Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Cereal Killers

A recently evolved group of Isolationist Nerve cells in the Wernicke's Area are under fire from the general population of the Broca region, not to mention the topic of derisive but covert conversation among the generalized neuron population of the Frontal Cortex.

The crux of the matter centers around the supposed inactivity and parasitism of the Isolationist Wernicke's neurons. They counter this generalized hostility by claiming they are merely "doing the mental processing that other neurons wont do".

Right-Wing Extremists among the general population call this "nothing short of propaganda" and retaliate against the Isolationist neurons calling them "nothing more than a waste of scarce glutamine and glucose".

The Debate continues...

On this subject, it is clear that emotion circuitry has routed higher brain functions, by default in the Isolationists, and due to unverified causes among the population at large. All I can say on this topic is this.

Please note that this article bears no ill will to any neurons anywhere. We are all nucleui within our cell wall, trying to survive best we can. One organism under God!

Sunday, May 27, 2007

This is just scary...

Maths enthusiasts are being challenged to answer a sample question from Chinese university entrance tests.

The tests are set for prospective science undergraduates.

Try it out. You'll come away unnerved...

Monday, May 21, 2007

The poisoning of Race Relations in the West

I just saw an episode of the GameShow Deal Or No Deal. They had as the contestant Wesley Autrey Sr.

Wesley is famous because, a while back, an epileptic man fell on the subway tracks in New York. Without hesitation Wesley jumped on the man and held him down (the man was having a fit) while the train went over them. Heroic? Yes.

Wesley is Black by the way.

Thing is, I cannot help but wonder whether the fuss being made about this man would be as great if he happened to be White or Asian. I suspect not. America has a thirst for Black Heroes which doesnt just stop with presidential candidates. This is a slap in the face for every White and/or Asian. They are lesser people in the eyes of the very society they created and maintain.

What this does to blacks also is legitimate heroes like Wesley will be degraded - like my lukewarm response to his fame. I dont think I am psychologically abnormal in this way. More knowledgable? yes. Abnormal? no.

A group of people in a "free" country get all the breaks - if they cannot qualify for jobs - we throw out the people who can qualify, not giving a wan-etioted damn about their lives. But lay out the red carpet when it comes to our special group.

Ditto Education.

And to make things worse, our special group commits sky high crime against the rest of us. And they get defended and pampered in spite of it. Crime is not just a simple word - as many benignly benighted suburban Oprah-watching housewives might think. Assault can change a young man or womans sense of safety for life. Rape, even worse. We walk the streets disempowered with our heads down when crime - especially crime from a privileged class - is lauded and accepted.

Now, to repeatedly emphasize - Wesley did a great thing. I dont know for sure if I would have the same response or not if he was of another race. Maybe Im just cynical about heroes. But I suspect I would be more enthusiastic, or at least less antagonistic, otherwise.

Its a defense mechanism. When you understand economics and politics and such esoterica, at least for a libertarian like me - problems in the West come down to underperforming minorities, liberals and feminists. As these folk stymie me at every turn via perversions of law and society - in defense I must, at least in my mind, stymie them. In things that have entertainment value (our love of heroism is at least part entertainment), I will mentally prohibit myself from enjoying it freely. Its a kind of mind-suicide if I do not.

Things arent always fresh to someone who thinks about it. The reason I have to try extra hard to get a good job, is in large part because I am prevented from freely conveying to an employer my innate job skills via Cognitive Tests. A large chunk, over and beyond this, is how I would have to waste 4 years of my life in college because employers are paralyzed at the idea of giving a job to someone without formal qualifications - because they may be open to lawsuits by minorities. Its a truism that Microsoft is not able to hire a college drop-out like Bill Gates today.

Many readers will say I am making too much of it. I dont ask that you share my sentiments - I have my own personal weighing of factors that will differ from others. I only ask that you acknowledge that it is a legitimate point of view.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Military and IQ Redux.

If youve ever read Daniel Seligman's "A Question of Intelligence" Im sure the most fascinating info was when he quoted the relation between the AFQT and tank gunnery skills, or between AFQT and Patriot Missile hits.

The AFQT, for those not familiar with it, is a cognitive ability test given to all military inductees. It correlates well with conventional IQ tests, with its sole weakness being that it has a low ceiling (1 in a 1000 get a perfect score).

The AFQT breaks the freshmen into 6 broad categories.
AFQT Level I,II,IIIA,IIIB,IV and V

Lvl V rank in the 0-9 percentile, Lvl IV 10-30 percentile, Lvl IIIB 31-49 percentile, Lvl IIIA 50-64 percentile, Lvl II 65-92 percentile and Lvl I 93-99 percentile.

Converted to an IQ metric this is (on a 15 point Standard Deviation scale)
Lvl 1 = ~IQ123 and above
Lvl 2 = ~IQ106 to IQ122
Lvl 3A= ~IQ100 to IQ105
Lvl 3B= ~IQ94 to IQ99
Lvl 4= ~IQ81 to IQ93
Lvl 5 = ~IQ80 and below

Lvl V is, by law, not allowed to join the army. They tried once during Vietnam in something called Project 100,000. The results were disasterous.

Now lets compare the efficiency of AFQT scores with measures of Job Proficiency.
(Note AIT (advanced individual training) graduates score lower in every measure due to less experience vis-a-vis Unit members)
(Note 2: Original RAND article here. )
[Note 3: Yes, yes, I KNOW something is wrong with the spacing. If anyone knows what causes it, post a comment :) ]


1)When asked to make a communications system operational...
Table 1
Successful System Operation and AFQT
(predicted probability)




























Sample Members CAT I CAT II CAT IIIA CAT IIIB CAT IV
Unit Members .89 .80 .63 .47 .29
AIT Graduates .76 .60 .40 .25 .13


SOURCE: Winkler, Fernandez, and Polich (1992).
NOTE: The midpoint in each AFQT category is used in predicting the
probability of successful operation.


2)Number of faults detected in the Communications system...

Table 2


















































AFQT Level 1 or More 2 or More 3 or More 4 or More
CAT I .97 .97 .66 .29
CAT II .94 .78 .49 .17
CAT IIIA .87 .60 .29 .08
CAT IIIB .78 .43 .17 .04
CAT IV .61 .25 .09 .02

SOURCE: Winkler, Fernandez, and Polich (1992).
NOTE: The midpoint in each AFQT category is used in predicting the
probability of successful fault detection. Cell entries are the
predicted probability that the group will successfully identify the
given number of faults.

3)The famous Patriot Defense System statistics!

Table 3
AFQT and Patriot Air Defense System Operator Performance, Specific
Measures






































Measure I II IIIA IIIB IV
Asset Hits (maximum 28) 10 11 12 13 14
Hostile Kills (maximum 78) 53 51 48 45 42
Number of Missiles used for 10 tactically correct kills 20 21 22 23 24

SOURCE: Orvis, Childress, and Polich (1992).

This slate article mentioned that Lvl IV graduates chewed up more expensive ($8 mil patriot missiles) hardware per successful shot. But its even worse than that! If asset hits means friendly fire of sorts - they were 40% more likely to blow up someone/something on their own side!

Of course the liberals will say if CAT IVs can get 4 or more faults detected (example from Table 2) 2% of the time. If we would stop being racist and prejudiced and train them harder - soon they will be outdoing the CAT Is' 29%...