The little mysteries of life which you can't understand

[Anne_Neville]

@overlyverbose

Another thing that eludes me is how people knowing full well that the dishwasher is empty put their plates on top of the counter right above the dishwasher rather than putting them in the dishwasher, even when said dish doesn’t need a rinsing.

Do you have somebody in your household who throws fits when the dishwasher isn’t loaded exactly right? If you do, there’s your answer.

[KneadToKnow]

@Anne_Neville

Do you have somebody in your household who throws fits when the dishwasher isn’t loaded exactly right? If you do, there’s your answer.

Lee? Is that you? Hey, man, I’ve chilled out a lot since college. Sorry about all the hollering.

But, dude, you ruined my thermos.

[overlyverbose]

@Anne_Neville

Do you have somebody in your household who throws fits when the dishwasher isn’t loaded exactly right? If you do, there’s your answer.

Hmmm… You must have met my husband. Unfortunately, in addition to being the person whose dishes don’t make it to the dishwasher, he’s also the person who’s anal about how it’s loaded.

[Leiko]

@Lust4Life

 When you're looking at things far away why aren't they just fainter instead if smaller? 

They do, sort of- hills and mountains far enough away look blue.

@overlyverbose

How did it ever occur to someone to make leavened bread? That’s a hell of a lot of trouble to go through for it to have been an accident. I mean, first you’ve got to cut the wheat, then thresh it, then grind it, then mix it with water & yeast and whatever else, then wait however many hours, then bake it. It seems as though you’d need the equivalent of an ancient mad scientist to have thought of doing that.

I don’t know if I read this, heard it on PBS, or figured it out myself, but I think it went something like this:

I, ancient human, will eat seeds and grains like other animals do.
It takes such a long time to collect them that I will do all the collecting and then eat after.
Chewing hurts sometimes and is a waste of my time. These two rocks can “chew” for me if I grind the seeds.
It is tricky to eat this dust, so I’ll mix it with some liquid.
Oh! I have too much! I will dry it out with hot rocks. Thus, unleavened bread.

From there it’s a simple matter of leaving some of batter/dough out long enough to catch wild yeast and deciding the flavor and texture are better that way, or not cleaning out the batter/dough container thoroughly enough and having yeast colonize.

[Cardinal]

@Sternvogel

Mr. Chick would be very offended to be told he worships the same deity that the Muslims do.

Heck, I’d be at least disagreeable.

This is one of those situations that looks simple only to those who aren’t actually aware of the situation. I’m not trying to excuse actual violence, but “you worship the same God” is even worse than telling Yankees and Mets fans to just get over it and root for New York. They’re not the same thing.

[vivalostwages]

@ianzin

1. Why people can’t arrive on time.

2. Why people don’t bother to check what they have written to spot the spelling errors and other mistakes. I’m referring to writing that is on public display, and that might actually be important.

Oh, I hear you. I walked into my credit union the other day and spotted a table set up for donations in exchange for cookies or trinkets. The sign read: THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATION TO SUPPORT BREAST CANCER.

Umm…missing the word “research” at the end, folks? Or would you really like us all to support CANCER?

[PatriotGrrrl]

@Crafter_Man

I have never understood how so many people live lives of luxury, yet don’t seem to work hard. And in some cases don’t appear to work at all. I know people who make considerably less money than I do, and they’re always buying new cars, going on fancy vacations, eating at nice restaurants, etc.

I have never understood why so many people are sad and depressed. This is there one and only chance at life, yet they spend every day with a frown on their face and a chip on their shoulder.

They buy it all on credit. Of course people like us wouldn’t understand that.

OTOH, I understand depression all too well. I just hope it will give me the courage to die with my boots on, should the opportunity arise.

[The_Tao_s_Revenge]

@olivesmarch4th

Why does New Jersey do this on suburban roads? If we miss a turn, do they think we really deserve to spend 10 minutes turning right in order to turn left in order to turn right in order to turn left to get back to where we need to be? Who the fuck designed these roads?

It may not be a ‘‘little mystery,’’ but one thing I can’t wrap my head around is how cells are alive, and we are made of billions of living cells, but we are only considered one organism. It seems insulting to the cells. Are the cells in our bodies dependent on one another for life, or can they theoretically exist on their own? If the latter, that’s even weirder.

Other east coast states are exactly like that. The Rhode Island government website said something about old colonial roads, but the real cause is clearly a mass PCP, crack, and rabies outbreak problem in the transportation authority.

[The_Tao_s_Revenge]

@overlyverbose

A couple of other things I’ve pondered:

How did it ever occur to someone to make leavened bread? That’s a hell of a lot of trouble to go through for it to have been an accident. I mean, first you’ve got to cut the wheat, then thresh it, then grind it, then mix it with water & yeast and whatever else, then wait however many hours, then bake it. It seems as though you’d need the equivalent of an ancient mad scientist to have thought of doing that.

Another thing that eludes me is how people knowing full well that the dishwasher is empty put their plates on top of the counter right above the dishwasher rather than putting them in the dishwasher, even when said dish doesn’t need a rinsing.

You can make dough without yeast. My guess is people started eating the grain directly, but that’s nasty. So they tried mixing it with things. Eventually someone figured out it mixes with water a lot better if you grind it first. That lead to unleavened dough based food. Then yeast was discovered and bread.

[overlyverbose]

@The_Tao_s_Revenge

You can make dough without yeast. My guess is people started eating the grain directly, but that’s nasty. So they tried mixing it with things. Eventually someone figured out it mixes with water a lot better if you grind it first. That lead to unleavened dough based food. Then yeast was discovered and bread.

I get the unleavened bread - it just surprises me that someone was patient enough to wait for leavened bread. Then again, it probably would’ve been a combination of accident and simple economy - not wanting to waste good dough - like you and Leiko have said. But, still, I think it’s really cool the way those things happen, which was one reason I was in archaeology for a while (the reason I got out was I couldn’t afford to eat and live outside a tent at the same time as being a professional archaeologist).

And it’s always amazing to me how people can translate one thing to another. For example, that probably lead to baking, which would have eventually lead to other additives instead of yeast (such as baking powder), etc. I can do that to some extent, but not like that. I love the way people’s brains work!

[Spatial_Rift_47]

@zamboniracer

That’s great, but it still doesn’t inform me about how does the fact that the electrons flowing though a circuit, at whatever rate, cause the electrical appliance to go on. How does that electron flow effect the appliance and result in it doing something?

Because the appliance is made of electrons too. When the flow of electrons pushes through the circuits in the appliance, the internal arrangement of the appliance changes. This may be as simple as the electrons and atoms in a light bulb’s filament heating up (and thus producing heat and light), or as complicated as allowing your computer’s processing chip to access the magnetically-stored memory on the hard drive.

For more detailed examples, see here (a link to an essay on my own science blog), or the following How Stuff Works articles: television, electric motor, and electronic oscillator.

[pharris]

Why is it that MOST of the people who call my office seeking information that they KNOW they are going to want to write down ALWAYS stop me after I give them said information, saying “Wait a minute, let me find a pen.”

GRR

[RedWood]

@KneadToKnow

Why some women seem to feel that it’s 100% the man’s job to oversee what happens with the toilet seat.

If I need to pee, I may need to put the toilet seat up. I accept that responsibility. Why is it so hard for some women, in full knowledge that they share facilities with men, not to accept the responsibility of making sure the seat is down before they sit?

Being in a house with kitties, I asked my (male) partner if we could agree to leave seat and lid down when the toilet’s not in use. He agreed. We both do an equal amount of lifting.

It’s possible the women you are thinking of went to sit with some urgency and fell in… I don’t always look before sitting in the dead of night