AAA (Ask Anyone Anything).

[Whateverfuckingnext]

Not sure if this has been done before (or done to death even), so apologies if so!

A thread to ask those burning questions and mundane ponderings. Anyone can ask or answer anything. Please no making things up though as that will spoil the fun!

I'll go first... Vegans. I completely understand the ethics of not eating and using animal produce that results in the harm or death of animals. I understand in particular the cruelty of the dairy industry. However, I am genuinely curious as to what the ethical issue is with free range eggs. For example, if someone raised hen's as pets, on their land, fed them good food etc. Then surely the unfertilised eggs laid are nothing more than a waste product and there is no cruelty involved? (I am genuinely curious and not trying to be inflammatory. I know Google exists but first hand experience and accounts are much more interesting).

Thank you and feel free to add your own!

Depends if you’re Italian or Polish. The Italian is ‘loo-chee-a’ but the Polish pronounce it more like ‘loosha’ (there may be regional variations).

What other pet did you have in mind? Dogs can be vegetarians

Cats can't . I have a passionately vegan friend with two cats.

I guess not exactly the same but I like the concept!

What are binary numbers? How do they even work?

Are zebras black with white stripes or white with black stripes?

White with black.

@FutureThroughLensOfThePast I’m bilingual and speak another two languages to near fluency. It depends who I’m speaking to, if I’m speaking in Dutch or reading in Dutch I’ll think in Dutch. If I’m speaking in English or reading in English I think in English. Because I’m in the UK surrounded by English I tend to think in English although my perimenopausal brain likes to forget words and often I’ll remember the word in one language (usually Dutch) but not English. I dream in a mixture of Dutch and English, sometimes even in the same sentence!

I’ve just asked computer nerd ds. They are numbers expressed in 1’s and 0’s. Each 1 or 0 is called a bit. I didn’t catch what he said next but the system basically each 1 or 0 as a case ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and it’s like the computer checks itself and answers yes or no. He explained it better though !

Very easy to learn to read. The complexity of writing depends on the complexity of grammar. Easy to write down text/words/names read by someone though!

Thank you. I'm not 100% sure I've understood, my brain is reminding me of Little Britain and "computer says no!" 😀

I was taught this in the first year of secondary school.
It's just numbers to the base two whereas the decimal we're all used to is base 10.
Base 10 you have 10 symbols (0-9) and then we use place notation to go beyond 9 in powers of 10. I'll put in some leading zeros to help the columns behave.
000
001
002
003
...
009
010 (ten to the power 1)
011 (ten plus one = 11)
...
098
099
100 (ten to the power two = one hundred)
101 (one hundred plus one)
Etc

If you use just two symbols then it works the same way. Less symbols so you need more places to get to larger numbers
0000
0001
0010 (2 to the power 1 =2)
0011 (two plus one =3)
0100 (two to the power 2 = 4)
0101 (four plus one =5)
0110 (four plus 2 =6)
0111 (four plus 2 plus 1 =7)
1000 (two to the power 3 = 8)
Etc as high as you want

In a computer if you've got little electronic signals that can be in just 2 states (on or off) you can use binary counting. (Or in fibre optic cables small pulses of light or dark, computer memory magnetic state ... any on/off signal)

Sometimes computing people will use base 16 (hexadecimal) - this works just the same but with 16 symbols (0123456789ABCDEF). They're a bit more human readable/less likely to type in wrong than binary but being based on a power of 2 efficient to convert to binary I suppose.

There are lots of decimal/binary/hex converters available online if you want to play and get a feel for how it goes.

And now hopefully we all understand the nerd joke
There are 10 types of people - those who understand binary and those who don't.

The English Lucia I know pronounces it loo-sha.

Binary or base 2 uses only 1s and 0s to count in compared to base 10 or decimal.

So:

0 = 0
1 = 1
10 = 2
11 = 3
Etc

Its used computing because logic circuits only have on (1) and off (0) states.

😂

I know dogs can, they are omnivores, I was talking about carnivores. Cats and reptiles for instance.

Can't speak for others but for me it is different every year because I adapt material to the class. There will be individuals that need extension work if they are brighter or some who need very clear simple guidelines and extra help, if for example English is a second language. Trends change too, so some years will be fine with a particular topic while others will take offence at it or find it 'triggering'. I have core material to rely on but teach it differently every year.

Why do flys fly around in sort of hexagons in the middle of the room

Why has bindweed not taken over the world?

Without too much detail, is a certain mcrobbie, bona-fide or a cover / alias ?

I pronounce in Loo-chee-a
A friend's daughter is called Lucia but pronounced "Loo-see-a"
I know another Lucia pronounced "loosha"

Answer is - I have no idea!!

@anunlikelyseahorse this is fascinating, thank-you!!

That is a good question! It's everywhere in my garden I can't get rid of it

If it's like my garden then it's because brambles got there first.