Reply to: Fury at DNA pioneer's theory: Africans are less intelligent than Westerners

[SueEllen]

Don't see why they dropped him. He did some research and published his findings...people should get over it.

Science museum is mostly visited by schools so there would be a boycott of it by loads of local education authorities.

Anyway what journal where his findings written up in?

[daviejones]

Don't see why they dropped him. He did some research and published his findings...people should get over it.

[Spacecadet]

He's been dropped by the science museum:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7050020.stm

[xoggoth]

You did not say invasions generally z, you said "Gates of Vienna" which usually refers to (looks it up) the siege of Vienna in 1683 which was Ottoman. So ya boo sucks.

[sasguru]

[url]Just as well the Khan died or we'd all be riding horses & living in yurts.

On the other hand getting shagged would be a lot easier.

[mrdonuts]

mongol hordes were knocking at the door, then someone popped their clogs or whatever it is they wear in mongolia and they all trooped off home for the funeral instead

[wendigo100]

"To simply dismiss something because it not PC is no better than embracing it because it suits a racist agenda. "

There would have been no problem whatever if the results had been the other way around of course...

Indeed.

[sasguru]

My history is a little hazy, but wasn't that Ottoman?

The Ottomans certainly but I seem to remember the Mongols overran parts of Europe too.

[sasguru]

c) Considering that we second raters have ruled the world for much of the last five hundred years while the brighter Asians have languished, intelligence is clearly not the major factor in success anyway.

500 years is a small period of time considering the first civilisations emerged thousands of years BC. And we are now seeing the beginning of the end of Western dominance. These things are cyclical.
My theory is that the West's rediscovery of science and rationality in the 16th and 17th centuries laid the foundations of an extraordinarily technical society which could then dominate the world. Scientists were the celebrities of their age. Newton was feted as the most famous man of his time and even in the 19th century people flocked to see Faraday's lectures.
Now we have Jade Goody and David Beckham. C'est la vie.

[xoggoth]

My history is a little hazy, but wasn't that Ottoman?

[Iron Condor]

Id never thought about this question before i read this thread.

But it got me thinking.

I can name losts of great and famous black athletes, politicans and TV/Film stars but why cant i name any black person famous for being really clever (eg a famous scientist etc)

[xoggoth]

To simply dismiss something because it not PC is no better than embracing it because it suits a racist agenda.

The arguments against these studies do not add up - all the experts have no idea how to make a culture independent test? (in fact they include things like counting backwards) Why should cultures in different parts of the same US cities be different anyway? How can all the tests be conducted by closet white racists if the same conclusions have been reached by others and they put whites behind Asians?

In practice I think the important points are:

a) There is an enormous overlap.

b) The differences are within the bounds of demographic variation. The brightest are supposed to be Jews but the theories say they should be behind Chinese etc. It is selective breeding. In Africa too, bad diet is a factor.

c) Considering that we second raters have ruled the world for much of the last five hundred years while the brighter Asians have languished, intelligence is clearly not the major factor in success anyway.

[mrdonuts]

i dont think the professor quoted the bell curve, that appears to have been added by the writer, it would seem he is calling on his well developed understanding of DNA to make his claims

[Bagpuss]

Maybe a better analogy would be Ferraris' go on average faster than Fords'.

That was my point, the statement is confounded by other more important issues, the effect is not determined by the colour

[AtW]

But it's about as informative as Red cars go faster than Green cars

Maybe a better analogy would be Ferraris' go on average faster than Fords'.

People in Africa have other priorities in life than calculus - getting food and drink is much more important.