Questions born of Curiosity and Boredom - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Questions born of Curiosity and Boredom

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Johnny_Angel
Oct 30, 2008 15:16:39 Giraffe Questions

1) I know that Giraffes are said to be somehow related to deer and cows (IIRC.) Is it possible to breed a Giraffe with any of the other animals which the Giraffe is related to? I'm aware that several crossbreed animals exist, but I've never heard anything of this nature concerning giraffes. I tried to google the subject, but I didn't have any luck.

2) Why is it that most male giraffes are gay? I know this sounds crazy, but -seriously, look it up. I was bored this morning and googling various things -including giraffes; one of the things I learned was that many male giraffes have gay tendencies.

3) Is it possible to ride a giraffe; would it make a viable mount?

I'm not sure if any of these questions really have an answer, but it would be interesting to hear what other people have to say. I'll probably have other questions in the future, but for now the giraffe questions are on my mind - I was bored early this morning, so I decided to google something random and got on the topic of giraffes. Feel free to post your own questions if you like.
#2
SteelMirror
Oct 30, 2008 15:26:27 You know, (this won't answer any of your questions, though I will attempt to do some of that shortly) until I found these boards random linking topics on Wikipedia was the #1 timewaster in my life . . . .

Thanks, Internet ;) .
#3
SteelMirror
Oct 30, 2008 15:49:23
2) Why is it that most male giraffes are gay? I know this sounds crazy, but -seriously, look it up. I was bored this morning and googling various things -including giraffes; one of the things I learned was that many male giraffes have gay tendencies.

The answer I'm about to give concerns a particular theory of sexual selection. It may or may not be true, but regardless I am referring to a natural process in giraffes and make no judgment or hypothesis about any other species.

In a quick online search I found a few facts that caught my eye:

-Giraffes, like most mammals, have a particular time in the year when females are receptive and males have a chance to breed.
-Breeding is competitive, with the strongest bull male in the region usually enjoying most or all of the breeding opportunities.
-In other times of the year (not in mating season) females live in loosely organized herds of females and very young males. Young males live in male-only herds and Older successful males live alone.

From these (admittedly limited) peices of information, the most successful breeding strategy for a male giraffe's genes would apparently be to focus on extreme sexual aggressiveness, in other words the willingness to put all effort into securing a mate in breeding season, and the ability and strong compulsion to breed as often as possible during that time. In a successful individual, therefore, that strategy would yield the most offspring and therefore over evolutionary time outperform competing strategies.

A byproduct of that strong urge to mate promiscuously and often, especially in giraffes where only one male each year has the opportunity to mate, is that the remaining males will have strong hormonal signals telling them to mate but no available females. With no other choice, they engage in intercourse with other males to satisfy those hormonal impulses.

Evolutionarily speaking, this (the homosexual byproduct) is a neutral trait as it neither increases nor decreases their chance of passing on their genes. It might even have a slight advantage in that it fosters closeness and cooperation among individuals in the male herd. I would be willing to bet that with homosexual intercourse as prevalent as it reportedly is, giraffes are not "gay" in the human sense of the word, where they prefer sex with males. More likely they would prefer sex with a female but aren't able to, and so a curious twist of evolution and genetic behaviors leads to gay intercourse.

Just my theory, I hope it sounds plausible but I don't mean to be insulting to anyone! I'm glad to have arguments about my assumptions and conclusions but please don't turn this into a flame war, as I meant no disrespect.
#4
Bloodsoul
Oct 30, 2008 16:36:42 Do giraffes really have black tongues? The question came up on a radio quiz and Ug isn't here.
#5
Johnny_Angel
Oct 30, 2008 16:42:02
The answer I'm about to give concerns a particular theory of sexual selection. It may or may not be true, but regardless I am referring to a natural process in giraffes and make no judgment or hypothesis about any other species.

In a quick online search I found a few facts that caught my eye:

-Giraffes, like most mammals, have a particular time in the year when females are receptive and males have a chance to breed.
-Breeding is competitive, with the strongest bull male in the region usually enjoying most or all of the breeding opportunities.
-In other times of the year (not in mating season) females live in loosely organized herds of females and very young males. Young males live in male-only herds and Older successful males live alone.

From these (admittedly limited) peices of information, the most successful breeding strategy for a male giraffe's genes would apparently be to focus on extreme sexual aggressiveness, in other words the willingness to put all effort into securing a mate in breeding season, and the ability and strong compulsion to breed as often as possible during that time. In a successful individual, therefore, that strategy would yield the most offspring and therefore over evolutionary time outperform competing strategies.

A byproduct of that strong urge to mate promiscuously and often, especially in giraffes where only one male each year has the opportunity to mate, is that the remaining males will have strong hormonal signals telling them to mate but no available females. With no other choice, they engage in intercourse with other males to satisfy those hormonal impulses.

Evolutionarily speaking, this (the homosexual byproduct) is a neutral trait as it neither increases nor decreases their chance of passing on their genes. It might even have a slight advantage in that it fosters closeness and cooperation among individuals in the male herd. I would be willing to bet that with homosexual intercourse as prevalent as it reportedly is, that giraffes are not "gay" in the human sense of the word, where they prefer sex with males. More likely they would prefer sex with a female but aren't able to, and so a curious twist of evolution and genetic behaviors leads to gay intercourse.

Just my theory, I hope it sounds plausible but I don't mean to be insulting to anyone! I'm glad to have arguments about my assumptions and conclusions but please don't turn this into a flame war, as I meant no disrespect.

It sounds plausible, and I had thought similar things. It just seems a little strange for an animal species to have homosexuality be so common. I'm not saying that homosexuality is wrong in any way; it just surprised me to find an animal which was so naturally inclined to such things.

Do giraffes really have black tongues? The question came up on a radio quiz and Ug isn't here.

I thought they were blue...?
#6
wight_chocolate
Oct 30, 2008 16:49:30
Giraffe Questions

1) I know that Giraffes are said to be somehow related to deer and cows (IIRC.) Is it possible to breed a Giraffe with any of the other animals which the Giraffe is related to? I'm aware that several crossbreed animals exist, but I've never heard anything of this nature concerning giraffes. I tried to google the subject, but I didn't have any luck.

It was once believed that the giraffe itself was actually a crossbreed of a camel and a leopard.
#7
Johnny_Angel
Oct 30, 2008 16:52:44
It was once believed that the giraffe itself was actually a crossbreed of a camel and a leopard.

The funny thing is that I had assumed they were somehow related to camels since IMO their faces look similar to camels; I was surprised to find via the article I read this morning that they aren't related to camels, but instead to cows and deer.
#8
Bloodsoul
Oct 30, 2008 17:48:15
I thought they were blue...?

No, Ug was blue. Not sad blue. Blue blue. Toilet bowl blue. :D
#9
stompie5
Oct 31, 2008 16:18:25 Do the male giraffs actually breed with each other, or do they just hump each other? I ask, because my family used to own cows, and the bulls would hump each other, not actually breed with each other.
#10
awesome_dude
Oct 31, 2008 16:25:23
The answer I'm about to give concerns a particular theory of sexual selection. It may or may not be true, but regardless I am referring to a natural process in giraffes and make no judgment or hypothesis about any other species.

In a quick online search I found a few facts that caught my eye:

-Giraffes, like most mammals, have a particular time in the year when females are receptive and males have a chance to breed.
-Breeding is competitive, with the strongest bull male in the region usually enjoying most or all of the breeding opportunities.
-In other times of the year (not in mating season) females live in loosely organized herds of females and very young males. Young males live in male-only herds and Older successful males live alone.

From these (admittedly limited) peices of information, the most successful breeding strategy for a male giraffe's genes would apparently be to focus on extreme sexual aggressiveness, in other words the willingness to put all effort into securing a mate in breeding season, and the ability and strong compulsion to breed as often as possible during that time. In a successful individual, therefore, that strategy would yield the most offspring and therefore over evolutionary time outperform competing strategies.

A byproduct of that strong urge to mate promiscuously and often, especially in giraffes where only one male each year has the opportunity to mate, is that the remaining males will have strong hormonal signals telling them to mate but no available females. With no other choice, they engage in intercourse with other males to satisfy those hormonal impulses.

Evolutionarily speaking, this (the homosexual byproduct) is a neutral trait as it neither increases nor decreases their chance of passing on their genes. It might even have a slight advantage in that it fosters closeness and cooperation among individuals in the male herd. I would be willing to bet that with homosexual intercourse as prevalent as it reportedly is, giraffes are not "gay" in the human sense of the word, where they prefer sex with males. More likely they would prefer sex with a female but aren't able to, and so a curious twist of evolution and genetic behaviors leads to gay intercourse.

Just my theory, I hope it sounds plausible but I don't mean to be insulting to anyone! I'm glad to have arguments about my assumptions and conclusions but please don't turn this into a flame war, as I meant no disrespect.

Opportunistic homosexuality is fairly common in nature -- also in prisons -- for the exact reasons you posited (low chance of mating, impulses need satisfaction, etc.)
#11
SteelMirror
Oct 31, 2008 16:28:52
Do the male giraffs actually breed with each other, or do they just hump each other? I ask, because my family used to own cows, and the bulls would hump each other, not actually breed with each other.

Do you mean breed as in produce offspring? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess no;) . . .
#12
awesome_dude
Oct 31, 2008 16:29:42
Do the male giraffs actually breed with each other, or do they just hump each other? I ask, because my family used to own cows, and the bulls would hump each other, not actually breed with each other.

It's sort of hard for two males to breed, but yes, they can hump each other. Males, as a general rule, measure all their options by how likely they are to lead to them having sex. I'm pretty sure this goes for all species. It's a fairly notorious psychological trait.
#13
stompie5
Oct 31, 2008 16:30:43 Lol I'm trying to be careful how to word it, don't want to get in trouble. I mean not produce offspring, but actually, "do the deed."
#14
Johnny_Angel
Oct 31, 2008 23:32:11
Lol I'm trying to be careful how to word it, don't want to get in trouble. I mean not produce offspring, but actually, "do the deed."

Yes, they do

I'm aware that homosexuality does occur in several species due to hormones and various other things, but -if what I read was accurate- it's difficult to get giraffes to breed and produce offspring because the males are often more interested in other males than they are in the females.
#15
SteelMirror
Nov 01, 2008 2:43:07 Really? I didn't find anything suggesting that giraffes had a difficult time actually copulating heterosexually. I tend to doubt that this is true in wild populations,for the simple reason that exclusively homosexual giraffes will not pass on the genes for homosexuality, so it should be a short lived trait in any population.

The curious question I was trying to address in my initial response was why giraffes seemed to have such a high proclivity for opportunistic (as opposed to preferential) gay intercourse, which seems to be reasonably explained by their life cycle and breeding habits. It would be interesting to see if other animals with similar breeding habits and social behavior also tended to "play for the other team", as it were.
#16
stompie5
Nov 01, 2008 8:57:29 Hmmm... most interesting. I seem to recall a line in the movie Gladiator, where they mentioned gay giraffes.
#17
Johnny_Angel
Nov 01, 2008 15:55:12
Hmmm... most interesting. I seem to recall a line in the movie Gladiator, where they mentioned gay giraffes.

It's funny that you mention that. When I was reading the giraffe article the other morning, and I came to the part which described some of their sexual preferences, I thought of that line in Gladiator and chuckled somewhat.
#18
werral
Nov 01, 2008 17:02:34 Giraffe homosexuality may also be a way of establishing domination rather than a true sexual act. It is used that way by chimpanzees (I think) and by some humans too.
These guys seem to think so:
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/vecase/Behavior/Spring2004/breedlove/socialinteractions.html

There's actually some debate as to whether they actually find it sexually stimulating or not.
#19
Johnny_Angel
Nov 03, 2008 14:32:33 In The Spirit Of The Bard

I guess this isn't exactly "off-topic" since it involves D&D, but...

I've often thought that a lot of classical metal songs could be used as backgrounds for D&D characters (and in some cases an adventure or a whole campaign.) Examples of this include pretty much any song by Iron Maiden; a lot of Dio songs, and quite a few others. With that being said, my questions are the following:

1) If you had to choose one rock song upon which to base a D&D character, what song would you choose?

1b) What race and class is said character?

2) If you were allowed to pick up to three songs -of any genre- to flesh out a character's background, which three would you pick?

2b) What race and class is said character?

I'm unsure about mine at the moment; I need to review my playlist first.
#20
rizen_isstaria_dup
Nov 03, 2008 19:33:48 The Okapi are closely related to giraffes. They look like a cross between a giraffe and a zebra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okapi
#21
Johnny_Angel
Nov 03, 2008 21:42:28
The Okapi are closely related to giraffes. They look like a cross between a giraffe and a zebra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okapi

I came across that too. For some reason though, in my mind, since I now know that giraffes are somehow related to cow, I want to see if it's possible to crossbreed a giraffe with a buffalo. I highly doubt it's possible, but the thought brings some strange things into my imagination. The Giruffalo and the Buffaffe.
#22
Johnny_Angel
Nov 03, 2008 23:43:02
In The Spirit Of The Bard

I guess this isn't exactly "off-topic" since it involves D&D, but...

I've often thought that a lot of classical metal songs could be used as backgrounds for D&D characters (and in some cases an adventure or a whole campaign.) Examples of this include pretty much any song by Iron Maiden; a lot of Dio songs, and quite a few others. With that being said, my questions are the following:

1) If you had to choose one rock song upon which to base a D&D character, what song would you choose?

1b) What race and class is said character?

2) If you were allowed to pick up to three songs -of any genre- to flesh out a character's background, which three would you pick?

2b) What race and class is said character?

I'm unsure about mine at the moment; I need to review my playlist first.

I came up with my answer for #1 here: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=17184288#post17184288

I'm not sure of the race though.
#23
Qube
Nov 04, 2008 3:59:11 1) If you had to choose one rock song upon which to base a D&D character, what song would you choose?
killing in the name of , by Rage against the machine (?)
1b) What race and class is said character?
strength based paladin. any race (prob. human)

I'm unsure about mine at the moment; I need to review my playlist first.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Johnny_Angel Oct 30, 2008 15:16:39	Giraffe Questions 1) I know that Giraffes are said to be somehow related to deer and cows (IIRC.) Is it possible to breed a Giraffe with any of the other animals which the Giraffe is related to? I'm aware that several crossbreed animals exist, but I've never heard anything of this nature concerning giraffes. I tried to google the subject, but I didn't have any luck. 2) Why is it that most male giraffes are gay? I know this sounds crazy, but -seriously, look it up. I was bored this morning and googling various things -including giraffes; one of the things I learned was that many male giraffes have gay tendencies. 3) Is it possible to ride a giraffe; would it make a viable mount? I'm not sure if any of these questions really have an answer, but it would be interesting to hear what other people have to say. I'll probably have other questions in the future, but for now the giraffe questions are on my mind - I was bored early this morning, so I decided to google something random and got on the topic of giraffes. Feel free to post your own questions if you like.
#2 SteelMirror Oct 30, 2008 15:26:27	You know, (this won't answer any of your questions, though I will attempt to do some of that shortly) until I found these boards random linking topics on Wikipedia was the #1 timewaster in my life . . . . Thanks, Internet ;) .
#3 SteelMirror Oct 30, 2008 15:49:23	2) Why is it that most male giraffes are gay? I know this sounds crazy, but -seriously, look it up. I was bored this morning and googling various things -including giraffes; one of the things I learned was that many male giraffes have gay tendencies. The answer I'm about to give concerns a particular theory of sexual selection. It may or may not be true, but regardless I am referring to a natural process in giraffes and make no judgment or hypothesis about any other species. In a quick online search I found a few facts that caught my eye: -Giraffes, like most mammals, have a particular time in the year when females are receptive and males have a chance to breed. -Breeding is competitive, with the strongest bull male in the region usually enjoying most or all of the breeding opportunities. -In other times of the year (not in mating season) females live in loosely organized herds of females and very young males. Young males live in male-only herds and Older successful males live alone. From these (admittedly limited) peices of information, the most successful breeding strategy for a male giraffe's genes would apparently be to focus on extreme sexual aggressiveness, in other words the willingness to put all effort into securing a mate in breeding season, and the ability and strong compulsion to breed as often as possible during that time. In a successful individual, therefore, that strategy would yield the most offspring and therefore over evolutionary time outperform competing strategies. A byproduct of that strong urge to mate promiscuously and often, especially in giraffes where only one male each year has the opportunity to mate, is that the remaining males will have strong hormonal signals telling them to mate but no available females. With no other choice, they engage in intercourse with other males to satisfy those hormonal impulses. Evolutionarily speaking, this (the homosexual byproduct) is a neutral trait as it neither increases nor decreases their chance of passing on their genes. It might even have a slight advantage in that it fosters closeness and cooperation among individuals in the male herd. I would be willing to bet that with homosexual intercourse as prevalent as it reportedly is, giraffes are not "gay" in the human sense of the word, where they prefer sex with males. More likely they would prefer sex with a female but aren't able to, and so a curious twist of evolution and genetic behaviors leads to gay intercourse. Just my theory, I hope it sounds plausible but I don't mean to be insulting to anyone! I'm glad to have arguments about my assumptions and conclusions but please don't turn this into a flame war, as I meant no disrespect.
#4 Bloodsoul Oct 30, 2008 16:36:42	Do giraffes really have black tongues? The question came up on a radio quiz and Ug isn't here.
#5 Johnny_Angel Oct 30, 2008 16:42:02	The answer I'm about to give concerns a particular theory of sexual selection. It may or may not be true, but regardless I am referring to a natural process in giraffes and make no judgment or hypothesis about any other species. In a quick online search I found a few facts that caught my eye: -Giraffes, like most mammals, have a particular time in the year when females are receptive and males have a chance to breed. -Breeding is competitive, with the strongest bull male in the region usually enjoying most or all of the breeding opportunities. -In other times of the year (not in mating season) females live in loosely organized herds of females and very young males. Young males live in male-only herds and Older successful males live alone. From these (admittedly limited) peices of information, the most successful breeding strategy for a male giraffe's genes would apparently be to focus on extreme sexual aggressiveness, in other words the willingness to put all effort into securing a mate in breeding season, and the ability and strong compulsion to breed as often as possible during that time. In a successful individual, therefore, that strategy would yield the most offspring and therefore over evolutionary time outperform competing strategies. A byproduct of that strong urge to mate promiscuously and often, especially in giraffes where only one male each year has the opportunity to mate, is that the remaining males will have strong hormonal signals telling them to mate but no available females. With no other choice, they engage in intercourse with other males to satisfy those hormonal impulses. Evolutionarily speaking, this (the homosexual byproduct) is a neutral trait as it neither increases nor decreases their chance of passing on their genes. It might even have a slight advantage in that it fosters closeness and cooperation among individuals in the male herd. I would be willing to bet that with homosexual intercourse as prevalent as it reportedly is, that giraffes are not "gay" in the human sense of the word, where they prefer sex with males. More likely they would prefer sex with a female but aren't able to, and so a curious twist of evolution and genetic behaviors leads to gay intercourse. Just my theory, I hope it sounds plausible but I don't mean to be insulting to anyone! I'm glad to have arguments about my assumptions and conclusions but please don't turn this into a flame war, as I meant no disrespect. It sounds plausible, and I had thought similar things. It just seems a little strange for an animal species to have homosexuality be so common. I'm not saying that homosexuality is wrong in any way; it just surprised me to find an animal which was so naturally inclined to such things. Do giraffes really have black tongues? The question came up on a radio quiz and Ug isn't here. I thought they were blue...?
#6 wight_chocolate Oct 30, 2008 16:49:30	Giraffe Questions 1) I know that Giraffes are said to be somehow related to deer and cows (IIRC.) Is it possible to breed a Giraffe with any of the other animals which the Giraffe is related to? I'm aware that several crossbreed animals exist, but I've never heard anything of this nature concerning giraffes. I tried to google the subject, but I didn't have any luck. It was once believed that the giraffe itself was actually a crossbreed of a camel and a leopard.
#7 Johnny_Angel Oct 30, 2008 16:52:44	It was once believed that the giraffe itself was actually a crossbreed of a camel and a leopard. The funny thing is that I had assumed they were somehow related to camels since IMO their faces look similar to camels; I was surprised to find via the article I read this morning that they aren't related to camels, but instead to cows and deer.
#8 Bloodsoul Oct 30, 2008 17:48:15	I thought they were blue...? No, Ug was blue. Not sad blue. Blue blue. Toilet bowl blue. :D
#9 stompie5 Oct 31, 2008 16:18:25	Do the male giraffs actually breed with each other, or do they just hump each other? I ask, because my family used to own cows, and the bulls would hump each other, not actually breed with each other.
#10 awesome_dude Oct 31, 2008 16:25:23	The answer I'm about to give concerns a particular theory of sexual selection. It may or may not be true, but regardless I am referring to a natural process in giraffes and make no judgment or hypothesis about any other species. In a quick online search I found a few facts that caught my eye: -Giraffes, like most mammals, have a particular time in the year when females are receptive and males have a chance to breed. -Breeding is competitive, with the strongest bull male in the region usually enjoying most or all of the breeding opportunities. -In other times of the year (not in mating season) females live in loosely organized herds of females and very young males. Young males live in male-only herds and Older successful males live alone. From these (admittedly limited) peices of information, the most successful breeding strategy for a male giraffe's genes would apparently be to focus on extreme sexual aggressiveness, in other words the willingness to put all effort into securing a mate in breeding season, and the ability and strong compulsion to breed as often as possible during that time. In a successful individual, therefore, that strategy would yield the most offspring and therefore over evolutionary time outperform competing strategies. A byproduct of that strong urge to mate promiscuously and often, especially in giraffes where only one male each year has the opportunity to mate, is that the remaining males will have strong hormonal signals telling them to mate but no available females. With no other choice, they engage in intercourse with other males to satisfy those hormonal impulses. Evolutionarily speaking, this (the homosexual byproduct) is a neutral trait as it neither increases nor decreases their chance of passing on their genes. It might even have a slight advantage in that it fosters closeness and cooperation among individuals in the male herd. I would be willing to bet that with homosexual intercourse as prevalent as it reportedly is, giraffes are not "gay" in the human sense of the word, where they prefer sex with males. More likely they would prefer sex with a female but aren't able to, and so a curious twist of evolution and genetic behaviors leads to gay intercourse. Just my theory, I hope it sounds plausible but I don't mean to be insulting to anyone! I'm glad to have arguments about my assumptions and conclusions but please don't turn this into a flame war, as I meant no disrespect. Opportunistic homosexuality is fairly common in nature -- also in prisons -- for the exact reasons you posited (low chance of mating, impulses need satisfaction, etc.)
#11 SteelMirror Oct 31, 2008 16:28:52	Do the male giraffs actually breed with each other, or do they just hump each other? I ask, because my family used to own cows, and the bulls would hump each other, not actually breed with each other. Do you mean breed as in produce offspring? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess no;) . . .
#12 awesome_dude Oct 31, 2008 16:29:42	Do the male giraffs actually breed with each other, or do they just hump each other? I ask, because my family used to own cows, and the bulls would hump each other, not actually breed with each other. It's sort of hard for two males to breed, but yes, they can hump each other. Males, as a general rule, measure all their options by how likely they are to lead to them having sex. I'm pretty sure this goes for all species. It's a fairly notorious psychological trait.
#13 stompie5 Oct 31, 2008 16:30:43	Lol I'm trying to be careful how to word it, don't want to get in trouble. I mean not produce offspring, but actually, "do the deed."
#14 Johnny_Angel Oct 31, 2008 23:32:11	Lol I'm trying to be careful how to word it, don't want to get in trouble. I mean not produce offspring, but actually, "do the deed." Yes, they do I'm aware that homosexuality does occur in several species due to hormones and various other things, but -if what I read was accurate- it's difficult to get giraffes to breed and produce offspring because the males are often more interested in other males than they are in the females.
#15 SteelMirror Nov 01, 2008 2:43:07	Really? I didn't find anything suggesting that giraffes had a difficult time actually copulating heterosexually. I tend to doubt that this is true in wild populations,for the simple reason that exclusively homosexual giraffes will not pass on the genes for homosexuality, so it should be a short lived trait in any population. The curious question I was trying to address in my initial response was why giraffes seemed to have such a high proclivity for opportunistic (as opposed to preferential) gay intercourse, which seems to be reasonably explained by their life cycle and breeding habits. It would be interesting to see if other animals with similar breeding habits and social behavior also tended to "play for the other team", as it were.
#16 stompie5 Nov 01, 2008 8:57:29	Hmmm... most interesting. I seem to recall a line in the movie Gladiator, where they mentioned gay giraffes.
#17 Johnny_Angel Nov 01, 2008 15:55:12	Hmmm... most interesting. I seem to recall a line in the movie Gladiator, where they mentioned gay giraffes. It's funny that you mention that. When I was reading the giraffe article the other morning, and I came to the part which described some of their sexual preferences, I thought of that line in Gladiator and chuckled somewhat.
#18 werral Nov 01, 2008 17:02:34	Giraffe homosexuality may also be a way of establishing domination rather than a true sexual act. It is used that way by chimpanzees (I think) and by some humans too. These guys seem to think so: http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/vecase/Behavior/Spring2004/breedlove/socialinteractions.html There's actually some debate as to whether they actually find it sexually stimulating or not.
#19 Johnny_Angel Nov 03, 2008 14:32:33	In The Spirit Of The Bard I guess this isn't exactly "off-topic" since it involves D&D, but... I've often thought that a lot of classical metal songs could be used as backgrounds for D&D characters (and in some cases an adventure or a whole campaign.) Examples of this include pretty much any song by Iron Maiden; a lot of Dio songs, and quite a few others. With that being said, my questions are the following: 1) If you had to choose one rock song upon which to base a D&D character, what song would you choose? 1b) What race and class is said character? 2) If you were allowed to pick up to three songs -of any genre- to flesh out a character's background, which three would you pick? 2b) What race and class is said character? I'm unsure about mine at the moment; I need to review my playlist first.
#20 rizen_isstaria_dup Nov 03, 2008 19:33:48	The Okapi are closely related to giraffes. They look like a cross between a giraffe and a zebra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okapi
#21 Johnny_Angel Nov 03, 2008 21:42:28	The Okapi are closely related to giraffes. They look like a cross between a giraffe and a zebra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okapi I came across that too. For some reason though, in my mind, since I now know that giraffes are somehow related to cow, I want to see if it's possible to crossbreed a giraffe with a buffalo. I highly doubt it's possible, but the thought brings some strange things into my imagination. The Giruffalo and the Buffaffe.
#22 Johnny_Angel Nov 03, 2008 23:43:02	In The Spirit Of The Bard I guess this isn't exactly "off-topic" since it involves D&D, but... I've often thought that a lot of classical metal songs could be used as backgrounds for D&D characters (and in some cases an adventure or a whole campaign.) Examples of this include pretty much any song by Iron Maiden; a lot of Dio songs, and quite a few others. With that being said, my questions are the following: 1) If you had to choose one rock song upon which to base a D&D character, what song would you choose? 1b) What race and class is said character? 2) If you were allowed to pick up to three songs -of any genre- to flesh out a character's background, which three would you pick? 2b) What race and class is said character? I'm unsure about mine at the moment; I need to review my playlist first. I came up with my answer for #1 here: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=17184288#post17184288 I'm not sure of the race though.
#23 Qube Nov 04, 2008 3:59:11	1) If you had to choose one rock song upon which to base a D&D character, what song would you choose? killing in the name of , by Rage against the machine (?) 1b) What race and class is said character? strength based paladin. any race (prob. human) I'm unsure about mine at the moment; I need to review my playlist first.