BS: All the Answers to Everything

Subject: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: olddude
Date: 17 May 10 - 08:59 PM

After talking to my friend Gary last night. We had it ... all the answers to everything ... economy, politics, oil crisis, pollution .. there it was suddenly all apparent, the answer ... the simple solution to all of it ..

then ....










we didn't write it down ...






and we both forgot what it was ...

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 May 10 - 09:05 PM

42?

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Ed T
Date: 17 May 10 - 09:10 PM

Del Shannon did write it down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SntWlpY4hFM

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Ed T
Date: 17 May 10 - 09:11 PM

I was wrong, Del just sang it, BOB HILLIARD AND BURT BACHARACH wrote it down, before they forgot it.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 May 10 - 09:27 PM

You were both drinking, weren't you?

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Gurney
Date: 17 May 10 - 09:41 PM

More specifically, you were drinking Scotch, weren't you!
Been there, done that!

It isn't an accident that the Scots are the master inventors of the world, per capita.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: olddude
Date: 17 May 10 - 09:53 PM

JIM BEAM actually ...
better living through Chemistry :-)

Rap maybe right, 42 may have been in the answer ... as in the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 May 10 - 10:03 PM

Did you know that if you chill 100 proof vodka (or any other alcoholic beverage) in a stainless steel bowl to exactly 0 degrees C., you can drop in chips of ice which will attract all the water and leave the result as an alcoholic beverage of much higher proof?

The wonders of chemistry and physics....

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Bill D
Date: 17 May 10 - 10:07 PM

Dorothy Parker reportedly woke up in the middle of the night with an inspiration. The words that came to her were so brilliant and insightful that she instantly wrote them down, certain that she had unlocked the key to a wise and wonderful poem. She woke up the next day and read what she had written: "Hogamus higamus, men are polygamous. Higamus hogamus, women monogamous."


I have had such dreams, but never wrote them down...

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 May 10 - 10:09 PM

Interesting. How cold F is 0 C? But why would you want a higher proof, Rap? I know life is short (I first wrote 'sNort') but you probably have enough time to become drunk the old fashioned (no pun intended) way.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: michaelr
Date: 17 May 10 - 10:56 PM

Same thing happened to me on acid. Moral: Write it down!

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Amos
Date: 17 May 10 - 11:28 PM

Ebbie:

0¼ C = 32¼ F

A

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: mousethief
Date: 18 May 10 - 12:42 AM

I thought this was going to be about Wikipedia by the title.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 18 May 10 - 12:52 AM

Mouser: "I thought this was going to be about Wikipedia by the title."

That's OK, Mouser, we've got accustomed to your misconceptions...(wink)

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Alice
Date: 18 May 10 - 12:59 AM

I had some friends back in college who saw the answer one night and did write it down... but when they found the scrap of paper the next day, all it said was, "there is a funny smell in the room".

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 18 May 10 - 03:22 AM

Alice, Did you turn the piece of paper over? You might have found out what they used it for, and where the smell was coming from!...(wink)

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 May 10 - 04:08 AM

Not quite, Amos.

0.25C = 32.45F

F=((C*9)/5)+32

Not being pedantic or anything:-)

The only temperature where they co-incide is -40

-40*9=-360 -360/5=-72 -72+32=-40

DeG

Full of useless information!

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: IanC
Date: 18 May 10 - 05:13 AM

The Rev. Charles Luttwidge Dodgson, a Victorian writer known to you all, invented a device called the "Nictograph" for exactly this purpose.

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 18 May 10 - 07:49 AM

42 is the atomic number of chromium.
Crane Driver once told me that there was a reason why chromium was the reason for everything, but I can no longer remember why. Perhaps you cannot remember the reason and the question at the same time.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 May 10 - 08:03 AM

42 is the number of my cubicle at work. I announced I was the meaning of life and everyone thought I had lost it. No Hitchhikers fans here.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: olddude
Date: 18 May 10 - 10:05 AM

Jackie Robinson's jersey was the number 42 ... and now I read Sins office number is 42 ... it has to the the answer for sure ....

wow

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Ebbie
Date: 18 May 10 - 10:46 AM

lol I just forgot that I pretty much knew the answer (only to F versus C, of course)- We've always said that 32F and 0C are freezing.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Bill D
Date: 18 May 10 - 12:48 PM

It's sad that "42" has become the standard answer to 'meaning of life & universe' questions...there were several other classic replies before Douglas Adams came along. "Life is a fountain" "Life is a 3-legged stool"...etc.

And remember, the computer in "Hitch-hikers Guide" only supplied the answer. It didn't know the ultimate question......which, in another book, later turned out to be "What do you get if you multiply six by nine"?.....giving rise to the line "I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe".

The whole point OF the entire joke/shaggy-philosopher story/Hitch-hiker's Guide routine is that, as tempting as the question about ultimate meaning is, it is pretty much beyond our attempts to even properly phrase the question. The question/answer routines are very Zen-like..."42" is one possible part of one Koan. Any reputable Zen master would change the answer as soon as a student repeated "42" to anyone else! ☺

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: olddude
Date: 18 May 10 - 12:52 PM

Bill
I am dyslectic so can I change it to 24 ?
:-)

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Bill D
Date: 18 May 10 - 12:54 PM

only in base 13...

(6X9 IS 42 in base 13)

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: olddude
Date: 18 May 10 - 01:47 PM

I prefer binary being a computer geek
101010

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Bert
Date: 18 May 10 - 03:11 PM

I thought that was what I was doing when I named my website www.bertsolutions.com but I'm still waiting for someone to ask the questions.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 May 10 - 03:54 PM

Hey, here ya go then...all the answers to everything:

What is the answer to everything? Love...uncompromised by fear...and put directly and intelligently into action. That is the answer to everything.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Amos
Date: 18 May 10 - 04:12 PM

Two lamas stood in the snow of winter contemplating life. One said, "Life is like a well." They stood in silence meditating through the rest of the winter, the spring and the summer.

Finally at the end of summer the second one asked, "Why is life like a well?".

They stood in thought for almost another year, through the winter winds and the spring thaw, and just as summer began to return the first one said thoughtfully, "Have it your way.   Life is not like a well."


A

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: gnu
Date: 18 May 10 - 04:36 PM

Well, well, well... I think LH has it.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 May 10 - 05:02 PM

Heh! Good one, Amos. ;-)

Life is like a well...if you choose to look at it that way. It's also like a cloud, a river, a leaf, a circle, a single day or a mountain.....if you choose to look at it that way.

That's because everything that appears in Nature reflects life. All the manifestations of Nature are holographic, in the sense that within each one fragment of the Great Hologram is contained the whole...in miniature. It's inescapable...except in the fickle ramblings of the human mind...the human mind can concoct anything to keep itself amused. It can even concoct a complete lack of meaning, if it is so inclined...and then pride itself on having invented a device or a philosophy which will presently bring about its own destruction.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Bill D
Date: 18 May 10 - 07:03 PM

Amos' tale IS the classic format...only it was Gurus on mountain tops when I heard it...and the Guru says... "You mean...life ISN'T a fountain?"

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: olddude
Date: 18 May 10 - 09:11 PM

I bet the well is 42 ft deep !!

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 10 - 01:01 AM

Bill - Yeah, lamas are a bit different from gurus. A lama is someone on the path of certain Eastern spiritual disciplines who is seeking enlightenment. A guru is someone who has attained enlightenment. "Guru" translated from Sanskrit means "the light that shines in the darkness". The light that illuminates darkness is knowledge...which illuminates the darkness of ignorance. It is also love...which illuminates the darkness of emotional ignorance/negativity. Such knowledge and love can only be attained through direct experience and application...not by reading books or following rules or attaining some official title...although following various forms of self-discipline can certainly help someone attain knowledge and love more quickly, that's for sure. ;-)

Needless to say, there are phony gurus around as well as real gurus. You can judge them by observing their behaviour toward others. Jesus, by all accounts, appears to have most likely been a real guru, although that's not the title people would have used in his culture. They would have said something like "master" instead, most likely.

Anyone who has achieved genuine mastery in any field can, in a sense, be termed a guru in regards to that field of activity. Mark Knopfler, for instance, is a guru when it comes to guitar playing (in my opinion).

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Bert
Date: 19 May 10 - 06:01 AM

Life is a pickle that glows at night.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Donuel
Date: 19 May 10 - 10:10 AM

Catspaw once wrote of waking up in the middle of the night with the same intense sense of discovery and revelations as Euclid, Archimedes and Newton may have had when a great truth is suddenly realized...

It was awe inspiring, but only he could tell it.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: olddude
Date: 19 May 10 - 11:09 AM

I did that myself a couple of times Donuel, then I realized we were out of toilet paper

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 10 - 11:15 AM

I've been searching all my life for a pickle that glows at night!

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 10 - 11:38 AM

I mean, just think what one could do with such a thing in one's possession...

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Amos
Date: 19 May 10 - 12:14 PM

I had a friend who was fond of galloping around the Elysian fields of thought that Little Hawk also enjoys. We called him "The Incredible What's His Name", in respect of the notion that his identity had melted as he approached Pure Knowing. His real meatspace name was Dave.

One problem with these deep pursuits is that as soon as you find The Answer, the question of course disappears, and often, the questioner does also...which makes it impossible to recreate the line of enquiry very well.

A

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 10 - 12:36 PM

Perhaps. But these Earthly fields may not be the only fields in which to romp, Amos. When one leaves the room, he appears to be gone to those still in the room, but he's not gone. He's just not in that particular room any longer.

The physical body, I think, is analogous to a complex vehicle that is driven by consciousness. When the driver, consciousness, leaves the vehicle, the vehicle ceases to operate, and it rapidly falls into dissolution. The driver has left "the room".

Whatever name I carry now is strictly a temporary label, a label that has been put on me for the convenience of myself and others in a human society. The name is not me. I am something that preceded the name, I will live after the name, and I will probably bear many other such temporary labels in various future embodiments.

Same goes for you.

I find it pleasant to think that my buddy Chongo exists in some astral realm of mental conception, running around and doing his thing there in his inimitable fashion. And I gave birth to him! What a lovely accomplishment it is. ;-) Like many fictional characters, he will probably outlive my present embodiment.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Bill D
Date: 19 May 10 - 12:39 PM

"I've been searching all my life for a pickle that glows at night!"

"here you go...no need to thank me

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 10 - 12:41 PM

WOW!!! My cup runneth over!

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Tangledwood
Date: 20 May 10 - 04:11 AM

42 is the atomic number of chromium.
Crane Driver once told me that there was a reason why chromium was the reason for everything, but I can no longer remember why.

Well, that's something to reflect on.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 20 May 10 - 05:20 AM

" His real meatspace name was Dave."

I didn't think we'd ever met!

Yours in absentia.

Dave MacKenzie

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: SINSULL
Date: 20 May 10 - 10:03 AM

But what is the answer to nothing?

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Bill D
Date: 20 May 10 - 10:27 AM

Which type of 'nothing'?...the one that refers to the total absence of anything whatsoever?...or the one that simply means a vacancy where one expected to see a specific 'something'? "There was a piece of pie on that plate an hour ago...now there's nothing there."
Or perhaps the referential phrase, "I've got nothing to do."

But, no worries... a quick browse thru this little essay will explain it.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: frogprince
Date: 20 May 10 - 10:37 AM

I know where you can find all the answers to everything: the Spam museum, in Austin Minnesota. I know because they put up a billboard on Interstate 90 that says, "Spam Museum...the sum of the knowledge of mankind."

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 May 10 - 11:29 AM

The answer to nothing is something.

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Amos
Date: 20 May 10 - 11:50 AM

If the nothing is so inclined.



A

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Bill D
Date: 20 May 10 - 12:18 PM

hmmmppff... glib graffiti! Sartré will take your mind to realms you can barely imagine!

;>)

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 May 10 - 01:24 PM

When I was a young college kid, lots of guys in the dorms had a pair of forks (the eating utensil kind) with the handles shaved down.

Stick a fork in each end of a weiner and stuff the handles into an electric socket, and you had a really hot dog almost instantly.

It was discovered, when someone decided they needed a hot pickle to go with their hot dog, that a pickle treated in the same manner does "glow in the dark" (and tastes rather nasty after being disconnected).

As I was among the "impecunious struggling student" group, I only once had a weiner - back then - and never had a metal fork in my possession, so I was spared the need to apply this bit of understanding at the time; but pass it on now as appears to be of some value here.

John

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 May 10 - 01:43 PM

Bill - You can barely imagine them because they're not real! ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: gnu
Date: 20 May 10 - 01:59 PM

Is nothing sacred?

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Amos
Date: 20 May 10 - 02:19 PM

Yes, it is. It is the seat of all sacredness.


A

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Bert
Date: 20 May 10 - 04:07 PM

But what is the answer to nothing?

JohninKansas says "I only once had a weiner - back then"

Subject: RE: BS: All the Answers to Everything
From: Bill D
Date: 20 May 10 - 04:28 PM

♫"Nada, nada..
nada,nada,nada,
ning ning ning."♫

"Last night I looked upon the stair.
I saw nothin'. Nothin' was there.
From my front porch to the top of the wall,
There was lot's of nothin', nothin' at all....
    Nothing....
    A pree-ponderance of vacancy.

There's a man in town, he's goin' around,
Spreadin' lots of nothin' all over the ground.
I heard some passin' people say,
"All that nothin' gets in the way....
    There oughta be a law."

My wife said, "Honey, don't you know,
Nothin' makes my flowers grow."
So I figured I better lay in a supply
And I went downtown, some nothin' to buy.
    Took along an empty...
    Wallet.

The man in the store, he smile an' say,
"We got plenty o' nothin'; nothin' today.
Boxes, bottles, cans, and jars,
Semi-trailers and big boxcars,...
    All vacuum-packed.

He says, "How do you want it? Large or small?
Fat or slender? Short or tall?"
I says, "Gimme a slightly rounded pile,
Empty as a politician's smile...
    Full of hot air....
    Wrap it up as a gift."

Well, this song was written with nothin' in mind,
Nothin' at all of any kind,
Nothin' at all in any degree,
Nothin' to it that I can see,...
    Nothin'...
    Nothin'...
    It just grew...
    Out of a poverty of intellect."