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Cambridge Computer IDs World's Most Boring Day

Posted by samzenpus on from the because-they-can dept.

smitty777 writes "Scientists hard at work at Cambridge used a computer algorithm and nearly 300 million historical facts to identify the most boring day in history. The winner? On April 11, 1954, absolutely nothing happened. That is, unless you count the most boring day in the world happening."

4 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I can say now: faulty by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not really, all you would need is a dataset of all the interesting things that happened. Your dad tying his shoelaces is in no way interesting. It's a simple heuristic.

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    Qxe4
  2. Re:The 10 days nothing happened... by complete+loony · · Score: 2, Informative
    You're both right... from a certain point of view.

    The last day of the Julian calendar was Thursday, 4 October 1582 and this was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday, 15 October 1582

    Britain and the British Empire (including the eastern part of what is now the United States) adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752 by which time it was necessary to correct by 11 days. Wednesday, 2 September 1752 was followed by Thursday, 14 September 1752

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    09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
  3. Not tax dollars at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    This person who did this work, Mr Tunstall-Pedoe, is not an academic Cambridge University. He is not even a scientist or researcher. He is the CEO of his own firm True Knowlegde (sic).

    The connection with Cambridge is that it happens to be the town he lives in. He also attended the university there, 15 years ago, and still does part-time teaching of undergraduate courses.

    This silly story is just an attempt to raise the profile of his company. The "results" should be considered in the spirit of fun and not as legitimate scientific output.

    By name-dropping Cambridge, in order to try and impart some credibility to the story, both the original Telegraph article and Slashdot summary intentionally misleading.

  4. Re:The 10 days nothing happened... by c0lo · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yep. Came here to post this. Sep 3, 1752 thru Sep 13, 1752 were so uneventful that they decided to remove the days from the calendar.

    September 1752 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa .. .. .1 .2 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

    :) Nope, can't be! The Sep 3 1752 is the date the Anglican churches decided to finally adopt the Gregorian calendar. :)

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    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.