site banner

Friday Fun Thread for March 27, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

3
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Emil Kirkegaard has a new test, a "Multifactor General Knowledge Test". Link here: https://taketest.xyz/mfgkt

It's short and takes maybe 5 minutes. The percentile rankings are fun. Surely The Motte can drag the distribution rightward.

My results. (Foiled again by my working class upbringing.)

Some complaints about the quiz, several of which have already been mentioned by others:

  1. Kwanzaa is listed as a religious holiday, but it’s not.

  2. 420 is, at least in my experience, used to refer to the consumption of marijuana, not to the drug itself.

  3. France also had colonies in India. Anyone who knows that probably also knows the five correct answers, but the quiz still shouldn’t include ambiguous false answers.

  4. Even though everyone is pretty sure Israel has nukes, it has never been officially confirmed.

  5. A craftsman may use an awl, bevel, calipers, chisel, saw, or whisket (a specialized lathe).

  6. Many printings of Cryptonomicon put it at over 1,000 pages, but not all, and in fact, the first edition was only 918 pages.

  7. The quiz includes “cushy” as a synonym of “fancy,” but I can’t find any online dictionary that includes that definition. They only list “very easy” and “comfortable,” which are if anything antonyms.

I respect the complaints, but disagree on 2,4, and 7. 3 is a big question mark for me, since I felt like I knew what you mentioned but went off of "vibes".