Jim N

It seems to me that the lightning that initiates the thunder is a very brief discharge of short wavelength and therefore should be a high frequency thunder maker. Can someone explain this discrepancy?

The "magic carpet" appeared to be bright LEDs in an array thin enough to roll up, but able to support hundreds of people simultaneously. What wireless link was used to change the display and how was the whole thing powered?

I heard John Bradshaw read the poem on one episode of his PBS series, The Eight Stages of Man. There is also the book by the same title and author. I don't want to buy the book to get the rest of this passage and the Internet has been no help in finding who was the original author. Does anyone have the book or know the rest of the lines?

If so, then the Hebrew God is God, unless he sent translations to other races. That might explain Hitler's rage against the Jews. If there are no other contenders for the exclusive right to Yaweh, or rather the name we do not say, like Valdemort, then Israel might consider it a green light to genocide. They have nukes, so what's the holdup? It seems to me that everyone is heathen according to one deity or another. What's your take on the subject?

The movie shows the roof of a hotel as Deckard is being "arrested" and taken to police headquarters and the sign on the roof in the lower right corner of the frame reads NUYOK. Later, when he goes to Leon's apartment, the building is seen from street level and the letters spell YUKON. Was this a goof or the prop director's attempt to make it look like there were more set pieces than they actually had? In the 25 years the movie has been talked about and dissected, no one has ever mentioned this and I've been curious as to why it was done from the very first time I watched. Now I've watched it dozens of times, including all five versions issued in The Final Cut Ultimate Edition, and I'm still curious.

I found an item I remember from elementary school and was shocked at the cost. I never knew how much the school had paid, but I'm hoping to find the answer or the method of conversion to compare 1950 dollars to 2008 dollars.

Or, looking at it from the other direction, how much value has the dollar lost since 1950?

I've checked for the past 4 hours and a star is moving along with the moon. It was closer earlier, but it's still within the halo cast by the full moon. Is this the mothership like in the movie Independence Day?

Don't read the answer until you guess, OK?

A mortuary.

With millions of sparrows, they must lose billions of feathers during moulting season. I'm 60 years old and now in a wheelchair that gives me a new outlook on the world. So, I have finally seen three sparrow feathers and kept two to show people. The first time in my life! The feather is quite different from larger birds' feathers. So, has anyone else ever wondered? Viewings offered by appointment only (grin).

I'm thinking that a plastic cube (like an icecube shape) filled with sterilized water that expnads just enough to fill the volume that wouldn't dilute the drink by melting and dissolving and could be reused with a quick rinse and back into the freezer is an idea I had that makes me ask, "Why didn't somebody think of this before?" I think it's a great idea and if it's original and somebody files a patent, I think I should get a percentage. They can work out the logistical side of how it could be manufactured and could be called "Wonder Cubes" or "Magic Rocks" or something better than that. It's my idea and if it's new, you read about it here. Any takers?

I know about exercise burning calories and consuming fat, but how many calories does an ounce of body fat equal? Or, to put it another way, how many calories burned exercising would equal losing one ounce of body fat?

I'm wondering if it's some kind of liability protection, but I can't figure a reason it's so critical to "pronounce" to the exact minute.

They've got nostrils in their beaks, so they must breathe the same dust we do and I want to know what's different. I don't think I've ever seen a bird sneeze either.

A man walks into a store and asks the clerk at the counter for a pound of Polish sausage. The clerk smiles and says, "You must be Polish." The man angrily snaps, "Oh, that makes me so darn mad. Do you say someone must be English if they order English walnuts? How about people wanting Spanish olives. Do you ask if they're Spanish? But no, just let me ask for Polish sausage and....." The clerk cut him off and calmly said, "Sir, this is a hardware store."

She called it "nuclear Wednesday", but I think her hyperbole is making a mountain out of a molehill. All I saw in the network news recap is her making a huge wave that came back to engulf her, while stonewalling like Richard Nixon during Watergate. I don't watch the show, but Rosie is always popping up so I know who she is. Looking at her web cam posting today looks like the meltdown that began on TV is almost complete. I'd like to know if I'm off base here or if it was deserving of the coverage.

If I understand the physiology of the retina and the optic nerve bundle on the rear of the eyeball, we have a blind spot in our vision that the brain fills in with missing information. But does anyone know how? Or if you were a hibernating astronaut that woke up on a totally alien planet, would you see the black spot where your brain had no experience to fill the gap?

After looking through numerous questions and answers on this site, I can't believe all the spelling errors (there's a Spell Checker, y'all), failure to capitalize proper names, and using capital "I" sometimes and "i" others--in the same sentence!!

If you know how to ask here, why don't you ask on the Web and try Goggle for your homework answers. Take a look at the space between words that gets left out like crazy.

The leaderboard can't reflect that much much activity.

Wristwatches claim that "mineral glass" resists scratches and it must be distinguishable from ordinary glass which has been made with silica, a mineral. So what makes the difference that watchmakers capitalize upon?

I want to know the name of the combined force responsible for shrinking all the matter in the universe into a "singularity" I was taught being the size of a basketball. All theories of cosmology begin with the out rush of energy, but none has addressed what held it all together before the "bang." Where did it go and what is it called?