# Column ideas 4/6/23 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 6, 2023, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266 "2023-04-06T18:21:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/21 "2023-04-07T15:35:01Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Look, for example, at the books that the columns generated. Very little about the future, a lot about the present and the past. True facts, Cece - that’s what I’d like to see more of. xo, While I don’t disagree that those were the sorts of SD columns that some of us still fondly recall, most of those classic columns were from the 1980s and 1990s, when most people lacked the ability to look things up on the internet, and find answers to strange, fun, and obscure questions. My suspicion is that, at this point, most of those sorts of questions are now very well-plowed ground. ---
**Author:** ![NinthAcolyte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ninthacolyte/32/13676_2.png) [@NinthAcolyte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinthAcolyte)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/22 "2023-04-07T16:41:38Z")
Okay, here’s a “softball:” How does paint work? I paint miniatures, myself, which usually means applying acrylics to plastic, resin, or metal objects. If I don’t prime the mini first, the paint rubs off easily. Why don’t they just make the color paints out of the same stuff as the primer? And why do I need to seal the mini afterwards, if the primer is supposed to make the paint stick? What’s up with enamels and oils? What’s going on chemically or physically that makes all these things behave so differently when ultimately I’m doing the same thing: putting a thin layer of colorful goo on top? I could look it up myself, but it’d be fun to see what Cecil says! ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/23 "2023-04-07T16:51:47Z")
There’s a fair amount of research on how synthetic fertilizers create greenhouse gases. However, I would expect that nitrogen runoff also leads to more greenery around and downstream of farms, as well as more river and ocean life and vegetation. Any form of vegetation should, I believe, act as a carbon sink. What’s the actual trade-off between these? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/24 "2023-04-07T16:56:18Z")
Is organic produce actually organic? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0l7ncf_BwhI/maxresdefault.jpg "10 Organic Food Myths - Organic is NOT what you think.") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l7ncf_BwhI) vs > **[pest-summ2001.pdf](https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/pest-summ2001.pdf)** > > 24.23 KB ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/25 "2023-04-07T17:03:03Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I know little about future electric network needs or blockchain. A deep dive into the relationship _between_ electricity needs and blockchain _versus its alternatives_ might be interesting to include in a discussion of blockchain. On the one hand, it seems pretty certain to me that blockchain money systems, no matter how green the variant is, use more electricity than already-existing banking networks since the latter use little marginal electricity, but what about the electricity costs of blockchain versus the logistics of lugging physical cash around, or potential electricity savings from shutting down staffed remittance networks with at least some physical footprint such as Western Union if blockchain completely replaces them (which it can’t do for traditional banking systems.) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/26 "2023-04-07T18:32:35Z")
Another more contentious matter. How much does popular reporting on a subject (even a negative subject) lead to an increase in support for that thing (i.e. serving as “free advertising” for it)? Examples: - Suicide - Serial killers - Trumpism - School shootings > **[Copycat suicide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide)** > > A copycat suicide is defined as an emulation of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide on television and in other media. The publicized suicide serves as a trigger, in the absence of protective factors, for the next suicide by a susceptible or suggestible person. This is referred to as suicide contagion. > A spike of emulation suicides after a widely publicized suicide is known as the Werth... > **[Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic...](https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m575)** > > Objective To examine the association between reporting on suicides, especially deaths of celebrities by suicide, and subsequent suicides in the general population. > > Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. > > Data sources PubMed/Medline, PsychInfo,... > **[Mass shooting contagion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_shooting_contagion)** > > Mass shooting contagion theory is the studied nature and effect of media coverage of mass shootings and the potential increase of mimicked events. Academic study of this theory has grown in recent years due to the nature of mass shooting events, frequency of references to previous rampage shooters as inspiration and the acquisition of fame using violence, particularly in the United States. The Columbine High School massacre is cited as being the first shooting to receive nationwide 24/7 pub Coine... > **[$2 Billion Worth of Free Media for Donald Trump (Published 2016)](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html)** > > Mr. Trump is far better than any other candidate — maybe any candidate ever — at drawing attention without having to advertise for it. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/27 "2023-04-07T21:08:44Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > There’s a fair amount of research on how synthetic fertilizers create greenhouse gases. However, I would expect that nitrogen runoff also leads to more greenery around and downstream of farms, as well as more river and ocean life and vegetation. Any form of vegetation should, I believe, act as a carbon sink. > > What’s the actual trade-off between these? It may _transiently_ be a carbon sink, but vegetation that is eaten or just plain left to rot sends its CO2 (and methane!) back into the atmosphere. It’s only a carbon sink if sequestered. For example, even though algae produce oxygen, they are a net depleter of oxygen in water bodies since whatever oxygen they produced while they were growing is countered by the oxygen that’s absorbed when they die and rot, and the latter is far more concentrated in time. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/28 "2023-04-07T21:15:15Z")
[Shinjū - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinj%C5%AB) plays (the Japanese equivalent of Romeo and Juliet) became so notorious for inspiring suicide that they were banned at one point. Places where it’s easy to commit suicide often become notorious for it and have to have access to them restricted- see “Lover’s Leap”. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/29 "2023-04-07T21:55:39Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > It’s only a carbon sink if sequestered. Vegetative mass is a form of sequestration. Yes, the sequestration stops as soon as the plant dies, if you’re looking at things on a per-plant-basis, but if you’re maintaining a forest of plants on the exhaust stream of the farms then the balance of old plants dying and new plants being born cancels out. It’s the total amount of greenery that you see at any given moment that matters, not the cycle of birth and death. And that’s relatively static so long as the inputs all stay the same. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/30 "2023-04-07T22:09:37Z")
_The future of freshwater, tech, climate, supply_ **Given the problems of climate change and drought, how can the world best supply fresh water to everyone?** _Future nutrition, GMO, longevity medicine_ **Is it possible for people to live to be 150 years old?** _Nostalgia, vintage, old tech, surprising comebacks (Polaroids?)_ **What old technology, like vinyl or Polaroids, will the next generations bring back?** _The housing crisis, sensible urban development_ **Governments don’t want to alienate older voters by seriously addressing the housing crisis. But how could they best do so?** _Banking and finance reform_ **How can government regulate and incentivize the banking and shadow banking sectors to best serve consumers?** _Parenting, education methods, happiness_ **What is the best way to educate children?** _Well-being, perspectives, factors, folly, future_ **Should government nudge people to make choices that will likely make them healthier and happier? How so?** _Secret societies, conspiracies, power_ **Did secret societies ever have real power? Who actually controls the world?** _Social media, violence, law, solutions_ **What needs to change to make social media safe and minimize its harms?** _Understanding new tech: farming, food, war_ **What recent unsung changes in technology have had the biggest benefit in developing nations?** _Military strategy in 2023_ **What is new or unique about the Ukraine conflict and what does this mean for future strategists?** _How to learn, what to study now for most future benefit, university reform_ **How should universities change to better serve students and society?** _How to teach compromise and civility_ **Should students be taught to put their country before themselves? Given popular anger and acrimony how can we teach getting along and the art of compromise?** (Take, leave, reject or modify any of these as you see fit. They are just suggestions. If some readers prefer direct, non-speculative stuff they can offer questions too. I am assuming you like the bigger questions based on recent initial columns, but I liked the induction stove one too.) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/31 "2023-04-08T00:23:20Z")
How about a column where you answer questions (mine, but others as well🫣)? I gots the questions. you could say hi to me, occasionally as well😘 ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/32 "2023-04-08T12:41:50Z")
I would like to read a column that explores the predicted real world reaction over time after receiving a verified signal from an extraterrestrial civilization. Headline: _“ET Called, Will Be Here in 5 Years!”_ Premise: we receive a signal (with Rosetta Stone) from an extraterrestrial civilization that is verified without doubt to be legitimate. The signal has been received by many professional and amateur astronomers, so the story can’t be suppressed. The message is short and ambiguous. They will arrive on Earth in 5 years, but their intentions are not clear. They could be friend, or foe—they don’t say. No other signal is received from them, and we can’t contact them. All we can do is wait. How will the world react to this information, short term (first weeks after receiving the message), and long term (close to the 5 year arrival date)? Will the world at large be inspired and welcoming to the ETs? Would mass paranoia set in over time resulting in chaos and a breakdown of society? Something in between? Or, something else? Are they saviors, or destroyers? _Only your hairdresser knows for sure._ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/33 "2023-04-08T13:09:46Z")
One thing I’ll mention is that a lot of the new columns have been revisitings of each other. With the current format, I understand that you’re more involved in the discussions than you used to be, but that doesn’t mean that you need to write a new column to respond to everything that people say. Some things, you can just put a quick reply in that thread, and some things you can just leave completely unanswered. As it is now, most topics are effectively two-column topics, which isn’t as interesting as something new. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/34 "2023-04-08T17:52:41Z")
To what extent is _The Structure of Scientific Revolutions_ by Thomas Kuhn true? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/35 "2023-04-08T18:22:45Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > I would like to read a column that explores the predicted real world reaction over time after receiving a verified signal from an extraterrestrial civilization. Headline: _“ET Called, Will Be Here in 5 Years!”_ The scenario you propose is one possibility but imho the absolute least likely. A clearly artificial but unintelligible signal that as far we know has absolutely nothing to do with us is far more likely. More likely still would be a “weird” signal that the astronomy community would be furiously debating over whether it really is artificial or not- see the debates over Tabby’s Star and Oumuamua. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/36 "2023-04-08T18:48:56Z")
Yes, my hypothetical is unlikely, but I used it as a simple device to consider the likely human reaction to contact and eventual visitation from an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, however it really occurs (if at all, ever). More a question of psychology and sociology, than astrophysics or cosmology. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/37 "2023-04-08T19:51:54Z")
Joe Haldeman wrote _The Coming_ about a similar scenario, with an interesting twist. Recommended. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/38 "2023-04-09T04:00:02Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > More a question of psychology and sociology, than astrophysics or cosmology. More like something a cat would dream up! It doesn’t seem like there’s much Straight Dope to it, just a lot of “talk is cheap” speculation, which can be fun (see “The Leftovers”) but not the sort of thing a Cecil would do. Like a lot of threads I never bother to open - “What would happen if suddenly gravity disappeared and trees were turned into walrus meat?” ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/39 "2023-04-09T04:26:10Z")
I don’t think making contact with an extraterrestrial civilization is as absurd a thought experiment as trees turning into walrus meat, or gravity suddenly dissapearing. Do you? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266/40 "2023-04-09T12:04:03Z")
And CNN just proved I was right. > **[Inside the international sting operation to catch North Korean crypto hackers...](https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/09/politics/north-korean-crypto-hackers-crackdown/index.html)** > > A team of South Korean spies and American private investigators quietly gathered at the South Korean intelligence service in January, just days after North Korea fired three ballistic missiles into the sea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/column-ideas-4-6-23/982266.md?page=3)