Is there scientific evidence that "mouth-breathers" have lower intelligence, and/or are really perceived as being less intelligent? [more inside]
posted by nyc_consultant on Sep 1, 2009 - 16 answers

Are all blogs linear scrolls or is there someone out there who presents entries differently (allow for shuffling of posts or presents it like iTunes presents your selection)? [more inside]
posted by Alexandra Kitty on Aug 18, 2009 - 7 answers

Can a head injury possibly make you more intelligent? [more inside]
posted by Askiba on Aug 12, 2009 - 20 answers

How do I learn intimidating material without making myself miserable? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Aug 10, 2009 - 10 answers

Help me understand the condition of being unable to thrive unless one is given very intellectually challenging work. [more inside]
posted by wireless on Jun 4, 2009 - 16 answers

Is there any truth behind the premise of the TV show Kyle XY? That prolonged gestation leads to higher intelligence? [more inside]
posted by GregX3 on May 12, 2009 - 3 answers

Is my job destroying my mind? [more inside]
posted by bad grammar on Mar 29, 2009 - 16 answers

I have always had a large head. The rest of my body is normal-sized but I always takes the largest size hats. I guess I am looking for some perspective now that I am a bit older on how unusual it is, what are the causes, who else has a large head and how they deal with it. [more inside]
posted by zaebiz on Mar 2, 2009 - 42 answers

What are some easy, relatively quick ways to learn to write better, think clearer, and express myself better? [more inside]
posted by Bageena on Jan 28, 2009 - 24 answers

Is there a name for the literary device where you make your protagonist stand out by surrounding him/her with dunderheads? [more inside]
posted by Shepherd on Dec 1, 2008 - 19 answers

How can I learn about the history of the CIA? After hearing Bob Baer on Fresh Air, I've been reading Baer's books and became interested in the backstory. I started reading Legacy of Ashes, but even to me, a garden-variety lefty, it seems biased against the CIA. Any suggestions for a more 'fair and balanced' account?
posted by lukemeister on Nov 22, 2008 - 11 answers

It seems like most suicides I hear about are very intelligent people, but is there actually any established correlation between intelligence and suicide? Or has this been conclusively rejected as a risk factor? I haven't been able to find any mention of intelligence in various discussions of suicide risk factors.
posted by scottreynen on Sep 17, 2008 - 13 answers

I have finally decided that though I'm smart, I'm mostly average. The only way for me to be able to make decisions that will lead to becoming really successful is if I have people around me who are smarter than me, and who can teach me stuff. I need a mentor, how do I find this mentor? [more inside]
posted by ChabonJabon on Aug 28, 2008 - 18 answers

I've been feeling slow lately. How can I sharpen my mental powers? [more inside]
posted by decoherence on Jul 30, 2008 - 19 answers

GeniusFilter: Help me win an argument and prove that there ARE undeniable examples of women geniuses throughout history or even today. [more inside]
posted by DetonatedManiac on Jun 4, 2008 - 62 answers

What are some good parameters to use when judging someone's intelligence on the fly? [more inside]
posted by Christ, what an asshole on May 27, 2008 - 32 answers

What are some good resources for raising a gifted child? Google will pull up all kinds of things, but I'd love a recommendation for stuff more weighted toward parents who want their kids to be able to enjoy childhood and away from the more competitive stuff. I don't want to judge anyone else's parenting choices, but we want to feed our son's interests without trying to turn him into the next Einstein. We just got through some assessments, and are trying to figure out what to do next. I'm sure I'll have more specific questions later, but any online communities or background reading you can point me to would be awesome!
posted by rikschell on May 9, 2008 - 37 answers

How do I meet smart, sparkling people? [more inside]
posted by Turtles all the way down on May 2, 2008 - 14 answers

I've been putting off this post for fear of not getting everything across, I almost completely lack confidence and a sense of identity. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Apr 30, 2008 - 20 answers

A friend of mine, who is highly educated (married with two kids, accomplished medical researcher), is absolutely convinced that September 11 was a huge conspiracy initiated by members of the US government. She has a detailed complex explanation for everything. She takes it deeply personally when I scoff at her, telling me I should read the evidence before forming an opinion. I see her as gullible and she sees me as ignorant. Is there an analysis available comprehensively somewhere addressing the conspiracy theorists to the satisfaction of the leading academics in the relevant areas (material engineering, aerodynamics, media relations, architecture etc)? How do you deal with people like this? [more inside]
posted by vizsla on Mar 19, 2008 - 62 answers

Do intelligence tests measure g (i.e. general intelligence)? How do we know? With most testing standards, there's an arbitrary physical constant in the world for us to measure and quantify: the meter is defined in terms of a wavelength of light in a vacuum, for instance. However, intelligence tests seem more like the kilogram's platinum-iridium cylinder, which is a sort of moving target. What's the standard for g? [more inside]
posted by anotherpanacea on Nov 14, 2007 - 18 answers

Just how smart are cows and sheep anyway? [more inside]
posted by yankeefog on Nov 2, 2007 - 39 answers

iButton work bathroom conspiracy. Sometime ago I noticed a small silver object blue tacked to the wall high up in one of the executive bathroom cubicles at my workplace. [more inside]
posted by numberstation on Sep 20, 2007 - 13 answers

What's the best way to learn unspoken competencies, such as all the unspoken rules of socializing? [more inside]
posted by philosophistry on Jun 10, 2007 - 33 answers

Exactly how does shyness come across as arrogance? What's the difference between arrogance and confidence? [more inside]
posted by whitneykitty on Apr 29, 2007 - 20 answers

endless IQ test? i'm looking for a semi-satirical intelligence test that didn't mind the answers, but calculated how quickly you clicked quit. [more inside]
posted by sxtxixtxcxh on Mar 2, 2007 - 8 answers

Bad memory makes me feel stupid. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Feb 28, 2007 - 25 answers

This research claims that there aren't any blind schizophrenics. Basically, it says that blindness could protect against schizophrenia, but because of typically later age of onset for blindness (mostly results of glaucoma and macular degenration), I wonder if schizophrenia could somehow protect against blindness. Does anyone have an opinion on this? [more inside]
posted by srs on Nov 3, 2006 - 15 answers

How do you determine how smart someone is? [more inside]
posted by orthogonality on Oct 4, 2006 - 58 answers

What are some good image metaphors for "intelligence"? Lightbulbs, brains, computers, networks.... etc... looking for concepts, suggestions or stock images. [more inside]
posted by skrike on Sep 6, 2006 - 14 answers

How to tell a family friend that I don't want his help finding me a job in his line of work? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Aug 23, 2006 - 15 answers

I have a gig helping someone get up to speed developing marketing capacity for a startup, and one of the first things that we're going to do is make sure good info is coming IN to the company. Please help me figure out the best tools to use! [more inside]
posted by mikel on May 26, 2006 - 1 answer

What's the next step in collective intelligence? [more inside]
posted by scalefree on May 19, 2006 - 20 answers

Assume you had a list of different animal species, and you wanted to order it from most intelligent species to least. (1) What measure of intelligence would you use to compare different species--average number of neurons, for example, or ability to solve certain kinds of tests? Or something else entirely? (2) Can you give some examples of how some common farm, food, or pet animals might rank on the list? [more inside]
posted by yankeefog on Jan 25, 2006 - 17 answers

Which sport's athletes have the highest and lowest average IQ? [more inside]
posted by dead_ on Jan 9, 2006 - 34 answers

What are the 40 full "Moscow Rules"? An abridged version of the Moscow Rules has been posted several times. There were apparently 40 original Moscow Rules, a set of guidelines created by the CIA to benefit them in their operations in Russia. Where can I find the full 40 rules?
posted by arimathea on Jan 5, 2006 - 10 answers

How can I stop acting dumb around my girlfriend? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Jul 29, 2005 - 51 answers

Do you think you are a smarter person than the average upper-middle class person of 300 years ago? [more inside]
posted by ashbury on Jun 7, 2005 - 37 answers

Is computer artificial intelligence a dead field? [more inside]
posted by skallas on Feb 19, 2005 - 25 answers

MilitaryFilter: So I'm thinking about joining the Air Force. [MI] [more inside]
posted by MrAnonymous on Nov 25, 2004 - 23 answers

Why were people in olden days so smart about some things, but so dense about others? (more inside) [more inside]
posted by stupidsexyFlanders on Sep 16, 2004 - 35 answers

Military Intelligence: I've thought about joining the military for about six years. Now it seems that it might become reality. I'd like to become an intelligence officer because it seems like I'd use a similar skill set to what I do now (I'm a journalist.) But what branch of the service should I check out? Army/Navy/Marines/Air Force/Coast Guard? What about the CIA or NSA? Anybody know people in any of these branches? [more inside] [more inside]
posted by Happydaz on Jul 29, 2004 - 30 answers

Are there any intelligent, cool celebrities (specially women, gays and intellectuals) who are conservative, quiet-spoken and traditionally-minded (and preferably non-religious) in a soft-spoken, non-libertarian, non-gung-ho, non-gun-totin' sense? Here's a list and here's another - but they both seem full of loud-mouthed, unthinking yobs or evangelists. Many thanks for any help with a list I've been asked to compile.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jun 22, 2004 - 26 answers

Looking for examples of weak AI, that is, machines acting as if they were intelligent, but simply on the basis of a complex set of rules. Things like Google Sets or Twenty Questions come to mind, and to a lesser extent Google itself. Anything else I should look into? [more inside]
posted by Jeff Howard on Mar 20, 2004 - 14 answers