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Tuesday, December 22. 2015

Amazon Dominated Nearly Everything This Year

Amazon, Microsoft Gobbling Up Workloads, Says RBC, as Cloud Grows Fast

IQ Is Not Real!!!

Something to do in NYC: Girolamo dai Libri and Veronese Art of the Sixteenth Century

Art from the Veneto wrongly overshadowed by Florence

It’s practically impossible to define “GMOs”

Luckily for us, everything grown is modified. Look at a real wild apple. It's a mountain berry from China.

After 2,000 years, Christians disappearing from Gaza

California Has Plenty of Water—And Too Much Politics

Star Wars Proves Feminists Are Clueless about Science Fiction

The American Papers that Praised Hitler

Miss Puerto Rico Destiny Velez Suspended Indefinitely for Associating Islamic Terrorism With Islam

There go my chances for Mr. Universe

Purdue University Pushes Back against Free-Speech Suppression

Budget bill leaves no boondoggle behind: Column

Miss
Puerto Rico Destiny Velez Suspended Indefinitely for Associating
Islamic Terrorism With Islam - See more at:
http://moonbattery.com/?p=66679#sthash.W5AlpDWd.dpuf

AZ Sheriff Babeu: We’ve Had 10,000 Unaccompanied Juveniles In Two Months, Obama Admin Says ‘Border Is Wide Open’

Saturday Night Leftist Lunacy - Islam is our friend, gun owners and the rich are our enemies.

Germans Scramble To Buy Weapons Amid Nationwide Spike In Migrant-Driven Crime

China Tests New ICBM from Railroad Car

Kenyan Muslims shield Christians in Mandera bus attack

How Our Overly Restrictive Rules of Engagement Keep Us from Winning Wars

Iran provokes the world as Obama does nothing

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:28 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0)

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Really enjoyed Amazon Dominated Nearly Everything This Year and The American Papers that Praised Hitler.

Thanks for posting.

#1 feeblemind on 2015-12-22 10:33 (Reply)

Re: Papers that praised Hitler

That papers supported Hitler is not surprising. First, they have been run by leftists or progressives for a long time. Note the glee the New York times reported Duranty's glowing reports of Stalin's Russia. Then remember that some very famous and influential people like Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh supported him. Recounting that some newspapers supported Hitler before the war is an interesting historical footnote. What is really interesting is who continued to support him during the war. For example, even while Hitler was invading France Joe Kennedy, ambassador to Britain, was a supporter of Hitler. It created enough of a problem that Roosevelt recalled and replaced him.

#2 mudbug on 2015-12-22 10:38 (Reply)

The Christian population of Gaza, and the West Bank, have declined due to persecution and attacks by fanatics there and the poor economy due to the wastrels running the areas socking aid into their mansions and Swiss accounts. The Christian population within Israel has increased, where tolerance and sounder economics are practiced.

#3 Bruce Kesler on 2015-12-22 10:39 (Reply)

QUOTE:

IQ Is Not Real!!! ... I doubt you can find anyone in science claiming that only 75% of intelligence is inherited. The general consensus is 90% and there are many who argue it is closer to 98%.

That is incorrect. The most commonly cited percentage is 60-80%; however, there are a number of caveats. Heritability rises with age. As might be expected, heritability is higher in richer communities. Heritability varies by trait. And average IQ has increased over the last few decades, faster than can be accounted for by genetics alone. Even then, someone may be intelligent in some respects, but not others; for instance, a person may be a great read of other people, but not good at maths.

QUOTE:

If little Johnny has a native IQ of 85, he’s never going to be college material.

That is also not necessarily the case. IQ is not a perfect indicator of intelligence. Furthermore, someone may test low on an IQ test, but still have valuable abilities that can be improved through advanced education.

QUOTE:

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all. — Ecclesiastes 9:11

Heritability is not quite the same as inherited. Heritability is a correlation; between a trait in a population and differences in genetics. For fun, here's a couple of questions on heritability:

What is the heritability of having fingers?
What is the heritability of wearing earrings?

#4 Zachriel on 2015-12-22 11:02 (Reply)

Emphatically no. 60-80% is the range that most psychologists of a generation or two ago would cite. I recommend Steve Hsu at Infoproc and his recent research on this. Heritability of intelligence is very close to test-retest level of a single individual. That is, almost everything that doesn't involve toxins, bats to the head, or criminal neglect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62jZENi1ed8 (over an hour)

It is mere evasion to talk abut other abilities that are also useful. Of course there are other abilities that are also useful - sometimes even more useful - and no one has ever said differently. Nor has anyone ever claimed that IQ is a "perfect" indicator of intelligence.

The Flynn effect is well known, and seems to show up in some abilities more than others. Specifically, processing speed seems to be increasing, raising scores in key IQ components. Nothing prevents this from being deeply tied to a genetic array that adapts to a faster-paced environment.

#4.1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2015-12-22 12:18 (Reply)

Assistant Village Idiot: I recommend Steve Hsu at Infoproc and his recent research on this.

Hsu is an outlier, and he doesn't represent the consensus.

Socioeconomic status is still a significant factor reducing heritability of intelligence for much of the world. But even with monozygotic twin studies raised in similar environments, heritability is about 80% while same-sex dizygotic twins, it's about 60%.

The most recent, comprehensive DNA study looked at twins, siblings, and unrelated persons. They found a correlation between testing achievement and genetic factors of 54-65%, shared environment 14-21%, and individual environment 14-32%. They note that intelligence alone is not the only factor involved in testing achievement.

See Polderman et al., Meta-analysis of the heritability of human traits based on fifty years of twin studies, Nature Genetics 2015.

Assistant Village Idiot: It is mere evasion to talk abut other abilities that are also useful.

The ability to read people is a type of intelligence. The other question concerned whether someone with a low average IQ could benefit from college, and the answer often depends on other traits, such as determination.

#4.1.1 Zachriel on 2015-12-22 15:51 (Reply)

Yes, Razhib Khan, James Thompson, Cochran and Harpending, BGI, all outliers. Apparently consensus as you define it means more than reasoning, even in a field where preconceived notions can influence cnclusions. Polderman shows quite nicely that all traits are heritable, some hugely so. Cognitive tasks - a more general category but I suppose somewhat equivalent to intelligence, yields higher heritability than what you quote.

I don't see where 50 years of DNA comes from, given the relatively recent availability of genomics.

"The ability to read people" is not a particularly meaningful idea. Insofar as it is a cognitive ability, it is tied to IQ. Some skills are highly g-loaded, others less so, but the more cognitive, the more g tends to show. Even with high levels of determination, IQ 90 is going to have a hard time benefitting much from college, except in specific areas such as music or art where other (often heritable) abilities help out considerably.

#4.1.1.1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2015-12-22 16:44 (Reply)

Assistant Village Idiot: Razhib Khan, James Thompson, Cochran and Harpending, BGI, all outliers.

QUOTE:

Stephen Hsu: "The results of the study were expected from what we already knew: many genes of small effect, accounting for as much as .6 or so of narrow sense heritability"
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2011/08/intelligence-heritable-and-polygenic.html

QUOTE:

Razhib Khan quotes 25% to 75%, saying, "Intelligence, as defined by a general factor which explains variation across a range of cognitive tasks, is substantially heritable, with a narrow sense heritability on the order of 0.25 to 0.75 depending on who you talk to and what context."
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/toward-discovering-genes-affecting-cognition/

QUOTE:

James Thompson quotes 68%, saying, "Looking ahead, if we manage to build a culture which provides uniformly excellent public education, with good nutrition and good standards of living for all, then heritability estimates might be even higher than 68%."
http://drjamesthompson.blogspot.com/2013/10/heritability-estimates-and-analysis-of.html

QUOTE:

Cochran, Hardy, & Harpending, Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence, Journal of Biosocial Science 2006: "The heritability of IQ is probably lower than 0.80 in most human populations, and it may be as low as 0.50, so there are apparently some environmental effects on IQ."

QUOTE:

BGI: "Twin and adoption studies suggest that at least 50%, and perhaps as much as 80%, of the variance in g scores is due to genetic causes."
https://www.cog-genomics.org/faq

Assistant Village Idiot: I don't see where 50 years of DNA comes from, given the relatively recent availability of genomics.

Sorry. Pulled the wrong citation. See Davies et al., Genome-wide association studies establish that human intelligence is highly heritable and polygenic, Molecular Psychiatry 2011.

Assistant Village Idiot: "The ability to read people" is not a particularly meaningful idea. Insofar as it is a cognitive ability, it is tied to IQ.

It's a type of intelligence, but not strongly correlated with mathematical intelligence.

#4.1.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2015-12-22 17:30 (Reply)

Z: What is the heritability of having fingers?

Very low. Think of it this way: Most cases of missing fingers are due to environment causes.

Z: What is the heritability of wearing earrings?

Very high. The wearing of earrings is correlated with having two x-chromosomes. Heritability of this trait has been decreasing for the last few decades.

#4.2 Zachriel on 2015-12-22 17:39 (Reply)

So should we suspend Hillary for associating Islamic terrorism with Muslims?

I do believe she said that The Donald's rhetoric about Muslims was driving Muslims to Islamic terrorism?

#5 JK Brown on 2015-12-22 12:23 (Reply)

"AZ Sheriff Babeu: We’ve Had 10,000 Unaccompanied Juveniles In Two Months, Obama Admin Says ‘Border Is Wide Open’"

Send them back quick. Do it for the Climate! A child in America has a huge carbon footprint compared to what these kids will create in their native lands.

Save the Planet! Send these kids back!

QUOTE:

It quotes an Oregon study to the effect “a child in the U.S. emits more than 160 times the carbon emissions than that of a child from Bangladesh.”

#6 JK Brown on 2015-12-22 12:27 (Reply)

Oh gee, the press failing to expose the evils of Hitler? Do tell! just as they failed miserably to expose the evils of BHO.

And it wasn't just "some newspapers" it was pretty much all of them. After all isn't National Socialism just another form of scientific "Progressivism"?

#7 Earl T on 2015-12-22 12:30 (Reply)

Indeed Earl. Kind of a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

#7.1 feeblemind on 2015-12-22 14:09 (Reply)

Re: Iran provokes the world as Obama does nothing

Obama does nothing????

That's ridiculous. You can see him making a 40-foot chip shot today to the applause of the media.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/press-cheers-when-obama-sinks-40-foot-chip-shot/article/2000326

Obama is the greatest president this country has ever had, starting with his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize.

#8 Jim on 2015-12-22 16:57 (Reply)

It is difficult to know what percent of IQ is inherited or developed after conception but before birth or may even be a response to better stimulation and diet after birth. It is even possible/likely that some IQ traits are just chance at conception or during fetal development. When you also factor in the difficulty in measuring it accurately it is likely we know very little about IQ.

Another odd thing about IQ (as measured) is it isn't a reliable predictor of success. A lot of high IQ individuals simply fail to launch or if they do launch they manage to screw up their lives. And I large proportion of high IQ individuals never actually do anything or create anything useful. The Mensa Society is full of neer-do-wells and has beens.

Another quirk is the relationship between very high intelligence and genetic mental disorders. High IQ may be a genetic aberration or simply an unexplained trait accompanying other genetic aberrations.

#9 GoneWithTheWind on 2015-12-22 17:30 (Reply)

IQ is not real! For real! The one smart thing progressives did in the early part of the 20th century was abandon their adherence to eugenics and IQ magic. Before IQ there was the measuring of skulls -- especially of convicts and other anti-social types. There are many tons of scientific studies describing the behavior of blacks, Asians and Native Americans based on their cranial measurements. After WWII Conservatives picked it eugenics and IQ studies and have been running with it like mad. First of all we don't really know what intelligence is. Yes, we can recognize traits that our society values: high math skills, speed of pattern recognition, spatial agility, but IQ leaves in the dust cunning, deceit, shrewdness, pig-headedness, double-dealing, patience, revenge --valuable traits that count for much in the human species. If you think about your family history chances are you are here because of that last grouping of traits rather than pure IQ. IQ is just another self-stroking mechanism to let marginalized academics feel as though they have a voice in running American society. The conservative movement has got to jettison its love affair with IQ.

#10 Dex Quire (Link) on 2015-12-22 20:00 (Reply)

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Tuesday, December 22. 2015

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