Offbeat Humor

The beauty of MY infrastructure plan is that, as we build the infrastructure, we'll actually create demand for additional infrastructure spending... (1/3,771) pic.twitter.com/FcqIekKmki

— Rudy Havenstein, questioning mainstream narratives (@RudyHavenstein) February 25, 2020

Data Talks

"In 1980, the highest-earning men worked fewer hours than low-income men...Today, elite American men have transformed themselves into the world’s premier workaholics, toiling longer hours than poorer men in the US and rich men in similarly rich countries" https://t.co/8idoyOGJDC pic.twitter.com/YkMiKRzUCd

— Rob Henderson (@robkhenderson) April 19, 2021

 

Russian audiences frequently mislead them, intentionally giving the wrong answer

Its an old report from 2011 but an intriguing one.  From Are Game Show Audiences Trustworthy? by Gwen Sharp.

In Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, Ori and Rom Brafman discuss a contestant on Qui Veut Gagner des Millions?, the French version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, who asks the audience for help with the question, “Which of these revolves around the Earth?” His options are the sun, the moon, Venus, and Mars. While it might be surprising that he doesn’t know, more shocking is the result of the audience poll — 56% say the sun.

How can we explain this? The easiest answer, and the video’s title, is that French people appear to be stupid, or were never informed about the Copernican Revolution. But the Brafmans have an explanation based on different cultural attitudes toward reality shows and, ultimately, ideas about fairness.

The general outlines of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? are the same regardless of country. But distinct cultural patterns have emerged in how audiences act when asked for help. In the U.S., contestants can count on the audience’s goodwill; regardless of the question asked, audiences appear to do their best to help contestants out and the Brafmans report that data shows the audience is right over 90% of the time. I must admit it had never occurred to me that audiences would do anything other than try to be helpful. Though I don’t watch game shows now, as a kid I regularly watched The Price Is Right, among others, with my family, and we always inherently rooted for the contestant, cringing if they seemed to make a bad choice and rejoicing if they won big. We truly wanted these complete strangers to win.

But not all national audiences are so cooperative. When the show was introduced in Russia, contestants quickly learned to be wary of asking the audience for help because Russian audiences frequently mislead them, intentionally giving the wrong answer. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the players or the questions they ask for help on. 

Read the whole thing. 

Events, my dear boy, events

Harold Macmillan quoted by journalist Adam Raphael.

Harold Macmillan was once asked what the most troubling problem of his Prime Ministership was. ‘Events, my dear boy, events,’ was his reply.

 

Quote

Has this insight changed much in 2400 years? pic.twitter.com/WGBbWgu3pr

— Stephen R. C. Hicks (@SRCHicks) April 26, 2021

 

History

Our #ArtefactOfTheDay is the Praeneste fibula, or the "brooch of Palestrina".

This 7th century BCE fibula bears one of the oldest Latin inscriptions ever found. Written right to left, it reads:

"Manius made me for Numerius"#Classics #Roman #Latin #Archaeology #Gold #Italy pic.twitter.com/P1bzJ0qlPW

— The Classical Compendium 🏛️ (@TheClassicalCo) April 18, 2021

 

An Insight

What are some widely or universally predicted catastrophes that did not happen?

So far, I have...

The "population bomb"
Peak Oil (Rounds 1, 2, 3)
Y2K
Global COOLING
"Club of Rome" projections
Western hetero AIDS epidemic
Frequent "acid" rain
Killer bees and the Great Migration

— Wilfred Reilly (@wil_da_beast630) April 23, 2021

 

I see wonderful things

Disabled soldier visits little boy's home to show him that his disability can't hold him back pic.twitter.com/xQE2TUbWlX

— Dudes Posting Their W’s (@DudespostingWs) April 25, 2021

 

Offbeat Humor

Uh-Oh: Wuhan Lab Changes Sign To '0 Days Since Accidentally Releasing A Virus'https://t.co/pzYTqzp74c

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) April 17, 2021

 

Data Talks

In 1978, 59% of 18-34 year olds were married.

By 2020, 69% of 18-34 year olds had *never* been married.

— Michael Hendrix (@michael_hendrix) April 21, 2021