What is that?!!!

[+ purplekow]

I have a life-sized stuffed cow in a room in my house. I frequently get a "What's that?" when people notice it. What do you have in your house that is most likely to bring forth a "What's that?" Whipped Guy, I am awaitng your answer with interest especially piqued.

[+ deej]

I have a life-sized stuffed cow in a room in my house.

 

Not sure I'd ask "what is that?" I'm pretty sure I'd ask why.

[+ José Soplanucas]

I have nothing in my place now, but when I was just arrived to DC, 13 years ago, I was leaving with a room mate, my best friend. He had in his living room a huge painting, like 7 feet tall, depicting a semi abstract image of a dick and balls, or a giant dildo standing on its balls. We would play like a test, asking visitors "what is that?". Most Americans would see a Mexican hat, or a skyscraper. Most foreigners would see a dick or a dildo.

[+ purplekow]

Not sure I'd ask "what is that?" I'm pretty sure I'd ask why.

I am pretty sure know it is a stuffed cow. The what is that is more likely a why is that here but why is that here was not a great title for a thread

[+ poolboy48220]

Closest I ever came to that was my Nancy Pearl, Librarian action figure. People didn't ask "what", but they did ask "why".

 

Some have asked, when seeing my 8" TARDIS on the mantel, why I have a phone booth there. They're asked to leave.

[+ poolboy48220]

[AdamSmith]

Mine doesn't get a What is that? but sometimes an Is that really...? It's a photograph of the Enola Gay autographed by pilot Paul Tibbets, bombardier Thomas Ferebee, and navigator Theodore van Kirk.

 

My What is that? piece is, on a shelf beneath the Enola Gay photo under a little glass dome, a chunk of 'Trinitite,' the green glassy fused sand of the desert floor that was created in the first fission-bomb test firing at Alamogordo.

 

 

I am assured it's no longer a radiation hazard unless, possibly, I were to ingest it.

[+ WmClarke]

I have nothing that would provoke this reaction. But after reading this thread I need to find something.

[Tonyko]

I was at this event when I was 16, my Uncle took me (he's kinda a connected hipster not that much older than me like 8 yrs) and Andy Warhol was there with this fancy Poloroid (sic?) camera taking pix of famous ppl and reg ppl and the cam must have spit one out that obvs didn't come out cause I saw him crumple it and leave it on a table (there was nothing on it just dark blobs with some lights) BUT I TOOK IT anyway lol. It's on my coffee table in a clear plexi box fame still crumpled just like he left it. PPl who notice it always say WTF IS THAT???

[bigvalboy]

That's a great story Tonyko....not many people at 16 would appreciate the significance of that...

[gallahadesquire]

I have a box, about 8" on each edge, with a leather strap. Inside it is another box, about 6" on a side. Inside that is a WWII Gimble-mounted Naval Chronometer. It's inconvenient as it requires daily winding (everybody else in the living room runs for a week) but keeps amazing time.

[Rudynate]

I have a life-sized stuffed cow in a room in my house. I frequently get a "What's that?" when people notice it. What do you have in your house that is most likely to bring forth a "What's that?" Whipped Guy, I am awaitng your answer with interest especially piqued.

 

I have a separatory funnel on my kitchen table. I also have a Buddha statue that every one assumes is a priceless relic, because it looks really convincing. In fact, it is cast from concrete and I paid about $100.00 for it at a garden center.

[AdamSmith]

The funnel reminded me I have one of these:

 

 

A Klein bottle, the 3D equivalent of a Moebius strip.

[+ purplekow]

The funnel reminded me I have one of these:

 

 

A Klein bottle, the 3D equivalent of a Moebius strip.

I assume you cannot put anything in the bottle. It is interesting though. As a tween, I used to love to make Mobius strips and cut them in half and draw on them. Clearly I had few friends.

[AdamSmith]

I assume you cannot put anything in the bottle.

 

Sure you can.

 

http://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/images/klein-glass-bottle.jpg

 

The topological oddity is not that it can't hold volume -- you see how you can invert it and pour liquid into the opening -- but rather that it does not have an inside and an outside, but instead only one continuous surface.

 

Since we are constrained to a 3D world, the surface has to intersect itself to do this -- unlike the Moebius strip, whose 2D surface rotates through the third dimension to achieve comparable continuity. If we could access the fourth dimension, presumably we could construct Klein bottles that did not have to suffer this indignity of self-penetration.

 

See of course Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions and, more relevant here, Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe.

[+ honcho]

A Klein bottle, the 3D equivalent of a Moebius strip.

Flappity, Floppity, Flip

The mouse on the moebius.

The strip revolved,

the mouse dissolved

in a chrono-dimensional skip.

 

Three jolly sailors from Blaydon-on-Tyne

They went to sea in a bottle by Klein.

Since the sea was entirely inside the hull

The scenery seen was exceedingly dull.

 

---

Quoted from the wonderful collection "Space

Child's Mother Goose" by Frederick Winsor and Marian

Parry (Simon and Schuster, 1956).

 

The book really does have some charming illustrations; I'm quoting the mouse from memory, but found the Klein-bottle via google.

[+ purplekow]

By the way, if you cut a Mobius strip in half along the long axis you get a longer Mobius strip, or so it seems, but if you cut that one in half...well I wont spoil the surprise, but it is not an even longer Mobius strip.

Sure you can.

 

http://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/images/klein-glass-bottle.jpg

 

The topological oddity is not that it can't hold volume -- you see how you can invert it and pour liquid into the opening -- but rather that it does not have an inside and an outside, but instead only one continuous surface.

 

Since we are constrained to a 3D world, the surface has to intersect itself to do this -- unlike the Moebius strip, whose 2D surface rotates through the third dimension to achieve comparable continuity. If we could access the fourth dimension, presumably we could construct Klein bottles that did not have to suffer this indignity of self-penetration.

 

See of course Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions and, more relevant here, Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe.

So the bottom is solid. Since there was no fluid in the bottle, I thought the bottle was closed on itself. Instead the opening is on the bottom and the spout is internalized. Got it now.

[Lookin]

http://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/images/klein-glass-bottle.jpg

 

A Klein bottle full of Jim Beam

Appeared to me once in a dream.

By extruding my lips,

I teased out a few sips,

After which it poured forth in a stream. http://fun.resplace.net/Emoticons/Alcohol/Drunk.gif.pagespeed.ce.DRg0dD6d3U.gif

[+ purplekow]

An escort with a Klein bottle bent

Was the hit of every Daddy's event

It was not serendipity

That with uncommon rapidity

He could come and come till he went

[sincitymix]

I have a life-sized stuffed cow in a room in my house. I frequently get a "What's that?" when people notice it. What do you have in your house that is most likely to bring forth a "What's that?" Whipped Guy, I am awaitng your answer with interest especially piqued.

 

Is it a Purple Cow ?

[+ purplekow]

Is it a Purple Cow ?

No it is black and white. One of the few things in my life that is.

[sincitymix]

No it is black and white. One of the few things in my life that is.

ahhh.. nothing some purple dye wont fix

[+ poolboy48220]

Actually, two other things I have. A friend was able to visit the Star Trek series sets in the early 90's. He brought me back a hair from the Voyager Captain's chair on the bridge (no guarantees that it was Kate Mulgrew's), and a bit of dirt from the plant in Odo's office. They're in two popper bottles in my china cabinet, but they're not that obvious so I don't get asked about them often.

[Lookin]

He brought me back a hair from the Voyager Captain's chair on the bridge (no guarantees that it was Kate Mulgrew's), and a bit of dirt from the plant in Odo's office. They're in two popper bottles in my china cabinet, but they're not that obvious so I don't get asked about them often.

 

Perhaps your guests are not as nosy as some of us are. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

 

My goodness! Is that Kate Mulgrew's hair in this popper bottle??

[Tonyko]

That's a great story Tonyko....not many people at 16 would appreciate the significance of that...

I always take stuff like that, but usually toss it not too long after cause I think like, how queer can I be to save this stuff lol?? Reality is had he not died like a month after I saw him I prolly WOULD have tossed it at some point soon after. Glad I didn't