Things you've always wondered about but couldn't be bothered to find out

[Craigieboy]

Are there more trees in the world than humans.

[Craigieboy]

When you squeeze out a jobby, is that the bowel pretty much clear of jobby or is it sort of smeared around the outside wall of it permanently.

 

If it is, that's not good.

[Brian Whittaker's Tache]

Are there more trees in the world than humans.

 

61 trees for every human apparently

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96758439

[Boris]

How do yachts and other sail powered craft manage to get from point A to point B, no matter what way the winds blowing?

 

Tacking, I think it's called.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacking_(sailing)

[Kalamazoo Jambo]

 

 

 

How do you know which side to put it in?

 

It's the 'middle' elements in a pair of toaster slots that heat up.

[Grado]

When Halloween has finished what do Tesco and asda etc do with all the stock etc..?

I assume they do the same as the company I work for give it to charity or hand it out to staff.

[2NaFish]

I honestly think that, given the time and the ability to do so, i've never not tried to find out about something i was interested in. Even slightly interested in. It's not an all-encompassing compulsion, but if i wondered why there were different colours of apples i'd look it up.

[Boof]

How do yachts and other sail powered craft manage to get from point A to point B, no matter what way the winds blowing?

 

Downwind or across the wind is easy - you just go with the flow.

 

Upwind is when you need to tack (zig-zag). The most efficient sails can only drive you at an angle of (memory could be dodgy here, or technology may have superseded my knowledge) 38 degrees. So to get upwind you need to do repeated zigs and zags at approaching that angle. Now there would be the likelihood of the boat slipping sideways downwind which is where the keel (or centreboard for dinghies) comes into play. It prevents some of the downwind sideslip thereby improving upwind performance.

[hughesie27]

I just found out pineapples don't grow on trees. Mind blown.

[Kalamazoo Jambo]

I just found out pineapples don't grow on trees. Mind blown.

You were getting confused with applepines, I think.

[Brian Whittaker's Tache]

And

I just found out pineapples don't grow on trees. Mind blown.

 

I remember the same feeling when I found out that peanuts grew underground!

[Brian Whittaker's Tache]

All sounds a bit scrambled to me...

 

On the milk front do people drink anything other than human, cows, sheep and goats breast juice?

 

Remember a Red Dwarf episode and think they were reduced to drinking dogs milk

 

It's only us Western Europeans and your Tuareg that have evolved to continue to tolerate lactose past weaning. Something like 95% of the adult Chinese population are lactose intolerant.

[Ribble]

How do companies decide how long to make the powercord or cables for things? It never seems to be quite right, either you get a cable that is miles too big and it gets in the way or you end up with one thats too short and need an extension cord!

[¼½¾]

Tacking, I think it's called.

 

http://en.wikipedia....cking_(sailing)

Downwind or across the wind is easy - you just go with the flow.

 

Upwind is when you need to tack (zig-zag). The most efficient sails can only drive you at an angle of (memory could be dodgy here, or technology may have superseded my knowledge) 38 degrees. So to get upwind you need to do repeated zigs and zags at approaching that angle. Now there would be the likelihood of the boat slipping sideways downwind which is where the keel (or centreboard for dinghies) comes into play. It prevents some of the downwind sideslip thereby improving upwind performance.

Cheers. I actually used to go sailing at school, but didn't have a blooming clue what I was doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still don't.

[JamboInSouthsea]

It's only us Western Europeans and your Tuareg that have evolved to continue to tolerate lactose past weaning. Something like 95% of the adult Chinese population are lactose intolerant.

 

Well fancy that...

 

Remember reading or hearing somewhere that during the Vietnam war the Vietnamese could tell where the Americans were due to their smell from drinking milk...could be utter twaddle tho'.

 

On a similar note Japanese (plus other orientals) don't metabolise alcohol in the same way as westerners as they learned to boil water to purify it (rather than use it in bevvy). Thus they lost the enzyme which breaks it down and as a result they cannae handle it as much but also don't get hangovers.

[Brian Whittaker's Tache]

What's the Adam's Apple called in non Judeo-Christian societies?

[The Internet]

Why is there a selection of numbers on the bottom left hand corner of the screen when I'm watching a football match on Sky Sports?

[Stuart McNeill]

If you had all the people in the world standing shoulder to shoulder then how big an area would bw taken up. And what would happen if they all jumped at the same time.

 

[Ragnar]

Is there a gene that makes you 'smart'? For instance, the ability to process complex calculations and/or have a photographic memory?

 

I'm mainly talking about people who work in particularly complex fields such as Physicists, Mathematicians and Engineers etc.

 

Obviously environmental upbringing and hard work would be a factor, but is there such a thing as being naturally smart?

[deesidejambo]

How come when you weigh yourself and then have a dump, then weigh yourself again, you haven't lost any weight? That must mean that turds don't weigh anything.

[¼½¾]

How come when you weigh yourself and then have a dump, then weigh yourself again, you haven't lost any weight? That must mean that turds don't weigh anything.

If you had accurate enough scales you'd see the difference. You could shite in a carrier bag and weigh it on the kitchen scales just too check.

[deesidejambo]

If you had accurate enough scales you'd see the difference. You could shite in a carrier bag and weigh it on the kitchen scales just too check.

 

OK thanks I'll try that. What if its skittery though?

[Gorgiewave]

Double bag it. Mind and weigh the bags first.

[Eldar Hadzimehmedovic]

Why is the Tupperware still soaking wet when the dishwasher is finished but the china is bone dry?

[BoJack Horseman]

Why is the Tupperware still soaking wet when the dishwasher is finished but the china is bone dry?

 

China retains the heat, evaporating the water. Plastic doesn't.

[Eldar Hadzimehmedovic]

China retains the heat, evaporating the water. Plastic doesn't.

 

There you go. Cheers.

[trotter]

How come when you weigh yourself and then have a dump, then weigh yourself again, you haven't lost any weight? That must mean that turds don't weigh anything.

 

As an aside, it's a common misconception that scales measure the mass that actually makes you up. They don't. They estimate your mass by measuring the downward force you exert on the scales. Weight is mass multiplied by the gravitional force at any specific location, and scales assume a constant value of 9.8m/s2. However, as gravity does change on Earth, the same scale (all other things kept constant) will give you different results at different locations. This is the reason why in space you are weightless as there is essentially no gravity.

[Doctor FinnBarr]

As an aside, it's a common misconception that scales measure the mass that actually makes you up. They don't. They estimate your mass by measuring the downward force you exert on the scales. Weight is mass multiplied by the gravitional force at any specific location, and scales assume a constant value of 9.8m/s2. However, as gravity does change on Earth, the same scale (all other things kept constant) will give you different results at different locations. This is the reason why in space you are weightless as there is essentially no gravity.

 

Glad you shared that!

 

[The White Cockade]

what was there before the Universe

how did the Universe begin

used to worry myself to sleep as a teenager thinking it was impossible we are here

as how did something come from nothing and if I kept thinking about until I realised

it WAS impossible we would all disappear!!

[FWJ]

There can't be a "before" the universe as time didn't exist.

The universe is not expanding into empty space - the universe is *all* that there is.

 

This guy got it right...

 

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane

 

[mullen13]

There can't be a "before" the universe as time didn't exist.

The universe is not expanding into empty space - the universe is *all* that there is.

 

This guy got it right...

 

http://en.wikiquote....._B._S._Haldane

 

so wheres the "edge" of the universe?

[FWJ]

 

 

 

so wheres the "edge" of the universe?

 

I'm not sure (!) but I don't think there is an edge. I think if you keep on going you end up back where you started because it "curves".

[hughesie27]

The size of the universe and many stars is just crazy.

[2NaFish]

just as you don't get time 'before' existence, you don't get space 'outside' existence. to have an edge you'd need something at the other side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but if you really wanna know it's heaven.

[peter_hmfc]

How did singing to support your team come abou in football? It doesn't seem like a natural thing to do when watching a game.

 

My guess is that it became known that having recited lyrics and a tune to follow would be far easier than trying to all shout the same thing at the same time.

[Kiwidoug]

 

Why does some little prick ex Dundee Utd and same vintage as Walter Smith annoy me so much?

 

Prior to the 1998 final he was the comments man on telly along with Craig Burley. When asked who he wanted to win he said Rangers because he wanted to see Smith win yet another trophy before he retired. Burley said Hearts.

 

Can't remember his name but I hate him.

 

May have answered my own question.

[Kiwidoug]

 

 

 

As an aside, it's a common misconception that scales measure the mass that actually makes you up. They don't. They estimate your mass by measuring the downward force you exert on the scales. Weight is mass multiplied by the gravitional force at any specific location, and scales assume a constant value of 9.8m/s2. However, as gravity does change on Earth, the same scale (all other things kept constant) will give you different results at different locations. This is the reason why in space you are weightless as there is essentially no gravity.

 

Everybody knows thar!

[Kiwidoug]

 

 

 

And what if George had been born with a disability? Maybe a learning disability? Would he still be in line for the throne if he had Downs Syndrome for example?

 

Superb. How do you think of these things?

[FWJ]

Here's one for all you monumental masons out there...

Quite a few gravestones / memorials feature an urn with a cloth draped over it. Is this a Scottish thing and what is the significance?

[Brian Whittaker's Tache]

What is the blue stuff in chemical lavvy's made from? Does it dissolve crap?

[Boris]

Here's one for all you monumental masons out there...

Quite a few gravestones / memorials feature an urn with a cloth draped over it. Is this a Scottish thing and what is the significance?

 

http://genealogy.about.com/od/cemetery_records/ig/tombstone_symbols/draped_urn.htm

 

After the cross, the urn is one of the most commonly used cemetery monuments. The design represents a funeral urn, and is thought to symbolize immortality.

 

Cremation was an early form of preparing the dead for burial. In some periods, especially classical times, it was more common than burial. The shape of the container in which the ashes were placed may have taken the form of a simple box or a marble vase, but no matter what it looked like it was called an "urn," derived from the Latin uro, meaning "to burn."

As burial became a more common-practice, the urn continued to be closely associated with death. The urn is commonly believed to testify to the death of the body and the dust into which the dead body will change, while the spirit of the departed eternally rests with God.

The cloth draping the urn symbolically guarded the ashes. The shroud-draped urn is believed by some to mean that the soul has departed the shrouded body for its trip to heaven. Others say that the drape signifies the last partition between life and death.

[FWJ]

Cheers for that!

[Coco]

In order: wholemeal - brown - white - pan white - Scottish Pride cotton wool-like bread. It is clear with bread how the continuum of grain treatment works through to the final product. But is brown rice the same as wholegrain rice?

 

This site says it is ...

http://livewell.jillianmichaels.com/brown-rice-differ-whole-grain-rice-5297.html

 

This site says that it is not ... brown rice has an outer layer removed

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=128

[lost in space]

I've just tried to read an explanation of it for simpletons and it seems to be many world theory which concludes that every single possible outcome of everything ever done has occurred in alternate universes.

 

So in another universe Germany won World War Two and Craigyboy won't be a polish lesbian.

 

So are we even real? Are we just an outcome of someone else's reality? I don't know what to think

So is it possible that there is an alternative universe where the hobos have won the Scottish Cup in the last 100 years???..........................Nah, I cant belive that.................................

[lost in space]

Question - has any trans gender person ever had a baby also had a plastic umbro football smashed into their nuts. I think as a species we need to know which is the most painful. I dont think we can test this on animals - not fair.........

[Ortarkod]

Central locking front doors. Why aren't they a mainstream thing?

[superjack]

Question - has any trans gender person ever had a baby also had a plastic umbro football smashed into their nuts. I think as a species we need to know which is the most painful. I dont think we can test this on animals - not fair.........

you don't need science to explain this. I've been skelped in the baws by a plastic, umbro football, and i cried. " never want that to happen again", i cried. On the other hand, after most women give birth for the first time, they want another?

[chimpos]

where is the quietest place on earth (after Easter Rd of course), is there anywhere with no sound at all?

[DougieHMFC]

where is the quietest place on earth (after Easter Rd of course), is there anywhere with no sound at all?

 

http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/news/the-sound-of-silence-a.html

[Pennywise]

On bottles of Orangina it tells us to shake it up, because all the juicy, orangey bits lie at the bottom after sitting on the shelf to long. Its fizzy though. I get fizzy juice all over my hands every time.

 

Why is that?