Inconsequential things you ponder on...

[mineofuselessinformation]

The local ice cream van plays the Match of the Day theme tune (has been doing it for years, so not to do with the Euros). I still can't work out the connection.

A neighbour over the road from me has a Ring doorbell. Since it plays the intro to the Go Compare jingle, is this some surreptitious form of marketing?

Yes, I probably do have too much time on my hands!

The Internet as we know it has only really existed for 25-30 years ago - and didn't really gain ubiquity until probably some time between 2005-2010.

Yet, to read all of the information that is now on there would take you around 11 million years, if you did nothing else whatsoever.

Also, when ancient stones are held up as memorials and admired/worshipped/objects of pilgrimage etc. - largely for their antiquity.

And yet, to get to that specific 'ancient' stone, you probably walked over hundreds if not thousands of other stones that are just as old but considered of no importance whatsoever.

The tree one also just seems so very amazing to me - that trees seem to live forever to us, but they do nevertheless still die eventually of natural causes.

To think that we could lament the terrible tragedy of a majestic ancient tree that we learn has just died, and agonise for ages over what appalling act of humans/animals/weather/climate/natural disaster might have killed it - when it might just be that it happened to be planted 700 years ago and now, apparently all of a sudden but as was, in fact, programmed into it from when it was one of a handful of seeds in somebody's hand, its time is simply up.

Me and late DH spent ages one evening pondering “if the Ddog could talk, what would her voice sound like?”
I said girly and German (she’s a German Shepherd dog)
He said more deep voiced & gruff, like her bark…
Bloody ages, this discussion went on for…🙄

Majestically- totally get you, that's exactly the way I think!

Why does the washing machine make me wait about 3 minutes after it's stopped before letting me open the door? Surely 20 seconds would do?

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I often look at massive old trees and think of them as once having been a seed. And all the other seeds around at the same time who didn't make it... each tree has no idea how lucky it is.

Also, looking at saplings now... our descendants will look at them as huge old 'forever' trees, and we will be like the pictures of Victorians you can see today.

@OnSecondThoughts

Why does the washing machine make me wait about 3 minutes after it's stopped before letting me open the door? Surely 20 seconds would do?

I think they need to rest after the spin so that they don't just fall over from dizziness.

I think they need to rest after the spin so that they don't just fall over from dizziness.

Am I the only one who thinks that tumble dryer designers missed a massive trick in not making them do a great big, long, sleepy yawn noise when you open the door at the end of a cycle?!

I'm loving that this thread is still going!
I'm now pondering on some of the thoughts here...
And another one, how is it that some chemical elements came together to form such lovely things as gemstones? I know the science behind it, but even everyday things such as agate can be so pretty.

I often look at massive old trees and think of them as once having been a seed. And all the other seeds around at the same time who didn't make it... each tree has no idea how lucky it is.

Same with humans too, really - albeit not for as many centuries. Of course, it's the most obvious thing, really; but it just seemed so amazing to me when an elderly relative died last year a couple of years short of her century to think that, once, she was somebody's long-awaited baby - so tiny, so helpless and nobody could have known then whether she'd live for as long as she did, not make it through infancy or wherever in between.

In fact, without wanting to go into too much specific detail, for decades in the middle of the space of almost a hundred years, she was a strong, fit, independent woman - and yet she ended up almost as helpless and needing much of the same kind of care as she needed right at the beginning.

Also, rambling on about discussing ancient stones as I was earlier, structures like The Cheesewring that look just as precarious now as they did when first constructed/discovered - and yet they've survived intact for so very long, even with tourists touching and climbing over them.

Then again, like with the trees, I suppose they too eventually get to the point where they say enough is enough, like part of Durdle Door - and Stone Henge has been concreted in place for the last 100 years!

and Stone Henge has been concreted in place for the last 100 years

HAS IT?? Bloody hell. That takes all the romance out of it. You might as well have said it was made of lego.

@purrswhileheeats

I still wonder how cats and dogs became domesticated? Who decided they would be pets? I look at my cats every day and puzzle how they're such a big part of my life - strange enigmatic creatures!

Cats became domesticated alongside farming. Storing grains and such meant an increase in pests and cats started to live alongside of humans because of the ample food supply

www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/domesticated-cats-dna-genetics-pets-science

Dogs came because we like meat and they like bones. It's helpful to have someone get the last of the meat off the bones, because then there's less flies and rats. The wolves were the favourable option.

Presumably shortly after that they started doing that thing with one ear up and one ear down, and their heads tilted, and we became putty in their paws.

so our long-established drunk theory of Stonehenge is that it's just the leftovers of ancient giants playing Jenga

I love astronomy and the most mind-boggling thing I've ever witnessed was the planetarium show at Winchester Science Centre. It was very informative but left me with a million questions! HOW do they know all of this? Who decided that the Earth is 4.543 billion years old? What's at the edge of the universe? I NEED ANSWERS.

@OccultGnuAsWell

It blows my mind too.

I have listened to Neil DeGrass Tyson and his voice is so soothing I think I sort of understand, but then I don't, but I trust him.

@Nenanena brace yourself

All those women going back to the first one have the same mitochondrial DNA. You inherit it only from your mother and it is virtually unchanged going back to the first people.

But as it passes from mother to daughter some of your female relatives share it.

So in my case my my maternal grandmother had three daughters who all inherited the same DNA.

My mum had a boy and a girl, so 2 more with the same DNA but only I can pass it on. My mum's two sisters had 1 boy and a girl and 2 girls respectively so 4 more identical mDNA but only 3 can pass it on.

Skip to the next generation, my brother and male cousin have children but they have their mother's mDNA so that line has stoipped.

I don't have children, one of my cousins has no intention of having children but the two remaining cousins do have children.

One has 2 boys, so again they are not passing on the mDNA but the other has a boy and a girl so if she has children she will pass on the mDNA to them.

@mineofuselessinformation

Am I alone in my weirdness? 😵

No and it is this type of thread that I love about MN!

@ImInACage

I often wondered how the first person discovered that food tasted better cooked. Was it an accident and they dropped some food on a fire, or did they experiment? Also, who first looked at a cow's udder and thought "ooh I'd like to taste the juice that comes out of there"?

Yes and to bake bread! Grind up the corn to remove the chaff and the mic with water and yeast and bake…

How do we know we see colours the same? How do I know that what I call blue isn't what you call red. We both call the grass green but maybe your green is my yellow
Had this discussion in class a few days ago (I am a secondary teacher) and it is interesting to see which children ‘get’ this and retain an open-minded curiosity and inquisitiveness and those who don’t.

@sashh
Wow, not sure why I'm surprised really, but there literally is something that is directly passed only from mother to daughter, down through the hundreds of thousands of years that we've been around.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll
I sometimes think of older people and when they were babies. I find it heartbreaking sometimes when I see someone begging in the street, to imagine them as a tiny newborn. Someone, most likely their mother, would have held them in their arms ams gazed at them in wonder, not realising that one day they would be in such a sad situation.

@akissbeforebed

1. Do dogs bark in regional accents/different languages? Would a French dog understand a German dog for example. Also, other animals...

1. How do we know we see colours the same? How do I know that what I call blue isn't what you call red. We both call the grass green but maybe your green is my yellow.

1. How weird is it that the brain named itself?

Because... if I say i'd like to buy the black car, I'm never presented with a green one.

Stonehenge Jenga

The stones have been there for a very long time - they just aren't untouched and exactly like they've always been for thousands of years, as most people naturally assume and the tourist organisations want you to believe.

www.newscientist.com/article/dn310-concrete-evidence/

They weren't even considered as anything special until a century ago - they were just some old stones in a working farmer's field like in any other. A wealthy man bought them for the equivalent of £0.5m in today's money, reportedly as a present for his wife - but apparently, she wasn't best chuffed with them

@Nenanena

It is sad, isn't it? I also think that when you see a photo of somebody who's committed an appalling crime - that they started off as an innocent little baby and something clearly went terribly wrong at some stage.

Even 'normal' people who just get on with living a (to the country/world at large) somewhat unremarkable life: I always remember reading a thread on here some time ago where somebody mentioned their very elderly relative (no dementia or MH issues, as I recall), who, just before she died, was heard quietly whimpering "I want my Mummy" - just like she would have done often 90+ years previously.

I have wondered about how weird it would be if breathing & eating were swapped.

so humans would constantly have to eat or drink to stay alive, (like how some sharks have to constantly swim) but would only need a few big gulps of air per day.

I also wonder if there is/are any animal/s that do this already