Crackin' up

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Science explains why that guy you passed a while back has just caught up to you; Your mom was right about standing while eating; and Tyson Fury gets back in the ring 🥊

But first our weekly poll!

When we were kids we probably heard it a million times: don’t eat standing up. In fact, the advice was drilled into us so tightly, we passed the same information on to our own kids just as many times.

Eating standing up isn’t so much the problem; rather, eating in any position at odds with gravity is the problem.

“A really common way to trigger heartburn symptoms is to eat and then lie down immediately,” Dr. Carolyn Newberry, gastroenterologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, told Popular Science.

“As stomach acid gets secreted and it’s digesting food and mixing it up in your stomach, that can regurgitate back up if you’re not using gravity to help it go down properly.”

On top of that, eating while standing isn’t at odds with gravity, but eating while standing in a hurry—which is usually a person’s mental state if they aren’t sitting down—can cause problems.

We all remember that old wives’ tale about not going for a swim after eating. It’s actually solid advice, but it’s more than just about swimming; doing any kind of intense movement right after eating is a bad idea. It disrupts the digestion process, messes with blood flow, and confuses the hormones working on digestion with those working on exercise.

Long story short: sitting down and not rushing—just like our parents taught us—is the way to go.

Does it leave you shaking your head when you overtake another car on the road, but then at a traffic light down the line, you look in your rearview mirror, and that car is directly behind you?

We tend to remember moments like these because they tend to freak us out. ‘How did this guy catch up? I blew by him 10 minutes ago!’

It turns out there’s actually a mathematical equation that describes the probability of this happening, and because the experience resembles that of the poor characters in every Friday the 13th movie being chased by Jason Voorhees, the mathematician who came out with it called it the Voorhees law of traffic.

In his study published in Royal Society Open Science, Conor Boland of Dublin City University laid out the formula, which relies on three variables to determine the probability of a Voorhees-style catch-up: how much time the passing driver gains, how long the red-green cycle lasts on the traffic light, and the percentage of that time the light spends on red.

Basically, if the driver gains a significant amount of time compared to the percentage of time the the light sits on red, Jason likely won’t catch up. However, if the gain is smaller relative to the right light time, it’s more likely Jason will catch up.

On top of that, the more iterations of the scenario there are, the more likely Jason will end up on your tail, because the advantage is likely to regress to the mean over time.

We’ve all felt déjà vu at some point, when we find ourselves experiencing a feeling of familiarity in a place or scenario. Some say it’s a glitch in the brain; others say it’s our soul recalling a memory from a past life.

Despite its mysteriousness, it’s quite a common human experience. On the other hand, did you know there’s a term for its opposite?

Déjà vu literally means “already seen,” and its opposite, jamais vu, literally means “never seen.”

What does that mean, though, relative to the eerie feeling of familiarity? Well, there are a few examples of jamais vu that are also common, though you probably didn’t realize jamais vu is what you were experiencing.

For example, have you ever been driving to work and come to a point in the road where you can’t remember if you’re supposed to turn or stay the course? Jamais vu is lingering.

That one might be a little less common for most, but here’s one you’ve for sure experienced: forgetting the name of someone you’re thinking of that you 100% know. ‘That actor reminds me of that guy who was in that other movie. He played the best friend! Ah, what’s his name again?!’ His name is jamais vu.

Now say an ordinary word 20 times out loud and wait for your mind to start thinking the word sounds bizarre and devoid of meaning. Are you there? Jamais vu.

Tyson Fury has been retired for over a year, but tomorrow evening at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London the Gypsy King returns to take on the Russian powerhouse known as the Lion, Arslanbek Makhmudov.

The Lion has 23 fights under his belt and 21 victories, 19 of which were knockouts. Fury is a former heavyweight champion who nearly unified every heavyweight belt in the sport, but came up short in his last two fights against current champ, the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk.

Fury chose Makhmudov for his return bout, giving a shot at glory to a man Dave Allen once said “hits harder than anyone I’ve ever faced.”

That’s a familiar description of Tyson Fury opponents; remember Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder? The latter once knocked Fury down so hard he appeared unconscious for about eight seconds before the 6’9 Gypsy King miraculously rose to his feet and went on to win the fight.

Still, it could be a cautionary tale for Fury, who is now 37 and over a year out of the game. He appears to be in excellent shape, and remains the superior fighter; nonetheless, ask Mike Tyson how much that meant went he went toe-to-toe with Buster Douglas.

The card begins at 2 p.m. eastern time tomorrow, and will be broadcast live on Netflix. Ring walks for the main event are expected around 5 p.m.

Quizmaster’s choice

It’s Friday and you know what that means! Time for trivia à la carte. It’s a little of this, a little of that, and a whole lotta fun.

Give today’s trivia a try and you might just win a $25 e-gift card.

Winner will be notified on Monday afternoon. Keep an eye on your inbox and don’t forget to check your spam folder! *