I have a list for you today, it’s a list of lists. I don’t consider this list to be a definitive list, instead it is collection of some of the interesting (“Oh thats cool”) lists you can find floating about on Wikipedia. I’ve broken them all down into several arbitrary categories.

Critical Thinking

List of paradoxes – some of these are based on fallacious reasoning, or incomplete/faulty analysis but all are interesting and it is grouped thematically.

Try this classic: “A male barber shaves all and only those men who do not shave themselves. Does he shave himself?” … think about it now, then when you get flustered, go look it up.

List of common misconceptions – yep, the stuff that folks believe to be true and has been reported as true, but are not at all true.

For example … “The word “fuck” did not originate in Christianized Anglo-Saxon England as an acronym for “Fornication Under Consent of King” and also … “The word “crap” did not originate as a back-formation of British plumber Thomas Crapper’s surname”. (Is this the point at which you tell me that these are really true and anybody who disagrees is talking “cp” and can go and “fk-off”)

List of fallacies – logic errors

For example, correlation not causation … I cut the grass and it rained … “Hey, cutting grass causes rain … right?”. Being familiar with these is a useful tool to retain in your skeptical toolbox.

List of cognitive biases – the many distortions in the human mind that allows normal sane people to embrace truly crazy stuff as “truth”

Science and Philosophy

List of philosophical concepts – Some of the amazing things we think about and the conclusions we have reached.

List of scientific discoveries – The amazing stuff we have discovered

List of Famous experiments – The manner in which we discovered some of this amazing stuff

List of unsolved problems – The stuff we don’t yet know

List of megaprojects – List of the mega-huge things we have built (not just huge in size, but also budget for example cost over $1 billion)

Death, War and disasters



List of causes of death by rate – the most common causes of death. It’s a morbid topic, but at the same time encouraging to learn that violence accounts for less than 1% and war results in only 2.84%, the bulk is natural causes – heart attacks, infectious diseases, strokes and cancers accounts for over 87%

List of natural disasters by death toll – when things go really wrong naturally (earthquakes etc…).

List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll – when the primary cause is us (Wars etc). I had no idea that the An Lushan Rebellion in China (755-766 CE) took out 15% of the human population on the planet (about 33-36 Million died)

The things we do not agree about

List of controversial issues – basically these are the Wikipedia articles that are constantly being re-edited in a circular manner

One for the Grammer Police

List of words with uncommon properties

Finally…

how does all this make you feel? Whatever it is, it must be somewhere on this list …

List of emotions – The full range of human emotion

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