Monthly Archives: January 2022

There are apparently some things only people with high intelligence can understand

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This was a recent question at Quora – What are some concepts only people with high IQ’s can understand? – and this was the answer provided by Bruno Campello de Souza, Professor at Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil. I don’t necessarily agree with any of these myself, but it is a very interesting list.

It is hard or perhaps even impossible to state something that “only” the very intelligent will understand, but there are certainly things which most people struggle with that those with high IQs are more likely to grasp.

In my own personal and anecdotal experience, the following ideas and notions are unknown, misunderstood and/or rejected by the vast majority of those with normal IQs (90–110) and even by most of those with above-average IQs (111–125), but are far more likely to be known, correctly understood and/or embraced by those with a gifted-level IQ (126+). In no particular order:

  • If you agree to the premises, then you have, wittingly or not, agreed to their consequences or implications, and the only way to revert this is to go back to the premises and disagree with at least one of them;
  • It is possible to predict and, yet, not control, i.e., there is a difference between correlation and causation, i.e., knowing “how” does not tell you “why”;
  • There are statements that are always true no matter what, and they are utterly useless precisely for that reason (tautologies);
  • One cannot “prove” a scientific hypothesis empirically no matter how many confirmations are observed, but only “disprove” it through counterexamples (which may be just a single trustworthy case), proofs only existing in Logic and Mathematics (Modus Tollens);
  • By definition, conspiracy theories cannot be falsified, for it can always be said that any evidence that would contradict them was secretly fabricated by the hidden powers that be in order to hide the truth, therefore, they are logical fallacies;
  • In random independent events, no matter how unlikely a given series of observations is, this has no bearing on the likelyhood of the next element in the series, even if the next element makes the increased series much less unlikely (ex: in a fair coin toss, obtaining a series of 100 “heads” in a row does not change the chance that the next toss will come up “heads” as well);
  • Natural selection does not work through environmental challenges leading to the an increased rate of offspring born with the capacity to overcome such challenges, but rather through an increased chance of procreational success (intergenerational genetic transmission) of specific random mutations that happen to coincide with a higher ability to overcome said challenges;
  • Predictability has no bearing whatsoever on free will, for the existence of a pattern for one’s behavior, even at the level of preferences and decisions, does not imply that such behavior was not a choice, for the possibility of choosing according to one’s preferences is the very definition of free will;
  • Any and all things are quantifiable, even love, justice, and beauty, among all other things, for different instances of the same phenomenon vary in amount and/or intensity, which is not to say that such quantification is always easy;
  • “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be” – Lord Kelvin;
  • Mathematics is not science, but there is NO science without Mathematics, with human and social sciences being no exception (there are no exceptions);
  • The fundamental rules of the scientific method do not change according to the subject or phenomena under study, be it Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Psychology, Sociology or any other field, and straying from that method is always bad science, regardless of the field;
  • Electron, force, mass, gravity, space-time and any other concepts from Physics or any other natural science have the same nature as those of motivation, emotion, unconscious, intelligence or any other concept from Psychology, i.e., they have no objective existence, being purely made-up abstract ideas put forth to explain observable phenomena;
  • It has always and will always be impossible to tell fact from perception, i.e., whatever is considered to be known about any empirical phenomenon can always be false, no matter what the evidence, i.e., one cannot separate Metaphysics from Epistemology;
  • The inevitable fallibility of all empirical knowledge, along with the psychological and sociocultural nature of knowledge, are no justification for a “free-for-all” or “anything goes” epistemic nihilism;
  • It is impossible to truthfully state that someone is making a misleading argument based on sophisms and/or fallacies unless one clearly points out said sophisms and/or fallacies, in other words, one cannot say that they are losing an argument solely because of rhetorical “cheats” or “tricks” from their opponent unless such “cheats” or “tricks” are explicitly identified (otherwise, the statement becomes unfalsifiable and, therefore, tautological and useless).

Due to their logical-mathematical nature, which is not subject to empirical validation, none of the above statements is an “opinion”.

Even among those with a very high IQ it is not uncommon to find someone with difficulties regarding one or more of the aforementioned statements . This is a particularly annoying case, for not only one expects such individuals to be more able to deal with the concepts involved, but also they tend to be very good at rationalizing their viewpoints through convoluted arguments which, of course, are wrong, but often require considerable time and effort to debunk.

Canada returns to lead the fight in the Covid Wars

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Of all things, Canada is now taking the lead in the fight against the Covid Wars

From the movie made from the book, The Devil’s Brigade, which recounts the formation, training, and first mission of the 1st Special Service Force, a joint American–Canadian commando unit, known as the Devil’s Brigade.

It’s been a long time since Vimy Ridge but what was there then is here now. This is an early convoy from 1917.

Canadians Returning from Vimy Ridge 1917, First World War

Now this, from Donna Laframboise, also a Canadian: Dispatch From Canada.

This is a historic moment. Public support for the ‘it’s time to move on, we need our lives back’ trucker convoy has been astonishing. And wholly organic.

No political party organized this. Rather, ordinary Canadians have waited at the end of their own driveways, at crossroads, on highway overpasses, and at designated staging grounds. For hours. In sub-zero weather. All through this week. Across this vast nation.

To enthusiastically cheer on the truckers. To thank them. To shower them with food, money, and gifts.

For the first time in two years, millions of people feel a sense of hope.

The report below begins with the words “so-called” which is typical of the media everywhere who have no taste for freedom or seek to understand or defend it. 

There is another video at the link above.

https://rumble.com/embed/vqwyde/?pub=4
Click on the link if it doesn’t immediately appear.

Rodney Palmer (1950-2021)

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Rowing ACT - Публикации | Facebook

There is a certain type of personality I get on with best – people who let me rant on, pay little attention to what I say even though generally agreeing with most of it but not necessarily all, who are sweet natured and even tempered whose main aim in life is to laugh and enjoy the fruits of the world between the various episodes of harsh treatment life is prone to bring into everyone’s lives. One such person was Rodney Palmer who departed this earth to my sorrow and regret on December 23 last year.

There was a memorial to Rodney last week on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra. This was the memorial put up by his rowing club to mark his passing.

Many Black Mountain Rowing Club members joined about 100 people from the local rowing community and Rodney’s family and friends for a very moving memorial by the lake at Yarralumla, organised by his partner, Lynne Thompson.
 
The location, weather and atmosphere were perfect for the occasion.
Rodney died just before Christmas after a long illness.
 
He was a true and generous friend and member of BMRC, and before that of other Canberra clubs over a period of many years.
 
Rodney gave his time freely and quietly to anyone who asked. He taught countless people to row, and was the first to put up his hand to help any new member of our Club.
 
He volunteered endlessly for the benefit of the local rowing community .
 
As is often the case, other interests and skills that many were unaware of were revealed by speakers at his memorial. These included a longtime passion for soccer (he came close to national selection as a player ), a love of chess and music.
Rodney was also a close friend, mentor and father-figure to many young people.
 
Vale Rodney – we’ll miss your quirky style and your boundless enthusiasm.

I will just add that there was much more to Rodney than just rowing, although there was that. The sweetest nature and the kindest soul. It was my privilege to have been his friend.

“A tiny minority with unacceptable views”

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There is some resistance growing to the insanities associated with Covid across the world, with the Canadian truck convoys leading the pack. It’s not even that they are anti-vaxxine as such, just anti being forced to take the vaxxines and then each of the mandated “boosters” to participate in normal life, like going to the shops, sitting in a cafe or taking in a movie.

The Great Reset means that the nitwits who we have inadvertently installed as political leaders, or the complete nincompoops who have had one success in setting up Facebook or Twitter are now to be our leaders in perpetuity.

Is there actually anyone in public life stupider than Daniel Andrews? Perhaps the Premier of Queensland. Or the chaps who run WA or the NT.

We are ruining our lives for a mild disease that if you find you have it, the protocol is to stay home for a week.

The tiny minority with unacceptable views was the nonsense statement about the truckers from the Canadian Prime Minister whose greatest previous accomplishment are found listed here.

These are the people who are the tiny minority with unacceptable views. 

“If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created it…”

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I came across this quote from Will Durant which stopped me in my tracks:

“If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created it, the road to dictatorship will be open to any man who can persuasively promise security to all.”

I then went searching and found an entire storehouse of quotes from him that are just as profound: The Lessons of History Quotes, taken from:

The Lessons of History

A few more from the link:

“Normally and generally men are judged by their ability to produce—except in war, when they are ranked according to their ability to destroy.”

“History is, above all else, the creation and recording of that heritage; progress is its increasing abundance, preservation, transmission, and use. To those of us who study history not merely as a warning reminder of man’s follies and crimes, but also as an encouraging remembrance of generative souls, the past ceases to be a depressing chamber of horrors; it becomes a celestial city, a spacious country of the mind, wherein a thousand saints, statesmen, inventors, scientists, poets, artists, musicians, lovers, and philosophers still live and speak, teach and carve and sing. The historian will not mourn because he can see no meaning in human existence except that which man puts into it; let it be our pride that we ourselves may put meaning into our lives, and sometimes a significance that transcends death. If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children. And to his final breath he will be grateful for this inexhaustible legacy, knowing that it is our nourishing mother and our lasting life.”

“The conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it—perhaps as much more valuable as roots are more vital than grafts.”

“[…] violent revolutions do not so much redistribute wealth as destroy it. There may be a redivision of the land, but the natural inequality of men soon re-creates an inequality of possessions and privileges, and raises to power a new minority with essentially the same instincts as in the old. The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.”

A “pragmatic” delusional approach to climate change

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Let me be quite frank. When it comes to global warming and climate change, I do not believe any of it is true. I believe the hypothesis is false: there is no heating of the planet taking place. Consequently, I do not believe any actions need to be taken to limit the use of carbon-based fuels.

So let me bring you to this article which begins from the premise that climate change is a fact and that something must be done: Why Environmentalists Pose a Bigger Obstacle to Effective Climate Policy than Denialists. But he says this as well.

It is easy to gloss over one inconvenient fact: fossil fuels have been fantastic engines of progress for humanity, by providing access to cheap, abundant, reliable, and (relatively) safe energy. They have freed us from back-breaking labor, tripled our life expectancy, and allowed one country after another to escape from miserable poverty. Fossil fuel companies have become so powerful precisely because, at their core, they offer an extremely desirable product from which all of us benefit, both in direct and visible forms (gasoline, diesel, natural gas) and in myriad indirect forms (cement, plastics, steel, glass). Indeed, if you look around your living room, you would be hard-pressed to find any object that did not somehow involve the use of fossil fuels (if only because it will almost certainly have been hauled to you by a diesel-powered machine).

Despite what many climate activists profess, we don’t yet have clean and affordable solutions for cement and steel production, fertilizer production for agriculture, or aviation. In the absence of such clean alternatives, forgoing the use of fossil fuels will inevitably entail painful sacrifices and difficult questions about how to share the burden of emission reductions.

Thus, in spite of all of the massive problems and costs of ridding ourselves of carbon-based fuels, the writer thinks we must nevertheless grasp the climate-change nettle because there really is a problem that demands action.

It all seems so straightforward. But if you don’t believe that, if all the supposed evidence of climate change seems like hysterical nonsense, then to do as these people suggest is insane. It will return us to living standards that existed more than a century ago since there are no substitutes for the fossil fuels we have come to depend on.

But he does have a solution – nuclear energy which comes with its own environmentalist contra-agenda. Here is the dilemma as he sees it.

More generally, the co-opting of climate science to launch attacks on capitalism, consumerist culture, neoliberalism, and a host of other left-wing bugbears having little or nothing to do with climate change, has fueled the ideological polarization around the issue. Though the science of climate change transcends all ideology, the same cannot be said of mainstream climate activism. Ironically, the claim that climate and capitalism (or climate and economic growth) are incompatible is one with which the denialists wholeheartedly agree: the only difference being that they want to ditch climate policy rather than capitalism. Such ideological hijacking made it easier for the right-wing denialists to dismiss the whole climate story as yet another excuse from the hippies to impose Big Government and take away their SUVs.

He, however, wishes to ditch capitalism rather than climate policy. He’s also anti-capitalist, but wants to introduce nuclear energy to run our economies.

Ironically, the claim that climate and capitalism (or climate and economic growth) are incompatible is one with which the denialists wholeheartedly agree: the only difference being that they want to ditch climate policy rather than capitalism. Such ideological hijacking made it easier for the right-wing denialists to dismiss the whole climate story as yet another excuse from the hippies to impose Big Government and take away their SUVs.

Just be like China,a communist state whose economy is driven by nuclear energy.

China plans to build 150 new nuclear reactors, which promises to collectively avert more CO2 emissions than half of the current total annual emissions of the European Union.

A delusional nutter, but in his own eyes a pragmatic delusional nutter.

The price mechanism is the single most important element of the market economy

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Broken supply-chains are the story of the moment but what I find truly remarkable is that virtually no one any longer understands that it is the price system, and the price system alone that allows the supply-chain to operate. I have discussed this before. This is virtually no longer part of the economics curriculum but if you would like to understand why it matters, there is this that you might find of interest: I, Mechanical Pencil: Why a socialist economy can never work.

This has come to mind having come across this today: “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy”. This is the introduction to the article.

Alfred Henry Lewis’ observation dating back to 1896 still rings true. There is a thin line between society and anarchy. It’s thinner than we want to admit.

Here is the final para of the article:

There is a thin line in society, between food and anarchy, freedom and repression, liberty and tyranny, safety and street violence. It’s thinner than we want to admit, and it’s being pushed to its limits on purpose by ideologies that want to deconstruct our society. Tearing down society is a dangerous game.

Absolutely true, but nowhere mentioned in the article is the essential role of the price mechanism in bringing food to your table, along with everything else. It is the price mechanism that makes the capitalist system indispensable. That this is not common knowledge makes our way of life vulnerable to being driven into the sand by socialist loons such as the American President who has done much to undermine the supply-chain networks across the United States.

These vaxxines come with terrible risks

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Two related articles from Gateway Pundit. First: Top American Medical Journal Study Confirms the Risk of Myocarditis and Pericarditis After Receiving COVID-19 Vaccines – Risks is Highest After Second Vaccine in Adolescent Males and Young Men. Already well understood by anyone who follows these things, but further confirmation.

A new study released on Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) revealed the development of myocarditis and pericarditis after mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination which is highest in adolescent males and young men.

The study was based on the data from VAERS on reported cases of myocarditis that occurred after receiving the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine between December 2020 and August 2021 in 192, 405 ,448 individuals older than 12 years of age in the US. These data were processed by VAERS as of September 30, 2021.

The primary outcome after the vaccination was the occurrence of myocarditis and the secondary outcome was pericarditis.

And then this as well, with an Australian connection: “I Have Had Every Symptom You Could Dream Of” – Bedridden Aussie Mayor Opens Up About Immune Reaction After Receiving COVID Vaccine. A terrible story, naturally barely mentioned in the local news.

An Australian mayor is bedridden and has spent time in and out of the hospital after suffering a severe reaction to her second COVID vaccination, the West Australian reported.

Mayor Claire Boan of Port Adelaide Enfield opened up about her current condition and described “the new normal” in her life on her Facebook account last week.

According to the mayor, she’s been in bed for more than 35 days due to an immune reaction after receiving her second COVID shot.

“I have had every symptom you could dream of and my body continues to display new ones; it’s been exhausting for my body, traumatic for my family, and difficult for my mind,” the mayor said.

More at the link, with the cone of silence the most frightening aspect.

“Pure Trump” is what we need and want

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I wrote a book of my own on Donald Trump which, if you ask me, is still about the best book available on America’s 44th president: The Art of the Impossible: A Blog History of the Election of Donald J. Trump as President. If it’s still in print, I cannot recommend a book that will provide you with the real Donald Trump more than this one.

Also published by Connor Court as is this one, a book reviewed a few days ago at Quadrant Online under the heading: Donald Trump, Magnificent Vulgarian. The book was written by Richard Alston, who ought to know something about politics but perhaps has lost a bit of feel for the subject in his years on the sidelines. Is Donald Trump’s appeal all that difficult to understand? Seems so. This is by the reviewer discussing Alston’s book:

Alston is no apologist for Trump. Quite the contrary. While seeing Trump as the ultimate political risk-taker, trailblazer and disruptive contrarian, Alston lists many of Trump’s personal character failings on no less than a dozen occasions, including: ‘not only an amoralist but a true vulgarian who fails the character test’; ‘brutish vulgarian’; ‘eccentric high achiever’; ‘disorganised’; ‘vindictive’; and of having the ‘morals of an alley cat’ to name a few. To counter these character failings, Alston does however describe Trump as having a ‘magnetic attraction’, acknowledges his ‘political bravery … [and] invaluable business experience’, and his ‘strategic and deliberate’ approach.

There may be no one in Australia who has paid closer attention to Donald Trump than I have, with the added advantage that I grew up in North America and watched the American political system from close at hand, although admittedly from the northern side of Lake Ontario.

This is how the review ends.

Much commentary in this area indulges in disgust for Trump’s personal qualities. Alston records his distaste for Trump’s character, but as a prelude to a serious review and critique of Trump’s record in office. While the dust is a long way from settling on the Trump presidency, Alston’s contribution is a stake in the ground. It is now on others to offer their qualified opinions.       

You want my opinion. Alston is pandering to the left who could find no policy issues to argue against so chose to argue about Trump’s personality. And as it happens, Trump, the greatest American president of my lifetime, may yet return to the White House in 2024.

I will just note that the comments on this review at QoL largely take my side of the issue, with this one mentioned not just because I agree with it but also because it is short and to the point.

By the living daylights you lot are hard markers. For one, he [Trump, that is] is conservative in his economic policies and pro business. Secondly, he has incredible poise. Witness when he arrived for the State of the Union address. OK, he’s a New York property billionaire, however being President of the most powerful nation ever in the history of our world is another thing altogether. He arrived in the room as though it was his parent’s home. Totally self assured and confident in his bearing. This behaviour is not presidential? So is speaking at Klu Klux Clan [sic] funerals presidential [here reminding us that Biden spoke at Robert Byrd’s funeral]? Which President had an Italian opera singer sing Ave Maria on the White House portico? So is Christian and proud of it not Presidential?

It seems commentators compete to damn him for what are essentially peccadillos. It not as though leaders of the western world are thick on the ground.

Exactly as I think of these things myself. I will add in the last of the comments since it also gets to the point that needs to be made.

To say the obvious, Trump would not have become president were there not a deep underlying comprehension among many US citizens that the Left is Evil.
And so, the Left had to destroy Trump. Which they did.
The mainstream media is 90% Evil Left – as it is in Australia too, of course.
It’s just in Australia too few non-Leftists can see this, or rather are too complacent to bother to look.

It turns out, however, that Donald Trump has just released a new book of his own that is filled with all of the kinds of statements Richard Alston doesn’t like. It is reviewed here: Trump Book Publisher Sergio Gor: ‘We Can’t Keep Up with the Demand’. Seems like there are some people on our side of the fence who like the kinds of things PDT says, and the way he says them. Here are some samples from the review.

“This is 100 percent pure President Donald Trump. And about 50 of them, he hand wrote the captions,” he said, noting that people “love” seeing the handwritten captions printed underneath some of the pictures with Trump’s “famous black sharpie.”

“You can’t come up with these captions if you tried. It’s 100 percent original him, calling Nancy Pelosi effing crazy. It’s things along those lines. Talking about the wall. Talking about China. Talking about Russia. Talking about Congress. Every single thing that happened over the last four years is in there,” Gor said, noting that the book sold 200,000 copies in the first six weeks of its release….

Another image features Pelosi with a sour face, prompting Trump’s caption, “Disagreeing with Nancy Pelosi — such a natural thing.”

Overall, Gor said readers get the “pure Trump” in the book.

Getting “the pure Trump” is what people want. One can only hope he will be in the White House again 2025-2029. Again, it will be what he does that matters most, although what he says will also matter along with the way he says what he says.