Thursday, July 16, 2015

Links for 7/16

  • Benefits of legal recognition of marriage

    Since gay marriage was not illegal in the U.S., and hence hasn't been legalized, the relevant discussion is concerning the costs, benefits, and perhaps morality of legal recognition.
  • A Conversation between Tyler Cowen and Peter Thiel on the future of innovation

    "There’s the question of stagnation, which I think has been a story of stagnation in the world of atoms, not bits. I think we’ve had a lot of innovation in computers, information technology, Internet, mobile Internet in the world of bits. Not so much in the world of atoms, supersonic travel, space travel, new forms of energy, new forms of medicine, new medical devices, etc."

    "On a first cut, I would say that we lived in a world in which bits were unregulated and atoms were regulated."
  • Does the Treaty of Tripoli prove the United States is not a Christian nation?

    "... ratified unanimously by a Senate still half-filled with signers of the Constitution, this treaty announced firmly and flatly to the world that "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."

    "Despite the founders' intent, later generations of Americans began to assert that the country they created was indeed Christian."

    Half filled? How about some precise language from an expert? When I match the U.S. senate with signers of the constitution, one in every two are not matches.

    James McHenry, a signer of the constitution, protested the aforementioned passage in the treaty of Tripoli. He seemed to think the United States was a Christian nation. He was not a "later generation." The lesson here is there was no unified intent from the founders.

    The Paris Peace Treaty begins, "in the name of the most holy and undivided trinity". Those unique Christian terms were also ratified by the senate, Maybe we should take out of this that the Senate ratifies bundles of claims, like ones in treaties, without necessarily approving of every bit in it.
  • How can there be a sex difference, when there is no sex difference?

    Answer: men usually have a higher variance, even when the averages could be the same.

    The article caters to leftist confirmation bias. The articles says that it is possible to have higher variances with one sex without an average sex difference. Leftist confirmation bias will treat the possibility as intellectual permission to believe it

    The great Steven Pinker is quoted in the article.
  • Bryan Caplan on the analogy between gay marriage and polygamy

    "Change the labels and names, and the parallel between government persecution of gays and polygamists is nearly perfect. Let the slippery slope of marriage equality proceed at maximum speed."
  • Steven Pinker on Jews, Genes and Intelligence

    Sorry, the end is cut off.

    "Despite the fact that Jews make up no more than 2-3% of the American population, they make up 50% of the top 200 intellectuals, 40% of the nobel prize winners in science and economics, 20% of the professors at top universities, 40% of the partners in top New York and DC lawfirms, 59% of the top writers, producers and directors of the 50 top grossing movies, 39% of the winners of the national medals of science, and 50% of the world chess champions.