Curt Doolittle

Theme: Science

  • “Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled

    “Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot

    be fooled.” —Richard Feynman

    Feynman was a progressive. Too bad he didn’t focus his appreciation for reality on Postmodernism. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2013-06-19 11:38:00 UTC

  • ISN”T THE SCIENCE WE CLAIM IT TO BE: PEER REVIEW. (SIGH)

    http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=6577844SCIENCE ISN”T THE SCIENCE WE CLAIM IT TO BE: PEER REVIEW. (SIGH)

    Source date (UTC): 2013-05-28 22:50:00 UTC

  • Untitled

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130170343.htm

    Source date (UTC): 2013-05-25 02:31:00 UTC

  • WE ARE DUMBER THAN THE VICTORIANS I’ve been writing about the decline in our IQ

    http://hbdchick.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/were-dumber-than-the-victorians/HOW WE ARE DUMBER THAN THE VICTORIANS

    I’ve been writing about the decline in our IQ for the past two years as the data accumulates. This article discusses REACTION TIMES, since reaction time correlates with (g) – general intelligence.

    Now, we’re not certain about this, but we’re building a good set of data that shows that dysgenic reproduction is the culprit.

    The woman who hosts the web site that I’m pointing to is interested in the effect of mating patterns on genetics. Of course, we know that TAX POLICY today penalizes the middle class and upper middle class reproduction in order to fund lower class reproduction.

    We (Englishmen) should have been at parity with the Ashkenazim in the 1880’s but our distribution has skewed left. So those of us who are still up in the high numbers are a smaller part of the population today than we were 150 years ago at the hight of western civilization.

    Cheers

    Source date (UTC): 2013-05-22 09:21:00 UTC

  • Untitled

    http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/05/13/0956797612466415.abstracthttp://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/05/13/0956797612466415.abstract

    Source date (UTC): 2013-05-20 14:04:00 UTC

  • If An Alien Race Launches A Nuclear Missile Towards Earth, Could Nasa Defend Our Planet?

    The mass necessary to fuel the transport a nuclear weapon across light years of space is so large that there would have to be some reason to do such a thing in the first place.  I mean, if you can move something that far, you don’t need to use a nuclear weapon, just move a rock a little bit so that it hits us. That’s much more logical.

    And these things tactics don’t make sense either. THere isn’t any reason to use nuclear weapons. Planets like ours appear to be pretty scarce, so they’re valuable. You wouldn’t want to damage it.

    I can’t imagine wanting to trade with aliens.  I think it’s more likely that we would be pets. You don’t nuke pets. You catch and breed them.

    https://www.quora.com/If-an-alien-race-launches-a-nuclear-missile-towards-Earth-could-NASA-defend-our-planet

  • OF OUR GENETIC DIFFERENCES (How Closely Or Distantly We’re Related)

    http://www.humanbiologicaldiversity.com/Photos/global-genetic-distances-map.jpgMAP OF OUR GENETIC DIFFERENCES

    (How Closely Or Distantly We’re Related)

    Source date (UTC): 2013-04-28 05:59:00 UTC

  • REWRITING ECONOMIC HISTORY TO INCLUDE R&D. Finally. FInally we’re getting our ec

    http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2013/04/we-are-essentially-rewriting-economic-history.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FKupd+(Economist’s+View)FINALLY: REWRITING ECONOMIC HISTORY TO INCLUDE R&D.

    Finally. FInally we’re getting our economic data updated. Now, if they’d just do the same with household income data, we might have a worthwhile set of data to work from.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-04-22 07:16:00 UTC

  • Measurable Planetary Boundary for the Biosphere Steven W. Running Forty years ag

    http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6101/1458.summaryA Measurable Planetary Boundary for the Biosphere

    Steven W. Running

    Forty years ago, Meadows et al. published a landmark first analysis of global limits to human activity (1). Based on a primitive computer model of the Earth system, they concluded that by the early decades of the 21st century, tangible limits to key global resources would begin to emerge. A reanalysis of the original results in 2008 found that the original global resource depletion projections were remarkably accurate (2). Since then, Rockström et al. (3) have defined a new term—planetary boundaries—to describe nine variables of high importance to habitability of Earth, including climate change, ocean acidification, land-use change, and biodiversity loss. These metrics are compelling conceptually, but many are not easily measured globally; explicitly defining a critical boundary is even more challenging. I suggest a new planetary boundary, terrestrial net primary (plant) production (NPP), that may be as compelling conceptually, integrates many of the currently defined variables, and is supported by an existing global data set for defining boundaries.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-04-21 13:34:00 UTC

  • Did Machiavelli Write The Prince As A Satire?

    The Prince is the first example of the scientific study of politics.  While science starts with Aristotle, practical political science starts with Machiavelli.  To the point where, were it not for the illiterate we would probably call political scientists ‘Machiavellians’ – and some historians and philosophers have done so (Burnham for example.)

    Machiavelli wrote when trade was moving from the Mediterranean to the north atlantic. And Italy, which had been the center of trade for at least 1500 years was flung into internecine warfare in the struggles for power. The upheavals this caused were catastrophic and remain with Italy to this day.
     
    Machiavelli gave practical advice to leaders about how to govern by rational rather than ideological grounds. Our concept of morality today originated with the enlightenment. In Machiavelli’s time, morality was more closely connected with the church and the Prince is Machiavelli’s attempt to suggest to political leaders that practical morality in the interest of citizens is superior to ideological morality which may lead to worse consequences for citizens.  In this sense, Machiavelli starts the west’s long rise toward the enlightenment.

    As an administrator in the city service, he had been in charge of the city defenses, and had knowledge of the local government and war. But his work was also based on other works, most importantly Livy, and we usually recommend that people interested in the Machiavelli read the Discourses On Livy as well as The Prince in order to understand Machiavelli’s attempt to compare the past with the present and draw conclusions about what actions we must take.

    https://www.quora.com/Did-Machiavelli-write-The-Prince-as-a-satire