Immanent threats are not addressed as the population on the planet at 8,000,000,000+ would panic & might tip the Earth over. We would then be upside down and would fall to who knows where. I read it on the internet.

@Mooolah Incredible advice. Could have come from Weekly World News. Good use of the word incredible. How many cattle and sheep do we have? How many buffalo were there" Didthe world unbalance when the giand lizards roamed?

Well I do not advertise it at home. People say I'm smartbut I chose to live for 40 years (I retire at 35) as a pioneer inthe backwoods using hand tools and 18th, 19th century woodcraftmanshil which I learnt from books. I am fundamentally lazy unless I love what I'm doing Somehow Clearing 7 acres of woodland by hand twice suited me very well. Building by hand suits me.
I have never been one for mixing with the men. I'm always happier if women are present. Men boast and exagerate. Much of my life has been with a wife (3 of them) alone out in the bush.
The NIIP recommended that I do estate management. My father tore up the report but in a way that is how I lived my life.

@rogerbenham My son is more intelligent than I am, but he also got his mother's work ethic. His daughter is already showing signs of exceeding him. As far as I know he has never been tested or wanted to be. It is going to be a fun ride.

@glennlab Well the inquizative minds make great advances for humanity, though humanity does not usually use them well.

I began working at 16 for the telephone company. There was only one back then. Monopoly. I retired at 53 but not from Ma Bell. Lived below my means & took advantage of the capitalist system tho I had to change a few laws that tried to impede me. Now I have an estate to manage.

I've had a wonderful life other than being severely scammed. But I'm recovering from that. I learnt that everyone is doing the best that they can, that possessions and stuff have no real value, that love is the only thing that matters, that seeking happiness is not the way but acceptance and contentment are far more valuable ... but I'm pretty certain that I still have to learn something big. Circumstances brought lots of compassion into my life but I am missing something very big and hopefully will learn it in my remaining years.To have lived outside the system was immensely valuable. No monthly bills and not knowing what I'd be doing that day was so much pleasnt as a way of life.

I cannot say that. Too strong.I never thought about it. Being brought up C of E, belief was not so stuffed down one's throat.The church founded on letting a king divorce. When I was 15, all boys at my school got "confirmed" with the laying on of hands by the bishop. I resisted for a long time but started an affair with one of the 6 available girls who persuaded me to do it. I took communion once and realised the blasphemy and never did again. Years later in Vancouver Anglican Cathedral Choir one day, the dean addressed the choir saying that we should all take communion together. I stuck up my hand and said then I must leave the choir as I did not believe any of it. He looked around the choir and saw several heads nodding and just said forget it do as you like. Several of us just adored the singing as we sang Palestrina and Byrd and Tallis etc.

I have a new profile now, but I have read many of your posts over the years. I had to change my profile because of whatever it was that happened to the website months back. Anyway, I really thought your IQ would be higher than 150. Surprised that it is 147. Glad to see you are still here.

@Flyingdust

Thank you.

Which gets very confusing as a few of the 160+ folk have professed to be Christians. But then 6 points higher just would suggest a distribution curve with an apex at 106 rather than 100. It still puts a whack of people close to 100.
As I was totally private schooled I did not ever take England's 11+ exam. Most of those who took it and failed ended up in at best craftmen jobs. A tiny percentage escaped and rose to university. I think what alarmed me were the boys from private schools who stepped out of school into money and industry. So many did not learn civility and so were well primed for industry. I remember meeting them at debutante functions and thinking Alan Paton's line adapted "God help England that has such people in it". Trumpie's lack civility or is it the Trump has groomed them?

That is really more astounding when you realize that the difference between mental retardation, (83 or 84ish), is only 16 to 17 points away from average intelligence. (100).

@Flyingdust Its the bell curve, most people cluster around the middle.

I agree far too much attention is paid to logical intelligence and not enough to emotional intelligence. We are social creatures after all and if pure logical intelligence rules our lives there would be no art, just practical efficiency. Boring. Pure logic and zero emotion, that's psychopathic.
My favourite song lyric is from an Aussie band, TISM. "Even though I went to uni, at least I still know I'm dumb".
@rogerbenham No clues what my IQ would be but like you, have managed to avoid the rat race grind which was a smart move imo.

Well I'm 145 but apart from choosing a wonderful life instead of gaining heaps of money in an environment that I disliked I cannot say my intelligence is special other than finding Trumpies depressing.

@rogerbenham Mine is almost on a par at 143…but some of the people I know who brag most about how high their IQ is are utterly devoid of likeability and of empathy.

@Marionville I've known at least 4 in the 160 range. I think all 4 tended to befriend the 120 up crowd (university passers).The first taught me to play chess when I was 19. I played maybe ten games after that and realised I hated it. One told me to give up windows and switch to Linux. He helped me install it and confidently assumed (correctly) that I'd figure it out when I had never learned any code. They were all likeable but remote except to a few. I think they are a bit lonely. I find that I have to talk about uninteresting stuff if I mix with many friends. A couple of them have been my best friends.

I recall seeing this group and thought of joining for some stimulating conversation, but joining a "Ooh, look at our big brains" group eg the name "Hi IQ" put me off.
No idea my IQ score. All I know is after the "aptitude test" at basic training at the Army, I got pulled aside where they wanted me to go to officers college. I declined; 9 years commitment when just 19 was too daunting for me. Ended up Intelligence Corp instead. Then at uni, had to write an application letter as a highly contested course. Once there, found out everyone had an interview, I didn't.
So I think I may be one of the shinier peanuts in the turd of life. Used to be anyway, killed a few braincells in my time

@puff My sister had a godfather (presumably an ex of my mums) who was a frequent visitor to our home. When asked what he did he replied that he worked for the Home Office. Well, eventually we got the truth out of him. He'd volunteered in 1939. Went to Sandhurst and took some passing out exams. He was called in "You were incaple of putting a Thomson machine gun together yet you drew its parts totally correctly. We have place for you.". So he joined MI5 where he spent his whole career. He did admit to knowing all about things like the Profumo affair. I think at the time I was more interested in Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice Davis. But I'd often been to Cliveden as it was close.

I guess that I do not care about my IQ because I am fully aware that hardly ever have I used it. As a Architectural Mechanical consulting engineer I did make a change to shopping centre design which was universally adoptedbut my expertise was energy recovery and in 1979 there waslimited interest but they sure paid me big bucks until they forced me to break the law so I quit. Integrity seems much more important to me than to most others.

@rogerbenham Know what you mean. Working SE Asia I always used to get in the shit for standing up for my local boys (and girls) when my expat bosses got power trippy eg they wouldn't try to pull that shit back home. I was financially secure, no debt with house and toys all paid for,, which gives you great freedom in standing up for what you deem important. Too many people don't want to rock the boat for fear of losing their job, bonded to debt, but they all come up and say "Good on ya!" in quiet after.

@puff There is a song I sing by IanCampbell:

@rogerbenham You'd fit into Tasmania well.

@puff Except I'd be one of the logging protesters.I spent a December in New South Wales and hated the climate. Then a week in Perth and loved the climate. I presume that Tasmania is cooler than NSW but just as humid. I hated the humidity. Anyway, I'm about to be 77 and I;m going to die here I hope!

@rogerbenham zero humidity Tasmania. Apple growing country. Nectarines, peaches. Cold water seafood. People smile and say hello when you go to the supermarket. Logging old growth sucks.

@puff Come on, not zero. We don't even have that at -30C.Apple growing is nice. I do grow crabs here which make a nice juice and quite sweet if boiled down. Nactarines and peaches grow close to the US border but are subjects to frosts in winter. Aren't your ocean currents coming down from East coat NSW? Yes I live in a remote community with miles and chats. Logging old growth totally sucks. I hope that Canadian companies aren't raping your land.

@rogerbenham Chinese I think. Allowed by our gutless turd politicians. Southern Ocean, next landfall Antartica. Tasmania is more like NZ climate than the mainland. Shitloads of rain and forest.