Monthly Archives: February 2013

Narrow Distribution

For American blacks, the variance in IQ and IQ-like tests is significantly smaller than it is in whites – 65-80% as big. You already knew that the mean was ~ 1 std lower. Smaller for IQ, SAT, MCAT, bar exams, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 110 Comments

Whaddya know?

I was noticing an article in the Atlantic by Rebecca Rosen – On Nuclear Weapons as Units of Measurement. The gist of the article was that you can’t really compare meteor explosions (like the one over Chelyabinsk) to a nuclear … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 46 Comments

Unchanging Essence

John Shea is a professor of anthropology at Stony Brook, specializing in ancient archaeology. He’s been making the argument that ‘behavioral modernity’ is a flawed concept, which it is. Naturally, he wants to replace it with something even worse. Not … Continue reading

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Educating Ginny

We’ve home-schooled our kids through 8th grade. That has had its ups and downs. At one point, just after the twins were born, I decided to have a look at the history of World War Two, the greatest of all … Continue reading

Posted in Education, World War Two | 68 Comments

Too many Jātis

It seems to me that the genetic structure of India would slow down the spread of selectively advantageous alleles – compared to Europe, say.

Posted in Uncategorized | 44 Comments

Elementary, my dear Holmes

We have a paradox. We can measure nonpaternity over the past few hundred years by genealogical studies – do most guys named Sykes have the Sykes Y-chromosome? Most do, so you know that nonpaternity averaged about 1.3% in that lineage. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 108 Comments