Recent Comments here

Dr. Pat comments here semi-regularly, and I usually find his comments insightful.  Two recent ones that I'd like to call out:

On Rabbit Starvation:  I was always under the impression that "rabbit starvation" (also "trout starvation") was due to insufficient fat rather than excess protein.

My sister managed to get this, through a diet that via a combination of laziness and belief in what the media told her managed to consist of entirely fat free diet food. (And she wasn't even trying to lose weight, she was a professional aerobics instructor.)

Next thing she knew, she was in hospital with intense stomach cramps and her liver was in a bad way from insufficient fat in her diet.

Solution? Add chocolate.

On Aretae on IQ:

If I get Aretae correctly when he addresses the difference between a modern IQ70 American, and a modern IQ70 African...

It can be compared to automotive power outputs. We can take two cars, one a 1985 Toyota Corolla with 85 kW, and one a 2010 Corolla with 101 kW. Now the '85 Corolla is not as fast, but it's a perfectly respectable vehicle that, especially in it's own time, was OK for daily use.

Now let us get the 2010 Corolla and pour sand into the intake until it's so damaged that it's only putting out 85 kW.

It now has the same power output as the 1985 model, but in no way is it in good shape. Firstly, it has to run in 2010 traffic, and so has a harder time. But more importantly it has shot rings, is burning oil, has low compression, and is probably not firing on all cylinders. In other words, the damage required to take an otherwise 101 kW engine back to 85kW will show up as damage. It is a damaged engine, not just one that has lower power.

So too, we can speculate, a person who through low grade, multigenerational malnutrition and constant infection has an IQ of 70 is probably just slow, while someone who should have been IQ100, but suffered a single retardation event will show up as much more damaged.

Alternatively, we can look at things another way. Someone who grew up with average IQ of 70 will have learned in an environment where that was normal, Everything was set up for people like him. In today's society he was bottom of the pile from day one and everything was always too hard for him.

On this basis, would we be better off sending our IQ70 children to school in Africa?

 I'd put his blog on my feed-reader, if he'd bother to set the RSS up.