_h4xr

9 ms·

31.
by _h4xr 18y ago
1) is simply silly, since it applies to any decision. Maybe getting a job instead of smoking weed and playing video games all day is too stressful, and maybe it will deprive you of a career as a video-gaming champ. But probably not. Maybe s
32.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Of course you can't select for one trait and expect everything else to stay constant. But you can expect that if the trait is significantly positive, and you screen for recessive disorders, selecting for it can be net beneficial.
33.
by _h4xr 18y ago
I would argue that eugenics is a valid belief so long as there is at least one trait that 1) is desirable, or correlated with something desirable (e.g. resistance to a disease, stronger work ethic, lower criminality, resistance to sunburns)
34.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Humans often test for those traits. Couples from populations that have a high incidence of the same recessive disorders will frequently abort kids who test positive for those disorders. And anyway, eugenics doesn't have to go that far -- wh
35.
by _h4xr 18y ago
The idea that the human race can be improved through eugenics is a purely religious belief, and I see no reason why any rational person would support it. The idea that unlike all species, humans cannot be selectively bred for various trai
36.
by _h4xr 18y ago
A few other things: I should start by pointing out that your premise is flawed. I don't hate any ethnic group. I appreciate human diversity. Differences between human groups are real, and they appear to be somewhat genetic. I was actually s
37.
by _h4xr 18y ago
I appreciate your research. This is approximately correct, although I had definitely studied the issue before getting mugged.
38.
by _h4xr 18y ago
The previous poster made a claim about poor students in high-quality schools. I thought it was an interesting claim given that there have been experiments to that effect. Someone who says "If X, I bet Y!" should be happy to hear that "Someo
39.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Okay. Does that mean I'm wrong? Or does it mean that I'm right but you're upset about it? If you can make a factual argument, I'd like to hear it. If all you can do is call me names, that's fine -- I'm okay with being vilified but not contr
40.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Interesting. Fortunately, there are experimental data available! School busing programs have sent poor kids to rich schools for years. Somehow, test scores are still declining, though. giving up on students and sending them to flip burgers
41.
by _h4xr 18y ago
No. I have done research, but I cannot point you to a specific source that rigorously defends the assertion that kids play sports even if you don't make them do it in P.E. Fortunately, the burden of proof is on whoever wants to spend billio
42.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Less (kids do sports on their own). Less (by making it easier to fire incompetent teachers). Unknown. Less (textbook companies are almost as bad as the teachers' cartel -- I learn more from old books, anyway). Unknown (what do you mean by s
43.
by _h4xr 18y ago
"Don't conservative types like you believe in market influences? How could spending more money NOT improve education levels?" It's insulated from the actual market. Government schools are a de facto monopoly, since they sell their produc
44.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Where did I mention that half of Obama's ancestry?
45.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Wait, is it bigoted to have information about Obama? Or bigoted to share it? Or is neutral information transubstantiated into bigotry by my communion with Odin? Please clarify your question.
46.
by _h4xr 18y ago
I definitely think that these bitter Americans and non-Americans cling to social news sites and Obama. I just wish some of them would explain why, instead of downvoting factual information about their candidate. The guy has been a public fi
47.
by _h4xr 18y ago
I don't see why that's relevant. I was responding to the argument that, contrary to the last few decades of high school spending for poorer performance, we might want to consider lowering spending. Unless there is some kind of treadmill of
48.
by _h4xr 18y ago
If people don't want to hear political opinions, won't they downmod everything else equally? Do you really expect that there will be no correlation between bad-mouthing Barack and getting more downvotes?
49.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Is there even a positive correlation between throwing more money at education and having better-educated kids? It looks like at some point over the last thirty years, we got to the point that the administrative cost of distributing the next
50.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Amazing that these data are so upsetting to news.YC's audience. I wonder if one of the downvoters could articulate what it is about these facts that needs to be suppressed. It seems relevant to me that Obama sought such a radical preacher a
51.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Actually, race is the single best predictor of how much crime to expect in a given area. Besides population already in prison, at least. I think it's a red herring to ask why we're collecting the data in order to decide whether or not the d
52.
by _h4xr 18y ago
So are you arguing that it isn't useful to know about racial differences, even if they're true? I hear about them all the time! People wonder why there are so many black people in prison, or why there are so many Asians earning PhDs. Some p
53.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Most racists I know of don't suggest that one should use race when other variables are available -- e.g. they don't say that a black guy in a suit is more dangerous than a white meth-head with a gun, even though statistically black people a
54.
by _h4xr 18y ago
I was making fun of the previous poster, who seems to be arguing that even if group A has an average IQ of 115 and group B has an average IQ of 70, there is overlap between their distributions and so it should be shocking to you that there
55.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Parents who think this way probably sound like regular parents, but more succinct. They have one more tool to identify harmful people and situations, and they don't have to rely on proxies ("He's from a bad neighborhood ") to say what they
56.
by _h4xr 18y ago
Even if there are differences between ages in terms of height, how could it ever be in my kid's best interest to think that the average six-year-old is taller than the average five-year-old, even though there are five-year-olds taller than
57.
by _h4xr 19y ago
Good to know I'm (presumably) not the only Sailer reader here. I know Gypsies are discriminated against, but I was under the impression that they're also, uh, very criminal on average, and generally not well suited to many modern careers (o
58.
by _h4xr 19y ago
Aren't you judging the kind of thing that makes credentials meaningful by citing the credentials themselves? As high finglefarb of the church of deontoenails, I am fully able to condemn this as heretical. And as someone experienced with con
59.
by _h4xr 19y ago
Finger length correlates with testosterone production, which correlates with different ratios of mathematical to verbal skills. So it would tell you whether to go to MIT or Yale, but not whether to go to Wash U or Forest Park Community Coll
60.
by _h4xr 19y ago
It's not a choice of just arbitrarily selecting some level of success for various minorities. Some minorities excel, and you can either allow it or make everyone worse off by banning it. For example, someone who cares about racial equality

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