The "IQ" Mystery

  By Florida Bill 

                                                 In recent days and weeks, I have seen a good number of stories on the social airways about celebrities, politicians, athletes and other prominent persons with incredibly high intelligence quotients (IQs).
                                 Discussions about who is  smart and who is officially a bit of a dim bulb can liven up any conversation. Reports on IQ levels--not to mention how they are measured--actually differ from one account to another, so the final word on who is a whiz kid and who has an empty head may not be completely accurate.    
                                  There are various charts as to which numbers equate to levels of intelligence.   Basically, the average IQ across all Americans is a score of 100, with 91 to 109 considered average or normal.   Stepping up, 110 to 119 is considered to be "superior intelligence" and 120 to 129 is considered "very superior intelligence." A score of 130 to 139 is listed as "Gifted," and 140 or above is considered "Genius or Near Genius."   And the higher the score, the greater the genius; and when you surpass 200--well you do not fool with that egghead. 
                                   If you thought that the young singers and composers, Lady Gaga and Shakira, were just a couple of dingbats earning millions--guess again.  There is another side to those faces.  They are, so we are told, certified geniuses checking in with IQs of around 140-160.  Actually, we are told that there are a good many geniuses around Hollywood.  Among them are actors James Woods who logs in with super intelligence of 180, and Matt Damon at 160; and the the long gone actress and Oscar winner, Judy Holiday (the social media might ask who that is) scored a 172.
                                    IQ is intelligence quotient and it is derived from standardized testing results when a portfolio is available from which to glean the information. When the paper work is not fully available, as is the case with Gallileo (185) and Leonardo Da Vinci (220), other factors are considered.  California Professor Dean Keith Simonton recommends use of a technique of assembling everything about a person, including achievements, discoveries and compositions to estimate an IQ.  It is a "histriometric" approach to assessing  brainpower (IQ) when results of standardized testing are not to be found or test scores are missing, the professor has explained.   
                                     Does it depend upon who is asking, or who has the info?  Most reports which I have seen, find genius genes in many of the same persons, including Madonna, Hillary and Bill Clinton, and chess master Gary Kasparov.  Also on top of the brain mountain are: Dolph Lundgren, Rocky's Russian nemesis (160), Sharon Stone (154), and Conan O'Brien (160).
                                      Amazingly, the iconic President Kennedy is down there with a lot  of regular folks at 117, and President Reagan is said to be just an ordinary guy at 107. President Nixon's 143 tops his old boss, President Eisenhower, who posted 122.  There are some reports that George W. Bush, the younger. has an IQ of only 91--yet there are others who claim his brain power is closer to 126, very intelligent.  For Bush, maybe some political "histriometrics"?
                                      Mohammed Ali, the Louisville boxer and poet, was said to have an IQ of 78.  That is mighty low ball alongside Sylvester Stallone (AKA Rocky) punching in at genius level, 160.  Muscular ex-Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger scores 132. 
                                      Famous classical composers (Bach, Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn) were estimated by a Catherine Cox in 1926 to have IQs between 160 and 170. Music geniuses all. Lady Gaga's talents as a writer and composer must surely account for some of her membership in that stratosphere of the intelligence continuum.
                                     The typical child prodigy usually has an exceptionally high IQ.  For example, Korean born Kim Ung-Yong has been recorded as having an IQ score of about 210. Yong reportedly could speak fluently at six months old and was a guest student in physics at Hanyang University by the time he was three-years-old.
                                      The highest IQ ever recorded was 228, according to the Guinness Book of Records.  This score belongs to the "smartest"  person in the world,  Marilyn vos Savant, 70, a Parade magazine columnist, author and lecturer.  Ms Savant scored it when she was 10 years old.
                                      Oh yes, one other thing.  President Trump is said to have an IQ of 156, dwarfing Hillary Clinton's 140.
                                     Like everything, there are challenges to all this rhetoric about super high IQs.  The numbers and lists which are being tossed about were said to have been published initially by MENSA, the UK-based society considered to be the oldest and largest high IQ society in the world. 
                                   But, MENSA has said that it has not published any such list of celebrity members and in fact never issues any list of MENSA members to the press and does not disclose individual IQ scores to anyone. The genesis of all this discussion of individual brain-power is unknown, according to MENSA.  
                                  The Huffington Post is said to be the only media member which has acknowledged that these lists attributed to Mensa are "fakes." One of the critics of the "Mensa" published list observed that the report is a "measure of just how easy it is to get a catchy story to move.... and hang around even after being retracted."
                                    It is all kind of fun and interesting to read about who is supposedly smart and who is just average and those who are barely scratching the surface of the brainpower spectrum.    Accurate?  Only those with the highest IQs know for sure.
                       
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More Snake Problems in Florida

  By Florida Bill 

                                               While Florida wildlife professionals are trying to out maneuver and remove the Burmese python from the  magnificent Everglades, there has arisen a new impediment slowing down the ousting of these unwelcome critters--the Miccosukee Indians and their special traditions. 
                               To the Miccosukees, which has a proud and noble history in Florida which even predates Columbus, the snake is considered to be a "sacred" animal which has contributed in positive ways to early Indian days in North America.  Although the invasive python problem in the Everglades is fairly new,  it is the generic snake, whatever its kind, which is deserving of respect by the tribe, so put your machetes away, and let the natives work on the problem.  
                              With this tradition, and guided by a new Miccosukee chief, the tribe has formally ordered the state of Florida to halt ongoing research into Burmese pythons on the designated Indian reservations occupying about 130 square miles of the sunshine state, deep in the Everglades.  The tribe has had ownership rights of the land since 1962 by decree of Florida authorities.
                               The Miccosukees see the negatives in the snake's hissing presence, gobbling up the wildlife beauty in the Everglades.  So, while ordering an end to research and machete wielding by local snake haters, the tribe's wildlife unit will take charge of catching and disposing of these reptiles on the reservation, explained Gintas Zavadzkas, a Miccosukee ecological coordinator.  Without too much elaboration, Zavadzkas said future work will be evaluated on a "case by-case" basis.  
                          The tribe coordinator's announcement came as a surprise and a bit of a setback for Florida scientists. The decision means that an ongoing study tracking python habitats and movement by a prominent Geological Survey biologist on reservation land will cease, an official explained. 
                          Coordinator Zavadzkas has expressed some frustration with state and federal efforts which he suggests have gummed things up for the tribe, impacting negatively on traditional Miccosukee way of life.  State and local authorities could do more, he said, to discourage the flourishing of this invasive animal;  for example, the state could require python owners to neuter pet snakes which could help control their spread.   
                           In other matters, authorities have gotten in the way of traditional fishing and hunting by tribal members in a water conservation area on the reservation,  the Miccosukee spokesman charged. 
                          The unwelcome presence of the Burmese python in Florida first manifested itself in the 1980s.  Their number continues to grow. The reptile can grow to 20-feet in length, maybe even longer.  It is not poisonous, but ravenous in its hunger for the birds and rabbits and other special critters who have made their home in the grassy everglades which extends over 1.5 million acres in southern Florida.  In recent months, the python has been found south of the Everglades in Key Largo. 
                             In the past years, wildlife authorities of Florida have sponsored Python hunts as an added measure to reduce the population of the snakes.  Hundreds of persons have participated in a "python hunt" and many male and female snakes have been destroyed; with cash awards given to the most successful hunters. Another hunt is planned for later in 2017.  Florida officials hope for the best from the Miccosukees in finding and destroying the invaders, but vow that their scientific fight to preserve the health and pristine nature of the Glades will continue.
                             Speculation is that the snake's genesis came about by way of pet owners who became disenchanted with their exotic prize, maybe because they got too big or ate too much,  and discarded them in the "the wild" --that being the Everglades. The Burmese population took hold, and now 35 years later, thanks to the serpentine version of the birds and the bees, there is a daunting overpopulation problem. Lady pythons lay hundreds of eggs at a time and too many survive other predators, and grow.  Adult Burmese pythons here have no natural predators, experts tell us.  Even alligators do not always fare well in one-on-one combat.                                     The Miccosukees of Florida is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the USA, inside the state of Florida. Originally part of the Creek nation, the Indians migrated into Florida before it became part of the United States. The Tribe and its reservation was federally recognized in Florida in 1962.  

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