Daily catch-up: anachronistic skeuomorphs and other out-of-date symbols
Plus the difference between intelligence and rationality, and another word quiz
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Your support makes all the difference.I am collecting nominations for future Top 10s, my feature in The New Review, the Independent on Sunday magazine. Andrew Denny suggested anachronistic skeuomorphs, symbols such as the floppy disk to mean "save" and a bellows camera as a speed camera sign. I am also compiling a Top 10 People Who Would Have Been Good On Twitter, with Twitter name and a sample tweet. Best so far from Rob Warm: @Schrödinger: "wow! check out this possibly cute cat pic"
• Thanks to Ian Leslie for drawing my attention to a great article from six years ago about the difference between intelligence and rationality. Before you read it, answer this question:
Jack is looking at Anne, but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married but George is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?
Yes No Cannot be determined
Now read the article, by Kurt Kleiner in University of Toronto Magazine, for the answer and some thoughts about why people with high IQ can do irrational things.
• Here is a different but equally fascinating quiz about language set by Haggard Hawks, Paul Anthony Jones, whose book, Word Drops, is also highly commended. I got 13 out of 20 but should have got 14. Reminder to self: always check your answer.
• I have written about Jeremy Corbyn's environmentally friendly speech – made with 5 per cent recycled material – for The Independent today.
• If you use an RSS feed to keep up with Independent writers, mine is now http://www.independent.co.uk/author/john-rentoul/rss
• And finally, thanks to Chris Wooding for this:
"I just worked it out. Evian is 'naive' backwards. Those mineral water guys were laughing at us this whole time."
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