The "Have You Ever Wondered...?" Thread

[Pal Joey]

There are so many unexplained events - naturally occurring or man-made - and there are things which leave us scratching our head in wonderment, awe, disbelief, etc. These might be recurring events; or perhaps it was something you saw for a fleeting moment... only to never see anything like it happen again.

So I thought why not have a space where we can chew the fat on particular things which have caught our attention in our day-to-day lives (or even an experience in a foreign place which made you chuckle to yourself or think "I never would have known that!")... and you have not told anyone else about. There may or not not be a reason or an answer to your 'dilemma' - just something which you have witnessed or are conscious of... and has never been solved in your mind.

Big, medium or tiny sized wonders.

Feel free to spill out your consciousness. Some of us may have logical explanations and answers to certain phenomena which have had others baffled for hours, days, years and decades.

[Pal Joey]

OK, I'll start with an miniature one.

You know when you see a tiny spider living inside a bathroom drawer?

I'm talking about a creature no larger than a pin head. It's legs could only be measured in microns.

Well, there's one in my bathroom.
I just wanted to know - what does this little friend of mine eat? Surely there are no other living things in there?

Or is the drawer teeming with microbes (say on my greasy old ointment tubes which have a use-by date of 12/2003) which offer a smorgasbord of sustenance? Or maybe it's the solidified hair gunk on that old comb I used once in 1994?

I feel bad shutting the drawer each time - as the poor little blighter will get no light or the chances of some unfortunate prey chancing upon it's barely visible gossamer trap will be minimised.

I've noticed if I open the draw to get my dental floss; it will stay put... but if I carefully reach for something deeper in the drawer it will duck into a gap between a screw hole and wait there until it is safe to come out again.

While we are at it - it's about 2-3 months old. I thought its lifespan would be measured in weeks at the most?

[littleswannygirl]

Good one LB, and I've no idea what it eats!

I saw a programme recently about butterflies that migrate. Utterly mind-boggling. They're so tiny and flimsy and delicate! It just doesn't add up; and we're not talking short migrations either. Monarchs and Painted Ladies migrate phenomenal distances.

[Kenny]

I often wonder why when watching SkySports News that the info bar at the bottom of the screen always goes to an advert when the Rugby League is about to be shown

[Pal Joey]

That's bloody annoying. Also when you haven't seen a game and want to know the score and half of the result is covered by a ticker.

Here's one.

Geologists & scientists say that Australia once had a huge mountain range in the middle of the continent but over millions of years... water eroded these massive mountains down to the flat table-top like desert we have today - except for Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta

My query is: why are Uluru and Kata Tjuta the only rocks remaining? They may be harder rocks than the ones that got eroded away and 'vanished without a trace' but my mind boggles at this geological explanation.

Also - if this is the case, then won't our coastlines (ones with rock cliff faces) get worn away eventually too?

[Galted]

Yep, you're doomed LB. You want to move to London, we've got the Thames Barrier & high-vis jackets to save us from Armageddon.

[Pal Joey]

Is the Thames Barrier big enough?

I don't believe in this global warming fear-mongering. Maybe there'll be another mini Ice Age first?

[dummy_half]

That's bloody annoying. Also when you haven't seen a game and want to know the score and half of the result is covered by a ticker.

Here's one.

Geologists & scientists say that Australia once had a huge mountain range in the middle of the continent but over millions of years... water eroded these massive mountains down to the flat table-top like desert we have today - except for Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta

My query is: why are Uluru and Kata Tjuta the only rocks remaining? They may be harder rocks than the ones that got eroded away and 'vanished without a trace' but my mind boggles at this geological explanation.

Also - if this is the case, then won't our coastlines (ones with rock cliff faces) get worn away eventually too?

Linebreaker
As a geologist but no particular expert on Australian geology, my understanding is that Uluru and Kata Tjuta are essentially monoliths - i.e. single big lumps of rock without fractures, joints etc. As such, they would be much harder to erode than the surrounding more fractured and strongly bedded sedimentary rocks.

As for the coast, cliffs are only maintained by on-going erosion, although the process can be very slow if it's hard rock (and much faster for places like the east coast of Yorkshire). Also, remember that what gets removed from one area usually ends up somewhere else, so while some areas are eroding, land is being built in other areas (reefs and sand islands), and new land may also sometimes be lifted by earthquakes.

Anyway, my question - I have a baby (just under a year old). Clearly, she remembers things on a day to day basis, but I think it is generally accepted that most adults don't have a memory of anything before they are about 2 1/2 or 3. So my question is, just how long do babies remember stuff for?

[Galted]

Don't have an answer for that dummy_half but do have an anecdote instead.

When I was a kid (probably about 10/11) was looking through family holiday photos and had a kick-in-the-face moment of deja-voux when I saw one of me in my cot (not sure of my age but was less than 2). What struck me was a nail sticking out of the wall which I clearly remembered being terrified of and can still picture it now (I'm 42) from an in-cot pov (weirdly the memory is sepia-coloured and blurry round the edges but is clearly of me sitting in the cot with the damn nail looming above me).

Not sure if hypnosis works releasing suppressed memories but would be interesting & perhaps frightening to see what's stuck in there.

[Pal Joey]

Cheers dummy_half.

I realise the softer rock gets weathered away first - those monoliths are slightly harder sandstone. Just amazing. You have a great profession!

Re a baby's memory - we were asked to draw our first memory on Day 1 of my Architecture course. I drew what I considered was my earliest memory (must have been 2 1/2 or 3 as you say) which was a view out of the window towards the twinkling lights of Sydney on a hot summer night in the late 60s. I also remembered that that was the same same night I had walked down the hall (I was aware that it was a long way for me to travel) for the first time on my own - from the bedroom to the kitchen - feeling unable to sleep and asking Mum (who was chatting with Dad in there) for a drink. She gave me a lemon cordial or something... I had this little plastic flask with ribs running down the side... like a cross between a rugby ball and a hand-grenade?? Felt quite proud of my initiative then... and still do now!

As for how long babies actually remember things; on a day-to-day basis probably not for too long, there must be so many new stimuli and distractions constantly occurring but I'd imagine that first memory of mine above was sort of like being conscious of my consciousness for the very first time. I feel today as though I had gone from almost 'nothingness' to 'someone' who has a thinking mind. It stopped me in my tracks (the view out the window) and the image in my head is still very vivid. Does that make any sense at all?

[Kenny]

Have ever wondered why you put pairs of socks into a washing machine , yet odd socks come out ?

[dummy_half]

Have ever wondered why you put pairs of socks into a washing machine , yet odd socks come out ?

All the bleedin time.

In a similar vein, where all the pens that work go from my office draw...

[Kenny]

talking about pens

when your on the phone and need to write something down you can never find a pen that works !!

[Lumbering_Jack]

I've always wondered why so many pubic hairs appear on he toilet seats at my work... And in the urinals...

Now I'm young and don't shed hair, do your pubes just fall out when you're older?

[ShahenshahG]

They probably scratch their balls while they are taking a leak LJ, you'd have thought they'd at least wipe it off the toilet!

[Hero]

I've always wondered why women (ok mainly my wife) are happy to have ladybirds crawl up and down their arms and they find them pretty (although in nature their colour generally means its dangerous) yet if it was any other type of beetle crawling within a 10ft radius they'd be freakiing out.

[ShahenshahG]

Shes probably a rampant racist hero. Agreed though with the general premise. Took my wife to various aquariums and reptile houses and zoos. Shes scared of Daddy long legs but wants to pet a blue and yellow poison dar frog

[ShahenshahG]

Moths actually urine me off, pinging off my laptop screen as I'm trying to get my daughter to sleep with some music.

[Kenny]

when you buy a tin of Quality Street chocolates its always the turkish delight and coconut ones that get left till last

[Pal Joey]

talking about moths - I'm pretty sure they have 'homing' behaviour. They must leave scent trails in the air?

I never kill them - just trap them and chuck them out but they are sometimes seen to turn around and head straight back for my window. Bloody annoying!

(only things I kill are deadly spiders and mozzies. I killed a mozzie with a Japanese mirror the other day. An ex-flatmate left it here 10 years ago. A mosquito landed on my arm the other evening so I picked up the mirror - which is about the size of a ping pong bat - and whacked myself... and the mozzie. Bet it never expected it would die like that!)

I also have this piece of string fixed to the underside of my balcony which I use to hang out sheets to dry. I've noticed this one particular fly (pretty sure it's the same one each time) which likes to stay on exactly the same part of the string each time... it's like a throne to it.

When I shoo it away (too quick to kill... not that I would anyway) it does a 10m circle and lands back right on the same spot. It is so darn possessive and obviously likes the view as much as I do.

I can also 'feel' when it's there. If I've been out for a few hours and on the way home in the late afternoon, I'll suddenly think about whether it will be there when I get back... and it bloody-well usually is there having a siesta or whatever flies do. It's not a normal house fly either but has more of a 'sports car' look about it compared to your average fly.

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