A Meeting with Hank Pellissier

This in about Futurism, and tagged , , was written by on September 17, 2013 . 53 Comments

This Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting up with Hank Pellissier, who used to work for the IEET, a futurist/transhumanist institute, and is now a blogger-journalist and amateur researcher at the Brighter Brains blog. As one may glean from the title of that blog, his current area of major interest lies in IQ and how you […]

Only 15% of Scandinavian Pupils can do Basic Fractions

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , was written by on July 22, 2013 . 55 Comments

Further to my post on the remarkable failure of Scandinavian education systems to develop their students to anywhere near the levels indicated by their IQ potentials, a professor of mathematics at a Wisconsin university sent me data on the percentage of respondents in the TIMSS who gave the correct answer to the following question: Which […]

Preliminary Thoughts on TIMSS/PIRLS 2012

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , was written by on July 15, 2013 . 11 Comments

I had been meaning to post about this for a long time. Better late than never, I suppose. The TIMSS and PIRLS are international assessments of academic ability in math, science and literacy that are conducted once every four years. They are similar to the PISA tests, although the latter are less purely academically focused […]

Flynn Effect DOES Apply To South Korea

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , was written by on February 18, 2013 . 1 Comment

Regular readers of this blog may remember my comments regarding Ron Unz’s theory that East Asians have high IQ’s independent of time/nutrition/urbanization whatever it is that causes the Flynn Effect. Here is his original article on his theory of the “East Asian Exception” and my two responses are here and here. Anyway a new paper […]

New Delhi Cuts Ties With PISA

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , was written by on August 22, 2012 . 16 Comments

India backs out of global education test for 15-year-olds. Indians were put to test for the first time in the last assessment in 2009. On the global stage, they stood second last among 73 countries, only beating Kyrgyzstan on reading, math and science abilities… This time around, sources said India shied away from the assessment as […]

Minorities’ Cognitive Performance In The UK

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , , was written by on August 22, 2012 . 69 Comments

Here is data from the Cognitive Abilities Test for UK students in 2009/10 via Ambiguous. Some interesting things to take away here: (1) The sample is very large. Verbal IQ has the highest correlation with academic performance in most subjects, followed by Quantitative IQ, and then Non-Verbal Reasoning (recognizing patterns and such, I imagine). (2) Indians […]

Analysis Of Russia’s PISA 2009 Results

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , was written by on August 18, 2012 . 19 Comments

A few months ago I posted a table and map of Russian IQ’s as derived from regional PISA performance. Those figures are based on Jarkko Hautamäki’s slideshow comparing regional PISA performance in Finland and Russia. That material is a bit inadequate because, as had been my custom up that point, I was only making IQ estimates based […]

rec1man On Indian IQ

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , was written by on August 18, 2012 . 64 Comments

My post on Indian IQ (max potential is low to mid 90’s) spawned an interesting analysis by commentator rec1man. It is not very well organized but he does have a ton of useful information that deserves to be highlighted. It’s reprinted in full below interspersed with occasional commentary by myself: Caste Analysis 75% of the Indian population gets […]

The Evolution Of Chinese IQ

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , was written by on August 17, 2012 . 62 Comments

In the discussion at the previous post, in which I took exception to Ron Unz’s theory of the East Asian Exception, he alerted me to so additional work on the matter he’d done as a Harvard freshman on Chinese IQ. You can read his summary of Social Darwinism and Rural China as well as Steve Sailer’s commentary on […]

Disagree With Ron Unz’s Conclusions On Chinese IQ

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , was written by on August 17, 2012 . 36 Comments

He writes: These scores are indeed truly remarkable, and completely confirm the apparent pattern of Lynn’s IQ samples, in which desperately poor East Asians tend to score at or above the levels of the most successful and well-educated Western populations… But since the total population is at least well into the hundreds of millions, heavily rural […]

Quantifying Future Time Orientation

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , was written by on August 15, 2012 . 41 Comments

In a 2010 paper on time preferences*, the authors Mei Wang et al. conducted an experiment in which participants could choose either $3400 now or $3800 a month later. Now I would choose the latter option but maybe it’s just because I’m intelligent and have been living in the West for quite a while. In […]

The Puzzle Of Indian IQ: A Country Of Gypsies And Jews

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , was written by on August 14, 2012 . 100 Comments

The question of Indian IQ is a big puzzle. Far trickier than China’s IQ which I think I’ve basically figured out (101-102 today; 106-108 genetic ceiling). The PISA-adjusted IQ of India – as extrapolated from the states of Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, which are relatively rich and are reputed to have good school systems by Indian […]

Analysis Of China’s PISA 2009 Results

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , was written by on August 13, 2012 . 40 Comments

As human capital is so important for prosperity, it behoves us to know China’s in detail to assess whether it will continue converging on developed countries. Until recently the best data we had were disparate IQ tests (on the basis of which Richard Lynn’s latest estimate is an IQ of 105.8 in his 2012 book […]

Hamburgers And Rednecks: IQ Estimates Of US Ethnic Groups

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , was written by on July 31, 2012 . 34 Comments

Via The Audacious Epigone: IQ scores by US ethnic groups. It is not very useful I think in theoretical or practical applications but it is interesting as a showcase of why IQ is more than just genetic inheritance, incorporating also Flynn, sampling issues, sense of popular identity, selection bias, etc. Wordsum is basically a vocab test of […]

Did Ron Unz Score An Own Goal Too?

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , , was written by on July 28, 2012 . 44 Comments

In recent days Ron Unz’s article Race, IQ, and Wealth (The American Conservative) has been making the rounds in the HBDsphere. Broadly speaking it argues for the predominance of cultural and environmental factors as opposed to genetic in forming IQ. It is fairly long but it’s also one of the best statements of that position out there, […]

On Defending The Soviet Union

This in about Economy, and tagged , , , , , , , was written by on July 12, 2012 . 197 Comments

Contrary to what some might try to take from my post on the longterm failure of the Soviet economy, I am not an anti-Soviet ideologue. I loathe lies about its achievements and the blanket condemnations directed its way by moralistic poseurs every bit as much or more than I detest reality-challenged attempts to paint it […]

Berlin Gets Bad News From PISA

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , was written by on May 22, 2012 . 41 Comments

There are several ways to influence national mean IQ levels. One is to improve nutrition and education, but vitally important though they are, they suffer from diminishing returns as populations bump up against their genetic ceilings. Another is to promote eugenic policies, or at least policies to mitigate the dysgenic trends that are typical of […]

Through A Glass Ceiling Darkly: Racial IQ Disparities And The Wealth Of Nations

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , was written by on April 16, 2012 . 98 Comments

Now that I’m done with the Necessary Caveats, it’s time we had a look at why exactly HBD/IQ theories are both valid, and relevant to the real world. As I see it, their main import (as interpreted by me) can be distilled into a few logically consecutive, falsifiable statements: IQ tests are a valid, culturally […]

World Pisa Results 2009

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , was written by on April 10, 2012 . 7 Comments

Today I discovered this really nifty tool, Target Map. It allows you to generate color-coded global and national maps just by uploading an Excel database. In what will probably surprise no-one who follows my interests, my first map illustrates average PISA scores for Math, Reading, and Science for the 65 regions in the original 2009 […]

The Geography Of Russia’s IQ

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , was written by on April 4, 2012 . 42 Comments

Human capital (primarily education) is the single most important factor behind long-term productivity gains, and hence economic growth. The relatively high human capital of Russia and China, which is comparable to developed country levels, is the most important reason why I rate their future prospects much higher than those of the other two BRIC’s, Brazil […]