It's Friday afternoon, and everyone is too serious, so let's have some fun.
How many of these obvious questions can you answer?
Q1: How many gallons can a 10-gallon hat hold?
(Answer in next tweet)
Answer to Q1: ¾ gallon only. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_ha…
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Another one?
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Q2: In what country were Panama hats first made?
Answer to Q2: Ecuador
Apparently, the hats were shipped to Europe / North America via the isthmus of Panama, hence the name. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_hat
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Q3: Where did the game of Chinese Checkers originate?
Answer to Q3: Chinese Checkers is neither Chinese nor is it a variation of Checkers. It originated in Germany and was given this name by American entrepreneurs as a marketing scheme en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_c…
Q4: The canary islands are named for which animal?
Answer to Q4: Ok fine. Multiple people guessed correctly that it is the dog because Islas Canarias = Island of the Dogs.
Let's see if the sports fans show up in this thread:
Q5: From what animal's gut is catgut extracted to make tennis rackets?
Answer to Q5: Catgut usually comes from the intestines of sheep. Or as @zyx21985125 says, goats. Sometimes pigs as @ZaleelInsaan says. Or horses, mules, donkeys.
You'd have gotten it right if you'd said anything other than cat. (It is probably short for cattlegut.)
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Ever wondered why "sin" (of trigonometry) is called "sin"? Today, I decided to find out, and the history is fascinating. It comes from the Sanskrit word for bowstring which somehow got translated to the Latin word for the "pallu" of a toga.
Follow me down this rabbit hole 🧵
Let's start with this wonderful image I received from a friend on WhatsApp (source unknown). Here, you can clearly see why "tan" is called "tan". But what about "sin"?
If you think of the solid yellow arc as a bow, then the solid blue line (sine) is the bowstring 🧵
jīvá (जीवा) the Sanskrit word for bowstring is the name given to sin by Aryabhata the inventor¹ of the sine and cosine functions.
How do you get from there to a toga? A series of interesting accidents
Good HBR article (by @TylerCowen et al) on reducing wastage and useless bureaucratic overhead from your hiring process.
Quick overview: /1
Do not have more than 4 or 5 "rounds" of interviews/interactions with a candidate. A study (at Google) showed that the first 4 gave 86% of the value. After that, the value diminished rapidly. /2
For each role, have one person who is the primary decision-maker. Unnecessary democracy and consensus results in worse hires.
A committee will hire a camel when a horse is required. /3
Voluntary student participation in your classes is higher if you're known as a teacher who randomly picks students to answer questions even if their hands aren't raised.
Did you know that a lot of hotels in India refuse to let a couple rent a hotel room if they don't look married? (i.e. if last name on Aadhaar card doesn't match).
The problem appears to be widespread enough that a couple of hotel chains have made it their primary marketing pitch that they have no problems renting to unmarried couples. (Even OYO was using this line for a while)
Y'all follow me because I tweet important and relevant information like this, right?