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| Author |
Message |
remmers
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Answers to Tough Questions
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Feb 10 02:21 UTC 2003 |
This is the item to answer tough questions. I'm the only
one who gets to ask the questions.
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| 80 responses total. |
remmers
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response 1 of 80:
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Feb 10 02:22 UTC 2003 |
First question: What specifically causes mistakes?
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jaklumen
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response 2 of 80:
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Feb 10 03:38 UTC 2003 |
lack of eternal perspective, I suppose.
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gelinas
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response 3 of 80:
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Feb 10 05:33 UTC 2003 |
mistakes cause mistakes.
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mary
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response 4 of 80:
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Feb 10 11:46 UTC 2003 |
Alternate universe shifts. At some point in time and space
it wasn't a mistake but then everything moved. I learned this
one from many a desperate screenwriter.
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rcurl
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response 5 of 80:
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Feb 10 17:38 UTC 2003 |
Mistakes follow from the Second Law.
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remmers
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response 6 of 80:
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Feb 11 13:59 UTC 2003 |
Thank you for your responses.
Next question: Why are people approximately symmetrical?
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rcurl
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response 7 of 80:
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Feb 11 17:30 UTC 2003 |
They aren't. The head does not resemble in any fashion the feet.
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remmers
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response 8 of 80:
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Feb 11 22:07 UTC 2003 |
People are of course not symmetrical about any plane whatsoever.
But there is one plane for which they are. The plane to which I
refer.
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rcurl
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response 9 of 80:
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Feb 12 02:38 UTC 2003 |
The tautological answer is, it is not of adaptive evolutionary advantage
to be significantly unsymmetrical about all planes. Several questions
follow from that.
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remmers
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response 10 of 80:
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Feb 12 12:55 UTC 2003 |
And do not forget that I am the only one allowed to ask them.
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mary
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response 11 of 80:
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Feb 12 13:35 UTC 2003 |
People are approximately symmetrical due to selective
evolution. Women who had one tiny breast and one huge
breast were shunned in favor of those with two breasts
of the same size. So those with wildly different sized
breasts didn't breed as often.
From the research I've uncovered it's the shunning process
that gets interesting. Mostly it's thought men didn't
want to think about which breast they liked, mostly they
just wanted to be sex machines. So men being turning
into brain-dead penises during sex is part of why we
are symmetrical.
Don't ask. I've lost the cites.
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rcurl
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response 12 of 80:
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Feb 12 17:52 UTC 2003 |
Most of the earlist motile multi-=cellular living creatures had planes of
approximate mirror symmetry. This is especially true of those with legs or
grasping organs, as mirror-image legs and grasping appendages are
especially adaptive. Once the hox genes directing symmetries were
selected for some functions, they would have had a secondary influence on
other symmetries. Since symmetric body plans were especially advantageous
to the simplest motile organism, these systems have been conserved during
evolution.
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remmers
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response 13 of 80:
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Feb 12 20:47 UTC 2003 |
#11 begs the question of why women have two breasts in the first
place. It would make sense if the norm was to have children in
pairs, but that is the exception, not the rule.
But no matter. I have another question:
Why do we have five fingers on each hand, and five toes on each
foot? Why not four, six, or some other number?
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rcurl
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response 14 of 80:
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Feb 13 05:28 UTC 2003 |
Breasts are also under the control (in part) of the hox genes, which
dictate number and placement. See
http://weber.ucsd.edu/~jmoore/publications/polythelia.html
for examples of polythelia. The antiquity of this control is shown by
the absence of monothelia amount mammals.
In regard to #13: because if we did have four or six or some other
number, you would ask the same question.
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remmers
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response 15 of 80:
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Mar 7 01:32 UTC 2003 |
Next question, somewhat related to the previous one: If a mirror
reverses right and left, why doesn't it reverse up and down?
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jaklumen
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response 16 of 80:
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Mar 7 02:57 UTC 2003 |
Wouldn't it depend on your point of view, or definition?
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rcurl
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response 17 of 80:
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Mar 7 05:33 UTC 2003 |
A mirror *doesn't* reverse right and left. Your left side is still on
the left in the image you see, just as your pate is still above your
jowl.
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gelinas
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response 18 of 80:
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Mar 24 03:03 UTC 2003 |
I dunno; my jowls are usually above my plate.
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rcurl
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response 19 of 80:
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Mar 24 04:57 UTC 2003 |
Bon appetit.
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md
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response 20 of 80:
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Apr 21 23:40 UTC 2003 |
If you're lying down on one side when you look in the mirror, it *does*
reverse up and down.
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remmers
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response 21 of 80:
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Apr 22 00:44 UTC 2003 |
Okay, here's an easy question.
A man with a goat, a parrot, and a large bible arrived at the edge of
a river. A small rowboat was available for crossing the river, but
there was room in the boat for the man and at most one of his items.
Therefore, multiple crossings would be necessary to carry all three
items across the river. However, the man could not leave the goat
alone with the parrot because the goat would eat it. For the same
reaons, the goat could not be left alone with the bible. The parrot
could not be left alone with the bible because the parrot might
swear a blue streak and bring down the wrath of God upon everyone.
Therefore, seeing the impossibility of getting all of his possessions
across the river, what should the man do?
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rcurl
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response 22 of 80:
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Apr 22 05:47 UTC 2003 |
Re #20: not at all. The "up(down)" side of your face is "up(down)" in
the reflection. You must keep in mind that that is not an *object* on
the other side of the mirror: it is just a reflection across a plane.
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xi
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response 23 of 80:
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Apr 30 18:23 UTC 2003 |
Re: #21
Make sure he finds a way to make his parrot fly..:)
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xi
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response 24 of 80:
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May 29 05:17 UTC 2003 |
Re: #1 - on the cause of mistakes
ripples in the space-time continuum
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