GENIUS: BORN OR TRAINED?
(a summary)
Is it possible to cultivate genius? In the modern era, Immanuel Kant and Darwin ‘s cousin Francis Galton wrote extensively about how genius occurs. The latest, and possibly most comprehensive, entry into this genre is Dean Keith Simonton’s new book Genius 101: Creators, Leaders, and Prodigies (Springer Publishing Co., 227 pages). (See pictures of Albert Einstein.)
For most of its history, the debate over what leads to genius has been dominated by a bitter, binary argument: is it nature or is it nurture — is genius genetically inherited, or are geniuses the products of stimulating and supportive homes? Simonton takes the reasonable position that geniuses are the result of both good genes and good surroundings. (Read TIME’s 2007 cover story, “Are We Failing Our Geniuses?”)
There are IQ tests, of course, but not all IQ tests are the same, which leads to picking a minimum IQ and calling it genius-level. So Simonton falls back on his “intelligence, enthusiasm, and endurance” formulation. Would you be the genius?
Gladwell featured Ericsson’s work prominently in Outliers. Gladwell is a believer. Simonton rather dismissively calls this the “drudge theory.” In a 2002 study, Simonton showed that the average IQ of 64 eminent scientists was around 150, fully 50 points higher than the average IQ for the general population. Simonton writes that geniuses tend to be “open to experience, introverted, hostile, driven, and ambitious.”
For the complete article click on:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1879593,00.html
“Search to know the Truth
And the Truth will set You Free.”
(my aim is not to convince, but to share what I have found for your consideration. – mackie)
NEWS YOU CAN USE……
Stop.
Wildfires scorch the West, floods pound the Heartland and tropical storms slam the Gulf Coast. Elsewhere, the United States leads wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s chaos in Pakistan. Russian troops occupy tiny Georgia. Iran test-fires missiles, while North Korea grudgingly begins nuclear disarmament. Genocide consumes Darfur. Poverty and disease blanket Africa. Israelis and Palestinians struggle still. A failed White House bid against George W. Bush in 2000 put this man — with his white hair, rapid-fire pace and quick wit — on the national political scene. Tall, trim and easygoing, Obama rocketed onto the national stage as a U.S. Senate candidate who gave a stirring keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Both McCain and Obama are senators, fathers and husbands. Both talk of faith, family and freedom, patriotism, purpose and pride.
McCain is the elder, Obama the youth. McCain is white, Obama black. McCain is a political veteran, Obama still a virtual rookie.
McCain has largely a conservative Senate voting record, while Obama’s is mostly liberal — and their proposals for the future essentially adhere to those ideologies.
On war and peace, McCain is a hawk, Obama a dove. On economics, McCain is a free-market advocate, Obama a “fair-market” proponent. On cultural issues, McCain opposes abortion rights, while Obama supports them.
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MIDDLE CLASS HOMELESS LIVING IN CARS?
(summary by editor)
Homeless people living in cars and mobile homes across the US are being joined by a new breed: the middle-class.
As mortgage foreclosures continue rising month on month, growing numbers of middle-class professionals are losing their homes and downsizing from four bedrooms to four wheels.
With numbers rising, New Beginnings, a homeless agency in Santa Barbara , California , has launched a Safe Parking Programme, aiming to provide a refuge of sorts for those who have nowhere to go other than their vehicle.
Guy Trevor lost his job as an interior designer when the market contracted, thanks to the mortgage foreclosure crisis.
With his furniture sold and his belongings in storage, he now lives in his car, spending the nights in one of the 12 gated parking lots in Santa Barbara run by New Beginnings.
“I see myself as a casualty of a perfect storm,” he said. “The people sleeping at the parking lot are very friendly. They’re just like me – they come from normal, everyday homes. I think a lot of people in this country don’t realise that they, too, are a couple of pay-cheques away from destitution.”
Mortgage foreclosures in the normally comfortable seaside area of Santa Barbara county are increasing month by month.
In May there were 150, with the total for the year to the end of last month reaching 800, according to figures from the county assessor’s office.
Each month, an auction of foreclosed properties is held on the steps of the Santa Barbara courthouse.
“The way the economy is going, it’s just amazing the people that are becoming homeless,” Nancy Kapp, the programme’s coordinator, told CNN. “It’s hit the middle class.”
Another of Kapp’s clients, Barbara Harvey, also lost her job and subsequently her home in the foreclosure crisis. Like Trevor, her job as a loans processor was connected to the housing market.
The 67-year-old lost her three-bedroom home and now lives with her three dogs in her car, parking at night in a women-only car park run by agency.
“It went to hell in a handbasket,” she said. “I didn’t think this would happen to me. It’s just something that I don’t think that people think is going to happen to them.”
The rise in the numbers of homeless sleeping in cars has led Los Angeles city authorities to attempt to clamp down on the problem. As with many other cities, it is illegal in LA to live in vehicles on public streets.
Earlier this year the city forbade nearly all overnight parking on residential streets. A first violation receives a $50 fine, while subsequent offences can carry fines up to $100.
“For more working-class and lower-middle-class people, the car is the first stop of being homeless, and sometimes it turns out to be a long stop,” Gary Blasi, a University of California , Los Angeles , law professor and homeless activist told the Associated Press.
Los Angeles has the highest number of homeless in the US , with an estimated 73,000 people living rough. Of more than 3,000 homeless people surveyed last year, around 250 were sleeping in their cars.
For source click on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/25/usa.subprimecrisis
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The Cost of Caring for the Elderly
caring for the elderly
Millions of middle aged Americans who love their elderly parents are silently losing their savings and other assets to help take care of them.
The government should help take care of the many instead of enriching the few who don’t need it. We are the only industrial nation that doesn’t provide healthcare for all.
Why do we ignore the promise of LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS?
The following article reveals what is going on quietly with those who care enough about others that they are willing to lose everything.
Elder-Care Costs Deplete Savings of a Generation
By JANE GROSS
To care for her ailing 97-year-old father over the past three years, Elizabeth Rodriguez, a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, has borrowed against her 401(k) retirement plan, sold her house on Staten Island and depleted nearly 20 years of savings.
The money has gone to lawyers’ fees ($50,000) to win a contested guardianship. It has gone for home-care equipment like the mattress for his hospital bed (about $3,000 in all) and for a food service to deliver meals ($400 a month).
It has gone for a two-bedroom rental apartment big enough for herself, her dad and a home aide ($1,600 a month more than a one-bedroom apartment in the same building), and for a wheelchair-accessible van to get him to doctors’ appointments ($330 a trip).
Asked to tally the costs, Ms. Rodriguez, 58, said she had no idea how much she was spending. “A shower chair, body cream with no alcohol, new shoes,” she said. “You don’t stop and calculate. You just buy what you have to buy.”
Click here for the rest of the story
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About me
 |
Born in the South, I grew up as a fundamentalist, but have become enlightened. I have several degrees and experience in management, financial planning, counseling, religion, writing, teaching, motivation, etc.
I have been in the US Navy, a small business owner, worked for large corporations as a consultant, a recruiter, a preacher, teacher, sales manager and motivator. Through my education and experience I have been misled by some politicians, preachers, reporters, etc.
AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE I DON’T GO BY FEELINGS OR OPINIONS; I GO BY OBSERVING GOD’S CREATION, READING, MEDITATING AND LISTENING FOR THAT STILL SMALL VOICE.
The highest revelation is that God is in every man. Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is a reckless thing to rely on the opinions of others. To come closer to the truth we must spend more time in meditation and thought, listening for the Spirit of the Universe who is within the deepest part of our being. When science (the study of all that is) disagrees with our beliefs, we must reconsider if we are to come closer to the truth.
The following is the closest to finding the truth for me:
The Parable of the Good Samaritan (St. Luke 10: 25-37)
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
OF COURSE, JESUS IS NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT TAUGHT THESE THINGS:
“Every religion emphasizes human improvement, love, respect for others, sharing other people’s suffering. On these lines every religion had more or less the same viewpoint and the same goal.” The Dalai Lama
“The Golden Rule” is taught in many religions.
Click on: http://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm
WHAT IS LOVE?
1 Corinthians 13
Love
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
For a broad definition of “Love” click on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love
Thank you for visiting my site.
Dr. Mackie Bazen
Chartered Financial Consultant, The American College, Bryn Mawr, PA, 1989
Chartered Life Underwriter, The American College, Bryn Mawr, PA, 1989
Dr. of Ministry Degree, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, VA 1979
Master of Divinity Degree with languages, Southeastern Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, 1973
Bachelor of Arts Degree, Charleston Southern University, Charleston, SC, 1970
More to come………….
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