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Are humans getting dumber?
startribune.com ^
| Updated: November 13, 2012 - 2:58 PM
| Colleen Stoxen
Posted on 11/13/2012 3:24:37 PM PST by BenLurkin
click here to read article
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To: BenLurkin
21
posted on
11/13/2012 4:28:13 PM PST
by
Dallas59
(President Robert Gibbs 2009-2011)
To: BenLurkin
The great thing about it is that if I'm transported to the future....I'll become presidetn... prezident.
22
posted on
11/13/2012 4:30:17 PM PST
by
Dallas59
(President Robert Gibbs 2009-2011)
To: Dallas59
23
posted on
11/13/2012 4:32:09 PM PST
by
dfwgator
To: Dallas59
24
posted on
11/13/2012 4:33:08 PM PST
by
BenLurkin
(This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
To: BenLurkin
The trend in developed and developing nations is UP. This is largely a function of better nutrition and less childhood disease.
25
posted on
11/13/2012 4:40:27 PM PST
by
allmendream
(Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
To: BenLurkin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
The Flynn effect is the substantial and long-sustained increase in intelligence test scores measured in many parts of the world from roughly 1930 to the present day. When intelligence quotient (IQ) tests are initially standardized using a sample of test-takers, by convention the average of the test results is set to 100 and their standard deviation is set to 15 or 16 IQ points. When IQ tests are revised, they are again standardized using a new sample of test-takers, usually born more recently than the first. Again, the average result is set to 100. However, when the new test subjects take the older tests, in almost every case their average scores are significantly above 100.
Improved nutrition is another possible explanation. Today’s average adult from an industrialized nation is taller than a comparable adult of a century ago. That increase of stature, likely the result of general improvements of nutrition and health, has been at a rate of more than a centimeter per decade. Available data suggest that these gains have been accompanied by analogous increases of head size, and by an increase in the average size of the brain.
26
posted on
11/13/2012 4:46:34 PM PST
by
allmendream
(Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
To: BenLurkin
Mrs. Lurkin has letters written by one of her ancestors during the Civil War. Mind you, this was a young man who had been raised on a farm, but his diction, grammer and pensmanship is superior to that of most of todays college students.I have two long letters written by one of my great-grandfathers during the war in 1861 and '62. He was a farmer turned Confederate soldier. His writing is the same as you describe in your wife's ancestor's letters. It is a real eye opener.
27
posted on
11/13/2012 4:47:21 PM PST
by
Inyo-Mono
(My greatest fear is that when I'm gone my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them)
To: Dallas59
“It’s got what plants crave.”
28
posted on
11/13/2012 4:52:49 PM PST
by
EEGator
To: dfwgator
29
posted on
11/13/2012 4:54:52 PM PST
by
Dallas59
(President Robert Gibbs 2009-2011)
To: DoctorBulldog
"Knowledge without wisdom is a load of books on the back of an ass."
Common sense is not common.
30
posted on
11/13/2012 5:03:04 PM PST
by
Manic_Episode
(Some days...it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps....)
To: BenLurkin
"allows people to focus on becoming an expert in one thing we no longer need a wide breadth of knowledge"That answers the question. The knowledge is just deeper, not wider.
Hell,we've probably absorbed more by the time we are five years old than any Athenians did in a generation.
Impeach the kenyan or secession.
31
posted on
11/13/2012 5:03:10 PM PST
by
ex91B10
(We've tried the Soap Box,the Ballot Box and the Jury Box; ONE BOX LEFT!)
To: chemicalman
Yep. A lot of dumb people out there with smart phones.Yeah, but what about those smart phones, eh? Who the heck makes these things? We make a big deal about Newton and Einstein, but what about "Moore's Law", which essentially predicted and predicts the exponential growth in the power of Silicon technology. How can this be? How can you predict such a rule which has lasted now for decades? I mean, WHO ARE THESE GUYS?
32
posted on
11/13/2012 6:30:56 PM PST
by
dr_lew
To: BenLurkin
................uh...................what was the question again?
33
posted on
11/13/2012 7:37:28 PM PST
by
Newtoidaho
(Fight organized crime. Vote out all incumbent Democrats!)
To: BenLurkin
34
posted on
11/13/2012 7:43:42 PM PST
by
Dr.Deth
To: chemicalman
I stopped buying new smart phones when they got smarter than me.
35
posted on
11/13/2012 8:44:46 PM PST
by
Erasmus
(Zwischen des Teufels und des tiefen, blauen Meers)
To: dr_lew
They not coming out the ghettos rapping or hip hopping.
36
posted on
11/13/2012 8:48:05 PM PST
by
chemicalman
(The more support I see,the harder I want to work,and the more determined I am not to let folks down.)
To: BenLurkin
I have been wondering for a while if some of the stupidness of people isn't because of the degeneration of the gene pool. I have also wondered if so many people losing it and killing or maiming other people isn't in part because people have lost some of the information in genes that regulates behavior in their brains. People, on the whole, seem to be getting worse all the time as far as not being able to think clearly or also cope.
37
posted on
11/13/2012 9:31:01 PM PST
by
Bellflower
(The LORD is Holy, separated from all sin, perfect, righteous, high and lifted up.)
To: DoctorBulldog
Of course, the ancient Greeks did figure out that the earth orbits the sun, and well before that Homer described intricate mechanical contrivances depicting entire scenes of human activity ( Iliad 18. ) This chapter also introduces the word “automaton” to the modern age in reference to “tripod” lampstands which move by themselves in response to the wishes of the god.
In a way, it’s more astounding that they thought of these things when they were still so far from actually producing them.
38
posted on
11/13/2012 10:16:15 PM PST
by
dr_lew
To: BenLurkin
True in some ways. The advent of books meant that we no longer had to keep a large amount of facts in memory.
39
posted on
11/13/2012 11:44:04 PM PST
by
Cronos
(**Marriage is about commitment, cohabitation is about convenience.**)
To: BenLurkin
In modern society, where class and social status is determined by profession and income, not by birthright and caste (as in medieval times for example) smart marries smart and not-smart marries not-smart. But the not-smart couples tend to birth more babies. So ...
40
posted on
11/14/2012 8:03:32 AM PST
by
teflon9
(Political campaigns should follow Johnny Mercer's advice--Accentuate the positive.)
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