janell forwarded me an awesome email detailing exactly why we are in such a sorry state urban legend that i wouldn't doubt has some truth ingrained in it; our president has roughly the same IQ as Koko the gorilla. Here is the breakdown from the very very wise, to the very very dim-witted (no surprises here)
In order of IQ rating:
182 - William Jefferson Clinton [D]
175 - James Earle Carter [D]
174 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy [D]
155 - Richard Milhous Nixon [R]
147 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt [D]
132 - Harry S Truman [D]
126 - Lyndon Baines Johnson [D]
122 - Dwight David Eisenhower [R]
121 - Gerald R. Ford [R]
105 - Ronald Wilson Reagan [R]
098 - George Herbert Walker Bush [R]
091 - George Walker Bush [R]
So, how did these magic men come up with this number?
"His low ratings are due to his apparently difficult command of the English language in public statements, his limited use of vocabulary [6,500 words for Bush versus an average of 11,000 words for other presidents], his lack of scholarly achievements other than a basic MBA, and an absence of any body of work which could be studied on an intellectual basis.
The complete report documents the methods and procedures used to arrive at these ratings, including depth of sentence structure and voice stress
confidence analysis. "All the Presidents prior to George W. Bush had a
least one book under their belt, and most had written several white papers
during their education or early careers. Not so with President Bush," Dr.
Lovenstein said. "He has no published works or writings, which made it more
difficult to arrive at an assessment. We relied more heavily on transcripts
of his unscripted public speaking."
you would think that it being in syndication and on 300 times a day would be enough for me. but, guess what? it's not. i need more. i need ben sinclair's random law & order plot generator. for example:
A dead infant is discovered in a park by the perpetrator. Lenny and Curtis initially pin the crime on an evil doctor, but after they sweat the confession out of the suspect in a bland and routine questioning, they arrest Lenny himself. McCoy and Kincaid prosecute, but McCoy must confront the mafia to win. The old DA nods knowingly and says "Always forgive your enemies...they hate that !" Alf guest stars.
related: 24 generator. example:
The CTU team phone Jack continually for some reason. Jack drives to the badguys' hideout after a tip-off from Nina. Inside a car Jack has stolen the phone rings continuously while the clock keeps on counting.
Senator Palmer's aide makes eyes at him in front of his wife. Teri arranges to meet Kim at Division. Jack is attracted to a skinny woman with short hair and jawbones you could drink soup out of.
Several CTU employees worry about the situation much to the amusement of Victor Drazen. Meanwhile, we are all wondering if we'll ever see the 747 hijacker woman ever again...
via metafilter