Boerseun Posted June 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2006 Do elephants sneeze? Seriously - I've never heard of it, but that might explain a lot of the green slime we see dripping off trees in the bush here in Africa. So... do they? :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrotex Posted June 15, 2006 Report Share Posted June 15, 2006 lessee...stupid questions. It was 1971, I was a grad student at Mississippi State University, and I had fallen in with a bunch of really kool dope smokin' hippies. Stacy was the leader, eventually my best friend, editor of the campus newspaper, ringleader and hedonist. His new girlfriend was Mel, a bubbly freshman, 5'2", with a body and face that caused grown men to walk into trees. Stacy had pulled my wheelchair up to the loft where he and Mel were living, for a party. There were half a dozen of us around the chianti bottle, talking about sex. I had just described (in detail) how I had done it the first time. Mel was particularly interested. She said, "That's great! ... Have you ever done it standing up in the shower?" A sudden silence hit the room like 40 pounds of elephant ****. It took another two seconds, then her eyes popped wide open and her hand flew to her mouth in terror. I did the only thing possible. I burst into laughter until the tears were streaming down my face. The whole room just totally fell apart. It was a great time to be alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boerseun Posted June 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2006 Hahaha! :beer: My mate's father Norman (down in Cape Town) had to help a friend of his buy a house recently. His friend is totally blind, and needed Norm to check the house out for him. He's a widower, so he needed help. So they got to this house, Norman with the blind guy in tow, and the estate agent was informed of the situation with the blind buyer. ...and, of course, throughout the entire trip through the house and the property, the agent couldn't stop blabbing about the wonderful view of the bay. Idjit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anglepose Posted June 16, 2006 Report Share Posted June 16, 2006 Have you heard when some one has done somthing wrong and get asked what they did they reply."i havent done nothing"Double negative hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallenrm Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Well, here's a question, perhaps not really stupid: Why are hen's eggs are always oval shaped and not spherical, like those of most insects? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boerseun Posted October 22, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Bird's eggs are oval with a pointed side and a round side so that in the even of rolling our the nest, they'll roll in a circle, and won't roll away. (Fat lot of good that'll do for a tree-nesting bird... SPLAT!) ...or so I've been told. Dunno if it's true, though, but it does kinda make sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallenrm Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 This was aquestion asked to me in my series Curiosity Corner in the popular science monthly called Science Reporter. My answer was as follows: No accepted explanation for the oval shape of a bird’s egg is known. One can at best venture an informed guess. The reason may lie in the ultimate function of the egg than in its process of formation. Since an egg is an embryo several metabolic processes that require oxygen from the atmosphere are crucial for its hatching. As we know a bird’s egg has an air sac located at its broader edge. It is through this sac that oxygen diffusses inside. If the egg were spherical in shape this sac could be blocked when it faces the ground. An oval shape ensures that the chances of the air sac facing the ground are minimal and hence the chances that the egg will hatch successfully increase. Several other animals and insects do lay almost spherical eggs, but then they lay many more eggs at a time and only few hatch successfully. Does anybody have any comments on this answer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrotex Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 ...Does anybody have any comments on this answer?Plausible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boerseun Posted October 22, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Makes a lot more sense than my explanation, I reckon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GAHD Posted October 23, 2006 Report Share Posted October 23, 2006 Far as I know an egg's shape is simply caused by the way the bird's reproductive tract squeezes it out while the shell is still semi-soft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallenrm Posted October 23, 2006 Report Share Posted October 23, 2006 Far as I know an egg's shape is simply caused by the way the bird's reproductive tract squeezes it out while the shell is still semi-soft. Yes, that too is a factor to be considered in fact, in my article I also said: The egg of a bird is also a result of growth of a cellular mass inside its ovum. This growth is again almost symmetric hence an egg inside the body of a bird is almost spherical. It assumes an oval shape, only as a result of the differences in pressure around its surface as it is ejected from the cochlea ( the organ through which the egg is ejected). This is so because an egg at the time of being laid is fairly plastic. The cochlea tract has to stretch quite a bit at the time of ejection. Towards the end of ejaculation it contracts and hence the circumference of the egg at one end is smaller. Here's yet another stupid question of the same genre: What is the reason for the conical shape of the candle flame? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted October 23, 2006 Report Share Posted October 23, 2006 Far as I know an egg's shape is simply caused by the way the bird's reproductive tract squeezes it out while the shell is still semi-soft.Yes, that too is a factor to be considered in fact, in my article I also said: Not so fast!:wink: According to another several sources, the chicken egg is already hard upon arrival. The egg shell is hard at the time of laying and the feed has a limited role in deciding its colour.http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061001070709AAPJ2U4 Web Results 1 - 10 of about 30,200 for Is a chicken egg soft when it's laid?. (0.10 seconds) ronthepon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallenrm Posted October 23, 2006 Report Share Posted October 23, 2006 Thanks Turtle for correcting me!! :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boerseun Posted October 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2006 What is the reason for the conical shape of the candle flame? When the plasma ignites, at the base of the flame, it's broad, fat and blue. It's blue because not all the gases in the mix have ignited yet, and is purely a chemical thing. The air sucked in to provide oxygen is relatively cold, and now everything starts getting hot (because of the continuous ignition). The resulting air rises, and the higher it rises, the more complete the ignition gets. That's why the flame's colour change as you go up. But now, the hot gas gets hotter still, which accellerates the mix due to normal convection. And the faster the gas goes, the thinner it stretches the 'body' of the flame out. So, airflow at the bottom is slow; flame is fat.The higher up the flame the faster the gas flows, and the thinner the flame. Hence the conical shape. Funny enough, this isn't demonstrable on the Space Station... Convection there doesn't work, and any flame will expand spherically until the oxygen inside the sphere is used up, and will then die. ronthepon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kero Posted October 23, 2006 Report Share Posted October 23, 2006 This may be a stupid question, but i think its more of a stupid system. How come someone will not be executed because they are sick? If you are going to kill someone why does it matter if they are in ill-health? Crazy countires that kill people...:eek_big: ronthepon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drip Curl Magic Posted October 23, 2006 Report Share Posted October 23, 2006 This may be a stupid question, but i think its more of a stupid system. How come someone will not be executed because they are sick? If you are going to kill someone why does it matter if they are in ill-health? Crazy countires that kill people...:eek_big: execution. I think, if I was going to be executed, it wouldn't matter either way to me. If I was going to die anyways, why not just put a bullet in my head the moment the decision to kill me is made? Getting sent to death row must be the most depressing thing ever. Years to anticipate a deadline. ronthepon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallenrm Posted October 23, 2006 Report Share Posted October 23, 2006 What is the reason for the conical shape of the candle flame? Good attempt Boerseun! Here's my answer: A candle flame is essentially a mass of gases evolved as a result of of vaprization of the hydrocarbon molecules of the wax. The larger particles emit yellow light because of incandescence while the smaller particles produced by the combustion emit blue light because they are made up of atoms/molecules in the exited state. The flame is broader at the base, because most of the gases are indeed evolved here. As they rise up they cool down due to exposure to the surroundings and stop emitting light hence the flame becomes thinner. Thus the shape of the flame tapers off. ronthepon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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