I wonder...

[Amie]

going back to the game....

The inventor of cider was nominated for Demi-God status, but Bacchus was being a real dog in the manger and said he'd ditch his post as wine god if any other alcohol deities were recognised. Now, you might think that they should have turfed Bacchus and let cider-God have his day in the sun (I can't mention cider-god's real name, because that was part of the T&C for Bacchus staying on) - but they took a vote and determined that more people drink wine than cider worldwide, so that was that.

With wine often comes song (cider less so...), so:

Many non-human animals seem to like music. Given that most of them have very little opportunity to hear it in the wild (ie, it's not an evolved preference), why would a love of music be hard-wired into a non-human creature's brain?

[Mark H]

Animals assume music is produced by extremely accomplished birds, so what you are seeing is not so much a fondness for the sound, more a kind of awe that even a thrush could get its beak round something like Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance. Animals do have a measure of good taste and so hate Simply Red.

On the basis that I reject the current thinking that birds sing in the morning to lose enough weight to be able to fly, I wonder why they really do it.

[Frogg]

I always thought they were singing loud explicit territorial claims of warning to the other birds.

I wonder where in the world swearing is most prevalent.

[Tom 10]

It used to sports locker rooms, constructions sites and submarines, now its the Trump Campaign field offices.

I wonder if anyone from the future went back in time and got stuck there, other than maybe da Vinci.

[Mark H]

Well the bloke who did the pyramids obviously. And, Arnold Rimmer, the inventor of the tension sheet makes two. Maybe me, as this time we live in makes little sense to me.

I wonder if I could go forward in time if I'd find a more sensible world or a worse one. 

[Amie]

I know this is a minority view, but I think in general the world (aka people) is getting better, so I think you would find a more sensible one.

I wonder how people can see the evidence of improving literacy rates, health care, education, general understanding and tolerance (yes, I know there are still genocides, atrocities and Donald Trump, but I think in comparison to how we were even a few hundred years ago, humans are less self-serving, bigoted and violent than they have been) and conclude that things are getting worse rather than better?

[Mark H]

Actual facts don't enter into it; people are predisposed to moan. I assume evolution needed a way to keep the tongue exercised and complaining about stuff was the simplest option.

I wonder why people think tradition matters.

[Amie]

That's a great metaphysical question, and you will probably dislike my answer more than you dislike people feeling bound to honour tradition

So, the theory would go that (insert metaphysical reason here, which I won't divulge to you, because Amanda could tell you anyway) people deeply far loss, and will do anything to avoid it. Tradition makes them feel connected to something larger, and therefor else's alone and hopeless.

I wonder why, with all the various branches of metaphysics that assert that our perception of life is an illusion, or worse yet, a kind of "school" (grrrrr - really hate that one) - why so few of them question why we would have to attend a school where no one tells you what the (insert expletive) it is you're supposed to learn. Explain the lesson first, then I'll absorb it better. Oh wait, maybe no one explained the lesson because it's not really a "school" at all

[Mark H]

These would simply be people who have undergone the theoretical knowledge training needed to gain a pilots licence and whose brains were damaged by the process - most likely by the idea that there are 2 different definitions of night and the correct answer depends on whether you are undertaking the Air Law exam or the Operational Procedures one. For those of a curious disposition Air Law is form 30 minutes after sunset until 30 minutes before sunrise, whereas Op Proc is form the end of evening civil twilight to the beginning of morning civil twilight.

I wonder why the gap between knowledge required to pass exams related to practical things - such as flying - and knowledge that is useful in undertaking that those things, is so huge.

[Spell Chick]

Probably for ease of grading. Some things can't be simply put into a multiple guess test format and who wants to try to grade an essay written in sloppy penmanship and with bad spelling?


I wonder why home has such allure when we are away and such disdain when we are there.

[Mister URL]

The comfort of the familiar is desirable when we don't have it but becomes, well, familiar, when we have it. Perhaps.

I wonder why keeping hair under control (adding it, removing it, washing it, styling it, coloring it) is such a large part of human grooming. You seldom see monkeys fooling with their hair.

[Amie]

Monkeys are always fooling with their hair!!! What bizarre slobby-monkey universe are you living in?

True, they are normally pictured grooming each other - but they do groom themselves as well. All mammals do.

BUT, not all mammals can recognise themselves in a mirror. So, they have no way of knowing how their face and head-hair looks, so don't get as obsessed with it as we do. If they had a similar concept of self, I'm sure they'd do all sorts of insane things with their hair

Why do we only get acne starting at puberty, when we care probably more than at any other time in our lives how we look?