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anarchist_nomad Jul. 11th, 2009 11:50 am)
anarchist_nomad Jul. 11th, 2009 11:50 am)Today is shaping up to be a good day.
It started when I woke up as: Last night, for the first time in over a week, I got nearly eight hours of sleep. True, that sleep was from 6:30pm yesterday until 2am this morning -- thus proving that I am most definitely not on Japan time yet -- but I was definitely in need of something approximating a full night's sleep.
It continued when I stepped outside. It has definitely been Summertime in Japan this week... which means that it has been relatively hot (temperature in the high 80s) and quite humid (humidity in the high 80s), with lots of clouds and some rain. Thank goodness for air conditioning! Going outside has felt like walking through a swamp! Today, however, it is bright and sunny with a clear blue sky! Lovely! Meanwhile, the temperature has cooled off just a touch (about 77oF) and the humidity level has dropped considerably (under 50%)... making it quite a joy to be outdoors!
On my way from the dormitory to the meeting this morning, I passed one of the cats that lives around KEK. There are several of them, and it is not uncommon to see them sprawled in patch of sunlight around the lab. I stopped for a bit to pet the kitty; this was a Good ThingTM, as I spent much of yesterday being very sad about the passing of a wonderful little grey tiger kitty.
In between waking up at 2am and heading in to the morning meeting, I revised my talk from Wednesday, making a little less technical (and less controversial) so that it can be shown to the full collaboration at the plenary meeting this afternoon. Still nervous about this... as it will be my first plenary talk on T2K, but I am mostly ready now.
Finally, there is one other piece of good news that arrived today. Mentioning it is rather self-centric[*], so I am placing it behind a cut:
Last month, out of curiosity, I signed up for a supervised Mensa IQ test. In actually, Mensa actually gives you two tests at the session: One is the Cattell III B test, which has language problems, logic problems, and maths problems on it. The other is the Cattell Culture Fair III A test, which was designed to test intelligence without language and without cultural and educational biases; the problems on this test are all pictorial. Scoring in the top 2% of the population on either test makes one eligible to join Mensa... though joining was not really my goal. Mainly, I was just curious; I wanted to see if I was clever.
The test results arrived in the mail today, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheshcat passed them on to me when we chatted online this morning. Apparently, I am doubly qualified to join Mensa, as I scored in the top 2% of the population on both tests. Indeed, I obtained that percentile nirvana -- the highest possible bracket of 1%. Looks like there actually is a brain in my head after all!
Of course, now the British Mensa society is clamoring for me to join them. Indeed, they are offering a bribe of a flash drive, if I join within two weeks. I am not certain that I want to do this, though. As I said earlier, I took the test to see if I was clever, not to actually join an association of clever people. As an experimental particle and astroparticle physicist, I think I get a fair bit of exposure to some really smart folks on a regular basis already. On the other hand, I will be starting a search for a faculty position in the next year or two; I don't know if having Mensa membership on my CV (alongside Oxford, Imperial College, and Fermilab!) will help... but it certainly will not hurt! So I might join for a year to see what it is like, deciding at the end of the year if I want to continue.
I am lucky enough to have some pretty bright friends, and I know that there are Mensa members (or former members) on my LJ f-list. Would any of you care to speak up and let me know why you think that I should -- or should not -- join? What benefits do -- or did -- you get from being a Mensa member? Or was it just a waste of time and money? I am open to signing on if there is a concrete benefit... but not if it just means that I get to be a card-carrying Smart PersonTM. The idea of paying £45 a year just to prove that one has a high IQ doesn't sound terribly intelligent to me!
In any case, this was certainly welcome news and contributed to making this an excellent morning!
This afternoon, I will be presenting my talk and wrapping up the T2K meeting. This evening, we have the Stony Brook group dinner, with me and RT -- as former Stony Brookers -- included. So wish me luck this afternoon on my talk, dear friends! If that goes well, then today will be quite complete!
[*] On the other hand, if you can't be self-centric on occasion in your own journal, where can you be?
It started when I woke up as: Last night, for the first time in over a week, I got nearly eight hours of sleep. True, that sleep was from 6:30pm yesterday until 2am this morning -- thus proving that I am most definitely not on Japan time yet -- but I was definitely in need of something approximating a full night's sleep.
It continued when I stepped outside. It has definitely been Summertime in Japan this week... which means that it has been relatively hot (temperature in the high 80s) and quite humid (humidity in the high 80s), with lots of clouds and some rain. Thank goodness for air conditioning! Going outside has felt like walking through a swamp! Today, however, it is bright and sunny with a clear blue sky! Lovely! Meanwhile, the temperature has cooled off just a touch (about 77oF) and the humidity level has dropped considerably (under 50%)... making it quite a joy to be outdoors!
On my way from the dormitory to the meeting this morning, I passed one of the cats that lives around KEK. There are several of them, and it is not uncommon to see them sprawled in patch of sunlight around the lab. I stopped for a bit to pet the kitty; this was a Good ThingTM, as I spent much of yesterday being very sad about the passing of a wonderful little grey tiger kitty.
In between waking up at 2am and heading in to the morning meeting, I revised my talk from Wednesday, making a little less technical (and less controversial) so that it can be shown to the full collaboration at the plenary meeting this afternoon. Still nervous about this... as it will be my first plenary talk on T2K, but I am mostly ready now.
Finally, there is one other piece of good news that arrived today. Mentioning it is rather self-centric[*], so I am placing it behind a cut:
Last month, out of curiosity, I signed up for a supervised Mensa IQ test. In actually, Mensa actually gives you two tests at the session: One is the Cattell III B test, which has language problems, logic problems, and maths problems on it. The other is the Cattell Culture Fair III A test, which was designed to test intelligence without language and without cultural and educational biases; the problems on this test are all pictorial. Scoring in the top 2% of the population on either test makes one eligible to join Mensa... though joining was not really my goal. Mainly, I was just curious; I wanted to see if I was clever.
The test results arrived in the mail today, and
cheshcat passed them on to me when we chatted online this morning. Apparently, I am doubly qualified to join Mensa, as I scored in the top 2% of the population on both tests. Indeed, I obtained that percentile nirvana -- the highest possible bracket of 1%. Looks like there actually is a brain in my head after all!Of course, now the British Mensa society is clamoring for me to join them. Indeed, they are offering a bribe of a flash drive, if I join within two weeks. I am not certain that I want to do this, though. As I said earlier, I took the test to see if I was clever, not to actually join an association of clever people. As an experimental particle and astroparticle physicist, I think I get a fair bit of exposure to some really smart folks on a regular basis already. On the other hand, I will be starting a search for a faculty position in the next year or two; I don't know if having Mensa membership on my CV (alongside Oxford, Imperial College, and Fermilab!) will help... but it certainly will not hurt! So I might join for a year to see what it is like, deciding at the end of the year if I want to continue.
I am lucky enough to have some pretty bright friends, and I know that there are Mensa members (or former members) on my LJ f-list. Would any of you care to speak up and let me know why you think that I should -- or should not -- join? What benefits do -- or did -- you get from being a Mensa member? Or was it just a waste of time and money? I am open to signing on if there is a concrete benefit... but not if it just means that I get to be a card-carrying Smart PersonTM. The idea of paying £45 a year just to prove that one has a high IQ doesn't sound terribly intelligent to me!
In any case, this was certainly welcome news and contributed to making this an excellent morning!
This afternoon, I will be presenting my talk and wrapping up the T2K meeting. This evening, we have the Stony Brook group dinner, with me and RT -- as former Stony Brookers -- included. So wish me luck this afternoon on my talk, dear friends! If that goes well, then today will be quite complete!
[*] On the other hand, if you can't be self-centric on occasion in your own journal, where can you be?
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I am so very proud of you.. My clever Beeps!
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I like making you proud, Sweetheart!
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Clever and lovely too, hurray!
Hugs!
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Thank you muchly! *bows deeply* And many hugs back to you! (Plus possibly a snuggle snuck in, too...)
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I don't _think_ I know anyone actually in Mensa. Mum did the tests and would have been eligible but never joined.
From:
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Unless you think that dating a Mensa member is sexy? (That would count as a good reason to give them forty-five quid)
By the way: I very much like being clever and I very much like being nice to you!! *smile*
[*] Hmmmm... I know Freud, operating from a heteronormative paradigm, said that men try to find women who remind them of their mothers. Is it possible that bisexual women may try to find men who remind them of their mothers?? ;-)
From:
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and it's complimentary ;-)
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Clearly, bisexual people choose to find other people who remind them of the parent (or parent figure) that is/was coolest. :P
*I* think having an SO in Mensa is sexy and it sends your geek cred higher and higher. The line on your CV is also sexy for networking and future job hunting. Consider joining at least for the first year.
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The talk went okay. Nothing controversial in it and no questions were asked when I was done. Afterward, several people (three) told me that I had given a good presentation, so I suppose it was fine.
And, yes indeed! Very much like old times! There's a 20 inch PMT on display here at KEK and I was cooing nostalgically over it yesterday. (Besides, those things are beautiful!)
Speaking of old times, you're up rather late, aren't you?
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Once I'd been scored on the second test, I was a member of Teen Mensa for three or four years, and of course I also received the main newsletter. All that the organization ever seemed to do was to hold elections and then argue over the results. Eventually I decided I had better uses for my money than paying the annual dues... but I think I still have a yellow map-pin in my jewelry drawer somewhere.
Some while after that, I saw a free self-test for the Triple-Nine Society (which I believe was calling itself Sigma at the time). I glanced at it and saw that most of the questions seemed to be mathematical in nature. I felt this was unfair, because it was known even then that there are more facets to "intelligence" than simply the ability to do complicated math in one's head. I didn't take the test, partly because of the heavy mathematical bias... and partly because I wouldn't have been able to bear it if I didn't get in...
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Looking at their list (http://www.triplenine.org/main/admission.asp) of ways one can qualify, I see that I could join if I wished. My S.A.T. score[*] meets the qualification.
I am not particularly interested in collecting High IQ Society memberships, though, just for the fun of it. I took the Mensa test because I was curious to see if I would qualify, more than out of a desire to join. With Triple Nine, I see that I am even without taking another test. It may be enough to just leave it at that. You don't make it sound like the Mensa membership really did much for you.
[*] 800 perfect math + 660 verbal = 1460, taken in 1991
From:
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I took the "Mensa Workout" test, and, while the final report said I'd have a "good chance" of passing a formal Mensa exam, the test was distressingly math-heavy. I'd have to ask A. for the details, but I'm pretty sure that contemporary intelligence tests include many other areas of ability.
As
From:
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For instance, after Mensa (accepting 1 in 50) and Triple Nine (accepting 1 in 1000) there are a couple of societies that require a one-in-a-million test score to qualify. According to the website of one of these societies, Mega, they currently have 26 members (http://www.megasociety.org/about.html). To be honest, I'm not at all sure that the intelligence tests can probe with that level of precision! Looking at Mega's page on how to qualify (http://www.megasociety.org/tests.html), you basically have to take their own home-grown test. Again, not exactly inspiring confidence here.
Then there is Giga (http://www.gigasociety.com/), the most exclusive society out there. Except that this can only be a joke. They claim to accept people with 1 in a billion level intelligence. In which case, only six or seven people on the planet would qualify. And (a) how in the world do you make a test that can discriminate with such precision, and (b) who actually joins when odds are good that a couple of these uber-genius people are actually living in hovels in third world nations. This particular society has to be a practical joke.
I'm satisfied knowing that I am qualified for both Mensa and Triple Nine. If I have any further need to prove my mental prowess, it seems more useful to demonstrate it with professional accomplishments, rather than pursuing further testing at a level of precision that I simply don't believe is credible.
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There was a time after I did my SAT/ACT that Mensa was clamoring for me to join but I blew them off and eventually they quit sending me crap.
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So I shall be seeing you in a little over a week to be delivering your reward to you personally... *naughty wink*
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Mensa is what you make of it -- it can be a great way to socialize with like-minded folk, can be good for networking and offers you an in with folks in other countries, since there are international gatherings as well as national and regional ones. Since you travel, I think you'd be interested in the sub-groups for M travelers where local Ms will provide accomodation for visting Ms, who are often from other countries. I've made some of my best friends at Mensa events. At least in the US, there are lots of local sub-group events (called SIGs, for Special Interest Group) and based on the ones I know of here, there are certainly ones that would appeal to you.
On the other hand, like any tool, it has to be used. Some folks like the "certified smart" label it provides, other are more pro-active and become involved -- I've found it really depends on you, what the value is of the Mensa membership. You may well find you enjoy socializing with intelligent folks who are NOT in your field, but who will still understand you when you "talk shop" in their company.
Personally, I'd recommend joining, then going to the SIG events in your area as well as the general events. Going to the gatherings can be great fun as well.
Since you mentioned starting a job search, you might want to join LinkedIn -- it can be very useful for that, since it uses the power of social networking to enhance one's professional life. You can hear about stuff there that you might not otherwise. There's a Mensa group there, BTW -- can get lots of useful info from that group! If you join, let me know, and I'll send you an invitation to join my network if you want -- you'll see quite a few familiar names from a certain October gathering (where there's at least one more M that I know of).
Persephone
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