26 Replies to “Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors”

  1. Hawaii obviously needs a lava tax. That’ll stop it for sure because the science has been settled.

  2. It’s like this.

    Those that talk so much eventually must talk stupid.
    It’s the law of nature.

    Only a genius can talk and talk and make sense one hundred percent of the time.
    Those are few, very few. And some don’t even talk. They do other things.

    It syllogism.
    E pericoloso sporgersi

    1. Sorry Lev, I have to disagree with you. “Genius” means in the top 2% of people for ability to learn and/or synthesize new information.

      Being a genius makes it harder, not easier, to effectively communicate. If a smart person writing a paper assumes that the reader is at least as smart as they and have a similar background to the author then they are writing for less than 20% of the prospective audience, and it is unlikely that the results will be positive.

      Of course idiots have a much harder time communicating effectively because, well, they’re idiots. But I must argue against confusing being smart with being able to effectively communicate (especially on contentious topics that may or may not be scientifically based). A 360 review at work showed me the difference between smarts and good communications.

      1. top 1% starts ,at 135 sbs, genius starts at 146 sbs, and the rest of your post is about as accurate

        1. So sayeth the ultimate arbitrator of truth. A quick search of IQ and genius shows a range of 130 to 160 being genius level. From the Mensa website:

          To qualify for Mensa membership, an applicant must score at or above the 98th percentile on the Mensa IQ test or another Mensa-approved IQ test. This means that Mensa members are among the top 2 percent of people who take standard IQ tests.

          further:
          Some tests that can qualify an individual for Mensa membership are administered by private psychologists. The Differential Ability Scales, or DAS, test, Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, and Stanford Binet test are all such tests, and all require an IQ of 132 or higher for Mensa admission. Other IQ tests that can be used for Mensa qualification include the Stanford Binet 5 (score of 130 or more) and the Wechsler Adult and Children Scales (score of 130 or more needed)

          So the society for high IQ folks is my source. Any source for your blatherings? No, that’s right, you have no interest in effectively communicating (which is, after all, the topic under discussion). If you have something to say about how to communicate, then please do so. One liners show no interest in dialogue.

      2. As you may have noticed from past comments, I know nothing.
        It is my thoughts that I write.
        This is what I think. I’m not an academic and did not study rhetoric.
        If I think those things I must be right in my own mind. Heh
        Open to suggestions and ideas if I think they are correct. Heh

        This comment that you read is already uncomfortable, using ‘I’s over the top.

        1. Hardly nothing, methinks thou dost protest too much! (I’ve always liked that line.)

          I was just noting that having smarts doesn’t make one right, or a good talker. I’ve found it easier to talk to someone who’s humble about what they understand and who recognizes what they don’t understand than it is to talk to someone who thinks they can understand everything. Great Italian tag line, I had to look it up, and it adds nicely to the comment.

          1. Of course there are many and varied people of all kinds some know this some know that.
            Self know what it knows and it is nothing.
            Gotta think.
            Just my $0.05 worth.
            Heh,

    1. My first thought too. Damn South Park!

      My second thought was to the poor global warming fanatics who think that they fully understand nature and all that derives from it.

  6. I saw a documentary where a small Icelandic village saved some buildings by pumping a lot of water on the leading edge. Lava solidified, created a barrier, which diverted lava elsewhere. I got a kick out of this, because I always wondered if this was possible. Problems – takes a huge amount of water, plenty of pumps, and landscape which is shaped just right. Don’t bet the farm. Or your small village.

    1. Isn’t this pretty much how Hawaii was formed in the first place? Lava running up against water.

    2. It is one of a few stories on a similar theme: “The Control of Nature” by John McPhee. Excellent. In Iceland’s case, they used huge-capacity, portable oilfield pumps to cool the lava with seawater thus creating a channel for the lava to flow within.

      Another of the stories regards the Army Corps of Engineer’s efforts to keep the Mississippi within its current channel, rather than have it divert (naturally) to its preferred course in the Atchafalaya basin. It will eventually do this anyway, just a matter of flood severity.

  8. they should have gotten the obungles to stop the lava, he stopped the oceans from rising!!!!!

  9. When Mother Earth needs to shart, puny humans should mind their place.

  10. I don’t see everyone’s problem with this. If you are stupid enough to get your news from CNN you probably do need to be told not to try to stop lava with a hand gesture.

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