Re: schools banning homework

morrisjcroy@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Except Mensa's been in existence for over sixty years and some very
prominent people are or have been members, including Isaac Asimov and
Buckminster Fuller--hardly people who might be considered nerdish, geeky,
or socially inept.


It seems like every decade or so, there's always going to be some
investigative journalists doing an "expose" of some sort on a
particular group or organization. (Though these days the timespan
between journalistic "generations" seems to be shrinking to as short
as 5 years). When the general public has all but forgotten about the
journalistic exposes of the previous generations, another new "expose"
is produced on the same topics.

Due to shorter attention spans, perhaps? On the other hand, they have to do something to earn their keep as there are only so many scandals that readers can handle.



Mensa, in that respect, isn't much different than most other clubs or
organizations. I've heard of squabbles and politics inside one ham radio
club I belong to.


I haven't joined any particular extracurricular hobbyist groups/clubs
in ages. The ones I attended many years ago (mostly computer user
groups), always had the squabbles and politics which sometimes led to
particular groups being broken up completely or splintering along
particular niche interests.

I joined some ham radio clubs, partly because I've used some of the repeaters, so I figured I should support their operation.




Actually, all one needs is to provide valid proof of one's IQ level. That
can include scores from tests such as the GRE, though Mensa does run
official testing sessions for candidates.

Prior to joining, I didn't think I was smart enough to qualify. I heard
similar comments from other members about themselves. Finding out that one
actually has that high an IQ often comes as quite a surprise.


My concern isn't with actually writing the exam, and/or showing proof
of high IQ in some form or another. Basically I just don't have any
interest in Mensa or any other high intelligence type groups or
organizations, at the present time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_IQ_society

I've known a number of people with high IQs who don't want to join. If, however, anybody's interested and asks me about it, I'll refer them to one of the local chapter's officials.

While I was working on my Ph. D., one of my fellow grad students noticed that I belonged to Mensa. He claimed he had written an IQ test while he served in the Forces, partly I suppose because he was always playing a game of oneupmanship. When I offered to give him further information, he backed off.


My latest guilty pleasure these days is examining many of those old
"unified field theory" failures over the last century or so,
especially during Einstein's time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_field_theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_unified_field_theories
http://relativity.livingreviews.org/open?pubNo=lrr-2004-2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#Unified_field_theory

Many of them are quite interesting, and very naive in hindsight.

.

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