The recent discussion about E/I personality types made me think of yet another way I classify people and relate to the world: through the lens of astrology.

OK, excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor.  I fell off while laughing. Anyhoo, I just read about this study (http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/...)that shows men are an average of 3.6 IQ point smarter than women across the board.

My reaction:

A whole 3.6 points??  WOW! That's HUGE!!!  No wait, it isn't.  

Who does it matter? Any any given point in time, we are comparing, at most, two or maybe three people's intelligence. And that comparison will always depend on the individual, not their respective genders.  For example, when comparing yourself to your spouse, or comparing candidates for a job, it always comes down to individuals.

IQ, especially in increments of 3 or four points, has very little to do with success in life. Or worthiness of a human being.  So frankly, I'm not sure what the value of this study is.  Except for making men feel better about being the less biologically essential of the species.

Oh, just kidding.

Thought this was interesting and wanted to post about it.  I'm a chatty cathy these days!

So, who's smarter?  Men or women?  More important, you or your spouse/SO?

I hesitated for a split second then called 911.  My exact thought was, if I were his mother, I'd sure as hell want someone to call the cops if he were trying to hitchhike.

I told the operator, "There's a young boy on highway 7 attempting to hitchhike."

She said, "And what's the problem?"

I was a bit surprised, since hitchhiking is illegal (Minn. Stat 169.22), for one.  "Well, he's very young, and he has a couple bags with him, like he might be running away. And I just thought if it were my son trying to hitchhike, I'd want someone to call the police."

She took down his location and I hung up.   I am weirded out, thinking that this boy could have been picked up by anybody, a random predator. So, was that a waste of time?  Do kids/people still hitchhike?

Here's my big decision:  have another biological child, or adopt (domestic/foster-adopt).

Update: I made an apointment to speak to a social worker next week. It feels like a good thing to do. Hopefully I'll gain some clarity from the meeting, if nothing else.

First there was the head-shaking revelation that Paul McCartney stands to lose 1.5 billion dollars and is sending legal notices over three bottles of Windex (or whatever they use in England).  

Then there's the thought that Paul McCartney noticed three bottles of cleaner were missing-- does he do his own cleaning?

It also made me think of the Train Incident and my divorced parents' own unpretty relations.

This story in today's Star Tribune annoyed me.

http://www.startribune.com/...

A family of five meerkats was killed because a girl's parents didn't want to get her vaccinated for rabies after she was bitten while reaching over a four-foot wall into the exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo.  The meerkats had already been vaccinated for rabies, so it was purely precautionary.

I'm a mother as well as an animal lover, so I understand having some conflict here.  But from what I understand, getting rabies shots for humans isn't that bad.  The CDC kids' website says it consists of 6 shots in 30 days (given first at the site of the bite, then in the arm).  The CDC also says side effects are mild-- soreness at the injection site, the usual things. (http://www.cdc.gov/...)

And I've been to the meerkat exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo.  It would take a lot of effort to reach into the exhibit. I can't envision a way to get down in there without practically standing on your head.  Which is to say, the parents had to be turning their heads for a significant amount of time for this to happen.  And 9 years old, while young, is not so young that they don't or can't understand the dangers of touching wild animals.  

It just seems the poor meerkats got the raw end of this deal. The parents should feel very, very sorry.

UPDATE

http://www.startribune.com/...

The meerkats, not surprisingly since they were vaccianted, did not have rabies. Apparently state health department rules require exotic animals to be tested for rabies if the one bitten declines treatment. The only way to test them is to kill them.