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

[Dr. Sheldon Cooper]

5 hours ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

Why do rugby teams announce their line-ups days in advance? Is it part of the expectation to do so? 

 

I have always wondered this too. I just assumed that because rugby has set positions then there is no element of surprise in terms of how a team will line up. No debates over formations and the like so no need to keep the opposition guessing?

 

Could be well off the mark mind.

[cheetah]

18 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

That's true with regards to the workweek. 

 

But if you go back to the Jewish Torah, God did all his creating stuff on the first 6 days, then rested on the 7th day, which became the Sabbath, and the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday.  That makes Sunday the first day of the week.

 

Sunday in Hebrew is Yom Rishon, which is 'first day' in English and also a working day in Isreal and not part of the weekend. 6 day working week there which was a right pain in the arse I can tell you. 

[Maple Leaf]

46 minutes ago, cheetah said:

 

Sunday in Hebrew is Yom Rishon, which is 'first day' in English and also a working day in Isreal and not part of the weekend. 6 day working week there which was a right pain in the arse I can tell you. 

 

[Tazio]

Does your face go bald as you age? 
I’m currently sporting a rather luxuriant beard through laziness rather than style. It got me thinking. When you’re a kid you have hair from when you’re very young and then at some point in your teens you start growing facial hair. My head is definitely balding and has been for a few years with a good sized bald spot and the front rushing to join it but I can still grow a very thick beard. So if you suffer from male pattern baldness does that include your face? Does you body have a window of opportunity for healthy hair growth? And if so does that mean that your face starts to grow less hair the equivalent number of years between being born and starting to need to shave? 

[A Boy Named Crow]

If I was to click through all the pages of kickback, what would the oldest thread be about?

 

EDIT: There'll be two,  won't there, one in the Shed and one in the Terrace?

 

EDIT2: I just discovered you can do this pretty easily. The oldest threads are from 1970 (???) and contain no posts. 

 

I feel like I only have more questions now!

Edited March 30, 2021 by A Boy Named Crow

[RobboM]

Just watching some WC qualifiers and when they show the tables at the end they don't follow the normal convention of P W D L GF GA Pts but have Pts first. I always end up looking at these tables, gazing at the GA column and wondering what the **** has happened.

Why? Just why?

Nb this was on Sky and having just checked on the BBC sports website they stick with classic football table layout

[3fingersreid]

58 minutes ago, RobboM said:

Just watching some WC qualifiers and when they show the tables at the end they don't follow the normal convention of P W D L GF GA Pts but have Pts first. I always end up looking at these tables, gazing at the GA column and wondering what the **** has happened.

Why? Just why?

Nb this was on Sky and having just checked on the BBC sports website they stick with classic football table layout

Thank you , saves me typing and asking why , that format is bollocks 

[jambo89]

On 28/03/2021 at 23:43, Tazio said:

Does your face go bald as you age? 
I’m currently sporting a rather luxuriant beard through laziness rather than style. It got me thinking. When you’re a kid you have hair from when you’re very young and then at some point in your teens you start growing facial hair. My head is definitely balding and has been for a few years with a good sized bald spot and the front rushing to join it but I can still grow a very thick beard. So if you suffer from male pattern baldness does that include your face? Does you body have a window of opportunity for healthy hair growth? And if so does that mean that your face starts to grow less hair the equivalent number of years between being born and starting to need to shave? 

Santa has a beard but is bald, so don’t think your face will “go bald”.

 

In fact if he’s anything to go by, your facial hair will grow faster the balder you are.

[jambo89]

9 hours ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

If I was to click through all the pages of kickback, what would the oldest thread be about?

 

EDIT: There'll be two,  won't there, one in the Shed and one in the Terrace?

 

EDIT2: I just discovered you can do this pretty easily. The oldest threads are from 1970 (???) and contain no posts. 

 

I feel like I only have more questions now!

Isn’t 1970 a generic computer thing? I seem to recall that all computers are set to 1970 or something, and was possibly part of the issue for the supposed “millennium bug”.

I’m sure someone will be along shortly to correct me.

 

[A Boy Named Crow]

3 minutes ago, jambo89 said:

Isn’t 1970 a generic computer thing? I seem to recall that all computers are set to 1970 or something, and was possibly part of the issue for the supposed “millennium bug”.

I’m sure someone will be along shortly to correct me.

 

Could be, but why have thread titles that appear to be from 1970, that have thread titles, yet contain no posts? 

 

The truth is out there!

[jambo89]

6 minutes ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

Could be, but why have thread titles that appear to be from 1970, that have thread titles, yet contain no posts? 

 

The truth is out there!

You might need to have a thread from 1970 so that you can have threads for 2021? May be something to do with how the server calculates dates? I don’t know. It is strange that they have more than 1 though. Surely just the one thread would do the trick!  

[redjambo]

1 hour ago, jambo89 said:

Isn’t 1970 a generic computer thing? I seem to recall that all computers are set to 1970 or something, and was possibly part of the issue for the supposed “millennium bug”.

I’m sure someone will be along shortly to correct me.

 

 

Unix, and subsequently Linux (which are collectively along with some other related operating systems known as *nix), which run on many of the computer servers out there, measure their time since 1 Jan 1970 (picked arbitrarily by Unix engineers in the early days).

 

https://www.wired.com/2001/09/unix-tick-tocks-to-a-billion/?tw=wn_story_related

 

Interestingly, when we get to 2038, the 32-bit signed integers used to store the datetime in *nix will wrap around (the year will actually go back to 1901 - see the article below). However most processors are 64-bit now and run 64-bit operating systems and software with 64-bit datetime integers, which means that they will wrap around around 292 billion years from now, and there will no doubt be workarounds to get round the problem for 32-bit implementations in the meantime.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

[redjambo]

So, I didn't really answer the question.

 

If a *nix datetime field is being used to store the thread date and time, and for some reason the contents of that field are simply 0 (possibly because a proper datetime hasn't actually been entered into the field), then the software will probably recognise that as being 1 Jan 1970.

[wentworth jambo]

On 18/03/2021 at 19:47, milky_26 said:

im sure it is they cant prove that they kill 100%, not that they dont kill 100% just cant prove it

I'm sure it also has to do with the fact we can't claim to know 100% of all bacteria / germs - there are deffo ones out there we don't about yet so the claim cannot be to kill 100%

[superjack]

21 minutes ago, wentworth jambo said:

I'm sure it also has to do with the fact we can't claim to know 100% of all bacteria / germs - there are deffo ones out there we don't about yet so the claim cannot be to kill 100%

Is the current phrase now "kills all known germs"? 

[wentworth jambo]

2 hours ago, superjack said:

Is the current phrase now "kills all known germs"? 

Yep - something like that covers them....cos bacteria / germs are constantly evolving so there will always be new / unknown ones

 

[A Boy Named Crow]

How did the person who made the first sun dial know they'd got it right?

[Maple Leaf]

15 minutes ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

How did the person who made the first sun dial know they'd got it right?

 

Good question.  My guess is that the sundial set the standard.  Before the sundial there was no, say, 5 o'clock.

 

The guy who built the first one looked at the shadow, then announced to the people around him, "Oh, look, it's 5 o'clock!" and they all just said,"OK, that sounds good," even though they'd never heard of 5 o'clock before.

 

As I say, just a guess.

[A Boy Named Crow]

2 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

Good question.  My guess is that the sundial set the standard.  Before the sundial there was no, say, 5 o'clock.

 

The guy who built the first one looked at the shadow, then announced to the people around him, "Oh, look, it's 5 o'clock!" and they all just said,"OK, that sounds good," even though they'd never heard of 5 o'clock before.

 

As I say, just a guess.

How different it might have been,  if he'd just had a shave...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Apologies)

[Maple Leaf]

6 minutes ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

How different it might have been,  if he'd just had a shave...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Apologies)

 

Ah, good one!  Very droll.

[been here before]

37 minutes ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

How did the person who made the first sun dial know they'd got it right?

 

The sun was right over head, the shadows at their shortest point= middle of the day.

[Tazio]

Why is the end Jaffa cake in a pack always facing the opposite way to the others? 

[milky_26]

10 minutes ago, Tazio said:

Why is the end Jaffa cake in a pack always facing the opposite way to the others? 

i would assume so the chocolate does not rub off on the plastic bag

[A Boy Named Crow]

Why are folk who don't want to be identified in newspapers or on TV given fake names? A story might say

 

Susan (not her real name) was shocked to find...

 

But why make up a name? Why not write

 

The witness, who does not want to be named, was shocked to find...

 

Just seems unnecessary!

Edited April 20, 2021 by A Boy Named Crow

[Governor Tarkin]

On 19/03/2021 at 14:15, Stuart Lyon said:

Still enjoy egg-in-a-cup now and again! Tastes better if you have some butter in the cup for the hot egg(s) to melt. A quick stir coats the egg in the butter. 

 

 

On 14/03/2021 at 14:40, LMc said:

What's the metal ring at the top of the bin for? I feel like it should be used for holding the bag or something but I've no idea how or why it should be used.

 

I've never managed to work this out either. 

 

On 19/03/2021 at 22:23, FWJ said:

How is boxing still a thing?

 

It can be quite enjoyable. 

[milky_26]

4 hours ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

Why are folk who don't want to be identified in newspapers or on TV given fake names? A story might say

 

Susan (not her real name) was shocked to find...

 

But why make up a name? Why not write

 

The witness, who does not want to be named, was shocked to find...

 

Just seems unnecessary!

probably to help if they mention the person later in the article they can just say susan rather than the unnamed individual as they will have a word limit. it is similar in scientific articles the first time you mention something like say digital versatile disk (DVD) when they were new you would fully say the name then other mentions in the article would only say DVD.

 

i remember when i was writing journal papers trying to reduce it to a word limit was a skill in itself

[Ron Burgundy]

5 hours ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

Why are folk who don't want to be identified in newspapers or on TV given fake names? A story might say

 

Susan (not her real name) was shocked to find...

 

But why make up a name? Why not write

 

The witness, who does not want to be named, was shocked to find...

 

Just seems unnecessary!

To humanise her???

[Stu_HMFC]

On 24/03/2021 at 18:33, Maple Leaf said:

Why is Sunday considered to be both the first day of the week and also part of the week end?

I used to work for Sky and Friday is their Monday. Rocking in to work on a Friday looking forward to being off at the weekend then get hit with a coms meeting with the new targets for the week in advance getting you're stats and figures can ruin you're weekend. 

[Ribble]

On 09/04/2021 at 16:12, A Boy Named Crow said:

How did the person who made the first sun dial know they'd got it right?

 

I'd imagine that before sundials themselves that early humans would have used shadows from tree's/rocks etc to determine when it'd be cool enough to leave the shade and resume hunting/gathering again, a sundial would have simply been an evolution of that

[¼½¾]

On 09/04/2021 at 16:12, A Boy Named Crow said:

How did the person who made the first sun dial know they'd got it right?

 

However they did it, it must have been a relatively simple thing as civilisations all over the globe each developed the sundial independently. 

 

 

The 3D printed sundials you can buy are pretty cool.

[milky_26]

9 minutes ago, Lemongrab said:

 

However they did it, it must have been a relatively simple thing as civilisations all over the globe each developed the sundial independently. 

 

 

The 3D printed sundials you can buy are pretty cool.

that is cool, i might need to make one

[Tazio]

On 09/04/2021 at 16:12, A Boy Named Crow said:

How did the person who made the first sun dial know they'd got it right?

Aliens obviously. 

[I P Knightley]

On 24/03/2021 at 18:52, dobmisterdobster said:

 

A lot of people consider Monday to be the first day of the week.

You only need to see the confusion on the "Tit Monday" thread to know that's a hotly debated topic.

 

 

 

My TYAWABCBBTFO has resurrected with the recent sad death of Jim Steinman.

 

I've often wondered (idly) whether I would offer my throat to the wolf with the red roses.

Never been bothered to find out.

[JWL]

Why do wheels on a car (or wheels in general I suppose) look like they are in reverse when it's slowing down?

[151]

On 24/03/2021 at 18:52, dobmisterdobster said:

 

A lot of people consider Monday to be the first day of the week.

 

Never heard of anyone not referring to Monday as the first day of the week.

[Unknown user]

31 minutes ago, JWL said:

Why do wheels on a car (or wheels in general I suppose) look like they are in reverse when it's slowing down?

It's to do with the amount of times per second your eyes update what you're seeing.

[I P Knightley]

2 hours ago, JWL said:

Why do wheels on a car (or wheels in general I suppose) look like they are in reverse when it's slowing down?

Do you see that in real life? It happens in film due to the strobe effect as the frame rate and the wheel rotation rate differ.

[JWL]

Just now, I P Knightley said:

Do you see that in real life? It happens in film due to the strobe effect as the frame rate and the wheel rotation rate differ.

 

Yeah, see it all the time, thought everyone did.

[Ron Burgundy]

Where do bus drivers go when they are caught short?

[heartsfc_fan]

22 minutes ago, Ron Burgundy said:

Where do bus drivers go when they are caught short?

Probably go for a pish in the bushes at the terminus?

[Ron Burgundy]

44 minutes ago, heartsfc_fan said:

Probably go for a pish in the bushes at the terminus?

Woman drivers as well? What if they need a Tom Kite?

Do  all the terminus stops have the required greenery and what if you have been stuck in traffic up town?

[Governor Tarkin]

4 minutes ago, Ron Burgundy said:

Woman drivers as well? What if they need a Tom Kite?

Do  all the terminus stops have the required greenery and what if you have been stuck in traffic up town?

 

There was a bus drivers' shunkie on Oxgangs Road North next to the cop shop at one point. The building is still there but dunno if they still use it. 

[Ron Burgundy]

Just now, Governor Tarkin said:

 

There was a bus drivers' shunkie on Oxgangs Road North next to the cop shop at one point. The building is still there but dunno if they still use it. 

Know it well. Grew up there.

 

That makes it sound like I was hanging about a bus drivers toilet as a kid. I wasn't by the way.

[Governor Tarkin]

Just now, Ron Burgundy said:

Know it well. Grew up there.

 

That makes it sound like I was hanging about a bus drivers toilet as a kid. I wasn't by the way.

 

If you were there's a chance I'd know you.

 

[martoon]

Why is the song "Mack the Knife" so popular?

 

 

Edited May 10, 2021 by martoon

[Tazio]

7 minutes ago, martoon said:

Why is the song "Mack the Knife" so popular?

 

 

Probably the only popular swing song that is about a serial killer, though it was never written to be performed that way. Originally part of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. 

[martoon]

1 hour ago, Tazio said:

Probably the only popular swing song that is about a serial killer, though it was never written to be performed that way. Originally part of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. 

 

Cheers.

 

Heard it at the end of some cookery programme this evening whilst channel hopping.

 

Iirc, it was also used in "The Nazi's: A Warning From history" and has cropped up in various, random other stuff over the years.

 

Although, strangely enough, not in any progs I've watched about serial killers.  😊

 

 

 

 

[Unknown user]

On 21/04/2021 at 14:26, JWL said:

 

Yeah, see it all the time, thought everyone did.

You don't constantly register vision, it's like film, your brain sees loads of snapshots.

What you're describing is an illusion from the wheel speed in tandem with your eyes' refresh rate and will only happen in certain speed ranges.

 

Basically your brain takes a photo, then the next time it takes a photo the spoke or whatever has turned just under a full turn, and again and again. As far as the brain can tell, without being able to see the movement between the snapshots, it looks like the wheel's going backwards.

Edited May 11, 2021 by Smithee

[obua]

On 27/04/2021 at 14:39, Ron Burgundy said:

Where do bus drivers go when they are caught short?

There are about ten drivers toilets spread around edinburgh, Clermiston,

Niddrie, Gilmerton, morningside, to name a few.

[graygo]

On 21/04/2021 at 12:52, Smithee said:

It's to do with the amount of times per second your eyes update what you're seeing.

 

Going against the spirit of the thread here but I read a wee while ago that if you look at a clock with the seconds showing it never seems like you look just before the seconds change as your brain takes a snapshot of the image and retains it while you take in what it says.  😲