Why Bilinguals Are Smarter
Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language. Evidence suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes used for planning, solving problems, and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another, holding information in mind, and a heightened ability to monitor the environment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html
Smart People Sleep Late
Extensive research by Satoshi Kanazawa and colleagues at the London School of Economics and Political Science have uncovered significant differences in sleep-timing preferences among people, depending on their IQ scores. The research shows that people with higher IQs tend to be more active nocturnally, going to bed later, and are more apt to be night-owls. People with lower IQs tend to restrict their activities primarily to daytime and usually retire to bed sooner after nightfall. According to Kanazawa, ancestral humans were typically diurnal, and that a shift towards more nocturnal activities is an "evolutionarily novel preference" of the type normally found in more intelligent individuals, demonstrating "a higher level of cognitive complexity" in the practitioners. However, a study by psychologist Marina Giampietro indicates evening-types tend to be less reliable, less emotionally stable, and more apt to suffer from depression, addictions, and eating disorders.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/smart-people-sleep-late-82486792.html
"Je m'appelle Bond. Jacques Bond."
The French military attaché in Damascus simply took it upon himself to drive out to the reactor on his own and take pictures. The attaché, whose name could not be learned, drove out to the desert site, near the village of At Tibnah, trailing a virtual caravan of Syrian "minders," domestic security agents assigned to follow him around. When he pulled up to the reactor site, the attaché jerked his thumb over his shoulder and told the bewildered guards, "They're with me."
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/04/the_french_spy_the_cia_and_the.html
Study: Liberals, Atheists Are Unnatural, Intelligent
Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on political and religious behaviors with IQ from a large US sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. Religion, the theory goes, did not help people survive or reproduce necessarily, but goes along the lines of helping people to be paranoid, Kanazawa said. "Because humans are paranoid, they become more religious, and they see the hands of god everywhere," Kanazawa said. Humans had a keen interest in the survival of their offspring. The conservative approach -- looking out for the people around you first -- fits with the evolutionary picture more than liberalism, Kanazawa said. "It is unnatural for humans to be concerned about total strangers." he said. George Washington University professor James Bailey said that these preferences may stem from a desire to show superiority or elitism, which also has to do with IQ. Aligning oneself with "unconventional" philosophies may be "ways to communicate that you are pretty smart," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/26/liberals.atheists.sex.intelligence/index.html
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