This question comes a little late this week. Once again, I’m pulling from The World Question Center on Edge.org.
“What is the most important invention in the past two thousand years?”
I’d also like to know why you consider it the most important. I’ll answer after my readers have a chance.
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The “question mark” search barrage continues. I’m up to 290 searches for that term and about as many variants. The strangest search phrase in the past week was “question mark memory”.
Here’s this weeks question… but first, an item of interest.
Do you see that picture to the left of this, and almost every weekly question post? It’s a pretty neat question mark. I got it here from Wikimedia Commons (that site and Creative Commons search are what I use to find a majority of the images for my blog). But that little question mark has been the source of an a minor nuisance for my blog’s statistics. For the past month, someone or something has relentlessly searched using the phrase “question mark”. It has been by far the most searched term that ends up with a visit to my site over the past 30 days. In all, I’ve had 215 visits because of this, which is about 20% of my usual monthly traffic.
The funny part about this are the variations of the search phrase that were used. Many were pluralized, a couple were typos or misspellings, others added a exclamation point and/or a dashes, still others left out the space and just searched ‘questionmark’. The best, though, were the ones that use modifiers. These tended to be odd. Here’s a list:
and my favorite…
“Sexy” question mark? Talk about an odd fetish! I wonder if it’s the curvy top or the round bottom that does it for the searcher.
I didn’t realize how much I was missing the weekly question we used to post until it was gone (Janet has taken a break from it to focus on other things). Anyway, with that in mind I thought I would take on the responsibility and send something out.
This week’s question is geared to all of those Internet junkies out there….
What are some of the websites you read the most and why?
I myself need to think about this one a bit so stay tuned for my answer 
Bunnies4Buddha 
In recent blog posting Janet has mention how busy she has been. With this in mind I have come up with my own question of the week. I am hesitant to title it a TTMT seeing as those originate from her site, but none the less enjoy the following:
If you had unlimited resources to run the successful business of your choice what would it be, why would you choose it and what would be the best part of the job?
Bunnies4Buddha
Janet has a question posted for this weeks TITMT. Allow me to quote her:
“What are some of your favorite quotes, who said them and why do you like them so much? Feel free to go ahead and quote yourself, too if you so desire. Don’t try to trick me though. I’m thinking next week my question my include a few quotes and you have to figure out where they came from. If I play my cards right, this can be interactive and productive. Imagine that!”
I have a lot of favorite quotes. Unfortunately, I often disremember the exact wording and who said it. Some of my answers this week will take a bit of research. Here’s one that won’t:
“Be a philosopher, but amid all your philosophy be still a man.”
I remember this one because I see it almost every day. It is, of course, the quote I choose to use in the header of my blog. One reason for this is purely practical; it’s short enough to fit in the header. It was also chosen because of my affinity for philosophy and because as it serves as a reminder to not let one’s philosophy consume one’s life. I’ve known a few people whose fervent pursuit of knowledge prevented them from living and enjoying a normal life. Even good things must be taken in moderation.
The only unfortunate part about this quote is it’s mild sexism in the language. I understand that such language was common in Hume’s day, but still, I’d prefer if the last phrase read “be still a human” or “be still a person”. Which do you think would be better?
Here’s another that requires no research:
Janet has brought us another though-provoking question. She was inspired by a post by another blogger named Lorna. This week’s TITMT is both a question and a new vocabulary word.
disremember
\dis-rih-MEM-ber\
verb
Meaning
: forgetExample Sentence
“‘It was the British who did it,’ I said quickly. ‘I disremember the place and time….’” (E.L. Doctorow, Loon Lake)What are a list of things you wish you could disremember?
I can think of a few things I’d like to dismember 
The first answer that springs to my mind is all the embarrassing experiences that I’ve had. As a kid, I had social graces that could charitably be described as ‘sub-par’. They really haven’t gotten much better since. Thus I have no shortage of such memories. But, in my ongoing effort to disremember those experiences, I’m not going to repeat them here. I’m sure my wife will be more than happy to relate some of those stories to anyone who asks, though.
Really, I have no trouble forgetting things. I could even be called a great disrememberer! Usually, the first thing I forget is when other people make mistakes. I usually forget well before I even have a chance to forgive. So much of the list of things I’d like to disremember are likely already forgotten.
There are a few songs I’d like to disremember. Thanks to Janet’s blog, top of that list is The Facts of Life mind worm theme song. Speaking of which, I’d like to disremember ever single damn sitcom I’ve ever had the misfortune of watching. I’d best stop here lest this post degenerates into a rant about bad music and bad TV.
I’m actually posting this weeks TITMT ‘on time’ this week. Janet usually posts the question sometime Tuesday evening (EST), and I see it for the first time Wednesday morning. So for us, it’s really (Re)Tell It To Me Wednesday, but that’s not as catchy. I think I’ll stick with Janet’s clever name.
What’s the strangest food(s) you’ve ever eaten?
I’m not sure. ‘Strange’ is a relative term. It’s one that has been used to describe me often throughout my life, so I associate ‘strange’ with ‘good’. As far as collections ingredients go, the strangest, I’m sure, is one of the many Doritos variants. The ingredients lists on those things are daunting. Onions are a bit strange too. They make you cry when you cut it!
In general, I’m willing to try most any food. I’ve had everything from raw fish to chocolate covered ants. I’ve had fruits that I didn’t even know the name to, and even some unidentified meat at a Buddhist temple. But I really can’t point to any one thing I’ve ingested and say, “No that, was a strange thing to eat.”
Here’s the belated TITMT from The Art of Getting By.
What are your thoughts on life outside of Earth? Do you believe in aliens? If so, what do you think when you think about them? I am purposely being vague here in the hopes you’ll expand upon your own.
Life almost certainly exists outside of Earth. I wouldn’t even be surprised if we found evidence of bacterium that once lived in our own solar system. Furthermore, given these facts:
I would guess that intelligent life has evolved somewhere else in the universe. And if it hasn’t, it will eventually.
For the fun of it, let’s do a little speculative math. Let’s say the number of stars in the universe to be 10^22 (100 billion stars per galaxy times 100 billion galaxies). It took less than 5 billion years to evolve intelligent life on this planet, but lets suppose we were lucky and it usually takes about 10 billion. Finally, this is the biggest speculation of all is how long can the universe continue to support life. The few numbers I could find on this topic but the number between 24 billion (in the event of an early Big Crunch) and 3.65 trillion (the universe expands without end). I’ll just pick a convenient number in that range: 100 billion. This means that there are about 10 billion (100 billion years of universe divided by 10 billion years required for evolution) intelligent life creating opportunities at a given location.
I’m back! And I brought home a 100% genuine, souvenir Philadelphia sinus infection. I can now answer the last TITMT I posted before I left. First here are my favorite senses:
Taste
I’ve already wrote about my favorite foods. Also, one’s experience of food is multi-sensual. Taste, smell, and texture plays major roles and sight plays a minor one. We really only have four taste senses: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Of those, my favorite used to be sweet, but is now definitely salty. I’ve also developed a strong appreciation for sour and bitter, if done well.
Smell
I don’t have a strong memory when it comes to smells. Sure, certain smells bring back memories, but I cannot recall those easily. I can recall one clearly right now, but I’ll get to that in my ‘least favorites’ section. The best I can come up with is definitely a best-loved: the smell of camp fire. I’ve been camping since I was young and have always loved it. The smell returns me to the outdoors.
Touch/Texture/Sensation
Other than the obvious, sexual sensations, I love the feel of water, especially warm, dark water. The best is if I am in contact with nothing else, just suspended in an ocean of nothing but water. Floating just feels so comfortable, so free, so safe. Once I have the expendable income, I fully intend to take up scuba diving.
Sight
My wife. To sentimental? Have you seen her? I mean…WOW. Well there’s the hotness, and then there’s the flood of positive associations I have with her. Okay, okay, I guess I’ll give something that’s a little more satisfactory to my readers. I love complex patterns. I especially like them if they have some kind of broken symmetry. Here is an example of the sorts of images that appeal to me.
I apologize for the lack of updates recently. Sometimes life just gets in the way of blogging. I also wanted to warn my readers that I will be on vacation all next week and then a few days, so I’m afraid updates will continue to be thin for a while. Hang in there. I’ll be back.
I’m still very short of time as I write this, but I wanted to at least post this week’s TITMT. I’ll edit this post with my answer once I have more time.
What is your favorite taste, smell, touch/texture/sensation, thing to see/sight and sound?
And of course, what TITMT would be complete without the flip side?
What is your least favorite taste, smell, touch/texture/sensation, thing to see/sight and sound?
I would like to add that I’m more interested in answers that you haven’t given before. For instance, when thinking of your favorite taste, it’s too easy to simply reiterate your answer to the ‘favorite food’ question. Instead, give me a class of tastes, like ‘salty’, or something even more creative. Since I haven’t posted a ‘least favorite’ question before, feel free to answer that any way you choose. Enjoy!
Thanks, as always, to Janet for continuing her TITMT series.
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