The Dark Lord

What about factors such as anxiety confounding the results? If anxiety during the examination causes a person to perform a task in a longer period of time, does that really make them a moron? Yes, but it becomes very problematic because people believe it is an accurate measurement.

Yes, they are currently developing a Transformers MMO, which is probably why they put Stellar Dawn on hold (so they can put more focus and effort into Transformers). lol. Transformers. Anyway, great way to suck, Jagex. I was looking forward to that game. It looked epic.

I don't know about you guys, but I believe IQ testing is a crock o' shit. Why? First off, IQ testing is popular because people believe it is a good way to measure intelligence. One problem with trying to quantitatively measure someone's intelligence is that the very definition of 'intelligence' is itself controversial and not entirely agreed upon. Moreover, it doesn't make much sense to measure intelligence by having tasks in which someone manipulates a puzzle within a certain amount of time. This doesn't really take into account that a person could simply have slower reflexes, causing them to be a little bit slower when manipulating the objects. Likewise, if a student was bubbling in answers during a test, they might not finish every question within the allotted time. One possible reason for this is that the child might have Obsessive-Compulsive tendencies, and the reason why it's taking them so long to bubble in the answers is because they are literally trying to fill in every single bubble perfectly. It is my contention that a far more accurate way to measure 'factors of intelligence' such as problem-solving would be to use a machine that allows a person to manipulate objects on a computer screen with cognition alone. IQ tests may also ask conceptual questions ranging in difficulty from relatively easy to difficult; one issue that I have with this is that a person (in particular, a child) might not be able to answer certain questions simply because they haven't learned the information yet. This is a good way to measure someone's innate intellectual capabilities, no? I also have a major problem with IQ testing because of some of the consequences that a child could face. For example, say a child takes an IQ test during grade school. The child is very bright and makes good grades. The child's parents try to get him into the school's Gifted and Talented program, and the GT program requires an IQ score of 133. The child takes the test and scores a 120. There were questions that the child didn't know how to answer simply because he wasn't taught the information yet, and the child also had some obsessive-compulsive tendencies, causing them to fill in answers more slowly. Because of the child's "inferior" score, the teacher in charge of the program haughtily dismisses the child, much to the parents' anger. This experience causes the child to feel inferior, and the child becomes less motivated to work hard in school (and possibly even develops depression later on in life because of their feeling of inferiority that they developed). Now, this is just an example, but I believe it can illustrate quite well the ethical issues associated with schools performing IQ testing on children in order to quantitatively measure intelligence. This can lead to labeling as well as some serious consequences for the child (they have to go through a shitty education because the regular classes suck, they get mocked at by other smart kids, feel inferior, become depressed, etc.). Of course, I'm not necessarily saying that the IQ test can't at least guage things such as mental retardation or perhaps distinguish a smart person from the general population, but I believe that the way these tests are used is pseudoscientific and unethical. What are your thoughts? Oh, and I'd like to add that I study psychology.

As do I.

Hmm...

WRONG.

I believe there is absolutely no evidence for the existence of ghosts, and any 'research' on the subject is pseudoscience.

*visits 9gag* What the [bleep]? People think this is funny? :|

In the Q&A last night, Jagex said they were considering tweaking the appearance and stats of the cape. Nerf?

Would you guys still go to work sick if one of your coworkers had AIDS and thus a weakened immune system?

The shit people say...

If you find yourself spending too much time on a video game or a forum site, getting banned is a good way to disconnect since you no longer have anything to return to that keeps you distracted from real life. Some people would argue that that demonstrates a lack of self-control in the first place and and that you're basically an idiot if you have to resort to getting banned, but at least you're making the effort to eliminate any distractions from your goals in real life. I think that's the only thing that really matters. Anyway, hope you enjoy what you're doing with your life.

The Russian is just random gibberish mixed with Hebrew and other Eastern European languages. We have been trolled.

High schools don't want their students having fun, especially if they enjoy it. :P I don't think I'll be doing anything for V.D.-Day. In fact, I forgot what day it was until I was driving to college while listening to the radio. Apparently I'll be 20 tomorrow as well. Hmmmm

Runescape hasn't been very laggy for me lately. I still have pretty good FPS.

Perhaps the campus doesn't know. How did you get the invitation? (@ OP) The campus sent it. A professor is in charge of the local chapter. It's legit, but there's apparently a controversy because the people who actually run it seem to just keep most of the money and only give out a pathetic sum of money for scholarships. The only value is for the CV, but I have read on various forums that people who are on admittance committees for grad school "don't give two shits about stuff like that."

What's wrong with Psych?

Honestly, I don't care much about them. When I think about it, being in the top 15% doesn't mean much. Someone at the 15% range may have, say, a 3.0 GPA or less. There is no specific GPA requirement for this organization. In the United States, many medical schools do want you to get national membership in Alpha Epsilon Delta. Our advisers tell us that it used to be a pre-requisite for even getting considered for medical school, and now it's just an expectation. Alpha Epsilon Delta is a pre-medical honors society with a minimum math/science GPA of 3.2, and this is one of the reasons why people on admissions committees like seeing this. With that said, if you do not have at least a 3.6 GPA, you'd never get into medical school. For what it's worth, I believe that the medical schools are primarily interested in MCAT scores and GPA in addition to clinical experience and volunteer work in both a medical area and a non-medical area. Golden Key's website claims that they are mainly about helping the community and doing volunteer work, but from what I've heard (I did a little research about this organization last night), it seems that Golden Key tries to stroke students' egos and is led by corporate fatcat-type individuals. From my point of view, this is in direct opposition to the values that we are supposed to have as doctors, hence I feel uncomfortable. I just wanted to see if people had any experience with this organization and whether or not medical schools may frown upon it. If nothing else, I can perhaps at least just mention in my resume that I was invited to join Golden Key, and I can just save 80 dollars and use it towards my national Alpha Epsilon Delta membership.

So, I was given an invitation to Golden Key from my university. Apparently it's an honors society that takes in the top 15% of students based on academic performance, and it's invite-only. They also want $80 for a lifetime membership fee, and it's impossible for me to lose my membership afterwards (e.g. I can get the membership and then flunk out and still keep it). I'm a pre-med student, and it is recommended that I join a certain pre-med honors society because it looks good for when I apply for medical school. The pre-med honors society is not Golden Key, by the way. My question to you guys is this: Is membership in Golden Key even worth it? Will it impress any selection committees for med schools in the U.S.? Or is this just horseshit?

This pretty much sums up my thoughts: A wise man indeed. All races just need to come together and forget racism and be happy and not see each other as different, if that makes sense.

But you gots 11 months already.

You know you're arguing with someone who actually went to medical school to become a doctor, correct? I'd wager that he at least knows a lot more than you do about this subject, so it's sort of pointless for you to act smug about everything. It makes yourself look like a blithering idiot.

That's why they don't let people like you become doctors.

They should still be treated.

Why not just tell Jagex about your ideas? :V