"The Big Thread Of Curious Curiosities" or "Seil's Big Thread Of Questions"

[Seil]

Since there is so much Seil doesn't understand (Zim Moment) SO MUCH! I thought it prudent to make a thread to ask them. Feel free to ask a question, too! Let's see if they get answered:

What is wind and how is it... well, windy?
I smoke, and people tell me it's adictive. How are cyanide and all that crap that people tell me are in my smokes addictive?
Why is the sky blue?
Why are people aware of the suffering of others, but don't turn to foodbanks or communism or whatever we're supposed to turn to?
Why are human beings religious?
Why - when humans have no claws, teeth or speed - are we the dominant species?
Why do we kiss each other?
Why do we gamble? (Like, literally, Vegas and such.)

[Fenris]

What is wind and how is it... well, windy? - Air from high pressure systems moving into areas with low air pressure.

I smoke, and people tell me it's adictive. How are cyanide and all that crap that people tell me are in my smokes addictive? - Nicotine causes your brain to develop a chemical addiction. It also relieves stress and your brain likes that.

Why is the sky blue? - Reflection of the oceans on the water vapor in the sky.

Why are people aware of the suffering of others, but don't turn to foodbanks or communism or whatever we're supposed to turn to? - Someone else will do it.

Why are human beings religious? - Gives them answers and comfort.

Why - when humans have no claws, teeth or speed - are we the dominant species? - We have tools and brains.

Why do we kiss each other? - Pheromones.

Why do we gamble? (Like, literally, Vegas and such.) - Provides an adrenaline rush, which is addictive.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Why - when humans have no claws, teeth or speed - are we the dominant species?

(Warning, kind of a rambly post. I had a nasty "hoomans r teh suxxors" phase when I was younger that I'm embarrassed of now. Consider this overcompensation)

Because we figured out that even if we aren't born with those things, we can use our brains to make them. Also, speed means jack shit if you can't keep it up, and most speedy animals can't; look up persistence hunting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting). It didn't matter how fast a gazelle could run from a hunter if that hunter was smart enough to track it by signs at a leisurely pace while the gazelle ran itself to death. Sociability is a big factor as well; one human with a spear might not beat a lion, but five or six working together would have a better chance. Finally, we have fire. No other animal uses it and boy did we come up with a lot of uses for it. It kept us warm, let us work later at night, helped us fashion complex tools, prepare food, and mold the environment to suit our needs. Cooking is surprisingly important here; cooked meat is mostly free of parasites and disease and fire can also break down harmful compounds in fruits, vegetables and nuts. As a result, we can acquire nutrition from just about any other living thing. Cooked food also breaks down more efficiently in the body, so we get the new calories and nutrients without wasting energy on digestion. Higher protein diets allowed the brain to develop greater complexity, which further allowed for development of core abilities like logical and abstract reasoning.

[Amake]

The different air pressures come mostly from the temperature difference between the equator and the poles. All that expanding air has to go somewhere.

It should be noted that smoking only relieves the stress built up by nicotine abstinence. They've done studies you know,

I think the atmosphere filtering out most of the visible light except blue also contributes to the color.

It's hard to do what's right. People are often confused or scared or worst of all lazy.

Religious ecstasy has been connected to a spike of activity in the left temporal globe of the brain. If that's how God chooses to show herself or if it's a hallucination generated by one of the many mysterious workings of our brains is pretty irrelevant, as long as you may experience this particular pleasure. If you're asking why we organize in religious groups, it's because of traditions going back to the time when hallucinations was a fact of life plus our social instincts creating a craving to belong with someone.

Humans are extremely generic as animals go. We're specialized in having no specialization. We're adaptive, creative, and we invented agriculture which led to a population explosion. It pretty much follows from there.

Kissing constitutes an intimate physical contact involving some of the most sensitive parts of our body plus the psychological contact of seeing eye to eye. Surely you can see the attraction.

Gambling is basically risk management. It combines real and immediate danger - which we crave because the awareness of the presence of death makes us feel so alive - with a sense of control, because obviously you choose to stake your rent money. Throw in the ecstasy of gold - the very real, similar to a shark's feeding frenzy need to reach greedily for any prospects of great wealth - and you've got a reliable moneymaker in a casino.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

The sky is blue because of rayleigh scattering of sunlight on the air. This is why the horizon is a more lighter blue than overhead because the light coming from the horizon goes through more air to get to you so there is more scattering which means more blue.
This is also why a sunset is for example red- blue light scatters out of the sunlight preferentially but because the light path through the atmosphere is so long it scatters out before we see it and this leaves the red which then scatters and we see it.

Cigrattes- while they put in lots of ingredients to addict you (it is one of the reason a cigarette has about 500 ingredients) nicotine is the prime cause. It is a stimulant and increases dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway which is the pleasure pathway- the brain likes pleasure so you get addicted in the rush-withdrawal cycle.
Smoking does not relieve the stress brought on by abstinence initial- it reeased dopamines (and lotsof other neurotransmitters in the brain) which are pretty much how you define nice things. Once you are in the rush-withdrawal cycle this is pretty much the case but only because the withdrawal part of the cycle is very harsh/


Religion- provides a sense of orgasiation, community, belonging as well as an explanation of the harsh, cruel impersonal universe and provides meaning to your live and to give you goals.

Re helping out the world- combination of bystander effect (why should I be the first one to help, all these people aren't elping), removal from the cause of suffering- they don't have to encounter it constantly so they can minimise it and our brains are geared up to tackle immediate intiial danger that affects us rather than abstract problems- and attribution fallacy (you know what you have been through, all the struggles and you appear to work hard whereas you cannot see what the poor people have been through so their is a tendency to attribute their problems to their own defects)


Wind- as other have said it pressure/temperature effects.
Wind moves from high pressure to lower pressure, which is pretty much straight up. But when you combine that with a rotating planet and temperature differentials you get wind.

Gambling- releases dopamine, pleasurable.

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

Fluids, like air, move from areas of higher density to areas of lower density. These density differentials can be caused by many things but are primarily caused by uneven heat distribution throughout the atmosphere. Other sources of atmospheric movement that may impact on a larger or smaller scale include the Coriolis force and centrifugal force -- which is to say, conservation of angular momentum.
Nicotine, the primary chemical of note for the addictiveness of tobacco, is a stimulant and an inhibitor of certain autonomic neurotransmitters related to stress response. It also interacts with enzymes that would normally break down dopamine, norepenephrine, and serotonin. It can also alter the development of the dopamine regulation system if used often early enough, leading to leading to chronic under-production of dopamine. Lastly, it produces severe withdrawal effects during disuse.
The atmosphere in general acts as a disperser of light, similar to a prism. The shorter wavelength of blue light makes it more susceptible to scattering downwards, towards the earth. Other wavelengths of light are scattered, but tend to move in a straighter line. This light, now less its lower-frequency wavelengths, appears redder and creates the sunrise/sunset band and strikes the moon during lunar eclipses.
Just because people are aware of the suffering of others, doesn't mean they care. Or, more accurately, doesn't mean the dis-utility associated with their level of interest is greater than the dis-utility of the forms of making a difference. The other psychological forces at work include learned helplessness and the bystander effect.
This is a complex question with thousands of complex answers and very few people completely at ease with our current answers (or even definition of religious behavior in the strict terms of mechanisms of appearance) but generally the idea is that humans seek to explain the unexplained through the location and extrapolation of patterns, and humans tend to be tuned to see human-like tendencies before other tendencies in objects and events, leading to pareidolia and anthropomorphism.
Tools and social structures.
There seem to be numerous reasons, including closeness of body and the sensitivity of the human lips. From a strictly evolutionary perspective it possibly relates to social grooming behavior or intentional exposure as a sign of social intimacy. There is even a theory cataglottism or tongue-kissing in protective environments can help align immune systems. It is also not confined to humans, most primates, and many non primate mammals kiss. Many types of birds also engage behaviors ranging from active, reciprocal cataglottism to simple billing.
Perseverance and pattern acquisition are important survival traits. To that end, most animals feel pleasurable sensations when they succeed despite adversity, or when they succeed in identifying patterns in seemingly random outcomes. Gambling utilizes both of these mechanisms to promote prolonged engagement.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Blue light isn't scattered "downwards" which is a meaningless direction. Rayleigh scattering is proportional to wavelength, being stronger as wavelength gets shorter thus the shorter wavelength blue colours are scattered more strongly. The colour you see is all the wavelengths but blue is just much stronger.
And then the sunrise/sunset band because the light goes through the atmosphere more before t reaches us and the blue light is scattered away

[Seil]

Neat.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I have a question: Why are electrons always sad?

[Toast]

Why are people aware of the suffering of others, but don't turn to foodbanks or communism or whatever we're supposed to turn to?

Bystander effect and anonymity. We're much more likely to offer aid to those who we think are within our group than those who are without.

Why are human beings religious?
We're meaning making beings, but we're also lazy and socially groomed to accept the meaning making of others rather than doing it ourselves. Religion is the quest for certainty in the face of the indifference of the universe.

Why - when humans have no claws, teeth or speed - are we the dominant species?
Endurance, communication, agriculture, long term planning, complex tool use and probably a host of other little factors too numerous to name.

Why do we kiss each other?
Kissing serves a lot of social and physical functions. Chimpanzees kiss to reconcile after disagreements. bonobos frequently have sex facing each other so that they can communicate wants/desires and enhance intimacy. Humans have a similar basis, and have added other social functions to it as well.

Why do we gamble? (Like, literally, Vegas and such.)
Combine the variable rate of reward with the variable value of reward and you have the most powerful reinforcement schedule we know about. Gambling and mmos both rely on this behavior pattern.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Variable reinforcement is how you get animals to do an action in highest frequency. Like giving them a button that randomly gives them food they will press it at the highest rate with variable reinfocement.

But we're now talking about the crippling depression of electrons

[Sifright]

Electrons are always sad and depressed because they are so negative.

[Amake]

Here I thought MMOs only used random figures to ensure that any given player has a chance to win no matter how much they suck, and let them blame their bad luck if they lose instead of having to admit they're not as skilled as the next guy. But it makes perfect sense what you say.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Electrons are always sad and depressed because they are so negative.

But that is just a random labelling convention!

[BitVyper]

But that is just a random labelling convention!

And racial profiling is very sad.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I would think in this case it is pretty justified

[Ecks]

timeforseilthread.jpg

I have a question. Of all of Phoenix Wright's courtroom rivals, who is the most awesome?

Is it Godot?

[Aerozord]

What is wind and how is it... well, windy?
heat from the sun causes warm air to rise and cooler air comes to take its place.

I smoke, and people tell me it's adictive. How are cyanide and all that crap that people tell me are in my smokes addictive?Nicotine is addictive, and the primary reason you smoke.

Why is the sky blue?refracted light, in fact the sky is just an optical illusion.

Why are people aware of the suffering of others, but don't turn to foodbanks or communism or whatever we're supposed to turn to?cause then we'd be suffering. Its arguable whether lowering your standard of living to raise someone elses is in the end, good. If I gave away my food, shelter, ect then someone else is better off, but now I'm the poor one. Its better to give yourself a firm foundation to support yourself before you start worrying about others

Why are human beings religious?

either we have an inherent need to give reason behind random crap, or there is actual truth behind it.

Why - when humans have no claws, teeth or speed - are we the dominant species?murder, anything that was a threat to us we kill. Eventually any animal that actively hunts us has died off as a result. Humans are very protective of other humans, and very vindictive if one of us is harmed.

Why do we kiss each other?its a primate thing. Our lips are very sensitive.

Why do we gamble? (Like, literally, Vegas and such.)
Positive reinforcement. Skinner box studies have shown us that we are more likely to repeat an action if the return is not guaranteed.

[Doc ock rokc]

Why do we gamble? (Like, literally, Vegas and such.)
Most of gambling can be attributed to the Skinners Box
(http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2487-The-Skinner-Box)

[Kerensky287]

I have a question. Why ain't there no rest for the wicked?

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I would posit that wicked have more rest than the non-wicked

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Because money don't grow on trees. We got bills to pay, we got a mouth to feed, ain't nothing in this world for free.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Wicked people don't do anything of those things.

[Amake]

I posit people who use the saying are typically moral individuals who recognize that they are wicked creatures, and deny themselves rest as a small penance for their wickedness, while using the saying as a joke to make it less serious.

[Aerozord]

the expression is most likely meant to convey that justice finds us all and the wicked must constantly be on guard for the comeuppance

[Sithdarth]

I've always heard it as: "There is no rest for the weary."

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Well obviously not. Otherwise they wouldn't be weary.

[Aerozord]

I've always heard it as: "There is no rest for the weary."

this is also an expression indicating that when one is busy they are perceived to be continually so.

I am not sure if one spawned the other or they are just two independently created expressions that happen to sound alike.

[Sithdarth]

A little searching seems to reveal each individually has a different source in the bible. They just happen to sound alike.

[Seil]

If we evolved alongside plants, why is it that plants make their own food via photosynthesis and we have to deal with PETA?

[Sithdarth]

We didn't. Plants evolved first and have a lot more genes than we do. Ok some plants have a lot more genes than we do and there is debate about how much of those are just duplicates. The main point is that plants where here before we were and in order to avoid competition with plants for sunlight we started eating them and then to avoid competition with the plant eaters we started eating each other as well. (We being animals.) Go play spore it pretty nicely explains this.

[Eltargrim]

If we evolved alongside plants, why is it that plants make their own food via photosynthesis and we have to deal with PETA?

It's not easy being green.

[Bobbey]

I have a question.

How is it that salt water from an Ocean or a Sea, upon entering a smaller body of water like a river, loses it's salinity? What exactly is the process that makes this happen? I've always been curious about that.

[Aerozord]

I have a question.

How is it that salt water from an Ocean or a Sea, upon entering a smaller body of water like a river, loses it's salinity? What exactly is the process that makes this happen? I've always been curious about that.

can you explain your question abit, water from the ocean doesn't enter smaller bodies of water, smaller bodies of water flow into the ocean

[Ryanderman]

I have a question.

How is it that salt water from an Ocean or a Sea, upon entering a smaller body of water like a river, loses it's salinity? What exactly is the process that makes this happen? I've always been curious about that.

With absolutely no research, my understanding is that water from Oceans or seas never directly flows into smaller bodies of water. Water cycles from oceans to lakes and streams through evaporation and precipitation. And the evaporating water leaves the salt behind when it does.

[Bobbey]

That makes sens. I actually thought that it went
both ways on some places on the planet.

[Aerozord]

That makes sens. I actually thought that it went
both ways on some places on the planet.

both ways no, the opposite way, yes. The dead sea is below sea level and as a result is ten times as salty

[Seil]

Why is it if I have something in my eye, or the hiccups - even a screaming child - people feel the need to tell me how to handle it?

[Aerozord]

Why is it if I have something in my eye, or the hiccups - even a screaming child - people feel the need to tell me how to handle it?

mix of empathy and pretentiousness, cause of the empathy we know how much those things suck but our pretentious side makes us feel like we are the ones that know the solution so you should totally take our advice since if you already knew you wouldn't have this problem ^_^

why if you have tried it and it doesn't work you often get things like "odd, always works for me", which in douchiest situations is code for "you clearly did it wrong"

[Nique]

When will cats evolve into their homo sapiens equivalents ala Red Dwarf?

[Seil]

Why are humans pink?
Why are dogs friendlier than cats?
Why do I procrastinate?
What's the best way for a newcomer to get an elected position in the political game?

[Magus]

Why are humans pink?

So only pink people are human? Here's a better question: why are you so racist?

Why are dogs friendlier than cats?

Cats were invented by Egyptian warlock pharaohs in a psychics experiment. Cats can control certain weakminded humans via telepathy and do not need to be friendly to get food.

Why do I procrastinate?

Maybe it has to do with spending way too much time thinking up inane questions.

What's the best way for a newcomer to get an elected position in the political game?

Be rich, ruthless, heartless, soulless, and able to convince people you are a cowboy-folksy-outsider from Texas despite growing up in New England and graduating from Yale and Harvard.

[Terex4]

When will cats evolve into their homo sapiens equivalents ala Red Dwarf?
Evolution is based on need. Considering cats have already enslaved the human race, they do not require the unique gifts our thumbs grant us.

[Magus]

Why is the sky blue? - Reflection of the oceans on the water vapor in the sky.

Hahaha, whoa there, Fenris. Smarty was way too nice to you by just going ahead and posting the correct answer. You sound like my mother.

...yes, I'm aware I sound like an asshole!

[Aerozord]

Why are humans pink?


what colors your skin is red, skin cells are white, sooo

Why are dogs friendlier than cats?

dogs have a master servant nature, cats are inherently independent. ie that cat is just living with you for the free food and shelter.


Why do I procrastinate?


work sucks

What's the best way for a newcomer to get an elected position in the political game?locally? find out the mentality of your city and appeal to that, nationally, nothing you aren't getting elected

[TopHatAssassin]

I have a question:

If a chicken had lips, could it whistle?

[Magus]

what colors your skin is red, skin cells are white, sooo

lol I hope you are making a joke like I was...

[Overcast]

I have a question:

If a chicken had lips, could it whistle?

It could, but if it would is debatable.

Humans are pink because of hemoglobin. There is a lot of it when you cut people open.

Dogs were domesticated by humans to aid them in hunting, causing codependency and friendliness. Cats were domesticated for companionship, and as such they developed a much less cooperative attitude, much like people.

Look into local political positions in your town, find one that interests you, and grassroots yourself up from the bottom and in time you may find yourself at the top.

[Magus]

Humans are pink because of hemoglobin. There is a lot of it when you cut people open.


I...I really hope everybody is joking on this one. I kind of started out laughing and now I'm just kind of crying a little.

[Overcast]

Yup. I figured you needed one more bout of ignorance. I wasn't sure how you'd take it though. I was kinda banking on you snapping. Why aren't you snapping? You were supposed to snap and explain this shit.

[Magus]

It is our educational system that is responsible for your failures! Sue your high schools for their faulty science courses! SUE THEM

But yeah if you really want to know your skin color is determined by the amount of and type of melanin in your skin, which is determined by your genes. The amount of blood in your skin cells has some effect on it as well, of course (like a ruddier complexion, for example), but obviously this is far less of a factor than melanin which determines, you know, whether you are white, black, brown, yellow, red, etc. and various degrees therein.

[Amake]

Also dogs unlike cats are pack animals. We likely learned the most fundamental tenets of social interaction by studying their ancestors, and over time we have gotten pretty good at getting along with them. As long as we don't let them skip two meals in a row anyway.

Procrastination is a toughie. I suspect everyone has their own reasons to do it. For me it's mostly deep seated perfectionism, as far as I've been able to figure out. On a more general level it's probably related to the fear of change and avoiding responsibility for one's own decisions by not making any.

[Sithdarth]

The cat thing is relatively simple. Cats domesticated themselves and we domesticated dogs on purpose. Therefore we purposely bred into dogs traits behaviors we liked and were useful, i.e. the social interaction traits. Cats on the other hand domesticated themselves and so the selection of traits wasn't nearly as focused and amounted to whatever was enough to get a human to feed me. (Or so I read somewhere.)

That is not to say that there aren't breeds of cats that are much more domesticated. You can certainly breed a cat to be just as social as a dog. They've already done it with mice and foxes.

[Seil]

What's a fart?
Why do we like watching sunrises and sunsets?
Why is man creative?
When can we expect clean, renewable fuel sources like the ones in the sci-fi films?
Why haven't we cured cancer yet?
Why do I yawn?
Why do people bulls***?

[mauve]

Yawning: If I remember correctly, yawning is the body's attempt to get more oxygen. My guess is that more oxygen to the brain would fight tiredness?? I dunno. I might be wrong about this.

[Bobbey]

If our bodies attempted to get more oxygen by yawning, then we would be yawning all the time while we were working out or running a mile. I remember reading a Cracked article (http://www.cracked.com/article/161_6-things-your-body-does-every-day-that-science-cant-explain/) saying that even science can't explain why exactly we yawn, and why the hell it's so contagious (the ''when someone yawns, you're likely to yawn as well'' phenomenon).

[Overcast]

You yawn as an age old practiced reaction made up by primitive man in order to excuse putting your arm around someone you like. It was so popular it became genetic.

[Seil]

I'm yawning right now.

[Seil]

Are astronauts world weary?

[Melfice]

What's a fart?
Why do we like watching sunrises and sunsets?
Why is man creative?
When can we expect clean, renewable fuel sources like the ones in the sci-fi films?
Why haven't we cured cancer yet?
Why do I yawn?
Why do people bulls***?

A fart is simply the expulsion of certain gasses from the body.

We watch sunrises and sunsets because of the pretty, pretty colours involved. (Your mileage may vary)

As for the cure for cancer... because cancer isn't just one "disease". There's a whole gamut, and nearly all of them are different. And aside from that, cancer is a mutation of the body. We're only just starting to learn how that works. Why does a catalyst cause certain cells to multiply uncontrollably? Why doesn't said catalyst cause the cells to die instead? (not that that'd be any better, mind. Necrosis is a scary thing.)

[Menarker]

Found a site that addresses curiousities I never even thought of. ^^

http://www.wisegeek.com/
(Scroll down a little to get a list of catagories if you just want to browse it)

[Pip Boy]

If you eat two skittles, do you taste the double rainbow?

[Doc ock rokc]

If you eat two skittles, do you taste the double rainbow?

no you have to taste two of each type of skittles at once to have a double rainbow all the way.

[Sithdarth]

There is some evidence that yawning is actually away to cool the brain/body. Personally I think it's a complex phenomena that occurs for several different reason. To put it another way the yawn serves several different functions and the idea that it has one distinct cause and reason is false.

[Magus]

Yawns might balance air or fluid pressure on the outside/inside of the ear canals/nasal passages/things.

At least that is my theory since yawning seems to make my ears do weird things.

Obviously when you see someone else yawn you're all like "man I want to balance the air/fluid pressures in my sinus systems too!" and so your body subconsciously gives you the urge to yawn.

Case solved sort of maybe probably not.