People ARE getting dumber (14 I.Q. points dumber)

[Lilani]

Lyndon Johnson was an epically subpar bag of shit, just like the majority of our presidents. I'm not saying 1900 was an intellectual utopia where racism and ignorance didn't exist, but rather that we were making progress, rather than regressing as we are now. Can you honestly tell me that cinema today is just as fresh and exciting as it was in the 60's? If you really think about it, everything goes through this cycle of boom and bust, including general intelligence. From my view, you are saying that intelligence in a population is static and will always be static, am I correct in this assumption?

Lyndon Johnson may not have been a great President, but that doesn't mean he couldn't learn and comprehend a lot very quickly, which seems to be the definition of "intelligence" we've decided on.

And in what ways are we regressing, exactly? I don't see anymore freak shows, a common way the average people entertained themselves all the way into the early and mid 20th century. Where they'd pay to see bearded women, deformed people, mentally ill people, and animals being abused in various ways (well, that is we don't see these things in western society, which seems to be the society you've decided is degenerating). Some of the earliest "films" people saw came from the Lumiere brothers. Just look at these: there are what people PAID to watch. And minus the music.


If you think you can dig up any stupid thing that passes for entertainment or gossip these days like Miley Cyrus twerking or memes, I promise you I can find something either as stupid or even more stupid from between the Victorian era and the mid 20th century. People have always been entertained by stupid things, if you're going to deny this then you're denying history itself. And let's see, other ways we've progressed that doesn't involve media...we've decided imperialism is sort of an assholeish way to approach foreign policy, we've decided people who aren't white males are equal, the media now has an astounding amount of clarity due to social media, the media is no longer so concerned with appeasing the government[footnote]Back during WWII, cartoons like this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA6HHgJC5BE] were made simply because all forms of media were expected to support whatever the government and military was up to, lest they essentially be accused of treason. This is also why all comic book characters during this time were so keen on taking down Hitler. It wasn't until the Vietnam war that the media finally got out from under the government's thumb and began reporting on the good, the bad, and the ugly.[/footnote], we've decided everybody deserves education whether they are rich or not, we've more or less decided forcing your religion on others isn't good, we've adopted safety and labor standards, we've decided letting the poor starve to death isn't good for anybody.

As for more recently, we've revolutionized communication, become aware of our own mistakes such as pollution and urban sprawl, have virtually eliminated certain illnesses, have begun to treat mental disorders and illnesses as legitimate and treatable medical conditions rather than curses or possession, have begun to understand sexuality and talk about it in a reasonable manner, are beginning to accept and tolerate other sexualities and lifestyles, and are taking more care with how we treat animals.

I honestly don't know if xenophobia is on the decline, I have a hankering suspicion that it's on the uptick. Back then it was all out in the open so you could at least take a semi-accurate gauge of it, nowadays it's subtle and hidden.

I think it's only on the uptick for the older and conservative groups, and only because of what's going on in the Middle East. Remember, we've still got a lot of people alive who saw segregation in action with their own eyes. The past isn't as far behind us as we think, and I think the younger generation has a habit of forgetting how little time has passed since the status quo was essentially the opposite of what it is now. That causes a lot of whiplash. Not to mention the Middle East is a hot topic right now, but I think we're finally getting to a point similar to the point Naziism[footnote]Yes, I know a Hitler comparison. Just bear with me for a minute, I promise it's related.[/footnote] brought us to during WWII. While racism was certainly still rampant after WWII, seeing what amounts to the most logical extreme of racism play out through Hitler's ambitions scared more than a few people, and for a while during WWII black troops were allowed to take to the front and worked together with other troops even from other countries.

The younger generation has never been that impressed with the war in the Middle East, and many are beginning to recognize that many over there don't want saving, and are more keen than ever to make sure nobody is attacked just for being Muslim. A while back, a mosque not far from where I live was firebombed and burned to the ground. In the wake of that, a Facebook group formed to rally support for them, and hundreds of people gathered in a nearby park to simply gather and meet with the people who lost their mosque. There were bands, lots of food, fundraising, and a love quilt was made and presented to the members of the mosque. While there are many who have been whipped up into an angry frenzy due to recent events, from what I can tell many more have been whipped up into a frenzy to be calm and rational in the face of this fear.

So while there is a sector of society that is really scared of Muslims right now (and in America hispanics, as well), there is also a large and faster growing sector of people who are tired of that sector's shit and want them to calm the fuck down. And I say "faster growing" because it's mostly young people, whose sensibilities will slowly but surely overtake the older generation's, until they are finally the older generation and the younger generation is trying to convince us to allow polyamorous groups to get married.

The only reason blacks are treated with any respect in the media is because the white establishment shit their pants during the civil rights movement. Look at asian caricatures today, practically no presence in the media, and when they are there they serve only to make white people and black people look better. Even in GTA 5, Asians are depicted as weak and stupid.

I...er...wha? Yeah, asian caricatures aren't in the media, because people don't really have the stomach for that anymore. The "Yellow Peril" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Peril] ended a long time ago. There's no audience for that, except for the sake of parody and making fun of those who do enjoy such caricatures. Remember the way the Lone Ranger bombed earlier this year? While it was disliked for many reasons, not a lot of people were impressed with the idea of Johnny Depp pretending to be a Native American. Hell such accusations were even levied against Cloud Atlas, and different souls occupying different bodies and a form of "reincarnation" was the point of that movie. There are certain stereotypes that are still accepted (That Raj guy from the Big Bang theory, for example, or the "Asians are smart" trope you pointed out), but for the most part overt racial stereotypes are mostly relegated to comedy and parody--and usually comedy and parody that is made to make fun of those who actually believe in those stereotypes. It's a tricky balance, for sure. People are more or less okay with a super brainy Asian or Indian with a thick accent, but the moment you call that Asian yellow or you break out a black person eating watermelon and fried chicken with a side of kool-aid and you've got yourself a shitstorm that will never end.

In general, whatever the media chooses to do these days as far as race presentation or racial stereotypes has to do with demographics, not with actual racism. Many studios and film conglomerates and such still believe their primary target audience is white, heterosexual males between the ages of ~15 and 30. So they make characters and situations to appeal to them, which happens to include lots of white guys being the main hero and lots of pandering to the heterosexual male gaze. The studio bigwigs who enforce these conventions aren't out to deliberately poorly present other races, they're just trying to make money. Back in the day they used racism because that's what appealed to that audience, but while the demographic has remained the same the interests of that demographic has changed. They're still aiming for white males between 15 and 30, but now that white male doesn't really like racism and is slowly getting over homophobia. Ain't no TV or movie producer got time for personal agendas--there's too much money to be made.

 

[gavinmcinns]

Lyndon Johnson may not have been a great President, but that doesn't mean he couldn't learn and comprehend a lot very quickly, which seems to be the definition of "intelligence" we've decided on.

And in what ways are we regressing, exactly? I don't see anymore freak shows, a common way the average people entertained themselves all the way into the early and mid 20th century. Where they'd pay to see bearded women, deformed people, mentally ill people, and animals being abused in various ways (well, that is we don't see these things in western society, which seems to be the society you've decided is degenerating). Some of the earliest "films" people saw came from the Lumiere brothers. Just look at these: there are what people PAID to watch. And minus the music.

and yet we still shows like honey boo boo child and octomom, how exactly have we progressed from the days when we paid to watch freak shows? The only difference is that now people pay subscription fee instead of on a pay per view basis.

we've decided imperialism is sort of an assholeish way to approach foreign policy, we've decided people who aren't white males are equal, the media now has an astounding amount of clarity due to social media, the media is no longer so concerned with appeasing the government[footnote]Back during WWII, cartoons like this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA6HHgJC5BE] were made simply because all forms of media were expected to support whatever the government and military was up to, lest they essentially be accused of treason. This is also why all comic book characters during this time were so keen on taking down Hitler. It wasn't until the Vietnam war that the media finally got out from under the government's thumb and began reporting on the good, the bad, and the ugly.[/footnote],

When did we stop being imperial? We went to Iraq to secure oil contracts for more than a decade and just recently "left". And your'e talking about short attention spans? The mainstream media is at this point a mere attachment of the us government. We had 15 major media outlets at one point, now I can count them on one hand, and among those that remain, their interests are so closely aligned. I believe this is what we call oligopoly. And it's not just the media, every single sector from tech to retail to pharma to finance is dominated by unimaginable in scale moneyed interests. How is that better? For a majority of the country, growth has stagnated, so much that the middle class is receding for the first time in a significant amount of time. Worse than that, you've got large pockets of isolated communities that are regressing into something pretty damn scary if you ask me.

we've decided everybody deserves education whether they are rich or not, we've more or less decided forcing your religion on others isn't good, we've adopted safety and labor standards, we've decided letting the poor starve to death isn't good for anybody.

You clearly dont live in America, education is always one of the first things to get cut, and poor minority neigborhoods always get their schools slashed first. I vast majority of americans are Christians, and the politicians use Christianity to manipulate people into goign along with the slashing of their social security, while corporations slice up pensions as they approach maturity and everyone just turns a blind eye. Republicans just passed a bill slicing food stamps by 40 billion dollars, food that was going to hungry kids and the working poor among others http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/us/politics/house-passes-bill-cutting-40-billion-from-food-stamps.html?_r=0
How exactly is this better than when this country saw real progressive change in the 60's? Even Nixon became a fierece progressive in the final days of his presidency with OSHA and other achievements.

I think it's only on the uptick for the older and conservative groups, and only because of what's going on in the Middle East. Remember, we've still got a lot of people alive who saw segregation in action with their own eyes. The past isn't as far behind us as we think, and I think the younger generation has a habit of forgetting how little time has passed since the status quo was essentially the opposite of what it is now.

Bull poop. The status quo has not changed a lick in 40 damn years save some important exceptions like for gay rights. Social mobility is decreasing in the US.

The younger generation has never been that impressed with the war in the Middle East, and many are beginning to recognize that many over there don't want saving, and are more keen than ever to make sure nobody is attacked just for being Muslim. A while back, a mosque not far from where I live was firebombed and burned to the ground. In the wake of that, a Facebook group formed to rally support for them, and hundreds of people gathered in a nearby park to simply gather and meet with the people who lost their mosque. There were bands, lots of food, fundraising, and a love quilt was made and presented to the members of the mosque. While there are many who have been whipped up into an angry frenzy due to recent events, from what I can tell many more have been whipped up into a frenzy to be calm and rational in the face of this fear.

and yet you have a world community that sits idle and allows their governments to commit atrocities to preserve their cushy lifestyles.

tldr

 

[Lilani]

and yet we still shows like honey boo boo child and octomom, how exactly have we progressed from the days when we paid to watch freak shows? The only difference is that now people pay subscription fee instead of on a pay per view basis.

Oh I am so glad you asked that, because I will tell you exactly why. Freak shows exploited people who would usually want to be in another situation, but due to their disabilities and lack of prospects had no other choice but to sell themselves as objects to be ridiculed. It wasn't just about making fun of people who are different--it was a system which trapped, exploited, and abused. The way the people were treated would be completely criminal these days, hell in the ones who were really mentally disabled were essentially prisoners who were taken around and shown like caged monkeys.

Shows like Honey Boo Boo are calculated and consensual marketing stunts. Yes it's stupid people doing stupid things for the spectacle of it, but it's all on purpose. They know exactly what they're doing, they know exactly why people watch them, and they're exploiting themselves because they want to. Everything they do and show is carefully calculated, and unlike the freak shows of the past they are free to jump off the train the moment they don't like it anymore. They're spectacles because they want to be spectacles, not because they have no other choice or are regarded as subhuman.

When did we stop being imperial? We went to Iraq to secure oil contracts for more than a decade and just recently "left". And your'e talking about short attention spans? The mainstream media is at this point a mere attachment of the us government. We had 15 major media outlets at one point, now I can count them on one hand, and among those that remain, their interests are so closely aligned. I believe this is what we call oligopoly. And it's not just the media, every single sector from tech to retail to pharma to finance is dominated by unimaginable in scale moneyed interests. How is that better? For a majority of the country, growth has stagnated, so much that the middle class is receding for the first time in a significant amount of time. Worse than that, you've got large pockets of isolated communities that are regressing into something pretty damn scary if you ask me.

In Iraq we were after something absolute: oil. Imperialism and Manifest Destiny in the past wasn't just fueled by a desire to find resources--it was fueled by an idea that we had some sort of God-given duty to tame and civilize all the savage, un-Christian brown people in the world. While there are connotations of that in the way many regard Iraq and the middle east, ultimately they wouldn't have picked the fight JUST to try and "civilize" them. In that respect, we have improved.

And what do you mean we don't have many major media outlets? Again, with social media and the Internet, we've got more media outlets than you can shake a forest of sticks at with more perspectives than you could achieve with a hundred thousand kaleidoscopes. FOX, CNN, BBC, Daily Mail, Tel Aviv, MSNBC, CBS, NPR, Colbert, Jon Stewart, The Young Turks, i09, TMZ, Vlog Brothers, 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper, Kotaku. Hell, do you even realize we're having this conversation on a video game news web site? While all of these sources have different goals in mind and don't report on the same things, they're still sources of information we consume as "news" of some sort. We've got more people from more diverse backgrounds talking about stuff that's happening in the world than we have ever had before.

You clearly dont live in America, education is always one of the first things to get cut, and poor minority neigborhoods always get their schools slashed first. I vast majority of americans are Christians, and the politicians use Christianity to manipulate people into goign along with the slashing of their social security, while corporations slice up pensions as they approach maturity and everyone just turns a blind eye. Republicans just passed a bill slicing food stamps by 40 billion dollars, food that was going to hungry kids and the working poor among others http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/us/politics/house-passes-bill-cutting-40-billion-from-food-stamps.html?_r=0
How exactly is this better than when this country saw real progressive change in the 60's? Even Nixon became a fierece progressive in the final days of his presidency with OSHA and other achievements.

As a matter of fact I do live in America, and last I checked while we do need to do some serious re-prioritizing with our education, I don't see it becoming optional or flat-out denied to the poor anytime soon, as it was back in the Victorian era. And again, while there are politicians who would like our safety-nets to disappear, it is much harder to starve to death than it was back in the Victorian era, or hell even back during the Great Depression. Things were so bad in the Depression that fathers were abandoning their families because they were so ashamed they couldn't provide for them. And do you know why Charles Dickens wrote so many stories about the poor, like Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol? Because that was a pretty good measure of how the poor were regarded at the time. The poor were either in prisons or workhouses where they were literally worked to death, and children who were unfortunate enough to not have parents were severely mistreated and abused and had to resort to stealing to feed themselves. While there are some children like that today, there are many more resources at their disposal. The desperately poor of today live like kings compared to the desperately poor that lived 100-200 years ago.

Bull poop. The status quo has not changed a lick in 40 damn years save some important exceptions like for gay rights. Social mobility is decreasing in the US.

Gay rights is an issue of civil rights, not of social mobility. And please, if things haven't changed since the 70s, then tell me why we have a Black president. Back in the 70s they were still desegregating schools and having trouble enforcing it in the south.

and yet you have a world community that sits idle and allows their governments to commit atrocities to preserve their cushy lifestyles.

You mean like the atrocities committed during the industrial revolution for the sake of preserving the richness of the rich? You mean like the atrocities committed against minorities and women to maintain the status quo and social pecking order the privileged enjoyed for centuries? You mean like the atrocities committed against the poor and native peoples of other countries to preserve the privileged feelings of superiority by allowing them to feel as though they're doing them a kindness by conquering them? Please. The grass is the same shade of brown on both sides of this fence. At least now we've no longer convinced ourselves we actually have the moral high ground--it all comes down to money. Back then they wouldn't stop until they felt good and mighty over whomever they'd conquered, no matter how much humiliation and subjugation it took. At least now we try to stop the moment we stop making money. And with social media and access to recording technology we have a level of clarity and accountability that has never existed before.

 

[LAGG]

not to mention this chart is absolute balls:

I mean, take half a second and actually study that chart, it's so full of crap you could stick it in a slurry tank and use it as fertilizer.

Every single country depicted on that graph the "average IQ" for every single country listed is higher in 2010 than it was in 1950, which to me would directly disprove the entire point of this whole article. Yet the overall Average IQ counter (in dark blue) plummets uniformly for no freaking observable reason unless they are actually hiding the important data that showing a falling of IQ, because it sure as hell isn't related to the main countries listed on that graph, which as I stated earlier, are all rising uniformly directly opposing the whole argument that IQ in these countries is falling!

The country listings is for the population, not IQ.

 

[Naeras]

I'd rather play any of the mario 64 clones over another dead space any day of the week. At least there were alternatives back then, nowadays it seems every shooter has to follow the same formula every, single, time. Even Rockstar seems to be falling back on formula, it seems like they didn't improve any of the mechanics from 4-red dead- 5, which is a bit disappointing.

First off, that's a matter of taste. I'd love to see more colorful platformer-games a-la the late 1990s/early 2000s rather than brown shooters, but I know people who can't stand platformers in the slightest. And that's fine.
And no, you wouldn't want to play most of those "released in the wake of SM64"-platformers, because they usually lacked both the things that made SM64 such a revolutionary game: great controls and level design. It was controller-throwingly frustrating a lot of the time, compared to a lot of the shooters being released today that are merely bland.

Secondly, if you think that "there are no alternatives today", you're seriously not looking hard enough.

And thirdly, the whole "improving on mechanics"-thing was something that was way easier to do back in the day, when mechanics were either fairly simple or relatively unintuitive. For example, improving on the mechanics of Baldur's Gate was a relatively simple task to do for sequels and spin-offs, because the mechanics of that game were meh at best. Expecting that games will improve on the mechanics of its predecessors every time is just silly.
...that being said, I whole-heartedly agree that pretty much everything Rockstar makes could use an overhaul on mechanics, because lackluster mechanics are the very reason why I don't like Rockstar-games. =/

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

And I think it's overstated this: "Correlation doesn't imply causation". That is inaccurate, there are many many many many instances where correlation does imply causation, particularly when the correlation coefficient approaches 1.

If you're going to trawl scientific studies to back up your own personal opinions (the exact opposite of how responsible scientists/philosophers operate), at least get a better understanding of how science works. Correlation does not imply causation. This is SO important to remember. It doesn't matter whether the "coefficient approaches 1".

For example, 100% of all murders were committed by someone with red blood. This is a correlation. If correlation implied causation, you would draw the conclusion "having red blood causes you to commit murder." You might even say, "we need to research a way to change the colour of our blood, to stop all this senseless murder!"
That is obviously completely insane, but the only reason that's obvious to you is because we understand the actual causes of murder.

Right now, there is absolutely no causative method of measuring intelligence. This would involve determining the cause of intelligence (something like 'counting your brain cells', except way more sophisticated) and then measuring it.

And testing things like IQ, reaction time, memory, income, education level, creativity, etc. ALL have serious problems when it comes to accuracy.
IQ in particular. Did you know it was originally invented by a eugenicist called Francis Galton as a way to "prove" that white European men were superior to everyone else? It's the same basic test we use today, it just gets tweaked every time a certain group of people score below average. In fact, on some versions of the IQ test, if you put down that you're a 65+ year old black woman, you'll get an automatic +20 to your score.

 

[Echopunk]

A result within the range of standard deviation isn't concrete evidence of anything. I don't put much stock in IQ tests. When I was in elementary school, I flunked out of an academic excellence program with three zeroes in one day. The school recommended a battery of tests to see if I had a learning disability. After the first batch of testing, a second was ordered. Nobody seemed to believe my results, as I'd always been a poor student. After the third set of tests, my IQ was settled at 186.

Did I go to Harvard at 15 and become a doctor? No.

I have an almost photo- and phonographic memory. I never studied much for my classes, I just memorized the pages of the book. In anatomy and physiology, I would close my eyes and flip through the textbook and lab manual during exams.

I also found that if I read/memorized something with a piece of music playing, all I had to do to recall what I'd read was to listen to the same piece of music again. I'd read a text book while listening to a cd, and then before an exam when everyone was cramming at the last minute before the professor showed up at the door (which is terrible to do, because it depletes your neurotransmitter levels and makes it harder to recall the information you spend so much time drilling before the test), I would just pop in the ear buds and relax with some Sonic Youth or At the Drive-In and do my studying "automatically."

I remember entire conversations, verbatim, from fifteen years ago. I also happen to suffer from mild dyscalculia and dyslexia (or is that lysdexica?).

IQ doesn't mean anything, except that a person might have the potential to excel. Of course, that and fifty cents will get you... not a whole hell of a lot anymore, thanks to inflation.

If you really want evidence that people's brains are trending toward the smooth side of the scale, just look at the majority of what passes for entertainment these days. While giving blood this afternoon I was more or less forced to bear witness to one of the Michael Bay transformer movies, whichever one has the Devastator hybrid. As soon as it appeared, my first thought was "physics does not work that way." Of course, when the camera went in for a low angle and revealed that the devastator had a pair of wrecking balls for testicles, I rolled my eyes so hard I briefly feared that I had detached a retina.

Our memory and intelligence are decentralized. It only takes a computer or tablet with an internet connection and the basic ability to type to give someone the appearance of erudition. Watching the way a friend's kids process and use information gave me concern. There was no effort to learn why something worked, or to understand it. All they needed to do was read an article or watch a video and they were able to do something. More often than not, knowledge obtained in that way is not as easily transferred from one task to another.

 

[Axolotl]

-snip-

Girls is drivel,

I didn't ask how good you though it was. I asked if you thought it was stupider than I Love Lucy. It's pretty telling that you didn't answer that.

as is most of breaking bad, the pacing in that show is really bad, but there are moments that elevate it to goodness.

And? It's still better than the vast piles of crap that dominated TV until the 2000's

Back when pcs were dominant in the market, there were more roguelikes and strategy games.

Roguelikes maybe but strategy games are both still alive and much more complex than they used to be. Also as I said back then the industry was so constricting that the best and most creative developer around gave a half hour speech about how much it sucked before storming out of the industry.

 

[gavinmcinns]

A result within the range of standard deviation isn't concrete evidence of anything. I don't put much stock in IQ tests. When I was in elementary school, I flunked out of an academic excellence program with three zeroes in one day. The school recommended a battery of tests to see if I had a learning disability. After the first batch of testing, a second was ordered. Nobody seemed to believe my results, as I'd always been a poor student. After the third set of tests, my IQ was settled at 186.

Did I go to Harvard at 15 and become a doctor? No.

I have an almost photo- and phonographic memory. I never studied much for my classes, I just memorized the pages of the book. In anatomy and physiology, I would close my eyes and flip through the textbook and lab manual during exams.

I also found that if I read/memorized something with a piece of music playing, all I had to do to recall what I'd read was to listen to the same piece of music again. I'd read a text book while listening to a cd, and then before an exam when everyone was cramming at the last minute before the professor showed up at the door (which is terrible to do, because it depletes your neurotransmitter levels and makes it harder to recall the information you spend so much time drilling before the test), I would just pop in the ear buds and relax with some Sonic Youth or At the Drive-In and do my studying "automatically."

I remember entire conversations, verbatim, from fifteen years ago. I also happen to suffer from mild dyscalculia and dyslexia (or is that lysdexica?).

IQ doesn't mean anything, except that a person might have the potential to excel. Of course, that and fifty cents will get you... not a whole hell of a lot anymore, thanks to inflation.

If you really want evidence that people's brains are trending toward the smooth side of the scale, just look at the majority of what passes for entertainment these days. While giving blood this afternoon I was more or less forced to bear witness to one of the Michael Bay transformer movies, whichever one has the Devastator hybrid. As soon as it appeared, my first thought was "physics does not work that way." Of course, when the camera went in for a low angle and revealed that the devastator had a pair of wrecking balls for testicles, I rolled my eyes so hard I briefly feared that I had detached a retina.

Our memory and intelligence are decentralized. It only takes a computer or tablet with an internet connection and the basic ability to type to give someone the appearance of erudition. Watching the way a friend's kids process and use information gave me concern. There was no effort to learn why something worked, or to understand it. All they needed to do was read an article or watch a video and they were able to do something. More often than not, knowledge obtained in that way is not as easily transferred from one task to another.

At the Drive in is my favorite band ever, gonna go look for my In-Casino-Out cd in my car right now.

If you're anything like me you've listened to their discography 100's of times over, if I tried your studying techniques I'd be writing down the recipe for waffles during an exam or something. How do you segregate the pairings Hudson Hawk?

I didn't need a study to tell me that people are getting softer in the head, I've got my life experiences to do that for me. Like your wrecking ball testicles example, entertainment has become a collection of short gags that don't require an attention span. Throw a fart in it and maybe an ethnic person doing something zany and you've got your #1 comedy of all time, that is until next year when they do another hangover that has two farts and a naked indonesian this time

 

[Strazdas]

IQ can NEVER be compared over time. this is because IQ isnt a static measurement. IQ shifts with intelligence of population. 100IQ is average IQ of all population sample now, it was 100 years ago and it will be 100 years after. That is not to say people were of equal intelligence. They dont take a bunch of people, measure them and determine their IQ. they take a bunch of people ,average them, set average at 100 and create the scale around them. The scele itself moves.
You could only compare it if you were to use same scale people used at time X for all times, but such data is impossible to find since noone every does that.

I.Q. as a measure of true intellect or ability is about as useful as feathers on a fish. The whole field is a minefield of sociological, psychological and environmental factors that quite simply cannot be broken down into a 45 minute standardized test.

You are of course aware that a real IQ test takes around 6 hours, is personalized by person psichiatrist and even has a diet routine to best represent your intelligence, right?
Those 45 minute internet tests are as fake as those cotracts that sold you brookling bridge.

IQ really isnt an accurate measurement of intelligence

There are many intelligent people that suck at math -_-

Math tests are only 1 of 7 IQ tests that are needed to determine IQ.

I'd like to you define what 14 points of IQ mean. In hard facts, mind you. Not some subjective score that many people are throwing because herp derp IQ is better.

Ill bite.
YOur intelligence quotient is 14% lower than the average human currently alive if your IQ is 14 bellow 100, meaning 86. IQ test consists of many parts, some of which i have forgotten, but they do involve mathematical, critical, geometric thinking, emotional stability, reaction time to new information and plenty of other things. Meh, i should have written this thing down somewhere. oh well.
That is not to say that all of those parts are 14% lower, but on average you are. you could be a mathematical genius and still ahve low IQ score if mathematical thinking is all you have.

Whilst the volume would increase, you've given no reason why the proportions would change, so in theory average IQ scores should have remained vaguely constant.

inproportional increase. It is no secret that people with higher IQ tend to have less children. there are many factors why this happen, such as smarter people have less "Accidental" children, they are more likely plan the family size, thus often limiting it, ect ect. now it is very muich uncertain how much effect genetics have on this, but if it has significant effect the proportion can change.

 

[Echopunk]

At the Drive in is my favorite band ever, gonna go look for my In-Casino-Out cd in my car right now.

If you're anything like me you've listened to their discography 100's of times over, if I tried your studying techniques I'd be writing down the recipe for waffles during an exam or something. How do you segregate the pairings Hudson Hawk?

I didn't need a study to tell me that people are getting softer in the head, I've got my life experiences to do that for me. Like your wrecking ball testicles example, entertainment has become a collection of short gags that don't require an attention span. Throw a fart in it and maybe an ethnic person doing something zany and you've got your #1 comedy of all time, that is until next year when they do another hangover that has two farts and a naked indonesian this time

Anatomy and Physiology I & II were Sonic Youth's "Dirty". The novel Tai-Pan was Sonic Youth's "Washing Machine" ( I still flash on the book when I listen to the album ten years later!) I used to put Confusion is Sex on whenever I was taking my pain killers for a severe injury. I will actually start feeling a little messed up, like I've just taken something, if I listen to that album.

Relationship of Command was too dense to use for studying. I listened to that album so much that it makes me picture this whole collage of events. It pretty much covers me driving around, going on dates, having people over, having a lot of fun, being on my own for the first time, etc. I have a huge chunk of life paired with that album in my brain.

In/Casino/Out is another disc I almost wore through from listening to it so much. Devil Amongst the Tailors is IT certification coursework. Apparently, I also used to start reciting the lyrics to that one when I drank heavily. The disc also makes me flash on Sociology class as well as Calculus.

Acrobatic Tenement makes me think of a lot of anime movies. The girl I was dating at the time was heavily into anime, and we used to go rent stuff all the time, and I played Acrobatic Tenement in the car for most of the trips. As insane as it sounds, my first thought when I typed Acrobatic Tenement was "Ninja Scroll", "Black Magic M-66."

Vaya is the campus at night, and English Comp 2.


Sort of off topic (like the above wasn't) - The Hangover 2 reduced everything from the first one to the lowest possible denominator. I saw both movies in their uncut states, and then settled on the first one when it came on a basic cable channel. The edited version was actually funnier. Some of the gross-out/over the top stuff worked so much better as a euphemism. It felt like a smarter movie, and I found myself feeling less guilty for laughing at parts of it than I did the uncut version.

Kind of back on topic - Recently, I had to start taking prescription painkillers for an old injury again. I have found that when I'm on something, certain movies and tv shows become less objectionable (Abraham Lincon Vampire Hunter and Tosh.0, for example). I actually found myself enjoying some things lately that I wouldn't have given the time of day too other wise. What does it say about the state of our entertainment when someone has to chemically turn off part of their brain (or at least shift into a lower gear) in order to enjoy it?

 

[gavinmcinns]

Anatomy and Physiology I & II were Sonic Youth's "Dirty". The novel Tai-Pan was Sonic Youth's "Washing Machine" ( I still flash on the book when I listen to the album ten years later!) I used to put Confusion is Sex on whenever I was taking my pain killers for a severe injury. I will actually start feeling a little messed up, like I've just taken something, if I listen to that album.

Relationship of Command was too dense to use for studying. I listened to that album so much that it makes me picture this whole collage of events. It pretty much covers me driving around, going on dates, having people over, having a lot of fun, being on my own for the first time, etc. I have a huge chunk of life paired with that album in my brain.

In/Casino/Out is another disc I almost wore through from listening to it so much. Devil Amongst the Tailors is IT certification coursework. Apparently, I also used to start reciting the lyrics to that one when I drank heavily. The disc also makes me flash on Sociology class as well as Calculus.

Acrobatic Tenement makes me think of a lot of anime movies. The girl I was dating at the time was heavily into anime, and we used to go rent stuff all the time, and I played Acrobatic Tenement in the car for most of the trips. As insane as it sounds, my first thought when I typed Acrobatic Tenement was "Ninja Scroll", "Black Magic M-66."

Vaya is the campus at night, and English Comp 2.


Sort of off topic (like the above wasn't) - The Hangover 2 reduced everything from the first one to the lowest possible denominator. I saw both movies in their uncut states, and then settled on the first one when it came on a basic cable channel. The edited version was actually funnier. Some of the gross-out/over the top stuff worked so much better as a euphemism. It felt like a smarter movie, and I found myself feeling less guilty for laughing at parts of it than I did the uncut version.

Kind of back on topic - Recently, I had to start taking prescription painkillers for an old injury again. I have found that when I'm on something, certain movies and tv shows become less objectionable (Abraham Lincon Vampire Hunter and Tosh.0, for example). I actually found myself enjoying some things lately that I wouldn't have given the time of day too other wise. What does it say about the state of our entertainment when someone has to chemically turn off part of their brain (or at least shift into a lower gear) in order to enjoy it?

Washing machine is pretty cool, first time I'm listening to it, Sounds like a song I would make. What other music are you interested in?

I had all their albums and eps and what I couldn't find at the store i torrented (atdi) and there was just a solid year where that is all I listened to like 16 hour road trips and everything.

Ninja scroll is dope maybe I'll check out that black magic one you mentioned.

I remember being 16 and listening to acrobatic and being like "what the fuck is this". Amazing album. I even liked Hell Paso. My favorite thing to put on was the El Gran Orgo ep. Picket fence cartel is a great song. Fuck so is metronome cartel. I'm gonna have to go back and listen to everything again.

Tried to see them for the reunion tour but didnt work out, got a coachella camrip from somebody and it was incredible. I don't know if you follow them that closely but that was around the time omar's mom died. His performance was kind of shitty but Cedric totally made up for it. Amazing performer, normally they suck at big venues but Cedric can really flex chops with more confidence with atdi.

Tosh.0 can be fine at times, I really can't say because I dont have tv but from a few years ago I remember it being at least occasionally funny.

Hangover 2 is irredeemable in my eyes. And so is the first one. I just have an overpowering anti bradley cooper and more importantly galfikinesis bias.

EDIT: Fucking with your brain can yield nice things if you are using the right tools. Just ask steve jobs (ghost).