Quotulatiousness

May 25, 2018

Bombs Away – German Thirst For Caucasian Oil I THE GREAT WAR Week 200

Filed under: Europe, Germany, History, Middle East, Military, WW1 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

The Great War
Published on 24 May 2018

In the 200th week of the war, the total nature of modern warfare is truly showing its face. The warring nations escalate their bombing campaigns and the German troops in the Caucasus are so thirsty for Caucasian oil, that they are considering to double cross their own allies.

Progressives: “Gender is a social construct!” Science: “Wait just a second there…”

Filed under: Health, Science — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Toby Young wonders why a woman can’t be more like a man:

A fascinating paper about sex differences in the human brain was published last week in the scientific journal Cerebral Cortex. It’s the largest single-sample study of structural and functional sex differences in the human brain ever undertaken, involving over 5,000 participants (2,466 male and 2,750 female). The study has been attracting attention for more than a year (see this preview in Science, for instance), but only now has it been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

For those who believe that gender is a social construct, and there are no differences between men and women’s brains, this paper is something of a reality check. The team of researchers from Edinburgh University, led by Stuart Ritchie, author of Intelligence: All That Matters, found that men’s brains are generally larger in volume and surface area, while women’s brains, on average, have thicker cortices. ‘The differences were substantial: in some cases, such as total brain volume, more than a standard deviation,’ they write. This is not a new finding – it has been known for some time that the total volume of men’s brains is, in general, larger than that of women’s, even when adjusted for men’s larger average body size – but all the studies before now have involved much smaller sample sizes.

Does this paper have any implications when it comes to men and women’s intellectual abilities? The answer is yes, but they’re not clear cut.

Leaving the Left – Part 3: Penn Jillette

Filed under: Liberty — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Economics in the Media
Published on 17 Jun 2016

New series on Economics in the Media

It recently occurred to me that many thinking people were once on the political left, but I could not recall having ever heard of someone starting out as a thinking person and subsequently moving to the left.

In this new series we explore some of the people who escaped the left and how they did it.

Original Video:
Penn Jillette at the Cato Institute Benefactor Summit

QotD: Muggeridge’s Law

Filed under: Britain, Humour, Media, Quotations — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

While Malcolm Muggeridge was the editor of Punch, it was announced that Khrushchev and Bulganin were coming to England. Muggeridge hit upon the idea of a mock itinerary, a lineup of the most ludicrous places the two paunchy pear-shaped little Soviet leaders could possibly be paraded through during the solemn process of a state visit. Shortly before press time, half the feature had to be scrapped. It coincided exactly with the official itinerary, just released, prompting Muggeridge to observe: We live in an age in which it is no longer possible to be funny. There is nothing you can imagine, no matter how ludicrous, that will not promptly be enacted before your very eyes, probably by someone well known.

Tom Wolfe, “Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast: A literary manifesto for the new social novel”, Harpers, 1989-11.

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