Noman

27th Sep 2021

Total Recall (1990)

Question: Why is there air in and around the reactor? Humans have extensively researched the reactor, so they obviously needed air to do it, but doesn't Cohaagen control all the air on Mars, and the reactor? So if he doesn't want anyone to turn the reactor on why not simply drain the air from the reactor so nobody could go there?

lionhead

Answer: The entire chamber is full of the alien graphite that converts into a breathable atmosphere for the entire planet.

But it's not activated.

lionhead

Answer: They are on a planet with very little atmosphere; therefore, there must be a supply of environmental suits readily available for exploration of the planet's surface and for going outside to repair problems with the outside of the dome. If there are a number of suits available, the absence of air around the reactor would not be a deterrent. People could simply "borrow" one of the many suits and walk on in regardless of the lack of air.

Noman

12th Sep 2021

The Honeymooners (1955)

Dial J for Janitor - S1-E38

Question: When Ralph promises he'll fix Norton's pipes tomorrow morning, Norton says, "This is the last night I take a bath in Fred's Gasoline Station." Why wouldn't he have been taking his baths in his best friend Ralph's tub? He had already used their water to "Stretch the Soup." Why not to bathe?

DrLoomis1978

Answer: It is because Fred's gasoline station was a real place that really existed in the town of Tuckahoe New York. This was where Norton, Art Carney, was living at the time. It was a plug for his friend.

kenykop

Answer: Art Carney lived in Tuckahoe NY at this time and Fred's gasoline station really did exist. It was a plug for his friend at home.

Answer: Because going to the gas station for a bath is funnier. This is comedy, funnier trumps making sense.

Noman

It's still a mistake.

DrLoomis1978

Answer: There's no answer. He was probably joking or exaggerating, and, unlike getting water for the soup, bathing in someone else's bathroom is an inconvenience, and it might make Norton self-conscious and it would annoy Ralph. Going to a gas station does sound like something Norton would do.

raywest

Norton self-conscious? No way.

DrLoomis1978

You're overthinking it. It was a silly sitcom from a bygone era.

raywest

10th Oct 2017

Good Times (1974)

The Gang: Part 1 - S2-E9

Question: Neck Bone and Sweet Pea are referred to by Florida as their real names, Tyrone and Sylvester. Do we know which name goes to which guy? (I've always wondered this).

Answer: Neck Bone is Sylvester and Sweet Pea is Tyrone.

Bishop73

For some reason, I always thought it was the other way around but really no way of knowing. I'm assuming your answer is based on how Florida looks their directions near the end of the episode while saying their names.

They are listed as such on IMDb.com. So it is possible to check. Doug Grant played Sweet Pea and Michael D. Roberts played Neck Bone.

Noman

Show generally

Question: Something that's bugged me ever since becoming a Star Trek fan: Why do none of the ships featured in this or any other Star Trek series have seat-belts or some futuristic equivalent for their bridge crews? Practically every time, for example, the Enterprise comes under heavy attack, consoles and panels start exploding and crew members are thrown from their chairs and shown flying through the air. To me this seems a very obvious oversight.

Answer: The ships have inertial dampeners, they don't really need seatbelts. And consoles aren't really supposed to be exploding. When the do, would you really want to be lashed in place so your face and torso take the full force of it?

Phixius

There is a deleted scene in Star Trek nemesis where Captain Picard captain's chair get a seat belt and he makes a comment about them.

Dan23

The question refers to all crew, not just the captain's.

Noman

This video shows the many instances in the shows and films where seatbelts are used by the crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ysvyXDebsM.

Answer: In ST:TMP, the captain's chair had restraints; the arms folded down over him, holding him in place.

The question refers to all of the crew, not just the captain's chair.

Noman

In that scene all of the chairs have these restraints, so the answer actually applies to the whole bridge crew.

Question: In real life, had Tarzan been raised by apes from the time he was a baby, would he have actually been able to be educated to act and speak like an ordinary person?

Answer: I'd have to disagree with the previous answer. Being that Tarzan was raised by apes from infancy, there are many higher-level brain functions that he (in real life) would never have completely developed, such as upright walking and other motor skills, cognitive and speech abilities, social interaction, and so on. There are some vital human-brain capacities that if not learned at certain stages of early-childhood, cannot or can only partially be learned later. However, it is highly unlikely an infant could survive long in such an environment.

raywest

That is a very valid point.

Quantom X

I actually agree with this answer. Thanks.

Answer: Any answer would be speculative at this point since we don't have enough examples of feral children living in the wild until Tarzan's age. Most children that become feral either start out at an older age, 5 or 7, where they know how to speak a language, or are found before they hit puberty. This makes teaching and integration somewhat easier. There was a case of a boy living in the wild for 15+ years that still had difficulty interacting with society even in his 60's and 70's. He had the ability to speak but eventually lost it as he became more feral and he had huge difficulties understanding technology, like radio and cinemas. In all probability, Tarzan, and similar characters, would not be able to learn how to communicate, even if he could learn to speak English. He would have an even more difficult time learning how to socialize and live as "normal" adults do. And I could not see any possibility he teaches himself how to read and speak English, or any language.

Bishop73

Answer: In the books, Tarzan was self-taught after he discovered the house his father built. He learned to read English using the elementary books his parents brought with them to teach the child they were expecting, these books were in the house. While studying these books, he mimicked many of the things he saw in pictures, which could have included walking upright. He did not learn to speak English until he was a young adult after traveling to Europe. Also, after rescuing Paul D'Arnot in Africa, the French officer taught Tarzan French as the two of them left Africa for Europe.

Noman

Yes, but the question was could he "in real life" be educated and learn to speak like an ordinary person if he had been raised by apes from the time he was a baby. You are only describing how Tarzan accomplished that fictionally in the book. In real life, that could not have happened.

raywest

Just adding a little perspective, which is why I qualified it to what was in the books.

Noman

Answer: Given enough time, yes. Even though the best time to learn a second language is when a person is a kid, many adults of various ages despite speaking one language all their lives, are able to learn a different one and be fluent with it given enough time and practice.

Quantom X

Question: How did they clone pteranodons? Technically, they aren't dinosaurs. They are prehistoric birds.

blonddude207

Chosen answer: Irrelevant if they were birds or dinosaurs. Just the same as in the first movie, if a mosquito happened to have taken blood from one and been caught in amber, they can clone it.

GalahadFairlight

Answer: Birds did not evolve from pteranodons but from true dinosaurs.

Noman

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