HN user
we have an analogous situation here on HN. Karma ... People upmod because they agree, or because they think the post is interesting. This blends two quite different characteristics into one number.
False analogy. Karma-score blending is arithmetic. Latent factors of mental-ability tests (or latent-factors of anything) are derived non-arithmetically.
IQ is more a measure of a nations current economic development than something inherent in the population.
If that were the case, what would explain the outliers -- high-IQ nations that are poor, and low-IQ nations that are rich?
the inadequacy and bias of the IQ system in measuring and representing intelligence
Why do you believe there is inadequacy and bias in mental ability testing (the IQ system, as you put it)? Have you read this Citation Classic on the subject?:
http://www.amazon.com/Bias-Mental-Testing-Arthur-Jensen/dp/0...
I'm pretty sure their government has ... to do with the hyperinflation.
Indeed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_reform_in_Zimbabwe
Land reform in Zimbabwe began after the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979 in an effort to more equitably distribute land between ... blacks and the minority-whites who ruled Zimbabwe from 1923 to 1979.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_reform_in_Zimbabwe#Economi...
The results of the post-2000 land reform have been disastrous for the economy of Zimbabwe. Prior to land redistribution, land-owning farmers, mostly white, had large tracts of land and utilized economies of scale to raise capital, borrow money when necessary, and purchase modern mechanised farm equipment to increase productivity on their land. The reforms broke this land into smaller tracts (thereby destroying the economies of scale) and gave it to former black farmworkers and peasants
Racist shit
To what, specifically, in his comment are you referring?
Zimbabwe (British-relative) national IQ: 66
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_IQ#National_IQ_and_QHC...
Please also see:
http://www.gardenweasel.com/News/AUGUST2006Newsletter.pdf [PDF]
In [Dean, of Segway fame] Kamen's opening statement he noted that some people might call him a "Patent Troll" since he now limits his activities to developing product ideas with the sole purpose of licensing them, but doesn't try to manufacture or market them. He believes that large companies are much better suited to manufacture and market products than to develop new products. He is better suited for developing these new products than manufacturing or marketing them.
He made a very strong point that the larger companies had most of the resources in his business dealings and didn't really need patent protection. On the other hand, his patent for his intellectual property was the only thing that he had on his side of the table. He concluded his opening remarks by saying, “ . . .the patent system was intended to help everybody to be able to participate in innovation."
According to this...
http://www.irefeurope.org/col_docs/doc_26_fr.pdf [pdf]
...any given nation would be nicer, with no income- (including capital-gains) or consumption- taxes.
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if the tax rate tends towards zero percent, its influence on the decisions taken by persons affected tends to be negligible.
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less taxation, and, in addition, less distortionary taxation is desirable. Several studies even demonstrate that, from the point of view of maximizing economic growth, the long-run optimal taxation is zero. Milesi-Ferretti and Roubini (1994), for instance, show that under very general assumptions the optimal tax burden on labour and capital income is zero. Jones, Manuelli and Rossi (1993b) and Bull (1993) add that even consumption taxes ought to be equal to zero
Cultural progress just allowed more people to: a) live longer up to their genetic maximum, b) be smarter up to their genetic maximum.
How did you come to believe that there could be such a thing as a genetic maximum to phenotypic traits?
study and hard work [lead] to higher IQ as an adult.
How did you come to that conclusion?
We need to research VC's before we talk to them. Try researching your VC's by talking to the people who have been funded by them.
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There is no NDA at this point.
You are thinking of asking a VC to sign an NDA?
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http://robertplattbell.blogspot.com/2007/10/to-nda-or-not-to...
Simply put, when you sign an NDA, you are signing a CONTRACT, and any contract may obligate you to perform certain acts. More importantly, for each contract you sign, you are exposing yourself to potential litigation liability for breach of contract.
Thus, as a large company, if you sign hundreds or thousands of NDA contracts, you are incrementally exposing yourself to more and more liability. In a country where you can get sued for serving hot coffee, the odds of getting sued for signing all those NDA’s is pretty high.
So there is no point in a large corporation agreeing to sign an NDA with a solo inventor, unless the NDA is one of those bogus “disclosure agreements” referred to above.
If you think about it, it makes sense. And if you were to advise a company, you’d advise them NOT to sign an NDA. For example, suppose you represent a carmaker. Most of the ideas submitted will relate to cars. If your client signs all these NDA’s with potential inventors, chances are, one of them will submit an idea similar or identical to an idea already under development in your client’s lab. You’ll end up getting sued, as the inventor will claim you “stole” the idea. Better off to advise your client NOT to sign any NDA’s.
Venture Capitalists (VC’s) historically have refused to sign an NDA, and in fact, to ask them to do so is considered an insult and a sure way to put an end to your “elevator pitch”. Again, since VC’s listen to hundreds, if not thousands of invention pitches over the years, the chance that they will hear the same idea more than once (or a similar idea) is pretty great. If they sign NDA after NDA, they slowly paint themselves into a corner, to the point where they cannot back any new idea without the chance of some previous inventor claiming a breach of an NDA.
Frankly, the proposition of an NDA is a bit absurd. Someone comes to you and says they want to tell you a secret. BUT, before they will, they want you to sign a contract agreeing to draconian consequences if you tell the secret to anyone else. Suppose the secret is not all that great? Suppose everyone already knows about it, or more to the point, someone in your company does? It really is a risk not worth taking.
So, there are various good reasons why people will refuse to sign an NDA. If you think about it, chances are, you’d refuse to sign one, too!
The meat:
In the interests of making one tiny, tiny optimization in this all-too-complicated matter of time (And we haven’t even factored in general or special relativity yet!), I propose that we all adopt UTC immediately. Forget about daylight savings, forget about time zones
From the article:
one man found to be guilty of the crime, a 25 year old Ukrainian by the name of Maksym Yastremskiy, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Yastremskiy, who went by the name of Maksik, is thought to have sold hundreds of thousands of stolen credit card numbers following the theft which in turn caused tens of millions of dollars worth of losses for retailers and banks. Maksik will serve his time in a Turkish prison, following his arrest along with other gang members there last year.
From the article:
An advent of a price rebound in both DRAM and NAND flash contract markets is finally unfolding, signifying that capacity cuts are proving to be the sole solution to reverse pricing, according to memory research firm inSpectrum. DRAM contract prices remained static and NAND flash contract prices posted a significant surge in the first half of January.
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From the table at the bottom of the article:
Spot price for mainstream DRAM and NAND flash chips, 2009 (US$)
Date NAND flash 1Gb DDR2-667/800
8Gb 16Gb Branded White box
2008/12/08 1.11 1.78 0.60 0.59
2009/01/08 1.88 2.51 0.85 0.98Something I have not seen pointed out yet (in articles and discussions over the preceding many years) is the fact that CAPTCHA tests are essentially Gestalt Completion tests. A Gestalt Completion test is a type of IQ test. As CAPTCHA tests get progressively more difficult to solve, they might weed out progressively larger portions of the population - the human population, that is.
Perhaps, as a side-effect, the quality of web-based discussion will rise.
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From Arthur Jensen's 1980 book Bias in Mental Testing (pp157-158):
Gestalt Completion. Familiar words and objects are shown in various degrees of "mutilation" and the subject must infer what the word or object is. Performance is scored according to the average time taken per item or the number of items completed within a given time limit. The difficulty of any given item is a function of its familiarity and the extent of the "mutilation"; these can be varied independently in making up items. ... Gestalt completion items, which are known to be a good measure of the general intelligence factor (as well as of a small group factor labeled speed of closure), merit further experimental investigation in their own right.
Telenurse.com . Webnurse.com . Netnurse.com . Plentyofnurses.com
These things would be great for romantic dates between shy people. Imagine: two telepresence robots, in a car at a drive-in movie -- or taking a long roll on a beach, or in a park.
Thanks for the lead.
http://www.nber.org/~rosenbla/econ110-04/lecture/stickywages... [pdf]
Mr Bewley’s theory has some interesting implications. Pay cuts are more likely at firms whose demand for labour is price-sensitive, such as those in highly competitive industries. Since many markets are becoming more competitive, wages may also be getting more flexible—and unemployment may rise less in recessions. Wages are also likely to be less rigid in short-term jobs, where workers do not become attached to their firm.
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Mr Bewley’s book is not the last word on sticky wages. Some of his findings are probably specific to the north-eastern United States in the early 1990s.
What kind of corporate structure would let people decide to leave on their own, not have someone force them out?
Why bother firing anyone when, instead, you can simply reduce their compensation?
The harder it is to fire employees, the harder it is to find a job in the first place.
Tenant-rights laws work the same way. The harder it is to evict tenants, the harder it is to get an apartment in the first place.
[Everybody] is born with ... a right to NOT be coerced.
I was born with a right to not be coerced by gravity?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity
What entity is charged with enforcing my right to non-coersion-by-gravity?
I remember talking to Danish friends on how ridiculously high the taxes were. Yes, I was amazed that you guys pay 180% tax on cars.
http://www.skovgaard.org/europe/denmark.htm
The Danes believe Denmark is the best country in the world, that Danish beer is the best in the world, and that anything they do is better than anywhere else in the world. But however contradictory it may seem, between them, they don't like to see others being successful. Thus, they do everything they can to bring down the brightest amongst them. The communist tax system that has brought the highest overall taxation level in the world is an effective way of doing so.
Food is pretty essential. Why don't you get the government to provide that too?
Done.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#United_Sta...
The subsidy programs give farmers extra money for their crops, as well as guarantee a price floor. For instance in the 2002 Farm Bill, for every bushel of wheat sold farmers were paid an extra 52 cents and guaranteed a price of 3.86 from 2002–03 and 3.92 from 2004–2007.[2] That is, if the price of wheat in 2002 was 3.80 farmers would get an extra 58 cents per bushel (52 cents plus the $0.06 price difference).
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Also, please see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIC_Program
There is a link at the bottom of the news page labelled "FAQ".
I've heard Snow Leopard (OS X 10.7)
Snow Leopard is OS X v10.6.
If other countries are reluctant to export their jobs to you, you would obviously avoid exporting jobs to them in the vain effort to keep employment in your country alive.
Why might one want to keep employment in his country alive?
Your argument is that various people look black in pictures?
Here's another Obama, Sr. pic:
http://conservablogs.com/velvethammer/wp-content/uploads/200...
Do the nose, lips, or hair look Arabic?