Posted on 03/27/2006 1:35:38 AM PST by wolf78
BRITAIN and France have experienced long periods of conflict and rivalry but now victory in one area can be claimed: Britons are more intelligent than the French.
A new European league of IQ scores has ranked the British in eighth place, well above the French, who were 19th. According to Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster, Britons have an average IQ of 100. The French scored 94. But it is not all good news. Top of the table were the Germans, with an IQ of 107. The British were also beaten by the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.
Professor Lynn, who caused controversy last year by claiming that men were more intelligent than women by about five IQ points on average, said that populations in the colder, more challenging environments of Northern Europe had developed larger brains than those in warmer climates further south. The average brain size in Northern and Central Europe is 1,320cc and in southeast Europe it is 1,312cc. “The early human beings in northerly areas had to survive during cold winters when there were no plant foods and they were forced to hunt big game,” he said. “The main environmental influence on IQ is diet, and people in southeast Europe would have had less of the proteins, minerals and vitamins provided by meat which are essential for brain development.”
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Pick your poison.
I agree. Of course what you do with what you have that really counts. All other things being equal, however, some people are just born with more talent.
In my opinion, it is most important that each of us tries to do better today than we did yesterday. We should best compete with ouselves, and vanity is our worst impediment.
Some foreigners use this as an excuse to justify anti-Americanism - I'm not saying that Alex-DV does so, just that he is reporting what some think. As Americans, do you think this excuse of anti-Americanism is justified and why or why not?
Surely, there are people from any nation who, when abroad or when you visit their country, brag incessantly about how their country and its ways of doing things are far superior to yours and everyone elses. We Americans are not immune to this.
As I read this, I thought of too things: First, Americans worrying over this for years, as evidenced by such books as The Ugly American (circa 1960); and secondly, all of the Europeans whom I've met who have smuggly carried on about the superiority of their social systems, moral rectitude, and general level of culture, while at the same time skimping on their own national defense and relying on a massive American military presence (which they bitch about) and expenditures to defend them from the threat of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Sometimes the American bragadoccio is simply repayment in kind.
That said, I don't find international exchanges on the my dog's better than your dog model particularly fruitful on either side of the exchange.
To the extent that Americans talk about what our system does make available, and suggest that those opportunities could be open to any country who instituted a similarly free economic and political system, I don't consider that bragging, assuming it's done as a factual. There will be those who resent our success, and little can be done about it. We ought to be sensitive to how we come across, however.
How so? I am sincerely interested in your answer.
And though it does not negate your statement in any way, God spoke on honoring one's parents, (see Commandment 5), long before Confucius.
First of all: The topic was meant to be "tongue firmly in cheek".
As to David Hasselhoff: He had 1 - I repeat: ONE big hit in Germany around 1990. That was "I've been looking for freedom". A stupid song, indeed, but the lines "I've been looking for freedom, i've been looking so long..." resonated with the German public at the time of reunification.
After that, Hasselhoff was - deservedly - forgotten over here, just the same as in the US. Or to use a quote I read somewhere:
"The only person who thinks that David Hasselhoff is a big star in Germany is Hasselhoff himself."
On the other hand: His cameo in "Dodgeball" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364725/) was hilarious.
I'm actually referring to some Christians in name only Westerners in honouring (or lacking thereof) their parents. If you talk to most Chinese, whether Christians or not, they will use a portion of their salaries to support theit parents (typically give 10% to 1/3 of what they earn to their folks). In Chinese beliefs, this is the bare minimum requirement to honour your parents, while if you make it to respect your parents in addition to financially support them it would be best way to honour them. (In many cases for married couples, they will support both sets of parents).
In fact the Bible covers it (Mark 7:9-13) but few Western Gentile Christians mention financially supporting your parents in order to honour them as something we should do.
Thanks for the responses so far CR. familyop and pro-Bush. I think largely along such lines as well. I'm pinging this to two who voiced this in the first place to see if they have any responses to your takes.
Ping! Michael and Alex-DV, have a look at posts 103 to 105. It is American FRers' responses to your points.
In the Apocalypse, you will need a combination of brawn, common sense, intellect, and marsmanship to come out on top. The thuggery cannot stop an armed man with intellect, organizational skills, and good aim. ;-)
as was mine :o).
I you have to ask, you may be French.
Yep, I´m always saddened when I come to the departure gates for my flight back to Europe - during your stay you saw almost everywhere smiling and friendly people, and while you´re waiting to enter the plane, you can easily identify (from the faces, not only from the sox to the sandals) who´s German/European and who´s an American passenger. Really sad!
"However, given our weather in most places there is no need to spend the additional money to build in such a manner."
Houses are better built in most parts of Europe than is typical in the US. But that also has to do with our lack of oil and natural gas. Better insulation and thicker walls are simply cheaper over the years than the additional heating costs ;-).
I don't disagree that houses are generally better built in Europe, but they are also significantly more expensive compared to income than in the US. If you have the money, you get more in Europe than you do here, but far fewer people can own their own houses. It's a trade-off showing relative priorities.
As I said - I'd like to put at least a small pencil questionmark to the methods of defining, testing and in the end interpreting intelligence.
This morning I would definetly lower the average...
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