What IQ Actually Is

What actually is IQ?

We all know that it stands for 'intelligence quotient', or maybe we don't, but I did, and that it is a number. The bigger the number, the more intelligent you (allegedly) are!

An IQ of 100 is considered to be the average, and each standard deviation is 15 points. That is how the IQ is actually defined; so, say, if the population gets increasingly more intelligent, your IQ will drop. Unlucky, you!

This means that 95% of the population is between the IQs of 70 and 130. That means if your IQ is over 130, you're smarter than 97.5% of the population! While people disagree on what a 'genius' actually is -- some say you need an IQ of at least 150, others say 180, those people are probably jerks and racists -- I think we can agree that if your IQ is over 130, you should be allowed to high five in public spaces without 97.5% of the population giving you weird looks.

Jerks AND racists.

Parents' Names

Mitchell Crouch says (9:43 PM)

Okay. Today I learn that apparently it throws me more than it should when people refer to their parents by their names.

It was like a roadblock in my train of thought. Interestink.

Also, ducks and pandas! I made a note of them because they're interesting, but I didn't get a chance to write anything. Didn't quite finish the lab report due at 8:30 tomorrow morning but oh well. I'll do a killer post on Saturday, hopefully, and with any luck, a decent one tomorrow as well. I'm working Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, with a test on Wednesday, so I don't know how much interesting stuff I'll learn then. Just a head's up in advance. :\

Cancer and Crabs

So everyone knows that the animal symbol thing for the starsign Cancer is a crab, and everyone also knows that cancer is a horrific, painful disease. What you probably do NOT know, however, is that cancer the disease is named for the Lat root word that means 'crab', since the pain of cancer was described as being similar to that of being pincered by a crab. That makes a lot more sense now!

Other interesting things I learnt today:

• The mineral dundasite was named after Dundas, in Tasmania, Australia
• 'Kibitz' is synonymous with 'chat'
• This is supposedly the most expensive painting in the world. I'm not joking.

'Hugger-Mugger' is an Actual Word

No, seriously. It is.

Furthermore, it's one of those great words that doesn't mean what it sounds like it should. I don't know if there's a word to describe those kind of words, but I think there should be. 'Antiphononym', or something like that, literally meaning 'opposite of sound word'. My Greek is right up there with my the Lat, clearly.

Anyway, hugger-mugger sounds to me like it's the kind of word that would describe a person who would appear to be your hugger, but is actually your mugger. Sort of like a frenemy, but perhaps more antagonistic, like a betrayer? Maybe they are literally mugging you for your hugs, the devious cads.

A hugger-mugger should be the kind of person who threatens who with death unless you hug you them, and then once you're dead, they'll hug you anyway.

But no. In actuality, it has two meanings, and neither of them are anything like that. The first meaning is 'disorder or confusion'.

...and the second meaning is 'secrecy'.

So what's up with that, hugger-mugger? I guess I am confused about the secrets behind why such a cool phrase is being wasted on such rubbish definitions, but beyond that, we may never make any more sense out of this.

Other interesting things I learnt today:

• Mangoes grow on the flowering plants Mangifera, which are part of the chashew family
• The chemistry textbook 'Atkins and Shriver' was written by Atkins and his colleagues, none of whom were named Shriver, but one of whom was named...
• ...'LeGrande Slaughter'. Someone named 'LeGrande Slaughter' actually legit exists. This world is amazing.

'Bar' Has 37 Different Meanings

...according to the World English Dictionary. Twenty seven of these are nouns, eight are verbs and two are prepositions.

Squirrels live for Six Years

Oh, squirrels. The adorable, fuzzy-tailed rodents we all know and love, unless you're a racist. A squirrel racist.

Their tails are SO fuzzy, in fact, that that's actually from when they acquired their name! Modern English 'squirrel', from Anglo-Norman 'esquirel' from Old French 'escurel' from the Lat 'sciurus', which you already know since their biological family is called Sciuridae (not to be confused with an ice cream sundae) which in turn comes from the Greek 'skiouros', meaning shadow tailed. Presumably the 'ski' part is the shadow, and I would assume that 'ouros' is the same as in 'ouroboros'.

Oh, it's funny how etymology works. That does explain why there are so many different species of squirrel, though; evolution had to go nuts (excuse the pun) to stop them from eating themselves to extinction, to the point where now, in the modern age, a happy, healthy, wild, average squirrel can merrily survive to the ripe old age of six.

Other interesting things I learnt today:

• Clouds have three stages of development
• The rate at which cane toads are killing off goannas is much higher than I previously thought
• President Obama would make an excellent stand-up comedian

Latin has Six Tenses

If you're like me -- and you're probably not, but we can ignore that for a moment -- then you already knew that Latin had a weirdiculous amount of tenses in its language. "Like, nine or something," I believe was the exact amount I specified when asked.

Well, cats and kittens, I was mistaken!

For those of you who can't speak English or have little to no interest in 'the Lat', as it is called on the streets, let me quickly explain what a tense in. Then you will understand, and therefore care!

In English, we have three tenses: Courage, Wisdom, and Power. Each one of them roughly

corresponds to the three ACTUAL tenses of the English language, that being past, present and future. Which one you decide aligns with which one is entirely at your discretion, but know that you CAN be wrong about this, and your neighbours WILL judge you for it.

In Latin, however, they have six tenses! Three are 'simple' and three are 'perfect'. All of the 'perfect' tenses are in the past. The Lat is all about the past!

That's why they're dead and no one speaks their language any more!

The first of the simple tenses is the present tense, which functions much the same as the English present tense.

e.g.
I run from velociraptors.

The second is the imperfect tense, which is one of the past tenses that conveys an actual this is or was incomplete.

e.g.

I was running from velociraptors.

The third and last of the simple tenses is the future tense, which again is roughly synonymous with the English future tense.

e.g.

I will run from velociraptors.

The fourth and first of the perfected tenses is the perfect tense, which is used for completed ('perfected') actions.

e.g.

I ran from velociraptors.

The fifth tense is the pluperfect tense, which is used to indicate that the action was completed before something else.

e.g.

I had run from velociraptors.

The sixth and last of the tenses is the future perfect tense, which is used to indicate that something will be completed in the future.

e.g.

I will have run from velociraptors.

And now you can speak the Lat! Impress your friends with your incredible vocabulary of the Lat terms. You can even tell jokes in the Lat and be the life of the party! "I was running from velociraptors I ran from velociraptors!" See who laughs and gets it and who isn't cool enough to speak dead languages!

Their neighbours will surely judge them if they don't.

Other interesting things I learnt today:

• Your big toe is called your hallux
• Tapirs are arguably the cutest creatures on Earth
• Crouchmas is sometimes also called 'Roodmas' by people who are, y'know, wrong

'Full Steam Ahead' is for Boats, Not Trains

Toot toot!

This is another one of those things I always just sort of suspected and assumed but didn't actually for certain know. Well, now I do!

By my reasoning and intimate knowledge of history, at some point in the past, some primitive man-ape creature discovered fire.

Several millenia passed, and finally, mankind was evolved enough to beat two sticks and a rock together to invent the miracle of the steam engine.

Naturally, it was around the same time that everyone started to dress well and the world went monochrome.

Once the steam engine was invented, it was clear what came next: applying to things that we already had. Hamburgers, zombies, and, yes, even boats, now became steam-powered. It wouldn't be for another few years until we thought to apply steam engines to new uses, and a myriad of brilliant new devices were invented: the printing press, lightsabers, and trains.

Since steamboats had such a headstart over any sort of train (the first sort of which was the steam train), it was for the steamboat that the phrase "Full steam ahead!" evolved, meaning, of course, to convert as much heat energy to mechanical energy as was possible to increase the velocity of the vessel and go as fast as one could.

Other interesting things I learnt today:

• The philosopher John Dewey was 92 when he died
• Osama bin Laden has been killed by American troops in Pakistan
• 'Caterpillar' is a particularly delightful word to say!

Not All Kookaburras are Kookaburras

So I've known for a while now that kookaburras are kingfishers. For some reason, this information caught me off guard, like I was expecting kookaburras to be part of their own special super-secret club, and no one else was allowed to join.

But no. That's not the case at all. The family Halcyonidae, kingfishers, is home to the genus Dacelo, which is the kookaburras. As a quick recap for those who have forgotten their biological classifications, just remember your amusingly bad English:

PLEASE COME OVER FOR GAME SOCCER

They taught us that on my very first day of university so that we could remember Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, in that order, but the degree to which the phrase doesn't actually make sense (and the fact that it skips out Kingdom altogether) stuck it in my head, which actually makes it pretty useful as a mnemonic.

Kookaburras, then, are classed as:

K: Animalia

P: Chordata

C: Aves

O: Coraciiformes

F: Halcyonidae

G: Dacelo

We'll ignore, for the moment, that contemporary biological classification hasn't really quite caught up to birds being in the clade of theropods (my favourite sub-order, incidentally), and just accept the relevant piece of information here: kookaburras are in the genus Dacelo which is defined in a few (fairly sketchy) places as 'Australasian kingfishers'. That's

their 'thing'. That is the kookaburra hood, that is the kookaburra's turf, and that makes the family Halcyonidae a cosmopolite.

Unfortunately, that is not to be confused with a polite cosmonaut.

...though I agree, that would be more awesome.

A cosmopolite is a type of creature that can be found just about anywhere in the world (as opposed to being anywhere that is not the world, because they are polite cosmonauts and have no need for our terrestrial realm). For example, the class Insecta is cosmopolitan, as is the species Homo sapiens.

The inclusion of Dacelo in Halcyonidae is important for the kingfisher krew because they're now also in the Cool Cosmo Club. They're living it up where ever they want, including Australasia, because as you'll recall, Dacelo are the Australasian kingfishers.

Let's back up a moment.

"Australasia?" dudes are saying in confused voices. "Can we not just quickly define where, exactly, 'Australasia' is?"

Of course we can, dudes! All you need do is ask.

According to Wikipedia, which is not only conveniently bookmarked here but generally 'good enough' (technical term there) in terms of information quality, 'Australasia' consists of

Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea

and some other little islands of which no one else has really heard (sorry, the rest of Australasia).

So quick recap, Dacelo is:

• kookaburras
• Australasian kingfishers

and Australasia is:

• Australia
• New Zealand
• New Guinea
• et. al

So then, it stands to reason that if we grab a species of kookaburra, from, say, New Guinea, then it will be in the genus Dacelo.

It's time to introduce you to my friend, Clytoceyx rex.

Unfortunately, that is not to be confused with Tyrannosaurus rex.

...though I agree, that would be more awesome.

C. rex, known more commonly as the shovel-billed kookaburra, is a kookaburra from New Guinea. It is also the only non-Dacelo kookaburra, and is the sole representative of the genus Clytoceyx.

This, to me, to be honest with you, seems silly, and like the problem is primarily a linguistic one. I can't actually find any more definitive criteria for Dacelo beyond "Australasian kingfisher", and Clytoceyx is even less documented. The former was formally identified by William Leach in 1815, and the latter by Richard Sharpe in 1880. Maybe Sharpe just didn't know about Dacelo? How well was biological taxonomy centralised in the late 19th century? Or is there an actual, real, noticeable difference between Dacelo and Clytoceyx that I just can't identify by comparing pictures on Google Images?

Unfortunately, these are not to be confused with rhetorical questions. They are 100% genuine, my friends, and I'm not about to whip out some killer bio facts and put you all in awe of my genius.

...though I agree, that would be more awesome.

Other interesting things I learnt today:

• Carbon-13 has a natural abundance of only about 1%
• The world's largest cannon on wheels, the Jaivana, was cast in 1720
• Enough people still buy (and use!) Sony's products for the PS3 hack to be a big deal

The Mexican Standoff is Australian

They say you learn something new every day. I'm not sure who they are, and frankly, I think they're underestimating me a bit, but I've decided to set out to prove it and keep a record of the interesting little tidbits of information I learn each day. Each post won't be long, but just a short little explanation of some piece of trivia I've stumbled across that I found interesting enough to record.

First of all, today I learnt that the phrase 'Mexican standoff' has its origins in Australian slang. A Mexican standoff is, for those of you late to the Mexican standoff party, more or less an impasse; two (or more, if you're in to group standoffs) parties are threatening each other without wanting to resort to doing what they're threatening, as then the other party might also do what they're threatening, and that would be bad.

For example, let us consider the hypothetical situation of a hypothetical man named Gonzales. Gonzales has a moustache the size of a small European nation and enjoys long walks in the desert with his sombrero and twin pistols, as well as snacking on burritos and tacos. What Gonzales hates, however, is ethnic stereotyping, which is what his arch enemy Julio is all about. "Yo, Gonzales," Julio says each morning as Gonzales strums his guitar whilst leaning on a cactus, "I am all about ethnic stereotyping." Well, thinks Gonzales, that is just not on. Eventually, after many mornings of such taunting, Gonzales finally snaps and reaches for a pistol. Julio does the same. The two men are staring at each other intently, each with a hand on his pistol, and neither one willing to move an inch in case it prompts the other to shoot him dead.

This is an example of a Mexican standoff, even though Gonzales is Norwegian and Julio is Sudanese.

I think I find this interesting because 'Mexican standoff' doesn't really blend in with other Ocker phrases such as 'Ocker', 'crikey', 'g'day' or 'fuggya'. It just doesn't sound particularly Skippy. I'd always assumed that it was North American, since that's where most contemporary English phrases seem to originate, and it's referencing Mexicans. Americans love referencing Mexicans! If popular media is to be believed, it's their number one past time over in the States.

But no; the Cambridge Online Dictionary describes it as belonging to "[a] type of English used primarily in Australia and New Zealand". Struth! Okay so maybe that doesn't mean it's actually Australian; it could be New Zealish. I assume that since England produces English and Finland produces Finnish that New Zealand produces New Zealish; I think I've only ever heard the phrase 'New Zealander' but that doesn't seem to do justice for this context.

If the phrase is New Zealish, and not Australian, then I can't help but feel that perhaps the New Zealanders should spend more time developing useful self-descriptive words than cinematic tropes.

Other interesting things I learnt today:

• The average mosquito has forty seven teeth
• Somali isn't a safe tourist destination
• Chickens can swim... but not very well