Ask An Obscure Question.
 

I really hope this doesn't turn into a joke thread. I'd like to keep the questions serious, if at all possible.

In this thread, you can ask any weird or obscure question that's always plagued you. Who knows...maybe someone will know the answer!

Here are my questions:
1. Do blind people care what their partner looks like?
2. What is the origin of mayonnaise? (I've always wondered about that. I mean, did someone actually think, "Hey, I'll bet egg whites, oil and vinegar would taste really great together!" or was it an accidental discovery?

Well if I was blind... I'd want a virgin! Cause I think that's all that would really matter if you couldn't even see her (body-wise). And the mayonnaise... I have no clue.

I had a friend who's training to be a professional chef, but before she started she was extremely interested in weird historical facts about food. We had a long discussion about mayonnaise once, because I too thought it was an odd creation and we had been doing emulsifiers in chemistry and she told me the story - basically it was made by the French chef of a duke who was preparing a feast after the duke's victory - I think he was to serve something with a sauce made of cream and eggs but since there was no cream he had to find a substitute - so he used oil. I think vinegar was added as a preservative at a later date.

Wow. I really didn't expect that question to get answered. That's so cool that you knew that.

Anyway, I sincerely hope that chef was beheaded for his offense against the poor, unsusupecting duke.

wishfire and I were just discussing this morning...

What's up with liquor making techniques? I mean, did Mexicans just point at a buries cactus 3 times the size of a man and say, "Simon compadre! Let's make some fire-water out of it!"?

What the fuck?

Why is it that even on a major, 8-lane interstate, whenever a cop has someone pulled over, all other traffic feels the need to slow down? Do they really think the cop is going to jump back in his cruiser and chase them down? Isn't that the one time you know you could speed, because most likely the one cop in the area is occupied with someone else?

It's called rubbernecking - everybody wants to slow down and see who got owned. The same thing happens with traffic accidents, no matter how minor. Sometimes traffic backs up for miles due to just stupid rubbernecking.

I remember this episode of Nip/Tuck where this blind man and blind woman were on a date and sitting at a table. Later the man gets up and walks towards the bar and asks a guy standing there if the woman he was with was good-looking or not, or if she had big tits.

I thought "What a dumb fuck." Anyway, I'm pretty sure blind people don't care since they can't take in visual stimuli like everyone else. They wouldn't fret over their partner's looks 'coz they'd probably be more interested in how they care for one another then anything else.

That's what I reckon anyway.



:cheers:

To the color blind, what does a "non color," representing a color that they can not see, look like?

To take this a step further, I've always wondered if different people see colors differently. What I see as yellow might be what someone else sees as blue, for example. We all call them the same thing, but how do we know we see the same thing?

Alice, how in God's name is a blind person going to answer your question over the internet? Did the recently invent braille monitors?

OK, try to follow me. Now this might get tricky, so pay attention.

It's a stretch, but someone might know someone who is blind.

Have they not yet invented text-to-speech software, or having a companion read to you, where you live?

There is always the "speak text" command ;)

And I can only assume there are braille keyboards... but I digress...

My question is as follows -

With so much spring water being bottled and consumed all the time, do you think that someday we will run out of spring water?

Most likely we all see the same thing.
Our retinas work in the same way. They respond to specific wavelengths in the same manner as everyone else. Except for color-blind people, who have damaged cones on their retinas.
Generally, those people who are partially colorblind either see nothing of that specific color, or, if it is a mixture of various colors, then they see the wavelengths minus the ones they cannot see.
For those people who are fully colorblind, they pretty much see everything in shades of grey. :-\ It sucks to be them.

Double Post:
http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/102/wcycle.gif


And yes, I realize that small dinosaur is jumping a giraffe. :P

Considering that most "spring water" is legally require to contain all of 3 drops of actual spring water to avoid false advertising, I don't think we're going to run out anytime soon.

If you're not drinking filtered bottled water, you might as well go get a drink from the tap.

I hear some women see a bit more reds and oranges than men. I know that doesn't really count as seeing something different, more like seeing more. But.. it's interesting anyways.

Why aren't you crackers answer my question?

Don't you mean our question? ;_;

And while most may not have answers, it would be nice how some random Russki looked at a potato and decided to get sloshed off of it. Or corn, or..well, another other random ingredient used for any given alcohol.

But certainly would be nice to know.

I'm waiting for someone to ask a question I know the answer to, Ence. So far I'm feeling pretty stupid. =/

Why do you park in a driveway and drive on a parkway?

Alice, you just gave me a good question to ask my friend. I'll see what he says about it and let you know (he's blind).

Whenever my kitty Pippin sees me reading he always jumps up into my lap and looks up at me and wimpers until I start reading to him. And interestingly enough, I've found that he reacts differently to some books than to others, such if it's espionage or fantasy he's more likely to curl up and fall asleep where as if it's horror he just sits around for few paragraphs and wanders off. Yet when he's scratching at the rug and I start yelling at him I might as well be telling a fish to walk on land.

So what I'm wondering is if cats really do understand what you're saying and only give a damn when it benifits them, or if they don't really get it at all, or if it's somewhere in between, like they understand the tone but not really much else.

What exactly does "shiver me timbers" mean, and where did it originate?

Why is football called football?

Acro-nym:
From what I gather, this expression is derived from a wooden ship hitting a rock or something so hard that the timbers shivers. Strangely enough, ti wasn't an actual sailor''s term, but more so an expression used by Captain Frederick Marryat in Jacob Faithful in 1835: “I won’t thrash you Tom. Shiver my timbers if I do”.

I think that was a catch phrase created for Popeye. Who exactly was behind Popeye's psychological profile, I couldn't say.

Football? That's what American's call it. Just like the whole Native American/Indian deal. That instance of ignorance is isolated.

Why is Gamingforce still active?

Who the fuck looked at an Alaskan king crab and decided they were going to eat it?

I mean, look at it! How could that look tasty?

http://www.deltanewsweb.com/archives...0716_caleb.jpg

How come the wind always feels like it's blowing AGAINST you no matter which direction you switch walking to?

Chances are that the cold weather made the fishermen go into a state of hallucinatory mind arrest and during that time they up and said, "SVEN! Let's eat that motherfucker. YA?" Either way, I'm glad Sven and his crew did think it was tasty because... Well shit, have you ever had one?

Maybe because it is blowing against one side of you =o

Either that or something to do with rampant pessimism in today's world. I can't decide which.

THis may sound kinda racist but where'd they get "Wetback" from?

Holy shit, this is a long story. This is actually a matter of debate amongst us beaners, but if you read some hispanic literature, you kind of get the real gist of it.

It's a common misconception that Mexicans are known as "wetbacks" because when we illegally crossed over to the states it's pretty common to have to cross the Rio Grande. If you gotta swim across, it's only a given that you're going to be wet all over, hence the term "wet-back". This is false.

The real origin of the term is actually rooted in the "Bracero Program". It was really a massive roundup of what even then-program director Lee Williams called "legalized slavery" Mexican laborers were allowed to come to the States and labored 12-hour days in apalling conditions which often involved high weather temperatures. Since a lot of the labor was vegetable picking, the laborers sweat would make their backs wet. Hence the term "wetback". The program was finally halted in 1964 but because of reports of human rights abuses. The program was, by and large, a fucking failure.

In order to "repatriate" the workers to their homeland, Immigration and Naturalization Services began what they called (using what had by then become a derogatory term) "Operation Wetback" and rounded up all the Mexican laborers and deported them. Not all of the laborers were repatriated though and that's pretty much how a lot of my family is here.

Edit: Sorry ence, You beat me too it.

"What would happen if Microsoft made only High Quality products?"

"How would one go blowing up something as big as the planet earth (In realistic terms)?"

Because of that very same reasoning - the lobster was a food long given to the poor fishermen of New England. The rich decided it was too ugly to look at - so how could it even be delicious? How wrong they were!

That's quite interesting. Thank you.

Double Post:
More than likely, if Microsoft made such products, we'd have better respect for them and less disdain. Also, we wouldn't have to scream at our computers as often. Of course, there would still be some screaming. These products wouldn't be perfect.

Enough nukes would certainly do the job. (Maybe even a few Tsar Bomba-type bombs.)
I don't think it'd be all that hard, really.

Alice, in answer to your first question, this is what my friend said: um..lol i don't really know..i mean obviously i guess so..from either a description by the partner or another person or something...well i mean for a blind person, i guess it would matter what the person feels like, the feel of their skin or hair etc mor then what they look like..

Hope that answers your question. :)

Now that's really interesting. Kinda reminds me of the movie Ray, and how he'd always feel the wrist of each woman he met. Who knew...

Oooh. Now that's a paradox right there. Microsoft. Making only High Quality Products. I tried to wrap my mind around that and failed. But the following thought slipped out just before my brain overheated - I think you stumbled upon a paraphrase of a key point in Godel's Inconsistency Theorem. Other versions go like "everything I say is a lie"

edit: Toufuckingche.

In no way, shape, form and skullfucking iteration would this ever happen.

Question holds fatal fallacy. Restart and hold F8 to in Safe Mode.

This just brings me back to that explanation that Acro-nym, Snowknight, and I thought of for Microsft's world in our Microsoft Server class.

I think it goes something like this:
"If our world is a straight line then Microsoft's world is not a parrallel world, it is a Sine world. Specifically represented by the graph y=2SinX"

I'm pretty sure that it was this:
"Microsoft's world is best represented by the equation, y = 2(sin x), where positive values of 'Y' represent reality and negative values represent falsehood."

How do cats purr? More importantly, why do cats purr?

I was kind of surprised I could find this, but:

Also,

You park in a driveway because it's logistically better than parking on the street (assuming you don't always have immediate access to a garage). You drive on a parkway because that's what it's designed for. As for the term, 'parkway' historically refers to roads near parks or park-like landscapes.

I was going to make some joke about a pleased pussy here, but I was like, shit man, that's too obvious.

Miyomi, that's really interesting (and also what I thought, but I wanted to make sure). I mean, you do have to be seen with this person, and there are very few people who really don't care what others think. I see what he's saying about how they feel, too. It's not just more aesthetically pleasing to LOOK at a toned, fit person, they FEEL better, too.

Summonmaster, if you had long hair you wouldn't feel like the wind is always blowing against you. Try having hair blown into your face from behind or from the side and you'll definitely know which way the wind is blowing. Get a wig or something, I don't know.

1) Windows XP would be the first version of Windows and they would've built their company soley on office software and programming language compilers.

2) Become president of the US or Russia. There's enough nukes floating around either one to do the job a couple times, and I imagine if there aren't then the rest of the weapons cache should be enough to finish the job.

Um, are you sure that nukes can ''blow up'' Earth?

Actually, although people like to believe it's possible, every nuclear weapon that exists on earth still isn't enough to destroy mankind, let alone break through the first layer of the earths crust.

This question is very difficult for me to word, but I'll try my best.

What if there was more to reality if we know it? What if there was no universe, no matter, no objects, no atoms, no life, nothing? What would there be?

How about nothing?

Shit man... Questions don't get more obscure than that. Good job. :p

What do bald people use on their heads? Shampoo? Soap?

I know, I could probably go and ask some bald guy, but I don't know any. At all.

No offense.

Ok I think I'm just lacking common sense or something here but: "How come people don't use umbrellas to protect themselves from the snow?"

A more sensible question: "How come people don't use umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun when it is really hot?" (Asians like my mom like to do it and they get strange looks and whispers)

Funny, but I think it's because people enjoy playing in the falling snow more than in the painful rain. For the sun there are feminine parasols. Only in Britain , apparently.

String Theory man, basic Quantums. Look it up.

Its really hard to answer that question as the thought pattern to produce such a answer cannot exist before the creation of said universe. Beyond your scope of reasoning is one way to put it.

You know, thinking about things like that could drive you mad.

On the subject of nothing, I have one question.
I remember when I was young than I always wondered if there was something smaller than "air." Of course I found that to be a type of molecule that are made up of two or more atoms. Of course I find out a atom is made of smaller particles called electrons, neutrons, and proton. Then it caused me to beg the question, "what's small than that?" Most of my teacher's couldn't answer this at the time so by the time the internet was finally available I came to find that there are particals called quarks that make up electrons, neutrons, and protons. At least that's the current theory. Now my question, what the heck are quarks made out of? And how far down does this go? Forever?

Well I kinda know this but not in great detail. I'm no expert in this area rather I just want to know everyone's answer(s) to this.

edit: well von just mentioned what is probably part of the answer, anyone care to elaborate?

String theory is basically the theory that the most elemental subatomic particles are nothing but "strings" of one-dimensional space that have a certain "frequency" that gives each of them their unique properties as quarks, leptons, etc. They curl up on themselves as well, giving them integer frequencies.
So in other words, all things are nothing but different combinations of different spaces that have unique properties.

Is it possible to crossbred cats and dogs?

I ask only because Sarah told me tonight that her vet told her that her cat which she took in after being a stray was screwed by a small dog, and that the "kittens" she was impregnated with were actually dog/cat crossbreeds. He said he could either save the mother, or save the kittens. The cat could not pass the large "puppins," so he had to save one or the other. She chose the mother. I am trying to google it here, and I can not come up with anything.

Seemed scientifically impossible, since they're not the same species.

My friend said that his dad still used shampoo despite the fact that he was almost completely bald.

I found the thought quite amusing.

You are right, that is impossible by every law of existing genetics that we know of.

Double Post:
If it is a fully bald man, who has no remnant of hair on his head, then I think they usually use just soap. (that's what I am going to do when I get to that stage). For men who are partially bald, as in they have one of those terrible rings at the sides and back of their head, then they usually use shampoo for what remains, and soap for the empty portions.

Let me rephrase that. There is nothing. At. All. Nothing. No particles at all. No universe, no time, no space. Absolutely nothing.

OK... I have a serious question. My boss keeps a book of matches in the building's restroom at work and he insists that lighting one after you drop your load completely removes the smell from the latrine... Am I the only one who thinks he's batshit insane?

Male humans are born with nipples, apparently because up until a certain point in growth they are essentialy women.

Why's this apply to male humans? How come I don't see other male mammals with nipples (or udders, I guess.)

Also, human women have a menstrual cycle, but do other mammals? Why or why not?

Nope, I guess the idea came from the fact that the smell (methane) is flammable. Lighting a match in a bathroom that is faintly present with methane will only ignite a small amount of it (or none at all.) You would need to have a flamethrower to actually make the theory work but you'll end up blowing up the bathroom along with it. Maybe you should tell your boss to invest in some strong air fresheners.

It would be fun to think about that for a while, heh. Like Kairyu said, it's beyond our wildest imagination - we can't think of absolute nothing, because the idea cannot be concieved as reality.

If we think about nothing, nothing manifests into something. Our picture of nothing is Black. Or White. But since we know white and black are objects of reality, we are faced with something.

It's sort of like that question of asking a blind person what he or she sees. He can't comprehend 'seeing' anything.
(But (really) did anyone ask a previously seeing person what he or she sees after going blind?)

I will actually have to say that your boss is not batshit.
This is actually standard procedure here at my house. Someone drops a load, so they do a favor and light a match.
Although you ARE burning just a small amount of methane, the additional factor of the smell of a burning match helps to mask the stench as well.

*sniff sniff*
Which reminds me... someone forgot to light a match. ;_;

Double Post:
Interestingly enough, there have been many cases of natural male lactation.

I just thought I would toss that out for those who think they are useless. :-P

Why do we grow pubic hair? Surely it would be more beneficial to men not to have pubic hair so that the testes are at optimum temp?

I'm pretty sure evolution left it alone because it somehow fends off disease. However, I might be completely off.

This is a speech I wrote for my brother. Would you vote for him?

I don't know about you, but I have had the wind at my back on several occasions.

although, according to dante's inferno: one of the circles of hell is an empty plain that no matter which direction you walk, a strong wind is always pushing against you, and if you stop walking... the wind gets more powerful.

maybe your in hell and don't even know it. ^_^

Yes.

;D

Obscure questions:
1) Why?
2) Why do they put air masks on the plane for every passenger and not parachutes?
3) Why is there braille on drive-thru ATMs?

((weak questions. For now...))

This is a rather morbid question, but my big brother just started fireman's academy to become a firefighter and he mentioned that the other day they burned a dead pig to simulate the smell of burning human flesh. I've heard this mentioned before from military people (coincidentally my bro was also spec ops in the marines so he's smelled that smell before. **shudder** >__<)

At any rate - why IS it that pig flesh is so much like human flesh in those regards? Its a little bit creepy to be honest.

Because.
Reason 1: It will scare passengers away by showing the lack of confidence if their plane. EDIT: IN their plane*

Reason 2: Parachutes are for the staff only. Who would want the passengers to walk away alive after having been through such horrid experience.
Reason 1: Blind people might recover after a successful surgery and might not be able to learn the alphabets so soon.

Reason 2: Because in our liberal sue-happy society, if you don't put braille on a drive up ATM, then some blind guy is going to get the idea that his rights have been violated.

Reason 3: Drive-up ATM buttons are marked with braille because federal regulations require it. To be specific, section 4.34.4 of the ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities (Appendix to Part 1191, 36 CFR Chapter XI, issued pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) says, "Instructions and all information for use [of an automated teller machine] shall be made accessible to and independently usable by persons with vision impairments." Drive-up ATMs, unlike the walk-up variety, don't need to be wheelchair accessible, but the rules make no exception regarding accessibility by the blind.

Who am I kidding. I don't know if I'm right or not. You be the judge.

Depends; does he have good acting skills? Without the right delivery, any mention of 'robotic army of doom' will just make him look like an unfunny nerd that's trying too hard.

1- cuz.

2- Have you ever seen an Oxygen bar at a convention or nightclub? Pure Oxygen is a very potent gas, and when that is all that you're breathing, it gets you high. The oxygen will put you in a state of relaxation, thus calming the passengers down. The masks have nothing to do with cabin pressure, and parchutes would be pointless. If the plane is going to crash, everyone is going to die... so they calm the passengers down at the very least during their final moments.

watch the movie 'Fight Club'... Tyler explains it better than I ever will.

To second Aardark, make sure he doesn't read the thing from any paper. Have some hand motion and he should seem natural enough. I'm sure you could use the public speaking stuff you learn in college.

First line of Aardark's sig really fits in well here ='D

I got a question thats been bothering me:

What the hell happened to Baz Luhrman (director of Romeo+Juliet and Moulin Rouge), and why hasn't he made another movie yet?

According to IMDB, he's hard at work on a period Australian epic set for release in 2007. Sounds like a new Heaven's Gate to me.

Well, seeing as how he won over 80% of the school vote, I'd say he pulled it off well enough.


Also, why aren't either of these two images smilies yet?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...and2/teach.gif
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...bestofluck.gif

Your guess is as good as mine.

Who do we exist?

NASTY!!!!
 

I heard something really nasty. The same water that you drink now might be the same purified water that someone emitted when they had diherrea (spelling?) last year.

If he is shitting in public, he's already lost all credibility, in my opinion. Seriously, wait until you get home, you stinky bastard!

About the bald people and whether or not they use shampoo, I would think that a person would need to use shampoo on his scalp whether or not he had any hair. Regular soap would dry out a person's scalp something awful, I would think.

Actually, I would say, that like everything else, they are probably manufactured in mass quantities to fit the governemnt regulations and it would be much more expensive to change there operating procedures for certain machines so that they are made without the braille. I would assume that when they are being manufactured, they are not made with any certain place of residence in mind.

Can you eat animal crackers if seal is broken?

That's fricking nasty! Just when I'm gulping down my bottled "natural spring water" too *retch*

The classic: How come people always just stand and stare towards the doors of the elevator when more than one person occupies it?

My curiosity: Why are these all the same -> the sign for an integral, an "esh" in phonetics, and the S shape on the left front side of a violin?

Fear? Maybe people are afraid of conversation. Either that, or maybe they hate the other person in the elevator and dream of getting out as soon as possible.
However, the most likely case is that there are not many other places to stare in an elevator.

Okay, today, I set my combat boots on fire after reading that the shine it produces is amazing. Well, I did it and put it out by putting a big pot over the boot, and they weren't joking. The boots now have this savage shine that hours of buffing wouldn't make. Why does this happen?

My guess is that people use elevators because they are in a rush *otherwise we could just use stairs* and while in a rush, your main councern is to get out of the elevator.

My second guess is that we are taught since we are born to never chat with strangers, and we carry that to our adulthood.

my third and final guess is about confort, while in an elevator you can't simple sit, drink something and socialize, theres little, or no time for that, so you subcouncious think it's a waste of time to start a conversation to just stop after you leave the elevator.

My obscure question is, How do gay people know other people are gay before even speaking to the subject.

Well if you think about the way shoe polish (generally wax) works when melted, it will retain its luster after it dries and hardens. Depending on the conditions the polish may also fog over but you can fix that by buffing it after the polish dries out a little. I kinda do the same thing with my combat boots I just use a heat-gun instead, others might use a hairdryer as a alternative. Same principle really, just minus putting the flammable polish on fire.

Oh yeah, don't sniff the fumes >_>

Yeah, but tomorrow, someone will ask me how I got my boots so damn shiny. Wonder what they will say when I reply, "I set them on fire."

Gay people have certain public behaviors associated with them. Simple answer.

Was the moon and Earth originally part of a bigger planet that broke apart?

Why is the A+ certificate so respected when it is a lifetime certification that could have been obtained during the days of DOS 6.22?

Does anybody remember the significance of DOS 2.76j?

What was the first name of the roadrunner from the Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons? I know the Coyote's full name was Wyle E. Coyote, but I think the roadrunner's name was either Johnny or Tommy, but I could also be way off all together.

If the bible was written by people who thought the world was flat, why are there people take it's meaning so literally?

First, we do not know that they thought the earth was flat. The bible is relatively mute on the physical world, except history. However, in the book of Job (I think)(it is also the oldest book in the bible), there is mention about the "sphere of the earth" when God is basically telling Job "Dont question me, I know what I am doing and talking about."
Secondly, you are an idiot.

I guess you haven't seen the movie "Sneakers." Although in real life, I can't really fathom a brail monitor.

To pay the Taxi driver. Taxi Driver is also a good movie to watch after you watch Sneakers.

Cry me a river.

Edit: Actually, I do have to add I do think the bible is a good book even if I do not follow Christianity, but I do not understand why some people hang on to it word for word. I just think that the writers of the bible lose what they are conveying if you take it too literally.

I don't know why you are calling him an idiot for. He asked a legitimate question. Hey, Fatt, many Christians hold what the Bible says close to our hearts because we are mandated to obey God's commands.

Why do bald people polish their head?

Does the intelligent design theory have any real genuine evidence that evolutionists haven't disproved?

Actually, this is exactly what triggered my bible question in the first place. I came up with my question after reading about intelligent design theory, and, as much as I do respect what the moral values the bible conveys, I do consider Mr. Darwin as one of my leaders, next to Ghandi, MLK, Buddha, and Musashi.

Yes... He's asking a legitimate question. Let us antagonize him without mercy.

My friend has always asked me and anyone who will listen this question, and i thought i had an answer, but now i'm not so sure, and i'm not sure why.

Q: What colour is a mirror?

My Answer: Silver.



Is the meaning of life perfect balance? In theory one, religious or not, would look at life and see that the only obvious purpose in life is to exist, and in order for us to exist in the way we most likley want, is to live happily. Happiness comes from a balance of the good and the bad. Without the bad, we can't have the good, and without the good we can't have the bad. An Imbalance of this causes one or the other. In the middle we have happiness. As i write this i start to see more and more flaws in this. Maybe i'll come back and revise it tomorrow, i'm really tired right now.

Am i full of shit? or is that logical?

Yes, there are many flaws in the idea that the purpose in life is "balance." You are not full of shit.
And don't stop thinking critically about your ideas. The moment you stop, well... why WOULD you want to stop? :-P (see signature quotes)

A mirror is just glass over a highly reflective piece of metal. It's colour depends on what you are taking the colour of. ie the glass is clear and the metal is very shiny silver