SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
The Dunning-Kruger Effect has been popularly generalized to state that ‘the average person thinks they are better at task X than they really are.’ A lesser reported but also important conclusion of the study is that high achievers at task X consistently rate themselves lower than they actually are.
The “out of Africa”, single population, theory of early human evolution has largely fallen out of favor in light of genetic evidence suggesting commingling of species and subspecies of a variety of different early human populations in many different areas, at different periods.
Researchers recently discovered a rare microbe called a hemimastigote that is neither animal, plant, fungus nor any recognized type of protozoan — falling far outside any of the known large categories for classifying complex forms of life, within its own kingdom.
“Grant abstracts that are longer than the average abstract, contain fewer common words, and are written with more verbal certainty receive more money from the NSF (approximately $372 per one-word increase).
WORLD
A study of Canadian vs. US tweets. The study concludes the national stereotypes are evident in the data. The researchers posit that national stereotypes are grounded in the linguistic behavior of nations.
Unicode has 137,439 entries. It includes a group of ‘ghost characters’ (妛挧暃椦槞蟐袮閠駲墸壥彁) which have no known meaning. It is believed that in 1978 a series of mistaken paper creases resulted in the creation of these characters and the errors went undiscovered just long enough to be set in stone.
A 69 year old Dutch man says he identifies as a 49-year-old, asks court to change his legal age.
HEALTH
Euthanasia has been legal in the Netherlands since 2002. In 2017, one-quarter of all deaths were “induced”: 6,600 cases of euthanasia and 1,900 suicides.
It’s not just humans getting fatter. Animals are getting fatter too. And really, nobody is sure why.
Expensive placebos work better.
Dollar stores are now feeding more Americans than Whole Foods.
“More than 7 million commuters a day use Mumbai’s suburban railway network…Close to 8 people die a day on the network, according to rail officials.”
The CDC estimates that 79 million American adults—40 percent of women, and 35 percent of men—qualify as obese. “According to government estimates, Americans pay $147 billion a year in medical costs related to obesity. That’s roughly equal to the entire budget for the U.S. Army.”
Are Mormons happy or unhappy? On the one hand, Mormons have the lowest divorce rate, the highest job satisfaction, lowest median work hours, highest rate of volunteerism, etc. On the other, Utah has, the highest rates of mental illness, #1 in bankruptcy filings, #1 in child sexual abuse, top 5 alcohol and opioid abuse rates, top 5 suicide rate, etc?
Psychopaths are attracted to other psychopaths.
BUSINESS
“Any creative illustration “fixed in a tangible medium” is eligible for copyright, and, according to the United States Copyright Office, that includes the ink displayed on someone’s skin. What many people don’t realize, legal experts said, is that the copyright is inherently owned by the tattoo artist, not the person with the tattoos.” Accordingly, some tattoo artists have sold their rights to firms which are now suing video game producers who depict the tattoos on the players likenesses.
Everything you need to know to be a successful camgirl.
The average age of Viceland TV viewers is 42.
There is approximately one business establishment for every 22 people in a city, regardless of the size of the city, each with an average of eight employees. These numbers hold constant regardless of how big or small the city is.
“IBM patents more than all of Germany.”
Despite its linguistic and religious diversity, Switzerland is country of peace, stability, and prosperity. One analysis concludes that peace depends on “well defined topographical and political boundaries separating groups”, rather than integrated coexistance.
US
There are over 10 million first generation immigrants in California–more than the population of 41 individuals states.
Witches now outnumber Presbyterians in the US. “There are at least 1.5 million witches in the United States. That would put them 100,000 over the 1.4 million mainline Presbyterians in the country.”
In New York City, there are around 1,000 crosswalk buttons. In 2018, only 100 are functional (the rest are placebos) down from 750 functional buttons in 2004.
ICE set up a fake university as a sting operation aimed at individuals overstaying student visas. Students would allegedly pay tuition without taking classes in order to get the necessarily university enrollment credentials to extend their visas.
OTHER
The Inca used knotted cords called kiphus to record numbers such a census data. Kiphu knots were also used to record additional information such as the status of debts, clan, and — now it is thought — language.
Professor of American studies at Yale, Joanne Freeman, explores the history of violence on the floor of the US Congress. “Not a session passed without punches being exchanged between congressmen, and knives and pistols being drawn. The pervasiveness of violence among lawmakers will surprise even specialists in 19th-century American history. From the mid-1830s to the outbreak of war in 1861, Freeman counts more than seventy violent incidents – duels, fistfights, stabbings – in the halls of Congress and the surrounding streets. Anticipating violence, she writes, congressmen regularly ‘strapped on knives and guns’ before heading to work.”
Former elite cyclist robs 26 banks in 4 years; escapes on bike.
17 different types of bragging.
“The cube rule” is model for determining what is and what is not a sandwich, as well as toast, sushi, taco, and salad.
On average, a piece of gossip gets passed on to 2.3 people—often people who are higher status than you. In this way, gossip functions as a check on the amount of power the people with the highest social status have in a group.
“People return to a maximum of 25 places during any given time period in their life.”
You can say “ding dong” but not “dong ding,” “zig zag” but not “zag zig,” and “flip flop” but not “flop flip.” The same strict word order applies to tick tock, riff raff, ping pong, King Kong, wishy washy, etc. This is the rule of ablaut reduplication: if there are two words, the first is i and the second is either a or o. If there are three words, then the order is i, a, o.
Poisson clumping is the phenomenon where random events may appear to have a tendency to occur in clusters.
“Now being shipped to military bases around the world, the newest of 24 current M.R.E. options is a humble three-by-five-inch Sicilian-style slice, scattered with melt-proof shreds of mozzarella and pebbles of mild pepperoni, sealed in a dun-colored laminate pouch.”
This post Old News: Kiphus originally appeared on williamwickey.com.