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Computer Excitedly Declares April 11, 1954 Most Boring Day Ever
We've seen our fair share of slow news days here at Switched, but, according to a computer programmer named William Tunstall-Pedoe, none in living memory has ever been quite as dull as April 11th, 1954. On that Sunday, Belgium held a general election, a Turkish academic named Abdullah Atalar was born, and a soccer player named Jack Shufflebotham died. And, apparently, that was about it. As the Telegraph reports, Tunstall-Pedoe arrived at this conclusion using a computer program called True Knowledge. The program analyzed 300 million facts about "people, places, business and events," and used complicated algorithms to calculate the most "objectively" boring day since 1900. "Nobody significant died that day, no major events apparently occurred and, although a typical day in the 20th century has many notable people being born, for some reason that day had only one [Atalar] who might make that claim," Tunstall-Pedoe explained.
There is, of course, some obvious irony to Tunstall-Pedoe's declaration. After all, we're writing about that boring date today, and today isn't really that boring, is it? The ultimate x-factor may just be Atalar, who now researches atomic-force microscopy and digital integrated circuit design at Bilkent University. If the academic eventually wins the Nobel Prize, or solves global hunger, or does anything else life-altering, he may just save his birthday from historic infamy. The pressure's on.
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Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsTony RayoNov 29th 2010 6:02PM
Heh this was somewhat touched upon in a Futurama commentary. There can't ever be a day that is most boring/uninteresting because once you announce that day, then it itself becomes interesting. The most that could be said about this date is, based on available data, only apparently small events occurred on this date (and I use the word apparently because any of the three events listed could/will in fact produce/have produced a large impact that we are simply not aware of yet).
SundayNov 30th 2010 6:20AM
*yawn* I actually found this article rather boring...
pj gumbyNov 30th 2010 12:04PM
Why can't we put a more positive spin on this and say that this is the most peaceful time in history? Nothing bad happened that day. How good is that? Why is that not a good thing? No one died in a big plane crash, no political coos, nothing nefarious afoot that one day in history. Nice to know there was one really nice day for everybody on April 11, 1954 all over most of the earth. That's not a yawner, that's really amazing when you think about it.
aymiNov 30th 2010 9:56AM
Interesting that a day with minimal significant events would be 4.11, the digits for quick access to abundant INFORMATION.
Plain JoeNov 30th 2010 6:20PM
Boring is calmness. Peacefulness.
sarahNov 30th 2010 10:47PM
No news is good news.
lhrmd2Dec 1st 2010 3:35PM
I wonder if this was a product of a research grant? If so, how much? Who gave the grant? Anyway, was probably not a boring day in Belgium or for Atalar's mother.