The Straight Dope 08/05/2005

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 08/05/2005

Dear Cecil:

I've read about a lot of different methods to increase
the number of lucid dreams you have. Most of them require
serious commitment, though, and before I take one up I
want to know if it actually works. Is there a method that
really helps you have lucid dreams?--Derek Murphy, via
e-mail

Dear Cecil:

Like many people, I have dreams nearly every night. Some
seem significant, most are probably pointless or silly,
but I'd really like to know for sure. How can I remember
in the morning what I've dreamed the night before?
--Anthony Crowe, via e-mail

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Cecil replies:

"Lucid dreams?" said Little Ed, befuddled as usual, on
reading Derek's question. "So he can tell when the snakes
and cigars are really just snakes and cigars?"

No, dolt. Lucid dreaming is a paradoxical state in which
the window of consciousness is seemingly closed to the
outside world but open to an inner one. Lucid dreamers
know they're dreaming, and if truly adept can return to
the same dream night after night and manipulate the
content, all without waking up. Sounds like a nifty
skill, and life-changing benefits are ascribed to it. But
many people, like Anthony, have a more basic concern: far
from having enough on the ball to dream-surf, they barely
remember their dreams at all.

The best-known guru of lucid dreaming is Stephen LaBerge,
author of several books on the subject and founder of the
Lucidity Institute in Palo Alto, California. LaBerge's
qualifications are twofold: first, he's a PhD in
psychophysiology who conducted dream research for many
years at Stanford University, and second, he's a veteran
lucid dreamer who over a seven-year stretch recorded
nearly 900 lucid dreams.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050805.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

While watching Raiders of the Lost Ark the other day, I
began to wonder if archaeologists have ever really come
across ancient sites that were full of booby-traps, or if
this sort of thing is merely the fantasy of Hollywood
screenwriters. I know that some ancient tombs, such as
that of King Tut, were supposedly cursed, but just
writing, "This place is cursed! Booga- booga!" on the
wall doesn't seem nearly as effective to me as a good
two-ton rolling boulder or poison darts that shoot out of
the wall if you step in the wrong place. Please set me
straight. --Charles

Dear Straight Dope:

Ancient, booby-trapped tombs and temples seem to be a
staple of action-adventure movies. You know, crushing
ceilings, poisoned darts firing from the walls, falling
boulders, and that sort of thing. But has anyone ever
found evidence of such an ancient mechanism? I've read
that Emperor Qin's tomb is supposed to be protected by
hair- trigger crossbows, but the chamber hasn't been
excavated yet. What are the chances that any device would
still work after two millennia? --Scott Miller, Santa
Maria, CA

Guest contributor dropzone replies:

None, Scott, but as you noted, that tomb has not yet been
fully excavated. The crossbows might even be there but
under the best possible conditions the bows and
bowstrings have taken a set at full draw and will not
move when released. I'm placing slightly more credence in
the stories of rivers and lakes of liquid mercury
shimmering around Qin's sarcophagus. Soil tests have
shown there to be 70 to 1500 PPB of mercury in samples
from his mound, a range from "not much" to "a fair
amount. sound like tons of mercury have leached into the
soil but the site seems to be contaminated. I'll let some
other saps breathe mercury-filled dust halfway around the
world as they try to prove me wrong. Instead, allow me to
set the scene for our readers as I answer Charles's
question .

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mboobytraps.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 03/20/1987

Dear Cecil: 

Ever since I was a kid, I've been annoyed at the fact
that hot dogs come ten to a package while buns come in
either eight- or twelve-packs (usually eight around
here). My girlfriend says it's because kids often eat
wieners without buns, and it's just thoughtful packaging
by the meat packers. I think she's suffering from a
sodium nitrite overdose, and that what we have here is a
conspiracy between Oscar Mayer and Mrs. Karl to keep us
endlessly buying either hot dogs or buns to use up the
leftovers. What's the story? --Bjorn B., Madison,
Wisconsin  

Cecil replies:  

Your mistake, Bjorn, is in assuming that businesspeople always
have some rational basis for their actions. On the contrary, my
experience is that many corporate decisions are arrived at by a
process not far removed from consulting sheep entrails.
Things are further complicated in this instance by the
fact that the principal players are suffering from a case
of collective amnesia. Nobody at any of the major hot dog
companies can offer a convincing rationale for why things
are packaged the way they are. Nonetheless, by a system
of anthropological inquiry not unlike Margaret Mead's
researches among the Samoans, I have been able to
construct the following hypothesis: you get ten hot dogs
and eight buns per package because meat packers like
things that come in pounds and bakers hate things that
come in tens. 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_350.html

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