In the 1960s and ’70s, American ethologist John B. Calhoun carried out a series of experiments that would become both famous and unsettling: the “behavioural sink” studies. Officially known as the “Universe” experiments, they were designed to explore what happens when a population is given unlimited food and water but confined to a limited, artificially dense living space. What Calhoun believed he observed has since been used as a warning about the possible dystopian future of human urban life.

The most famous version of the experiment, “Universe 25”, took place in a specially built enclosure often referred to as a “mouse utopia”. Inside, Calhoun placed four breeding pairs of mice. The environment was carefully engineered to remove scarcity: there were no predators, no disease, no shortage of food and ample nesting materials. The only real constraint was space.

Initially, everything went according to plan. The population grew steadily (see chart), social behaviours appeared normal, and the colony expanded rapidly. Then, things began to unravel. As density increased, Calhoun observed increasing levels of abnormal behaviour.

Males became either hyper-aggressive or oddly withdrawn. Some attacked others without provocation, others stopped defending territory or courting females altogether. Mothers began neglecting or abandoning their young, and in some cases became violent toward them. Social hierarchies collapsed, and ordinary patterns of interaction broke down into chaos.

Calhoun coined the term “behavioural sink” to describe this point of social collapse: a pathological state in which individuals withdrew from meaningful social roles and the basic structures that supported stable group life disintegrated.

One of the most haunting observations involved a group of mice he called “the beautiful ones”. These mice didn’t fight, compete, court or care for young. They spent their time grooming themselves and wandering alone. Physically pristine, but socially anaesthetised. Eventually, the colony stopped reproducing altogether. Even when population density later declined due to death, the damage to social functioning proved irreversible. The colony drifted into a sterile, quiet extinction, despite the continued abundance of resources.

To many, the implications seemed obvious and terrifying: perhaps humans, when packed too tightly into cities and relieved of survival pressures, might follow the same downward spiral into alienation, violence and social breakdown. Calhoun’s 1962 Scientific American article describing his experiments was published at a time when there was growing awareness about population growth and environmental issues, e.g. Paul R. Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb was published in 1968. And indeed, Calhoun himself suggested that overcrowding could destroy the psychological “space” humans require for healthy social functioning.

The dystopian conclusions, however, have been heavily debated. Critics point out that the mice were not experiencing a natural form of crowding; they were placed in an artificial environment with no way to escape, no predators and no opportunities for meaningful environmental challenge. Later scientists argued that what Calhoun observed may have been more about loss of purpose, monotony and lack of complexity than density alone.

As AI becomes more and more capable of doing things for us, it begs this question: what happens to a society when its members no longer have meaningful roles to play?

Story Idea: Rami Younes

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There’s something very appealing about Good Morning Towels, don’t you reckon?

They are simple white terry cloth towels emblazoned with a bright red “Good Morning” greeting in wonky script and some Chinese characters that say Zhu jun zao an, in Pinyin, read from right to left in the traditional manner. This roughly translates to “Wish you early morning”, a somewhat formal “Good morning” greeting.

The number below the logo refers to the size – 96 being the most popular.

The perfect functional and aesthetic balance of a quality “GMT” (the affectionate acronym) is hard to beat. The material absorbs well: it isn’t too thick, and the size is just sufficient that one could use it to dry off after bathing. Longer than a handkerchief, lighter than a bath towel, it dries in minutes under tropical heat and folds neatly into a pocket.

This is not a high end product. They are very inexpensive … around A$2 each from an Asian supermarket in Sydney last time we bought them. Even so, one should be aware of cheap(er) imitations. The originals are thicker and bear the woven blue edging.

Good Morning towels have a long history in South East Asia. They were originally produced for the Hong Kong market in the late 19th century, and were used widely in tea shops and noodle houses. The English greeting was added to appeal to the British who were then living in the area, and they were most likely produced by Shanghai Sanyou Industrial Co. Ltd, an enterprising Chinese factory that saw the opportunity. The towels are now made in state factories in Guangdong Province, and are still ubiquitous in Hong Kong SAR, e.g. they are the only towels allowed for use by inmates in jails and prisons.

In the Philippines, you’ll see them pretty much everywhere: strung around the neck of every jeepney driver and conductor within easy reach to mop up sweat; cut-up into rags to wipe down kitchen tables; and wrapped around the knuckles of the fist-fighting bad guys that inhabit old school Pinoy action films.

As early as the 1920s, the Good Morning Towel was also a staple in Singapore, then a British colony. The towel was often seen draped across the shoulders of rickshaw pullers and labourers who helped build modern Singapore. So, for Singaporeans, the Good Morning Towel is a nostalgic symbol of the hard work their forefathers put in to establish their country. Singaporeans love these towels and they have become retro chic there. Such is their cult status that there are deluxe versions (plusher, fancier with golden embroidery) sold as souvenirs. [Ed: Not sure about those. Not as appealing.]

Throughout South East Asia and elsewhere in the world, the towels have been reborn as pouches, mugs, scarfs and all manner of merchandise. There’s even a homage REMO design from 2022 that pays tribute to its iconic graphic imagery.

PS: Finally, here’s a bonus pic of Remo with his talented friend Stew Burchmore shopping for Good Morning Towels in Sydney’s Chinatown in 2022

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Paper size standards govern the size of sheets of paper used as writing paper, stationery, cards, and for some printed documents. The ISO 216 standard, which includes the commonly used “A series” and A4 size, is the international standard for paper size. Introduced in 1975, it is used worldwide except in North America and parts of Central and South America, where US paper sizes such as Letter and Legal are used.

The first evidence of standard paper sizes being discussed was in a letter dated October 1786 from physics Professor Georg Christoph Lichtenberg to his friend Johann Beckmann. In his letter, Lichtenberg outlined the benefits of a height to width ratio of 1 to the square root of 2.

And indeed, that’s where we’ve arrived. ISO 216 paper sizes are all based on a single aspect ratio of 1 to the square root of 2, or approximately 1:1.41421; and each ISO paper size is one half of the area of the next larger size in the same series.

There are 11 sizes in the A series, designated A0 to A10. The A0 base size is defined as having an area of 1m² with dimensions, rounded to the nearest millimetre, of 1,189mm x 841mm. As metric paper weights are usually measured in grams per square metre (gsm), this doubling/halving relationship between each size makes mass calculations very easy when dealing with large volumes of paper in the print and publishing industries. An A0 sheet of 80gsm paper weighs 80g. So, an A5 sheet of that same paper would weigh 1/16 of that 80g, i.e. 5g.

This gives the A series of paper a great trick up its sleeve that saves printers and designers time when estimating weights for printed things, e.g. a REMO wallplanner printed on an A1 sheet of 200gsm paper weighs 100g.

The shared aspect ratio across all sizes also means that (say) an A4 page can be scaled up by 41% and all the artwork and text is the perfect width and height to fill an A3 page. Similarly, scaling A4 artwork down to 71% of its original size will see it fit perfectly on an A5 page with no unpleasant stretching, squashing, or redesigning of artwork required.

“Series C”, the basis for many envelope formats, is based on C0 with width of 917mm, and “Series B” is a bit bigger again, based on B0 with width of 1m.

This is all very soothing. But the United States will have none of it. Over there, the US Letter (8.5 x 11 inches) and Legal (8.5 x 14 inches) sizes are used almost exclusively.

And why those particular sizes? The answer is historical and somewhat pragmatic. Early paper makers dipped wooden framed screens of various sizes into vats of water and pulp. These “vat men” would then heave them back out — all by hand — and once they’d left them to dry, they’d end up with large sheets of paper. One of the common frame sizes was a size that was about 44 inches x 17 inches. Cutting those paper sheets into quarters would result in “letter” sized sheets that were 8.5 x 11 inches.

Last but not least there is “foolscap” at 8 x 13 inches (British) or 8.5 x 13.5 inches (Imperial). Foolscap was named after the “fool’s cap and bells” watermark commonly used from the 15th century onwards on paper of these dimensions.

Apparently American restaurants are still big buyers of foolscap paper; the extra length works well for a daily menu. Folded in half, they make a perfect cocktail menu, and in half again, it’s just right for daily specials.

Story Idea: Jane Campbell

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Chindōgu (珍道具) the Japanese art of crafting quirky and impractical gadgets, translates to “unusual (or eccentric) tool”. In the spirit of chindōgu, here are 20 oddball inventions not to be taken too seriously:

Dynasphere, 1932
A petrol-driven mono-wheel vehicle capable of reaching up to 48 km/h. This motorised death trap was not particularly practical due to its three-metre height.

Inflatable Bra, 1952
Models showing off a “miracle” of bra technology at the London Waldorf Hotel – a variable air cushion for “perfect beauty”.

Lipstick Application Guard
This doesn’t look like something that would make the task easier – unless your lips happen to align perfectly with the cutout. What do you think?

Glow in the Dark Tyres, 1961
Each Goodyear illuminated tyre was made from a single piece of synthetic rubber that was brightly lit by bulbs mounted inside the wheel rim.

The Chain Smoker
In this unlikely photograph, model Frances Richards smokes a full pack of cigarettes all on the one cigarette holder. That’s one easy way to burn through your savings.

Solar-Powered Fan-Cooled Pith Helmet
What it says is what it does. The New York based mail order retailer Hammacher Schlemmer [RR7:37] used to sell loads of these.

Wooden Bathing Suits, 1929
Photo taken in Haquian, WA. Due to the buoyancy of wood, these incongruous outfits were supposed to make swimming easier. [Ed: Yeah … Nah.]

Recliner Piano, 1935
A piano especially designed for people who are confined to bed.

Wrist Notebook, 1950s
Invented in Russia by Melik Bakhtamyan and manufactured in Leningrad.

The Isolator, 1925
A helmet created by Hugo Gernsback to reduce distractions. It could only be worn for 15 minutes at a time as the user would become drowsy. Hence the addition of an oxygen tank. [Ed: This one cracks me up.]

Umbrella Tie
Living in areas prone to unpredictable weather calls for preparation. What better way to be ready for unexpected rainstorms than having an umbrella tied around your neck?

Breast Washer, 1930
This is a machine for massaging and/or washing breasts.

Portable Shaving Mirror, 1940s
By developing a portable shaving mirror, one German company was trying to profit from the lack of bathrooms in post-war emergency apartments.

Noodle-Eaters Face Guard
Slurp those noodles without the fear of unsightly splashing. The Japanese have got this category nailed.

The Cyclomer, 1932
An amphibious bicycle that never caught on following its introduction in Paris.

Crawling Baby Mop
Babies and pets bring joy to our homes. There’s no doubt about that. Why not also get them to help out with the housework? [Ed: An oddball classic.]

Bellhop’s Aid, circa 1955
An automatic tip requester for use by hotel bellhops. Devised by inventor Russell E. Oakes, it comprises an artificial hand and cashbox and can be worn around the waist.

Eye Drop Funnel Glasses
Once again Japanese chindōgu masters show us how it’s done.

Baby Cage, 1930s
Designed for people living in London apartments, these cages were considered a good solution to get babies out into fresh air. A terrifying idea that thankfully didn’t catch on.

Anti-Pervert Hairy Stockings, 2010s
These hairy stockings from China were designed to repel and repulse unwelcome attention. The hairy hose are so thick that they will even protect against mosquito bites.

Inspired? Now go out there and invent something useless of your own.

Story Idea: Stew Burchmore

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PS: Honourable Mention: The Portable Cone of Silence – Get Smart, 1966

The peace symbol began life as a symbol for the British anti-nuclear movement in 1958.

It was designed by Gerald Holtom (1914–1985) and presented to the Direct Action Committee on 21 February 1958, where it was immediately accepted as the branding for what would be an 84km march from Trafalgar Square, London, to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, Britain’s first major demonstration against nuclear weapons.

The peace symbol is actually a superimposition of the flag semaphore signals for the letters “N” and “D”, standing for Nuclear Disarmament. The circle surrounding them represents planet Earth. Did you already know that?

In addition to this primary genesis, Holtom additionally cited as inspiration Spanish artist Francisco Goya’s painting The Third of May 1808 (1814) wherein a Spanish peasant freedom fighter, about to be massacred by a Napoleonic French firing squad, is holding up his arms as an assertion of his victimhood and humanity.

Unfortunately, the arms in the painting are pointing the wrong way, up and not down, which is why Holtom tried to backtrack and have the symbol used upside down with “U” standing for Universal or Unilateral taking the place of “N” for Nuclear. Too late. The symbol was off and running and, in 1960, became truly famous all over the world when an American student named Philip Altbach persuaded the Student Peace Union to adopt it.

By the end of the 1960s, it had become a universal symbol of peace, and possibly the most widely used protest symbol in the world.

Ken Kolsbun, a peace symbol historian [Ed: There’s such a thing?], believes the design’s simplicity played a role in its continued success. “You can have a 5 year old draw it,” he said in a phone interview with CNN’s Jacopo Prisco in 2019. “It’s such a powerful symbol with a sort of hypnotic appeal.”

The symbol has influenced and inspired many other protest artists over the years. American artist Shepherd Fairey [Obey Giant, RR1:53] interviewed for Peace: Photographs by Jim Marshall says:

“The peace sign has long been an important image and symbol for me, not just because I am pro-harmony and anti-war, but because it is the graphic icon that taught me the power of an easily recognized and reproduced symbol.”

After the 2015 Paris terror attacks, French artist Jean Jullien reimagined the design using the shape of the Eiffel Tower, a mash up that quickly went viral, creating a worldwide symbol of solidarity in condemnation of the attacks.

Story Idea: Bonnie Siegler

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Finally, for this week, a short message from Ringo:

REMORANDOM Chapter

Stone skipping – sometimes called stone skimming – is the art of throwing a flat stone across water in such a way (usually sidearm) that it bounces off the surface. “Skipping” counts the number of bounces, whereas “skimming” measures the distance traveled.

The earliest evidence of stone skipping is prehistoric in nature, and inferred rather than recorded. Archaeologists note that flat river stones naturally attract human hands: ideal for toolmaking, marking and, inevitably, throwing. The earliest explicit cultural reference appears in Classical Greece, where Pliny the Elder wrote about people throwing flat pebbles “so that they bound across the water”, suggesting not only familiarity but an early understanding of technique.

By the medieval period, stone skipping appears in folklore, metaphor, and children’s rhymes across Europe. In Japan, the practice – known as mizukiri, or “cutting the water” – is mentioned in 12th- and 13th-century poetry, capturing the elegance and almost meditative quality of a well-thrown stone.

In England, stone skipping is known as “ducks and drakes”, in France, as “ricochet”, in Ireland, as “stone skiffing”, in Denmark as “smutting”, and every language, from Hindi to Russian to Chinese, has a unique word or term for skipping stones.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, skipping became a standard element of childhood across the Western world. But it wasn’t until the late 20th century that stone skipping evolved from casual pastime into organised sport. Formal competition began in Scotland, where the abundance of perfectly formed slate pebbles around Easdale Island fostered a local skipping culture.

The World Stone Skimming Championships were founded there in 1983. Since then, the event has grown into an annual gathering, attracting competitors from around the world. The rules are simple: stones must be naturally occurring, thin and weigh no more than 70 grams; throws are judged on distance, but only if they skip at least twice.

In the United States, organised skipping took a more competitive turn, with associations formalising rules and record-keeping. Modern elite skippers favour high spin rates that stabilise a stone’s flight through gyroscopic effect. The physics of skipping has even drawn academic attention. In 2002, French physicist Lydéric Bocquet modelled the optimal angle of impact – around 20 degrees – confirming what great skippers already sensed intuitively.

More recently, the purity of the sport was tested. In 2025, the World Stone Skimming Championships were shaken by a cheating scandal when several competitors were found to be using “doctored” stones – artificially ground or smoothed to improve performance. Since rules require naturally formed Easdale slate, the offenders were disqualified.

The Guinness World Record for the most skips is 88, set on 6 September 2013 at Red Bridge, Pennsylvania, by Kurt Steiner. Steiner previously held the world record from 2002 to 2007. See the record throw below or HERE – and watch the subsequent video to hear from the man himself and see how he throws.

Postscript
While the myth of George Washington throwing a silver dollar across the Rappahannock River is not actually true, the story of his supposed feat has been so influential that throwing events are now held in his honour, particularly on his birthday.

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By the early 1920s, the term paegŭiminjok (백의민족; literally “white-clothed people”) was being used to describe the Korean people, and indeed, until the 1950s, a significant proportion of Koreans wore a traditional white hanbok on a daily basis.

Many Korean people, from infancy through old age and across the social spectrum, dressed in white, only wearing one or more of the other colours of the traditional Korean colour spectrum (black, blue, yellow and red – along with white, known as Obangsaek) on special occasions or if their job required a certain uniform.

Early evidence of the practice of primarily wearing white dates from around the 2nd century BCE, continuing until the 1950–1953 Korean War, after which the resulting poverty caused the practice to end. Koreans could no longer afford to buy food, let alone maintain their white clothes.

But why? The reason for the practice is not known with certainty, although it is said by Korean scholars to be a mix of symbolism and tradition.

Confucianism, which deeply influenced Korean culture, promoted virtues such as modesty, purity and simplicity. White clothing reflected these values, representing a humble and unadorned lifestyle. The Chinese 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms describes white clothing as a symbol of cleanliness. White is also sometimes associated with sunlight and heaven in the Chinese cultural sphere. Some modern scholars see it as a result of psychology, specifically pressure to conform to social norms, i.e. someone started wearing white, and everyone else followed. [Ed: Maybe]. White is also the colour of mourning in Korea. The practice stems from the belief that white represents a clean slate or a return to purity after death. It contrasts with the Western tradition of wearing black during mourning.

The Japanese colonial view attributed the Korean penchant for white clothing to mourning, and they really didn’t like the inference of suppression. The practice was persistently maintained and defended by Koreans, surviving at least 25 pre-colonial and over 100 Japanese colonial-era regulations and prohibitions. Japanese colonialists and a number of Koreans also saw it as a frivolous practice, partly because of the maintenance the practice demanded.

This practice has also developed a number of symbolic interpretations over time. The rigorous defence of the practice and effort needed to maintain it have been seen as symbolic of Korean stubbornness, and as the promotion of a distinct Korean identity, primarily as a reaction to Japanese assimilationist policies.

The symbolism lives on. In the 1980s, South Korean democratic movements once again adopted white clothing as a marker of democracy, pro-reunification sentiment and anti-Americanism.

Story Idea: Melanie Giuffré

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A guillotine is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with a pillory (two beams of wood) at the bottom of the frame, holding the position of the neck directly below the blade. The blade is then released, swiftly and forcefully decapitating the victim with a single, clean pass. The head falls into a basket or other receptacle below. Et voilà!

Although decapitation as a form of execution predates the guillotine by millennia, the machine itself emerged in late 18th-century France as a supposed instrument of humane justice. Its development was rooted in Enlightenment ideals and an effort to eliminate the brutal disparities in how people were executed depending on their social class.

Before the guillotine, methods of execution in France varied wildly. Aristocrats were often beheaded with a sword or axe, while commoners were hanged, burned or broken on the wheel – often in prolonged, agonising displays.

The call for a more egalitarian, efficient, and painless method of capital punishment gained traction (pardon the pun) among reform-minded thinkers and physicians. Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a physician and member of the National Assembly, did not invent the device but advocated for its use, believing that a mechanical decapitation would be both swift and equal in application.

The actual design was refined by Dr Antoine Louis, secretary of the Royal Academy of Surgery, and built by a German harpsichord maker named Tobias Schmidt. Initially called the “Louisette” or “machine à décapiter”, it eventually became popularly known as the “guillotine”, much to Dr Guillotin and his family’s lasting dismay – (as an aside, arguably similar to the Stobie family’s sensitivities re the naming of the Stobie pole in South Australia – a pole made of two steel I-beams held together by bolts and filled with concrete that turned out to be incredibly lethal when hit by a car).

The first execution by guillotine took place in Paris on 25 April 1792, when a highwayman named Nicolas Jacques Pelletier lost his head to the falling blade.

During the Reign of Terror (1793–1794), the guillotine became a central figure in the French Revolutionary justice system. It was used extensively by the radical Jacobins, led by Maximilien Robespierre, to eliminate enemies of the Revolution. The Place de la Révolution in Paris (now Place de la Concorde) became the stage for the machine, where tens of thousands – including King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette and Robespierre himself – met grisly ends.

Despite its origins as a humane reform, the guillotine became a symbol of state terror and mob justice. Its efficiency and public visibility lent it a theatrical presence, drawing large crowds and fuelling both fascination and horror. After the fall of the Jacobins, the frequency of executions declined, but the guillotine remained the legal method of execution in France well into the 20th century.

On 10 September 10 1977, the last execution by the (so called) “National Razor” took place in Marseilles, when a Tunisian murderer Hamida Djandoubi was beheaded.

Postscript
The question of whether a severed head remains conscious after decapitation has fascinated and disturbed people for centuries. There is a tiny window of around four seconds during which the brain is still technically alive. This raises the possibility – not proof – of a fleeting moment of awareness. Oh dear.

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The tradition known in Sweden as Lördagsgodis (“Saturday sweets” or “Saturday candy”) has an unexpected origin. It is a cherished weekly ritual that began life as a public health strategy to combat tooth decay.

The story begins in the early 20th century, when Sweden, like many countries, was grappling with widespread dental problems among children. Tooth decay was common, but the precise causes were still being debated. Was it sugar itself, or something else in the modern diet? Researchers wanted definitive answers.

Their search culminated in the infamous Vipeholm experiments, conducted between 1945 and 1955 at Vipeholm Hospital near Lund. Residents of the institution, many of whom had intellectual disabilities, were divided into groups and fed different diets. Some received sugary foods with meals, while others were given sticky, sugar-rich treats such as toffees between meals. Researchers then monitored the development of dental cavities over many years.

The findings were significant. They demonstrated that frequent consumption of sticky sugary foods between meals caused dramatically higher rates of tooth decay than consuming sugar less often. The research helped establish one of modern dentistry’s key principles: frequency of sugar consumption is often more important than the total amount consumed.

Yet the experiments remain highly controversial. The participants were unable to provide informed consent, and many were deliberately exposed to diets known to damage their teeth. Fifty of the research subjects ended up with completely ruined teeth. By modern ethical standards, the study would be considered unacceptable.

The practical outcome of the study was the recommendation that sweets should be limited to a single occasion each week. Swedish health authorities encouraged families to reserve candy for Saturdays, reducing the constant exposure of teeth to sugar.

The advice proved remarkably successful. Rather than viewing it as a restriction, many families embraced it as a special weekly event. Children would receive pocket money, visit a confectionery store on Saturday, and carefully select their own assortment of sweets – lösgodis (“loose candy”) from colourful pick-and-mix displays. Shoppers choose from hundreds of varieties, including gummies, liquorice, marshmallows [RR2:47], chocolate-coated treats and sour candies. The colourful displays were a major attraction for children, who often spent considerable time selecting the perfect assortment. The visit to the confectionary store became a fun family event.

In many households, the tradition provides another layer of education. Children learn to budget, deciding whether to spend all their weekly allowance on candy or save part of it for something bigger. The ritual encourages delayed gratification, comparison shopping and simple financial decision-making.

Of course, modern life has softened the rules. Many Scandinavian children enjoy sweets on other occasions such as birthdays, holidays and special events. Yet the idea of Saturday as “candy day” remains remarkably resilient.

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See also: Crayfish Party [RR5:19], Jantelagen [RR1:40]

High jumping as a track and field sporting event changed forever at the Mexico City Olympic Games on 20 October 1968. On that day Dick Fosbury, a gangly and introverted 21 year old civil engineering student from Oregon State University cleared the bar with a 2.24 metre jump, winning himself and the US a gold medal, and an Olympic record in the process.

It’s how he cleared the bar that was, at the time, so revolutionary. He used a jumping style that, naturally enough, has become known as the “Fosbury Flop”.

Pre-Fosbury, most elite jumpers used the “Straddle” technique, the “Western Roll”, “Eastern Cut-Off” or “Scissors Jump” to clear the bar. Today, the Fosbury Flop is the dominant style used by elite high jumpers all over the world.

As a high school jumper, Dick was a lousy straddler, and that inspired him to experiment. Despite the dire warnings of every coach who watched him, he invented the flop. What he had discovered as a schoolboy is that by lowering his centre of gravity by stretching out on his back he could actually jump higher.

Predominantly, athletes using the flop adopt a “J” shaped approach, where the first three to five strides head in a straight line at ninety degrees to the bar, with the final four to five being run in a curve, allowing the athlete to lean into his or her turn, away from the bar. Fosbury himself cleared the bar with his hands by his sides, whereas some athletes cross the bar with their arms held out to the side or even above their heads, optimising their mass distribution.

Fosbury’s technique took a while to catch on. It just looked so damn weird back then.

The actual term “Fosbury Flop” is credited to the Medford Mail Tribune, which wrote the headline “Fosbury Flops Over the Bar” after one of his high school meets. The reporter that day also wrote that Fosbury looked like “a fish flopping in a boat”.

In a refreshing demonstration of understatement, Fosbury, who died in March 2023, had this to say after his 1968 Olympic victory:

“I think quite a few kids will begin trying it my way now. I don’t guarantee results, and I don’t recommend my style to anyone. All I say is if a kid can’t straddle, he can try it my way.”

As an example of innovation it reminds us that the old way is not always the best way, and it’s often the gangly and introverted engineering types that find themselves to be the drivers of change.

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If you were a wealthy gentleman back in the 18th and early 19th centuries, simply owning a grand country estate with elegantly landscaped gardens wouldn’t be enough to impress and astonish your guests. What you needed was an ornamental hermit. An ornamental hermit was not a real hermit, but rather a man who was employed by the estate owner to reside in a contrived hermitage for a period of time and make scheduled appearances on the grounds at the pleasure of the employer and to be seen and marvelled at by guests.

It sounds crazy and Pythonesque today – but apparently it seemed like a good idea at the time. These living curiosities became part of an estate’s grand design, lending a touch of mystery and philosophical gravitas to the manicured landscapes of the Enlightenment. As the Age of Reason collided with a growing fascination with nature and contemplation, the idea of the wise, solitary figure communing with nature gained cultural traction. Ancient hermits and monks had long symbolised simplicity, reflection and withdrawal from worldly corruption.

Professor Gordon Campbell of the University of Leicester, author of the 2013 book The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome, suggests the practice started somewhere in southern Europe and that Francis, a Roman Catholic friar from Paola in Calabria, was among the first of the trend, living as a hermit in the early 15th century in a cave on his father’s estate. Thereafter, throughout France, estates of dukes and other lords often included small chapels or other buildings where a resident hermit could remain in attendance.

But it would be the British aristocracy who would push the trend to the next level. Estate owners like the 18th-century English aristocrat Charles Hamilton of Painshill Park constructed rustic hermitages as part of their picturesque gardens. These were designed to evoke an idealised wilderness – a carefully crafted imperfection that counterbalanced the order of formal landscaping. Hamilton advertised for a hermit willing to take up residence for seven years, under strict conditions: no speaking, no washing, no cutting of hair or nails, and no leaving the grounds. The reward was £700, a fortune at the time. The story goes that Hamilton’s first hermit lasted only three weeks before being dismissed after being spotted drinking in the local pub. [Ed: Fair cop, Guv.]

Not all ornamental hermits were failures, and not all were entirely real. Some landowners used mannequins dressed in robes to give the illusion of a resident sage glimpsed through a window or doorway. [Ed: Doubly fake. Cheating!]

Some social commentators of the time mocked the practice as absurd. The satirist Thomas De Quincey and others used the ornamental hermit as shorthand for the eccentricity and moral emptiness of the gentry. Still, the fad reflected some genuine anxieties of those times. Industrialisation and urbanisation were beginning to change the world. The ornamental hermit embodied a yearning for authenticity, for a simpler existence supposedly closer to nature – even if only simulated. In this way, the hermit’s hut was both a retreat and a pastoral fantasy set against the encroaching modern world.

By the mid-19th century, the fashion for living and breathing ornamental hermits had faded as landscaping tastes shifted and realism replaced romanticism.

Story Idea: Hugh Ramage

REMORANDOM Chapter

Ululation is a high-pitched, wavering vocal sound produced by rapidly moving the tongue and uvula [Ed: Similar word, but no relation] while vocalising. It is a powerful form of emotional expression used in various cultural contexts, often during celebrations, mourning or acts of devotion.

Check out an An Egyptian woman ululating after having cast her vote in the 2014 Egyptian presidential elections on a Wikipedia page HERE, and listen to an audio recording of an African woman ululating offstage at a concert in the UK HERE.

The practice of ululation has ancient roots and appears in cultures all over the world. In the Middle East and North Africa, it is a common feature of joyous occasions such as weddings and religious festivals, where women perform it to express honour and celebration.

In the Arab world, zaghārīt (Arabic: تيراغز ) is a ululation made to honour someone. They are widely performed and documented in Egyptian movies featuring traditional weddings, where women are known for their very long and very loud ululations.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, ululation is a versatile tradition used to mark major life events like marriages and funerals, as well as in spiritual rituals to evoke communal emotion or call upon spirits. Similarly, in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, ululation appears in traditional mourning practices to convey grief and respect for the deceased.

Although less widespread, South Asian ceremonies and religious festivals also feature ululation-like sounds, particularly during rituals. Indigenous cultures, including some Native American and Pacific Islander communities, incorporate similar vocal expressions in their spiritual and cultural events.

In modern times, ululation has occasionally appeared in popular culture, especially in depictions of ceremonial gatherings in film and music.

The significance of ululation varies depending on the context. It often symbolises extreme emotions, ranging from joy to sorrow, and serves as a communal or spiritual connector.

Indeed, ululation may have given us one of the most profoundly musical words associated with Judea-Christian devotions. Ziony Zevit, a scholar of biblical literature at the American Jewish University, in an essay in the 2007 book Milk and Honey, notes that the Hebrew word Hallelujah, translated as a call to “praise the Lord”, contains the root H-L-L, with meanings related to “praise”, and may have originally been an onomatopoeic imitation of ululation performed in Israelite rituals. Seems plausible.

Story Idea: Melanie Giuffré

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The Champawat Tiger was a female Bengal tiger responsible for an astonishing 436 deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon division of India, during the last years of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century.

Operating with “almost supernatural efficacy”, the tiger was “the most prolific serial killer of human life the world had ever seen,” writes Dane Huckelbridge in the 2020 book No Beast So Fierce: The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Animal in History.

The Champawat tiger began her attacks in the village of Rupal in western Nepal. Most of her victims were young women and children, who often went into the forest to collect firewood, feed livestock and gather resources for craft work. The tiger was averaging about one victim per week for several years, and the number of fatalities became so high (over 200) that the Nepalese authorities decided to do something about it.

In 1903 the community organised itself to drive out the offender. After stringing goats along the valley as bait, an army of men pushed forward to flush out the killer. A thousand beaters shouted and clattered machetes followed by hunters riding elephants and another company of Nepalese soldiers in the rear. It would have been quite a sight.

Despite failing to capture or kill the tiger, they did manage to force her to abandon her territory and drive her across the border into India, where she continued her man-eating ways claiming a further 236 victims. [India: “Thanks so much for that, Nepal.”]

The tiger would adjust her hunting strategy so as to best hunt and evade humans … travelling great distances between villages (as much as 32km in a day, undertaken at night) in her new territory both to claim new victims and evade pursuers. Life across the region was paralysed, with men refusing to leave their huts for work after hearing the tiger’s roars from the forest.

Then along came Jim Corbett, the locally born son (one of 16 children) of a British Raj functionary who became the most celebrated tiger hunter of his time. Between 1906 and 1941, he managed to track down and shoot nearly 50 rogue cats that had collectively dispatched some 2,000 people. Because of his track record, he enjoyed an almost godlike status in India.

The Champawat tiger’s final victim, a 16-year-old girl, was killed just hours before Corbett managed to down her in 1907, as she was approaching and only 6 metres away from him.

A postmortem on the tiger showed the upper and lower canine teeth on the right side of her mouth were broken, the upper one in half, the lower one right down to the bone. This injury, a result of an old gunshot, according to Corbett, probably prevented her from hunting her natural prey, and hence, she started to hunt humans. Diminishing tiger habitat and booming human populations also increased the likelihood of the deadly encounters.

Later in life, Corbett retired his rifles, and focused his efforts on photography and the conservation of big cat populations. He played a key role in establishing a protected area in Uttarakhand, India in 1930 that was renamed Jim Corbett National Park in his honour in 1957. So, at least Jim was able to change the colour of his stripes.

Story Idea: Zac Zinn @scribblemouth_

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An intraocular lens (IOL) is a lens implanted in the eye usually as part of a treatment for cataracts or for correcting other vision problems such as near-sightedness (myopia) and far-sightedness (hyperopia). This modern surgical miracle – restoring or improving sight in a matter of minutes – owes an unlikely debt to the chaos of aerial combat in World War II.

At the time, combat aircraft canopies were often made from Polymethyl methacrylate, a transparent, shatter-resistant plastic more commonly known by the brand name Plexiglas. When these canopies fractured during crashes or combat, they sent shards flying into pilots’ faces – sometimes embedding deep within the eye. Conventional medical wisdom would suggest that such foreign bodies should trigger severe inflammation or rejection. But something surprising happened: they didn’t.

Enter Harold Ridley, a keen-eyed [Ed: couldn’t resist] British ophthalmologist working with injured Royal Air Force pilots, including Gordon “Mouse” Cleaver, one of the first RAF aces of World War II. Ridley noticed that fragments of PMMA lodged in the eye often remained inert. Unlike metal or organic materials, they didn’t provoke the immune system. The eye, it seemed, tolerated this synthetic substance remarkably well. This observation sparked a radical idea. At the time, cataracts – clouding of the eye’s natural lens – were treated by removing the lens entirely, leaving patients with severely impaired vision that required thick glasses. Ridley wondered: what if the cloudy lens could be replaced, rather than simply removed? And what if PMMA could serve as the replacement?

It was a bold leap. The idea of implanting an artificial lens inside the human eye was met with skepticism, even resistance. But Ridley persisted. On 29 November 1949, at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, he performed the first successful implantation of an intraocular lens, made from PMMA. The patient, a woman undergoing cataract surgery, regained functional vision – without the need for cumbersome spectacles.

Ridley’s invention didn’t gain immediate acceptance. Many in the medical community considered it risky, even reckless. Early designs had limitations, and complications did occur. But over time, improvements in lens design, surgical technique, and sterilisation transformed the procedure. What began as a wartime observation evolved into one of the most common and successful surgeries in the world.

Today, cataract surgery using intraocular lenses is performed on tens of millions of patients each year. Modern lenses can be folded for insertion through tiny incisions and can even correct vision at multiple distances. Yet at the heart of this sophisticated procedure lies a simple, almost accidental discovery: that a material designed for aircraft could quietly coexist within the human eye.

It’s a reminder that innovation doesn’t always happen in the lab. Sometimes, it emerges quite literally from the wreckage of a Happy Accident [RR5:34].

Story Idea: Manuel Rosario

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“Cheese pull” refers to the visually appealing stretch of melted cheese when a food dish, often involving melted or gooey cheese, is pulled apart.

The cheese pull is a phenomenon that has gained significant attention in recent years, especially on social media platforms where food content is widely shared and celebrated. This stretchy cheese effect is particularly prominent in things like pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas.

The cultural history of the cheese pull is closely tied to the rise of food-centric content on social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. People started sharing videos and photos of themselves pulling apart cheesy dishes, highlighting the gooey and tantalising qualities of melted cheese. The cheese pull became a visually satisfying and shareable moment that could quickly capture the attention of viewers.

While it’s long been an effective advertising tool, the cheese pull rose to internet ubiquity in the mid-2010s … a particularly cheesy era for viral food, and a time during which liking junk food became, particularly for women, a common online persona.

Journalist Bettina Makalintal, in a story for Vice in 2019, writes:

“Cheese pulls are active acts of manipulation trying to sucker your neurons into wanting something that probably won’t taste as good as it looks.”

Advertisers use it to communicate with the part of our brain that’s not verbal, with the primal core of our being that doesn’t understand words but responds to hunger, thirst, arousal and desire.

The cheese pull can “trigger deep-seated memories of food experiences” to “signal an enjoyable experience in you,” says Uma Karmarkar, an assistant professor of marketing at the Harvard Business School in a Quartz article.

Although the cheese pull is probably here to stay, it may have already become passé and somewhat hackneyed in the world of online food culture. Also, taken to the extreme, cheese pulls can be somewhat gross. Spend some time online searching #CheesePull and you’ll see what we mean.

Finally, note that the cheese pull is not only an old trick, it’s also a trick that is not limited to cheese. The “sweating bottle” of soft drink, the slow “beer pour” and the glossy “hair flip” all come from the same playbook.

Postscript
In breaking news that will impress readers from the future, on 16 September 2023, in celebration of National Guacamole Day [Ed: yes, it’s a thing], the snack brand Doritos broke the record for the world’s highest cheese pull after they dipped a giant 4m chip into cheese sauce using a helicopter in Somerset, England. The chip was raised 15m into the air before the dangling string of cheese broke.

Video Podcast

Remo and Claudia discuss the cheese pull near the beginning of this episode of the REMORANDOM video podcast.

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“Nosey Bob” was born Robert Rice Howard in Norwich, England in 1832 and migrated to Australia in 1861. He worked as a cabman in Sydney and was very successful. He owned his own hansom cab, having built a profitable clientele among the wealthy residents of Darling Point. His good looks and height (the Mudgee Guardian once described him as someone who “passed for an Adonis amongst the horsey crowd”) undoubtedly worked in his favour.

But tragedy struck during the height of his popularity. He was kicked in the face by a young horse at a stable in Bligh Street and his nose was irreparably smashed, creating the impression that he had no nose at all. In keeping with the cruelty of those times, he was given the ironic nickname Nosey Bob.

Following the accident, Howard’s clientele began avoiding him and his business began to fall apart. With his career in pieces, he was forced to look elsewhere for work. However, because of his startling appearance, finding work was not easy. Unemployed, shunned by society and out of options, Howard decided to accept the unwanted post of New South Wales State hangman.

Howard hanged felons across New South Wales, but almost half of his work was done at the imposing Darlinghurst Gaol where he hanged some of the most famous criminals of colonial Sydney. Howard performed 66 executions at Darlinghurst Jail, 7 at Old Dubbo Jail and acted as “guest hangman” in other states and even in New Zealand.

Despite his “success” as a hangman, Howard continued to struggle socially. He not only faced abuse and insult due to his disfigurement, he was now also loathed as a hangman, due both to changing societal attitudes to capital punishment AND the fact that he tended to botch his hangings from time to time, causing either unnecessarily prolonged deaths or near decapitations. (It all comes down to body weight and the length of the drop.)

He retired from his hangman career of 30 years in 1904, died in 1906 and is buried in Waverley Cemetery.

Howard lived in a tiny timber cottage located at 103 Brighton Boulevard. It was one of the first cottages built at Bondi Beach, on (then lonely) Ben Buckler point.

Howard’s hobby was shark hunting. [Ed: That’s very 2026.] He would set bait, and then use his horse to assist him in pulling the shark out of the water (as per Truth, 15 January 1899). He had a large collection of shark jaws to show for this.

Howard also liked a drink, but due to his disfigurement, didn’t like to go out in public or visit pubs. He famously trained a horse to carry a billy and make the return trip from his home to a local establishment across the bay, Dunlop’s Cliff Hotel House on the site of the present Astra Hotel. The billy carried a sixpence there and beer on the way back. Larrikins would sometimes try to intercept the money, sometimes the beer, but the horse was trained to resist those scoundrels.

The story of Nosey Bob is told with flair and forensic detail in a 2022 book An Uncommon Hangman by New South Wales State Librarian Rachel Franks.

Video Podcast

Remo and Claudia discuss Nosey Bob from around the 8:30 mark of this episode of the REMORANDOM video podcast:

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Orfield Laboratories in South Minneapolis is home to a room that has been crowned “the quietest place on earth” by Guinness World Records [RR3:35].

The room at Orfield is called an anechoic chamber, meaning there is zero echo as the room absorbs 99.99% of sound. Rooms like this, and a similar one developed by Microsoft on their Redmond campus in Washington State, are used by various manufacturers to test product volume and sound quality, or by NASA to test their astronauts. Space is like one giant anechoic chamber, so that makes sense.

A typical quiet bedroom at night measures about 30 decibels (dBA). This chamber measures an average of -13 dBA, with a global record of -24.9 dBA.

The chamber is a six-sided steel double-walled box, suspended by springs, inside a five-sided steel-over chamber. The two rooms are inside the acoustical laboratory, which has 30cm-thick concrete walls. The door to the anechoic chamber is made of steel panels covered in 100cm-thick fibreglass acoustical wedges, which also line the interior of the chamber. [Ed: Quiet enough for ya?]

Rooms like this can also drive people mad.

In the absence of outside noise, ears adapt to the silence, enabling one to quite clearly hear the sounds of heartbeat, blood circulation, stomach, lungs – and even the sound of eyelids opening and closing. It can be a disorienting experience. After a while, the sound of blood coursing through the vessels in their ears can turn into quite a roar.

All in all, it’s a weird thing to experience.

Most people leave the room very shortly after entering, tortured by the eerie sounds of their own body. “In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound,” says Steve Orfield, president of Orfield Laboratories.

Orfield explains that the only way to stay in the room for an extended period of time is to sit down. A person’s orientation is largely secured by the sounds made when walking or standing, and as those sound cues are taken away, perception becomes skewed, and balance and movement become almost impossible feats.

Orfield’s chamber has become a tourist attraction in Minnesota … a place where silence can be heard and felt. So, if you’re ever passing through, think about booking a spot.

REMORANDOM Chapter

Climbing Mount Everest has long surpassed its literal meaning to become a metaphor for ultimate ambition – the thing that sits at the outer edge of possibility, demanding sacrifice, obsession and risk. Indeed, Mount Everest itself – known in Nepali as Sagarmāthā (“Forehead of the Sky”) and in Tibetan as Qomolangma (“Holy Mother of the World”) – has always existed at the edge of human imagination.

Long before it became a sporting objective, it was a sacred presence. For centuries, local Sherpa and Tibetan communities revered the mountain as the home of deities – not something to be “conquered” but respected. Ironically, the Western name “Everest” comes not from local tradition but from British colonial cartography. The mountain was named after Sir George Everest, who never actually saw it.

The first serious attempts to climb Everest began in the early 20th century, driven by imperial curiosity and national pride. British expeditions in the 1920s pushed human limits at extreme altitude with rudimentary equipment. The most haunting of these was George Mallory, who disappeared with Andrew Irvine in 1924 near the summit ridge. Mallory’s famous reply to why he wanted to climb Everest – “Because it’s there” – became one of the most quoted lines in exploration history. Whether Mallory reached the summit remains one of mountaineering’s great unanswered questions.

The first confirmed ascent came on 29 May 1953, when Sir Edmund Hillary, a dashing New Zealand beekeeper, and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa climber of extraordinary skill, reached the summit via the South Col route. Their success was not just a personal triumph but a symbolic one: proof that humans could survive and function in the so-called “death zone” above 8,000 metres, where oxygen is insufficient to sustain life for long.

Everest has since become a stage for remarkable victories. Climbers have summited without supplemental oxygen, climbed solo, skied down from near the top and climbed it multiple times in a single season. Figures like Reinhold Messner redefined what was possible, stripping climbing back to speed, endurance and purity. At the same time, Sherpa climbers – once relegated to footnotes – have gradually gained recognition as elite mountaineers in their own right, with records that dwarf those of most Western climbers.

But Everest is equally defined by tragedy. More than 340 people have died on its slopes, victims of avalanches, altitude sickness, exhaustion and sudden storms. Disasters such as the 1996 storm, popularised in books and films like Into Thin Air (1997), exposed the deadly consequences of overcrowding, poor decision-making and commercial pressure. Bodies, preserved by cold, remain visible along popular routes – grim landmarks with tell-it-like-it-is names such as “Green Boots”.

In the modern era, Everest faces new challenges. Climate change is destabilising ice and rock, increasing avalanche risk, while mass tourism has turned parts of the mountain into traffic jams above 8,000 metres – as evidenced by a famous image snapped by 14-peaks speed climber Nirmal Purja that went viral in 2019.

Ethical questions loom large: who gets to climb, at what cost, and who bears the risk? Yet Everest’s pull endures. It remains a symbol of ambition, obsession, humility – and the thin line that separates human achievement and fragility.

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In REMORANDOM 2 we featured the Distracted Boyfriend meme [RR2:21]. [Ed: Love that meme.] For REMORANDOM 7 (coming in October 2026) we have widened the net to bring you some other faces and moments that escaped the internet to become part of mainstream culture.

Bad Luck Brian (2012)
Where Success Kid (below) represented V for Victory [RR5:85], Bad Luck Brian represented cosmic humiliation. The meme uses an awkward high-school yearbook photo of Kyle Craven wearing braces and a tartan vest, paired with captions describing catastrophic misfortune, e.g. “Takes driving test … gets first DUI.”

Bernie Sanders in Mittens (2021)
One of the few political memes that became genuinely universal. Taken during the inauguration of Joe Biden in January 2021. Within hours, the image had been photoshopped into famous paintings, movie scenes, sporting events and historical moments. Bernie was recently spotted at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Disaster Girl (2005)
The “Disaster Girl” image is a small girl smirking in front of a burning house. The girl, Zoë Roth, appears simultaneously innocent and deeply guilty, as though she personally caused the fire behind her. Years later, internet users began photoshopping Roth into famous catastrophes.

PS: Hindenburg Disaster [RR3:37]

Distracted Boyfriend (2017)
Distracted Boyfriend [RR2:21] is an Internet meme based on a 2015 stock photograph (captioned “Disloyal man walking with his girlfriend and looking amazed at another seductive girl”) by Spanish photographer Antonio Guillem. Social media users began using the image as a meme as a way to depict different forms of disloyalty.

Grumpy Cat (2012)
The cat – real name Tardar Sauce (RIP) – became famous because of her permanently displeased expression, caused by feline dwarfism and an underbite. Grumpy Cat transcended meme culture to become a commercial phenomenon, spawning books, merchandise, TV appearances and even a Christmas movie.

Hide the Pain Harold (2011)
With his strained smile and haunted eyes, Hungarian retiree András Arató became known worldwide as Hide the Pain Harold. Stock photographs of Arató smiling politely while appearing internally devastated became shorthand for enduring misery with forced optimism.

Overly Attached Girlfriend (2012)
One of the first YouTube-era memes to turn an ordinary person into an internet celebrity, Overly Attached Girlfriend originated with a parody video uploaded by Laina Morris in 2012. Her exaggerated wide-eyed stare and obsessive lyrics inspired endless captions about clingy or possessive relationships.

Scumbag Steve (2011)
Scumbag Steve became the patron saint of unreliable friends. The image – sideways cap, faux-fur coat, insouciant expression – was used to describe people who borrow things and never return them, eat your food or show up uninvited.

Side-Eyeing Chloe (2013)
The image comes from a 2013 YouTube video in which young Chloe Clem reacts to the surprise announcement that she is “going to Disneyland again”. While her sister bursts into tears of joy, Chloe stares into the camera with a look of profound mistrust – as though she suspects a scam.

Success Kid (2007)
The meme features toddler Sammy Griner on a beach, gripping a handful of sand with an expression of fierce determination. Beginning around 2007, captions paired the image with tiny but satisfying victories: finding money in an old coat pocket, passing an exam, or catching the train at the last second.

Succulent Chinese Meal Guy (1991 / revived 2020s)
Australia’s contribution to meme immortality, the “Succulent Chinese Meal” clip, comes from a 1991 television news segment showing a man – later identified as Jack Karlson – being arrested outside a Brisbane restaurant while delivering some bizarrely theatrical lines. Watch the video HERE.

This Is Fine Dog (2013)
Perhaps no meme better captures modern anxiety than “This Is Fine”. Originating from a 2013 webcomic by cartoonist KC Green, the image shows a cheerful dog calmly sitting in a burning room while saying, “This is fine”. The meme became shorthand for denial in the face of catastrophe.

Story Idea: Anne-Maree Sargeant

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REMORANDOM Book Series

If you don’t know something, you also don’t have the ability to recognise that you don’t know it. Illusory superiority. Conversely, those with high ability often underestimate their competence.

The effect was first identified in a 1999 study by psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger. They found that people who performed poorly on various tests often rated their performance much higher than it actually was. Meanwhile, those who performed well were more accurate in their self-assessments, but often underestimated their relative competence compared to others.

The Dunning–Kruger effect highlights the importance of self-awareness and the role of feedback in helping individuals accurately assess their abilities. It also underscores the idea that confidence doesn’t always correlate with competence.

In popular culture, the Dunning–Kruger effect is often misunderstood as a claim about general overconfidence of people with low intelligence, instead of specific overconfidence of people unskilled at a particular task.

A notable example of the Dunning–Kruger effect was the Fyre Festival. That infamous event was touted to be the trendiest, celebrity-infused festival of 2017. The organiser recruited influencers, investors and ticket buyers for what turned out to be a catastrophic event that experienced problems with security, food, accommodation and medical services. The organiser believed he had the skills and knowledge to pull it off in a short time, resulting in people losing money, employees going unpaid, and an eventual prison sentence for fraud. Ouch.

Another high-profile example of the Dunning–Kruger effect was Theranos. Founded by Elizabeth Holmes, a college dropout with no business or medical experience, she sold investors on ideas that were based on flawed medical research. She hired executives with no experience to run the company, including her boyfriend, brother and others, and continued to grow the company. Because Holmes lacked the experience she claimed she had, the company later collapsed, with many of the executives fined or jailed.

How to avoid the Dunning–Kruger effect? The short answer is to be self-aware. You must first accept it can affect anyone. We all have pockets of incompetence that we don’t recognise. We think we’re better drivers, or money managers, or chess players than we actually are. It does not mean you lack intelligence, but simply that you lack the expertise you believe you have.

Story Idea: Andrew Westcombe

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