# Obscure mundane things that kind of blow your mind sometimes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 10, 2022, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249 "2022-02-10T21:57:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/161 "2022-03-01T11:13:08Z")
> [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > This bloated, pathetic body, good for basically nothing without the assistance of technology, is the ultimate jackpot in the cosmic lottery. XKCD sums up the miracle of your body continuing to function at all: > **[Doctor Visit](https://xkcd.com/1839/)** > > According to these blood tests, you're like 30% cereal. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/162 "2022-03-01T12:12:41Z")
Here’s an interesting diagram showing the origin of various elements in our bodies. [![](https://i0.wp.com/oikofuge.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/pioneer-mass.png?w=948&ssl=1) ](https://i0.wp.com/oikofuge.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/pioneer-mass.png?w=948&ssl=1) The article it came from is interesting, too, and goes into more detail. > **[We Are Stardust](https://oikofuge.com/we-are-stardust/)** > > A few months ago I ran into the periodic table above, detailing the cosmological origins of the chemical elements. And it occurred to me that I could quantify Joni Mitchell's claim that "we are stardust". How much of the human body is actually... ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/163 "2022-03-01T12:23:11Z")
> [@billy-jack](#): > > I read once about some bicycle tour company in Hawaii (probably on Maui) that has a bicycle tour that is pretty much all downhill for something like 20 or 30 miles. > > Okay. I just did a web search and found it (or something similar) on Maui. From [Downhill Bike Tours](https://adventureinhawaii.com/maui/downhill-bike-tour/): I’ve been on that bike tour, at sunrise. Lots of fun, followed by an amazing breakfast. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/164 "2022-03-01T13:01:24Z")
> [@billy-jack](#): > > I read once about some bicycle tour company in Hawaii (probably on Maui) that has a bicycle tour that is pretty much all downhill for something like 20 or 30 miles. My Wife and I are doing that in about two months. They also have that in the county I live. It can be problematic though, a lot of these people don’t know how to ride very well. They sent my Wife to the hospital once. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/165 "2022-03-01T13:15:55Z")
In Jamaica you can rent a bicycle that gets loaded onto a school bus. They drive you up into the Blue Mountains and you ride back down. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/166 "2022-03-01T13:21:33Z")
Seeds. Plant a tomato seed, a little flake of material and in only a few months of the right conditions you get a plant that will cover a fence several feet high and produce POUNDS of tomatoes. If you’re willing to wait a bit longer - plant an maple tree seed, and acorn, a pine tree seed… ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/167 "2022-03-01T13:55:18Z")
Sequoia seeds are pretty damn small. If we calculate the ratio of mature plant mass to seed mass, I bet sequoias are near the top of the heap. ---
**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/168 "2022-03-01T14:49:57Z")
Social Media. You gauge your self-worth upon the Likes of Followers… most of whom you will never meet in person. You put yourself on display to the world in the form of Blogs or Tweets or Tik-Tok videos…all for a few lines of approval from somebody who is nothing but a Screen-name and an Avatar. That instant gratification from the positive feedback on your mobile device? That jolt of endorphins are the same when drinking or smoking… …but it is legal for a CHILD to have a Smart Phone. You think it ISN’T an addiction when every other person you see is utterly consumed, staring at that little screen they’re holding in their hands? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/169 "2022-03-03T20:38:40Z")
There is a virtually unbroken link of paved roadway between my house and the White House or virtually anywhere in North America that’s on a paved road- and maybe 150 years ago there wasn’t a paved road anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/170 "2022-03-04T04:17:12Z")
> [@Wallaby](#): > > If it spins fast enough, however - it vanishes. > > Proving that if you provide enough energy, the matter disappears. At lower high speeds the matter disappears _from sight_ but is no less solid. Does this no longer apply at ultrahigh speeds? Serious question, no snark. ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/171 "2022-04-06T12:29:20Z")
Locomotives. It stuns me to think how powerful locomotives have become. It seems to me a single loco can speedily haul loads that would require a significant chunk of a city’s human population to move an inch. And yet these beasts of power zip around innocuously in the background as if they were mere mass-produced equipment and not the true technological marvels that they are. The same can be said of airplanes. Every time I get into one, I wonder how these humongous beasts were tested and certified - testing web pages is complicated enough! ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249/172 "2022-04-06T15:20:08Z")
> [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > I like to think of that when I’m mired in self-pity. This bloated, pathetic body, good for basically nothing without the assistance of technology, is the ultimate jackpot in the cosmic lottery. Or you could go this way: > “Like every other creature on the face of the earth, Godfrey was, by birthright, a stupendous badass, albeit in the somewhat narrow technical sense that he could trace his ancestry back up a long line of slightly less highly evolved stupendous badasses to that first self-replicating gizmo—which, given the number and variety of its descendants, might justifiably be described as the most stupendous badass of all time. Everyone and everything that wasn’t a stupendous badass was dead.” > ― Neal Stephenson, [Cryptonomicon](https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1166797) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-mundane-things-that-kind-of-blow-your-mind-sometimes/959249.md?page=8)