You might have missed the news but, back in November last year, a Cambridge scientist, computer programmer William Tunstall-Pedoe, announced that the dullest day since 1900 occurred on April 11, 1954.
On that day a general election was held in Belgium, a Turkish academic was born and an Oldham Athletic footballer called Jack Shufflebotham died. Apart from that nothing much happened.
Mr Tunstall-Pedoe’s computer program, called True Knowledge, came to its lofty decision after being fed some 300 million facts about “people, places, business and events” that made the news.
Using complex algorithms, such as how much one piece of information was linked to others, True Knowledge determined that particular Sunday in the ’50s to be outstanding in its obscurity.
Mr Tunstall-Pedoe emphasised that True Knowledge was not designed solely to search for boring days.
“It’s just a sideline,” he said. Its true calling was to provide a more intelligent way of searching the internet.
Recent Comments