# Things that make you go "hmmmm" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 27, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035 "2009-03-27T21:22:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/41 "2009-03-30T03:27:36Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Who was the first guy who, seeing a tub of congealed rot thought : “That’s what’s for dinner !”, and how did that guy reproduce/spread the idea? Same thing with bread and beer. Where did the first yeast come from? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/42 "2009-03-30T03:54:03Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > The “hmmm” part is : how did we get into eating it ? Who was the first guy who, seeing a tub of congealed rot thought : “That’s what’s for dinner !”, and how did that guy reproduce/spread the idea ? That’s my reaction to lobster. How did some fisherman look at what is basically a giant bug in his nets and think, “I’m gonna cook that sucker up and eat it!” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/43 "2009-03-30T04:17:37Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > Cuttlefish have W-shaped pupils and green blood, because it has copper instead of iron. Really? Like Spock? That’s pretty cool. There’s a lot of food in the world that must have been discovered as a dare or faminie. Who thought to put alge in beer to make it clearer? ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/44 "2009-03-30T04:35:23Z")
Water is the most powerful chemical solvent, I believe. Pretty corrosive, pretty dangerous when not handled properly. Kills several people each year. At that, most of the water on the planet is undrinkable (by humans) without treatment. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/45 "2009-03-30T04:42:08Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Not only that, but they are a single cell. An ostrich egg is a 1.5kg _cell._ The largest single cell in the world (and dinosaurs had even _bigger_ eggs!) This freaks my shit out! But wait…so every time it divides, the cells get smaller and smaller until there are millions of microscopic ones that suddenly collectively burst out and go “peep!”. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/46 "2009-03-30T04:44:50Z")
> [@imfloating](#): > > Parmesan cheese and vomit kinda taste the same. I mean to ask earlier. How _exactly_, do you know what vomit tastes like? > [@BigNik](#): > > My ankle is sore and swollen because I had a cut and some tiny little animals who got into it are shitting into my blood and skin tissues. > > Bleah. I’m wooshed here, I don’t “get” this one. Elaborate please? Typewriter is commonly given as the longest word one can type on the top row of a Typewriter. [It isn’t] I just went to confirm this fact, and I came back with “Uropyoureter” :eek: - I will leave you all to define that word on your own time. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/47 "2009-03-30T04:52:54Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > My family is 100 percent Jewish - yet I don’t remotely look like someone from the Middle East (I had light blond hair until I was 5; I have relatives with light brown, blonde and red hair and with blue and green eyes and small pointed noses.) The only reasonable explanation for this is that there were a lot of Jewish women who were raped. Hundreds and hundreds of years of European rapists diluting the bloodline, which was originally Semitic. This means that I am the descendant of dozens and dozens of various warlike rapists from all over Europe. (They must have been handsome rapists, too.) Is it also possible that they were just European converts? Seems extraordinary to suggest that most European Jews were as a result of rape. ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/48 "2009-03-30T13:37:33Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Same thing with bread and beer. Where did the first yeast come from? The first breads had no yeast; they were just flat. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/49 "2009-03-30T14:00:07Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Cheese is rotten milk. That’s not the part that makes me goes “hmm”, just “yuck”. It’s not rotten, just coagulated. You can make a soft cheese in a few minutes by adding (IIRC) lemon juice and rennet to some milk, heat it up and stir. > [@guizot](#): > > Same thing with bread and beer. Where did the first yeast come from? The air! Yeast floats around through the air and settles in and on stuff. When it hits neat food sources like moist batter or liquid made of ground grain, it’s a perfect place for it to settle in. Some people keep “starter” pieces of batter to transfer their yummy yeast - and (often) bacterial cultures, like what makes sourdough good-tasting. Everyone did their beer brewing, wine making, and breadmaking in one of those ways until the late 1800s or so, when we finally got packaged yeast. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/50 "2009-03-30T14:30:36Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Is it also possible that they were just European converts? Seems extraordinary to suggest that most European Jews were as a result of rape. No, this is not how it worked. The Jews never prosletysed; converting people of other faiths was never a goal of Judaism. The whole point of the religion is that it’s an exclusive group of God’s “chosen people” who were born into a sacred, blessed lineage; it’s NOT an everyone’s-invited deal the way other religions are (which is why it’s such a tiny religion.) And nobody would have wanted to voluntarily convert to a religion whose members were oppressed in some way or another pretty much everywhere in Europe. “Hey, I want to give up all of my rights, wear this pointy hat [Jews were forced to wear pointed hats in many countries] and be Jewish!” Sure, people convert to Judaism NOW, in America and other Western countries. But try to imagine someone in Saudi Arabia converting to Judaism. That’s what it was like in Medieval times. Nobody would have voluntarily wanted to make themselves a giant target. There might have been a TINY number of Christians who, for whatever reason, did convert, and run off and live with the Jews, but I can’t imagine this would be enough to change the physical characteristics in the DNA. The rape scenario is FAR more plausible. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/51 "2009-03-30T15:31:56Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > It’s not rotten, just coagulated. You can make a soft cheese in a few minutes by adding (IIRC) lemon juice and rennet to some milk, heat it up and stir. True. It still skeeves me off to no end 🙂 Also, I must add that the “how did we start eating that stuff ?” thought first came to me while visiting the caves of [Roquefort](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roquefort), where they make and process blue cheese. Which is, in essence, sour milk with some rot in it, for taste. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/52 "2009-03-30T16:16:10Z")
Milk is a glandular excretion. It’s like snot, only more nutritious. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/53 "2009-03-30T16:44:25Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Milk is a glandular excretion. It’s like snot, only more nutritious. IIRC, mammary glands evolved from sweat glands! ---
**Author:** ![StinkyBurrito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@StinkyBurrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StinkyBurrito)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/54 "2009-03-30T16:47:53Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > The air! Yeast floats around through the air and settles in and on stuff. When it hits neat food sources like moist batter or liquid made of ground grain, it’s a perfect place for it to settle in. Some people keep “starter” pieces of batter to transfer their yummy yeast - and (often) bacterial cultures, like what makes sourdough good-tasting. Everyone did their beer brewing, wine making, and breadmaking in one of those ways until the late 1800s or so, when we finally got packaged yeast. You can purposefully capture yeast out of the air and use it. The poster called **mangetout** has a nice website with a page describing the process [here](http://www.atomicshrimp.com/st/content/wild_yeast). ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/55 "2009-03-30T17:29:52Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Milk is a glandular excretion. It’s like snot, only more nutritious. Tell me that snot true! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/56 "2009-03-30T17:42:45Z")
Flies vomit on their food to eat. At least according to Brundlefly they do. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/57 "2009-03-30T17:44:00Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > Tell me that snot true! 😛 I had always heard it was closer to sweat. If that helps you any. ---
**Author:** ![ThePylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@ThePylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThePylon)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/58 "2009-03-30T17:53:14Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > I mean to ask earlier. How _exactly_, do you know what vomit tastes like? From tasting it on the way out …? Kind of unavaoidable, isn’t it? I agree to the source of the question - smells like it, too. ---
**Author:** ![Litoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@Litoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Litoris)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/59 "2009-03-30T18:01:03Z")
> [@ThePylon](#): > > From tasting it on the way out …? Kind of unavaoidable, isn’t it? > > I agree to the source of the question - smells like it, too. The reason they smell (and taste) similar is that they both contain a specific acid that makes that smell/taste. ---
**Author:** ![Shark\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Shark\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035/60 "2009-03-30T18:07:54Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > Really? Like Spock? That’s pretty cool. This was my first thought, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmm/491035.md?page=4)