# Simple things that amaze me **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 25, 2016, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587 "2016-12-25T05:06:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/21 "2016-12-26T06:20:55Z")
How micro SD cards can hold so much information. There’s one now with 512GB! ---
**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:** [December 26, 2016, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/22 "2016-12-26T09:41:47Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > How so many people are utterly ignorant of recent history. My mom, who was born in 1913, was telling a much younger woman that she remembered when radio was invented, and how wonderful it was to listen to music and hear the news. Other woman: “Why didn’t they just turn on the TV?” ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/23 "2016-12-26T13:40:49Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Dogs can tell time. They know! But HOW? By observing humans, ,who can tell time. My sister’s dog would wait by the door for her daughters to come home from school, only a few minutes wait. They finally figured out how the dog knew. The dog had learned that they always come home from school a few minutes after the theme song of a certain soap opera on TV. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/24 "2016-12-26T13:47:11Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > On the negative side, how many people don’t know jackshit about their spouses’ or relatives’ jobs. Some people know jackshit about their own jobs. My cousin was a design engineer for an company that makes fuel injectors for Detroit automakers, and he was nearing retirement. I asked him one day what does he do all day when he gets to the office. After a moment to collect his thoughts, he said “I don’t know, there’s a lot of meetings.” It’s Dilberts, all the way down. ---
**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:** [December 26, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/25 "2016-12-26T14:09:27Z")
How the Universe couldn’t exist without gravity, it’s a ubiquitous force, and yet we still don’t really understand how it works. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/26 "2016-12-26T14:53:50Z")
Fish. I think fish are freaking amazing, to be honest. I can’t wade across this shallow stream, without getting knocked to my feet by the force of the current. But an 8lb fish, without any appendages, too slippery to hold, can somehow glide against that current ( and WAY stronger!) with elegance and ease. For miles and miles. Up hill, over rapids, in freezing temperatures, dodging bears, to an exact spot, etc, etc. Only to end up in my fry pan because I fooled it with a fake worm on a hook! ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/27 "2016-12-26T22:07:28Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > I have long thought that Marconi was the most truly ingenious of all the well-known inventors. He was able to wrap his mind around a concept that was not sitting out there in the real world readily apparent to everyone. Nor even seeing an accidental effect triggering a quest for an explanation. Most inventions were just visible physical objects responding to obvious forms of energy, and then a lot of trial and error until there was a prototype that worked. But Marconi visualized something completely invisible, acting in a way that could produce an effect few people could even imagine, but yet was miraculously useful. Heinrich Hertz discovered radio in his “spark gap” experiment in 1879. See [Heinrich Hertz - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Hertz) for some details. From this to wireless telegraphy was engineering development. Marconi was certainly the most prominent in this, see [Guglielmo Marconi - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guglielmo_Marconi), but apparently resisted getting involved with continuous wave transmission (that is, voice and music). But like most technology, there is no one person. It does all go back to Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism that predicted electromagnetic waves (which, are after all, just other kinds of light waves). ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/28 "2016-12-26T23:45:26Z")
Humans amaze me. Sometimes with stupidity at how we’ve screwed up our planet, but mostly because of how well we function. That we came up with project management, that we discovered and improved upon cheese, learned to make better products beginning with living in caves to modern condos and treehouses. From figuring out math to computing, from cave drawings to designing intricate nano machines. From setting a bone fracture to replacing bones and even creating vision for some of our blind people. Just amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/29 "2016-12-27T00:08:41Z")
> [@Vicsage](#): > > How women on Broadway can dance in high heels and not break their ankles. I tried to play tennis with jogging shoes and was constantly twisting my ankle. I can’t say this is 100% true. I can say that many actresses dance hours and hours and hours a day, so their bones are used to it and can take it. (Its like ballet, but with singing) I will say that I once took my youngest to NY when he was little. It was just the two of us, walking hand in hand down Broadway when a beautiful actress, lying back perfectly balanced on a sidewalk scaffold horizontal support, started to sing to him (and Beautifully!). She wasn’t completely swimming in her clothes, but she was in her mid twenties and wearing a young adolescent size 8/Small dress. If she was even 80 lbs, she must have been holding a bottle of water when she was weighed. Weight becomes important if you are factoring whether or not a leg bone might break from a misstep while dancing. It was one of those few days when I actually wished I was rich, because I would have loved to have been able to just hand her every bill in my money clip just for being so nice. But we would have had to have Metrocarded our way back home without lunch if we had. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/30 "2016-12-27T00:32:16Z")
Hummingbirds Predatory flowers Whale song That humans know of distances that can be described as “light years” (NOT a measure of time) The instinctual “engineering” by small critters: Forget ants which form bridges over streams - there id a hornet in Japan which feeds on bee hives - and a single hornet can kill every bee in the hive. The bees kill the hornet by getting it inside the hive and buzz their wings to create heat. The bees can survive to 118. The hornet dies at 115. How the f\*ck did they work that out? ---
**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:** [December 27, 2016, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/31 "2016-12-27T01:31:00Z")
The fact that light can travel for vast numbers of years, unobstructed … until it hits the retina of someone’s eye. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/32 "2016-12-27T18:04:30Z")
The Shazaam app. I’m old enough to have used a phone attached to the wall by a curly cord … Now I can just hold my phone up to the radio\* and it will nonchalantly inform me who performed that song I can’t identify, when it was released, what album it was on etc. I understand how the app works, but the progression from dumbphone to smartphone just boggles my little mind. - yeah, yeah. ---
**Author:** ![jbolty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7c8e57/32.png) [@jbolty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbolty)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/33 "2016-12-27T19:27:50Z")
I’m amazed that so may people are not only clueless about the most basic scientific principals but have not the slightest interest in learning; ie: pushing the thermostat all the way up does not make the house get warm faster. I’m also amazed at the advances in my parents lifetime. They were born in 1924 and 26 and since then have gone from having ice delivered by a horse draw wagon to having a cell phone and flat screen tv. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/34 "2016-12-29T01:40:51Z")
> [@jbolty](#): > > I’m also amazed at the advances in my parents lifetime. They were born in 1924 and 26 and since then have gone from having ice delivered by a horse draw wagon to having a cell phone and flat screen tv. In 1969, as a teenager of fourteen, I watched the moon landing with my grandparents. My grandfather had been born, just barely, in the nineteenth century, having been born in October of 1900. My grandmother was born Dec. 17, 1904, one year to the day after the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk. They started in the horse and buggy era, with no inside bathrooms or running water. And there they were, watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. Such a short time to come so far. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/35 "2016-12-29T02:40:00Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > The fact that light can travel for vast numbers of years, unobstructed … until it hits the retina of someone’s eye. This actually blows me away! :eek::eek: ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/36 "2016-12-29T03:41:10Z")
> [@Waxwinged](#): > > Frost on the lawn of a (dog) park, first thing in the morning- looks like a field of diamonds. Crystal fog. Erika was telling me her first experience – she was from, like, Bakersfield or somesuch and so had never seen it before. She got off work at around 3am, and being the first out to the parking lot, stood transfixed by the swarming of minute ice particles lit by the lot lights. Then everyone else came out and started their cars, which basically blew it all away – at least, enough to break her trance. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/37 "2016-12-29T14:24:12Z")
Coinstar. The idea is so simple that anyone could have come up with it. Yet the banks rejected the first one, and then ONE grocery bought and installed it, and found out people will pay to have their coins counted. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/38 "2016-12-29T15:41:03Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > By observing humans, ,who can tell time. > > My sister’s dog would wait by the door for her daughters to come home from school, only a few minutes wait. They finally figured out how the dog knew. The dog had learned that they always come home from school a few minutes after the theme song of a certain soap opera on TV. Animals can roughly sense time by light levels in their environment, but mainly they follow a series of events that routinely happen in their day. Especially when they live with someone (like me) who sticks to a regular routine. My dogs know that after they wake up, they go potty, after that they get breakfast, after that they get a walk, etc. When we vary the routine, they get a little confused. I’ve noticed that my cats tell time the way way, but are more accepting of variations. I’m glad to see that I’m in good company of folks who are amazed by air flight. I understand the science behind how it works but something in my heart tells me it’s just fucking magic. A few years ago I was lucky enough to see the [space shuttle (I forget now which one it was) arrive in Dulles Airport](https://www.google.com/search?q=space+shuttle+dulles&biw=1156&bih=893&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjl5amm3ZnRAhVJ44MKHWVgCZwQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=space+shuttle+dulles+virginia&imgrc=G7ameDnqmZActM%3A). It just should not be possible for that thing to get off the ground like that. But it did. And it did it well. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/39 "2016-12-29T15:55:33Z")
Voyager 1 and 2. Okay, so launching them and getting the trajectories right was all grade A, genius level stuff. What blows my mind is you have this electronic device that has been on for over 35 years. That’s like turning on your TV and keeping it on for 35 freaking years! ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587/40 "2016-12-29T16:28:54Z")
Another vote for air travel. Something that weighs tons, is as big as an apartment building, but because it goes kinda fast, and is shaped in generally the right way, up it goes! Nah, can’t be right. The other one for me is cinema - viewing visible light being reflected from a screen + a series of still pictures one after the other at the proper speed = emotion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-things-that-amaze-me/775587.md?page=3)