Smarts

Intellectuals, Bill Cosby once said, are those who study what people do naturally. Here is proof that he is right.

Researchers at Stanford University have been studying multitaskers. The researchers -- who had originally been trying to find the "unusual cognitive gifts" that made multitaskers "so successful at multitasking" -- found out that, in fact, multitaskers actually do worse on a variety of tasks than non-multitaskers. Concentrating on one thing at a time, it turns out, improves performance. Who knew?

At roughly the same time, we received in our inbox one of those e-mails that circulates endlessly in cyberspace. It was an intelligence test for the foot. The instructions said to pick up the right foot and move it in a clockwise direction. Then, while continuing to do this, use your right hand to draw the number 6 in the air.

Go ahead -- try it. We'll wait.

See? Your foot gets confused.

Stanford's researchers could save themselves a lot of time if they would just read their e-mail.