gregladen | December 30, 2009The new Sherlock Holmes movie is, of course, a must see for Holmes buffs, and beyond that ... for regular movie goers ... it is still recommended. The movie is a high-test, quirky, action packed, funny cliff hanger. Having said that, Holmes aficionados will probably get more out of this movie than those who have not read the original stories or seen some of the better movie and TV depictions. There are also things you should appreciate about this film regarding gender because it is likely to come up. It is very very easy to label a film as racist or sexist in some way. This is partly…
gregladen | December 30, 20091: Men have 3 pts more IQ than women, explaining the gender pattern in professional employment that we see. Seriously. I guess we don't need any more STEM related blogging.
2: Jason is stirring up trouble again. Regarding science and religion.
3: What is the consensus on scientific consensus?
gregladen | December 30, 2009Short form: Good movie. I think the following review does not have any significant plot spoilers.
For me, in retrospect, the movie started before it started with a long multi-part tear-jerking recruiting ad for the U.S. National Guard, followed by a tribute to the troops in Iraq sponsored by Walmarts. Why was that part of the movie? I'll tell you in a minute.
The premise of Avatar is this: In the year 2154 or so, Earthling-Americans have started to mine the hard to get and rare mineral Hardtogetium (or something like that) and an indigenous population is in the way. There are…
gregladen | December 29, 2009This is Chart 1 from Race, Evolutoin and Behavior by J. Philippe Rushton, originally published in the Unabridged Edition of same.
gregladen | December 28, 2009Many people assume human brains vary genetically and genetic variation maps to races. But the races are not real and genetic variation can't explain brain differences. Because, dear reader, brains don't work that way.
Let's look just at the brain part of this problem.
There are between 50 and 100 billion neurons in the human brain, and every one is connected to a minimum of one other neuron to produce about 100 trillion connections. So when we are thinking about how the brain is wired up, we have to explain how so many connections can be specified to make the brain work.
There are…
gregladen | December 28, 2009... in Indiana Jones Staff of Kings Co Op mode. Which we figured out and is so hard to do I thought I'd share it.
If you don't know what this is in reference to, then you don't need to know the answer. If you do know what this is in reference to than you are desperate to know the answer.
First, I hope you know that if your plane is on fire, all you need to do is fly through any available waterfall to put it out. Earlier in the game you may have figured out that if you blow up a water tower, you can fly through the resulting spray and put the fire out as well. Northwest Airlines is now…
gregladen | December 27, 2009The following is a guest post by Stephanie Zvan. In this post, Zvan addresses a recent study of "reaction times" and IQ measurements in two study groups distinguished by race. I'll let the post speak for itself, but it is worth nothing that in the ongoing discussion of race and intelligence, the complaint is commonly made that critiques of mainstream psychometrics do not pay much attention to the recent literature. This would be a case of that not happening.
Reaction Times and IQ Tests
Stephanie Zvan
In the ongoing discussion about disparities between racial classifications on IQ tests…
gregladen | December 27, 2009This will be the topic of discusiion at a new Monthly Political Meetup in Madison, WI. The first of these meetings will be with...
... Shawn Francis Peters. He will discuss public regulation of religious behavior and the current debate in Wisconsin over state law that appears to exempt parents from criminal prosecution for the death of a child when they choose prayer and other faith practices over standard medical care.
Pub Politico has a dumb web site (or a broken web site) which makes it difficult to find out the details if you don't have a computer that is the one they tested the site on…
gregladen | December 27, 2009I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I hadn't convinced my teachers and parents that I was smarter than all the rest. I wish I had spent more time actually learning and studying and working hard than trying to show off to people.
...
Mike's latest entry on Quiche Moraine relates to the numerous discussions on IQ and related issues.
gregladen | December 27, 2009"Tensions in Latvia...are tense..." .. You know all those silly misquotes and verbal foibles that get passed around the internet that you've heard a thousand times? Here's a bunch that seem newer and less previously heard. At least to me.
They are, of course, GNU quotes. Check them out.
A couple of more good ones:
"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix." (by guess who)
"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it." (by some Congressional Rep from Texas).
gregladen | December 25, 2009Due to an ovewhelming influx of drek from various commenters, I've turned comment moderation up a few notches. This will probably mean that your comments will be grabbed by the moderation monster no matter what you say or who you are, because the Moveable Type comment moderation system totally sucks. I'm doing this because I am now about to spend a bit of family time and can't sit here sorting through shit. I'll do it later when I have time.
Sorry for the inconvenience. As I noted in a comment a moment or two back, between the AGW denialists and the "scientific" racists, and their…
gregladen | December 25, 2009This is the fourth in a series of posts on using Ubuntu Linux specifically written for that select group of people who are smart but non-geek computer users who are using Linux because they are. Just are.
How to Install and Remove Software
There are a lot of ways to install software, and total geeks can make this really hard on themselves. You may not know this, but a software application usually needs to know how to exist on a wide range of systems and hardware configurations. Even within a given Operating System (OS), there are things the software has to do to compensate for a lot of…
gregladen | December 25, 2009The first Google search page
First Atomic Clock Wristwatch
How floating cities will work.
Albert Einstein Page
gregladen | December 25, 2009What? Is it Christmas again? Damn. Every year I wake up on Christmas and realize I totally spaced the solstice. So what am I going to do with this GOAT I forgot to sacrifice????11??
Well, anyway, now that the War on Christmas is over for another year, you can re-read this.
gregladen | December 24, 2009Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
gregladen | December 24, 2009I'm reading that Dan Browne book about the Illuminati. Given that, I doubt this could really happen:
This, however, seems very likely to happen:
gregladen | December 24, 2009To you, Comrade PhysioProf is anonymous (and pseudonymous). But of course I know his true identity. In fact, I'm a good friend of the PhysioProf family. And I recently came across this document written by CPP's sister when she was a little girl living in New Zealand. I thought I would share it with you.