> I don't know why this is on hacker news thought. (sic)

Because someone posted it, and others upvoted it, and it got enough upvotes while it was new to get recognized by the algorithm and promoted to the front page. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!

There ought to be an XKCD for this, but instead it's from the FAQ.

In short: somebody thought it was interesting enough to submit, and enough other people voted for it that it got to your attention.

That's it.

If it ends up with 2000 points and sits on the new page for 3 days, I'll be quite surprised, but strange subjects do that.

my thoughts exactly.