Subject: (Fwd) Theories from Omni Magazine Reader [96.feb or earlier]


Grand Prize Winner:
When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when
toast is dropped, it always lands with the buttered side facing down.
I propose to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat;
the two will hover, spinning inches above the ground.
Why, with a giant buttered cat array, a high-speed monorail
could easily link New York with Chicago.


Runners-up:

Why Yawning Is Contagious: You yawn to equalize the pressure on your
eardrums. This pressure change outside your eardrums unbalances other
people's ear pressures, so they must yawn to even it out.

The earth may spin faster on its axis due to deforestation. Just as a figure
skater's rate of spin increases when the arms are brought in close to the body,
the cutting of tall trees may cause our planet to spin dangerously fast.


Honorable Mentions:

Birds take off at sunrise. On the opposite side of the world, they are
landing at sunset. This causes the earth to spin on its axis.

The reason hot-rod owners raise the backs of their cars is that it's easier to
go fast when you're always going downhill.

The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant. If omitted in
one place, they turn up in another. When a Bostonian "pahks" his "cah," the
lost r's migrate southwest, causing a Texan to "warsh" his car and invest
in "erl wells."