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There is a cottage industry within academia for this kind of sophistry around terrorism. I studied IR at a uni with a fairly good research reputation, one of t

There is a cottage industry within academia for this kind of sophistry around terrorism. I studied IR at a uni with a fairly good research reputation, one of the hot projects (funded to the tune of 7 figures) at the time (some time ago now) was the physical identification of terrorists i.e. by various body measurements...I am 100% serious. And this guy was not an idiot, in the conventional sense at least, PHd in Biology from Oxbridge, "genius", who (at the time) was talked about in breathless tones of wonder by the science departments (and ridiculed everywhere else). Every few years a scientist will say: "Terrorism isn't solved...but I have a formula"...stop, we know why terrorism occurs but it isn't as simple as your calculus homework. And I agree, it is totally unfounded to suggest that charities are funding terrorism (or that people who would give to charities and somehow be unaware of that fact, if it was the case).

close04 7y ago
> but I have a formula https://tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations https://tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations (or https://tylervigen.com/old-version.html https://tylervigen.com/old-version.html ).
- hyperman1 7y ago
  These are great. Imagine the kind of laws politicians would make up based on these facts. Start by regulating the maximum length of spelling bee words, then let every japanese car be audited for motorcycle homicidal AI. And do something for the honey bee.
jfk13 7y ago
> the physical identification of terrorists i.e. by various body measurements The guy was disciple of Cesare Lombroso, I guess? Ah well... that should put a swift end to the "good research reputation" of that institution.
im3w1l 7y ago
I think it may be possible to get some signal from body measurements. Skin color, sex organs, teeth health (wealth proxy), scars/injuries (been in fights before?), maybe you could find some marker of chronic stress. But yeah it's going to be pretty poor and not really actionable.
- tomatotomato37 7y ago
  >Skin color I see we are playing with fire today
  - panpanna 7y ago
    I always thought all Pakistani peoples dark. Then last week I realized two of my "Easter Europen" coworkers were in fact from Pakistan.
  - im3w1l 7y ago
    I mean, he is predicting whether someone is a terrorist... based on physical measurements. It's pretty much the definition of prejudice. What could he otherwise be doing?
- hogFeast 7y ago
  The "primary" indicator was length of ring finger relative to index finger, as in - https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/talk-hand-scientists-try-debunk-idea-finger-length-can-reveal-personality-and-health https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/talk-hand-scientists... - at the time, this was considered cutting edge...I understand it has been mostly discredited now. You have also misunderstood slightly. It wasn't stuff like scars, or things correlated to wealth (or race...much good that would do in Northern Ireland or the Basque...I take it you don't know much about terrorism). It was purely body measurements iirc.

close04 7y ago

> but I have a formula https://tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations https://tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations (or https://tylervigen.com/old-version.html https://tylervigen.com/old-version.html ).

hyperman1 7y ago
These are great. Imagine the kind of laws politicians would make up based on these facts. Start by regulating the maximum length of spelling bee words, then let every japanese car be audited for motorcycle homicidal AI. And do something for the honey bee.

jfk13 7y ago

> the physical identification of terrorists i.e. by various body measurements The guy was disciple of Cesare Lombroso, I guess? Ah well... that should put a swift end to the "good research reputation" of that institution.

im3w1l 7y ago

I think it may be possible to get some signal from body measurements. Skin color, sex organs, teeth health (wealth proxy), scars/injuries (been in fights before?), maybe you could find some marker of chronic stress. But yeah it's going to be pretty poor and not really actionable.

tomatotomato37 7y ago
>Skin color I see we are playing with fire today
- panpanna 7y ago
  I always thought all Pakistani peoples dark. Then last week I realized two of my "Easter Europen" coworkers were in fact from Pakistan.
- im3w1l 7y ago
  I mean, he is predicting whether someone is a terrorist... based on physical measurements. It's pretty much the definition of prejudice. What could he otherwise be doing?
hogFeast 7y ago
The "primary" indicator was length of ring finger relative to index finger, as in - https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/talk-hand-scientists-try-debunk-idea-finger-length-can-reveal-personality-and-health https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/talk-hand-scientists... - at the time, this was considered cutting edge...I understand it has been mostly discredited now. You have also misunderstood slightly. It wasn't stuff like scars, or things correlated to wealth (or race...much good that would do in Northern Ireland or the Basque...I take it you don't know much about terrorism). It was purely body measurements iirc.