April 2007 - Bluff Me!
True or False? That is the question! NiroZ asked us to try to bluff each other in the April 2007 Contest. 34 people tried to bluff each other.
The entries were split between two unofficial polls, in which the entries were judged wether they were True, False, or Too Vague.
Then two official polls were made, and voting was based on how deceptive the statements were (did they fool people in the unofficial polls?)
The top five entries were put into a final poll (and a runoff poll for third place). Those entries were:
The blue statement is the bluff statement; the red statement is the supporting argument, which may be true or false; and the black statement states whether the bluff is true or false.
Will you wander? Wonder no more. by noma: Second place
A gene has been identified in the human genome that can identify whether or not you are predisposed to be a "homebody" or a "wanderer".
This gene is thought to have been important to the survival of the human species. There are times when seeking out new territory would be important and times when it would be more prudent to stay in one place. As well, it is suspected that hunters in a group expressed the "wandering" gene, and gatherers the "stay at home" gene.
- This is a total bluff. A quick google search would determine that although researchers have isolated the genes responsible for some diseases, there is still a long way to go before we isolate genes responsible for behaviour.
Tahnan vs. Eytanz by Tahnan: First place
Though eytanz and I are civil to each other in general (including here), we're bitterly opposed professionally.
Eytanz's dissertation concerns plurals in English and the events they relate to. My own work, about concealed questions--nouns that have question meanings--is similarly directly concerned with singular vs. plural nouns. To get my theory to work, I have to make a very particular assumption about how plurals can and cannot be used, and which words can or cannot be made plural. That assumption directly contradicts his theory. (I suspect this is a result of his working with Liina Pylkkänen, who studied with me at MIT and who similarly disagreed with me on this point.) Again, though we're quite friendly otherwise, I thought we were going to start actually fighting during the question period after my talk at this year's annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America in Anaheim.
- Nah, totally lying. Our work has nothing in common that I know of, and I don't think he even came to my talk in Anaheim, being busy interviewing for jobs and such. It's probably easy enough to confirm its falsehood with even a casual glance at my dissertation, which is online, and which barely mentions plurals.
Thinnest Material Ever by Pinnacle
A one-atom thick carbon sheet was developed by scientists.
A zero-atom thick material is abundant in space, however.
- True. It's called graphene.
Tastiest part of the rabbit by Znirk: Third place
A Swiss chocolate manufacturer has introduced a new product: Hollow chocolate easter bunny ears. No bunny, just the ears.
It seems that many chocolate bunny buyers not only eat the ears first but also like them best.
- True, and I bought one and took pictures to prove it.
Light, which is faster than light by MeckMeck GRE
Japanese scientist claimed that they accelerated a light beam over the speed of light (c)
They used a special acceleration chamber filled with alcali-metal atoms.
- It's true! Look here (German site).