November 30, 2019

Brandishing a narwhal tusk to fight the London Bridge terrorist.

The terrorist was armed with a knife, and the narwhal tusk was 5 feet long, I'm reading in "Narwhal tusk and fire extinguisher used to tackle London Bridge attacker/Members of the public, including a convicted murderer, bring terrorist to the ground" (The Guardian).
Scotland Yard is investigating how 28-year-old Usman Khan was able to launch the attack in London Bridge, despite being known to the authorities and fitted with an electronic tag to monitor his movements. He was allowed out a year ago after serving time for his part in a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange.

In footage that has since emerged, Khan is sprayed with a fire extinguisher, while another man tries to suppress the assailant with a narwhal tusk – a long pointed tooth from a type of whale – lunging at him. It is believed the item was pulled from the wall of Fishmongers’ Hall, a grade II-listed building on London Bridge, by a Polish chef called Lucasz....
ADDED: I'm re-reading "Moby-Dick," so let me give you the chapter on the narwhal:
Narwhale, that is, Nostril whale.— Another instance of a curiously named whale, so named I suppose from his peculiar horn being originally mistaken for a peaked nose. The creature is some sixteen feet in length, while its horn averages five feet, though some exceed ten, and even attain to fifteen feet. Strictly speaking, this horn is but a lengthened tusk, growing out from the jaw in a line a little depressed from the horizontal. But it is only found on the sinister side, which has an ill effect, giving its owner something analogous to the aspect of a clumsy left-handed man. What precise purpose this ivory horn or lance answers, it would be hard to say. It does not seem to be used like the blade of the sword-fish and bill-fish; though some sailors tell me that the Narwhale employs it for a rake in turning over the bottom of the sea for food. Charley Coffin said it was used for an ice-piercer; for the Narwhale, rising to the surface of the Polar Sea, and finding it sheeted with ice, thrusts his horn up, and so breaks through. But you cannot prove either of these surmises to be correct. My own opinion is, that however this one-sided horn may really be used by the Narwhale—however that may be—it would certainly be very convenient to him for a folder in reading pamphlets. The Narwhale I have heard called the Tusked whale, the Horned whale, and the Unicorn whale. He is certainly a curious example of the Unicornism to be found in almost every kingdom of animated nature.

From certain cloistered old authors I have gathered that this same sea-unicorn's horn was in ancient days regarded as the great antidote against poison, and as such, preparations of it brought immense prices. It was also distilled to a volatile salts for fainting ladies the same way that the horns of the male deer are manufactured into hartshorn. Originally it was in itself accounted an object of great curiosity. Black Letter tells me that Sir Martin Frobisher on his return from that voyage, when Queen Bess did gallantly wave her jewelled hand to him from a window of Greenwich Palace, as his bold ship sailed down the Thames; "when Sir Martin returned from that voyage," saith Black Letter, "on bended knees he presented to her highness a prodigious long horn of the Narwhale, which for a long period after hung in the castle at Windsor." An Irish author avers that the Earl of Leicester, on bended knees, did likewise present to her highness another horn, pertaining to a land beast of the unicorn nature.

The Narwhale has a very picturesque, leopard-like look, being of a milk-white ground color, dotted with round and oblong spots of black. His oil is very superior, clear and fine; but there is little of it, and he is seldom hunted. He is mostly found in the circumpolar seas.

119 comments:

Sebastian said...

"Scotland Yard is investigating how 28-year-old Usman Khan was able to launch the attack . . . He was allowed out a year ago after serving time"

It's a puzzle.

gspencer said...

Islam, the religion of peace.

mockturtle said...

Have we heard any statement from London's mayor regarding this?

chickelit said...

Scotland Yard is investigating how 28-year-old Usman Khan...

Any relation to the mayor?

Fernandinande said...

The 'tusk' sure looks like smooth, shiny metal.

Gahrie said...

Someone is already writing a law to ban whale tusks.

whitney said...

This is such a non-story to me. I'm so past this. These people want to kill us I don't need to know why anymore I don't care. And also this is the end of our culture this is where it resulted. Maybe they're right maybe they should kill us

Bob Boyd said...

A good guy with a tusk...

Beasts of England said...

Usman Khan is an unusual name for an Amish dude.

Clyde said...

Are narwhals halal? If not, then attacking a Muslim with a narwhal tusk may be a hate crime!
/sarcasm

CWJ said...

Compare to shelter in place.

AllenS said...

The ending is the best part of the story when the police blew the motherfuckers brains out. I love a good story with a happy ending.

Spiros said...

It is axiomatic that, in a democracy, government officials, whether elected or appointed by those who have been elected, must be responsible to the people for their decisions and actions. Yet we don't know the names of the bureaucrats who set this terrorist free?! These bastards won't be disciplined. Bullsh*t.

Rob said...

Brandishing!

Jupiter said...

One down, one billion to go.

gspencer said...

"Why, yes, Islam's quite compatible with the West. Why do you ask?"

gilbar said...

despite being known to the authorities and fitted with an electronic tag to monitor his movements. He was allowed out a year ago after serving time for his part in a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange.

I think, we can ALL AGREE; that followers of The Religion of Peace, MUST BE released to Kill, again and a again (and again and again)? To Imprison a devout follower of the Religion of Peace, for just doing Allah's Work; IS ISLAMOPHOBIA, and a HATE CRIME!

Michael K said...

Denmark is now setting up border defenses to keep these Amish from coming in illegally from Sweden.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The unicorn of the sea. Love it.

AllenS said...

I've often wondered what happened to England. Especially the men, and I've come to the conclusion that WWI and WWII fatalities among the best British men left behind a lot of weaklings and sissies. That's mostly all that's left. They are unable to fight back.

Bob Boyd said...

Do narwhals poop rainbow colored like regular, land-based unicorns? Do scientists even know?
Maybe I should apply for a grant.

Howard said...

I agree, Allen S.

Howard said...

Both points. All of Europe culled out their best men in the 20th century.

hawkeyedjb said...

Good on the guys who fought back, using the tools at hand. If the dude started carving people in the USA, it's almost certain someone in that pub would have a 9mm. No need to waste precious Narwhal resources.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Media to issue warnings! about potential non-existent back-lash against Islam in 3...2...1.

+BRIBERY!

AllenS said...

... and I agree with you, Howard about Europe in general. They now are importing men from countries that hate their guts. This will not have a happy ending.

Bob Boyd said...

And while we're on the subject, who mows Scotland Yard? Meade may know.

Ralph L said...

Prince Andrew breathes a sigh of relief.

Jupiter said...

"They are unable to fight back."

No, it's worse than that. They were, in fact, able to fight back, with a fucking narwhal tusk. What they are unable to do is to elect a government that will organize that fight, and bring it to a successful conclusion. And the reason may be in part that a lot of good men died in the wars. But a bigger part is that women are allowed to vote. Unmarried women.

mockturtle said...

AllenS and Spiros: Agree. Happy ending but would be happier still if those who paroled him were likewise dispatched. They are also responsible for these deaths and injuries.

Dude1394 said...

I’m sure they left out all of the female heroes who ran up to confront the killer? Well maybe not.

gilbar said...

Clyde asked...
Are narwhals halal? If not, then attacking a Muslim with a narwhal tusk may be a hate crime!


Is whale meat halal?

Yes, eating Whale meat is Halal, unless the Whale population has become threatened with extinction through overfishing. If we aren't starving and the continuation of a Whale species is threatened, then it would become haram to knowingly kill and eat a Whale from that species until the population had replenished itself.


So, Mohamad (CUHPN) says: "YES! kill away with your narwhal tusks!!!"

tcrosse said...

When Herman Wouk was writing The Caine Mutiny, did he name Captain Queeg after Queequeeg?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Well, when you make every other form of defensive weapon illegal, I guess you have to resort to using what is at hand. Narwhal tusks. Cricket bats. Pool cues.

Bars and restaurants should keep a stock of these items on the wall for "display purposes only".

Everyone should be using a Shillelagh as a cane. Good for walking stability. and great for defense. "What? Constable. I need to use this as an aid in walking. I'm disabled!!!"

Spiros said...


Mr. AllenS has a point. Some psychologists have even asserted that there is a fall in intelligence among men after a war. The suggestion is that less intelligent men are rejected for military service and, as a result, less likely to be killed in battle. Other studies have found that smarter individuals are more likely to find themselves in leadership roles. Because officers tend to have higher war related mortality, the IQ levels of those who died is higher than the general population. So it is possible that there was a significant, but temporary, decline in IQ levels in Europe following the catastrophe of WWI and WWII.

mockturtle said...

Are narwhals halal? If not, then attacking a Muslim with a narwhal tusk may be a hate crime!
/sarcasm


Honestly, clyde, the way the UK is going, such charges wouldn't surprise me one bit. :-\

Jupiter said...

"So it is possible that there was a significant, but temporary, decline in IQ levels in Europe following the catastrophe of WWI and WWII."

"Temporary"? Oh, right, because genes don't exist.

AZ Bob said...

...They were, in fact, able to fight back, with a fucking narwhal tusk. What they are unable to do is to elect a government that will organize that fight, and bring it to a successful conclusion....

I blame the left.

Jupiter said...

So, who elects "the left"?

Roughcoat said...

Kill them all. Exterminate the brutes.

gilbar said...

it is possible that there was a significant, but temporary, decline in IQ levels

Yes Please! Explain to us, WHY it would be temporary?

Browndog said...

The motive behind the attack may never be known....

Fernandinande said...

Ironical:

"James Ford, 42, was jailed for life in 2004 for the murder of 21-year-old Amanda Champion, who was found strangled with her throat cut in Ashford, Kent, in July 2003.

Ford was caught after a Samaritans worker, who he had called and confessed to, went to police with the tip off.

The charity worker later lost his job for breaking the organisation's strict confidentiality policy."

mockturtle said...

The motive behind the attack may never be known....
Good one, Browndog.

Roughcoat said...

The decline in IQ theory is intriguing, but if it's valid -- what would that, or should that, say about China, where the Communist regime, from the time of the civil war through the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, caused the deaths of upwards of 100 million of its own citizens?

Spiros said...

Mr. Jupiter may be right. IQ levels have been falling for decades in developed countries. Something very frightening is happening. Because intelligence is highly correlated with economic prosperity, political stability and scientific achievement, we may have a bleak future to look forward to as the boomers die out. So sad!!

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Yes Please! Explain to us, WHY it would be temporary?

I would presume it is because the pool of data....numbers of people....to statistically count the IQs would now be selectively less on the right hand side of the bell curve due to attrition. Smarter people died according to the scenario presented by Spiros.

Or another example: The bowl of skittles had all the green (smarter better) skittles removed. This is temporary until you go to the store and get a new batch of skittles to add to the bowl. New humans. It might take several trips to the store and removal of the stale older skittles until the balance is restored.

William said...

The conventional wisdom is that you charge a gun and run away from a knife. Conventional wisdom isn't always right. I guess a narwhal tusk helps to even the odds, but it's so rare that one is nearby.....Bonus heroism points for charging a guy wearing a suicide vest. That's something I would never have the nerve to do....There's never been a shortage of pugnacious Brits. Ask any soccer fan...I read somewhere (Bryson?) that there are a trillion possible permutations of person that could arise out of your dad's spermatooza and your mom's eggs. You could have been the physics researcher at the Princeton Institute or the drooling kid on the short bus depending on the luck of draw. What counts for the advancement of civilization is the existence of Princeton Institute to give the smart a chance think up cool weapons and the existence of the short bus for the disadvantaged to to be treated humanely.

Seeing Red said...


Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu announced outside of Scotland Yard that authorities have declared the stabbing attack on London bridge a “terrorist incident.” The Guardian published his press conference:

There’s a very important vote coming up. The authorities just might have had to toss the electorate a bone.

Bob Boyd said...

The charity worker later lost his job for breaking the organisation's strict confidentiality policy.

In a bizarre coincidence, this charity worker, despondent over losing his job, tried to killed himself with a narwhal tusk, but failed. He was treated for a poke mark and released.

mockturtle said...

So many variables have to be considered for the results to be meaningful. Correlations are never proof of cause and effect.

Bob Boyd said...

WHY it would be temporary?

All the people who could have explained it are dead. Maybe someday...

Yancey Ward said...

Mockturtle asked:

"Have we heard any statement from London's mayor regarding this?"

He issued a statement proclaiming that no Londoner has any reason to carry a knife of any kind. He was mute about the brandishing of a narwhal tusk.

Jupiter said...

"This is temporary until you go to the store...".

The ones at "the store" are copies of the ones that are still around, not the ones they are replacing.

Jupiter said...

If I lived in London, you'd better believe I'd carry a knife. Not that I'm stupid enough to live in London.

tds said...

A video of the Polish immigrant picking up narwhal tusk to tackle the London Bridge terrorist

Roughcoat said...

China has been the site of the three most deadly conflicts in human history (in terms of total fatalities): The Mongol Conquest(s) (c. 180 million killed)*, the Taiping Rebellion (40-50 million), the Great Leap Forward (a "war" against its own populace, c. 55-60 million by starvation and violence). Runners-up include the Sino-Japanese War and the Cultural Revolution, countless millions perishing in each.

What happened to IQ levels in the Heavenly Kingdom as a result of each of these catastrophes?

I don't have the answers. I'm curious as to what others think.

*Yes, you read that correctly: 180 million deaths. At least.

Jupiter said...

That over-educated idiot savant Jared Diamond had something to say about that. He claimed that the Maori of NZ had gone from being ferocious warriors to being peaceful farmers and herdsmen in a single generation, and that this proved that aggression and ferocity were learned, not inherited. He did mention that at the start of that generation,m they got their asses waxed in a war of genocidal proportions. He didn't seem to think that had any relevance.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The ones at "the store" are copies of the ones that are still around, not the ones they are replacing.

The bag of skittles from the store is not always the exact same proportions of green to red to yellow etc. Fairly random but relatively balanced/similar. In the scenario I proposed the older skittles from the now unbalanced bowl are removed over time. It isn't a sealed chamber with no attrition. After a while the original balance is somewhat restored.

I personally think that IQ is biologically AND culturally developed. Nature AND Nurture. Our western education system is woefully failing to educate. Minds are not being challenged. There is no need for challenge when life is easy. Even the gifted can be stunted in a deprived environment.

Genetically, intelligence can run in families but often the gifted are a great surprise to the parents :-)

Roughcoat said...

Jared Diamond is an idiot historian in the mould of Spengler, arguably the most idiotic idiot historian of the modern age (if you reject the notion that Nietzsche was an historian).

Comanche Voter said...

n.b. It was a Pole who grabbed the tusk and used it as a pole to fend off--or at least keep at tusk's length, the knife man. Don't know if the fire extinguisher wielding guy was a Brit or not.

Anonymous said...

in the absence of a Narwhal tusk, your basic chair can be used as both a defensive and offensive weapon. (see From Russia with Love) or innumerable bar fights...

Just an old country lawyer said...

I would be happy to exchange the entire ruling class for a few dozen Polish chefs.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

The real reason Corbyn can absolutely not bring himself to condemn anti-semitism is because his margin of victory may potentially lie with a group of people who generally aren’t real fond of Jewish folks. A growing problem for the Democrats as well.

Jupiter said...

What I find amusing about Jared Diamond is that he provides huge amounts of evidence for the genetic determination of racial characteristics, and then ignores it all and draws the conclusion he prefers, which is that there are no genetic determinants of racial characteristics.

Of course, in the preface to this thousand page book, he opines that the murderous savages of New Guinea are genetically superior to the Valley Girls in his classes at UCLA, because they are the result of generations of reproduction in a social system where killing strangers is a virtue. So he doesn't actually believe his conclusion, he just wants to signal his virtue to his fellow academics.

Roughcoat said...

Remember when the Brits were upset about the "Polish plumber" stealing their jobs?

The Poles fight. They always fight. Even when the odds are against them they fight. They saved Europe twice (1683 siege of Vienna, 1920 Battle of Warsaw). While the French let the Germans march into Paris because they didn't want any harm to come to their precious city, the Poles TWICE fought for Warsaw (1939, 1944) in battles that essentially leveled it. The Poles resisted Soviet Communism and were the proximate cause of the collapse of the USSR and the West's victory in the Cold War. The Poles fight. God bless the Poles.

Drago said...

Howard: "Both points. All of Europe culled out their best men in the 20th century."

Absolutely true.

Michael K said...

llenS said...
I've often wondered what happened to England. Especially the men, and I've come to the conclusion that WWI and WWII fatalities among the best British men left behind a lot of weaklings and sissies. That's mostly all that's left. They are unable to fight back.


I kind of agree. The same effect can be seen in Germany. As to IQ, there might be something to the theory that a selection bias existed in conscription. Higher IQs were selected for Air Force and there has been discussion about Infantry being lower IQ on average.

I agree it could be temporary since later generations would not be selected for IQ and random variation should resume. Selection for masculinity might persist. Pheasants in South Dakota tend to run and not fly as the flyers got shot years and generations ago.

IgnatzEsq said...

"But it is only found on the sinister side, which has an ill effect, giving its owner something analogous to the aspect of a clumsy left-handed man."

Hey, I resemble that remark.

Seeing Red said...

I’m thinking garbage can. We r going over there.

Jupiter said...

DBQ, you seem like a sensible and intelligent person. Have you considered that the population dynamics of skittles, which are produced by machines, might be somewhat different than those of humans, who are not produced but rather reproduced?

Jupiter said...

I once discovered, at a most inconvenient time, that some garbage cans are chained to the sidewalk.

Seeing Red said...

It pisses me off I have to think about this.

Seeing Red said...

Disney chains cans and benches.

narciso said...

In that dark roman a clef, head of state, one of the merc that the remainers is ex grom commando working as a plumber.

Roughcoat said...

Higher IQs were selected for Air Force and there has been discussion about Infantry being lower IQ on average.

The selection criteria changed mid-war when planners recognized that the Air Forces were overstocked with supposedly "quality" conscripts and the ground combat forces -- the units at the shitty end of the spear -- were (supposedly but not really) woefully lacking in this regard. The army elected to maintain the numerical strength of its ground combat formations via the individual replacement system rather than by creating entirely new formations which would be rotated into the line in exchange for exhausted/depleted formations. This was contrary to the policy of other armies at the time. The result was, the same formations would stay in combat throughout the war but would experience enormous turnovers, well in excess of 100 percent, as replacements were continually fed into the meat grinder of combat. By contrast, U.S. planners realized that once the Air Forces achieved air superiority and air supremacy -- an outcome rightly seen as inevitable, despite excessive casualties in the early stages of the air war -- the numerical strength of those units could be drawn down.

In any case, I'd be careful about disparaging the ground force rank-and-file for having a disproportionately low collective IQ, for the obvious reasons that IQ is a highly problematic measurement criterion.

narciso said...

But when looks further one notes khan was connected to al mujahiroon, whose boss bakri mohammed had contact with mi 5 in the past.

Mr. Majestyk said...

Just another case of workplace violence. (Where the job in question is to kill the infidels, of course.)

mockturtle said...

IQ does not necessarily correlate with courage or skill. I've known plenty of high IQ folks who are useless when the SHTF.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Brits have traditionally been nice, and have gotten too nice, to the point of tolerating the most despicable, dangerous, and violent behavior, ironically transforming their society into one devoid of kindness.

The same combination of tolerance, niceness, and woke politics may soon turn “Midwest Nice” into an sardonic joke.

Mr. Forward said...

“Are narwhals halal?”
Don’t know, but Narwhal brandishers trend Polish.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

Two stories come to mind.
1. I worked for a Member of Parliament in Canada many years ago. A constituent was upset that he had purchased an old narwhal tusk in London, and it was confiscated on his return to Canada. Covered by CITES--the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. I get on the phone with a relevant bureaucrat. I say our friend the citizen is convinced this tusk is very, very, old. No narwhal was recently killed in order to get this tusk. Turned out it made no difference.
2. Fight scene toward the end of one of Kubrick's first films: Killer's Kiss. (Fantastic name for a movie). Two guys fight in a warehouse. Suddenly one grabs the fire axe which had been properly hanging somewhere--a big advantage. Then suddently the other guy has a pike--like a gladiator or something. I was watching with my son and said: where did the pike come from? He replied: it was hanging up with a sign: deploy only in case of improper use of fire axe.

Wince said...

Watch out for that piranha

There goes a narwhal

Here comes a bikini whale!

Tacitus said...

Yes, Western Europe killed off many its best and brightest in two world wars. WW I being a particularly egregious example. But don't forget that the Ottoman Empire ( which at the time included most of the current Middle East ) had catastrophic losses both in military casualties and in civilian deaths. The UK had about 750k military deaths and around 100k civilian deaths related to the war (it gets tricky when you have to factor in malnutrition and the 1918 influenza pandemic). 1.9% of the prewar population died.

The Ottoman empire only lost 305k military deaths with a population half the size of the UK. But there were 1.2 MILLION civilian deaths for a total loss of about 19% of the population.

US losses at 0.13% of our population barely register.

Maybe in some situations it is the tough that survive not the smart.

TW

Tacitus said...

Ah, forgot to include the assorted genocidal events in the Ottoman empire during WWI. Serbia, Armenia, etc. Tack on another 2.3 million.
TW

narciso said...

https://mobile.twitter.com/CarolineFourest/status/1200642051748052999

Gahrie said...

for the obvious reasons that IQ is a highly problematic measurement criterion.

Only because some people are unhappy with the results. IQ is the most validated measurement in social science. Its results are consistent over time and culture. It is used in our schools every day to evaluate our children, because it works.

buwaya said...

The spear is a much underrated weapon, whether extemporized from a stout sapling, or a narwhal tusk, or is some Italian renaissance masterpiece of inlay and engraving.

It was universal, nearly, in organized conflict for maybe 5000 years. It became obsolete in high-tech warfare only about 300 years ago, and even then it persisted in niche applications.

Its interesting to think about its role in the creation of European colonialism and the European conquest of the Earth. In the sixteenth century this was THE European weapon, in the form of the pike and the lance. When the Portuguese under Abuquerque took Malacca in 1511, taking control of the global spice trade and booty beyond even that which Cortes and Pizarro later won, and providing Europe its true incentive to go off and conquer, they did it with pikes, long spears, not some high tech firearms. Their Malay opponents in fact had the high tech edge.

buwaya said...

The Sultan of Malacca famously kept a group of captive cannibals from New Guinea, to whom he fed some of his victims.

Gahrie said...

Mr. Jupiter may be right. IQ levels have been falling for decades in developed countries. Something very frightening is happening.

Those with lower I.Q.s are reproducing are a higher rate.

buwaya said...

Jared Diamond was trying to argue the contingent causes of European success, and their conquest of the world, which he assumed were due to superior technology, ir even "science".

He knew nothing however of the details of this conquest. It was only in the latter days of colonialism, when the pursuit of empires was proving to be a bad business, that technological superiority mattered. The empires were created with low tech traditional means, barely or not at all superior to those their opponents had, or that anyone had for thousands of years, hand-to-hand battle plus diplomacy.

The Europeans, until later in the 19th century, can best be thought of as global Vikings, or seaborne Mongols.

Michael said...

There is hope yet. Brave men ran towards the danger and did not hide or run from it. A tusk and a fire extinguisher and an off duty cop who ran across the road, jumping the median barrier and grabbing a knife from the terrorist. England should salute and reward these guys whose example should be copied a thousand times over.

Maillard Reactionary said...

Dust Bunny Queen @10:04 AM: Brilliant idea! Since I'm of Irish descent, and said to look the part, it would be the perfect accessory for when I'm out and about. Internet search commencing soon.

They may be illegal in NJ (most useful things are), but we all know what happens to coppers when they try that stuff with a shillelagh-armed man.

mockturtle said...

Those with lower I.Q.s are reproducing are a higher rate.

Yes, as well as other variables that are involved, as I previously mentioned. Coming up with average IQ statistics means little to nothing. We may be a 'developed country' but much of our population is now from undeveloped or underdeveloped countries. And some people get all frothy at the mouth if Trump suggests encouraging immigrants from, say, Norway.

mockturtle said...

Buwaya suggests: The empires were created with low tech traditional means, barely or not at all superior to those their opponents had, or that anyone had for thousands of years, hand-to-hand battle plus diplomacy.

Yes. More to do, IMO, with cultural values and impetus than with scientific advancement.

fleg9bo said...

no Londoner has any reason to carry a knife of any kind.

Soon it will be illegal to make a fist in the UK.

tcrosse said...

Those with lower I.Q.s are reproducing are a higher rate.

This was the premise of Idiocracy (2006).

Fernandinande said...

IQ levels have been falling for decades in developed countries.

The MSM is parroting that "falling for decades" slogan based on a flawed study from Norway. Discussion with one of the authors. Single moms and their new mates...

As for war lowering IQ, A lot of people have hypothesized that high human intelligence, compared to other animals at least, is the result of 10's of thousands of years of war.

What is smarter than not getting killed?

Michael McNeil said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dust Bunny Queen said...

What is smarter than not getting killed?

Exactly. This is the premise of The Darwin Awards. See who can kill themselves in the most stupid and ridiculous way.

Fernandinande said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael McNeil said...

“it is possible that there was a significant, but temporary, decline in IQ levels”

Yes Please! Explain to us, WHY it would be temporary?


While in principle — as things have always been — you're quite right. But, nonetheless, it will be temporary, and this is why….

The suggestion/argument that we're all doomed (or as a species progressively being crippled) because modern warfare has been incrementally reducing the average IQ (by killing off the best & brightest), is quite similar to another line of argument that's been made for many decades now — to wit: that modern medicine has been progressively degrading the human genome (in general, not just with regard to IQ) by allowing people genetically vulnerable to disease and injury (who would formerly have died early from their disease or injuries, weeded out by evolutionary selection) to now survive and reproduce, thereby continuing to contribute their defective genes to the human genome.

Thus (either way): long term doom! Right? No.

My reply to both lines of argument — basically over the whole period of time that they've been advanced — is unchanged (except now we're on the cusp of being able to actually do something about it!). Long before the human genome can be seriously degraded by such means, we will learn how to correct genetic errors and substitute healthier — or higher IQ — supporting genes.

Now we basically can actually do this — via, e.g., the new CRISPR technology — and that task will begin in earnest in a few years with regard to the most serious and deadly genetic disorders.

Fernandinande said...

What is smarter than not getting killed?

Who's been picked on and had attempted exterminations in Europe for hundreds of years?

Jews.

Who's the smartest population?

Jews.

narciso said...

the last link concerns the scale of the problem, the number of jihad sympathetic individuals, that could act at any one point,

mockturtle said...

Fernandistein contends: Who's the smartest population?

Jews.


Japan #1, Israel #22: Forbes Sorry. Not even close.

mockturtle said...

And Singapore rates highest in IQ.

narciso said...

the perils of feeding the crocodile,


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/

there are scripts that prevent the separating the links,

Roughcoat said...

In "Carnage and Culture" Victor Davis Hanson explains once and for all why and how Europeans conquered the world. Read that book and you won't need to read anything else on the issue.

Bilwick said...

Society needs tougher narwhal tusk legislation. For the children!

Jupiter said...

"What is smarter than not getting killed?"

It appears to me that what IQ mostly correlates with is number of generations spent in cities. I find the idea repugnant, but there it is.

Fernandinande said...

Narwhale, that is, Nostril whale.

I'm firmly in the "that Moby Dick guy drones on and on about not much at all, so he's really quite boring" camp.

Are we supposed to believe that "Narwhal[e]" means "Nostril whale" because of what the boring guy wrote?

Its name is derived from the Old Norse word nár, meaning "corpse"

Fernandinande said...

If I lived in London, you'd better believe I'd carry a knife.

"If any man says he hates war more than I do, he better have a knife, that's all I have to say." -- Handey

Fernandinande said...

Fernandistein contends: Who's the smartest population?
Jews.
Japan #1, Israel #22: Forbes Sorry. Not even close.


Well, I guess I should have specified Ashkenazi Jews, the subjects of the pogroms, and almost did, namely European Jews (mostly Italian by genes, IIRC), and exclude the Sephardi Jews who are popular in Israel and are as dumb as Muslims.

"Ashkenazi Jews have the highest average IQ of any ethnic group for which there are reliable data."

mockturtle said...

One might make the case for select groups of Japanese or Chinese, as well, if you're getting down to tribes. ;-)

mockturtle said...

It appears to me that what IQ mostly correlates with is number of generations spent in cities. I find the idea repugnant, but there it is.

Not 'cause and effect'. It just shows that people with higher IQs have moved to cities because that's where the money is.

Fernandinande said...

One might make the case for select groups of Japanese or Chinese, as well, if you're getting down to tribes. ;-)

Well then, go ahead and select some groups of Japanese or Chinese and show us all the cool things they do and did besides run Hollywood.

"During the 20th century, [Ashkenazi Jews] made up about 3% of the US population but won 27% of the US Nobel science prizes and 25% of the ACM Turing awards. They account for more than half of world chess champions."

"Jews Make-Up 19% of Forbes 200 World’s Richest List"

That 'tribe' is about 0.16% of the world's population.

It just shows that people with higher IQs have moved to cities because that's where the money is.

Cochran has a recent post about that: Local Brain Drain

Ralph L said...

Israel #22

They have plenty of warm-weather Sephardic Jews and Palestinians (Arab IQ is lower than European averages, perhaps because of cousin marriage). It's the Ashkenazi Jews that survived the winters of Northern Europe--and the other Northern Europeans.

Clyde said...

Narwhals : animated music video : MrWeebl

You probably won't thank me for that, but that's okay.

Skippy Tisdale said...

"For example if the mean Ashkenazi IQ is
110 and the standard deviation is 15, then the number of northern Europeans with IQs
greater than 140 should be 4 per thousand while 23 per thousand Ashkenazim should
exceed the same threshold, a six fold difference."

Actually, 4x6=24, so not a six-fold difference.

Apparently, Gregory Cochran, Jason Hardy and Henry Harpending are not Ashkenazi