Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Chancellor Valium]

I thought there were originally 17?

[Nate the Great]

Chandler: Holland. That's near the Netherlands, isn't it?
Joey: Yeah, right. You're not going to catch me like that. The Netherlands are this make-believe place where Peter Pan and Tinker Bell live.
Margha: Oh my.
Ross: Enough with Geography For The Insane, okay?

[catalina_marina]

Originally Posted by Chancellor Valium

I thought there were originally 17?

[Sa'ar Chasm]

I thought that Sol was too small to outright explode. I thought it was just going to fizzle out into a brown dwarf.

It will swell up into a red giant once it exhausts its hydrogen fuel, and then it will fade to a white dwarf after it exhausts its helium fuel. It's not massive enough to undergo any other type of fusion. Brown dwarfs are stars without enough mass to start hydrogen fusion.

[Nate the Great]

Darnit Jim, I'm an engineer, not an astronomer!

[Nate the Great]

Why do so many gas stations have three grades of gas? I've even seen FOUR grade stations. I can understand the mentality behind having a higher grade gas for certain vehicles and situations, but anything between basic and premium seems ludicrous, almost as though it was deliberately supposed to be confusing.

Why are men's and women's bicycles still in different structural styles? I doubt that there are that many women who bike in skirts anymore, and a straight bicycle bar really is stronger structurally, so what's up?

A perpetual scab. Totally unsolvable. Why can't the government just tax the retailers a flat five percent (or whatever) of their total sales, so the retailer can charge flat dollar amounts? Wouldn't it make transactions so much simpler? Even if it has to be tweaked a bit to allow for twenty-five cent intervals to start out with, it'd still save EVERYBODY involved a lot of bother. I've heard two major theorys for the "something bucks and 99 cents" phenomenon. 1. Customers will be fooled that the one cent discount is larger than it really is, perhaps even think that the item really does cost a dollar less. Ludicrous. 2. Having change be required in the operation forces the cashier to open and close the cash drawer for each transaction to get the change, thus removing the option of the cashier simply pocketing the money. Seems a bit odd, as I have a solution to this problem. Scanning the item will generate a receipt. However, if the cash drawer isn't opened and closed within a certain time period, not only will the receipt not print out, a switch could be set up to trigger an alarm. Smart, huh?

[Nate the Great]

Would it really be that much bother to get the entire world onto one voltage and electric outlet type? I suppose the only reason why not to is that eventually we're going to have a united power grid and everyone's going to have to be retrofitted anyway, but still...

Why do so many people hate gift cards? I understand the "it does the same thing currency can, only less efficiently" argument, but for me, that's precisely the point. The inefficiency forces me to buy myself a GIFT, not just food and gas.

Why do some areas split into different geographic areas for new area codes, and others just overlap area codes in the same area? Isn't that a bit of a double standard?

[Nate the Great]

Here's a few from a wonderful book called The Little Book of Stupid Questions by David Borgenicht, 1999, Sourcebooks, Inc.

1. Would the world be a better place if skipping were more common than walking?

2. Which cartoon ability would you rather have:
a. The ability to paint a hole in the ground or a door in a solid wall and go through it;
b. The ability to be run over by a steamroller and shake yourself back to normal, or
c. The ability to fall hundreds of feet off a cliff to your doom and be back in the very next scene?

3. Is life more like the game of Life, Sorry, or Monopoly?

4. What breakfast cereal most describes your personality?

5. If your life story were made into a movie, who would play you?

6. Which of the Seven Dwarves do you most relate to? If you were the eighth dwarf, what would your name be?

7. If you could bring one character to life from your favorite book, who would it be?

8. If you had a theme song, what song would you pick? What if the song were played every time you entered a room or walked down the street? Would this change your choice?

9. What would you say as your last words if you were about to be executed?

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

9. What would you say as your last words if you were about to be executed?

"Beam me up, Scotty!" It always works for everyone else . . .

[Nate the Great]

1. Yes.
2. a.
3. Life.
4. Honey Nut Toasted Oats. (I'm nutty, but still good for you!)
5. Daniel Radcliffe. Seriously.
6. Doc. Whacky.
7. Anne Shirley.
8. General theme song, Linus and Lucy. Room entering theme song, The Entertainer.
9. "Shazam!"

[Nate the Great]

(Inspired by Zeke's characterization of "five" as a transitive verb) How would a Schoolhouse Rock song based on transitive verbs go?

Do any other schools use inaccurate anthropomorphic mascots? (My alma mater's mascot Goldy the Gopher actually has very little resemblance to an actual gopher, most consider him a ground squirrel in disguise)

Conrad Birdie? What kind of nutjob would name their child that and/or what kind of nutjob would choose that as a stage name?

How old were you when you figured out that the name Back to the Future was supposed to be a paradox gag? I thought it was pretty self-explanatory: Marty wants to get BACK to the FUTURE.

How creeped out would the average person be if everyone around them suddenly burst into song?

What's the most ridiculous James Bond gadget? There are SO MANY contenders.

[Nate the Great]

How long is it going to be before someone is actually curious enough about the HB=C,A,I! in my sig to ask about it?

[AKAArzosah]

I have a question that someone can answer. It's been bugging me for days.

What side of the road do Canadians drive on?

[Nate the Great]

The right side, as far as I know. I just went there on vacation not two months ago, remember.

[Nate the Great]

Don't worry, the HB=C, A, & I!!!! is gone, I replaced it with yet another wonderful mudshark quote. I think it's a classic.

[Chancellor Valium]

Originally Posted by Zeke

It comes naturally to him.

...Who are you, and what have you done with Zeke?

[Nate the Great]

No, that's a real Zeke quote, based on a real mudshark quote! Honestly, Trekkie's honor!

[Nate the Great]

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcredit.html

I'm not sure whether this belongs in the link dump thread or here, but it is a niggling question, so here goes...

To me, safety or not, just putting "Ask for Photo ID" on a card is just asking for trouble. Even if it's "technically safer," I am REALLY not in the mood to explain the logic EVERY SINGLE STINKIN' TIME! And I would have to. "How come you don't have a signature on this?" "Well, I was told that it wasn't safe..." "I'll have to summon my manager." "No, honest, this is my driver's license! I swear! Why didn't I sign the card? Well..." No, thank you.

[Chancellor Valium]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

No, that's a real Zeke quote, based on a real mudshark quote! Honestly, Trekkie's honor!

Zeke miss a punning opportunity like that? I'm not that easy to dupe.

[Nate the Great]

Would it be alright if I just went mad now?