A good 4th July for Trump
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Identical twins separated at birth have near-identical IQs
This is an old, old finding, yet another confirmation of what is known. It always emerges when you study twin IQs
Identical Chinese twins separated at birth by the nation's draconian one-child policy grew up to have almost identical IQs, a fascinating study reveals.
The research, led by Dr Nancy Segal an expert in psychology from the University of California, considered one of the world's leading experts on twins, examined the intelligence scores of 15 pairs of identical twins adopted by different families.
Fourteen pairs of twins were female due to Chinese culture traditionally favouring male children, a bias which led to female children, including twins, being abandoned by parents during China's one-child policy which ran from 1980 to 2016.
These genetically identical twins were separated and raised in different environments — and sometimes even in different countries.
This provided scientists with the rare opportunity to test if nature or nurture was the most important factor for IQ.
The twins underwent IQ tests twice, once when they were, on average, 11-years-old and then again, after some years had passed, when they had an average age of 14.
Comparing the results between the twin pairs over time the researchers discovered their scores were nearly identical.
Publishing their results in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the authors wrote: 'Despite their different homes, educational experiences, and (in some cases) residences in different countries, the twins appear to have interacted with their environments in ways that aligned with their genetic propensities.
'This supports the notion that environments do not act randomly in fashioning developmental outcomes — rather, individuals behave selectively and actively with respect to the people, places and events that engage and challenge them.'
Dr Segal said that the older twins got the more their IQ scores seemed to align in the long term.
'As genetic factors kick in, the environment drops out. So they become more alike with time,' she told The Times.
She based this finding off another aspect of the study which examined data from nine pairs of Danish identical twins who underwent similar IQ tests as adults.
While the data on this group of twins was more limited that the Chinese cohort, it similarly showed that twin pairs tended to match each other for changes in IQ between the two tests.
Concluding their study the authors said the results suggest that 'twins can be expected to achieve similar results on school tests, whereas unrelated siblings can be expected to achieve different outcomes.'
They continued: 'Knowing this will help parents and educators tailor their treatment, resource provision, and expectations of different children within families.
IQ stands for intelligence quotient and it is used to measure mental ability.
The score is achieved by dividing a person's mental age, obtained with an intelligence test, by their age.
Test questions focus on abilities such as mathematical skills, memory, spatial perception, and language abilities.
The resulting fraction is then multiplied by 100 to obtain an IQ score.
An IQ of 100 has long been considered the median, or most often achieved, score.
Because of the way the test results are scaled, a person with an IQ of 60 is not necessarily half as intelligent as someone with an IQ of 120.
Although the accuracy of intelligence tests is somewhat disputed, they are still widely used.
To be accepted into Mensa, the 'high-IQ society', a person by score in the top two per cent of the general population.
This currently means having an IQ of at least 132.
Dr Segal and the other authors acknowledged an obvious limitation of their study is the overall small number of participants, a somewhat unavoidable factor given the rarity of identical twins being separated at birth.
As such they say the results should be interpreted with caution.
Dr Segal added: 'Should parents and educators throw their hands up in despair?
'Absolutely not. Everybody can become smarter. But we’re not going to all be the same.'
While the latest study suggested separated twins has similar IQs some case examples have shown the opposite.
Dr Segal has previously reported the remarkable case of two identical Korean twins separated in 1976, one raised in South Korea the other in the US after they went missing.
Tracked down 40 years later, they showed remarkably similar personality traits but differed when it came to IQ with the American twin 16 points behind her genetically identical sibling.
It bears mentioning the American twin had suffered three concussions in life that her South Korean counterpart hadn't, and this may have influenced the results.
Measuring IQ and equating it to 'intelligence' in real life has proved controversial.
For example, some experts highlight that people can score highly on IQ tests which measure logic, abstract reasoning, learning ability and memory, but struggle to apply these day to day.
Identical twins are those born from the same fertilized eggs which then splits into two genetical identical embryos.
They differ from non-identical twins which happen when two separate eggs are released and then fertilised at the same time.
Identical twins have been linked to various have been linked to various shared behaviours before.
Some studies have found twins are likely to share nail biting habits, and reports have emerged that some twins share cancer symptoms even if only one of them is suffering the disease.
Perhaps the most starting twin stories come from pairs who were separated at birth but share remarkedly similar lives.
One of the most famous examples of this are the 'Jim twins' Jim Lewis and Jim Springer who were separated at birth.
Dr Segal, who has written about their case, said that despite being raised in different environments the pair both suffered tension headaches, bit their fingernails, smoked the same cigarette brand, both enjoyed woodworking, and even vacationed on the same Florida beach.
The leading expert on twins also worked with another pair separated at birth Ann Hunt and Elizabeth Hamel who were only reunited at the age of 78.
Ann from Aldershot, Hampshire, didn’t even know she had a sibling until her daughter Samantha Stacey discovered Elizabeth while tracing their family tree.
Whereas Elizabeth always knew she had a twin but had given up hope of ever finding her, and had moved to Portland, Oregon, USA.
They have earned a place in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the longest time apart for reunited twins after their emotional reunion in Los Angeles, California.
The girls were born out of wedlock in 1936 in Aldershot and their mother Alice Patience Lamb couldn’t cope and both were to be adopted.
But domestic servant Alice couldn’t find anyone to adopt Elizabeth, because she had a curvature of the spine so only gave Ann up.
When the pair finally made contact, they both learned they had married men named Jim.
Dr Segal who funded their trip to be reunited said at the time: 'Fascinating work on separated twins shows that here are twins growing up in totally different families, sometimes even totally different cultures, and yet they bring with them similar types of attitudes - in politics, religion, social behaviour.
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Thank Walmart, not Biden or Trump, for Lower Insulin Prices
With election season upon us and polling data showing that affordable health care remains a top voter concern, President Biden and former President Donald Trump, his presumptive opponent, are both taking credit for capping insulin prices.
The back-and-forth began when Fox News’ John Roberts stated that then-President Trump had signed an executive order in 2020 to lower the price of insulin to $35 a month. Biden-Harris HQ called the statement “a blatant lie,” insisting that “Trump did not cap insulin costs, President Biden did for seniors through the Inflation Reduction Act.”
Mr. Trump struck back on Truth Social, claiming that “Low INSULIN PRICING was gotten for millions of Americans by me, and the Trump Administration, not by ... Joe Biden. He had NOTHING to do with it.”
So who deserves credit: Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump?
The answer is, neither. Rather, Walmart deserves most of the credit.
Mr. Trump’s 2020 Executive Order 13937 would have capped out-of-pocket insulin prices at $35 per month. But the executive order applied only to individuals enrolled in some 1,700 Medicare Part-D prescription drug plans administered through a small group of health services centers. Of the more than 18 million Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes, 8 million, at most, would have been affected.
The executive order, however, wasn’t scheduled to take effect until January 2021. By then, the Trump administration was history. Mr. Biden could have allowed the order to stand, but he balked.
The story doesn’t end there. In August 2022, Mr. Biden signed the mammoth catchall spending bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act, which, according to a Department of Health and Human Services summary, capped out-of-pocket insulin spending “at $35 per month’s supply of each insulin product covered under a Medicare Part D plan, with similar limits for out-of-pocket costs for insulin supplied under [Medicare] Part B.” The caps went into effect in January and July 2023, respectively.
So, the basic facts are these: If Mr. Biden hadn’t short-circuited the Trump executive order, many older Americans would have seen their insulin costs capped at $35 a month starting in January 2021, some 3½ years ago. Under the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, more seniors became eligible for price-controlled insulin in January and July of last year.
But there’s also an important backstory, which involves two political falsehoods: First, that large numbers of diabetics were paying outrageously high prices for needed insulin, and second, that the solution to this (largely nonexistent) “life-and-death” problem required Washington to step in and save the day.
Mr. Biden described his heroics at a campaign event this past spring: “It [insulin] was costing 400 bucks a month on average. It now costs $35 a month.” But as fact-checkers at PolitiFact pointed out, “One government estimate for out-of-pocket insulin costs found that people with diabetes enrolled in Medicare or private insurance paid an average of $452 a year—not a month.”
Even the HHS summary touting the Inflation Reduction Act insulin provisions conceded that there was no cost crisis: “Nationally,” HHS says, “the average out-of-pocket cost was $58 per insulin fill.”
This is where Walmart enters the picture.
The ubiquitous retailer has sold inexpensive products for people with diabetes, including its house brand insulin, ReliOn (manufactured by Novo Nordisk), for over 20 years. One formulation still costs less than $25 a vial.
This and other older insulins lack many features that more modern insulin products provide, but they are effective for many diabetics and have helped keep the price of newer insulins in check—as did the arrival, in 2019, of Eli Lilly’s Lispro, a generic insulin. Several other generics are also available.
Millions of Americans with diabetes had access to reasonably priced insulin without presidential grandstanding.
Though $35 a vial may be less than many were paying, there’s a hidden cost in what Mr. Trump attempted and Mr. Biden achieved: When politicians dictate prices, whether for a vial of insulin or any other product, economic liberty and the competitive market economy are eroded.
The best way to control prices is by encouraging competition and consumer choice. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are fighting to get credit for something that never should have been done.
https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=14972
***********************************************Single happy photo of freed Jarryd Hayne posing with his wife and lawyers sparks a furious war of words - as his high-profile barrister staunchly defends her client
I am glad to see a high profile defence of the man. Ever since the Barry Mannix case in 1984, I have always taken a particular interest in miscarriages of justice and false accusations. I have previously argued that Hayne was a victim of a false rape accusation:
https://australian-politics.blogspot.com/2024/06/was-footballer-jarryd-hayne-victim-of.html
Jarryd Hayne's barrister has become embroiled in a furious LinkedIn row where she launched an extraordinary attack on his rape accuser and defended the rugby league star's character.
Margaret Cunneen SC shared a celebratory image of Hayne, 36, with his wife Amellia Bonnici and solicitor Lauren McDougall to LinkedIn last week, with the group posing in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
In her caption, Ms Cunneen celebrated 'justice at last' - after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his rape conviction - and described the freed former Parramatta Eels star as a 'fine and decent man'.
But that did not go down well among some members of Ms Cunneen's professional network, with another senior lawyer, former barrister Michael McDonald, furiously objecting to the veteran barrister's characterisation of Hayne.
Mr McDonald said that he was pleased Hayne's 'appeal has been upheld and hope the persecution of him is finally over.'
But, he added: 'Respectfully, 'fine and decent' men do not engage in the type of conduct in which Jarryd Hayne engaged.'
Ms Cunneen fired back: 'You don't know what happened'.
She then went on to claim the footballer's trousers were unopened during his ill-fated encounter with his female accuser at New Lambton, in Newcastle, in 2018.
Mr McDonald was referring to Hayne's conduct on the night which resulted in his being charged with rape.
Hayne's criminal trials were told that he paid a taxi driver $550 to wait 46 minutes while he went into a house to have sex with a young woman.
The encounter resulted in three rape trials, two convictions and 23 months' jail time. Both convictions were eventually overturned, the latest last month.
One of the three NSW Criminal Court of Appeal judges who heard Hayne's appeal, Justice Deborah Sweeney, was opposed to putting the case before another jury, arguing a fourth trial 'would not be in the interests of justice'.
The DPP decided against running a fourth trial on June 25.
Ms Cunneen specifically thanked Justice Sweeney in her photo, saying Hayne was celebrating 'justice at last'.
But she took a different tone with Mr McDonald. 'You have not seen (the accuser's) fingernails - filed to points more than a bishop's mitre. Total 2 years? Please.'
During Hayne's trials it was alleged the woman was left bleeding after the sexual encounter, and when she complained via text she was 'hurting really badly', Hayne texted back 'go doctor tomorrow'.
Mr McDonald then replied, 'my comment comprises two sentences, let me reverse their order'.
'To be clear, his prosecution has been an absolute travesty and, like in the late Cardinal Pell's case, I was confident that he would eventually be cleared on appeal.
'However, in my humble opinion, a 'fine and decent man'; especially when he is married, and a father, would not have placed himself and his relationship with his wife and children in the place that Jarryd did.'
Hayne was not married to Amellia Bonnici in September 2018 when the 26-year-old woman who accused him of the Newcastle rape claimed she had been sexually assaulted. They were, however, already a couple.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See 
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