Ireland has highest Mensa membership in the world

eirebhoy

Got this e-mailed to me a couple of days ago so forgive me if it was posted already:

There are more highly intelligent people recorded in Ireland than in any other country. Mensa, an association of people with high IQs, says Ireland has the highest figure of Mensa members in the world. To join Mensa you must have an IQ in the top 2 % of the world's population. Ireland has over 1,200 members and its ranks are swelling here while they decline in the UK. Mensa's international president David Schulman, who lives in Dublin, said although education helps develop the IQ, natural intelligence is something one is born with.

Mr Schulman said membership of Mensa covers a broad social spectrum from heads of businesses to unemployed and unemployable people.

Mossy Monk

what exactly does a mensa membership do, what can one gain from it

Crucifix

Don't they do logic puzzles and the like?

Gilgamesh

you can show off with it, hehe

I think Mensa is too overrated these days, was interesting while they had only a few members and were more 'exclusive' but has gone out of fashion.
Hmmm..... 2% out of 6.000.000.000 people?
120.000.000 members, hey managed it, can I become a member.... again?

Cake Fiend

http://www.mensa.org/benefits.php

I don't see how it's worth the asking price.

Shane™

I was going to try join at one time, to see if I could get in, but then I found out that it involved money and going places and doing stuff, and it just ain't worth it, just to be told that "your too stupid, get lost" and if they did let me in what would I get?

I'll just pretend that I'm clever

[Jackass]

Mensa is for people who feel the need to be told they're intelligent

][cEMAN**

eirebhoy wrote:

Mensa, an association of people with high IQs, says Ireland has the highest figure of Mensa members in the world.

...

Ireland has over 1,200 members and its ranks are swelling here while they decline in the UK.

Mensa.org wrote:

Today there are some 100,000 Mensans in 100 countries throughout the world

OK work it out. If Ireland has the largest number of members in the world, and it's shared out across 100 countries, then either every other country is relatively evenly matched, or there are some countries with a smaller amount (couple of hundred less) and the rest are less than ireland by about 50-100 at most.

The fact that it then goes on to mention the UK as direct competition (rather than America - in terms of a world wide association you'd think there'd be more in the USA than in UK and Ireland put together) just goes to show that it's another UK v Ireland email just giving random (probably made up) facts about this or that.

In saying it, apart from name dropping, I don't see the real point in Mensa membership. Wait though, I could be wrong - they're really funny!!

Mensa.org wrote:

Why Should I Join Mensa?

There are many intelligent reasons to join Mensa.

Hahahaha intelligent....mensa....hahahaha that's priceless

Mensa.org wrote:

Does Mensa Provide Intellectual Stimulation?

Think-two-three, think-two-three!

Hahahaha, stimulation...think-two-three - that's like exercise!! HAHA!!

Mensa.org wrote:

Does Mensa Provide Social Interaction?

Mensa meetings are anything but dull!

OK i'm sold - where do I sign up? I've got a few IQ points to spare.

galactus

Crucifix wrote:

Don't they do logic puzzles and the like?

I bet there aren't any geoga questions on the Mensa test!
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=220502

Shane™

' wrote:

[cEMAN**']Wait though, I could be wrong - they're really funny!!

Ah, a great post, this should be moved to the Humor forums, I'm still laughing.

eirebhoy

BTW, here's a link to the original:
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=132697642&p=y3z698348

Adam

Just did the mensa workout test, on www.mensa.ie, got 24/30, apparently its a very good score and i'd have a good chance of qualifying for membership! I'm happy with my day!

wayfarer

Stephen Hawking said it best when a New York Times reporter asked him "What is your I.Q.?"

Stephen Hawking wrote:

I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.

Wertz

fade_to_grey wrote:

Just did the mensa workout test, on www.mensa.ie, got 24/30, apparently its a very good score and i'd have a good chance of qualifying for membership! I'm happy with my day!

Yes, and you have an even better chance of being parted from your money like so many others before you.
Mensa is a profit making organisation just like any other: those tests on the back of sunday supplements or on some random ad sponsored website are fishing for your money, knowing that there are many foolish people out there who like to think they're smart enough to join such an elite club, and will most likely pay up for a few tests only to be told they don't make the grade...

DubGuy22 said it best:

Mensa is for people who feel the need to be told they're intelligent

sceptre

Shane&#8482 wrote:

and if they did let me in what would I get?

Looking at their site, nowt substantial that you can't get on boards.ie or down your local if you try. I'd regard it as an annual 65 euros wasted but then I'm nothing if not cynical.

They appear to have their own credit card & I dunno about the rest of you louts but I'd feel somewhat of a prat pulling it out of my trouser leg.

stagolee

sceptre wrote:

an annual 65 euros

ha! brilliant a scam targeted at those who think they are intelligent. whoevers bank account those €65 a year roll into must need his sides stitched regularly due to laughing so much at how stupid clever people can be.

Talliesin

IQ: an approximate measure at one's ability with IQ tests.

I was in Mensa as a child. Gary Bushell (the super soar-away Sun's TV Critic and pet troll) joined shortly after and I decided their measure of intelligence wasn't that valuable. Now I generally only mention my IQ when some gob****e is boasting about their IQ and I can get them to shut up by pointing out it's lower than mine.

Agent Smith

<---- is a member....

Did a test 3 years ago in school, during 4th year, the school sent them off and i was told i was accepted for membership...


go me!

Deadwing

If thats true how come theres so many idiots in this country :rolleyes:

DBK

As said before, it's a load of crap. It's kinda like "you're really special to be in Mensa, your life will be a happy one because of it" Yeah right. I got tested when I was 8, passed with flying colours but my dad wouldn't fork up the funds saying something like "you don't need to be in a club to be told you're smart, you will always know......unless you want to rub it in people's faces, but that's only usually done by people that THINK they're smart". Hmmmm, maybe he just said that cause he's a cheap B@stard. I think I'll ring him later to discuss this further. But no, really it's complete crap. Just like IQ testing. Waste of time.

Gothic Warrior

MENSA itself is a paradox. If you're stupid enough to pay the fee to join (just so you can say you're clever), then you're a dumbass. If you're 'really' intelligent, you wouldn't fall for the farse of joining the 'exclusive' little club.

A fool and his money are easily parted...

Sleepy

I think this could have been accurately reflected in a different headline: "Irish people are the most intelectually insecure in the world!"

Bard

Gilgamesh wrote:

you can show off with it, hehe

I think Mensa is too overrated these days, was interesting while they had only a few members and were more 'exclusive' but has gone out of fashion.
Hmmm..... 2% out of 6.000.000.000 people?
120.000.000 members, hey managed it, can I become a member.... again?

Being in the top 2% of the population IQ-wise does not equate to being one out of a group of 2% of the population numerically. 50% of the population could easily equate to only the bottom 20 or 30% of the IQ rating, for example.

I was a member of MENSA when I was about 9 or 10 years old. Haven't bothered keeping that membership renewed...

Talliesin

Bard wrote:

Being in the top 2% of the population IQ-wise does not equate to being one out of a group of 2% of the population numerically. 50% of the population could easily equate to only the bottom 20 or 30% of the IQ rating, for example.

No, it goes by percentile points, so it does mean being in the top 2%.

Bard

Talliesin wrote:

No, it goes by percentile points, so it does mean being in the top 2%.

Yes, I know. What I was saying was that the amount of people who come in the top 2% percent in an IQ test does not necessarily equate to 2% of the population.

yaledo

Within mensa there are various 'special interest groups'. They're all different. Many of them produce/provide extremely good resources for school teaching and education. So people who are in mensa do have access to lots of top-notch discussion and ideas about how to do stuff.
Other than that, its just about nurturing a feeling of superiority. Its also worth mentioning that the IQ test measures a narrow subset of human intelligence. Someone with a high IQ can be a complete moron (I know a few), and someone with a low IQ can be great at problem solving.
For a group that claims to be so intelligent and superiour, I'm surprised that they still use IQ tests as the grounds for entry.

Also, surely its against the Irish equality law for a society to deny membership on grounds of mental ability - Anyone want to elaborate on this?

][cEMAN**

I agree. I'm a complete idiot, but when I do these tests I get a decent score.

I'd want to be a member though...cause then i'd have someone to talk to...

...i'm so alone... *sob*

Talliesin

yaledo wrote:

Also, surely its against the Irish equality law for a society to deny membership on grounds of mental ability - Anyone want to elaborate on this?

Wait, if that was the case then I couldn't refuse to give someone a job on the basis that they were a total moron that would be a danger to themselves and others if allowed anywhere near the <hypothetical dangerous tools> needed.

I am MAN

Talliesin is getting all defensive about his special little group.

nerd.

Talliesin

I am MAN wrote:

Talliesin is getting all defensive about his special little group.

nerd.

Eh, no.
I don't like the idea that I couldn't discriminate against someone on the grounds of their mental abilities to some extent though. I want the person who builds a train I'm in to be good at math (however I don't care in the slightest if he can't pick up a musical instrument quickly).

Cake Fiend

yaledo wrote:

Also, surely its against the Irish equality law for a society to deny membership on grounds of mental ability - Anyone want to elaborate on this?

As far as I know, if it's a private club, you can deny membership on grounds of whetever the hell you feel like. The equal status act would apply to pubs and most nightclubs, not societies like this.

Hugh Hefner

I'm a member.

David Schulman, mentioned in the original post, is a good friend of mine. He's quite cool. At the Young Sci. we had a stand and gave out a record numbr of home IQ tests (with my help). 4,454 to be exact. We ran out of them and had to start taking addresses.

The special interest groups are cool. Especially the one dedicated to Chocolate. Now I just have to join it.

This stat was on The Panel last Sunday.

You may think it's usless but on my CV there will be "Mense (lets see if my new spelling will catch on and revise Latin itself) member" while you'll put down "bosrds.ie member". It's like rock-paper-scissors and I freakin' win. Only joking.

Nah, it's a good society though and no it's not full of pompous, selfrighteous eejits. Except for me.

Chat on, plebs.

sceptre

yaledo wrote:

Also, surely its against the Irish equality law for a society to deny membership on grounds of mental ability - Anyone want to elaborate on this?

Naw, it's not one of the specific grounds. Plus as Talliesin said there are practical reasons why you wouldn't have something like that on the grounds of common sense (in the case of a job decision it would be relevant and fair in that someone with less mental acuity or a complete lack of common sense mightn't be able to do the job whereas being a black gay disabled member of a particular religion who's also born in a foreign country wouldn't and shouldn't make any difference). It's right up there with an inability to speak a foreign language in a job that requires it. Obviously this isn't a job and as a private club they can almost do anything they like with regard to their membership rolls as long as it's within their own rules.

Hugh Hefner wrote:

on my CV there will be "Mense member" while you'll put down "bosrds.ie member".

Trust me, I won't have anything of the sort down. I hope you change that 'e' to an 'a' when you mention the name of the organisation though:)
(your Latin special interest group will confirm that as a first declension noun it's conjugated mensa, mensa (though heaven knows why anyone would talk to a table), mensam, mensae, mensae, mensa in the singular so there's no Mense)

Chat on, plebs.

Yes, massah, thank you:p Would you like your shoes shined?

Hugh Hefner

They are sued so if you did I'd beat you with a rag (I'm not going to waste a good whip on your skin).

Kobie

OK, here's some basic maths. According to the Mensa site there are 26,000 members in UK and Ireland, of which 1,200 in Ireland.

Population of UK according to last census: 58,789,194

24800 mesa members = .042% of the population

Population of ROI according to last census: 3,797,257

1200 mensa members = .031% of the population.

Therefore, according to Mensa, we do NOT have the highest Mensa membership (per capita or otherwise)

Sowhat do we have to do to make our journalists get off their lazy arses and get out a calculator before publishing this crap?

I should be in fùcking Mensa!!!

K.

MickelRants

The Idea that Mensa is looking for the top 2% of people in a given society to become members is erroneous. Firstly Mensa doesn't advertise too much to begin with, lack of funding and a generally tiny membership base puts an end to that idea. Even if it were possible it'd most likely not be something Mensa would engage in.

Secondly its not the top 2% of a given society that would qualify for membership anyway. Its the top 2 'percentile' of IQ that qualify. That's a lot lower than the top 2%... Remember IQ scores in a population form a bell curve.

If we had a room stadium of people taken randomly from the population. Lets say 10,000 people... then 50% of those people would be below average and 50% above. But that does not mean that 100 of those people would be in the top 1 percentile of intelligence measured. Because this is a bell curve it would (and is) a lot lower than that as the odds of finding someone with an IQ over 145 decreases dramatically in a population and the vast majority of people (over 80%) find themselves in the middle +/-10 IQ points.

The actual figure would be more likely that between 0.4 and 0.5% of people might qualify. But most people with extraordinarily high IQ tend to shy away from membership of clubs like this. Its one of the reasons Mensa had to cease carrying out free psychometric testing, people would get tested, get their results and then Mensa would never hear from them again. The late Christopher Hitchens although he undoubtedly would have qualified is quoted as having refereed to Mensa as a dating club for nerds!

I'm not sure that's entirely correct, I joined Mensa in the 1980's after I left school, I thought it might help me in college... I was wrong, So like many things we join during life I forgot all about it and stopped attending meetings and whatnot. Its does give one access to people who share a similar intellectual base. But in the real world that to my mind is hiding oneself from the fact that not everyone is born with a high IQ and either way it doesn't really matter in life either way.

oppenheimer1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPMKqyaXtHI

Mitchell is spot on about Mensa.

ArmaniJeanss

Weird seeing a thread with eirebhoy at the top.

He'd have been proud tonight. RIP.

Wibbs

For someone rocking a mensa level IQ you did just resurrect a zombie thread. Oh hang on... what do zombies eat? Braaaiiiiiiins. Fcuk! It's a zombie plot and they're coming to a mensa meeting near you.


Signed

Wibbs, happily thick. And ignorant.

B.A._Baracus

this is a 2005 thread?

screw mensa i got to warn people about the recession!!!!

Pottler

Ahh, I.Q is old hat. E.Q is where it's at these days.

franktheplank

Maybe if all these fecking geniuses hadn't been so busy gettin high there wouldn't be a recession, huh.

steddyeddy

Mensa is the most over rated load of balls going. A much more exclusive club would be nobel prize winners. Further more I think mensa have misguided views on intelligence given their membership criteria.

franktheplank

steddyeddy wrote: »

Mensa is the most over rated load of balls going. A much more exclusive club would be nobel prize winners. Further more I think mensa have misguided views on intelligence given their membership criteria.

Trying to tell us something? Is that a Nobel Prize in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

Hippies!

You have to pay to be a member therefore you're an idiot if you're a member.

For Forks Sake

Holy Zombie Thread Batman.

If they're so smart, why does their website http://www.mensa.ie/ look like something knocked together in they days of Geocities?

steddyeddy

franktheplank wrote: »

Trying to tell us something? Is that a Nobel Prize in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

It's an erection!

otto_26

eirebhoy wrote: »

Got this e-mailed to me a couple of days ago so forgive me if it was posted already:

There are more highly intelligent people recorded in Ireland than in any other country. Mensa, an association of people with high IQs, says Ireland has the highest figure of Mensa members in the world. To join Mensa you must have an IQ in the top 2 % of the world's population. Ireland has over 1,200 members and its ranks are swelling here while they decline in the UK. Mensa's international president David Schulman, who lives in Dublin, said although education helps develop the IQ, natural intelligence is something one is born with.

Mr Schulman said membership of Mensa covers a broad social spectrum from heads of businesses to unemployed and unemployable people.

It's amazing then how easily the Germans made such fools of us! and how the country is run! maybe all the 1,200 are actually unemployed! would explain a lot about the country!!

Archeron

BRAINS.....
And I mean that in an intelligence and a zombie way.

OurLadyofKnock

MENSA is about having a robot-like mind, useless at being creative and being inventive/dynamic.

This explains EVERYTHING that is wrong with this country. An education system which produces memorising Peig-Droids who have to emigrate to express an original idea.

MickelRants

MickelRants wrote: »

The Idea that Mensa is looking for the top 2% of people in a given society to become members is erroneous. Firstly Mensa doesn't advertise too much to begin with, lack of funding and a generally tiny membership base puts an end to that idea. Even if it were possible it'd most likely not be something Mensa would engage in.

Secondly its not the top 2% of a given society that would qualify for membership anyway. Its the top 2 'percentile' of IQ that qualify. That's a lot lower than the top 2%... Remember IQ scores in a population form a bell curve.

If we had a room stadium of people taken randomly from the population. Lets say 10,000 people... then 50% of those people would be below average and 50% above. But that does not mean that 100 of those people would be in the top 1 percentile of intelligence measured. Because this is a bell curve it would (and is) a lot lower than that as the odds of finding someone with an IQ over 145 decreases dramatically in a population and the vast majority of people (over 80%) find themselves in the middle +/-10 IQ points.

The actual figure would be more likely that between 0.4 and 0.5% of people might qualify. But most people with extraordinarily high IQ tend to shy away from membership of clubs like this. Its one of the reasons Mensa had to cease carrying out free psychometric testing, people would get tested, get their results and then Mensa would never hear from them again. The late Christopher Hitchens although he undoubtedly would have qualified is quoted as having refereed to Mensa as a dating club for nerds!

I'm not sure that's entirely correct, I joined Mensa in the 1980's after I left school, I thought it might help me in college... I was wrong, So like many things we join during life I forgot all about it and stopped attending meetings and whatnot. Its does give one access to people who share a similar intellectual base. But in the real world that to my mind is hiding oneself from the fact that not everyone is born with a high IQ and either way it doesn't really matter in life either way.

You're not in Mensa.