intelligence

Stories 61 - 80 | << Prev   Next >>

CIA Had Chance to Kill bin Laden in '99: Ex-Spy

'We do not have a license to kill,' agent told informant

(Newser) - An Afghan guerrilla leader offered to hand Osama bin Laden to the CIA on a silver platter in 1999, asking for nothing more than the $5 million bounty the Clinton administration had already placed on the terrorist leader's head, but the CIA demurred, a former Polish spy alleges in...

Anonymous: We Hacked Australian Intelligence

ASIO says website lacks sensitive info

(Newser) - Anonymous claims its latest hacking target was Australia's domestic intelligence agency, known as ASIO. Australian news reported the site was down for a half hour this morning, and the agency says there were technical problems—but it adds that the public site doesn't host any classified information. Thus...

Sorry, Guys: Female IQ Is Now Higher

IQ expert James Flynn says gals have lead for the first time

(Newser) - Women always thought they were smarter, and now IQ tests are backing them up. James Flynn, an IQ expert, collated results from tests around the world and said women have taken the lead for the first time, the Telegraph reports. "This is a consequence of modernity," said Flynn....

Lie Detector Tests to Ferret Out Intel Media Leaks

New rules aim to stem the stories on secrets

(Newser) - The National Intelligence director has announced new strategies to ferret out the people leaking secret information to the media. Intelligence officials will face new lie detector questions and tests, as well as possible scrutiny by a new inspector general, reports the New York Times , one of the primary beneficiaries of...

Interrogator on bin Laden Wives: 1 Interesting, 2 Boring

But Pakistani intelligence agent learned little

(Newser) - Osama bin Laden's three wives mostly stayed mum while being questioned, reveals the Pakistani intelligence agent who interrogated them. Despite speaking with them (or, at least, trying to) once or twice a week for months, the agent tells Reuters he didn't garner much that was useful. But it...

Baboon 'Readers' Pick Out Real Words

Points to instincts behind reading

(Newser) - Don't expect him to pick up a novel anytime soon—but Dan the baboon and five buddies know real English words when they see them. For instance, if Dan sees the letters BRRU, ITCS, and KITE, he'll pick out the last one as the real word, even though...

FBI, CIA Infighting Killed Chance to Gain 9/11 Intel
FBI, CIA Infighting Killed Chance to Gain 9/11 Intel
reveals UK court
Mar 28, 2012 7:49 AM CDT

FBI, CIA Infighting Killed Chance to Gain 9/11 Intel

Bureau could have accessed calls in Afghanistan pre-2001: UK court

(Newser) - The FBI missed a big chance to gain intel—compliments of a tapped phone network in Afghanistan—before 9/11 because it was busy fighting with the CIA, according to testimony heard yesterday in Britain's House of Commons. Stay with us on this one: As the Guardian reports, the revelation...

People Aren't Smart Enough to Pick Smart Candidates

Democracy often results in mediocrity, say researchers

(Newser) - When it comes to choosing a leader, we may simply be victims of our own ignorance. Researchers say that voters can't be trusted to choose experts on topics they themselves know little about—meaning, for instance, that we can't pick the candidate with the best tax policy without...

NYPD Tracked Muslim Students Far Beyond City

Undercover work 'a violation of civil rights': chaplain

(Newser) - The New York Police Department monitored Muslim college students far more broadly than previously known, at schools far beyond the city limits, including the elite Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. Police talked with local authorities about professors 300 miles away in Buffalo and even sent...

Meetings Make You Dumber
 Meetings Make You Dumber 
in case you missed it
Jan 28, 2012 12:18 PM CST

Meetings Make You Dumber

New study finds group interactions impact problem-solving ability

(Newser) - If you've ever felt that a work meeting sucked IQ points right out of your skull, you might be right. A new study finds that group interactions can actually lower your intelligence, the Daily Mail reports. Scientists in Virginia matched groups according to IQ, ranked members' performance on cognitive...

Low IQ Linked to Racism, Conservatism, Study Claims

'Sense of order' appeals to those with lower intelligence, researchers say

(Newser) - Children with low IQs are more likely to embrace conservative ideologies and to be prejudiced against gays and people of other races as they get older, according to research certain to spark a few heated conversations. The researchers say people with lower intelligence tend to be attracted to the structure...

High IQ Children Grow Up to Be... High

Kids who score well on IQ tests more likely to score drugs as adults

(Newser) - Smartypants kids are much more likely to use all sorts of illegal drugs as teenagers and adults, according to a new study of 8,000 Brits born in 1970. Five-year-olds who scored high IQ scores were more likely to have tried marijuana by age 16, reports the LA Times , and...

Perry Dumb? Like a Fox, Maybe
 Perry Dumb? 
 Like a Fox, 
 Maybe 
kathleen parker
Sep 17, 2011 11:34 AM CDT

Perry Dumb? Like a Fox, Maybe

He's quite happy to be underestimated by his foes: Kathleen Parker

(Newser) - Modern politics has reduced Democrats and Republicans into stereotypes, writes Kathleen Parker. Democrats are the Ivy League know-it-alls who think government can solve all, while Republicans prefer guts and self-reliance over book smarts. Too bad, she writes in the Washington Post . "Would it be too much to ask that...

Rick Perry: 'Like Bush Without the Brains'

Perry is all about competition, not policy, writes Jonathan Martin

(Newser) - Rick Perry attracts a lot of euphemisms—lightweight, incurious, instinctual. "Gov. Goodhair" goes one nickname. "He's like Bush only without the brains," jokes another Texas Republican. So Jonathan Martin, in a lengthy profile of the Texas governor on Politico , just comes out and asks the big...

Whoops: Internet Explorer IQ Story a Hoax

Site was a fly-by-night creation

(Newser) - Well, looks like we better not talk about anyone’s IQ for a while: A story circulated last week about a study showing that Internet Explorer users had lower IQs than users of other browsers (we summarized it here ). But it turns out the study was a hoax, reports...

Northerners Have Bigger Brains
 Northerners 
 Have Bigger 
 Brains 
study says
Jul 27, 2011 6:37 PM CDT

Northerners Have Bigger Brains

But it's not because they're smarter

(Newser) - The great news for people who live in northern climes is that they can now legitimately boast: "We have bigger brains than you southern people." The bad news is that they're not any smarter—they just have crappier weather. Scientists who studied 55 skulls from around the...

N-Back Mental Exercises Improve Fluid Intelligence, Study Says
 Get Smarter in 20 Days 
Jun 4, 2011 1:58 PM CDT

Get Smarter in 20 Days

N-back exercises improve 'fluid intelligence': Study

(Newser) - Some of this week's news was enough to turn your brain to mush , but a university psychologist has a way to get it back in under three weeks. His technique involves something called "n-back exercises," a type of mental training that tests your short-term memory of symbols...

What the CIA Is Doing in Libya
 What the CIA Is Doing in Libya 
Mar 31, 2011 9:18 AM CDT

What the CIA Is Doing in Libya

Obama secretly authorized spies to arm rebels

(Newser) - CIA and British MI6 agents are on the ground in Libya , working covertly to help the rebels defeat Moammar Gadhafi’s forces—and they've been there for weeks, reports the New York Times . Spies from both countries have been scouting the locations of military targets like munitions depots for coalition...

Beautiful People Are Also Smarter
Beautiful People
Are Also Smarter
STUDY SAYS
Jan 17, 2011 4:57 PM CST

Beautiful People Are Also Smarter

LSE researchers find attractiveness, intelligence correlate

(Newser) - Beautiful people really do have it all, a new study suggests: They're also more likely to be intelligent. Researchers at the London School of Economics found that intelligence correlated strongly with physical attractiveness. Men judged by others in the study as handsome had IQs 13.6 points higher than the...

Our Brains Are Shrinking!
Our Brains
Are Shrinking
Jan 3, 2011 4:46 AM CST

Our Brains Are Shrinking

But do smaller brains mean we are getting dumber, or less aggressive?

(Newser) - Today's human brain is 10% smaller than that of our Cro-Magnon ancestors, but scientists are divided on whether that means we are getting smarter or dumber. Some say it does represent a dumbing down, but that our increasingly complex society means individuals don't need as much intelligence to survive and...

Stories 61 - 80 | << Prev   Next >>