Unanswered Questions
The idea here is that you can jot down any questions you haven't been able to find an answer to.
- Which kicks the A: the shoe, or the foot?
- Why do diapers taste like fish?
- In A Colder War, the Soviet codename for Great Cthulhu is 'Project Koschei'; what does Koschei mean?
- Koschei The Deathless is an evil wizard from Russian fairytale (as features in Stravinsky's ballet 'The Firebird')
- What's that song that they played at PANIC once that has a lyric that goes something like "I missed the fireworks last night; i've been working too hard."?
- 'Last Night I Missed All The Fireworks' by Idlewild
- It's on their early 'Captain' mini-album
- Ah! That's why I didn't recognise the name. I don't have that record, so although I would probably recognise the track, I have no reason to associate it with Idle Wild. -- NH
- Of course, I do have it now. Cheers, tom!
- Why, in Fight Club, did Project Mayhem blow up the TRW building? TRW has nothing to do with credit cards, or any sort of financial services!
- <http://espn.go.com/page2/s/closer/021025.html> indicates that "TRW? is a global conglomerate that used to be in the business of credit reporting; it no longer is, and does not have a location in Delaware.". Perhaps at the time the book was written, it was still involved in the debt industry.
- Why are Star Bucks franchises so dense on the ground? You'd think that beyond a certain event horizon either some of them would close for want of demand (especially in Oxford where there are already more coffee shops than you'd think we could possibly need), or the universe would come to an end. Suggestions? --TL
- Star Bucks have an explicit strategy of destroying all opposition in an area by opening an insane number of shops close to each other, thereby simply cutting off the flow of customers to the other, independent, shops. This explains both their success and their density. This will be written about on the web somewhere - donations of URLs are welcome.
- Here's one: <http://www.nacsonline.com/NACS/News/Daily_News_Archives/August2002/nd0826026.htm>
- See : South Park, 2:17, "Gnomes" (aka Underpants Gnomes) -- AM
- related: what causes such weird cult things as Star Bucks and Doctor Who (sorry!) to become such mainstream success stories out of the blue? What causes a trend? (Some suggestions to be found in Connie Willis' 'Bellwether'..) --TL
- Star Bucks isn't exactly a cult; don't most people hate it? Or is that just me? -- TA
- Well, it started out as being exceedingly popular, and I can't fathom why... If everyone hates it, why is it still around? --TL
- Based on the mistaken assumption Doctor Who was a mainstream success story.
- Which stage of the Wiki Life Cycle are we in?
- Stage 4, probably: we need more members to make it a really successful wiki in the style of Wards, Meatball or Wikipedia. We haven't yet reached what they call The Tipping Point. Then again, given the consequences of overexpansion, this may be a Good Thing. --TL
- If you get taken in the rapture, can I have your stuff? --DM
- No.
- Why not?
- Because if I get taken, you'll definitely get taken.
- Then say yes because it's a no lose proposition!
- That's assuming that there'll be a Rapture. No offence. --TL
- Er no, i don't think so - if there's no rapture, then any agreement beginning "If you get taken in the rapture" is irrelevant, whereas if there is a rapture, DM will get taken as well, so the "can I have your stuff" is irrelevant. But ...
- It's more tax-efficient this way.
- Tax efficient? Well I guess there's no chance of the tax inspectors being taken! Still, surely they can just embezzle all the church funds, and we don't have to be taxed for years.
- Why have Christian fundamentalists no sense of the absurd? I'm not saying we should have religious repression, but I did worry about some of the contents of the Chick Tracts last Saturday at Cranham St... --TL
- Quite... I wouldn't describe my own views on the subject as anything stronger than 'tangled', but one thing I am certain of is that one hefty element of any Supreme Being would be a sense of humour... -- WJR
- I think it's the nature of fundamentalism. I'm currently doing battle with creationists on another board who believe that the bible says the world is spherical, and that it is only 10,000 years old.
- Ninnies. It's an oblate spheroid celebrating its umpteen millionth birthday sometime about now. <http://www.disinfo.com/pages/article/id2636/pg1/> Okay, I'm worried. --TL Erm... EEK! 59% of Americans polled expect the Rapture... can we hope it'll come so they'll either disappear or get terribly embarrassed? --WJR Speaking of which: <http://www.lamerkatz.com/notquake/mistaken_rapture.shtml>. An urban legend, but a profoundly pleasing one...
- What's got its own lake and humps? - AM
- Can you clarify, or is this a trick question? --TL
- Yes. - AM
- The Loch Ness Monster? -- SDN
- Me. -- TA
- Why is smoked bacon saltier than unsmoked bacon?
- Because I licked it. --MDK?
- Why are Dutch people so tall?
- Who coined the term 'Ret Con?', when, and why?
- I'm pretty certain it comes from comics fandom, and in particular comics newsgroups; it means 'retroactive continuity'. Ah, here we go: http://www.google.com/groups?selm=aaq09vscp5ps4e8mqbd2so2gu7ehqqggsh%404ax.com&output=gplain
- Yes, yes - excellent link, by the way - but who specifically coined it? The reason i ask is that i am fairly sure that it was someone in OUSFG (Mark? Damian?), unless i'm thinking of something else.
- Um. Pass. Although now that you mention it, I have a similar memory.
- I believe the honour falls to Mister Damien Cugley.
- here's what the rec.arts.comics FAQ says:
"Coined by Damian Cugley, retcon is a shortening or verbification of "retroactive continuity". Its first known use was in the letter column of All-Star Squadron #18, where Roy Thomas wrote that he heard it at a convention."
- Where does "My work here is done!" come from?