I’ve gotten way behind on my RSS…though I caught up a bit over Thanksgiving.
West Hunter. Greg Cochran and Henry Harpending’s blog.
Eurasian Sensation. Liberal Eurasian Australian blogger.
Matt Yglesias moved to Slate. This means that his salary is coming in large part from a firm which he has excoriated in the past. (Slate is owned by The Washington Post Company)
Rod Dreher is now at The American Conservative.
Sorry, Strivers: Talent Matters. “Nor is it to say that it’s impossible for a person with an average I.Q. to, say, earn a Ph.D. in physics.” I think it is possible to earn a Ph.D. in physics with an average I.Q., but only from institutions like Razib-Khan’s-Internet-University, where you pay me $100 for me to send you a printout which purports to give you a Ph.D. in physics. In fact, if someone who is a Ph.D. in physics can send me their G.R.E. scores where they score less than a 550 on the mathematics section, and are willing to go public with this fact (so we can check their scholarly achievements and validate the quality of the institution), I will shell out $250 to this individual. Let’s set the date of expiration for 12/26, so I can budget this expense.
Is Newt Gingrich as smart as he thinks? He’s obviously not dumb like Rick Perry, or ignorant like Herman Cain. But I think Newt is a “high verbal” type who can impress the dull more than actually get anything done. I believe that Mitt Romney is somewhat higher in I.Q., but more critically he probably has a better practical skill set. Newt is not one known for contingency and coherency, and that’s a problem.
The Curious Case of Freida Pinto. Frieda Pinto is famous internationally, but obscure in India. Part of this is the inordinate attention paid to Slumdog Millionaire in the West, but part of it is that she’s probably too conventionally Indian looking to really stand out in Bollywood (too dark skinned), but is conventionally Indian looking enough in the West to be ‘exotic’ (just dark skinned enough to obviously be non-white).
Atheists launch campaign to get unbelievers to ‘come out’. Just so you know, I’m an atheist.
In Quiet Part of Russia, Putin’s Party Loses Steam. Unless you’re willing to go “North Korea,” economic growth matters to any ruling class.
Talk cancelled. In the long run it doesn’t matter.
A Blow to Pinstripe Aspirations. My first thought is “fuck them.” Second thought, start a company if you’re that smart! If you’re not really that smart, but can fake it, go work for a company that makes something or produces a genuine service.
Ancient sect fights to keep culture alive in U.S. Mandaeans don’t have critical mass. Excessive fixation on endogamy does not work unless you are willing to engage in self-segregation like the Hasidic Jews do.
Worth remembering (when comparing ‘the US’ to ‘Europe’). A nice post illustrating the data which supports one of my pet peeves: comparing totally different administrative units in qualitative terms on the same quantitative metrics.
Man eats world’s hottest pepper; vomits, hallucinates, and is generally laid low.
‘My daughter deserved to die for falling in love’. For Abdel-Qader Ali there is only one regret: that he did not kill his daughter at birth. ‘If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her,’ he said with no trace of remorse. Stories like this are tragic, but unless the West wants to engage in neocolonialism it has to accept that these are the dominant views in some parts of the world, and will be until economic and social development changes them. Such human interest pieces should continue to be written to remind us what we may become in the process of barbarization and cultural devolution, but it is unlikely that they will affect any great change. Millions of young women will live under a reign of tyranny for several generations, and there is nothing we can do to change this in the cases of most (I suspect the same system is what is driving men to have sex with men in the Muslim world).
The White Stuff. I still like Three Colors: Red, but then Irene Jacob was more striking at her peak than Julie Delpy or Juliette Binoche.
‘Meow’trage at Algonquin. Hotel cat banned from lobby!
That rotting smell is college sports.
Ernest Borgnine. He’s still alive! Was born in 1917.
Libyan Fighters Catch Qaddafi’s Last Fugitive Son. How they treat him will be the measure of the ‘nation.’
The Duggars Demonstrate Life History Trade-Offs Around Quality Versus Quantity of Offspring.
As ultra-Orthodox flex muscle, Israel feminists see a backsliding. Numbers are at issue. The Ultra-Orthodox are now a modest minority, not a marginal one. That being said, they’re subsidized by the rest of society. Would they persist if they were fully economically integrated and active?