In todays news...

[Screwdriver]

I don't know how true that is. A PhD student in particle physics or mathematics is going to be "smarter" than most but isn't necessarily going to become a multi-millionaire. I think the "secret" is an obsession with money above all else.

Smart isn't really the same as intelligent tho, is it? Or at least, that's not how I saw it in that context.

I was responding to "Maybe (most certainly) they <rich people> were just smarter."

Well yes it is, in my response it is anyway. The premise was that richer people are smarter than poor people. While that may generally be true from a statistical viewpoint, I don't believe for one moment it is any sort of predictor.

My guess is you take two bell curves one for richness, one for smartness (including intelligence and other similes) and you will find they overlap significantly. That's how you get a cabbie winning mastermind at one end and Forest Gump at the other.

You can generalise but it does not even rise to a rule of thumb imho.

[gremlin]

All this shit should be in the arguing the toss thread.

This is TODAY'S news.


Sorry if that's too difficult to understand.

This was a fun thread. Stop poisoning it.

Seconded.

Although not trying to be prescriptive, might I suggest the following subjects are kept to the 'Arguing The Toss Thread'?
Trump/Biden
Covid
Capitalism vs. Socialism and/or Rich vs. Poor

Coz it ain't news, that's for sure.

[Screwdriver]

What colour sandals are you wearing TODAY?

I'm sure everyone will be interested to know.

At the moment I'm wearing a pair of green plastic Birkenstocks.

I'm a crocs man myself but anyway I was making an ironic observation regarding Yorick pissing and moaning again while never actually making any worthwhile contribution.**


**He made some ridiculous comment regarding the wearing of sandals in a similar situation while wingeing about the content of other peoples posts. In fairness that could have been recently or years ago. Perception of time is not my strong point.

[Yambo]

I don't know how true that is. A PhD student in particle physics or mathematics is going to be "smarter" than most but isn't necessarily going to become a multi-millionaire. I think the "secret" is an obsession with money above all else.

Smart isn't really the same as intelligent tho, is it? Or at least, that's not how I saw it in that context.

I was responding to "Maybe (most certainly) they <rich people> were just smarter."

Well yes it is, in my response it is anyway. The premise was that richer people are smarter than poor people. While that may generally be true from a statistical viewpoint, I don't believe for one moment it is any sort of predictor.

My guess is you take two bell curves one for richness, one for smartness (including intelligence and other similes) and you will find they overlap significantly. That's how you get a cabbie winning mastermind at one end and Forest Gump at the other.

You can generalise but it does not even rise to a rule of thumb imho.

I seem to remember you telling us not so long ago that you were a Science Officer or some such thing for the MoD or government. You told us that you were highly intelligent. I agree, you clearly are.

You've also told us more recently that you got ripped off by 2 or 3 people when you went into business with them. That wasn't too smart was it.

Right there Screwd mate, is the evidence that intelligent and smart are not the same thing.

I'm not going to go looking for the posts to quote them but I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine them.

[Mr. Dazzle]

He also said he was a mug, so smart enough to know that

[Screwdriver]

I seem to remember you telling us not so long ago that you were a Science Officer or some such thing for the MoD or government. You told us that you were highly intelligent. I agree, you clearly are.

You've also told us more recently that you got ripped off by 2 or 3 people when you went into business with them. That wasn't too smart was it.

Right there Screwd mate, is the evidence that intelligent and smart are not the same thing.

I'm not going to go looking for the posts to quote them but I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine them.

OK. Can't argue with that assessment.

Naturally, I actually can't see it myself but looking at how things panned out, I must accept that is certainly a failing of mine. I always assumed I was too trusting or perhaps too willing to please.

My rather naive approach was to assume a "company" was a group of like minded people willing to work together for a common goal. Instead I learn to my cost that people are cunts and when money is involved there is no morality or fairness. They'll take whatever they can get away with. Shame really because for all of those many projects, if they had just hung on, we would have been years ahead of the game.

I would typically refer to the devious nature of my former business partners as as "streetwise" but if that's what being "smart" means, then I'm not in that club...

[Count Steer]

You are not alone Screwd. My old colleague's brother was a wizard of an engineer. Came up with bright ideas like some clever way of monitoring big (very big) electric motors/alternators so that predictive maintenance could cut the routine and preventative maintenance by many £££s. Designed and made small refrigerated boxes with data-loggers on board for transporting temperature sensitive, high cost drugs etc. To my knowledge he made - and lost - £millions three times.

Great engineer, not a 'business man'. If he could have found (and brought himself to admit that just having a good idea isn't enough) a trustworthy partner with a good business head he'd have been, and remained, a wealthy man.

[Screwdriver]

He also said he was a mug, so smart enough to know that

Yeah, ok. That's not really news though.

With any luck, I will be able to pull something out of the bag but it will have to be something I do alone.

[MyLittleStudPony]

The next time we hear that the Police are under staffed and under funded, we'll have this badly thought out use of Police time to remind us that they obviously have too much time on their hands....

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/golliwog-dol ... MjRtyQj3Q0

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-65471314

That's put the kybosh on that racialism. And rightly so.

[Screwdriver]

There are times when identity politics goes too far: diversity this, inclusivity that, equity, reparations(!)...

This is not one of those times. An eminently sensible decision on the face of it.

[MyLittleStudPony]

There are times when identity politics goes too far: diversity this, inclusivity that, equity, reparations(!)...

This is not one of those times. An eminently sensible decision on the face of it.

An interesting thought on reparations. This was also in today's news:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/royals-should ... 01387.html

More people polled thought the royal family should pay reparations than thought they shouldn't.

It tended to be the younger folk who thought they should and the older, Brexity types who thought the royals should hold onto money made from the slave trade.

[Mr. Dazzle]

It's one of the reasons I don't drink their products.

[Screwdriver]

Has this little storm in a tea cup silenced the lambs for you Pony?

IMO it was unwise to display the dolls and very unwise to argue that they weren't a racist symbol, but how easily the dull minds of the moaning classes are pacified.

Take one little part of it, Heineken boycotted the pub because of the dolls, ok, in isolation I'm fine with that, but Heineken also supply their drug to African countries that routinely commit atrocities on their own people and they're still massive in Russia.

They proudly state - "Our balanced portfolio of premium, mainstream and economy brands is a key driver of our success in Africa..."
They've been very active in Russia through their sister brands, despite promising not to - https://movendi.ngo/news/2023/02/26/hei ... 0companies.

They stopped supplying one pub to quieten the chattering little Englanders, but they carry on ploughing the fertile fields of Africa and Russia.

A couple of observations:

That is the entire reason this sort of "virtue signalling" is imho appropriate in this circumstance. Racism is not black and white (!) it has shades of grey but there are times when a situation is so far over the line a civilised society needs to put it's foot down and say "that's going too far".

Secondly, I am uncomfortable with the idea of belittling "dullards" (much as I enjoy that type of sport on this forum when the occasion demands), each and every individual on this planet is equal in merit and if you consider yourself say, more intellectual than "the herd" you should also remember, there are way more of "them" than there are of "you".

Remembering how Karl Marx used that fact to his advantage (and what the left are up to now!) should make it an easier pill to swallow because we must allow for this sort of hypocrisy to quell "the masses". Yes it is "a white lie" as you suggest and while I am no great fan of big business, sometimes we do have to compromise.

Interesting fact. In the Eskimo language while they might have a dozen words for "snow" they do not have words for "advertising" or "branding". Instead they merely use the word we translate as "lies". Sometimes the simple truth is more accurate.

[Horse]

Interesting fact. In the Eskimo language while they might have a dozen words for "snow" they do not have words for "advertising" or "branding". Instead they merely use the word we translate as "lies". Sometimes the simple truth is more accurate.

Other interesting facts are that there are seven 'Eskimo' languages (including five 'Inuit') and that 'Eskimo' is often considered racist but many do not like 'Inuit' because it is not a word/term of their own.

Sometimes the simple what is more accurate?

All this found while Googling for the 'lies' claim. Which didn't appear in search results.

[Screwdriver]

There is a difference between belittling with insults and pacifying with education (or merely virtue signalling).
We should have learned that during Br*x*t.

[Yambo]

Take one little part of it, Heineken boycotted the pub because of the dolls, ok, in isolation I'm fine with that, but Heineken also supply their drug to African countries that routinely commit atrocities on their own people and they're still massive in Russia.

No, Heineken boycotted the pub because the dolls made the news.

[DefTrap]

I too am uncomfortable about the unfairness with the Golly-pub story.

For fairness, they should expose everyone who has a golly tucked away in a drawer for their rainy-day-light-racism, when they want to take them out and dance them around or wave them at a passing foreigner for the bants. And then they should carve a swastika on their foreheads like in that Tarantino, so that we all know

[Count Steer]

I too am uncomfortable about the unfairness with the Golly-pub story.

For fairness, they should expose everyone who has a golly tucked away in a drawer for their rainy-day-light-racism, when they want to take them out and dance them around or wave them at a passing foreigner for the bants. And then they should carve a swastika on their foreheads like in that Tarantino, so that we all know

I have a book written by Helen Bannerman in 1899 that would probably stop Heineken providing me with products if I put it on prominent display. Probably makes it a valuable talisman against bad lager A copy of Robinson Crusoe should also fend of any incoming modern 'IPA'.

[Yorick]

What a twat..

McHugh, 28, told the court he had drunk six beers and 10 double shots of spirits, and had taken up to seven lines of cocaine before the collision at 2.45am on Sunday 9 October last year.
https://news.sky.com/story/man-found-gu ... y-12873018
.

[Bike Breaker]

I too am uncomfortable about the unfairness with the Golly-pub story.

For fairness, they should expose everyone who has a golly tucked away in a drawer for their rainy-day-light-racism, when they want to take them out and dance them around or wave them at a passing foreigner for the bants. And then they should carve a swastika on their foreheads like in that Tarantino, so that we all know

That would be me. I own a gollywog that was a present to me years ago and therefore, for me, has great sentimental value. He is slightly less than 6" tall and sits in a model sidecar, the rider of the motorcycle being a teddy bear. This is on a high shelf in the corner of my living room.

It's possible the animal welfare people will get here first to burn me at the stake.