intelligence

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It's a Good Time to Have a Smart Guy in Charge: Broder

Financial crisis calls for brainpower at the top and Obama looks ready to deliver

(Newser) - The smartest people don't always make the best presidents, David Broder writes in the Washington Post, but America's lucky it will soon have Barack Obama's brainpower at the top. We're faced with a financial crisis that stumps even the eggheads, Broder writes, admitting that he, personally, has "not a...

'Grenade Cam' Gives 360&deg; View
 'Grenade Cam' Gives 360° View 
Nov 18, 2008 2:56 PM CST

'Grenade Cam' Gives 360° View

Technology hopes to protect soldiers in urban operations

(Newser) - The British military is developing a small, ball-shaped camera that soldiers can throw like a grenade to get visual information about dangerous surroundings, the BBC reports. The “I-Ball,” which will also be able to be fired from a grenade launcher, transmits a 360-degree image as soon as it’...

Global Economic Crisis Threatens US Security

(Newser) - The global economic crisis is raising the threat to national security, the Washington Post reports. Experts and intelligence officials worry that mounting inflation and unemployment in Third World countries could spark radical movements and destabilize friendly governments. What’s more, strained budgets in the West mean less money to spend...

UK Aims to Mine Facebook in Fight on Crime, Terror

Criminals use chat features on social, game sites to hide conversations: authorities

(Newser) - With social-networking, gaming, and video sites offering stealth chatting that criminals and terrorists exploit, the British government is moving to require such websites to collect and provide user data to authorities. Accessing chat contents would still require a specific warrant, but demographic information could help find pedophiles, kidnappers, drug traffickers,...

Georgian Tapes Imply Russia Started War

Troops may have entered South Ossetia before Georgia attack

(Newser) - Although the bloodshed has ended, Georgia and Russia are still fighting—over which nation was the aggressor in last month's conflict. The Georgian government, which insists that Russia invaded its territory, has released tapes of intercepted phone calls implying that a Russian regiment entered South Ossetia 24 hours before Georgia...

C-E-R-T-A-I-N Scrabble Winners
 C-E-R-T-A-I-N Scrabble Winners
Aug 30, 2008 10:01 AM CDT

C-E-R-T-A-I-N Scrabble Winners

ZQFMGB not included

(Newser) - Sure, Bart Simpson could fake it at Scrabble—but for those of us playing against a wit sharper than Homer's, here are some gems Mental Floss magazine dug up that actually mean something:
  • Cwm: A valley created by glacial shifts.
  • Adz: An axe-like woodworking tool.
  • Xu: The currency of Vietnam.
...

Focus, Not IQ, Might be Best School Skill

Kids trained to flex 'executive function' muscles learn better

(Newser) - EF is the new IQ, and if educators accept that new acronym mantra, more preschoolers will be playing games, Newsweek reports. Executive function—the ability to repress distracting thoughts and focus on a task—could be a better indicator of scholarly success than intelligence alone; psychologist Adele Diamond implemented an...

Chavez Takes Over Intelligence Agencies

Extends domestic spying and requires citizens to be informers

(Newser) - Hugo Chavez has ordered a draconian restructuring of Venezuela’s intelligence agencies, bringing them under his personal control, increasing domestic spying powers, and levying prison sentences on citizens who decline to cooperate, the New York Times reports. One justice on Venezuela’s top court expressed outrage, calling it “a...

Mental Exercises Boost Brain Power, Study Says

Researchers in field of memory call it a breakthrough

(Newser) - Psychological research has long supported the conclusion that training on cognitive tasks doesn’t result in intelligence gains that transfer to other tasks—ie, memorizing long strings of numbers doesn’t help learning long strings of letters. But researchers say they've made a long-sought breakthrough that could lead to better...

UK Intelligence 'Sent Citizens to Be Tortured'

MI5 outsourced brutal interrogations to Pakistan, say lawyers

(Newser) - British intelligence officers have been accused of sending citizens to a Pakistani agency to be tortured, reports the Guardian. MI5 officials requested Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency to arrest British terror suspects in the country, where they were subjected to beatings, whippings, sleep deprivation and fingernail extraction, according to lawyers...

Brain Training Can Boost Smarts

 Brain Training Can Boost Smarts 
Apr 29, 2008 3:13 AM CDT

Brain Training Can Boost Smarts

Mental gymnastics can strengthen general intelligence, study finds

(Newser) - Software claiming to improve intelligence has met with market success in recent years— along with plenty of skepticism—but sales could now get a boost with the discovery that it really is possible to improve general intelligence with mental gymnastics. Researchers had thought so-called "fluid intelligence" was purely genetic,...

A.I. Will Match Human Brain in 20 Years

But nanobots in our neurons will make us smarter, too

(Newser) - One engineer and futurist says it’s only a matter of time before machines are as smart as people, and people are part machine, the BBC reports. Ray Kurzweil claims that artificial intelligence will produce human-level smarts and even emotions by 2029. Humans, meanwhile, will inject nanobots into their brains...

Ken Jennings They're Not
Ken Jennings They're Not
Feb 2, 2008 7:15 AM CST

Ken Jennings They're Not

Game show howlers dumb enough to make Miss Teen South Carolina blush

(Newser) - Perhaps there's no sadder commentary on the state of society—or at least society's IQ—than dumb responses from contestants on game shows. Reuters combs a (now-defunct) website for high and low points:
  • Q: What was Gandhi's first name? A: Goosey Goosey.
  • Q: What happened in Dallas on November 22,
...

Men Aren't Smarter, But Think They Are

Women think men are brighter, too; tend to underplay own intellect

(Newser) - Men aren't any smarter than women, reveals a new analysis of several studies on IQ, but they think they are. The surprise is that women go along with it. In an interview with Newsweek, researcher Adrian Furnham said both sexes overestimate male intelligence and underestimate female intelligence. "It's what...

Stop Picking on Nerds!
Stop Picking
on Nerds!
NEW RELEASE
Jan 1, 2008 6:25 PM CST

Stop Picking on Nerds!

US needs more brainiacs, even if they are unsexy, new book argues

(Newser) - Americans mock nerds ad nauseum, and psych prof David Anderegg says it's time to lay off. In his new book, Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them, Andregg breezily but thoroughly critiques a cultural prejudice that he claims dates back to Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Washington ...

Iran Flip Shows US Intelligence Turnaround

Tougher procedures born of Iraq failure result in nuke reversal

(Newser) - In reversing its 2005 finding that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons, the US intelligence community is putting into practice changes adopted after crucial failures in the run-up to the Iraq war. The original used weak sourcing and less than rigorous fact-gathering, critics say. “I think people should take comfort...

Breastfeeding Boosts Baby IQs
Breastfeeding Boosts Baby IQs
Nov 6, 2007 4:27 AM CST

Breastfeeding Boosts Baby IQs

Common gene helps turn fatty acids in breast milk into brain nutrients

(Newser) - A gene found in 90% of the human race helps explain why breast-fed babies are more intelligent than infants raised on bottled milk, scientists have discovered. Researchers found that the IQs of children who had been breast fed were 6 to 7 points higher than bottle-fed babies—but only if...

Feed Me, Seymour! Lab Decodes Floral Intelligence

Plant 'brains' may help build better robots

(Newser) - Plants have signaling and response systems that could make major contributions to robotics and communications research. The controversial field of “plant neurobiology” starts from the assumption that plant biology mirrors the human nervous system—and has a lot to teach scientists and engineers, Wired reports. The head of the...

Brits Plotting Our Destruction: Russia Spy Chief

In latest clash, official claims evidence of plan to 'dismember' Russia

(Newser) - Marking the latest low in British-Russian relations, the head of Russian intelligence claims to have uncovered evidence of a plot by Britain to "dismember" his country. The charge, in an interview with a Russian journal, raised fears of  a new wave of expulsions of British diplomats, reports the Telegraph.

What's Baby Got That Chimps Don't?
What's Baby Got That Chimps Don't?
Sep 7, 2007 12:05 PM CDT

What's Baby Got That Chimps Don't?

Study pits toddlers against primates to see how human brains are different

(Newser) - What makes humans smarter than their primate relatives? Into the ongoing debate comes a new study that concludes it's not just size, it's the particular kind of computing power. A study matching human toddlers with chimps and orangutans compared their performance on a battery of different kinds of tasks. The...

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