Science Headline of the Year

Jesse Walker | July 24, 2007

"Tiny brain no obstacle to French civil servant."

Comments

Sandy|7.24.07 @ 4:08PM|#

If his IQ was 75, I wonder if removing the fluid will allow him to regain some brain function.

Maybe his name is Hugo Simpsonne and is the safety engineer in a French nuclear power plant? Anybody check for le crayon up his nose?

|7.24.07 @ 4:14PM|#

Any comment I could make would be a no-brainer.

David Ross|7.24.07 @ 4:16PM|#

Heckuva job, Monsieur.

|7.24.07 @ 4:20PM|#

I thought joe was Irish

Salvius|7.24.07 @ 4:25PM|#

You know what's really disturbing about this story? Those MRIs of this guy's head look almost as bad as Terri Schiavo's, and a lot of us (myself included) took those images as proof that Schiavo could not possibly have any brain function...

Now, Schiavo had other problems with her brain other than just the big sac of fluid filling her skull, so I'm not sure the cases are really all that comparable. Brings new meaning to the phrase, "brain-dead civil servant", though.

|7.24.07 @ 4:27PM|#

To be fair Terri Schiavo probably would have qualified for French civil service as well.

|7.24.07 @ 4:32PM|#

Great headline but, "Headless Corpse in Topless Bar" is still number one.

TLB|7.24.07 @ 4:32PM|#

How do we know Reason contributors don't have shunts as well?

Rhywun|7.24.07 @ 4:43PM|#

This story makes me light-headed.

|7.24.07 @ 4:51PM|#

America is still the best land of opportunity. In France this guy was just a civil servant, in the U.S. he'd be president.

The Wine Commonsewer®|7.24.07 @ 4:51PM|#

Beat you to it, Jesse (what the odds THAT's gonna happen?)

TWC Blogged the story Sunday and yesterday I got a shout out from Don Luskin at Poor &
Stupid. Whoo, Hoooo!

That's a Homer Simpson Whoo, Hoooo, which my 11 year old son, Jacob, can mimic perfectly.

Nanny, Nanny, Goat!

thoreau|7.24.07 @ 5:00PM|#

Doctors actually were able to treat the symptoms, but the underlying problem is resisting treatment. Despite their best efforts, he remains a French bureaucrat.

|7.24.07 @ 5:40PM|#

Intelligence tests showed the man had an IQ of 75, below the average score of 100 but not considered mentally retarded or disabled, either.

However, still well above the average for a civil servant.

And I think the tone of the article indicates he is deceased, although it's hard to tell one way or the other.

|7.24.07 @ 6:10PM|#

Thank you Jesse

thoreau|7.24.07 @ 6:32PM|#

Oh, forgot to say earlier: NoStar wins the thread.

Marcvs gets honorable mention.

The Wine Commonsewer®|7.24.07 @ 8:05PM|#

Not fair, Tee, NoStar stole that No-Brainer remark off my blog. Well, okay, he probably didn't. But, he did read the post...

:-)

|7.24.07 @ 8:17PM|#

I must say I'm offended by some of the small-minded comments on this thread.

|7.24.07 @ 8:45PM|#

It is typical French arrogance to claim that they have the civil servant with the highest intelligence per unit volume.

Jesse Walker|7.24.07 @ 9:18PM|#

Don't be modest, Thoreau. You won the thread at 5:00.

Robert|7.25.07 @ 1:49AM|#

Apparently they took the shunt out too soon. This finding may be important in future rx of hydrocephalus.

Cartoons|7.25.07 @ 8:01AM|#

Remember, it's not the size of a Frenchman's brain that counts, but how badly he smells.

|7.25.07 @ 6:15PM|#

TWC,

While I did read your blog item on the same subject, I had forgotten the use of the no-brainer joke in your headline.

Still, I think that the self-deprecating context that I placed the joke in makes it sufficiently different from your own usage, that you have no grounds for complaint.

Besides, It's been so long since I won a thread. Would you begrudge a friend and fellow wine imbiber his 15 seconds of acclaim?