Your favorite statistics and bits of trivia

[MrHereWriting]

Sex Panther, sixty percent of the time, it works every time.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Maine is the closest state to Africa.
Maine is also farther east than you may have thought. The peninsula of West Quoddy Head is (ignoring the Alaska technicality) the easternmost point of the U.S. mainland, extending farther into the Atlantic than any state below it. It comes within just 3154 miles of El Beddouza, Morocco, making Maine the closest state to mainland Africa. For reference, Florida is around 4000 miles away.

 

[marriedchappy]

63.4% of people reading posts about statistics don't believe what's written.

 

[onehitwanda]

The Oceanic pole of inaccessibility has always made me deeply uncomfortable.

As has the Boötes void

 

[TheRedChamber]

The five main cast members of Absolutely Fabulous have the first names Jennifer, Julia, Joanna, June and Jane.

I love this because it is exactly as trivial as any bit of trivia could ever possibly be without becoming unarguably just a fact. It's just right up there precisely on that line.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

The name for the Pringles shape is a hyperbolic paraboloid.
The saddle shape of a Pringles chip is known in math as a hyperbolic paraboloid. Pringles were made in this shape because it allows the chips to be stacked easily and kept in place during packaging.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

China officially uses only one time zone, Beijing Time, despite spanning five geographical zones.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Maine is the closest state to Africa.
Maine is also farther east than you may have thought. The peninsula of West Quoddy Head is (ignoring the Alaska technicality) the easternmost point of the U.S. mainland, extending farther into the Atlantic than any state below it. It comes within just 3154 miles of El Beddouza, Morocco, making Maine the closest state to mainland Africa. For reference, Florida is around 4000 miles away.

But you can't get there from here.

 

[RetroFan]

Maine is the closest state to Africa.
Maine is also farther east than you may have thought. The peninsula of West Quoddy Head is (ignoring the Alaska technicality) the easternmost point of the U.S. mainland, extending farther into the Atlantic than any state below it. It comes within just 3154 miles of El Beddouza, Morocco, making Maine the closest state to mainland Africa. For reference, Florida is around 4000 miles away.

I've set one of my stories in Maine, but I don't think I'd want to go there in person. From what I've gathered there is an evil clown that lurks in the darkness, obsessed with making his victims float before killing them.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I've set one of my stories in Maine, but I don't think I'd want to go there in person. From what I've gathered there is an evil clown that lurks in the darkness, obsessed with making his victims float before killing them.

Just stay away from Cabot Cove and you'll be fine.

 

[RetroFan]

It is impossible to produce a pure blue rose and by extension a black rose, as roses simply do not have the genetic code to produce blue flowers.

Botanists over the years have produced roses of many colours - even green - and while there are variants of roses that suggest they are blue with the Blue Moon being the obvious one, these strains of roses are lilac in colour. There will never be a rose that naturally flowers any real shade of blue.

 

[RetroFan]

China officially uses only one time zone, Beijing Time, despite spanning five geographical zones.

We're coming up to Daylight Savings time in Australia again (3 weeks) and all the controversy it brings every year. Australia is vast so in normal time the East Coast is 2 hours ahead of Western Australia, with the Central Zone of South Australia and the Northern Territory half an hour behind the East Coast. From October to April New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory will put their clocks forward to Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time, while South Australia in the Central Zone (half an hour behind the Eastern States) will also go forward an hour.

But Queensland in the Eastern Zone, the Northern Territory in the Central Zone and Western Australia in the Western Zone do not observe daylight savings. This means that if it is 12.00 noon in Victoria, NSW, ACT and Tasmania during DST, it will be 11 am up in Queensland, 11.30 am in South Australia, 10.30 am in the Northern Territory and just 9 am over in Western Australia. It is worst on the heavily populated NSW Queensland border where in Tweed Heads on the NSW side it will be noon, but walk across the road to Coolangatta on the Queensland side it is 11 am. Given that the Gold Coast airport is on the NSW-Queensland border, and you can imagine the problems this brings.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

We're coming up to Daylight Savings time in Australia again (3 weeks) and all the controversy it brings every year. Australia is vast so in normal time the East Coast is 2 hours ahead of Western Australia, with the Central Zone of South Australia and the Northern Territory half an hour behind the East Coast. From October to April New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory will put their clocks forward to Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time, while South Australia in the Central Zone (half an hour behind the Eastern States) will also go forward an hour.

But Queensland in the Eastern Zone, the Northern Territory in the Central Zone and Western Australia in the Western Zone do not observe daylight savings. This means that if it is 12.00 noon in Victoria, NSW, ACT and Tasmania during DST, it will be 11 am up in Queensland, 11.30 am in South Australia, 10.30 am in the Northern Territory and just 9 am over in Western Australia. It is worst on the heavily populated NSW Queensland border where in Tweed Heads on the NSW side it will be noon, but walk across the road to Coolangatta on the Queensland side it is 11 am. Given that the Gold Coast airport is on the NSW-Queensland border, and you can imagine the problems this brings.

There's been an increasing amount of talk here in the states about just scrapping the whole thing. I rather hope they do.

 

[alohadave]

I've set one of my stories in Maine, but I don't think I'd want to go there in person. From what I've gathered there is an evil clown that lurks in the darkness, obsessed with making his victims float before killing them.

I was up in Eastport several years ago and the group I was with were walking around when a fog rolled in. The first thing that popped into my head was, 'this feels just like a Stephen King story'. Then I remembered where I was, and where he's from.

 

[Milliemackle]

The Oceanic pole of inaccessibility has always made me deeply uncomfortable.

As has the Boötes void

Wow. Reading about the Pole of inaccessibility made me feel really alone just now.

 

[AG31]

It is impossible to produce a pure blue rose and by extension a black rose, as roses simply do not have the genetic code to produce blue flowers.

Botanists over the years have produced roses of many colours - even green - and while there are variants of roses that suggest they are blue with the Blue Moon being the obvious one, these strains of roses are lilac in colour. There will never be a rose that naturally flowers any real shade of blue.

Lilac is a mix of red and blue. So there's blue there somewhere.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I've set one of my stories in Maine, but I don't think I'd want to go there in person. From what I've gathered there is an evil clown that lurks in the darkness, obsessed with making his victims float before killing them.

There was a red balloon in the window of Stephen King's house when the movie of IT premiered.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I was up in Eastport several years ago and the group I was with were walking around when a fog rolled in. The first thing that popped into my head was, 'this feels just like a Stephen King story'. Then I remembered where I was, and where he's from.

Setting my erotic horror stories in Maine kind of seems like a cheat.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Arkham. Miskatonic U ("Go 'Pods!").

 

[NuclearFairy]

There are three types of averages: Mean, Median, and Mode.

Mean is when you add all the numbers together and then divide them on how many numbers you added.

Median is the number right in the middle when you arrange them in order.

Mode is the number that shows up the most.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Meta-analysis is a quantitative statistical method that combines and analyzes data from multiple independent studies addressing a common research question, aiming to determine overall effect sizes and improve statistical power. This approach helps resolve discrepancies among individual studies and provides a more precise estimate of effects or relationships.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Statistics is commonly misused, abused, screwed blued & tattooed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misuse_of_statistics does a reasonable overview on many of these problematic implementations of statistics. That being said, it provides amazing insight into processes we cannot directly observe if used appropriately.

Like oh so many human-derived tools, it’s like an axe. You can find beneficial uses - build a house, for example - or malicious uses - murder people.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I've got 18 stories/chapters above 40k views.

(That's really not that much, compared to *many* others. It's not a brag, it just makes me happy)

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Most native speakers do this intuitively but there is a formal order of adjectives in English.

Opinion (e.g., beautiful, amazing)
Size (e.g., big, small)
Age (e.g., old, young)
Shape (e.g., round, square)
Color (e.g., red, blue)
Origin (e.g., Italian, American)
Material (e.g., wooden, plastic)
Purpose (e.g., cooking, sleeping)

 

[iwatchus]

I've got 18 stories/chapters above 40k views.

(That's really not that much, compared to *many* others. It's not a brag, it just makes me happy)

That's 18 more than I have with 40K views (although one is getting close now).