For the man, the possibility was there, and so the blood of Genghis Khan runs through a large segment of today’s human population. By definition, only a few men can achieve greatness, but for the few men who do, the gains have been real. And we are descended from those great men much more than from other men. Remember, most of the mediocre men left no descendants at all.

This is a fascinating article, and it happens to be tightly bound with my own views on gender and equality — i.e. we are this way for reasons that don’t care, and it is best to 1) understand those reasons, 2) accept them as truths, and 3) do what we can to remove the sharp edges using reason and a general desire for the humanist ideal.

“At MIT, his office in Building 20 was crammed with books, most overdue from the college library. Dr. Lettvin claimed he did not return them because the library would send him the students who wanted those books, and he would interview them as potential assistants.”

Jerome was gaming the library. He was holding onto resources that like-minded individuals desired in order to make professional connections. Cool.

This is a guy who cares about meeting like-minded people.

In temperance tests (the equivalent of how many times your kid can poke your dog in the eye before it bites him) of all breeds the most tolerant was the Golden Retriever. The second most tolerant was the pit bull.
Pit Bull’s jaws do not lock, they do not have the most powerful bite among dogs (Rottweilers have that honor) they are not naturally human aggressive (in fact pit bull puppies prefer human company to their mother’s two weeks before all other dogs), and they feel as much pain as any other breed (accidentally step on one’s toe and you’ll see).
The most tolerant, patient, gentle breed of dogs is now embarrassingly portrayed as the most dangerous. It would be funny if the new reputation did not mean 6,000 are put to death every day, by far the highest number of any other breed euthanized.

The reason pit bulls have such a bad name is that they became famous among those who mistreat dogs for being a breed that is good for fighting, so those people bought many of them and mistreated them.

Environment > Genetics. Some of those dogs bit people and a reputation was born.

Malcolm Gladwell makes the most interesting point, which is that pit bulls are actually very aggressive–but only towards dogs–not humans.

It’s stunning how wrong so many people can be about something with such a clear answer.

Silk Road, a digital black market that sits just below most internet users’ purview, does resemble something from a cyberpunk novel. Through a combination of anonymity technology and a sophisticated user-feedback system, Silk Road makes buying and selling illegal drugs as easy as buying used electronics—and seemingly as safe. It’s Amazon—if Amazon sold mind-altering chemicals.

You might want to check out the site while it’s still there.

There’s an easy way to counter this sort of libertarian argument.

GPA is more obviously the result of direct personal output as opposed to advantages than is a high-paying position. Someone’s rich father can more easily arrange a high-paying job than a 4.0 GPA that is undeserved.

That’s why people are reacting so strongly to distributing GPA vs. income.

Labelass: A special kind of idiot who uses labels as a substitute for comprehension.

We also need a name for people who believes that everyone who has a different point of view has the same opinion as everyone else who also has a different point of view. Example:

Person 1: “I don’t think we should bomb Elbonia just because someone said they have a giant slingshot.”

Person 2: “Typical liberal.”

Let’s call a person who believes there are only two viewpoints for every topic a binarian. And don’t worry that using the word will make you a labelass. A labelass is one who uses a label as a substitute for comprehension. If someone is indeed being a total binarian, the label fits.

                Binarian: A special kind of idiot who believes that all people who hold a different view
                                  from oneself have the same views as each other.