There are a number of problems with intelligence quotients. They relate to different fields of the subject. The problems can be grouped:
Alfred Binet, a French psychologist (who designed one of the first tests in 1905) had this opinion. He used the test to see which pupils would need special help with the school curriculum. He believed that the test scales were not able to measure intelligence:
He argued that with good education programs, most students could catch up and perform quite well in school. This was independent of the background of the pupil. He did not believe that intelligence was a measurable fixed entity.
Some dispute psychometrics entirely. Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould argued that intelligence tests were based on faulty assumptions and showed their history of being used as the basis for scientific racism. In his opinion, the general intelligence factor "g" (which these tests measure), is simply a mathematical artifact.
However, as explained above, IQ tests were highly successful in assessing recruits during wartime. Therefore, "it must be true that they are measuring a relevant mental capability". Therefore, IQs are not simply a mathematical fiction: they relate to the ability of individuals to perform certain functions. Even if experts do not agree on a definition of intelligence, that does not disprove the usefulness (or otherwise) of the tests. In every day life people do notice the relative intelligence of others. The issue is central to human nature and evolutionary psychology, because humans evolved the characteristics which helped them survive and reproduce.
The American Psychological Association's report "Intelligence: knowns and unknowns" states that IQ tests as predictors of social achievement are not biased against people of African descent. They predict future performance, such as school achievement, similarly to the way they predict future performance for European descent.
However, IQ tests may well be biased when used in other situations. A 2005 study stated that "differential validity in prediction suggests that the WAIS-R test may contain cultural influences that reduce the validity of the WAIS-R as a measure of cognitive ability for Mexican American students", indicating a weaker positive correlation relative to sampled white students. Other recent studies have questioned the culture-fairness of IQ tests when used in South Africa. Standard intelligence tests, such as the Stanford-Binet test, are often inappropriate for children with autism and dyslexia; the alternative of using developmental or adaptive skills measures are relatively poor measures of intelligence in autistic children, and have resulted in incorrect claims that a majority of children with autism are mentally retarded.
Claimed low intelligence has historically been used to justify the feudal system and unequal treatment of women. In contrast, others claim that the refusal of "high-IQ elites" to take IQ seriously as a cause of inequality is itself immoral.
The American Psychological Association's Board of Scientific Affairs established a task force in 1995 to write a consensus statement on the state of intelligence research which could be used by all sides as a basis for discussion. The full text of the report is available through several websites.
In this paper the representatives of the association regret that IQ-related works are frequently written with a view to their political consequences: "research findings were often assessed not so much on their merits or their scientific standing as on their supposed political implications".
The task force concluded that IQ scores do have high predictive validity for individual differences in school achievement. They confirm the predictive validity of IQ for adult occupational status, even when variables such as education and family background have been statistically controlled. They found that individual differences in intelligence are substantially influenced by genetics. Both genes and environment, in complex interplay, are essential to the development of intellectual competence.
They state there is little evidence to show that childhood diet influences intelligence except in cases of severe malnutrition. The task force agrees that large differences do exist between the average IQ scores of blacks and whites, and that these differences cannot be attributed to biases in test construction. The task force suggests that explanations based on social status and cultural differences are possible, and that environmental factors have raised mean test scores in many populations.
The APA journal that published the statement, "American Psychologist," later published responses in January 1997. Several of these argued that the report failed to examine adequately the evidence for partly-genetic explanations.
Dead Calm
Dead Calm is an American novel that was written in 1963. A 1989 Australian movie was made from it. The movie stars Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, and Billy Zane.
In it, a honeymoon couple rescue a young man from a sinking boat who claims to have lost his companions to food poisoning, but the real story is much less innocent.
In this movie, Kidman and Neill plays good guys and Zane plays a bad guy. This movie was Kidman's first well-known movie, and it helped make her famous. In this movie, Zane's character rapes Kidman's character.
Event Horizon
Event Horizon is a 1997 Anglo-American science fiction horror movie.
It was directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. It stars Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan and Joely Richardson.
This movie is set in 2047. A spaceship is stuck near Neptune. Sam Neill's character (Dr. William Weir) is very sad because his wife has died. When they go to the space ship, they find that everyone has killed themselves. It all looks very scary. Then they find out that the ship has been to another dimension. It is like hell and everyone sees their worst nightmares.
Sam Neill sees his wife in his dream. She tells him to pull his eyes out. Neill then walks around without any eyes and starts to kill people. They send him out to space, but he does not die. People get very scared. Even after they kill Neill, they still see him.
Melting point
The melting point of a substance is the temperature at which this substance goes from the solid state to the liquid one, at a normal pressure. For water, this is 0° Celsius (32 Fahrenheit, 273,15 Kelvin). The chemical element with the highest melting point is tungsten. Some chemical compounds have a higher melting point.
When looking at when a liquid substance becomes solid, most people call this the freezing point. For most substances, like water, this is the same as the melting point. There are substances, where this is not the case (they melt at one temperature, and freeze at another). Agar seems to melt at 85° Celsius, but freeze at between 35°C and 40°C. This phenomenon is a kind of hysteresis.
Adding certain substances or impurities will change the melting point of the resulting mixture. For example, sugar or salt will lower the melting point, and alcohol will raise it.
Michael Hayden
Michael Hayden (born March 17, 1945) is an American politician, writer and military personnel. He was the head of the CIA from 2006 to 2009. On 24 May 2006, he was voted as the new head of the CIA by the United States Senate. He was the director of the NSA from 1999 to 2005. The NSA and CIA are both spy agencies. He has worked as a spy since 1970.
On November 23, 2018, Hayden was hospitalized after suffering a stroke.
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