SortStack #2559 — 2033-06-11

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. An average human's reaction to a starting gun 252 ms

   Athletics rules treat any sprint start faster than 100 milliseconds as a false start — it's considered humanly impossible to react that quickly.

2. A standard television commercial 30 sec

   A single Super Bowl slot of this length has sold for over US$7 million — more than US$230,000 per second of airtime.

3. Yuri Gagarin's entire Vostok 1 spaceflight 108 min

   The first human spaceflight was a single orbit — and Gagarin ejected and parachuted down separately from his capsule, landing in a potato field.

4. The record-winning Vendée Globe solo sail around the world 64.8 days

   Charlie Dalin's 2025 run was nonstop, alone, and unassisted — skippers sleep in 20-minute bursts for the entire circumnavigation.

5. The Republic of Venice 1.1K years

   The 1,100-year republic elected 120 doges using a bizarre multi-round lottery system specifically designed to prevent vote-rigging.

6. The time since Neanderthals went extinct 39.9K years

   They never fully vanished: most people outside Africa carry around 2% Neanderthal DNA, influencing skin, immunity, and even sleep patterns.

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