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So, my main area of expertise is classical music and opera. So don't ask me about those.
Ask me stuff about things I probably don't know, and I'll answer. If you fail to ask me something I'm ignorant of, I'll probably answer correctly. Otherwise I'll just make something up.
This is, of course, a shameless post-padding exercise.
What is your opinion about Mike, the Headless Chicken?
What is the correct size rubber stopper for a 1¼" hole in a wooden hull of 1" thick cedar.
What R&B singer had a hit duet with Linda Rondstadt in 1987? What totally different one did in 1989? And what were the songs?
Hmm. Since this is a question about my opinion, I regret that I do, in fact, know the answer. Which is that I have no opinion about Mike the Headless Chicken except that it is not surprising to me, having observed chickens in action, that a chicken can live without a head.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
What's the commonest term for a 4-polytope -- that is, a fourth-dimensional equivalent to a polyhedron?
Norway.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
Pope John Paul II (Frere Jacques)and Margaret Thatcher (Still Don't Give a Fuck).Quote:
Originally posted by Taumpy
Do you know the joke with the punchline: "Well, isn't that what you get when you divide green by Norway?"
Hypercube.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
Yes.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
That actually could have been awesome.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
Where can you buy soles for high heels with which to cobble within the continental US?
How many?
Big Lots, probably.Quote:
Originally posted by Panther Squad
What kind?
Approximately 36.789348763. But that's just an estimate.Quote:
Originally posted by Marsilia
All of them.Quote:
Originally posted by Marsilia
Bzzzt.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
What language family includes Tlingit and Ket?
What is the 10CFR20 limit on non-occupational ionizing radiation exposure?
The Smiths.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
200ppm.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
Were you going for polychoron, or tesseract?Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
Polychoron.
(I meant all 4-polytopes, not just specific ones like "hypercube" and "tesseract".)
What's the best recipe for bonbons?
Four Kylie Minogue albums. GO!
Maple syrup (however much you want).Quote:
Originally posted by Zuul
Heat to appropriate temperature (use a candy thermometer).
Cool.
Cut into squares.
I don't know exactly how to make maple sugar candy, but that's basically the process.
Over the BoardwalkQuote:
Originally posted by Panther Squad
Born in the Norwegian Fjords
Kylie sings The Ramones
Volcano Boogy
Ah. My last math class was Calc III, which I took in 1996 and failed.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
Although if you ask me math problems, I will probably at least try to answer them seriously, even if I fail miserably.
Who likes short shorts?
We like short shorts.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
Do you know "fifty/fifty; ninety/ten"?
No. Uh, I have no smartass guess, either.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
What really caused the Tunguska Fireball?
It's a shorthand for the saying: "If you give a smart person a fifty/fifty proposition, he'll get it wrong 90% of the time, through over-thinking it."
The best example of this I ever saw was when someone in class was stumped after being asked a yes or no question. The instructor got frustrated and told the guy, "Look, it's not that complicated: It's a fifty/fifty; ninety/ten question. Just give me an answer."
"Uh, ten?"
:smack
Either a meteorite or a miniature black hole.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
Or possibly the Illuminati in conjunction with the Rothschilds.
What was that one mountain climbing disaster in one of the former SSRs which the UFOlogists claim was caused by a UFO visitation?
The Dyatlov Pass incident.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
Nope. It was Nicolai Tesla.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
What are the two common fissile isotopes used in nuclear energy and weaponry?
What's in my hand?
I'm guessing some isotope of Uranium and Plutonium, but I couldn't tell you which ones. U-14 and P-17?Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
U-235 and Pu-239.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
Whose niece was the author of The House of the Spirits?
The most popular vs Godzilla movie?
How come we never hear about crazy people who believe God is talking to them and telling them to take their meds?
I'd guess the Ring of Power, but that's in your pocketses.Quote:
Originally posted by Myrnalene
So it's probably a ham sandwich.
Emily Dickinson.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
Divine vs. GodzillaQuote:
Originally posted by Panther Squad
Because God is a vindictive bitch.Quote:
Originally posted by Zuul
Can you please name three of the four most commonly used grounding electrode types permitted by the 2008 NEC?
Salvador Allende, briefly the communist ruler of Chile. His daughter reflected upon those experiences and incorporated them into her magnificent first novel, The House of the Spirits.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
Copper, zinc, einsteinium, dilithium.Quote:
Originally posted by Queen Tonya
What does it sound like when doves cry?
It sounds like napalm.Quote:
Originally posted by Zuul
I mean victory.
Does this thread need a morning bump?
Of course.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
Were you aware that the thirtieth anniversary of Azaria Chamerlain's death just passed? (The 'dingo got my baby' baby.)
What is the most linguistically diverse area on the planet?
No. No I wasn't.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
Hmm. So, I knew the answer to that (that I didn't know that) once it was asked, but I wasn't aware that I didn't know it before it was asked. So is that a question about something I didn't know or not? Did asking it open the box? Was that Schroedinger's question?
At a guess, I'd say likely some place in Africa. But I don't really know.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
Since you bring it up, can you describe the actual thought experiment known now as Schroedinger's Cat?
I'll try.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
So there's this thing in quantum theory known as the Copenhagen interpretation. It's certainly more complicated than I understand (wasn't it Feynman who said "if you understand quantum, you don't understand quantum?"), but my basic understanding is that the Copenhagen interpretation states that for certain events that are not strictly predictable under the classical model, the only way to determine the outcome is to observe it, and therefore prior to that observation all possibilities are equally valid and can therefore be considered true.
Schroedinger thought this was ridiculous and devised a thought experiment to demonstrate its absurdity. He conceived of a device that consisted of a box, a geiger counter, a radioactive isotope, and a contraption that would release cyanide gas if the geiger counter detected any radiation. In the course of an hour, there was a 50% chance that the isotope would decay and set off the device. Schroedinger then hypothesized a cat in the box. After an hour there would be a 50% chance that the cat would be alive, and a 50% chance that the cat would be dead (and a 100% chance that the cat would be pissed). According to the Copenhagen interpretation, the cat would be both alive and dead until someone opened the box and "collapsed the wave function". Schroedinger thought this ridiculous.
Unfortunately for Schroedinger, when he proposed this thought experiment to proponents of the Copenhagen interpretation, they said "sounds about right to us." Now it's been co-opted as an example of how these things work, rather than an example of how absurd it is.
Nope. New Guinea. Under 10 million people, and somewhere between 10 and 15% of the world's existing linguistic diversity. (It's not known with more accuracy than that because a lot of it is still unexplored. Most of the languages are poorly studied and many are only known from second-hand reports from members of the tribes that we have contacted. There are likely well over a hundred uncontacted tribes on the island.)Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
Bump.
This is pretty fun. I'm particularly enjoying Exy's and OtakuLoki's contributions because I get to learn things while I expose my ignorance. Keep the questions coming, whether smartass or not (and I will answer, whether smartass or not).
Bill Labov is famous for, essentially, founding which subfield of linguistics? Also, which previously under-studied English dialect is he particularly well known for his work on?
Give yourself credit, too. That answer about Schroedinger's Cat was better than anything I'd have written. I would and have missed the fact that it was originally proposed by an opponent of the theory, just as the term Big Bang was coined by someone trying to mock the theory it's now come to represent in the popular mind.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
Who was Myrna's first celebrity crush?
Dialectics (I don't even know if that's a real sub-field).Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
I've never heard of him in connection to AAVE. I'll say Scottish.
Nope. Sociolinguistics (which includes studies of dialects.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
Nope, actually, he did the first real work on AAVE, demonstrating some of its unique grammatical features.Quote:
I've never heard of him in connection to AAVE. I'll say Scottish.
Walter Koenig.Quote:
Originally posted by Panther Squad
Unless she's secretly (or not so) lesbian for Myrna Loy.
ETA: I just read chat. Go me!
I just looked him up and went "crap, should have just said AAVE".Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
That'll teach me to try to be clever.
Physics is one of those things that I find fascinating while it always remains just out of my grasp. I often think that if someone forced me to start over and do something completely different, I would go into theoretical physics. (I was briefly a mechanical engineering major, but that's applied physics and not nearly so esoteric). I really just don't have the math, unfortunately.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
Hmm... have you ever read any H.P. Lovecraft?
No, but I plan to, maybe next time I go to the library.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
Any suggestions?
If you can read comfortably from a computer screen several of his stories are available online. If your library has the Arkham House reprints from the 80s, they're a good source of his stories. They were the first corrected editions that compared the first magazine printings with Lovecraft's own notes. The three books are:
The Dunwich Horror and Other Stories
At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels
Dagon and Other Macabre Tales
As for stories of his that I most like:
In the Vault, one of his earliest, found in the first book I mentioned.
Pickman's Model You'll never want to ride in a subway again.
At the Mountains of Madness
The Colour Out of Space (If you're interested in a thematic follow-up to this story, when you're done, check out Tim Powers' Dinner at Deviant's Palace. It's not a direct sequel, but it shares a lot of the themes with the Lovecraft story.)
What is your favorite short story?
Who is your favorite short fiction author?
Do you have a favorite poem? If so, what is it?
It's been a long time since I've read short fiction. I went through a creepy phase some time ago and read a story whose name escapes me by Stephen King about a malevolent room. Very well written and extraordinarily creepy. I'm not sure it's my favorite, but it's the one that comes to mind right now.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
I don't really have a favorite author at the moment.
I'm not sure I have a favorite poem either, although I've wanted to set The Raven to music for some time. I'm afraid it may be beyond my talents, though.
Bump.
169 to go people. Pad me, dammit!
What number am I thinking of right now?
Is it Graham's number?Quote:
Originally posted by Panther Squad
Do I know who Graham is?
Yes. Invented crackers, you know. (The snack food, not the white people.)Quote:
Originally posted by Panther Squad
Did he invent putting peanut butter on crackers?
He invented putting peanut butter on Graham crackers. That's actually why people call him Graham.Quote:
Originally posted by Panther Squad
SHUT UP. Seriously?
Totally.Quote:
Originally posted by Panther Squad
Is there photographic evidence or portraiture of this man, possibly applying said wondrous butter to said wondrous food item?
Alas, no. Graham Cracker was a solitary, secretive man who jealously guarded his culinary creation from the world. It was only after he died and his cryptic journals were finally deciphered that the public was gifted with his invention.Quote:
Originally posted by Panther Squad
Oh, and he apparently did abstract math in his spare time.
American Sign Language is partially descended from the sign language spoken on which small American island?
Guam?Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
Martha's Vineyard.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
Due to a single congenitally deaf member of the first wave of white settlers on Martha's Vineyard, there was a surprisingly large deaf population on the island. Something like 1 in 15, with as many as 1 in 6 in some parts of the island. It was so common that there was no real separation between deaf and hearing people -- they did business, got married, etc., and so the sign language that developed among the deaf population was spoken universally on the island.
Which is not just a really interesting sociolinguistic phenomenon but also a pretty fascinating study of the impact of a population being established from a very small gene pool.
(I'm treating this as the thread in which I expound upon random interesting linguistic phenomena.)
Was this thread supposed to be rhetorical questions we later answer? Because I could inform you something great about what number I was thinking of.
No problem at all. I love linguistics. I'd like to get a linguistics degree, I just don't have the time (or money). Unlike physics, I actually have the chops for that. Language and music are pretty intrinsically linked.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
This thread is for whatever. I'm loving both the rhetorical and factual questions.Quote:
Originally posted by Panther Squad
Should I be trying to attract Nature People to my garden by leaving out free sewing kits and hotel chocolate?
Does God Exist and what's his PIN?
Nature People are better attracted by unwashed men and petit fours.Quote:
Originally posted by Panther Squad
God didn't exist, but has since popped into existence solely to piss off the atheists.Quote:
Originally posted by The Original An Gadaí
His PIN is a complicated algorithm involving goats and wildebeest semen. You really don't want the details.
I thought it was music and mathematics that were pretty intrinsically linked?Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
I have long suspected that music is basically an evolutionary side effect of language. Pitch and rhythm are fundamental features of language -- to the point where I kind of think their importance in music is a result of their development in service of the language capacity.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
There is certainly a mathematical aspect to music (see my music theory thread for a glimpse at it), but like Exy says, music essentially comes from the same root as language. Both are systems of communication that take abstract elements, both in aural and written form, and turn them into meaning. Music is more abstract, but the cognitive processes are, I believe, largely the same.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
One of the most frustrating things about the modern (US) educational system is the constant denigration of the arts, especially music, in favor of the "core" subjects of math, social studies, and language arts and literacy. This despite the clear connection between music and abstract thought, which is useful in every discipline, but is particularly, I believe, connected to literacy. If I ever decide to pursue a doctorate in music education, my dissertation will probably be either the connection between musical literacy (in the sense of reading music) and "regular" literacy, or the connection between musical aptitude and linguistic aptitude, especially as regards skill in the phonetics of foreign languages.
In many ways I see the evisceration of arts education in the secondary schools as symptomatic of the reasoning that one should only educate the little darlings in stuff that's going to be practical. While at the same time, leaving the definition of pragmatism to be assumed, or at least undiscussed. Which seems to me to leave education being controlled mostly by people who define use by whether they've used a particular bit of knowledge in their own professional lives. :sad:Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
It's also largely a symptom of people who don't know about education interfering in education. The largest current culprit of course is NCLB, with its focus entirely on testable criteria and, worse, its insistence on immediate (unrealistic) results, which has led districts to pour money into testable elements without any thought to how those testable elements will remain relevant later in life. As a result, education has become less about training minds to think critically and providing tools for future learning, and more about information regurgitation. It's a giant step backward into the days of rote recitation of facts and figures. The ironic thing is that much of the rhetoric these days is about "Depth of Knowledge" and higher level thinking skills, but in the end those things are extremely difficult to test, and so take a back seat to quantifiable data, which is for the most part simply information recall.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
I am a bit of a contrarian on this issue. I don't see what's wrong with rote memorization, as a tool towards understanding. Having said that, I think part of the problem is the way that testing is done: Standardized bubble tests are cheap, and easy, to grade. They are also hugely limiting in what they can get a student to demonstrate.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
Oddly enough, one of the things that I believe the military gets right, and gets right to an astonishing degree, is it's ability to train capable operators in so many demanding and technical fields. I was a Nuc - a nuclear power plant operator. We got fed a lot of verbatim repetition crap, with all the fun that was. Definitions, in particular, were hammered into our heads. But we also were expected to demonstrate an ability to use those definitions for solving problems or describing concerns.
One of the things that boggled my mind in college physics was the way that the presences of the equation sheet that our prof would hand out with every test meant that my classmates didn't bother to really learn the equations. And so they'd spend the test looking for an equation that had the right sort of units for what they wanted to do, rather than looking at the problem, drafting the proper equation from memory, and then checking with the equation page to make sure it was right. IMNSHO the desire to go for deeper knowledge and understanding, while avoiding memorization of basic mechanics equations, was preventing many of my classmates from getting comfortable enough with the equations to be able to apply them in the wild.
Now, I'll be the first to point out my training from the Navy was sharply curtailed: It was the ultimate in a pragmatically tailored overview of thermodynamics, chemistry, p-chem, and other fields. We would be presented equations solved for our specific situations, and presented with certain key variables in the general equation locked for values for us. We didn't touch on how to derive heat exchanger efficiency constants, just what they were. I can point to similar shortcuts all through my knowledge of the field.
But within those limits, the limits of the plants and situations we were actually going to be dealing with, we were given a very effective set of tools to use for our understanding.
I think one of the biggest differences is the way that tests were graded: We had no bubble tests. Everything was short answer, and we always had to show our work. The answer keys would list the specific points that the question was supposed to be answered with, and a clear, unequivocal point value for each part of the answer. These tests were labor intensive to grade: Once the class was done taking them, the instructors spent nearly as much time grading them as we students had spent taking them. Maybe longer. But you didn't have to worry about having an exact repetition as long as your writing could convince the grader you knew what you were talking about. It's a bit fuzzier, but in my experience it works.
Oh, I absolutely believe that rote memorization is a useful tool. I've made that argument (elsewhere) myself. What it isn't is a comprehensive model of education.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
As a musician, and especially as an opera singer, I'm expected to memorize things. Notes, rhythms, words, translations, staging, so on and so forth. I couldn't do that without practice in rote memorization.
The problem right now is that information recall ends up being the focus of testing, and therefore education. They do test for "constructed response", but if you consider the time and effort it takes to evaluate that kind of answer for a military specialty, then extrapolate that to an entire state full of kids (testing is done by the state for NCLB compliance), you can see where things are going to be both overwhelmingly complex and expensive, as well as dreadfully inconsistent.
I think the inconsistency problem could be handled.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
Of course, even agreeing to address it would be difficult. I'm sure that there would be plenty of teachers that would oppose shifting to more of that sort of testing, and away from bubble tests. The real hurdle I see would be the increased economic costs.
Bump.
108 posts to SEKRET CHATE. Ask me more stuff.
Do you have a rich, bachelor uncle in poor health?
How dare you guys have an interesting discussion about education in a post padding thread so I missed it. :fist:
Have you ever been in a Turkish Bath?
Alas, no. I only had two uncles, both of whom were married, both of whom are deceased (does that count as "poor health"?) and only one of whom was fairly well off, but had enormous medical expenses toward the end of his life. Also, if he hadn't been married he wouldn't have been my uncle anyway.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
This isn't quite a question because there's no question mark, but it could be.Quote:
Originally posted by Zuul
It's not our fault that you weren't paying attention to my post padding thread! You can still enter the discussion if you want to.
No.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
As an aside, I note that personal questions about me are not generally about stuff I don't know. Just sayin'.
Why, when I installed MediaWiki on my computer today, did it come set with memory limits that were too low to allow it to operate properly? Shouldn't the package offered by my operating system come correctly configured to just work out of the box, without me googling a whole bunch of stuff?
Why on earth would I ask such an odd question that does not follow the "ask me stuff I don't know!" request?
This is a guess, but it's probably an alien conspiracy. Either that or weather balloons.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
No. That would be logical, and logic has no place in real-world applications.Quote:
Shouldn't the package offered by my operating system come correctly configured to just work out of the box, without me googling a whole bunch of stuff?
This is a guess, but it's probably an alien conspiracy. Either that or weather balloons.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
No. That would be logical, and logic has no place in real-world applications.Quote:
Shouldn't the package offered by my operating system come correctly configured to just work out of the box, without me googling a whole bunch of stuff?
Double post, but since it's a post-padding thread, why should I delete one?
This is one of the great mysteries of the Universe, right up there with "why would a man voluntarily live in New Jersey?" and "why would a person in full possession of their mental faculties root for the Yankees?".Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
I'm afraid we'll never know.
A week and a half later, I realized that this brings up another important point.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
Music and math are intrinsically linked. Music and linguistics are intrinsically linked. There's nothing contradictory about that. That fact, that music operates on so many cognitive levels at once, is precisely why music is such a critical part of the curriculum, and why students who are involved in music consistently outperform their peers in study after study after study. Trying to make that argument to administrators and board members is another thing entirely.
Not that I'm biased.
Administrators follow the board, and protect their little empires. Board members often have no training, knowledge, nor education in what works for education, and some seem to be in it simply for their own opportunities for empire building. The ones out to fix everything, with some simplistic "back to basics" BS are worse. The empire builders, at least, won't accuse pedagogues of lying or using New Math, or other new methods to hobble and hold back kids.
Hmm.... a question: Which city will be the next to be flattened by an industrial accident explosion a la Halifax or Texas City?
I had a long post composed in my head, but I realized that it basically came down to "this".Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
So, this.
Woo! Double post! The best post-padding strategy of all.
We can only hope that it will be an unimportant place that no one will miss. Like Los Angeles.Quote:
Originally posted by OtakuLoki
I thought it was Nicholas Tesla testing his death ray.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
Hell, I don't know. That's the whole point.Quote:
Originally posted by Clothahump
(Really, it was probably a meteor.)
Nope, it was Tesla.Quote:
Originally posted by fachverwirrt
Why does it always rain on Bank Holidays?
Tesla.Quote:
Originally posted by CatInASuit
If you were a pirate, back in pirate times, what kind of pirate would you be?
Also: if you were a ninja, back in ninja times, what kind of ninja would you be?
Oh and finally: if you were a dinosaur, back in dinosaur times, what kind of dinosaur would you be?
TYFYT.
Well this thread is totally not about me but if I was a dinosaur I uh well realistically I would be a nerdy dinosaur wearing contacts just so he didn't have to wear glasses, but hypothetically I think I'd be a triceratops because I mean those fuckers can rip your ass up. I would like gigantic murderous horns on my nose, it would be convenient in daily life. Like when middle-aged women are chit-chatting in front of the elevator and delaying me, I would just fucking charge their asses. BITCH TALK ABOUT YOUR INLAWS SOMEWHERE ELSE SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO GET SOMEWHERE.
I would be a ninja pirate.Quote:
Originally posted by diosabellissima
I would be a STEALTH DOUBLE POSTING ninja pirate.Quote:
Originally posted by diosabellissima
I would be a pirate ninja.Quote:
Originally posted by diosabellissima
I would be a ninja pirate dinosaur pirate ninja, uh, thingy. With teeth.Quote:
Originally posted by diosabellissima
Beautiful. Just. . . beautiful.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
STOP NOT ASKING ME QUESTIONSQuote:
Originally posted by diosabellissima
Geez, a man just can't have a post padding thread to himself around here, can he?
Please tell me the winner of the World Series in 2063 and the Superbowl in 2013.
The 2063 World Series will be won by the Havana Cubanos, who will join the league after the end of the embargo in 2025 and proceed to win every year hence. Fuckin' commies.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
The 2013 Super Bowl, as a result of a bizarre industrial accident involving an excavator and a lame marmot, will be won by the Toledo Mudhens.
Why do fools fall in love?
Alcohol.Quote:
Originally posted by Exy
Why do birds sing so gay?
I don't know, but I know that they're destroying traditional birdsong.Quote:
Originally posted by vison