Brief thought exercise: in a way, is actually having a child more selfish than not having one?

Alright, let’s start here: I don’t have kids but God willing (and maybe a job willing) later, I’d like to someday. Now move to here: for years, the narrative has actually been based on the idea that it’s selfish not to have… Continue Reading

Cue the research from Nick Epley and Ayelet Gneezy: When you over-deliver on a promise/claim, no one really cares that much

Because of observations they initially made about Amazon, two researchers — Ayelet Gneezy at UC-San Diego and Nicholas Epley at University of Chicago — launched a study about reaction to promises and claims by others. It turns out no one really… Continue Reading

Here’s video from the first-ever Indianapolis 500 (1911), which Ray Harroun won driving a “Marmon Wasp”

Here are the basic details. (Here’s a bit more.) Harroun won in 6 hours and 42 minutes. Tony Kanaan won the 2013 Indy 500 in 2 hours and 40 minutes. The Marmon auto brand still does survive, albeit not at the… Continue Reading

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Air travel can be hellacious. But whom do you blame more: the airlines or the other passengers?

Air travel is pretty much the safest and most time-relevant method of long-distance travel ever invented, so let’s not knock it completely — even though it isn’t doing any wonders for the environment and some processes therein, like boarding, are completely… Continue Reading

Krumbach, Austria is figuring out the future of the bus stop (well, not really)

We all need to be riding buses more, and as such, we need cooler places to wait. But broadly, the bus stop hasn’t changed a lot in about five decades. Krumbach, Austria — which has a population of about 1,000… Continue Reading

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The geographic center of the eight teams remaining in the NBA/NHL Playoffs is Millersville, Missouri (ya know, in case you wanted to know)

When you get older and your friends start living in different parts of the country relative to work/family/etc., you sometimes hop on GeoMidpoint to figure out the best place for a group to meet up (news flash: if you put six… Continue Reading

Brief thought exercise: as the price of airfare (likely) begins/continues to rise, will we see more people settle near their families?

Planes do require fuel to fly, and as fossil fuel extraction becomes pricier over time, it stands to reason that flights will, too. If you don’t generally believe any of this, consider this fact: from ’09 to ’14, flight costs… Continue Reading