A Taxing Problem.

I saw an item in a national daily newspaper about a long and ongoing research study into I.Q. This had shown that over the past decades the national average I.Q had been steadily rising. This was assumed to be a result of compulsory and improved education for all children over the years. However, the reason for this news item was that in recent years the average I.Q. has begun to fall. The reason is at yet unknown, but one possible cause under consideration is our reliance upon computers. Whereas in days past success at school depended on memory – learning and recall. Now if we have a problem to resolve, we just ask Mr. Google. A case of use it or lose it – if we do not tax our brains we get dimmer.

About a month later I saw an unrelated news item about dementia, a major and common symptom of which is that sufferers lose their awareness of location, wander off and get lost. Apparently research has now shown major areas of our brains are activated during navigation – which relies on observation, interpretation, memory and recall. With our modern day reliance on Sat-Nav devices (such as Strava/Garmin, etc), combined with Mr. Google, perhaps we are not taxing our brains enough, and hence reasons why our I.Q levels are falling. Could activities such as Map Reading Competitions and Bike Questing be of benefit, by exercising both our brains as well as our physical bodies?

Coal Tax Posts are not the easiest things to find, but certainly tax our brains, learning how to read and interpret maps, then navigating to, and locating them. In the not too distant past, locating Coal Tax Posts was an Anerley B.C. annual fun competition each summer. They can now, also provide some interesting gravel bike rides!

Des.