The always excellent Brian Palmer took a look at whether or not you should marry early:

• The younger that people get married, the more likely they are to divorce.
  • Those who marry in their teens have a 54% chance of remaining married for the next 10 years.
  • Those who wait until they’re 25 see that rate climb to 78%.
• Experts argue that the reason why the divorce rate has declined in the past 30 years is because the average age of matrimony has risen from 21 to 26 since the 70s.
• However one study suggests that couples who met in school are happier than those who didn’t.
• Nonreligious households are more likely to divorce.
• Left-leaning states have lower divorce rates than their right-leaning counterparts.

You can find out how this ties into the 2012 American Presidential election and other statistics here.

Source: Slate

How would our athletes today have compared with the Olympic athletes from ancient Greece over two millennia ago? Brian Palmer found out:

• The first of the modern Olympics took place in 1896 and the ancient Olympians might have had a chance then. They would at least have been in the running for a few medals.
• However in the present our Olympians easily outshine the ancient Olympians. The discus record in ancient Greece was about 95 feet. The modern record is 243 feet.
• The exception is the long-jump. Ancient Olympics record distances greater than 50 feet, almost double the modern record. However this might be because of differences in methodology and the classification of what constitutes a long-jump.
• But the ancient Greeks had several things going against them which makes them difficult to compare to modern athletes:
  • They only trained for a few months before the games.
  • Dubious dietary supplements were used in attempts to boost performance.
  • The competitors had to walk 36 miles to get to Olympia, the home of the Olympics. This would mean that they were tired by the time they began to compete.
• But perhaps the ancient Olympians would have found a way to even the playing field. They were not above cheating or crippling their opponents.

To read more including some ancient Olympic records, how they compare to modern ones, the differences in how distances were measured, how some of the events differed, one way that the Olympics hasn’t changed at all, ancient training regimes, strange diets, hexes on opponents, and some of the forms of cheating and maiming that were prevalent, click here.

Source: Slate

Slate’s explainer Brian Palmer outlined how winners of spelling bees do later in life. Highlights of his explanation include:

• A surprising number build careers focused on understanding the human mind. They include professions such as psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, and psychologists.
• Others work as journalists. One even won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1989 Bay Area earthquake.
• Some seem to become addicted to games of wit. The 2002 winner is on the international poker circuit while others have appeared on shows such as Teen Jeopardy.
• A lot stay with the competition. The current director won the Spelling Bee in 1981.
• None have won a Nobel Peace Prize.

To read the names and histories of these participants, as well as other examples of how they turn out, what the current champion wants to do with her life, the role that local newspapers play, the authors among them, and the place where you can hear the voice acting of one of them, click here.

Source: Slate

There have only been two women who have scored a slam-dunk in the Women’s NCAA. Brian Palmer answered why dunking is so uncommon in Women’s basketball:

• Dunking requires considerable height and women are, on average, shorter than men.
• Even for equi-sized players men have a greater jumping ability than women.
• Dunking is dangerous – coaches advise against it because you could break your arm.

To read about the role that puberty plays, why slow-twitch muscle fiber might make a difference, the Michael Jordanesque dimensions a woman would need to consistently score slam-dunks, and why women shouldn’t despair at their dreams of scoring slam dunks click here.

Source: Slate

Brian Palmer took a look at why North Korea is perennially dealing with food shortages:

• The country is cold and mountainous – less than ideal conditions for growing food.
• In the 80s after the Soviet Union cut subsidies to North Korea, the North Korean government responded by using drastic measures in a desperate attempt to increase the amount of arable land. This included removing all natural vegetation from the hillsides to create farm land.
• This strategy worked for a while but over time rains washed away the soil which, without any vegetation to keep it tied to the ground, quickly filled the rivers with silt, leaving North Korea with neither vegetation nor farmland.
• Kim Jong-Il is believed to have had a radical plan to flatten the country by destroying the mountains, thus creating more arable land. He never had the resources to follow through with the idea.
• State-directed farming is inefficient.

To read more about the role that the Soviet Union played in sustaining North Korea, some of Kim Jong-Il’s other ideas, and the simple solutions that would solve the food shortage, click here.

Source: Slate

This month marked the 100^th anniversary of The Oreo. Brian Palmer discussed the longevity of the delightful treat:

• The Oreo was not the first sandwich cookie on the market. Sunshine Baking had been selling Hydroxes for a couple of years before Oreos hit the market.
• However the parent company behind Oreo had significantly more marketing power, and was able to advertise its sandwich cookie more effectively.
• But why has the Oreo survived so long while other cookies from the same company haven’t? Some argue it’s because of the unique name. Others say that it’s because, just like eggs, there are numerous ways to consume the treat. Still others argue that it’s because it’s challenging to perfectly disassemble the cookie, enticing consumers to repeatedly try and thus eat more cookies.
• In 1982 ten cents of every dollar spent on cookies were spent on Oreos.
• The name of the parent company of Oreo, “Nabisco” is actually a shortening of National Biscuit Company

To read what “Oreo” means, why the visual design of the Oreo might have mattered, and why Nabisco had a troubling time penetrating the Jewish market click here.

Source: Slate

With the recent announcement that the physicists at CERN who thought they had accumulated evidence against one of Einstein’s key assumptions admitting that it might have been a technical glitch, Slate’s Brian Palmer asked the question: Was Einstein ever wrong? His answer notes that:

• Einstein’s views on quantum mechanics are widely believed by current physicists to be incorrect. In particular Einstein was uncomfortable with the notion that there is an inherent uncertainty to our universe that cannot be quantified through equations, famously remarking that God does not “play dice with the universe.” Niels Bohr is said to have responded “Stop telling God what to do with his dice.”
• Einstein also modified his equations to reflect a universe that was neither expanding nor contracting – in line with the views of other physicists of the era.
• Einstein’s doctoral thesis contained a math error.

To read more about the details of Einstein’s mistakes, why he might still ultimately may have been right upon certain things anyway, and the people who have tried (and failed) to disprove him click here.

Source: Slate