"A human is halfway in size between an atom and the known universe"... This is a paraphrased quote I have come across several times. I like it. Who said it first? How true is it in the most literal sense? And, finally, what errors arrive in postulating a universe, or an atom, which can be measured AT ALL from our singular, relativistic, perspective? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Feb 18, 2007 - 14 answers

Why does standing in front of an elevator give me weird vertigo? It's as though the floor were moving up and down slightly. Is it just my brain anticipating the elevator motion and landing? Or am I sensing vibrations in the floor? Or some sort of air pressure thing? Or something about a vertical line dominating my field of vision? It is really dizzying and odd. Am I insane?
posted by unknowncommand on Jan 4, 2007 - 16 answers

Sometimes a spot on my scalp crawls. [more inside]
posted by stray on Dec 19, 2006 - 18 answers

If I stare at something and "zone out," after a while a little switch in by brain flips and I suddenly feel as if I am seeing that something for the first time, as someone with a very limited knowledge of that thing. Is that weird? Has anyone else experienced this before? [more inside]
posted by yellowbkpk on Jul 11, 2006 - 17 answers

What is the label for an entity or idea which began as nothing and came to have identity through its own fictionalisation? That is, notions diametrically opposed to 'simulacra' - in that the entity has no referent to begin with... [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Feb 21, 2006 - 20 answers

Many years ago someone told me the recognised term for the kind of involuntary shudder that commonly affects people at rest. You know the kind that spontaneously rocks you, just for a moment, like you are shaking off the ghoulies, like the cliche says 'someone was walking on your grave'? I have since lost this word to time, and searching the internet has brought only partial results. Does anyone know it?
posted by 0bvious on Nov 15, 2005 - 31 answers