CapitalistImperialistPig

The election of Obama has made secession a once again popular topic among the fruitcake right. Here is Alex Tabarrok talking it up: http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/06/secession.html After a long quote from Patri Friedman, Alex throws in his own suggestion: “Finally, don't forget: If at first you don't secede, try, try again.” May I suggest a historically more plausible slogan? “If at first you don’t secede, enjoy your dance on the hanging tree!” No doubt libertarians would find this punishment a bit harsh, but I don’t really agree. Jefferson, the rebel and revolutionary (or secessionist, if you prefer), was wise and honest enough to note that governments should not be dissolved for “light or transient causes.” Given his position, it’s quite natural that he didn’t want to go into detail, but the reasons are hardly obscure. A nation is an organic whole, and tearing it apart is a traumatic event – frequently as traumatic as ripping off an arm or a leg. ...

I previously commented on Richard E Nisbett's Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count. Let me summarize what I consider some of his main points: Intelligence is widely considered to largely genetic and largely immutable. This belief is not supported by the evidence. In particular, the aspects of IQ tests that were considered to be most culture free (e.g., Raven progressive matrices) have clearly been demonstrated to be the most culturally loaded. Both known and unknown aspects of nurture and culture make a big difference in IQ. Having educated middle class parents is a major factor in development of IQ. Education (both quantity and quality) make big differences. His argument is detailed and relies heavily on the data (the book concludes with 45 pages of detailed notes, citations and references.) He is also excellent at explaining the logic (and logical errors) in key hereditarian arguments such as those of Herrnstein and Murray and rushton and Jensen. Appen...

Let the two teams kick the ball around for ninety minutes, then the referee could blow his whistle and flip a coin, after which some sighted person could tell him which side is up - and thus the winner. Because actually checking whether goals were scored would do too much violence to the game.

The fantasy world occupied by the global warming deniers becomes ever more ridiculous. Seven countries in Africa and Asia set all time temperature records in the past two months. People in the countries involved are used to high temperatures, but I would be surprised if the death tolls are much lower than in the great European heat wave of 2003, which killed 30,000. We may hope that the end of El Nino means that the recent run of record global temperature months may be over, but all the evidence suggests that this year is but a hint of what's to come. Meanwhile, Arctic ice cover continues to plummet, and is currently a couple of standard deviations less than it was at a comparable time in the record setting year of 2007 (and about four standard deviations below the historical mean.) For the committed crackpot, though, facts are a minor nuisance. The important thing is the will to believe what you want to believe.

Will we ever learn to play this game? Signs to date are not promising. As usual - horrible and horribly weak start, early goal conceded, comeback with lots of chances. Ghana had relatively few chances but exploited them beautifully. The US had many chances but could not finish - the only goal was a penalty kick and that was nearly a miss.

Rand Paul wants to fix immigration by installing an electric fence along the border – underground – inspired, no doubt, by the ones Ron used to keep him in his yard when he was a lad. Don’t forget to supply all those Mexicans with the little shock collars! The idea of an underground electric fence inspired a certain amount of scorn in the RBC, but hey, what better way to combat the Mexican Drug Underground? All of which reminds me of my important, original, and revolutionary solution to the immigration and border control problem: A twenty mile wide, sea level canal from San Diego to Brownsville. It would require a lot of labor, it’s true – fortunately there is a large supply of willing and able Mexicans willing to work pretty cheap. It would be best if all the work was done with pick, shovel and wheelbarrow. Disposal of all the rock and dirt removed might be a bit of a problem, but we could use some more barrier islands in the Gulf – and maybe a big island off the coast of San Diego. ...

Temperature tends to decrease with height in the troposphere, while the stratosphere it is either isothermal or temperature increases with height. The Tropopause is the boundary between the two regions. Its height above the surface varies with latitude, season and over shorter time periods as well, with the average height at the equator being about twelve miles and only 6 miles over the poles. Why is this so? John Thuburn discusses this in detail in a JAS paper from 2000 called Stratospheric Influence on Tropopause Height: The Radiative Constraint. He has the details, but the short answer is that troposphere and stratosphere are dominated by different heat budgets. The troposphere is heated mainly from below and convection dominates energy transport. The stratosphere is heated both from above and below and radiation does almost all the work of energy transport. The thickness of the troposphere depends both on the temperature at the surface and the amount of infrared absorption between...