Archive for December, 2007
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Golddigger?
Would you marry someone for money? Someone who’s average-looking, no hideous deformities. Let’s also assume you generally like the person; they’re not a total knee-biter.
Hat tip: Free Money Finance
10 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, economics, sociology by dbl
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
What is belief?
I’ve been in countless discussions about theism and atheism. But it just occurred to me that most (all?) of these discussions have been meaningless (or at least not as meaningful as they could have been) because the participants never defined “belief.” I say I don’t believe in God. Fred says he does. I ask him […]
19 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, metaphysics, philosophy, religion by grumblebee
Saturday, December 29th, 2007
Could you lead a double life?
There are hundreds of scenarios, but here are two to get the discussion started:
- you simultaneously fall in deep, indescribable love with two people, and begin relationships with both. Could you/would you lie and attempt to work around a schedule so that you performed your relationship-building duties for both (with or without their, or one […]
12 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, ethics, fraud, sociology by Kickstart
Friday, December 28th, 2007
Can religions fight over a soul?
A question inspired by this story of Jewish children secretly baptized, the question arises:
When two (or more) religions have intersecting domains of spiritual jurisdiction, as it were, what happens? What are the theological boundaries? The social implications? Are any religions in particular more (or less) “sticky” in their metaphysical persistence?
9 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, ethics, metaphysics, religion by Josh Millard
Thursday, December 27th, 2007
What if pepsi & coke stopped marketing?
Coke and Pepsi are huge, pervasive brands — Coca Cola is arguably the text-book example of successful aggressive long-term marketing.
So what would happen if these two giant competitors suddenly just dropped their marketing budgets? Or at least reduced them by an order of magnitude?
Or, more generally, what if exceedingly well-branded companies in general — esp. […]
12 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, economics by Josh Millard
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
In what circumstance is it OK to torture?
What would the circumstance(s) have to be in order to make torture an acceptable solution? An example…would it be OK to torture one person if it was known that specific person had a specific piece of information that, if it were known by the interrogators, would save a thousand lives?
I’m in no way looking for […]
11 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, death, ethics, law by Kickstart
Tuesday, December 25th, 2007
What didn’t you get?
It’s Christmas (or thereabouts, adjusting for geography) and a lot of folks got some stuff, and that’s all great and all, but.
But! What didn’t you get? Did you not get it on purpose? Are you glad you didn’t get it? And why didn’t you get it? And what’s with this whole “getting” thing, anyway?
Etc. Happy […]
9 Comments » - Posted in bigbig by Josh Millard
Monday, December 24th, 2007
From Tribalism to Pet Rocks
There are plenty of lists of mankind’s best ideas: discovering fire, the wheel, the lever, calculus, etc. But what are the most successful BAD ideas?
14 Comments » - Posted in bigbig by BitterOldPunk
Sunday, December 23rd, 2007
If you could travel in time, what year would you go to?
It’s an oldie but a goodie. You can go forward or backward in time just once for a set amount of time. Say one week. What point in time, past or future, would you travel to?
*Please ignore stuff like the possibility of dying at certain points in time, the grandfather paradox, etc.
9 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, metaphysics, scifi by autarky
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
What happens when the planet explodes?
Take the Earth: orbiting the sun, revolving once every twenty four hours, towing the moon and any number of manmade satellites in orbit.
And then it explodes. So! A few questions:
What happens to the debris? In the short run and in the long run? What happens to the moon? And how does the planet get blown […]
4 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, physics, scifi by Josh Millard
Friday, December 21st, 2007
Would you rather be respected or loved?
As social creatures, we have some control over how we are thought of by the people we interact with: through our actions and our words and the choices that we make, we give those around us a sense of who we are, and thus shape (however directly or indirectly) how they feel about us.
Presume that […]
13 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, philosophy, sociology by Josh Millard
Thursday, December 20th, 2007
What would convince you to leave them?
What would the expected gain need to be for it to be worth it to you to agree to take a job that separated you completely from friends and family for an extended period of time?
(example: a 24 month posting at an arctic research facility with no outside contact)
16 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, economics, sociology by dyslexia
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
Do you (want to) believe?
Extra-terrestrial life! Yes? No? Maybe? Do they exist? Did they ever? Have they been here? Have we met them? Will we ever? Is that a good thing?
20 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, scifi by Josh Millard
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
How would you want to live forever?
Describe your choice of conditional immortality. The assumption here is that you can be killed, but you’ll live forever if no one manages to pull it off. You can have special powers, but you also have some sort of vulnerability.
Inspired by klangklangston’s MetaTalk comments describing his plan “to be a zombie reanimated by a hive […]
19 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, death, metaphysics, scifi by Tehanu
Monday, December 17th, 2007
How could a Ron Paul win the 2008 US Presidential election?
Ron Paul is (along with several other candidates) not a front-runner in the US Presidential primaries. But everybody loves an underdog, so here’s the question:
What sort of plausible (however unlikely, however chancy or fortuitous) scenarios could put a truly marginal candidate into the White House? What could the months-long run-up to a Paul […]
10 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, politics by Josh Millard
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
Sexism assumed?
If not expressly disavowed, is sexism assumed?
8 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, ethics, sociology by vapidave
Saturday, December 15th, 2007
How (where, when, why) would you start your own country?
Here’s a big Saturday morning topic:
Say you want to start your own country. How? When? Where? And, needless to say, we’re going to need a good name.
(Inspired by this excellent old AskMe question.)
7 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, economics, politics by Josh Millard
Friday, December 14th, 2007
What are you always recommending?
What great stuff do you find yourself passing on to other people? What are the things, places, ideas, &c that you’ve discovered that you most think others should know about or experience?
(Rescued from a deleted Ask Metafilter thread. Hat tip to Rock Steady.)
33 Comments » - Posted in bigbig by Josh Millard
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
Why do people like Apples to Apples?
Have you played this game? What’s the deal? There aren’t any real rules — the person in charge at any time just arbitrarily picks whatever answer they like.
How can anyone possibly find this fun? Can’t you pick random nouns and adjectives out of the dictionary, put them together into whatever pairs you want, and […]
6 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by bizurke
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
What are the implications of Shaq’s bigger brother in the NFL?
What would be the impact for a team that signed someone bigger than Shaq to an
NFL (American Football) team?
Let’s say he’s 7′8″, 375-400 pounds.
Would they be stoppable? Obviously he would be useful on offense, but would
they consider defense?
(Suggested by starman.)
12 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, sports by Josh Millard
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard of?
This one goes out to Brocktoon’s five-year-old son, as ventured in this recent Metatalk thread over on Metafilter:
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard of?
20 Comments » - Posted in bigbig by Josh Millard
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007
Where’s Your Jesus Now?
In today’s world, where technology (i.e., Photoshop and the
like) can be so deceptive, what ‘Proof’ would make you believe that extra-terrestrial life/a divine being had actually visited Earth?
What would you accept as proof of a bona fide “Miracle”?
19 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, metaphysics, philosophy, religion by Misha
Sunday, December 9th, 2007
Metapost: Let’s Talk About New Features.
It’s been a week since the last What Do You Want To See post, and I’d like to talk about (a) what’s new/changed, and (b) what else could happen.
1. Profile pages! If someone comments while logged in, clicking on their name in the byline of that comment will now take you to their […]
13 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, meta by Josh Millard
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
Lookit me! I’m testing the new post form too!
Heck yeah! The whole idea here is to make it easy for registered users to post their own questions directly without either (a) having to submit them blindly to the contact form or (b) futz with the full-on WP Admin interface.
Consequently, this here is a trial run by a non-admin, pants-on-one-leg-at-a-time account.
6 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by Sockpuppet
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
Is this a successful test of a new posting form?
I’m trying out a new post-submission process. This is the live-ammo test. So, is it successful? Does it work?
3 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by Josh Millard
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
Can I lie on my tombstone? About what?
I was thinking of lying on my headstone. Maybe something like “Lived May 28,
1437 - October 12, 2048. Inventor of time travel and discoverer of the third
anti-gravitic effect”.
First question: can I do this legally?
Second question: what are some good things I can lie about?
(Suggested by Kickstart.)
13 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, death, ethics, fraud, law by Josh Millard
Friday, December 7th, 2007
Who is this new author?
And why the hell is he so special? I declare him a fraud! Who’s with me?
13 Comments » - Posted in fraud by dbl
Friday, December 7th, 2007
Who’s the big threat in a suddenly hyper-intelligent animal kingdom?
Which animal species, if suddenly given human-like intelligence, would be most
successful at knocking us off the food chain and taking our place as the
planet’s dominant species?
(Suggested by Terminal Verbosity.)
32 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, scifi by Josh Millard
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
Are things bearish or bullish for Joe Average?
Is the average working American better or worse off than in decades past?
Is it easier or more difficult for an American to achieve a reasonable standard of living?
Is all of the increased wealth of our society going to a handful of folks at the top enjoying a new gilded age?
(Suggested by dbl, as lifted from […]
15 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, economics by Josh Millard
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
Who is the Kevin Bacon of music?
Who is the Kevin Bacon of music? In other words, what prolific singer,
songwriter, producer or musician can be connected to most other people in the
music industry in 7 jumps or less? For simplicity’s sake, let’s limit ourselves
to persons on record as being credited on songs, records, etc.
(Suggested by 1f2frfbf.)
37 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, music by Josh Millard
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
This is a test post!
Hi! I’m just testing something right now. Please ignore.
Thanks!
Josh
11 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by Sockpuppet
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
A good life?
Broad minimalism today:
What does it mean to live a good life?
(As suggested by Meatbomb.)
33 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, ethics, philosophy by Josh Millard
Monday, December 3rd, 2007
What would follow an utter subversion of national election results?
Here’s a premise: somehow, some organization manages to subvert the voting machines used in the US Presidential general election in November, 2008. The vote is not just fixed, it is broken — some viable candidate is handed an implausible 99% vote, or Snoopy is elected by write-in vote; something so audacious that it’s clear […]
24 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, fraud, politics by Josh Millard
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
What features or additions would you most like to see for Big Big Question?
So the site exists; we’ve got questions and answers, and it’s been an entertaining couple of days already. But what else would you like to see to make Big Big Question a better experience? What do you see as immediately useful, and what do you reckon will start to be handy a month […]
45 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, meta by Josh Millard
Saturday, December 1st, 2007
How would you be saved from the icy grip of space-death?
If the world were to suddenly stop spinning and we all got flung off it into deep space, what would be your favorite way to be saved before the vast frigidity and emptiness of space turned you into a bloated frozen explode-y corpse? Points for originality.
Extra points if you bear in mind the terrific velocity […]