Feedback is a popular segment in New Scientist that keeps an eye on the latest science and technology news. If you have items you think might interest our readers, please email us at feedback@newscientist.com.

It’s no laughing matter

Feedback celebrated a birthday in the past year. Feedback Junior gifted me a card that read, “My ambition in life is to be as interesting as you think I am.”

Despite this, we continue to share dad jokes because the kids’ reactions are priceless. Hence, we were intrigued to discover that two psychologists, Paul Sylvia and Meriel Barnett, have a scholarly interest in dad jokes. They authored an entire paper on the subject.

The title is “What’s Brown and Sticky? A Peek into the Inescapable Comedic Mystery of Dad Humor, Using a Few Machine Learning Models, Hundreds of Humans, and Tens of Thousands of Dad Jokes.” The summary begins, “Of course, it’s a stick,” in case you weren’t ready for it.

The authors compiled over 32,000 jokes from Reddit’s r/dadjoke community. This dataset is available alongside the paper, so Feedback naturally downloaded it all. It features gems like, “How do you know a ship’s age? Let’s look at the berth certificate.”

However, this isn’t merely an opportunity for puns—it’s serious research. The psychologists gathered data on joke popularity and showed some to volunteers, allowing us to ponder an essential question: “Who finds these outlandish jokes funny?” Panel members answered questions about their personalities, political views, and more. They discovered that people labeled as “culturally traditional”—defined as “more educated” or “more religious”—tended to appreciate these jokes.

A critical factor identified as “the most intellectually profound question in the survey” was whether individuals considered themselves cat people or dog people. Both groups found the jokes funnier if they liked both types of pets compared to those who didn’t like either. The researchers speculate: “I wonder what people who don’t like kittens and puppies find funny.”

Ultimately, they found that gender and parenthood influenced how people perceived these jokes. They concluded, “In these difficult and uncertain times, where distrust of expertise and reason is widespread, perhaps it’s reassuring to know that science has found that dads find dad jokes funnier.”

Unite by urinating

While Feedback was a bit late, we missed the June release of Joan Bichard and Gail Lamster’s book Comprehensive Public Restroom Design. Thankfully, reader Brian Refine-Smith brought it to our attention.

The premise of this book is straightforward. Public restrooms need to serve everyone, yet often they do not. “This book provides an important overview of the design of public toilets in the UK and emphasizes the urgent need to reassess the accessibility of these essential spaces and the surrounding culture,” states the publisher’s website.

Your feedback will be taken into account. One of our relatives has autism; the shrill sound of a hand dryer can trigger sensory overload for them, along with the harsh fluorescent lights common in public restrooms. However, the hardback edition retails for £70, which seems rather excessive.

Nonetheless, I want to follow Brian’s lead and highlight the book’s subtitle. You might anticipate something dull and verbose like “How to Design Public Conveniences to Be Accessible to Everyone, Regardless of Gender, Ethnicity, Disability, or Neurodiversity.” In reality, it’s titled “Wee the People.”

The end is near

When you make a bold claim and face criticism, there are several ways to respond. Perhaps your critic raises valid points, prompting you to add caveats or soften your statement. Alternatively, you might feel misunderstood and clarify your position.

However, that’s not what happened. Last month (October 18th), Feedback relayed the sobering news that humanity is on a course for extinction by 2339. This prediction stems from a paper by demographers David Swanson and Jeff Teiman, who confidently extrapolated over 300 years into the future based on declining birth rates from 2019 to 2024. Feedback noted that this might be somewhat unfounded.

To my surprise, Swanson reached out to me. “Thank you for recognizing the seriousness of our article on the extinction of humanity,” he wrote, erasing our suspicions that the whole thing was a prank.

Mr. Swanson also sent me version 2 of his paper, which features significant updates, presumably incorporating 2025 data. As a result, human extinction has been delayed by nearly a century. Instead of 2339, we’re now looking at 2415 for humanity’s disappearance. That was a relief.

However, the more crucial changes are encapsulated in the paper’s new title, Probabilistic Prediction of Human Extinction Based on Region. The researchers have now broken down their predictions by continent. “Asia will be the first region to face extinction (in 2280), followed by Europe in 2295, the Americas in 2300, Africa in 2360, and lastly Oceania in 2415,” they state. So, buy beachfront property on Easter Island, folks.

When considering Feedback, I can’t help but envision a third version of the paper—one that predicts the exact island in Polynesia where the last humans will gather.

Have a story for feedback?

You can send your articles to Feedback at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week’s and past Feedback can be found on our website.

Source: www.newscientist.com