(Submitted by reader Peter Jacobs)
I was recently driving home, listening to a Radiolab Podcast about mosquitoes, when I heard a statistic that was new to me. “Half of the people who have ever lived, have been killed by mosquito-borne diseases.” I was impressed.
Two HOURS later, I was watching an English T.V. show called “Q.I.” which is a comedy panel show about interesting facts. (“Quite Interesting”) To my surprize, the same fact was the answer to one of the questions on the show.
Below are the extended notes provided by cognitive psychologist and statistician Barbara Drescher for use in Skepticality Episode 232. Take a look and leave your comments below. Also, please be sure to listen to the podcast for our own sarcastic and hilarious commentary. Also, visit Barbara’s blog.
There are sometimes “facts of the day” – things that people mention on shows because they heard it somewhere else and it kind of gets a life of its own. So it’s possible that someone writing for QI also listens to Radiolab. But even if they are totally unrelated, we encounter many of these things every day without noticing.
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