MSN Sponsors Mensa 492
crankyspice writes "Fresh on the heels of Google courting members via GLAT advertisements in the Bulletin, Microsoft's MSN is now sponsoring American Mensa events, featuring Mensa questions on the MSN homepage, and Mensa will put MSN's search on their new homepage."
Mensa (Score:1, Informative)
Re:MENSA is not THAT smart.. (Score:3, Informative)
Mensa is not really a society of smart people, it is a society of insecure people...who happened to pass a puzzle test.
Linux evangelization at Mensa in New Orleans (Score:4, Informative)
I plan on using a variation of these bullet points [kellynetco...rvices.com] for my presentation. If any of you slashdotters happen to be at MensAGumbo, please come and cheer me on, say hi, etc.
Re:MENSA is not THAT smart.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:MENSA is not THAT smart.. (Score:3, Informative)
You don't get a qualifying Mensa reading comprehension score with this statement. You need a >1300 if you took test before 9/30/74, back when it was hard. They clearly state that they haven't considered the SAT to correlate with IQ for over ten years now; 1994 was the last year they accepted those scores.
They make good bedfellows... (Score:2, Informative)
Seriously.
Accept their offer (cmon, anyone can score in the top 2% on a REAL iq test not those corny ass web ones) and go to one of their meetings.
It basically consists of "rah rah rah, we're smart and this is what smart people do". A few were genuinely interested in intelligence and brought some interesting puzzles--but for most of them its just mental masturbation to the extreme.
Most people there had no practical ability IMO. They were your typical college students and adults who had high GPA (I have a 4.0 and it means nothing IMO) but had no ability to apply it or do something useful. They memorized facts. Ask them something that they hadn't read and they'd be totally blown away and couldn't answer. It'd be fun watching them squirm
Real smart people don't join Mensa. People who want to be smart join Mensa.
Returning fire (Score:4, Informative)
Mensa's goals are (paraphrased): "To foster human intelligence, to research human intelligence, and provide a social forum for it's members" By and large, it's mainly only this last one that ever happens. By far and away the most popular regular Mensa meeting in London, England is the pub crawl.
Mensa is a Social Club. Members often have very little in common, but a common ability to think. While there is a qualification of a top 2% IQ score for entry, only a tiny percentage actually apply.
For the record, I'm not entirely comfortable with corporate sponsorship of Mensa. The fact that it's Microsoft is something I really don't like. But it's just my opinion - by policy, Mensa has no opinions
(disclaimer: the author is a member of British Mensa, and sits on the London organising committee (LocSec forum)(
Your perception of Mensa is coloured. (Score:3, Informative)
Most Mensa members are quite ordinary people who happen to be able to perform logical thought faster and more accurately than average. While there are some arseholes, just as there are in any group, most recognise their ability for what it is. Most also recognise that IQ isn't what makes you a good person, or a particularly valuable member of society.
It might interest you to know that those who score the top 2% out of the population can gain entry to Mensa should they wish to. Know also that Mensa in the UK has only around 40,000 members out of a potential membership of 1,200,000 people. The US stats will probably be similar. That means that there are a *LOT* of equally smart people out there who frankly can't be arsed, haven't bothered or don't think they are smart enough to join.
In conclusion, your perception of Mensa isn't the reality of the organisation or most of the people in it. As I said, most of the people are quite ordinary, from all classes, political persuasions, cultures, races. They get together occasionally for a beer or coffee and a chat.
Finally, if you think you can practice for the test and ace it, on you go. You could then throw the result in their face when you pass and tell them their society isn't worth joining. More power to you.
Re:So what ? (Score:3, Informative)
As a former member of Mensa (who does not put it on his resumes, nor the fact that I am a published author either--it just sounds too pretentious), I would just like to clarify one point:
Almost half of Mensa members are spouses of those with 98%+ IQs. You couldn't very well leave someone's husband or wife out of a primarily social organization. Hence the actual average IQ of Mensa members is a bit lower than that reputed by them, though obviously much higher than the general average. As for politics, ones attitude on this front is dictated by social class and personal knowledge as much as intelligence, though I have seen statistics that Democrats tend to be smarter than Republicans. (No troll, just the fac's, Ma'am.) And Mensans tend not to be poor, though they are not necessarily rich either.
Re:So what ? (Score:3, Informative)
That seems to be by design. Many questions on Mensa tests are designed to penalize educated intelligence. Here's an example that I saw several years ago (and stewed about ever since):
Now, anyone with even minimal mathematics behind them would choose (e), because it's the only prime number in the bunch. But, they would be wrong: The correct answer is (f), 8, because this "the number 8 is the only one which is symmetrical." I.e., as printed on the page!Q: Which is the odd one out?
Re:MSN is sponsering Mensa. Get in Mensa easily! (Score:1, Informative)
adj 1: naive and easily deceived or tricked; "People who believe porn star bio" [syn: fleeceable, green]