Are there answers to these questions?

In the last few days, the book The Bell Curve has come up on some of the liberal blogs I read, with much denunciation. I'm no fan of the book; in the excerpts I've read of it (I haven't read the whole book), its arguments were not persuasive. But there are general questions raised by the discussion surrounding the book to which I've not seen the answers. It appears that some of these questions are Not OK To Ask. And maybe they've been asked and answered; I'm not well-versed in sociology, so I only notice things like this when prompted by discussions I run across. The stuff I've seen all seems to have a political axe to grind, on one side or the other.

First, let me get my prejudices on the table. I'm prejudiced in favor of intelligence. I think that being smarter is better, and I think that smarter people are better than stupid people. It's clear to me that some people are smart, some are average, and some are a dumb as a box of rocks. Attempting to deny that intelligence differences exist in order to be "sensitive" or politically correct is simply delusional. I also believe that intelligence differences as I've just set forth are found in all racial and ethnic categories.

Being smarter doesn't mean that you are or are not a good person. Same for people of lesser intelligence. Kumbaya and stuff.

But here are a few things that I'd like to know:

• Are IQ tests meaningful across racial and gender lines?
• Because there are more whites than minorities, there are obviously more stupid whites than there are stupid minorities, as an absolute value. But are there any differences in intelligence tied to race? In my view, that's a legitimate question, and one should not be accused of racism simply for asking it. As a percentage, are there more smarter or dumber blacks or Hispanics than whites?
• If differences are found, what could account for them? Are differences intrinsic, based on culture, based on socioeconomic status?
• Is there a difference between intelligence of racial populations in the United States versus people of the same groups elsewhere in the world?
• Are there any intelligence differences between genders? (Dori says, "Sure there are, monkeyboy.")
• If differences are found, is there any way to mitigate them? Remember, I'm prejudiced in favor of smarter people, so anything that can be done to make people smarter is good, in my view.
• I see some cultural biases against intelligence. For example, I've seen many examples of current black culture that glorify "street smarts" versus being actually smart, and that equate being intelligent with "acting white." I don't think it was always like this. When did this change, and why? How widespread is this attitude with actual kids on the ground? What effect has it had on kids that have grown up with it? What can be done to combat it?

No doubt there are many more related questions, but that's what come up in my head so far. Got pointers to any answers? Please use the comments.

36 Hours in Healdsburg

Because once again, if the NY Times does it, I can point to it: 36 Hours in Healdsburg, Calif.

If you happen to follow along with their recommendations and end up at the Barndiva restaurant, go into their back patio, look towards the adjacent parking lot, and give a yell — my office is directly across. I bet my Wi-Fi access would reach over there, too, so feel free to ask.

Along with Not Far From Napa, and Closing In from August 3^rd, that makes two articles in the NY Times about this place just this month. What is going on?

When Graphic Artists Get Bored

Kim pointed me towards When the Graphic Artists Get Bored. I was fine until I saw the pandas.

Are we spammers?

There's been an interesting cross-blog conversation going on lately:

Phil Ringnalda: O'Reilly joins the search engine spam parade
Tim O'Reilly: Search Engine Spam?
Shelley Powers: Who is gaming who?

In the interest of full disclosure: we're running these same type of ads at the bottom of our sidebar, and have been for several months. If you're reading this via an RSS reader, then you don't get them. It's been clear to me that what they're paying for is our PageRank, and given the state of the finances lately, it's been worth it for us. How much worth it? Well, we made just over 150 times as much last month, via those two little links, as we did for that big Google AdSense box above it. Those links aren't offensive, they aren't in your face, and they help pay the bills.

Does it screw up Google? Possibly, but that's what they're paying for. Let's say that some large company paid to sponsor this site in return for putting up a big ugly banner across the top that linked to them. How would that be any different? Except, of course, that this is small and out-of-the-way. If it screws up Google then Google needs to deal with that. Or not, as the case might be, and then Google is open to being overtaken by someone who can.

Some answers to other questions y'all might have about this:

• Why not use "nofollow"? Because that would be wrong. They're paying for the googlejuice, and they should get what we agreed to give them in return for their money. We want to provide good value for dollars paid to us. We don't believe in ripping people off.
  
  
• What if I have a problem with one of your ads? Then let me know. My contact info is over there on the right, and the terms of the contract say that I can refuse any ads I want. So let me know if anything is misleading or otherwise fishy.
  
  
• What's the difference between your ads and O'Reilly's? Two things, imo: (1) ours are clearly labeled "Sponsored Advertising," and (2) they generally have something to do with tech. To me, that makes a difference, but that's just my opinion.
  
  
• I hate what you've done here, and I'm going to take away my link to this site, and then your PageRank will go down, and then you won't be able to sell ads any more! Well, that's your right to do that, no question. All I can say is that wealthy people can afford to have the kind of ethics that the rest of us can't quite come up to. Must be nice.
  
  
• You aren't really making that kind of money, are you? Well, it's probably more accurate to say that we're making that little with AdSense. But those numbers are for just on this one site — we've got AdSense on 6 sites total, and these links on 4 of those, and the sponsored links do considerably better than AdSense on all of them.
  
  
• How can I get on this gravy train? If you have a site with a PageRank of 6 or better, let me know; I'll be happy to refer you.

Commenting fixed

A few people lately have sent me email saying that they couldn't post to this blog. I think that I've figured out the problem and fixed it. If this was you, please try again. And if anyone has problems commenting on this blog, please let me know, and thanks!

Google Talk

Okay, I'm on Google Talk via iChat. What now?

Or in other words, what good is it when I don't have anyone's contact info for Jabber, and no one has mine? If you know, or you just want to check it out, I'm dorismith (at) gmail.com

.Mac Family Pack?

I recently posted about how it's cheaper to buy .Mac from Amazon than it is to buy it from Apple, but now that I'm thinking about actually buying it, there may be an even better deal: instead of buying .Mac for $77.99, buying the .Mac Family Pack for $149.99. If Tom and I are both planning on renewing, it's a few bucks cheaper.

The question is, though, that I'm not sure how the Family Pack works, and Apple's not completely clear about it. The .Mac FAQ gives a few answers (such as yes, we can convert one into the other), but doesn't really tell us what we'd lose by doing this (besides a little less storage, which isn't that important to us). Anyone know?

I thought I was on drugs -- but I wasn't!

So we were flipping channels, just before we went to bed, and we happened upon a real estate scamfomercial. It looked like the standard fare ("You can make big money with no work by flipping foreclosed properties!"), and then we saw them. We couldn't believe our eyes. I asked Dori when she had slipped me the 'shrooms. But no, it was nothing so benign. A quick Google search confirmed the horror. Yes, it was The Sinister Real Estate Dwarves.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have nothing against dwarves, per se. Heck, I'm not so tall myself. But smarmy, dressed-alike, real estate huckster identical twin dwarves? That's creepy.

Session 416?

I tend to be the last person on earth to find out about these things, but just in case I'm the 2nd to last: if you're looking forward to seeing Serenity, go check out Session 416.

I've been told that while it's related, it's absolutely spoiler-free.

Later note: oh, and if you joined My Browncoat Crew but haven't yet checked in with me, could you please do so? Thanks!

A different way to rank colleges

The Washington Monthly College Guide takes a different approach to ranking colleges than, say, U.S. News. This ranking attempts to measure colleges by how they are contributing to society in terms of scientific research, social mobility for their students, and their success in inculcating an ethic of national service to their students. The magazine says "While other guides ask what colleges can do for students, we ask what colleges are doing for the country." It's an interesting approach, and one that gives very different rankings than other college surveys. I see that one of our top picks for Sean, Harvey Mudd, is near the top in traditional rankings and this new one.

The New England Ironman Diner Decathalon Challenge

I'm a California native. Tom, while not a native, has lived in California longer than I have. You can imagine from that that yes, we know some strange people who've done some strange things. But this is one of the oddest of them all, and has nothing at all to do with California: The New England Ironman Diner Decathalon Challenge. Starring, unsurprisingly, Andy Ihnatko.

The photos start here, continue here, and end up here. Read the comments.

And be glad that there are people out there who take on these grand quests so that we don't have to ourselves.