Noesis 58 - February 1991 From The Editor
I was exposed to pornography and IQ tests in a similar manner. In elementary school, I happened upon soft-core stuff--naked playing cards and pre-pubic hair Playboy, Iowa Tests and the Lorge-Thorndike. In secondary school, administrators and other students presented me with racier materials--Penthouse and beyond, the SAT and its accomplices. Later. I found the hard stuff--videos, the LAIT, the Mega, the Titan.
At each rung in the ladder of debauchery, I experienced an initial blast of revulsion, followed by a perverse thrill and gradual descent into jaded disinterest. Each novel exposure inoculated me against the next level of outrageousness. Had I been exposed to nudie pix and menial tests in anything but a sequence of increasing potency, I might have been permanently scared away.
As it is, I must fight firmly-rooted temptations to boggle and blister my brain. My fiance has a copy of a Kevin Langdon test which I've instructed her to hide from me.
I get a raunchy rush when IQ is mentioned in conversation, on TV or in print, though I know that psychometrics has a grim history.
Trying to avoid feminist sins of exploitation and objectification, I went a year without looking at pictures of naked women. I ran out of fantasies. Without a constant undercurrent of sexual agitation, I felt myself turning into a wimp.
I try not to take sex and IQ too seriously. I try to limit my exposure, to suffer a little for my perversity. Fellow Noesis members, how about you?
αααααααααααααααααααααααααααααααααααααααααααααααααααα Many, many thanks to all of you who sent letters, checks, and even cash. I was super pleased to receive your correspondence. Those who haven't sent ten bucks to cover the next several months of Noesis will find that this is their last issue until a new editor takes over. My address and phone number remain Rick Rosner, 5139 Balboa Blvd.. #303, Encino, CA 91316-3430, (818) 986-9177. Call between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.. Pacific lime. Don't be surprised if I'm groggy and disoriented.
I've written that less-than-scintillating submissions will be edited savagely. but it's an idle threat. However, here are some very strong and practical suggestions:
Ron Hoeflin and other editors have been able to print material as it is received, assorted typefaces, drawings and all. But, due to the present publishing set-up, almost everything for Noesis has to be entered through my keyboard.
My keyboard and I have serious limitations. We can't handle exponents, subscripts, or symbols such as sigma. I know it's ridiculous to expect you to avoid such notation, but please try to express formulas so that they don't lose too much clarity if some math symbols must be replaced with verbal phrases. (Mr. Langan, sorry about the replacement of symbols in your marble problem discussion.)
Please double-space your stuff. I must retype everything you submit, and I get lost in densely-spaced copy.
Thanks for your consideration. My 90%-sincere apologies to those offended by my masquerade as Richard Sterman and by my slatternly writing.
Copyright (c) 1991 by the Mega Society. All rights reserved. Copyright for each individual contribution is retained by the author unless otherwise indicated.