Archive for April, 2008
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
How Would You Piss Off a Ghost
Say you were spending one night in a haunted inn that is located at the center of an ancient English stone circle. Supposing that ghosts, spirits, and so on exist, what would you do, say, or bring to provoke an encounter?
7 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, communication, death, language, metaphysics, sociology by robocop is bleeding
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Do you vote?
Do you vote in local or national elections? If so, why? If not, why not?
19 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, culture, politics by IndigoRain
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
What would make cubicles better?
The office cubicle — four interchangeable grey walls surrounding a desk — is the fixture of the modern corporate work aesthetic. Nobody likes them, but abolishing them by force of will won’t work, so:
What could make cubicles better? What’s been done already?
6 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, culture, work by Josh Millard
Monday, April 28th, 2008
What is a metauniverse?
The question comes courtesy of the referrer logs; I hate to think that whoever was doing their metauniverse research came up empty-handed, so, okay:
What is it? What isn’t it? How many are there? What colors do they come in? Etc.
5 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, metaphysics, philosophy by Josh Millard
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
What would happen if we cured cancer?
Recently, I watched a (much discussed) “60 Minutes” episode about a potential cancer cure. I know that sort of news story pops up all the time. Like most, this is probably much ado about nothing. But let’s pretend its true. Five years from now, we’re able to cure all cancer.
My initial thought is “That would […]
7 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, death, medicine by grumblebee
Friday, April 18th, 2008
Have you gone green?
Have you made any attempts to change the environment for the better? If so, what have you done? Do you bring your own bags to the grocery store, or use CFLs? Do you find it easy to live a greener life?
24 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, economics, priorities by IndigoRain
Friday, April 18th, 2008
What’s it like to feel attractive?
I’m sure there are some people out there who are confused about whether they’re attractive or not. But I bet most of us have a gut-level feeling about our looks.
It doesn’t matter (to this question) whether our feelings are based in reality or not (whether there’s such a thing as objective beauty is a subject […]
17 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, culture, sociology by grumblebee
Friday, April 18th, 2008
Video games: the new book, or the new cap gun?
There are folks who malign, and folks who defend, video games as a one of the main forms of entertainment for the current generation of kids; and it seems to me that one of the touchstone arguments in either direction is a comparison to what kids were doing thirty or fifty years ago instead.
But what […]
6 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, culture, entertainment by Josh Millard
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
Which name is better?
You are about to have a boy child, and for some reason, it is imperative that you choose one of these two names:
Adolf
Gaylord
Which is better? Why? Discuss.
12 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, identity by Mister_A
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
Corey Fight: Haim or Feldman?
6 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, culture, entertainment by Josh Millard
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Objectivism: what’s the deal?
I feel like I can divvy up the people I’ve met into two groups: people who are angry that they bothered reading all the way through Atlas Shrugged (or Fountainhead), and Objectivists. Ayn Rand gets a lot of guff, but she’s got her fans, and literary disgruntledness aside I’ve met some perfectly nice and […]
3 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, philosophy by Josh Millard
Friday, April 11th, 2008
Is Alex Millard just a totally awesome guy?
Short answer: yes. But being as how it is his birthday today and he is my brother, I thought maybe you folks could go into a little more detail about what makes him so dang keen. While some of you may be familiar with him (e.g. for his Arlo Guthrie impersonation or for his hotdog-waggilin’ […]
22 Comments » - Posted in bigbig by Josh Millard
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
Mankind and Womankind
Women, what things do you wish men widely or more commonly knew about womankind? Men, what things do you wish women widely or more commonly knew about mankind? What misperceptions do you think the opposite gender has about your own that you’d wish would be corrected?
13 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, identity, sociology by WCityMike
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
Paper or plastic?
What do you choose when you’re at the grocery store? Why? Is your answer “(c) other”?
Do you even have a choice? Do you remember a point where you didn’t?
13 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, culture by Josh Millard
Monday, April 7th, 2008
Two’s a crowd?
If I met my genetic duplicate, would I instantly like him or fear him? What if I was the duplicate?
(Hat tip to robocop is bleeding, who posited this and other questions over in Metatalk recently.)
7 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, identity, philosophy, scifi by Josh Millard
Friday, April 4th, 2008
Is it our nature to dominate?
I recently read a book which included an argument that the story of human history was our desire to impose power and control structures over each other - men over women, the rich over the poor, etc. Since my Master’s work focused on this type of topic (the nature of power structures that society […]
4 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, culture, philosophy, sociology by never used baby shoes
Friday, April 4th, 2008
The art of ugliness?
Is doing something repulsive well a valuable kind of art? What merit do you see (or not see) in refined, skillful ugliness in graphic art, music, writing? Does a mastery of something unpleasant make it more reprehensible, or subvert its reprehensibility, or both?
What piece of art (door wide open for what qualifies) has […]
5 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, communication, culture, language, music, sociology by Josh Millard
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
What do you worry you’ll never understand?
As much as I’d like to think that Big Big Question (along with a number of other fine sites and misc. internet and non-internet venues) makes for a good way to get some head-scratchers scratched and What Ifs what-iffed, there are probably some more complicated life mysteries that seems less solvable, less answerable.
So what are […]
17 Comments » - Posted in bigbig, philosophy by Josh Millard
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
What is your least favorite kind of sick?
It’s four in the morning, and I’m awake with a sore throat. I cannot stand a freakin’ sore throat: I can’t ignore it, and it doesn’t daze me such that I can just drift drearily through it. Two thumbs down.
What’s the symptom that bugs you most? Worst minor malady? And why?