Yeah, yeah, why do I care? June 26, 2007 7:16 AM Subscribe
I'd really like to talk about this sleep question.
Next up: Why is the sky blue and Where do babies come from?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:19 AM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:19 AM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]
Yeah, it's even tagged unanswerable. Deletion candidate IMNSHO.
posted by sveskemus at 7:25 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by sveskemus at 7:25 AM on June 26, 2007
Or, "Is death the end?"
I actually got resolution on that one, surprisingly enough.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:25 AM on June 26, 2007
I actually got resolution on that one, surprisingly enough.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:25 AM on June 26, 2007
I especially like the "unanswerable" tag.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:26 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:26 AM on June 26, 2007
Why is the sky blue and Where do babies come from?
Rayleigh scattering and sexual reproduction.
posted by Durin's Bane at 7:27 AM on June 26, 2007 [2 favorites]
Rayleigh scattering and sexual reproduction.
posted by Durin's Bane at 7:27 AM on June 26, 2007 [2 favorites]
There needs to be a new flag for "easily Googleable".
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:29 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:29 AM on June 26, 2007
Weird. The asker thinks it's chatfilter, but it's clearly not, since I'm sure there are researchers who actually study this.
posted by smackfu at 7:39 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by smackfu at 7:39 AM on June 26, 2007
I was thinking about on the way to work. It's weirdly open and chatty—there's a legitimate query there, sure, but I'm not sure if it's the one chuck is making; "opinion" doesn't really suggest "specific answer with backup".
And it's been flagged like crazy. So, yeah. Big sleep.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:40 AM on June 26, 2007
And it's been flagged like crazy. So, yeah. Big sleep.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:40 AM on June 26, 2007
When buckets sleep, do they dream of washing cars?
posted by isopraxis at 7:41 AM on June 26, 2007 [2 favorites]
posted by isopraxis at 7:41 AM on June 26, 2007 [2 favorites]
Do buckets dream of electric sleep?
posted by bluishorange at 7:52 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by bluishorange at 7:52 AM on June 26, 2007
Open and shut, as far as I'm concerned. If your question can be more or less thoroughly answered by wikipedia, then why waste the five seconds of my life it took for me to decide to not bother answering it?
posted by hermitosis at 8:03 AM on June 26, 2007 [2 favorites]
posted by hermitosis at 8:03 AM on June 26, 2007 [2 favorites]
Aside from the title, it's a totally legit question, with quite a few good answers.
Presumably I've missed a bunch of deleted comments, but, if that's the case, why clean up the thread, see it progressing well, and only then delete it?
posted by jack_mo at 8:06 AM on June 26, 2007
Presumably I've missed a bunch of deleted comments, but, if that's the case, why clean up the thread, see it progressing well, and only then delete it?
posted by jack_mo at 8:06 AM on June 26, 2007
Never underestimate people's desire for rules and the lust to enforce them.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:13 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:13 AM on June 26, 2007
When buckets sleep, do they dream of washing cars?
No they dream of their original owners; they dream of the salad days before they were cruelly ripped away from their beloved masters.
posted by milarepa at 8:29 AM on June 26, 2007 [2 favorites]
No they dream of their original owners; they dream of the salad days before they were cruelly ripped away from their beloved masters.
posted by milarepa at 8:29 AM on June 26, 2007 [2 favorites]
jack_mo: gentle discouragement through negative feedback?
By all appearances, chuckdarwin was trying to start a round table discussion about what people think about sleep. That's pretty explicity not AskMe territory, and giving it a pass just because some folks managed to come up with some interesting things to say kind of muddles the message there.
Not every single borderline chatty question gets nuked, but a lot of them are going to be. This one did. It's not an indictment of chuck or the topic or the answerers, it's just an indictment of the violation of the existing guidelines for questions.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:29 AM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]
By all appearances, chuckdarwin was trying to start a round table discussion about what people think about sleep. That's pretty explicity not AskMe territory, and giving it a pass just because some folks managed to come up with some interesting things to say kind of muddles the message there.
Not every single borderline chatty question gets nuked, but a lot of them are going to be. This one did. It's not an indictment of chuck or the topic or the answerers, it's just an indictment of the violation of the existing guidelines for questions.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:29 AM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]
when told "no one really knows," wrote, "Well what you think?" How is this not chatfilter?
Actually thats a shitty answer and to the question and it shouldn't have been posted in the first place. As others have pointed out the poster may have thought it was a chatty question, but it actually has several good answers.
posted by afu at 8:30 AM on June 26, 2007
Actually thats a shitty answer and to the question and it shouldn't have been posted in the first place. As others have pointed out the poster may have thought it was a chatty question, but it actually has several good answers.
posted by afu at 8:30 AM on June 26, 2007
For really open-ended questions like this one, it's generally a good idea to explain why you are asking such a Googleable open-ended question if that's really what you're doing. It's possible that chuckdarwin has never really thought about this topic before and doesn't know that it's something that people have been discussing and researching for centuries, but his tags seem to indicate that is not actually the case.
So then, absent any other indication from him about why he wants to know or why he's asking such an easy-to-look-up question in a group of people who are not known for their acumen in all things sleep-related, we conclude that he's being chatty and remove the question accordingly.
I would have paid more attention to this earlier, but I actually was asleep. I am a Viking there, you know.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:41 AM on June 26, 2007
So then, absent any other indication from him about why he wants to know or why he's asking such an easy-to-look-up question in a group of people who are not known for their acumen in all things sleep-related, we conclude that he's being chatty and remove the question accordingly.
I would have paid more attention to this earlier, but I actually was asleep. I am a Viking there, you know.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:41 AM on June 26, 2007
A literal Viking?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:53 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:53 AM on June 26, 2007
Never underestimate people's desire for rules and the lust to enforce them.
Oh, honestly. AskMe has like four broad rules and if you can't even pretend to try to stay on the right side of them, then you deserve to be axed for idiocy and/or contempt. To be passable all the question would have to say is: I know there is no definitive answer, but what are the most popular/plausible/common explanations for why humans sleep? We have already covered that phrasing matters.
Actually thats a shitty answer and to the question and it shouldn't have been posted in the first place.
Actually, no it isn't. If the answer is no one has figured it out, which is the truth, then it is an appropriate answer.
posted by dame at 8:56 AM on June 26, 2007
Oh, honestly. AskMe has like four broad rules and if you can't even pretend to try to stay on the right side of them, then you deserve to be axed for idiocy and/or contempt. To be passable all the question would have to say is: I know there is no definitive answer, but what are the most popular/plausible/common explanations for why humans sleep? We have already covered that phrasing matters.
Actually thats a shitty answer and to the question and it shouldn't have been posted in the first place.
Actually, no it isn't. If the answer is no one has figured it out, which is the truth, then it is an appropriate answer.
posted by dame at 8:56 AM on June 26, 2007
No, a littoral Viking.
posted by languagehat at 8:57 AM on June 26, 2007 [6 favorites]
posted by languagehat at 8:57 AM on June 26, 2007 [6 favorites]
Last night I dreamt I was a bucket, but now that I am awake how do I know I am not a bucket dreaming I am a man?
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:57 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:57 AM on June 26, 2007
So a question that asked "what are the current leading theories of sleep" or "how does sleep differ among animals" probably would have stayed, yes?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:59 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:59 AM on June 26, 2007
Sorry; poorly worded on my part.
posted by chuckdarwin at 9:01 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by chuckdarwin at 9:01 AM on June 26, 2007
Open and shut, as far as I'm concerned. If your question can be more or less thoroughly answered by wikipedia, then why waste the five seconds of my life it took for me to decide to not bother answering it?
To me, this is the key source of disagreement about AskMe. We like to pretend it's just a place for a question to be answered, but I have a hard time believing a large portion of the askers aren't asking to see how MEFI would answer the question. Why is google/wikipedia/internet the only alternate source we consider? Every question that is asked could also be answered by friends/family/live people, or by calling a radio show, or a myriad of other ways, but we want to ask a group of online folk that are part of a comminity. And also to hopefully get a wide selection of answers to compare against each other and pick our favorite.
posted by ORthey at 9:08 AM on June 26, 2007
To me, this is the key source of disagreement about AskMe. We like to pretend it's just a place for a question to be answered, but I have a hard time believing a large portion of the askers aren't asking to see how MEFI would answer the question. Why is google/wikipedia/internet the only alternate source we consider? Every question that is asked could also be answered by friends/family/live people, or by calling a radio show, or a myriad of other ways, but we want to ask a group of online folk that are part of a comminity. And also to hopefully get a wide selection of answers to compare against each other and pick our favorite.
posted by ORthey at 9:08 AM on June 26, 2007
I'm not so much concerned about why I sleep as why I LOVE TO SLEEP.
I'ma go nap right now!
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:24 AM on June 26, 2007
I'ma go nap right now!
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:24 AM on June 26, 2007
I agree that sometimes we just want to see what MeFites will have to say, as we all seem to have our own illusions/perceptions about what this particular group is and has to offer.
The problem with this question is that it gives us nothing to work with and generally wastes our effort and skillz. When someone asks a basic question about something that is very easily researchable online, how can we assume they already looked at the Wikipedia entry or Googled around, unless they tell us so? And if their own research didn't yield the answers they needed, then perhaps knowing more about what kind of answers they're looking for will help us come up with better answers.
Why should we chew up someone's food for them?
posted by hermitosis at 9:28 AM on June 26, 2007
The problem with this question is that it gives us nothing to work with and generally wastes our effort and skillz. When someone asks a basic question about something that is very easily researchable online, how can we assume they already looked at the Wikipedia entry or Googled around, unless they tell us so? And if their own research didn't yield the answers they needed, then perhaps knowing more about what kind of answers they're looking for will help us come up with better answers.
Why should we chew up someone's food for them?
posted by hermitosis at 9:28 AM on June 26, 2007
It didn't waste my effort. Somehow I was able to resist trying to answer. It was tough though, and tuckered me out for the whole rest of the day.
posted by smackfu at 9:53 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by smackfu at 9:53 AM on June 26, 2007
*yawn*
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:59 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:59 AM on June 26, 2007
why not close these threads with a link to whatever is considered the largely canonical answer (or wikipedia or whatever), so they can be a resource for 1) people searching for answers on google, and 2) people searching for questions on ask mefi before they ask them themselves*.
i'd say about 90% of the time i search for stuff like 'best freeware so-and-so' I'll add a 'site:ask.metafilter.com' to my query.
i'm all for keeping the information archived as long as it doesn't mean more user whining for the admins. (but i'm the kind of guy who never throws anything away *just-in-case* i'll need it some day.)
* yep all five of them
posted by fishfucker at 10:03 AM on June 26, 2007
i'd say about 90% of the time i search for stuff like 'best freeware so-and-so' I'll add a 'site:ask.metafilter.com' to my query.
i'm all for keeping the information archived as long as it doesn't mean more user whining for the admins. (but i'm the kind of guy who never throws anything away *just-in-case* i'll need it some day.)
* yep all five of them
posted by fishfucker at 10:03 AM on June 26, 2007
To sleep! perchance to dream:--ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
posted by edgeways at 10:09 AM on June 26, 2007
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
posted by edgeways at 10:09 AM on June 26, 2007
This is answerable by Amazon. 'What do you like" questions get asked all the time. "What do you think?" isn't any more ChatFilter than those.
posted by devilsbrigade at 10:25 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by devilsbrigade at 10:25 AM on June 26, 2007
I woke up for this? I'm going back to bed.
posted by loquacious at 10:27 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by loquacious at 10:27 AM on June 26, 2007
I am pretty sure a mod deleted the comment where the poster, when told "no one really knows," wrote, "Well what you think?" How is this not chatfilter?
That's when I flagged it. I think it was borderline up to that point.
posted by grouse at 10:37 AM on June 26, 2007
That's when I flagged it. I think it was borderline up to that point.
posted by grouse at 10:37 AM on June 26, 2007
Coming from the guy who proposed the MefiMusicChallenge, I'm pretty sure he meant to say "why do we sleep when we haven't posted our songs"?
posted by micayetoca at 10:38 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by micayetoca at 10:38 AM on June 26, 2007
you know if Country Dick Montana and Handsome Dick Manitoba had done a duet, that would've been really cool. and a double-dicking.
posted by jonmc at 10:58 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by jonmc at 10:58 AM on June 26, 2007
The real question is why these intermittent flickers of awareness and the delusion of selfhood when the obvious state of being is the sleep of Vishnu.
posted by Abiezer at 11:03 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by Abiezer at 11:03 AM on June 26, 2007
I liked the question, if only because reading through the answers got me thinking about the fact that a lot of the mystery in the question "why do we sleep" has to do with the evaluation we give to consciousness as our 'normal' state and sleep as the deviation from that state.
posted by carmen at 11:07 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by carmen at 11:07 AM on June 26, 2007
*dutch oven!!*
posted by LordSludge at 11:15 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by LordSludge at 11:15 AM on June 26, 2007
I'll sleep when you're dead.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:38 AM on June 26, 2007
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:38 AM on June 26, 2007
Metafilter: an unanswerable bucket of sleeping vikings.
posted by neuron at 12:11 PM on June 26, 2007
posted by neuron at 12:11 PM on June 26, 2007
Why do we comment?
posted by brain_drain at 12:27 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by brain_drain at 12:27 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]
"No, a littoral Viking."
I read that as a clitoral Viking. And I was all like, damn, MeTa got saucy in a second, dinnit?
posted by klangklangston at 12:57 PM on June 26, 2007
I read that as a clitoral Viking. And I was all like, damn, MeTa got saucy in a second, dinnit?
posted by klangklangston at 12:57 PM on June 26, 2007
You know, it's an interesting question - I thought about it for a few minutes before deciding that I had nothing to contribute.
Unlike other unanswerable questions, I suspect this one actually does have a right answer. I'm also quite certain that the person or people, if any, who are currently in possession of that right answer don't actually know for sure that they're right. So that makes it sort of a hard question to answer.
Another way of looking at this: AskMe frequently gets questions, like this one, that are essentially "Please summarize a topic that is generally treated in an introductory fashion by 1000-page textbooks." I tend to think those questions are a waste of everyone's time, unless to point the person in the direction of the right textbook.
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:02 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]
Unlike other unanswerable questions, I suspect this one actually does have a right answer. I'm also quite certain that the person or people, if any, who are currently in possession of that right answer don't actually know for sure that they're right. So that makes it sort of a hard question to answer.
Another way of looking at this: AskMe frequently gets questions, like this one, that are essentially "Please summarize a topic that is generally treated in an introductory fashion by 1000-page textbooks." I tend to think those questions are a waste of everyone's time, unless to point the person in the direction of the right textbook.
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:02 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]
Yes, but they'll cast Roy Schneider as Dr. Heywood.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:20 PM on June 26, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:20 PM on June 26, 2007
cortex writes 'By all appearances, chuckdarwin was trying to start a round table discussion about what people think about sleep. That's pretty explicity not AskMe territory, and giving it a pass just because some folks managed to come up with some interesting things to say kind of muddles the message there. '
Defo, smiting the chatter is good - I was only confused by the repair/deletion process. Just as I would be if, I dunno, I saw you picking up a confused and wounded fawn from the roadside, splinting its little broken foreleg, feeding it milky pap from a tiny spoon, then kicking its face off at the very moment it began to scamper off into the woods.
posted by jack_mo at 1:25 PM on June 26, 2007
Defo, smiting the chatter is good - I was only confused by the repair/deletion process. Just as I would be if, I dunno, I saw you picking up a confused and wounded fawn from the roadside, splinting its little broken foreleg, feeding it milky pap from a tiny spoon, then kicking its face off at the very moment it began to scamper off into the woods.
posted by jack_mo at 1:25 PM on June 26, 2007
"that would've been really cool. and a double-dicking."
Peter Bonerz. A one man double-dicking.
posted by vronsky at 1:25 PM on June 26, 2007
Peter Bonerz. A one man double-dicking.
posted by vronsky at 1:25 PM on June 26, 2007
AskMe has like four broad rules
Actually, it's 2:
posted by signal at 2:16 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]
Actually, it's 2:
- Ask a fucking question that can be fucking answered.
- Answer the fucking question.
posted by signal at 2:16 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]
Defo, smiting the chatter is good - I was only confused by the repair/deletion process.
Until I've decided to nuke a thread, I treat it like a thread I'm not going to nuke, which means doing obvious cleanup. Deciding to kill a comment takes a little less effort than deciding to kill a post, so it happens sometimes. Bit of whiplash, I suppose, but there you go.
So it's more like kicking the hecklers out of the courtroom before finalizing and handing down a sentence, really. Doesn't really matter if it turns out to be death or probation, it still probably deserves a bit of respect.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:17 PM on June 26, 2007
Until I've decided to nuke a thread, I treat it like a thread I'm not going to nuke, which means doing obvious cleanup. Deciding to kill a comment takes a little less effort than deciding to kill a post, so it happens sometimes. Bit of whiplash, I suppose, but there you go.
So it's more like kicking the hecklers out of the courtroom before finalizing and handing down a sentence, really. Doesn't really matter if it turns out to be death or probation, it still probably deserves a bit of respect.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:17 PM on June 26, 2007
Last night I had this dream that Providence was overrun by zombies. Armed with nothing but a shaft of rusty rebar, I had to battle my way through the hoards, attempting to find another non-zombified person with whom to team up and find shelter.
Eventually, in the lobby of the Citizens Bank Operations Center downtown, I found my first unbitten human. It's this I know who never wears a shirt. I can't stand him. At the time, however, his was a welcome presence. We fought our way outside, to the small walkway in front of the building, and ran alongside the Providence canals.
Stopping to catch our breath in Waterplace Park, I noticed my fellow human clutching his hand. Seeing my gaze, he turned to hide his wound. "They got you, didn't they?" I asked. A string of profanity flowed through his lips. I raised my rebar pole. "I'm really sorry to have to do this, man. It's for your own good."
I couldn't kill him.
I turned to leave him to his zombie fate, when, suddenly, he lunged at me, sinking his teeth into my shoulder. I screamed and beat him off my arm. I ran off, my mind racing. "I suppose I should off myself," I thought, "better that than zombification."
Determined to throw myself from the roof of a building, I smashed my way through the Biltmore Hotel. I took the stairs to the roof and ran towards the edge. Without hesitation, I leapt into the air, over the short walls surrounding the hotel's roof, and began my plummet to the ground.
Upon hitting the ground, I woke up into some other dream about looking for someone. Or something like that.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 2:33 PM on June 26, 2007
Eventually, in the lobby of the Citizens Bank Operations Center downtown, I found my first unbitten human. It's this I know who never wears a shirt. I can't stand him. At the time, however, his was a welcome presence. We fought our way outside, to the small walkway in front of the building, and ran alongside the Providence canals.
Stopping to catch our breath in Waterplace Park, I noticed my fellow human clutching his hand. Seeing my gaze, he turned to hide his wound. "They got you, didn't they?" I asked. A string of profanity flowed through his lips. I raised my rebar pole. "I'm really sorry to have to do this, man. It's for your own good."
I couldn't kill him.
I turned to leave him to his zombie fate, when, suddenly, he lunged at me, sinking his teeth into my shoulder. I screamed and beat him off my arm. I ran off, my mind racing. "I suppose I should off myself," I thought, "better that than zombification."
Determined to throw myself from the roof of a building, I smashed my way through the Biltmore Hotel. I took the stairs to the roof and ran towards the edge. Without hesitation, I leapt into the air, over the short walls surrounding the hotel's roof, and began my plummet to the ground.
Upon hitting the ground, I woke up into some other dream about looking for someone. Or something like that.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 2:33 PM on June 26, 2007
I'ma go nap right now!
posted by Astro Zombie
My favorite contraction ever! "I am going to" in three letters and a punctuation mark. It's brilliant. It's elegant. It's economical. Two thumbs up, highly recommended.
posted by vytae at 4:02 PM on June 26, 2007
posted by Astro Zombie
My favorite contraction ever! "I am going to" in three letters and a punctuation mark. It's brilliant. It's elegant. It's economical. Two thumbs up, highly recommended.
posted by vytae at 4:02 PM on June 26, 2007
What? MetaChat has fewer standards and more hugs? We knew that.
posted by dame at 6:48 PM on June 26, 2007
posted by dame at 6:48 PM on June 26, 2007
"I'm sure there are researchers who actually study this."
There sure are. Some of them even have e-mail addresses in their profiles.
posted by Eideteker at 7:27 PM on June 26, 2007
There sure are. Some of them even have e-mail addresses in their profiles.
posted by Eideteker at 7:27 PM on June 26, 2007
micayetoca asks Coming from the guy who proposed the MefiMusicChallenge, I'm pretty sure he meant to say "why do we sleep when we haven't posted our songs"?
Mine is almost ready; there were some inspired contributions last night from some friends of mine which I would like include now... how is everyone else doing?
posted by chuckdarwin at 4:57 AM on June 27, 2007
Mine is almost ready; there were some inspired contributions last night from some friends of mine which I would like include now... how is everyone else doing?
posted by chuckdarwin at 4:57 AM on June 27, 2007
I bought a new mic to make it easy to record mine really quickly, and the ensuing bullshit of trying (and failing) to make it work with my existing workstation setup has eaten up my recording time for the last few days. Gah.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:56 AM on June 27, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:56 AM on June 27, 2007
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posted by dame at 7:16 AM on June 26, 2007