Home

The Wanted Page

Most of the time I take it as axiomatic that all knowledge is contained on the Web somewhere (along with all lies, half-truths, wild exaggerations and pseudoscience, but that's another story). Sometimes, though, despite my best efforts I can't find something that I'm looking for. I'm going to use this page for things that I wanted to include in the weblog but couldn't find. If you can provide an online reference to answer these questions, I'll be happy to give you credit and cook you dinner if you ever visit the Palouse. I'd also be interested in knowing how you found the information, so I can improve my own search techniques. 

If you're looking for other experts to ask about things, check out SpaceStation42's Just Ask page.

You can follow the progress in answering these with handy-dandy icons now:

  No luck at all on this one yet. Be the first one to contribute information!

We're getting there...click to see the progress so far.

Hey, someone found the answer! Click to see it.

Click on the icons for more information if there's an answer.

Anyhow, here's the conundrums:

"Tachyon" is the name given to the superluminal particles that work as a solution to some of the equations of modern physics. Is there a good popularized page on tachyons, covering why they're predicted, the experiments that have been done to look for them, and what it would mean if they really exist? Bonus points for pretty pictures. (Answered 6/3/06)

The history of fame. I'd love to see a list of, say, the fifty most famous people of 1950, 1900, 1850, 1800... by some contemporary measure, not as seen in retrospect. I realize there's no way to do this objectively, but anything would be a good starting point for discussion. How many of the household names of 1850 Europe would be recognized today by the literate netizen? (Updated 6/3/06)

"Neither hide nor hair". Where the heck did that phrase come from? I thought I'd find the answer in Brewer's, but no luck. My gut feel says it's either a tanning reference or something out of Leviticus, but what do I know? (Updated 5/4/2004)

"Mutt & Jeff" were a comic strip (drawn by Bud Fisher around 1916). That's also a slang term for the "good cop/bad cop" method of police interrogation. Which came first, the comic or the slang? And is there a complete Mutt & Jeff comic (not just a single panel) out there on the web somewhere? (Updated 1/31/03)

This one from Jessamyn over at Abada Abada: My question involves carousels... are they supposed to be a mechanical version of some other pre-existing amusement ride, like a horse-in-a-circle kind if thing, or were they made up purely out of the inventor's imagination?

  The explanation of the "12 days of Christmas" carol as a Roman Catholic catechism from the days when it was a suppressed religion in England is all over the web, for example here. Yet I can't trace this story any further back than a BBS posting in the early 90's. Can anyone confirm or deny this bit of (what I suspect is) folk history? (Asked 12/21/99; updated 2/11/00)

Surely I can't be the only person to ever consider investing their life's savings in plastic hamster tubing (Habitrail and Hartz being two of the many brand names available) and creating a castle for hamsters. Who's got the biggest hamster warren picture on the web? Surely someone can do better than this.  (Asked 1/29/00; updated 3/8/03)

Eric Wagoner from Kestrel's Nest writes "I was thinking the other day (hmmm... yesterday, maybe) 'What ever happened to the Britannica Boy?' Like always when I have questions like these, I turned to the internet, thinking somebody's done a big fan page for the twerp. It seems he was too universally despised, as the only mention of him I could find was this page of taglines which include "The Encyclopedia Britannica Boy must die!" Once for Halloween, my friend Matt did a spot-on impression of him and was threatened with beatings everywhere he went. Of course, in his day-to-day persona, he was also threatened with beatings everywhere he went." How about it, folks? Can you find the Brittanica Boy fan page?  (Asked 2/11/00; updated 1/29/01)

There used to be a little thing called the CARDiac, from Bell Labs. That stood for Cardboard Illustrated Aid to Computing, and it was a cardboard computer. I can't find any substantial information about this on the web. I wish I still had mine. Anyone able to find one?   (Asked 8/25/00; updated 5/13/02)

Where do the Shriners get those little cars, anyhow? (Asked 5/17/01; answered 5/27/01)

Longtime weblog reader Robert Orenstein asks "Is there such a thing as a "fractional base"? Like 10 in base 2 is 1010, but what would 10 be in base 2.3? You'd think SOMEONE would have come up with some reasonable answer, but I sure can't find it." (Asked 5/26/01; updated 5/4/2004)

Honeywell Computers once ran an extensive set of ads featuring sculptures of animals and insects made from electronic components. This page mentions the ads, but I can't find any pictures on the web. And what ever happened to the original sculptures? (Asked 6/8/01, updated 6/3/06)

Mail answers to me. If you've got puzzling questions of your own, you might as well send those in too. If they're sufficiently intriguing (by my own idiosyncratic judgment) I'll add them to this page as well.