The Empire State Building weighs 727,525,465 pounds.
Author: Greg Ross
Unquote
“Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial ‘we.'” — Mark Twain
Simpson’s Paradox
Baseball is a game of statistics, but numbers can be deceiving. It’s possible for one batter to outperform another in both halves of the season and still receive a lower batting average:
| First Half | Second Half | Total Season | |
| Player A | 4/10 (.400) | 25/100 (.250) | 29/110 (.264) |
| Player B | 35/100 (.350) | 2/10 (.200) | 37/110 (.336) |
This is an example of Simpson’s paradox, a mathematical quirk that arises occasionally in social science and medical statistics.
Jumbo Jet 3
A 747 has 6 million parts.
Fedor Jeftichew
“Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy” was presented to sideshow audiences as a freak of nature, raised by a savage in a Russian cave and prone to barking and growling incoherently when upset.
In reality, Fedor Jeftichew was born in St. Petersburg in 1868, and he spoke Russian, German, and English. His appearance was due to a medical condition called hypertrichosis, or excessive hair growth, the same disorder that produces “bearded ladies.”
Jeftichew inherited the condition from his father, Adrian, who had performed in French circuses. When his father died, Fedor eventually signed with an American show, going on to tour Europe and the United States extensively. He died in Turkey in 1904.
Electric Chair
In 1898, Columbus prison inmate Charles Justice helped build and install Ohio’s only electric chair.
Justice finished his sentence and returned to society, but irony caught up with him. Thirteen years later he was back in prison, and on Nov. 9, 1911, he was executed in the same electric chair he had helped to build.
Coke’s Acidity
At pH 2.5, Coca-Cola’s acidity is midway between vinegar and gastric acid.
Borromean Rings
These circles are linked … but no two of them are linked.
They’re called Borromean rings.
Quine’s Typewriter
Harvard philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine typed all his work on an old 1927 Remington typewriter. He had customized it by replacing the 1, !, and ? keys with specialized mathematical symbols.
Someone once asked him how he managed to write without using a question mark.
“Well, you see,” he replied, “I deal in certainties.”
In a Word
illeist
n. one who refers to oneself in the third person