# Sometimes my brain doesn't brain quite right **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 5, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727 "2025-08-05T16:14:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/82 "2025-08-11T14:58:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Frustratingly, though, I can’t seem to find any reference to what that dimensionality of romanesco is. As in, romanesco is a Mandelbrot vegetable with fractal dimensionality? > [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Romanesco_broccoli_(Brassica_oleracea).jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Romanesco_broccoli_(Brassica_oleracea).jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/83 "2025-08-11T15:08:17Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > So I pictured a giant cylinder with whirling blades into which criminals were tossed… Your version is better than humdrum reality version. ---
**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:** [August 11, 2025, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/84 "2025-08-11T15:16:35Z")
Yup, I found that cite, too. Which, you’ll note, doesn’t actually answer the question, just gives a few tips for figuring it out. I probably could take it from here, but that’s a level of work I don’t put in unless I’m getting paid or credit hours for. ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/85 "2025-08-11T15:31:38Z")
Google’s AI Overview, the hallucinations of which I normally ignore, claims: The fractal dimension of Romanesco broccoli is approximately **1.26 in two dimensions and around 2.7 to 2.8 in three dimensions**. This non-integer dimension reflects its self-similar, spiraling structure, which is a fractal pattern. ---
**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:** [August 11, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/86 "2025-08-11T15:57:01Z")
> [@Retzbu\_Tox](#): > > **1.26 in two dimensions and around 2.7 to 2.8 in three dimensions**. I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean. ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/87 "2025-08-13T04:45:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean. Me either. Bringing this back around to the original topic, perhaps it’s an indication that the Google AI’s brain doesn’t brain right. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/88 "2025-08-15T05:39:49Z")
> [@dougrb](#): > > I’ve always read puzzlegal as puzzle gal. But how do you do ugrb? What does that even mean? I’ve been puzzled by “window” since I was a child. How does window mean window? It doesn’t make sense at all. It’s like just a random collection of letters. (Other words have never bothered me like that.) ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/89 "2025-08-15T06:01:24Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I’ve been puzzled by “window” since I was a child. How does window mean window? It doesn’t make sense at all. It’s like just a random collection of letters. (Other words have never bothered me like that.) “Cellar door”, on the other hand, is the mosts phonaesthetically pleasing phrase, at least according to Tolkien. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/90 "2025-08-15T09:28:38Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > It doesn’t make sense at all. It’s like just a random collection of letters. You can make any word do that if you just repeat it to yourself a bunch of times. Carpet. Gazelle. Function. Try just saying the word a few hundred times and it [loses all meaning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation)! ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/91 "2025-08-15T12:32:41Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > I’ve been puzzled by “window” since I was a child. How does window mean window? It doesn’t make sense at all. It’s like just a random collection of letters. (Other words have never bothered me like that.) Wind eye. An opening that let the wind in, originally. In the computer sense, you could certainly argue that a lot of on-line windows let a lot of hot air in; but I don’t know why that word was chosen for the computer sense of the word, unless maybe they were thinking specifically of browser windows as opening out onto the world and then expanded the sense into other applications. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/92 "2025-08-15T12:49:19Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Wind eye. An opening that let the wind in, originally. Everyone knows it’s “wind-eye” ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/93 "2025-08-15T12:52:00Z")
OMG, did I just get The Association reference in that? Brains are incredible. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/94 "2025-08-15T13:10:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I, too, have learned to read and write upside-down, from tutoring students and often sitting on the opposite side of the table from them. I learned from having to set type by hand in my print shop class in high school. (To see what that’s like, hold a book upside down and look at it in a mirror. I went through a phase where if I picked up a book upside down, I didn’t bother to turn it right way up before I started reading. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/95 "2025-08-15T13:18:52Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > “Chock” seems weird. Especially if you normally pronounce it “chawk”. > [@Chronos](#): > > hors d’oeuvres Horse doovers. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/96 "2025-08-15T13:49:49Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > but I don’t know why that word was chosen for the computer sense of the word, unless maybe they were thinking specifically of browser windows as opening out onto the world and then expanded the sense into other applications. Windowing in UIs predates browsers and the WWW by a couple decades. The idea is that each program’s UI is a small “window” into a larger body of content. If you’re indoors and look out through a real window, you can’t see the whole world. But by moving relative to that window you can see farther to your left or right or up or down. The world isn’t changing. But what you can see through the window is changing. A window in, say, a word processing document can’t show you all 10 pages. But by scrolling, you can alter your “point of view” through the window to see the part of that whole doc that you’re interested in. Metaphorically speaking, the document extends out in potentially all four directions beyond the perimeter you can see through your (small) window into that (larger) world. As a separate matter, it used to be that each program totally monopolized the display. A bit like how phones are now. Being able to resize the view into each running app opened the door to being able to put more than one on the screen at once. Of course the early displays had poor resolution compared to now, so the number of apps you could display at once was pretty limited. “Viewport” was an alternative word that didn’t win the competition to be a layman-friendly term for the idea. So “window” it is. Know you know where the term “window” came from to describe the container around an app UI, and also where Microsoft got the name “Windows” for their flagship product. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/97 "2025-08-15T14:56:21Z")
Thanks for info! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/98 "2025-08-15T21:12:19Z")
I have long considered ‘was’ to be a weird word. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/99 "2025-08-16T00:03:34Z")
Ultimately all words are arbitrary noises to signify ideas. Every language on Earth has a word for the idea that English calls “was”. And they’re all different. And equally arbitrary. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/100 "2025-08-16T04:37:14Z")
But not off the Earth. Klingon has no word for “to be”. Actually I’m pretty sure there are human languages that lack “to be” as well, but I don’t remember the details. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727/101 "2025-08-16T04:48:34Z")
I heard about a website called [marsexploration.com](http://marsexploration.com) that couldn’t be accessed by elementary school children, because it had s-e-x in it. There’s also [https://www.penisland.net/](https://www.penisland.net/) . I’m sure I’ve told the story here about when I was taking organic chemistry, and saw a reference to the movie “PSYCHO” and read it as p-s-y and an aldehyde group. That semester could not have ended soon enough. And there’s my town’s recycling program. I STILL read the logo as “GG ALLIN.” If you don’t know who he was, don’t Google him on a work or public computer. > **[Go All In Program - Waste Commission](https://www.wastecom.com/recycling/go-all-in-program/)** > > What Goes In Your Cart? Rethink Recycling at Home When we “Go All In” we conserve energy, save landfill space, and make our home a cleaner and more beautiful place. Your 95-gallon cart has room for all your recyclables and allows for every-other-week... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-my-brain-doesnt-brain-quite-right/1021727.md?page=6)