Are All Brains the Same Color ?

Psychologist Richard Nisbett has an article in the NYT under the rather silly heading "All Brains Are the Same Color". It is the usual misleading account of the evidence about black IQ. I am a bit tired of demolishing these pieces of nonsense so I reproduce below a fisking of the article by Bob Williams. There is much more that could be said but Bob does a pretty good job nonetheless:

Nisbett says:

The first notable public airing of the scientific question came in a 1969 article in The Harvard Educational Review by Arthur Jensen, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Jensen maintained that a 15-point difference in I.Q. between blacks and whites was mostly due to a genetic difference between the races that could never be erased. But his argument gave a misleading account of the evidence.

This is not true. There was nothing misleading, nor incorrect. After 37 years, Jensen's observations have been clearly established as correct.

In fact, the evidence heavily favors the view that race differences in I.Q. are environmental in origin, not genetic.

False. Anyone who does not understand this may wish to read Rushton, J.P. and Jensen, A.R. (2005). Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in Cognitive Ability. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol. 11, No. 2, 235-294 and this

The hereditarians begin with the assertion that 60 percent to 80 percent of variation in I.Q. is genetically determined. However, most estimates of heritability have been based almost exclusively on studies of middle-class groups.

The B-W IQ gap is larger at the highest level of SES than at the lowest. The above comment is inane. There have been literally hundreds of IQ studies of various racial groups from many different countries and they show the same outcome:

Highest IQ: Ashkenazi Jews
Next highest: East Asians (Mongoloids)
Next highest: Whites of European ancestry
Lower: American Indians and Latinos
Lower still: American and European Blacks
Very low: sub-Saharan Blacks
Lowest: Bushmen and Pygmies

For the poor, a group that includes a substantial proportion of minorities, heritability of I.Q. is very low, in the range of 10 percent to 20 percent, according to recent research by Eric Turkheimer at the University of Virginia.

Turkheimer reached this conclusion by studying children who were age 7 and less. This is long before the shared environmental component vanishes. [See also here and here]

This means that for the poor, improvements in environment have great potential to bring about increases in I.Q.

For children only. The shared environmental component equals ZERO for adults.

Nearly all the evidence suggesting a genetic basis for the I.Q. differential is indirect.

Not true. You have to wonder why this person makes such obviously false assertions. Perhaps he thinks his readers are not familiar with the research. A good bit of the evidence is so specific that it cannot be associated with environmental causes by any means. See either of the two references I previously gave.

There is, for example, the evidence that brain size is correlated with intelligence, and that blacks have smaller brains than whites. But the brain size difference between men and women is substantially greater than that between blacks and whites, yet men and women score the same, on average, on I.Q. tests.

The brain size difference between the sexes is a virtually perfect predictor of the IQ difference between the sexes. The claim that the sexes have identical IQs is at odds with numerous independent findings, although the subject is still being debated.

Likewise, a group of people in a community in Ecuador have a genetic anomaly that produces extremely small head sizes - and hence brain sizes. Yet their intelligence is as high as that of their unaffected relatives.

This person does not understand correlations. Even large numbers of exceptions do not invalidate correlations. One or two points will have little significance, other than to move the correlation coefficient by a tiny amount.

About 25 percent of the genes in the American black population are European, meaning that the genes of any individual can range from 100 percent African to mostly European. If European intelligence genes are superior, then blacks who have relatively more European genes ought to have higher I.Q.'s than those who have more African genes. But it turns out that skin color and "negroidness" of features - both measures of the degree of a black person's European ancestry - are only weakly associated with I.Q. (even though we might well expect a moderately high association due to the social advantages of such features).

The Black admixture formula (from Lynn) is: IQ = 80 + (admixture % x 0.2) [see Lynn, Richard (2006). "Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis", Washington Summit Publishers, Georgia.] This formula predicts the regional and mean IQs of Blacks in the US and Europe.

During World War II, both black and white American soldiers fathered children with German women. Thus some of these children had 100 percent European heritage and some had substantial African heritage. Tested in later childhood, the German children of the white fathers were found to have an average I.Q. of 97, and those of the black fathers had an average of 96.5, a trivial difference.

This citation is known as the Eyferth study. Environmental proponents always cite it because they have not found any other evidence to cite. But their claim is incredibly lame:

* The "study" consisted of a very small N. Some citations claim 98 and some 69.

* Although the children's IQ was measured, the parents' IQ was not measured (neither was the rank of the US military father measured). So it is not known whether the children inherited the parental IQ.

* About 30 percent of US blacks failed pre-induction mental tests for the military, compared with 3 percent of white. So US black soldiers were a more IQ-selected and less-representative sample of their population than were white soldiers.

* Children were tested prior to the age at which the genotypic aspect of intelligence has become fully manifested. [See also here]

* 20% to 25% of the "Black" fathers were not African Americans but French North Africans (i.e., largely Caucasian or "Whites" as we have defined the terms here).

But it turns out that skin color and "negroidness" of features - both measures of the degree of a black person's European ancestry - are only weakly associated with I.Q. (even though we might well expect a moderately high association due to the social advantages of such features).

There is no presently available study (to the best of my knowledge) of within group IQ variation as a function of skin color. But there is a between group study, as cited in my previously referenced article:

Templer and Arikawa (2006):

skin color to winter high temperature r = .85 (p < 0.001)

IQ to skin color r = - .92 (p < 0.001 )

The correlation shown above is not even close to "weakly associated." It is very strong. Nisbett did not offer any numbers or references to support his assertion.

The closest thing to direct evidence that the hereditarians have is a study from the 1970s showing that black children who had been adopted by white parents had lower I.Q.'s than those of mixed-race children adopted by white parents. But, as the researchers acknowledged, the study had many flaws; for instance, the black children had been adopted at a substantially later age than the mixed-race children, and later age at adoption is associated with lower I.Q.

All adopted children reached adult IQs that were equal to their biological peers and which had no correlation with their adoptive families. Transracial studies were not limited to Blacks adopted by Whites but included Asians adopted by Whites. The Blacks ended up with lower IQs than their adoptive families and the Asians ended up with IQs higher than their adoptive families.

That environment can markedly influence I.Q. is demonstrated by the so-called Flynn Effect.

No, it is not.

James Flynn, a philosopher and I.Q. researcher in New Zealand, has established that in the Western world as a whole, I.Q. increased markedly from 1947 to 2002.

Not true. What he found was an increase in raw scores. At the same time scholastic-component raw scores (within the same tests) declined.

In the United States alone, it went up by 18 points. Our genes could not have changed enough over such a brief period to account for the shift;

He got one right.

it must have been the result of powerful social factors.

No. There is absolutely no evidence that any social factors were at work. It appears that most or all of the gains were specific and not g loaded and are apparently due to multiple factors such as nutrition, family size, and environmental conditions that exist in very early life, since the secular rise is observable in toddlers.

Most important, we know that interventions at every age from infancy to college can reduce racial gaps in both I.Q. and academic achievement, sometimes by substantial amounts in surprisingly little time.

The IQ boosts that have been reported were temporary (very short lived) and were believed to be largely the result of teaching to the test. That means that the gains were in s loading and not in g loading. No g loading gains have been demonstrated.

This mutability is further evidence that the I.Q. difference has environmental, not genetic, causes.

No, it is not. Nisbett needs to read (or read again) Rushton, J.P. and Jensen, A.R. (2005). Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in Cognitive Ability. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol. 11, No. 2, 235-294.

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Brookes News Update

The US economy: we've got the boom but what about the bust?: It is unlikely that we will see the US economy fall into recession before next June. In fact, if the current indicators remain as they are we might see the boom carry on into 2009. But sooner or later real factors will make an imminent recession unavoidable
Will the US economy suffer a downturn?: The likely economic downturn in the US economy in the months ahead is not going to be on account of sub-prime mortgages meltdown and the likely weakening in consumer outlays but on account of the boom-bust policies of the Fed
Why the union-sponsored Australia at Work study is worthless: The Buchanan and Woonay study is worthless union propaganda. It assumed as true that which it was supposed to prove. To do this it denied the very existence of economic laws. So much for economic reason and informed debate
Inflation: the pestilence that threatens prosperity, part 1: Golden Age of corporate profitability may be coming to a juddering end. Many already-booked 'profits' will prove to have been utterly insubstantial. If that happens, the Bull's mantra that the market is 'cheap' enough to support present prices might ring very hollow indeed
The Annapolis plan: How can Israel be so stupid?: Fatah demands a two-state solution while in Arabic it promise death to the Jews and the extermination of Israel. Given this fact why do so many in the West back a policy that amounts to the implementation of Hitler's Final Solution?
Brazil's leftist government is promoting race hatred: Race-baiting Marxists are doing the best to provoke a race war in Brazil. This is more evidence that Marxists are a bunch of political thugs motivated by hatred and a desire to do evil
The key question about the NIE's key judgment: Here's the key question about the Key Judgment of the National Intelligence Council's new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear intentions and capabilities: Is this judgment supported by the evidence?

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ELSEWHERE

Fred Thompson on the move: Beginning Monday, December 17, Thompson will launch a bus tour that will take him throughout the state. From the beginning of that trip through caucus night, Thompson will essentially live in Iowa, taking only a one-day trip out of the state to celebrate Christmas at his home in Virginia. ... Thompson has said publicly that he needs to finish in the top three in Iowa. Campaign officials say that a strong third place finish -- presumably behind new frontrunner Mike Huckabee and former frontrunner Mitt Romney -- would likely give them enough momentum to survive New Hampshire and compete in South Carolina and beyond. A second place finish would be a victory."

Chavez the crook: "Most of Latin America's leaders breathed a sigh of relief earlier this week, after Venezuelan voters rejected President Hugo Chavez's constitutional amendment referendum. In private they were undoubtedly relieved that Chavez lost, and in public they expressed delight that he accepted defeat and did not steal the election. But by midweek enough information had emerged to conclude that Chavez did, in fact, try to overturn the results. As reported in El Nacional, and confirmed to me by an intelligence source, the Venezuelan military high command virtually threatened him with a coup d'etat if he insisted on doing so"

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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IQ: Here we go again

Quite aside from the strangely-dressed gent who appears to constitute their their logo, The New Yorker is a rather strange publication. They email to privileged people like me (why I am so privileged I have no idea) copies of articles that have not yet appeared in their magazine. One such is a part of the small rush of articles that have been sparked by James Watson's perfectly factual observations about black IQ. The New Yorker's contribution appears under the heading "None of the above" and is by Malcolm Gladwell, a historian who takes an interest in the social sciences. Gladwell is of course among the "saints" who think IQ is all nonsense.

I must say that I had to laugh. Gladwell mentions, for instance, the old Eyferth study (without naming it) as if it proved something when all it proves (to be blunt) is that German women don't go to bed with dumb blacks.

All Gladwell does, basically, is rehash the usual points made by Flynn -- so any critique of Flynn (e.g. here) should be an adequate reply to Gladwell. I will however mention a few points here. Another point Gladwell raises is that the black/white gap rises from a small gap in infancy to a much larger gap in later life. Gladwell thinks that shows an effect of black culture but the real explanation is again rather blunt so I will simply refer readers to an extended comment I made on that matter recently.

But Gladwell's basic blindness is to fail to distinguish between phenotypic IQ (scores on IQ tests) and genotypic IQ (that part of IQ test scores which is genetically determined). Nobody has ever denied that IQ test scores are influenced by environmental factors -- about a third of IQ is usually found to be environmentally determined -- so the rise in the IQ scores of most populations over the 20th century (as described by Flynn) was to be expected from all the many advantages that modernization brings -- better nutrition, greater stimulation via TV, more time in the educational system, better perinatal medical care etc. But if genetics set a limit, the improvement to IQ scores that flow from an improved environment should peak as the environment reaches the optimum for IQ development. And precisely that has now happened in several affluent countries.

So Flynn's findings don't let you escape those pesky genes! It is in fact rather amusing to hear an attack on genetic influences in this day and age. We now hear almost daily (in the medical and psychological literature) of new findings about genetic influences on human behaviour -- so much so that it would be amazing if there was NOT a large genetic influence on IQ.

See my recent post about Metcalf for more on the points raised by Gladwell. It would be nice if The New Yorker opened its pages to an article on IQ by someone who really knows the subject -- such as Gottfedson or Rushton -- but I don't expect to see it in my lifetime. Complex truths always have a difficult struggle against simplistic lies. The Gladwell article is apparently set for publication in the Dec 17 issue of The New Yorker.

I will leave readers with an interesting histogram from the U.S. Government's National Science Foundation. SAT scores are, of course, highly correlated with IQ:



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EDUBLOGGER WANTED

There are quite a lot of education bloggers around so I am pleased to say that my EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL blog survives the competition well enough to get around 150 hits per day. That may not seem much but it is better than 99% of all blogs.

What I put up on it is basically whatever I come across in my days's reading that interests me both from a libertarian/conservative point of view and from my point of view as a former teacher at both the High School and University levels.

Education is however a huge field and I am acutely aware that I cover only a small fraction of what I could cover. And I think that a wider coverage would lead to more readers. So I would be very pleased if I could get a co-blogger who would help expand what the blog covers. Getting access to an established blog is a lot easier than starting a new blog so I hope someone will contact me about this.

Their general orientation would of course have to be libertarian/conservative but I think that any regular reader of this blog would fill the bill. The most consistent message of the blog so far has been that there should be much more privatization of schooling. I write from a country where over 40% of High School students already go to private schools so that is not totally blue-sky.

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ELSEWHERE

Iran 'hoodwinked' CIA over nuclear plans: "British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran. Analysts believe that Iranian staff, knowing their phones were tapped, deliberately gave misinformation. The report used new evidence - including human sources, wireless intercepts and evidence from an Iranian defector - to conclude that Teheran suspended the bomb-making side of its nuclear programme in 2003. But British intelligence is concerned that US spy chiefs were so determined to avoid giving President Bush a reason to go to war - as their reports on Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes did in Iraq - that they got it wrong this time. A senior British official delivered a withering assessment of US intelligence-gathering abilities in the Middle East and revealed that British spies shared the concerns of Israeli defence chiefs that Iran was still pursuing nuclear weapons."

Males less biased: "A new study published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences finds that the attractiveness of interviewees can significantly bias outcome in hiring practices, showing a clear distinction between the attractive and average looking interviewees in terms of high and low status job packages offered. The study explored the influence of the halo effect in a mock job negotiation scenario where male and female interviewers were shown pictures of attractive or average looking male and female job applicants. Female interviewers were found to allocate attractive looking male interviewees more high status job packages than the average looking men. Female interviewers also gave more high status job packages to attractive men than to attractive women. Average looking men also received more low status job packages than average looking women. Male interviewers did not differ in the number of high or low status job packages that were given to attractive looking interviewees of either sex, though the male interviewers gave out more low status job packages overall, irrespective of the sex of the interviewee."

Is this the Leftist brain we are talking about? "Human experience is based on learning that our actions affect subsequent positive or negative outcomes. Rewards strengthen associations between contextual stimuli and actions thereby reinforcing and maintaining successful behavior; whereas punishments induce avoidance of erroneous actions. While we usually learn from both positive and negative reinforcement, the relative amount of learning from success or errors varies between individuals. Klein et al. investigated a human genetic polymorphism associated with the density of brain dopamine D2 receptor. Reduced D2 receptor density was associated with less efficient learning from errors. In people with lower D2 receptor density, the reduced capacity to learn from errors was accompanied by reduced feedback-related activity in the posterior medial frontal cortex, an area known to monitor for negative action outcomes". [More here]

Offended Muslim Syndrome: "Following the misery inflicted on Islam by a toy bear that ended up with calls for the execution of an English woman, more Muslims are stepping forward with stories of long-suppressed emotional trauma imposed on them by so-called reality. This has led to the creation of support groups and social networks that help followers of the Prophet Mohammed cope with the agony of learning about life outside of their immediate environment, offering assistance with technical resources, practical guidance, and strategies for early intervention and punishment of those who offend Islam." [Satire]

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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The Anglican split widens

An Episcopal diocese in central California voted Saturday to split with the national denomination over disagreements about the role of gays and lesbians in the church. Clergy and lay members of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin voted 173-22 at their annual convention to remove all references to the national church from the diocese's constitution, according to spokeswoman Joan Gladstone.

The Fresno-based congregation is the first full diocese to secede because of a conservative-liberal rift that began decades ago and is now focused on whether the Bible condemns gay relationships. The diocese, in a later vote, accepted an invitation to join a conservative South American congregation of the Worldwide Anglican Communion [the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America]. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. member of the global Anglican Communion.

The decision is almost certain to spark a court fight over control of the diocese's multimillion-dollar real estate holdings and other assets. The head of the U.S. denomination had warned Bishop John-David Schofield of the Fresno-based diocese against secession. "I do not intend to threaten you, only to urge you to reconsider and draw back from this trajectory," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, head of the U.S. denomination, wrote in a letter to Schofield earlier this week.

Schofield responded that the Episcopal Church "has isolated itself from the overwhelming majority of Christendom and more specifically from the Anglican Communion by denying Biblical truth and walking apart from the historic Faith and Order." The Fresno diocese has explored breaking ties with the American church since 2003, when Episcopalians consecrated the church's first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The resulting uproar throughout the world Anglican fellowship has moved the 77 million-member communion toward the brink of schism.

Source

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ELSEWHERE

Dems cave on Iraq funding: "A 3-way deal among the House Democrats, Senate Democrats and Republicans was cut. Democrats will throw in the towel this weekend on their silly refusal to fund a war that we’re winning. That is huge. Democrats have bet their farm on failure in Iraq. President Bush is about to collect that farm. The No. 2 Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer, broke the news to the editorial board of the Washington Post. Hoyer said: “The way you pass appropriations bills is you get agreement among all the relevant players, among which the president with his veto pen is a very relevant player. Everybody knows he has no intention of signing anything without money for Iraq, unfettered, without constraints. I think that’s ultimately going to be the result.”

The Jihadi spy in the FBI betrayed FBI informants: "An illegal immigrant who parlayed a sham marriage into citizenship and key jobs at the FBI and CIA made five unauthorized inquiries into an FBI computer system to find out about investigations of Hizballah, a federal prosecutor said in court papers filed Wednesday in Detroit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Chadwell didn't indicate why Nada Nadim Prouty, a Lebanese immigrant who once lived in Taylor, wanted the information or what she did with it. But he said four of the inquiries involved files containing the names of confidential FBI informants."

More Iranian weapons found in Iraq: "A cache of Iranian manufactured rockets was turned over to Coalition forces based at Forward Operating Base Delta, Dec. 4. Iraqi civil defense personnel delivered 14 107 mm Iranian rockets and fuses to the Kazakhstani Soldiers, said 1st Lt. Almaz Mukashev, the Kazakhstani liaison officer. The rockets were manufactured in 2006. The Iraqi civil defense personnel have turned over munitions to Coalition forces before, but this was the first delivery of Iranian weapons to Coalition forces, said Col. Peter Baker, the 214th Fires Brigade commander".

Barbara Walters: Chavez Still Fascinating: "The recent setback in Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez's efforts to proclaim himself ruler for life were stunning to ABC News woman Barbara Walters. "I was amazed that he, that he didn't get to be president for life." Perhaps Barbara was shocked that the people would rise up against this charismatic man she'd already wrapped into her special on the Ten Most Fascinating People of 2007. When asked if Hugo's setback made him less fascinating, Walters said no, that "we try to have people that do positive things." But her actual profile of Chavez (recycling a March interview) turned a bit dreary. Her enthusiasm cooled enough that she actually edited more emotional quotes (both from Walters and Chavez) out of the brief profile."

Cash shortage to keep British navy in port: "Most of the Royal Navy will be tied up in dock next year, frozen by a 15 billion pound "black hole" in the Ministry of Defence budget over the next decade. As the MoD fights proposals for 12 billion of defence cuts over the same period, only ships supporting operations in the Gulf will leave port. The soaring cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the increasing reluctance of the Treasury to fund them is adding to the pressure. "The navy is looking at what options they have because the amount of funding is just not there," one source said. "The overheating of the equipment budget is putting pressure on everyone." The only major exercise expected to go ahead is Orion 08, in which the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, the destroyer Edinburgh and the frigate Westminster will head for the Gulf, defence sources said. The navy is now resigned to losing five frigates, four Type22s and one Type23, taking it down to a record low of just 20 destroyers and frigates - insufficient to mount a major taskforce without coalition help."

London car tax fails: "It was intended to get London moving, but after five years of Ken Livingstone's congestion charge, and more than 800 million pounds of tolls and fines, traffic jams are almost as bad as they were to start off with. As a new cadre of charge bureaucrats prospers, overheads are now so high that they burn up the equivalent of almost 4 pounds of a standard 8 pound charge. Money raised to improve public transport has been cut by 10% in the past year. Spending on the administration of the charge rose to more than 160m in the past year, leaving 10m less for buses and schemes to improve traffic flow. Traffic has slowed to below 10mph. Livingstone will further polarise opinion next year with a 25 pound daily charge on cars with high carbon emissions - including 4X4s such as the Toyota Land Cruiser but also the 2.5 litre Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Vectra 2.8L and Renault Espace 2.0."

BBC deception again: "Get a load of this. US job creation slows in November. US employers added 94,000 jobs in November, with the rate of hiring slowing from the previous month, the Labor Department has reported. Sounds like things are going into the tank, right? Then comes the rest of the story. The total came in slightly ahead of forecasts by Wall Street economists for 90,000 jobs, bolstering the dollar. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.7 percent, the department said. So, the employment numbers were better than expected and unemployment held steady. But the BBC run a headline claiming that employment slowed."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Leftist projection about political bias

Projection is so rife among Leftists that seeing what they say about conservatives is a handy guide to what is true about them. And nowhere is that more evident than in the various discussions about IQ. Quite plainly, what Leftists say about the subject is guided by their "all men are equal" ideology rather than by the facts. Their stance has everything to do with ideological bias and has only an incidental concern with the facts.

So what do they do when non-Leftists confront them with the facts? They accuse their opponents of ideological bias! -- as we saw in Metcalf's recent attack on Saletan. Saletan himself could not readily be accused of much but someone he quoted (Rushton) has some association with people who believe that racial differences are widespread (which makes them "racists" in Leftist parlance) so that was enough to throw all Saletan's pesky facts onto the trashheap. Logicians call such reasoning an ad hominem fallacy. A popular description of it is "playing the man and not the ball".

So the Leftist argument is that pro-racist bias completely discredits any facts you put forward but anti-racist bias makes whatever you say virtuous. Logically, however, if ideological convictions in a writer make anything he says of no worth then it is writers like Metcalf and Flynn who should be dismissed from consideration.

The underlying argument of course is that Leftists are immune from blame because of their "good" intentions but it would be naive indeed to accept their own claims of that sort about themselves. Judging by their results across history worldwide their intentions are in fact destructive. "By their fruits shall ye know them". What Leftists pine for is revolution, and, as Friedrich Engels said: "Revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon"

Be that as it may, however, the logic remains that judgements based on the facts are going to be much more reliable than judgments based on the apparent good or bad character of the arguer. The world would be a con-man's paradise if all that mattered was the apparent good character of someone! And following Leftist logic, bad character would equally be a foolish guide. Hitler liked dogs so liking dogs would be disgraceful! Maybe even dogs would be condemned!

I notice that Saletan does not seem to have been up to making the ancient points I have put up immediately above. His response to Metcalf's attack on Rushton was to apologize for not mentioning Rushton's associations! What he should have said to Metcalf is: "I don't see any problem in referring to someone with opposite biases to yours. The truth is probably best ascertained by hearing from both sides".

At least Saletan did not back down completely. He merely apologized for not including mention of Rushton's associations rather than condemning Rushton's work outright. I myself know very little about Rushton beyond what I read of his work in the academic journals. And to get that work published it has to pass peer review -- i.e. Rushton's work has to be passed as properly reasoned and accurately analysed by experts in the field. Rushton could of course still be making things up but most of the data he uses is publicly available -- so it is not amenable to that. And I have heard no claim that any of his findings are unreplicable. Rushton's work is in fact high-quality orthodox science and Saletan was right to refer to it.

For all I know Rushton f*cks bicycles in his bedroom every night. That has nothing to do with the quality of his published academic journal articles. His articles must be judged in their own right. John Nash (of "Nash equilibrium" fame) was as mad as a hatter but he still got a Nobel for the brilliance of his economic reasoning.

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ELSEWHERE

Skepticism in Israel: "The US intelligence assessment that the Iranians have abandoned, for the moment at least, their nuclear weapons program has burst like a clap of biblical thunder over troubled Israeli skies. Frankly, there is hardly a senior Israeli who believes the US. One sceptic is Shabtai Shavit. He was for seven years the head of Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad. Now in his late 60s, he has a range of commercial affiliations but just recently has been called back by Israel's security ministry to advise the Government on Iran. He was frankly shocked at the American assessment, which he does not believe is correct, and at its public release. The new US view, that Iran is acquiring the nuclear technology that could produce weapons but has given up its specific weapons program, and in any event probably could not produce a weapon until 2015, is the opposite of the Israeli assessment. Jerusalem believes Iran will have enough nuclear fuel for a weapon by 2010 at the latest. Says Shavit: "I believe we should be very hesitant in accepting this (US assessment). First, intelligence exists to err. Second, American intelligence time and again has made mistakes in the past. Three, we shouldn't rule out the possibility that often intelligence is being used for political purposes and hidden agendas." This is a perfect circle of irony and history. The international Left believes the Bush administration misused intelligence to justify striking Iraq. Now Israelis suspect the Bush administration may be misusing intelligence because it doesn't want to strike Iran. Other Israeli sources tell Inquirer the new US assessment contradicts not only Israel's intelligence judgments but also those of the Germans, the French and the Dutch."

51st Consecutive Month of Job Growth: "The Department of Labor has released its preliminary report on November's employment summary, estimating an increase in payroll employment of 94,000 during the month. That was less than the private ADP report suggested, but above the recently upgraded estimate of 70,000. The unemployment rate stood pat at 4.7%, lower than the 4.8% the market was expecting. Based on the preliminary report, November was the 51st consecutive month of positive job growth, further extending the Bush economy's record-setting streak that dates back to the summer of 2003, shortly after the enactment of the investment income tax cuts."

Britain: More mental illness in minority groups: "Some ethnic minority groups are three times more likely to be admitted to hospital for mental health problems than the rest of the population. The Count Me In Census 2007 revealed that 22 per cent of people on mental health wards were from minority ethnic groups, a slight rise on previous years. The census is part of the Government's five-year action plan Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health Care. Anna Walker, from the Healthcare Commission, said that they wanted to "bring together local agencies to tackle the issues that cause some black and minority ethnic groups to have higher rates of mental illness". [Mostly among blacks -- all due to "racism", of course]

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Differences in female abilities

Post below lifted from Taranto. See the original for links

From the New York Times:

Girls won top honors for the first time in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology, one of the nation's most coveted student science awards, which were announced yesterday at New York University.

Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff, both 17 and seniors at Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School on Long Island, split the first prize--a $100,000 scholarship--in the team category for creating a molecule that helps block the reproduction of drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria.

Isha Himani Jain, 16, a senior at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pa., placed first in the individual category for her studies of bone growth in zebra fish, whose tail fins grow in spurts, similar to the way children's bones do. She will get a $100,000 scholarship.

The three girls' victories is "wonderful news, but I can't honestly say it's shocking," said Nancy Hopkins, a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Hopkins helped start a national discussion about girls and science two years ago when she walked out of a talk by Harvard University's president, Lawrence H. Summers, after he suggested that innate differences between men and women might be one reason that fewer women than men succeed in math and science careers. Dr. Summers apologized during the ensuing furor; he announced his resignation as Harvard's president 13 months later.

How pathetic is it that the Times can't report on these young ladies' accomplishments without using it as an opportunity to take potshots at Larry Summers for failing to adhere to feminist orthodoxy? But since they brought it up, we feel obliged to point out that this in no way disproves anything Summers said. He did not claim that no women succeed in math and science, only that fewer women than men do. That it is newsworthy when girls win a science contest only serves to underscore Summers's point.

Moreover, as intelligence expert Charles Murray noted in a 2005 Commentary essay, the differences between men and women are more pronounced in more abstract fields such as mathematics and theoretical physics than in less abstract ones like biology and medicine, the areas in which the girls won the prize:

In the humanities, the most abstract field is philosophy--and no woman has been a significant original thinker in any of the world's great philosophical traditions. In the sciences, the most abstract field is mathematics, where the number of great female mathematicians is approximately two (Emmy Noether definitely, Sonya Kovalevskaya maybe). In the other hard sciences, the contributions of great women have usually been empirical rather than theoretical, with leading cases in point being Henrietta Leavitt, Dorothy Hodgkin, Lise Meitner, IrSne Joliot-Curie and Marie Curie.

None of this is to disparage the accomplishments of the Siemens Competition winners. They have already accomplished more in science than any but a handful of women or men ever will, and we wish them all the success in the world if they choose a career in science (or, for that matter, if they don't). But is it really necessary for Hopkins and the Times to superimpose upon these young people's achievement a political agenda based on assumptions that cannot withstand honest scrutiny?

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ELSEWHERE

Was Key Intel for NIE Planted by Iran? "Given that the Iranians knew we were trying to uncover as much information as we could regarding their nuclear program, is it to be believed that they were incapable of planting written notes and engaging in over the air conversations that would mislead America? Recall, that before the Iraq War, Colin Powell played a tape of Iraqis discussing what was believed to be WMD. Surely, the Iranians knew we were eavesdropping. Just as Saddam Hussein misled observers regarding his nuclear program to scare off his foes, the Iranians could very well be doing the reverse-creating a false picture to disarm its opponents. An Iranian source was also credited with bringing documents to the attention of Western authorities. The possibility of a double agent is explored here. A similar human source, Curveball, gave us false information regarding Iraq and WMD. Has history repeated itself?"

No Journo Wants a Million Dollars?: "As you may recall, at the American Spectator dinner, T. Boone Pickens offered a million dollars to anyone who could prove anything the Swift Veterans said was wrong. John F . Kerry offered to take him up on that but has remained silent when Pickens asked him to put up the proof. Other Tom, an online friend, has asked a useful question at Just One Minute: "I continue to wonder: inasmuch as Boone Pickens's offer of a million bucks was made to "anyone"--not just John Kerry--who could prove any SwiftVet allegation false, why have none of the journalists who routinely describe those allegations as "discredited" come forward to claim the prize? Do they simply not like money?"

Highly informative news item: "Sacramento police are looking for a man who robbed a person at gunpoint in the south Sacramento area Thursday morning. The armed robbery occurred around 7:42 a.m. in the 6600 block of Valley Hi Drive, a police dispatcher said. It does not appear that the victim was injured. Further details about the incident are not yet known." [Political correctness blocks details and impedes crime-solving. A wonder that "man" was mentioned]

A Word of Caution on the Bush Mortgage Plan: "At the very least, if the Bush Administration plan is truly voluntary, it's unnecessary. Loan holders and servicers have plenty of incentive to do that themselves. No one sitting in a central office can hope to set the right mortgage terms for millions of borrowers, lenders, and investors. Like all so-called five-year plans, the five-year interest rate freeze by its design would pretty much have only negative effects and worsen the credit slowdown. While apparently no taxpayer dollars are directly involved (at least not yet), by pressuring the rewrite of millions of mortgage contracts, the Paulson plan could have even greater costs on the economy as well as future aspiring homeowners than even a direct taxpayer bailout. The credit market depends on the sanctity of contracts for everything from the financing of mortgages to new small businesses. But if regulators can negate contracts anytime there is a problem, much of this credit could dry up." [For more details of the Bush plan, see here]

Fox Derangement Syndrome at the New York Times : "The folks in the bubble over at the New York Times are whining that the Fox News Channel won't show an absurd ad from far-left actor Danny Glover and the even further left Center for Constitutional Rights, run by Marxist Columbia professor and Hillary Clinton donor Michael Ratner."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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A real father. Is this the evil Fascist the Left obsess about?

Unlike Hillary's interviews, this did not have to be scripted



US first daughter Jenna Bush appeared nervous when Ellen DeGeneres asked her to call her parents during a taping of DeGeneres's talk show on Tuesday. The show aired on Wednesday. "They're going to kill me," the 26-year-old daughter of President George Bush told DeGeneres. "I'm going to be in so much trouble."

All was well, though, when she reached her parents on speakerphone. "I'm just sitting here with daddy," Laura Bush told her daughter, to which DeGeneres chimed in: "Oh hey! It's Ellen. I wanted to say hi to daddy." So the president got on the line: "How's my little girl doing?"

"Oh, she's great. She's scared she's going to get in trouble because I just said, 'Is it easy to just pick up the phone and call your dad anytime'?" DeGeneres said. "And now she's scared she's not going to get any Christmas presents."

Bush said he was not angry. "I do want to say Merry Christmas to your audience and I want to tell my little girl I love her," the president said. "I love you too, Dad," Jenna responded.

Source

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Meet the neo-cons' neo-con

Occasionally you recognise that you are in the presence of human greatness. I had that experience this week in Jerusalem when I went to interview Natan Sharansky. Sharansky was one of the most famous dissidents and refuseniks of the Soviet Union. Refuseniks were Russian Jews who wanted to live as Jews and migrate to Israel. They were prevented from doing either of these things by the harsh, totalitarian Soviet system.

Sharansky spent nearly 10 years in Soviet prisons and labour camps, frequently on hunger strike, always defiant, insanely brave. Many people across the world campaigned for the refuseniks' freedom and, of course, Americans were critical. But Australians also played a distinguished role in this campaign, especially Bob Hawke and Jewish leader Isi Leibler. Then, on one incredible day in 1986, Sharansky went from a KGB prison in the morning to a plane to Germany in the afternoon, then on another plane to Jerusalem in the evening. "I went straight from hell to paradise," he recalls. "The rulers of Iran can only imagine such a journey. I went from hatred to love, from the darkness of prison to the bright sun. Of course, if you go straight to heaven, you can only go down from there. I still live in paradise, but paradise needs a few repairs."

He seems a man very much at ease in his own skin. He smiles frequently. A satirical cartoon of himself adorns one wall, across from a picture of another great Soviet dissident, Andrei Sakharov. I seek enlightenment from Sharansky on two questions: why does Israel get such a bad press in the West, far worse than it deserves, and can democracy work in Arab societies? Sharansky agrees that Israel consistently gets a far worse press than it deserves. He accepts that there are many reasons for this, from the power, money and influence that flow from Arab oil to the recrudescent anti-Semitism of recent years.

But he also nominates, especially in the case of European hostility to Israel, a particular ideological factor. He says: "Israel is at the centre of the struggle between the totalitarian and the ideological, between the fundamentalist and the unfaithful. It is an assertive nation-state at a time when the leading ideology in Europe is post-nationalism and multiculturalism, especially in respect of the EU, and building post-state institutions. So the Europeans see Israel as nationalist and the last outpost of colonialism.

"But Europe now is in a much more difficult situation ideologically than Israel. They tried to build their new society only on human rights. They believe the nation-state has human rights but no commitment to identity. They find a minority (part of the Muslim population) which has a strong identity and no commitment to human rights. "Europeans find themselves helpless in the face of this and I believe that Europe will have to go back to national identity. "Democracy must have a connection with identity. There must be a national, democratic state. Israel can only survive in this region as a democratic, Jewish state. This is anathema to Europe."

The same syndrome of disdain for religion and civic-national identity informs much European hostility to the US as well, Sharansky believes. Because the French Revolution was against religion, Europeans have mistakenly come to the view that religion is the enemy of democracy. But the US and Israel were both founded with strong religious identities and have become thriving democracies. "America is a country tolerant to both faith and identity," Sharansky says. "Muslims come to America and accept the rules of democracy. They come to Europe and don't accept the rules of democracy because it was never demanded of them."

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Unrealistic "realists": "Washington pundits have an odd way of ridiculing the Bush administration's grandiose plans for remaking Iraq, while at the same time embracing ambitious designs for bringing peace to the Holy Land. Hence many Middle East hands urge the United States to take a cautiously realistic approach to achieving ethnic and religious reconciliation in Mesopotamia. But these same Realpoliticos become born-again idealists in insisting that American leaders could and should help resolve the conflict between Arabs and Jews. As in Iraq, these peoples have been fighting since the British invaded in World War I. But, hey, Americans needs to show some faith to get the peace process moving ahead, right?"

A religious country: "An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in God and signicant numbers also think that UFOs, the devil and ghosts exist, a new poll shows. The survey by Harris Online showed 82 per cent of adult Americans believed in God and a slightly smaller percentage - 79 per cent - believed in miracles. More than 70 per cent of the 2455 adults surveyed between November 7 and 13 said they believed in heaven and angels, while more than six in 10 said they believed in hell and the devil."

MPs say BBC should be more accountable: "The BBC is not properly accountable and should be open to investigation by the Auditor General, an investigation by the Commons Public Accounts Committee has concluded. The successor to Sir John Bourn, guardian of the public purse at the National Audit Office, who leaves his post next month, should be given access to the BBC’s accounts, MPs said. The report into the BBC’s risk management concluded: “There is still no satisfactory regime under which the BBC is accountable to Parliament for its value for money.” It should also do more to protect employees working in hostile environments, the report said, citing the Gaza abduction of its correspondent Alan Johnston. A survey of BBC staff with risk management responsibilities found that 29 per cent had never looked at the BBC’s guidance."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Metcalf on Saletan and black IQ

Vitriolic and anti-conservative cultural commentator Stephen Metcalf has apparently put a bit of work into his recent article in Slate in which he attempts to rebut Saletan's article on IQ research. Metcalf actually appears to have read stuff on the subject! Predictably for a Leftist, though, most of what he says is ad hominem -- attempted character assassination of those with whom he disagrees. Vdare has however highlighted the shallowness of Metcalf's claims in that department rather well so I will just focus on a few of the substantive points that Metcalf raises.

I should perhaps point out initially, however, that I have never received one cent from the Pioneer Fund nor do I know anything about it. For all I know it is just a Leftist boogeyman. They certainly seem to treat it that way. They claim that any association with the Pioneer Fund renders anyone outside the pale of discourse. But putting those they disagree with outside the pale of discourse is a common Leftist strategy, of course. It sure beats having to deal with inconvenient facts and arguments! My interest in this debate springs from the fact that I am a psychometrician (specialist in the measurement of psychological variables) by trade. See here.

I think it is about time that I pointed out the obvious about the "seed" analogy to black/white IQ differences. Metcalf puts it as follows:

Imagine two wheat fields. Now imagine two genetically identical sets of seeds. (The analogy was first made famous by the Harvard evolutionary biologist and geneticist Richard Lewontin.) Now imagine each field is planted with these two identical seed stocks. Field No. 1 is given the best possible inputs: sunshine intensity, rain, soil nitrates, etc. Field No. 2 is given much less of all of the above. Within each field, inputs are kept uniform. Inevitably, the first field grows a healthier supply of grain than the second. But here is the rub: Within each field, the variation in outcomes is entirely hereditary. Between the two fields, the variation in outcomes in entirely environmental.

The argument simply assumes what it has to prove. It assumes that the two lots of seeds (genetic inheritance) are identical to start with. So the argument comes back immediately to the problem of sorting out whether black and white IQ is genetically different. And it is precisely that question which has been the subject of decades of research. Environmental differences do have SOME effect on IQ so it is perfectly possible that the UNDERLYING differences between blacks and whites are nil. But there is NOTHING that has ever been found which suggests that -- only a lot of wishful thinking. I am not for a minute going to try to summarize the research concerned but Gottfredson and Malloy are good starting points for those who want to delve further.

Much of the research, however, has focused on examining alternative explanations for the perennial black disadvantage. Is it due to poor nutrition or biased tests, for instance? But no matter what you allow for, a substantial gap remains.

One might also note that if the environment were the cause of racial differences in IQ then we would expect impoverished and poorly nourished Chinese living in hovels to score lower on IQ tests than blacks. The reverse is of course true. The Chinese score about the same as whites, in fact. Also: East Asian immigrants to America labour under much greater disadvantages than do blacks -- not speaking English well, for a start -- but they do well generally and their children fill the universities (over 40% of students at the University of California are Asian). Environment doesn't seem to hold Asians back. How come blacks do not make such a huge leap when given the opportunity? Simple answer: Blacks don't have the genetic endowment but the Chinese do. Even if we argue that America's Chinese immigrants have a better genetic endowment than other Chinese, the argument still is in terms of the genetic given rather than in terms of the environment.

And the "No child left behind" initiative has put huge pressure on schools to lift black educational attainment -- with effectively zero results. We read in fact, "The disparity between blacks' and whites' SAT scores is larger now than it was 10 years ago". NOTHING can bring average black scores up to average white scores. If Metcalf knows a way he will make a fortune. The Chinese advantage is sometimes attributed to a superior Chinese culture. Maybe Metcalf can tell us how to give blacks a Chinese-style culture! It's quite inconceivable, isn't it? Chinese culture reflects what Chinese are to begin with (See Kagan's research) and the same is true for black culture. Why else would blacks in all environments worldwide be the same high-violence, high-criminality, low achieving group that they are in America?

That leads me to two of Metcalf's assertions: "Since the late '60s-i.e., since the heyday of civil rights and the inception of such "compensatory education" programs as Head Start-blacks have made huge gains vis-.-vis whites on a wide range of standardized tests. Evidence? Metcalf gives none. I think that must be one bit that he did not look up. He is just winging it on the basis of what they say in his own little social bubble. Head Start has in fact made just about no discernible difference to anything. See also here. That Congress continues to fund Head Start rather proves what Ronald Reagan said -- that a government program is the nearest thing to everlasting life. It may be worth noting that a similar program in Britain has also failed to achieve anything.

Metcalf also says: "Absent a national random sample for IQ data and race, researchers have looked at a range of tests that highly correlate with IQ, and extrapolated from them that the black-white IQ gap has likely been cut by a third." References? Metcalf gives none. Charles Murray, however, has noted that the black/white IQ score gap did close somewhat during the 20th century, but that the data show that the narrowing stalled sometime in the 1970s.

Finally Metcalf points to the big study of black/white IQ by the corporate body of America's psychologists, the American Psychological Association. The report of course acknowledges the 15 point IQ disadvadvantage usually found for blacks but goes on to say that the question is still not settled. In a way reminiscent of the way Greenies rely on the heavily politicised IPCC as authority for their belief in global warming, Metcalf uses the APA conclusion as authority for his belief that the question is not settled. But the APA is as politicized as the IPCC. It is heavily Left-leaning. So it is their evidence you have to look at, not their opinions, and the evidence is very consistent in showing a black white IQ gap no matter what.

And the APA report is not even a comprehensive survey of the literature. You will find no mention of him in the APA bibliography but Tanser (1939), for instance, found a large black/white IQ gap even though the children in his study had attended the same schools since 1890! It is particularly regrettable that the APA slighted older studies in its report as the great black cultural and family breakdown since the 60s does superficially look like a reasonable cause for black intellectual failure. Studies prior to the 60s, however, show much the same result as more recent studies. Whether the environment is permissive or vigilant, or anything else, that IQ gap never budges significantly. It is hard-wired.

The refusal of the APA to draw conclusions in their report on the grounds that the evidence is not yet good enough is a good example of what is called "intellectual dishonesty" -- judging a matter not on the balance of the evidence for and against it but rather on whether or not the conclusions suit the speaker. If the conclusions don't suit, NO evidence will ever be good enough, of course. I commented on that dishonesty in discussions about IQ long ago

I could go on and if no-one else takes up the cudgels maybe I will. There is, for a start, a lot more fun to be had from the Eyferth study. In his comments on both the Eyferth study and the Minnesota adoption study, Metcalf seems to assume what he is trying to disprove!

References:
Eyferth, K. (1961). Leistungenverchiedener Gruppen von Besatzungskindern im Hamburg Wechsler Intelligenztest fuer Kinder (HAWIK). Archiv fuer die gesamte Psychologie, 1 13, 222 241.
Tanser, H. A. 1939. The Settlement of Negroes in Kent County, Ontario. Chatham, Ontario: Shephard Publishing Co.

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ELSEWHERE

The CIA's flip-flop on Iran is hardly reassuring: "In his press conference yesterday, President Bush went out of his way to praise the "good work" of the intelligence community, whose latest National Intelligence Estimate claims the mullahs of Iran abandoned their nuclear weapons program in 2003. "This is heartening news," Mr. Bush said. "To me, it's a way for us to rally our partners." We wish we could be as sanguine, both about the quality of U.S. intelligence and its implications for U.S. diplomacy. For years, senior Administration officials, including Condoleezza Rice, have stressed to us how little the government knows about what goes on inside Iran. In 2005, the bipartisan Robb-Silberman report underscored that "Across the board, the Intelligence Community knows disturbingly little about the nuclear programs of many of the world's most dangerous actors." And as our liberal friends used to remind us, you can never trust the CIA. (Only later did they figure out the agency was usually on their side.)" [VDH also has an interesting comment on the alleged Iranian non-bomb]

Israel's defense minister disputes U.S. assessment on Iran: "Israeli intelligence believes Iran is still trying to develop a nuclear weapon, Israel's defense minister said Tuesday, disputing a U.S. intelligence assessment that Iran has halted its program. "It's apparently true that in 2003 Iran stopped pursuing its military nuclear program for a time. But in our opinion, since then it has apparently continued that program," Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Army Radio".

Expensive to get the BBC to stop lying: "Training to remind staff about the importance of telling viewers the truth will cost the BBC more than œ1 million in staff time and expenses. About 17,000 BBC staff have to attend a two-hour course, in which employees are invited to discuss where the line should be drawn between artifice and deception in the wake of a series of scandals. Vin Ray, the director of the BBC's college of journalism, said that the direct cost of the course would be "a maximum of 500,000 pounds", but the cost of taking each employee out for a half day more than doubled that figure."

Democrat candidates asked "Why do Muslims hate us?" "The Democrats debated on NPR today, and were asked "Why do Muslims hate us?" If there's a more tiresome question that has arisen from the ashes of 9-11, I'm not aware of it. "Where's my aircraft carrier?" was, essentially, the vast majority of Americans' reaction after 9-11, liberal and conservative alike, but the rubber band has snapped the 9-10 left back to its former, pacifist, blame-America-first self. That NPR question arises from that attitude that all the hate directed at us must somehow be all our fault, and not motivated by anything other than our own actions. The word you may be looking for to describe that attitude is "narcissism." Liberals corner the market on that stuff. And several of the Democrat candidates betrayed their worst, most liberal, knee-jerk blame America first instincts."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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An ungrateful grumble

Ever since Google started including blogs in its image searches it has become quite hard to figure out how many people are actually reading a blog. Image searches show up as hits but the chance of someone stopping to read a blog when they are only looking for pictures would have to be low. But, still, as they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity. One thing that quite amuses me is the most looked-at picture from this blog. It is from a Christmas day post. See below:



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Are Lefties more mentally ill? They claim to be...

Post below excerpted from Dr. Joy Bliss. See the original for links

What are we to make of this report from Gallup?

Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats or independents to rate their mental health as excellent, according to data from the last four November Gallup Health and Healthcare polls. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43% of independents and 38% of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance, and education.

Although I have no idea about whether a self-report of "mental health" has any validity at all, I would speculate that Republicans, statistically, with the Conservative and Libertarian flavorings of many Republicans, may tend to be more optimistic, hopeful, self-reliant, and to feel less needy and to feel less deprived. In other words, happier and probably better-adjusted people. That is pure speculation, but it matches my personal experience that Lefies tend to be more bitter and dissatisfied - also with no relationship to income, education, church-going or age.

Also, as I have mentioned in the past, I see a difference in the "transference" towards government between Conservatives and others. I think that those who are more prone to unconscious parental transferences are more likely to turn to, rely upon, and to trust or hope to trust, the State. Am eagerness for childlike transferences in adulthood is not a predictor of emotional well-being.

Conservative-Libertarian types like me, I think, tend to view the people involved in politics and the State as being at least if not more venal, self-serving, corrupt, egotistical, foolish and ineffective as other areas of human endeavor like business, academia, non-profits, etc. I like to think that this view has been arrived at through a lifetime of experience, a lifetime's interest in history and public affairs, and repeated (very educational) disappointments and disillusionments during my foolishly naive, idealistic, Liberal youth. Experience and psychoanalytic training powerfully introduced me to the dark side of human nature - against my will.

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ELSEWHERE

Some fresh updates here in my never-ending "war" with the vastly incompetent Telstra, Australia's major telecommunications provider. It's hard to believe but I do now have yet another blog -- one solely devoted to Telstra and Bigpond, their internet provider. A big pond with a small mind would be an accurate description.

A small meditation on the Anglosphere: The Anglosphere has not one but two heavily influential members, the USA and the UK, though the influence of the UK is not what it used to be. Something that is easily overlooked however is that there is a third important Anglospheric aggregation. If one were to combine the populations of Australia and Canada, one would come up with 53 million people -- which is pretty comparable to the population of the major nations of Europe: France, Spain, England, Italy, Poland etc. That is not of course remotely to say that Australians and Canadians are the same. Australia is as conservative as Canada is "liberal". But there is great diversity within the nations of Europe too. It is even possible that Canadians and Australians are more homogeneous than are Germans, Spaniards and the French. And I won't say a word about the North/South hatred in Italy. My own trips to Canada were certainly most congenial.

Brits buy Boeing: "Another giant C17 Globemaster air transport has been bought by the Ministry of Defence from Boeing for 130 million pounds, increasing the fleet of C17s to six at a cost of 780 million. The A400M transport aircraft being built by Airbus for the RAF has suffered delays, and the first deliveries are not due until 2010."

Leftists get it right for once: "Liberal activists plan to begin airing a television ad against Hillary Rodham Clinton in Iowa this week, the first non-Republican negative ad aimed at a Democratic presidential candidate. The group, Democratic Courage, has accused Clinton of making policy decisions on the basis of polls, not convictions."

Beijing backs new sanctions against Iran: "China has for the first time indicated clear support for a new package of United Nations sanctions against Iran, breaking months of deadlock inside the UN security council over how to respond to Tehran's nuclear programme. In a move that will boost expectations in western capitals that a new UN sanctions resolution could be agreed within weeks, Beijing signalled over the weekend that it was prepared to back measures that will hit Iran's banking and business sector, while also prohibiting more senior Iranians from travelling abroad."

The source of Leftist hate: "Leftists today hate freedom and democracy because those ideas have created the environment for success. Assistant Village Idiot recently noted in a comment that Arabs don't hate us because we have succeeded, but rather, because they have failed. The same is true for the leftists- their burning hatred of democracy stems from their failure to create a single instance of a functioning society that isn't a least a generation behind our own. Not even the redistribution of wealth can make up for the values and freedom that create an environment that allows for the creation of wealth."

Leftist hate is psychopathic: "This leads us to an important quesion: what does the psychopath REALLY get from their victims? It's easy to see what they are after when they lie and manipulate for money or material goods or power. But in many instances, such as love relationships or faked friendships, it is not so easy to see what the psychopath is after. Without wandering too far afield into spiritual speculations - a problem Cleckley also faced - we can only say that it seems to be that the psychopath ENJOYS making others suffer. Just as normal humans enjoy seeing other people happy, or doing things that make other people smile, the psychopath enjoys the exact opposite."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Sick France

Yesterday evening, three young people died in the suburbs to the north of Paris. Mouhsin (15) and Lakamy (16), two immigrant youths, were killed in Villiers-le-Bel when their motorcycle, which is said to have been stolen, collided at high speed with a police vehicle. The two youths, who were not wearing compulsory crash helmets, died on the spot. A few hours later, Anne-Lorraine (23), a young journalist, was stabbed to death on a suburban train near Creil, whilst resisting a man who was trying to rape her. The man had already been convicted for violent sexual assault in 1996. The news of the deaths of Mouhsin and Lakamy became world news, dominating today's media in France and abroad. Anne-Lorraine's death is a mere footnote, a "faits divers" in France, a non-event abroad.

After Mouhsin's and Lakamy's deaths their friends and relatives went on a rampage. They destroyed two police stations and a petrol station, torched a few dozen cars, looted stores and injured at least 25 police officers (two of them seriously) and one fireman. A spokesman of the French police union said today that the officers had been shot at by youths with firearms. According to Omar Sehhouli, the brother of one of the two dead youths, the eruption of violence was not what it seemed. "This is not violence," Omar told the French press agency AFP, "but just anger that needs to be expressed".

The French authorities fear that the immigrant youths in the Paris suburbs will feel a need to express another round of anger tonight. The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is currently in China. His Interior Minister, MichŠle Alliot-Marie is in charge. She has "urged all sides to act responsibly" and has promised a full inquiry. The "all sides" refers to the angry youths on the one hand and the police on the other hand. The French judicial authorities are conducting a manslaughter investigation against the officers in the police car. According to the friends and relatives of Mouhsin and Lakamy, the officers fled from the scene of the accident, without caring for the two dead boys and without waiting for the friends and relatives to show up.

A police chief who arrived on the scene was, however, beaten up and suffered serious facial trauma. Four police cars that arrived shortly afterwards, also fled when they were attacked, leaving the entire neighbourhood under the control of the youth gangs.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Saletan's recent article in Slate summarizing the evidence for the reality and heritability of IQ was something of a dambusting event in the mainstream media. The general public previously had had few opportunities to hear what the evidence was. In the name of political correctness, IQ is one of the most lied-about phenomena of the age. The last thing anyone hears is the evidence. Saletan did of course come under heavy attack for his "immoral" article and I have commented myself on some of that criticism (e.g. here) but for a really comprehensive reply to the critics, see an article by Linda Gottfredson. Although Gottfredson and I are both psychometricians, she specializes in ability measurement while I do not. So you get a very throrough and detailed -- but still readable -- account of the matter from her. Curious how Leftists say "There is no such thing as right and wrong" but suddenly decide that an argument is "immoral" when the facts of the matter don't suit them.

Chavez defeated over reform vote: "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has narrowly lost a referendum on controversial constitutional changes. Voters rejected the raft of reforms by a margin of 51% to 49%, the chief of the National Electoral Council said. Mr Chavez described the defeat as a "photo finish", and urged followers not to turn it into a point of conflict. Correspondents say the opposition could barely hide their delight and that the victory will put a brake on Mr Chavez's self-styled "Socialist revolution". Celebrations by the opposition began almost immediately in the capital, Caracas, with activists cheering, beeping car horns and waving flags."

Status symbol politics: "A pair of intellectuals, Joel Kotkin and Fred Siegel, came up with a phrase that is more fits for today's malaise on the left than limousine liberals. Writing in the Los Angeles Times today, the wrote of "gentry liberalism." Politics as a status symbol. They don't share the old concerns about the working man. "Rather, gentry liberalism reflects the interests and values of the affluent winners in the era of globalization and the beneficiaries of the `financialization' of the economy. Its strongholds are the tony neighborhoods and luxurious suburbs in and around New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco and West Los Angeles," Kotkin and Siegel noted. They point out that for example the poorest 2 congressional districts in Iowa are safe Republican seats; the three richest, Democratic."

More Democrat elitism: "So, the Democratic Party - the party of the working class - is broadcasting tonight's debate from an elitist network run by billionaire Mark Cuban that requires expensive equipment and high monthly charges to access. What's up with that? Is this a signal that despite the egalitarian rhetoric, that they're actually the party of the rich and famous? Imagine the outcry if the GOP broadcast its debate from fancy network that ordinary people couldn't access. There'd be cries that the Republicans were in a "gated community." Well I'd say this is a RATHER gated community! And I'm feeling locked out by their lack of inclusiveness."

America Cheap on `Humanitarian Aid'?: "So, we are the "ugly American," we're always told. But to whom do they come running when they need help? Italy, France, maybe? Hardly. Still, they love to beat up on the US, and unfortunately our MSM is only too happy to act the echo chamber for anti-Americanism. This time it is Time Magazine that gleefully adds to the din of opprobrium at America with theirs titled, "US Ranked Low in Humanitarian Aid," wherein, crook and ex-UN chief Kofi Annan has decided that we are cheapskates where it concerns so-called "humanitarian aid" to foreign countries. Yes, after all we've done, after all we do around the world in their time of need, Annan and his UN cronies have the gall to call us cheap"

Nasty EU: "People who rely on motorised scooters to help to cope with disabilities are to be hit with a 300 pound tax, after an EU ruling that they should be categorised along with "leisure vehicles". The electric power-driven wheelchairs with flexible handlebars are used by people with severe mobility difficulties, such as disabled ex-servicemen. They are now taxed in the same class as snowmobiles, jet skis and racing cars. A personal appeal has been made to Gordon Brown to intervene, but there has been no response from Downing Street, according to Jim Dooley, who runs the Mobility Bureau that provides motorised wheelchairs and scooters for hundreds of Service veterans. Under the EU ruling the scooters are now subject to a 300 pound import tax on top of their 2,000 pound cost. The decision by the EU was made in 2001 but it was not properly implemented by Revenue & Customs until this year, after a complaint from Belgium that the required 10 per cent import tax was not being enforced by Britain."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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