a study has come out that asked college freshmen how many AP courses they took in high school. this is not a measure of iq. it is only a measure of how hard a student is willing to push himself in high school. obviously asians answered that they took more AP courses than other groups. this is in spite of the fact that more white and hispanic kids went to schools that offered AP courses. from previous studies u might then expect the following group order: asians, whites, hispanics, blacks. but in fact it doesn’t go that way.

hispanics actually take more AP courses than whites. looking further into the numbers, u see that a higher percentage of hispanics go to schools where AP classes are offered. but even so, the numbers show that hispanic kids are willing to work harder in the classroom.

unfortunately even though they take the class at higher rates, their rate of scoring 3’s or above is lower than whites. so while it may be that they work harder than whites, hispanics aren’t seeing all the fruits that might be expected from that hard work.

hat tip to 8asians for the story link.

Through my daily trolling of the WoW forums I found an epic thread.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4665323890&sid=1&pageNo=1

past studies have shown that women prefer symmetrical men’s dancing style to non-symmetrical men. a new study shows that testosterone levels affect who the opposite sex is attracted to.

The results showed that women gave the highest attractiveness ratings to men with the highest levels of prenatal testosterone. The men with the lowest testosterone in turn got the lowest attractiveness ratings. “Men can communicate their testosterone levels through the way they dance,” Lovatt told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “And women understand it — without noticing it.”

In women, the link between dancing style and testosterone levels were similar — but the reaction of men was just the opposite. Dancers with high levels of testosterone moved more parts of their body, with their movements being somewhat uncoordinated, while those with lower testosterone made more subtle movements, especially with their hips. The male students found the latter style most appealing…

The men who got the female students hot under the collar danced with large movements which were “complexly coordinated.” But it’s a fine line between hot and not, however: Those men who made big moves but who were less coordinated came across as dominant alpha males — and were unlikely to win women’s hearts. The researchers also found that the size and complexity of the dance moves decreased in parallel with testosterone levels.

i’m not sure it should be surprising to anyone that females are more impressed by males who can perform “complexly coordinated” moves. guys who do those moves are probably bboys and poppers. what guys want may be slightly less clear, but still shouldn’t be too surprising. guys want girls who have a subtle dance and shake their hips. rrrumpshaker anyone? okay, i suppose that’s not exactly subtle. but the hips are sure there. how about nobody?

http://www.youtube.com/html5

pretty cool, may be the beginning of the end for flash video.

“Chinese company Hybrid Kinetic Motors announced plans Thursday to construct a new green vehicle manufacturing plant in south Alabama, bringing 5,000 jobs to the state.

Seriously, how does this in any way make most people want to buy these.. unless its a trainwreck emotion fascination.

well, it looks like total shit but i’ll prolly go see it anyways. jin is played by john foo who is irish-chinese.

“Physicians will not be bullied into bankruptcy. Our system needs reform, but what’s being hammered out in Washington is not the answer.

Two weeks ago the Mayo Clinic shocked the nation when it closed the doors of one of its Arizona clinics to patients on Medicare. Just this past June President Obama himself praised Mayo as a model of medical efficiency noting that Mayo gives “the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm.” If Mayo feels compelled to walk away from this government-run program, others will surely follow. The nation must understand why.”

(more…)

http://www.hanzismatter.com/

The site is pretty old, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it. As the site title says, “dedicated to the misuse of chinese characters in western culture.”

The content of this is so silly and yet it is so epic at the same time that all other considerations go out the window.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/12/magicjack-femtocell-sure-to-face-legal-battle-royale/

Cool tech, kind of like a Skype that works on all existing phones. Either way, carriers are going to sue the heck out of them. Letting the customer save money would obviously be a terrible thing.

like clockwork every year, the edge foundation asks prominent thinkers a single question. this year, the question is “how is the internet changing the way you think.”

i haven’t yet read any of the responses, but reading the responses from past years has often been enthralling.

only in china would u see something this ridiculous and this awesome (unfortunately, no embed allowed). china needed somewhere to park it’s money, so they built an entire city that no one lives in except the construction workers. this is the subprime mortgage crisis X 1000.

but hey, it’s a nice clean, modern city in every other respect. who can knock that right?

New Ultra combos, MECHA ZANGIEF… ok, I’m sold. Maybe Chun li will actually have a not-useless ultra now.