alt Hacker News> Archaeologists have recovered more than 1,500 of these historic hexes that were secretly directed at rivals
If only we had the ancient greco-roman newspapers archived so we could check and see if any of the hexes worked
Replies
InsideOutSanta • yesterday at 4:59 PM
Well, I haven't seen Eucherios the charioteer win any races recently, so...
analog8374 • yesterday at 6:56 PM
The hex-manufacturers owned the newspapers. Therefore all modern, right-thinking people agreed that hexes are serious business.
Probably not, given that "Statistical Inquiries into the Efficacy of Prayer" by Francis Galton in 1872 found that, spoilers, royalty does not live longer despite the presumably millions of subjects praying for their health and longevity. From this we might go out on a limb and guess that a negative prayer for external results fares no better than a positive prayer for external results. It may, however, be prudent not to mention such failures to the CEO when they want you to recite the corporate mission statement from memory.
Another question might be why it took until 1872 to run the numbers, unless there's a clay tablet somewhere that documents similar results.