Thursday, February 24, 2011

What is the purpose of Life?

Hedonism, according to Roissy


die post-coitus from a heart attack. Leave the world alone to enter a void of nothingness, no different than all those married schlubs who toiled for years to nurture and raise a legacy of strippers and delinquents


If there's nothing after death, then what are you slaving away for?

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Where is the future?

With the Middle East going up in flames in:

Egypt, Bahrain, Iran, Libya, and Yemen,

Where does it end?

According to Kristof


America has important interests at stake in Bahrain — and important values. I hope that our cozy relations with those in power won’t dull our appreciation that history is more likely to side with protesters being shot with rubber bullets than with the regimes doing the shooting.



But do you REALLY Want to know where the future really is?

Look no further than Jeopardy!>


“I for one welcome our new computer overlord,” Jennings wrote underneath his answer for the final clue of the night.



The protesters in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East can go out and whine all they want. But technology keeps accelerating. Islam isn't going to save them when artificial intelligence makes them question everything that makes us human.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

More thoughts on Egypt

An article at National Review deserves quoting:


Many other questions are not being asked in the general euphoria over Mubarak’s demise. Why are the more oppressive governments of Syria, Iran, and Libya not subject to the same degree of popular unrest that is said to be surely spreading to Jordan or the Gulf? Is it because for all the authoritarianism of a Mubarak or a Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, there was never the threat of a genocidal Hama, or thousands perishing on the proscription lists under a Khomeini, or international assassinations of dissidents in the Libyan manner? (Would Egyptian-like protests ever have deposed Saddam and his Baathists [cf. the failure in 1991 after the Shiite/Kurdish uprising]?) Does the greater anti-Westernism of a Syria or Iran counterbalance its oppression in the minds of the populace? Much of this reminds me of a Gandhi being fortunate, to paraphrase Orwell, that he was rebelling against the British, and not Germans of the Third Reich.


What if Mubarak wasn't really that bad...he was just pro-American...


Much has been made of Western social-networking technology, whose entrance in the Arab world has ignited popular outrage over the absence of the elements of civilized life — decent housing, plentiful and safe food and water, effective sewerage, available employment. But how odd that brilliant Western technology — text messaging, Skypeing, iPhones, Google, Facebook — can facilitate the furor over endemic poverty and political oppression, but has so far been unable to materially alleviate the conditions of Middle Eastern poverty — as in novel, inexpensive methods of creating housing, cheaper energy, more plentiful food — that might trump the cultural and political impediments to wealth creation. We can spread Facebook page making to create anger over poverty, but not comparable Western innovations to more directly alleviate poverty.


In a flat world, you're value is defined by how intelligently you use a computer. Egyptians have only themselves to blame for falling behind...

New era of HBD

With the death of publishing does this mean a new era in HBD and politically incorrect books will be coming out?

After all, these are some other titles sold on kindle:

"Time Jump Into Bondage,"
by John Savage


Dr Helena Carter suffers bondage, pain, whipping and all manner of extreme sexual torment as she "Time Jumps" uncontrollably from the body of one suffering woman in history to another.She was known as "The Ice Woman", because no man seemed to be able to get close to her. As a scientist, her interest was in studying history by "Time Jumping", now that the complex equipment had been re-designed and she was assured that there could not be a repetition of Dr Hutton's seemingly uncontrolled "Jumping". Almost at once, Dr Helena found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Worse, she too had lost control of Time Jumps, and finally when she was thrown into a future society where it had become normal for both male and female slaves to be kept and abused for the delight and sexual gratification of their owners, it seemed there was no hope for her.



"Bang Columbia: Textbook on how to sleep with Columbian women"
by Rooshv


Bang Colombia is a strategy guide designed to help you sleep with Colombian women in Colombia without paying for it. It contains dozens of moves, lines, and tips learned after six months of research in Medellin, where the author dedicated his existence to cracking the code of Colombian women, who are more challenging than their Western counterparts. In addition to teaching you the differences between Colombian and Western culture, it details the logistics of traveling through Colombia, tips on studying Spanish, a packing guide, and recommended nightlife for the country's three largest cities. You'll learn three effective methods of meeting Colombian women, how to combat their flakey nature, how to ask them out via email and phone, how to date them, how to seal the deal quickly using non-obvious shortcuts (even if you're staying at a hostel), and much more. With lines shared in both English and Spanish, Bang Colombia aims to be a must-read for every Western man visiting the country.


"Eugenics: A Reassessment (Human Evolution, Behavior, and Intelligence) "
by Richard Lynn


fascinating, multi-faceted book.Professor Lynn sets outs to rescue eugenics from the lowly place to which it fell in the latter half of the twentieth century. It is an ambitious project, and Lynn emerges with scientific and ethical orthodoxy on many fronts. He does this with enthusiasm, moving effortlessly between history, genetics, demographics and ethics before delivering a startling prediction about the central role eugenics will play in 21st century world politics....A new debate is needed, and professor Lynn's book lays a provocative challenge to those who wish to avoid the dystopian future he foresees.



Interesting times ahead...

Monday, February 7, 2011

Friedman's BS

Mangan's blog does a great job in bringing IQ-reality to Friedman's Friedman's column.


When China can make Egyptian Ramadan toys more cheaply and appealingly than low-wage Egyptians, you know there is problem of competitiveness.

Well, yes, but why? Friedman won't go near that one, as it would upset everything he thinks he knows about global competitiveness.

Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Tunisia today are overflowing with the most frustrated cohort in the world — “the educated unemployables.” They have college degrees on paper but really don’t have the skills to make them globally competitive. I was just in Singapore. Its government is obsessed with things as small as how to better teach fractions to third graders. That has not been Hosni Mubarak’s obsession.

Another great Friedmanian theme with little or no basis in reality: education will solve all our problems. Let's see: Singapore has an estimated IQ of 103, of which the Chinese portion of the population must be closer to Hong Kong's 107 (link), and ranked at number 5 in the world, while Egypt's estimated IQ is 83, ranked number 60. Somehow I doubt that even if it were Mubarak's obsession to teach third graders fractions, Egypt will be a long time catching up to Singapore.


another Friedman column with no comments allowed. Lovely.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Be careful what you wish for...

neocons and liberals agree on something, I get very nervous.

Here are the results of the Pew survey on Egyptian beliefs:


The Pew survey found wide streams of opinion in Egypt that seem at the very least inhospitable to democracy. When asked which side they would take in a struggle between “groups who want to modernize the country [and] Islamic fundamentalists,” 59 percent of Egyptians picked the fundamentalists, while 27 percent picked the modernizers. In a country in which the army will likely play a deciding role in selecting the next political leadership, just 32 percent believe in civilian control of the military. And a majority, 54 percent, support making segregation of men and women in the workplace the law throughout Egypt.
There’s more. When asked whether suicide bombing can ever be justified, 54 percent said yes (although most believe such occasions are “rare”) Eighty-two percent supported stoning for those who commit adultery.


Quiver. This is not going to turn out well, despite Kristof's optimism.


And we also owe it to the brave men and women of Tahrir Square — and to our own history and values — to make one thing very clear: We stand with the peaceful throngs pleading for democracy, not with those who menace them.



Who's democracy? The right to shut down women's rights? The right to go to suicidal war with Israel? The right to stone apostates to death?

After all the leg chopping, genocide, and witchcraft he's seen in Africa, why does Kristof think that backwards people are capable of ruling themselves?


Friedman urges Israel to create a Palestinian state before it's too late. Too late.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Democracy and Freedom

Following the chaos in Egypt and Tunisia over the last week, I've been thinking about the nature of democracy. Specifically coming to mind is the analogy of if Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what it for dinner.

The national review has a balanced article looking at responses to the question of if Islamists come after Mubarak.


Obsequiousness to dictators might seem a good short-term strategy, but in the long-term, it undercuts our interests and our moral authority tremendously.


I want to agree


We should not expect a pro-American regime should Mubarak flee into the dustbin of history. Egyptians are fiercely nationalistic and, across the region, ordinary peoples’ mindsets have been shaped by decades of anti-American propaganda. The Egyptian people will be angry that they have fallen so far behind the rest of the world.


How will the Islamic world react to HBD? Average Egyption GDP - 6,000 USD per capita.
Average IQ? 85. Seems about right to me.

Ross Douthat's column is especially enlightening:


The United States supported Mubarak for so long because of two interrelated fears: the fear of another Khomeini and the fear of another Nasser. Both anxieties remain entirely legitimate today.

The first fear everyone understands, because we’re still living with the religious tyranny that Ayatollah Khomeini established in Iran in 1979


Yup


We take refuge in foreign policy systems: liberal internationalism or realpolitik, neoconservatism or noninterventionism. We have theories, and expect the facts to fall into line behind them. Support democracy, and stability will take care of itself. Don’t meddle, and nobody will meddle with you. International institutions will keep the peace. No, balance-of-power politics will do it.

But history makes fools of us all. We make deals with dictators, and reap the whirlwind of terrorism. We promote democracy, and watch Islamists gain power from Iraq to Palestine. We leap into humanitarian interventions, and get bloodied in Somalia. We stay out, and watch genocide engulf Rwanda. We intervene in Afghanistan and then depart, and watch the Taliban take over. We intervene in Afghanistan and stay, and end up trapped there, with no end in sight.

Sooner or later, the theories always fail. The world is too complicated for them, and too tragic.


Current theories of international relations have not taken the differences in human IQ, nor the problems of Islam into account. Nor have they accounted for the disruption that technology will bring.

For all the hand wringing over what motivates people and human nature, I still stick to my main theme:

Follow the pussy.

Now, given the lack of acceptance that pickup ideology has faced in the current establishment, I doubt that International Relations theory is going to incorporate it's findings into the next trendy ideology.

So, we continue to grasp at straws trying to get a framework for understanding how we govern ourselves.

Are you serious? Come on, Friedman.

I'm still laughing over a recent Friedman column praising Singapore for how they've adapted to the flat world.


But today its per capita income is just below U.S. levels, built with high-end manufacturing, services and exports. The country’s economy grew last year at 14.7 percent, led by biomedical exports.
...

Singapore probably has the freest market in the world


Props

So what's similar between Singapore and the United States?


Singapore is tiny and by no means a U.S.-style democracy. Yet, like America, it has a multiethnic population — Chinese, Indian and Malay — with a big working class.



HAHAHAHA. You're kidding, right? Friedman is essentially saying that being ethnically diverse is a characteristic in and of itself, and the type of diversity means nothing.

Singapore ethnic breakdown:
Chinese: 76.8%
Malay: 13.9%
Indian: 7.9%
Other: 1.4%

United States ethnic breakdown:
White: 60% (80-15% hispanic)
Black: 12.85%
Hispanic: 15%
Asian: 4.43%
Other: 2%

So, the Singaporeans have the Indians and Malays to work with, we have blacks and hispanics. Let's compare:

According to the wikipedia article


Today, Indians earn higher average monthly incomes than the Chinese or Malays and are more likely to hold a university degree than these groups.



Hmmm.....not exactly the equivalent for a minority group, eh?

this article speculates on why Malays haven't done as well as Chinese:


What is of particular in this subject is the way that Malays tended to retain their traditional social forms and many of their occupational patterns despite urbanisation, while the Chinese have embraced the whole process more wholeheartedl


Come on....do you really need to know the answer?

Here is the link: average IQ in Malaysia: 92. Average IQ in China? 100.

Even assuming that the average Malay has an average IQ of 90, African Americans have an average IQ of 85. Hispanic IQ is in the low 90's.

Therefore, Singapore has 14% minority population dragging it down, while the United States has 27.8% Black + Hispanic. Significant difference. This is in addition to a Chinese IQ higher than white IQ.

Thank god we have the jews

Yet another example of Thomas Friedman ignoring racial implications of his flat world theories.




The rest of his column, though, has good pointers about how to reform the government in the US.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Common Sense Immigration Policy

Here is a recent op ed on immigration policy advocating more skilled workers.


The United States issues far more patents - a primary measure of innovation - than any other country, but immigrants were responsible for about a quarter of them in recent years, according to a study by researchers at Harvard Business School and elsewhere.

At Intel, the world's largest maker of semiconductors, 40 percent of the patents are for work done by Chinese or Indian immigrants, the Council on Foreign Relations reported in 2009.

Immigrants create patents at twice the rate of native-born Americans because they disproportionately hold degrees in science and engineering, Marjolaine Gauthier-Loiselle and Jennifer Hunt concluded in a study published last year by the Center for Economic Research in London.


Yes, more high-IQ immigrants! I don't think the average American is opposed to that. However, they are opposed to low-IQ Mexican immigration.


Border security and skills have nothing to do with each other. Politically linking them may placate the nativists, but it also puts us on the road to national decline, which surely neither party wants.


What the hell does this mean? Look, just come out and say it: we want engineers, not dumb illiterate Latino peasants.

Now, was that so hard?

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

SOTU Point by point II


We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair.


I would LOVE this to happen, but all I can do is point to a phrase:

FOLLOW THE PUSSY

Roissy explains here why nerd-worship is not possible among a broad selection of the population. Guys will always go for the image that's going to get them laid, not the image that's going to help the US maintain dominance!



And let's stop expelling talented, responsible young people who could be staffing our research labs or starting a new business, who could be further enriching this nation.


I actually agree with the DREAM act, from an HBD perspective. But, we also have to do the corollary policies: Build a wall, deport those who aren't contributing, and amend the immigration system to make it easier for educated workers to immigrate, and harder for peasants with nothing to offer.



China is building faster trains and newer airports.


When supposedly patriotic conservatives criticize high speed rail as pie in the sky, what is their reaction when they see China leaping ahead in train technology? They would rather continue subsidizing Saudi oil then making it easier to ride a train from LA to San Diego instead of driving?



Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail.

Nice sentiment, but geography is quickly becoming irrelevant. See here



What I'm not willing to do -- what I'm not willing to do is go back to the days when insurance companies could deny someone coverage because of a preexisting condition.


Which brings us back to the eternal fundamental health care debate: do I have the obligation to pay for the health care of another American? If, over the course of 30 years, an American is going to use 5 million dollars worth of health care, but only contribute 1 million dollars in taxes, does society have an obligation to keep him maintained?


Ok, I'm done.

SOTU Point by point I

I'm going to do what every blogger in the world has been doing: SOTU point by point. However, I hope two things will set me apart from the HBD-osphere:
1) I'm hardcore pro American
2) I was an Obama maniac in 2008, and honestly, I still like the guy and wish him well. While no one really knows whats going on in his head the way GWB or Reagan was readable, I think there is some inherent goodness in him.

Here we go, random quotes that I think are important either for their truth or shocking confusion:


We believe that in a country where every race and faith and point of view can be found, we are still bound together as one people; that we share common hopes and a common creed; that the dreams of a little girl in Tucson are not so different than those of our own children, and that they all deserve the chance to be fulfilled.

That, too, is what sets us apart as a nation.


Basic American creed, that the US, as a nation, transcends race and religion.


At stake is whether new jobs and industries take root in this country, or somewhere else. It's whether the hard work and industry of our people is rewarded. It's whether we sustain the leadership that has made America not just a place on a map, but the light to the world.

At stake is whether we or China dominate the Globe.


In a single generation, revolutions in technology have transformed the way we live, work and do business. Steel mills that once needed 1,000 workers can now do the same work with 100. Today, just about any company can set up shop, hire workers, and sell their products wherever there's an Internet connection.

Meanwhile, nations like China and India realized that with some changes of their own, they could compete in this new world. And so they started educating their children earlier and longer, with greater emphasis on math and science. They're investing in research and new technologies. Just recently, China became the home to the world's largest private solar research facility, and the world's fastest computer.


It was important for him to say this. Put our national challenges in a technological and globalized context. This, to some degree, pre empts the tea party "leave me alone" rhetoric.


What's more, we are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea -– the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny.


A profound statement, but accurate. Unfortunate that it was buried amid other ideas. We really are the best.


The first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation. None of us can predict with certainty what the next big industry will be or where the new jobs will come from. Thirty years ago, we couldn't know that something called the Internet would lead to an economic revolution. What we can do -- what America does better than anyone else -- is spark the creativity and imagination of our people.


That's it - no escaping it. The creative will dominate once automation and outsourcing become standard.


But because it's not always profitable for companies to invest in basic research, throughout our history, our government has provided cutting-edge scientists and inventors with the support that they need.

This is basic economics. Basic research is a HUGE positive externality, so no one has the motivation to do it. Right wing libertarians have no way to generate basic research when free riding is so rampant.


So instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's.


Even if global warming is a sham, do we want to be behind China on this? Do we not want to be on the forefrunt of new industries? Do we want to keep subsidizing Russia and Saudi Arabia?


Over the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school education. And yet, as many as a quarter of our students aren't even finishing high school.


The singularity is coming. Automation is going to kill our workers more than cheap workers in China or India.


The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations.

This is purely an HBD issue. Steve Sailer eloquently breaks down the dempgraphics of our PISA scores here .

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Japan vs. China

Is the China fear a rehash of the Japan fears? this nytimes article says possibly .

What I think is funny, though, is no worries about Nigeria, Brazil, Indonesia, India, and Pakistan challenging US superiority.

Why? IQ.

Does no one see the irony that the two non western countries to challenge the US while the Soviet Union was in decline are both Asian?