:sunglasses: 22.9 % :pray: 11.4 % :laughing: 34.3 % :cry: 25.7 % :poo: 5.7 %
User avatar
By Boiler
#86674
Just what the world needs.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ypdy05jl9o
For the last five years, they have spread the word about their goal by opening up their home for interviews and photoshoots. They claim to have used special technology, during the IVF process, to screen their embryos for traits such as intelligence.

"The studies let us know what our genetic predilection for IQ is," they told an undercover reporter in 2023. "We will never choose a child who is less privileged in IQ than either of us."
By Bones McCoy
#86685
Killer Whale wrote: Wed Apr 02, 2025 7:20 am Why are the septics so obsessed with IQ as a measure of, well, anything really? No-one else takes it seriously, do they?
It's a broken metric whose historic audit trail "proved" - white people are smarter.

It's also the most transparent lie to say "My IQ is 250" - folk on twitter love that.
User avatar
By Malcolm Armsteen
#86687
It is a flawed but useful metric. In analysis of performance, say. See Gardner and analysis of types of intelligence. Intelligence, as an indicator of mental capacity, exists, but in the UK we are not supposed to mention it. Often the difficulties of measuring general intelligence, g, are used to decry the whole concept.

As Professor Carol Fitzgibbon of Durham once said to me, intelligence is far and away the greatest factor in individual success - and it is.

Also completely traduced, as in so many Facebook memes 'Only people with an IQ of 999 can read this 4 letter word...'.
By Bones McCoy
#86713
Malcolm Armsteen wrote: Wed Apr 02, 2025 3:04 pm It is a flawed but useful metric. In analysis of performance, say. See Gardner and analysis of types of intelligence. Intelligence, as an indicator of mental capacity, exists, but in the UK we are not supposed to mention it. Often the difficulties of measuring general intelligence, g, are used to decry the whole concept.

As Professor Carol Fitzgibbon of Durham once said to me, intelligence is far and away the greatest factor in individual success - and it is.

Also completely traduced, as in so many Facebook memes 'Only people with an IQ of 999 can read this 4 letter word...'.
If I remember correctly, the eleven plus was called a "verbal reasoning" test.
My primary school had a few of the cleverest people do some other assessments that seemed very similar.
I saw IQ tests soon after, which seemed cut form the same cloth.

A bit of language, occasionally verging on comprehension.
A bit of arithmetic, occasionally verging on algebra.
And some geometry.


Much later I've seen illustrations of "N-intelligences" (where N seems to vary between 8 and 12).
This chimes better with me, as it illustrates stuff I'm very good at, and stuff I'm very poor at.

The name Howard Gardner springs to mind, but a web search for multiple intelligences is also worth a gander.

I'm recounting this here, because - too late in life - I found a way to know my strengths and weaknesses.
Know yourself as Master Sun Tzu wrote.
The simple list provided excellent clues about why I'd been good at some stuff, but failed badly at seeming adjacent disciplines.

I commend a little research to everybody reading here.
User avatar
By Boiler
#86963
More to the point, here in the UK we did have US-style cars for sale around the turn of this century - Chryslers mostly, and the odd Cadillac too. Thing is, most people found out that they weren't that good and they disappeared again.

Remember the odd retro-styled PT Cruiser, the huge 300C, the Neon? Can't remember the Caddy, I think it was the STS?

(ETA; Jeep are still sold in the UK.)

Also, it was interference from Dearborn that made the last Ford Zephyr/Zodiac an engineering disaster area, especially in its handling - earning it the epithet of "The Flying Pig" amongst police drivers.
Last edited by Boiler on Mon Apr 07, 2025 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
By Bones McCoy
#86966
This is just a variant of the common MAGA delusion, which goes something like this.
America makes all the stuff, then gives it away to the world at knock down prices.
It comes with a hefty dose of cognitive dissonance, usually in the one-two combo of:
1. Europe would starve without our farmers.
2. Europe is blocking our farm goods.

It neatly avoids the fact that the USA has always been comfortable with its heroes behaving like gangsters, and making heroes of gangsters.
Boiler, Spoonman, Oboogie liked this
  • 1
  • 151
  • 152
  • 153
  • 154
  • 155
Labour Government 2024 - ?

There's a lot of trade expertise and diplomat[…]

Trump 2.0 Lunacy

Can anybody explain where Trump is getting this […]

Keir Starmer

What a load of old cobblers.

Fair enough.