PhD Has Lower IQ Than High School Grad, Who Owns This $20B Shipwreck Treasure?, Gen Z "Opts Out" of Draft, Mean Girls Botched Reboot, Gal Gadot Premiers Hamas Terrorism Film (The Five for 11/10/23)
Plus, Lainey Wilson Burns up CMA Stage, Reacher Season 2! HBO's Band of Brothers Gets a Sequel 23 Years Later.
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about stories that matter.
Coming up next week, I’ll be sharing more about making cash payments to the readership of The Five for business referrals…this afternoon, I’ve gotta finish up a project…as I finally have a name and company together for the work I’ve been doing full time for clients.
More to come.
Now, let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
A viral video asked a PhD to rank a group of six people according to IQ, herself included. Dr. Maria, a 30-year-old biopharmaceutical employee, ranked Tyler, a 21-year-old Marine and high school graduate, last.
The results of the IQ test showed Tyler with a 131 IQ (above average/bright/gifted) with Maria testing dead last at an IQ of only 112 (average/normal intelligence).
I’m…not at all surprised on this one. I’ve spent a lot of time in higher ed (teaching at the college level for five years, working with PhD’s and academics in the tech world), and I’ve found some of the most educated people to be quite stupid. Despite the fact that Northwestern’s Kellogg School and U Chicago’s Booth School are the top two ranked MBA programs in the country, I’ve met plenty of alums with less actual business ability than a jr. high dropout I met in Chicago who’s worth more than $100M from a chain of car dealerships.
Unfortunately, society values the out-of-work Philosophy PhD more than the six-figure plumber, despite the fact that the latter is MUCH more essential.
There isn’t a 1-1 correlation here. Many PhD’s are truly brilliant, and some blue collar workers are kinda dumb. But there’s enough variation in the data that we should look past the letters before a person’s name (or lack thereof) and what they wear to work when determining intelligence.
[two]
The “Holy Grail of shipwrecks” is set to be excavated from its watery doom, according to Bloomberg. With it will come an estimated $20 billion in treasure which is thought to still be on board.
The Colombian government announced an urgent plan to dredge up the San José before President Gustavo Petro’s term ends in 2026. The ship was sunk by the British navy on June 8, 1708, during a skirmish amidst the War of Spanish Succession. The San José sank thousands of feet to the bottom of the Caribbean, taking all but 11 of the 600 souls on board with it. Believed to be still on the ship are 200 tons of silver and emeralds, along with an estimated eleven million gold coins, which, per The Economist, belonged to the viceroy of Peru.
There is some dispute about who initially discovered the wreck. The Colombian government claims to have discovered it in 1985, but private company Sea Search Armada says they found it in 1981. The government has never released the coordinates of where they discovered the ship, making it difficult for Sea Search Armada to confirm their claims. The company has taken the case to arbitration in a London court, where they’re seeking $10 billion, roughly half of the ship’s treasure.
There are still other parties hoping to get a share of the pie. Spain has claimed some ownership of the bounty, as the San José was a Spanish vessel carrying mostly Spanish passengers. “Peru and Panama also assert ownership because the goods were originally stolen from their lands,” according to Scuba Diving. “Finally, the Bolivian indigenous Qhara Qhara nation wants a percentage because their ancestors, they say, were forced to mine the treasures in the 16th century."
I’m not sure how this will shake out on who gets the multi-billion dollar treasure, but this true tale has “Nicholas Cage movie” written all over it…
[three]
Gen Z are hopping on TikTok to explain why they refuse to be drafted for a major war:
Why is everybody saying Gen Z is gonna get drafted? Like, pfft, no the f**k we're not. And you know why I know that? Because we're just gonna say no. Like, how are they gonna actually force us to get up and go to war? I understand it was like that in like, the 1940s. What else is there to do in 1940 besides shoot people?
We have things to do nowadays. We have twerk, be bisexual, eat a hot chip, lie. And we're also like, really mentally ill. I have like six of these. What makes you think I'm qualified to have a gun? Like, within 600 feet of anybody, including myself. And finally, like, guns are, like, so tacky. Like, can you imagine just, like, pulling up with a gun?
Like, that is so f**king embarrassing. Like, what is this, the revolutionary f**king war? No. Like, let's just chat. Let's just talk. There's no, there's no need for all the, like, like, no. No.
Uhh, my dude, if you want to try to “just chat, just talk” with Hamas, Hezbolla or Iran to get out of this thing…be my guest. You can find out firsthand how terrorists treat American civilians. I recommend not mentioning the bisexual thing, unless you want an impromptu flying lesson.
The arrogance here is stomach-churning. There’s a huge difference in cowardice (“I will not fight because I’m scared”) and cutting down the entire WWII generation, who, according to this weirdo, only saved the Jews from extinction and the world from Dictatorship because there was nothing else to do but “shoot people.”
When the war in Ukraine broke out, there were many military age males who tried to flee the country rather than fight, including trans women (biological males). Most were turned around near the Polish border and conscripted into military service. Because, when your nation’s very freedom is at stake, no one much cares what your personal reasons are for trying to flee.
I never shipped out to Iraq or Afghanistan because the military rejected me over a shoulder issue, but I watched my buddies get on airplanes and then come home with permanent wounds, both physical and mental.
I pray Gen Z doesn’t have to find out about the horrors of a major war the hard way. But the chances that this (very mentally unstable) individual winds up with a pulled draft card…are somewhere north of zero.
[four]
Last night, actress Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman, Fast X) screened footage of the Hamas slaughter of Israeli civilians last night in LA, which resulted in a minor riot.
Fox 11 Los Angeles reports:
Los Angeles screening Gal Gadot helped facilitate of a film showing the October 7 surprise attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants was marred by a mass brawl outside the venue on Wednesday night.
Video footage shared by Los Angeles' KABC-TV shows at least two groups clashing outside the city's Museum of Tolerance on Pico Boulevard.
Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department arrived at the scene as punches were exchanged and pepper spray was used.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, some 200 people were in attendance at the screening, where there was a heavy security presence. An official with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, and Hollywood executives were among those reported to have attended the event.
An LAPD spokesperson told Newsweek that following the incidents outside the screening, "two battery reports were completed. Both parties refused medical treatment. There were no arrests."
This clash is notable for a handful of reasons:
A). Unlike most political issues which split along Conservative/Liberal lines, Hollywood in general is more tepid about taking a side in this one.
B). Unlike other protests/clashes which can be viewed as people standing up for Palestinian civilians in the crossfire…this was just straight up a defense of the Hamas slaughter of Jews, including children, music festival attendees and the elderly.
C). Hang on, let’s run that back. NO ARRESTS? There was a light riot, a major street brawl…and LA was like “meh, everybody just go home.” Yet another reason California is losing population.
D). It’s entirely possible Gadot has cooked her career here and will lose many (or even all) roles in the future due to being polarizing. It doesn’t take the same kind of courage to risk fame and fortune as it does life and limb on the battlefield…but still, it’s rare to see someone in Hollywood take a legitimate stand, rather than just parroting what they’ve heard others say.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup…
Might as well call it right now…this one is probably going to be my favorite show of 2023. Reacher returns to Amazon Prime for season 2. If you’re not familiar with the screen-to-page adaptation of Jack Reacher, the character is a military vet drifter who winds up solving crimes, and banging skulls.
Season two drops on 12/15.
Woah. Austin Butler (Elvis, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) is about to have one heck of a 2024, with the release of the Chicago motorcycle true tale The Bikeriders (alongside Tom Hardy—seriously, go watch that trailer too) and as the lead to Masters of the Air, a 22-years-later sequel to the HBO epic Band of Brothers.
The WWII miniseries will tell the harrowing account of American pilots who pushed past German lines in a series of “suicide missions.” Oh, and Barry Keoghan (The Batman, Dunkirk) is in this one too.
Mean Girls is a movie that seems to stay in pop culture rotation, a meme template that keeps phrases like “stop trying to make fetch happen,” and “you can’t just ask people why they’re white” in the collective vocabulary of Millennials and Gen Z alike.
So when a trailer dropped for a reboot (it has been 20 years since the original), fans were angry at how…generic it looked despite a cast that includes John Hamm (Mad Men, Top Gun: Maverick), Busy Phillips (Freaks and Geeks, Dawson’s Creek) and Tina Fey (30 Rock, SNL).Turns out, this version is actually a musical…which is confusing, because there is no singing in the trailer.
Plenty of movies drop trailers so good that fans are let down when a more mediocre film actually releases…in this case…are we witnessing the opposite? A beloved IP that’s getting a new spin (which should play well with today’s teens as well as elder millennials down for a nostalgia fest) that’s probably good…but looks terrible from the first two minutes?
[NEW MUSIC]
I haven’t paid too much attention to Lainey Wilson, who’s music career took off after her role in Yellowstone…but I guess I need to go dive into her back catalog after this barnburner performance at the CMA Awards.
Texas country mainstay Cody Johnson has been around for nearly a decade and a half, building a regional following in the Southwest…but is really breaking through with his new album Leather.
The whole project is worth checking out, but Johnson’s collab with Jelly Roll stands out from the pack.
[old music]
And finally, two of the most influential albums in the history of hip hop dropped on the same day, 30 years ago this week. Wu Tang Clan dropped Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and somehow managed to balance nine rappers with a smattering of influences from Kung-Fu movies and comic books. And the group hailed from Staten Island, the most un-cool part of New York City. And somehow…that concoction revitalized cypher-session hip-hop hop and paved the way for the brilliance and lyrical density of The Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z shortly thereafter.
Apple Music | YouTube Music
A Tribe Called Quest offered a very different sound that the franticness the Wu brought to the mic, with the Queens trio fusing Jazz and rap by quite literally hanging out in a basement, sampling albums and watching basketball and sitcoms and taking their time with every sound and lyric for the follow up to their landmark success The Low End Theory. Tribe went on to heavily influence Kanye West, Pusha T and OutKast, which means the fingerprints of this ‘93 release continued to be found in pop culture in the 2000’s and beyond.
Until the next one,
-sth