tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post4594590150633310918..comments2024-03-27T18:24:19.683-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: National creativityUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-59398129602944639652010-03-09T15:11:28.273-08:002010-03-09T15:11:28.273-08:00Not bad article, but I really miss that you didn&#...Not bad article, but I really miss that you didn't express your opinion, but ok you just have different approachAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-50369211486857960452009-03-19T21:38:00.000-07:002009-03-19T21:38:00.000-07:00"van halen, perhaps the most creative guitar playe...<I>"van halen, perhaps the most creative guitar player ever, had a dutch father."<BR/><BR/>posted by jody<BR/><BR/>...and an Indonesian mother, which, is mongoloid-ish, I presume. Care to rant some more in a confusingly hostile manner?</I><BR/><BR/>She was Indonesian like I'm native American (I'm white). She was probably ethnically Dutch, given that she was a white person from a Dutch colony.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-33989372894850666212009-03-14T19:47:00.000-07:002009-03-14T19:47:00.000-07:00"van halen, perhaps the most creative guitar playe..."van halen, perhaps the most creative guitar player ever, had a dutch father."<BR/><BR/>posted by jody<BR/><BR/>...and an Indonesian mother, which, is mongoloid-ish, I presume. Care to rant some more in a confusingly hostile manner?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-70047675168277358722009-03-14T17:53:00.000-07:002009-03-14T17:53:00.000-07:00You know, the whole argument revolving around this...You know, the whole argument revolving around this theme: "East Asians have higher IQ's than whites - so why are white accomplishments so much more impressive - oh but they aren't - but yes they are!" and so on ad nauseum....<BR/><BR/>All rests on the assumption we are pretty much the same people that invented the mill (an incredibly important Medieval technology which did a lot more than grind grain) and built Chartes cathedral and painted the Sistine chapel and wrote any number of pavanes, galliards, toccatas, concerti, sonatas and sinfonias that make child's-play of modern music, wrote books like Gulliver's Travels or the Prince, and so on, while the Chinese were perfecting the art of calligraphy and passing the civil service exam.<BR/><BR/>I'm not sure that we really are the same people, genetically. But even if we are, I don't see any evidence that intelligence has much to do with the motivation to accomplish great things. Does having an IQ of 130 give you a little voice in your head saying: "no! I must not waste my life watching television...I must ACHIEVE!" Well no. How about 140? 150? Maybe at some point you will inevitably become a mathematician or theoretical physicist by sheer force of intellect - but even then, how much are you thereby contributing to posterity? Maybe a lot, maybe not so much, maybe nothing.<BR/><BR/>Where is the evidence that a high-iq population will not waste their lives doing something really stupid (but doing it ever so cleverly) while a lower-iq population actually does something worthwhile? You could ask me to define "worthwhile" before answering that question, but this is exactly the point: intelligence does not bring about a consensus definition on that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-34794052041074088222009-03-14T12:24:00.000-07:002009-03-14T12:24:00.000-07:00"the origin of zero (only now grudgingly acknowled..."the origin of zero (only now grudgingly acknowledged by Europeans as coming to them via Arabs from India)": that would be "now" in the sense of "back in the 1950s when Dearieme was in Primary School, or even before then if even the bloody Primary School teachers knew".<BR/><BR/>P.S. Steve, you have a commentator who appears not to know that Jim Watson is an annoying egotist. You have failed him in some way, I fear. He also thinks that Einstein was not an egotist. Dear God!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-38311084074952412032009-03-14T08:21:00.000-07:002009-03-14T08:21:00.000-07:00"It helps to be annoying and egotistical to be cre...<I>"It helps to be annoying and egotistical to be creative."<BR/><BR/>What a crock! Einstein wasn't like this, neither was Watson, Smith, Nietzhe, the Wright Brothers, and many others.</I><BR/><BR/>I'm reading a popular account of the solution this decade, after 100 years, of the Poincare Conjecture.<BR/><BR/>Grisha Perelman, who completed Richard Hamilton's program in a burst of creativity, is extremely modest and so conflict-averse that he resigned his minor position at the Steklov Institute and has withdrawn from the mathematics community altogether.<BR/><BR/><I>But today, intellectuals effetes think they have to cultivate this persona in order to gain some kind of respect. Perhaps it's a way of distancing themselves from masses that they purport to identify with.</I><BR/><BR/>It's a complex issue. Steve shows every day (by breaking them) that the official pieties about human nature are extremely powerful, yet far removed from the facts <I>of</I> nature. What then do intellectual "issues" rest on?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-13763533595317607242009-03-14T04:59:00.000-07:002009-03-14T04:59:00.000-07:00"Shao Yong is considered a Neo-Confucian heavily i..."Shao Yong is considered a Neo-Confucian heavily influenced perhaps, by Daoist cosmology. Name me some eminent Daoist philosophers or statesmen after the Sui Dynasty - to the best of my knowledge, there are none. Religious Daoism became the preserve of quacks and conmen."<BR/><BR/>Shao Yong's Wheel is completely in the Daoist tradition. <BR/><BR/>How about Leibnitz? Jesuits showed him the I Ching right around the time he was working on the binary system. So does that make us computer users practicing Daoists? <BR/><BR/>"Any culture - mass culture especially, is standardized regardless of ideology. If a culture didn't possess consistent characteristics and benchmarks, it wouldn't be one."<BR/><BR/>Fair enough. The many follow the one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-80603284676428478822009-03-13T23:42:00.000-07:002009-03-13T23:42:00.000-07:00Another Dutch phenomenon shows two stark peaks cen...Another Dutch phenomenon shows two stark peaks centuries apart: emigration to America.<BR/><BR/>The first emigration peak coincides with the eminence peak in the 17th century. Though it should be remembered that what killed both New Netherland and New Sweden before it was that things were so good at home that no one wanted to leave: the Dutch and the Swedes were both outnumbered in their colonies. Without religious strife, English settlement might have suffered the same fate.<BR/><BR/>The second emigration peak predates the second eminence one by about half a century. They concentrated in western Michigan and Iowa. An inordinate amount of prominent "Dutch"-Americans today have Frisian surnames (look for the suffixes <I>-stra</I>, <I>-sma</I> and <I>-ema</I>, for examples). Whether this reflects the Frisian proportion in that second wave, I don't know. <BR/><BR/>Incidentally, the settlement of western New York a good century and a half after the eastern end of the state was financed by Dutch investors, which is why it's called the "Holland Purchase". It's like they felt they had to finish the job! One of the first landholders in Amherst was my Dutch-named ancestor, from an old New Netherland family, who bought from these investors; his grandson went to Michigan after the Civil War, making him Old Dutch among the New. Confused us for years!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-27545285854247722732009-03-13T19:47:00.000-07:002009-03-13T19:47:00.000-07:00Regarding Joseph Needham and the invention of gunp...Regarding Joseph Needham and the invention of gunpowder:<BR/><BR/>"<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/reader/0521822742?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=search-inside&query=gunpowder%20boiled" REL="nofollow">There was</A> once a great deal of confusion and controversy surrounding the invention of firearms, but it is now generally accepted that firearms originated in China. Although there is no solid evidence for firearms in Europe before the 1300s, <B>archeologists have discovered a gun in Manchuria dating from the 1200s</B>, and an historian has identified a sculpture in Sichuan dating fro the 1100s that appears to represent a figure with a firearm. Since all the other evidence also points to Chinese origins, it is safe to conclude that this was in fact the case."<BR/><BR/>"The earliest known formula for gunpowder can be found in a Chinese work dating probably from the 800s. The Chinese wasted little time in applying it to warfare, and they produced a variety of gunpowder weapons, including flamethrowers, rockets, bombs, and mines, before inventing firearms. 'Firearms' (or 'guns') for purposes of this book means gunpowder weapons that use the explosive force of the gunpowder to propel a projectile from a tube: cannons, muskets, and pistols are typical examples."<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/reader/0465037186?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=search-inside&query=realgar%20honey" REL="nofollow">Similarly</A>:<BR/><BR/>"A book dating from around A.D. 850 called 'Classified Essentials of the Mysterious Tao of the True Origin of Things' debunks thirty-five elixirs. Of one it warns, 'Some have heated together sulfur, realgar and saltpeter [i.e., potassium nitrate] with honey; smoke and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down.'"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-86895420421197532202009-03-13T19:32:00.001-07:002009-03-13T19:32:00.001-07:00van halen, perhaps the most creative guitar player...<I>van halen, perhaps the most creative guitar player ever, had a dutch father.</I><BR/><BR/>To the extent to which that credit for creativity is based on Eddie's famed use of the "tapping" technique in his playing:<BR/><BR/>"<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hackett#Genesis" REL="nofollow">[Steve] Hackett</A> has often claimed Van Halen told him he learned the technique after attending a Genesis concert in the early 1970s."<BR/><BR/>"<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapping#History" REL="nofollow">One of the first</A> rock guitarists to record using the tapping technique was Steve Hackett from Genesis. Two examples of Hackett's complex tapping can be heard on the song 'Dancing with the Moonlit Knight,' from 1973, and 'The Return of the Giant Hogweed,' from 1971. Harvey Mandel, well-known for his psychedelic guitar playing, also employed 2-handed fretboard tapping in the 1960s. Mandel was one of the first rock guitarists to utilize this technique, years before Eddie Van Halen and Stanley Jordan first appeared."<BR/><BR/>"Tapping was also used by Ace Frehley as early as 1975, for his live solo at the end of the song 'She' during Kiss's performance on the Midnight Special. The technique would remain a part of Frehley's solos from 1977 through the Kiss reunion during 'Shock Me.' Various other guitarists such as Frank Zappa, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, Brian May from Queen, Duane Allman from the The Allman Brothers Band and Leslie West from Mountain were using the tapping technique in the early 1970s as well. Ace Frehley and Frank Zappa used a guitar pick for their style of tapping."<BR/><BR/>"Eddie Van Halen helped popularise the tapping technique for the modern audience and influenced many guitarists in his wake."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-6610751857744497062009-03-13T19:32:00.000-07:002009-03-13T19:32:00.000-07:00Needham's work shows that much Occidental creativi...<I>Needham's work shows that much Occidental creativity was pre-dated by Oriental inventions and ideas.</I><BR/><BR/>Such as?<BR/><BR/>Here's a couple of counter examples: the compass. Viking navigators may have used them, and the Vikings probably never sailed to China.<BR/><BR/>The Romans used the abacus.<BR/><BR/>The Chinese were probably the first to have gunpowder, and they invented fireworks. Cannon and muskets, however, are Western inventions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-15350924665335047622009-03-13T16:51:00.000-07:002009-03-13T16:51:00.000-07:00What's really glaring on the graph is that the per...What's really glaring on the graph is that the period where Dutch contributions to science and culture are absent happen to coincide with the peak years of the European Enlightenment.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-33873585537184906242009-03-13T16:46:00.000-07:002009-03-13T16:46:00.000-07:00"It's disturbing that these clear and well known a..."It's disturbing that these clear and well known aspects of history are befouled by the purposefull lies of men like Needham."<BR/><BR/>Needham is hugely-respected in the scientific history community. He was a fellow of both the Royal Society and the British Academy, a recipient of the Companionship of Honour from the Queen, and the George Sarton Medal from the History of Science Society. He was one of the most impressive scholars in his field during the 20th Century, and while I don't doubt he made errors, the examples you provide (only two - gunpowder and the crossbow), without any citations from other sources, don't seem to me to bring the general quality of his scholarship into question. <BR/><BR/>As regards the reason why China fell behind the West, didn't industrialize or develop scientific method, (the so-called Needham Question, since he first posed it), I feel that it's perhaps the wrong question to ask - the question to ask is why these singular events occurred in a small corner of the Western world at the outset of the modern era. <BR/><BR/>That being said, I have heard some convincing arguments, and have some explanations of my own, as to why Chinese science and technology never developed. <BR/><BR/>I found Kenneth Pomeranz's argument - that a huge labour surplus made the need to invent labour-saving devices redundant, pretty compelling, if only because I've heard that many industries that shift to China often forgo the use of high-tech machinery, because labour costs are so low. <BR/><BR/>There's the argument that Europe's division into small, belligerent states abetted technological innovation, as well as prevented blanket bans on certain forms of enterprise and development. For example, when the Ming Dynasty government banned oceanic trade, that rule applied everywhere from Guangdong Province to Beijing. There's no way that such an rule could have been applied to Europe during the same time period. <BR/><BR/>I personally feel, however, that the absorption of all the most intelligent and capable members of society by the Confucian scholar-official class, and its exclusive preoccupation with morality and the liberal arts, were at least partially to blame for a want of scientific and technological development.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-3813499660411730002009-03-13T16:32:00.000-07:002009-03-13T16:32:00.000-07:00You might know that if you had been born at just t...<I>You might know that if you had been born at just the right time and managed to live a long time you could have seen the first of the Gothic Cathedrals built - and the last. A lone century.</I><BR/><BR/>I don't disagree with your point about lumpiness, however the example of gothic cathedrals is somewhat tautalogical. If you define "gothic" very narrowly to refer to the architecture of a particular century, then it's no surprise to find all the "gothic" cathedrals built during that time.<BR/><BR/>But if you look more widely at similar French cathedrals, you'll see that they cover a span of several centuries.<BR/><BR/>Chartres itself, the most famous French gothic cathedral, was begun early in the 12th century, rebuilt after a fire 50 years later, the famous windows weren't added until the 13th century, and the North Tower wasn't added until the 16th century.<BR/><BR/>The preceding Romanesque style produced buildings considered by some just as impressive as the gothic cathedrals such as Cluny, Mont St. Michel, and the many cathedrals of Normandy, and the gothic style developed organically out of the Norman without any dramatic breaks.<BR/><BR/>The cathedral of Nantes, the last one considered to be strictly "gothic," was begun in 1434, just about 300 years after Abbot Suger built St. Denis. The famous Rouen cathedral contains sections built during the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.<BR/><BR/>I mention these facts only to make it evident that the enthusiastic devotion that built the great gothic cathedrals in France did not arise from nothing, nor did it die away after a short burst.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-550599723135139192009-03-13T16:31:00.000-07:002009-03-13T16:31:00.000-07:00"In fact, this pattern of the leader seeking the a..."In fact, this pattern of the leader seeking the advise of reclusive Daoist philosopher was ritualized in an accepted way. Think of Shao Yung. <BR/><BR/>Daoism evolved as a way for the independent thinker to exist apart from the Confucian hierarchy."<BR/><BR/>This may have been true during pre-Qin China, or even throughout the Han Dynasty period, but it no longer holds following the reunification of China under the Sui Dynasty. <BR/><BR/>Shao Yong is considered a Neo-Confucian heavily influenced perhaps, by Daoist cosmology. Name me some eminent Daoist philosophers or statesmen after the Sui Dynasty - to the best of my knowledge, there are none. Religious Daoism became the preserve of quacks and conmen. <BR/><BR/>"How interesting that the Confucian way of thinking has been so embraced by Western society, where intelligence is best understood by one's place in the established hierarchy. How Chinese we have become, and how comfortable we are with ejecting our Western tradition of independent free inquiry with Oriental standardization in all its mass-mediocrity. "<BR/><BR/>I think even Westerners who have an extremely interest in the East are either indifferent to Confucianism or hold it in low-regard. Since when has it brrn embraced by the rest of Western society?<BR/><BR/>It's also suffered from gross misinterpretation by so many people abroad. Confucianism is the one pre-modern ideology which most strongly and thoroughly advocates independent thought and self-reflection. As a moral philosophy is perfectly satisfies Immanuel Kant's definition of "Enlightenment" - the ability to use one's understanding without the guidance of another. <BR/><BR/>Any culture - mass culture especially, is standardized regardless of ideology. If a culture didn't possess consistent characteristics and benchmarks, it wouldn't be one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-78186474647681804902009-03-13T15:41:00.000-07:002009-03-13T15:41:00.000-07:00"It helps to be annoying and egotistical to be cre..."It helps to be annoying and egotistical to be creative."<BR/><BR/>What a crock! Einstein wasn't like this, neither was Watson, Smith, Nietzhe, the Wright Brothers, and many others. <BR/><BR/>But today, intellectuals effetes think they have to cultivate this persona in order to gain some kind of respect. Perhaps it's a way of distancing themselves from masses that they purport to identify with.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-89532041705635103132009-03-13T15:39:00.000-07:002009-03-13T15:39:00.000-07:00I suggest you have a look at the many volumes of r...<I>I suggest you have a look at the many volumes of research compiled by Joseph Needham</I><BR/><BR/>Yes, indeed read Needham, just don't believe him. Needham was an ardent Communist and an impassioned anti-American. He was a life long collaborator with the Chinese communists. He promoted a story that the US used biological weapons in the Korean War. His friends and colleagues said the communists duped him. His enemies just said he was a traitor.<BR/><BR/>Needham's scholarship is very untrustworthy. Much of the evidence for technological primacy between East and West is ambiguous. In virtually every case Needham concludes that knowledge traveled from East to West.<BR/><BR/>The clearest example of this sort of giving credit to China for Western inventions is the invention of gunpowder. Today the man on the street and all writers of TV history shows "know" that gunpowder was invented in China.<BR/><BR/>You also read that China had the crossbow a millenium before the West - more nonsense or rather more purposeful propaganda.<BR/><BR/>Read any text on miliatry history. Look up The Gunpowder Revolution. You will find that it began in the fifteenth century in Europe. In the sixteenth century gunpowder transformed military architecture and military tactics. Gunpowder swept from West to East - not the other way around. China still hadn't accepted gunwder weapons when McCartney visited the Manchu emperor in the late eighteenth century. In the subsequent Opium Wars the Chinese fought Western cannon and muskets with their crossbows.<BR/><BR/>The Chinese experimented with nitrates very early if only because India and China have more nitrate deposits than does Europe. But we conventionally regard the inventor as the last person to assemble all the elements (e.g. Edison)into something new. We do not call the first person who worked on one of the parts the inventor.<BR/><BR/>Nitrate compounds were used as incendiaries and rocket propellants for centuries but they were very minor contributors on the battlefield. Then in Europe around 1420 corning was invented. The new true gunpowder soon ended the 100 Years War, ended the Byzantine Empire, and knocked down every castle in Italy. European kingdoms made the manufacture of gunpowser a royal monopoly. All of this was European not Chinese.<BR/><BR/>As to crossbows, the Greeks used the <I>gastraphetes</I> long before anyone else. The Romans used a large mounted crossbow called a Ballista for centuries before the Chinese. You can see ballistas in the first scene of the movie <I>Gladiator</I>. Romans however used big crossbows as artillery. The Chinese used little crossbows as light arms.<BR/><BR/>It's disturbing that these clear and well known aspects of history are befouled by the purposefull lies of men like Needham.albertosaurushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13209465319904999278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-73129582798831873272009-03-13T12:38:00.000-07:002009-03-13T12:38:00.000-07:00Human accomplishment tends to be lumpy not smooth....Human accomplishment tends to be lumpy not smooth. This is surprising.<BR/><BR/>You might know that if you had been born at just the right time and managed to live a long time you could have seen the first of the Gothic Cathedrals built - and the last. A lone century.<BR/><BR/>But few realize that much the same is true of the Egyptian pyramids. There is only a century between the Step Pyramid - the first pyramid - and the Great Pyramid the penultimate pyramid. Thousands of years - no pyramids. A century or so of pyramids and then again thousands of years when no pyramids were built in Egypt. <BR/><BR/>The history of cathedrals in France and pyramids in Egypt is lumpy.albertosaurushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13209465319904999278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-19075136827259738272009-03-13T11:23:00.000-07:002009-03-13T11:23:00.000-07:00"It helps to be annoying and egotistical to be cre..."It helps to be annoying and egotistical to be creative. Orientals seem to lack these saving disgraces."<BR/><BR/>LOL<BR/><BR/>Riiiiight.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-47652076416572846282009-03-13T11:10:00.000-07:002009-03-13T11:10:00.000-07:00"an objective, disinterested tool": that's a bit o..."an objective, disinterested tool": that's a bit optimistic. It's likely (I guess) that recent reference books will give too much attention to people who speak English, and within them to Americans.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-38736452141749193882009-03-13T11:05:00.000-07:002009-03-13T11:05:00.000-07:00Dutch government had become more centralized and c...Dutch government had become more centralized and corrupt by 1672. The army (aristocracy) and navy (city leaders) hated each other. Amsterdam's power was resented by the weaker cities and provinces. And, as mentioned, the malicious envy of England.<BR/>The Dutch may have been the greatest world power of all time on a per capita basis.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16935819747784406710noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-18590326396280341222009-03-13T10:42:00.000-07:002009-03-13T10:42:00.000-07:00van halen, perhaps the most creative guitar player...van halen, perhaps the most creative guitar player ever, had a dutch father.<BR/><BR/>there's not enough space in a talkback to have a serious discussion about national creativity anyway. i also don't buy the idea that east asians do not demonstrate much creativity, or that european dominance in various fields of technology are due to creativity instead of just plain being smarter. with either assertion, the evidence presents huge problems.<BR/><BR/>east asians show a good amount of creativity in visual art, having their own style of animation, and their own film industries. the japanese are gadget-centric, and come up with a lot of novel material there including industrial robots. each nation in east asia has it's own music, and sports that they have created from scratch.<BR/><BR/>in the modern era, east asians did a lot of the work involved in developing some important stuff. an wang established the precursor to RAM, masaki watanabe was a pioneer of arthroscopic surgery, and liquid crystal displays were developed heavily in japan.<BR/><BR/>on the other side, you run into colossal problems with the evidence. the space race between the US and USSR is evidence of greater east asian intelligence? east asians could have easily beaten the europeans into space, and could have been exploring the solar system 100 years earlier, if only they weren't busy doing REAL work on...well, whatever it was they were doing instead. it must have been so high level that only east asian geniuses can even understand it. "clearly, obviously inferior" european intelligence only smashes problems and overcomes obstacles due to creativity, i guess. problem solving is not a display of intelligence, but rather of non-intellectual creativity, in this school of thought.<BR/><BR/>then you have, as i've mentioned before, the extremely, EXTREMELY problematic evidence that is the chinese defense industry. this is in contrast to the japanese defense industry which was competitive with european weapons technology, and is dormant today due to being defeated, occupied, and constitutionally denied the opportunity to re-arm. which it could, rapidly.<BR/><BR/>the chinese have EVERY incentive to have the best weapons technology. there is simply no way anybody can suggest otherwise. what possible reason could there be for china to not have the most advanced weapons? communism? the communism excuse does not work here at all. the USSR, outnumbered and underfunded, had a defense industry that was competitive with NATO. in some cases, the soviet equipment was actually better.<BR/><BR/>no natural enemies? it can't be that. japan is china's mortal enemy and literally invaded china only 50 years ago.<BR/><BR/>no interest in world domination? laughable. nothing would rank higher on china's agenda today. control of the seas and the sky is something they would do anything to obtain.<BR/><BR/>according to the numbers, china should not just have an IQ advantage, it should have a GIGANTIC IQ advantage over every other nation. the chinese are supposed to have higher mean IQs than europeans, and there are ONE BILLION of them. for every defense project that the US starts, china should be starting FIVE. for russia, the ratio is TEN TO ONE. for germany and england, TWENTY TO ONE.<BR/><BR/>china should never, EVER be behind ANY european nation in weapons technology. at ABSOLUTE MINIMUM, china would want to be able to defend itself from a re-armed japan. yet if the US allowed japan to re-arm they would have better weapons than china within 10 years.<BR/><BR/>china is two generations behind in weapons technology and does not show many signs of closing that distance, only of enlarging the size of it's two-generations-behind forces. so, there are massive problems with the hypothesis that east asians "are just plain smarter". the chinese, by far the largest east asian group, a group so big that all other east asians combined are only 20% of chinese numbers, can't match "inferior" european intelligence where it matters most, force.<BR/><BR/>i'm not really sure if vietnam counts as east asia or southeast asia, but that's a whole 'nother problem for the hypothesis.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-13358980599713178512009-03-13T09:54:00.000-07:002009-03-13T09:54:00.000-07:00Steve,Re: Chinese math, science and technologyI su...Steve,<BR/><BR/>Re: Chinese math, science and technology<BR/><BR/>I suggest you have a look at the many volumes of research compiled by Joseph Needham (see further links; a lot of this is on Google books)<BR/><BR/>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Needham<BR/><BR/>Even simple questions such as the origin of zero (only now grudgingly acknowledged by Europeans as coming to them via Arabs from India) are not decided with certainty. There is evidence that the Indians got it from the Chinese.<BR/><BR/>It would only take a cursory investigation by Murray into Needham's work for him to understand that his own book on "eminence" has barely scratched the surface of non-European societies.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-80617296536249226512009-03-13T09:39:00.000-07:002009-03-13T09:39:00.000-07:00Decline in Dutch creativity exactly mirrors the de...Decline in Dutch creativity exactly mirrors the decline in wealth and importantly, free wealth by powerful merchants eager to subsidize artists to gain prestige and social standing and status.<BR/><BR/>Think Bill Gates.<BR/><BR/>Half Sigma has thoughts on this as well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-42074668222356399622009-03-13T08:24:00.000-07:002009-03-13T08:24:00.000-07:00A bicycle and a good pair of shoes will take you w...A bicycle and a good pair of shoes will take you where you want to go in The Netherlands (a small country). Alas, the Dutch are surrounded by powerful, acquisitive neighbors who have not left them in peace. The British have their channel and fleet and we have two vast oceans to insulate us from potential enemies.Too bad they were not enough to discourage our rulers warlike ways.Dutch Boyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02687679491743923216noreply@blogger.com