On Thursday, August 19, 2021 at 6:28:59 PM UTC-4, Mario Petrinovic wrote:
> On 19.8.2021. 19:31, Peter Nyikos wrote:
> > On Wednesday, August 18, 2021 at 8:53:39 PM UTC-4, Mario Petrinovic wrote:
> >> On 19.8.2021. 1:11, Peter Nyikos wrote:
> >>> On Wednesday, August 18, 2021 at 8:34:55 AM UTC-4, Mario Petrinovic wrote:
> >>>> On 18.8.2021. 13:43, Peter Nyikos wrote:
> >>>>> On Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 10:56:20 PM UTC-4, John Harshman wrote:
> >>>>>> Mario isn't even playing the game, because he didn't know that it was an
> >>>>>> analogy question.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Yes, I should have also spelled it out for him: "ocean is to littoral as river is to __________"
> >>>>> But I mistakenly assumed that the notation was familiar to him.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I did not make that kind of mistake when I told him about the Unique Factorization Theorem
> >>>>> of integers. I very carefully removed all possible ambiguity from it, and wrote "whole number"
> >>>>> instead of "integer".
> >>>>>
> >>>>> But hey, if you had really wanted to help him, you should have told him it was an
> >>>>> analogy question instead spoiling the riddle for him.
> >>>
> >>>> Oh, nothing would help me. I have "brain fog", or something, I am not
> >>>> in the mood for solving that kind of riddles, actually, I even didn't
> >>>> think that this is some kind of a game,
> >>>
> >>> I didn't mean it as a game, I meant it as an illustrative example
> >>> of how tests for intelligence are not well set up for measuring
> >>> intelligence. It does take a bit of intelligence to grasp that
> >>> "littoral" means "having to do with the shore of a sea or ocean"
> >>> [and if you don't know that, you can look up the word in a good dictionary]
> >>> and to then realize that when "river" is substituted for "ocean", you need to
> >>> find a word that means "having to do with a bank of the river."
> >>>
> >>> Then it becomes a vocabulary test of an especially difficult sort.
> >>> The usual vocabulary test might ask you to define "riparian,"
> >>> but this one starts with the definition and makes you hunt for the word.
> >>> Short of going through a dictionary with at least 100,000 words,
> >>> it just boils down to the luck of being familiar with the word "riparian" .
> >>>
> >>> So we have a question that is under-1% an intelligence test and over-99% a vocabulary test.
> >>>
> >>>> I just answered anything to
> >>>> continue with conversation. Yes, John was right, I wasn't actually
> >>>> playing, I didn't, actually, understand, nor did I make an effort to
> >>>> understand, and, after all, I don't think that I would understand it in
> >>>> the first place. Word riddles aren't quite suitable for non-English
> >>>> speakers. Since my line of thinking was too simple, I thought that this
> >>>> is just some kind of example,
> >>>
> >>> Yes, an example to illustrate a point I was making.
> >>>
> >>> There is a very serious side to this. Back in the early 1970's was a furor when a professor
> >>> named Shockley published a paper that said Blacks in the USA were less intelligent
> >>> on average than Whites. He was branded a racist and his public appearances
> >>> were accompanied by riots. I witnessed one when a like-minded professor named Banfield
> >>> came to the University of Chicago and tried to give a speech; it was completely
> >>> disrupted by radicals.
> >>>
> >>> All this trouble could have been avoided if these people had been made
> >>> to see that IQ tests are unfair for making such allegations, because
> >>> of the different experiences an average Black has than the average White has.
> >
> >> In tune with my view on intelligence, I am looking at it from the
> >> Evolution point of view. Just like physical abilities, I am claiming
> >> that different races have different mental abilities, depending on the
> >> conditions they evolved in. Of course, a lot of those mental abilities
> >> aren't measurable at all.
> >
> > Quite true. Why not try posting this on sci.anthropology.paleo?
> > It looks to be even more on-topic there than here.

> I, very probably, did, sometime in the past. I have enough of posting
> always the same things. I posted it here because we are discussing this.

I'm glad you did, because you wrote what I've never seen anyone write
before: a straightforward acknowledgement that races have different abilities
without trying to say one ability is better than another.

The American Ambassador to the UN under Jimmy Carter, Andrew Young, said almost what you did,
but went on to make a fool of himself (IMO) by labeling anyone who did NOT
make some such distinction between races as a "racist".

Andrew Young was African-American, by the way.

> >>>> and juts wanted to show that I know two
> >>>> words for small river, lol.
> >>>> Your mathematical question I did consider a riddle, but, for sure I
> >>>> cannot get into this. I don't know, maybe it has something to do with
> >>>> Covid, maybe its the old age,
> >>>
> >>> Old age? I seem to recall that you are more than a decade younger
> >>> than I am. If you are in as good health when I was your age, you have a lot of great years ahead of you.
> >>>
> >>> One of my favorite sayings after I became 60 is "The sixties are the youth of old age."
> >>> When I turned 60 I still could have run a kilometer in 4.5 minutes; now, 15 years older, I think
> >>> I'll be lucky to do it in 5.5.
> >
> >> I'll turn 60 in two months. Of course, a lot depends on your physical
> >> abilities. I don't move out of my room *at all* (I am retired, :) ),
> >> during my whole life I was sitting whole day long (being a train driver,
> >> but I did hike a lot for one period on my life),
> >
> > It's no too late to return to that state. Work up to it a little bit at a time.
> > I haven't run a kilometer in over a decade, but I've been slowly increasing
> > my stamina these last three months with daily walks and 4 shorter runs some mornings that add
> > up to over a kilometer and are interspersed with 2-minute walks.
> >
> > When the cooler weather arrives, I expect to be routinely doing 1-kilometer runs.
> > For you, it might take a year to get up to that level, but it will be worth it.
> > When I got a nuclear stress test last month, all my arteries showed
> > completely normal. I don't know whether that would have been the case if I had had it before regular workouts.

> My goal in life is to accommodate my needs, my feeling. I don't feel
> like running around, I feel like sitting in front of computer.

Back when you were growing up, a great deal of stress was laid on spontaneity,
on "going with your feelings." But that declined in the eighties, because spontaneity all
too often results in acting on impulses which one comes to regret. Sometimes the
regret comes the same day, as one reflects on some impulsive retort one made,
with the conclusion, "I wish I hadn't said that."

> You are suggesting me that I should run,

Not necessarily. Just walking a little further each day can bring you back
to the point where you can take long hikes again. I wasn't trying to suggest
that you try to do running as well; I hope I made that cle>ar.

> so that I feel better when
> sitting in front of computer, and so that I can live longer, so that I
> can longer sit in front of computer?

You've got it: your time at the computer is longer in the long run,
and what's more, you'll have lots more experiences to make it possible to show
greater wisdom in what you post.

> Good idea, but I never go after some imaginary goals, I always
> accommodate my current needs, ;)

I hope you know what those are. One thing is sure: you should have a thorough checkup if you are like my father.
Shortly after he turned 65, he found himself getting more and more easily out of breath, and
the diagnosis was that he was in need of a triple cardiac bypass.
But he also had phlebitis, so the bypass was delayed for a month,
and he suffered a heart attack. Fortunately, he survived for almost two decades longer,
but only because he did have that triple bypass.

What you said earlier does sound like it could be serious:

> > > and things like that.
> >> After making a short walk, I am so tired that I usually fell to sleep, lol.
> >> I like it that way never the less. My idea is that people aren't made
> >> for physical endeavor.

Continued in next post, a few minutes from now, and picking up where I left off here.

Peter Nyikos