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[Kumquat]

No, they have lower body buttons.

Why do elves find torturing animals appalling, but torturing someone as an example acceptable?

Because elven torture involves singing and poetry, and it is appalling to waste the torture-worthy poetry on animals that don't understand a word.

If elves spawn from wood, why do they weigh more than a duck?

[Imp]

Different wood types have different weights.

Some elves, which sprang from featherwood, DO weigh less than a duck.  But they blow away and so we never see them.

What allows a pasture to actually contain the animal inside, until someone else steps into that same square?  And why does that step invariably release the animal immediately afterwards, until it is returned to its place?

[Bumber]

Some elves, which sprang from featherwood, DO weigh less than a duck.  But they blow away and so we never see them the humans built bridges out of them.

FTFY

What allows a pasture to actually contain the animal inside, until someone else steps into that same square?  And why does that step invariably release the animal immediately afterwards, until it is returned to its place?

A binding circle square which gets trampled by the dwarf.

How does light pass through artificial non-glass ceilings?

[acetech09]

It doesn't. But light is actually a form of matter that falls from the sky and sticks to everything it touches. Therefore, light falls when the surface is exposed, and that stuck light keeps illuminating the surface after it is closed off.

Why can't you see more than 3 z-levels downward in fortress mode?

[TheDarkStar]

Because light takes so long to fall that it's irrelevant what happens with so much of a time difference.

Why can dwarves instantly know where to go, even if they are alone and have never seen your fort (like a lone surviving migrant), EXCEPT when reclaiming it or as an adventurer?

[InfinityOrNone]

Psychic residue. Dwarves are weakly psychic, and thus able to receive information on job orders and justice almost immediately, and they also let out a constant string of personal thoughts and navigational data, which builds up over a short period of time to allow all dwarfs within a fort to know exactly where any given item is. Unfortunately, this residue not only vanishes within days without constant reinforcement from a living dwarf, but also contains inane personal thoughts, allowing deaths to go undetected for weeks.

Why do dwarves consider being imprisoned to be worse than someone beating their soft and frail skulls?

[PwndJa]

My merchants have been pathing off of my waterfall as they leave. Interesting, though annoying.
The humans showed up. Their diplomat almost instantly threw himself off of my 5z cliff which is especially odd because my Mayor is at the heart of my fortress, the entrance to which is not near the falls. He must have had some fresh socks because I'm now conscripting a dwarf every few seconds to keep him from going over the falls to reach the loot at the bottom and losing one of my precious chalk pots in the process. I'd let natural selection take it's course if my fortress wasn't plagued by useless children: 106 dwarves total,  45 children, 2 babies.
The bodies are piling up at the bottom of the falls. I've found their presence as cognitively akin to mulch. I'm not sure why. 3 humans, 1 elf, 4 dwarves and a kobold that was clearly trying WAY too hard. I've started walling up the river where I think the problem area is.

Does anyone know why my dwarves are walking off of waterfalls?

[Urist MacNoob]

Armok commands that you acquire the holy socks. Whatever the cost.

[Graknorke]

My merchants have been pathing off of my waterfall as they leave. Interesting, though annoying.
The humans showed up. Their diplomat almost instantly threw himself off of my 5z cliff which is especially odd because my Mayor is at the heart of my fortress, the entrance to which is not near the falls. He must have had some fresh socks because I'm now conscripting a dwarf every few seconds to keep him from going over the falls to reach the loot at the bottom and losing one of my precious chalk pots in the process. I'd let natural selection take it's course if my fortress wasn't plagued by useless children: 106 dwarves total,  45 children, 2 babies.
The bodies are piling up at the bottom of the falls. I've found their presence as cognitively akin to mulch. I'm not sure why. 3 humans, 1 elf, 4 dwarves and a kobold that was clearly trying WAY too hard. I've started walling up the river where I think the problem area is.

Does anyone know why my dwarves are walking off of waterfalls?

Because they think they can see a clear route through. The flowing water does not factor into the decision much.

What lies beyond the edge of the world?

[acetech09]

Armok's workbench.

We all know it's possible to mince booze, but how can you tell the difference afterward?

[PwndJa]

-snip-

Welp, I walled off an out of place ramp leading out of the river near the falls and my dwarves are no longer interested. The merchants, however, still jump right in the river and walk off of the fall. Some of the animals spend a season or two fighting the current before they're swept away. I'm considering making the river wagon accessible, but I'm not sure I can keep my dwarves away if there is an access point that close to the falls and thus the socks. Nor am I sure about wagons' arrogance towards water. And gravity.

In my first attempt to do this my masons were busy building and, fed up with the situation, I decided to wait and see. 6 dwarves in the span of what was probably 4 seconds. Their deaths were unreasonably clean so I decided to save scum and lost a couple hours of work. After going right to patching the problem area, a child decided he was prepared for the drop. Wall patched and the child still fighting the current, I saved and walked away with a win/win.

Also, I concluded the issue with my dwarves was because I diverted the flow of the river(4 wide) for a moat(2 wide) and led that off the cliff, too, because waterfalls are cool. At the time, I didn't see much of an influence in the flow in the river so I counted myself lucky. Turns out ~4-6 spaces up the river from the fall were influenced enough to keep them filled at 2-4, and a ramp near that area allowed for opportunity during pathing. My dwarves, seeing this opportunity, decided to try to stockpile/eat/wear the goods at the bottom.

The merchants still jump into the river at 7/7 so that's not my problem. Now to work out how to get that loot... Can dwarves scuba if they have the proper swimming skill?

[wierd]

Armok's workbench.

We all know it's possible to mince booze, but how can you tell the difference afterward?

Think about it:  well minced booze is just an alcoholic slurpee. Or perhaps a hard liquor snowcone. In that light, it is very easy to imagine how one can tell how well minced it is.

Now, the real kicker-- how do they get the alcohol cold enough to freeze it prior to mincing?

[Graknorke]

Why would you not want female dwarves in your military? Nevertheless, if you're running a male exclusive military then that is likely where they have all gone.

Why do bridges not need any power to operate?

[wierd]

The mechanism attached is clearly directly diven by the force applied to the lever. This subsequently explains why Urist will do everything else but pull the lever when instructed to, and will only pull it when he has no other job.

If elves have a pact with nature concerning the killing of all animal life, how do they deal with fleas, ticks, lice, and mosquitos?

[MaximumZero]

The mechanism attached is clearly directly diven by the force applied to the lever. This subsequently explains why Urist will do everything else but pull the lever when instructed to, and will only pull it when he has no other job.

If elves have a pact with nature concerning the killing of all animal life, how do they deal with fleas, ticks, lice, and mosquitos?

They're at peace with all of nature's creatures, and thusly aren't attacked by such things.

Why haven't the dwarves invented the beard-hauberk yet?