tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26188478.post1171707441500768383..comments2024-03-16T00:36:45.948-07:00Comments on Inductivist: Ron Guhnamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421460508647618774noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26188478.post-21038064880001795702008-03-08T13:33:00.000-08:002008-03-08T13:33:00.000-08:00Maybe the warm weather makes people sleepy?Serious...Maybe the warm weather makes people sleepy?<BR/><BR/>Seriously, though, I wouldn't try to explain the pattern of civilization based on the United States; heck, Greece is pretty warm, and they started Western Civ. The South has its own problems which arise out of a history of slave labor and under-industrialization and you could probably find similar areas around the world. That said there probably is some sort of a pattern where the tropics do have too high a pathogen load and the warm weather discourages hard work. <BR/><BR/>But you can't make generalizations about the world based on the USA.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26188478.post-47037385774714287962008-03-06T08:48:00.000-08:002008-03-06T08:48:00.000-08:00But why do elite institutions thrive in temperate ...But why do elite institutions thrive in temperate or cold climates? Silicon Valley didn't exist very long ago, while the South has been Europeanized for centuries. Hell, Washington state has more going for it than the entire Southeast.<BR/><BR/>As you point out, North Carolina is as far south as high civilization can penetrate, and Texas is as far east among southern-latitude states. There really does seem to be some barrier in the southeast.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26188478.post-59186440952926906792008-03-05T17:49:00.000-08:002008-03-05T17:49:00.000-08:00The coasts have their colleges to siphon off smart...The coasts have their colleges to siphon off smart people. There aren't more than a few top-tier schools in the South (Duke, maybe Vanderbilt), but both Harvard and MIT are in the same small town in Massachusetts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26188478.post-25246208938320543332008-03-05T12:19:00.000-08:002008-03-05T12:19:00.000-08:00The further north a state is located, the higher i...The further north a state is located, the higher its IQ tends to be.<BR/><BR/>That is clearly the global trend at the national level. Distance from the equator and IQ correlate at a statistically significant .67 using data from Vanhanen and Lynn's IQ and the Wealth of Nations. The relationship is more rigorous even than the contemporary relationship between purchasing power parity and IQ (as an aside, life expectancy shows the single strongest correlation with IQ at .85, followed by infant mortality at an inverse .84, and then--without Mike Judge's endorsement--an inverse relationship with fecundity at .81).<BR/><BR/>The trend <A HREF="http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2007/04/intelligence-and-latitude-in-us.html" REL="nofollow">also holds at the state level within the US</A>. Using the latitude of each state's most populous city and comparing it with estimated IQ yields a correlation of .70, made considerably stronger (.81) if only the lower forty-eight are considered. As the relationship is at the global level, much of this is attributable to race, with blacks concentrated in the Deep South and Hispanics in the Southwest.<BR/><BR/>More interestingly, the relationship between latitude and IQ firmly exists in the US when only whites or only blacks are considered. And the correlations are almost identical: .52 for whites (click here for visual representation of estimated white IQ by state) and .51 for blacks (here for visual).<BR/><BR/>Insightful post. I'm going to look at the relationship of NAEP scores (the basis for the IQ estimates) by race within states with that prodding.Audacious Epigonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07495507254628580077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26188478.post-77414586505703063432008-03-05T10:44:00.000-08:002008-03-05T10:44:00.000-08:00Hmm, that first link doesn't work. Click on the se...Hmm, that first link doesn't work. Click on the second link, and the first link in *that* post goes to the "winged insects" post.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26188478.post-12438008852451018852008-03-05T10:42:00.000-08:002008-03-05T10:42:00.000-08:00I think it's mostly pathogen load, which likely tr...I think it's mostly pathogen load, which likely tracks how stable vs. how unstable the environment is. Also latitude, and probably altitude.<BR/><BR/>Basically, these types of environments select for migratory features in insects, which are vectors of chronic infectious diseases. They likely select for migratory features in other disease vectors.<BR/><BR/>Here are my two GNXP posts on climate and degree of civilization:<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/06/winged-insects-and-degree-of.php<br/>" REL="nofollow">Winged insects and climate</A><BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/08/climate-and-civilization-follow-up_05.php" REL="nofollow">Data on climate and civiliization</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com