I am a big fan of Slate's on-line magazine. I nearly always read the explainer. It's entertaining and you never know what subject might be addressed.

Over this last year they received some questions that didn't make the cut. Some are pretty entertaining. A couple left me thinking,"Damn that is a good question...I wonder..."

So here they are. The unanswered questions of the year. You can vote on the best one to be answered at Slate.

The Explainer's Unanswered Questions From 2008

• What is the most disloyal dog breed?

• Why does some music make you want to shake your butt?

• Could you please explain why it is that squirrels are capable of such amazing athletic feats? What is it about their brains and, to a lesser degree, their bodies that allows it? I watch them at my house and have seen some amazing things.

• Why do women like soup? Is it for perceived health benefits? Is it because it's a quasi-comfort food?

• Is it just me, or do all national anthems the world over, no matter how rich and exotic the culture, seem to sound like European marching-band music? Wouldn't one expect China's national anthem be more "plinky"? Shouldn't Iraq's national anthem sound a little more "Arab-y"?

• I am an 11-year-old boy and girls in my class harass me constantly and I want to file a restraining order against one of them. Is that possible?

• It is a common baseball prank to give someone a cream pie in the face during a TV interview. Where do these cream pies come from? Do baseball teams keep cream pies in the dugout?

• Why don't humans have a mating season?

• When and why did the Communist Chinese change the name of their capital "PEKING" to Bazging? Sorry, I don't know how it is spelled. Thank you.

• My toaster identifies which of the two slots should be used for making a single slice of toast. Why does it make a difference which slot I use?

• If one gets a personal e-mail from a very famous or important person, such as the president, or the queen of England, or the Pope, or Paul McCartney, can that e-mail have monetary value? I guess not. It's just an electronic transmission on a screen. There's no original. There's no way to buy or sell it. Seems a shame tho.

• Does indoor tanning hurt your tits if you have had a breast silicone implant put in for over 30 years?

• Why do all of the deli guys and food cart guys call me "Boss" (well, me and everyone else)?

• I live in Washington, D.C., and we have very long escalators coming out of the Metro. If I grabbed the handrail when I first step onto the escalator and did not let go until I was at the top, my body would be almost prostrate across the steps. As I go higher on the escalator, I have to readjust the hand that is grabbing the rubber handrail. Why can't the companies that make escalators sync the steps and the handrails so that they go the same speed?

• If you were on a boat, what signs do sharks give if they are hungry and will attack versus if they just want to swim around the boat?

• How did early man deal with growing toe and fingernails?

• If someone with DNA from the Stone Age were born today, would they be normal?

• I have been accused of assault in Ohio. The woman fell over a box in the hall backward, and my brother opened the door, saw her lying there, and started hitting me. I got him down and held him down. It was all over a fight concerning my niece. What do you think will happen?

• I wonder what's going on with Obama's eyes. When he made his keynote address to the Democratic Convention in 2004, I noticed his eyes had a bit of a pretty eyes makeup look. I concluded that it was just the makeup they put on him for the TV cameras. But then yesterday on TV I saw some older footage of Obama and again his eyes had that same pretty look. This was before he was nationally known. I looked carefully and I think that look comes from having long eyelashes. I mentioned this to some other people and they noticed it too. But so then where did those long eyelashes go? Maybe eyelashes get shorter with age. Do they? BUT also I'm wondering if Obama has had his eyelashes shortened. If he has had them shortened, I think that's an excellent idea. Because that long lashes pretty eyes look actually doesn't look so good on a man. At least not if he's running for president.

• During this weekend's football playoff game in Green Bay, the temperature at kickoff was 0 degrees, and by the end of the game was -4 degrees. When players get injured in such weather, do they bother putting ice on the injury? Wouldn't that warm up the injury to 32 degrees?

• Burma's dictator has a chestful of bull**** medals. What's up with that, Explainer?

• If there is so much oil in the Middle East, could one missile (such as the ones used to penetrate bunkers and caves) explode deep underground and hypothetically blow up a few countries?

• How can personal coaches justify coaching athletes who are much better than they ever were? If they know so much about how to win, why aren't they competing?

• Can men eat the Activia yogurt that is advertised exclusively to the modern woman in khakis? Will it have the same internal regulatory effects on the male system that are promised for the female bowels? If not, why not?

• Can an average person not in politics get a pardon from the president of the United States? (Possession of forged instrument, October of 1989.)

• Is the stomach normally full of air like a balloon, or is it squeezed flat by the other organs, like a balloon with no air that spreads open as food and water come in? Are the other organs squeezed and compressed like a squeezed sponge, or are they like a sponge not being squeezed? What about the intestines? Are they squeezed flat normally, or are they open like one of those long balloons that magicians make animals out of? I'm trying to get a picture in my mind what the inside of the body normally looks like.

• Please explain the method of formation and origin of black holes. Are they located at the Bermuda Triangle area and why there?

• Who made up the rule that if you wore a shirt all day, went home, and washed it, you can't wear it the next day?

• I live in Chicago, where taxi drivers are constantly talking on their phones. To whom are they talking?

• Why do cockroaches flip over on their backsides when they die? I sprayed RAID into a hole in my wall the other day, and by the next morning I found six cockroaches laid out on my floor, all flipped over and all very dead!

• Why do the women gymnasts walk around between events with that goofy arm-swing gait?

• I am 79 years old. I bring this up first to help explain my question. In the late 1930s or early 1940s, I was looking through an old stack of Life magazines, and there was a picture of an old couple sitting on the porch of a cabin (or shack) up in the mountains somewhere in Appalachia, with the notation: "The King and Queen of America?" The small article with the picture stated that if George Washington had become king of the U.S., these two would (under the usual custom) be our king and queen. I have thought of this from time to time, even doubted it. (It might have been part of the propaganda of the time, the Depression years, that we were all equal, etc.) I am dimly aware that George Washington had brothers, and that it is possible that the descent is known. As I remember, it was a lovely picture, the old couple looking out over a valley, with mist, and smoking their corncob pipes. Can you find the picture? Can you tell me whether there was truth in the assertion?

• Why are pandas names doubled? Ling Ling, Tuan Tuan, Yuan Yuan.

• Are the frequently used "jaws of life" really necessary or just big-boy toys for rescuers?

• How long can humans live when they are caught on fire? For example, when a car crashes and explodes turns into a gulf of flames, but humans are alive.

• Hi, I am Anna. I am only 11 years old! My friend told me about this black hole, and I have gotten really scared. I don't want to die! I thought if it didn't happen today, it wasn't going to happen. I did not know nothing about it happening in Spring! I find it unfair that scientists are making a machine that could possibly destroy the entire human race. Me and my friends have cried about the black hole, and I find it really upsetting. There has been barely nothing about it on the news. I am so nervous. I just think I am too young to die—is there any way we could stop it happening?

I vote for the toaster question!

haha I always wondered about that.

My only thought is that the heat sensory if on one side not the center. When my next toaster pukes I will take it apart and look

Me, too! I figured it was some kind of weight sensor thingy. Let me know what you find out!

How do you know when you've run out of invisible ink ?

Does that stuff really exist?

unplug it first
it may have just spit up

Yes it does and you can make it at home.

Seems like it involves lemon juice.

Okay, I had to look it up. Here's how:

Lemon juice is acidic and weakens paper. When paper is heated, the remaining acid turns the writing brown before discoloring the paper.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: A Few Minutes
Here's How:

1. Squeeze lemons to obtain their juice or obtain bottled lemon juice.
2. Use the juice as 'ink' by applying it to a stick or paintbrush and writing on paper.
3. Allow the paper to dry.
4. When you are ready to read your invisible message, hold the paper up to sunlight, a lightbulb (recommended), or other heat source.
5. The heat will cause the writing to darken to a pale brown, so your message can now be read.
6. Another way to read the message is to put salt on the drying 'ink'. After a minute, wipe the salt off and color over the paper with a wax crayon to reveal the message.

Tips:

1. Experiment with other juices. White wine, orange juice, vinegar, and apple juice all work well, too.
2. A cotton swab makes an excellent disposable 'paintbrush'.
3. The writing turns brown because the weakened paper burns before the rest of the paper. Be careful not to overdo your heating and ignite the paper!

What You Need:

* Lemon or Lemon Juice
* Sunlight or Heat Source
* Paper
* Paintbrush or Stick

Boy, some of those q are pretty gross (how long does take a person to burn in car crash?) I know the answer to the disloyal dog one, it is a rot, had one, my dobie is so much more loyal.

And the fav? About Obama's eyelashes.

But (just funning w/u) most asked q I bet was

"How did Obama ever get e

lected?" (Because we know so little about him, and not natural born cit as requred.)

See latest (lawsuits are now up to 24 still going thru courts) Very much an alive issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNHIR1NcuL4

how and what is next/ why

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgQTh1-dJUM

But, like yr questions. BB

Gee how did I just know...

At any rate...I can understand someone wanting to know about how long someone might live in a burning car. Perhaps they lost someone they knew and are trying to come to terms with it?

As for all this...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"How did Obama ever get e

lected?" (Because we know so little about him, and not natural born cit as requred.)

See latest (lawsuits are now up to 24 still going thru courts) Very much an alive issue. -ohwidow
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please see the many threads on this issue then do yourself a favor and quit getting dated information from yahoo's on line like yours truely, blog's, Utube, right wing sites and conspiracy sites.

I make the assumption your information is dated because the officials who verified the birth certificate and the Supreme Court's action of declining to hear, therefor allowing the lower courts decision to stand, occurred shortly after the election.

Read the statements of the officials of the State of Hawaii verifying the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate and the two dismissals of federal cases by the SCOTUS of the Berg and what's-his-name's similar suit.

Anyone can file a suit. Once filed it can have several fates. You can get some good information about that at state and federal websites and of course from the Library of Congress. You will find the reference librarians helpful.

I hope you find this information helpful in your quest for the truth.