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New York Times technology columnist David Pogue has been keeping a list of unanswered (though not necessarily unanswerable) questions. Pogue writes: “Some of them are answerless because nobody knows the answer. Some may have answers, but only industry insiders know what they are. And still others are answerless because they’re incendiary hot-button issues, and there’s no consensus.”
Here are some of my favorites:
Who are the morons who respond to junk-mail offers, thereby keeping spammers in business?
How are we going to preserve all of our digital photos and videos for future generations?
Why do you have to take tape camcorders out of your carry-on at airport security, but not the tapeless kind? Couldn’t you hide a bomb equally well in either one? (Actually, I have about 500 more logic questions about the rules at airport security, but I have a feeling they’ll remain answerless for a very long time.)
Why don’t public sinks have foot pedals?
Why don’t all hotels have check-in kiosks like airlines do?
Why aren’t there recycling bins for bottles and cans where they’re most obviously needed, like food courts and cafeterias?
Why are so many people rude on the Internet?
I’m sure you have your own list of imponderables — ponder on in the comments.
(Via Kottke.org.)
Why don’t restaurants to have a place to (just) wash your hands in the FRONT of the restaurant, not down some seedy corridor next to the kitchen?
posted by RobertSeattle on 10-24-2007 at 10:11 am
If you’re insane, when you listen to music do the voices in your head sing along?
posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 10-24-2007 at 10:28 am
When waiting for an elevator, why do people repeatedly push the down/up button as if it is going to make the elevator come quicker??
posted by Susan on 10-24-2007 at 10:36 am
Actually, you have to take tape-camcorders (and cameras) out of your luggage b/c the X-Rays can damage the quality of the film.
posted by Phraz on 10-24-2007 at 11:07 am
I believe that so many people are rude on the internet because they see it as an open forum to air grievances. As they sit in front of their screens, they have the chance to purge negative energy. It’s just a theory mind you.
The shame is that instead of being rude, negative, ‘yucky’, they also have a great chance of being polite, respectful and positive. Too bad for the missed oportunity….
posted by jen on 10-24-2007 at 11:17 am
Who are the people that deposit their gum on city sidewalks?
How hard is it to warm up the butter that the waiter brings to your table?
What is stopping one of the networks from starting primetime one hour earlier?
Why is it that when I am seriously craving a specific candy bar, the one in the vending machine ends up being stale, even if the candy in question is Snicker’s?
posted by Dusty on 10-24-2007 at 11:25 am
Why can’t we send unadopted children to be raised by adamant pro-lifers?
posted by Karen on 10-24-2007 at 11:29 am
How come everyone else on the road is always driving too fast or too slow :-)
posted by Jeff on 10-24-2007 at 11:34 am
Feeling anonymous is the rudeness answer.
Don’t they X-ray your cam corder anyway? They just want to see your tape get destroyed?
Why do people call it ‘tin foil?’
the ‘voices’ sing a different tune off key in most cases.
Some hotels could have check in kiosks. That might be nice. some people like dealing with people.
Why is it such a pin in the butt to use the self check at the grocery store? Those devices were designed for people buying one or two bags of groceries. The items were somehow intended to be prepackaged/ bar coded light weight foods. Odd that.
posted by mungley on 10-24-2007 at 11:39 am
Food Courts & Cafeterias don’t have recycling bins for cans & bottles for at least one simple reason: the general public.
There are always people who will throw out their trash in any bin that comes along, forcing the cafeteria staff to spend extra time sorting through the half-eaten burgers and snotty tissues to get the recyclable materials sorted properly. Sometimes people don’t pay attention so placing easy-to-read signs would help. But, too often people just don’t care. They know very well what ‘recycle’ means and throw their trash in anyway.
I think these are the same types of people who are rude on the internet. But I could be wrong.
posted by Anita on 10-24-2007 at 11:51 am
my favorite unanswerable question has always been:
Turtle without a shell: Naked or Homeless??
posted by Aliceson on 10-24-2007 at 12:27 pm
I once stayed at a little (cheap!) hotel in France that had a self-service check-in machine. I thought it was great! Stick your credit card in, touch the screen to select the room you want, and out comes a key card. The front desk was only staffed during certain hours.
posted by Kristen on 10-24-2007 at 12:42 pm
‘Why aren’t there recycling bins for bottles and cans where they’re most obviously needed, like food courts and cafeterias?’
one possible answer: to keep people (a.k.a. bums) from pilfering them for refunds?
posted by gourmandemodeste on 10-24-2007 at 12:45 pm
Foil was originally made out of tin. It was used in packaging (cigarette packs were lined with it and chewing gum sticks were wrapped in it), and also in wrapping leftover food. The problem was, it gave whatever it touched a distinctive “tinny” taste, just like foods left too long in a tin can. Of course, Aluminum has been the foil of choice for 80-some years now, but it has three more syllables than “tin,” so maybe that’s why folks hold on to the old name. ;>
posted by Kara on 10-24-2007 at 1:07 pm
What’s the deal with airline food?
*snicker*
posted by TMo on 10-24-2007 at 1:08 pm
Why are so many people rude on the Internet?
I’m pretty sure I’ve read a good scientific explanation for that recently, but I can’t seem to remember where :(
It had something to do with how the visual feedback you get when talking to a real person is processed in your brain - and what happens if that control misses (well, we know that last part).
posted by Joerg on 10-24-2007 at 1:52 pm
Does this guy actually call these questions Imponderables? Because there was a series of books written by David Feldman that were also called Impoderables… they were written in the early ninties, with titles like “Do Penguins have Knees?” and “When do Fish Sleep.” Not sure if the word Impoderables is copywrighted, but I have to say that I was surprised to see it used in a context other than Feldman’s own work.
posted by Angie on 10-24-2007 at 2:33 pm
Why do smokers think it’s not littering to toss butts out of their car windows?
posted by Scott A. on 10-24-2007 at 2:41 pm
Angie - he does call them “Pogue’s Imponderables.” I assume this is a nod to Feldman’s well known work, though Pogue doesn’t specifically credit Feldman.
posted by Higgins on 10-24-2007 at 4:08 pm
Why do they paint in between the yellow lines on the road?
posted by Emily on 10-24-2007 at 7:08 pm
Why doesn’t the government sanitize money? (you ever think where a dollar has been…)
Why do people have to pay for vegetable seeds and water?
How do people find “The Hills” entertaining? And why is MTV called “music television”?
posted by Rachel* on 10-24-2007 at 9:24 pm
Why do people who support abortion oppose the death penalty? (and conversely, why do so many who are pro-life support the death penalty?)
posted by Dave on 10-24-2007 at 9:44 pm
The answer to most of these questions is money:
— Public sinks don’t have foot pedals, because they’re expensive. The owners won’t install them because the government hasn’t forced them to.
— Hotel check-in kiosks are redundant, because the hotel usually pays someone to sit behind the counter already.
— Wi-fi is more expensive at expensive hotels than cheap ones, because people who stay at expensive hotels are usually there on business and can write the cost off on their expense accounts.
— Food courts don’t have recycling bins because you’d need a different one for each type of material (glass, paper, metal, plastic), which would take up too much space…or, you’d have to put out one can and then pay someone to sort what comes out of it.
— We children of the 60s remember when prime time started at least a half-hour earlier than it does now. Back in the 70s, the FCC took that extra time away from the networks, to give to the affiliates for “local programming.” Of course, local programming is expensive (all that creativity!), so they fill the time with syndicated game shows and “Seinfeld” re-runs.
— I also remember when MTV showed music videos nearly all the time. But, that gets boring (who, after all, listens to the same radio station 18 hours a day?), so they started filling with non-music programming. Eventually, the non-music stuff started making more money than the videos (how, I don’t know, since I believe MTV got the videos from the record companies for free), so they just finished the transiton.
Follow the money. That’s the answer to many of these.
posted by Mike on 10-25-2007 at 6:30 am
Here are 3 questions for all of you to ponder:
1) How do you know when bagpipes are out of tune?
2) How do you know when horseradish sauce goes bad?
3) The question I once asked my parents when I was 7. Whats on the other side of the universe?
posted by Owen on 10-25-2007 at 7:01 am
Why do bird fall down from the sky,
Every time I walk by?
posted by rich on 10-25-2007 at 11:14 am
Owen–the universe has no end or edge or for that matter no center. nor is it infinite. think of the surface of the earth. you can walk forever on it and never get to the end nor is there a middle. of course it repeats but the latest therory, which is being tested, is that the universe would too i.e. if you had a telescope strong enough, you could be looking at light that is “behind” you. the shape of the universe is like a donut…mathematically it is closer to a cube with exact opposite corners connected.
sorry, i had to geek out on that one
posted by rob on 10-25-2007 at 11:32 am