What have you always wanted to know?

[PurleaseSqueeze]

I was wondering today whether GPs see other GPs if they are ill? Can anyone tell me? I'm assuming yes as they wouldn't be allowed to prescribe medications for themselves?

What other random things have you always wondered/wanted to know?

@FruityPolos 😁😁😁 also, how is it possible that the 30 year olds in the olden days look so old. My MIL looks exactly the same as she did in her 30's. So basically, she still looks like my same mil in her mid 60's when she was 30 🤔 and I've seen pictures of my aunts and uncles where they were newly married and just look exactly the same now in their late 60's 😁

I was only saying this the other day.
My mam got married in the 70s and i remember her not wearing jeans or anything.She always wore older clothes.Even on my confirmation day,she wore something that a 60 year old would wear.

I just think years ago you got married and that was it.You just got old before your time.

@HeyDemonsItsYaGirl

How the internet works.

The Internet is just like a road network. If you imagine an Asda (or Ocado if you prefer) delivery, you request stuff and the delivery van will take the most obvious route to you - but if one road is blocked, the driver can divert using different roads. The idea is that the internet is like a road network where there are loads of different ways for cars (data) to pass from source to destination so that if one bit fails it can be bypassed and the whole thing keeps running. Just like a road network, there are limits to traffic and too many blockages and too much traffic will cause problems - but unlike road networks, advances in technology keep allowing traffic to make faster and more reliable trips.

I don't understand how memory works. How can I suddenly remember something that happened 30 odd years ago that I haven't thought about since? How can I know something, forget it, know that I have forgotten it but come up woth again some other time?

@MammaSchwifty

how do computers know how to read code? I mean how do they interpret all those lines of text and execute them? How do they know whether they are reading Java or C++ or Python or whatever? Wouldn't they need some code to know how to do that? And so on ad infinitum? What is the most fundamental code that the computer uses to read everything else and HOW DOES IT WORK?!

Generally the lowest level is Machine code - simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_code When people program in languages (other than scripting languages) there is generally a complier which will be specific to the machine type in use - this converts the program to a binary executable file that the computer can run as a program. Machine code generally holds everything as binary - every operation in a computer ultimately boils down to a series of 1s and zeros - this is because it's basically a massive number of electrical switches which are either on or off (hence 1 or zero). It's not like quantum physics where we keep finding smaller particles - once you're down to binary, that's it.

@DynamoKev
wow, thanks, that sort of helps me understand.... so, like, everything is in binary code? Someone has had to codify the colour puce, the number 8, the letter k, the square root operation, the note B flat, the ampersand?? That's nuts and awesome.

so... when someone records a sheep bleating, and that gets put into binary code, there's a binary code for that bleating noise?!

@sparepantsandtoothbrush

What happens to second class post? Is it separated from the first class post and then just sits there for an extra day waiting to be sorted and posted?

it goes into a separate bag either at the Post Office or initial sorting depot. it is sorted with other mail, just not with the same urgency or manpower constraints.

How can I have a nap for say 10 minutes but my dream feel like it was hours long?!

If you got knocked unconscious while you were doing something that made you super out of breath (like running...or shagging) would you keep breathing rapidly while you were unconscious.....?

Great thread.

Eggs - how is it known if eggs contain a chick or not? Is it possible to find a chick inside an egg bought from the supermarket?

[quote Poppins2016]@PurleaseSqueeze

My form tutors son was placed in the same tutor group and just used "Dad"! I suppose it probably varies by school, though...[/quote]
As a small child I was very good at saying Mr X, to the extent that I was once telling my DM and DGM about something that happened at schools and what Mr X (ie DF ) said, much to their amusement.
By the end of primary, I think it felt a bit silly though and I probably found it harder.

In any case, I remember plenty of my fellow pupils getting mixed up sometimes and calling a teacher mum or dad by accident. They usually took it well, but granddad didn't go down as well!

Eggs - how is it known if eggs contain a chick or not? Is it possible to find a chick inside an egg bought from the supermarket?

egg laying chickens are laying unfertilised eggs, that is, they are not getting any sexy action at the farm or battery shed. Therefore, the eggs can't have chicks inside.

@MammaSchwifty

Eggs - how is it known if eggs contain a chick or not? Is it possible to find a chick inside an egg bought from the supermarket?

egg laying chickens are laying unfertilised eggs, that is, they are not getting any sexy action at the farm or battery shed. Therefore, the eggs can't have chicks inside.

And once a cockerel has been introduced they 'candle' each egg*, it used to literally be holding the egg of a candle, looking for a dark spider vein, the beginning of the embryo.

• You have to wait for about 5 days before anything becomes obvious. And yes, I earned a penny an egg

"Just discussed this one with OH. He thought maybe the first person who made one, called it that. But then I said, ok but what about flowers, or grass, or chickens?

And that got me thinking. Do chickens in spain make the same sound as chickens in the UK? I mean, we speak a different language, have animal sounds evolved differently too?"

Animal sounds vary in different languages. Usually similar-ish because they're trying to make the same sounds, but not exactly the same. Ducks go quack quack in English and coin coin (the oi making a wa sound) in French, for example.

One theory is that all words start as a kind of onomatopaeia.

I think @MintyMabel is not asking whether human imitations of sounds vary around the world, but whether animals themselves make different sounds in different places.

Well, there was a story that cows have regional variations in their moos some years ago: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5277090.stm

You know how we yawn when we are tired and want to sleep? Well, why do we also yawn when we wake up???

@CrazyTitsLiz

When to use affect, and when to use effect.

I just can't get my head around it and it annoys me.

@CrazyTitsLiz

You can either affect something
Or have an effect on something.

So ‘I won’t let that horrible comment affect me’ or

‘That horrible comment had such an effect on me, I am really sad’.

@MammaSchwifty

were cave toddlers picky little buggers when it came to mealtimes? what did people used to do about their fingernails and toenails before blades? why, as a species, do we have hair on our heads that gets so incredibly long, but not really anywhere else?

I’ve read (no idea if it’s true) that human dc evolved with a preference for sweet and bland food as a protection against accidental poisoning.

So the non-picky eating cave toddlers probably died off after eating something unfortunate before getting old enough to pass on their non-picky genes.

I want to know how they make bucatini!

"But....is the actual noise the dog makes the same in those different countries?"

Well, of course, unless they are different breeds. Was that a joke question?

The point about people in old photos looking older than their age is an interesting one. I don't think they look older than they are so much as they are wearing hairstyles and clothes that we associate with older people.

Between lockdowns I went to a series of Alan Bennet plays in London. The middle aged female protaganists wore their hair in neat perms with A line mid length skirts with a blouse, cardie and brooch. These were set off by American tan tights, flat shoes and a Queen style handbag. It struck me that my adult children have never seen anyone under 90 dressed like that. When I grew up most adult women dressed like that. Now it's 'period'. To my children that style looks like the pictures of my Granny in a pre-war tweed suit and hat look to me.

It will happen with photos of us too. I still wear similar clothes to when I got married 35 years ago - jeans, flat boots or trainers, longish jumpers and shirts. Sometime shortish skirts with opaque tights and flats. If I'm going out it's still fitted dresses and heels. My children call it 'mums friends uniform'. Even my hair is similar to my hair in the 80s. after years of crops and bobs I'm now wearing it long, layered and wavy like I did back then . My grandchildren will look at photos of me and wonder why Granny dressed like an old lady when she was young.

Thank you @Tinkling

I've taken a screenshot so I can refer back to it. I've no idea why I struggle so much. My mother was an English teacher!

And thank you to anyone else who has replied.

@Ellenthegenerous

If you have a GA, you always have to be intubated.

Google disagrees with you.

@SeaTurtles92

Why someone went up a cow and tugged on its titties udders and drank what came out of it.

They would presumably have seen a calf do it first and also seen a human baby feeding so not really that strange.

it's not so long ago that orphaned or abandoned children suckled from goats

"It’s not that introverts don’t like people or don’t like to be around others. They enjoy it just as much but as you said, it becomes overwhelming. Introverts ‘recharge’ by having time alone. It’s the opposite for extroverts - they recharge by being around people."

It's really not half as simple as this.