LOL! Well it does astound me sometimes the things that come out of other peoples' mouths! :-) That said, I don't always have all the information, either, so it's not super productive to view others as dumb, everyone just has different information, so I like to listen to what others have to say and how they formed their opinions. That helps me test whether I have all the facts or have considered all the perspectives. It's hard not to be arrogant and rush to judgment, but I have learned that I am wrong just as often as everyone else, so I need to listen to other people!

I recently discovered that I'm in the top 1% of IQ scores (if that's the kind of smart you're talking about!), which was surprising to me. I knew I was smart, but not that smart. Looking back through my life, though, I do notice a trend. I pick up new skills and knowledge very quickly. Like I frequently surprise myself "how do I know that?" When I stated out as a young person, this was a big disadvantage. School was intensely boring to me, which caused me to lack interest and focus and check out of it. So I did poorly. In the working world, starting out, I was on the same level as everyone else, I had no real advantage. I learned things quicker, so I advanced quicker. Now, towards the end of my career, I see that the faster acquisition of knowledge, while not really too much faster than my peers, was enough that now I have a dramatically different perspective than other people. The cumulative effect of which is that I have been able to remove lots of glass ceilings and allowed me to avoid lots of obstacles that many others of my peer group have not been able to do. All of that said, I also agree with a lot of the other posters... there are so many types of Intelligence, the IQ score is merely this one aspect and is NOT a great predictor of actual success, although in my experience it has been a great advantage.

TL;DR for the IQ type of intelligence, it basically just means faster knowledge and skill application. Depending on how you apply that it could provide a cumulative long-term advantage, but brings its own challenges as well.

OK, I had to Google it. Turns out radio blackouts with satellite comm systems to happen simultaneous with the Flare being observed. The intense EM radiation basically ionizes part of the ionosohere, causing the radio signals to be absorbed. So we WOULD expect potential disruption to comms as soon as the Flare was observed.

Source

Wait - the article you linked clearly says AT&T only, not other services. It also sites an AT&T spokesperson blaming a software upgrade on their network as the cause. So any other outages at other providers would be completely coincidental.

Seriously? Who blew that much money on RAM with just a Celeron proc? Clearly built by a n00b.

But if we're observing the visible light from the flares on earth, wouldn't that mean the other electromagnetic interference has also arrived? Or is the interference caused by heavier radiation particles? Actually curious - I assumed that satellite to ground transmissions would be light or radio-based and therefore not affected by heavy radiation, only EM (which travels at the speed of light)...

Can confirm. I have Verizon and AT&T phones - AT&T only issues. Verizon phones worked fine in my area!

Whoa, man. Way too far, there. Just freebase that shit like all the cool 90s kids!

Also target fixation before hand - you fear but suspect your car will break down so you're thinking about it frequently. Then it does as suspected. Add confirmation bias on the back end and it seems like your negative target fixation caused the event. Ain't psychology fun? Imagine what we could accomplish without these well worn ruts in our brains? LOL

They knew they couldn't (probably didn't want to) damage the painting itself. The Mona Lisa has been behind bullet proof glass since the mid 90s, so it wasnt a secret. So they chose something that was relevant to their cause and they probably (rightly) guessed that soup would make a headline when paint or dye has been done so many times before that it might not.

Yes. As the platform becomes more mainstream, it more accurately reflects society at large. Which is extremely toxic at the moment. 😕 I used to think talking about our differences in forums like this would help, but it seems that no one actually wants to listen to anything but their own echo chambers anymore.

That's a fun one! So much depends on the mechanism of action, so I'm going to assume that you get to pick a couple lessons that you can embed as subliminal imperative for future me. One would be a bias for action, get shit done now, don't put it off! Two would be an impulse to ENJOY exercise! And third would be a reminder that the happiest times in life are always with people you love enjoying each other's company; and being able to create those circumstances comes from creating an atmosphere of acceptance, friendliness and love. SO DON'T BE A DICK! 😉