Comments on "mens sana"

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From the Department of Statistical Illiteracy (and the Cambridge Evening News):

With about 109,000 people, Cambridge should boast more than 2,000 people eligible to join Mensa. However, there are only 209 members listed in the area -- despite the city's reputation for academic excellence.

Hmm. "Academic excellence". That reminds me of something... Why, yes! I seem to recall that Cambridge has a rather good university, with something like 16,000 students, approximately 99.44% of whom would qualify for Mensa membership, not to mention the academic staff, former students, other large-brained people working for the local high-tech industry, and the like. But hey, what's an order of magnitude between friends?

The society promotes itself as a social organization for the highly intelligent.

A social organization for the highly intelligent? Well, there certainly aren't any of those in Cambridge. I can't imagine why the good people of the city aren't hammering at Mensa's doors.

Famous members of the organisation -- which refuses to confirm or deny any of its membership -- are said to include [...] inventor Sir Clive Sinclair [...]

So the 30-odd names at http://www.mensa.org.uk/mensa/contacts.html, which include that of the Honorary President (a certain Sir Clive Sinclair), are presumably just a cunning trick to deceive the rest of us into thinking we know who some of the members of Mensa are.