Tuesday Tuesday

Of course, I hear the song “Monday Monday” by the Mamas and the Papas in my head. I will probably hear the song in my head at least for the rest of the day.

This post from Why Evolution Is True is about the heritability of traits, particularly IQ. From the piece:

“One of the big hot-button issues at the intersection of science and politics is the degree to which human behavioral traits, particularly IQ, are based on genes. To be more specific, the one question that can meaningfully answered about genes and IQ is this one: “What proportion of the variation among individuals in a population for any human trait (not just IQ, but also propensity to smoke, risk-taking, neuroticism, etc.) is based on variation among those individual’s genes?“  The figure showing that degree of genetic determination of variation in a population is called the heritability of the trait, symbolized by h², and ranges from 0% (or 0.0), meaning that none of the variation you see in the trait is based on variation in genes (it’s due to environmental factors) up to 100%, or 1, meaning that all the variation we see in the trait is due to variation among individuals in their genomes…

The upshot is what you’d expect with a high heritability of IQ: the IQs of children at either 15 or in their 30s was much more highly correlated with the IQs of their biological parents than with their adoptive parents…The correlation of adults with their biological families (not the regression slope) is 0.42, a highly significant value, while with the adoptive parents it’s 0.10—close to zero but probably still significant (they don’t say), meaning there may be a slight rearing effect: the IQ of your adoptive parents could slightly affect the adoptive child.”

Once again, while people may have equal rights under the law, all people are NOT created equally. I am not saying that genetics is destiny, but to expect everyone to achieve the same level of “success,” however defined, is the definition of a fool’s errand.

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We have still not received “final” word from the at-fault driver’s insurance company although we recently learned the local police department did cite that driver for speeding, meaning we expect the insurance company to assume full responsibility for repairs. Of course, this means the probability of the car being totaled has increased since fixing damage to both the front and rear of the ATS increases the chances the projected cost will exceed the threshold for totaling the car.

In the event the ATS is totaled, C/2 suggested a Hyundai Veloster Turbo like this:

In terms of practicality, this car might be the best available given our constraints. The cargo space is almost 20 cubic feet–our minimum acceptable volume is 10–and it has the most rear legroom of any car we have considered. Of course, the three-door concept is a little strange to me. In addition, my wonderful wife and I are not enamored of the car’s looks, although I can’t say the car is ugly, either.

What is the “right” balance between form and function? Of course, every person has a different answer to that question.

Both matter to me, but I want to drive a car that looks good. Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For what it’s worth, Todd Deeken and Paul Schmucker–the hosts of Everyday Driver–were both impressed by the Veloster in N-spec, the ultimate performance version of the car. We would not buy a Veloster N (too rare and too expensive), but would insist on a turbo. By the way, the output of the turbo four is 275 HP/260 LB-FT of torque, which is not bad for a car weighing 2,800-ish pounds.

I welcome any thoughts from you.

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