5 Silly Ideas That Actually Solved Serious Problems

So, in front of a group of 60 spectators, Ware and Cosford faced off in a battle of the biceps in Auckland. And it wasn't exactly low-stakes -- Ware's company stood to lose around $200,000 NZ if Cosford won. But Ware was confident that he could easily take down the rival CEO, because Cosford was "shorter ... and an accountant."

Ware won the first round but lost the match after Cosford came back to pin him twice. According to Ware, he accused Cosford of using steroids. Although he was only kidding ... probably.

The Peruvian province of Chumbivilcas doesn't bother with such contrivances as courts or due process or really any sort of legal system. With few police and a nearly nonexistent military presence, residents of Chumbivilcas have found their own style of conflict resolution -- basically, two days a year, residents are given free rein to beat the shit out of each other until the winner is decided through brute force.

The tradition is known as Takanakuy, and it takes place twice per year, in July and again just after Christmas. The only rules of Takanakuy (besides the informal one that dictates everybody being incredibly drunk) are that you can't be wearing any rings on your hands, and that refusing a challenge means that you concede victory to your challenger. Basically, it's a bare-knuckle fist-fight between any locals who have some kind of grudge, whether that means being upset about a neighbor's constantly barking dog, a dispute over a woman, or a disagreement about the importance of wearing pants in the store.

Usually, participants decide to put aside their differences after a hearty few rounds of smashing each other in the face, and all is well for another six months, until you just get fed up with seeing Jorge's dong and it's time to do it all over again.

According to Taylor, the officer's ultimatum was that, if she won the dance-off, the fighting teens would have to disperse, but if she lost, they could stay and conduct some kind of stab-carnival in peace. Her tactic won the respect of all participants, and although the winner of the dance-off is inconclusive, it still vastly beats the alternative, which involves a lot of shooting and crying and lawsuits and racist posts from your uncle on Facebook.

In 2005, Japanese millionaire Takashi Hashiyama, president of the Maspro Denkoh Corporation, decided to sell his $20 million art collection, and two auction companies, Christie's International and Sotheby's, fought to handle the lucrative contract. Takashi, an eccentric (aren't all millionaires?) whose collection included rare paintings from Cezanne, Picasso, and Van Gogh, couldn't decide which company to go with, so he decided to settle the matter in an ancient and time-honored tradition. In the Western tongue, we believe it is known as rock-paper-scissors.

Representatives from both companies were invited to take part in what was probably the most high-stakes rock-paper-scissors tournament of all time. Sotheby's decided to trust luck, figuring that rock-paper-scissors is basically a coin flip -- a game of chance with no strategy involved.

That proved to be a mistake, because Kanae Ishibashi, the president of Christie's, consulted a group of professionals, by which we mean her art director's 11-year-old twin daughters, who advised her, "Everyone knows you always start with scissors." They added, "Rock is way too obvious. ... Everybody expects you to choose rock."

The representative for Sotheby's chose paper (because remember, everybody expects you to choose rock), but the unexpected scissors sliced right through it, netting Christie's the full right to sell the collection. Word is that to this day you can find that poor Sotheby's representative drunk at his local bar, loudly lamenting to anybody who will listen about the time he blew the big game.

J. Olasz is an aspiring writer who has been patiently awaiting his overnight fame for over 40 years. He's trying to get the word out that he has an actual book that you may like. He also creates horribly difficult but enjoyable gaming modules. Since he can't draw but pretends that he can write, he published a LEGO webcomic and, of course, has a Twitter feed.

Which Sci-Fi Trope Would You Bring To The Real World, And Why? Every summer, we're treated to the same buffet of three or four science fiction movies with the same basic conceits. There's man vs. aliens, man vs. robots, man vs. army of clones, and man vs. complicated time travel rules. With virtual reality and self-driving cars fast approaching, it's time to consider what type of sci-fi movie we want to be living in for the rest of our lives. Co-hosts Jack O'Brien and Adam Tod Brown are joined by Cracked's Tom Reimann and Josh Sargent and comedians David Huntsberger, Adam Newman, and Caitlin Gill to figure out which sci-fi trope would be the best to make a reality. Get your tickets to this live podcast here!

For more times where corporations were clearly being run by neanderthals, check out The 5 Worst Marketing Ideas Ever Put Into Action and 5 Honest Mistakes That Became PR Disasters For Big Companies.

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