Unexplained.

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 26064

Does anyone have any unexplained things that they have always wondered about to share with the good people of BEEX. With the wealth and variety of knowledge and expertise held by folks here, perhaps we can find answers to some of those long-standing 'I wonder why...' questions with the aid of science, common sense, scurrilous rumour and Google.

One of my 'I wonder why' moments came when at university, I was sitting with my tutor group having a coffee when a lad in the year below that we all knew came over with his latest piece of written work.

The 'i's looked funny.

One of the lads in my tutor group asked why there were little dots of ink, everywhere. The other lad looked confused and said they were his 'i's.

So now we all want a look. Perplexed, a conversation then took place where Essay Boy swore blind that was how tone letter I SHOULD be written, it was the proper way.

What way? Well, every time he came to a lower case i he'd type the numeral 1 and hand dot it after printing.

By now people weren't just giggling, there were about 30 people openly laughing in tears.

Unexplained is what led him to believe that. All we got was that it just IS that way and everyone knows that. He left in a semi huff. The memory is so vivid I can still see where each of my tutor group were sitting in the bar at the time.

MaliA · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 16:17

Where does the bread go when the toaster pops up?

Zardoz · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 16:23

Where is this weeks Beex Weex?

Mr Russell · **Joined:** 6th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 12334

Who provides the 3G connection for Kindles?

kalmar · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 16:35

Vodafone. Next!

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

Mr Russell wrote:

Who provides the 3G connection for Kindles?

Sprint in the US, Voda in the UK, various other carriers in various other countries.

Derek The Halls · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 3742

What happened to every record of existence of Trevor and Simon's A to Z of how things work?

Dimrill · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 16:49

Why did Stuart Campbell fuck up his forum?

lasermink · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1883

For the lure of untold wealth.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 16:52

Why do I use more shit paper at the start of a fresh roll?

Curiosity · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 16:53

Why, Myp, why?

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

1: Why don't people just always automatically check with anyone they fancy whether that person fancies them back and then, you know, do it? It seems like the only thing we've got to lose is tons of rude fun, the only barriers are things like time constraints, jealousy (and there's another inexplicable thing) and Bum AIDS, but you can just wear a condom. How come we, with all our 'common sense' and so on haven't evolved to the point where the things in the world that make us feel nicest and best about ourselves aren't things we can just openly get on with? Unexplained!

2: Lack of self-awareness. This contradicts the things I'm complaining about in #1 but people don't seem to ever look at themselves in any sort of realistic context. People who, for example, spam Twitter with grammatically useless repetitive nonsense. They must see other tweets, done with some semblance of dignity and respect for others. Where is their head? Don't they ever measure those tweets by their own? We can substitute twitter for anything really.

3: British beaurocracy. I know a Dutch girl who moved over here recently. On evening in the pub she was very upset, demanding to know what the point was in things like going to the post office (as directed) to complete some relatively straightforward form filling and stuff relating to her now living in the UK and being faffed about and sent here and there. She went on to cite all these other examples of how convoluted it all is. She was taking it really personally. I explained it was the same for everyone, and she wanted to know why we choose for our country to be like this, given that Holland, Germany, etc choose not to, and don't. I couldn't answer her. UNEXPLAINED.

4: The current meaning of the word 'celebrity' and the culture thereof. UNEXPLAINED.

5: The 'gay voice'. Scientifically UNEXPLAINED! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_lisp

There's loads, really.

ElephantBanjoGnome · **Joined:** 22nd Dec, 2010 **Posts:** 8175

Dimrill wrote:

Why did Stuart Campbell fuck up his forum?

Arrogant sense of entitlement utterly at odds with reality. Next.

Curiosity · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 17:39

GovernmentYard wrote:

1: Why don't people just always automatically check with anyone they fancy whether that person fancies them back and then, you know, do it? It seems like the only thing we've got to lose is tons of rude fun, the only barriers are things like time constraints, jealousy (and there's another inexplicable thing) and Bum AIDS, but you can just wear a condom. How come we, with all our 'common sense' and so on haven't evolved to the point where the things in the world that make us feel nicest and best about ourselves aren't things we can just openly get on with? Unexplained!

Surely that's a simple fear of rejection?

Zardoz · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 17:43

Curiosity wrote:

GovernmentYard wrote:

1: Why don't people just always automatically check with anyone they fancy whether that person fancies them back and then, you know, do it? It seems like the only thing we've got to lose is tons of rude fun, the only barriers are things like time constraints, jealousy (and there's another inexplicable thing) and Bum AIDS, but you can just wear a condom. How come we, with all our 'common sense' and so on haven't evolved to the point where the things in the world that make us feel nicest and best about ourselves aren't things we can just openly get on with? Unexplained!

Surely that's a simple fear of rejection?

Can I bum you?

Zardoz · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 17:46

Why are Walkers Salt & Vinegar and Cheese & Onion crisp packet colours at odds with every other manufacturers?

Zardoz · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 17:47

Why don't Pelican crossings scoop you up in a big rubbery sack and drop you off on the other side?

Mr Russell · **Joined:** 6th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 12334

Curiosity wrote:

GovernmentYard wrote:

1: Why don't people just always automatically check with anyone they fancy whether that person fancies them back and then, you know, do it? It seems like the only thing we've got to lose is tons of rude fun, the only barriers are things like time constraints, jealousy (and there's another inexplicable thing) and Bum AIDS, but you can just wear a condom. How come we, with all our 'common sense' and so on haven't evolved to the point where the things in the world that make us feel nicest and best about ourselves aren't things we can just openly get on with? Unexplained!

Surely that's a simple fear of rejection?

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" I am helpfully reminded by a motivational poster at work.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 18:07

Mr Russell wrote:

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" I am helpfully reminded by a motivational poster at work.

Is that the one with a picture of a recovering Heroin addict?

GazChap · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 19:23

Why do sleep timers always go off after 9 minutes, and not 10? And why, with today's modern technology, are sleep timers not configurable on many devices?

Why do the contents of most UK crisp packets always have a Saturday for a Best Before Date?

metalangel · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 19:45

Zardoz wrote:

Why are Walkers Salt & Vinegar and Cheese & Onion crisp packet colours at odds with every other manufacturers?

They labour under the misapprehension that they're the most popular, and therefore best.

I don't see 'blue' in those flavours either.

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

Curiosity wrote:

Surely that's a simple fear of rejection?

OK, so why do we fear rejection? We've not lost anything.

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

Zardoz wrote:

Can I bum you?

Not really, sorry.

See, that wasn't the end of the world, was it? And I might have said yes...

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

GovernmentYard wrote:

Curiosity wrote:

Surely that's a simple fear of rejection?

OK, so why do we fear rejection? We've not lost anything.

You lose a measure of self-esteem, I guess.

Grim... · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 21:22

GovernmentYard wrote:

Curiosity wrote:

Surely that's a simple fear of rejection?

OK, so why do we fear rejection? We've not lost anything.

You've lost an opportunity.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22391

Grim... wrote:

GovernmentYard wrote:

Curiosity wrote:

Surely that's a simple fear of rejection?

OK, so why do we fear rejection? We've not lost anything.

You've lost an opportunity.

I just lost something else. :spew:

Zardoz · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 21:55

Craster wrote:

GovernmentYard wrote:

Curiosity wrote:

Surely that's a simple fear of rejection?

OK, so why do we fear rejection? We've not lost anything.

You lose a measure of self-esteem, I guess.

Can I bum you?

Curiosity · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 22:13

GovernmentYard wrote:

Curiosity wrote:

Surely that's a simple fear of rejection?

OK, so why do we fear rejection? We've not lost anything.

We have lost reputation, and standing. It's quite an animalistic thing.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

Zardoz wrote:

Can I bum you?

Always.

BikNorton · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 10173

GazChap wrote:

Why do sleep timers always go off after 9 minutes, and not 10? And why, with today's modern technology, are sleep timers not configurable on many devices?

i read something about that. It was some workaround or limitation in a hugely popular clock, which then got copied by the Taiwanese, and lo, a Standard was born.

windows phone 7 is fixed at 9 minutes. Even the fucking shitty Samsung feature phone it replaced let me configure it. Jesus Christ Microsoft. Jesus Christ.

Mr Dom · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 23:04

Random interweb page says: wrote:

By setting the snooze time to 9 minutes, the alarm clock only needs to watch the last digit of the time. So, if you hit snooze at 6.45, the alarm goes off again when the last digit equals 4. They couldn't make it 10 minutes, otherwise the alarm would go off right away, or it would take more circuitry.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2012 23:16

Mods please move those messages to a brand new thread called "Explained"

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

:P

Sir Taxalot · **Joined:** 5th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 4818

Magnets.

________ · **Joined:** 23rd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 29

Magnets?

[1:50]

Water, fire, air and dirt
Fucking magnets, how do they work?
And I don’t wanna talk to a scientist
Y’all motherfuckers lying, and getting me pissed.

Yep, it's a puzzler...

krazywookie · **Posted:** Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:39

Well if the Insane Clown Posse cant tell us, I suppose nobody can.

Stolen from QI but still quite a good question:

Why, if they like the light so much, do moths only come out at night?

Firefox · **Joined:** 20th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 261

krazywookie wrote:

Why, if they like the light so much, do moths only come out at night?

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

They don't like light as such, but they use the moon as a fixed object in the sky to navigate by - no matter how far they fly it doesn't move at any appreciable rate.

This works really well until hooman beans start putting bright light sources in the environment the moth is flying through. The moth's tiny little brain thinks the light is the moon, and because it moves across its field of view as the moth flies along the moth thinks it must be flying off course. So it applies course corrections to try to keep the "moon" in the same spot in the "sky" and as a result spirals into the light.

krazywookie · **Posted:** Sat Jan 28, 2012 13:21

christ. one question, where are they navigating to?

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11897

Firefox wrote:

krazywookie wrote:

Why, if they like the light so much, do moths only come out at night?

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

They don't like light as such, but they use the moon as a fixed object in the sky to navigate by - no matter how far they fly it doesn't move at any appreciable rate.

This works really well until hooman beans start putting bright light sources in the environment the moth is flying through. The moth's tiny little brain thinks the light is the moon, and because it moves across its field of view as the moth flies along the moth thinks it must be flying off course. So it applies course corrections to try to keep the "moon" in the same spot in the "sky" and as a result spirals into the light.

but the moon moves across the sky during the night. and also isn't always there!

Wullie · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 6183

Craster wrote:

Zardoz wrote:

Can I bum you?

Always.

That's only because you want the bacon :DD

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

He pulls it back out again! Fucking tease.

miki · **Joined:** 30th Apr, 2011 **Posts:** 1458 **Location:** NL

GovernmentYard wrote:

3: British beaurocracy. I know a Dutch girl who moved over here recently. On evening in the pub she was very upset, demanding to know what the point was in things like going to the post office (as directed) to complete some relatively straightforward form filling and stuff relating to her now living in the UK and being faffed about and sent here and there. She went on to cite all these other examples of how convoluted it all is. She was taking it really personally. I explained it was the same for everyone, and she wanted to know why we choose for our country to be like this, given that Holland, Germany, etc choose not to, and don't. I couldn't answer her. UNEXPLAINED.

Bollocks, she must be suffering from amnesia, sentimentality, denial or she's never tried to organise anything here (in the netherlands I mean). When Steve came over from the UK to NL we came across loads of stuff like that, like he wasn't allowed to open a bank account without having a job (or a goverment allowance), despite having cash in hand and without explaining where/how said job would pay his wages. But apart from moving countries there is loads of general burocracy here.
I'm obviously not saying this is good in any country but please don't think it's any better anywhere else and shame on her for spreading that rumour. Also: our trains also stop when there are leaves on the track, our roads and airports aren't cleared of snow either. We also have massive queues and roadworks and we have the same godawful singing contests on tv.

Firefox · **Joined:** 20th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 261

Bobbyaro wrote:

but the moon moves across the sky during the night. and also isn't always there!

It moves across the sky at an imperceptable rate, near enough to stationary as makes no odds for short moth flights.

I have no idea what moths do when there's no moon. :shrug:

krazywookie wrote:

christ. one question, where are they navigating to?

That's an entirely separate mystery.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Mon Jan 30, 2012 10:47

Firefox wrote:

Bobbyaro wrote:

but the moon moves across the sky during the night. and also isn't always there!

It moves across the sky at an imperceptable rate, near enough to stationary as makes no odds for short moth flights.

I have no idea what moths do when there's no moon. :shrug:

They give DavPaz a terrible nights sleep.

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

I like this sort of thing:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=634_1327966121

(how I embed?)

But the whole piece is quite interesting with all the salvage stuff. I hope it is aliens.

What are yours?

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

My favourite is this, though -

Quote:

The roughly-triangulated origin of the Bloop is approximately 950 nautical miles (1,760 km) from the more precisely-described location of R'lyeh, a sunken extra-dimensional city written of by H. P. Lovecraft in his famous short story The Call of Cthulhu, wherein the eponymous dead-but-dreaming creature Cthulhu awakens. Even with this distance separating them, they have been frequently linked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop

http://www.bloopwatch.org/

GazChap · **Posted:** Thu Feb 02, 2012 1:46

GovernmentYard wrote:

But the whole piece is quite interesting with all the salvage stuff. I hope it is aliens.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Thu Feb 02, 2012 1:50

Well that's odd.

My favourite is this: Why did Stuart Campbell fuck up his forum? I mean... why?

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38651

My favourite mystery is "why is there another unexplained thread so soon after the last one? "

Sir Taxalot · **Joined:** 5th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 4818

Magnets.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38651

In fact... I'm going to merge. Standby

Edit: Done. How? WE'LL NEVER KNOW.

Be Excellent To Each Other

Unexplained.

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