Randomness

[Alelou]

This is totally unrelated, but hey, this is "Randomness." Fascinating article in NYTimes today: "Lots of Animals Learn, but Smarter Isn't Always Better."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/scien ... ei=5087%0A

I guess it could arguably fit in with the idea that T'Pol is too intelligent to be a successful Vulcan...

[JadziaKathryn]

While I am at a loss to explain why anyone cares about the learning habits of flies (I mean, come on, aren't there important diseases to be cured?) I think you might have a point about T'Pol. A lot of geniuses have/had a hard time fitting in with society. This would be exponentially harder in a collectivist, rigid society as Vulcan has.

[justTripn]

This is totally unrelated, but hey, this is "Randomness." Fascinating article in NYTimes today: "Lots of Animals Learn, but Smarter Isn't Always Better."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/scien ... ei=5087%0A

I guess it could arguably fit in with the idea that T'Pol is too intelligent to be a successful Vulcan...

Hey this related directly to the question of intelligent life on other planets. We tend to think that smarter is better, therefore intelligence will inevitably evolve. It could but doesn't in ordinary fruit flies. So . . . ?

I think this IS important research.

Another negative thing about intelligence: you can imagine all kinds of unhappy future possibilities and become depressed. Your can see patterns where none exist--invent paranoid theories. Oddly, terrorists seems to be more highly educated that the general population. It is theorized that they feel unfulfilled and search for something grand and "important" to do.

[Distracted]

So, then, if that generalizes to humans, then people with lower IQ's (in places where being stupid doesn't cause them to get shot, stabbed, OD'd on drugs, eaten by something or to fall off a cliff )should live longer, right? I wonder if anybody's done a study....

[Alelou]

I guess if your success depends on happily doing some no-brainer, repetitive job, a lack of intelligence might indeed benefit you and that happiness could lead to longer life.

This is assuming you can find a no-brainer, repetitive job that pays a living wage. Good luck.

[Distracted]

"Happily doing some no-brainer repetitive job..."

Hmmm.

Like examining four college students an hour, 40 hours a week, 48 weeks a year, all of whom have either head colds, sore throats, sore muscles, VD, or stress, and then handing them an information handout, a prescription or two, and an excuse from class?

Cool. I'm gonna live forever.

[Pitseleh]

But you still work in the medical field, Distracted, even if the cases are similar most of the time.

Last year, since I had to wait for all the bureocracy in my country to verify my paperwork and allow me to get a college education, I took a desk job as a customer service representative. I basically had to make calls, and depending on the situation, repeat a certain script to the customer. It was a no-brainer, but it was so mind-numbingly boring that by the third hour in there you felt like your brain was turning to mush. Not my kind of thing... It was also good money for a very small amount of responsibility.

[CX]

I would totally give up on my dream of being an engineer and being the first in my family to actually have money if I got a job akin to the internship I had with the USDA over the last two summers. Best part of that would be that I could go home and work on my writing.

[Alelou]

Well, all it takes to get a lot of government jobs is passing the test and being patient. So many people never take the test, so they never get on the list.

Doesn't hurt if you know somebody either, but if you interned already you do!

But I'd suggest you go ahead and be an engineer. Government work is a steady living but it's not big bucks, and you often end up working for political hacks who don't know shit about what they're supposed to be running.

[JadziaKathryn]

I had a dream last night that ENT was revived after a few years off for a fifth season. I watched the third part of its comeback arc and thought, "It's once again doomed." (There were specific reasons but I can't remember them now.) Travis, however, played an important role. He died. And then came back to life. Trip did something I think I thought was character assassination. And there was some ill alien whose breathing process was fatal to humans.

[Alelou]

Wow, a Star Trek dream complete with critical deconstruction!

I think this means you're officially obsessed.

[Asso]

Don't tell me that!

[JadziaKathryn]

Wow, a Star Trek dream complete with critical deconstruction!

I think this means you're officially obsessed.

I've been listening to "In Time: The Best of R.E.M 1988-2003" over and over, because that's just the kind of thing I do. Not one, not two, but three songs on it reminded me of Star Trek. ("The Great Beyond" = Kes, "Losing My Religion" = Trip, and "All the Right Friends" = T'Pol.) I didn't need a dream to tell me I'm obsessed...

[Alelou]

I know exactly what you mean. I put on a CD of North Country fiddles tunes the other day, the kind that are played at contradances, and I kept trying to assign the different ones to different Enterprise crewmen...

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Wow, a Star Trek dream complete with critical deconstruction!

I think this means you're officially obsessed.

It's been a while since I had a Trek themed dream... I think. I don't usually remember my dreams.

*****

Cool! I got my retro-style Mego TOS action figures that I ordered last week today. That surely brought back childhood memories. The only difference I could spot was slightly on the rank stripes and a sturdier Trek arrowhead.

And I got the Andorian and the Romulan, which I didn't have as a kid (didn't even know they existed). Man, imagine the fun I could've had with those figues back in the 70s.

Now I'll have to get the Klingon guy, track down the elusive Kirk and look out for the release of Scotty and Uhura. They're even going to make a TOS Khan action figure, which they didn't have in the 70s. Who knows, maybe they'll make a Mego-style Sulu and a Mego-style Chekov too. They didn't have them back then either.