China's army taken out by computer virus which disrupted ammunition resupply. Lesson learnt - do not run a war on Windows! As the commander put it "when you sharpen your sword, you must not forget to cast your shield."... whoops. - David Gilbert
That might be obvious but people with a lower IQ are also citizens of the democracy. This indicates to me that people with a lower IQ are simply concerned with different issues than those with higher IQs. It doesn't mean their vote is any less important. - ·[▪_▪]·
I'd argue that it's because weaker minds (read: those who don't have critical thinking skills) are more easily swayed. - l0ckergn0me
"Stronger" minds are easily influenced too. You just don't appeal to their beliefs but to their ego. - ·[▪_▪]·
Indeed, the smart comment is no comment :) - Mike Reynolds
Leave it to the smarter people in the country who can think for themselves to vote for the right person. - Mathew Ballard
Stupid! If this were median IQ one might draw a statistically significant correlation between IQ
and vote cast. Makes me wonder about the IQ of those that pass this stuff along. - Ryan Petty
this is the same thing from 2004, they just changed the names, it's still silly. - Anika Malone
Republicans used to be the party of the upper class, but money = intelligence so we can no longer give Republicans the upper class. Certainly the lower and middle classes belong to Democrats. So what does that leave Republicans? Oh, okay, still no comment :) - Mike Reynolds
Are they actually trying to say that the average IQ of most of the states is BELOW average? I wonder what percentage of people actually get IQ tests, anyway. My theory is it happens when people are looking for problems, like for those with learning disabilities or who are suspected of having ADHD. - MiɳiMagɘ (Sexy Scimitar)
Do you really think this helps your cause? In all actuality, it makes you look like a complete fool. "IQ and the wealth of nations" contains no IQ information for the US States. When you do find "average IQ" numbers for US states, they aren't anything like the numbers in this chart. You are makeing a good case for a negative correlation between IQ and the electrion results when you and others push these fraudulent charts. - John Rubier
via twhirl
Thanks for the article @msblog. I quote: "And so, politically, the G.O.P. is squeezed at both ends. The party is losing the working class by sins of omission — because it has not developed policies to address economic anxiety. It has lost the educated class by sins of commission — by telling members of that class to go away." - Mike Reynolds
@Bjorn I can understand feeling the notion of the IQ test and score might be contentious for theoretical reasons, but why racist? And why a myth? I mean, IQ tests exist, people exist, smart people and dumb people exist, and often there is a strong correlation between smart people and high IQs, dumb people and low IQs...which part is mythical? - Neal "thePuck" Jansons
But then Obama got elected by people who had the cultural bias in IQ tests the other way. - liju
My Sunday morning comment: "still no comment" - Mike Reynolds
@Neal well, IQ has a racist history, and intelligence is a culture specific word, which means it's subjective. Finally what is 'smart'? What is 'dumb'? Is a guy with 3 phd's, a six figure salary who advances science, but leads a miserable lonely life with, estranged from family smart? Is a drop-out janitor who has children who love her and make her happy all the days of her life dumb? Read what Solon said to Croesus about happiness, it applies to intelligence I think. - ♜ Bjorn Tipling
So what IQ were the third party voters? :P - Morton Fox
Don't even go there... Google feels like an integral part of most of what I do online, I don't even want to imagine what it would be like if they ever shut down! - David Gilbert
What picture do you think the American media should be painting of China? They are quickly industrializing and it's exciting to see how much growth they are able to sustain... It's amazing what 1B+ people can do - Chris Reichow
Christopher: I watch a lot of media. CNN, MSNBC, ABC, New York Times, tons of different newspaper and blogs. We only see a very small slice of the world on our media. It's not just about China, either. We get tons of celebrity news, but not much about the world. - Robert Scoble
Robert, you are part of the American media and you are telling us what is really going on. The old guard media is dying. People like you will replace them. Hang in there and keep it coming. - Steve Olson
This is a reflection of competition and economic influence. As China, India and the EU reach a level of parity with the US in economic influence, and that influence impacts us more here then we'll see and read more about 'the world' in our media outlets. Since WW2 we've been pretty secure in our economic future so not much interest in the outside amongst the general population. That's bound to change. - Peter Simard
Chris: they should tell the American people the truth of why jobs are getting outsourced. It's not just about low cost anymore. Also, when you see the HUGE library and book store here in Shenzhen you see a people who value learning. THAT should be a wakeup call for Americans. Instead of talking about abortion or what Britney Spears ate for lunch they should be worried about how to compete on global scale. - Robert Scoble
Wow, that IS an eye opener for at least This American! - Carlton
India still has a long way to go before it can have the kind of influence economic China wields. India's got a great deal of problems that are not going to be easily solved with the type of gov't in place and the lack of leaders this country has. It amazes me how much India has progressed despite the gov't. The motto running this country that I've seen is "Greed is Good!" - Pankaj
via IM
I think china has 10 to our 1 new engineer/comp sci graduating every year. that is shocking our lack of new talent - Bryan Thatcher
via twhirl
Scobleizer, the Americans already had a taste of what China has to offer from the Olympics, especially the opening and closing ceremonies. Wait til people rummage through your flicker photo and video streams how fast China has progressed over the years. :) - imabonehead
not sure about the quality of eng coming out of china but in India over 900,00 engineers graduate each year. less than 5% are globally employable - Pankaj
via IM
Last I read, the US will graduate 400,000 engineers in the next FOUR years. - Peter Simard
The culture of anti-intellectualism which has seized control of the right in recent years is helping to undermine American competitiveness in the world. Most Americans are unable to make the connection between the rise of a George W. Bush and Sarah Palin in American politics and the decline of the American economy. - Sean McBride
If you still can't blog, just e-mail me the text with your login and password, and I'll post for you. The whole Web will watch. - Louis Gray
Louis: the problem is I'm tired by the time I get home so it's all I can do to Twitter and FriendFeed. Blogging? Hmmm. - Robert Scoble
Now you know how it feels for many of us in China. There is an awful lot more to China than the same old stale stuff. - Paul Denlinger
American Media?? You mean there are others besides Twitter, Friendfeed, and HuffPost?? :p - Clarence Chiang
Oh dear ... I was afraid we are being sheltered from the truth...no surprise, but still angry too! - Susan Beebe
was waiting for this to be blamed on president bush and wasn't disappointed when that happened. - Jonathan Jesse
I watch almost no TV, but get my news online. One thing I really like about online news is that it is so easy to read what I want to, and skim past the stuff that doesn't interest me. Of course that works both ways. I've not the slightest interest in the celebrity bimbos, so skip that myself, but I could read that and nothing else. I check into a few UK sources too - BBC, Guardian, Telegraph. They give a more balanced world view, in my opinion, than domestic US media. - Ian May
As someone who works everyday with an offshore Indian development team I'd agree with Pankaj's comments. We (the west) are still outsourcing based on cost but in many cases the offshore teams (particularly in India) aren't mature enough to deal with us. Some of the issues I see regularly are a shortage of good lead developers but loads of green ones, coupled with a culture that promotes teaching over learning. - Andy Davies
This is a given. All Americans should NOT take our media with anything more than a grain of salt and read international media. - Patricia
I doubt Americans have any less interest in learning. Their government doesn't pay for their bookstores (or wait, maybe they do - they're called Libraries - I've seen some pretty big ones), so they make wiser economic decisions. - Jesse Stay
Visiting a bookstore in China is one of the scariest things I did when I lived over there. Not only are their wall after wall of business books (Inventory Management Guide vol. 6, Elements of Human Resources Management in low wage industries, etc) but there is a growing number of 'creative' works coming out. When the creative ideas developed 'in house' in China meet the factory powerhouses, oh holy crap. It won't just be Joe the factory guy looking for work... - Andrew Leyden
Great insights Mr Scoble, Post China, I hope you do a detailed blog post and perhaps video or two on what you have learned/think - JimmyJet
The story perpetuated by the media continues to be one of the Chinese government "controlling" everything, especially information, in China. However, I think the vast amount of information out there is simply uncontrollable, despite whatever firewalls are in place. Once they start to take that information and COLLABORATE, then they can truly INNOVATE, and that's what should give us pause... - Chris Reichow
great that you recognize shortcomings of MSM take on China, but it's what sells. Also, bear in mind that your trip (although you met with perfect people for such a trip) was a "survey course" at best. It takes a ton of effort and time to get perspective on the place and to dig through what people in meetings are actually saying. The truth is probably somewhere in-between. I am personally so happy that you made the trip, and that you will hopefully be a fair-broker of China-related information out there. - sage brennan
sage: yup, you can only get an incomplete picture, but I've gotten access to stuff that would blow your mind. Unfortunately I can't tell about a lot of it. But there is major disruption happening right in front of us. I'm working on a blog post now. - Robert Scoble
Robert- i'm glad that you're seeing these things and blogging about it. it's good for others to see. @Sean Mcbride, can you elaborate on anti-intellectualism? - Patricia
the dharma moves to the west .. a larger scale world-view from tibet ... .... means there is a flow around the planet over centuries ... and now is asia's turn .... again - Gregory Lent
Patricia -- I was referencing a good deal of past discussion here with Robert Scoble and others about know-nothing (and anti-intellectual) trends in the Republican Party in recent years to attack and deride the coastal elites which are most responsible for generating the intellectual capital that is barely keeping America competitive with China, India, Europe and the rest of the world. A nation which ridicules intellectual achievement is heading for immense economic problems. - Sean McBride
Unfortunately, it's the celebrity news that America in general is most interested in, so that's what kind of "news" media will break and cover. It's what gets ratings and makes money. - Nathan Johns
I've been a fan of these guys for a while. Check out their full-length language offerings like Coffee Break Spanish, which is up for a Podcast Award this year. - Spidra Webster
I think the rest of the world is going to be disappointed when the amount of change does not meet expectations. - scott anderson
I would say the amount of change just to elect Obama is enough to get the world hopeful and optimistic. As far as being dissapointed, I guess we will see - so far, so good. - Scott Lockhart
Is this like, server is down because the bandwidth has been exceeded? LOL - Igor The Troll
Hey this is intersting... Reshare feature...ok got it now! thx! - Susan Beebe
It's not that McCain's too old, but he IS old, and if he were to pass, would you trust Palin as president? No one is questioning Biden's ability to take over should Obama die, which I am kind of curious about. - keif
via twhirl
"Shortly after I first registered an option appeared on the hope page to "invite friends to sign-up". I'm not sure if this is a random thing or everyone get it." - David Gilbert
"Hi Tim, you're more than welcome! I figured there was no point in me writing a full review when you had done such a good job already :)" - David Gilbert
