I was intrigued to see this morning’s Times bravely announce that, to quote Harvard Professor of Psychology Elizabeth Spelke, “core geometrical knowledge is a universal constituent of the human mind.”

The Times reports:-

THE people of an isolated tribe in the Amazonian rainforest can understand geometry as well as American schoolchildren, according to research that suggests the branch of mathematics is deeply ingrained in human nature.

Though they have never been taught about triangles, symmetry or right angles, the Munduruku people have an intuitive grasp of these concepts that shows basic geometry to be part of humanity’s innate intellectual tool kit, scientists believe. In a series of geometrical tests devised by French and American researchers, Munduruku children and adults achieved similar scores to schoolchildren from the US who had learnt the subject in maths classes for several years.

The findings offer strong evidence that the human mind has evolved a fundamental ability to understand geometrical forms and principles.

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I’m not making this up:

A bitterly disputed, government-sponsored study has concluded that rape and sexual assault behind bars may be rampant in movies and books but are rare in real life.

“Prison rape worldview doesn’t interpret sexual pressure as coercion,” he [Mark Fleisher: the government’s principle investigator - JAB] wrote. “Rather, sexual pressure ushers, guides or shepherds the process of sexual awakening.”

Here’s a picture of Mark Fleisher:

Isn’t it wonderful the government helps white guys “awaken” to their gayness by having them “sexually pressured” by black and hispanic prison gangs?  After all, we all know gays are born—not made don’t we?

I just got a BD card from my insurance agent listing the price of various items in 1954 vs now.  A rough calculation from the few numbers provided by this insurer shows that the cost, adjusted for things like inflation, risk of unemployment and the need to have both parents working, of reproduction has risen by a factor of 5 during my lifetime.  Our authorities call this “progress” and tell us to be grateful for their leadership.

I call it genocide.

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The politics of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey was discussed widely not so long ago, when the Hollywood film about Kinsey was released.

I think Kinsey is worth having another shot at, though, in the light of a university thesis I recently happened across online.

The thesis, by Brandy Renee McCann, starts out as a criticism of the book The Body Project, by Joan Brumberg. From what I can gather, the book asserts that girls were better off when they had a “protective umbrella” of guidance from older women, to get them through their early teenage years until they were emotionally and psychologically mature enough to deal with issues of sexuality.

Brandy doesn’t like Brumberg advocating such a “protective umbrella.” Brandy, you see, believes in a permissive philosophy of sexual liberation, in which individuals are “liberated from any ideologies about sex that inhibit pleasure.”

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Today sees the beginning of the trial at Leeds Crown Court of Nick Griffin and Mark Collett.  The charge against them is of using words and conduct likely to incite racial hatred, and it refers to remarks made to private meetings in West Yorkshire two years ago.

I firmly believe that the Home Office has this prosecution completely, utterly wrong.  Yes, the verdict of the court is always a matter of deepest uncertainty and nobody can be confident that the two defendants will be acquitted.  The liberal leanings of the judiciary are such that one must question whether a fair trial can be guaranteed at all.

But, for once, the effect of the trial on public opinion is surely NOT guaranteed for the Home Office.  The left is so given to bellowing the “Racist! Fascist!” bugaboo everytime someone strays from the prescribed party line, it doesn’t seem ever to have considered whether this ploy might one day fail.  That day is today.  The English public is no longer much impressed by the lavish use of special Marxist epithets.  These are steadily losing their power to shock, and just becoming rather predictable and, therefore, boring.  Coincidentally - or perhaps not - New Labour is losing its power to command political affection.  Public sympathy is all at sea.

This development, if I am not mistaken, pressages the possibility that people might actually begin to assess an argument on its merits.  In the Griffin/Collett case that means that the Great Unwashed, who hate a bully and love an underdog, mightn’t swing so mechanically behind the ruling class.  For never was the identity of the bully and the underdog more clear.  In strategic-political terms there is much for Griffin to gain in the coming days.

One worry for him will be a determinedly disinterested or just plain disingenuous MSM, which is why such an energetic effort has been made by his Party to set-up ad hoc communication channels.  Their reach beyond the Party faithful might not count for much in MSM terms.  But it is the best they can do, and much more than has been done in any previous case in which the BNP has been on trial.  It is a sign of a clear collective conscience, too.

The blogosphere ought to take a keen interest in what, after all, could turn out to be the biggest legal-political fiasco since Profumo.  We shall be looking to see how our friends and enemies perform as well as commenting on proceedings ourselves.

I hope Nick and Mark will be restored to their respective families with all speed, cleared in name and bouyed by a great legal, moral and political victory.  If not, the electoral outcome should still be favourable for their Party.  But a Win-Win is clearly just.

Wired reports that two companies, Cephos Corporation and No Lie MRI (catchy) are launching commercial services using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect whether you (think you are) telling the truth or not.  If you intend to deceive, the fMRI image of your brain shows your amygdala, rostral cingulate, caudate, and thalamus light up in a characteristic “lying” pattern. No Lie MRI is even setting up a network of convenient “VeraCenters” across the country to serve your truth-telling needs.  Let us bid a not-so-fond farewell to those dark days of yore when Information Retrieval Charges could mount up even if you were trying to help fight the terrorists.

There is data on IQ by State for the United States from 1965.  Supporting the belief of many, the correlation is indeed negative between IQ and rural population (1990 census), r=-.24 N=47, and is almost significant at p=1/21.  However, if one excludes the States with the highest number of blacks per capita, (basically the Confederacy), the correlation reverses to r=.25 N=36, and isn’t quite as significant at p=1/14 (which is to be expected when you reduce N).  As might be expected, the correlation between IQ and blacks per capita is very and significantly negative, r=-.58, N=47 and p=1/85,844.  The 5 highest IQ States as of 1965 were, in order, Montana, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Idaho, Nevada.  Nevada would have been significantly more rural in 1965 as Las Vegas is among the fastest growing areas of the US, so I suspect 1965 census data would yield a more significant and higher correlation between rural white population and IQ.

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Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Blair’s favourite “moderate Muslim” is only to be pitied for saying during an interview for BBC Radio Four’s PM programme on Jan 3rd:-

“If you look into the scientific evidence that has been available in terms of the various forms of other illnesses and diseases that are there, surely it points out that, where homosexuality is practised, there is a greater concern in that area.”

Asked if homosexuality was harmful to society, he said: “Certainly it is a practice that doesn’t, in terms of health, in terms of the moral issues that comes along in a society - it is. It is not acceptable.”

Inevitably, a complaint was received by police from some homosexual activist, and now Sacranie is under investigation for his role in “a homophobic incident”.

There are three messy little ways this unnecessary timebomb can explode, and each has something interesting in it.  The first way, of course, is very much the more likely to predict reality.

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