Category Archives: Uncategorized

Most psychological traits are significantly, although not overwhelmingly, heritable.  So if you are given information about the psychology of close relatives of some person, you know more than you did before about that person. On average. If his kids, sibs, … Continue reading →

It strikes me that isogenic rat lines would be well suited to the commercial production of Rat Kings.

The French Generals that had fought the Algerian war for a long time came to think that Algeria was important.  Terrible things would happen of France gave it up. Gee, I wonder if the chuckleheads that spent most of their … Continue reading →

Early in his Sword of Honour series, Evelyn Waugh’s autobiographical hero rejoices in the purity of his country’s cause: all the big dictatorships of Europe are on the other side. The Soviet Union is actively aiding the Axis – vitiating … Continue reading →

O-Ring industries are ones in which a number of interrelated tasks must all be completed successfully – ones in which a moderate increase in workers’ skills greatly increases the probability of success.  The idea was originated by Kremer, and further … Continue reading →

Some anonymous, highly competent Peking bureaucrat (tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, … one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present ) – told that quarantines don’t … Continue reading →

India today is made up of innumerable jatis, most of which have been endogamous for thousands of years.  Most do not seem to have experienced consistent directional selection for interesting traits ( No Kwisatz Haderachs or Guild Navigators), so they … Continue reading →

There’s an article out in Current Biology suggesting that syphilis may already have existed in Europe before 1492 – mentioned in Science. They’re almost certainly wrong. Can you see why?        

Pu-244 is a relatively long-lived isotope of plutonium, with an 80 million year half life. Once upon a time,someone suggested that the Cretaceous extinction might have been caused by a nearby supernova: if so, we should see some Pu-244 around, … Continue reading →

We will uplift dogs as a key step in the cold war against China.