What Is It? game 313

Hey look! It's time for our collaboration with the wonderful What Is It? Blog! Do you know what the object in this picture is? It doesn't really matter if you do, because we are looking for the funniest guesses. You can win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! But first, read the rules:

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Two winners who submit funny and/or clever (albeit ultimately wrong) answers will each win a T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

If you guess the correct answer, you'll get a big pat on the back.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

There is another picture of this thing at the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: the mystery object is an ice cleat for attaching to the heel of a shoe. A handy item, no doubt, but we were looking for funny guesses. One of the best answers came from Berhard, who said,

This is obviously a tool-less mountable „space saver“ spare horseshoe... just enough to get you and your mustang to the next farrier... without the need to carry a forge and an anvil..
The wild west ancestor of the „limited use donut tyre“...

That’s good for a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! But how does he make those upside-down quotes? The other great guess came from Randall:

Don't be put off by the seemingly crude appearence of this device, for without it the astronauts would have never reached the moon! This an artificial orange squeezer that was used to make Tang, the delicous vitamin packed space drink you can enjoy right here on earth, if you have a taste for watery sickly sweet orange colored sand. I can't describe exacltly how it worked, because thats still so classified, even Snowden won't tell us. I think it was fitted to a space boot, and the artificial orange was stomped on like they do grapes when they make wine.

Congratulations to both on such clever ideas! We’ll do it again next week. See the answer to all the mystery objects of the week at the What Is It? blog.


Comments (45)

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

Honestly? It's the same reason that the grandchildren of self made millionaires tend to be spoiled brats.

The first generation is very aware of where they came from, and what they must do to succeed.

The second generation still hears the daily stories from their parents, but are now living in relative luxury and can relax a bit.

The third generation knows no other life, and have no idea of the suffering their ancestors went through to give them what they now take for granted. They hear the stories from their grandparents with skepticism.

TLDR: "Kids these days, they just don't know what they got. Now get off my lawn."
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I think, that the first generation immigrants tend to believe in the idea that you just have to give your best, and you can socially and economically make it to wherever you want (to become "rich"). The second generation notices, that dad an mom work their a***s off to get somewhere, but fail (due to racism or other inequality that occurs). The second generation therefore is less motivated in working hard (it's not leading to the goal imagined) AND tell their kids that working doesn't pay off (or/and get into drugs etc. thus being a negative role-model for their kids - the third generation). The boredom (and sense of inequality/latent racism) resulting from a life of less motivation leads to drug abuse and delinquency (and less empathy to the natives).
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I would have liked to have seen comparable research done in other countries with substantial immigrant populations, and the results compared with these studies. Only then can you start legitimately raising the possibility of the "corrupting" influence of America, as opposed to the "corrupting" influence of being damn human a la Laston's trenchant analysis. (And I speak as not only first-generation, but the only one in my entire family tree to be born in the USA.)
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I find I am uncomfortable with the idea that either immigrants disrupt the US or the US 'corrupts' immigrants. The moving of people across government(s)-defined boarders has been a natural practice of the human condition since borders were created.

In saying that, the article doesn't seem to talk much about acculturative stress. These children are not simply 'becoming American'. They are dealing with the psychological stress of incorporating two identities into one child, the identity expected at home, and the identity expected at school (or the more "Americanized" identity).

For 2nd and 3rd generation children, they are now legally Americans (as they were born in the States) but are still struggling with being bi-cultural. Quite literally, bi-cultural children must learn twice as much as their established counter parts. Often that includes two languages and two sets of expected social time tables (education, marriage, children, ect). Of course, two sets is the simplest scenario. Then, these children must learn (all on their own) how to balance the two.

While building awareness about these children's struggles is important (as many were either transported as infants/toddlers or born here) we must be sensitive to their experiences as uniquely defined by their bi-cultural status.
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@Laston: The 3 Generation Rule is quite real, especially in Corporations, Founders, Sons of Founders, etc.

-Usually by/after 3g, they've pissed it away because they're not visionaries anymore, they're Useless Aristocrats who know how to do Nothing but spend money.
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Another article trying to make America seem like a horrible place.

Most immigrants who come here legally enjoy life here and make a go of it. Their children end up spoiled, period. Their grandchildren, even more so. What is so surprising about that?

As to WHY they are spoiled, well, put it down to how upwardly mobile immigrants can be here and stop bashing America.

You won't find many countries in the world where people can come, work hard and so quikly carve out a decent life for their family.

Jealous? Get over it. That's life.

But don't try to make us feel ashamed of the freedom we have to move up.
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Sounds to me like a case of regression to the mean. First-generation immigrants are those with enough "get up and go" to make dramatic changes in their life in the hope of improving their lot. But, as in any situation where you have a mix of heredity and randomness, the children will tend to be more average than their parents were. A simple example of this is rolling a bunch of dice (which have no 'heredity' from roll to roll), selecting all those "exceptional" ones that rolled sixes, and seeing how they do on a re-roll.
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Hard work is an archaic American virtue. But not so for other nations. The immigrants I have known tend to begin a bit more "miserly". They will have 3 families living under a single roof, and all working at the same business.

Habituation. We habituate and slacken on our morals and habits when the environment is so.
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I don't have the time to read another study. Do both of these studies focus on Latino immigrants, or just the second one? Cultural differences could affect the results.
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