Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Rock Paper Scissors

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt and special guest Dennard Dayle explore why “rock paper scissors” is secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR DENNARD DAYLE:

• How To Dodge A Cannonball by Dennard Dayle
• Book Review: A Laugh-Out-Loud Funny Novel About the Civil War: Dennard Dayle’s satirical new book, “How to Dodge a Cannonball,” follows a white flag-bearer pretending to be a Black soldier. (The New York Times)
• 1900HOTDOG.com — read weekly columns there by Dennard Dayle (and monthly columns by Alex Schmidt too)
• Everything Abridged: Stories by Dennard Dayle
• Dennard Dayle’s humor pieces for The New Yorker

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• “Finding Lenapehoking” (YouTube / Hudson River Maritime Museum)
• Why Do They Call It Beacon? (The Highlands Current)
• Dutch & Native American Heritage In The Hudson River Valley (National Park Service)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• The Long, Winding History of Rock Paper Scissors (Popular Mechanics)
• Chimps Can Learn Rock-Paper-Scissors (Atlas Obscura)
• Chimps can play rock-paper-scissors (BBC News)
• This Robot Always Wins Rock-Paper-Scissors (Smithsonian Magazine)
• Rock-paper-scissors robot wins every time – video (The Guardian)
• The Psychological Depths of Rock-Paper-Scissors (MIT Press Reader) — this is the key excerpt from Greg Costikyan’s book.
• Not Exactly Rocket Science: To win at rock-paper-scissors, put on a blindfold (Discover Magazine)
• Social cycling and conditional responses in the Rock-Paper-Scissors game (Arxiv.org)
• Seriously, Science?: Study finds that most people suck at Rock, Paper, Scissors (Discover Magazine)
• The Ultimate Rock, Paper, Scissor Strategy (Smithsonian Magazine)
• What Rock-Paper-Scissors Can Tell Us About Decision Making (Smithsonian Magazine)
• Winning at Rock Paper Scissors (Numberphile / YouTube)
• How not to win at rock-paper-scissors (The Conversation)
• Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Random Numbers (Maximum Fun)
• Setting Records: Highlights from the Biggest Rock Paper Scissors Tournament of the Year (World Rock Paper Scissors Association)
• Rock Paper Scissors World Championship Sets New Records! (World Rock Paper Scissors Association)
• Largest Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament (Guinness World Records)
• Charts & Graphs: Quest for Glory: Sometimes it ends in a cash prize. (Lapham’s Quarterly)
• personal website of Sam Kass: “Rock Paper Scissors Spock Lizard”
• A Surprising History of Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock (World Rock Paper Scissors Association)
• … and paper scissors: Shades of the playground still surround the adult business executive (The Times Of London)
• Why Some People Call Rock-Paper-Scissors Roshambo (Slate.com interview with Ben Zimmer of the Wall Street Journal)
• Biography: Rochambeau (American Battlefield Trust)
• Rock, Paper, Payoff: Child’s Play Wins Auction House an Art Sale (The New York Times)
• ‘Snap Judgment’ podcast: “Rock Paper Scissors”
• A Slippery Cheating Accusation Has Rocked One Of The Biggest Tournaments In Chess (Defector) — this covers the chess cheating allegations we describe. The bleeped words are “anal beads”.