The Intelligence of Race

H'm:

It's a biological fact that there are innate differences in IQ among different races. If you can't deal with that, enjoy being a truther.
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) January 30, 2015

Set aside the fact that Charles Johnson is a soulless ginger (heh), let's talk about race and intelligence and this assertion he makes about a fact of biology. But more, let's talk about the consequences of his assertion about that fact of biology.

To start, I will declare outright some biases: (a) I fucking love science (ahem) (b) I am bi-racial; specifically, I'm half white boy, half black girl. That sounds weird, but there you have it. I have some skin (heh) in the game, so to speak. And (c) I am a Christian.

I was born in Cameroon, lived the first half of my life in Nigeria in the west of Africa and then moved around until I settled in Florida, which is as close to a melting pot as you will have anywhere else in the US, both in literal and metaphorical terms. What this means is that, as an average observer of humanity--certainly enough to know I don't like most humans--I can tell you that there are truths to be found in generalities about groups. Where things start to fray is in applying those averages, those generalities to individual members of those groups. It takes a steady mind to avoid bigotry, and we are all of us guilty of it regardless of skin color.

For example, the myriad problems in Nigeria have at their root the deep divides between Nigerian ethnic and attendant religious groups: the eastern Igbos, reputed to be more intelligent than the northern Hausas, don't like the western Yorubas, etc. And they each say things about each other in generalities: "Don't trust an Igbo trader, son. He's out to steal as much as he can. Learn to bargain!" And so on.

We are generalization engines. We categorize. We sort and classify. It's what has made us the dominant species on the planet. But it is also the bane of our existence. The source of much strife, of war, of violence, of evil. With this in mind, let's talk about genetics, of which I know just enough from High School & College biology (I was a Zoology major at a University in Nigeria, intending on going on to Medical School). It is a fact that certain attributes pass genetically from generation to generation. It is, truly, settled science if there ever was such a thing. Among black Americans, a doctor will say, high blood pressure is more common. Sickle Cell Anemia is prevalent among black Africans, etc.

Chances are, you inherited your father's thighs or your mother's breasts--which would really suck for you if you're a man. Chances are, you'll likely die from the same disease that killed one of your grandfathers, if medical science doesn't find a cure. Chances are, people will say you have your mother's green eyes, Chances are, you and your sisters share your grandmother's Roman nose. And the list goes on.

There's no valid reason why genetic inheritance of attributes should stop, by human fiat, at the neck and go no higher. Those calf muscles you got from your father, but no one knows why you both suck at mathematics. No idea. Nonsense. Intelligence and the attendant capability is heritable. I've seen it, you've seen it. I believe, based on the evidence, that this is a fact of life.

Well now, what about groups? Ah now there's where the road is not so easy to walk. The Nazis (you knew it was coming) used the "biological fact" of racial differences to send millions to the gas chambers. Does this, one wonders, therefore invalidate the study of racial differences? Of course not, because to do so is to commit a logical fallacy. Are there racial differences between peoples and are those differences genetic? I say yes. Race, like sex, is most certainly not a social "construct" and it is foolish to think otherwise.

And if by extension, there are biological--including morphology--differences between the races, transferrable through the genes, and if, intelligence is likewise transferrable through the genes, it ought to follow that there are differences in intelligence between the races. As a half-black, half-white man, this makes sense to me; it does not make me uncomfortable in the least.

And this is why: I do not apply what I know to be true about groups to the individual members of that group. For two reasons: first because it's committing a logical fallacy to do otherwise and also because earlier I declared the bias that I am a Christian. What that means is that in the way I live my life and in my interactions with people, there are certain rules and regulations that govern and provide guidance to those interactions. I believe I am made in God's image (Imago Dei) and I also believe every human being on the planet is also made in God's image. This does not nullify the fact of our differences, of which there are many: racial, ideological, political, and so on. What is does do is require that I act accordingly for we are, all of us, God's children, brothers and sisters.

The problem is, we're humans. Fallible and fallen creatures that really suck generally. With evil in the heart, we seize on our differences to rationalize our evil actions against others. It is "harder" to shoot your son in the head than a stranger's. It is "easier" to kick a dog (Canis familiaris) than it is to kick a child (Homo sapiens). People and things that are different from us are easier to act against with malice. It is the stuff of which human history is made and all you have to do to convince yourself of this reality is to read a few history books.

So then, for argument's sake accept the fact of the matter that there are differences between the races. The question now is, so what? From which follows, no what? What are we to do with this information? As with most questions posed to humanity, it comes fraught with advantage and danger.

My doctor asks me for a family history so he can help me avoid "family-related" problems so I can live longer and healthier than my mother who died young. The racist down the street from me assumes because of my mother's skin color that I am unintelligent, if not outright stupid, and because of this, am two steps away from being violent. Well, in a way, he's right: I am steps away from being violent, but that requires he takes the first few steps first. :)

For good and for bad, there are differences between the races. For good, we can tailor health practices to ensure we all live longer. For bad, we can have Auschwitz. Personally, for you, as an individual, what should this bit of information do for you? Information, data, sitting there means nothing. You may as well have never known it--and I believe this is the path many take, to turn a blind eye. Does this mean that you will act in a certain way when you meet a black person? An Arab? A Jew? A Chinese man? Will it change the way you would have acted?

If it is shown that the intelligence of black Africans is lower than that of white Europeans, does this mean you now understand why black African countries are such hell holes? Does this remove the blinders, everything now clear? Does the relatively high intelligence of the Ashkenazi Jews now mean we should only have those Jews be scientists? Drawing only from that class of persons the doctors, engineers? Are you, as a white man, better than me, as a half-white man who is in turn better than a fully-black man? What does "better" mean in this situation?

As a government, do we start passing legislation barring certain groups from occupying certain posts in society based on genetics? Are we to segregate blacks in certain sections of our cities (which they already do on their own, by choice, it seems)? Japanese? Do we pass laws requiring that blacks cannot intermarry with Asians because the ensuing offspring will be "less capable" for society?

What do we do with this information, considering it's truth? Now, what? Considering how bad we are at statistics, replete through and through with cognitive bias after cognitive bias, now what.

Complexity

Quote of the day:

No, the real lesson is that under conditions of true complexity—where the knowledge required exceeds that of any individual and unpredictability reigns—efforts to dictate every step from the center will fail. People need room to act and adapt. Yet they cannot succeed as isolated individuals, either—that is anarchy. Instead, they require a seemingly contradictory mix of freedom and expectation—expectation to coordinate, for example, and also to measure progress toward common goals.

My takeaway from this is the idea of managing from a center.That's what'll end up kicking your but.
Buy and read this book, it's truly excellent.

Environmentalists Are Anti-Human

Work

NASA?

Since the NASA administrator recently regaled the world with the news that the most important goal for NASA is now increasing Muslims’ self-esteem, Fred (great name) Fry come up with the above new NASA logo … it’s a beaut!

More from Michelle Malkin’s call.

Human Capability

Bruce Charlton—Professor of Theoretical Medicine at the University of Buckingham, UK—writes to assert that human capability peaked about 1975 and that as for now, we no longer are capable of doing many things we used to be able to do.

The fact is that human no longer do - *can* no longer do many things we used to be able to do: land on the moon, swiftly win wars against weak opposition and then control the defeated nation, secure national borders, discover ‘breakthrough’ medical treatments, prevent crime, design and build to a tight deadline, educate people so they are ready to work before the age of 22, block an undersea oil leak...

50 years ago we would have the smartest, best trained, most experienced and most creative people we could find (given human imperfections) in position to take responsibility, make decisions and act upon them in pursuit of a positive goal.

Now we have dull and docile committee members chosen partly with an eye to affirmative action and to generate positive media coverage, whose major priority is not to do the job but to avoid personal responsibility and prevent side-effects; pestered at every turn by an irresponsible and aggressive media and grandstanding politicians out to score popularity points; all of whom are hemmed-about by regulations such that – whatever they do do, or do not do – they will be in breach of some rule or another.

I agree, alas.

The — Man

Geocaching

Have you heard about Geocaching? No? Well get thee hence to geocaching.com!

I’ve been ‘geocaching’ or ‘caching’ continuously since December 2003—with the exception of a few months here and there—and have found 145 caches which, while that may sound like a lot, is nowhere near impressive compared to others with thousands and thousands of finds.

For the most part, cache owners (those who hide caches) do a good job of hiding them, but as in many human endeavors, there are enough maroons to stir the crazy pot.

For example, some Boise cache owners are a particularly peculiar lot. I have found caches in a few cities, but Boise is in a class all its own. There’s this one for example, where the cache owner seems to actively seek a “Did Not Find”! The idea of caching is to hide so that others may find so this one boggles the mind.

The other bit of weirdness: some of the recent caches I’ve found have the most idiotic hints ever. This one reads “A hint world ‘signal’ you right to it.” When you get to the cache, you’ll find there’s a (traffic) signal box nearby but the cache itself cannot be said to be anywhere near this box. In fact, one could say there’s no damned connection between the two.

Here’s one more mindless hint: the owner places a cache in a fence post of a parking area then hints that the cache is in the parking area. Yeah? Really? What’s the use of a hint if the only thing it points out is the general area to which the GPS receiver brought you in the first place?

This same cache owner hid another cache under tree cover then, astoundingly, provides no hint whatsoever. Anyone who caches quickly realizes that a GPS receiver needs a clear view of the sky (and satellites). To put a cache under tree cover, while not necessarily a bad idea, makes finding that cache a bit tougher so either make the cache location obvious to cachers—which is an entirely different thing from making it obvious, by the way—or put in a good hint.

Of course this same cacher has 911 cache finds but 158 cache hides. 158! Cachers with these numbers love to hide caches with what I call “frenzy hiding,” placing one whenever and wherever they feel like, as a rabbit would leave droppings. Whenever I see something like this, I groan. Hiding a cache should take some work: the last thing you do is get out to what you think is a good hiding area, take a waypoint, drop your cache as you would flicking a cigarette butt out the window of a speeding car then rush home to post it online.

First, placing a cache is a responsibility. You shouldn’t place a cache that you can’t take care of—there’ve been cases of people hiding caches while on vacation several thousand miles away from where they live. This means that if something happens to the cache, they couldn’t fix it.

Second, there should be a reason for placing a cache. The location could be one: is it a cool place? Something interesting to see? A cool view? Or it could be a spectacular hide, like this one which fits the category of both location and good hide technique.

Third, because the accuracy of GPS receivers vary wildly, it is the responsibility of the cache hider to verify as much as they can that the coordinates they’re posting are very, very close to the real world, actual location. The few times I’ve hidden a cache, I make absolutely certain that the coordinates are spot-on by taking several waypoints of the spot then, using Google Maps, confirming the location exactly.

In the one case where I knew I would be placing a cache without a clear view of the sky, I put in a hint that actually would help a cacher find the damn thing without requiring they “trade a DNF (Did Not Find)” for additional hints.

Fourth—and this one is a corollary of the third—give the cache finder a reasonable amount of privacy so they can find the cache and log it without arousing too much suspicion. This should be the case 90% of the time. There are those cache hides that are hidden in full view of a lot of traffic and the excitement of finding such a cache in as secretive a way as possible makes the finder bristle with the excitement of a “James Bond”. Fine. But first, describe this cache as such. Secondly, camouflage this type of cache very well. Thirdly, make it easy to get so the finder doesn’t have to perform calisthenics to find it, thus arousing suspicion!

One of the dumbest cache hides I’ve seen so far is this one in the parking lot of a supermarket. The location was ho-hum—I mean, it’s the parking lot of a supermarket! The only thing going for this cache was the unencumbered view of the sats. In other to get this cache, I had to prostrate myself full-length and then feel for the cache in full view of all the shoppers. At the very least, you’re definitely going to stand out to even the most unsuspecting passerby, which means the cache is going to be stolen or trashed (“muggled,” in the parlance) soon.

Well, that’s my rant about caching. Despite these few hiccups, It’s a lot of fun and you should definitely try it. Geocaching has taken me to some incredible places (no, not the parking lot of a supermarket!) that I’d otherwise never get to. Don’t forget caching is also as close to actual exercise us geeks get!

Barbara Boxed

Harry C. Alford makes the wonderful point to racialist pig in makeup, Barbie Boxer, that the relevance of the color of one’s skin to a discussion on energy policy is exactly nil.

This is the problem with liberal Democrats: a trite illogic.

One Idea Per Slide

Want to drive me up a wall?

Make me sit in on a presentation in which the presenter packs enough verbiage into one slide to make an eye chart. I’ve seen and heard presenters boast or apologize for the number of slides they have; boast if they have “only” 20 slides or apologize if they have some arbitrary number, say 40.

Ironically, I’m for MORE slides. First because they’re free and second, anything to get away from posting up those eye charts.

Duarte has this incredible post on their blog from February that I just love! Of the five lessons, the one dearest to my heart is number four, One Idea per Slide:

4. One idea per slide

This was a key improvement we made to this presentation. Presenters often include many ideas on one slide, doing their best to be efficient with their slide real estate. An honorable gesture, but totally unnecessary in a digital world.

During a live presentation, visuals exist in time as well as space. The audience doesn’t need to stare at the same four points while the speaker weaves his story around each of them. So we turned this single bullet slide into four different slides, letting the audience absorb them one at a time and (once again) highlighting the speaker’s voice as the most important part of the experience.

KISS!

El Reyna

Eons ago (about 6 years), I got involved Big Time with flight simulation using Microsoft's venerable Flight Simulator which I've used one way or another since MSFS 95. During that time, I flew online with VATSIM which is an incredible "community" of virtual flightsim enthusiasts that both fly and provide air traffic control for those that fly.

I think I flew several hundred hours as a pilot and rose to the rank of Senior Controller in the Miami Center ARTCC (look it up). But, you just won't believe the technical proficiency of some of the aircraft produced for Flight Simulator. Here's a beautiful video of one of them, my very favorite aircraft, the Boeing 747:



Be honest, if you didn't know this was simulated, would you have known?

What Am I Doing?

Busy … amazing, isn't it?  Got a new PC with Vista Home Basic installed that promptly started throwing up its hands with a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death—I thought these were a thing of the past with Vista?).

Luckily, I'm a systems administrator for a large Windows installation which means I can really mess up my new computer … so off into the wild blue I go: every kernel crash—which is what a BSOD actually is—craps a dmp file which in Vista resides in C:\Windows\Minidump.

Using the Windows debugger, I saw that a driver related to the network card was misbehaving.  After an upgrade from Intel's site, finito!  I shudder to think what the average computer user would think about this kind of error.  For shame, Microsoft.

Global Warming Cooling

H'm.  So it seems that the earth is actually cooling after all.  China experienced its coldest winter in 100 years.  For the first time in recorded history, the snow flies in Baghdad and the US mainland gets the most snow cover in 50 years and various temperature records are broken.

According to this article, all that above is anecdotal however we now have some empirical data from the usual suspects (NASA, etc.) that strengthens the evidence.

I wonder what that blowhard Gore has to say about this?  Who cares is the better question.

Torture

This page lists the most painful torture devices in history. Some of them are quite terrible:

19. Heretic’s Fork

The Heretic’s Fork was a torture device, loosely consisting of a length of metal with two opposed bi-pronged “forks” as well as an attached belt or strap.One end was pushed under the chin, and the other into the sternum, the strap fixing the device to the neck. This effectively immobilized the head at a total extension of the neck, and caused great pain.The four sharp points snugly nestled under the chin and sternum were designed to allow the victim just enough range of motion with his mouth to murmer [sic] a confession.

Air Traffic Patterns

Incredible animation to show air traffic patterns over a 24-hour period in the United States.

More here.

Nigerian Helicopter

Mubarak Abdullahi, a Nigerian physics undergraduate, spent eight months constructing this machine from junk—including a crashed 747. It has actually flown (seven feet). Details here.

This brings back some memories. In 1986, I was a member of a team that won our state's science quiz competition (Bendel state). We traveled to Kaduna in northern Nigeria to compete at the national level against students from the other, then, 18 states. There were two parts to the competition: the quiz itself and a “project.” There were these two boys, Igbo guys, who designed and built a semi-working helicopter model from spare parts and that's what we used as our project competition entry.

Built out of soldered pipes, scrap wood and a homemade engine of some kind, we jerry rigged the whole thing together and I was called on to design the aerodynamics of it, including designing the control mechanism. It was so much fun trying to figure out the aerodynamics of a helicopter and my brain almost exploded working out the problems. We never actually got it to fly (the first model exploded in a ball of flames when we started the engine), but we understood enough about the aerodynamics of it all that I was able to show how—theoretically—it should fly, complete with the proper equations. We took third place, which wasn't that remarkable considering that the winning entry was a “new” method of making ogogoro or moonshine.

I'm only surprised it wasn't some Igbo guy who did this.

iNdian iPhone

Someone in India is selling supervised viewing time with the Apple iPhone. For 500 Rupees (about $12), the suitably awed Apple Polisher Worshipper will kneel before the Apple god and offer  tactile worship.

Wow.

Reported on Gizmodo.

Morse Code

Oh wow, I just learned Morse Code in half an hour!

So there I was at my desk, reading an excerpt from a book, Mind Performance Hacks by Ron Hale-Evans. Hack #53 to be precise and damned if I didn't actually learn the thing almost as an afterthought.

Thing is, I've been trying to find a way to learn Morse Code almost all my life, and never actually needing it (except when I was a student pilot, that is—Morse Code is used to identify navigation radios such as VORs) I didn't waste time doing any serious study. I tried instead to find a pattern that would make it easy to learn. It didn't seem to have any so I dropped it.

But this system, mein Gott!

Here it is, in PDF: Hack 53: Learn Morse Code Like an Efficiency Expert.

--. --- --- -.. .-.. ..- -.- and have fun!

Hot News

Proving yet again (yet, yet, yet again?) the absurdity of politically-propelled, -motivated science, NASA fixed a flaw in their temperature data which hitherto had the year 1998 as the warmest in the millennium.

It was actually 1934. 1998 moved to second place and 1921 takes third. In fact, five of the ten warmest years on record now occur before World War II.

This is such nonsense, but like Malkin says and I agree, this kind of empirical data will receive little to no attention from the mainstream media whose motto seems to be 'never let facts get in the way of a good story.'

Green Conservatism

I once battered Newt Gingrich.

Yes, with my back, on an elevator, as the doors opened, in the lobby of the Boca Raton airport.

He was leaving the elevator, I was entering backwards and speaking to a friend at the same time. I bumped into Newt and we looked at each other for a second before I said sorry. He also apologized even though I was the bump-er and he the bump-ee.

Nice guy.

Here's what he says about conservatives and the environment:

ITIL

Happy August, one and all.

I spent the first half of today at a workshop, an ITIL workshop, trying to figure out the difference between CIs, categories, change management and service level agreements.

If I'd been lounging in my living room in my underwear, sipping some Gin and Juice (laiiid back, with my mind on my money…) it wouldn't have been bad. As it was, I felt like a child wandering into a dark room, naked and high on crack. As befits a programme developed by a government office (a UK government office, no less!), it's filled with jargon and skull-busting terminology.

We spent the better part of the morning attempting to decipher what several words meant and then, soon after, attempting yet again to use those half-understood words in a logical manner. Hilarity ensued when it was quickly discovered that as many people attending the workshop had as many different understanding of what each of those words meant:

“Well, when a ticket is generated,  …”

“What do you mean, 'a ticket'? Don't you mean a 'service request'?”

Roll eyes. “No, a ticket.”

“I think you're using that term incorrectly.”

Sigh.

From several sources lately, I've come to understand the value of simplicity. Guy Kawasaki talks about distilling an idea (#7) and explaining it in the time it takes for an elevator ride. The newest manifestation of my age-old disease, Made To Stick (thanks, Garr), starts out with the word Simple.

ITIL, at least from what I've seen so far, is anything but. I will give it another chance tomorrow, as one of the feedback items we've given the trainers is that we don't understand the fucking concepts. Tell us a story, give us examples, don't throw us in the deep end of the pool armed with word definition floaties and expect us to swim.

We'll see.