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Post by lionking on Jan 4, 2007 8:12:39 GMT -4
Why do we do this?
Why do we raise our shoulders when we are forced to walk under rain without umbrella? Does this make us dry?
Why do we put down the voice of the radio in the car when we feel we entered a wrong road? Does this make us know the right road?
Why is it that we press hardly on the bottoms of the remote control when the batteries are weak? Does this make us recharge the battery?
Why do we write our name first by the pen that we got as a gift? Do we love our names so much?
Why do we say: a free gift? Is there any non-free gift?
Why is it that when the sky is raining outside and we are inside the house, we ask: is the sky raining outside ? does the sky ever rain inside?
Why is it that when we read: watch out for paint, we don’t believe it but try to put our fingers on the paint instead? Do we want the painter to swear for us he just painted the wall?
Why is it that when we park our car in an empty parking, the driver who comes after us parks just next to us?
Why do we keep on pressing the ascender bottoms when it is late? Does this make it feel with us and hurry up?
When you await the ascender and another person comes next to you and presses the bottom, doesn’t he see that you are standing and waiting like him?
Why do we open our mouths when we are feeding a baby? Are we eating or the baby?
Why do we tend to believe everybody who whispers in our ears? Are the whisperers more honest than the ones who speak loud?
Why is it that when we call the wrong number on phone, the number is always not busy? Why we are so unlucky?
Why do we think we always need 10 more minutes of sleep whenever we wake up? Would they do us anything?
Why is it that the one who snores at night is the quickest to fall asleep? Isn’t it enough that he snores to do it so quickly?
Why do you salivate when you see anyone eating lemon? Is he the one who is eating or you?
Why is it that when we drink the last tea sip we look at the bottom of the mug? Don’t we believe that it is finished without seeing?
Why is it that when we sit with a crowd and the cellular rings, we immediately look at ours? Are we so important that our mobile rings between all these people?
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reynoldbot
Jupiter
A paper-white mask of evil.
Posts: 790
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Post by reynoldbot on Jan 4, 2007 8:56:55 GMT -4
I believe we raise our shoulders because we don't want our necks getting wet. The back of the neck (as well as the backs of our hands) is one of the most sensitive spots to temperature change. If it is hot in the summer, wear something cool around your neck and you will immediately feel cooler. If it is cold in your car, put the back of your hands to the heat coming out of the AC and you will feel warm all over. When it's raining, the water hitting the back of your neck makes you feel cold and you instinctually raise your shoulders in an attempt to keep the rain off of it. Or I may be making it all up.
Why do we open our mouths when we are feeding a baby? Are we eating or the baby?
At first I read this as "are we eating our baby?" Pretty awesome.
Why do you salivate when you see anyone eating lemon? Is he the one who is eating or you?
This reminds me of the Pavlov effect. He trained dogs by ringing a bell every time he was to feed them. Eventually they began to salivate when they heard the bell. Scent and taste are the two strongest senses tied to memory. When we view a person eating a lemon for instance, it triggers a pretty vivid recollection of what eating a lemon is like and that fools the brain into reacting as if we really were eating a lemon.
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Post by lionking on Jan 4, 2007 10:04:02 GMT -4
Why do we open our mouths when we are feeding a baby? Are we eating or the baby?I believe we are teaching the baby how to open its mouth bcz it will not understand by words. Why do we raise our shoulders when we are forced to walk under rain without umbrella? Does this make us dry?
I think it is an inbrn reflex for protection that we can't control. we do the same thing if we hear a loud bomb or so.
Why is it that we press hardly on the bottoms of the remote control when the batteries are weak? Does this make us recharge the battery?
while it doesn't make us recharge the battery, we know that it helps pressing on bottoms hard to get the remaining electricity from the battery. but... Why is it that when we park our car in an empty parking, the driver who comes after us parks just next to us? does he feel protection for his car? Why do we keep on pressing the ascender bottoms when it is late? Does this make it feel with us and hurry up? I do this all the time before going to anywhere. If the ascender doesn't come immediately, I keep on pressing  Why is it that when we drink the last tea sip we look at the bottom of the mug? Don’t we believe that it is finished without seeing?I believe not all ppl do this Why do we put down the voice of the radio in the car when we feel we entered a wrong road? Does this make us know the right road?
it helps us concentrate. I translated this from another place that is intended for jokes and interesting issues.
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Post by Grand Lunar on Jan 4, 2007 10:21:54 GMT -4
My take on these... The neck is senstive to temperature changes. Undoubtly, this is an evolutionary hold over. I imagine it goes like this; When we listen to sound, our brain processes that data. If we're in a situation that requires more concentration, such as finding the right road, we turn down the music so that we don't have that distraction, and thus allowing our brain to devote more processing to finding the right road. Possibly an evolutionary hold over; if something doesn't work, try harder! Could be a way of claiming ownership. That evolutionary hold over stuff again! Possibly a pychological effect to make someone believe that the gift doesn't cost them money. Not everyone is victim to this. Some people just don't see the obvious.  I imagine that some people just need tactile confirmation of what they've just read. Probably a "safety in numbers" thing. Evolution strikes again! Same reason for the remote control 'thing'. Probably a "benifit of doubt" thing; the person probably doesn't want to assume that the button was already pressed. Likely another evolutionary hold over. Also, might have to do with how babies react; the goal is to get the baby to imitate the adult. Thus, when we open our mouth, the baby should too. Could be that a whisper is considered more private and trustworthy, as it's directed specifically at one person. One that speaks loud is directing the conversation to a general audience. Just the laws of probability! Just procastination in action! |
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Post by echnaton on Jan 4, 2007 10:28:41 GMT -4
Why do we put down the voice of the radio in the car when we feel we entered a wrong road? Does this make us know the right road?
The radio is a distraction so it is natural to turn it down when we need to concentrate more on our driving. So in a way it does help us to know which is the right road. Talking on the phone is are also a distraction, only more so.
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Bob B.
Bob the Excel Guru?
Posts: 3,072
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Post by Bob B. on Jan 4, 2007 11:01:56 GMT -4
I believe the term “free gift” is used only when it is part of a sales gimmick. For instance, “buy this product and you will also receive this as our free gift.” To promote sales they need to make you believe you are getting something extra for your money, thus they emphasis the additional item is free of charge. Someone who is giving a true gift, such as at Christmas or a birthday, never attaches the word “free” to it.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jan 4, 2007 12:59:42 GMT -4
Why do we raise our shoulders when we are forced to walk under rain without umbrella? Does this make us dry? It's a temperature thing, not a wet/dry thing. Hunching your shoulders effectively decreases the surface area of your neck, which is a major source of heat loss. Less noise allows more concentration. I've had a few remote controls that did require pressing the buttons harder to make them work properly. Pushing soft buttons harder may bring more of the contact under the button together, allowing the remaining power in the batteries to get through. I don't do this. Usually I make a scribble first to get the ink flowing. I don't do this either. It's a language/grammer thing. Logic has nothing to do with it. I don't do this either. Perhaps because we park as close to the entrance of where we're going as we can, so the car next to us wants the next closest spot? We want to make sure that the button really has called the elevator. I stop pushing it once it lights up. I have had a number of times where everyone has sat around waiting for the elevator when no one has actually pressed the button. Babies learn by imitation. We are teaching the baby to open its mouth when we want to feed it. I don't believe everybody who whispers. The only way you know you've dialed a wrong number is if the wrong person answers. A busy signal doesn't tell you that you've dialed incorrectly. Because we're lazy. And yes, you need time to wake up fully. It only seems like that. If he didn't snore it would be much more difficult to tell when he was asleep, especially if you were trying to sleep yourself. The same reason yawns are contagious. I don't drink tea, so I wouldn't know. We want confirmation that it's not our phone ringing, especially in this day of multiple ring tones. |
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Post by nomuse on Jan 4, 2007 16:35:26 GMT -4
So far I don't see any of these that aren't answerable and basically logical. Don't want to get into the whole list here, but do have a couple amplifications...
Re looking at the bottom of the cup; when you've finished drinking, that cup is filling your visual field. Perhaps the instinct is merely to focus on this big thing. Alternatively, I've experienced quite a few cases where I had the cup tilted, and there was enough liquid left after I thought I finished to make a nice mess on my desk. So I double-check before I start tossing it around. But then, I'm the sort of person that double-checks everything (I look both ways even when the light is in my favor).
Re the "raining outside," what is happening is "outside" is a signifier of location. If I said "Is it raining?" the answer might be, "Where? In Spain?" When I ask about "outside" I am specifying the environment directly beyond the doors. Same thing with "Is it dark out there?" or "I'm going out." You are using "out" as a generic noun, specifying those locations exposed to the environment and likely to be encountered by you.
And re all the button presses....buttons are not mechanically perfect. It is quite possible to think you have pressed the button for the lift, or the channel on the remote, and not gotten a good contact. Personally, on the latter, when my remote is losing battery power I need to hold it on longer and direct it more carefully to get a response. As far as I know it continues to send signal -- aka the IR diode is still glowing -- as long as the button is held in. If I squeeze at the button I can then wave it a bit to try to get it lined up properly on the detector.
Oh, and people do a lousy job at removing "wet paint" signs. Although there are better ways of figuring out if it is dry yet than sticking a finger right in a fresh paint job and spoiling it!
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Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
Posts: 1,453
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Post by Al Johnston on Jan 4, 2007 17:08:08 GMT -4
Probably a "benifit of doubt" thing; the person probably doesn't want to assume that the button was already pressed. I have actually arrived in a lift lobby to see several people apparently waiting but the call button had not been pressed. "Perhaps they're just talking here" I thought and pressed the button. Nevertheless, they all got into the lift when it arrived. Who knows how long they would have waited if I hadn't shown up? |
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Post by echnaton on Jan 4, 2007 18:37:58 GMT -4
Why is it that when we drink the last tea sip we look at the bottom of the mug? Don’t we believe that it is finished without seeing?The same reason that when you finish off a bottle of mezcal, you look into the bottle. To see if you got the worm. But I don't do that any more. Drink mezcal that is. We know that Lion King never has. And the worm bit is better left quiet.
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