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MWC 15 Special
In the recent weeks and months, we heard many rumors that Nokia worked on an Android-based smartphone which was code-named "Normandy" and after sources said that this project was nixed after Microsoft announced the take-over of Nokia, The Wall Street Journal said yesterday that the Nokia Asha X, as it is called now, will be definitely unveiled during this month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This rose some concerns if it makes sense for both - Microsoft and Nokia - and I say yes, it makes a lot of sense. If you see the operating system less emotional, it's just a vehicle. In the early smartphone days, Windows Mobile was a vehicle for Microsoft to sell its business proposition to corporate users. And today, the mobile OS is a vehicle to sell apps, and even more important, services to consumers and prosumers.
Microsoft's future can't be to rely on revenues out of its Windows Phone operating system but the future will be to rely on recurring revenues out of apps and services; and a good example is Microsoft's very own Office 365. Office used to be a collection of programs which was sold with a hefty onetime fee. After it was sold, it didn't generate any recurring revenues anymore. Nowadays, Office 365 is a service (Software as a Service) with recurring revenues. Or look at Windows XP, which is still in use. It was years ago that Microsoft made any revenue out of it while it's still maintained.
No, Microsoft has to expand its reach and a good example is - again - Office 365 which is also available on Android and iOS; something which also rose concerns in the Windows Phone community. If you are the Windows Phone business owner, you don't want to see one of your USPs (unique selling point) launched on competitive platforms. However, if you are the Office business owner you have to launch it on competitive platforms since you want to make as much revenue out of it as possible as well as you have to generate a kind of loyalty. And if you are the CEO or stock exchange you don't care if it's launched or not on competitive platforms, as long as you reach your targets. Look at Samsung which is providing components for Apple's iPhone. This causes headaches for the business owner of the Samsung smartphones but it contributes to the overall revenue and value of Samsung.
So how will or can a forked Android version on Nokia Asha phones help Microsoft and Nokia? It's clear that Nokia lost its dominant position in the mobile and smartphone market years ago as well as it lost its position in emerging markets. However, if I've learned something during my 3 months' work in Angola's telecommunication industry, it's the fact that these markets are working different than established markets like Europe or North America; and Nokia is still a recognized and used brand name in these markets.
However, at some point Microsoft decided that Windows Phone has its proposition which is above the entry-level phone, going mid-tier to high-end and it is difficult now to redesign Windows Phone, without giving up its proposition as well as without giving up the business rules like licensing and therefore the income. You can't license the Windows Phone OS for the same fee for low-tier phones as you are doing it for mid-range or high-end phones. However, you can also not strip it down to make it cheaper since it is as it is. This might be possible for a redesigned future version but not today; such a decision would break its own business rule.This however means, that neither Microsoft nor its license partners nor Nokia has anything available for emerging markets. It doesn't hurt Samsung, HTC or Huawei at all since they can easily use Android instead which means Nokia and Microsoft are the only one left out in the rain. Nokia has no weapon against Android manufacturers and Microsoft has no assurance that its apps and services are used on Android phones. Why should a customer use Bing if Google Search is preinstalled? Why should a customer pay for Office 365 if Google Drive is preinstalled? Why should a customer use Bing/HERE Maps if Google Maps is preinstalled?
On the other hand, if Nokia is now using an Android ASOP fork, it can define which apps and services are preinstalled and which app store is used; but Nokia can also manufacturer cheaper phones under the "Nokia Asha "ASOP" brand" without blasting its own and Microsoft's Windows Phone proposition. You can even go that far and put a kind of Modern UI/Metro design on top of it to make it kind of familiar. It's quite similar to Amazon's Kindle range of Android ASOP devices. Amazon and Google are everything but good friends. Nevertheless, Amazon benefits from Google's ASOP work but makes the money with its own app store and media services. No Amazon Kindle customer will ever come into the situation where he or she is purchasing apps or renting movies from Google Play. No, Amazon is selling the apps, movies and music.
If we keep this scenario in mind and thinking about Microsoft's available Android apps, Microsoft's Xbox Music and Videos services and Nokia's own MixRadio music service, it doesn't matter what the underlying operating system is based on; if it is based on Windows, Linux, Java, or whatever. It could look like a unique Microsoft and Nokia OS, could support apps customers expect and might already know from other platforms and lock the user into the own entertainment services; without paying any license fees to Google or giving up the Windows Phone proposition. The average user will even never understand that he or she is using an "Android" device, but it might be just named "Nokia OS" or "Asha OS".
For sure, such a move is balancing act for both, Microsoft and Nokia, since such a platform shouldn't be better than Windows Phone - Microsoft's high-end platform – and it always needs room for improvement that customers, which might have started once with an Asha X want to upgrade later to Windows Phone. However, at the end of the day, everything is about a wallet garden strategy where Microsoft and Nokia have to catch customers as early as possible, to lock them into its own eco-system. That's nothing different to Google or Amazon which are doing the same.
Therefore makes the expected launch of a Nokia Asha X with Android AOSP a lot of sense for me and I don't think that it's the first and only "Android phone" we will see from Nokia. For me it's the launch of something new and it's out of question that Nokia needs a replacement for its outdated S40 OS, it used so far for the Asha series. Nowadays, you can hardly convince developers to develop something for such an outdated and end-of-life platform without paying for it. However, if you offer an Android platform with a dedicated market, it's easy for developers to also submit apps to this store.
So yes, for me it's clear that the Nokia Asha X and Nokia Android phones make a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense for me and for Microsoft.
Cheers ~ Arne
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Learning Mandarin is a piece of cake, you need to speak and listen to Mandarin for hours every day.
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Learning Mandarin is a piece of cake
Discussions on Mandarin Chinese. Do not post requests for translations or advertise couses in this forum.
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Re: Learning Mandarin is a piece of cake
My friend says that " Learning Chinese is a piece of cake: 【小菜一碟 xiǎo cài yī dié】 Because he has a good HNHSoft Chinese dictionary for help.
Re: Learning Mandarin is a piece of cake
learning every language is just a piece of cake if you learn hard and keep interest in it
we often say interest is the best teacher
we often say interest is the best teacher
3 posts • Page 1 of 1

subset: commoncrawl


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Halee Bazer, a freshman at Quinnipiac University, said she has heard about the wave of sexual assault lawsuits sweeping college campuses and plans to be cautious about parties, never go anywhere alone and call campus security for escorts if needed.
"Yeah, I'm like very paranoid," Bazer said Thursday as she organized her mostly pink gear in her new dorm room. "But, like, campus security makes me feel better about it."
With the heightened focus on sexual assault on college campuses in the past year, many freshmen and their parents — even at Quinnipiac, which has top ratings for safety — are thinking and talking about their concerns.
Some college and university officials say that freshmen are particularly at risk for unwanted sex or rape during the first couple of months of the school year — a period of time that some call "the red zone."
"I've heard some male students refer to this period as 'hunting season,'" said Dana Bolger, the co-founder and co-director of Know Your IX, a group that assists college women filing sexual assault complaints under federal Title IX legal provisions. "Perpetrators know that students just beginning their college experience are at their most vulnerable; they haven't developed a support network yet and are just trying to fit in, make friends and find the library."
A U.S. Justice Department report says that the "first few days of the freshmen year are the riskiest, limiting the value of any rape prevention programs that begin after that." A 2007 Campus Sexual Assault study similarly found that "women who are victimized during their college career are most likely to be victimized early on in their college tenure."
A 2008 study published in the Journal of American College Health also found "substantial" evidence of the existence of a red zone during the first few months of freshmen year, when reports of unwanted sex or rape are higher. Other times of the school year, such as a homecoming weekend or fraternity and sorority rush may also be high-risk, but the study cautioned institutions not to give students the false impression that a campus is safe the rest of the year.
Testing Limits
College officials have long known that the first few months of school can be a time of testing limits, of too much drinking and partying. For decades they have taken steps to educate freshmen about the risks of such behaviors, provided orientation programs aimed at connecting students to productive activities and familiarizing them with the services on campus.
Those programs have intensified and expanded, with many universities presenting online videos and quizzes on alcohol, sexual assault and safety over the summer and then reinforcing those messages with presentations, interactive performances and more videos when students arrive on campus.
"Every college is on high alert for the first year," said Eileen Stone, the University of Connecticut's assistant director of wellness and prevention. "We know that this is a risky time, so we try to help the students navigate their way."
Kerry Patton, director of counseling services at Quinnipiac, said: "I think the goal is to get them involved in different healthy experiences. Students who are involved in things tend to make better decisions."
Younger students may be hesitant to speak up or object to behavior that makes them uncomfortable if they think everyone is doing it and that it's normal, said Laura Lockwood, director of Trinity's Women & Gender Resource Action Center. The stereotypes that "everyone drinks at college and rape is inevitable ... have to be dismantled, as well as the rape myth that girls deserve it if they are drunk or dressed scantily — that sort of 'blame the victims' culture."
Fred Alford, dean of students at Trinity College, said that students' misuse of alcohol has been a serious concern in the 30 years he's worked with college students, and that the focus on preventing sexual assault has intensified in recent years.
That's partly because federal guidelines were released in 2011 to clarify and strengthen the obligations colleges and universities have to prevent and respond to campus sexual assault.
Earlier this year, amid a wave of Title IX complaints nationwide, a White House task force released a report on the issue, and the state passed legislation requiring colleges to improve prevention efforts and assistance programs for victims. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal has also been holding roundtables on college campuses to raise awareness about sexual assault and get feedback on federal legislation introduced in July to combat the problem.
"The bright light that the federal government has put on it has created a better network of information," Alford said, heightening sensitivity and reinforcing "the sense that colleges better pay attention."
Just last month, the University of Connecticut agreed to a $1.3 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by five current and former UConn students who filed a Title IX complaint, charging that the university mishandled their cases when they were raped or sexually assaulted.
Reducing The Risk
Most colleges and universities now present extensive orientation programs early during freshmen year to educate students — male and female — about alcohol, sexual assault, safety concerns and repercussions for criminal activity, and many have expanded training refreshers in the later years.
"You have to plant the seeds, and then you have to nurture the seeds all through the year," Trinity's Lockwood said.
Bolger of Know Your IX also emphasized the importance of spreading prevention and bystander education throughout a student's four years.
The programs focus on personal safety behaviors, such as having a buddy and not letting your drink out of your sight. They also offer guidance on how a bystander can intervene and the need to step in and help diffuse a situation that looks threatening.
Time also is spent on defining "consent." A new brochure given to UConn students emphasizes that the absence of a "no" does not necessarily mean a "yes," and that a person who is incapacitated by alcohol or drugs is unable to give consent.
When Connecticut's lawmakers were crafting comprehensive legislation aimed to prevent sexual assault on campuses, a major criticism they heard was that students who were sexually assaulted didn't know where to get help or how to report the crime.
Elizabeth Conklin, director of UConn's Office of Diversity and Equity and the university's Title IX coordinator, said UConn has made her office responsible for ensuring that all reports of sexual assault are investigated and addressed, and it added two new investigators to her staff. UConn also enhanced its prevention program for freshmen with an additional two-hour session where students will learn about available resources and watch a live performance by a troupe called InterACT that provides practical advice about how to prevent sexual assault and how to intervene to help a friend in trouble.
What Parents Can Do
While heading to college is all about independence, research shows that students whose parents stay in touch are more likely to avoid problems, particularly excessive drinking, according to Stone at UConn.
She said that research shows that when "parents reiterate their values and expectations … students tended to do better."
"Students may not listen to it wholeheartedly and take it to the letter-of-the-word type of thing," but they are listening, Stone said.
It's important for parents to pick their moment and not to overdo it, she added. She also recommended that parents find out about services and activities available on campus so they can occasionally make informed suggestions to their child if a need or interest comes up.
Back at Quinnipiac, where freshmen were moving in, it was clear that parents had sent their kids strong messages about safety.
Noelle Johnson, a freshmen from Groton, Mass., rattled off some of what she had been told: "Be smart if you're going to drink. Hang out with good people. Don't walk home alone. Do something if you see someone not in their right state of mind. Step up and defuse the situation. … Just be smart, don't go nuts."
Her mother, Sarah Johnson, said, "I know Noelle knows the right things to do, but I felt like I had to say them out loud and have a conversation about them anyway, just about how to be safe and you know, things to watch out for. Things she knows already, but it had to be said.
"Of course, we're not encouraging drinking. She has a flashlight. We told her to always have a buddy to walk with, to be aware of her surroundings, especially at night, and I'm guessing there are people you can call on campus if you need to go somewhere."
Halee Bazer had gotten much the same sort of message from her mother, Andrea Marshall, who warned her daughter to watch her drinks and food and to stay with friends.
"I don't know if she listens," Marshall said, but added: "She's got the flashlight and the whistle and the whole thing. There's a certain trust factor. She's a smart kid and she's good about this stuff. You've got to give them the tools and hope that they use them."


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Unlocking your mobile device that is locked with any network carrier in the US can be a challenge. Networks like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint will charge you a certain fee based on your contract with them. 3rd party unlocking solutions and websites will charge you money, take few days to unlock your device and still may be unable to unlock your phone in some cases.
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Customers can then go to the free sim unlocking page here. This service allows users to unlock all AT&T locked android phones, including DELL STREAK 7 for AT&T.
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January 2018


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Biggest Attendances in Club History
1. *73,123 – Earthquakes vs. D.C. United at Stanford Stadium, July 4, 1999
2. **61,572 – Earthquakes vs. Columbus Crew at Candlestick Park, August 8, 2009
3. 50,391 – Earthquakes vs. LA Galaxy at Stanford Stadium, June 30, 2012
4. 50,028 – Earthquakes vs. LA Galaxy at Stanford Stadium, June 29, 2013
5. 41,028 – Earthquakes vs. New York Red Bulls at Stanford Stadium, July 2, 2011
6. 39,872 – Earthquakes vs. LA Galaxy at Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, July 14, 2008
*Match played as first game of a doubleheader with U.S. Women's National Team and Brazil during the FIFA Women's World Cup.
**Match played as first game of a doubleheader with FC Barcelona and Chivas de Guadalajara.
About Levi's® Stadium
Levi's® Stadium will not only be the new home to the San Francisco 49ers, but it will also serve as one of the world's best outdoor sports and entertainment venues. It was designed by HNTB and is being built by Turner/Devcon for the Santa Clara Stadium Authority. The $1.2 billion venue will have 1.85 million square feet, seat approximately 68,500 and will feature an expected 165 luxury suites and 8,500 club seats. It was designed to be a multi-purpose facility with the flexibility to host a wide range of events, including domestic and international soccer, college football, motocross, concerts and various civic events, and will be expandable for major events such as the Super Bowl. For more information, go to http://www.levisstadium.com/.


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Maintenance problems in the residence halls should be reported directly and immediately to the Residence Life staff. Each Residence Hall will give directions during Hall Meetings as to how you submit the request and to whom.
Faculty and Staff
All work requests must be submitted through the work request system TMA. Only faculty or staff will be permitted to set up a TMA account. Area supervisors may designate an individual to establish the account.
1. General – For general maintenance problems, please give a detailed description describing the problem and/or what needs to be fixed.
2. Set Ups – For the use of tables and chairs, please include the day you need them, the time, the location, and any details related to the set up. Please specify if you desire round tables or standard rectangular 6 foot tables. Please include the date and time you would like to have the set-up removed. While we cannot always comply within a certain time frame, we will do our best.
3. Key Requests – The Department Head or Director must submit all key requests through TMA. Any key request made by an unauthorized person through the work request system will be automatically denied. In the event of keys being lost or stolen, please refer to the Nyack College Key Policy.
4. Key Production and Pick Up – Once made, the key(s) will be stored by the Facilities Department for 30 days. If any key is not picked up within 30 days, it will be removed and a new request will need to be submitted. The person for whom the key was requested must pick up all keys and that person must present Nyack College ID.
Click HERE to access the system or ee THIS PDF for instructions.


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You Buy Once—But You Pay for the Lifecycle
It's easy to compare the initial cost of competing products. But it's more important to assess all direct and indirect costs over a solution's entire lifecycle to calculate your business value. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is the total economic cost of purchasing and operating a product over time. Many products cost less to buy but a lot more to run. Return on Investment (ROI) helps you factor in the business profit related to the product purchase. How much and how fast did the purchase add to your bottom line?
Why Is Calculating TCO and ROI Important?
Whether you're looking for lowest ongoing cost or quickest profit from your investment, calculating your TCO or ROI will help you choose the best solution for your needs. You'll have the information you need to confidently make purchase decisions, and you can factor the results into your business plan.
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We offer you these calculators, developed by our experts in association with two analyst firms and Alinean, a well-known industry leader in TCO calculators. Complete one of these simplified calculators and you'll receive a tables, charts and figures that give you an approximation of TCO or ROI based on your input.
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Blog Post : In-depth Comparative TCO Analysis–When Is It Necessary?
In-depth Comparative TCO Analysis–When Is It Necessary?
Blog Post : Use TCO To Gain a Competitive Edge
Use TCO To Gain a Competitive Edge
Blog Post : Comparing Private Cloud TCO: The Metrics That Matter
Comparing Private Cloud TCO: The Metrics That Matter
Blog Post : The Influence of Personnel Costs on TCO for Private vs. Public Clouds
The Influence of Personnel Costs on TCO for Private vs. Public Clouds
Blog Post : Making Cents of Storage TCO
Tape offers one of the lowest price-per-terabyte for any type of storage, so it's no wonder that 60% of customers still use tape for backup.
Blog Post : Share the Good News: Drastically Reduce Data Backup TCO with Recovery Manager Central
Share the Good News: Drastically Reduce Data Backup TCO with Recovery Manager Central


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Hi guys.
I play fantasy football regularly on a site called Picklive.
It has been known as 'fantasy football on crack' with their 'live games' where you pick five players from the teamsheets in a particular televised matchand those players accumulate points in real time based on what they do during the 90 minute game.
OPTA, the statistics company are involved in tracking that activity and logging it for the purpose of converting it to points which can win prizes.
Picklive cover premier league, champions league, europa league and international tournaments like this one.
There are great cash prizes up for grabs using stakes ranging from FREE [no cash prize there] to upwards of a few grand…
But as it's kind of an 'off-season' at the moment and there's an international event on, Picklive are just holding the normal kind this time. The £2,500 prize pool is one where you pay £15 to make a team of 11 players across ALL TEAMS. But here's the difference – NO TRANSFER BUDGET LIMIT!
You heard it right, there isn't a set budget like the others. So if you want Van Persie, Ronaldo, Nani, Terry and Klose in the same team, you can have them! The only restraint is that you can't have more than three players from the same country.
PLUS – The prize-pools are only a MINIMUM. If the number of entrants exceeds a certain number in any cash tournament, the prize-pool increases. Prizes are paid out to the top-three places.
In a £1000 Fantasy Football tournament for the final day of the season (£10 Stake).
1st Place – £600
2nd Place – £200
3rd Place – £100
(Picklive took a rake of 10% from the total prize pool)
If you can't spare £15, which many of u can't, you can play in a £10 tournament, join mine (£5) , or even create your own and invite others! Choose the stake and the phase in the tournament, pick your team, invite a few mates/office colleagues and away you go.
You can even have a tournament 'for fun' and just compete for bragging rights. No cash required.
However, if you sign up using my link – https://www.picklive.com/r/YJNHHRNTZFDADXSJAEZD and deposit some cash into your Picklive account, you can get an extra £3 on top. Sounds meager but that is enough for one cash entry where the prize pool is a minimum of £30.
Go to the homepage and scroll down to see the many free, low stake and stupid stakes tournaments available.
Tournaments I've set up:
Euro2012 Phase – Group D
Stake – £5
Prize Pool – £10 (increases if more people join)
Euro2012 Phase – ENTIRE TOURNAMENT
Stake – £5
Prize Pool – £10 (increases if more people join)
Email email@example.com and ask anything you like about how it fully works and
what's what 🙂
Have fun if you join up!
Good luck!


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Shadwell farewell: Old store demo provokes memories
Sometimes the loss of an old building, even an unremarkable one, can feel like loosing an old friend. So it goes with the old Shadwell Store, the small, white-bricked building that stood on a one-acre spike of land at the intersection of Louisa Road and Route 250 for nearly 80 years, which was finally demolished earlier this month.
Until last year, the store was being run by the owners of Foods of All Nations, but they decided not to renew their lease, says owner Lloyd "L.F." Wood, whose family (which includes his brother, developer Wendell Wood) has owned the store since the 1930s. Wood has an approved plan for a bigger, more modern store, but he has yet to find a willing tenant. In the meantime, he figured it was best to demolish the seriously deteriorating structure.
"I didn't want it to become an eyesore," says Wood, who operates another local landmark, the Putt-Putt minuature golf course on Rio Road. "So we decided to put it to bed."
It wasn't an easy decision for Wood, who remembers riding to the store in his father's '39 Chevy and buying a cold Coke for a nickel. In fact, he says the reason he held on to the store, which served as a food market, post office, greasy spoon, auto repair shop, and full-service gas station over the years, was largely sentimental.
Indeed, for Pettie Craddock, 56, who remembers working summers at the store for his grandparents, buying 10-cent Cokes and Twinkies, and listening intently for the gurgle as he filled a gas tank so it wouldn't spill over, the store's demise is bittersweet. Ironically, he served on the Albemarle Planning Commission when Wood's new store plans were approved, and voted to demolish this link to his past.
Craddock says that his grandmother ran the post office, an important job for a woman back then, and that his uncle, a World War II veteran, fixed cars in a small bay behind the structure.
"It was like a country store back then," he says. "My grandparents lived in a house behind the store, and were always there. I remember them running tabs for locals, who'd eat real well all month and then just come in at the end of the month and pay their bill, which would be like $8 or $10."
Craddock says only items like Cokes and chips were self-serve, unlike today's convenience stores, while everything else, from canned vegetable to bologna, had to be requested across the counter. When the state sales tax was implemented, Craddock says his grandfather put a cigar box beside the old cash register, which was unable to calculate the tax on a sale, and dropped pennies from each sale into it to cover the tax.
In the evening, Craddock recalls driving down the road and looking for the enormous GULF Gas & Oil sign on the roof.
"If it was lit up," he says, "we knew it was open, and we'd be getting a treat."
During the summers, Craddock remembers the yellow jackets that always swarmed around a shed to the side of the building where the empty soda bottles were kept, and where he was often stung as he tried to sort them. Each week, a truck from the local Coca-Cola plant would come by to collect and re-use the bottles.
Back then, says Craddock, you were charged extra for the bottle, unless you drank your Coke on the spot and gave it back. If you took your Coke with you, you made sure to bring the bottle back next time to get the discount.
Even for newer residents, it's strange to see an empty lot where the store once stood.
Jeanne Bruce-Phillips, 52, wistfully photographed the July 8 demolition. She can't say she's sorry to see the old store go, as she thought it was becoming an eyesore; but, emotionally, she says, it's been difficult to accept that its gone.
"It's like a national monument around here," says Bruce-Phillips, who moved to Keswick four years ago. "We always say, 'let's meet at the Shadwell Store.' Of course, it isn't there now, but that's still what we've been calling it."
Craddock, too, admits its strange to see the empty lot, but he believes that demolishing was the right thing to do, as the building had changed and deteriorated so much from the way he remembers it.
"We have a fantasy," Bruce-Phillips admits bashfully, "to create a drive-thru grocery, a place where you could pick up milk, ice cream, eggs, donuts, things like that. "
Wood, unable yet to find any willing grocers, appears to be all ears.
"If you know of anybody who wants to open a store," he says, " tell them to give us a call."
6 comments
A gated convenience store - now THAT'S funny!
What's with the right turn lane to nowhere on that stretch of road? About 6 months ago they put in a right turn lane just before the bridge and there is no driveway/entrance on the right. They have to put up orange barrels to keep folks from running off the road there. Makes no sense....
They used to have the best porn mag selection in town. And great pork rind selection also. The mountain dew was choice this time of year I would also feel is worth mentioning.
The Photo looks so much like the food they used to serve there. I'm Glad now they can build another EveryDay or maybe they can put up a gate and only let Glenmore or Keswick residents in. Then we can all stand out side and think about what's so important in there and why they won't let us in.
I remember stopping at that store with my dad when I was a kid (40 years ago). Hate to see it go.
Can't wait for the Boyd Tavern Market to reopen so us locals out here will have somewhere to go. That place looks incredible---the owners have returned it to its original colors...and I got a peak inside this weekend. HUGE change for the better!


text:
Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will Favorite posts | Manifold podcast | Twitter: @hsu_steve
Saturday, March 01, 2014
The Neanderthal Problem
The NYTimes magazine describes efforts to resurrect extinct species such as mammoths. Let's suppose this is possible. Perhaps it will even be possible with Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo Erectus and other pre-modern human types.
Consider the following thought experiment. Imagine thousands of Neanderthals on some privately held land in Siberia, perhaps the secret project of a reclusive billionaire oligarch.
It's very likely these Neanderthals, although able to interbreed with humans, and probably capable of speech, will be on average considerably less intelligent than humans. If I had to guess I would suppose their average adult IQ to be about 70, or -2 SD relative to modern humans. You might wonder how they could have survived for 300k+ years with such modest intelligence, but based on my experiences with 5-10 year old kids I don't think that a sub-adult level of maximum intelligence precludes the ability to form societies and function as hunter-gatherers. (Apes survive with even less cognitive ability.) I just don't think that higher developments (e.g., invention of writing) are likely for such a population. What Homo Sapiens accomplished in 50-100k years far outstrips Neanderthal accomplishments over a much longer period of time.
Modern humans differ from each other at about 1 in 1000 places in the genome, whereas a Neanderthal and a human differ at a few per 1000 places. Some subset of these additional differences cause them to be broader, more powerfully muscled, and, most likely, less intelligent. (See Neanderthals dumb?)
Now to the problem: how should we integrate these Neanderthals into modern society?
Perhaps we should not integrate them -- better to leave them alone on protected lands, to live their ''natural'' (= nasty, brutish and short?) lives. But what if some Neanderthals express the wish to join our society? How should we best help them?
I think it's likely that no amount of special education or training will allow average Neanderthals to be successful in cognitively demanding jobs. They might face significant discrimination, given their appearance.
However, let us suppose that in this future the technology exists to modify the genes which cause the cognitive gap between moderns and Neanderthals. Suppose it is possible, through genetic engineering, to modify the genomes of Neanderthal embryos, causing their brains to develop as ours do. Would it not be our moral duty to make this modification available to Neanderthal parents who want it?
Extra credit questions:
1) Is it "racist" to make the assumptions used in our hypothetical?
2) Is it also our moral duty to make similar modifications available to human parents who happen to be well below average in cognitive ability?
See also Darwin's Savages.
82 comments:
Their genetic IQ's would have been a lot higher than 70 to have survived in such cold climates. The two factors that have driven modern Northern Eurasian IQ so high (100+) has been the cognitive challenge of adapting to cold climates (which drove brain size way up) and the post-agriculture population explosion (which increased the odds of rare neurological efficiency mutations which increased IQ by about 1 SD independent of brain size). If I had to guess I would say Neanderthals had IQ resembling modern arctic people (i.e. 91), another pre-agriculture big brained cold adapted population.
On a tangent, can we make any inferences about the intelligence of other cold climate animals? How exactly are polar bears different from brown bears?
Why do you suppose 5-10y old kids have a sub-adult level of maximum intelligence? They haven't yet acquired knowledge and skills, but they're just as intelligent as they will be as adults, no? Also, why do you suppose that the ability to form societies and be hunter-gatherers is strongly dependent on intelligence? Lots of animals have social structure without being smart. It's not particularly germane to the point that you're making, but it just jumped out at me when I read it...
"moral duty" What a crappy name for ideology...
Anyway they have a proper place in the zoo.
While it's true that children have less experience than adults, they are also less intelligent. They have smaller less developed brains and even on novel problems that don't require experience, they perform much worse than adults at their prime. About 70,000 years ago, humans had the intelligence of a modern Canadian seven year old. Upon experiencing the extreme ice age, northern Eurasian intellect increased to the level of a Canadian 13 year old. With such high intelligence, agriculture emerged in even inhospitable lands and population size exploded producing mutations that increased Northern intelligence to that of a Canadian 16 year old. However agriculture also brought severe malnutrition which shrunk intelligence back down to 12 year old levels. Only in the last century or so has nutrition improved enough for us to recover all the brain size and development we lost from agriculture, causing intelligence to boost to 16 year old levels (see the Flynn Effect).
interesting assertions. can you cite evidence? "smaller less developed" seems a red herring, given that we know so little about what's involved with intelligence: plenty of big creatures with big brains out there that we don't consider smart. are football players smarter than gymnasts? :D
- Robert Ford said...
A) you're racist 2) people couldn't even handle that caveman sitcom because they thought it was racist d) Neanderthal's never went extinct, you should know that: http://www.mmabay.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/antonio_silva_32.jpg
- steve hsu said...
>> they're just as intelligent as they will be as adults, no? <<
My guess is no. I think it's not just learning and experience that make an 8 year old different from an adult. The brain grows and matures in a number of ways in the intervening years. My wild guess is that Neanderthal adults might have cognitive abilities similar to an 8 year old modern, and that that is not inconsistent with their ability to survive in cold environments.
When you adjust for body size, humans have the biggest brains on earth.
all hail the tree shrew. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-to-body_mass_ratio much noise, little signal. maybe you need to change your username?
I think if you asked these three questions to the general
public (e.g., Oprah audience) or the elite (e.g., conclave of bioethicist) the
answer to each would be yes. Therein lays an apparent contradiction. Start with the third question, we currently
allow people to abort babies with known genetic defects (e.g., Downs) so how
could we not allow people to fix them prior to or after birth?
Given this, we would want to help these "people" but it is
also racist to think that they need fixing because of genetics. This apparent contradiction can be overcome
if you can convince yourself that difference between the human and Neanderthal "races"
are just social construct and, unlike genetics, should be ignored when making
medical decisions.
The tree shrew may have the largest brain size/body size ratio, but humans have the largest encephalization quotient (EQ). The latter is the correct way to adjust for body size.
What do you suppose the IQ was of the modern humans who lived at the time of the Neanderthals?
- steve hsu said...
I should clarify that the -2 SD I use in the post is for Neanderthals living in modern society -- so, benefiting from good nutrition, education, etc. Neanderthals and early humans living under difficult conditions probably both have depressed abilities. But my guess is that there was a significant gap between the two groups, at least 1 SD or more.
- nooffensebut said...
"Is it also our moral duty to make similar modifications available to
human parents who happen to be well below average in cognitive ability?"
This is nothing compared to the moral duty to help Africans decrease MAOA-2R prevalence. The direct effect of MAOA-2R on violent behavior is well supported on a theoretical basis due to established findings for Brunner syndrome, 5-HIAA metabolites, various MAOA-3R G-E interactions, and in vitro and small-sample MAOA-2R studies. MAOA-2R is about 22 times more common in African-American men than white men. The fact that scientists seem so reluctant to specifically study MAOA-2R, let alone help reduce its prevalence, should seriously be considered racial genocide.
Some sources would be nice for your "matter of fact" assertations as ahd also mentioned.
I don't think you can extrapolate the difference between cold climate humans to other animal kingdom. The brain is a very costly organ, consuming enormous energy for its size. Animals in the arctic may rely on other features(like being able to hibernate longer) to survive the cold.
My guess is that the European modern humans who lived contemporaneously with Neanderthals had IQ's of 87, about 13 points below Europeans today. I base this on the fact that the hunter/gatherers score almost 1 SD below agriculturalists of the same type. Thus East Asians score 14 points higher than their hunter/gather cousins in the arctic (the Inuit), and mainstream sub-Saharan African score about 13 points above bushmen/pygmies, so today's Europeans should score about 13 points higher than their hunter/gatherer ancestors. I think this difference is genetic, not environmental, because Cro-Magnon man was actually taller and bigger brained than early 20th century Europeans, suggesting better nutrition. I think the malnutrition of agriculture stunted brain growth, but we compensated as the huge population allowed new mutations to enhance our IQ's independently of brain size. Now with advances in modern nutrition, we not only have those genetic enhancements but are recovering our pre-agriculture brain size, hence the Flynn Effect.
I'm not sure modern 8 year old intelligence is anywhere near enough to survive cold climates. To put it in perspective, Homo Erectus is thought to have the mental ability of a modern 7 year old based on a study that found that 7 year olds could be taught to make their tools. The study is a few decades old, so maybe it should be revised to a 6 year old (Flynn Effect). Jensen claims no Homo erects remains have been found in Northern Asia, probably because the climate was beyond their survival skills.
If I had to guess I would suppose their average adult IQ to be about 70, or -2 SD relative to modern humans.
Suppose it is possible, through genetic engineering, to modify the genomes of Neanderthal embryos, causing their brains to develop as ours do. Would it not be our moral duty to make this modification available to Neanderthal parents who want it?
One method of answering this question is by asking the following. Is it the moral obligation of Neanderthal parents to not choose Neanderthal partners over Homosapiens knowing that they will create people that will have a lower genetic mean IQ (ie. comparatively underdeveloped brain)?
Personally, no I do not believe it's our moral duty any more so, than it is for them to choose Homosapiens to produce offspring with.
1) Is it "racist" to make the assumptions used in our hypothetical?
From the World English Dictionary, if we're using definition #1:
1. the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others
Then yes, it's racist, especially if you agree with Darwin who would also be categorized as a racist.
If it's #2:
2. abusive or aggressive behaviour towards members of another race on the basis of such a belief
Then not necessarily, and I would hope not.
2) Is it also our moral duty to make similar modifications available to human parents who happen to be well below average in cognitive ability?
I take it that you are trying to build an ethical case that humanity has a moral obligation to fund research into improving our genetics?
Humans can already decide to choose partners who have significantly higher cognitive ability as partners to create offspring with (eg. physicists) that won't be well below average. For it to be our moral obligation, then isn't it our moral obligation to search genetically superior partners, and also shouldn't we remove ourselves from reproduction pool if we have inferior genes?
Trying to build a case that there's a moral obligation to make available this service, leads to all sorts of conclusions that I feel one could adamantly argue is far more immoral, usurping the moral high ground against the initial case.
Interesting hypothetical. I'm not entirely sure I'm right, but those are my current thoughts.
See the wikipedia article on encephalization quotient which lists humans as having the biggest in a large chart you can't miss.
I was more interested in the historic IQ levels and IQ increase due to ice age.
I wonder if you could estimate Neanderthal IQ by testing modern Europeans of varying degrees of Neanderthal admixtures. Let's say that the average European has 2% Neanderthal admixture and an IQ of 100. But let's assume Europeans with 4% Neanderthal admixture have IQ's of 99.5. From there could one mathematically extrapolate what IQ people with 100% Neanderthal admixture would have.
A good source for all that is Richard Lynn's 2006 book which includes a chapter about how and why humans became smarter the further North they migrated.
Intelligence seems not to be a good thing for survival as these little guys have learned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_squirt
As for our descendants, the following was cut from The Time Machine for being too grim: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Grey_Man
The crew at West Hunter were thinking on this, and yes your a racist. We can't even get our HS house in order. It seems we ought to start there before we tell the nice Neanderthal next door he is due for a tune up.
ok, i took the bait. i read the wikipedia article. it ends with a criticism: "Recent research indicates that whole brain size is a better measure of cognitive abilities than EQ for primates at least." the whole thing is dumb: if the premise of EQ is that X grams of brain mass or Y neurons are required for certain body functions and don't scale with size then you'd regress with an intercept not fit some cockamamie polynomial. silliness.
"Would it not be our moral duty to make this modification available to Neanderthal parents who want it?
Extra credit questions:
1) Is it "racist" to make the assumptions used in our hypothetical?
2) Is it also our moral duty to make similar modifications available to
human parents who happen to be well below average in cognitive ability?"
yes. no. and yes.
i do trust my instinct however unfounded that people who look stupid are stupid. people who look like apes are stupid. but there are plenty of 100% europeans and 100% chinese that look dumber and are dumber than this guy http://www.aliefpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/mo-ibrahim.jpg.
and, of course, at the far left of the bell curve reproduction is negligible. those with iqs in the bottom 2% for their population have far fewer children than those in the top 2%.
and what about this guy http://diepresse.com/images/uploads/4/7/5/365685/thumbDi_Toefting2.jpg, a famous danish footballer?
but would neanderthal officers score higher than non-neanderthal enlisteds? that is supposing a neanderthal would have any score on an iq test at all. my dog can't even answer a single sat question correctly. so dumb. but the he can smell through 10 ft of lead.
hasn't gs always preferred ascidians to the encephalized?
blankfein is quite short and now bearded for reasons unknowable. is he human or neanderthal?
perhaps he is bearded because of a malfunction of the transporter? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror,_Mirror_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)
- JayMan said...
Very clever post... ;)
Google "Neanderthals were too smart to survive", an article that argues that Neanderthals were smarter than humans
And what if you are wrong? What if Neanderthals were more intelligent and the only reason that they went extinct was that they chose to interbreed with us? What if they had average IQ's of 150 and were more peaceful, non territorial, monogamous, and highly inter-group co-operative? What if they see how we are and what we have done to them and the planet and how they no longer exist because of us? What if we are the ones that are behaviorally flawed making wars, believing in imaginary Gods in the sky, trusting in a hierarchical system where we follow leaders who continuously lie to the very people who put them in power instead of following the kindest most sensible and logical individual who has the best intentions of doing what's right for the group? What if they chose their leader by who was the most selfless and intelligent person rather than the most selfish?. What if they see us as cruel for having a class system were the rich own all the resources of the earth and can do almost anything go almost anywhere while millions of our own same species die in horrific poverty.What if they were instinctively Nomadic and don't understand the Idea of property and ownership because they took what they needed from the earth and shared all amoungst their own group.? What if they don't understand patriotism and Nationalism and how we kill each other for imaginary dividing lines in the dirt that we call countries?What if they never had the delusional mind that 95% of us have that makes us believe in only what we are told to accept by our superiors and what if they saw the world as it is and never had the concept of religion. What if Neanderthals were the first actual real humans and modern humans in their time didn't exist, perhaps we are nothing more than hybrid Neanderthals who inherited the very intelligence and creativity we so proudly call ourselves superior with from them and then used it against them?, What if they were more human and humane than us? Most of the traits we call modern and advanced or superior are actually more primitive traits that can be traced back to earlier forms of humans that pre-date Neanderthals, Look at history it is always written by the winners not necessarily by the good,
"1. the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics
determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an
intrinsic superiority over others
Then yes, it's racist, especially if you agree with Darwin who would also be categorized as a racist."
With this definition it would be better to call it "being right". This is true within different populations within different (poorly defined) races.
I highly doubt that's possible. Most of the neanderthal genome is gone. And since the disadvantageous stuff are selected against probably low iq genes would be gone too.
Unfortunately, "being right" and being "racist" aren't mutually exclusive by this definition. Stephen wrote "racist" in quotes, so I wasn't sure if he meant it by definition #1 or in a more casual way often associated with #2. Either way, I think we'd have to categorize those assumptions, along with Darwin, as racist or "racist".
I'm not sure why comment disappeared. I'm guessing it's some technical error, but I hope I didn't break some rule I'm unfamiliar with. I don't think so, but I apologize if that's the case Steve.
I'll restate that "being right" and being "racist" in making those assumptions aren't mutually exclusive. I'm very much willing to hear how it's not racist, and would personally root for myself to be wrong on that matter.
a couple of relevant question that you may know the answer to - i don't. are the iq tests given to kids different than those given to adults or, alternatively, is there a normalization applied to the raw scores that depends on age? if it turns out to be the same tests without any age-dependent normalization, then do the results show a significant dependence on age? this could be most easily seen by subsetting on those people who have been tested multiple times over the course of years to keep the test clean. no idea, really, but maybe you do...
- steve hsu said...
For younger kids the tests themselves are different. Scores are normalized by age group and mean scores improve with age until early adulthood. In some studies of gifted kids they have them take the SAT early and normalize by age cohort. IIRC, a score that is 99.99th percentile for a 13 year old is much lower than the 99th percentile score of a 17 year old.
thanks. sat result doesn't surprise me because sat success clearly depends on ability + knowledge + practice, not just ability. but pattern recognition, next shape in sequence, etc. really do seem like knowledge-independent tests of some basic kinds of intelligence. surprising to me that there'd an age-dependence to such test scores. do i need to trash my preconception, or might a reasonable person think the iq tests also depend on knowledge or practice, as well as raw ability?
- steve hsu said...
This might be of interest to you: http://eyeonsociety.co.uk/resources/RPMChangeAndStability.pdf
This type of test does not (at least superficially) rely on knowledge acquisition. On page 6 (Table 1) you can see age-dependent norms.
Of course in reality there is no perfect way to disentangle "ability developed through training/schooling" and "ability developed due to brain maturation".
1) If you look at how existing disparities are viewed, then those assumptions about neanderthals would probably be described as r8cist.
2) If that technology existed I suppose governments would see it as necessary to offer it to everyone to create a level playing field & provide equal opportunity.
3) It would be interesting to see how long those who attribute disparities to privilege/oppression would be prepared to advocate genetic treatments to alleviate social inequality.
Actually it's arguably quite easy to disentangle ability developed through training/schooling from ability developed through brain maturation. Think of the difference between scholastic tests like the SAT and culture reduced tests like Matrix reasoning, Block Design and Digit Span. The whole dichotomy of fluid and crystalized ability depends on the assumption that we can disentangle them.
what if neandertals were smarter than sapiens? of course "smartness doesn't exist - b/c that'd be "racist." sadly for egalitarians, "g" exists, so i prefer the term "empiricist."
given neandertal DNA exists to a small degree in Europe-types, & to a slightly larger (still small) degree in Asian people, & given neandertal DNA does NOT seem to exist in Africans -
do the scatter plot: a very modest positive correlation between neandertal DNA & "g" (or "IQ"). it's a no-brainer.
:) Did that some time ago.
Although so far the MCPH1 haplotype D has not been found from the limited neanderthal DNA data, the idea is interesting.
What intrigue me when I saw the general introgression data between neanderthal and modern populations from Sankararaman,
the numerical ranking and the geographical distribution for the respective populations roughly correlate with that for the OECD PISA data.
This does not constitute proof because of there is no concrete casuality, small data size and many assumptions used.
Substitting Shanghai for CHB, HK for CHS, Costa Rica for PUR, did not use US data for CEU and no relevant data for the African population (although the data should agree with the general trend).
Analysis for 10 cases
Correlation Matrix:
math12 1.0000
pct 0.7337 1.0000
Variable math12 pct
Regression Equation for math12:
math12 = 413.2 pct + -10.7802
Significance test for prediction of math12
Mult-R R-Squared SEest F(1,8) prob (F)
0.7337 0.5383 53.1797 9.3275 0.0157
The prob (F) value of 0.0157 is quite significant.
sisn't you get the memo? that "whole dichotomy" is 100% bs. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/2013/10/17/the-heritability-of-intelligence-not-what-you-think/
those who keep talking as if fluid and crystallized intelligence referred to things obviously can't tell the difference between intension and extension.
that question is totally meaningless unless what one means by it is: if these earlier humans were delivered as infants by a time traveling stork to an upper middle class family in minneapolis what would their scores be?
who was pope before peter? have you stopped beating your wife?
neanderthals didn't have an iq. it's a category mistake.
That scientific America article you linked to is really stupid. Crystallized tests have high heritability because they're more reliable than on the spot problem solving, not because there's no difference between fluid & crystallized ability. We know from studies of aging that old people continue to perform well on crystalized tests of knowledge (vocabulary) even after their actual intelligence (as measured by fluid tests) is quite impaired.
My research shows that 90% of the commenters have missed the point. This is brilliant.
excellent job - i love you! seriously, good work.
it's somehow relaxing to know there are people out there smarter than i:)
thanks for the link, too.
scientific PC american should be ashamed of that article - within the actual scientific/academic field of ability measurement/psychometrics it's quite well established that the more cognitively complex the measure (i.e., the higher its "g" loading), the higher the heritability coefficient (& the larger the group mean differences -- coff -- which you may not want to know about). This is known through vast amounts of twin studies, which are (well, were) the only way to even begin to parse genetic vs. environmental components, etc. i'm sorry to say that, b/c your comment about time traveling storks was awesome! (seriously!)
you didn't read the article. the study is by a dutchman. it's been the case forever that vocab is the most g-loaded.
more bs. "even after their actual intelligence". what tests have been flynned the most? not vocab or arithmetic? on what tests did afrikaners score lower than british south africans in the 50s but son't any more? surely it was the culturally loaded ones? nope. it was the "fluid" ones.
calling FACTS pc and assuming that if there is a word and a sense then there is a thing to which it refers make me think your own g is not that high.
Gee, they left out the wechsler's only high g/nonverbal subtest, Matrix Reasoning ("this shape goes to this shape like this one goes to") because it wouldn't fit their agenda – it would be low cultural yet high g – it would screw up their findings b/c research is consistent: the higher the g loading, the higher the heritability coefficient. That's the consistently replicated finding in the field –- NOT this artificial fluid - crystallized dichotomy – carving nature at its joints – a high crystallized thing would need a lot of fluid, but a high fluid would have to be demonstrated within some culture –
gee look, they "measured" cultural loadings:) niiiice.
they use subtests from the old (bad) Wechsler, prone to being called unfair b/c all its verbal subtests were pretty cultural, & almost all the nonverbal subtests had verbal content, except for the very low g ones (coding, etc.) it was very cultural – but removing cultural demands doesn't make anyone smarter (usually it makes the test predict worse. b/c you're removing "g"– e.g., see the old K-ABC kerfuffle, with Jensen noting "yes, the black/white differences were lower b/c it didn't have much g in it, which means it didn't predict diddly" paraphrasing mine)
they hid certain things like black/white means are equal on digits forward (b/c that's low g) & black/white means are disparate on digits backward - b/c that's high g (nothing to do with culture or how verbal, etc.) wonder why they hid that – oh wait – agenda – a willing media!
the truth is & always has been: high g-loading tests have high heritability coefficients. low g loading tests have lower heritability coefficients. But, knowing that in advance, means you can leave out what you want, use old tests that are highly cultural, make up your own cultural variable & get it to say what you want. & get the media excited – as they aren't for the hundreds of studies that don't support these one-off findings!!
This is the same parlor trick as was used on Australian aborigines – oh gee, they do poorly on "remember where the verbally labeled item is" but they do great on remember where the different
rocks are – culture or g - too bad we're trying to predict success in the culture – you knew that – you pointed out the dumbness of time machine stork babies – we're all stuck in a rapidly homogenizing culture & it does us no good to use tests that predict success in a 50,000 year old culture – you knew that already! gahh! you got me to read a stupid article! yahghhH!
The reason tests like vocab and arithmetic show limited Flynn Effect is because the Flynn Effect reflects an actual rise in brain size & neurological development that has occurred over the 20th century, and thus it shows up best on direct fluid measures of actual intelligence (i.e. Raven, Similarities) not crystallized measures of knowledge (vocab, arithmetic, SATs). Now in homogenous cultures, crystallized knowledge tests (because they're so reliable and stable) may correlate better with intelligence than actual intelligence tests, but they are an INDIRECT measure. Not sure why this is so hard for you to grasp.
gee. you have no idea what you're talking about, so i stopped reading.
"matrix reasoning" is a new addition. how many studies in how many countries on its reliability and g-loading? the ravens is the least correlated with other self-described iq tests, that is, of all self-described iq tests. it is not a battery, but only one sort of test. it is the most flynned. yet klansmen claim it's the most g-loaded. whatever. leave the intelligence research to those with higher iqs than you.
Chartreuse, the distinction between crystallized and fluid ability is very much valid and all your attempts to debunk it here have been very easily countered.
a pair of typical hereditist iq mongers.
if by "and all your attempts to debunk it here have been very easily countered" you mean "not even understood or addressed let alone countered" i agree.
maybe you should practice on the n-back a little more.
here. i did your work for you. here are g-loadings averaged over studies corrected for reliability. guess which subtest still comes out on top? hint: it's vocabulary for children and adults. http://analyseeconomique.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/meta-analysis-g-loadings-h2-c2-e2-in-wais-and-wisc-subtests.xls followed by all the other most culturally loaded subtests. here's a table summarizing the data. http://analyseeconomique.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/column-vectors-culture-h2-c2-e2-g-loadings-bw-gap-fe-gains-in-wais.png
there ARE differences between the tests categorized as fluid and those categorized as crystallized. there are difference in the parts of the brain used. BUT that difference is NOT fluid or crystallized. ALL of the putative fluid tests are IN FACT testing aquired abilities. there is a real difference between visua-spatial and verbal intelligence however.
but i took the liberty of correcting the heritabilities for reliability which requires division by the reliability rather than sqrt(reliability). here's the result:
Block Design
Digit Span
Object Assembly
Digit Symbol (coding)
Picture Arrangement
Picture Completion
Chartreuse, anything you could say, I've thought of it twice. (by which i assume you mean have never thought of) The herritabilities (sic.)(corrected for reliability) do not even include the two most g loaded Wechsler fluid tests (figure weights, matrix reasoning) (these are brand new. how many studies have been done? how can the ravens be the LEAST correlated with other self-described iq tests?). All you've shown is that verbal ability is more herritabie (sic.) than spatial ability and/or that g loaded tests are more heritable than less g loaded tests. How does that falsify the crystallized fluid dichotomy?(the dichotomy is unfalsifiable then)( Note, fluid tests can be verbal and crystallized tests can be spatial.(can be theoretically but never are IN FACT.) If anything fluid tests should be less heritable because they reflect how much intelligence one currently has while crystallized tessts reflect how much intelligence one used to have before environmental insults to the brain accumulated (i.e. alcohol, drugs, head injuries, medication, etc). In addition, it's well documented that verbal and scholastic abilities are much more resistant to prenatal malnutrition (and 1962 dutch recruits' ravens were totally immune to the effects of famine when they were in the womb or infants)which stunts brain size and intelligence. "fluid" intelligence DOES NOT EXIST. every test will measure experience and what one has made from it, or the extent to which one can make anything of it at all. the well-nourished child who is raised by wolves will not have the same "fluid intelligence" as his counterpart who is raised bu upmc parents in a developed country.
I agree that no test is 100% fluid, but many are close enough to make it a useful meaningful concept. A child raised by wolves might at first flunk a fluid test, but after a few weeks of domestication, fluid tests would reflect his biological potential. By contrast he may never reach his potential on the SAT.
I agree that among culturally homogenous people, crystallized tests are often a better measure of intelligence, but there are many situations where only fluid tests are appropriate.
not that any child could be raised by wolves. BUT, "A child raised by wolves might at first flunk a fluid test, but after a
few weeks of domestication, fluid tests would reflect his biological
IS the DUMBEST thing i've EVER heard.
there is a part of violinists brains which is enlarged as a result of their violin-ing. environment, not just food, can be nutritious or not. whatever the test save perhaps reaction time, ects, etc. (but likely not even those) will test the extent to which the brain has developed to play the metaphorical violin. and this is crystallized ability, even if it can't be put into words.
"not that any child could be raised by wolves". A child could be raised by dogs so maybe a child could be raised by wolves.
but if not age 22 is quite a long time from her first six years. i wonder how she'd do on the matrix reasoning?
you are polite and not abrasive, but you're actually arguing against yourself. and i'm sure that the correlation between fischer random rating and standard rating is near 1.
it goes for you and jensen and all y'all:
Well a fluid test by definition is something you've virtually never done before. Fluid intelligence is defined as NOVEL problem solving. Once you've practiced it, it's no longer a valid measure of your intelligence.
Fluid intelligence can also be defined as the ability to learn, while crystallized intelligence is how much you have learned. Obviously they're highly correlated since how much you've learned is largely a function of your ability to learn. But fluid tests attempt to directly measure your ability to learn by giving you a novel problem to figure out on the spot while crystallized tests just infer your ability to learn indirectly by measuring your acquitted knowledge. Fluid tests are clearly more accurate for culturally heterogeneous comparisons, but among the culturally homogenous, the indirect approach might work better since acquired knowledge over a lifetime averages out all the day to day fluctuations in fluid performance caused by sleep deprivation, alcohol, drugs, head injuries, motivation, etc.
One issue is people can get brain damage or dimentia and lose their ability to learn new things while still retaining what they've already learned in their pre-morbid state. In these cases, crystallized tests are like fossils crystallized in rocks, preserving the intelligence that once existed, long after it's gone.
"the ability to learn" is another mere abstraction. one can speak concepts into existence. he cannot speak things into existence. and things needn't conform to concepts.
and putative "fluid" tests do NOT measure learning ability even if there were such a thing.
as one professor of mine said, "for most students school is just pattern recognition. they 'learn' what they have to to pass and then they forget it."
it's been my experience that there are humans who correspond to airdales. that is, they do not learn quickly, but they do learn forever. they do not learn to shuck and jive like a pigeon in a skinner box. they understand.
iq and speed of learning are very decidedly NOT the same thing. metaphorically, human airdales will have higher iqs than the pattern recognizers.
Comes up in teaching kids chess. Whilst some young kids really "get chess" at a very young age, the majority struggle with basics till they are around 9. Thus being bright, but not an especially good chess player I'm about the level of the best 13 year olds in my country. Sure there is a lot of learning in chess, but the best 16 year olds are way ahead of me, and it ain't three years extra learning, heck one guy was beating me at 18 who learnt at 16.
I think as parents we have a duty to do the best for our offspring, part of that is selecting partner. Genetic fixes, and similar, fit in the same way. I vaccinate to avoid disease in my child for the same reasons. My concern is not the need to do this, but when is it safe/effective. We already see that with the cervical cancer vaccine, which is fantastic science, and safety is excellent, evidence of effectiveness from antibody response excellent, but the evidence for benefit is just (literally Dec 2013), and that benefit is a reduction in HPV 16 and 18 in women under 24. It was introduced 5 years ago. I'm sure in time we'll see a 65% or more drop in cervical cancer, but there are assumptions built into that claim which could be wrong, because disease epidemiology is complex. It could be the vaccine prevents harmless forms of HPV spreading which would have induced natural immunity. The risk of such is exceedingly low, otherwise we wouldn't be offering a universal (in girls) vaccine. Ultimately till the first generation die, hopefully at more than average life expectancy, we won't be able to be completely confident. This case is a no-brainer, but not all interventions bringing short term advantage are as clear cut. I can imagine my son being presented with 10 or 20 genetic treatments for his offspring, all in varying stages of evidence, none of which will have had long term testing. As with vaccine there will be nay sayers for whom no evidence is not sufficient, but part of our confidence with vaccines is we have a couple of centuries of experience.
- Leftist_Conservative said...
I find this entire column and comment thread insensitive and offensive.
I myself am a caveman, a neanderthal, if you will. I was discovered in glacier, frozen, some years and thawed out and brought back to life.
My IQ is not so low that I could not make it in this frightening and confusing modern world. In fact, I even made it through college and law school.
I think people need to not be so afraid of scientific advancement. If we can better ourselves through science, we should. Certainly not force it on anyone, although I can't imagine anyone not wanting the best for their children. If you could make you children smarter, healthy, stronger, kinder,happier, better why wouldn't you? I think anything negative that impacts a person and society, if we have the capability to over come it through science, we should offer it! It reminds me of the recent movie, transcendence. This guy uploads his mind into a super computer and then he is able to come up with all of these wonderful ways to heal the earth and better people physically. However, because people were too afraid of the advancements, as they came much more quickly than people could understand what was behind it, they were too scared to see what the computer was trying to do and offer. People have always been afraid of advancement and technology and science. It's sad really.
I don't think we should bring back long extinct things like mammoths and neanderthals. I think they belong in the past. However, if we can use that same technology to save recently extinct animals who died because of our behavior or save animals who are endangered for the same reason, then absolutely I think we should. I think to bring a neanderthal into this world as it is now would be cruel. They aren't quite human but not quite 'animalistic'. Yet they require the same basic necessities as us and we are over populated as it is, can't take care of our own species as it is. If we brought them back, we'd be responsible for them. We'd need to find land for them, house them, clothe them, feed them, educate them. For what? So they can be outcasts and barely understand what the hell is going on? They'd be miserable and they'd just be a drain on our society. And if we're going to advance their brains to be like ours... then what's the point? We'd have human brains inside neanderthals bodies. Extra cruel!
I'd be okay with maybe a family of them in a special institutional environment for study purposes, as long as they were well taken care of, as long as they were sterilized and couldn't breed. To see what their behaviors and habits were I think would be fascinating. However, not to where there's a whole bunch of the wondering around and breeding and interbreeding and needing all kinds of things and taking up a bunch of resources and having to try to fit in but of course can't. No matter what, they'd never be human. We could be as kind as possible to them and except them with love and openness, but they'd never be human... yet they'd have to live in our world. Caught somewhere in between human and lower animals. >.< Horrifying.... and they'd never understand why.
what if their characters were way more advanced, could we come up with a genetic modification for that?
This guys view of neandertals is pathetic. http://dienekes.blogspot.de/2014/05/in-defense-of-neandertals.html
Where did you come up with the idea that Neanderthals were stupid? They created tools, buried their dead, and did a lot of things that homo sapiens were doing at the time. Are they stupid because they went extinct? Well in that case, if nuclear bombs started to go off like some apocalyptic movie scenario or an asteroid hit Earth, cockroaches would survive and humans would die. Would that make cockroaches smarter than humans?
There is a general problem for cloning any ancient
organisms: mammoths, Neanderthals and even ancient Homo Sapienses.
The matter is that the arm race between big organisms like
us and different pathogens is a part of evolution. We are under natural selection
all of the time and genomes of our species are changing in order to resist a
new pathogens.
Like nowadays Homo Sapiens is passing natural selection for
carrying genes that provide HIV resistance.
So, if you clone an organism that lived 50-100 thousands
years ago – its genome would miss adaptations to all new pathogens that emerged
since its death. Thus, it can die of something that can barely cause us rheum
or even cause nothing. Does not really matter if you clone an extinct organism
like Neanderthal or his Homo Sapiens contemporary, they both would not fit our
harsh reality.
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text:
This is what family fun looks like.
Dial up your multimedia and family entertainment experiences with rich color and vivid images on this 18.5'' (47 cm) widescreen HD monitor with LED backlight. Enjoy 1366×768 at 60 Hz HD resolution, a mega-dynamic contrast ratio, energy-conscious design and more – all at a great value.
Entertain with movies and games: Multimedia is the name of the game and this HD monitor loves to play.
Applaud energy-conscious measures: Help save energy and feel good about the environment with this ENERGY STAR® compliant widescreen monitor.
Complement your unique decor: Slim styling, sleek rounded edges and a glossy black design were created to complement your personal space.


text:
Eminent domain
A government's right of eminent domain to take property for a public purpose is well-established at the local, state and federal levels. The public purpose is usually a highway, school, park or some other public facility.
The issue in New London, however, involves the taking of private property for the benefit of a private developer.
In some cases, that is done for urban renewal projects when blighted areas in small and large communities are targeted for redevelopment.
In New London's case, the Fort Trumbull section of the city was the home of Victorian-era houses and small businesses. It was not blighted.
City officials decided the neighborhood should be replaced with a large commercial development that would bring in more taxes and tourists. A Thames riverfront hotel, health club and offices were planned.
The goal was to remake an area of New London, even if the property owners disagreed.
The city approved the plan in January 2000. Some property owners sold their land. Others decided to fight.
In March 2004, the state Supreme Court ruled, 4-3, that New London acted within state law because the mere promise of additional tax revenue justified the taking of the property.
Connecticut is one of seven states that allow the use of eminent domain for private business development. The others are New York, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and North Dakota.
Fortunately, that authority is not used very often. But to use it against a thriving neighborhood, as was done in New London, raises obvious questions about fairness and justice.
Even if the property owners are paid the market value of the property, as required by law, they have lost their homes.
Two decades ago, the nation's highest court ruled Hawaii could take land from large property owners and sell it to others.
Since then, the court has resisted other cases involving eminent domain. New London's case is unusual because the land targeted was not blighted. It is hard not to be sympathetic to homeowners who suddenly were told their land would be taken from them.
With so many different laws on eminent domain across the nation, with private developers increasingly interested in using eminent domain for their own benefit, a new look at these powers by the U.S. Supreme Court is needed.


text:
A couple of years ago, I introduced you to cupcakes baked in real egg shells. Cracking open an egg shell to reveal a cupcake inside is one of those rare food surprises that leaves even the most jaded of adults with a sense of childhood wonder and awe. This year, I am turning the Easter cupcake phenomenon into a Super Bowl sensation.
Skip the pastels and dye your egg to look like a football, hide a chocolate cupcake inside, and get ready for kickoff!
How to Make Super Bowl Football Cupcakes Baked in Real Egg Shells
To make these Super Bowl Football Cupcakes baked in real egg shells, I used the same technique that I used with the Easter cupcakes baked in egg shells, only I used chocolate cupcake batter. You can find all of the instructions and step-by-step photos in that post.
After preparing the egg shells (removing the innards, soaking them in salt water, rinsing, and drying them off), you'll need to dye them to look like footballs. Don't try to dye them before preparing them or the dye will wash off in the prep process (spoken from experience).
To make the eggs look like footballs, you'll need:
- a crayon
- brown food coloring
- water
- white vinegar
First, draw the stitching on the egg using a crayon. Ideally, you'd do this in white, but it's really hard to draw with a white crayon on a white egg and get lines that are remotely straight. I opted for a light green crayon (grey would have been an even better choice). When you submerge the egg in the dye, the dye won't stick to the wax and you'll be able to clearly see your lines.
Next, it's time to dye the eggs. In preparing to make these Super Bowl football dyed eggs, I did a lot of research on egg dying. Most sites said something similar to Martha Stewart's guide: use 20 drops of food coloring, one cup of hot water, and one teaspoon of vinegar. When I followed this technique, my white eggs ended up looking like brown eggs (I could have just bought those), not dark brown football eggs. I turned to the Cupcake Project Facebook Community for advice. Many of you suggested using more vinegar. It worked!
Tips for Creating Dark Brown Eggs
- Use more than 20 drops of dye (start there, but add more until you get a color you like).
- Use more than 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Start with a tablespoon and add more until you are happy with the result.
- Leave the egg shells in the dye for at least 3 minutes. I dipped some of mine for 5-10 minutes. (This is a good activity to do while watching a favorite TV series that you've already seen – Dawson's Creek is my latest show of choice.)
- Dip the egg shell a second time if it's not dark enough after the first time.
Don't Fumble
The hardest part of making football cupcake eggs is filling the football eggs with the correct amount of batter. If you fumble by filling an egg shell with too little batter, the cupcake football ends up as a sad half of a ball. But, if you overfill an egg shell, it overflows as it bakes onto the outside of the shell. When you peel the cake off the shell, the color comes off as well (very upsetting after you spend all of that time dying it). Shoot for halfway full or choose a recipe that doesn't rise very much – I'd love to try filling the eggshells with fudgey brownie batter!
I hope these are a touchdown at your Super Bowl party! Leave me a comment or post some photos on the Cupcake Project Facebook page to share your success!
P.S. If you want a second cupcake (which of course you do), I suggest giving my CNN-featured Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes, or my beer cheese cupcakes with bacon and cheddar frosting a try!


text:
Have you ever had refrigerator issues? I hear it even happens sometimes to long haul drivers on the interstate when they get stuck with a fresh load, then wait all day for an elusive creature called the refrigerator technician.
Our fairly new LG French door refrigerator with bottom freezer and large crisper was love at first site when I first got it but it had stopped working one Saturday afternoon, a couple of months ago. I quickly transferred all the food to a neighbour's fridge before I called for help. I had used the services of Kimo's Appliances in the past with great results so I gave them a call right away. After a few questions about the problem - loud noise coming from the back of the fridge before this event, and now complete cessation - the diagnose was given and a technician scheduled promptly for Monday.
He arrived on time and quickly got to work. After a brief survey, the tech told me the compressor would either have to be replaced or reconditioned, the latter being the cheaper, recommended alternative, which I took. He left with the part and returned the next day to refill it. After a short while of tinkering with the freon tank and a while longer to refill the compressor, he reinstalled it, plugged in the fridge and voila, cold air started to flow through this big ice box again.
And for this reliable, outstanding service I have no choice but recommending this fine appliance shop located in Van Nuys, California, 91406 at 15430 Cabrito Rd. They sell new and used refrigerators, washers, dryers, dishwashers and stoves and perform prompt, expert service for all of the above. Their prices are competitive and they offer delivery, installation and haul away of the old appliance. To find out more, please visit Kimo's Appliances website.