Posted on 07/27/2010 5:52:56 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Global differences in intelligence is a sensitive topic, long fraught with controversy and still tinged by the disgraceful taint of pseudosciences such as craniometry that strove to prove the white “race” as the most clever of them all. But recent data, perplexingly, has indeed shown cognitive ability to be higher in some countries than in others. What’s more, IQ scores have risen as nations develop—a phenomenon known as the “Flynn effect.” Many causes have been proposed for both the intelligence gap and the Flynn effect, including education, income, and even nonagricultural labor. Now, a new study from researchers at the University of New Mexico offers another intriguing theory: intelligence may be linked to infectious-disease rates.
The brain, say author Christopher Eppig and his colleagues, is the “most costly organ in the human body.” Brainpower gobbles up close to 90 percent of a newborn’s energy. It stands to reason, then, that if something interferes with energy intake while the brain is growing, the impact could be serious and longlasting. And for vast swaths of the globe, the biggest threat to a child’s body—and hence brain—is parasitic infection. These illnesses threaten brain development in several ways. They can directly attack live tissue, which the body must then strain to replace. They can invade the digestive tract and block nutritional uptake. They can hijack the body’s cells for their own reproduction. And then there’s the energy diverted to the immune system to fight the infection. Out of all the parasites, the diarrheal ones may be the gravest threat—they can prevent the body from getting any nutrients at all.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
That's something that can be done NOW!....think of all the good it would do!...the self-esteem boost alone is reason enough.....
In the spirit of righting this wrong.... I have started a fund to see it through... PLEASE donate all your heart can spare...It's for the Children!!!
That used to be the Finish national secret.
BTW, the Finns position at the top of the heap is consistent with their lifestyle which includes the world's nastiest, coldest climate inhabited regularly by the largest number of human beings.
The usual parasites and diseases just don't have a chance there.
Relocating the United States to Northern Canada would probably increase our national IQ substantially ~ BTW, almost no one lives there so it has to be good, right?
A good sewer system keeps the mosquitos out of town while leaving enough of them alive in rural areas to feed the birds, reptiles, fish and carnivorous bugs and critters who thrive on them.
Another possible cause: Peasants think in very concrete terms, and IQ tests measure abstract thinking.
“High IQ’s do not guarantee success in life or even happiness. “
So true.
On an individual basis no
On a national basis yes...or at least they predict economic and industrial development on a national basis. A war flattened Japan and Germany but you can't keep a good man down so within twenty years (1965) they were back to being industrial leaders
It was Greek fellow who first gave me the quotation -- "Character is destiny" Not literally true but true enough! National IQ is also destiny.
Another factor seems quite obvious: adequate protein and food in general.
HARRISON BERGERON
by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution..
A superb short read
...largely by conquest.
Would the high fish oil consumption also be a factor?
Would the high fish oil consumption also be a factor?
So how do these authors explain that tribes living in the cold european north during roman rule, were decidedly backward , while the kingdoms spread across roman territory were clearly very warm.
Sewers and swamp clearance make all the diff.
Obama said to be brilliant rest my case. We need a reality check that high IQs can bring insanity.
I know a person who has bragged his IQ is off the charts but oblivious to us thinking that he is a greeter at Wal Mart and has no ambition past that, voted Obama, believes he is entitled to all and everything, can't understand how Spain has failed financially, is blank when you speak about the Constitution, does not know the separation of powers and what the branches of government are meant to do or the Supreme Court... and that Palin actually said she could see Russia from her front steps. He stopped learning after college because he couldn't just memorize answers for an A grade anymore. He is a useful puppet, looks down on others, and considers himself an academic. Knows zilch about sports, nor has ever been competitive in that manner. Afraid of any authority and admits would rather hide his head in the sand..mimics bumper sticker rhetoric, loves The View where he gets his news. There are too many like him. People who only take.
However another case would be a young man who started an Internet company in the 90's, you would know the company and the one that purchased it--but he was an average student, aced in sports, social-- has made a fortune for his family and friends. IQ average but has been exposed to real life surroundings and instinctively knows what it takes to succeed. A giving person.
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