› added 5 years ago

45

TIL about the Nirvana Fallacy. Under this fallacy, the choice is not between real world solutions; it is, rather, a choice between one realistic achievable possibility and another unrealistic solution that could in some way be "better".

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

ko8m TIL that the people of Bikini Island sued the US government for $563 million and won because of damage from nuclear testing. The US government has yet to pay.
grOrW TIL of a study published in the British Medical Journal in 2018 concluding that parachutes does not reduce risk of death or major injury when jumping from an aircraft. However, participants only jumped from a stationary aircraft on the ground. The trial is meant as a humorous commentary on RCTs.
5YlxB TIL Cincinnati has a fully-built, but never used subway system from the 1920s complete with over 2 miles of tunnels and untouched stations nearly a century old. There was an attempt to convert it to a light rail system in 2002 by raising taxes half-a-cent for the residents, but voters shot it down.
P11pE TIL that a story exists in the mythology of the Chinook peoples where an anthropomorphic coyote is insulted, and later taught to catch salmon, by a talking pile of his own feces
5ZNB TIL that the village Sasha Baron Cohen filmed in for the start of the movie “Borat” wasn’t in on the joke. Most villagers didn’t speak English and were shocked to find out what he was saying in the movie. The village isn’t even in Kazakhstan - it’s in Romania. - [4:14]