1469 replies to this topic

[Slightly Wonky Robob]

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Oscar Wrigley, a two-year-old with the same IQ as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, has become the youngest boy in Britain to be accepted into Mensa.

Assessors at the Gifted Children's Information Centre in Solihull said Oscar, with an IQ of at least 160, is one of the brightest children they have every come across.

He has been ranked in the 99.99th percentile of the population and has been ranked off the scale as the Stanford-Binet test cannot measure higher than 160.

Oscar's father Joe, 29, an IT specialist from Reading in Berkshire, said: "Oscar was recently telling my wife about the reproductive cycle of penguins.

"He is always asking questions. Every parent likes to think their child was special but we knew there was something particularly remarkable about Oscar.

"I'm fully expecting the day to come when he turns around and tells me I'm an idiot."

Mother Hannah, 26, told The Daily Mail: "He amazes everyone. We knew at 12 weeks he was extremely bright. He was unusually alert."

Mrs Wrigley, a housewife, added: "His vocabulary is amazing. He's able to construct complex sentences.

"The other day he said to me, 'Mummy, sausages are like a party in my mouth'."

Dr Peter Congdon, who assessed Oscar, said he was a "child of very superior intelligence".

"His abilities fall well within the range sometimes referred to as intellectually gifted. He demonstrated outstanding ability," he said.

John Stevenage, Mensa's Chief Executive confirmed Oscar had been accepted aged two years, five months and 11 days.

"Oscar shows great potential. Converting that potential to achievement is the challenge for his parents and we are delighted that they have chosen to join the Mensa network for support", he said.

The youngest British child to join Mensa is Elise Tan Roberts, from Edmonton, North London, at two years, four months and 14 days, with an IQ of 156.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...s-Einstein.html

[Pav:3d]

Wait a minute, out of all the supposedly clever setences he wouldave said, they chose this:

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"The other day he said to me, 'Mummy, sausages are like a party in my mouth'."

[BeefJeRKy]

Pav3d, on 10 Oct 2009, 18:56, said:

Wait a minute, out of all the supposedly clever setences he wouldave said, they chose this:

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"The other day he said to me, 'Mummy, sausages are like a party in my mouth'."

Ever heard a two-year-old say that? Coherently?

[Pav:3d]

Viseur, on 10 Oct 2009, 20:46, said:

Pav3d, on 10 Oct 2009, 18:56, said:

Wait a minute, out of all the supposedly clever setences he wouldave said, they chose this:

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"The other day he said to me, 'Mummy, sausages are like a party in my mouth'."

Ever heard a two-year-old say that? Coherently?

But still! what a random sentence to choose

[Camille]

heh, i wondered too... while reading the article i anticipated some kind of super-clever statement but instead they chose... that. which is still remarkable for a two-year old but still, why?

[Chyros]

Group of US Conservatives rewrite the Bible - a link a friend of mine passed to me:

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After all these years, one could assume the Bible has held up pretty well, but a group of conservatives in the United States thinks it needs a rewrite.

The folks behind Conservapedia, a right-leaning version of Wikipedia, have launched the Conservative Bible Project, aimed at getting rid of what they call liberal bias, wordiness, emasculation and a general dumbing down of the Old and New Testaments.

A dozen or so users, led by Conservapedia founder Andy Schlafly – the son of conservative political activist Phyllis Schlafly – are tackling the 27 books of the New Testament and 39 books of the Old Testament. Anyone can offer suggested changes.

Mr. Schlafly is a Princeton- and Harvard-educated lawyer and home-school teacher in New Jersey who began Conservapedia in 2006 because he felt Wikipedia was too liberal and anti-Christian. He believes the project will restore the Bible to its original intent.

“The trouble is, new translations of the Bible are done by professors at liberal universities who overwhelmingly voted for Obama,” Mr. Schlafly said. “Their political bias seeps into their translations and we felt it necessary to counteract that with one that uproots and eradicates any liberal bias.”

In Mark 3:6, for example, they have changed “Pharisees” – the Jews who were regarded as antagonists of Jesus – to “Liberals” though one user helpfully suggested “self-proclaimed elite.” The “girl” who danced in the Gospel of Mark, causing King Herod to behead John the Baptist, is more accurately referred to as a “temptress,” Mr. Schlafly said. And “hell” isn't used nearly often enough, conveying liberal permissiveness.

News of the project emerged on the blogosphere this week. The reaction is predictably sardonic, with Rachel Weiner of The Huffington Post quipping, “Lo and behold, the Bible has gotten too liberal. ... Yes, even scripture is not orthodox enough for the modern conservative.”

Conservapedia writes on its website that one benefit of the effort is that while “Liberals will oppose it, they will have to read the Bible to criticize it, and that will open their minds.”

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow told viewers that when she first heard about the Conservative Bible Project, she “couldn't quite believe it isn't a joke.” On Wednesday night, comedian Stephen Colbert challenged viewers to join the rewrite effort and add him as a biblical figure.

Mark 6:3 is lyrical in the King James Version: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.”

The rewrite takes a less poetic tact: “Isn't this a mere carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, Joses, Juda and Simon? Don't we also know his sisters here? The public was not open-minded about Jesus.”

James McGrath, associate professor of religion at Butler University in Indianapolis, said the translators don't appear to have any knowledge of the text's original meaning.

“If it's an attempt at humour, it's hilarious, but I have a sinking feeling it's something else – that conservatives are realizing the Bible does not always serve their interests, something the rest of us have known for some time,” he said.

“But some element of humour should be part of a healthy response to this, because there's a danger that taking it too seriously gives it credibility it wouldn't otherwise have.”

I'm pretty sure those conservatives would label even Jesus as a "liberal" if he'd return to Earth .

[CodeCat]

Epic fail.

[Brad]

That is just stupid.

[BeefJeRKy]

Arabic Bibles convey better meaning than any English Bible ever will seeing as Arabic is closer in root to the original Aramaic writings. More epic fail on the part of the US conservatives (no offense to any of the conservatives here).

[Slightly Wonky Robob]

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Japanese gangsters forced to sit exams in crime

The battle-scarred gangsters of Japan's most infamous underworld group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, are being forced to study for an exam covering the key aspects of their trade.

Gang bosses have introduced the written tests for their subordinates since the Anti-Organised Crime Law was revised last year, making the group's leaders responsible for the actions of street-level members.

In September 2008, two top members of the Sumiyoshi-kai underworld group agreed to pay Y97.5 million (£640,000) to the relatives of a man shot dead when three gunmen opened fire in a bar in Gunma Prefecture.

Three customers were killed when the gangsters tried to assassinate a rival gang boss - who survived the attempt on his life.

Police discovered an exam paper containing 12 questions on appropriate action in a given situation that a gangster might find himself involved in as they investigated the murder in Shiga Prefecture of a member of a gang affiliated with the 40,000-strong Yamaguchi-gumi, which is based in Kobe.

The questions covered activities that were banned - which included everything from phone fraud to theft of vehicles - as well as ordering that all activities be reported to senior members of the gang.

"When you think about it, this is an extremely sensible move," said Jake Adelstein, an author who has written about Japan's underworld groups. "The Yamaguchi-gumi is essentially a gigantic corporation and if you are running a company of this scale then the first thing you want to do is reduce your liabilities.

"Every month, this organisation collects $1 million from all its subsidiaries and that makes it a very successful company," he added.

"I'm continually impressed at the lengths they go to in order to protect their business interests."

Those business interests have been affected by the economic downturn and led to friction between rival groups looking to expand their areas of operation into neighbouring areas.

Pressure has also been increased on the gangs from a quarter that was unthinkable in the past, as residents living in areas where underworld groups have their headquarters are resorting to the courts to have them evicted on the grounds that their turf wars threaten the lives and livelihoods of local people.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...s-in-crime.html

Edited by Bob, 12 October 2009 - 17:25.

[Wizard]

But if they cut their fingers off how do they write the exams

[Destiny]

Certainly not with their feet or katana that is. So it's a be-a-yakuzagangster-by-passing-this-exam...how convenient.

[Slightly Wonky Robob]

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Pointless research: top 10 Ig Nobel award winners for silly science

As the government prepares to crack down on 'irrelevant' research, we look at some of the things we'll be losing, courtesy of the Ig Nobel awards.


Farts of the penguins: if you've ever wondered how far a penguin can poo, here is your enlightenment Photo: POLAR BIOLOGY

The government has unveiled plans to allocate research funding according to how much “impact” the research has.

The plans have come under fire from academics, who say that curiosity-driven, speculative research has led to some of the most important breakthroughs in scientific history, including penicillin, relativity theory and the theory of evolution.

More than that, though, it might bring an end to the quirky, sometimes daft, sometimes weirdly inspired research that brings harmless entertainment and occasional enlightenment to armchair boffins and science nerds everywhere.

Below, we take a look at a few of the best. We have selected our favourites from the winners of the splendid Ig Nobel Awards – take a look yourselves. The next award ceremony is in October.

Digital rectal massage is a cure for hiccups, winner, Medicine, 2006
"Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage", Annals of Emergency Medicine, August 1988

In our day we used to be told to drink a glass of water backwards. But research now suggests that, for intractable hiccups, a simple finger up the bottom can work wonders. As it can for so many things.

It is not made clear whether or not the treatment should be administered unannounced for greatest effect.

(We mock, but intractable hiccups can be a genuine problem for sufferers, and this treatment may be preferable to the powerful anti-spasmodics and other drugs that are often used.)

Chinstrap penguins can squirt poo up to 40cm, winner, Fluid Dynamics, 2005
"Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh -- Calculations on Avian Defaecation", Polar Biology, 2003

Rather sweetly, the researchers end their conclusions by saying: “Whether the bird deliberately chooses the direction into which it decides to expel its faeces or whether this depends on the direction from which the wind blows at the time of evacuation are questions that need to be addressed on another expedition to Antarctica.” No doubt governments will be falling over themselves to fund that trip.

Ducks can be homosexual necrophiliacs too (winner, Biology, 2003)
"The First Case of Homosexual Necrophilia in the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae)", Deinsea: Annual of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, 2001.

One of the greatest sentences in modern science writing: “Next to the obviously dead duck, another male mallard… mounted the corpse and started to copulate, with great force.” Take that, March Of The Penguins.

Suicide rates are linked to the amount of country music played on the radio, winner, Medicine, 2004
"The Effect of Country Music on Suicide", Social Forces, 1992

If you knew there was something profoundly unacceptable about Billy Ray Cyrus, but you could never quite put your finger on what it was, here is your answer. The man makes people kill themselves.

Dog fleas can jump higher than cat fleas, winner, Biology, 2008
"A Comparison of Jump Performances of the Dog Flea, Ctenocephalides canis (Curtis, 1826) and the Cat Flea, Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouche, 1835)," Veterinary Parasitology, 2000

Presumably the research team set up some sort of tiny high-jump bar for the fleas to Fosbury-flop over. It’s not entirely pointless; knowing which that dog fleas jump higher tells you that buying a dog is more likely to lead to getting bitten yourself.

Lap dancers get higher tips when they are ovulating, winner, Economics, 2008
"Ovulatory Cycle Effects on Tip Earnings by Lap Dancers: Economic Evidence for Human Estrus?" Evolution and Human Behavior, 2007

This research might be hard to put into practical use – unless you’re a lap dancer – but you imagine the (all male) research team put in an awful lot of field work.

Rats can’t always tell the difference between Japanese spoken backwards and Dutch spoken backwards, winner, Linguistics, 2007
"Effects of Backward Speech and Speaker Variability in Language Discrimination by Rats," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, vol. 31, no. 1, January 2005

The Linguistics Ig Nobel winner in 2007. In fairness to the researchers, they were trying to find similarities between human infants and other mammals, in order to better determine the evolutionary origins of speech. But what they actually did was show the world that rats don’t speak backwards Japanese. A miss, really.

You can extract vanilla flavouring from cow dung, winner, Chemistry, 2006
"Novel Production Method for Plant Polyphenol from Livestock Excrement Using Subcritical Water Reaction," International Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2008

Maybe you can, but would you eat it?

(Note: a Massachusetts ice cream parlour introduced a new flavour in honour of this research, which was presented alongside the award. The ice cream was called "Yum-a-Moto Vanilla Twist", after the lead researcher Mayu Yamamoto)

Why woodpeckers don’t get headaches – winner, Ornithology, 2006
"Woodpeckers and Head Injury,", Lancet, 1976; "Cure for a Headache," Ivan R Schwab, British Journal of Ophthalmology, 2002

It is pretty baffling, when you think about it. Woodpeckers headbutt trees for a living, experiencing impact deceleration of more than 1000 times the force of gravity. So how do they prevent catastrophic brain injury? The difference between ordinary people and good scientists is that where we just wonder, the scientist finds out.

(The answer, if you were wondering, is: brain more tightly packed into the skull; a smooth brain surface to maximise impact surface area; and minimal side-to-side movement. So there you go.)

Malaria mosquitoes are as attracted to limburger cheese as they are to human foot odour – winner, Biology, 2006
"On Human Odour, Malaria Mosquitoes, and Limburger Cheese," The Lancet, 1996 (paper requires log-in)

Next time you go to Africa, don’t bother with insect repellent or mosquito nets – just take a nice ripe limburger, leave it outside your tent, and presto! A bite-free night. (Note to readers: please do bother with insect repellent and mosquito nets.)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science...ly-science.html

Priceless, absolutely pricless

Edited by Bob, 14 October 2009 - 14:48.

[Pav:3d]

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The First Case of Homosexual Necrophilia in the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos

Just wow o0

[BeefJeRKy]

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The 4WD with seats made of whale penis

If four-wheel-drives weren’t politically incorrect enough, a Russian car maker is offering one with whale penis leather trim. By RICHARD BLACKBURN.

A Russian armoured-car builder is boasting that its latest vehicle has seats covered with “whale-penis leather”.

The €1 million ($1.6 million) Dartz Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition armoured car has been developed by the same company, RussoBaltique, that built armoured vehicles for Tsar Nicholas, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.

On its official website, the company says the whale-penis leather is the same as that used by Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis on the yacht Christina O.

Onassis is rumoured to have had some of the barstools on the yacht, the world’s most expensive at the time, covered in the controversial leather.

The leather is not the only tacky accessory on the Prombron, which Dartz claims is the world’s most expensive SUV.

The bulletproof windows are gold-plated, the exhaust is made of tungsten, the gauges are encrusted with diamonds and rubies and the exterior has a Kevlar coating.

The car also comes with three bottles of the world’s most expensive Vodka, RussoBaltique, although the website does warn prospective buyers not to drink and drive.

The vehicle is being specially prepared for the ultra-exclusive Top Marques luxury motor show in Monaco next year.

Dartz’s armoured vehicles weigh roughly 4 tonnes, are powered by V8s putting out between 300kW and 400kW and are “rocket grenade-proof” according to the website.

For those wondering just how may whales may need to be harvested to outfit the special edition, the answer is not many. The penis of the Blue Whale, for example, can grow up to 2.4 metres.

Original linky

[Pav:3d]

Wow, talk about compensating for something

[Sgt. Nuker]

In more ways than one

[Slightly Wonky Robob]

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Think you had the world’s greatest treehouse as a kid? Well this guy’s got you beat. Horace Burgess’s treehouse is located somewhere near Crossville, Tennessee and stands over 97-feet tall thanks to the 80-foot white oak tree it was built around which also happens to be about 12-feet in diameter at its base. It has 11 floors, somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000 to 10,000 square feet, a miniature basketball court and is held together by roughly 258,000 nails.

Horace Burgess’s treehouse may be as close to heaven as a body can get in Cumberland County.

It rises 97 feet into the sky, the support provided by a live, 80-foot-tall white oak 12 feet in diameter at its base. Six other trees brace the tower-like fortress, but Burgess says its foundation is in God.

“I built it for everybody. It’s God’s treehouse. He keeps watch over it,” said Burgess, who received his inspiration in a vision that came to him in 1993. “I was praying one day, and the Lord said, ‘If you build me a treehouse, I’ll see you never run out of material.”‘

And thus far, as Burgess sees it, the Lord has provided. Most of his materials are recycled pieces of lumber from garages, storage sheds and barns. Now into his 14th year of construction, he is not finished.

The treehouse has 10 floors, averaging nine to 11 feet in height by Burgess’s reckoning. He has never measured its size but estimates it to be about 8,000 to 10,000 square feet. He did count the nails that he has hammered into the wood — 258,000, give or take a few hundred. And he guesses he has sunk about $12,000 into the project.

“God used my hands to put every piece in place, but I had a lot of help,” said the 56-year-old landscape architect. He’s a country boy but lives in town and compares himself to Job of the Old Testament. His pale blue Paul Newman-like eyes beam and he wears an easy smile on his tanned face.

“I’ve always proclaimed it to be the world’s largest treehouse, and no one has ever challenged it,” Burgess said.

http://funster.us/2009/10/worlds-largest-t...ear-crossville/

I want one [img]http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp129/JonThePon/Smilies/:P.png[/img]

[Pav:3d]

just weird, all of it!

[BeefJeRKy]

That man is quite dedicated

[Brad]

I would love a treehouse like that :3

[Destiny]

I wonder if it's a treehouse or a woodhouse. Termites would have a hell of a time.

[SquigPie]

That SQUIG is pretty SQUIGed up!

[Slightly Wonky Robob]

This isn't SYD, let's keep posts fairly productive and on topic, SquigPie.

Edited by Bob, 26 October 2009 - 17:45.

[Sgt. Nuker]

You know, that "tree-house" is nicer than some houses, and that probably holds true for all of the houses in Cumberland County, Tennessee.