Nope, we can't. But point was that circumstances might winnow the better or worse minds from the average, and if that's the basis of the population you've got available to test, you'll get skewed results.

Likely the spectrum of intelligence isn't so different, but the bumps in the curve are in different places.

There's also skew that happens other ways because, well, history. Frex, I'd hazard that Africans who got enslaved and shipped off to America were, as a group, not the brightest bulbs in their particular regional box -- cuz the brighter bulbs were doing the enslaving and selling of their unfortunate neighbors.

"This is how the PC establishment thinks. If there is a conceivable way to twist and distort what is said so that it can be labeled racist, they will do it."

Exactly. Which is why we make so little progress in treating genetic disease that happens to afflict mental processes. "Oh no, you couldn't have inherited that; someone must have done something to make you that way."

We select for personality traits, intelligence, etc. in animals... that's all genetics. Is it so hard to consider that different environments would have selected for different mental traits in humans, too? And that a physical or mental advantage in that environment might be a disadvantage elsewhere?

Frank Spinath (best known as the lead singer in Edge of Dawn, but a professor of psychology in his day job) published a paper a few years ago on the heritability of personality traits in humans. He found the heritability was around .3, which is actually very high for a trait that is subject to environmental influence.

(And all the breeders of performance animals are saying, "We told you so...")

Same principle applied to the Newcastle outbreak on chicken farms (mostly small producers) a few years ago. Inspectors dashed madly from farm to farm checking for infected chickens, spreading the virus as they went. Smart farmers locked the gate (the inspection was voluntary) and saved their chickens. (Smarter ones vaccinated, but I don't know how good the vaccine is. Tho it's useful for treating distemper in dogs.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Since it's already happened in one form, it's not only not far-fetched, it's more likely than not, and we can't say what its effects would be (perhaps benign, perhaps even more lethal). So, yeah, by all means keep the damn thing contained as best we can.

This game video done by a friend is interesting from a modern-vectors standpoint:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

I find it more likely that some microorganism will find a way to extract energy from the particles, if it's not already doing so. Which may produce the GP's possible state of equilibrium.

Nor do they tell us the ratio to non-plastic junk floating in that same water, especially naturally occuring junk. Not every particle floating in the oceans is of human origin; I'd hazard most are the result of atmospheric dust.

Being enthusiastically biocidal is better than unwittingly transporting mussels and other vermin from one coastline to another.

More often they were tarred or varnished. And historical paints were made from equally 'natural' materials, eg. linseed oil and white lead. Which generally are more ablative than modern paints.

My next question is... if the ultimate upshot is a ban on ocean shipping, cui bono?

Yep, polarized sunglasses pretty much block the black light. Regular sunglasses dim it down some but no more than they do sunlight, and I still see a bright core.

Where I used to live I had a choice of one, fixed wireless from a one-man band. And he liked to talk about his work. One thing he told me was that due to peering agreements, downloads cost nothing, and uploads are 5 cents per GB. (This was 7-8 years ago. Probably hasn't changed too much.) He came right off the AT&T backbone.

Field mice are brown and white. House mice are sorta muddy-grey to muddy-brown.

Didn't you heed the warnings about Green Magic??

Black lights have ALWAYS looked like the bottom picture to me -- and are blindingly bright. To my eyes, the little bug zapper lights up the room.

This is no doubt why I'm in love with polarized sunglasses.

When did you have the surgery? Sounds like it went really well. Hadn't heard about it, but as you know I've moved to a planet far far away.

Sorry I couldn't be there in person to witness your transformation into a bionic man! :D