As long as we're deriding stupidity, I'd like to point out that, on average, most people are ABOVE average. Take the following example: people on average have < 2 legs, since there are those individuals out there w/ 1 or no legs. There are not enough ppl w/ 3 or 4 legs to offset that, so most ppl are above the average.

However, 50% of the population IS above/below the median. So, next time someone says 50% of the people are below the average, tell them they're full of s**t (or however you wish to phrase it )

MSN

Seen the banner 'catch the monkey'?
Another form of stupidity.
When the monkey is all left and you click right it says 'you caught the monkey'!

Okay, simple averages, mean, median and mode.
Mean is the total / numberOfEntries, median is the value in the middle when you put the entries in order and mode is the most common.

With all of these methods the average IQ is 100 (ish).
50% of people who aren't average are above and 50% of people who aren't average are below.

Where's the s**t in that?

Hehe I was once told that Y2K would effect dead bolt locks, and that I wouldn't be safe in my own home until I updated my locks... I just shook my head and pressed the delete key at that one....

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LostSoul

msn12b, 3 points:

1: when you provide an example, its usually a good idea to at least attempt trying to explain what you are talking about first.

2: your example, informative though it was on the subject of number of legs per head of the population, wasn't even vaguely related to what you were supposedly talking about

3: you're wrong anyway. By definition, half of people are of below average intelligence.

msn12b, you are wrong in THIS case because the 100 IQ IS the MEDIAN IQ score, by definition. A 100 IQ means that you scored better than or eqaul to 50% of the test takers (ie you have the median, not the mean, score). Also, since the score system itself is statistical in nature( the same number are greater than 110 as lower than 90), mikeD was right, the mean and median are BOTH 100 for IQ, and I would guess the Mode is also 100 (although i'm not sure). This would not be true in most systems, such as test taking, were if the average (mean) score is 75, the median score would be higher than 75 because there is more effect from each person scoring a 12, than an 88. So in those cases, the number of humans above average is HIGHER than 50%, due to the extremes of the low scorers. Note: in other cases it could be reversed, where more than 50% are below average. But for IQ, exactly the same number of people score above and below 100.

Yeah, ! the internet is filled with dumbasses.

in the other day i was talking to a frined over irc adn asked him what he was doind"Messing up with ppl, liek always, it is *fun*" ARGHH.. does the internet should have baboons like this ??? (and im talking of a close friend i sit right to him in classes everyday) ??

for just a laugh, check

http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons/archives/99nov/19991114.html

I Love all the great points being made here. I'm Anonymous 4 now because I'm still a brain-dead AOLer. Not by choice of course . My parents don't understand the internet so they got aol as the easiest way to get online. I'd have to say there is the dumbest group of people on the net (excluding me). For many reasons...

1) They don't know what a search engine is. If it's not a keyword they won't find it. They'll then run of to the chat rooms and ask those of intelligence forced to use aol to find them information on whatever.

2) They are one of the, if not the worst spammers on this earth. I can not tell you how many times I get the genie in a bottle countdown to wishes. You also have the gay virtual water balloon fight and those AOL "FREE CASH" GIVEAWAY shit. Like I'll enter a password on a page that shows my passwords instead of **** and in the message spells though as thru. Those are the second dumbest people in aol. The dumbest are the ones who fall for it.

3) They think it's kool to fuck up chat rooms with there new nightmare bots. Yes AOL has yet another glitch, that draws a rectable from the chat to the bottom of the screen. They love to do these stupid things that just piss people off.

4) With those bots they also have the
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, you've all been infected with a virus scams. OH-NO they sent me a virus in a chat room. I'd better run. Give me a f**king break.

5) The last reason is for being on aol. I believe you all know why that's bad.

Grrrrr... It's annoying on aol, home of the dumb people, I'm glad I'm only on it when home from college.

Back in the old? days we had ansi bombs. But they didn't really do too much.

Is it just me or is anyone else sick of the overhyped / stupdity that is going along with the internet these days? First it was kind of neat seeing dot com every where and the mass interest being generating on a subject that until recently was the domain of geeks like me.

Well, at least us geeks have a brain. My lovely sister just sent me more spam about some stupid car theft ring that uses phony perfume salesmen armed with ether to incapitate their victims. And this chick is going to LAW SCHOOL. Well, okay maybe that doesn't say much in itself given they're plenty of idiot lawyers. Still it amazes me the absolutely insanely idiotic things people believe on the internet. I try and explain to hear nicely, while I've pretty much moved on to sarcasm since I don't really like her anyway, but she (and plenty of others I know) still have no clue that good times was a joke and they're is no free disney vacation for those who forward this email.

Wait there's more ranting to come! I think that I'm going to strangle the next MediaOne person I see. I'm so sick of hearing "broadband is the way" I going to throw up. I might feel better if MediaOne and the other telecom idiots offered fast access to more than 1.5% of their customers but please if you are going to hype it so #%&@ much than be prepared to sell it! Till then shut up and lay friggin cable!

Last, what is it with all this internet investment? My brother in law actually thinks investing in something that openly admits its expenses are high, competition is fierce, revenues questionable, and its assests are purely virtual IS A GOOD IDEA. I wanted to tell him to check his skull for his brain but I didn't and instead politely tried to inform him to get the hell out before the venture capitalists want their $$$$ back.

Point being, the internet is cool. We play Quake, Everquest, Tribes and heck I actually have a decent resource for my million and half coding questions but I think people as a whole are blowing it way out of proportion. Forgot laws about domain squatting, how bout laws requiring at least an IQ of 50 to get an ISP account......

Ahh, thank you. I feel much better now. :-)