"All this Race/IQ speculation smells like so much rehashed 1930s pseudo-science to me."

ummm... why then, do so many of these studies involving IQ and ethnicity end up showing Ashkenazi Jews and East Asians at the top of the IQ chain. All part of some right-wing Euro centric plot I guess.

I fail to see why these IQ studies, particularly intra-cultural and inter-national IQ studies, are pseudo-science akin to Adolf Hitler and his nazi theorist's Aryan Race mythology.

They have their inadequacies, granted, but to obfuscate the issue by labeling them "bollocks" or "pseudo-science" is obscurantism at it's worst.

If anything, the shortcomings and limitations of these early IQ studies cry out for more research, not blanket ad-hominem attacks. In fact, I am sure that the nazi's banned IQ tests because the tests indicated that their Jewish population outperformed their German population (somebody must have the reference).

I find psychometrics and genetics fascinating and it is that reason that I am drawn to Gene Expression and intellectual material of the same sort - not out of some inner fascist/elitist fantasy. I am sure most "gene expressionists" feel the same way.

"at that time I read up on specifics of nutrition re IQ scores and learned that children that eat at least one serving of veggies and one serving of fruit daily as well as take a multi-vitamin score 8% higher on average when taking IQ tests. Is that bunk?"

The only thing I could find regarding veggies and vitamins boosting IQ is this:

"...it has been found that many childre, although given what appears to be a perfectly adequate diet, eat too many sweets and 'junk foods' and too little fruit's and vegetables. Their intake of vitamins and minerals is low, although not sufficiently so to attract medical attention. When given vitamin and mineral supplentation, however, their IQ increases markedly. Studies have taken large groups of apparently well-fed children and dived them into control groups, which are given placebo pills, and treatment groups , which are given proper supplementation. The treatment group achieves a four point IQ advantage over the placebo group on average...it helps only those who do suffer from a deficiency. ...For such children, an average increase of 10 or 11 IQ points has been recorded.

These were well fed children by ordinary standards; an even better effect would be expected if supplementation were given to children suffering serious dietary deficiencies"

(EYSENCK,Hans; Test Your IQ, Penguin Books, c. 1994)

"As for the idea that the hit causing homosexuality must be prenatal: although I cosnider it possible, I defy anyone to tell me why this must be the case. Note that when one of a pair of identical twins is homosexual, ~80% of the time his twin is not."

What is the percentage of identical twins that share/do not share the same amniotic sac?

I have heard statements to the effect that twins can experience much different prenatal hormonal environments if they do not occupy the same amniotic sac.

"but I am frankly dubious that there have been many (any?) solid studies of the subject."

Agree, I would like to see the studies showing the risks of creatine use.

"P.S. Let me tell you creatine definitely makes you stronger. I cycle my creatine and right now I am not taking it. My dumbell bench press max went down 20lbs over the past ~1 and a half months off of it."

I second that conclusion - i used creatine for 5 years and I was a big time meat eater to boot and I still benefited from it's use.

After a few weeks you pretty much have exhausted your body's ability to store more creatine/water but if you stop taking it, your creatine levels drop back to normal.

I wonder if the diabetes conclusion was based on the advice that is often made in regards to taking creatine with a high Glycemic drink. The theory being that insulin drives more creatine into the muscle cells.

In any case, vegetarians and vegans do definitely benefit more from creatine supplementation.

Now these are the kinds posts that I absolutely love!!!

"Hitler, a failed artist and ex-flophouse resident with a history of mental retardation and insanity in his family.."

Was Hitler the product of an uncle-niece marriage? I thought I read somewhere that Hitler's father was Hitler's mother's uncle.

I also recall in an A&E special from about 11 years ago stated that Hitler finished "at the top of his class" in school.

I remember reading a book a number of years ago on Bill Gates. Apparently his father was some big-wig laywer and either his grandfather or great-grandfather was someone of importance - i think a very successful entrepreneur.

I also read on a link on the mega society/CTMU website that Chris Michael Langan's (one of the smartest men in America) mother came from a very prominent family and herself was very intelligent.

Sweet! Thanks Martin.

I've corresponded with razib via email about this very topic - it's perplexed me since i was a teen.

i don't know if this is relevant to the discussion, but a few years ago a study was somewhat widely reported in the media stated that hirsute men were over represented in high IQ groups but i don't think the study was ever replicated. I have found next to nothing on the web about the study except for the blurb i quote below. The study may have been flawed, but since there isn't much info on it, you can't tell. Here it is:

"On Friday, 12th July there was an extraordinary article on the front page of the UK daily newspaper 'The Daily Telegraph'. HAIRY MEN ARE MORE INTELLIGENT, RELATIVELY SPEAKING

'Body hair is a sign of intelligence in men, a London conference of psychiatry was told yestereday, writes Celia Hall, Medical Editor. Dr Aikarakudy Alias, of the Chester mental health centre in Illinois, focused his research on members of Mensa and medical and engineering students in America and India. He found that 45 per cent of the American male students were ''very hairy'', compared with 10 per cent of the general male population. Doctors and other men intelligent enough to go to university were much more likely to have hairy chests, the European Psychiatry conference heard. Research in southern India and among 117 Mensa members produced similar results. Dr Alias acknowledged the widely held perception that sweating laboureres were usually hairy, back as well as front. But that was only because they took their shirts off in public, he said. Men with a university education keep their shirts on. However, a quick poll in Britain failed to reach an unequivocal conclusion. Intelligent John Cleese has a lot of body hair, but super-intelligent Sir Clive Sinclair does not. Richard Branson is ''fairly'' hairy, according to members of his staff. Dr Alias, whose shirt was tightly buttoned, happily accepted that his findings were not absolutely watertight. ''Albert Einstein had no body hair at all,'' he said.'"

Maybe hairiness has made a comeback in humans because it has some sort of evolutionary benefit. The first Africans that left Africa and gave rise to all of humanity were in all likely hood "naked apes".

I can't seem to find the original link where I found the story (almost 6 years ago). The Daily Telegraph has it in their archives here (you have to register): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=%2Farchive%2F1996%2F07%2F12%2Fnhair12.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=30337

I also found some tongue and cheek discussions about it: http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/anthropology/anthro-l/archive/july-1996/

(in the above site do CTRL-F: "Hairy chests sign of intelligence")

"So apparently being poor, stupid, and uneducated increases one's Darwinian fitness (on average)."

In modern times, it seems so.

Ikram, where were you last summer when there was an explosion of violent gun crimes among blacks? The toronto star even reported crime stats indicating that blacks were responsible for commiting a disproportionate amount of crime (It was something like they make up 12% of Toronto's population, but account for 23% of crime - I may be wrong on the exact numbers, so if someone has the precise data, please post). They even broke down the crime rates by ethnicities, including East Indians (who had lower crime rates than whites). I did a search on thestar.com but they only provide free access to their archives for the past 14 days. The star then went and did their own analysis that in their opinion, police were racially profiling blacks. The police services hired experts and this is what they've come up with: http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/publications/2003.02.20-review/pptpresentation.pdf

I found the article i was looking for:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1026146837542&call_page=TS_RaceAndCrime&call_pageid=1034935301156&call_pagepath=GTA/Race_and_Crime&col=1034935301113

John Purdy writes: "Also, a disproportionate amount of the violent crime that is committed in Toronto is committed by Jamaicans. The newspapers usually avoid mentioning the race of perpetrators but if there's a shootout at a party in Scarborough or something it's you can bet they're Jamaicans."

The article mentions stats to back your statement up:

"The numbers show that 48.6 per cent of charges in violent crime cases are laid against people born in Canada. The second largest category is made up of residents identified as being born in Jamaica.

Those residents are listed in 12,777 charges, or 9.5 per cent of total cases for violent offences. Census data indicates Jamaican-born residents comprise 2.4 per cent of the population. While instances where blacks have been mistakenly identified by police as Jamaican-born have occurred, it is highly unlikely such errors could account for the large discrepancy."

"The report also found the unemployment rate for Jamaican-born Canadians, at the time the report was published, was nearly twice Toronto's overall rate of 11 per cent."

Other Quotes of interest from the article:

"The same analysis of a massive police database also reveals that a disproportionate number of blacks were charged with violent crimes. These include homicides, attempted murder, sex assaults, gun-related offences and assaults. These are cases where officers, due to the serious nature of the charges, have little room to exercise even a subconscious bias."

"The data show that accused black people represent nearly 27 per cent of all violent charges; this, although the latest census figures show that only 8.1 per cent of the population list their skin colour as black. "

"Although community leaders have long complained that young black men are sometimes "singled out" and discriminated against in situations where officers have discretion, arrests classified as "violent" are different. Police officers are usually responding to an emergency situation, or 9-1-1 calls, rather than generating arrests from random stops or searches. Any potential for racial bias is limited."

I would like anyone who lives in Toronto if they have noticed that most TV news in the area will not mention a person's "race" as part of a description of a person wanted in connection with a crime.

They will always mention name (if known),sex, build, weight, age, hair colour, eye colour, Tattoos etc.., but rarely ever the race of the wanted person. Race seems like an extremely important descriptive piece of information that one would need to have in order to recognize if they man they saw on the subway could potentially be the man police are looking for.

It seems like PC has run amok in Toronto and this is an example of but one casualty.

Sen:

"The data show that people with white skin, who the 1996 census says make up 62.7 per cent of the population, were underrepresented — accounting
for 52.2 per cent of violent charges. People classified as having "brown" skin accounted for 15.9 per cent of the charges, while those in the "other" category were charged with 5 per cent of violent offences. In most cases "brown" is used to refer to people of South Asian descent while "other" mainly represents people of Chinese and other Far Eastern origin. "

I was intrigued by this stat as well as i thought i read another article that showed the crime stats for East Indians and Pakistani's to be low. I would like to see the actual numbers that specify crime rates for East Indians and Pakistanis - it seems like the authors of this story made an assumption. I thought there was another story (I originally read all this when it was first published, so my memory is a little hazy) in the star that broke down the crime stats concerning south asians and indians and pakistani's (if i recall) were underepresented in crime statistics. It may have been stats for another country. If i am unable to find the story, then i stand corrected.

From the above link:
"Maternally inherited DNA was overall found to be more similar to Asians than to Europeans..."

When they use the term "Asians" do they mean East Asians, South East Asians or Asians native to India?

"The offspring of mixed marriages often adopt two different types of coping strategy to deal with their own 'identity' problem, created both because they're not sure "what" they are, and also because society is not clear "what" they are."

And you have empirical evidence of this?

BTW, Observation is empirical evidence.

You imply mixed marriages between Asian/European, European/East Indian, Amerindian/European and a multitude of other mixtures and not just mixed Negroid/European as when u state:

"The offspring of mixed marriages often adopt two different types of coping strategy to deal with their own 'identity' problem"

Then you base all mixed marriages on the assumption that they mimic the tendencies of one particular mixture (Negroid/European) in one particular country(The United States) when you say:

"A prevalent example of Strategy #1 is the self-definition of the mixed-race population of the USA as "black".

Dienekes, have you ever lived in an ethnically diverse country or were you brought up and raised in Greece? This question may be relevant if you are basing your evidence on personal observation.

Also:
"Another example, is a religious zeal for race mixture or the "one human race" that is often exhibited by people who are themselves of hybrid origins."

Is this religious zeal for race mixture seen only in intellectual "hybrid people" or in "hybrid people" in general? I have met quite a few "hybrid people" and they didn't seem to have a zeal for race mixture. They didn't seem to care. You ask them what ethnicity they are and they tell you whatever mix they are and that's that. This would indicate that, at least from my observations, most mixed people adopt strategy #3. Then again, most of the mixed people i met, weren't mixed Negroid/European.

To the blog members in general:
Is race/ethnic mixing good or bad? Although the effects of Hybrid Vigour has been established in all organisms, including humans, does this trump ethnic preservation? Is there utility in preserving the various races(population groups as ppopulation geneticists call them) and ethnicities or does it all come down to preserving aesthetics an ethnic values?

Sheila Copps is an idiot. Well, actually - she's an amazing politician. I don't know how she managed to get herself re-elected in Hamilton after her going back on the "scrap the GST" platform.

I seen Diane Francis talking on TV about how the Liberal party basically has a political base made up of special interest immigrantion groups. Her book - Immigration, promises to be an interesting read.

I'm Doucheland, ah i mean, Deutschland as well.