Saturday, January 12, 2013

SMUT ANGRY SMUT SMASH NOW

Some biologists see an opportunity to make deadschoolkidade (via Pharyngula):
In a move likely to renew a longstanding ethical controversy, geneticists are quietly making plans to study the DNA of Adam Lanza, 20, who killed 20 children and seven adults in Newtown, Conn. Their work will be an effort to discover biological clues to extreme violence.
[...]
Studies of people at the far end of a bell curve can be especially informative, because the genetic roots of their conditions can be stark and easy to spot, noted J. H. Pate Skene, a Duke University neurobiologist. “I think doing research on outliers, people at an end of a spectrum on something of concern like violent behavior, is certainly a good idea,” he said
Keen to avoid an unnecessary waste of time -- necessary wastes of time are fine, of course -- we have contacted the geneticists in question to point out one common factor across Lanza and other recent contenders for the hotly-sought-after Most-Murders-by-one-gunman award. Did they acknowledge our helpful advice? DTB.

This leaves us at Riddled Research Laboratory with no alternative but to put out our hands for our share of the research dosh forge a head with our own genetic survey... determining the genetic roots of mouth-frothing, wolf-howling, shield-biting, shape-shifting, pain-spiting. This will naturally involve a prolonged stay in Scandiwegia while we track down descendents of Ljot the Pale, Atli the Short, Arngrim and the sons of Arngrim to be genotyped (not to mention renewed excavations to recover DNA from the skull of Egill Skallagrimsson). This is why the Marsden Grants Committee should give us money.

Details are the same as in our earlier proposal to investigate the Ríastrad phenomenon, totally not an excuse to visit Ireland and drink Guinness. Also Amok.
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"Speaking of examining the outliers," Another Kiwi said, "whatever became of Robert Plomin?" *

"Plo-what?" I wondered.

"Intelligence researcher," tigris explained. "20 years ago he was dysoning up research funds for a massive plan to locate the genetic basis of intelligence, by recruiting child genii and seeing where their genes differed from a cohort of hoi polloi." Tigris has an accent good enough to pronounce the italics when she says words like hoi polloi.

"That would be a great boon for our experiments with the Riddled Evolvamat," AK vouchsafed. "The calibration can still be a little hit-and-miss sometimes." We all laughed; even Greenish Hugh made a curious hiccoughing noise like a ticklish harpsichord, or like a hiccup trying to sound like 'hiccough'. "Did he get anywhere?"

"In 1998 he was claiming to have located an IQ gene on Chromosome VI," tigris said.

"Really?" My ears pricked up, an exaggerated auricularis superior muscle being the one useful side-effect of recent otherwise-unsuccessful Evolvamat trials.

"In a word, No. In three words, not at all. Never replicated or mentioned again. In fact no-one talks about the IQ QTL project these days and a discrete veil is drawn over the entire debâcle."

"Clearly," AK concluded, "the successful outcomes were suppressed by the Slans and the Sevens and the super-genii in our midst, intent on concealing all clues to their leverage in the higher echelons of society."
"Ha!" I scoffed. "If such people existed they would be sending money in the direction of intertuba bloggers, to deny and ridicule the very possibility of their existence."
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* Plomin was one of the signatories -- along with such luminaries as Jensen and Rushton -- of the 1994 Brooks-Gottfredson advertorial in the WSJ in support of The Bell Curve and of the academic right to channel racism as research.

9 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

the 1994 Brooks-Gottfredson advertorial in the WSJ in support of The Bell Curve and of the academic right to channel racism as research.

Also (for those who have not seen), Andy Sullivan once again reared his ugly head.

=>The notes of The Bell Curve are a house of horrors packed with eugenics freaks like Richard Lynn — you can find more in our SHAME profile on Charles Murray — but the point is this: Thanks to editor Andrew Sullivan’s decision in 1994 to publish an entire reworked chapter of The Bell Curve, 10,000 words of reanimated Nazi race theory, in The New Republic, using the liberal establishment credentials of the magazine to launder and legitimize rancid pre-war racial science used to justify genocide, The Bell Curve entered establishment discourse, making racist quackery respectable again. Seeing that in The New Republic encouraged a saggy old pus-bag like the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen, who some people label a "liberal," to embrace Charles Murray’s Nazi science:

"Murray [and his co-author] have been called racists...Their findings, though, have been accepted by most others in their field, and it would be wrong—both intellectually and politically—to suppress them."<=
~

mikey said...

Pssshhhh.

They scoffed at Ira Howard too. But look what happened when it turned out he was right!

Smut Clyde said...

Seeing that in The New Republic encouraged a saggy old pus-bag like the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen, who some people label a "liberal," to embrace Charles Murray’s Nazi science:

"Murray [and his co-author] have been called racists...Their findings, though, have been accepted by most others in their field, and it would be wrong—both intellectually and politically—to suppress them."


Yes indeed. I know that the 1994 WSJ advertorial is ancient history, but it is still impressive that a document that only attracted 52 signatures out of the 131 experts it had been sent to -- focussing on the author's own cronies -- could have been tabled as evidence that a consensus in the field supported white supremacism.

It is also impressive how many people involved in the episode have spent the subsequent two decades making confident predictions about the discovery of IQ genes REAL SOON NOW, and being wrong, while retaining respect and authority and access to research funding. Psychology is not unlike right-wing punditry in that regard.

Linda Gottfredson, who *wrote* the piece for the WSJ, is an interesting case. She started in the field of occupational psychology (i.e. fitting job applicants to suitable jobs on a "square peg / square hole" basis) before her shift into white-supremacist academia.

And of course you know David Brooks, who smoothed the path for publication of the piece.

H. Rumbold, Master Barber said...

You may all be happy to know that there is a mouse model for genetic study of Berserkerism.

mikey said...

Oddly, these seem to be the same people who loudly insist that homosexuality is a "lifestyle choice".

It's almost as if there was some kind of agenda operating here...

Substance McGravitas said...

I support the spread of mice that howl at the moon because they're easier to find and kill.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Details are the same as in our earlier proposal to investigate the Ríastrad phenomenon, totally not an excuse to visit Ireland and drink Guinness.

If the mast-high jet of blood from the top of your head lasts more than four hours, please contact a medical professional at once.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

On topic... while I can't say that Adam Lanza inherited a genetic tendency towards violence from his mother, I sure as hell know that he "inherited" a fuckton of guns and ammo from her.

Smut Clyde said...

there is a mouse model for genetic study of Berserkerism.

Now you mention it, there is also the canary model.