What Is It? game 182



It is once again time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Do you know what this object (not the quarter) is? Can you take a wild guess?

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will each win a T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

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?

Check out the What Is It? Blog for more pictures of this object. Let your imagination run wild, and good luck!

Update: the object in question is a salt pulverizer, for breaking up salt in a shaker. You can see the patent sketches for it at the What Is It? blog. Strangely, no one guessed the correct answer. But a t-shirt from the NeatoShop goes to theoneoneandonly, who posited that this was for hurting parents' bare feet before Lego bricks were produced for the same purpose.

Comments (52)

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

The human thirst for knowledge only extends to a length inversely proportionate to his/her will to ignorance, which generally extends a lot further. The Will to Ignorance is more palatable than the Will to Knowledge because of it's social value.
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I somewhat agree Ryan, but I think it depends on whether or not a person places value on knowledge above other equally as valuable things, like love or money. I think his point was that if you're curious for knowledge, the best way to live and learn is to admit lack of knowledge. You approach changing truths and discover new knowledge more fervently than if you thought you "knew," particularly if you come from the viewpoint that science in its entirety is not proven and everything is completely theoretical, which might be where his commitments to "lack of purpose" and truth came from. Vaclav Havel said something relevant: "Keep the company of those who seek the truth--run from those who have found it." Therefore, to admit ignorance is knowledge. I think Feynman probably could care less about whether or not he was socially palatable, especially considering his public disdain for the social workings of the National Academy of Sciences. Sorry if I'm being a little abstract here. You brought up a good point to think about.
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I liked his line about one little aspect of God coming to Earth and look what it’s created…. Like our views of God are the surface views of the flower and to expand beyond that (the flower to all its aspects vs. the Earth compared to the complexity of the universe)

In one stroke he doubts God, but then expands the beauty of God to the universe… and states that our beliefs are as limiting to Gods true beauty as limiting our understanding of the flower to only its surface “one centimeter”

There’s a helluva lot in that one little video…
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