Earlier this week I was in London for a client meeting. Travelling in from Reading during the morning rush-hour it was unbearably hot and stifling, standing in the cattle truck crush. How do people do it every day?
The second FireAngel smoke alarm was beeping away (low battery) at the weekend. I now know how to remove it, following my accidental destruction of the first one. However, the new battery I had so thoughtfully bought - in advance - had no other effect than to make the device shriek uncontrollably in triple spasms every so often. Why? Haven't a clue. It's junked and I have now invested in a ten-year device so no more battery-squawking.
On Steve Sailer's blog I noticed this article from The Economist blog. Satoshi Kanazawa argues that high-IQ is an evolutionary late development (I agree, probably driven by a combination of human migration into seasonal temperate zones with frequent ice-ages plus the demands of getting a post-neolithic functional civilization to work).
Kanazawa's amusing conclusion is that high-IQ people are pretty dysfunctional at all the things which matter: making friends, finding mates, reproducing and bringing up children.
I reckon behind the one-size-fits-all argument there's more than a grain of truth. The article is interesting, give it a look. It also marks, thankfully, the further public rehabilitation of “The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life” by Herrnstein, Richard J. and Charles Murray (1994).
Note: Kanazawa was promoting his book: "The Intelligence Paradox: Why the Intelligent Choice Isn't Always the Smart One" which I guess backs up his arguments with hard numbers. In fact I don't have to guess as I've just bought the Kindle version and will take a look. More later.
