Thursday, February 25, 2010

National differences in testicle size and IQ are meaningful

My fourth day of daily blogging.

Finland won Czech Republik in Ice Hockey olympics and made it's way to semifinals. The rest of the games are important, because already Finland has beaten our hated neighbors Russia and Sweden, because they didn't make it to the semifinals.

One of the explanations of finnish Ice-Hockey success is that we have bigger balls than our baltic neighbors: Why do Danes have smaller nuts than Finns—are toxins to blame?
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I've been listening to a lot of econtalk podcasts. Often they talk about growth and development, and why some countries do better than others. It's depressing that they don't even bring up the hypothesis of Lynn and Vanhanen, that average IQ's might explain a lot of differences in wealth. There is of course many factors and many possible explanations, but shying away from this quite important one, when considering all kinds of other things is just not good.
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I'm considering to start some kind of small business as a hobby. I'm open to any ideas as to what value to produce and sell easily with small capital investment. I think it could be great fun and educational. Barriers are low if I keep my business small and revenue under 10 000 €

5 comments:

Jaakko said...

Kesä on tulossa. Haluaisitko kokeilla kaupunginosapaitoja. Minä voin hoitaa markkinoinnin. Yst. J

Jaakko said...

Toinen mitä vois kokeilla ois kehittää lautapeliä. Yst. J

Jaakko said...

Ja kolmas ois (niin kauan kun lunta riittää) kolailla ihmisten kattoja.

Paavo said...

Olekko lukenut Adam smithin theory of human sentimentsin. Mitä econtalkissa siitä puhuttiin, niin luulen, että voisit pitää siitä, ja saisit lisäkäsitystä siitä mitä se Adam Smith aatteli, eikä se ollut mikään voitontavoittelija itsekkyyden korostaja vaan käsittääkseni jopa kristitty mies.

Jaakko said...

Minäkin kuuntelin nuo keskustelut econtalkista.

Wikipediasta löytyi tällainen katkelma:

"There has been considerable scholarly debate about the nature of Smith's religious views. Smith's father had a strong
interest in Christianity and belonged to the moderate wing of the Church of Scotland. In addition to the fact that he received the Snell Exhibition, Smith may have also moved to England with the intention of pursuing a career in the Church of England. At Oxford, Smith rejected Christianity and it is generally believed that he returned to Scotland as a deist.

Economist Ronald Coase has challenged the view that Smith was a deist, stating that while Smith may have referred to the "Great Architect of the Universe", other scholars have "very much exaggerated the extent to which Adam Smith was committed to a belief in a personal God"."

Smithän kirjoitti Theory of Moral Sentimentsin 17 vuotta ennen Wealth of Nationsia, jossa hän kyllä puhuu mielestäni aika vaaralliseen tyyliin. Josta esim. Chesterton kirjoittaa:

"Adam Smith writes a book... containing one thesis which can specially be called a heresy; for it affects faith and morals. It is this: that men pursuing their individual interests thereby fulfill the benevolent purpose of God, which is their happiness."

ja

"It was the mystical dogma... that some of the worst of human passions would turn out to be all for the best. It was the mysterious doctrine that selfishness would do the work of unselfishness."

Jotenkin minulla on sellainen olo, että Smith olisi lipsunut pois kristinuskostaan, joka hänellä lapsena (ja ehkä vielä theory of moral sentimentsinkin aikaan) oli. Kristillinen vaikutus kyllä tulee läpi theory of moral sentimentsissä. Koetetaan me pitää uskostamme kiinni! Yst. J