26 Group Decisions Nobody Supports
The Abilene Paradox describes how groups often agree to decisions that none of the members individually support. This happens because individuals avoid “rocking the boat” to prevent conflict.
27. Time appears to flow in only one direction at the macroscopic level, but this isn’t true at the microscopic level. Known as the “arrow of time paradox,” this phenomenon remains one of physics’ many unsolved mysteries.
28. The Bootstrap Paradox is a time travel paradox where an object or information exists without ever being created. It is sent back in time, retrieved, and becomes the very object or information that was originally sent back.
29. The computer term “booting up” originates from the phrase “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.” This is because a computer cannot run without first loading software, yet paradoxically, some software must run before the system can load any software.
30. The Region-Beta Paradox highlights how people sometimes recover more quickly from intensely distressing experiences than from mildly distressing ones.
31 Simpson’s Batting Average Paradox
Lou Gehrig had a better batting average than Babe Ruth in each of the years 1923–1925, but Ruth outperformed Gehrig in batting average when the three years were combined. This demonstrates Simpson’s Paradox, a mathematical curiosity.
32. Nicotine behaves unusually compared to most drugs, as it transitions from a stimulant to a sedative with increasing doses. This phenomenon is known as “Nesbitt’s Paradox.”
33. In 1931, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to Sigmund Freud titled “Why War?” to explore the psychological causes of war. Freud replied that biological evolution, power imbalances within groups, and the paradox of peace (where times of peace enable empire-building) contribute to the causes of war.
34. The Friendship Paradox, first observed in 1991, states that on average, most people have fewer friends than their friends do. However, paradoxically, many people believe they have more friends than their friends.
35. Moravec’s Paradox highlights that reasoning requires less computational effort, while perception demands massive computational resources.
36 Faint Sun, Warm Early Earth
The Faint Young Sun Paradox reveals that during Earth’s early history, the Sun produced only 70% of its current energy output. Despite this, Earth had liquid water and a hospitable climate for life, instead of the frozen environment one would expect with the Sun’s reduced energy.
37. The “Productivity Paradox” emerged during the 1970s and 1980s, revealing that despite rapid technological advancements, productivity growth rates actually declined.
38. The question, “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?” arises from the irresistible force paradox. It states that if an irresistible force exists, then logically, an immovable object cannot exist, and vice versa.
39. The Paradox of Choice suggests that when people face too many options, they often feel overwhelmed, and their satisfaction decreases even after making a choice.
40. The Banach–Tarski Paradox demonstrates that, mathematically, one can divide an object into multiple parts and reassemble them into two exact copies of the original without adding any new material.
41 Self-Interest in Prisoner Dilemma
The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a paradox in decision-making where two individuals acting in their own self-interest fail to achieve the optimal outcome. If both cooperate, they would receive minimal punishment. However, since each fears the other might betray them, both end up betraying and receive harsher penalties. For example, without knowing what your opponent is going to do, the best option is always to rat them out. If they stay quiet and you rat them out, you go free. If they rat you out and you rat them out, you both go to prison for a reduced sentence. But the same applies for your opponent. They don’t know what you’re going to do, so their best option is to rat you out. So the two individuals, making the smartest decision they can, both end up in prison.
42. In 1982, an SAT math question stumped every single test taker. The problem was so paradoxical that the creators had not included the correct answer among the options. As a result, all 300,000 test sheets had to be rescored.
43. Loschmidt’s Paradox highlights a contradiction between the second law of thermodynamics and time symmetry. The second law states that entropy, or disorder, always increases over time, creating a clear arrow of time. However, time symmetry in physics suggests that processes should be reversible. This raises the question: if time is symmetric, why does disorder only increase in one direction?
44. Simpson’s Paradox is a statistical phenomenon where trends apparent in different groups disappear or reverse when the groups are combined. A famous example is the Berkeley sex bias case, where the university appeared biased toward admitting men overall. However, when admissions data were analyzed department by department, each department was found to favor women applicants. This paradox reveals how data can be misleading when viewed at different levels of aggregation.
45. Sayre’s Paradox relates to the challenges of automated handwriting recognition. It states that a cursively written word cannot be recognized without first being segmented into individual characters. However, the segmentation itself cannot be done without recognizing the word as a whole. This paradox underscores the complexity of designing systems for handwriting recognition.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Execution and Logical Surprise
The Unexpected Hanging Paradox involves a prisoner sentenced to be hanged on a surprise day during the next week. The prisoner reasons it cannot happen on Friday, as it would no longer be a surprise. By similar logic, it cannot happen on Thursday or any earlier day. However, the executioner hangs him on Wednesday, completely catching him off guard. This paradox demonstrates how logical reasoning can fail in certain scenarios.
47. Zeno’s Arrow Paradox argues that motion is impossible by examining an arrow in flight. At any single instant, the arrow occupies one specific position and does not move. Since time is composed of such instants, Zeno concludes that the arrow cannot move at all. This paradox challenges our understanding of motion and the nature of time.
48. The Paradox of Freedom states that individual freedom thrives in societies with rules and order. In anarchic systems, while individuals have less to fear from government control, they face greater threats from chaos, such as bandits or warlords. Rules paradoxically provide the structure that maximizes overall freedom. This paradox highlights the balance between liberty and governance.
49. The Boltzmann Brain Paradox theorizes that over infinite time, quantum fluctuations could randomly create complex structures, likely even a fully functioning brain. This brain might possess false memories, a fleeting sense of self, and brief consciousness before dissolving back into randomness. While extremely improbable, the laws of physics make such occurrences inevitable over an infinite timeline. This raises existential questions about whether we are real beings or temporary Boltzmann Brains.
50. The Grandfather Paradox illustrates a time travel loop. If you travel back in time and kill your grandfather, your father is never born, and neither are you. Without you, the time machine is never created, so your grandfather lives, and the cycle repeats endlessly.
RE: Fact #1 (Preparedness and Misjudged Safety) – Lots of Western countries got hit hard by the Zika virus—it’s a serious disease.
I figured Ebola in America was similar. I was in middle school, so I wasn’t really paying attention to world news. But I remember hearing a lot about it and people working to stop it. Then it just disappeared from the headlines. I remember reading about it in a National Geographic magazine.
It was the same with the Ebola outbreak in Africa. The WHO declared it an emergency, threw a ton of money at it. Once they got it under control, people started crying about all that “wasted” cash. American news doesn’t help; they tend to blow things way out of proportion.
RE: Fact #19 (Chernobyl: A Wildlife Haven) – Makes sense, right? No people around, so it’s become a giant wildlife area by default.
The real question is how the leftover radiation is messing with the animals compared to those in cleaner places. I bet there’s more cancer and birth defects, but maybe the extra mutations also speed up evolution.
Probably more cancers and birth defects, but the extra mutations might speed up evolution.
Wild animals don’t live long.
They’d probably die naturally before the radiation hit them.
And any that got a big enough dose for birth defects would die right away. There’s no in-between; it just messes everything up.
RE: Fact #17 (Alvin and Ship of Theseus) – Alvin’s had a lot of upgrades over the years to keep it running. They added things like new motors and computers in 2001. It’s only got the same name and basic shape as the original; everything else, even the frame and the crew’s pod, has been replaced at least once. It’s kind of like that broom from that TV show. And for those arguing it’s not a real paradox, well, you can argue with Wikipedia. Maybe skip the parties for everyone’s sake.
As soon as you swap out the old part for a new one, it picks up that Alvin smell, and it’s stuck there forever.
RE: Fact #6 (Where Are the Aliens?) – Following on from earlier inserts to this one, if the Universe were a permanent fixture we should be surrounded by fellow dwellers from around the ‘Whole’, time having permanent effect, the future is not certain and contains risk, particularly evident in this sphere. A deciphered ‘crop circle’ ( replying to one of our messages ) says “… the Portal is closing.”
RE: Fact #22 (Cancer’s Modest Life Impact) – Get rid of the years of agony, pain, lost limbs, and the huge US medical bills.
RE: Fact #29 (Bootstrapping and Computers’ Origins) – And a car’s fuel pump must run before an engine can start; no paradox there either.
RE: Fact #36 (Faint Sun, Warm Early Earth) – Maybe because a young earth was creating its own heat in its early years.
RE: Fact #31 (Simpson’s Batting Average Paradox) – So that’s why one’s a beloved candy bar and the other’s a disease.
RE: Fact #16 (False Positives in Rare Tests) – For tests this big — fifty million people or more — 99% just isn’t precise enough. We need it to be way more accurate, like 99.99999%.
Everyone’s innocent, right? Getting a super high accuracy rate is a piece of cake. A 99% accuracy rate would be a joke in that data mining example – anyone who knows their stuff would think it’s terrible. You’d get laughed out of any job showing that model off. It’s not a paradox, it’s just that regular folks place way too much importance on a high accuracy number, without considering the situation.
RE: Fact #6 (Where Are the Aliens?) – Back in the summer of ’50, at Los Alamos in New Mexico, Fermi and a few colleagues—Konopinski, Teller, and York—were having lunch. One of them, Fermi, suddenly wondered out loud, “Where is everybody?” It makes me think of a phone call.
So, what’s the paradox here? Is it just that “everybody” suggests lots of people are around, but the “where are they?” part means we have no clue if they actually exist?
It’s weird, right? Even if life is super uncommon, the universe is so huge that it’s not surprising we’re here. And we’ve got proof right here on Earth! This was a real head-scratcher back when we couldn’t easily spot other planets.
RE: Fact #25 (Doctor Strikes Lower Mortality) – Procedures can’t kill patients if they’re not happening.
Strikes usually don’t go on for ages, so we don’t see the long-term consequences. Patients probably end up worse off because they miss out on needed procedures. Strikes might stop some short-term deaths from complications, but they probably cause more deaths later on from lack of treatment.
RE: Fact #17 (Alvin and Ship of Theseus) – So, here’s the thing: if you rebuilt Alvin using all the original parts, which one would be *the* real Alvin?
RE: Fact #31 (Simpson’s Batting Average Paradox) – Sample size is important, you know. Gehrig only had 38 at-bats total in 1923 and 1924.
That’s why I’m looking at the comments.
RE: Fact #19 (Chernobyl: A Wildlife Haven) – The DMZ is similar.
Life always finds a way, so I’m not worried about what happens to the planet if humans mess it up.
RE: Fact #20 (Optimism Reduces Survival Chances) – He was Ross Perot’s running mate. The media totally trashed him—I remember cracking up at Phil Hartman’s impression when I was ten. A lot of what they said back then has actually come true.
RE: Fact #15 (When Does a Heap End?) – It’s just wordplay, not a real paradox.
Some people think paradoxes are basically a problem with how we use words.
That’s the whole idea behind the paradox—it’s all about fuzzy definitions, like Wikipedia says. You could also call it a wordy or sorting paradox. It boils down to us having clear definitions at the ends of things, but not knowing exactly where one thing stops and another starts. That’s what makes it a paradox. It’s a bit random, sure, but paradoxes don’t have to be perfectly logical.
I’m not seeing the paradox.
RE: Fact #5 (More Roads, Worse Traffic) – This is a regular thing on Highway 17 heading to Santa Cruz every summer weekend. Google Maps sees the traffic jam from the merge and sends you through town to avoid it.
RE: Fact #6 (Where Are the Aliens?) – Enrico Fermi also reportedly said things like, “Where are my cigarettes?” and “Give me back my damn cigarettes!”
He had no clue his jerk nephew swiped his smokes for a class puff-fest.
So started his ongoing campaign, which basically amounts to, “Aliens took my cigarettes!”
RE: Fact #20 (Optimism Reduces Survival Chances) – In Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn describes how prisoners learned to survive by being stoic. They figured out that good times and bad times both pass, so don’t sweat the small stuff.
That’s going on my quilt.
Stitch it into something that won’t get tear stains.
RE: Fact #33 (Einstein, Freud, and War Causes) – The Marginalian blog – where this post is from – is awesome; you should totally subscribe to their email updates.
RE: Fact #13 (Coastlines’ Infinite Measurement Issue) – Math can be a real beast if you get too deep into it. It’s no surprise people are scared.
RE: Fact #26 (Group Decisions Nobody Supports) – So, picture this: a hot afternoon in Coleman, Texas. The family’s happily playing dominoes on the porch when Grandpa suggests a trip to Abilene for dinner – a 53-mile drive. Grandma’s all for it, Dad figures everyone else wants to go, Mom agrees to keep everyone happy, and Grandpa thought they were bored. Long story short: the drive sucked, the food was awful, and nobody actually wanted to go. They all just went along with it. Turns out, they’d all rather have stayed put and kept playing dominoes. The whole thing’s a classic example of what we call the Abilene Paradox. It was written about by Jerry B. Harvey.
RE: Fact #2 (Exercise’s Weight Loss Mystery) – It’s tricky, because exercise isn’t a magic weight-loss bullet. You can work out and not lose weight, or even change your body composition without seeing the scale move. Building muscle, losing fat, and burning calories are all different things. Your body gets more efficient as you get fitter, meaning you burn fewer calories doing the same workout. But don’t let that stop you! Working out still makes a difference.
I’ve been hitting the gym for ages, and this one time I’m chatting with a guy who doesn’t work out, we’re talking about work physicals. He tells me his height and weight – exactly the same as mine – but his body is totally different. BMI just doesn’t cut it.
RE: Fact #8 (Red Wine and French Health) – I can’t stand those news stories that hype up pseudoscience. “This thing you love might be good for you!” It’s like, every month there’s a new one, local or national news. Chocolate, coffee, booze, steak, eggs… you get the idea. The real story is always just, “People who don’t overdo it are healthier.”
Last Week Tonight showed how the media pushes fake science. They showed a host saying, “So many studies disagree, just pick your favorite!” That’s not how science works!
RE: Fact #9 (Black Hole Information Problem) – Honestly, it’s just a guess, not some big unsolvable mystery. We haven’t looked into it enough to say it breaks the rules.
Also, there’s a way we’re thinking about thermodynamics that’s not quite right. We might not be able to see all the information, but that doesn’t mean it’s gone.
It’s a puzzle that’s been cracked, kinda. When physicists talk about paradoxes, they usually don’t mean there’s a real contradiction, just that it *looks* like one, and the answer isn’t obvious. Think of the twin paradox, the barn-door paradox, Gibbs’ paradox—that sort of thing.
RE: Fact #28 (Time Travel’s Creation Loop) – So, how’d John Connor get sent back in time to have Kyle Reese as his dad if Kyle Reese wasn’t around until after John Connor was born?
RE: Fact #7 (Potato Weight Loss Paradox) – Okay, so you’ve got 100 pounds of potatoes, mostly water. It’s 99 pounds of water and 1 pound of solid stuff. Right?
Then the water drops to 98%. That means the solids are now 2% of the weight. See, the solids stay the same, but that 1 pound of solid now makes up 2% of the total weight, so the total weight is 50 pounds (1 pound of solid makes up 2% of 50 pounds). So there’s 49 pounds of water.
That whole percentage-to-pound thing confused me. It felt like mixing apples and oranges.
I thought if you lost 1% of water (from 99 pounds to 98 pounds), you’d still have 98.01 pounds of water. It’s not that simple! You gotta focus on that 1 pound of solids. If the solids are still 1 pound and make up 2% of the total, then the total is 50 pounds (1 is 2% of 50).
So, it wasn’t a trick question, just tricky math.
So, the part that’s not water always weighs a pound. Even when you only have 2% non-water left in 98 pounds of water, that non-water part is still a pound. That means there were 49 pounds of water (98/2 * 1 pound) to begin with, making the total weight 50 pounds.
RE: Fact #11 (Aliens Watching, Not Contacting) – A simple answer to the Fermi Paradox: tech-savvy civilizations burn through everything before they can even leave their star system, then they crash and burn.
RE: Fact #12 (Hypothermia’s Strange Final Behaviors) – Hypothermia victims often instinctively burrow, stuffing themselves into closets, under beds, or even digging, right after they take all their clothes off. It’s not about getting warm; their brain isn’t working right by then, so they might crawl under a bed even though they have blankets and a warm mattress.
That whole thing where they undress? That’s because their blood vessels get all relaxed from exhaustion, sending warm blood to their skin. It’s basically the last thing their brain does before things shut down.
Lots of mammals, like cats and dogs, like to find a dark, quiet spot when they’re dying. It’s not about staying safe, it seems more like they’re trying to keep their family and others away from the body.
It’s probably not that deep; it’s just their fight-or-flight kicking in. No energy, plus danger equals hiding.
RE: Fact #12 (Hypothermia’s Strange Final Behaviors) – I heard a story once about a guy who lived through really bad hypothermia because he made himself stay dressed.
That’s reassuring. I’m a big fan of the outdoors, and I know how dangerous hypothermia can be anywhere. Hopefully it’ll never happen, but if it did, I’d try to remember about paradoxical undressing and do my best to stay warm.
RE: Fact #9 (Black Hole Information Problem) – Physics ought to be reversible, right? But black holes are weird; they don’t keep track of what goes in, so you can’t rewind physics from there.
RE: Fact #4 (Feeling Awake While Sleeping) – I thought I was the only one. I get these dreams where I wake up, do wake-up stuff, and then BAM! It’s another dream. Total mind-bender.
RE: Fact #16 (False Positives in Rare Tests) – Terrorists are super uncommon. Think New York City—twenty million people, maybe one to ten terrorists tops. That’s practically nothing. Now imagine software that’s 99% accurate at finding them by looking at all sorts of records. It’d still flag two hundred thousand people, even though only ten are actually terrorists. To get those ten, you’d have to check out two hundred thousand innocent people.
That’s a seriously misleading way to talk about 99% accuracy. If it catches 99 out of 100 terrorists, that doesn’t tell us anything about how many innocent people it might also flag. Those are two totally different things.
So, the test is basically a yes/no thing, and it’s right 99% of the time. That means it’ll get it wrong 1% of the time, no matter what. So, 1% of innocent people will be flagged as terrorists, and 1% of actual terrorists will be missed. Keep it simple – don’t worry about different error rates.
RE: Fact #24 (Efficiency Increases Resource Consumption) – So that’s probably why my internet hasn’t gotten any faster lately—any speed boost just gets eaten up by more ads, data tracking, and extra junk.
RE: Fact #14 (Every Number Is Interesting) – This is like that weird death row thing, right? The judge says the guy’s getting executed sometime that week, but it’ll be a surprise. The prisoner figures it out: If he’s still alive Thursday, Friday’s a sure thing, no surprise. Then he works it back – Wednesday, Thursday… He thinks he’s cracked it, that it can’t happen. Then bam! Wednesday execution.
RE: Fact #36 (Faint Sun, Warm Early Earth) – Early Earth’s atmosphere had way more CO2, leading to a much stronger greenhouse effect.
RE: Fact #21 (Omnipotence and Logical Contradictions) – Could Jesus make a burrito so hot, even he couldn’t handle it?
The middle of the burrito would still be chilly, though.
RE: Fact #1 (Preparedness and Misjudged Safety) – Hey, I’m the emergency manager, and you’re spot on. That’s exactly why they’re slashing our budget. It’s like, “Oh, that wasn’t so bad, guess you didn’t need all that cash.”
A really good job looks effortless.
Hey IT!
Everything’s working great. So, what am I paying you for?
Everything’s a mess! So, what am I paying you for?
I was listening to the “American Scandal” podcast, and they were talking about the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Alaska had this awesome oil spill plan, but later governments killed the funding because there weren’t any spills happening. It’s kind of like what happened in Australia – before COVID, the feds cut funding for airport biosecurity and quarantine because they didn’t think it was necessary. Then, bam, COVID hit.
The Australian government slashed $100 million from rural fire services right before the worst fire season ever—a season they’d been warned about.
Great job, you got it!
RE: Fact #8 (Red Wine and French Health) – That whole claim’s been pretty much debunked, actually. Turns out, it’s more likely down to things like Americans eating tons of sugar compared to the French, the French using healthier fats, their diet being packed with fruits, veggies, and fish, and them eating smaller portions without snacking on junk. Plus, it looks like what kids eat early on makes a big difference later in life too.
Being from the UK, I’ve been to France loads of times, and the US a bunch for work. This wine story is actually pretty hilarious. You’re right, the French are super active – always walking around. They also seem really focused on being slim; you see it in swimming pools, everyone’s so fit, often with visible abs or even ribs. It’s a different story in the US though. Sure, there are plenty of gym-goers, but the average person is way heavier.
Portion sizes are a big deal. I’m shocked at how much everyone around me eats! Then they tease me for being skinny—I’m 6’5″, 205 lbs, it’s just not all in my belly. We definitely eat a lot of junk food, but the portions here are crazy huge.
They walk way more than we do, it’s just how they live. Think about it – when was the last time *you* walked to the grocery store? In Paris, they don’t even *have* parking lots at the grocery stores.
RE: Fact #34 (Friends Having More Friends) – This study really got to me—it had people rank their friends based on how close they were, like best friend, good friend, work buddy, acquaintance, or “nope.” Imagine: you’d say “Mark’s my best friend, Dave’s a work friend, and Molly’s just someone I know,” but they might have totally different opinions about you. What was crazy wasn’t that everyone had different ideas, but that a lot of people were *way* off. Like, Dave might think Chris is his best friend, but Chris just sees him as a coworker. Or Molly considers Claire a work friend, but Claire can’t stand her. Bottom line: your best friend might not feel the same way about you. I looked up the study; it’s called “Are You Your Friends’ Friend? Poor Perception of Friendship Ties Limits the Ability to Promote Behavioral Change” by Abdullah Almaatouq, Laura Radaelli, Alex Pentland, and Erez Shmueli, published in PLOS in March 2016.
RE: Fact #6 (Where Are the Aliens?) – So, picture this: we can zoom around the stars at light speed for a million years. That’s a crazy long time and distance, right? But compared to the whole universe, it’s tiny – just a fraction of its age and size. With numbers like that, it’s totally understandable why we haven’t spotted aliens yet, even though life could still be super common out there.
Space is seriously huge, it’s crazy! People can’t even wrap their heads around how long time is. Imagine, a super advanced civilization could have been around way back when a red dwarf was a yellow star like our Sun, and we’d never even know because it got swallowed up by its star. Same thing will happen to us when our Sun gets a bit bigger. In 5 billion years, we’ll be gone, a red dwarf and all the evidence we were ever here vanished.
RE: Fact #8 (Red Wine and French Health) – Do they eat less processed stuff?
They also have this awesome culture – two-hour lunches, no snacking between meals, and at least four weeks of vacation a year. I bet that helps a lot.
I haven’t had a four-week vacation in ages! That sounds amazing.
Let’s not forget easy access to healthcare and focusing on preventing illness before it even starts, not just patching things up afterward.
RE: Fact #21 (Omnipotence and Logical Contradictions) – The thing is, we’re using the wrong definition of “omnipotent.” We think it means unlimited power, but it really should mean *all* power – based on the original Latin meaning. Big difference! “All power” can still have limits; it just means every *possible* power, not impossible ones. Think “everything” versus “anything.” So, using this, a god could totally make a rock he can’t move, no problem.
RE: Fact #42 (SAT Question Stumps Test-Takers) – TIL: That coin flipping trick is actually a paradox!
RE: Fact #13 (Coastlines’ Infinite Measurement Issue) – Isn’t that true for any oddly shaped thing?
Yeah, anything fuzzy like that. The weird thing is, if you measure a coastline more closely, you don’t get a more accurate length, unlike something simple like a piece of paper.
That’s just not right. Look at a piece of paper under a microscope—same problem with the coastline!
RE: Fact #18 (Declining Happiness Among Women) – Now they can join the misery club! Welcome to the working world, ladies!
Men are happier, awesome! Can’t wait to see what happens next.
Actually, women just ended up feeling worse.
RE: Fact #17 (Alvin and Ship of Theseus) – The Ship of Theseus thing? Totally fits how societies and governments change over time. Think about it like my family’s old pickaxe – we’ve replaced the head a bunch of times, shortened and lengthened the handle, fixed it up whenever it needed it. Is it a *different* axe? Nope! It’s just an updated pickaxe, ready for anything.
RE: Fact #23 (Mixotricha: Odd Microbe Features) – It’s totally the poster child of symbiosis—it lives in an Australian termite’s gut and has three bacteria on its surface, plus one more inside! That’s amazing!
RE: Fact #14 (Every Number Is Interesting) – I just decided none of the numbers are interesting, problem solved! It’s all about what people find interesting anyway.
The whole “paradox” thing just means that even pretending you’re not interested makes it interesting, which is pretty obvious and not worth overthinking.
RE: Fact #15 (When Does a Heap End?) – Dropping from 30 to 29, it turned into a pile of sand. And going from 5 to 4, it’s just a bunch of sand.
RE: Fact #42 (SAT Question Stumps Test-Takers) – It’s way more interesting than the original post let on. A few students challenged the question, making the SAT people rethink things. I saw a video about it.
Veritasium did a short video on that.
I would’ve been furious! The SATs were a way bigger deal back in ’82.
Back then, no one had a clue.
We’re clueless now, too.
But they were clueless back then as well.
Don’t they anymore?
That’s way more believable than 300,000 people taking a multiple choice test and nobody getting the right answer.
I wonder if anyone could come up with a question on factrepublic with an answer so awful that nobody out of 300,000 people would pick it. Seems impossible, right? Like, “What’s 2+2?” with “435Cleveland” as the answer.
Edit: Hah, you all think you’re so smart! The real goal was 3. 4 gets the obvious answers, Cleveland gets the weird ones, but I bet 3 could sneak through.
RE: Fact #10 (Why the Night Isn’t Bright) – Here’s a clearer explanation.
It’s Friday, I’m wasted, and my physics and astronomy knowledge is a bit fuzzy, but that article really irked me. This video makes way more sense.
RE: Fact #2 (Exercise’s Weight Loss Mystery) – If you’re doing CICO dieting, don’t worry about exercise.
Get fit for your health, not to lose weight.
Losing weight is good for your health too, but it won’t make you fit.
I wish more people got this. I try to explain to smart people that diet’s 90% of weight loss, only 10% exercise, but when they say they’re too busy for the gym, they look at me like I’m telling them about Bigfoot.
These days, everyone’s all about buying stuff.
The whole attention thing makes a ton of money by focusing on how hot influencers are instead of healthy food.
The fitness industry is way bigger than the education system, money-wise.
And the food industry? It totally shapes what we buy.
Having a social life centered around showing off your stuff – supplements, gym memberships, fancy outdoor adventures – is seen as the cool thing to do.
Way back when, I joined a gym, thinking I’d get in shape. I spent half an hour on one of those calorie-counting bikes and burned, like, 200 calories. That’s two bites of a donut! Much easier to skip the donut than hit the gym.
RE: Fact #30 (Recovering Faster from Intensity) – When something really bothers me—like, something most people would find upsetting too—I feel better about my feelings. But if it’s something minor that others don’t even notice, I start beating myself up for being so sensitive, which just makes things worse.
RE: Fact #19 (Chernobyl: A Wildlife Haven) – Then the Russians showed up last year, digging trenches and making a mess. What a bunch of idiots.
RE: Fact #12 (Hypothermia’s Strange Final Behaviors) – If you’re freezing and suddenly find yourself peeing a lot more than usual, that’s a big warning sign of hypothermia. Your brain’s still working fine at that stage, so get yourself to shelter or a warm place right away.
Peeing a lot in the cold is a fast track to hypothermia. Every time you gotta go, you’re flashing your bits and losing heat.
RE: Fact #4 (Feeling Awake While Sleeping) – You’re such a good sleeper, you could probably sleep while standing up.
RE: Fact #7 (Potato Weight Loss Paradox) – It’s simpler to picture it if you imagine them going from 1% solids to 2% solids. Or, from 1kg of solid in 99kg of liquid to 1kg of solid in 49kg of liquid.
RE: Fact #5 (More Roads, Worse Traffic) – Adding more roads sometimes makes traffic worse, believe it or not. It’s because everyone tries to take the fastest route, which ends up slowing things down for everyone. Go figure! It just shows how tricky managing traffic and building cities can be.
People are so selfish! They hog the road, making everyone else wait longer. There’s this back road near me, and every morning it’s jammed because people are cutting through fields and parking lots just to avoid waiting their turn at the intersection. If everyone just took their turn, the line wouldn’t be a mile long. But nope, they all think they’re the most important person.
A roundabout or a regular stoplight would be a better idea there.