike an erudite scholar who has been so consumed by a particular subject matter that he can’t seem to perform mundane, day-to-day tasks. I had college professors like that.

    The tropics are only harsher for the creatures that didn’t evolve there and adapt to that climate. Human beings evolved in the African tropics, and so that’s where they do best.

    LMAO. Humans do better in a TEMPERATE environment with stable, predictable seasons, not in a hot jungle or arid savanna, white people in particular. It’s not by accident that white Europeans were only able to settle temperate zones in large numbers, including South Africa. They tried to enter the African interior and failed miserably. There were deadly infectious diseases that killed them and their livestock. Plus alternating droughts and floods made farming precarious. Prior to the introduction of modern medicines the African interior was known as the graveyard of the white man.

    Leaving Africa was very hard for humans, and it forced them to adapt quickly, especially the ones who moved into colder climates. They had to adapt, which is what human brains are great at. And so that adaptation required better, smarter brains.

    Total pseudoscientific garbage. Once again, the human brain was already fully and completely evolved before groups left Africa. Secondly, there was no adaptive challenge in Europe that enhanced cognition vis-a-vis Africans. I’m of African equatorial descent and I don’t at all sense that Europeans have a cognitive advantage over me owing to their cold-weather lineage. Thirdly, while Europeans were eating each other in their caves scintillating civilizations were extant for thousands of years in the southerly latitudes. It was the civilizational influence of those warm weather people that would eventually radiate up to Europe, dragging them out of their caves and dung huts.

    That’s simply not true. We refer to “anatomically modern humans”, which means people who generally looked like us. But that says nothing about neurological evolution, which isn’t possible to see in fossils.

    No. We refer to modern humans, meaning people just like us. 100,000 years is a nano second in evolutionary time scales. Particularly, something as complex and as central to survival as the brain is very resistant to change. There has been no appreciable change, at all, in the human brain in the last 100,000 years. Those are just the facts. You can take a child from any “primitive” tribe anywhere on the planet, raise him in a modern western environment and he will automatically assimilate all the technology and lifestyle of that society. He could become a mathematician or a nuclear physicist or a rocket scientist or a neurosurgeon. In other words, no field of endeavor or function would be off-limits to him because he’s working with the same brain as everyone else.

    Regarding the evolution of the human brain:

    How Has the Human Brain Evolved?

    Early Homo sapiens had brains within the range of people today, averaging 1,200 ml or more. As our cultural and linguistic complexity, dietary needs and technological prowess took a significant leap forward at this stage, our brains grew to accommodate the changes. The shape changes we see accentuate the regions related to depth of planning, communication, problem solving and other more advanced cognitive functions.

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-has-human-brain-evolved/

    There are many new alleles affecting neurology and brain development that occurred outside of Africa that didn’t make their way back in.

    Prove it. What are those alleles? And in proving it, make certain that alternative African alleles don’t provide the same function.

    Those outside Africa started with a very small group, maybe no more than 200 people total over several migrations. That kind of population stress produces rapid genetic variation and mutation by necessity. Some of it bad, some of it good.

    No. You get more rapid and frequent positive mutations if you have a larger store of genetic material to work with. The only thing that bottle-necking promotes is deleterious mutations. That’s why we don’t mate with our sisters or cousins.

    Humans of 100,000 years ago were definitely different than us in brain power. Very much inferior. That’s completely evident in their tools and culture, which were severely lacking compared to what came about later on.

    This is sheer ignorance. An effective stone tool or the control of fire was far more ingenious, revolutionary and epochal than anything humans have developed or invented in the last 10,000 years, including jet liners and smart phones and whatever else you can think of. Moreover, those early human benefited far less from a continuity of history. It was that technological continuum that eventually led to the modern technology we have today.

    Whatever the origins of the Boskop skull, it’s largely irrelevant to modern humans in any respect. If a very smart species of humans did exist, it was wiped out, which would only go to show that high IQ isn’t selected for in the tropics over other traits.

    First of all, South Africa isn’t tropical. It’s temperate, which is why Europeans were able to settle there in large numbers. What’s more, there’s no indication that our direct early human ancestors were dumber than we are. What they lacked was the aforementioned store of knowledge and the technological legacies that succeeding generations of humans would take advantage of. But they had everything we have: same brain, same language, same capacity to engage in culture, to think rationally, analyse and plan. Some scientists go even further and push back the advent of the modern human brain to between 1 and 2 million years ago.

    There’s no evidence of actual higher intelligence there or anywhere else in the human fossil record prior to the creative explosion that occurred around 50-70,000 years ago. That isn’t speculative, that’s based on the real evidence of tools and art and many artifact

    That’s exactly what I said. The dates are fluid. 70,000 years is certainly closer to my assessment than your initial assessment.

    The only cavemen who did it were those that survived. The rest died. That’s how natural selection works. If you don’t make the cut, you die and don’t reproduce. The European cave men had to get smart fast or die. And many undoubtedly died, leaving behind only the ones smart enough to survive in the cold.

    That’s how natural selection works in every environment. If they couldn’t figure out how to survive in Europe, they wouldn’t have lasted a day in Africa.

    But Africans didn’t find Africa to be a harsh environment, any more than lions or elephants or chimpanzees did.

    Indeed they did. It was very harsh. But Africans developed survival strategies to counteract the inhospitable African environment. Consider the ingenious ways in which pre-colonial Africans kept malaria at bay. Conversely, Africans didn’t find Europe or America particularly harsh. Africans could survive and thrive in Europe, but Europeans were dead men walking in Africa. That should clue you in as to which environment was sufficiently challenging to weed out the unfit and hone its inhabitants for survival.

    Your further rationalizations of how much better cold is than warmth is pretty laughable. Surely you realize that warm is better? Unless, maybe, you’ve adapted to the cold for tens of thousands of years?

    Warm, yes. But we’re talking about hot jungles and arid savannas here. You had no control. Disease spread, food spoiled, water was scarce. What’s the one thing that humans need even more than food? Right, water.

    The ideal climate, once again, is TEMPERATE. That’s why we set our thermostats to temperate temperatures. Europe is in the temperate zone. North America is in the temperate zone. Northeast Asia is in the temperate zone. You seem to be having trouble with concept so let me share a map with you:

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/World_map_temperate.svg

    The shaded areas are the temperate zones, the most comfortable, most livable, most hospital zones for humans to live in.

    And the higher IQ of some humans outside of Africa is well within the range of those still in Africa

    Well then you don’t have discrete genetic differentiation, which I think you were trying to argue but this admission on your part makes that entire line of argument moot. What we know for certain is that Africans are capable of high IQ. What we can never know is whether or not there is a smaller or larger percentage of Africans capable of high IQ’s in comparison to other populations. To truly answer this questions you’d have to raise healthy kids of different races on an island somewhere. Expose them to the same culture, language, diet and lifestyle. I don’t believe that under this scenario, Africans would have lower IQ’s than anyone else. They may in fact have the highest IQ’s.

    Until then, all Europeans were as dark as many Africans. So the allele was not already present in Africa.

    Yes, the allele itself was and is present in Africans. It underwent a minor tweak to create white skin. But Africans also have independent alleles for light skin. We exhibit a full spectrum of skin tones, from nearly black to nearly white.

    All kinds of new alleles governing all sorts of physiological and neurological functions came about after people left Africa.

    Okay, I’ll play along. Name them. Make sure these functions are in complex traits and are specific to non-Africans to the exclusion of Africans. Good luck.

    • Replies: @notanon

    IQists aren’t interested in any legitimate science. Their goal is to drive an ideological agenda.
     
    blank slatists want to create a world of 85 IQ slave-cattle for them to rule over

    Flynn posits, therefore, that IQ doesn’t measure intelligence as such, it measures adaptation to westernized modernity.
     
    if it's biological then it comes to the same thing

    Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents’
     
    are they higher across the board or has the average IQ of people living along the coast remained the same while the average IQ of people living inland went up thus increasing the average?

    https://yourmedicalsource.com/content/goiter-belt
    , @clownworld

    Most of us, with proper training, can get within 1 second of Usain Bolt.
     
    It is so incredibly exhausting watching you over intellectualize everything to the point of making ridiculous claims for the sake maintaining racial equality.


    But once they allowed African-Americans to play professionally, the game has been dominated by them.
     
    That’s due to cultural and sociological reasons
     
    No biological reasons huh? Central Americans can produces the same rate of elite basketball players if they had the right amount of cultural and sociological reasons? I don't understand why you would go through the trouble of writing such long replies to cast doubt on the science of HBD and then say something so untenable as doubting average differences in physical traits from the neck down. Even the audience you might cater to would have no choice but to disregard you.
  918. well, this has been sort of fun, and we could go on like this for a long time, but I don’t see the point. You have an ideological fixation on the notion that everyone is basically the same, and can do anything from be an NBA superstar to a genius scientist if only they were raised towards that end. I’ve heard right-wingers talk about this “blank slate” ideology among some fringe characters, but I’d never actually encountered it before. So thanks for the introduction to a form of crazy I haven’t seen. It’s been educational. But I don’t see the point in arguing with it. On the one hand, it’s too easy, and on the other, it’s impossible. You’re not the example of high African intellectual ability you seem to be expounding. I’ve met some pretty smart Africans, but you’re not one of them. Good luck trying to convince anyone you have even the slightest understanding of what human intelligence is, or how it comes about. But try it on someone else, because it sure isn’t working with me.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu
    Whatever dude. You tried to debate me and got crushed.
  919. @Okechukwu

    That’s a losing argument right off the bat. IQ has a very strong scientific basis. You would have a better point that the scores are affected by many factors, however, genetics only being one of them.
     
    IQists aren't interested in any legitimate science. Their goal is to drive an ideological agenda. Whether or not the data is credible is immaterial to them. They even manufacturer their own fake data. The predictive value of IQ is greatly overstated. A dumb person from a stable, nurturing, well-off environment has a much greater chance of success than a genius in a hardscrabble ghetto environment. It's only when these ghetto people find pathways to express their genius that it finally dawns on people how brilliant they are. Consider some of the hip-hop artists who might otherwise have rotted in prison but are now successful billionaire entrepreneurs.

    The best theory to explain this is that better nutritional for the poor has resulted in a marked betterment in brain development for the previously nutritionally challenged. However, the smart people are among those who didn’t suffer from nutritional deprivation in the first place, so their brains haven’t improved much, if at all. It’s also probably why the Flynn affect has dropped off so much in the west.
     
    Listen to James Flynn himself on this matter. Your great-great-grandfather might have been innately smarter than you in spite of his IQ of 70. Flynn posits, therefore, that IQ doesn't measure intelligence as such, it measures adaptation to westernized modernity.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vpqilhW9uI
    Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents' | James Flynn

    The thing is, in America, the Flynn effect has brought both black and white scores up, but the difference remains pretty much the same. That may also be the case in Africa.
     
    This is a white nationalist talking point. The truth is, the black/white IQ gap in America has been narrowing and will at some point converge as society becomes less racist and less culturally stratified.

    The black-white IQ gap is decreasing, and is now closer to 10 points than the widely cited one standard deviation (15 points), which is the erroneous value Murray cites in the interview. Academic achievement of blacks has also improved by about one-third standard deviation in recent decades.

    https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/5/18/15655638/charles-murray-race-iq-sam-harris-science-free-speech

    If the Flynn affect were merely about culture, we would see it only in places where the culture had changed. But we don’t. Instead, we see it where living conditions, especially nutrition, have changed.
     
    White Americans weren't starving circa 1900, yet they had an IQ of 70. Obviously, culture rather than diet is the prime causal factor in the IQ increase.

    While I’m sure some degree of intellect is important to sprinting, it really doesn’t require much of it. Not on the runner’s part at least. Good coaching and training is essential, but most important is the right genetic makeup for speed.
     
    Every human is born with the genetic make-up for speed. Most of us, with proper training, can get within 1 second of Usain Bolt. On a professional level, differences among all races are measured in tenths of a second, which is statistically insignificant. The discipline, dedication and iron will required to succeed in sprints are not unlike the values required for high-level success in any field of endeavor. Only a highly evolved brain can call up the reserves of those traits and maintain the searing focus and concentration that the vast majority of people on the planet are unable to tap. At those very high levels, intelligence makes all the difference between the truly exceptional and the mere average.

    That happens when you have a high proportion of fast-twitch muscles as opposed to slow-twitch muscles.
     
    The twitch fiber stuff is a myth. How these athletes become successful is that they do this thing called TRAINING. Watch a video of their training routines and you'll come away with the understanding that anyone willing to literally torture themselves to that degree is going to achieve some measure of success, assuming they are young and healthy. The fast-twitch fiber myth is promulgated for the express purpose of reducing the success of these athletes to genetic freakery.

    Now tell me, is this woman relying on her "genetics" to be successful or is she undergoing training regimens that 99.9% of the people on this planet would recoil from?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2XwvDI3BMU

    That’s why virtually all the top sprinters in the world are of African ancestry.
     
    This is what you people do, you ignore the historical and socio-cultural context of every subject. To wit, at one time the sprints were the only events black people were allowed to compete in. Ironically, initially blacks were deemed physiologically incapable by virtue of the reverse of many of the arguments you are making now as to their physiological fitness. But once blacks were allowed to compete in sprints, and once Jesse Owens broke through in the Nazi games, the very next day every black kid in America wanted to be a sprinter. These were hungry people fanatically dedicated to a single sport. It isn't easy to compete with such people. So slowly and incrementally sprints became a "black sport." Whites, in comparison, had a plethora of other options in and out of sports. Beyond that, whites who might have otherwise been successful were discouraged, both internally and externally, from pursuing the sport.

    The only Americans or Jamaicans who do well in sprinting are of West African origin. The West Africans would probably do better if they had better nutrition and money for training and coaching. But then again, perhaps the mixture of genes in the New World has produced some hybrid benefits. Plus, one might sadly add, the severe selective breeding enforced by slavery.
     
    But there are other West African descended nationalities in the new world with a similar history of slavery and a similar genetic profile that also compete and are not anywhere as successful. There are many other black majority countries in the Caribbean, most of them wealthier than Jamaica, that have failed utterly to replicate Jamaica's success. The global superpower status of a tiny, impoverished, small population island nation like Jamaica CANNOT be attributed to genetics or physiology. Rather, their success is informed by a total immersion in a culture of sprinting, by history and by tradition.

    Are there very many? I don’t think so. And it’s not just any Kenyans, it’s those who live in a particular mountainous region, several tribes there.
     
    Yeah, now you're starting to get it. These people were rared in a thin-air environment. Growing up they would run many miles to school and back, often uphill, for lack of transportation. In essence they've been training their whole lives in an ideal environment. And they're hungry -- very hungry. How are soft, pampered Americans supposed to compete with that? You hit the nail on the head. It's cultural.

    There have been lots of excellent Africans playing basketball.
     
    There have been even more excellent Europeans playing basketball.

    But once they allowed African-Americans to play professionally, the game has been dominated by them.
     
    That's due to cultural and sociological reasons. To be successful in basketball you have to start early. To shoot for the NBA you have to start early. But the odds of actually making it are as unlikely as winning the lottery. How many white families, with a range of other options that are statistically more lucrative in the long-term, are going to take that gamble with their kids? How many are going to devote the time and energy to something with such long odds of success? There are much easier professions that offer a surety of success without the need to be particularly gifted or talented or dedicated. These professions last an adult lifetime and won't be derailed by one sprained knee or ankle. When Jews faced discrimination and circumscribed social and professional mobility, they dominated the NBA because they were desperate and willing to gamble.

    White players are largely reduced to playing in roles where speed and jumping ability aren’t as important as size and strength. So we get some lumbering white giants taking up space on the court, with speedy black guys using them as shields to make dazzling plays.
     
    LOL. You don't know what you're talking about. I remember growing up there was such a thing as a Big White Stiff. They were unskilled players who had roster spots reserved for them so teams wouldn't field all-black teams. But that all changed with the introduction of white European big men. Far from being "lumbering white giants" these guys have actually revolutionized the game. They brought a skill set that American big men didn't have, black or white. Now your average 7 foot center can break his man down off the dribble, lead the break like a point guard and drain 3-pointers. That's all thanks to white European big men. Once they entered the NBA it was either adapt or die. So now all big men, black and white, have these point guard skills. Go watch YouTube videos of Dirk Nowitzki or Kristaps Porzingis or Nikola jokic and then watch videos of the truly lumbering black giants of the 80's and 90's. You'll see that these modern white big men have skills that those black big men could only dream about.

    I have no doubt that James is a very smart guy. But he’s exceptional for any athlete, white or black. In every respect. You don’t discern patterns by looking at the exceptions. Overall, athletes, white or black, don’t score above average on IQ tests.
     
    Then that's yet more evidence that IQ tests don't actually measure intelligence. These athletes may butcher the English language in interviews, but they're whip smart in terms of real intelligence. Have you seen how thick, dense and convoluted an NFL playbook is? Few of the "high IQ" types writing here can memorize those books and recall the plays and schemes instantly and then adjust instantly, selecting from a numberless variety of countermeasures pursuant to how the offense or defense reacts to the initial action. It requires high-level brain power. But they're so laser-focused on that aspect of cognition that others are bound to suffer. It's not unlike an erudite scholar who has been so consumed by a particular subject matter that he can't seem to perform mundane, day-to-day tasks. I had college professors like that.

    The tropics are only harsher for the creatures that didn’t evolve there and adapt to that climate. Human beings evolved in the African tropics, and so that’s where they do best.
     
    LMAO. Humans do better in a TEMPERATE environment with stable, predictable seasons, not in a hot jungle or arid savanna, white people in particular. It's not by accident that white Europeans were only able to settle temperate zones in large numbers, including South Africa. They tried to enter the African interior and failed miserably. There were deadly infectious diseases that killed them and their livestock. Plus alternating droughts and floods made farming precarious. Prior to the introduction of modern medicines the African interior was known as the graveyard of the white man.

    Leaving Africa was very hard for humans, and it forced them to adapt quickly, especially the ones who moved into colder climates. They had to adapt, which is what human brains are great at. And so that adaptation required better, smarter brains.
     
    Total pseudoscientific garbage. Once again, the human brain was already fully and completely evolved before groups left Africa. Secondly, there was no adaptive challenge in Europe that enhanced cognition vis-a-vis Africans. I'm of African equatorial descent and I don't at all sense that Europeans have a cognitive advantage over me owing to their cold-weather lineage. Thirdly, while Europeans were eating each other in their caves scintillating civilizations were extant for thousands of years in the southerly latitudes. It was the civilizational influence of those warm weather people that would eventually radiate up to Europe, dragging them out of their caves and dung huts.

    That’s simply not true. We refer to “anatomically modern humans”, which means people who generally looked like us. But that says nothing about neurological evolution, which isn’t possible to see in fossils.
     
    No. We refer to modern humans, meaning people just like us. 100,000 years is a nano second in evolutionary time scales. Particularly, something as complex and as central to survival as the brain is very resistant to change. There has been no appreciable change, at all, in the human brain in the last 100,000 years. Those are just the facts. You can take a child from any "primitive" tribe anywhere on the planet, raise him in a modern western environment and he will automatically assimilate all the technology and lifestyle of that society. He could become a mathematician or a nuclear physicist or a rocket scientist or a neurosurgeon. In other words, no field of endeavor or function would be off-limits to him because he's working with the same brain as everyone else.

    Regarding the evolution of the human brain:

    How Has the Human Brain Evolved?

    Early Homo sapiens had brains within the range of people today, averaging 1,200 ml or more. As our cultural and linguistic complexity, dietary needs and technological prowess took a significant leap forward at this stage, our brains grew to accommodate the changes. The shape changes we see accentuate the regions related to depth of planning, communication, problem solving and other more advanced cognitive functions.

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-has-human-brain-evolved/

    There are many new alleles affecting neurology and brain development that occurred outside of Africa that didn’t make their way back in.
     
    Prove it. What are those alleles? And in proving it, make certain that alternative African alleles don't provide the same function.

    Those outside Africa started with a very small group, maybe no more than 200 people total over several migrations. That kind of population stress produces rapid genetic variation and mutation by necessity. Some of it bad, some of it good.
     
    No. You get more rapid and frequent positive mutations if you have a larger store of genetic material to work with. The only thing that bottle-necking promotes is deleterious mutations. That's why we don't mate with our sisters or cousins.

    Humans of 100,000 years ago were definitely different than us in brain power. Very much inferior. That’s completely evident in their tools and culture, which were severely lacking compared to what came about later on.
     
    This is sheer ignorance. An effective stone tool or the control of fire was far more ingenious, revolutionary and epochal than anything humans have developed or invented in the last 10,000 years, including jet liners and smart phones and whatever else you can think of. Moreover, those early human benefited far less from a continuity of history. It was that technological continuum that eventually led to the modern technology we have today.

    Whatever the origins of the Boskop skull, it’s largely irrelevant to modern humans in any respect. If a very smart species of humans did exist, it was wiped out, which would only go to show that high IQ isn’t selected for in the tropics over other traits.
     
    First of all, South Africa isn't tropical. It's temperate, which is why Europeans were able to settle there in large numbers. What's more, there's no indication that our direct early human ancestors were dumber than we are. What they lacked was the aforementioned store of knowledge and the technological legacies that succeeding generations of humans would take advantage of. But they had everything we have: same brain, same language, same capacity to engage in culture, to think rationally, analyse and plan. Some scientists go even further and push back the advent of the modern human brain to between 1 and 2 million years ago.

    There’s no evidence of actual higher intelligence there or anywhere else in the human fossil record prior to the creative explosion that occurred around 50-70,000 years ago. That isn’t speculative, that’s based on the real evidence of tools and art and many artifact
     
    That's exactly what I said. The dates are fluid. 70,000 years is certainly closer to my assessment than your initial assessment.

    The only cavemen who did it were those that survived. The rest died. That’s how natural selection works. If you don’t make the cut, you die and don’t reproduce. The European cave men had to get smart fast or die. And many undoubtedly died, leaving behind only the ones smart enough to survive in the cold.
     
    That's how natural selection works in every environment. If they couldn't figure out how to survive in Europe, they wouldn't have lasted a day in Africa.

    But Africans didn’t find Africa to be a harsh environment, any more than lions or elephants or chimpanzees did.
     
    Indeed they did. It was very harsh. But Africans developed survival strategies to counteract the inhospitable African environment. Consider the ingenious ways in which pre-colonial Africans kept malaria at bay. Conversely, Africans didn't find Europe or America particularly harsh. Africans could survive and thrive in Europe, but Europeans were dead men walking in Africa. That should clue you in as to which environment was sufficiently challenging to weed out the unfit and hone its inhabitants for survival.

    Your further rationalizations of how much better cold is than warmth is pretty laughable. Surely you realize that warm is better? Unless, maybe, you’ve adapted to the cold for tens of thousands of years?
     
    Warm, yes. But we're talking about hot jungles and arid savannas here. You had no control. Disease spread, food spoiled, water was scarce. What's the one thing that humans need even more than food? Right, water.

    The ideal climate, once again, is TEMPERATE. That's why we set our thermostats to temperate temperatures. Europe is in the temperate zone. North America is in the temperate zone. Northeast Asia is in the temperate zone. You seem to be having trouble with concept so let me share a map with you:

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/World_map_temperate.svg

    The shaded areas are the temperate zones, the most comfortable, most livable, most hospital zones for humans to live in.

    And the higher IQ of some humans outside of Africa is well within the range of those still in Africa
     
    Well then you don't have discrete genetic differentiation, which I think you were trying to argue but this admission on your part makes that entire line of argument moot. What we know for certain is that Africans are capable of high IQ. What we can never know is whether or not there is a smaller or larger percentage of Africans capable of high IQ's in comparison to other populations. To truly answer this questions you'd have to raise healthy kids of different races on an island somewhere. Expose them to the same culture, language, diet and lifestyle. I don't believe that under this scenario, Africans would have lower IQ's than anyone else. They may in fact have the highest IQ's.

    Until then, all Europeans were as dark as many Africans. So the allele was not already present in Africa.
     
    Yes, the allele itself was and is present in Africans. It underwent a minor tweak to create white skin. But Africans also have independent alleles for light skin. We exhibit a full spectrum of skin tones, from nearly black to nearly white.

    All kinds of new alleles governing all sorts of physiological and neurological functions came about after people left Africa.
     
    Okay, I'll play along. Name them. Make sure these functions are in complex traits and are specific to non-Africans to the exclusion of Africans. Good luck.

    IQists aren’t interested in any legitimate science. Their goal is to drive an ideological agenda.

    blank slatists want to create a world of 85 IQ slave-cattle for them to rule over

    Flynn posits, therefore, that IQ doesn’t measure intelligence as such, it measures adaptation to westernized modernity.

    if it’s biological then it comes to the same thing

    Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents’

    are they higher across the board or has the average IQ of people living along the coast remained the same while the average IQ of people living inland went up thus increasing the average?

    https://yourmedicalsource.com/content/goiter-belt

  920. @marpa
    the groups that have IQ's in the 70s range are very well adapted to their environment and the various stresses they have historically encountered. They are healthy, strong, and able to reproduce and survive in that environment. However, if your change that environment, introducing new pressures and cultural patterns, or take them out of that environment and culture entirely, they are likely to have problems. The same is true if you were to reverse things, and drop people from a high-IQ group that isn't well adapted to the 70s IQ environmental pressures and culture into that world. "Genetic superiority" is always relative to environment.

    That doesn't mean IQ tests are invalid. They are probably the best test of any psychological capability we have. But they of course don't in themselves describe the whole picture. Context is always necessary.

    Btw, I don't have the political ideology you suspect. I'm a progressive liberal. Just a realistic one who doesn't deny the differences in human beings.

    People who come to the US and demonstrate the skills you describe are clearly not "retarded". But that is a self-selecting group. Often, such people are fleeing a culture that they are unable to thrive in, and coming to one better suited to their skill set.

    The same is true if you were to reverse things, and drop people from a high-IQ group that isn’t well adapted to the 70s IQ environmental pressures and culture into that world.

    Europeans seem to have done great in Australia, North America or South Africa. Much better than the low IQ indigenous populations in fact

    • Replies: @marpa
    I was referring to the notion of dropping a single individual into such a foreign culture, and seeing how well they would do.

    You are referring to colonial invasions where an entire foreign group came into a foreign land en masse, and rather than integrating with the existing culture that had been adapted to that environment for many thousands of years, simply re-created their own culture in that new environment and made their own adaptations to it. So they brought a higher IQ culture with them, and pushed aside the lower IQ indigenous culture, and used their high-IQ methods to create their own new adaptations. A very different kind of experiment with very different results.
  921. @Okechukwu

    That’s a losing argument right off the bat. IQ has a very strong scientific basis. You would have a better point that the scores are affected by many factors, however, genetics only being one of them.
     
    IQists aren't interested in any legitimate science. Their goal is to drive an ideological agenda. Whether or not the data is credible is immaterial to them. They even manufacturer their own fake data. The predictive value of IQ is greatly overstated. A dumb person from a stable, nurturing, well-off environment has a much greater chance of success than a genius in a hardscrabble ghetto environment. It's only when these ghetto people find pathways to express their genius that it finally dawns on people how brilliant they are. Consider some of the hip-hop artists who might otherwise have rotted in prison but are now successful billionaire entrepreneurs.

    The best theory to explain this is that better nutritional for the poor has resulted in a marked betterment in brain development for the previously nutritionally challenged. However, the smart people are among those who didn’t suffer from nutritional deprivation in the first place, so their brains haven’t improved much, if at all. It’s also probably why the Flynn affect has dropped off so much in the west.
     
    Listen to James Flynn himself on this matter. Your great-great-grandfather might have been innately smarter than you in spite of his IQ of 70. Flynn posits, therefore, that IQ doesn't measure intelligence as such, it measures adaptation to westernized modernity.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vpqilhW9uI
    Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents' | James Flynn

    The thing is, in America, the Flynn effect has brought both black and white scores up, but the difference remains pretty much the same. That may also be the case in Africa.
     
    This is a white nationalist talking point. The truth is, the black/white IQ gap in America has been narrowing and will at some point converge as society becomes less racist and less culturally stratified.

    The black-white IQ gap is decreasing, and is now closer to 10 points than the widely cited one standard deviation (15 points), which is the erroneous value Murray cites in the interview. Academic achievement of blacks has also improved by about one-third standard deviation in recent decades.

    https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/5/18/15655638/charles-murray-race-iq-sam-harris-science-free-speech

    If the Flynn affect were merely about culture, we would see it only in places where the culture had changed. But we don’t. Instead, we see it where living conditions, especially nutrition, have changed.
     
    White Americans weren't starving circa 1900, yet they had an IQ of 70. Obviously, culture rather than diet is the prime causal factor in the IQ increase.

    While I’m sure some degree of intellect is important to sprinting, it really doesn’t require much of it. Not on the runner’s part at least. Good coaching and training is essential, but most important is the right genetic makeup for speed.
     
    Every human is born with the genetic make-up for speed. Most of us, with proper training, can get within 1 second of Usain Bolt. On a professional level, differences among all races are measured in tenths of a second, which is statistically insignificant. The discipline, dedication and iron will required to succeed in sprints are not unlike the values required for high-level success in any field of endeavor. Only a highly evolved brain can call up the reserves of those traits and maintain the searing focus and concentration that the vast majority of people on the planet are unable to tap. At those very high levels, intelligence makes all the difference between the truly exceptional and the mere average.

    That happens when you have a high proportion of fast-twitch muscles as opposed to slow-twitch muscles.
     
    The twitch fiber stuff is a myth. How these athletes become successful is that they do this thing called TRAINING. Watch a video of their training routines and you'll come away with the understanding that anyone willing to literally torture themselves to that degree is going to achieve some measure of success, assuming they are young and healthy. The fast-twitch fiber myth is promulgated for the express purpose of reducing the success of these athletes to genetic freakery.

    Now tell me, is this woman relying on her "genetics" to be successful or is she undergoing training regimens that 99.9% of the people on this planet would recoil from?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2XwvDI3BMU

    That’s why virtually all the top sprinters in the world are of African ancestry.
     
    This is what you people do, you ignore the historical and socio-cultural context of every subject. To wit, at one time the sprints were the only events black people were allowed to compete in. Ironically, initially blacks were deemed physiologically incapable by virtue of the reverse of many of the arguments you are making now as to their physiological fitness. But once blacks were allowed to compete in sprints, and once Jesse Owens broke through in the Nazi games, the very next day every black kid in America wanted to be a sprinter. These were hungry people fanatically dedicated to a single sport. It isn't easy to compete with such people. So slowly and incrementally sprints became a "black sport." Whites, in comparison, had a plethora of other options in and out of sports. Beyond that, whites who might have otherwise been successful were discouraged, both internally and externally, from pursuing the sport.

    The only Americans or Jamaicans who do well in sprinting are of West African origin. The West Africans would probably do better if they had better nutrition and money for training and coaching. But then again, perhaps the mixture of genes in the New World has produced some hybrid benefits. Plus, one might sadly add, the severe selective breeding enforced by slavery.
     
    But there are other West African descended nationalities in the new world with a similar history of slavery and a similar genetic profile that also compete and are not anywhere as successful. There are many other black majority countries in the Caribbean, most of them wealthier than Jamaica, that have failed utterly to replicate Jamaica's success. The global superpower status of a tiny, impoverished, small population island nation like Jamaica CANNOT be attributed to genetics or physiology. Rather, their success is informed by a total immersion in a culture of sprinting, by history and by tradition.

    Are there very many? I don’t think so. And it’s not just any Kenyans, it’s those who live in a particular mountainous region, several tribes there.
     
    Yeah, now you're starting to get it. These people were rared in a thin-air environment. Growing up they would run many miles to school and back, often uphill, for lack of transportation. In essence they've been training their whole lives in an ideal environment. And they're hungry -- very hungry. How are soft, pampered Americans supposed to compete with that? You hit the nail on the head. It's cultural.

    There have been lots of excellent Africans playing basketball.
     
    There have been even more excellent Europeans playing basketball.

    But once they allowed African-Americans to play professionally, the game has been dominated by them.
     
    That's due to cultural and sociological reasons. To be successful in basketball you have to start early. To shoot for the NBA you have to start early. But the odds of actually making it are as unlikely as winning the lottery. How many white families, with a range of other options that are statistically more lucrative in the long-term, are going to take that gamble with their kids? How many are going to devote the time and energy to something with such long odds of success? There are much easier professions that offer a surety of success without the need to be particularly gifted or talented or dedicated. These professions last an adult lifetime and won't be derailed by one sprained knee or ankle. When Jews faced discrimination and circumscribed social and professional mobility, they dominated the NBA because they were desperate and willing to gamble.

    White players are largely reduced to playing in roles where speed and jumping ability aren’t as important as size and strength. So we get some lumbering white giants taking up space on the court, with speedy black guys using them as shields to make dazzling plays.
     
    LOL. You don't know what you're talking about. I remember growing up there was such a thing as a Big White Stiff. They were unskilled players who had roster spots reserved for them so teams wouldn't field all-black teams. But that all changed with the introduction of white European big men. Far from being "lumbering white giants" these guys have actually revolutionized the game. They brought a skill set that American big men didn't have, black or white. Now your average 7 foot center can break his man down off the dribble, lead the break like a point guard and drain 3-pointers. That's all thanks to white European big men. Once they entered the NBA it was either adapt or die. So now all big men, black and white, have these point guard skills. Go watch YouTube videos of Dirk Nowitzki or Kristaps Porzingis or Nikola jokic and then watch videos of the truly lumbering black giants of the 80's and 90's. You'll see that these modern white big men have skills that those black big men could only dream about.

    I have no doubt that James is a very smart guy. But he’s exceptional for any athlete, white or black. In every respect. You don’t discern patterns by looking at the exceptions. Overall, athletes, white or black, don’t score above average on IQ tests.
     
    Then that's yet more evidence that IQ tests don't actually measure intelligence. These athletes may butcher the English language in interviews, but they're whip smart in terms of real intelligence. Have you seen how thick, dense and convoluted an NFL playbook is? Few of the "high IQ" types writing here can memorize those books and recall the plays and schemes instantly and then adjust instantly, selecting from a numberless variety of countermeasures pursuant to how the offense or defense reacts to the initial action. It requires high-level brain power. But they're so laser-focused on that aspect of cognition that others are bound to suffer. It's not unlike an erudite scholar who has been so consumed by a particular subject matter that he can't seem to perform mundane, day-to-day tasks. I had college professors like that.

    The tropics are only harsher for the creatures that didn’t evolve there and adapt to that climate. Human beings evolved in the African tropics, and so that’s where they do best.
     
    LMAO. Humans do better in a TEMPERATE environment with stable, predictable seasons, not in a hot jungle or arid savanna, white people in particular. It's not by accident that white Europeans were only able to settle temperate zones in large numbers, including South Africa. They tried to enter the African interior and failed miserably. There were deadly infectious diseases that killed them and their livestock. Plus alternating droughts and floods made farming precarious. Prior to the introduction of modern medicines the African interior was known as the graveyard of the white man.

    Leaving Africa was very hard for humans, and it forced them to adapt quickly, especially the ones who moved into colder climates. They had to adapt, which is what human brains are great at. And so that adaptation required better, smarter brains.
     
    Total pseudoscientific garbage. Once again, the human brain was already fully and completely evolved before groups left Africa. Secondly, there was no adaptive challenge in Europe that enhanced cognition vis-a-vis Africans. I'm of African equatorial descent and I don't at all sense that Europeans have a cognitive advantage over me owing to their cold-weather lineage. Thirdly, while Europeans were eating each other in their caves scintillating civilizations were extant for thousands of years in the southerly latitudes. It was the civilizational influence of those warm weather people that would eventually radiate up to Europe, dragging them out of their caves and dung huts.

    That’s simply not true. We refer to “anatomically modern humans”, which means people who generally looked like us. But that says nothing about neurological evolution, which isn’t possible to see in fossils.
     
    No. We refer to modern humans, meaning people just like us. 100,000 years is a nano second in evolutionary time scales. Particularly, something as complex and as central to survival as the brain is very resistant to change. There has been no appreciable change, at all, in the human brain in the last 100,000 years. Those are just the facts. You can take a child from any "primitive" tribe anywhere on the planet, raise him in a modern western environment and he will automatically assimilate all the technology and lifestyle of that society. He could become a mathematician or a nuclear physicist or a rocket scientist or a neurosurgeon. In other words, no field of endeavor or function would be off-limits to him because he's working with the same brain as everyone else.

    Regarding the evolution of the human brain:

    How Has the Human Brain Evolved?

    Early Homo sapiens had brains within the range of people today, averaging 1,200 ml or more. As our cultural and linguistic complexity, dietary needs and technological prowess took a significant leap forward at this stage, our brains grew to accommodate the changes. The shape changes we see accentuate the regions related to depth of planning, communication, problem solving and other more advanced cognitive functions.

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-has-human-brain-evolved/

    There are many new alleles affecting neurology and brain development that occurred outside of Africa that didn’t make their way back in.
     
    Prove it. What are those alleles? And in proving it, make certain that alternative African alleles don't provide the same function.

    Those outside Africa started with a very small group, maybe no more than 200 people total over several migrations. That kind of population stress produces rapid genetic variation and mutation by necessity. Some of it bad, some of it good.
     
    No. You get more rapid and frequent positive mutations if you have a larger store of genetic material to work with. The only thing that bottle-necking promotes is deleterious mutations. That's why we don't mate with our sisters or cousins.

    Humans of 100,000 years ago were definitely different than us in brain power. Very much inferior. That’s completely evident in their tools and culture, which were severely lacking compared to what came about later on.
     
    This is sheer ignorance. An effective stone tool or the control of fire was far more ingenious, revolutionary and epochal than anything humans have developed or invented in the last 10,000 years, including jet liners and smart phones and whatever else you can think of. Moreover, those early human benefited far less from a continuity of history. It was that technological continuum that eventually led to the modern technology we have today.

    Whatever the origins of the Boskop skull, it’s largely irrelevant to modern humans in any respect. If a very smart species of humans did exist, it was wiped out, which would only go to show that high IQ isn’t selected for in the tropics over other traits.
     
    First of all, South Africa isn't tropical. It's temperate, which is why Europeans were able to settle there in large numbers. What's more, there's no indication that our direct early human ancestors were dumber than we are. What they lacked was the aforementioned store of knowledge and the technological legacies that succeeding generations of humans would take advantage of. But they had everything we have: same brain, same language, same capacity to engage in culture, to think rationally, analyse and plan. Some scientists go even further and push back the advent of the modern human brain to between 1 and 2 million years ago.

    There’s no evidence of actual higher intelligence there or anywhere else in the human fossil record prior to the creative explosion that occurred around 50-70,000 years ago. That isn’t speculative, that’s based on the real evidence of tools and art and many artifact
     
    That's exactly what I said. The dates are fluid. 70,000 years is certainly closer to my assessment than your initial assessment.

    The only cavemen who did it were those that survived. The rest died. That’s how natural selection works. If you don’t make the cut, you die and don’t reproduce. The European cave men had to get smart fast or die. And many undoubtedly died, leaving behind only the ones smart enough to survive in the cold.
     
    That's how natural selection works in every environment. If they couldn't figure out how to survive in Europe, they wouldn't have lasted a day in Africa.

    But Africans didn’t find Africa to be a harsh environment, any more than lions or elephants or chimpanzees did.
     
    Indeed they did. It was very harsh. But Africans developed survival strategies to counteract the inhospitable African environment. Consider the ingenious ways in which pre-colonial Africans kept malaria at bay. Conversely, Africans didn't find Europe or America particularly harsh. Africans could survive and thrive in Europe, but Europeans were dead men walking in Africa. That should clue you in as to which environment was sufficiently challenging to weed out the unfit and hone its inhabitants for survival.

    Your further rationalizations of how much better cold is than warmth is pretty laughable. Surely you realize that warm is better? Unless, maybe, you’ve adapted to the cold for tens of thousands of years?
     
    Warm, yes. But we're talking about hot jungles and arid savannas here. You had no control. Disease spread, food spoiled, water was scarce. What's the one thing that humans need even more than food? Right, water.

    The ideal climate, once again, is TEMPERATE. That's why we set our thermostats to temperate temperatures. Europe is in the temperate zone. North America is in the temperate zone. Northeast Asia is in the temperate zone. You seem to be having trouble with concept so let me share a map with you:

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/World_map_temperate.svg

    The shaded areas are the temperate zones, the most comfortable, most livable, most hospital zones for humans to live in.

    And the higher IQ of some humans outside of Africa is well within the range of those still in Africa
     
    Well then you don't have discrete genetic differentiation, which I think you were trying to argue but this admission on your part makes that entire line of argument moot. What we know for certain is that Africans are capable of high IQ. What we can never know is whether or not there is a smaller or larger percentage of Africans capable of high IQ's in comparison to other populations. To truly answer this questions you'd have to raise healthy kids of different races on an island somewhere. Expose them to the same culture, language, diet and lifestyle. I don't believe that under this scenario, Africans would have lower IQ's than anyone else. They may in fact have the highest IQ's.

    Until then, all Europeans were as dark as many Africans. So the allele was not already present in Africa.
     
    Yes, the allele itself was and is present in Africans. It underwent a minor tweak to create white skin. But Africans also have independent alleles for light skin. We exhibit a full spectrum of skin tones, from nearly black to nearly white.

    All kinds of new alleles governing all sorts of physiological and neurological functions came about after people left Africa.
     
    Okay, I'll play along. Name them. Make sure these functions are in complex traits and are specific to non-Africans to the exclusion of Africans. Good luck.

    Most of us, with proper training, can get within 1 second of Usain Bolt.

    It is so incredibly exhausting watching you over intellectualize everything to the point of making ridiculous claims for the sake maintaining racial equality.

    But once they allowed African-Americans to play professionally, the game has been dominated by them.

    That’s due to cultural and sociological reasons

    No biological reasons huh? Central Americans can produces the same rate of elite basketball players if they had the right amount of cultural and sociological reasons? I don’t understand why you would go through the trouble of writing such long replies to cast doubt on the science of HBD and then say something so untenable as doubting average differences in physical traits from the neck down. Even the audience you might cater to would have no choice but to disregard you.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu

    It is so incredibly exhausting watching you over intellectualize everything to the point of making ridiculous claims for the sake maintaining racial equality
     
    The real world recognizes all races as equal biologically. All references to racial equality pertain to social equality. You and I are judged on an individual basis and you probably won't win that contest. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you don't get to benefit from a presumption of superiority based on an accident of birth.

    No biological reasons huh? Central Americans can produces the same rate of elite basketball players if they had the right amount of cultural and sociological reasons?
     
    Why couldn't Central America produce elite basketball players? But they play soccer there, not basketball. Even if you believe that Central Americans don't possess great athleticism (which would be untrue), they could certainly become great 3-point shooters. Anybody that can shoot around 40% from 3-point range is a shoo-in for the NBA, making millions of dollars a year. 3-point shooting doesn't require much in the way of athleticism. But it does require years and years of constant practice to develop the form and muscle memory that allows a shooter to gauge distance and calibrate touch.

    You have an exquisite natural experiment in Africa. Basketball has little cultural resonance there, and as a consequence, African teams tend to suck. If black people were genetically pre-wired for basketball, in the absences of a culture of basketball, we would expect the 100% black Africans do dominate, and of course they don't.

    Americans dominate basketball because the country is awash in a culture of basketball. Most homes have a hoop over the garage or in the backyard. There are hoops everywhere and at every school from kindergarten on. Basketball is an integral part of the cultural landscape. Here, even at the high school level, basketball is played at a very high, very intense, very cerebral level.

    This is the 1960 US Olympic gold medal winning basketball team.

    http://i.cdn.turner.com/nba/nba/2009/news/features/john_schuhmann/09/17/fiba.hof/1960_t1.jpg

    Notice they're mostly white. Yet they had an average winning margin of 43 points. So it's culture rather than biology. But all of that is changing as more and countries become imbued with a culture of basketball and take advantage of the training and coaching methods that were pioneered in the US. Anyone anywhere in the world can go to YouTube to glean these secrets. And American coaches and players travel to these countries to set up their programs and teach them how to play. As a result, the US is losing its dominance in basketball. US national teams, manned by the best NBA players, are no longer automatically expected to win. In fact they've lost a few times in international competition.

  922. @marpa
    well, this has been sort of fun, and we could go on like this for a long time, but I don't see the point. You have an ideological fixation on the notion that everyone is basically the same, and can do anything from be an NBA superstar to a genius scientist if only they were raised towards that end. I've heard right-wingers talk about this "blank slate" ideology among some fringe characters, but I'd never actually encountered it before. So thanks for the introduction to a form of crazy I haven't seen. It's been educational. But I don't see the point in arguing with it. On the one hand, it's too easy, and on the other, it's impossible. You're not the example of high African intellectual ability you seem to be expounding. I've met some pretty smart Africans, but you're not one of them. Good luck trying to convince anyone you have even the slightest understanding of what human intelligence is, or how it comes about. But try it on someone else, because it sure isn't working with me.

    Whatever dude. You tried to debate me and got crushed.

    • Replies: @marpa
    I'm perfectly fine with your telling yourself that story.
  923. @clownworld

    Most of us, with proper training, can get within 1 second of Usain Bolt.
     
    It is so incredibly exhausting watching you over intellectualize everything to the point of making ridiculous claims for the sake maintaining racial equality.


    But once they allowed African-Americans to play professionally, the game has been dominated by them.
     
    That’s due to cultural and sociological reasons
     
    No biological reasons huh? Central Americans can produces the same rate of elite basketball players if they had the right amount of cultural and sociological reasons? I don't understand why you would go through the trouble of writing such long replies to cast doubt on the science of HBD and then say something so untenable as doubting average differences in physical traits from the neck down. Even the audience you might cater to would have no choice but to disregard you.

    It is so incredibly exhausting watching you over intellectualize everything to the point of making ridiculous claims for the sake maintaining racial equality

    The real world recognizes all races as equal biologically. All references to racial equality pertain to social equality. You and I are judged on an individual basis and you probably won’t win that contest. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you don’t get to benefit from a presumption of superiority based on an accident of birth.

    No biological reasons huh? Central Americans can produces the same rate of elite basketball players if they had the right amount of cultural and sociological reasons?

    Why couldn’t Central America produce elite basketball players? But they play soccer there, not basketball. Even if you believe that Central Americans don’t possess great athleticism (which would be untrue), they could certainly become great 3-point shooters. Anybody that can shoot around 40% from 3-point range is a shoo-in for the NBA, making millions of dollars a year. 3-point shooting doesn’t require much in the way of athleticism. But it does require years and years of constant practice to develop the form and muscle memory that allows a shooter to gauge distance and calibrate touch.

    You have an exquisite natural experiment in Africa. Basketball has little cultural resonance there, and as a consequence, African teams tend to suck. If black people were genetically pre-wired for basketball, in the absences of a culture of basketball, we would expect the 100% black Africans do dominate, and of course they don’t.

    Americans dominate basketball because the country is awash in a culture of basketball. Most homes have a hoop over the garage or in the backyard. There are hoops everywhere and at every school from kindergarten on. Basketball is an integral part of the cultural landscape. Here, even at the high school level, basketball is played at a very high, very intense, very cerebral level.

    This is the 1960 US Olympic gold medal winning basketball team.

    Notice they’re mostly white. Yet they had an average winning margin of 43 points. So it’s culture rather than biology. But all of that is changing as more and countries become imbued with a culture of basketball and take advantage of the training and coaching methods that were pioneered in the US. Anyone anywhere in the world can go to YouTube to glean these secrets. And American coaches and players travel to these countries to set up their programs and teach them how to play. As a result, the US is losing its dominance in basketball. US national teams, manned by the best NBA players, are no longer automatically expected to win. In fact they’ve lost a few times in international competition.

    • Replies: @notanon

    The real world recognizes all races as equal biologically.
     
    no they don't - the idea was made up by Marxists for political reasons and is currently mostly being pushed by people who want to create a low IQ population living on payday loans forever.

    the races *could* be biologically equal over time if the powers that be told the truth about heredity as women would almost immediately start to make slightly different decisions - but the powers that be don't want that; they want 85 IQ slave-cattle.
  924. @Okechukwu

    It is so incredibly exhausting watching you over intellectualize everything to the point of making ridiculous claims for the sake maintaining racial equality
     
    The real world recognizes all races as equal biologically. All references to racial equality pertain to social equality. You and I are judged on an individual basis and you probably won't win that contest. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you don't get to benefit from a presumption of superiority based on an accident of birth.

    No biological reasons huh? Central Americans can produces the same rate of elite basketball players if they had the right amount of cultural and sociological reasons?
     
    Why couldn't Central America produce elite basketball players? But they play soccer there, not basketball. Even if you believe that Central Americans don't possess great athleticism (which would be untrue), they could certainly become great 3-point shooters. Anybody that can shoot around 40% from 3-point range is a shoo-in for the NBA, making millions of dollars a year. 3-point shooting doesn't require much in the way of athleticism. But it does require years and years of constant practice to develop the form and muscle memory that allows a shooter to gauge distance and calibrate touch.

    You have an exquisite natural experiment in Africa. Basketball has little cultural resonance there, and as a consequence, African teams tend to suck. If black people were genetically pre-wired for basketball, in the absences of a culture of basketball, we would expect the 100% black Africans do dominate, and of course they don't.

    Americans dominate basketball because the country is awash in a culture of basketball. Most homes have a hoop over the garage or in the backyard. There are hoops everywhere and at every school from kindergarten on. Basketball is an integral part of the cultural landscape. Here, even at the high school level, basketball is played at a very high, very intense, very cerebral level.

    This is the 1960 US Olympic gold medal winning basketball team.

    http://i.cdn.turner.com/nba/nba/2009/news/features/john_schuhmann/09/17/fiba.hof/1960_t1.jpg

    Notice they're mostly white. Yet they had an average winning margin of 43 points. So it's culture rather than biology. But all of that is changing as more and countries become imbued with a culture of basketball and take advantage of the training and coaching methods that were pioneered in the US. Anyone anywhere in the world can go to YouTube to glean these secrets. And American coaches and players travel to these countries to set up their programs and teach them how to play. As a result, the US is losing its dominance in basketball. US national teams, manned by the best NBA players, are no longer automatically expected to win. In fact they've lost a few times in international competition.

    The real world recognizes all races as equal biologically.

    no they don’t – the idea was made up by Marxists for political reasons and is currently mostly being pushed by people who want to create a low IQ population living on payday loans forever.

    the races *could* be biologically equal over time if the powers that be told the truth about heredity as women would almost immediately start to make slightly different decisions – but the powers that be don’t want that; they want 85 IQ slave-cattle.

  925. @Unzerker

    The same is true if you were to reverse things, and drop people from a high-IQ group that isn’t well adapted to the 70s IQ environmental pressures and culture into that world.
     
    Europeans seem to have done great in Australia, North America or South Africa. Much better than the low IQ indigenous populations in fact

    I was referring to the notion of dropping a single individual into such a foreign culture, and seeing how well they would do.

    You are referring to colonial invasions where an entire foreign group came into a foreign land en masse, and rather than integrating with the existing culture that had been adapted to that environment for many thousands of years, simply re-created their own culture in that new environment and made their own adaptations to it. So they brought a higher IQ culture with them, and pushed aside the lower IQ indigenous culture, and used their high-IQ methods to create their own new adaptations. A very different kind of experiment with very different results.

  926. @Okechukwu
    Whatever dude. You tried to debate me and got crushed.

    I’m perfectly fine with your telling yourself that story.

  927. @bomag

    The first suggestion would do.
     
    Not a good choice.

    Please explain yourself. We would appreciate the effort.

  928. Forget all the IQ tables, and understand that Karlin may be making the same mistake that many analysts in this vein have made: the fallacy of reverse causation. I can envision an alternative analysis, a regression equation (from which he is quoting) that says differences in GDP per capita and other measures of general socio-economic welfare, including post-natal caloric and protein intake (one would presume) determine minor (not “seemingly,” just minor) differences in IQ. That is, IQ is the dependent variable, not an independent variable that determines economic growth and welfare measures, but one that is determined by economic forces. Not only can I envision such an empirical result, but I can discuss the theoretical reasons–in terms of endogenous economic growth theory–why this could be the case. Karlin makes the same mistake as those who would say–to the point of it being an unquestioned maxim–that consuming higher levels of education leads to higher levels of income. The opposite could just as well be true, and the empirical data supports it, that higher levels of income are positively and statistically significantly associated with higher levels of educational attainment, with the direction of causation moving from income to education, not the reverse.

  929. @marpa
    You have a strange idea of ethics, not to mention the power of a researcher to get people to switch their homes with someone else where lead levels are worse. The cost of such a project would be immense, and the danger to the children involved beyond every code of ethical research. And what is even the point? All the research done so far shows that there is literally NO level of lead that is safe. There is literally no doubt that it should all be cleaned up, everywhere, regardless of whether there is a black or white family involved. The issue is the cost and the politics and so on. In fact, given the politics of the current government, showing that black children are hit worse by this would lessen the incentive to do anything about it.

    It’s not “the current government” that realizes that more african-“Americans” means more murder, rape, assault, theft, and intimidation directed at everyone else. Sensible people of all races realize this.

    How terrrible that they don’t want to increase the number of future aggressors against their own children and grandchildren. They’re so racist.

    Why are non-Africans obligated to subsidize the survival and proliferation of people who will disproportionately harm us?

  930. @Okechukwu

    You’re putting too much emphasis on IQ as the sole arbiter of what makes human beings functional. Which is ironic.
     
    No. I'm arguing that IQ is a pseudoscience which deems perfectly functional people as functionally retarded by virtue of often spurious data.

    But would they rise such that every group in the world was of equal IQ? Highly doubtful. You’d be as likely to see every culture produce NBA or track stars.
     
    How did white American IQ rise 2 standard deviations over the last 100 years if IQ is, in fact, set in stone for all eternity? What makes you think, assuming fair and unbiased testing, that other groups will not achieve a similar rise once they become acculturated to the values the IQ test is designed to reward?

    Running fast requires a completely different set of alleles than analytical thinkinig.
     
    I see you're ignorant of the intellectual demands on world class athletes. Championship sprinters are, in fact, well above average in intelligence. Analytical thinking, in depth, is as instrumental to their success as raw physical ability and training. No dumbass is going to win the Olympic gold in sprinting, or even make it to the Olympics in the first place.

    So those with west African heritage dominate sprinting,
     
    No they don't. Americans and Jamaicans do. The pure West Africans often don't make it through trials.

    Kenyan/Ugandans dominate long distance running,
     
    But Kenyan-Americans don't. Hmmm....smells like culture to me.

    and African-Americans dominate basketball.
     
    And the real Africans in Africa suck at basketball. This, again, is redolent of culture as opposed to genetics.

    But they don’t tend towards high IQs.
     
    An asinine statement. In terms of true intrinsic intelligence, many of these athletes are absolute geniuses. Lebron James certainly is. Mike Krzyzewski, who's coached plenty of blue blooded white guys at Duke, said Lebron was the smartest player he's ever coached (having coached him in the Olympics). He said it wasn't even close. Lebron is known to recall from a database in his mind every opposing team's plays. He knows when they're going to run them, how they're going to run them and in which situations. We're talking about thousands of plays. I don't how someone like Lebron would score on Stanford-Binet or Raven's, but his real IQ is off the charts.

    I assume living in their African environments and culture selected for such traits, but didn’t select for IQ because it didn’t add very much to their survival and reproduction.
     
    The modern human brain was formed in the crucible of the harsh African environment -- an environment much harsher in fact than the Eurasian environment, which I will remind you, is a TEMPERATE environment. An equatorial or tropical environment is by definition much more hostile to human life than a temperate one. Which is precisely why humans evolved in Africa in the first place. The brain that evolved in Africa, by the way, is unchanged for the last 100,000 years. That's why those early humans are called MODERN humans. They were no different from us as regards brain power except insofar as they may have been smarter, as they had larger brains.

    What Happened to the Hominids Who May Have Been Smarter Than Us?

    Two neuroscientists say that a now-extinct race of humans had big eyes, child-like faces, and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens.

    http://discovermagazine.com/2009/the-brain-2/28-what-happened-to-hominids-who-were-smarter-than-us

    So not only was the human brain fully formed and developed prior to dispersal within and without Africa, those early African humans were likely smarter than we are today.


    Those selection pressures changed when people migrated out of Africa and tried to survive and reproduce in places their ancestors had never lived before
     
    In the cold you wear animal skins and build a fire. Any caveman could do it and they did. The brutally harsh African environment presented much more acute challenges. In the cold you had "refrigeration" in the form of permafrost. Dead animals were preserved where they fell, affording scavenging opportunities. Water was abundant and tropical diseases were non-existent. Most importantly, you had control. Any animal can escape the cold with modifications to its environment. But the heat is inescapable. As a matter of fact, if our pre-human ancestors had to negotiate the unchallenging European environment, they never would've evolved into modern humans.

    In such situations, higher analytical reasoning ability probably made a much bigger difference than it had back in Africa, our homeland.
     
    You must be a moron if you really believe the African environment didn't select for strong analytical ability.

    So did other factors, like lighter skin to synthesize more Vitamin D. These are real differences based on equations that people had little conscious control over.
     
    Much like intelligence, the alleles for lighter skin were already present in the African genome. It only took a minor, relatively superficial genetic tweak to create it.

    No they don’t. Americans and Jamaicans do. The pure West Africans often don’t make it through trials.

    Nigerians and British West Africans perform very well at the Olympic games. They consistently make it into international finals. Do you really watch sports?

    But Kenyan-Americans don’t. Hmmm….smells like culture to me.

    Are you really this clumsy of a thinker? There are very few Kenyan-Americans. Period. The intersecting pool of (i) Kenyan, (ii) scouted, (iii) passionate and (iv) talented is extremely small.

    Whereas in East Africa you have entire ethnic groups that are predisposed for the sport. FYI, it’s the Kalinjin ethnic group of Kenya that has the extreme stamina. You won’t see a Kikuyu (think Mau-Mau fighters) or Luo (think the Obama’s) breaking records. In more honest times, they were known as Mountain Nilotes because of their high altitude homeland.

    It’s down to their ectomorphic physique and life-long habituation to low oxygen conditions. You need both. Andeans and Himalayans don’t marathon because they’re squatty, not lean. The genes are concentrated among Ethiopian highlanders, Rwandan Tutsis, Kenyan Kalinjin and Ugandan Nilotes. This correlates well with the “Cushitic” clades of E3b (E-M215).

    • Replies: @Okechukwu

    Nigerians and British West Africans perform very well at the Olympic games. They consistently make it into international finals. Do you really watch sports?
     
    Then name a Nigerian gold, silver or bronze medal winner.

    British West Africans do much better than West African West Africans, pointing to the primacy of culture over genetics.

    Are you really this clumsy of a thinker? There are very few Kenyan-Americans. Period. The intersecting pool of (i) Kenyan, (ii) scouted, (iii) passionate and (iv) talented is extremely small.
     
    There's an estimated 90,000+ Kenyan-Americans. Surely if Kenyans have a magical genetic advantage that pool is sufficient to find at least 1 or 2 runners.

    Whereas in East Africa you have entire ethnic groups that are predisposed for the sport. FYI, it’s the Kalinjin ethnic group of Kenya that has the extreme stamina. You won’t see a Kikuyu (think Mau-Mau fighters) or Luo (think the Obama’s) breaking records. In more honest times, they were known as Mountain Nilotes because of their high altitude homeland.
     
    Precisely. Kalenjin Kenyans have unique advantages borne of their history, environment and culture. But all of that is useless without the training and mental toughness the sport demands.

    It’s down to their ectomorphic physique and life-long habituation to low oxygen conditions. You need both. Andeans and Himalayans don’t marathon because they’re squatty, not lean. The genes are concentrated among Ethiopian highlanders, Rwandan Tutsis, Kenyan Kalinjin and Ugandan Nilotes. This correlates well with the “Cushitic” clades of E3b (E-M215)
     
    A certain body type is ideal for long distance running. No body type, however, is unique to any ethnic group.
  931. @for-the-record
    One – it’s the north pole, isn’t it?

    Finally, some one who has dared to respond!

    Responses can be graded into 4 levels of "intelligence" (0, 1, 2, 3, definitely not to be confused with the PISA levels). Currently you are at Level 1 -- the north pole works, but it represents an infinitesimal part of the solution set.

    For those too lazy to look up the original question:

    Bonus question: How many points are there on Earth where you can walk 1 km south, then 1 km west, then 1 km north and be back at your original starting point?

     

    In decades (far too many!) of giving this exam, I have encountered one person of Level 3 intelligence.

    Any one here?

    lol
    this question was on a freshman geography class test at northern michigan university that i took when i was in high school. (long story. i was 14.)

    i solved it then in detail. the north pole and also a family of concentric rings around the south pole. easy peasy.

  932. @Frederic Bastiat
    Gigerenzers Work showed that tests, like the above, are strongly format dependent. Change the test format to one to which our cognitive abilities are evolutionary adapted and performance will improve a lot.

    The main problem I have with these tests is, that they are mostly irrelevant, in the same sense as university education is mostly irrelevant to work place performance, since most skills are *learned* when they are needed and kept in strength as long as they are needed. University and schools degrees are at best a kind of signaling of discipline, obedience and the like.

    What is more relevant than IQ imho (which has a dissapointing intra-individual validity btw; test the same individual at different times and you get different results, fluctuating up to 20%), is how *fast* an individual can behavioraly adapt to environmental requirements. Put differently, it is more important how fast an individual can learn or change its behavioral repertoire. Some individuals learn faster than others and are therefore more adaptible to and therefore successful in changing environements.

    You can train rats, pigeons and dogs quite surprisingly complex tasks. With the proper symbolic format (like colored buttons) and training you could train a rat to perform simple symbolic algorithms (think of how a turing machine operates). Human behavior is even more adaptable, putting the tests above in the purview of IQ-70 populations - with proper training that is (IQ tests are also subject to training effects btw, i.e. you can train for high IQ test scores).

    What is missing in the intelligence debate is a measure of this second order behavior, or the ability to learn new behaviors.

    As I consider this response I ask myself why. Why am I reading this, why am interested, and what is the value of my response… Knowing that the value will be dictated by each and every reader based on an infinite number of variables just as as variable in context purpose, origin, and value in conveying MY thoughts from the abstract construct of my mind.

    Most I read are thoughtful and intelligent even when contrary. However they also are very masturbatory of ego…

    No man is without ego.

    Where does human psychology fit in this pedantic recursive self referential masturbatory conversation on human intellect?

    What is the role of the in-the-most-generic-sense ‘higher-self’, ‘super-ego’, ‘übermensch’ function of the human psyche? Is this were all the conversation on measuring intellect fail? IQ as I understand it is supposed to serve this function but a review of the comments most clearly demonstrates humans as petty and egotistical regardless of IQ.

    Moreover, where is the standardization of IQ testing and who sets it? Do you ‘assume’ it is the brightest and most intelligent? Those with the highest IQ in the human race being sequestered to a secret meeting where they set the standards of intelligence in the world…

    In my mind which consistently gives varying degrees of intelligence based on the irrefutable neuroscience that my brain operates on chemistry… Has the courage to refute my seeming intelligence and challenge it for what it honestly is. A human organ as frail and subject to environmental stresses as any other, and in many respects far more fragile to physical damage.

    What this general discourse on IQ does is masturbate the ego of those at the peak of intellect in their lives. Something that vanishes with simple physical trauma. Oh yes, the human body will demonstrate resilience in this regard but never back to the original state. Brain damage is forever when compared as before and after states.

  933. @Jssh

    No they don’t. Americans and Jamaicans do. The pure West Africans often don’t make it through trials.
     
    Nigerians and British West Africans perform very well at the Olympic games. They consistently make it into international finals. Do you really watch sports?

    But Kenyan-Americans don’t. Hmmm….smells like culture to me.
     
    Are you really this clumsy of a thinker? There are very few Kenyan-Americans. Period. The intersecting pool of (i) Kenyan, (ii) scouted, (iii) passionate and (iv) talented is extremely small.

    Whereas in East Africa you have entire ethnic groups that are predisposed for the sport. FYI, it's the Kalinjin ethnic group of Kenya that has the extreme stamina. You won't see a Kikuyu (think Mau-Mau fighters) or Luo (think the Obama's) breaking records. In more honest times, they were known as Mountain Nilotes because of their high altitude homeland.

    It's down to their ectomorphic physique and life-long habituation to low oxygen conditions. You need both. Andeans and Himalayans don't marathon because they're squatty, not lean. The genes are concentrated among Ethiopian highlanders, Rwandan Tutsis, Kenyan Kalinjin and Ugandan Nilotes. This correlates well with the "Cushitic" clades of E3b (E-M215).

    Nigerians and British West Africans perform very well at the Olympic games. They consistently make it into international finals. Do you really watch sports?

    Then name a Nigerian gold, silver or bronze medal winner.

    British West Africans do much better than West African West Africans, pointing to the primacy of culture over genetics.

    Are you really this clumsy of a thinker? There are very few Kenyan-Americans. Period. The intersecting pool of (i) Kenyan, (ii) scouted, (iii) passionate and (iv) talented is extremely small.

    There’s an estimated 90,000+ Kenyan-Americans. Surely if Kenyans have a magical genetic advantage that pool is sufficient to find at least 1 or 2 runners.

    Whereas in East Africa you have entire ethnic groups that are predisposed for the sport. FYI, it’s the Kalinjin ethnic group of Kenya that has the extreme stamina. You won’t see a Kikuyu (think Mau-Mau fighters) or Luo (think the Obama’s) breaking records. In more honest times, they were known as Mountain Nilotes because of their high altitude homeland.

    Precisely. Kalenjin Kenyans have unique advantages borne of their history, environment and culture. But all of that is useless without the training and mental toughness the sport demands.

    It’s down to their ectomorphic physique and life-long habituation to low oxygen conditions. You need both. Andeans and Himalayans don’t marathon because they’re squatty, not lean. The genes are concentrated among Ethiopian highlanders, Rwandan Tutsis, Kenyan Kalinjin and Ugandan Nilotes. This correlates well with the “Cushitic” clades of E3b (E-M215)

    A certain body type is ideal for long distance running. No body type, however, is unique to any ethnic group.

    • Replies: @clownworld

    A certain body type is ideal for long distance running. No body type, however, is unique to any ethnic group.
     
    Certain ethnic groups have higher frequencies of ideal body types for long distance running you dolt. That is the point! What is wrong with you?
    , @Jssh

    Then name a Nigerian gold, silver or bronze medal winner.
     
    Sure. This is literally the first year I checked because I remembered it well.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_100_metres

    Silver went to Nigerian-born Francis Obikwelu representing Portugal. He gained Portugese nationality at 16 after the 1994 World Junior Championships. He had no prior connections to that country. Gold and Silver went to African-Americans. A Ghanaian came 8th. Caribbeans in between. Everyone in the final was black. Other qualifiers in the other straights come from Botswana, Gambia and the Ivory Coast.


    There’s an estimated 90,000+ Kenyan-Americans. Surely if Kenyans have a magical genetic advantage that pool is sufficient to find at least 1 or 2 runners.
     
    It's not magic. We know some of the physiological properties give them an advantage. They're skinny, yet muscular, with a stress-comfortable pulmonary system. Dry, high altitude, near-famine conditions will do that to a race of people.

    Runners, yes, winners, probably not. 90,000 is a pittance as far as international sport is concerned. I bet a few have done well in state-level junior athletics vis-a-vis Bengali-Americans or Argentine-Americans for example. Do you have the data?


    Precisely. Kalenjin Kenyans have unique advantages borne of their history, environment and culture. But all of that is useless without the training and mental toughness the sport demands.
     
    Exactly, their race and native climate is paramount. Culture and tenacity are not the limiting factors, otherwise we would not have such a limited pool of competitive ethnicities.

    A certain body type is ideal for long distance running. No body type, however, is unique to any ethnic group.
     
    That's why geneticists speak of allele frequencies and group mean-average differences. Some body types occur so infrequently in certain ethnic groups that it's a freak event, a statistical error. In sport, these group average differences by themselves often account for differential performance.
     
  934. @Okechukwu

    Nigerians and British West Africans perform very well at the Olympic games. They consistently make it into international finals. Do you really watch sports?
     
    Then name a Nigerian gold, silver or bronze medal winner.

    British West Africans do much better than West African West Africans, pointing to the primacy of culture over genetics.

    Are you really this clumsy of a thinker? There are very few Kenyan-Americans. Period. The intersecting pool of (i) Kenyan, (ii) scouted, (iii) passionate and (iv) talented is extremely small.
     
    There's an estimated 90,000+ Kenyan-Americans. Surely if Kenyans have a magical genetic advantage that pool is sufficient to find at least 1 or 2 runners.

    Whereas in East Africa you have entire ethnic groups that are predisposed for the sport. FYI, it’s the Kalinjin ethnic group of Kenya that has the extreme stamina. You won’t see a Kikuyu (think Mau-Mau fighters) or Luo (think the Obama’s) breaking records. In more honest times, they were known as Mountain Nilotes because of their high altitude homeland.
     
    Precisely. Kalenjin Kenyans have unique advantages borne of their history, environment and culture. But all of that is useless without the training and mental toughness the sport demands.

    It’s down to their ectomorphic physique and life-long habituation to low oxygen conditions. You need both. Andeans and Himalayans don’t marathon because they’re squatty, not lean. The genes are concentrated among Ethiopian highlanders, Rwandan Tutsis, Kenyan Kalinjin and Ugandan Nilotes. This correlates well with the “Cushitic” clades of E3b (E-M215)
     
    A certain body type is ideal for long distance running. No body type, however, is unique to any ethnic group.

    A certain body type is ideal for long distance running. No body type, however, is unique to any ethnic group.

    Certain ethnic groups have higher frequencies of ideal body types for long distance running you dolt. That is the point! What is wrong with you?

  935. Certain ethnic groups have higher frequencies of ideal body types for long distance running you dolt. That is the point! What is wrong with you?

    This particular ethnic group, the Kalenjin, number only 5 million. There are more people with this “ideal body type” in California than there are in all of Kenya. Use your head, birdbrain. Phenotype and physiology are far less determinative than the other factors I’ve cited.

  936. @Okechukwu

    Nigerians and British West Africans perform very well at the Olympic games. They consistently make it into international finals. Do you really watch sports?
     
    Then name a Nigerian gold, silver or bronze medal winner.

    British West Africans do much better than West African West Africans, pointing to the primacy of culture over genetics.

    Are you really this clumsy of a thinker? There are very few Kenyan-Americans. Period. The intersecting pool of (i) Kenyan, (ii) scouted, (iii) passionate and (iv) talented is extremely small.
     
    There's an estimated 90,000+ Kenyan-Americans. Surely if Kenyans have a magical genetic advantage that pool is sufficient to find at least 1 or 2 runners.

    Whereas in East Africa you have entire ethnic groups that are predisposed for the sport. FYI, it’s the Kalinjin ethnic group of Kenya that has the extreme stamina. You won’t see a Kikuyu (think Mau-Mau fighters) or Luo (think the Obama’s) breaking records. In more honest times, they were known as Mountain Nilotes because of their high altitude homeland.
     
    Precisely. Kalenjin Kenyans have unique advantages borne of their history, environment and culture. But all of that is useless without the training and mental toughness the sport demands.

    It’s down to their ectomorphic physique and life-long habituation to low oxygen conditions. You need both. Andeans and Himalayans don’t marathon because they’re squatty, not lean. The genes are concentrated among Ethiopian highlanders, Rwandan Tutsis, Kenyan Kalinjin and Ugandan Nilotes. This correlates well with the “Cushitic” clades of E3b (E-M215)
     
    A certain body type is ideal for long distance running. No body type, however, is unique to any ethnic group.

    Then name a Nigerian gold, silver or bronze medal winner.

    Sure. This is literally the first year I checked because I remembered it well.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_100_metres

    Silver went to Nigerian-born Francis Obikwelu representing Portugal. He gained Portugese nationality at 16 after the 1994 World Junior Championships. He had no prior connections to that country. Gold and Silver went to African-Americans. A Ghanaian came 8th. Caribbeans in between. Everyone in the final was black. Other qualifiers in the other straights come from Botswana, Gambia and the Ivory Coast.

    There’s an estimated 90,000+ Kenyan-Americans. Surely if Kenyans have a magical genetic advantage that pool is sufficient to find at least 1 or 2 runners.

    It’s not magic. We know some of the physiological properties give them an advantage. They’re skinny, yet muscular, with a stress-comfortable pulmonary system. Dry, high altitude, near-famine conditions will do that to a race of people.

    Runners, yes, winners, probably not. 90,000 is a pittance as far as international sport is concerned. I bet a few have done well in state-level junior athletics vis-a-vis Bengali-Americans or Argentine-Americans for example. Do you have the data?

    Precisely. Kalenjin Kenyans have unique advantages borne of their history, environment and culture. But all of that is useless without the training and mental toughness the sport demands.

    Exactly, their race and native climate is paramount. Culture and tenacity are not the limiting factors, otherwise we would not have such a limited pool of competitive ethnicities.

    A certain body type is ideal for long distance running. No body type, however, is unique to any ethnic group.

    That’s why geneticists speak of allele frequencies and group mean-average differences. Some body types occur so infrequently in certain ethnic groups that it’s a freak event, a statistical error. In sport, these group average differences by themselves often account for differential performance.

    • Replies: @Okechukwu

    Silver went to Nigerian-born Francis Obikwelu representing Portugal. He gained Portugese nationality at 16 after the 1994 World Junior Championships. He had no prior connections to that country. Gold and Silver went to African-Americans. A Ghanaian came 8th.
     
    I was asking for a Nigerian Nigerian. Your example only reinforces my argument.

    Everyone in the final was black.
     
    And everyone in the downhill skiing final was white. Oddly enough, in that case you don't grasp for genetic reasons to explain white dominance. But in both cases the cultural and sociological matrix offers more plausible, more parsimonious explanations.

    It’s not magic. We know some of the physiological properties give them an advantage. They’re skinny, yet muscular, with a stress-comfortable pulmonary system. Dry, high altitude, near-famine conditions will do that to a race of people.
     
    Skinny yet muscular are universal phenotypes.

    Stress-comfortable pulmonary system is something you just made up.

    Dry, high altitude? Sure, but it's easy to replicate those conditions anywhere in the world. Indeed, runners do train in those conditions.

    Famine? If they were starving they wouldn't be able to run a mile, let alone 26 miles. Besides, the physiology of famine isn't something that can be transmitted genetically.

    Exactly, their race and native climate is paramount. Culture and tenacity are not the limiting factors, otherwise we would not have such a limited pool of competitive ethnicities.
     
    Use the success of Jamaica as a guide. This is a poor, tiny Caribbean island with a very small population. Every historical, genetic and physiological variable is accounted for in other Caribbean islands and indeed in the United States. But none are as successful as Jamaica. We're only left with intangibles like culture, history and tradition.

    That’s why geneticists speak of allele frequencies and group mean-average differences.
     
    There has not been a genetic study that differentiates the genomes of Kenyan runners from anyone else's. Besides which, if this one Kenyan tribe has a genetic predisposition, on average, then random chance would predict that they would be far less dominant than they are.

    Some body types occur so infrequently in certain ethnic groups that it’s a freak event, a statistical error. In sport, these group average differences by themselves often account for differential performance.
     
    Historically, these pseudoscientific claims have never stood the test of time. You don't really think that East Africans are going to dominate long distance running forever, do you? Well, they won't. Someone will discover new training methods. Or the culture of running will fade in places like Kenya while it germinates elsewhere. These things come and go in cycles. Through the generations various reasons were proffered as to why black people were physiologically incapable of participating in many of the sports they would later came to dominate. Once they began to dominate those sports, the pseudoscience turned full circle and attributed their success to unfair genetic freakery.
  937. @Jssh

    Then name a Nigerian gold, silver or bronze medal winner.
     
    Sure. This is literally the first year I checked because I remembered it well.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_100_metres

    Silver went to Nigerian-born Francis Obikwelu representing Portugal. He gained Portugese nationality at 16 after the 1994 World Junior Championships. He had no prior connections to that country. Gold and Silver went to African-Americans. A Ghanaian came 8th. Caribbeans in between. Everyone in the final was black. Other qualifiers in the other straights come from Botswana, Gambia and the Ivory Coast.


    There’s an estimated 90,000+ Kenyan-Americans. Surely if Kenyans have a magical genetic advantage that pool is sufficient to find at least 1 or 2 runners.
     
    It's not magic. We know some of the physiological properties give them an advantage. They're skinny, yet muscular, with a stress-comfortable pulmonary system. Dry, high altitude, near-famine conditions will do that to a race of people.

    Runners, yes, winners, probably not. 90,000 is a pittance as far as international sport is concerned. I bet a few have done well in state-level junior athletics vis-a-vis Bengali-Americans or Argentine-Americans for example. Do you have the data?


    Precisely. Kalenjin Kenyans have unique advantages borne of their history, environment and culture. But all of that is useless without the training and mental toughness the sport demands.
     
    Exactly, their race and native climate is paramount. Culture and tenacity are not the limiting factors, otherwise we would not have such a limited pool of competitive ethnicities.

    A certain body type is ideal for long distance running. No body type, however, is unique to any ethnic group.
     
    That's why geneticists speak of allele frequencies and group mean-average differences. Some body types occur so infrequently in certain ethnic groups that it's a freak event, a statistical error. In sport, these group average differences by themselves often account for differential performance.
     

    Silver went to Nigerian-born Francis Obikwelu representing Portugal. He gained Portugese nationality at 16 after the 1994 World Junior Championships. He had no prior connections to that country. Gold and Silver went to African-Americans. A Ghanaian came 8th.

    I was asking for a Nigerian Nigerian. Your example only reinforces my argument.

    Everyone in the final was black.

    And everyone in the downhill skiing final was white. Oddly enough, in that case you don’t grasp for genetic reasons to explain white dominance. But in both cases the cultural and sociological matrix offers more plausible, more parsimonious explanations.

    It’s not magic. We know some of the physiological properties give them an advantage. They’re skinny, yet muscular, with a stress-comfortable pulmonary system. Dry, high altitude, near-famine conditions will do that to a race of people.

    Skinny yet muscular are universal phenotypes.

    Stress-comfortable pulmonary system is something you just made up.

    Dry, high altitude? Sure, but it’s easy to replicate those conditions anywhere in the world. Indeed, runners do train in those conditions.

    Famine? If they were starving they wouldn’t be able to run a mile, let alone 26 miles. Besides, the physiology of famine isn’t something that can be transmitted genetically.

    Exactly, their race and native climate is paramount. Culture and tenacity are not the limiting factors, otherwise we would not have such a limited pool of competitive ethnicities.

    Use the success of Jamaica as a guide. This is a poor, tiny Caribbean island with a very small population. Every historical, genetic and physiological variable is accounted for in other Caribbean islands and indeed in the United States. But none are as successful as Jamaica. We’re only left with intangibles like culture, history and tradition.

    That’s why geneticists speak of allele frequencies and group mean-average differences.

    There has not been a genetic study that differentiates the genomes of Kenyan runners from anyone else’s. Besides which, if this one Kenyan tribe has a genetic predisposition, on average, then random chance would predict that they would be far less dominant than they are.

    Some body types occur so infrequently in certain ethnic groups that it’s a freak event, a statistical error. In sport, these group average differences by themselves often account for differential performance.

    Historically, these pseudoscientific claims have never stood the test of time. You don’t really think that East Africans are going to dominate long distance running forever, do you? Well, they won’t. Someone will discover new training methods. Or the culture of running will fade in places like Kenya while it germinates elsewhere. These things come and go in cycles. Through the generations various reasons were proffered as to why black people were physiologically incapable of participating in many of the sports they would later came to dominate. Once they began to dominate those sports, the pseudoscience turned full circle and attributed their success to unfair genetic freakery.

    • Replies: @Jssh
    The athletes themselves are not starving. Their ancestors evolved in conditions that rewarded metabolic and pulmonary efficiency. They have certain physical characteristics because their ancestors were famine resilient or famine robust. They probably share some of the same twitch muscle genes with their Atlantic African cousins to boot. These characteristics, some known, some underresearched, give them physical advantages over other groups in certain contests. I should add that Nilotes and other "Wet Saharan" Africans are pastoral, migrating from watering hole to watering hole all their adult lives. It shouldn't be a surprise that South Asians, sedentary agriculturalists, who are just awful at athletics, can't compete. Tens of thousands of years of evolution separate these races. It only takes a fraction of the time to concentrate alleles.

    Phenotypical differences occur between groups at different frequencies, which, on the aggregate, can matter a hell of a lot. Steve Sailer once gave the example of Congolese Pygmies and Dinka. Despite the fact that height is a continuous variable governed by thousands of genes, the differences between these (not very geographically removed) groups is so extreme that 100% of healthy Dinka will be taller than one 100% of Pygmies.

    I think I'm wasting my time if you don't understand the basics of ethnology. You've shown you don't understand the concept of statistically significant group differences and their consequences.


    You don’t really think that East Africans are going to dominate long distance running forever, do you? Well, they won’t.
     
    Yes. When you're 55 and old, watch a marathon one year and remember reading this.

    I find it particularly obscene that you ignore the essence of the argument for West African athletic prowess because some guy was wearing a Green-Red shirt instead of a Green-White shirt. How do you account for the black dominance from the Americas, Caribbean and their European diaspora? Get real.

    None of this makes you a racist, friend. It's okay to learn.

    , @Jssh

    But none are as successful as Jamaica.
     
    Have you looked at national qualifying tables? On the very same Olympic final I sent you Saint Kitts and Nevis and Barbados came 6th and 7th. Trinidad and Tobago also does well although not that year. This applies to women.

    No "sociological matrix" unites the entire Black African world on both sides of the Atlantic for sprinting. The same is true for the small pool of marathon ethnicities who have much closer language, education and socio-economic affinities with their immediate neighbors of different deep ancestry.

    Skiing is a very artificial sport such that greater variance is accounted for by life circumstances. Europeans dominate the sport because they invented it, live in the Alps or Scandinavia, and have the means to do something so unnatural habitually. This is not true for first-order activities like swimming, throwing, weight-lifting and running which are universal.

    The correct statistical model is factor analysis and multivariate regression but we don't study this stuff as we should for same reasons we no longer use words like "race", "Nordic" and "mountain Nilote" even though they explain countless real world phenomena. Factor analysis only had 3 decades and genetics didn't even exist before the UN in 1951 declared the study of race a New Age Heresy. This is only "pseudo-science" by political fiat not falsification. You don't know the history.
  938. @Okechukwu

    Silver went to Nigerian-born Francis Obikwelu representing Portugal. He gained Portugese nationality at 16 after the 1994 World Junior Championships. He had no prior connections to that country. Gold and Silver went to African-Americans. A Ghanaian came 8th.
     
    I was asking for a Nigerian Nigerian. Your example only reinforces my argument.

    Everyone in the final was black.
     
    And everyone in the downhill skiing final was white. Oddly enough, in that case you don't grasp for genetic reasons to explain white dominance. But in both cases the cultural and sociological matrix offers more plausible, more parsimonious explanations.

    It’s not magic. We know some of the physiological properties give them an advantage. They’re skinny, yet muscular, with a stress-comfortable pulmonary system. Dry, high altitude, near-famine conditions will do that to a race of people.
     
    Skinny yet muscular are universal phenotypes.

    Stress-comfortable pulmonary system is something you just made up.

    Dry, high altitude? Sure, but it's easy to replicate those conditions anywhere in the world. Indeed, runners do train in those conditions.

    Famine? If they were starving they wouldn't be able to run a mile, let alone 26 miles. Besides, the physiology of famine isn't something that can be transmitted genetically.

    Exactly, their race and native climate is paramount. Culture and tenacity are not the limiting factors, otherwise we would not have such a limited pool of competitive ethnicities.
     
    Use the success of Jamaica as a guide. This is a poor, tiny Caribbean island with a very small population. Every historical, genetic and physiological variable is accounted for in other Caribbean islands and indeed in the United States. But none are as successful as Jamaica. We're only left with intangibles like culture, history and tradition.

    That’s why geneticists speak of allele frequencies and group mean-average differences.
     
    There has not been a genetic study that differentiates the genomes of Kenyan runners from anyone else's. Besides which, if this one Kenyan tribe has a genetic predisposition, on average, then random chance would predict that they would be far less dominant than they are.

    Some body types occur so infrequently in certain ethnic groups that it’s a freak event, a statistical error. In sport, these group average differences by themselves often account for differential performance.
     
    Historically, these pseudoscientific claims have never stood the test of time. You don't really think that East Africans are going to dominate long distance running forever, do you? Well, they won't. Someone will discover new training methods. Or the culture of running will fade in places like Kenya while it germinates elsewhere. These things come and go in cycles. Through the generations various reasons were proffered as to why black people were physiologically incapable of participating in many of the sports they would later came to dominate. Once they began to dominate those sports, the pseudoscience turned full circle and attributed their success to unfair genetic freakery.

    The athletes themselves are not starving. Their ancestors evolved in conditions that rewarded metabolic and pulmonary efficiency. They have certain physical characteristics because their ancestors were famine resilient or famine robust. They probably share some of the same twitch muscle genes with their Atlantic African cousins to boot. These characteristics, some known, some underresearched, give them physical advantages over other groups in certain contests. I should add that Nilotes and other “Wet Saharan” Africans are pastoral, migrating from watering hole to watering hole all their adult lives. It shouldn’t be a surprise that South Asians, sedentary agriculturalists, who are just awful at athletics, can’t compete. Tens of thousands of years of evolution separate these races. It only takes a fraction of the time to concentrate alleles.

    Phenotypical differences occur between groups at different frequencies, which, on the aggregate, can matter a hell of a lot. Steve Sailer once gave the example of Congolese Pygmies and Dinka. Despite the fact that height is a continuous variable governed by thousands of genes, the differences between these (not very geographically removed) groups is so extreme that 100% of healthy Dinka will be taller than one 100% of Pygmies.

    I think I’m wasting my time if you don’t understand the basics of ethnology. You’ve shown you don’t understand the concept of statistically significant group differences and their consequences.

    You don’t really think that East Africans are going to dominate long distance running forever, do you? Well, they won’t.

    Yes. When you’re 55 and old, watch a marathon one year and remember reading this.

    I find it particularly obscene that you ignore the essence of the argument for West African athletic prowess because some guy was wearing a Green-Red shirt instead of a Green-White shirt. How do you account for the black dominance from the Americas, Caribbean and their European diaspora? Get real.

    None of this makes you a racist, friend. It’s okay to learn.

  939. @Okechukwu

    Silver went to Nigerian-born Francis Obikwelu representing Portugal. He gained Portugese nationality at 16 after the 1994 World Junior Championships. He had no prior connections to that country. Gold and Silver went to African-Americans. A Ghanaian came 8th.
     
    I was asking for a Nigerian Nigerian. Your example only reinforces my argument.

    Everyone in the final was black.
     
    And everyone in the downhill skiing final was white. Oddly enough, in that case you don't grasp for genetic reasons to explain white dominance. But in both cases the cultural and sociological matrix offers more plausible, more parsimonious explanations.

    It’s not magic. We know some of the physiological properties give them an advantage. They’re skinny, yet muscular, with a stress-comfortable pulmonary system. Dry, high altitude, near-famine conditions will do that to a race of people.
     
    Skinny yet muscular are universal phenotypes.

    Stress-comfortable pulmonary system is something you just made up.

    Dry, high altitude? Sure, but it's easy to replicate those conditions anywhere in the world. Indeed, runners do train in those conditions.

    Famine? If they were starving they wouldn't be able to run a mile, let alone 26 miles. Besides, the physiology of famine isn't something that can be transmitted genetically.

    Exactly, their race and native climate is paramount. Culture and tenacity are not the limiting factors, otherwise we would not have such a limited pool of competitive ethnicities.
     
    Use the success of Jamaica as a guide. This is a poor, tiny Caribbean island with a very small population. Every historical, genetic and physiological variable is accounted for in other Caribbean islands and indeed in the United States. But none are as successful as Jamaica. We're only left with intangibles like culture, history and tradition.

    That’s why geneticists speak of allele frequencies and group mean-average differences.
     
    There has not been a genetic study that differentiates the genomes of Kenyan runners from anyone else's. Besides which, if this one Kenyan tribe has a genetic predisposition, on average, then random chance would predict that they would be far less dominant than they are.

    Some body types occur so infrequently in certain ethnic groups that it’s a freak event, a statistical error. In sport, these group average differences by themselves often account for differential performance.
     
    Historically, these pseudoscientific claims have never stood the test of time. You don't really think that East Africans are going to dominate long distance running forever, do you? Well, they won't. Someone will discover new training methods. Or the culture of running will fade in places like Kenya while it germinates elsewhere. These things come and go in cycles. Through the generations various reasons were proffered as to why black people were physiologically incapable of participating in many of the sports they would later came to dominate. Once they began to dominate those sports, the pseudoscience turned full circle and attributed their success to unfair genetic freakery.

    But none are as successful as Jamaica.

    Have you looked at national qualifying tables? On the very same Olympic final I sent you Saint Kitts and Nevis and Barbados came 6th and 7th. Trinidad and Tobago also does well although not that year. This applies to women.

    No “sociological matrix” unites the entire Black African world on both sides of the Atlantic for sprinting. The same is true for the small pool of marathon ethnicities who have much closer language, education and socio-economic affinities with their immediate neighbors of different deep ancestry.

    Skiing is a very artificial sport such that greater variance is accounted for by life circumstances. Europeans dominate the sport because they invented it, live in the Alps or Scandinavia, and have the means to do something so unnatural habitually. This is not true for first-order activities like swimming, throwing, weight-lifting and running which are universal.

    The correct statistical model is factor analysis and multivariate regression but we don’t study this stuff as we should for same reasons we no longer use words like “race”, “Nordic” and “mountain Nilote” even though they explain countless real world phenomena. Factor analysis only had 3 decades and genetics didn’t even exist before the UN in 1951 declared the study of race a New Age Heresy. This is only “pseudo-science” by political fiat not falsification. You don’t know the history.

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