Up to date with new questions at 2:50 p.m. ET on February 19, 2026.
Should you put any inventory within the skill of IQ assessments to evaluate intelligence, we people have spent the previous century steadily getting smarter. (And in the event you don’t put any inventory in them, properly, we people have steadily gotten higher at IQ assessments.)
As a result of IQ is a standardized measure, humankind’s common rating nonetheless sits at 100—however this isn’t your granddaddy’s 100. IQ assessments are usually recalibrated, and over the previous many many years, when new topics have taken an previous take a look at, they’ve nearly at all times outscored their predecessors’ common; Grandpa’s technology might need hovered round 100, however the children are scoring 115 … which then turns into the brand new 100.
This phenomenon is named the Flynn impact, and researchers nonetheless aren’t certain what causes it. Maybe it’s on account of extra environment friendly schooling or higher vitamin. The rationale could possibly be that trendy environments comprise extra attention-grabbing stimuli or that trendy gasoline now not accommodates lead.
I haven’t seen anybody suggest that trivia is to thank, however the rising reputation of quizzing tracks with the IQ pattern line fairly properly too. I feel I converse for all of science once I say we shouldn’t rule it out fairly but.
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Thursday, February 19, 2026
- A 1934 authorities stock of what space tallied 13,500 Eskimo, 3,500 Danes, 8,000 sheep, and the world’s largest deposit of the strategic mineral cryolite?
— From Timothy W. Ryback’s essay on a historic determine’s pursuit of the place - Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė lately stated that what nation of hers made a mistake in permitting Taiwan to open a consultant workplace in its capital, Vilnius?
— From Simon Shuster and Vivian Salama’s article on the nations caught between the US and China - What five-letter phrase do behavioral scientists use to explain a delicate psychological cue—corresponding to inserting wholesome meals at eye stage on the grocery retailer—that provides folks a bit of push to behave a selected method?
— From Rob Wolfe’s essay on the lengthy shift of systemic tasks to the person
And by the way in which, do you know that barcode scanning was initially greeted with an enormous backlash? The primary merchandise ever scanned by barcode was a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum at a grocery store in Troy, Ohio, in June 1974, however by the tip of the ’70s, solely about 1 p.c of shops had adopted barcodes.
Customers had been anxious that the tech could be used to tear them off. Advocacy teams mounted campaigns towards the barcode, and protesters even picketed shops that used scanners. Others swore that the barcode was the biblical “mark of the beast.”
Clearly, it will definitely caught on, and folks obtained over their fears—although in the event you ever get rung up at $6.66, perhaps supply to spherical to the following greenback, simply in case.
See you tomorrow!
Solutions:
- Greenland. That 1934 authorities, FYI, was the Nazi one. Ryback traces what seems to have been Adolf Hitler’s lifelong obsession with Greenland—a fixation that led Hitler to pursue Greenland’s navy and financial sources after his unsuccessful tariffs created a home mess in Germany. Learn extra.
- Lithuania. Lithuania tacked towards Taiwan (and thus the US) when Joe Biden was nonetheless president, however Simon and Vivian report that the Trump presidency has not been type to Lithuania and different small nations prefer it. Fairly, they write, the US’ give attention to the US has compelled former companions to hunt—not at all times efficiently—their very own “strategic stability” with China. Learn extra.
- Nudge. It appeared for a time through the Barack Obama years, Wolfe writes, that nudge politics had been going to save lots of the world, however analysis has since revealed how ineffective these pushes are (until they’re making an attempt to get folks to do the fallacious factor, by which case they work a lot better). Learn extra.
How did you do? Come again tomorrow for extra questions, and in the event you assume up an excellent query after studying an Atlantic story—or just wish to share a reality—ship it my method at [email protected].
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
- What title is shared by the town that’s dwelling to the oldest constantly working college in North America and the one which’s dwelling to Europe’s third-oldest?
— From Rose Horowitch’s article about elite universities’ satellite tv for pc campuses - All main classes of competitors at this yr’s Winter Olympics characteristic mixed-gender occasions, save for what sport thought-about too harmful for the combining of women and men?
— From Christie Aschwanden’s essay on these Olympics’ boon to girls’s sports activities - By what colourful title did Jesse Jackson check with his imaginative and prescient of Individuals of all creeds, races, and backgrounds uniting to beat inequality?
— From Adam Serwer’s essay reflecting on Jackson’s legacy after his demise this week
And by the way in which, do you know that the College of Bologna is almost a millennium previous? It’s the world’s oldest college that was based as such (at the very least one older college began as a madrasa), and its alumni embody Copernicus, Dante, and a couple of pope.
Think about making an attempt to jot down a halfway-decent poem for an project, and your classmate turns within the Divine Comedy. Then once more, at the very least you’d have had a leg up on Copernicus, who in all probability obtained marked off lots for insisting that the Earth really orbits the solar.
Solutions:
- Cambridge. Time was, faculties caught to the spot the place they had been constructed, and globally acknowledged elite faculties principally nonetheless do (see Harvard and Britain’s Cambridge staying put). However Rose studies that an increasing number of universities slightly below that high tier are attempting to burnish their repute by making a community of absolutely fledged satellite tv for pc campuses. Learn extra.
- Ice hockey. Aschwanden writes that gender mixing within the Olympics has steadily elevated over current Video games and has in all probability performed extra to boost feminine athletes’ profiles than occasions that includes girls alone. Learn extra.
- The Rainbow Coalition. Adam writes that Jackson’s opponents did their greatest to show him into “an anti-white, anti-Semitic demagogue” however that this caricature by no means mirrored the precise man, who was steadfastly dedicated to egalitarianism. It’s simple to be cynical about Jackson, Adam writes. Don’t be. Learn extra.
