Children born with big heads have higher IQs and thus a better chance of a successful future

The connection between larger head size and higher IQ is well-known but is usually given as a correlation around .3.  But in this very careful research it came out at .5, which is a major effect.  Interestingly, autistic people tend to have big heads too, and they often have quite extraordinary abilities in some field.  The study mentioned below was not confined to head size.  It looked at many physical attributes -- and many were intertwined with IQ and achievement.  IQ is a physical reality and an important one.  All men are not equal

Babies with big heads are more likely to be clever and have successful futures, a study has shown. Research carried out by UK Biobank has strongly linked higher intelligence with large head circumferences and brain volume.

Half a million Brits are being monitored by the charity to discover the connection between their genes, their physical and mental health and their path through life.

The latest evidence is the first finding to emerge from the study that aims to break down the relationship between brain function and DNA.

Researchers in a paper published by the Molecular Psychiatry journal said: 'Highly significant associations were observed between the cognitive test scores in the UK Biobank sample and many polygenic profile scores, including . . . intracranial volume, infant head circumference and childhood cognitive ability.'

Professor Ian Deary, of Edinburgh University, who is leading the research, said gene variants were also strongly associated with intelligence, according to The Times.

The new evidence is so accurate that experts claim it could even predict how likely it was that a baby would go to university based on their DNA.

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House conservatives are winning

If one listens to the narrative advanced by rent-seeking, parasitic Washington political establishment, conservatives were “trounced,” as one publication put it, in Republican congressional primaries this cycle. This narrative could not be further from the truth.

Certainly, there were some disappointments in this election cycle. The loss of Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), one of the most principled conservative members of the House, was a huge blow. Of course, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other crony special interests spent heavily to boost his moderate Republican primary opponent.

Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who, rather than be spurned by the conservative members of his conference and lose his the speakership, resigned his House seat. He may have toasted a glass of red wine when Rep. Huelskamp lost, but this old House seat is now in the hands of a member of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio).

The House Freedom Caucus’ win in Boehner’s backyard was not the only victory for conservatives in 2016. Principled conservatives like Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), and Dave Brat (R-Va.) avoided primary challenges by sticking to their limited government, constitutionalist principles.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) won more than 71 percent of the vote against his establishment-backed primary challenger, despite more than $500,000 in outside spending against him, proving that the model that may have worked in one race may not work in another. In Arizona’s 5th District, Andy Biggs won the Republican primary over a challenger favored by the D.C. political elite.

Conservatives are playing the long game, not that the House Republican leadership and the self-important pundit class have noticed. The fact of the matter is, we are winning. Although success may not always be defined by year-by-year primary election results, conservatives are advancing the ball down the field, a few yards at a time.

In the 1990s, there were only a handful of House conservatives -- including Reps. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), Ron Paul (R-Texas), and Steve Largent (R-Okla.) -- who stuck to their principles when under pressure from Republican leadership. Today, we can count on the nearly 40-member House Freedom Caucus, as well as several other conservatives who aren’t members of the group, who consistently stay true to the limited government values.

The influence and importance of conservatives in the House Republican Conference is increasing, and, as the United States’ fiscal challenges continue to grow and the expansive federal bureaucracy strangles entrepreneurs with red tape, the power they wield to move the GOP in a pro-economic growth direction is happening at the right time.

Another definition of success is a shift in the voting habits of Republican incumbents. The very same publication which declared that conservatives were “trounced” during this election cycle noted that conservative challengers are “making [Republican incumbents] think harder about their primaries, and making them work harder to keep their base happy than in the recent past.” Although this particular point was made in reference to current members of the Senate Republican Conference, the same is true of House Republican incumbents.

Evolution is not an overnight process. It takes time. What the evolution of congressional Republicans has showed is that conservatives have more influence than ever before. That doesn’t mean that challenges, both electoral and legislative, won’t arise. And, of course, evolution is a slow process. With every passing moment, the national debt continues to rise, the regulatory state continues to grow, and rent-seeking, parasitic special interests are concocting the next scheme in their playbook to try to defeat principled conservatives in Congress.

In order to preserve the Republic, we absolutely must work to defend and strengthen conservatism on Capitol Hill and speed up the evolutionary process.

SOURCE

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Meet the Alt-Left

Alt-right is becoming a term of soft bigotry whereas “alt-left” accurately describes the political ideology of today’s Democratic Party.

A strong offense is the best defense when fighting bullies. Today, our offense is to turn Hillary’s words against her. She and her ilk are the alternative-left. They have fallen away from the pragmatic Democratic ideals of John F. Kennedy and embraced a radical “power at any cost” fringe philosophy of Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers.

Alt-Left Extremist Behavior:

Here are a few examples of the radical measures that today’s Democratic Party supports that indicate they have morphed into a fringe group:


1.) Ignoring Science: “Science-denier” is the modern Democrat’s middle name. Hillary Clinton opposed the construction of the Keystone Pipeline even though her own State Department thrice declared it to be environmentally safe.

2.) Pretending States Don’t Exist: Obama’s administration sued Arizona forexercising its own immigration laws; North Carolina over its bathroom laws. Obama’s administration also used aggressive and excessive measures to challenge California’s state authority on medical marijuana.

3.) Coddling Thugs, Killing Free Speech: Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik stormed a gun free zone in San Bernardino, CA last December—fatally shooting 14 individuals and injuring 24.  U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch threatened to prosecute anyone who dared say anything that could be in any way construed as anti-Muslim—despite Farook and Malik being radicalized jihadist Muslims.

4.) Crushing Bakeries and Pizzerias: Obama doesn’t think you can build a layered wedding cake “on your own” let alone open your own bakery. So, it’s not entirely surprising that his administration wouldn’t intervene when alt-left protesters put a bakery out of business when the owner practiced her 1st Amendment right to free speech.

5.) No ID to Vote: You must show an ID to withdraw cash from a bank; buy cigarettes; purchase alcohol; patronize a bar or dance club; buy ammo; or use your credit card at the U.S. Post Office—but the government doesn’t want to know who is voting. Could politicians want to hide their attempts to buy votes from illegal immigrants?

6.) Double Standards: If a Marine had access to classified material, he or she would be Court-Martialed for failing to follow basic security procedures with that material. If that Marine deleted tens of thousands of potentially jeopardized emails before turning over her emails to the FBI, she would likely spend a decade in jail. Not Hillary Clinton! She’s the Queen of the Alt-Left, which means she’s above the law.

7.) Normalizing Child Abuse: “As president, I will always have your back,” Hillary recently told Planned Parenthood. Democrats support using taxpayer dollars to fund the murder of a baby during the final months of pregnancy (partial-birth abortion) despite the baby showing signs of life and viability. In this objectively cruel procedure, the baby’s scull is punctured with a sharp surgical tool and its brain is suctioned, inducing the collapse of the baby’s scull and ultimately the child’s death.

8.) Security Blankets for College Students: Democrats want taxpayers to subsidize “safe spaces” so that students do not encounter intellectual diversity. The alt-left wants us to bankroll silly laws (think California Gov. Jerry Brown’s “Just Say No” law designed to stop rape on college campuses) that prevent students from exercising their 2nd Amendment right to carry concealed. Result: college students cry and stamp their feet when a professor corrects their grammar errors. Yes, this happened at the University of California at Los Angeles.

SOURCE

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12 Hours of Terror: Just Another Weekend in Leftist-run America

We live in a country run by people who tell us that if a man puts on a dress and says he’s a woman we are supposed to take him at his word. But, if a man goes on a murderous rampage in the name of Allah, and ISIS claims responsibility, we shouldn’t draw conclusions.

The weak and ridiculous position in which we find ourselves did not happen on its own. Americans selected this band of leftist fools who have zero aptitude for dealing with terrorism. A quote from King Solomon, the wisest earthly leader to ever grace the planet comes to mind:

 “As dead flies give perfume to a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. Even as fools walk along the road, they lack sense and show everyone how stupid they are.” (Ecclesiastes 10:1-3)

Thanks to those whose hearts incline “to the left,” the terrorism which was once a rarity in America can happen anytime and anywhere.

And does. In a 12-hour span over the weekend, we saw that it is not safe to shop in a mall in Minnesota, or run a 5k in New Jersey or walk in New York City without risk of terrorism.

“Rest assured,” they tell us, “justice will be served.” Of course, they are always quick to remind us to not make assumptions. Heaven forbid we offend someone’s sensibilities.

Fox News reports ISIS claimed responsibility for the shopping mall stabbing spree saying the attacker “asked at least one victim whether they were Muslim and referenced Allah.” The group posted this public statement on AMAQ, a news agency known for speaking for ISIS: “The executor of the stabbing attacks in Minnesota yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition.”

Apparently, this information wasn’t enough for the FBI to draw conclusions about the motive of the stabber which the Somali-American community in St. Cloud quickly identified as Dahir Adan.

According to the  St. Cloud Times: “Like the police, Minnesota FBI spokesman Kyle Loven declined to say Sunday if investigators believe the attack was a terrorist act.” Nor was it enough for Police Chief William Blair Anderson who  “pointedly declined to call the attacks an act of terrorism, saying the motive isn’t yet known,” reports a local paper.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, a pipe bomb-like explosive device detonated along the route of a 5k charity race to help Marines and sailors, and in New York City, 29 people were injured when an improvised explosive device went off in a Manhattan neighborhood.  Business Insider reports that after the explosion, officials later found a “pressure cooker with an apparent mobile phone attached to it and wires protruding.”

And the mayor overly obsessed with controlling what New Yorkers eat immediately called the bombing “a very serious incident.”

Later at a press conference a reporter grilled  Mayor Bill de Blasio asking, “How can you say there is no link to terrorism when the Inspire magazine published instructions on how to build one of these pressure-cooker bombs, like the one used in the Boston Marathon bombing?” De Blasio dug in his heels, saying it was “a very serious incident,” and reiterating “we have a lot more work to do to be able to say what kind of motivation was behind this…”

Apparently, the mayor couldn’t get his sodium-free tongue to utter the word “terror,” proving to us just how true the Bible verse is: “Even as fools walk along the road, they lack sense and show everyone how stupid they are.”

SOURCE

Note

A bearded person known as Ahmad Khan Rahami, is being sought in connection with the Chelsea bombing.  That sounds like an Irish name to me.  What do you think?

There is a  new  lot of postings by Chris Brand just up -- about Muslims, free speech and IQ

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For more blog postings from me, see  TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH,  POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, and Paralipomena (Occasionally updated),  a Coral reef compendium and an IQ compendium. (Both updated as news items come in).  GUN WATCH is now mainly put together by Dean Weingarten. I also put up occasional updates on my Personal blog and each day I gather together my most substantial current writings on A WESTERN HEART.

Email me  here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here (Academic) or  here (Pictorial) or  here  (Personal)

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