Searching "comments":
| # | Comment | Survey |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | I'm sure it would help the immediate problem of organ shortages. But I'm quite chary of what it would lead to later. | A British doctor last week suggested that when a person dies, their body should become public property. He claimed such a law would help the millions of people requiring new hearts, kidneys etc. Do you agree with him ? |
| 22 | Wow, I'm really suprised by the totals here! I  Cats have subtler personalities, so perhaps people project onto them more. If someone called out "come here sweetie!" to a dog, and he looked at you and didn't come, most folks would think "what a dumb dog". But if you did the same thing to a cat, and the cat just stared at you, many people would think something like "Ah, he's being aloof and inscrutable - how like a cat". If aloofness and the ability to get what you want from humans owners without effort is a measure of intelligence, then parakeets and koi are smarter than either dogs *or* cats. I've known some pretty smart cats - that were definitely as smart or smarter than your average dog, but I've know dogs with vocab understanding of many dozens of words and the ability to manipulate complicated mechanisms and predict cause and effect - I've never known a cat to get much beyond the idea of a hinge or gravity, nor to grok the fact that human speech had *specific and directed* meaning. I've heard tales, but every cat I've ever met responds only to the emotional content of human speech. The downstairs neighbors have a pair of books called the "The Dog IQ Test" and "The Cat IQ Test" - I only browsed them while at a dinner party there, but it seemed pretty obvious that the mental tasks being tested for the cats were much simpler than those for the dogs. Kelly's 'rents just recently got a book by Stanley Coren called "The Intelligence of Dogs" which discusses the different ways that intelligence can be measured in animals in general and dogs in particular. It ranks the canine breeds in terms of their working intelligence (obediance/responding to commands etc). There's also adaptive and instinctive intelligences, which are harder to measure. But the descriptions of "typical" canine intelligence are head and shoulders above what we'd expect from a cat. | In general, which pet do you feel is more intelligent, cats or dogs? |
| 23 | Two people (so far) responded that they felt they were geniuses, but declined to elaborate. Come on you bashful Einsteins, tell us who you are! | Do you believe that you are of above average intelligence? |
| 24 | Anonymous #1 - only two standard deviations = genius IQ? Really?! Isn't the standard deviation on most versions of the IQ test 15 points? That would mean anyone with an IQ of 130+ would be a genius! A 178 would be more than *5* SDs! Hey, I'm not just a genius - I'm a suuuuper-genius (I like the way that sounds - but what's that whistling I hear)? [I'd change my answer from "above average nincompoop" to "annoying egg-head genius", but I'm actually pretty sure that "genius-level IQ" is not a clinically defined term.] Hey anonymous #2 - a lot of people *are* smarter than you. But there's obviously a lot more who aren't. So don't waste time feeling like a fake, no one expects us poindexters to solve the world's problems just because we did well on our college boards (well, maybe our moms have high hopes, but you know what I mean). Look at phi and me - on the inside our craniums are apparently nigh to bursting with excess neural power, but on the outside we're just your typical schmoes (Actually, I always figured phi for some sort of brainiac freak, and now that's been confirmed, but you know what I mean). | Do you believe that you are of above average intelligence? |
| 25 | Oooh, msgman, brilliance and modesty don't always walk together. There have been lots of arrogant, self-important, geniuses. Picasso, Newton, and Oppenhiemer were reportedly all self-declared geniuses, who nonetheless had a legitimate claim on that title. | Do you believe that you are of above average intelligence? |
| 26 | We have several but I prefer my handhelds. Kris swears by his Powerbook G3, which is actually running linux a lot of the time (although now that he's got VirtualPlayStation up and running, he's using it to play games quite a bit as well.) I watched Ishizuka-san spill tea on his new Panasonic CF-45, and suprisingly, the thing actually was as water-resistant as advertised. The liquid flowed out through the front and soaked his pants, but continued to operate, apparently without any damage at all. What I truly lust for are the prototype laptops that the two guys downstairs who work for Digital get to play with. Less than an inch thick, with gorgeous 15" tft screens that come to within 1/8" of the case edge - all in a five pound package. Sweet. (only $5k a piece - yoiks!) | Would you like to own and use a laptop computer? |
| 27 | I don't believe "God" has temporal emotional states that humans would recognize as "happy" or "unhappy". The ghods, however, have a variety of feelings on the matter. Hastur, for instance, is a bit diappointed that we haven't fattened up more. | Do you think God is happy or unhappy about the way Earth has turned out so far ? |
| 28 | I'm sure any Deists in the audience are much aggrieved that you have neglected mentioning them. The Animists too. The agnostics aren't sure whether to feel uspest or relieved that they've been left out. | What are your opinions on Atheism? |
| 29 | The kid's 15? He can make up his own mind whether to attend any services or not, but he deserves to be told. Actually, I suspect that with a child of mine, my answer would be the same, regardless of hir age. | Dilemma : You and your lover are the parents of a fifteen year old boy. He is just about to leave for a two day football trip when you find out your dad has suddenly died. Do you tell your son before or after the football trip ? |
| 30 | Bill, how about "If *everyone* who reads this survey selects a rating of "good" I will give each respodant (or the charity of their choice) $250"? Actually, I bet there would still be spoilsports. | The Grand Survey |
