Conquer Club

A high bailiff in the United States state of Vermont is an elected public official whose office is unique to local government in Vermont. High bailiffs are elected in each of Vermont's fourteen counties.

The duties of high bailiff are extremely limited and, in practice, an officeholder "rarely, if ever, does anything". In 2016, the high bailiff of Addison County noted that it was not unusual for a person to hold the office for more than two decades without having to perform any official function.

The legal responsibilities of the high bailiff under the Vermont Statutes are to carry-out the arrest of the sheriff of the county, if needed, and to succeed to the office of sheriff in the event of its vacancy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_bailiff_(Vermont)

Beechwold Chester (born 1906) was a stallion operated by the United States Army for breeding purposes.

Beechwold Chester was descended from Denmark. He was foaled in 1906 by Molly Nicoll, and sired by Happy Dare II.

In adulthood, Beechwold Chester stood 16 hands tall and weighed 1,150 pounds.

From 1913 to 1917 Beechwold Chester was posted to Leitchfield, Kentucky. There, he earned a solid reputation as a sire and was featured in a number of articles in horse enthusiast publications.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechwold_Chester

Mere-exposure effect

The mere-exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. In social psychology, this effect is sometimes called the familiarity principle. The effect has been demonstrated with many kinds of things, including words, Chinese characters, paintings, pictures of faces, geometric figures, and sounds.[1] In studies of interpersonal attraction, the more often a person is seen by someone, the more pleasing and likeable that person appears to be.

...The mere-exposure effect exists in most areas of human decision making. For example, many stock traders tend to invest in securities of domestic companies merely because they are more familiar with them despite the fact that international markets offer similar or even better alternatives.[21] The mere-exposure effect also distorts the results of journal ranking surveys; those academics who previously published or completed reviews for a particular academic journal rate it dramatically higher than those who did not.[22] There are mixed results on the question of whether mere exposure can promote good relations between different social groups.[23] When groups already have negative attitudes to each other, further exposure can increase hostility.[23] A statistical analysis of voting patterns found that a candidate's exposure has a strong effect on the number of votes they receive, distinct from the popularity of the policies.[23]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect

waauw wrote:

Mere-exposure effect

The mere-exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. In social psychology, this effect is sometimes called the familiarity principle. The effect has been demonstrated with many kinds of things, including words, Chinese characters, paintings, pictures of faces, geometric figures, and sounds.[1] In studies of interpersonal attraction, the more often a person is seen by someone, the more pleasing and likeable that person appears to be.

...The mere-exposure effect exists in most areas of human decision making. For example, many stock traders tend to invest in securities of domestic companies merely because they are more familiar with them despite the fact that international markets offer similar or even better alternatives.[21] The mere-exposure effect also distorts the results of journal ranking surveys; those academics who previously published or completed reviews for a particular academic journal rate it dramatically higher than those who did not.[22] There are mixed results on the question of whether mere exposure can promote good relations between different social groups.[23] When groups already have negative attitudes to each other, further exposure can increase hostility.[23] A statistical analysis of voting patterns found that a candidate's exposure has a strong effect on the number of votes they receive, distinct from the popularity of the policies.[23]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect

Irish Donation of 1676

The Irish Donation of 1676 is the name sometimes used to refer to a foreign aid consignment sent to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1676 from Ireland. A return donation 171 years later - from Massachusetts to Ireland - has been described as repayment for the original aid.

In 1675, the King Philip's War erupted between the Wampanoag Confederacy and their allies, on the one hand, and the United Colonies of New England and their Mohegan and Pequot allies on the other.[1] The destructive conflict saw rapid Wampanoag gains and bloody losses by the United Colonies who were largely refused military assistance both by the British government and by the neighboring colony of New York.[2][1] By the spring of 1676 the frontier of Massachusetts had been overrun and lay "in shambles" with eleven towns - including Dartmouth and Springfield - entirely evacuated, and much of the population sheltered in a besieged Boston.[2]

In 1676 Nathaniel Mather - a Lancashire-born, Harvard-educated, independent Protestant clergyman - was ministering in Dublin.[3] Mather organized a fundraising drive among Dubliners to send foodstuffs and other goods to Massachusetts Bay Colony.[4] The resulting donation was loaded onto the hired ship Katherine which sailed from Dublin, en route to Boston, on August 28, 1676.[4]

Upon arrival, the consignment was to be given to a committee composed of William Tyng, James Oliver, and John Hull, "or as many of them as shall be alive".[5] The committee was instructed to sell the goods to pay the shipping charges and distribute the remainder to colonists and members of colonial-allied Native American tribes who had been made refugees.[5][6] Proceeds from the donation were ultimately divided among approximately 600 families.[5]

In 1847, during the Great Famine, Massachusetts businessmen organized a fundraising drive for distressed Irish families which collected $150,000 in goods.[7] The donation, transported to Ireland aboard the U.S. Navy sloop-of-war USS Jamestown was, according to captain Robert Bennett Forbes, "for the payment of an old debt" - a reference to the Irish Donation of 1676.[7]

A second planned donation shipment, to be collected from citizens of New York and transported aboard the U.S. Navy frigate USS Macedonian, saw less success; agitation by the ascendant, anti-Catholic Know Nothing movement had resulted in popular hostility to the idea of sending supplies to benefit the Irish.[8] The shortfall in New York was made-up by additional provisions offered by Bostonians which ultimately enabled USS Macedonian to put to sea with a full cargo.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Donation_of_1676

William Carpentier is a Canadian-American physician best known as the flight surgeon assigned to the United States' Apollo 11 mission, the first manned spacecraft to land on the Moon. In the months following the Apollo 11 mission, Carpentier became known as the "world famous physician".

According to Carpentier, the achievements of Alan Shepard and Yuri Gagarin peaked his interest in space exploration and, after medical school, he moved to Ohio to pursue additional studies in aviation medicine at Ohio State University.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Carpentier

Helicopter 66 is the common name of an individual United States Navy Sikorsky Sea King helicopter used during the 1960s and 1970s for the water recovery of astronauts during the Apollo program. It has been called "one of the most famous, or at least most iconic, helicopters in history". It is currently located underwater in the Pacific Ocean, where it crashed in 1975 during a training exercise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_66

Essex was an American whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts, launched in 1799. In 1820, while under the command of Captain George Pollard, Jr., a sperm whale attacked and sank her. The sinking stranded the 20-man crew in the southern Pacific Ocean with little food and water. During the 95 days the survivors were at sea, they ate the bodies of five crewmen who had died. When that was insufficient, members of the crew drew lots to determine whom they would sacrifice so that the others could live. A total of seven crew members were cannibalized before the eight survivors were rescued. First mate Owen Chase and cabin boy Thomas Nickerson wrote accounts of their ordeal; these accounts inspired Herman Melville to write his famous novel Moby-Dick (1851).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship)

Thorthoth wrote:This entry has it all, folks. An amazing tale, all the more remarkable for being true.
it is Wikipedia at it's most entertaining, and entertainment at it's most instructive.

Essex was an American whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts, launched in 1799. In 1820, while under the command of Captain George Pollard, Jr., a sperm whale attacked and sank her. The sinking stranded the 20-man crew in the southern Pacific Ocean with little food and water. During the 95 days the survivors were at sea, they ate the bodies of five crewmen who had died. When that was insufficient, members of the crew drew lots to determine whom they would sacrifice so that the others could live. A total of seven crew members were cannibalized before the eight survivors were rescued. First mate Owen Chase and cabin boy Thomas Nickerson wrote accounts of their ordeal; these accounts inspired Herman Melville to write his famous novel Moby-Dick (1851).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship)

cheese made in the village of Stilton ... could not be sold as "Stilton"

The Shinto Kanamara Matsuri ("Festival of the Steel Phallus") is held each spring at the Kanayama Shrine in Kawasaki, Japan. The exact dates vary: the main festivities fall on the first Sunday in April. The phallus, as the central theme of the event, is reflected in illustrations, candy, carved vegetables, decorations, and a mikoshi parade.

mookiemcgee wrote:Confirmation bias

Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias,[Note 1] is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses.[1] It is a type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Confirmation bias is a variation of the more general tendency of apophenia.

People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations).

A series of psychological experiments in the 1960s suggested that people are biased toward confirming their existing beliefs. Later work re-interpreted these results as a tendency to test ideas in a one-sided way, focusing on one possibility and ignoring alternatives. In certain situations, this tendency can bias people's conclusions. Explanations for the observed biases include wishful thinking and the limited human capacity to process information. Another explanation is that people show confirmation bias because they are weighing up the costs of being wrong, rather than investigating in a neutral, scientific way.

Confirmation biases contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Poor decisions due to these biases have been found in political and organizational contexts.[2][3]

Naomi Nover (née Goll; December 25, 1910 - April 22, 1995) was a longtime member of the White House Press Corps remembered for her combative and, sometimes abusive, relationship with other journalists and for her physical resemblance to George Washington.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Nover

Pierce was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and his second wife, Anna Kendrick

Bielefeld Conspiracy
The Bielefeld Conspiracy (German: Bielefeldverschwörung or Bielefeld-Verschwörung) is a satire of conspiracy theories that originated in 1993 in the German Usenet, which claims that the city of Bielefeld, Germany, does not actually exist,[1] but is an illusion propagated by various forces. Originally an internet phenomenon, the conspiracy has since been represented in the city's marketing,[2] and referred to by Chancellor Angela Merkel.[3]

Public perception
The Bielefeld Conspiracy remains one of the most popular internet jokes originating in Germany.

In November 2012, German Chancellor Angela Merkel referred to the Bielefeld Conspiracy in public when talking about a town hall meeting she had attended in Bielefeld, adding: "… if it exists at all." and "I had the impression that I was there."[3]
Official response

The city council of Bielefeld tries hard to generate publicity for Bielefeld and build a nationally known public image of the city. However, even 17 years (or more) after the conspiracy started, the mayor's office still received phone calls and e-mails which claimed to doubt the existence of the city.[8]

In 1999, five years after the myth started to spread, the city council released a press statement titled Bielefeld gibt es doch! (Bielefeld does exist!) on April Fools' Day. In allusion to the origin of the conspiracy the 800th anniversary of Bielefeld was held under the motto Das gibt's doch gar nicht.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld_Conspiracy

waauw wrote:The Bielefeld Conspiracy remains one of the most popular internet jokes originating in Germany.

Operation Gotham Shield was a 2017 exercise conducted by the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which tested response capabilities to a nuclear weapons attack against New York City.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gotham_Shield