HBD awareness as a civilizational aid

As Inductivist has previously underscored, a natural predilection for monogamy is probably being selected for, at least in Western societies where progressively higher levels of sexual equality and consequent increasing female advantage in mate choice has been the story for more than a century.This isn't surprising. In Darwinian terms, women benefit more from serial monogamy than men do. Women are only able to conceive one man's child at a time....

Blue: "WotC, why hath thee forsaken me?"

The following post contains a discussion relating to the competitive M:TG standard format. For the vast majority of readers it will consequently be of no interest, so if you are among them, please don't waste your time.It's no secret that blue is the, uh, red-headed stepchild of the current standard environment. Bant (mythic) is playable, spread 'em exposes jund's Achilles' heel, open the vaults has a consistent(ly small) presence, and UW control...

Pride as a deadly sin? Hah!

++Addition++OneSTDV responds, pointing out that "pride" is not a semantically ideal descriptor for what might be better characterized as gay self-assertion. Gay pride parades are not billed as a celebration of the artistic commitments of gays (thanks for reducing putative supermodels to emaciates objectively less attractive than many of the next door girls I know!), but instead...

100 / 40 = 2.5 ?

From a report on Williams syndrome, excerpted and then discussed by Steve:Despite their lack of racial bias, children with Williams syndrome hold gender stereotypes just as strongly as normal children, the study found. That is, 99 percent of the 40 children studied pointed to pictures of girls when asked who played with dolls and chose boys when asked, say, who likes toy cars. Solomon must have had his way with one of those ki...

Relative absolutism

Are you an absolutist or a relativist when it comes to defining contentment and happiness (or telos, if you prefer)? Is there one definitional formula, or are there countless possible combinations leading to the same answer?I'd describe myself as a relative absolutist. That is, there is one specific optimal formula for realizing happiness for each person, but there as many...

IQ and Census response rates

Complementing the assertion that IQ and quality of life correlate positively with one another is the presumption that IQ is similarly correlated with higher levels of civic participation. Using data gathered by GMU professor Michael MacDonald, it has been revealed here that intelligent people vote more frequently than dullards do.They also appear to be more compliant and timely in completing and returning their census information, despite the official...

Passing, rushing, and winning in the NFL since 1969

In January, after having a little fun with team stats for the 2009 NFL season, I looked at the correlations between success (wins) and per-play passing and per-play rushing throughout the early years of this century. The trend is clear--a strong passing game does a top-tier team make. Running is far less determinative.But rule changes and a paradigmatic shift away from raw power to pure speed (the fullback, a linchpin position as recently as Daryl...