”A structure based on centuries of history cannot be destroyed with a few kilos of explosives."

— Peter Kropotkin

"Abolish the Police 1312"
Seen in Jakarta, Indonesia

Starting with Galton’s Hereditary Genius, we have gradually made intelligence statistical, with norms. Indeed, the usual IQ tests are so statistical that the questions are designed in such a way that a curve of scores forms a normal distribution with a mean of 100. When the tests were first applied to women, they scored higher than men, with a mean of about 105, so the questions had to be modified to make them harder for women. They were adjusted until the mean score for females was also 100.

IQ tests are excellent at evaluating the ability of a numerate and technical child, possessing a new kind of literacy, to prosper in our times. At the top end, genius is forced onto a linear scale and hence off the map. Galton aimed to measure genius but in fact he expelled it from our culture. It is part of the deep, ultimately Socratic notion of genius, that when it is measured on scales that stem from Galton, and were refined in 1917 by the United States army for evaluating recruits, true genius – I don’t hesitate to use that phrase – will be living somewhere else. It will blithely refuse to interact with questionnaires, institutions, experts and knowledge, rejecting classification. Ah, as you see, I have just bought into the Romantic notion of genius.

Ian Hacking, Making Up People: Clinical Classifications (2006)

There could be billions more people on Earth than previously thought
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/population-earth-world-billions-un-estimate-b2721808.html

https://redd.it/1jw694g
@r_interestingasfuck

TIL that the death of a Pope used to be confirmed by tapping a silver hammer on his head and calling out his baptismal name three times. Nowadays, an electrocardiogram is used instead. [source, comments]

A cool guide to the political make-up of voting cardinals
https://redd.it/1k4edin
@coolguides

Who made this?

Song of the Day ⏳️☺️: https://open.spotify.com/track/6trpAR10iG8NoUZXg01epE

Breathtaking view of the Himalayas from the ISS
https://redd.it/1k0bson
@r_interestingasfuck