Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Katy Jane]

he's not arguing it, he's just stating a scientific fact.

[Nate the Great]

Darnit Jim, I'm an engineer, not a doctor!

[Nate the Great]

Where did the chicken/road joke come from in the first place?

How did man come up with the idea of milking cows? If you take a step back, it's a bit of an icky concept, right?

Will Paramount ever license and distribute New Voyages and other "professional" fanfilms?

Why is Starfleet Command in San Francisco?

Did humpback whales go extinct again because of an insufficiently diverse gene pool?

United Earth Space Probe Agency? Who would come up with that name?

[KillerGodMan]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Why is Starfleet Command in San Francisco?

Um... because it was Xindi'd when it was in Florda?

Why do hotdogs come in packages of ten, but hotdog buns come in packages of eight?

[Nate the Great]

Thank you! The hot dog conundrum is undoubtedly one reason why I lay awake some nights wondering at the general weirdness in the world.

[Nate the Great]

This is one dead horse that I'm still beating, but I still get ticked off every single time I see "Coca-Cola Classic" on a can or bottle. Why? Everything else is "Coke." Vanilla Coke, Cherry Coke, Diet Coke, etc. Why not a product just labeled "Coke?"

How did artifical raspberry flavor get associated with the color blue? Yeah, yeah, cherry has a monopoly on red and there are blue raspberries, but most raspberries are, in fact, red.

Wouldn't it be a smart idea to have an "Unnecessary 'E' Tax," as posited by Dave Barry?

[Katy Jane]

the reason they put coca-cola classic on the can is because at one point they changed the flavor of coke and called it "new coke" nobody liked it so they changed it back and started labeling it "coca-cola" classic. Everything else leaves off the classic, because its not "coca-cola" classic.

[Nate the Great]

Yes, but there's no such thing as "New Coke" anymore. In those few places where people actually drink it, it's "Coke 2." Ergo, just "Coke" is open and available. It should be used because no one says "Waiter, I'd like a Coca-Cola Classic." Ever.

In fact, the whole thing smacks of paranoia. It's as if the Coke company is afraid that people might confuse normal Coke with New Coke/Coke 2, buy it, and then sue Coca-Cola for selling the wrong product.

[Nate the Great]

Okay, I'd like someone to debunk a theory for me.

I've often thought about the "impossibility" of constructing a perpetual motion machine. Now of course you can't build one that you can actually get energy out of, but what about something that will just go on forever and not stop?

Step One:

Build a sphere out of artificial diamond. Pure diamond, no defects, absolutely uniform crystal lattice in all directions.

Step Two:

Go out into space and find a location where gravitational and electromagnetic effects from all locations are absolutely uniform. It'll probably be midway between two galaxies.

Step Three:

Plant your diamond in that location and give it a nudge to spin it. There you go, a moving object with nothing to stop it. Certainly not a USEFUL machine, but perpetual motion.

[catalina_marina]

Originally Posted by Katy Jane

the reason they put coca-cola classic on the can is because at one point they changed the flavor of coke and called it "new coke" nobody liked it so they changed it back and started labeling it "coca-cola" classic. Everything else leaves off the classic, because its not "coca-cola" classic.

Because it might be confusing? I don't know...

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Okay, I'd like someone to debunk a theory for me.

I've often thought about the "impossibility" of constructing a perpetual motion machine. Now of course you can't build one that you can actually get energy out of, but what about something that will just go on forever and not stop?

Step One:

Build a sphere out of artificial diamond. Pure diamond, no defects, absolutely uniform crystal lattice in all directions.

Step Two:

Go out into space and find a location where gravitational and electromagnetic effects from all locations are absolutely uniform. It'll probably be midway between two galaxies.

Step Three:

Plant your diamond in that location and give it a nudge to spin it. There you go, a moving object with nothing to stop it. Certainly not a USEFUL machine, but perpetual motion.

We have these things. They're called stars, planets, moons, comets, asteroids, interstellar dusts...

[Nate the Great]

Uh-huh. If that logic made any sense at all, ordering a Cherry Coke would result in cherry-flavored charcoal, or cherry-flavored cocaine. Yeah, right.

Astronomical bodies are not man-made machines, and they do have finite lifespans, by the way.

[AKAArzosah]

A spinning diamond doesn't eactly qualify as a machine either. A machine has to have working parts, and that's why it's impossible.

[catalina_marina]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Uh-huh. If that logic made any sense at all, ordering a Cherry Coke would result in cherry-flavored charcoal, or cherry-flavored cocaine. Yeah, right.

Which is why I would think they're only being weird with the original, as that would just be "Coke".

Oh you want it to be man-made? How about those satelites we sent into space then? Not only do they (presumably) revolve around their own axis, they even revolve around the Earth! And sure, they have a finite lifespan. Even if they were meant to stay up forever, the sun would eventually explode into the Earth. But if you really want them to "live" forever, it's probably going to be pretty hard to find a spot, or speed and direction, if you want, so that they never collapse into anything. But yes, theoretically, it's possible. And if they revolve at first, they'll keep revolving until something stops them. It's basically Newton's first law of mechanics.

[Nate the Great]

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

All manmade Earth satellites will eventually grind slower and slower thanks to tidal effects and burn up upon reentry. Not perpetual.

[AKAArzosah]

When did the USA just become 'America' and why? Just laziness?

How is it that US Citizens call themselves 'Americans' to mean their nationality?

Or are both of these things just an Australian misconception and I should just shut up now?

[Chancellor Valium]

Why is Starfleet Command in San Francisco?

Bah! That's just a front.

It's actually in Llanberis.

[Nate the Great]

No, we USAns are, in fact, that incredibly arrogant. Blame the rest of the world for perpetuating our egotism, though, not us.

[catalina_marina]

Originally Posted by AKAArzosah

When did the USA just become 'America' and why? Just laziness?

I don't know about the when... I would say even before it was founded.

I suppose it happened much in the same way as the United Kingdom became "England" and the Netherlands became "Holland". Yes, laziness.

[Chancellor Valium]

That always bugs me.

England is one nation, not three-and-a-bit, dammit.

On a more ponderous note, why do people assume our civilisation is more 'advanced' than previous ones? Popular culture in the ancient world consisted of races and killing each people and animals in a ring. Now it consists of races and watching people who barely qualify for the term, and do so solely for the purposes of political correctness sit about and wonder which one of the 19-or-so other definitely-not-sub-human(s) they should screw. Less blood, but at least gladiatorial matches don't make your brains want to dribble out of your ears.

?

[catalina_marina]

Originally Posted by Chancellor Valium

That always bugs me.

England is one nation, not three-and-a-bit, dammit.

I like the way you think.

I wish the Netherlands were just the 7 provinces they started with. At least then people would never say I'm from Holland.